Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

The Red Queen in Alice

Posted on Monday, September 23, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

So the House has now passed a bill that defunds Obamacare. The president is miffed, and certain Republican establishment honchos are apoplectic.

These realists of the right say that this quixotic business has got to stop because “you can’t govern from one half of one third of government.” If all you have is the House, then you can’t be expected to do anything until you win the Senate, and the White House. Once you have done that, then you will be in position to do all the swell things that the Republicans wouldn’t do the last time they had the White House and Senate.

Now it quite true that you can’t govern with one half of one third of our government. That is very true. But I don’t want them to govern. I want them to stop governing.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 30

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC website.

Bible Text:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. —John 3:16

Devotional:
"He gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him may not perish." This, he says, is the proper look of faith, to be fixed on Christ, in whom it beholds the breast of God filled with love; this is a firm and enduring support, to rely on the death of Christ as the only pledge of that love.

The word "only-begotten" is emphatic, to magnify the fervor of the love of God towards us. For as men are not easily convinced that God loves them, in order to remove all doubt, he has expressly stated that we are so very dear to God that, on our account, he did not even spare his only-begotten Son.

Global Warming Games

More Time Please

There is a very fine line these days between science and propaganda.  Old school science--that is, science in the good old days--was largely populated by a bunch of ruthless sceptics who believed very little, challenged everything, and wanted experimental proof.

This is not to say that every scientist believed he had to "go back to the beginning" and re-work every experiment to prove for himself the laws of motion or the veracity reflected in the periodic table of the elements.  As Michael Polanyi has argued, all scientists operate within a tradition of knowledge passed on from practitioners to neophytes that represented what he called tacit knowledge.  But, let a few experiments throw up results that are not expected, and old school scientists would get a rush of blood to the head.  The labs would be booked out for months, arguments would rage, and debates would go long into the night.

These days much of this rigour has disappeared--particularly in those "disciplines" where proof or disproof cannot be offered via experimental tests.

Leviathan Stirs

NSA surveillance goes beyond Orwell's imagination – Alan Rusbridger

Guardian editor says depth of NSA surveillance programs greatly exceed anything the 1984 author could have imagined

The potential of the surveillance state goes way beyond anything in George Orwell's 1984, Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian's editor-in-chief, told an audience in New York on Monday.

Speaking in the wake of a series of revelations in the Guardian about the extent of the National Security Agency's surveillance operations, Rusbridger said: "Orwell could never have imagined anything as complete as this, this concept of scooping up everything all the time.

"This is something potentially astonishing about how life could be lived and the limitations on human freedom," he said.

Read More:

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 27

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. —Psalm 37:27

Devotional:
If the meek possess the earth, then everyone, as he regards his own happiness and peace, should also endeavor to walk uprightly, and to apply himself to works of beneficence.

It should also be observed, that he connects these two things: first, that the faithful should strictly do good; and, secondly, that they should restrain themselves from doing evil; and this he does not without good reason; for as is shown in the thirty-fourth Psalm, it often happens that the same person who not only acts kindly towards certain persons, but even with a bountiful hand deals out largely of his own, is yet all the while plundering others, and amassing by extortion the resources by means of which he displays his liberality.

"Peaceful" Activism--a Greenpeace Artform

Not Playing By the Rules

We confess being guilty of the odd smile or two when news broke that Greenpeace has tilted its lance at Russia.  This is not to say, of course, that the Russian record when it comes to preservation of the environment is stellar.  Far from it.  But Greenpeace has a higher calling than ordinary human beings.  It is more than willing to disregard the law when it comes to its own particular, peculiar version of  rabid environmentalism.  When the "fragile" arctic environment was deemed to be at risk from Russian offshore drilling, Greenpeace engaged in its trademark "peaceful" protest which involved assailing and climbing up on the rig.  The Russian coastguard steamed in and arrested the lot, seizing its boat.

Now Greenpeace has been getting away with this sort of thing for years in the West.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 26

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. —I Timothy 1:4

Devotional:
These are the two causes for which many forsake the pure doctrine of salvation; namely, because they are moved with their pride to seek out new matters, and God will have his students to be humble.

Do we wish to profit in his school? Let us have this humility, not to presume to know too much, but only to be taught by him as he pleases. And again, there are others so shallow that they have no desire to master what is contained in the gospel, and wish often to change their pasture, and think that their ears are being abused if anyone repeat often to them a thing which is to their profit; as when we preach of the virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of his grace, it seems to them that they already know this too well and that they are too much accustomed to it.

Socialist Rationing Required For the Rear End

Not Sublime, But Ridiculous In the Extreme

A new human right has been discovered in the bowels of Venezuela--toilet paper.  This will be dubbed as one of the great advances of civilisation in the 21st century, to be sure.

Venezuela Orders National Guard to Oversee Toilet Paper Factory
By Nathan Crooks – Sep 20, 2013 11:30 PM GMT+0200

Venezuela’s government issued an order to occupy toilet paper producer Manufacturas de Papel C.A. as the South American country struggles to abate shortages of consumer goods.

National price regulator Sundecop will temporally take over plants owned by Manpa, as the Caracas-based company is known, to verify production processes and distribution before placing them under the watch of the National Guard, the agency said today in an e-mailed statement.

“The action taken at the producer of toilet paper, sanitary napkins and disposable diapers corresponds to the obligation of the state to guarantee the normal supply of primary necessities,” Sundecop said in the statement.

Books

Esteemed Theologian, J. I. Packer on Dostoyevsky

Dostoyevsky is to me both the greatest novelist, as such, and the greatest Christian storyteller, in particular, of all time. His plots and characters pinpoint the sublimity, perversity, meanness, and misery of fallen human adulthood in an archetypal way matched only by Aeschylus and Shakespeare, while his dramatic vision of God’s amazing grace and of the agonies, Christ’s and ours, that accompany salvation, has a range and depth that only Dante and Bunyan come anywhere near. . . . [H]is constant theme is the nightmare quality of unredeemed existence and the heartbreaking glory of the incarnation, whereby all human hurts came to find their place in the living and dying of Christ the risen Redeemer.

—The Gospel in Dostoyevsky: Selections from His Works (Orbis, 2004) vii.

Hat Tip: Justin Taylor

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 26

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website.

Bible Text:
But he shall say, 1 am no prophet, 1 am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. —Zechariah 13:5

Devotional:
Zechariah mentions these two particulars—the false prophets will give up their office and that they will then spend their labor in doing what is right and just, supporting themselves in a lawful and innocent manner, and affording aid to their brethren. It is the first thing in repentance when they who had been previously the servants of Satan in the work of deception cease to deal in falsehoods, and thus put an end to their errors.

