An ideology isn't triumphant when one side holds to it. An ideology is triumphant when both sides hold to it. Both Donald Trump and his fiercest "woke" critics share exactly the same worldview: postmodernism.
An ideology isn't triumphant when one side holds to it. An ideology is triumphant when both sides hold to it. Both Donald Trump and his fiercest "woke" critics share exactly the same worldview: postmodernism.
One of President Biden's biggest priorities, he says, is uniting the country. What are the prospects of that happening? And how might that be done?
Joe Biden will be inaugurated into the presidency today. This will bring joy to many Americans and sorrow to others. But the doctrine of vocation teaches Christians how we can distinguish between the office and the person who holds it. Scripture enjoins us to honor and pray for those in high office, even though we may disagree with what they do.
Roman Catholics call the mother of Jesus "the Blessed Virgin Mary," and rightly so. Scripture calls her "blessed." But this is not the blessedness of the prosperity gospel but of the Beatitudes. And it grows out of her faith. So says the Swedish bishop and novelist Bo Giertz.
Some say the victory of political liberalism and the discrediting of evangelicalism may be accompanied by the revival of liberal Christianity. That makes sense, since mainline churches are, apart from universities, the most "woke" places in America. But I have my doubts.
An agency of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod was cancelled by Facebook, collateral damage in big tech's "deplatforming" movement that is shutting down free speech on the internet.
In Federalist No. 10, James Madison anticipates and addresses issues and problems we are having to deal with today: polarization, conflicting ideologies, political involvement of religion, diversity. And his insights have application also to smaller questions, such as whether a president can pardon himself.
Plato's calls democracy "a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike." Although we would reject his preference for rule by experts, Plato does note problems with democracy and with its cultural impact that we still struggle with 2,400 years later.
We have been hearing about how the problems of 2020 and 2021 endanger democracy. Are democracy, freedom, and constitutional government in jeopardy? I think they are. But the reasons go deeper than the Capitol riot, which is a symptom of larger breakdowns. Also, what would a non-democratic America look like?
Mob action undermines freedom and democracy both in the breakdown of social order and by provoking an authoritarian response. Both Plato and the American founders wrote about how anarchy brings about tyranny. We are already seeing that dynamic in the aftermath of the Capitol riots.
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