Just Don’t Pray At Them

“The debacle of the golden calf notwithstanding, the bronze laver for ceremonial cleansing was to be supported by twelve metal bulls (1 Kings 7:25). Not only were representations of nature prominent in the Tabernacle and Temple, but representations of supernatural beings, the cherubim, were everywhere—carved on the furnishing, woven into the veil of the Holy …

Historically Temporary, Aye

“Censorship, during this ‘reversal,’ was essential, because ubiquitous, dangerous, and regressive notions were too quickly translated into practice. Indeed, censorship, for Marcuse, must be deeply pervasive, although historically temporary. The result, he promised, would be to restore real freedom, and the words ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ once again could attain their ‘true meaning'” (The Shadow University, …

Kennel-Fed Rebels

“As the much censored cartoonist Garry Trudeau has observed in ‘Doonesbury,’ a government-supported avant-garde is a contradiction in terms. The spectacle of supposedly bohemian, anti-establishment artists quivering with indignation and ranting with hysterical rhetoric at the prospect of not receiving money from the bourgeois establishment they attack in their art is glaringly hypocritical (also deliciously …

Secular Schools Mean Secular Ethics

“Education is fundamentally religious. Consequently, there is no question about whether a morality will be imposed in that education, but rather which morality will be imposed. Christians and assorted traditionalists who want a secular school system to instill anything other than secular ethics are wanting something that has never happened and can never happen” (The …

Dour Chic

“Christians have been criticized for their ‘puritanical’ suspicion of pleasure and beauty. And yet the most flesh-denying ascetic, flagellating himself in a desert cave, and the most furious, tight-lipped Puritan, smashing stained glass windows and pillorying the playwrights, would be hedonistic voluptuaries compared to the existentialists.” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway …

Let’s Build Ourselves a Program

“As the ongoing problem with illiteracy in the schools continues to plague us, politicians will continue to call for more programs to fight it. Of course, some of us are a bit slow about these things. We thought that schools were supposed to be the program to fight illiteracy” (The Case for Classical Christian Education, …