Frogs in a Boiling Pot of Criminality, Part III

Our Most Dynamic Growth Industry

There is one proposition the criminal justice system in New Zealand is pretty much agreed upon: prisons are bad.  For some they represent cruel and unusual punishment.  For others they are bad because they socialise inmates into becoming career criminals.   Still others reject prisons because they put the full responsibility for criminal acts upon the criminal and ignore the social causes of crime.  They are society's way of deflecting blame upon itself on to others.  Yet others regard prisons as dehumanizing institutions, akin to the evil of slavery.  Others--more pragmatically inclined--point to the high recidivism rates which provide compelling evidence that prisons fail to deter criminals, on the one hand, and fail to rehabilitate, on the other.  Yet others complain about the costs of building and running prisons. 

Consequently, the criminal justice system in New Zealand represent not so much a "war on crime" but a "war on prisons".  This is the argument David Fraser makes in his book, Badlands. NZ: A Land Fit For Criminals (Kaukapakapa, Auckland: Howling At The Moon Publishing, Ltd, 2011.) What is the evidence?

"Tolers, You Absolutely Astonish Me"

Lewis and Tolkien Debate Myths and Lies

On Twitter, @TonyReinke points out that “On the evening of September 19, 1931, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis went for a walk, one of the most important walks in church history.”

At this stage, Lewis was not a Christian; Tolkien was.  Shortly after this conversation, Lewis became a Christian, being "surprised by joy", as he put it. There are sketchy accounts of the conversation--some from Lewis himself.  Tolkien wrote Lewis a poem to make his points more clear, entitled Mythopoeia.

After that late-night conversation with Lewis, Tolkien wrote a poem called Mythopoeia, in which he set out his views of myth, legend, and fairy story.  he wrote this poem for Lewis, and he put at the head of his poem the words that Lewis had used: "For one who said that myths 'are lies breathed through silver".

The heart of man is not compound of lies,
but draws some wisdom from the only Wise,
and still recalls him.  Though now long estranged,
man is not wholly lost or wholly changed.
Disgraced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned . . . . 

[Jerram Barrs, Echoes of Eden: Reflections on Christianity, Literature, and the Arts. (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2013.)   p.94f.]

Here’s a dramatic reenactment of their conversation, which attempts to capture the issues if not the exact conversation itself:

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 25

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. —Psalm 143:10

Devotional:
"Teach me that I may do thy will." He now rises to something higher, praying not merely for deliverance from outward troubles, but, what is of still greater importance, for the guidance of God's Spirit, that he might not decline to the right hand or to the left, but be kept in the path of rectitude.


This is a request which should never be forgotten when temptations assail us with great severity, as it is peculiarly difficult to submit to God without resorting to unwarrantable methods of relief.

North Korea and Potemkin Villages

Useful Idiots

One of the most cringe-inducing episodes in recent Western history was the infatuation of the majority of intellectuals in the first half of the last century with the Soviet Union.  Whilst Stalin was ravening his subjects with famine, Western intellectuals were praising the wonder of a socialist economy.  They did this, of course, because long ago they had become converted to socialist ideology.  The Soviet Union was the leading exemplar of the secular New Jerusalem.  The standard eschatology of the time was that capitalism and private property was going to fall apart under their own contradictions whilst the Soviet New Model Man would emerge superior and the way of the future.  The intellectual avante guard became willing dupes.

The constant procession of Western admirers was treated to all sorts of displays of the wonder of the New Model Economy.  They dutifully gooed and gahhed. Stalin even ordered New Model Towns to be made--subsequently labelled Potemkin Villages after a consort of the Russian Tsarina Catherine II--which were essentially like Hollywood movie sets.  Through these Western visitors were duty conducted, dutifully to return back home raving at the wonderful increase in housing quality and living standards being enjoyed in the Soviet Union.  Meanwhile, eastward, beyond the Urals, the Gulag camps were hard at work.

In recent weeks we have had our own Potemkin moment.

Douglas Wilson's Letter from Moscow

No Need for Right Wing Devils

Posted on Saturday, July 13, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

Jesus teaches us to expect slander, to expect misrepresentation. Further, He teaches us to believe that when this happens, it is a sign that we are gaining on it. In Luke 6:22-23, Jesus tells us to rejoice and leap for joy when we reviled, excluded, shunned, and held in contempt. In Lattimore’s translation of that passage, Jesus tells us that we are “to frolic” when this has happened.

We are able to do this, Jesus teaches, because we know the outcome of the story. We have the big picture. We know that great is our reward in Heaven. But being heavenly-minded is not an opiate — being heavenly-minded brings real earthly perspective.

Conservative activists who are surprised or indignant at the gross lopsidedness of the whole system are being foolish because they are expecting the devil to be a gentleman. They are expecting him to fight clean, and to avoid every form of fighting dirty. What makes us think he might do that?

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 24

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep hefore her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. —Isaiah 53:7

Devotional:
Moreover, we are also exhorted to conform to his example; not that we shall be able to humiliate ourselves perfectly before God, but yet we must force ourselves towards it. I say, that when God is pleased to chastise us and we feel great roughness at his hand, so that it seems as if we are overwhelmed, we must nevertheless keep silence, confessing that God is righteous and fair, and not letting one murmur be heard from our mouths.

Let us glorify God by our silence; even as if we were poor sinners convicted of their crimes and without an excuse.

Howlers

The Beginning of the End

The New Zealand government's long foreshadowed trial of charter schools is going to commence early in 2014.  Five schools have been approved.  Obviously this is earth shattering stuff to those who are wedded to the proposition that governments always do things better than anyone or anything else.  They see the opening of charter schools as the early death throes of civilisation as we know it.  The histrionic hysterics have been, well, hysterical, or, as Jane Austen would say, quite diverting.

There were three howlers in particular.  The first was an horrendous accusation levelled against charter schools.  It was suggested that they were going to be engaged in a very sinister practice.  They were going to extract profits out of running schools.  We kid you not.  Terrible.  How anyone could mix filthy lucre with the ethereal, other-worldly task of educating children was beyond comprehension.  It could only mean that operators of charter school had to be depraved miscreants.

Actually, this broadside opens up an interesting idea, well worth exploring.

Orwellian Double-Speak in Europe

New Thought Police Warmly Welcomed at  “Civil Liberties” Committee

Posted on | September 20, 2013 

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

European Dignity Watch has an interesting report on a recent meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE), in which a lobby group called the “European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR)” was given a 45-minitues slot to present a policy proposal that is called the Framework National Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance.


The group’s approach towards “tolerance” appears to be rather simple: it claims to be promoting “tolerance”, which is vaguely defined as “respect for and acceptance of the expression, preservation and development of the distinct identity of a group”. With regard to potential critics it says: “There is no need to be tolerant to the intolerant (….) especially (…) as far as freedom of expression is concerned”.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the paper contains a lot of proposals how to limit, or even to completely eliminate, the freedom of speech of all potential critics of any of the groups whose acceptance the ECTR wants to promote.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 23

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. —I Corinthians 6:20

Devotional:
This is a very important consideration, that we are consecrated and dedicated to God; that we may not hereafter think, speak, meditate, or do anything but with a view to his glory. For that which is sacred cannot, without great injustice towards him, be applied to unholy uses.

