The Rise of the Secular Clerisy

Misanthropic Distrust of Humanity

We have posted several pieces in recent months on the rise of ideological authoritarianism in the West, particularly in the Europe, Canada, the UK, and the United States.  Further in this vein we are going to reproduce an article written by Joel Kotkin, entitled "Watch What You Say, The New Liberal Power Elite Won’t Tolerate Dissent" that not only calls attention to this phenomenon in the United States, but identifies the nodes of its influence and power.  

We believe Christians, along with all citizens should be not just aware of these developments, but conscious of the implications for civil freedom, liberty, and the threats to the right of dissent.  One of the reasons Christians need to be aware is that common to all the nodes of influence of the new ideological authoritarianism is a disdain, if not outright hatred of the Christian faith, and a despising of Christians and the Church. 

Watch What You Say, The New Liberal Power Elite Won’t Tolerate Dissent

by Joel Kotkin 

06/07/2014 

New Geography

 

In ways not seen since at least the McCarthy era, Americans are finding themselves increasingly constrained by a rising class—what I call the progressive Clerisy—that accepts no dissent from its basic tenets. Like the First Estate in pre-revolutionary France, the Clerisy increasingly exercises its power to constrain dissenting views, whether on politics, social attitudes or science.

Letter From the UK (From Tolkien)

A Piece of Gandalf Magic

Lord of the Rings author's rediscovered message to fellow teacher talks about how frustrating he found the work

Alison Flood
Thursday 12 June 2014
The Guardian

JRR Tolkien, who famously wrote the first line of The Hobbit while marking exam papers, told a fellow teacher that "all teaching is exhausting and depressing" in a previously unknown letter which has just come to light.
The Lord of the Rings author wrote the letter on 17 January 1964 in response to Anne Mountfield, a newly qualified teacher who was working at Eltham Green School in London. Mountfield had written to Tolkien that her "rather restless" class had been spellbound when she read them The Hobbit. Tolkien typed her a reply, saying that the story of Bilbo Baggins's adventures "seems to go down well at school".

He then added a handwritten note to the bottom of the letter, telling Mountfield that "All teaching is exhausting, and depressing and one is seldom comforted by knowing when one has had some effect. I wish I could now tell some of mine (of long ago) how I remember them and things they said, though I was (only, as it appeared) looking out of the window or giggling at my neighbour".

Daily Devotional

June 13

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

This means you!

The trouble with this type of unhappy Christian is that he does not really believe the Scriptures. You say: "My trouble is that terrible sin which I have committed." Let me tell you in the Name of God that that is not your trouble. Your trouble is unbelief. You do not believe the Word of God. I am referring to the First Epistle of John and the first chapter where we read this: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That is a categorical statement.... There is no limit to it....

The Character of Faith

Mother Courage

Miss Pennsylvania USA’s remarkable mother

By Kevin D. Williamson

June 8, 2014 4:00 AM

National Review Online 

[When the debate over abortion is joined, those opposing it sometimes want a bit of wriggle room in cases where a baby has been conceived as a result of rape.  This amazing story reflects the courage of a person and an extended family who did not buy into that compromised narrative.  Rather, they trusted to God's providence and goodness toward them. Ed.]

Valerie Gatto does not want to talk about abortion. That’s probably prudent, inasmuch as she very much desires to be the next Miss USA, and contestants in that pageant are expected to have ruthlessly anodyne interests along the lines of reading children’s literature to blind dolphins. But she is admirably direct, even bracing, about the aspect of her life that intersects that troublesome issue: She was conceived when her mother, a teenager at the time, was attacked on the streets of Pittsburgh and raped at knifepoint.

Valerie Gatto (www.valeriegatto.com

Meditation on the Text of the Week

Children, Dogs, and Crumbs

For many years we have both loved and identified with the woman spoken of in Matthew 15: 21--28.  In the first place she was a rank outsider, a truly inferior person.  She was a woman, and Pharisaic Judaism stipulated that a man ought not to talk to a woman in public.  It was sinful and shameful.  Some rabbis even said this stricture must extend even to one's wife. 

