Saul Alinsky's rule for radicals #5 is "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." Today it has become a staple for the right as well as the left. Ridicule, as well as manufacturing outrage, now dominates our political rhetoric. According to the ancients, satire promotes morality by ridiculing vice. But the Bible warns against certain kinds of mockery.
A great deal of scholarship ties the Scandinavian combination of free market capitalism with a generous welfare state to the Nordic countries' Lutheran heritage. Luther's doctrine of vocation focused on work as a means to love and serve your neighbors, whereas Calvin's focused on acquiring wealth and aggrandizing the self. Other Lutheran social teachings had a formative role. But today this "secular Lutheranism" falls short.
The Nordic political and economic system is sometimes called "Lutheran socialism." But, despite what American progressives are saying, it isn't really socialism. The Nordic countries are actually more free market-oriented than the United States. The combination of capitalism and generous social benefits might better be called "Lutheran capitalism."
Lutheran political scientist James R. Rogers criticizes National Conservatism in terms of Luther's doctrine of the Three Estates. The movement's "Statement of Principles," he says, "looks to the nation and other worldly institutions to provide the type of solidarity only the Church can provide, and aspirations only the Church can realize."
Republicans hope to unite their party, appeal to voters, and sweep to victory in the midterm elections with the help of a document entitled "The Republican Commitment to America." What do you think about this platform? Do you think it will work as intended? Discuss.
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell has said that he is going to get tough on inflation, raising interest rates even though that might mean "pain" in unemployment and recession. What he didn't say is that he and his institution played a big part in making the mess that he is now trying to clean up.
The Faith and Media Initiative has conducted a massive study of how religious different countries are and how the media in the various nations of the world cover religion. It discloses some surprises about particular countries and uncovers a theme common to both religious and less-religious nations: journalists just don't know how to cover religion, even though their publics want them to. Read more
The new "State of Theology" study shows that large percentages of evangelicals are heretics, universalists, and humanists. They do, however, tend to be conservative when it comes to moral and culture war issues. Theological illiteracy, though, is spiritually dangerous.
September 22 marked the 231st anniversary of the birth of Michael Faraday (1791-1867), the British scientist whose discoveries and inventions involving electricity gave birth to much of the technology we enjoy today. Not only was Faraday a Christian, he was a fundamentalist, in the strictest meaning of that word. Read more
Both Christian nationalists and their critics who are calling for a Christian empire are integralists, believing that the church should exercise political authority. Luther's doctrine of the Two Kingdoms opposes them both.
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