If we are not our own, but the Lord's, it is manifest both what error we must avoid, and to what end all the actions of our lives are to be directed. We are not our own; therefore neither our reason nor our will should predominate in our deliberations and actions.

The Annals of Soft-Despotism

Dereliction of Duty

The idol of the soft-despotic state must needs be mocked and ridiculed.  It is one of the more effective weapons God has given to His people to excise this particular demon from our lives.  As we engage in this divine sarcasm we are conscious of standing in a long line of prophets who did not hold back from mocking the idols of their day.  We have in mind Elijah on Mount Carmel, for example, ridiculing the priests of Baal, as they called upon their god but to no avail:

And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, "Cry aloud, for he is a god.  Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened." (I Kings 18: 27.)

A recent tragedy has been the cold-blooded murder of innocents at the Navy Yard in Washington DC.  One wonders how it could be that a non-serving civilian could be granted admittance to a military installation, armed with a semi-automatic shotgun, to kill twelve people.  What happened to the nation's god?  In the words of Elijah, perhaps the soft-despotic deity in Washington was musing somewhere amidst a brown study.  Or he was in the loo.  Or he had undertaken a long journey.  Or he had fallen asleep.  The answer--all of the above.

Governments that attempt to rule everything in an embrace of soft-despotic tyranny end up powerless and incompetent.

From An Admiring Antipodean

Dear President Obama

I was greatly encouraged to view your recent address to ‘Planned Parenthood’ and rejoice in your warm endorsement of their work and in your wishing of the blessing of God upon them and all they do for the cause of women’s reproductive health and the right to take control of their own bodies. The practice of some 3,000 abortions a week in the USA is a ringing endorsement of their work and proof of their deserving your support.

I have long supported the ‘Pro Choice’ cause as you have, and must commend you for your courageous stand in support of late term terminations.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 21

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. —Acts 1:14

Devotional:
Luke expresses two things which are proper to true prayer, namely that they persisted and that they were all of one mind. This was an exercise of their patience, in that Christ made them wait a while, when he could have immediately sent the Holy Spirit; as God often delays, and as it were suffers us to languish, that he may accustom us to persevere.

The hastiness of our petition is a corrupt, yea hurtful plague. Wherefore it is no marvel if God sometimes corrects it. In the meantime he exercises us to be constant in prayer. Therefore if we would not pray in vain, let us not be wearied with the delay of time.

The Annals of Soft-Despotism

The Might of the Gentiles

President Reagan once quipped that the most terrifying words in the English language were, "I am from the government, and I'm here to help."  We are aware that for many such a statement  borders on blasphemy.  How dare anyone have such a cynical attitude toward the hand that feeds us.

Modern governments in the West have arrogated to themselves (with the ardent support and acclamation of the people) the vain hubris of being responsible and empowered to parent and provide for all citizens.  Welcome to life under the soft-despotic state.  Freedom and responsibility is at first attenuated, then killed off, by kindness.  Men--free men--depart, not with a bang, but a whimper.  Underneath lies a besetting sin: idolatry.  Today it is almost universal that "free" citizens worship the government in one way or another.  Become subjected to almost any trouble, any calamity and the reflexive, natural response now is to intone the litany of the secular idolater: "the government has to/should/ought/needs to do something".  It is the secular version of fervent prayer.  It is the established religion of our day.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

President of Presidents

Posted on Saturday, September 14, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog 

I want to begin this exhortation with two qualifications. The first is that I know you have heard this point from me before. But as Paul says in Philippians, to repeat the same things over again is not a trouble to me, and it is helpful to you. Secondly, this is a word to Americans—and I know that not all of you here are Americans. You are nevertheless invited to listen in, and there are truths here that any believer may apply, making the necessary adjustments as you go.

As the recent op-ed by Vladimir Putin showed, the assumption of American exceptionalism is offensive to him. But because he is a former KGB thug, we shouldn’t really care that it is offensive to him. What we should care about is the way in which this manner of speaking might be offensive to God.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 20

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live. —Psalm 119:144

Devotional:
Farther, he here teaches that men cannot, properly speaking, be said to live when they are destitute of the light of heavenly wisdom; and as the end for which men are created is not that, like swine or asses, they may stuff their bellies, but that they may exercise themselves in the knowledge and service of God, when they turn away from such employment, their life is worse than a thousand deaths.

David therefore protests that for him to live was not merely to be fed with meat and drink, and to enjoy earthly comforts, but to aspire after a better life, which he could not do save under the guidance of faith. This is a very necessary warning;

Books

Echoes of Eden

In his recent book, Echoes of Eden, Jerram Barrs [Echoes of Eden: Reflections on Christianity, Literature and the Arts (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2013)]  has a series of chapters on literature and the arts in general and then turns to some exemplars which exemplify his general theme.  Barrs argues that all art worthy of the designation reflects what he calls "echoes of Eden" in one way, shape or form. 

To make reference to Eden is to introduce the great underlying themes of all stories: the innate goodness of the creation in its original perfection, the brokenness of nature and of man which we experience daily, and the longing for redemption and deliverance.  In the latter portion of the book, Barrs turns to some examples or case studies of his theme: namely, Lewis, Tolkien, J K Rowling, Shakespeare and Jane Austen. 

The chapter on Tolkien alone is worth the price of the book.  Tolkien understood that myths are powerful in a culture because they inevitably sustain memories of God.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 19

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. —II Corinthians 4:7

Devotional:
In the next place, I have something about which I wish to admonish yourself. For I understand the length of your discourses has furnished the ground of complaint to many. You have frequently confessed to us that you were aware of this defect, and that you were endeavoring to correct it.

But if private grumblings are disregarded because they do not in the meanwhile give trouble, they may, nevertheless, one day break forth into seditious clamors. I beg and beseech of you to strive to restrain yourself, that you may not afford Satan an opportunity, which we see he is so earnestly desiring.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Making It Flow to the End

Posted on Sunday, September 8, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog 

In the Syria saga, we are getting a good glimpse of how political decisions are made in a gargantuan democracy, and we are also getting quite a cash payout — worth a great deal to me at any rate — of Ron Paul’s apparently quixotic presidential runs.

Let me state the conclusion first. I am convinced that – despite the blinkered limitations of pure libertarianism when it comes to foreign-policy in the Middle East – the presence of a  significant libertarian mindset in the Republican Party has been beyond helpful in this situation. I think an ideologically pure libertarian foreign policy would be a disaster. But I also think the current endless war policy is a disaster, and I like very much the fact a good portion of our population — for whatever reasons — has gotten kind of surly about it.