Secondly, she was a Gentile--one of the hated ones.  But, this means nothing. we hear you say.  Our Lord did not care whether one was a Gentile or a Jew--He was without such carnal prejudices.  Did He not declare that He came to call the Gentiles; did He not bring salvation to the Samaritan woman at the well?  True, but in the Gospel of Matthew our Lord is constantly referring to the Gentiles as evil people, whose contemptible practices were to be avoided at all costs. (Matthew 6:7, 32, for example).

Jesus had withdrawn and taken His disciples north, towards the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon.  There they encountered this Canaanite woman, possibly of Philistine descent, a member of a cursed race and culture.

Letter From America (About the Closing Academic Mind)

The Closing of the Academic Mind

The Weekly Standard

May 5, 2014, Vol. 19, No. 32 •

By William Kristol

 

From Brandeis on the Atlantic to Azusa on the Pacific, an iron curtain has descended across academia. Behind that line lie all the classrooms of the ancient schools of America. Wesleyan, Brown, Princeton, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Berkeley, Bowdoin, and Stanford, all these famous colleges and the populations within them lie in what we must call the Liberal sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from the commissars of Liberal Orthodoxy. .  .  .

How can one resist the chance to echo Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech? Okay, it’s not a precise analogy. It’s true that liberalism isn’t communism. It’s true that today’s liberals deploy the wet blanket of conformity rather than the clenched fist of suppression. It’s true that communism crushed minds, while today’s liberalism is merely engaged in closing them. And it’s true that most of the denizens of our universities, unlike the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, embrace their commissars. But commissars they are.

Daily Devotional

June 11

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

Thou didst not spare Thine only Son,
But gav'st Him for a world undone,
And freely with that blessed One,
Thou givest all

A farmer one day went happily and with great joy in his heart to report to his wife and family that their best cow had given birth to twin calves, one red and one white. And he said, "You know I have suddenly had a feeling and impulse that we must dedicate one of these calves to the Lord. We will bring them up together, and when the time comes we will sell one and keep the proceeds, and we will sell the other and give the proceeds to the Lord's work." His wife asked him which he was going to dedicate to the Lord. "There is no need to bother about that now," he replied, "we will treat them both in the same way, and when the time comes we will do as I say." ... In a few months the man entered his kitchen looking very miserable and unhappy. When his wife asked him what was troubling him, he answered, "I have bad news to give you. The Lord's calf is dead." "But," she said, "you had not decided which was to be the Lord's calf." "Oh yes," he said; "I had always decided it was to be the white one, and it is the white one that has died. The Lord's calf is dead."

Devolutionary Progress

The Impossibility of Science

The world of science is in a parlous condition.  It is not a recent phenomenon.  However, its rotten fruits seem to appear more frequently.  Who would have thought that we would see "official science" sanctioned by actual governments along with the putative government of the United Nations--which "science" has then moved aggressively to silence criticism and debate.  It has also been caught withholding and fabricating data, and even argued that those who oppose should suffer imprisonment and other legal sanctions.  Yet this has become "normal" in the vast propaganda overreaches of climate science and its spurious hypothesis of man-caused global warming. 

Something is going on beneath the surface.  How could a scientific position cause such alarm that to oppose it or question its veracity would invite civil sanctions?  What kind of society would act in that way?  An increasingly primitive one.  Socrates was condemned to death for the heinous crime of corrupting the youth of Athens.  Was it because of his bi-sexuality?  No.  Was it due to his pederasty?  No.  It was due to his suggestion that the gods may be mythical, not real.  For this "corruption", he was condemned to a big sip of  hemlock.  The question is, Why has modern, official science become so corrupted that it more resembles the primitive ignorance of ancient Athens than a modern, advanced state? 

To answer the question we need to consider the philosophical and religious foundations of science.

Letter From the UK (About An Honour Killing)

Honour Killings

In case any thought that "honour killings" were some hyperbolic fantasy, consider the following:

Guilty Husband Wore Wife's Clothing After Murdering Her in 'Honour Killing'

By Nick Hallett  

6 Jun 2014

Breitbart London

A man walked away from a crime scene wearing his wife’s clothing after murdering her in a so-called ‘honour killing’. Ahmed Al-Khatib was caught on CCTV wearing Rania Alayed’s clothes to give the impression that she was still alive.

