I am certainly not in agreement with most of the Tea Party agenda–if there is one– but with this I agree. Lexington says, “in how many other countries would a powerful populist movement demand less government, rather than endlessly and expensively more? . . . If that is what the tea party movement is for, more power to its elbow.” {HT: Peter Leithart}
Ethics Anyone?
Carl Wernicke writes in the Pensacola News Journal:
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of today’s politics is how many voters seem willing to overlook ethical flaws if their favored candidate will simply say the right thing in staged TV commercials.
Whatever the political direction of Carl’s thinking, it is a fact that most voters still don’t mix religion (ethics) and politics (voting and policies).
The Last Person I’d Vote for…
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn specifically criticized presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich for twice leaving wives for other women. The Senator concludes:
His life indicates he does not have a commitment to the character traits necessary to be a great president.
Yes, and his policies are a failure, I might add.
Augustinian Project
Leithart writes that the church operates in an Eusebian mode giving “uncritical adulation to American Constantines (64).” What is the solution?
What the Church needs is a renewal of the Augustinian project. We need to disentangle the American story from the Christian story and to insist on the preeminence of the latter (64).”
Political Hypocrisy
In his chapter on Stealth Imperialism, Chalmers Johnson notes that many of the outspoken champions of reducing the federal budget are “profligate when it comes to funding arms industries in their localities (91).” He cites former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who added $2.5 billion to the “defense budget for more F-22s and C-130s, which even the air force did not want (or need), “only because they were partly manufactured in Georgia (91).” This type of hypocrisy is quite common in Washington.
Sojourners and Patriarchalism
Sojourners visited Grace Community Church and found out that a few random people (out of 10,000) did not have a well developed view of complementarianism. Sojourners, known for their loyalty to the evangelical branch of the Democratic Party has a problem with the traditional roles between husbands and wives. They argue that to reserve the role of a minister only to a man is a thing of the past and that we must re-read Paul’s words in the context of first-century culture. Now, there is a new thought! When one would think this type of infantile argumentation was gone here it is again re-surfacing under the Sojourners talented writers (or spy). Liberal “evangelicalism” is destined to failure. It misses the most foundational principles of the Scriptures. Surely, if you don’t know the Alphas, the Betas and Omegas have no hope.
Abortion and rape
The viciously liberal Huffington Post cannot fathom why Sharon Angle is so “doctrinaire” on her view of abortion. Sharon is one of those old consistent people who think abortion is wrong even in the case of rape and incest. “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” she says. Rare politician indeed.
Plato’s Dual Morality
In the first volume of Contra Mundum (1955) one of the authors refers to the dual morality of Plato who wrote in The Republic, Book III:
Then if anyone at all is to have the privilege of lying, the rulers of the State should be the persons; and they, in else should meddle with anything of the kind. . .their dealings either with enemies or their own citizens, may be allowed to lie for the public good. But nobody else should meddle with anything of the kind. . .
It looks like the modern state has mastered Plato.
Peter Lillback on Glenn Beck
When was the last time you heard Machen’s name on the national media?
Ann Coulter on Justice Stevens’ Sanity/Insanity
Two observations about retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens are about to become established fact by sheer repetition. The first — that Stevens is the last Protestant on the court — is not true in any meaningful sense. The second — that Stevens didn’t move left, the court moved right — is madness…Read the entire article.