Let us be frank.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 18

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: —Romans 5:1

Devotional:
The following observation of Bernard is worthy of recital; "that the name of Jesus is not only light, but also food; that it is likewise oil, without which all the food of the soul is dry; that it is salt, unseasoned by which, whatever is presented to us is insipid; finally, that it is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, joy in the heart, and medicine to the soul; and that there are no charms in any discourse where his name is not heard."

But here we ought diligently to examine how he has procured salvation for us; that we may not only know him to be the author of it, but, embracing those things which are sufficient for the establishment of our faith, may reject everything capable of drawing us aside to the right hand or to the left.

Cheap Slurs

Science in the Propagandist's Hands

In his superb book, The Tyranny of Cliches, Jonah Goldberg has a rollicking chapter on science.  It turns out that science has often become a club to beat up ideological opponents.  One of the most damaging slurs, apparently, that can be hurled at one's opponent is to accuse them of being anti-science.

Here are some classics of the genre:

Now, we don't know who will win next year's presidential election.  But the odds are that one of these years the world's greatest nation will find itself ruled by a party that is aggressively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge.  And, in a time of severe challenges--environmental, economic, and more--that's a terrifying prospect.

Paul Krugman, "Republicans Against Science," New York Times, August 28, 2011.

Impeccable Ignorance

Population Control Goes Out With a Whimper

Posted on September 6, 2013
by Stefano Gennarini, J.D.
Turtle Bay and Beyond

 Here are three articles from the past week that address the slow hard fall from grace of population control…

1. Jonathan Last’s Review of a book that exposes Paul Ehrlich for the fraud he was. Ehrlich, an entomologist, not a demographer or economist, wrote the all-famous “Population Bomb” in the 1960s and became a world celebrity by prophesying that resource scarcity would drive up commodity prices causing humanitarian disasters of biblical proportions. Needless to say, his poor science helped the world turn a blind eye to brutal population control programs for the past five decades. He was exposed repeatedly by Julian Simon, an economist, who rightly predicted that with population increases, production would also increase and commodity prices would go down. Simon believed human ingenuity could resolve resource scarcity, and he was right. He also insisted that what populations need are robust civil and political rights regimes to enable individuals and enterprises to flourish.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 17

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? —Isaiah 53: 1

Devotional:
Let us reckon with this fact, that the world will never be so entirely converted to God that there will not be a majority possessed by Satan and remaining stupidly in his power, who would not rather perish than accept the blessing that is offered to us.

And there are different sorts of men:

Annals of Soft-Despotism

Regulating Rodent Love

The Christian faith has its believers professing from the heart, "The Lord will provide".  The modern, Unbelieving substitute is, "The Government will provide", which is idolatry, pure and simple.  God is not mocked.  When a culture turns away from the Living God to an idol, one of the divine indictments is to expose that idol to mockery.  A demonstration of the impotence of the idol, on the one hand, and a display of the dull stupidity of its devotees, on the other, is the standard divine approach. 

So, it is our duty as Christians to be active in sending up the idols of our age to the courts of mockery.  The incompetence of the State to be as God to us is to be displayed, described, and ridiculed at every opportunity.  Not the State in its legitimate functions, mind you--where it acts not to provide health, education, and welfare for all, but to administer retributive justice to the evil doer, and judge civil disputes with equity and fairness.  But we are addressing the State as idol, where it rears up to replace God in the mind and hearts of citizens.

Here is the latest folly from the "Master", our all governing, beneficent, all-wise, providential government--this time addressing the vitally important manner of rat control, definitely in need of rules, regulations, procedures, protections, and punishments.

Books

"Death by Living"

Life is meant to be spent. N D Wilson

[Thomas Nelson, 2013  208 pp., $19.99 ]

Book Review by John Wilson
Books and Culture

September 2013

Pardon me for quoting myself, but here is the way I started a book review for Christianity Today magazine in 2007: "Remember, you read it here first. N. D. Wilson (no relation, I hasten to add) is a name that will soon be widely known. He will write many books, Lord willing, in many genres for our instruction and delight. His first is Leepike Ridge (Random House)."

Six years later, and now in his mid-thirties, Wilson has already written a bunch of books, in several genres, not to mention a bit of screenwriting. His latest, Death by Living, is his second work of nonfiction and (so I think) his best book yet.

"This is a spoken world," Wilson writes—"from galaxies to inchworms, from seraphs to electrons to meter maids, every last thing was and is shaped ex nihilo. It—and we—all exist as beats and rhythms and rhymes in the cosmic and constant word art of the Creator God. To fully embrace and attempt to apply such a vision is … dizzying." The ellipses are his, and what he's attempting is not just dizzying, it's impossible—but it's worth trying, again and again, over the course of a lifetime.

Death by living? That's the fate we all share.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 16

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
The morning is come unto thee, 0 thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains. —Ezekiel 7:7

Devotional:
We know that hypocrites commit all their sins as if no eye were upon them; as long as God is silent and at rest they revel without shame or fear. But the chosen remain faithful even in secret; but God's word always shines before them, as Peter says—ye do well when ye attend to the Prophetic word, as a lamp shining in darkness.

Although the faithful may be surrounded by darkness, yet they direct their eye to the light of celestial doctrine, so that they are watchful, and are not children of the night and of darkness as Paul says (I Thess. 5: 4, 5).

But the impious are, as it were, immersed in darkness, and think they shall enjoy perpetual night. As the rising morning dispels the darkness of night, so also God's judgment, on its sudden appearance, strikes the reprobate with unexpected terror, but too late. —Commentaries

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Annals of Soft-Despotism

Village Idiots Run the Place

There are two kinds of despotism.  The first is the jack-boot kind, which we call hard despotism.  Think Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Kim Jong Un, and a litany of others.  The second is the progressive smothering by the regulator state where the state takes more and more responsibility for citizens and increasingly regulates their lives all in the name of protecting them, providing for them and helping them.  This is soft-despotism. 

Soft despotism was prophetically described by Alexis de Tocqueville in the nineteenth century.

 The sovereign extends its arms about the society as a whole; it covers its surface with a network of petty regulations―complicated, minute, and uniform―through which even the most original minds and the most vigorous souls know not how to make their way . . . it does not break wills; it softens them, bends them, and directs them; rarely does it force one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one’s acting on one’s own . . . it does not tyrannize, it gets in the way: it curtails, it enervates, it extinguishes, it stupefies, and finally reduces each nation to being nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd. ["Government as Shepherd", Contra Celsum]

We in the West are victims of this creeping soft-despotic state which seeks to regulate all things human--for our own good, of course.

Books--Darwinianism Becoming More Comical

E.O. Wilson has a new explanation for consciousness, art & religion. Is it credible?

