Introduction: Let us talk for a moment about the way appeasement usually goes, and begin by citing Churchill in his trenchant response to Chamberlain. “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.” Appeasement Shows Up Everywhere: The emotional makeup of the appeaser is consistent, regardless of …
The Sin of Soft
“For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds” (Heb. 12:3). Comes now the Ninth Short-Circuit Court of Appeals, upholding legislation in California that bans licensed counselors from helping young people who want to deal biblically with same-sex attraction. The law bans counseling that …
Too Many Delicatuli
The central thing that believing Christians have to learn in our current cultural challenges is how to deal with the full court press. We have to learn how to break the press. At the same time, in order to do this successfully, we have to learn how to dismiss irrelevancies. We do not need to …
7 Reasons for Cultural Optimism
Someone recently mentioned to me that my cultural commentary of late has not seemed very postmilly. Where did all my optimism go? Many years ago members of my family were assembling for breakfast, and I believe the demeanor of all of us was somewhat somber, particularly my mother. This inspired my father, seated at the …
The Prison Mines of Ganymede
Introduction: How do you know when you are being steered? I mean steered by the shapers and molders of the bleeding edge contempo-evangelical conscience, which would be, of course, the devil. The Basic Move: You know that you are being steered when positions that were demanded of you x number of years ago are now …
Risking the Plug-Uglies
“Think of the countless human acts, acts of copulation, spread over millennia, that led to the birth of Plato, Attila, or Napoleon. Yet it is on these unpredictables that human history largely depends” (C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, p. 39). We look around ourselves and we think we see solid things. We look at them …
Through Thick or Thin?
Introduction: One of the complicating factors in the recent dust-up over Trinitarian theology and complementarianism has been the fact that more is going on than trying to justify complementarianism in two different ways. Rather, there is the additional issue of people seeking to justify two different kinds of complementarianism — thick or thin. Thin and …
Al Jolson in Blackface
So Google is apparently having trouble keeping up with our exact location as they keep barreling past various jerkwater junctions. Didn’t anybody tell them what the deal was supposed to be? This crazy train we are on stops for no man, and yet today Google tried to honor — I can barely type for wheezing …
If At First You Don’t Secede . . .
Introduction: I know that it is the fifth of July, but the principles we were talking about yesterday have not gone away. Some discussion online yesterday made me realize that a brief history lesson was in order, followed by just a few contemporary applications. For Christians particularly, how does the American War for Independence comport …
The Fourth of July in Vanity Fair
Introduction: My topic, if you could not guess from the cryptic title, is religious liberty. Vanity Fair, if you have not guessed, does not celebrate the Fourth of July. That’s a problem. Lots of Americans still celebrate it, but because we are now governed by non-elected functionaries from Vanity Fair, the celebrations are merely impressive …