I recently read that government is cracking down on finch fighting.It is good to see that our government is ending this plague.The office was originally delegated to stop French fighting, but had no work since Joan of Arc was burned.John . . . . Continue Reading »
Let us assume that liberty is: “every man doing what is right in his own eyes.”If that is liberty, then liberty is not an absolute good for a Biblical Christian.Let us try a more careful notion of liberty instead: “the power in any agent to do or forbear any particular action, . . . . Continue Reading »
The Bible is a most valuable book . . . being without error and all.It is not, however, an exhaustive text on every single thing a human must know or even should know. It does contain all you need to know for salvation, but will, perhaps, let you down if you attempt to use it to answer the question: . . . . Continue Reading »
Let me commend to our readers the work of noted Christian apologist John Locke on the topic of liberty and happiness. His recent work on human understanding is, perhaps, wrong on innate ideas, but attempts a consistent description of human capacity in a Biblical framework.Who knows if his comments . . . . Continue Reading »
If you oppose a government program, someone will suggest that you “hate” the people on the receiving end of the government largesse.Surely, however, it is a simple minded error to assume that if the government does not help someone then nobody will do so? Isn’t it more dubious to . . . . Continue Reading »
James Scott ( Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (The Institution for Social and Policy St) ) suggests that “legibility” is a central problem of politics. ”The premodern state,” he writes, “was, in many crucial . . . . Continue Reading »
Milbank again, summarizing Hegel’s critique of Fichte’s political views: “In a political world where anything can be made of anything, the only common standard is protection of the finite ego, which, according to Fichte, must extend not only to the prohibition of deliberate crimes . . . . Continue Reading »
At the beginning of Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ (Challenges in Contemporary Theology) , William Cavanaugh challenges the distinction between state and civil society that is inherent in much Christian thinking about politics. The two are . . . . Continue Reading »
While the top 20 for each list is pending to post sometime on Friday, The Telegraph UK is publishing its Top 100 list of US Conservatives, and also of Liberals.The list is interesting as it is an outsider’s perspective on the state of US politics — and I’m a fan of people who try . . . . Continue Reading »
John Mark Reynolds’ response has helped me to clarify where I think he and I are disagreeing on the torture question.JMR defends his view based on his argument that torture is worse than killing. Of course, I can easily concede that torture can be worse than killing. But I can’t . . . . Continue Reading »
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