Christopher Booker  

7 September 2013 

The Spectator

 

The Social Conquest of Earth Edward O. Wilson [W.W. Norton, pp.330, £18.99, ISBN: 9780871403636]

 

His publishers describe this ‘ground-breaking book on evolution’ by ‘the most celebrated living heir to Darwin’ as ‘the summa work of Edward O. Wilson’s legendary career’. As emeritus professor of biology at Harvard, Wilson, now 84, is revered across the world as the doyen of Darwinists. And in announcing that he will offer a new answer to those three cosmic questions scrawled in the corner of a Gauguin painting — ‘Where have we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?’ — he leads us to expect some profound new insight into how a billion years of evolution have made us a species unique on earth.

Wilson introduces his ‘big idea’ by arguing that the two forms of life which, in evolutionary terms, have been most successful in ‘conquering the earth’ are those rather disconcertingly described as ‘eusocial’ — that is to say they have evolved societies based on a complex division of labour between different groups, all working for the good of the whole. On the one hand there is Homo sapiens, ourselves; on the other are the ‘eusocial’ insects, bees, wasps and ants (on which Wilson is a world expert).

If extra-terrestrials had visited earth three million years ago, Wilson suggests, they might have concluded that ‘the apex of social evolution’ had been reached by the ants: certainly not by the few thousand early australopithecines shambling across the African savannah.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 14

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
And said, Remember now, 0 Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and. with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. —Isaiah 38:3

Devotional:
"Remember now that I have walked before thee in truth." He does not plead his merits against God, or remonstrate with him in any respect, as if he were unjustly punished, but fortifies himself against a sore temptation, that he may not think that God is angry with him for correcting the vices and removing the corruptions which prevailed throughout the whole of his kingdom, and especially in regard to religion.

Yet the Lord permits his people even to glory, in some degree, on account of their good actions, not that they may boast of their merits before him, but that they may acknowledge his benefits, and may be affected by the remembrance of them in such a manner as to be prepared for enduring everything patiently.

Perpetual War

The Injustice of Even Contemplating War in Syria

As the war drums beat over Syria the controversy about casus belli rises again.  What are the just causes for going to war?  In the Western tradition what constitutes a just cause for war has become inflated significantly in the past two hundred years.  We see the fruits of that inflation in the debates swirling in the United States at present over Syria. 

The notion of a just war is rooted in Christian doctrine and in the first Christendom.  Whilst the idea of a just war is inherently right, the details can be diabolical.  Who or what determines what is just?  When you have medieval and post-medieval rulers fixated upon their own vanities the concept of justice can be stretched to cover a mountain of vainglory.  Any insult to the Sun-King of the day becomes intolerable; to punish the malefactors becomes cast as an act of retributive justice.  Therefore, to be genuinely so, the doctrine of a just war must be grounded in a higher law which defines wherein justice actually lies, not in the vanity of vainglorious rulers or nations. 

The situation got noticeably worse during the time of doctrines of the divine right of kings.

Idiots, Charlatans, and Pseudo-Scientists

Oxymorons

The credibility of "climate science" is melting far, far faster than the Arctic Ocean.  Even as erstwhile climate scientists have been predicting that the polar ice-cap was going to disappear by 2013, arctic ice has been growing and expanding rapidly.  A perfect negative correlation.  A useful rule of thumb is whenever the words "science" and "climate" appear in the same phrase, train your mind to identify the oxymoron of the decade.

The following piece has appeared in the Mail Online:

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 13

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? —Romans 8:24

Devotional:
Now wherever this living faith shall be found, it must necessarily be attended with the hope of eternal salvation as its inescapable counterpart. For if faith be, as has been stated, a certain persuasion of the truth of God, that it can neither lie, nor deceive us, nor be frustrated—they who have felt this assurance, likewise expect a period to arrive when God will accomplish his promises, which according to their persuasion, cannot but be true; so that, in short, hope is no other than an expectation of those things which faith has believed to be truly promised by God.

Thus faith believes the veracity of God, hope expects the manifestation of it in due time; faith believes him to be our Father, hope expects him always to act towards us in this character; faith believes that eternal life is given to us, hope expects it one day to be revealed; faith is the foundation on which hope rests, hope nourishes and sustains faith.

Frogs in a Boiling Pot of Criminality, Part II

Sensible Sentencing

The fundamental thesis of the book, Badlands is that criminality has risen exponentially in New Zealand in the last fifty years because of radical changes in the criminal justice system.  Government policy has been to blame.  The danger of this thesis is that it risks becoming the mythical silver bullet: change the policies of criminal justice in New Zealand and crime will reduce.

We are in no doubt that a change in criminal justice policies, in sentencing, is much needed and will have a significant impact upon crime in the country.  The reason is that a disproportionate amount of crime is committed by a very small group of hardened recidivist offenders.  But the causes of crime against property and persons are manifold and complex.  Changes in sentencing will help: they will not remove criminal activity entirely.  Even as society advocates for radical much-needed changes in sentencing policy, it must not over-promise or raise expectations that such changes would mean that criminal offending would cease and that crime would be eradicated.

One problem to be addressed is the fundamental confusions that swirls around penology in this country.  There are three objectives constantly cited in the matter of dealing with crime--which are often at cross purposes.  The first objective seeks retributive punishment in our sentencing and criminal justice policies.  The second seeks rehabilitation of the criminal back into the community.  The third seeks protection against future criminal acts by recidivist criminals.  All too often these three--punishment, rehabilitation, and community protection--work against each other.  If community protection is the prime objective, longer prison sentences will trump all other policies in the criminal justice system.  If rehabilitation of the criminal back into the community is the prime goal, then non-custodial sentences, coupled with training, education, and social welfare for the criminal become the absolute priority.  If punishment for criminal acts is the primary goal and responsibility then inflicting pain, hardship, and thorough-going inconvenience upon the convicted criminal is essential.

Public debates about the criminal justice system reflect ships passing in the night because the protagonist of  one of the three objectives sees all criminal offending and punishment through his particular prism (say, rehabilitation) and his opponent sees everything through the prism of community protection.  The ships sail past each other, lobbing broadsides at the each other, but never striking a mortal blow--making the public debate unceasing, wearying, and without any progress.

The critical way-point in the debate is to recognise that all three aspects--punishment, rehabilitation, and community protection--have validity and a sane criminal justice system must employ all three.  The crying need is to develop criminal justice policies which enable all to work together, without working at cross purposes, tearing each other down. 

In Badlands, David Fraser tends to focus a great deal upon community protection, and therefore emphasises the need for longer, more severe jail sentences [David, Fraser, Badlands--NZ: A Land Fit For Criminals (Kaukapakapa: Howling at the Moon Publishing Ltd, 2011.)]  Yet he does concede there is need for gradation in sentencing.  There is also a need to have the three core objectives in criminal sentencing change over a career of criminal offending. There are times and periods when rehabilitation ought be more important and to the fore; there are other periods (later in a criminal's career) when community protection must become paramount.

