“These culture wars have been with us from the very foundation of our nation. They are not something new that erupted when the first hippies started to disrupt Berkeley. From the very beginning, we have had men like Patrick Henry wanting America to take her place among the nations of Christendom. And also from the very beginning, we have had men like Thomas Paine, who wanted something much more like the French Revolution.”
I Mean, Really Odd
“An argument that would prevent us from doing the right thing in our social, cultural, and political life together because some people would pretend to support it when they didn’t really mean it is truly an odd argument.”
Holiness in a Kit
“The Mosaic law as given to Israel in the wilderness was holiness in a kit. The laws were hard-edged, cut and dried, God was present with them, they had prophets on scene, and God’s purpose was to define and defend a holy people called by His name. That law was, pure and simple, rough-cut justice.”
Imagine Your Legislation Under the Control of Your Enemies
“When you pass something like the Patriot Act, with much fanfare, in order to enable patriots to spy on the bad guys, what winds up happening is that the act is used to enable bad guys to spy on patriots.”
Judicious Threat Assessment
“The biggest blasphemy culprits in human history have consistently been these so-called lords of the earth—and not the mental patient who got off his meds and is saying erratic things in aisle 7 at Safeway. The state has always been the principal blasphemy threat, in other words.”
Bad Sinners Too
“So I don’t believe in free speech because I think that everybody has something valuable to say. No, I believe that all men and women are bad sinners, and it shows up in their speech. The trouble is that as soon as you start talking about regulating their free speech, because it is bad, all the possible enforcers and regulators are rock hewn from that same quarry. Censors are sinners too.”
For His Time Is Short
“Some people think that in the transition from the old covenant to the new, blasphemy went from outlawed to somehow acceptable. It actually went from outlawed to doomed.”
Mere Christendom, 169
A Strategic Shift
[Regarding 1 Cor. 5:9-11] “Christians were given explicit and free permission to keep company with idolaters who would worship Aphrodite by fornicating with prostitutes at her temple. But is that not a blasphemous activity? Yes, it is, and this is the Pauline strategy for attacking it.”
Theological Taste Sensations
“One of the reasons why the question of free speech in a hypothetical Christian republic is such an interesting topic is because it brings together all kinds of issues, and presents them to us in a sizzling pan, a sort of corned beef hash with eggs and onions and exotic sauces all mixed up together and piping hot. Some of the taste sensations you might not have anticipated as going well together before you first tried it, but they do go together.”
With Chubby Cheeks
“If a man feels called to the ministry, one of the first things he should do is find a sweet little thing with a stout heart, marry her, and start having fat evangelical babies. This is something the homo-catechized world will sneer at, but only because they can’t do it. All they have is gay fruitlessness.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 98