The Reason Many Despise Tolkien's Work

Faux Protests and Outrage

We have been recently working through Matthew Dickerson's A Hobbit Journey (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press/Baker Publishing, 2012).  Dickerson has a PhD from Cornell and teaches at Middlebury College in Vermont.  In A Hobbit Journey, he attempts an exposition of Tolkien's world-and-life view as it emerges in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

At one point he takes up the issue of why Tolkien is loathed by many of the high priests and prophets of our secularist age. He argues that it is due in significant part to Tolkien's notions of objective morality and moral responsibility.  He explains:

Objective morality--or what some people call "moral absolutes"--is a definition of good and evil that is real and true for every person (and every culture), regardless of whether that person (or culture) happens to believe it to be true. [Dickerson, op cit., p. 127.]

Tolkien's mindset believes in objective morality and moral absolutes.  The modern world does not.  Therefore, for many amongst the chattering classes and the Commentariat, much of his corpus appears odd, at best, childish,simplistic, and superstitious at worst.  His is the shawl of the Grand Anachronism.

Dickerson employs an illustration to explain the contrast between Tolkien's philosophic and religious principles and those of the modern age.

Consider a computer virus.  No matter how inconvenient or destructive it is, a computer virus is just an impersonal collection of computer code composed of bits (zeros and ones) on a computer.  A virus has no will of its own and cannot be considered evil or immoral. . . .

Now suppose that a person who commits a heinous crime is only acting as he or she is programmed to do, as a materialist world view states is the case. . . . Then by no means can that person be evil; only the programmer of that person can be evil.  In this case, however, the programmer is believed to be a blind, impersonal force.  In short, where there is no choice at all, there can be no moral (or immoral) choice.  In a merely material world, we may at worst consider another person's actions as inconvenient to us; we cannot call them "evil" or "immoral."  Or, if we do, then we are really only calling "immoral" the universe itself . . . . I any case, the word immoral has no meaning in this context. [Ibid., p. 128.]

Does this sound familiar?  It is everywhere around us.

Another Lone-Wolf Attack

Progress

A gunman with a Kalashnikov rifle and knives has been taken down and arrested by French authorities.  The high speed train was running from Amsterdam to Paris.

A gunman has shot and wounded three people on a high-speed train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris before being overpowered by passengers and arrested by police. The shooting happened at around 6pm as the Thalys train was travelling near Arras in northern France, the French state rail company SNCF said. French media said the gunman had shot a Kalashnikov on board the train, and was also armed with knives. The local paper La Voix du Nord reported that two US marines on the train had overpowered the man. The paper reported that the marines had intervened when the man was loading heavy ammunition in a toilet on the train. Both marines were reported to have been injured, one by gunfire, the other by a knife.[The Guardian]

The way this sort of thing normally plays out is that the authorities remain agnostic and non-committal on the reasons, motivation, and causes of the attack, particularly if there is just one person involved.

But a blow-by-blow account in The Telegraph appears to show that this mould has been broken--at least on this occasion:

Daily Devotional

What the Resurrection Means

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

John Piper

The meaning of the resurrection is that God is for us. He aims to close ranks with us. He aims to overcome all our sense of abandonment and alienation.

The resurrection of Jesus is God’s declaration to Israel and to the world that we cannot work our way to glory but that he intends to do the impossible to get us there.

The resurrection is the promise of God that all who trust Jesus will be the beneficiaries of God’s power to lead us in paths of righteousness and through the valley of death.

Therefore, believing in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead is much more than accepting a fact. It means being confident that God is for you, that he has closed ranks with you, that he is transforming your life, and that he will save you for eternal joy.

Believing in the resurrection means trusting in all the promises of life and hope and righteousness for which it stands.

It means being so confident of God’s power and love that no fear of worldly loss or greed for worldly gain will lure us to disobey his will.

That’s the difference between Satan and the saints. O, might God circumcise our hearts to love him and to rest in the resurrection of his Son.

Turning of the Tide

An Open Letter to Israel

The editors at ContraCelsum have no particular connection to the nation of Israel.  We do not see the existence of Israel as any representing any particular fulfillment of biblical prophecy, although the existence of Israel as a modern state surely falls under the decrees of God's providence.  But His purposes for His ancient people will be fulfilled whether Israel continues to exist as a nation, or not.