He makes the following observation about Singapore's criminal justice system:

Although Singapore's success in deterring crime is largely due to its greater use of prisons than many other countries, it is not the only aspect worth noting.  Singapore puts a great deal of energy into rehabilitative efforts for offenders but only those with one or two previous convictions  It has understood the lesson, ignored by New Zealand justice officials, that it is a waste of resources to try and encourage persistent criminals with long histories of crime, to reform.  Singapore's attitude is uncompromising.  Beyond a certain threshold, serial offenders--those who reappear before the courts for a third time--are dealt with severely by increasingly long prison sentences.  (Op cit., p. 34).

He then contrasts this with New Zealand criminal policies:

In New Zealand offenders with far more court appearances than three are frequently given community based sentences, which in theory are supposed to reform them, but in reality simply allow them to continue offending.  As a result crime in New Zealand is a staggering 15 times more prevalent than in Singapore. (Ibid.)

Over the lifetime of a career criminal there needs be times at which penology must have punishment as its primary focus; at others, rehabilitation; and, particularly when criminality becomes a settled mode of life, community protection must be paramount. This would mean that repeat offending, even for the same offence, would attract longer and longer more severe,  custodial sentences. 

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

The Hamfisted Jackboot

Posted on Thursday, August 22, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

So the Supreme Court of New Mexico has determined that a wedding photographer does not have the right to decline a job shooting a homosexual wedding ceremony. This is obviously a hamfisted jackboot, to coin a phrase, but there are a few nuances that we believers have to work through. Because we have refused to distinguish sins from crimes, we are rapidly coming to the place where it is a criminal offense to act as though there is such a thing as sin at all.

First, the issue is not that Christians are acting like an economic transaction with a homosexual is spiritually defiling. It is not. If I had a hardware store, I would be happy to sell a hammer to a homosexual. I would be happy to sell a hammer to a homosexual couple who were going to use it to hammer up the crepe paper bunting at the reception. I don’t care. They give me ten bucks, I give them the hammer, and I am not contaminated by the exchange. If I sold them some cotter pins, I might feel an urge to explain them, but would be happy to sell them.

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness of it. The apostle Paul teaches us explicitly that we are not entailed in the sin when we live in the same world with unbelievers, rub shoulders with them, and do business with them (1 Cor. 5:10). I think Christians should be happy to do business with homosexuals. No problemo, as we bilingual people say.

But doing business is not the issue here.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 12

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. —Romans 13:12

Devotional:
Although it may be difficult to the weakness of our flesh to continue steadfast when we see no end to our warfare; nay more, see that things grow worse; yet when girt about with the armor which God bestows upon us, we must not fear but that we shall overcome all the devices of Satan.

I call "the armor of God" not merely the promises and holy exhortations by which he strengthens us, but the prayers which are to obtain the strength we need. And therefore, sir, according to your necessity, get by heart what Scripture sets before us, both as to the present condition of Christians, and the miseries to which they must needs be subject, and also as to the happy and desirable issue promised them; and how, moreover, they shall never be forsaken in the time of their need.

I know—long continued maladies being the most harassing—that it is extremely hard for you to languish for such a length of time.

Frogs in a Boiling Pot of Criminality, Part I

 Crime Inc. in New Zealand

Over the next little while we will be publishing some posts interacting with a book about crime and punishment in New Zealand, by David Fraser.  [Badlands--NZ: A Land Fit For Criminals (Kaukapakapa: Howling at the Moon Publishing Ltd, 2011.)]  The book is excellent in places, naive and one-dimensional in others.  But it begs some very important questions which need to be debated and discussed.

Firstly, a brief bio of the author, Britain David Fraser.  He has long experience in the UK penal system, having worked for the National Probation Service (and its pre-cursors) for 26 years.  He has worked for the Criminal Intelligence Analyst with the National Criminal Intelligence Service.  Thus, the author is no lightweight in these matters.  He has been in New Zealand on a national speaking tour as a guest of the Sensible Sentencing Trust--hence his interest in New Zealand as a comparison and contrast with his researches in crime and punishment in the UK.

The first section of the book seeks to establish a very important premise to the whole argument:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Syria in a Sentence

Posted on Wednesday, September 4, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog 

I want Congress to authorize something I don’t believe they need to authorize, and which I reserve the right to do anyway whether or not they authorize it, in order that I might defend the credibility of a red line I didn’t actually draw, so that I may take decisive action that will not in any way affect the momentum of the Syrian civil war or, if it accidentally does, al-Qaeda will the stronger for it, in order that I might have a chance to do what I have spent a decade yelling about other people doing.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 11

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. —Hebrews 10:31

Devotional:
Let us note, then, this sentence of the Apostle, that it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; and therefore as often as there is any punishment, let us be moved by it.

And thereby we shall be taught to pity those who are in distress, and say, "Alas, this poor creature; if it were some mortal man that affiicted him, a man might give him some relief. But God is against him, and ought we not to have pity as we see this?"

Someone may say, "Are we not resisting God when we are sorry for those who are punished for their sins? Is this not a striving against God's justice?" No;

Bringing the A-Game to the Table

Russian Grand Master

Vlad the Impaler is making Obama look more and more foolish.  We are not sure whether this reflects a much more experienced "old hand" running the Russian government, or whether the Russian authorities have decided that Obama's suit is filled with an effete mixture of hot air, hubris, and little else and they are mischievously delighting in exposing the emptiness to the world, or whether they are just far more sophisticated and clever than the inexperienced two-bit community organiser from Chicago.  Whatever--but the reality is that Vlad knows how to play a very sophisticated game of chess.  He also shows signs of having sized up his opponent all too well. 

Firstly, tactical move number #1: keep the whole Syrian thing boiling in the UN pot.

Answering Critics

On Homosexuality and the Conscience: Responding to Criticisms

Thabiti Anyabwile

Thabiti Anyabwile Blog 
August 24, 2013

Introduction

I've managed to provoke a wide range of responses and emotions in my recent post on homosexual behavior and the human conscience. The response isn't altogether surprising. It's representative of the climate and world we live in. As many evangelical leaders have pointed out, we're at the point now where there's no longer any dispassionate position on homosexuality. You can mention it once in 20 years like Louie Gigglio, or you can be a former homosexual who only sings and preaches the grace of Christ like Donnie McClurkin, and you will find yourself vilified for opposing this behavior. It's a time for God's people to be full of grace and truth, sacrificing neither and proclaiming both.

I'm now in southern Africa, where internet connections and data speed are at great premium. So I'm trying to respond to some of the issues raised in the comments thread before disappearing from social media for about two weeks. I don't want anyone to think I've shouted "fire!" in a crowded theater only to run away without giving an account. But this will have to briefly suffice before beginning ministry here in Africa.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 10

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the Lord: —Psalm 148:11-13a

Devotional:
"Kings of earth." He now turns his address to men, with a respect to whom it was that he called for a declaration of God's praises from creatures, both above and from beneath.

