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Increasingly we live in a morally illiterate society. But how did we get here?

To review, we first rejected the church and its teachings, then the traditions of Western Civilization (both moral and philosophical), and finally the foundations of Enlightenment thought including reason and science (not to be confused with scientism).

It was decided that objective truth is false, thus the task of discerning reality was shifted to a newly fashioned, self-appointed clerisy who would disabuse America of its stuffy, outdated mores and replace them with new and improved ones.

Moreover, because the Enlightenment had failed in its quest to establish a moral basis for ethics apart from God, a new effort became necessary. Why? Because human beings are inherently moral, spiritual beings who require moral, spiritual authority.

Continue reading “The Church of Standard and Poor’s, Part III”

Having dispensed with Christianity and its moral precepts, followed in short order by the rejection of the Enlightenment’s insistence on reason and science, after, that is, the connection to the physical and spiritual worlds had been broken and the mind unmoored from tangible reality, the floodgates were opened to all sorts of speculative and experimental ideas and attitudes.

Foundational truths became, at best, quaint. What had seemed obvious was shown to be contrived and untrustworthy. ‘Reality’ consisted of arbitrary social constructs or mere convention. Time-honored insight into human nature and creation’s immutable laws no longer reflected eternal truth but transient, random arrangements intended mostly to benefit the powerful.

Thus began what Stephen Soukup, in The Dictatorship of Woke Capital, calls the “second stream” of American liberalism. The fate of the first, early progressivism, as we saw in Part I, had foundered on the altar of post-war skepticism.

Continue reading “The Church of Standard and Poor’s, Part II”

Nature abhors a vacuum. Thus, whenever human beings attempt to eliminate a set of moral precepts, there’s always another waiting in the wings.

I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb in suggesting that one of the defining, bedrock principles of early America was Judeo-Christian tradition. Of course, there were other streams of influence as well, not least British culture which served as the repository not only of Christianity but ancient Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, government, and law, each revised and refined over centuries by considered insight and lived experience. British culture embodied the best of Western Civilization.

One basic insight shared by Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome alike, undergirding the entire Western edifice, was the fact of flawed human nature.

Continue reading “The Church of Standard and Poor’s, Part I”

I hadn’t planned to discuss this topic, in part because I had another topic in mind but, more to the point, I’ve talked about it any number of times already.

I chose this subject because I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of any conversation about anything having to do with suffering, not just in Protestant circles but throughout the culture at large. It’s as if it’s a four-letter word. We simply will not talk about it.

Then again, suffering is as endemic to human existence as any other aspect of life. To avoid it seems unrealistic, if not absurd. As Christians, we ought to confront it head-on, knowing that God has a compassionate and redemptive response to the vagaries of every life.

Continue reading “Why Are Protestants So Afraid to Suffer?”

According to my WordPress dashboard, this is my 100^th post. I started the blog three years ago shortly after retiring from active ministry in December of 2017. I was looking for neither fame nor fortune (needless to say), much less notoriety. I simply wanted to keep my hand in things.

Over that time I’ve been afforded the opportunity to pontificate in ways I could not while still working as a pastor. I have the freedom, that is, to say things more openly without undue concern for offending anyone. I’ve also been able to express built-up frustrations about the past and present state of the church – no small thing.

The blog’s overall theme, the connection between Christianity and culture, has long been an interest of mine. I am reminded of a quote attributed to the great Swiss theologian, Karl Barth: “We must hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.”

Continue reading “Random Thoughts at 100”

One of the most annoying, yet oft-used phrases heard within my denomination is the ever popular: “Speak truth to power!” It also doesn’t help that it’s usually uttered with no small amount of self-congratulating sanctimony.

Yet despite this, and as a Christian, I actually agree with the phrase. Challenging the “strong” who exploit and oppress the “weak” and vulnerable is one of the central themes of biblical faith. Jesus, after all, was the preeminent “underdog,” as was both Israel and the early church.

So why am I so dismissive of a phrase with which I heartily agree?

Continue reading “Speak Truth to Power!”

Shortly after visiting the United States in the early 1920s, British writer G.K. Chesterton famously remarked that “America is a nation with the soul of a church.” He was both impressed and appalled by the idea.

What he observed is that Americans often fail, consciously or unconsciously, to distinguish between church and state, denying their separate spheres. This despite the fact that the Bible unambiguously defines the church as wholly distinct from “the world,” even warning the faithful that the latter is under the power and control of Satan, no less!

A few years after Chesterton’s visit, in the fall of 1930, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer arrived at New York’s Union Theological Seminary, arguably the foremost American seminary at the time.

Continue reading “Christian Realism”

There are certain words and phrases used by our political class that I find particularly irksome. For example, a few years ago I began noticing virtually every politician and talking head on TV news programs would preface their remarks with the word: “Look.” Where to I’m never quite sure.

But by far the most annoying phrase I’ve heard over the last few years, from both the Left and the Right, is this little gem: “We need to get to the bottom of this!” What makes this phrase specially grating is that we almost never get to the bottom of anything.

Then again, getting to the bottom of things ought to be our primary objective whenever we assess any issue of our day, despite, as I say, the fact that we never actually seem to. Instead, we indulge in surface analyses, mindlessly refusing to investigate life at its depths, life at its core, and refusing to get to the “bottom” of anything. We simply take things at face value.

Continue reading “Getting to the Bottom of It”

Every Christmas Eve day, at 10:00 in the morning, I faithfully listen to the live BBC broadcast from King’s College Chapel, Cambridge of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. There’s just something about the solemnity and grandeur they manage to bring to the occasion.

To say nothing of the music. I absolutely love it, particularly the congregational singing, more so even than the stellar choral anthems. 

I love the earthy resonance and sheer weightiness of the organ, together with the slow, measured, yet always spirited tempo of hundreds of voices seamlessly joined together, topped off by an arrangement for the sopranos that soars impossibly and resplendently above the entire proceedings, all worthily contained within the improbable acoustics of the old, majestic chapel. 

Continue reading “Passing Through Providence”

In many respects, WWI is the defining moment in modern Western history. As the 19^th century ended, incipient tensions had come to the fore, casting cautionary shadows over a new century’s overweening confidence and sense of optimism.

The technological progress of the era had been extraordinary. Science and industry were ascendent. Yet economic disparities grew, industrial workers were exploited, and the fabric of traditional society began to fray. Many felt uncertain, adrift, vulnerable.

Thus, when war came, some saw it as a referendum on Western Civilization itself. For a new challenge had arisen, one that had effectively questioned the supremacy of settled tradition. German Idealism, that is, promised a new man and a new future, mercifully detached from the past and its myriad sins and imperfections.

Continue reading “But the Earth Abideth Forever…”