To say this begs a question.  Will Israel survive as a nation state?  We are not used to states going out of existence, but of course it has happened many times in human history.  It is highly likely, for example, that the state of Iraq might cease to exist.  Syria similarly.  If Israel were to cease to exist, why ought that to surprise us--as if such a thing had never happened before?  After all there are plenty of voices, some near at Israel's hand, calling for the annihilation of that nation and its expunging from human history.

Perhaps most significantly, Israel's strongest supporter (in a geo-political sense) has been the United States.  Yet under Barack Obama that support has not just waned: it has turned into near official hostility, with the President recently engaging in rhetoric that if any other Western state were to utter in an official, or semi-official capacity, would be deemed anti-semitic.

War Counsels

Got No Secrets to Conceal

Douglas Wilson

Blog&Mablog

 

We are not that far into the Planned Parenthood calamity, but I think we are far enough into it to ask the secularists how they like being on the wrong side of history. And as Dylan once put it in Like a Rolling Stone, “you got no secrets to conceal. How does it feel?”

It has been a few days since I have been able to post on this, and there have been many developments, so it is time for a brief tactical round-up. Remember how crucial pursuit is as a principle of war. We don’t want to win “this round,” we want to win the fight. And that means pursuit.

Millions severed . . .

1. There will be a national protest at PP clinics all over the country. The web site for that protest is here.  Check it out and see if there is a protest near you, or if there should be.

2. At these protests, or in conversations with friends and coworkers, the question may come up: “What are you trying to accomplish? What do you want?” Divide the answer in two. “First, ultimately, we want to end human abortion.”

But what are the intermediate goals? Suppose someone from the media asks you that. What do you say? My friend John Stoos offers these three suggestions. “We want, first, someone from the White House to watch the videos. Second, we want a congressional investigation into the apparent illegal activities of Planned Parenthood. And third, we want the U.S. Senate to vote to defund Planned Parenthood.”

Daily Devotional

Cheered by David's Experience

"The sweet psalmist of Israel."
2 Samuel 23:1

Charles H. Spurgeon

Among all the saints whose lives are recorded in Holy Writ, David possesses an experience of the most striking, varied, and instructive character. In his history we meet with trials and temptations not to be discovered, as a whole, in other saints of ancient times, and hence he is all the more suggestive a type of our Lord.

David knew the trials of all ranks and conditions of men. Kings have their troubles, and David wore a crown: the peasant has his cares, and David handled a shepherd's crook: the wanderer has many hardships, and David abode in the caves of Engedi: the captain has his difficulties, and David found the sons of Zeruiah too hard for him. The psalmist was also tried in his friends, his counsellor Ahithophel forsook him, "He that eateth bread with me, hath lifted up his heel against me." His worst foes were they of his own household: his children were his greatest affliction. The temptations of poverty and wealth, of honour and reproach, of health and weakness, all tried their power upon him. He had temptations from without to disturb his peace, and from within to mar his joy. David no sooner escaped from one trial than he fell into another; no sooner emerged from one season of despondency and alarm, than he was again brought into the lowest depths, and all God's waves and billows rolled over him.

It is probably from this cause that David's psalms are so universally the delight of experienced Christians. Whatever our frame of mind, whether ecstasy or depression, David has exactly described our emotions. He was an able master of the human heart, because he had been tutored in the best of all schools--the school of heart-felt, personal experience. As we are instructed in the same school, as we grow matured in grace and in years, we increasingly appreciate David's psalms, and find them to be "green pastures." My soul, let David's experience cheer and counsel thee this day.

Corrections and Returns to Sanity

Roiling Dairy Industry

In Australia, the mining industry is in crisis.  Well, no, not really.  It's in a cyclical downturn which has been seen so often, it's boring.  Anyone who thinks that industries do not cycle up and down has blinkered himself to centuries of data.

Every year ten pupil (that's fourth form, folks) learns that markets--where goods and services are bought and sold--are subject to supply and demand.  If the supply increases, prices will fall as demand becomes satiated, and tails off.  That "economic law" cannot be broken.  Often raw commodities face this market reality more than other goods.  There is very little "value add" possible in raw commodities--not without substantial investment in processing and manufacturing--which often only serves to makes the proposition even more risky.

