Civil Life

Ben Is A Straight Shooter

by on January 6, 2014 | 14 Comments

We live in a time when telling the truth is not fashionable, when it’s considered a little gauche (unsophisticated, awkward) to speak the truth plainly. More than that it’s considered a little old-fashioned to talk about truth at all. As far as . . . Continue reading →

My Favorite Atheist Lesbian Author: A Case Study In Providence

by on December 30, 2013 | 9 Comments

I first encountered Camille Paglia in 1991, just after she had published the essay, “The Joy of Presbyterian Sex.” Blame Bob Godfrey. I was pastoring a church in Kansas City and happened to be visiting Escondido and stopped by Bob’s office. He . . . Continue reading →

A Cross And The Twofold Kingdom

by on December 27, 2013 | 5 Comments

The cross atop Mt Soledad, in LaJolla has been in place since 1954 but it has been the subject of controversy and continuous and tortuous legal wrangling since at least 1989, when two atheists and the “Society of Separationists” sued in federal court . . . Continue reading →

Money Could Be Other Than It Is

by on December 26, 2013

Available research does not support the view that the Federal Reserve System has lived up to its original promise. Early in its career, it presided over both the most severe inflation and the most severe (demand-induced) deflations in post-Civil War U.S. history. . . . Continue reading →

It’s Here Before They Announce It

by on December 10, 2013

It was not until the outbreak of war, on September 1, 1939, that the Nazi regime became openly totalitarian and openly criminal. —Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Penguin Books, repr. 1992), 68.

What The Nuns Once Did

by on December 8, 2013 | 1 Comment

This is so grotesque that they have probably concluded it is exceptional. On the contrary, thousands of British children are being snatched from their natural parents in secret each year, after totally unfair hearings against which it is almost impossible to appeal . . . Continue reading →

Scalia On The Lemon Test As Late-Night Ghoul

by on November 30, 2013

Like some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried, Lemon stalks our Establishment Clause jurisprudence once again, frightening the little children and school attorneys of Center Moriches . . . Continue reading →

Black Friday, Subjectivism, And Christian Liberty

by on November 29, 2013 | 9 Comments

On 24 November, the Roman Bishop, Francis, issued a document, Evangelium Gaudii which the Vatican classifies as an “Apostolic Exhortation.” It’s a book, a really long (217 pages) sermon. Rome is a complicated creature with seemingly endless categories offices, canons, decrees, laws, and . . . Continue reading →

The Irony Of The Coming Dark Age (Updated Again)

by on October 16, 2013 | 7 Comments

The old schoolbook story of the middle ages describes the entire period as the “dark ages.” Of course that’s rubbish. There was a period of chaos in the early medieval period but there were also periods of remarkable learning and the renewal . . . Continue reading →

Office Hours: The Law And The Bible

by on October 14, 2013

There’s no question whether Christ is Lord over every square inch. There are, however, many important and difficult questions to be discussed over how Christ exercises his Lordship over all things. Office Hours talks with David VanDrunen about his new book, The Law and the Bible, which . . . Continue reading →

Liberal Education, Religious Freedom, And Weak Arguments (Updated Again)

by on October 10, 2013 | 2 Comments

Originally Published October 8, 2013. Updates below. The University of South Florida is at the center of another debate about religious freedom (HT: David Murray). This time it involves a planned event at which Dr. Rosaria Butterfield, a former Lesbian, is to . . . Continue reading →

Does The State Illegitimately Control The Church?

by on August 26, 2013 | 26 Comments

It has recently been argued to me that, in the various states, because the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act(s), the Uniform Child Custody Justice Enforcement Act(s), and because most congregations (and denominations) have formed non-profit corporations (in the USA congregations usually become . . . Continue reading →

Private Property, Public Accommodation, And Religious Freedom

by on August 23, 2013 | 7 Comments

There are such things as unintended consequences and Americans are impatient with injustice. There were real, gross injustices being committed against an entire class of Americans that led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act that forbids restricting access to “public accommodations” on . . . Continue reading →