The Express reports that Syrian-born Al-Khatib lured his wife to his brother’s house in Salford, Greater Manchester and killed her because she had left him to become more “Westernised”. He claimed in court that he had killed her in self-defence during a row because he believed an evil spirit had entered her body.
However, he was yesterday found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of murdering his wife and of perverting the course of justice, and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

After the murder, he stuffed his wife’s remains into a suitcase before he and his brother drove the body 87 miles and buried it at the side of a lay-by on the A19 road in North Yorkshire. His wife’s body has never been found.

Daily Devotional

June 10

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

The fight of faith

These New Testament people had believed and had become Christian, and yet it was necessary for the Apostles Paul and Peter and John and others to write letters to them because they were in trouble in one way or another.  They were unhappy for various reasons, they were not enjoying the Christian life. Some were tempted to look back to the life out of which they had been saved; others were tempted severely, others per­secuted cruelly.

Thus the very existence of the New Testament Epistles shows us that unhappiness is a condition which does afflict Christian people. There is in this, therefore, a strange kind of comfort which is nevertheless very real. If anyone reading my words is in trouble, let me say this: The fact that you are unhappy or troubled is no indication that you are not a Christian; indeed, I would ... say that if you have never had any trouble in your Christian life I should very much doubt whether you are a Christian at all.... The whole of the New Testament and the history of the Church throughout the centuries bear eloquent testimony to the fact that this is a "fight of faith"; and not to have any troubles in your soul is, therefore, far from being a good sign.

The Last President

Lassitude and Emptiness

Normally the term "lame duck" in government refers to an elected official whose term has expired or who has lost an election, and he is awaiting the time when he is required to relinquish office.  Basically, nothing is done.  Everything goes on auto-pilot.  Folk twiddle their thumbs.  

The following article appeared in National Review Online, but it draws upon a piece published in Politico.  It documents, or argues, that President Obama, with over two years of his administration to go, has become the lamest of lame ducks.  It appears that Obama has simply lost interest in the job.  He came, he saw, and it wasn't what he expected.  Now he just wants to go home.

Maybe that's not such a bad thing.  An absentee President may allow folk to experience that less government is better government, as in "the government that governs least, governs best".  We suspect, however, that historians will eventually write up Obama as a tyro attempting to do an adult's job.  If nothing else, it's downright shameful.

Slovakian Fidelity

Great news 

Slovakia protects marriage through a constitutional amendment

Posted on June 4, 2014 

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

Turtle Bay and Beyond

Today, Slovak MPs from SMER (Social-Democrats) and KDH (Christian-Democrats) voted to define marriage as a ‘unique bond between a man and a woman’ in the Constitution. Ruling party SMER agreed to the demand of opposition party KDH in exchange of their support for a judicial reform.
The support for the amendment in the chamber was overwhelming: 102 parliamentarians voted in favour of the constitutional amendment, while 18 voted against.

The Constitution was amended to make attempts to re-define marriage  less likely in the future.

Daily Devotional

June 09

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah

Sin ... entered human life from the outside and it attacked even the Son of God. That I am forgiven is glorious, that I have a new nature is wonderful and still better. But still I am left to face this terrible power that is set over against me, and which strives ever to defeat me.... It has defeated the mightiest and the strongest. It has not hesitated to match its strength even with God Himself. Its subtlety and suggestions meet me every­where. Who am I to confront such a foe ? What is man at his best against such an antagonist ? . . . Man cannot, for all men have failed.... Is all hopeless?

Must we continue to strive and strive in vain? No! A David has appeared and smitten this Goliath; a Jonathan has routed the Philistines again. The Man has entered the lists and delivered the enemy a mortal wound from which he can never recover. . . .

Strange Bedfellows

The Rising Voice of Conscience

The Greens have come out with an abortion policy they want to float before the electorate. This from Stuff:

The Greens have ratified a policy on abortion, which would get rid of a process a certified consultant says is "perfectly workable".  Abortion is a crime under the Crimes Act, and is legal only if two consultants agree that the pregnancy would seriously harm the woman's physical or mental health, or that there is a substantial risk the child would be born seriously disabled.  The Greens want abortion removed from the crime statutes, saying it would reduce stigma and judgment surrounding the procedure. This would mean a woman seeking one would not need external approval.