In New Zealand, we are facing the same market reality now in dairy.  Milk prices have slumped.  There is an over-supply of milk on the world market.  Too many cows, too many litres of milk being produced. The result is falling milk prices.  In time this will correct as marginal producers go out of business, unable to make profits in a low-price environment.  Supply will fall.  Prices will stabilise then begin to rise again.  It is brutal.  There are many sad cases down at the farmgate to come to light.  But it is the real world.

John Rys-Davies On Song

‘We Have Lost Our Moral Compass’

‘Lord of the Rings’ Actor Blasts Political Correctness

BreitbartLondon

by Daniel Nussbaum

Lord of the Rings actor John Rhys-Davies decried Islamic terrorism and political correctness in an interview with podcast king Adam Carolla Monday night.

The actor, who played the dwarf Gimli in the three Rings movies, joined Carolla on the latest episode of his podcast to blast Western politicians for failing to say or do anything to combat the rising tide of Islamic terrorism and the political correctness that enables it.

“There is an extraordinary silence in the West,” Rhys-Davies told Carolla. “Basically, Christianity in the Middle East and in Africa is being wiped out – I mean not just ideologically but physically, and people are being enslaved and killed because they are Christians. And your country and my country (Wales) are doing nothing about it.”

Daily Devotional

Not to Us . . .

"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name."
Psalm 29:2

Charles H. Spurgeon

God's glory is the result of his nature and acts. He is glorious in his character, for there is such a store of everything that is holy, and good, and lovely in God, that he must be glorious. The actions which flow from his character are also glorious; but while he intends that they should manifest to his creatures his goodness, and mercy, and justice, he is equally concerned that the glory associated with them should be given only to himself.

Nor is there aught in ourselves in which we may glory; for who maketh us to differ from another? And what have we that we did not receive from the God of all grace? Then how careful ought we to be to walk humbly before the Lord! The moment we glorify ourselves, since there is room for one glory only in the universe, we set ourselves up as rivals to the Most High.

Shall the insect of an hour glorify itself against the sun which warmed it into life? Shall the potsherd exalt itself above the man who fashioned it upon the wheel? Shall the dust of the desert strive with the whirlwind? Or the drops of the ocean struggle with the tempest? Give unto the Lord, all ye righteous, give unto the Lord glory and strength; give unto him the honour that is due unto his name. Yet it is, perhaps, one of the hardest struggles of the Christian life to learn this sentence--"Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory." It is a lesson which God is ever teaching us, and teaching us sometimes by most painful discipline.

Let a Christian begin to boast, "I can do all things," without adding "through Christ which strengtheneth me," and before long he will have to groan, "I can do nothing," and bemoan himself in the dust. When we do anything for the Lord, and he is pleased to accept of our doings, let us lay our crown at his feet, and exclaim, "Not I, but the grace of God which was with me!"

Slinking Out the Back Door

Rising Envy

These days the Commentariat and the chattering classes don't talk so much about poverty.  They focus upon economic inequality.  Rising inequality.  (It's always rising.)  This is a classic case of misdirection.  It is also another indication of the intellectual dishonesty of many and legerdemain that passes for truth.

We see this kind of vacuous nonsense every day:

More than 300,000 Kiwi kids now in relative poverty

 The number of Kiwi children in relative poverty has jumped over 300,000 for the first time since 2010 - but it's because of record inequality, despite falling absolute hardship.  The Ministry of Social Development's annual household incomes report shows that the numbers below a European standard measure of absolute hardship, based on measures such as not having a warm home or two pairs of shoes, fell from 165,000 in 2013 to 145,000 (8 per cent of all children) last year, the lowest number since 2007.

Children in benefit-dependent families also dwindled from a recent peak of 235,000 (22 per cent) in 2011, and 202,000 (19 per cent) in 2013, to just 180,000 (17 per cent) last year - the lowest proportion of children living on benefits since the late 1980s.  But inequality worsened because average incomes for working families increased much faster at high and middle-income levels than for lower-paid workers.

