There’s a saying attributed to John Stott: “When Christ is Lord, nothing is secular.” Or try a slightly different phrase from Madeleine L’Engle: “There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.” In other words: Everything matters. Everything has spiritual significance when it is submitted to the Lordship of Christ. God cares for our estate. God cares so much that he became incarnate among us, shared in our... Read more
One of the gravest dangers of the Budget Control Act passed yesterday is that it could provide Americans with a false sense of security. Washington has finally taken action. The crisis has passed. The sky is brightening, the trees are parting before us and — we’re out of the woods. Right? Alas, but no. Not only are we deep in the dark heart of the forest, but we’re still walking in the wrong direction. The pace may have slowed, but... Read more
I apologize that things have been a little slow here over the past couple days. I’ve been involved in a project that will be unveiled shortly. I think many of you will enjoy it. Please check back tomorrow. I may be able to write a blog post tonight, but tomorrow morning at the very latest. Thanks for your patience. Read more
A pall hangs over America and her churches. There is a sense not merely that our economy has fallen into a slump, our political system has deteriorated, and our culture has lost its way, but that something essential to our national character has been lost and may never be recovered. A sense not only that the greatness and prosperity of America have dimmed, but that whatever produced them in the first place may be gone. As Peggy Noonan wrote not long... Read more
A first-rate essay at Philanthropy Daily reports on a book from New York Times reporter Gretchen Morgensen and housing finance expert Joshua Rosner, Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon. Although it comes with immaculate center-left credentials, it places the blame for the cratering of the housing market — and the great American financial collapse of 2008 — squarely on the ideology of structural racism and the way in which this was leveraged to justify... Read more
InterVarsity Press released the following: World-Renowned Evangelical Leader John Stott Dies Westmont, IL — John Stott, world-famous pastor, theologian, author of numerous bestselling books and Rector Emeritus of All Souls Church in London, died July 27, 2011. He was ninety. New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote (quoting Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center) that if evangelicals chose a pope, they would likely select John Stott. As a principal framer of the Lausanne Covenant (1974), a defining... Read more
Stephen Prothero writes at CNN that when ideas accomplish positive change, we speak of the power of ideas, but when ideas “do things we do not want them to do, as in Oslo,” then we pretend that ideas are powerless. The contention that Anders Behring Breivik’s actions “had nothing to do with his Christian faith or his anti-Islamic ideology” is, according to Prothero, “wishful thinking of the most dangerous sort.” I agree with Prothero that Christians should be mindful of... Read more
And now for something completely different. Let it be noted that we’ve published pieces (for example this interview with Rodney Stark) correcting misperceptions about the Crusades. Nonetheless, the following guest post was sent to me by Hillary the Adequate (no, it’s not me), and he is entitled to his perspective. Louis, Richard the Lionheart Welcome Renaming the Crusades as “Cru” (Paris, France) King Louis IX, celebrated throughout the western world for his murderous onslaughts in the Holy Land, has decreed... Read more
In the News 1. “New Polls Confirm Obama’s Democratic Base Crumbles.” Michael Warren comments. 2. Andrew Ferguson with a rather devastating portrait of Jon Huntsman. 3. Why are conservatives such a minority at so many graduate schools? 4. Rod Dreher with an excellent piece on Anders Breivik and his “Christianity,” which makes some similar points to my own article. In the Pews 1. Scot McKnight on “Labeling the Norwegian Killer.” I don’t disagree that the insanity of a mass-murderer typically... Read more
What do we do with the fact that Anders Behring Breivik — the perpetrator of a terrorist attack in downtown Oslo and the mass murder of children on the nearby island of Utoya — identifies himself as a Christian? How do we make sense of the fact that he refers three times in his “European Declaration of Independence” to the “Lord Jesus Christ”? 1. First, before we say anything else, absolutely the first response of every Christian without exception must be... Read more
Philosophical Fragments
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