Draper shared her story Monday with members of the Utah Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee, which voted unanimously to endorse a bill that would effectively decriminalize polygamy among consenting adults. She testified alongside the bill’s sponsor, Spanish Fork Republican . . . Continue reading →
Civil Life
The Corrosive Consequences Of Speech Codes
Here’s the column that got me fired from the Denver Post. I’ve been a regular columnist for the Denver Post since 2016. …Plain talk that doesn’t conform to the newspeak law of “use only the words mandated by the perpetually offended.” So, . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 137: How To Avoid The TheoRecon Tollbooth
Arguably Reformed theology has never been more popular among evangelicals than it is right now. There are multiple large parachurch movements that extol the virtues of Reformed theology in a way that was unknown thirty years ago. It has never been easier . . . Continue reading →
Dickson: Theonomy Is An Error
Quest. IV. Did the Lord by Moses give to the Jews, as a Body Politick, sundry Judicial Laws, which expired together with their state? Yes. Do they oblige any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require. No. Exod. 21. . . . Continue reading →
It Was The Anabaptist Karlstadt Not The Confessional Protestants Who Taught Theonomy
The [New Testament] does not introduce any new laws about the civil estate, but commands us to obey the existing laws, whether they were formulated by heathen or by others, and in this obedience to practice love. It was mad of Carlstadt . . . Continue reading →
Ursinus Opposed Theonomy And Taught Natural Law
To what extent has Christ abrogated the Law, and to what extent is it still in force? The ordinary and correct answer to this question is, that the ceremonial and judicial law, as given by Moses, has been abrogated in as far . . . Continue reading →
When The Culture War Trumps The Gospel
The German expression, Der Kulturkampf (The Culture War), originally referred to the attempt by Otto von Bismarck (1815–98), the German politician who created the modern, unified Germany, to suppress the Roman Catholic Church in Germany because he feared that Romanism in Germany . . . Continue reading →
Starkweather: Depravity, Dystopia, And The Death Penalty In The Heart Of America
On this date in 1959 the state of Nebraska executed the death sentence upon Charles Starkweather, an admitted, notorious spree killer and mass murderer. Certainly, when “Charlie” (as he was known) was captured after a shootout in Douglas, Wyoming there was little doubt and by the end of his trial it was certain that he had committed a shocking and brutal series of murders in and around what was then a sleepy college town and state capitol, Lincoln, Nebraska. The only real question that remained through the trial, which persists to this day, is whether Caril Ann Fugate, whose family Charlie murdered, accompanied him willingly during his spree, whether she cooperated in or even committed some of the murders, or whether she was a hostage (as she later claimed) and suffered from Stockholm Syndrome. Continue reading →
Does The Bible Teach Socialism?
With the rise of a young, avowedly socialist movement in the USA there is renewed interest in the history, nature, and prospect of Socialism. What is it? There are several definitions or several variants of Socialism. The Oxford Dictionary of English gives . . . Continue reading →
A Significant Potential Threat To American Religious Liberty
Remember The “Lemon Test”?
This change in Section 512(a)(7) taxes nonprofit organizations – including houses of worship – for the cost of parking and transit benefits provided to employees. This significant change in the treatment of charitable organizations will require many nonprofit organizations to file federal . . . Continue reading →
Sasse: A State Powerful Enough To Put A Baker Out Of Business Is Too Powerful
You don’t get to choose which parts of the First Amendment you like. Using the state to put someone out of business because they don’t share your beliefs is not what we do in America. A state powerful enough to tell bakers . . . Continue reading →
Of Calvin, Social Justice, And The Theology Of The Cross
Yesterday (August 13) was the 477th anniversary of a small but symbolic event in Reformation history. On that date in 1541 John Calvin returned to Geneva from Strasbourg, where he had been a happy exile for about three years. On his first . . . Continue reading →
Contra Papam: Capital Punishment Is Just
At the Diet of Worms (April, 1518) Luther famously said, “Popes and councils do err.” Anyone who knows just a little about the history of the church must agree with Luther. Popes and councils have directly and repeatedly contradicted themselves and each . . . Continue reading →
With Janet Mefferd On What Scripture Says About Private Property
The eighth and tenth commandments, “You shall not steal” (Ex 20:15) and “You shall not covet” (Ex 20:17) are basic to biblical ethics. They are part of the natural law that God revealed to Adam in the garden, known by image bearers . . . Continue reading →
Orwell On The Value Of Good Writing
Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original . . . Continue reading →
Confessions Of A Former Online Social Justice Warrior
Within the world created by the various apps I used, I got plenty of shares and retweets. But this masked how ineffective I had become outside, in the real world. The only causes I was actually contributing to were the causes of . . . Continue reading →
In 1776 It Was Not Just Firecrackers
…Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms . . . Continue reading →
When A Cake Is More Than A Cake
Erik Erickson makes a point this morning that I try to make to my Ancient Church students each year. Words mean things. Some words, spoken in some contexts, mean so much that Christians have been willing to die and have been murdered . . . Continue reading →
“The City Of Phoenix Seeks To Comandeer…Minds And Bodies”
Phoenix does not merely seek to make Joanna and Breanna a passive courier of its message, but seeks to commandeer their very minds and bodies to envision, design, create, and convey its message. It does this via § 18-4(B)(1)-(2), which prohibits places . . . Continue reading →
Eastman: “Masterpiece” Is A Big Win For Religious Liberty
Despite almost 30 years of Supreme Court case law emptying the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause of almost all substantive content (thanks largely to a 1990 decision by Justice Scalia called Employment Division v. Smith), the Supreme Court has now confirmed that . . . Continue reading →