The net result was that the number of children living in households earning below 60 per cent of the median income after housing costs jumped from a five-year low of 260,000 in 2013 to 305,000 last year, the highest since a peak of 315,000 at the worst point of the global financial crisis in 2010.  [NZ Herald]

Consider a model society that consists of ten households.  One household lives in squalor: it is dirty, and unkempt.  Its occupants are usually sick.  No-body works, except one who spends his days begging the other nine households for food.  Another household lives in comparative luxury.   The earnings and net worth of this household increased by two hundred percent in the last twelve months.  The remaining eight households experienced no change over the same period.  According to the egalitarians, this society has just got worse (more evil and unjust), because inequality has increased.

Most morally clear-sighted people would think it a good development if at least one household greatly increased their net worth.  But the egalitarians regard it as an evil outcome, unless every other household increased commensurately.

There are two philosophical and religious axioms underlying the cult of economic equality.

The Devil's Wind

Christians Used as ‘Form of Currency’ by ISIS as Mass Kidnappings Continue

Mary Chastain
Breitbart News

Christians in the Middle East still live in fear as the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) remains unchallenged in Iraq and Syria. Christian organizations are attempting to help Christians, but for many, it is too late.

“Christians have become a form [of] currency in this tragedy,” explained John Newton, spokesman for Aid to the Church in Need, to the Christian Post. “I know of one priest who was kidnapped for two months… they asked for a ransom of $120,000, which the family managed to raise and deliver… But hours later, the priest was killed and his body cut up, with pieces of him sent in a box to the family.”

Newton said it is hard for his charity and the others to keep track of the kidnapped priests. Militants kidnapped archbishops throughout 2013 as they tried to rescue two other kidnapped priests.  “No one knows who took the archbishops, nor what their fate was, but the two priests they were trying to free have since been executed,” said Newton.

Daily Devotional

What We Were Made For

Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18)

John Piper

The gospel is the enjoyment of fellowship with God himself. This is made explicit here in 1 Peter 3:18 in the phrase “that he might bring us to God.
”
All the other gifts of the gospel exist to make this one possible.

• We are forgiven so that our guilt does not keep us away from God.
• We are justified so that our condemnation does not keep us away from God.
• We are given eternal life now, with new bodies in the resurrection, so that we have the capacities for enjoying God to the fullest.

Test your heart. Why do you want forgiveness? Why do you want to be justified? Why do you want eternal life? Is the decisive answer: "because I want to enjoy God"?  The gospel-love God gives is ultimately the gift of himself. This is what we were made for. This is what we lost in our sin. This is what Christ came to restore.

“In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

The Inevitable Fruits of Government-Worship

Naked Ugly Truth

Baal is cracking and tottering before our eyes.  But devotion to government as the saviour and redeemer of the world remains as strong as ever.  In fact, the more Baal crumbles, the more frenetic and desperate the people become.

Every day in New Zealand we are assailed by prayers, pleas, and cries to the Gummint to "do something" to solve the crises d'jour.  On the other hand, we see at every hand, indications that statism is a bankrupt and failing religion.

Here is today's smorgasbord.

Firstly, the cyclical price of dairy milk continues to--well--cycle.  Currently it is going downwards.  The opposition pollies are crying and lamenting and cutting themselves.  The government has to "do something".  Apparently, since the State is our deity, it ought to start acting like one.  [NZ Herald]

Secondly, a growing number of children are coming to school, ready to kill. 

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

7 Questions for Those Who Support Planned Parenthood . . .

Douglas Wilson

Blog&Mablog

Let me get this straight.

1. You are the group that wants drivers working for FedEx and UPS to be unknowingly carrying around boxes with baby parts in them, babies who were killed for the sake of those parts, AND you want to be the enlightened, progressive group?

2. You are the party that wants lab workers to dump baby parts into pie plates, in order to sort through them carefully looking for the valuable bits, AND you want to be the liberals?

3. You are the faction who wants to keep us from showing mothers an ultrasound of their child, [in order to persuade them] to keep that child alive, and you want to prevent those same mothers from seeing how you use the ultrasound (to avoid damaging the product), AND you want to be known as the ones in favor of the free flow of information?

