With apologies to Lord Byron . . .
THE DESTRUCTION OF OMAMACARE The nannies came down like the wolf on the fold,Their promises gleaming in purple and gold;And the sheen of their foreheads was like grease on the road,Where a blue Hummer hit a nocturnal toad. Like the leaves of the forest when the Fed is in bloom,That host and their trillions came …
Micaiah Isn’t Here Yet
I think that it is fair to say that since the heyday of Francis Schaeffer, most committed evangelical believers have known that our theology must be engaged with the culture around us, and that we are supposed to be salt and light. We are supposed to make a difference. Before that, the question didn’t really …
The Moral Necessity of Some Form of Conservatism
Now in working through this issue it is crucial that we not affirm the consequent. All cows have four legs, but having four legs doesn’t make it a cow. I would also want to insist that all lawful sexual behavior must be heterosexual, but that doesn’t make all heterosexual behavior lawful. There is a moral …
Mortifying Pride of Place
In a previous post, I chided James K.A Smith for not including the cineplex as the religious mall’s Sunday School class. I am almost done with the book now, and wanted to make a point of noting that he does in fact tackle that problem. “Over time, the theater is a kind of classroom; it …
Tag Along Charlie
An ancient error, that of pendulum swinging, finds that when the cognitive functions of man have been emphasized too much, the time has come to careen toward the passions. And when life under the tyranny of the passions becomes unbearable, which it always does, the error is to swing back to the life of pure …
Make Sure Its Liturgy, Not Liturgay
In a recent discussion with some men I made mention of the problem that I call “clogged filters.” Like a car going down the highway, the air available is the air the car is driving in, and so the air filter needs to be replaced from time to time. The environment we live in is …
Truth in Labeling
We should all know what it is to fall victim to a metaphor. This is like that, and it is in some ways, but then when you press it, you discover that it is not like that in lots of other ways.Consider the summary evaluation of left wing/right wing. This is saying that the hurly …
His Last Ham Sandwich
A correspondent has asked me to comment on the “sin of homophobia.” What is my take on that? In order to address this, we have to ask some questions first. If someone asked us about the sin of eating pork, our follow-up question would be to ask what religion they were concerned with. Judaism? Isalm? …
Nobody Names Their Kid Jeshurun Anymore
I have been a subscriber to National Review since I was a junior in high school or thereabouts, and so that means I have been reading those guys for around 40 years. I think this should give me the right to say something. Well, first, I should say thanks. I owe them all a great …