Restoring society by going to Church

October 21, 2016 By Gene Veith

In the course of a review of R. R. Reno’s Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society, Texas A&M professor James R. Rogers (an LCMS Lutheran) observes that most people on every side assume that going to church is a private activity. Christians are urged to go outside the walls of their churches to change society.

But it’s within the walls of churches that God works and society is changed. Dr. Rogers quotes St. Ignatius of Antioch:

Take heed to meet together frequently for thanksgiving [eucharis] to God and for his glory. For when you meet together frequently, the powers of Satan are cast down, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith.

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The strongman syndrome

December 22, 2015 By Gene Veith

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Russian president Vladimir Putin has been praising Donald Trump, who has been returning the favor. When it was brought up that Putin has a habit of killing his critics, Trump said that our country also does a lot of killing. (See details after the jump.)

It isn’t just that the two have a mutual admiration society going. David Ignatius says that Trump is America’s Putin.

I think what we are seeing is the strongman syndrome. Democracies, by their nature, make for weak central governments and so have trouble “getting things done.” So when things get bad, at some point, the very people who constitute the democracy, turn to a “strongman” to solve their problems, even though he will also do away with their rights.

This happened with the Greek democracy and the Roman Republic. It happened when the French revolution turned to Napoleon and when the Russian revolution turned to Stalin. It happened again after the fall of Communism, when the Russian people turned away from the messy democracy they had been trying in favor of the authoritarian Putin. It happens regularly in Latin America. Isn’t this what is happening in this country with the popularity of Donald Trump? (more…)

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Donald Trump and the Führerprinzip

August 20, 2015 By Gene Veith

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A strong leader will rise up to solve all of our problems by sheer force of his will. We easily succumb to that kind of promise in businesses and even in churches. And even in national governments. This trust in an all-powerful leader is called Führerprinzip. Yes, it was refined in Nazi Germany, but it has manifested itself ever since in popular movements that hand over power to a dictator. But also in kinder and gentler forms of authoritarians and in a particular kind of political superstition that puts the person of the leader over any particular policies, ideologies, Constitutional processes, or limits on government.

The leader that people are looking to today is Donald Trump. Is he that kind of leader? Jeffrey Tucker is arguing that “Trumpism” is a revival of fascism. Not the insult that the left freely throws around, but an actual return of the political and economic ideology that was rampant in the 1930s, not just in Germany, Italy, and Spain but with advocates in virtually every European nation. (I’ve written about what those fascists believed. There is more to it than Mr. Tucker gives here, but it’s true that fascism is not just a shorthand term for evil, but an actual thing, which did not disappear with the end of World War II.)

Another article applies the Führerprinzip in another, though related way, arguing that Donald Trump is America’s Vladimir Putin (who has also been described as a Russian fascist). See excerpts from the Fascism and Putin arguments after the jump. Do you think Trump rises to the level of that kind of leader? Those of you who like Trump, how would you defend him from these charges? (more…)

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The jihadists’ “Mein Kampf”

October 2, 2014 By Gene Veith

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Foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius draws attention to a book published in 2004 that reads like a playbook of radical jihadists. The Management of Savagery by Abu Bakr Naji calls for a strategy of drawing America into paralyzing wars and using shocking violence as a way to expose the weakness of the West and to bring Muslims into the cause. (more…)

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Reformational Catholicism

November 12, 2013 By Gene Veith

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Calvinist theologian Peter Leithhart is calling for “The End of Protestantism.” It should be replaced, he says, by “Reformational Catholicism,” which he goes on to describe. Much of what he is calling for sounds like Lutheranism. Is it? His essay and questions from me after the jump. (more…)

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Al-Qaeda 2.0

February 5, 2013 By Gene Veith

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Al-Qaeda is back. And, according to David Ignatius, the new version is going to be even harder to battle, particularly since our former Arab allies in the war on terrorism have now been taken over by Islamists. He uses the metaphor of a metastasizing cancer:

The Obama administration is working with its allies to frame a strategy to combat what might be called “al-Qaeda 2.0” — an evolving, morphing terrorist threat that lacks a coherent center but is causing growing trouble in chaotic, poorly governed areas such as Libya, Yemen, Syria and Mali.

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