Daily Devotional

The Trap of Tacit Social Consent

On temptation

C. S. Lewis

This was the first thing Mark had been asked to do which he himself, before he did it, clearly knew to be criminal. But the moment of his consent almost escaped his notice; certainly, there was no struggle, no sense of turning a corner. There may have been a time in the world’s history when such moments fully revealed their gravity, with witches prophesying on a blasted heath or visible Rubicons to be crossed. But, for him, it all slipped past in a chatter of laughter, of that intimate laughter between fellow professionals, which of all earthly powers is strongest to make men do very bad things before they are yet, individually, very bad men.
From That Hideous Strength
Compiled in Words to Live By

That Hideous Strength. Copyright © 1945 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All right reserved under international and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Imperial Power Meets the Human Soul

Stale and Crumbling

Empires are expensive entities. The bigger the Empire, the more the faces of the poor are ground into the dust. But as anthropologist Clifford Geertz pointed out, human culture is dense, rich, and exceedingly multi-layered. The problem with all imperial ambitions and achievements is that they can never encompass the richness and complexity of human ingenuity, creativity, or reason.

The intrinsic imperial instinct is to restrict, control, suppress, outlaw, forbid, and subdue.  But in every human heart lurks a nascent revolution against the arbitrary edict.  In every human heart lies a self-respect, an amour-propre, which sees right through the empty vanity of the emperor and his imperial edits.  The empire can only be maintained if it keeps control of everything--which is impossible.  Therefore, the more empires grow, the more impossible they are to maintain.  Generally, empires crumble and collapse from within, crushed under the millstone of their rules and ever burgeoning edicts and rules, on the one hand, and forever being undermined by the subtle complexities of subjects, on the other.

When dictators and emperors emerge, one option in dealing with them is to give them enough rope so they hang themselves.  The very complexity of human beings ensures that, given enough rope, it will inevitably happen.  Blame the wondrous complexity of the created human soul.  Nations and empires which eschew freedom and seek, instead, to command and rule by fiat over subjects, will inevitably collapse from the centre.  The very multi-layered complexity of human beings ensures it.

If one would like a modern example, take the latter-day Soviet Union, Mark II.

The Tolerance Buzzsaw

"Shut Up, Bigot!": The Intolerance of Tolerance

by  Ben R. Crenshaw
Public Discourse/Witherspoon Institute

America is in the midst of a raging national debate on issues surrounding sexuality and gender. If you dare to suggest that gender is determined by sex and is immutable, that same-sex sex acts are immoral, or that marriage is a permanent, exclusive union of husband and wife, then you will be called an intolerant bigot, hater, and homophobe.

Where does the charge of bigotry come from? Is it just a passing fad, a political and social tool for power and control, or do its roots go deeper?

Bigotry is defined as “intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself.” Notice that bigotry is not intolerance toward the opinions or beliefs of persons other than yourself, but intolerance of the other person. Bigotry is not simply disagreeing with what someone else believes; it is an unwillingness to tolerate or accept the person who holds those beliefs.

A little reflection on this definition will reveal that the vast majority of bigotry accusations populating the internet and in public discourse are not legitimate ones. On the contrary, they are the consequence of a mistaken view of tolerance that is itself a product of a warped postmodern epistemology.

Daily Devotional

The Hand of The Divine King

"The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice."
Psalm 97:1

Charles H. Spurgeon

Causes for disquietude there are none so long as this blessed sentence is true. On earth the Lord's power as readily controls the rage of the wicked as the rage of the sea; his love as easily refreshes the poor with mercy as the earth with showers. Majesty gleams in flashes of fire amid the tempest's horrors, and the glory of the Lord is seen in its grandeur in the fall of empires, and the crash of thrones. In all our conflicts and tribulations, we may behold the hand of the divine King.

"God is God; he sees and hears
All our troubles, all our tears.
Soul, forget not, 'mid thy pains,
God o'er all forever reigns."

In hell, evil spirits own, with misery, his undoubted supremacy. When permitted to roam abroad, it is with a chain at their heel; the bit is in the mouth of behemoth, and the hook in the jaws of leviathan. Death's darts are under the Lord's lock, and the grave's prisons have divine power as their warder. The terrible vengeance of the Judge of all the earth makes fiends cower down and tremble, even as dogs in the kennel fear the hunter's whip.

"Fear not death, nor Satan's thrusts,
God defends who in him trusts;
Soul, remember, in thy pains,
God o'er all forever reigns."

In heaven none doubt the sovereignty of the King Eternal, but all fall on their faces to do him homage. Angels are his courtiers, the redeemed his favourites, and all delight to serve him day and night. May we soon reach the city of the great King!

