A Hymn for Opening Day

April 3, 2017 By D. G. Hart

Before Watts and Wesley, Protestants pretty much sang only Psalms. During the 1750s members of the only Presbyterian congregation in New York City argued continually among themselves about whether they ought to replace their Scottish Psalter with Isaac Watts’ hymns. A century later other groups were still unsettled over the issue: Dutch immigrants in Holland, Michigan, separated themselves from the denomination they had joined because this group used a “collection of 800 hymns, introduced contrary to church order.” “We are... Read more

The Progressive West Supports Islam – Are You Sure?

March 30, 2017 By D. G. Hart

According to Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Brittany Pheiffer Noble, the Progressive West and the Christian West are locked in a civilizational struggle in which the Christian West is gaining an ally with Russian Christians (Orthodox Church). The common enemy for Christians is apparently Islam: “If we do not bind together as partners with others in other countries then this conflict is only going to metastasize,” said Steve Bannon in 2014. He was referring to a conflict he perceived between “Judeo-Christian values”... Read more

Advice for Russell Moore — Don’t Take Any from Sarah Posner

March 28, 2017 By D. G. Hart

In the ongoing effort by journalists to discredit President Trump (I actually think he has discredited himself but that is not something that disqualifies you from POTUS in the land of the free and the home to the most electoral college votes), Sarah Posner, a regular contributor at The Nation, Bloggingheads.tv.com, and Religion Dispatches, uses Russell Moore — get this — to discredit evangelicals who voted for Trump. This is part of her lead: Moore, a boyish-looking pastor from Mississippi,... Read more

If You Hate Living with the South, then Why Didn’t You Let Them Go?

March 24, 2017 By D. G. Hart

The ill will President Trump taps. Just when you thought that nationalism and Brexit and leaving the international liberal order were the province of the alt-Right, along comes a POTUS that winds up liberals and helps them find their separatist inner selves. Today’s specimen? Kevin Baker, a writer at the New Republic. He recently made the case for Blue States leaving the Union (sacred though it may be) that would have made John C. Calhoun proud: We give up. You... Read more

Some of Us Were Worried About America Before the Election (part 4)

March 17, 2017 By D. G. Hart

Christopher Lasch, a gifted intellectual historian, perhaps best remembered for supplying President Jimmy Carter with advice on his “national malaise” speech, way back in 1990 seemed to have his finger on the pulse of the average Americans who by 2016 would vote for Donald Trump. Lasch’s article for one of the first issues of First Things by no means prophesied J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. But it identified a basic antagonism between folks who believe in government solving things and... Read more

If You Have to Explain It, It’s Not Funny

March 16, 2017 By D. G. Hart

My favorite light bulb jokes are these: How many teamsters does it take to change a light bulb? Ten. You gotta problem with that? How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb? It’s not funny. The second came to mind after reading a couple posts about the video that’s gone viral with the academic conducting an interview at home and cameras show his children bursting into his office. Thankfully, Kristen Du Mez offered but did not endorse... Read more

If U.S. Survived Andrew Jackson dot dot dot

March 15, 2017 By D. G. Hart

Can’t U.S. survive Donald Trump? Tommie Kidd provides a reminder of the parallels between Jackson and Trump and quoted Daniel Walker Howe: Anyone with a classical education knew to regard such men as potential demagogues and tyrants; the word for the danger was “caesarism.” Jefferson delivered a straightforward opinion of Jackson’s presidential aspirations: “He is one of the most unfit men I know of for such a place.” In fact, no one liked Jackson for president except the voting public.... Read more

Is Tim Keller about to have His Rod Dreher Moment?

March 14, 2017 By D. G. Hart

Tim Keller, the PCA pastor of Redeemer Church in New York City, likely needs no introduction. Though he has his critics (myself among them), he is generally the darling of evangelical gate keepers, New Calvinists, and PCA church planters. His reputation is that of an apologist who persuades skeptical New Yorkers to give Christianity another chance. Add to that his inspirational exhortation for evangelicals to revitalize the city (read New York City — if Keller were talking about or ministering... Read more

Some of Us Were Worried About America Before the Election (part 3)

March 2, 2017 By D. G. Hart

The reason is that we were reading Wendell Berry (at least) thirty years ago: The fact is, however, that this is probably the most unhappy average citizen in the history of the world. He has not the power to provide himself with anything but money, and his money is inflating like a balloon and drifting away, subject to historical circumstances and the power of other people. From morning to night he does not touch anything that he has produced himself,... Read more

What if the NFL Were a Bigger Deal than Porn?

March 1, 2017 By D. G. Hart

I know the biblical counselors used to reduce most of the moral law to idolatry, but these days porn appears to be the gravest threat to all things holy and the people who try to be. What has yet to be proved (or considered is why violating the seventh commandment is any worse than breaking the fourth? Imagine writing about keeping Sundays holy like this: The second lie is that my porn work on Sundays only affects me anyway. Porn... Read more