As kings and princes are blinded by the dazzling influence of their station, so as to think the world was made for them, and to despise God in the pride of their hearts, he particularly calls them to this duty; and, by mentioning them first, he reproves their ingratitude in withholding their tribute of praise when they are under greater obligations than others.

Different Endings and Unpalatable Outcomes

Postscripts to Western Arrogance

As the war drums sound over Syria, it may be prudent to stop and reflect upon Libya.  Remember Libya?  The United States (along with NATO) decided that it had to get involved to support Libyan rebels attempting to overthrown dictator, Colonel Qaddafi.  The mission was eventually accomplished.  Poor old Muammar ended up in a culvert and was shot to pieces by vengeful rebels.

The US felt good.  Mission accomplished.  The US President and congressional hawks looked in the mirror and raised a few toasts.  The Lone Ranger and the Invincibles and the Super Heroes had ridden forth again, vanquished the evil one, and retired from the theatre.  They, no doubt, in raising the toast saw in the mirror adumbrations of one of the great fictional heroes of the West: "He was the man who rode into our little valley, out of the heart of the great glowing West and when his work was done, rode back whence he had come.  And he was Shane."  Whoop-de-do.  Yeeeee hah.

But what of Libya?

Homosexual Propaganda Exploded

The Importance of Your Gag Reflex When Discussing Homosexuality and “Gay Marriage”

Thabiti Anyabwile
August 19 2013

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our stay in New Zealand. In fact, the two weeks have been too brief. We didn’t have opportunity to visit the South Island with its breathtaking peaks and scenes. We couldn’t even see the entire North Island. But what we saw–Rangitoto, the glow worm caves, Hobbiton, and the Lord’s churches–all blessed us tremendously. So with some sadness, we leave Middle Earth for the land down under.

As we travel, another event compounds our sadness. Today New Zealand legalizes so-called “gay marriage.” Network news stations on airport televisions feature celebrations at various government buildings. Topless men wave rainbow flags. Two men deep kissing. Groups of same-sex couples cheer. Interviewees speak of their elation and their desire to have others recognize their “love.” It’s a scene reminiscent of others in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Landing in Australia, I learned that Katy Perry has “blasted” Australian politician Tony Abbot for calling “gay marriage” the “fashion of the moment,” while Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promises that if re-elected he will introduce a “gay marriage” bill in his first 100 days. It seems this issue cannot be easily escaped.

As I’ve listened to comments on both sides of the issue, my mind wanders back about ten years ago. That’s when I think the tide changed in public sentiment and the ages-long tradition of heterosexual marriage “lost” the battle.

How Elites in Private Board Rooms Changed the Conversation

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 09

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. —Deuteronomy 6:7

Devotional:
If we desire to be exalted to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must bear the reproach of his cross. Thus I entreat you, according as necessity may remind you, to shake off your sloth and bestir yourself to do battle valiantly against Satan and the world, desiring to be dead unto yourself so as to be fully renewed in God.
And because we must know before we can love, I entreat you also to exercise yourself in reading the holy exhortations that may be helps to this end. For the coldness we observe in certain persons arises from that carelessness which disposes them to fancy that it is enough to have briefly relished some passage of the Scriptures, without laying down as a rule to profit by it as need should require.

Obama's Relgious War

Perverse Vanity

The days of the Crusades are long gone.  But Islamists have so reconstructed history that they believe they are living amidst another Western Crusader campaign.  So, let's leave them to that particular distortion and self-deceit.  What needs concern us in the West is the religious war about to be waged by President Obama.  It is our duty to think carefully through, not from Islamist eyes, but from clear sighted objective perception.  For many in the West amongst the Commentariat this would be painful indeed.

We would begin by observing that going to war, as Obama has declared himself bent to do, is always a religious act.  It always involves the imposition of a religion to one degree or other, because it necessarily involves the use of force--deadly force--justified by the beliefs of the aggressors, regardless of the non-belief of the targets.  "You rulers of Syria have done something wrong in our eyes.  We will wage war upon you for vengeance, because you have breached some principles (ethics, morals, fundamental beliefs) we believe are ultimate verities." 

When Obama goes to war, we need to ask, In the name of what religion is he going to kill?

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

On Learning to Hate Their Dog

Posted on Monday, September 2, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

 

I want to thank you all for your kind invitation to address a recent dust-up in the blogosphere. It is not often that I get to discuss things like this.

Thabiti wrote a good article here, which elicited boatloads of comments, and so he followed it up with more here. Jonathan Merritt thought that the occasion was ripe for him to demonstrate that he doesn’t know what a rant is, which was amply accomplished here. And Denny Burk came in with a good wrap-up here.

But, believe it or not, there are certain things left unsaid. I want to make a few incidental comments, tossing them casually on the coffee table, and then get to the main event.

First, the incidentals. Merritt is quite right that Christians need to learn to stop trying to play the victim, but not for the reason he thinks.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 07

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time—have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; —Isaiah 49:8

Devotional:
How shall we reconcile these statements? By considering that Christ is not so much his own as ours; for he neither came, nor died, nor rose again, for himself. He was sent for the salvation of the Church, and seeks nothing as his own; for he has no want of anything.

The Big One

The Panoptican State Is Actually Operational

Yesterday the "big one" dropped.  The Guardian reported that the US and UK spy agencies have conspired together to gain control over on-line encryption, so that it is able to be cracked by them at will.  The Guardian also reports that internet companies known as the Big Four (Hotmail, Google, Yahoo and Facebook) are all complicit.

Through "covert partnerships with tech companies, the spy agencies have inserted secret vulnerabilities into encryption software", reported the Guardian. 

Those methods include covert measures to ensure NSA control over setting of international encryption standards, the use of supercomputers to break encryption with "brute force", and – the most closely guarded secret of all – collaboration with technology companies and internet service providers themselves. Through these covert partnerships, the agencies have inserted secret vulnerabilities – known as backdoors or trapdoors – into commercial encryption software.

The bottom line is this: the United States and the UK (so far--there may be more) can access any and all internet communications and material by private citizens and corporations and all non-government entities at will.

Letter From Australia (About Kevin Rudd)

New Standards

Australians go to the polls tomorrow.  All the tea leaves indicate that Labour risks being consigned to the badlands for a generation.  Why?  As always there are multiple causes.  But one stands out. 

Just when you thought that politicians could not get any worse, along comes a doozie who raises the bar for every following aspirant.  Kevin Rudd, reinstated Australian Prime Minister, is that toxic dish of acute incompetence  used with a gargantuan ego condemned to relentless self-belief, spiced with a snobbish disdain of lesser mortals.   Paul Sheehan, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, delivers the following indictment of a politician from way, way beyond the Looking Glass.