"For this life's long night of sadness
He will give us peace and gladness.
Soul, remember, in thy pains,
God o'er all forever reigns."

Roots and Origins

The Power and the Glory

The questions, Who are we, and where did we come from? are always pertinent.  The most potent cultures are those which have a long lineage faithfully recorded, analysed, critiqued, and learned.  In this sense the most potent is the Christian culture because of the length of our lineage and the rigour with which it has been recorded, passed down, and reflected upon.  Not that there is no room for improvement in this regard, but the reality abides that the Christian faith is a historical religion, steeped in history, genealogies, kingdoms, and records--which Christians are expected to know and meditate upon perpetually.

We refer, of course, not just to the post-Ascension era, but to human history from the Creation and Fall onwards up to the present.  In this sense the Christian faith is unique.  We regard Noah and Abraham as our forbears, our fathers.  Moses is our great redeemer, a faithful forerunner of the incarnate Divine redeemer.  David is our king, a lesser messiah before his greater Son.  We are citizens of the restored Davidic Kingdom (as Christ is David's greatest son, and the kingdom has been given to Him, Revelation 22:16).  These references are not mere images or metaphors.  They are historical, literal, and prophetic realities.

The modern secularist culture knows little of these realities.

More Planned Parenthood Whistleblowing

Human Capital – Episode 2: Inside the Planned Parenthood Supply Site

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 12–The second episode in a new documentary web series highlights a young woman’s eyewitness narrative of the daily practice of fetal body parts harvesting in Planned Parenthood abortion clinics, describing tissue procurement workers’ coordination with abortion providers, the pressure placed on patients, and disregard for patient consent.





The “Human Capital” documentary web series, produced by The Center for Medical Progress, integrates expert interviews, eyewitness accounts, and real-life undercover interactions to explore various themes connected to Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted fetal tissue. Episode 1, “Planned Parenthood’s Black Market in Baby Parts,” premiered last month. Episode 2, “Inside the Planned Parenthood Supply Site,” launches today at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABzFZM73o8M

Daily Devotional

The End of the Gospel

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:9-11)

John Piper

What do we need to be saved from? Verse 9 states it clearly: the wrath of God. But is that the highest, best, fullest, most satisfying prize of the gospel?

No. Verse 10 says "much more . . . shall we be saved by his life." Then verse 11 takes it to the end when it says, “more than that, we also rejoice in God.”  That is the final and highest good of the good news. There is not another “more than that” after that. There is only Paul’s saying how we got there, “through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

The end of the gospel is “we rejoice in God.” The highest, fullest, deepest, sweetest good of the gospel is God himself, enjoyed by his redeemed people.  God in Christ became the price (Romans 5:6–8), and God in Christ became the prize (Romans 5:11).
The gospel is the good news that God bought for us the everlasting enjoyment of God.

The Future of "Homosexual Marriage"

Arguments and Reasoning That Prove Far Too Much

When homosexual "marriage" became legally recognised there were tears of joy.  At last true love would be acknowledged and respected.  Christians and others were not amused.  They prophesied that before long the state would be recognising all sorts of relationships as marriage--thereby making the institution eventually empty of significance, meaning, and power.

Nah.  Don't be stupid, crowed the foolish and naive.  Slippery slope arguments lack logical force.

But there are a couple of little devils in this particular slippery slope that give it both logical force and societal potency.  In the case of homosexual "marriage" there have been been two suppressed premises driving the argument.  The first is that "true love" cannot be denied.  In the end, marriage in this view is the willful union of people.  Therefore, whatever may be the object of love, by virtue of its being loved, it justifies--nay demands--that society recognise the existence of a marriage, and provide legal sanction and recognition of it.  If it does not, it fails to recognise the human rights of the "true lover".

The second assumption is that marriage, like all existence, is evolving, developing and changing.  Therefore, we must expect, look for, and co-operate with the constant flux of existence in the way we recognise marriage (and all things for that matter.)

Yup.  The Christians were right.  Within just a few weeks of homosexual "marriage" being recognised by the Supreme Court of the United States, we read the following in Slate:

Redemption in Action

‘Jewish Schindler’ Saves Dozens of Yazidis and Christians from Islamic State

by Donna Rachel Edmunds 

Breitbart London

A Canadian Jewish businessman has spearheaded efforts to rescue Iraqi Yazidi and Christian girls from slavery after the girls were captured by ISIS troops, using money donated privately by business contacts. The businessman has cited Oskar Schindler, who rescued Jewish children from the holocaust, as his inspiration.

