Rod Dreher has a good piece here on the great looming alternative that now confronts us. Within the biblical framework of a rightly-ordered patriotism, it is easy for Christians to take our native loyalties to our native land as a simple given, while reserving to ourselves the right to disagree with or oppose the decisions …
An American Drubbing
I have been addressing, from time to time, the tomfool notion of American exceptionalism. The central point I have made thus far is that the genuine exceptionalism displayed by the Founders consisted of the fact that they knew that Americans were not exceptional, which was exceptional. They built a form of government that sought to …
No Cow in Moscow
How does one pronounce the name of our lovely little town? We have grown accustomed to telling people that there is “no cow in Moscow.” It is moss koh, not mos cowww. But there may be additional significance beyond the absence of that special bovine je ne sais quoi in our name. Or, if not …
The Cosmos Containing the Orchard
When it come to moral reasoning, the premises must encompass and contain the entire moral world. We are creatures, which means that our starting point must be bounded and finite, with a consistent set of moral assumptions embedded. “The ultimate ethical injunctions have always been premises, never conclusions. Kant was perfectly right on that point …
Immanuel Can’t
The war on guns is not a war on guns, but rather a war on words. The war on marriage is not a war on marriage, but rather a war on words. The war on unborn children is not a war on life, but rather a war on words. The war on true victims is …
3 Marks of the God of the System
Every system has a god, which means that when you have identified certain markers, you have identified the god of the system. If the god of the system is not the true God, the God who made Heaven and earth, then the god of the system is an idol. In order to be an idol, …
The R2K Crucifix Problem
Carl Trueman recently wrote A Church for Exiles for First Things, which you may read here. If you would like, a good response from Joel McDurmon can be found here. But my response to Carl will be a tad shorter than Joel’s — just enough to register a few basic concerns. First, it is undeniable …
Five Questions About Two Kingdoms
In my various discussions of the modern forms of “two kingdom” theology, I have frequently summed up my concerns with the question of how many kings there are. This has made my point, to a point, but it still needs to be pushed into the corners. Here is my summary of what I take to …
One of Those Walk-the-Children-Around-the-Pole-Ponies
I haven’t done any skylarking about global warming in a while, so let me have a bit of fun in my opening paragraph. Then, after that, I will sober up a bit, and move on to my more serious point, which I do, in fact, have. In 2007, serious scientists were predicting that the Arctic …
Strewing Reformation Out of a Hat
Carl Trueman has been kind enough to issue a clarification and a quasi-challenge, which is better, I suppose, than a queasy challenge. First his clarification: “I do have a problem with the term ‘Christian worldview’ because it is vague to the point of being philosophically useless even as it has proved rhetorically and politically useful.” …