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 …

Curling Up Under the Blanket

We live in a generation that is totalitarian in principle, having accepted all the basic totalitarian premises. Denying the Lordship of Jesus Christ drives you to those premises — for if Jesus is not Lord, then there is a vacancy that men will always want to fill. Without an exhaustive rule through the predestinating love …

5 Reasons for Thinking that Putin is No Constantine

The reason for this small piece is that some Western Christians, who really ought to know better, have been taken in by Russian photo ops, propaganda, and posturing, and have begun to describe Vladimir Putin as a new Constantine. It just goes to show. What, I am not sure exactly, but it does go to …

Click to Convict

A few weeks ago, Rod Dreher posted a clip of Thomas More being willing to give the devil “the benefit of law.” This was offered in the context of the Kim Davis uproar, about which a great deal of unhelpful nonsense continues to be thought and written. Pope Francis recently weighed in with his view …

A Duty to Interpose

One of the things we must absolutely learn how to do better than we do is distinguish things that differ, especially things that look similar but which differ radically. We must learn to say, as Dorothy Sayers once famously said, distinguo. I distinguish. There is a profound difference between the doctrine of interposition/lesser magistrates on …

Benedict and Beza Options

Many thanks to Rod Dreher for taking the time to interact with some of my arguments on the Kim Davis case. Our theological differences notwithstanding, I have appreciated having his voice as part of our public debates, especially now that the welter of voices is trying to drown out the few remaining sane ones like …

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, …

Two Cheers for Nominal Christianity!

In this post, Russell Moore makes a sharp distinction between Christianity and almost-Christianity. He did so in a way that made me think of the distinction between a great point and almost-a-great-point. Moore is talking about the results of a Pew Center study which shows that nominal Christianity is taking it on the chin. Christians …