In the classical Christian church we hear much about our identity in Christ. We also have a host of other identities or roles: parent or child in a family; worker in or owner of an organization; a particular church, denomination, […]
Christianity
Merry Christmas [All Three of Them]
C.S. Lewis, in an essay called “What Christmas Means to Me,” declared that there are three Christmases that are celebrated simultaneously: the incarnation of God the Son in the person of Jesus Christ, the merrymaking around the solstice, and the […]
Don’t Blame the Boomers for Everything
Here I affirm that most of the serious structural changes in society associated with the Baby Boomer generation were, in fact, set in place by people far older. The Boomers, however, certainly took advantage of them! And we, on the […]
Christianity and Science: Two Poles of a Biblical World View
In C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock, in the essay “Miracles” we read this: The experience of a miracle in fact requires two conditions. First, we must believe in a normal stability of Nature, which means we must recognize […]
The Real Significance of the Tithe
The tithe has been a matter of controversy in Jewish and Christian circles, I assume, since it was first promulgated. [Islam, instead of 10% of income, proposes a contribution of 2.5% of one’s wealth per year.] Early in my Christian […]
Which Western Civilization? We’re on our Third One.
These days many people are trying to defend ‘Western Civilization’. Yet, at the moment, Western Civilization seems to be moving into Version 3.0, and the form it will take is not fully clear. So what, actually, are they trying to […]
Romans 14 and the Political Divisions of the Church
We live in a time when the classical Protestant church [and, less openly, the Catholics and Orthodox] is often divided over political issues – especially over the character of the current President of the United States. We have Trumpite churches […]
The Sin of Entitlement
Early in my Christian life I was struck by a fascinating quote in C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letter #21. On the sin of peevishness, he wrote, Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And […]
What Christian Reconstruction Gave Me
As everyone who investigates me online knows, in my 30s I was a Christian Reconstructionist. Part of the appeal of that to younger people in that era was the specific blueprints for society and personal action that seemed to fill […]
More on Manners and Customs
Some more issues on the issue of Manners and Customs. The issue of enforcement. Disobedience to Manners is enforced, let it be said, by discrimination and exclusion. Sometimes the person is explicitly told why he is excluded; sometimes he is […]