Just what this policy platform has to do with environmental concerns is not immediately obvious--unless the sub-text is that Greens are typically anti-human, seeing mankind as the biggest threat to the environment on the planet.  More abortions means less human beings: ergo, it's good for the environment.

Thankfully, however, notwithstanding the Greens misanthropy,  the abortion tally in New Zealand is dropping.

Letter From the UK (About Smoking in Australia)

Plain Packaging Fails 

Cigarette Sales Rise in Australia

by Andre Walker  

6 Jun 2014

Breitbart London

Cigarette sales in Australia have increased since the introduction of plain packaging, according to the Australian. The increase has come from budget brands that are no longer identifiable as being cheaper due to their packaging.

Total sales in the first full year since the new packaging came in showed an overall increase of 59 million individual cigarettes across the country. This represents one of the few incidences of cigarette consumption increasing in a modern Westernised country. The increase of 0.3 percent reverses the downward trend of 15.6 percent in the previous four years.

Plain packaging was introduced in December 2012 and was hailed at the time by Labor Health Minister Nicola Roxon as the "world’s toughest anti-smoking laws". But the plan appears to have backfired as half of the increase in sales have come from the cheaper brands, suggesting that smokers merely switched brands and smoked more because they were cheaper.

Daily Devotional

June 07

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

Paul's way was copied from his Lord

Here was a man, with great powers, and obviously, as a natural man, fully aware of them. But in reading [Paul's] Epistles you will find that the fight he had to wage to the end of his life was the fight against pride. That is why he kept on using the word "boasting." Any man gifted with powers is generally aware of them; he knows he can do things, and Paul knew this. He has told us in that great third chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians about his confidence in the flesh. If it is a question of competition, he seems to say, he fears no one; and then he gives us a list of the things of which he can boast. But having once seen the risen Lord on the road to Damascus all that became "loss,"and this man, possessed of such tremendous powers, appeared in Corinth ... "in weakness and fear and much trembling." That is the position right through, and, as he goes on with the task of evangelism, he asks, "Who is sufficient for these things?" If any man had a right to feel "sufficient" it was Paul. Yet he felt insufficient because he was "poor in spirit."

Bad Taste

Failure Can Be the Better Outcome

Some things leave a long-lingering sour taste in the mouth.  Taste is variable, and not not everyone's senses react similarly.  As the  old saying has it, one man's meat is another man's poison.  So, we do not expect that our fastidious dislike of  New Zealand pouring out cash to support  America's Cup challenges and defences will be shared by everyone.

To be clear, we do not find it noisome when some large, successful corporates throw in millions upon millions of dollars to support campaigns or defences of this Rich Man's Sport.  A corporate will make commercial decisions about the cost-benefits of advertising and brand exposure.  Ultimately they will decide whether the benefits justify the costs.  Eventually corporates will face the scrutiny not only of their respective boards of directors, but also, ultimately, their shareholders.

Two items hit the news yesterday.  Firstly, the New Zealand America's Cup syndicate leader returned home to announce that time was running short and that unless substantial multi-million dollops of the green stuff were contributed in short order, Team New Zealand would be skewered.

Daily Devotional

June 06

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

The New Life in Christ

The Christian should know why he is a Christian. The Christ­ian is not a man who simply says that something marvelous has happened to him ... he is able and ready "to give a reason for the hope that is in him." If he cannot, he had better make sure of his position. The Christian knows why he is what he is, and where he stands. He has had doctrine presented to him, he has received the truth. This "form of sound teaching' has come to him. It came to his mind, and it must ever start with his mind. Truth comes to the mind and to the understanding enlightened by the Holy Spirit.

Then having seen the truth the Christian loves it. It moves his heart. He sees what he was, he sees the life he was living, and he hates it. If you see the truth about yourself as a slave of sin you will hate yourself. Then as you see the glorious truth about the love of Christ you will want it, you will desire it. So the heart is engaged. Truly to see the truth means that you are moved by it and that you love it. You cannot help it. If you see the truth clearly, you must feel it. Then that in turn leads to this, that your greatest desire will be to practice it and to live it.

