Humble Pie

John Armstrong Faces Reality

We have blogged recently on the absurd media-induced brouhaha over Prime Minister John Key's private conversation secretly recorded.  The media, smelling sensation, circled like sharks.  Gone completely was any commitment to the law, to ethics, to morality.  The media overnight showed their dark, smelly side.

The self-important provocateurs proclaimed that the "scandal" would change the election outcome; a real contest was suddenly before us; the media had uncovered some dirt.  Meanwhile the police served search warrants upon the media.  Suddenly everyone involved on the media side became very tight-lipped and circumspect, except for the cacophany of demands from them for John Key to release the tape "in the public interest"  Sadly for them, the public was not interested.  It smelt a dirty rat. 

Leading Herald political correspondent, John Armstrong, initially a cheerleader for his colleagues, now starts to eat the inevitable humble pie.  He acknowledges there has been a complete disconnect between the media and the people.  Not surprising, since the media are the most arrogant and elitist amongst us.

Culturally Impotent Christians, Part II

Stigmatizing Unbelief

In a previous post we discussed some of the factors which historically have made Christians culturally impotent.  This is a critical subject for the church generally and all individual Christians to have considered and upon which to have come to some solid biblical conviction. If we fail here, whether out of ignorance or uninterest, we risk undermining the church and dishonouring the Name of Christ.

The essential factor as to whether Christians are culturally powerful or anaemic is the ability of the Church to endure from generation to generation, which, in turn means that it is critical that we are successful in raising our children to walk in the Way, and we have done.  Any faith which cannot bind its children into obedience and loyalty is not merely culturally impotent, it shames the Name of God Himself.

Studies in I Samuel

The Grave of Exile

Expository - Book of Samuel
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, November 12, 2011

INTRODUCTION:

Under continued pressure from Saul, David is forced to leave Judah and take refuge with Achish, who was the king of Gath. He had complained in the previous chapter that certain men were trying to force him to serve other gods (1 Sam. 26:19) which he was unwilling to do. He was willing, however, to look like he was changing sides. During this time, David was playing a high-stakes double game.

THE TEXT:
“And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand . . .” (1 Sam. 27:1-12).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
David said that if the situation continued unchanged, he would eventually be killed by Saul.

Overdone Egg

Self-Righteous Puffing

One can't help but be amused at the brouhaha currently playing out in NZ politics.  One one side is the pompous, self-righteous "mainstream media" (who now, we hear, have a "spokesman"); on the other is the Prime Minister.  The argument is over Key's refusal to permit the release of a surreptitiously recorded conversation while Key and another politician sat in a public coffee bar and had a cup of tea.

For the past week, the media has made it the story, as if it were the great issue of the moment.  The public is simply not interested.  But the Commentariat is indignant.  The august self-important pretension of the media has been impugned.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Tend To Your Own Knitting

Liturgy and Worship - Exhortation
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, November 12, 2011

One of the great Pauline principles we have to be reminded of on a regular basis is the principle called “minding your own business.” As soon as we move away from a realm of life that we are not directly responsible for (as in, our own job, our own family, our own sanctification), and we attempt to engage in a little voluntary help with the sanctification of others, we are activating many more things than simply a desire to lend a hand.

There are issues of authority and responsibility, there are issues of our own craft competence (or lack therefore), there is the example we set for other volunteers who now want to throw in their helpful suggestions, and so on. But face facts—a group of fifteen volunteer helping helper types couldn’t successfully organize a two-car funeral.

Goff, the Theologian

 The Gods of Theft and Covetousness

It is refreshing when political leaders cloak themselves in the nobility of religion.  Even more exhilarating is when they quote the Lord Jesus as a warrant for their pontifications.

Then we are transported up to the third heaven when the noble leader, whose platform is a deluge of guilt and envy, insists that his policies are Christianity in action.  At last, a Christian political leader.  At last a man who stands respectfully, head bowed, before the Lord, calling upon people to follow him in his quest for more theft, covetousness, and larceny.  That's what Jesus would have done.  How offensive.

"Blue" Inequality

Intramural Fight Amongst Factions on the Left

Here is an interesting take on the OWS protestors--which are rapidly becoming a noisome stench in the nostrils of the Democratic and progressive elites in the United States.

It is more complex because — as noted by Kenneth Anderson, David Brooks and Walter Russell Mead among others — the Occupy protests are primarily an intramural fight among the factions of the Left.  As Brooks would have it, this is a fight about Blue Inequality, not Red Inequality.  But these analyses  — perhaps because they are primarily intellectual pursuits — tend to gloss over the more simple aspect.  The Occupy protests are about jobs.  The Occupiers are unemployed and they tend to have a certain class of college degree and cannot find a certain class of job.  Anderson strikes close to the heart of the problem with Blue Inequality:

Culturally Impotent Christians, Part I

When Worship Becomes Seeker Friendly and Entertaining

In his book One True God: Historical Consequences of Monotheism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), sociologist Rodney Stark  argues that there are at least two sociological conditions under which monotheistic faiths have been particularly strong.  These conditions are times of persecution and of adherence to the rituals of public worship.

