“[My father] was trying to cover my three-year-old nephew with his body. They took the child and shot a bullet in his head.” This is the fate of Christians in Iraq. This testimony does not come from these latest days when the last Christians in the millennial community of Mosul are being driven out. It comes from 2010. This is not new. At the time, Christians of the Levant and organizations supporting them in France organized a protest. I took... Read more

  Speaking of consequentialism, exposing me to this article arguing that Reformed Christianity provides the “best basis” for Christianity at our putatively-coming time of exile from polite society in the post-Modern world is like letting a cat loose among a bunch of mice. Because, come on. I will restrain myself to making one very narrow point regarding liturgy, because the following passage is emblematic of the thinking on liturgy from many Reformed/Evangelical sources that I have seen over and over... Read more

Some stray thoughts on consequentialism. Usual caveats apply: I’m thinking out loud, not making any rigorous, systematic argument; none of this is original; etc. If you see a dead-obvious objection to anything I’ve written, please presume that I am aware of it and have either implicitly dismissed it or decided not to talk about it. Everybody’s a consequentialist; nobody’s a consequentialist. At the level of not only everyday discourse but, I believe, deep moral intuition, everybody’s a consequentialist and nobody’s... Read more

Have you read that meme about how a study “showed” that people would rather receive electric shocks than sit alone for 15 minutes and think? (I would warn caution about taking the study at face value, leaving it there given that I have neither the time nor the inclination to go dissect the study’s methodology myself.) But, as is the blogger’s malady, we’ll talk about it anyway because it’s fun. The Week‘s Damon Linker gives a good overview and flags... Read more

  When will we finally clean house? The Archdiosese of St Paul and Minneapolis is embroiled in a clerical sex abuse scandal. What seems to be particularly worrying here is that, as Rod Dreher relates, one of the bishops involved actually had a reputation for “cleaning house” when it comes to sexual abuse, and there are now credible allegations that the opposite was true. Regardless of the allegations in this specific case, one has to ask the structural questions. Damon... Read more

As I write these lines, one of the most ancient Christian communities in the world is earning the glory of persecution for the sake of the Kingdom. In the middle of dinner with orthodox Jewish friends yesterday I received a text message from my wife warning me for our personal safety after (later confirmed) reports that rioters were attacking kosher stores and restaurants in the heart of Paris, a latest in the unbearable drumbeat of anti-Semitic violence now shaking my... Read more

  Yes, I’m late to the party. The New Atheist thing seems to be moribund at the moment, although the half-corpse sometimes twitches. But that may paradoxically make this book more valuable. I think I will not be alone if I state that the debates around New Atheism are extremely tiresome, because the New Atheists are not so much giving the wrong answers or even asking the wrong questions but not even understanding the questions. I bought Atheist Delusions basically... Read more

“In the magnificent cathedral, the Honorable and Right Reverend, the elect favorite of the fashionable world, appears before an elect company and preaches with emotion upon the text he himself choose: ‘God hath chosen the base things of the world, and the things that are despised.’  And nobody laughs.” – Soren Kierkegaard Here we go again. Pope Francis gave another interview. A bunch of people are unhappy that the Pope gives interviews, particularly conservative Catholics. But here’s a few points I would like to make. First, there... Read more