That is Paul's whole argument. He says: Your talk about continuing in sin is unthinkable. If you only realized your unity with Christ, that you have been planted together in the likeness of His death and have therefore risen with Him, you could never speak like that. You cannot be joined to Christ and be one with Him, and at the same time ask 'shall we continue in sin ?' Does this great truth give me license to go on doing those things which formerly appealed to me? Of course not. It is inconceivable. A man who knows and believes that he is 'risen with Christ' will inevitably desire to walk in new­ness of life with Him.

Spiritual Depression, pp. 61-2

---

“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”

Propaganda Really Works--Sometimes

Smelling Dead Rodents

One of the signal attributes of the crusade by global warming apocalyptic warriors is its poor traction amongst the public.  It is not for want of trying.  The media in general have jumped into the pot and used their respective megaphones.  Politicians have trumpeted the fearful cause from bully pulpits.  Schools have frightened young pupils to death in the attempt to raise a new generation of eco-warriors.  But the public remains spectacularly unmoved.  Why?  Are we all suicidal lemmings? 

More likely the public is smarter than our so-called betters.  A recent piece in the Washington Post gave five key reasons why the public remains unconvinced, if not downright sceptical, about global warming propaganda.

FairTrade and Peasants

Surprise! Fairtrade Doesn't Benefit The Poor Peasants

Tim Worstall  

Contributor

Forbes

This will come as a surprise to those who have bought into the marketing malarkey about Fairtrade products and not as a surprise to any of those who have really looked at the issue. Which is that there doesn’t seem to be any great benefit in the system for the poor peasantry that it’s supposedly designed to help. In fact, it actually seems to make people worse off, not better off. This isn’t I hasten to add, the result of a study done by some hateful neoliberal like myself. No, this is the result from a four year long research program by the impeccably liberal (and veering over into Marxian third world nonsense at times) School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Their report is here and they’ve an article explaining matters here.

Daily Devotional

June 05

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

Beware of brief delight and lasting shame
It
 is no part of the gospel to denounce pleasure and enjoy­ment; in fact, the gospel offers a joy greater than anything else can give. But it is not content with testing by this one standard only. It desires to know the nature of the joys or the pleasures, whether it is good, whether it is true, and whether it is beautiful.... Men and women today do not like thought processes and discrimination. Like children, they desire to do what they like.... They therefore hate discipline and the facing of difficulty.

They object to the inconvenience of having to face the questions of truth, goodness, evil, and beauty. They do what they want to do, pleading the rightness of self-expression.

9/11 And The Culture of Death

Elijah's Mantle

In our self-absorbed, narcissistic Western culture there is a cardinal sin.  If any dare to transgress this One Great Commandment, he is instantly execrated and cast outside the city.  This OGC is the signature word of secular humanism: "Thou must never believe that God is judging us."   Sadly, oh so sadly, there are many in the Church today--weak and poorly taught believers--who subscribe to this OGC above all else.

We recall how the OGC suddenly burst forth from the hearts of the people with incandescent indignation when the earthquakes hit Christchurch, New Zealand.  Amidst all the mourning, weeping, and anger there was one proposition that was instantly condemned--even by churchmen.  The very idea that God might be judging New Zealand was shouted down in a chorus of horror.  At the time it took an Unbelieving left-wing public commentator, Chris Trotter to point out that whatever god people were appealing to when they said such things and intoned the OGC, it was not the God of the Scriptures, nor of the historical Christian faith.

That God is a holy, an awful (that is, awe inspiring) God, Who in His own words declares:  "You shall not bow down to them or serve [idols]; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." (Deuteronomy 5:9)  and "The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.' ” (Exodus 34:6,7) [Emphasis, ours]

But the OGC declaims this God to be non-existent.  The god of the people and of the state is a god who is little more than a simpering cheerleader for the vainglory of his makers--modern, secular men.  Funny, that.

Every so often a man of God stands forth to reflect the actual, biblical truth.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Hellfire and Damnation

Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

May 27, 2014

I want to begin by acknowledging that the metaphors of damnation that we find in Scripture are quite possibly not literal descriptions — where the worm does not die, where the fire is not quenched, where it is an outer darkness, where there is a lake of fire, and so on. But before assuming that I am quietly becoming a liberal, let me point something out about the nature of symbolic language.