"Strength" here refers strongly to maintaining traditions, beliefs, and practices and locking those attributes into the next generation.

His first example is the the sociological power of the rituals of public worship.

Those Asset Sales

Borrow and Spend

There is a good deal of rubbish being generated in the debate over the Government's proposal partially to sell down some assets to raise cash for spending elsewhere.  Some of the rubbish is coming from people who should know better. 

Take Brent Sheather, an investment adviser,  for example.

Finger on the Trigger

Obama Unbound

Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online

Richard Nixon went to Red China with political impunity. Had a Democrat tried that, he would have been branded a Commie appeaser.  To this day, liberals cannot conceive that during the two world wars, progressives like Woodrow Wilson, Earl Warren, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt trampled on civil liberties in a way unimagined by Dick Cheney.

Ronald Reagan signed the most liberal illegal-immigration-amnesty bill in history, and ran larger yearly deficits than Jimmy Carter had. “Read my lips” George H. W. Bush agreed to huge tax increases. And George W. Bush ran up the largest debt of any eight-year president, outspending Bill Clinton more than fivefold. The latter, remember, bombed Belgrade without either congressional or United Nations approval — and without anti-war protests. Without an opposition, almost anything goes.

Courage and Christian Ministry

Go Make Shoes

"Courage . . . is the indispensable requisite of any true ministry . . . If you are afraid of men and a slave to their opinions, go and do something else. Go and make shoes to fit them" (Phillips Brooks, as quoted in Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 300).

Atheism's Idiocy

Atheism As an Epistemic Hoot

Books in the Making - Chrestomathy
Written by Douglas Wilson
Wednesday, November 09, 2011

"On your account I am one set of complex chemical reactions secreting something that I falsely believe to be arguments to another set of complex chemical reactions who falsely believes that he is reading them . . .  (I)f you apply reason and self-criticism to an atheistic examination of ethics, you should discover within ten minutes that there aren't any . . . You are a hodge-podge of neuron-firings looking into an abyss which you only think you understand. You don't really understand it because you are not thinking at all, but rather doing what chemicals always do under those conditions and at that temperature" (Letter From a Christian Citizen, pp. 98-99).

Catching Australia, Part II

The "Luck" Won't Last

Just how substantial is Australia's competitive advantage.  Huge--in every respect.  At least that is the received wisdom.  But some Australian's beg to differ. 

Here is a decidedly negative view out of Sydney.  See what you think.

Catching Australia, Part I

New Zealand's Slope is Steep and Slippery

Catching up with Australia (in terms of relative GDP and overall material prosperity) has long been a dream of successive governments in New Zealand.  It has come up again in the current election.  The field of debate roughly falls out into four camps.

The first camp's (centre right) dream has to do with out competing Australia and producing our way to relative prosperity.  The second camp (centre left) views it as a matter of legislating parity in things like wages, income levels, and living standards.  The view is that if you first create by fiat legislation, economic reality will kick in to match it.  Put wages up by law and suddenly everyone becomes more productive.  (Yes, it is as stupid as it sounds, but there you go).

Cringeworthy

Remarkable Immaturity 

In a “faux pas” for the ages, President Barack Obama conducted what he assumed was a private conversation about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with French President Nicolas Sarkozy after the G20 summit on Thursday. The only problem, however, was that the microphones the two men were wearing from their earlier press conference, had not in fact been turned off. What ensued was a major public embarrassment after both Obama and the French PM disparaged Netanyahu, saying they  cannot “stand” dealing with him.

Obituary

Alan Peachey

The news of Alan Peachey's passing beyond the sight of mortal men has not been unexpected; his battle with cancer over a number of years was well known. 

He will be remembered as a high performing, no-excuses teacher and principal.  He remained all his career thoroughly committed to the public education system.  That commitment led him into not infrequent conflict with teacher unions and educrats.

UN "Science"

Thoroughly Discredited

Here is another review of Laframboise's little red book on the dishonesty of the IPCC.  This take is by Matt Ridley, and was published in The Australian.  (Another review has appeared in the London Book Review, here.)

Credibility in Tatters

Cooked Books In Pustule Stew

Well, we always knew this was going to happen: Labour's cooking the fiscal books again.  Challenged to provide costings for its election spending promises, it has eventually delivered--voodoo numbers. (Disclosure: we remain sceptical of the Government's numbers as well as being over egged when it comes to returning the Crown's books to surplus in the declared time frame.  But at least the Government's numbers would have had Treasury and Inland Revenue scrutiny.)

Let's put the finger on Labour's pustules:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Faith or Presumption in Child Rearing?

Marriage and Family - Some Hard Words for Fathers
Written by Douglas Wilson
Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Because of the condition of our sinful world, words from God's law are frequently "hard words." But, for the same reason, but in a different sense, words of gospel and promise are even harder.

In my books on family, I have often emphasized that the rearing of godly children is not accomplished "by works," but rather "by faith." And this leads, naturally, to the standard questions about the relationship between faith and works.

