Solomon tells us that all the human basics are cyclic. They go around, and come around around again. He is not referring to the invention of gadgets, but he is talking about what makes civilizations tick. This is why so much of the discussion about “modernity” and “postmodernity” is just pretentious. What we call Enlightenment …
Millennia of Bumpity Bumpity
At the point Christ came, the true faith had been kept alive up to that point, after a fashion, among the Jews. I say it was kept because of the many faithful believers among them who were looking in true faith for the Messiah. Jesus Himself said that Israel had teachers who sat in Moses’ …
Bulletphobia
When I was in high school, I took a sociology class, and it was just the kind of class you might expect. One day the teacher came in (a very nice young lady), and asked if any of us had ever been afraid of a black person. I helpfully raised my hand, and she called …
Ice Cubes and a Slice of Lemon
If we are talking about reading, writing, and ciphering, the state of government education in the United States is appalling. But if we reflect on what Hunter Baker points out in his The End of Secularism (p. 18), that more Americans believe in the virgin birth than believe in Darwinism, the failure of state education …
Jesus. Reason. Soap.
We are discussing mere Christendom as a construct for civilization. Since we have been here before, it is, more accurately, a construct for a renewed civilization. How is this necessary? C.S. Lewis once famously observed the wishful thinking of unbelievers. “In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. We …
Ready or Not
Suppose that an American daisy-cutter bomb had been dropped on Mecca, and blew up their sacred rock. Suppose further that through a series of circumstances, a Southern Baptist gentleman proposed building a Christian chapel on the lip of that crater. We would be justified in supposing this man to be any number of things, but …
Woe to the Pastors
In the beginning are the words. Behind and underneath every civilization are the foundational words. Those words can be false and idolatrous, but when they are believed, they still serve in a foundational way. When they are not believed, that culture has entered a sacrificial crisis. Smoke still ascends from their temples, but no one …
Kicking One of the Sacred Geese
It should not be surprising that after I have urged the establishment of a mere Christendom for some time, that questions about the First Amendment might arise. It would appear that I am trespassing on the sacred precincts. It would seem that I am strolling across the manicured lawns of the Temple grounds, in order …
Carving Up a Bowl of Soup
When societies fall apart, they do not do so in an orderly manner. When God strikes a people with a judicial stupor, the result is not a feast of reason and flow of soul. “For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and …
Very Little Stones
So I have said more than once that secularism is on its last legs. Where do I get off saying that? Why that pronouncement? There are a number of ways this argument can be made, but allow me to point to just a couple. These indicators are not my own private claim to be able …