The symbol is always less than the reality it represents. I am married, and I wear a ring to symbolize the fact. But the ring is less than the reality. The flag is less than the nation it represents. This means that if the language about Hell is literal — straight across — then it represents a horrible reality. But if the language is figurative, then let no one take comfort in the fact, because the comfort is as false as the other lies that can take a man to Hell. If the language is literal, then it is the stuff of nightmares. If the language is figurative, then it will be much worse than that.

One of the reasons we object to language about judgment is that we believe that it corrupts our motives for coming to Christ. We should love Christ, not fear Him. Right, but as sinners we are in no shape to love Him, and our sins require us to fear Him. Jesus does not reject the motive of fear, but rather encourages us to cultivate it. “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).

But we are in the grip of theological preciosity, and we are fastidious about hellfire.

Daily Devotional

June 04

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

Sheep without a shepherd

The Bible ... does not merely record history. It helps us to understand the meaning of history. It teaches certain principles very clearly. The first is that all things, even the evil powers, are under God's hand....

Nothing happens apart from God. "The Lord reigneth."... It is of vital importance that we should grasp the biblical doctrine of Providence. It can be defined as, "That continued exercise of the divine energy whereby the Creator upholds all His creatures, is operative in all that transpires in the world, and directs all things to their appointed end." ... In connection with this we have to remember God's permissive will. It is beyond our understanding, but it is clearly taught that He permits certain things to happen for His own purposes.

Another thing we see clearly here is that the whole position of the ungodly is precarious and dangerous. They are in "slippery places."All they have is but temporary.... Age and decay, death and judgment, are certain. The most terrible thing about sin is that it blinds men to the realization of this. They do not see that their pomp and glory is but for a season. . ..

The Odd Couple

Asininity and Contumacy

Here's a different take.  A geneticist, who is also an atheist, has argued that Christianity could well triumph over atheism.  Naturally, he employs both genetic arguments to develop the proposition.  This, from The  Telegraph:

Christianity will rise as sceptics die out, geneticist claims

Growth of Christianity in Africa coupled with population decline in Europe will trigger new resurgence of the religion, UCL academic claims 

The world could see a resurgence of Christianity driven by population decline in sceptical countries, the geneticist Steve Jones has claimed. Professor Jones said history had proven that religion grows rapidly during large population booms, particularly in poorer countries. He argued that rapid growth in Africa could spark a new resurgence of major religions like Christianity.

However in increasingly atheist countries in Europe people are no longer reproducing in sufficient numbers to avoid population decline, he told the Hay Literary Festival. “Britain is the only country in Europe that’s replacing its population,” said Prof Jones.

Might there be a causal connection between atheistic cultures and population decline?

Letter from the UK (About History's Greatest PR Disaster)

Climate Change: The Biggest PR Fail In History

By James Delingpole 

 20 May 2014

Breitbart London

Just three per cent of Americans consider "the environment" the most important problem, according to the latest Gallup poll. (In Britain, too, people appear to be decreasingly worried about climate change).

This surely represents, by some margin, the biggest PR fail in history.

It was once conservatively estimated (by blogger Richard North) that the cost of propping up the global warming industry since 1989 was equivalent in real terms to five Manhattan Projects. But that was back in 2010, since when spending on green boondoggles (eg the Obama 'stimulus') has risen exponentially, so we're likely looking at ten Manhattan Projects now.

A good chunk of that spending has, of course, gone towards "educating" the public.

This "education" takes many forms: from blatant propaganda, like the UK government's £6 million "drowning puppy" ad campaign, the Obama administration's recent Climate Assessment Report and the one released  by a group of compliant senior US military figures calling themselves CNA Military Advisory Board, to more subtle brainwashing ranging from school trips to wind farms and ice cream containers with pictures of wind farms on the side and oil company adverts illustrated with wind farms (to show they're not just "all about oil") to, well, pretty much everything these days from supermarket delivery vehicles boasting about how much biofuel they use to Greenpeace campaign ads involving polar bears to Roger Harrabin's reporting for the BBC to Showtime's Years Of Living Dangerously....

Truly, for nigh-on three decades now, there has been no escaping, anywhere, any time of day or night from the constant, bleeding-heart imprecations and blandishments of Big Green Brother.

