Christians who argue for a secular public square are caught on the horns of a dilemma. Either Jesus wants this or He doesn’t. Or maybe He doesn’t care. If He doesn’t want it, then why do they? If He does, then are they not advocating a civil arrangement based on the will of the Lord, …
On Its Last Leg, and Hopping Around
In the midst of a teetering secular society, with personal liberty rapidly eroding, to put forward the idea of a mere Christendom (as I am doing) is to invite fears of repressive regimes, religious intolerance, and so on. This is because we still love the name of liberty, but no longer understand what it is …
That Postmillennial Wahoo Time
Andrew Sandlin has recently posted this about American exceptionalism, and since he mentioned me (lumped in with Obama and McLaren, ouch), I thought I should say something. Of course I have no problems whatever with an appropriate patriotism, qualified as Andrew qualifies it. I made similar points in the post to which Andrew links. Americans …
Which Explains All the Typonis
In discussing the Right, the Left, and the Anas, Hunter begins his next chapter by noting the fact that “the three competing myths discussed here, and the political theologies that derive from them, are all held passionately by people of the same faith community” (p. 176). But in doing this, Hunter does something else that …
Where There Are No Sidelines
God has fashioned the world in such a way that we always have to come down to the point. However much we might want to obscure the issues, however much we might build great universities with trained brains to cover everything in a dark mist, however much we reward those pundits who make ample room …
As In, Knock It Off
In his next chapter, Hunter wraps up his round up of the three major groups he has been discussing — the Christian Right, the Christian Left, and the neo-Anabaptists. As before, he considers them all to have been tragically politicized, but he clumps the Right and Left together, and sets the Anabaptists off to the …
Your Aunt Myrtle’s Goldfish Bowl
Hunter’s next chapter is his review of the neo-Anabaptists. As with the previous two chapters, Hunter spends the bulk of his chapter simply summarizing the outook of the position he is discussing. Unlike the previous two chapters, it is much more difficult to tell where that position leaves off and Hunter picks up. Hunter is …
Tolerance as a Christian Virtue
There are two basic points to make about tolerance as a civic virtue. The first is logical and the second historical. The logical point is that tolerance cannot be a free-floating virtue. This is because no virtue (or vice either) can be found in a transitive verb. It is not a matter of whether you …
A Decorated Altar is Still a Cold One
From the very beginning the Christian faith has had to deal with imposters who gain control of the governmental mechanisms of the church, doing so in order to undermine the entire point of the Church. Think, for example, of Diotrephes, who would put out of the church anybody who had even voted in favor of …
What the Two Kingdoms Are Not
As I have been writing on political dualism, I have been periodically asked about my take on VanDrunen’s work. My copy of that work is presumably still in the mail, but here is a very important critique to tide you over