Radical Muslims are quite energetic in their blasphemies. They want their blasphemies to come across as blasphemies. Like a toddler in the middle of an epic meltdown, they know what they want and they know how to get it. Secularists are quite tepid in their blasphemies. I mean, cartoons? But immediately I must correct myself. …
Something to Use, Something to Risk
I have written critically in the past about James Davison Hunter’s approach to not really changing the world. In the last analysis, his tag phrase “faithful presence” ought to be a means to victory, not a goal in itself. If we make it a goal, it is as though the coach settles for getting his …
Withershins
C.S. Lewis observes somewhere that there are two different motivations for spreading the political power as thinly as possible. The first is the motive of the sunny democrat, one who believes that man is the repository of wisdom, and that before we do anything of a civic nature, we ought to check in with as …
The Problem of Tiffany Sugartoes
Scripture refers to that kind of ruler who frames “mischief with a law” (Ps. 94:20). Those who do this kind of thing are men who sit on thrones of iniquity, and God refuses His fellowship with any such thrones. There are many ways to frame mischief with a law. Everyone grants that one example would …
Property and Love for the Poor
I have written a great deal on how the framework provided by biblical ethics honors and preserves the institution of private property. The argument is not complex. Just as “thou shalt not commit adultery” presupposes and honors the institution of marriage, so also “thou shalt not steal” presupposes and honors the institution of private property. …
With All Your Protections in a Binder on His Desk
After my Due Process post, I received a letter from a friend — a tax attorney — who agreed with my central point about the modern tyrannical state, but who did want to defend the IRS on the point I was making about due process. “Although I agree with you that the modern administrative state …
Due Process, or Do the Process?
Some, like myself, believe that coercion without warrant from Scripture is a very bad thing. For others this category of coercion is largely invisible. It just appears to be part of the way things are. In this installment, I want to explain how unlawful coercion is a very real characteristic of our governmental system, and …
Stuff Inviolate
I have been arguing that property rights are human rights. I have been insisting that it is not possible to love your neighbor without respecting his stuff. I have been saying that the commandment thou shalt not steal presupposes the institution of private property in just the same way that the prohibition of adultery presupposes …
Sure. Let’s Call It a Contribution.
So I have distinguished the payment of taxes that are owed, and the payment of taxes that is rendered out of a principled prudence. In the former instance, paying taxes is a matter of conscience and in the latter it is a matter of intelligence. When I give my wallet to the mugger, I am …
What Jefferson Wrote
Some might want to think it a shame that in my summary of my position on property, I channeled Jefferson, that noted infidel and skeptic. This is what I wrote: “We are created by God, and it is self-evident that we were endowed by that Creator with certain rights that are inalienable, and that among …