Last summer the world looked on in horror as ISIS swept through north Iraq, home to Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, and Yazidis. Hundreds of thousands fled before them, but thousands more starved to death in the desert, or were captured by Islamic forces. Girls in particular were bartered for in the markets, standing naked while men bought them as sex slaves.

But while most of the west turned off their TV sets, Canadian entrepreneur Steve Maman decided to take positive action. Making contacts in Iraq who could negotiate the release of the girls, Mr Maman raised thousands of Canadian dollars to finance a rescue operation, The Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq (CYCI).

Daily Devotional

The End of the Gospel

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:9-11)

John Piper

What do we need to be saved from? Verse 9 states it clearly: the wrath of God. But is that the highest, best, fullest, most satisfying prize of the gospel?  No. Verse 10 says "much more . . . shall we be saved by his life." Then verse 11 takes it to the end when it says, “more than that, we also rejoice in God.”

That is the final and highest good of the good news. There is not another “more than that” after that. There is only Paul’s saying how we got there, “through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”  The end of the gospel is “we rejoice in God.” The highest, fullest, deepest, sweetest good of the gospel is God himself, enjoyed by his redeemed people.

God in Christ became the price (Romans 5:6–8), and God in Christ became the prize (Romans 5:11).  The gospel is the good news that God bought for us the everlasting enjoyment of God.

Cyber Bullying Laws--Satisfying No-one

Wanting It Both Ways

Choices, choices.  Too much choice.  One of our local bloggers, writing at Kiwiblog has blessed us all with his insight into the disputation over the recent NZ legislation restricting online communications.  The intent of the law is to proscribe cyber bullying.

David Farrar writes:

The Act stated digital communications “should not denigrate an individual by reason of his or her colour, race, ethnic or national origins, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.”

You can’t choose your colour.
You can’t choose your race.
You can’t choose your ethnic or national origin.
You can’t choose your gender.
You can’t choose your sexual orientation.
You can’t chose whether to be disabled.
But you do choose your religion.
Religion seems the odd one out to me.

The argument Farrar is running rests on the proposition that one should not be ridiculed nor mocked nor otherwise denigrated for matters over which one has no choice or control.  But if you choose to do or be someone, then the law should permit denigrating free speech over your choices.

We are not sure that the "Farrar principle" can withstand critical scrutiny.  But even so, his list has unfounded, contradictory, and tendentious assertions.  Let's have a look at some of them.

The Political Circus

Cleaning the Clock's Face

Jonah Goldberg, writing in National Review Online,  was opining on the recent Republican presidential aspirants' debate(s).  He reckoned the Carly Fioria cleaned up--and then dealt with one of the most left-fawning suppliant broadcasters in the United States today.  Said Jonah:

Her interview with Chris Matthews was one of the best examples of a conservative eating a liberal’s lunch since Andrew Breitbart commandeered Anthony Weiner’s press-conference podium.

We have not seen that sort of command, control, and genuine conviction in a long, long time. 

Daily Devotional

No Tame Lion

TO EDWARD LOFSTROM: On what Lewis attempted in the Chronicles of Narnia; on the character of the man Jesus—his tenderness, ferocity, and even humor; and on the need to do one’s duty while having patience with God.

C. S. Lewis

16 January 1959

1. I am afraid I don’t know the answer to your question about books of Christian instruction for children. Most of those I have seen—but I haven’t seen many—seem to me namby-pamby and ‘sissie’ and calculated to nauseate any child worth his salt. Of course I have tried to do what I can for children—in a mythical and fantastic form by my seven ‘Narnian’ fairy tales. They work well with some children but not with others. Sorry this looks like salesman- ship: but honestly if I knew anything else I’d mention it.

2. Of course. ‘Gentle Jesus’, my elbow! The most striking thing about Our Lord is the union of great ferocity with extreme tenderness. (Remember Pascal? ‘I do not admire the extreme of one virtue unless you show me at the same time the extreme of the opposite virtue. One shows one’s greatness not by being at an extremity but by being simultaneously at two extremities and filling all the space between.’)