Daily Devotional

June 03

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

The world is but a broken toy,>br>Its pleasure hollow—false its joy,
Unreal its loveliest hue  (W. S. Gilbert)

Our Lord is saying (Matthew 6:19) that worldly treasures do not last; that they are transitory, passing, ephemeral. "Change and decay in all around I see." "... where moth and rust doth corrupt'.

How true it is. There is an element of decay in all these things, whether we like it or not.... These things never fully satisfy. There is always something wrong with them; they always lack something. There is no person on earth who is fully satisfied; and though in a sense some may appear to have everything that they desire, still they want something else....

There is another way of looking at the effect of moth and rust spiritually. Not only is there an element of decay in these things; it is also true that we always tend to tire of them.... That is why we are always talking about new things and seeking them. Fashions change; and though we are very enthusiastic about certain things for a while, soon they no longer interest us as they did....

Decline and Fall . . .

Rome and the West

It has been argued that Western states have become vastly corrupt enterprises.  This allegation refers not in the first instance to the activities of criminal gangs, nor to the presence of crime to one degree or other. Rather, it addresses the nature of the state itself.  But even here the reference is not to isolated corrupt government ministers nor bureaucratic functionaries--though doubtless there are some.  As has been observed the fact that in some Western countries lifer politicians can enter office impecunious and depart multi-millionaires, wealthy way beyond the cumulative salary they have drawn from the public coffers over the years, suggests their office has been misused to their own pecuniary advantage.  But, once, again, most of these instances of corruption in the West are exceptions, not the rule. 

The endemic corruption in most Western states refers to the system itself.  The Western state has become a vast redistribution enterprise, wherein an increasing number of citizens not only benefit from, but owe their continued existence to, the doles and bribes of politicians. 

It is normal to regard a politician or his bureaucrats who sell favour or influence to this individual or that business enterprise (in exchange for favours) as corrupt. But Western democracies themselves have become corrupt, as politicians vie to gain the support of voters by promising doles, services, and favours--and voters sell their votes accordingly.

Letter From America (About A Servant of God)

What Tom Nettles Taught Me

Russell Moore

Tom Nettles retired last week as professor of historical theology at Southern Seminary, capping off a long and distinguished career. As I thought about his retirement, I reflected on what I’ve learned from this iconic Baptist historian, and it was hard to find a place to start.

I could start with how my life was changed by reading his book, Baptists and the Bible (co-authored with L. Russ Bush). The book demonstrated that a commitment to biblical inerrancy wasn’t what some said it was, a recent “modernist” innovation of the Princeton Presbyterians, but was deeply rooted in the Baptist tradition and, more importantly, in the Bible’s witness to itself. This book was the first I read on biblical authority that went beyond mere slogans, and it armed me to trust the Bible for the rest of my life.

I could start with what it was like to be on the other side of Tom Nettles’ questioning in a doctoral seminar room, or in a dissertation defense (he was on my doctoral committee). He wouldn’t tolerate a loose argument (even for a position he agreed with), and he certainly wouldn’t tolerate a split infinitive. The maddest I’ve ever seen him wasn’t when I questioned his view on the extent of the atonement, but rather when I suggested that split infinitives had evolved into acceptability.

Family Concerns

When the Bogeyman Comes

New Zealand has one of the silliest and most draconian anti-smacking laws on the planet.  It is opposed by over eighty percent of New Zealanders.  But our politicians know what's best for us, and the law remains on the statute books. 

The only saving grace is not in the law, but in the discretion exercised by the police in prosecuting proceedings under the law.  But this is not sure nor certain to continue.  All it will take is a future Jacobin prime minister to insist that the police apply the law rigorously, without minimal discretion.    A couple of notorious and terrible child abuse cases should prove sufficient grounds for the change in operational police policy.  The fact remains that under the present draconian law, any parent who smacks a child for disobedience commits a criminal offence. 

A notorious corollary of the legislation is that the state child welfare agency, CYFS has a policy of shooting first and asking questions afterwards.  Under no obligation to have a standard of proof that would required in a court of law, CYFS has operated in the past on a "where there's smoke, there's fire" policy. [See here,  here p.40]   Any hint of a parent smacking a child can result in the child or children being removed from the parents.  The struggle to get them back can be both herculean and devastating.