Why Evangelical Gender-Egalitarians are Statists

Last updated on: January 22, 2016 at 10:46 am By C. R. Wiley

An ethic is the inner structure of a polity. Sacramental Theology and Covenant Theology are largely resistant to the acids of egalitarian ideology. These theologies draw upon the polity of the traditional household for insight into the polity of salvation. For Sacramental Theology and Covenant Theology meaning is embedded in the nature of things and traditional household polity reflects heavenly realities. But for the egalitarians nature is as meaningless as Silly Putty and just as subject to the impress of... Read more

Are Humans Obsolete?

Last updated on: January 20, 2016 at 7:05 pm By C. R. Wiley

“Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” Orange Catholic Bible That quotation comes from a fictional sacred text found only in the imaginary universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune saga. But if things keep going the way they’re going, we may need that “Bible”. Dune is about a distant future, over ten thousand years from now. Man has gone off to colonize the galaxy, but on the way there has been a great social upheaval.... Read more

Life After the Welfare State

Last updated on: January 20, 2016 at 7:13 pm By C. R. Wiley

“This too shall pass.” The Sufi poets A few years back Francis Fukuyama published a book entitled, The End of History and the Last Man. The thesis is pretty simple. We have arrived at the end of our quest for the best possible political arrangement–liberal democracy. I’ve have my doubts. There are so many ways things can go wrong, among them, success. Success has many children, among them is hubris. And hubris kills his parents. Liberal democracy has given us the... Read more

Nominalism and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Last updated on: January 15, 2016 at 10:53 am By C. R. Wiley

I like antibiotics and air-conditioning, and I’d like to keep them. Many knowledgable people agree that we probably wouldn’t have either–or have many other worthwhile things–without Nominalism. I agree. When I first heard that Nominalism maybe the culprit behind the disenchantment of the world, it seemed right to finger it for blame. But when I heard secularists give credit to Occam’s razor for contributing to the rise of science as we know it, the last of my reservations fell away.... Read more

Upcoming Film Review: The Finest Hours–to be posted on 1/22

Last updated on: January 14, 2016 at 1:24 pm By C. R. Wiley

I’ve been invited to screen another film, Disney’s, The Finest Hours. Here’s the trailer– I’ll be screening it with the press in Boston on Thursday the 21st. I should have my review up the next day. It will be in theaters on January 29th. Read more

Is Evangelicalism a Secularizing Force?

Last updated on: December 2, 2017 at 7:18 pm By C. R. Wiley

11 Comments

I’ve thought long and hard about secularism and as I’ve done so I’ve come to wonder whether or not I am an unwitting agent of it. I’m not thinking about that hobby horse of preachers, “practical atheism”. According to that thumbscrew of guilt our moral failures justify unbelief. It’s because I don’t give to the poor, or recycle, or whatever-the-thing-is-that-I’m-supposed-to-do-according-to-the-preacher, that people don’t believe in God. I don’t really think I have that much power over what people believe. Instead... Read more

An Introduction to Productive Property

Last updated on: January 11, 2016 at 12:14 pm By C. R. Wiley

Most people classify themselves as middle-class. This is interesting for at least a couple of reasons. First, economists tell us the middle-class is shrinking. You’d never know that by the polls though. Admitting that you’ve dropped out of the middle-class is like admitting you have herpes. Conversely, confessing that you’ve risen out of it comes off as self-congratulatory, or even contemptuous toward those you’ve left behind. (That doesn’t mean you don’t congratulate yourself inwardly, or feel contempt for others, you... Read more

The Revenant Reviewed

Last updated on: January 14, 2016 at 1:25 pm By C. R. Wiley

“O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself!” Psalm 94:1 I know a man who abandoned his children in a house with no heat on a bitter January day. He didn’t speak to them for years. And when he did, he never apologized, he just explained. Today he insists that he has loved them all along, love being a warm feeling that fills his precious heart whenever he thinks of them. The Revenant is about a very different sort of... Read more

Splash page for a new comic of mine…

Last updated on: January 7, 2016 at 1:41 pm By C. R. Wiley

A splash page introduces a story. Here’s a the pencil for the splash…yet to be inked. Obviously, the lettering needs to be inserted too. Please click on it to enlarge. As the comic progresses (a slow process for me, I draw in my spare time), I’ll add more pages. You can follow the progress over on my “Comics and Illustrations” page. Here’s a link to the story the comic is based on–I wrote it a few years back. http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2013/05/sister-coulseys-furnace.html I’m... Read more

Robert Crumb’s Book of Genesis, Part 4 (and last, at last)

Last updated on: February 5, 2016 at 10:59 pm By C. R. Wiley

Does Robert Crumb hate you? I’ve used the word hate pretty liberally throughout my review. I’m not the first person to note that hate seems to animate Crumb’s work. Here’s an article to document that: http://observer.com/2015/10/robert-crumb-hates-you/ (Warning: adult language and themes!) At times Crumb is accused of misogyny, but what he’s really is a misanthrope. Women are actually some of his favorite people–he just hates them less than everybody else. (His own words, by the way.) I don’t take him too seriously,... Read more