Add to this that He is also a supreme ironist, dialectician, and (occasionally) humourist. So go on! You are on the right track now: getting to the real Man behind all the plaster dolls that have been substituted for Him. This is the appearance in Human form of the God who made the Tiger and the Lamb, the avalanche and the rose. He’ll frighten and puzzle you: but the real Christ can be loved and admired as the doll can’t.

3. ‘For him who is haunted by the smell of invisible roses the cure is work’ (MacDonald). If we feel we have talents that don’t find expression in our ordinary duties and recreations, I think we must just go on doing the ordinary things as well as we can. If God wants to use these suspected talents, He will: in His own time and way. At all costs one must keep clear of all the witchdoctors and their patent cures—as you say yourself.

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III
Compiled in Yours, Jack
The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Dangerous Waters

Offence in the Eye of the Claimant

Politics, they say, makes strange bedfellows.  And so it has proven to be once again.  We find ourselves in the unusual situation of agreeing with the NZ Humanist Society.  The issue is the suppression of  free speech in a recently passed law designed to punish "cyber-bullying".

According to the NZ Herald,

The Act stated digital communications "should not denigrate an individual by reason of his or her colour, race, ethnic or national origins, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability."  Mr Honeychurch (of the Humanist Society) said the law would effectively impose some of the world's strictest penalties - including fines of up to $50,000 - on people found guilty of blaspheming, or insulting religion.

It appears that New Zealand is fast following the UK and, if so, it will inevitably mean the persecution of religious believers.  Once again, the offence is in the eye of the hearer or reader.  If they choose to "feel offended" or "emotionally distressed" the speaker is guilty. 

 The Humanist Society said some human rights organisations took a dim view of the new law for allowing people to bring proceedings if they alleged a digital communication denigrated their religion or caused them to "suffer serious emotional distress".

There is a world of difference between one's religion being denigrated, criticised, abused, spat at--on the one hand--and suffering emotional distress as a result, on the other.

What Does the Bible Really Teach About . . .

Book Review

Douglas Wilson

Blog&Mablog


What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? by Kevin DeYoung
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Listened to this book on audio. Very careful, very thoughtful, DeYoung does a masterful job walking through the Bible’s teaching on the subject of homosexuality. Really well done. If I had to muster a complaint, it would be that he is sometimes too courteous to his opponents, and gives them the benefit of the doubt (with regard to motivations) where perhaps a good deal less ought to be given, but he doesn’t flinch anywhere in outlining what the actual teaching of the Bible is.

There are many believers who are dealing with the ramifications of same sex behavior in their families and extended circles and this book would be an indispensable place for them to get oriented. Wonderful introduction to this subject.

Daily Devotional

Christ Is Our All In All

"Christ, who is our life."
Colossians 3:4

Charles H. Spurgeon

Paul's marvellously rich expression indicates, that Christ is the source of our life. "You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." That same voice which brought Lazarus out of the tomb raised us to newness of life. He is now the substance of our spiritual life.

It is by his life that we live; he is in us, the hope of glory, the spring of our actions, the central thought which moves every other thought. Christ is the sustenance of our life. What can the Christian feed upon but Jesus' flesh and blood? "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die." O wayworn pilgrims in this wilderness of sin, you never get a morsel to satisfy the hunger of your spirits, except ye find it in him! Christ is the solace of our life. All our true joys come from him; and in times of trouble, his presence is our consolation.

There is nothing worth living for but him; and his lovingkindness is better than life! Christ is the object of our life. As speeds the ship towards the port, so hastes the believer towards the haven of his Saviour's bosom. As flies the arrow to its goal, so flies the Christian towards the perfecting of his fellowship with Christ Jesus. As the soldier fights for his captain, and is crowned in his captain's victory, so the believer contends for Christ, and gets his triumph out of the triumphs of his Master. "For him to live is Christ." Christ is the exemplar of our life.

Where there is the same life within, there will, there must be, to a great extent, the same developments without; and if we live in near fellowship with the Lord Jesus we shall grow like him. We shall set him before us as our Divine copy, and we shall seek to tread in his footsteps, until he shall become the crown of our life in glory. Oh! how safe, how honoured, how happy is the Christian, since Christ is our life!