I want to follow up my previous post on RC Jr. I am doing this, not because I have anything new to say, but rather because the situation demands that we go over the basics again and again. My point has been that those who jump into a situation like this with glee, and who …
RC Sproul Jr.
I have not really said anything in particular about the web controversy that has engulfed St. Peter Presbyterian Church and the Highland Study Center (R.C. Sproul Jr.’s ministry), and I am not going to say anything specific about it now. But I do need to say a few things at the general level. If you …
Self-Incrimination
The requirement of independent confirmation is not waived simply because a person confesses to something. That independent confirmation may certainly be circumstantial, but authorities in any realm ought to be wary of simply accepting someone’s accusation against himself. Say that a man, wracked with guilt, confesses to a murder. He goes to the police and …
Blogs and Accusations
It has come to my attention that an announcement was made to the Warfield list concerning a web site that has been set up by a member of our church, a site that has been recycling a number of old accusations against us. I am confident that many of the readers of the Warfield list …
Nameless Others
Chesteron had a famous comment where he spoke of tradition as the democracy of the dead. He thought we ought not to exclude someone’s voice from a discussion on the technical grounds that they were not still alive. The point was well-taken, but there are some discussions and arguments where voices ought to be excluded. …
Tie Goes to the Runner
I need to begin with a couple of jokes that you may have heard before. But they are offered not so much for the joke value as for what they illustrate about the power of interpretive grids, which is the point of this post. There was a guy who was convinced that he was actually …
Humiliating the Apostle
We must consider another variation on “by their tactics ye shall know them.” When controversy erupts in a church, and it is over the color of the carpet in the nursery, the end result can be a personal and/or ecclesiastical mess. But when the stakes are higher, it is not rare for the civil magistrate …
Imputing Motives and Justice
One of the many valuable things I learned from my father was the strict instruction to refrain from judging the motives of others. This is a blessing beyond compare when it comes to cultivating a healthy marriage and family, and it is oil on troubled waters in many relational conflicts. But it is not an …
Odd Bedfellows
After I posted DeeplyGrieved.com (a few posts down), my wife mentioned to me another important “indicator that something is screwy” that I had missed. Once someone has enlisted in what I call “the fellowship of the grievance” (FOG) all other differences with other members of that fellowship fade into the background. Adversaries become cobelligerents, and …
Bless Me, What Do They Teach Them In These Schools?
One of the posts yesterday on justice generated a really fruitful discussion, and here is a follow up to some of those issues. When Peter and Susan go to the old professor about Lucy’s weird behavior, he gives them a basic lesson. Edmund was saying sane things, but his character was problematic. Lucy was saying …