Never in the previous 113 years of Australian federation has a Prime Minister created such a gap between soaring rhetoric, sweeping promises and national interventions and meagre or failed results of so many grandiose plans.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 06

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Thy kingdom come. Thy will he done in earth, as it is in heaven. —Matthew 6:10

Devotional:
Now since the Divine word resembles a royal sceptre, we are commanded to pray that he will subdue the hearts and minds of all men to a voluntary obedience to it. This is accomplished when by the secret inspiration of the Spirit he displays the efficacy of his word and causes it to obtain the honor it deserves.

Choose You This Day . . .

Becoming a Shechemite Christian

Astute Christians have known for some time that persecution against God's people is coming again--in the West.  The Church has never been entirely free of it, of course.  Constantine abolished state persecution of the Church.  Since that time, it has sprung forth again occasionally.

In recent history, regimes that have locked Christians up and killed them off for the crime of being Christians have been cast as evil or wicked, such as the Nazi's or the Stalinists.  The point is that Nazi and Stalinist repression was not focused upon Christians, but upon lots of ne'er-do-wells.  State repression hit gypsies, Jews, kulaks, Poles, and Christians.  Anyone and anything which seemed to challenge the totalitarian iron fist was fair game.  Satan does not mind.  Evil and rebellion against God is his game.  Hatred of all men is his modus operandi. 

But what is coming down the pike now is a bit different--more like a throwback to pre-Constantinian Roman times.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Book of the Month/September

Posted on Saturday, August 31, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

 

So this is a book that I really did not expect to be reviewing as my book of the month selection, but life is funny.

Mind & Cosmos is subtitled “Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False.” When a book with this kind of subtitle comes out, written by a philosopher of Nagel’s caliber, and published by Oxford University Press, there should be no astonishment that it caused a stir. I wanted to note two very admirable traits of this book, and then engage at a couple of places where I think engagement could be profitable.

First, Nagel is no creationist, but he believes that ID arguments should be heard with respect. He apparently does not believe that scientific and philosophical knowledge is advanced by the technique of shunning people when they are in possession of inconvenient arguments.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 05

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. —II Thessalonians 3:12

Devotional:
The Lord commands every one of us, in all the actions of life, to regard his vocation. For he knows with what great unrest the human mind is inflamed, with what desultory levity it is hurried hither and thither, and how insatiable is its ambition to grasp different things at once.

Therefore, to prevent universal confusion being produced by our folly and temerity, he has appointed to all their particular duties in different spheres of life. And that no one might rashly transgress the limits prescribed, he has styled such spheres of life vocations or callings.

Every individual's line of life, therefore, is, as it were, a post assigned him by the Lord, that he may not wander about in uncertainty all his days.

Theatre of the Absurd

King Karl and His Acolytes

Marxists are notorious reductionists.  Everything must be reduced to money (capital) and how to get it.  There is usually a sub-stratum to the ideology: the pot of money is fixed or finite.  Getting money or capital, therefore, necessitates removing it from someone else.  Socialists are a peculiar class of people who are always concerned with who is getting how much, coupled with strategies about how to get more. Resentment, envy, bitterness, and conspiracies are always swirling in its poisoned atmosphere.

This reductionist fixation which sees all of life somehow tied up with money and getting more of it is not merely tawdry.  Like all reduction-isms it results in gross oversimplifications.  It is a dumb idea.  It produces a steel-trap mind where more is kept out than let in.

What the Hijabi Witnessed (and What She Didn't)

Article by Carl Trueman  

August 2013

Reformation 21

 

 

I have had the pleasure on a couple of occasions of sitting next to a girl wearing a hijab.  Typically, this has occurred in departure lounges of airports or on the platforms of railway stations. Never has it happened in a place of worship at the time of a service. Never, that is, until recently.

On the last Friday in June, I happened to be in Cambridge with my youngest son and decided to expose him to one of my alma mater's true delights: choral evensong at King's Chapel. We dutifully queued in the pouring rain (for me, those blue remembered hills are definitely English and cloud covered), and, when the chapel finally opened, we took our places at the far end of the aisle. It was then that I realized that the young girl sitting to my left was wearing a hijab. 

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 04

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. —Psalm 38:1

Devotional:
"O Jehovah! rebuke me not in thy wrath." David does not expressly ask that his afflictions should be removed, but only that God would moderate the severity of his chastisements.

Hence we may infer that David did not give loose rein to the desires of the flesh, but offered up his earnest prayer in a duly chastened spirit of devotion. All men would naturally desire that permission should be granted them to sin with impunity. But David lays a restraint upon his desires, and does not wish the favor and indulgence of God to be extended beyond measure, but is content with a softening of his affliction; as if he had said, Lord, I am not unwilling to be chastised by thee, but I entreat thee, meanwhile, not to afflict me beyond what I am able to bear, but to temper the fierceness of thy indignation according to the measure of my infirmity, lest the severity of the affliction should entirely overwhelm me.

Eschewing Violence

Modern Suggestive Conceptions of Law

We live in a world beset by squeamishness.  How this came about, we are not sure.  Some would say that it is due to the increasing feminisation of the culture.  Others would finger a philosophy of false optimism that assumes progress and civilization mean less violence.  Maybe it is due to a general ignorance courtesy of irrelevant and impotent state education systems.  No doubt the causes and provenance of general societal squeamishness are likely complex.

But the phenomenon is real enough.  In New Zealand, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis fish.  This brings death up close and personal.  More--it links food and diet to violence.  Fish in order to be eaten and enjoyed have first to be caught and killed--unless, like Gollum you prefer them wriggling and raw.  That cultural past-time helps keep the population conscious of the need for violence if a civilisation is to survive.  But imagine how it might change if the only fish Kiwis ever ate was what could be bought at the supermarket.  The link between violence and survival would be more removed from the food chain.  It wold present a fertile ground for the miasmic fog of squeamishness to begin forming in the valleys.

Letter From the US (About Germany)

‘Brutal and Vicious’: Armed German Police Storm Homeschooling Family’s House and Forcibly Seize Children, Report Claims

Aug. 30, 2013 3:25pm
Billy Hallowell
TheBlaze

[Editor's note: Germany just cannot shake off its Nazi past.  It remains partially instituted in laws making home schooling verborten in that country--laws that were Nazi creations and which have never been repudiated or repealed by Germany.  Now the Reich is applying the Nazi anti-homeschooling tyranny with an energy worthy of the Gestapo itself.  JT ]

The Romeike family’s very public legal battle has brought to light the homeschooling community’s ongoing battle inside Germany. Educating children in this manner is illegal in the European nation, which led Uwe and Hannelore Romeike to inevitably seek refuge. While the family’s battle for asylum in the U.S. continues, there’s another story coming out of Germany that will likely send chills down the spines of homeschooling advocates.