This presents a problem of practical theology. How are we to understand our need to believe such promises, and how can we do it without veering into presumption? Here is an example of one such promise:

An Axis of Incompetence

Educrats and Teacher Unions

Teacher unions and the educrats have a lot to answer for.  They have systematically opposed every reform of note in the government run education system for the past twenty-five years.  The principles driving this reactionary bias are pretty obvious: firstly, teacher jobs and conditions must be preserved at all cost; secondly, if any proposed government policy would threaten teachers or the control of the unions over the sector, it will be vociferously opposed.

The tactics employed are crude, but effective.

The Scourge of Socio-Economic Inequality

A Modest Proposal to Reduce Poverty

It has become the new normal--particularly in these heady election days--to shriek and moan about income inequality in New Zealand.  OK, so it's not helped by parties on the Left loudly alleging that the current government has committed the unpardonable sin of causing wider wealth disparity than when it took office.

But, the government buys into the assumptions and the allegations as well, since its defence is to talk about what new programmes it is going to roll out to combat economic inequality.

Fraud and Corruption

The IPCC At Work

Just a couple of years ago the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was revered as the highest, best, most prestigious institute of science on the planet.  Its processes were exacting.  It followed the truth wherever it found it.  Objective, hard scientific rigour were its watchwords. 

Anyone--anyone--who disregarded its findings was immediately exposed as an ignorant  Luddite.

If only . . .as the saying goes.

Donna Laframboise, a Canadian journalist (with all attendant biases intact) has published a book on the calibre and scientific rigour of the IPCC.   Laframboise has not just smelt a rat--she found the IPCC infested with an entire colony.  Tony Thomas reviews The Delinquent Teenager.

Quantitative Easing 101

Clarke and Dawe give us the idiots guide to Quantitative Easing

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Ron Paul, Enemy of Liberty

Culture and Politics - Sex and Culture
Written by Douglas Wilson
Monday, October 31, 2011

Let me say at the outset that I don't know who I will vote for when the primary campaign finally wends its way to Idaho. The field will no doubt be a bit different, and we likely know a good bit more about the candidates, probably a bit more than we wanted to know.

I know which candidates are flat out -- Romney, Huntsman, and Gingrich -- and they are out for character/religious reasons. One of the fundamental qualifications for office in Scripture is that a man must hate covetousness.

European Disease

Who Believes the Patch-Up?

Here is an excellent summary on the European debt crisis, reprinted from the SMH, originally published in the New York Times.  (And whilst you read this, keep in mind that it is only a matter of time before world capital markets start to look at debt levels in New Zealand.  All it would take is for government spending to ratchet up a few notches and the debt would be out of control--that is, getting back into balance and then surplus will never happen, without a grand default.  The New Zealand electorate has absolutely no appetite to see any serious reduction in government spending.  Keep the cash coming, baby.)

High Stakes Poker

We Deserve Job Security and High Wages . . .

The Qantas grounding was a big deal.  High stakes negotiation.  Reverberations in lots of places--if you were flying Qantas at the time.  But the whole mess illustrates the commercial realities of the early twenty-first century.  Realities that can be ignored only to one's commercial demise.  Regrettably, it is a lesson few in New Zealand have learned.

Qantas competes in what has become a global business.  Meanwhile it is an airline which has been nurtured under a cocoon of protections and indirect support by successive Australian governments.

Letter From America

A Nation In Nappies

Once people think they can leverage the power of the state to extort money from citizens and use it to achieve their social goal of choice there is no end to what will be devised.

Now, politico in the United States are calling for government funding of diapers--which is regarded as a major social cause.  The most effective thing to do is engage in a bit of good old fashioned mockery.  (But, a word of warning: mock at your peril if you believe that the state has a fundamental right and duty to engage in such larceny and interference.  For the arguments you employ will apply equally to your favoured rorts.)

Unfit for Public Office

Cynical Manipulation

In the recent history of our country we have had more than our fair share of venal politicians who cynically and deliberately set out to mislead the electorate.  Such politicians view the people as ignorant sheep, easily gulled. They come out with slogans or sound-bites they know are deceptive and misleading.  However, they also know that their sound-bites will appeal to the ignorant sheep.  They use such tactics to manipulate the electorate to gain support--all the while knowing that, once in government, they will never have to carry out their stated intentions. 

Our current proportional representation encourages that kind of venality amongst politicians.  The Greens, for instance, are masters of the art.

Blowing Smoke

Little Toot

In a PC-gone-mad world, this campaign video--a You Tube sensation--appeals to the inner rebel.  Great stuff. The MSM networks have been tut-tutting like Little Toot. Even better.

"Christian" Social Justice, Part III

Me Too Christianity

When  Christians and churches look at what the world of Unbelief is doing and start to say, "Me, too" there is always a whiff of brimstone in the air.

Once again, despite Paul warning us not to be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2), Christians are taking up noxious pagan idolatries and attempting to baptise them with a bit of the Bible.  Why?