Tivo is the greatest invention in the history of Civilization. Really. Though some old fashioned types would argue for fire (big down side in dry areas), the wheel (anyone seen the price of gas?), or the printing press (like, you can’t be serious!), I will stick with Tivo. What else allows one to binge on classic television without paying!

My wife and I finished the X-files lately and now have turned to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is a show that is clever and well written even if it does jump the shark with a vengeance in a dream episode (following the destruction of the Initiative) that makes Bobby in the shower look like Shakespeare. (Memo to television executives: dream episodes are danger.)

However, the larksome group of Scoobies is almost entirely amoral. Most episodes contain a wearisome load of Clinton era sermonizing . . . and clumsy attempts to make us believe that utter promiscuity can be survived by a group of young adults with no moral center. Let’s face it John Chrysostom, Calvin, heck even Luther (not to mention Plato!) would find this all pretty repulsive. After all Aristophanes was funny while convincing folk that killing philosophers was just good fun.

What if the point of life is not to have fun? What if watching things that support bad ideas is, well, bad? Is the time spent watching Buffy, which now is not even cool, time well spent? What good is it? How is it helping my soul?

What if human flourishing requires being utterly and totally out of it?

Maybe Tivo is not so great after all.

I can hear my students groaning. Isn’t this legalism? Haven’t we just escaped fundamentalism and aren’t you trying to return us to it by some back door?

No. It is simply Aristotle and every other reasonable person who ever lived. The problems with fundamentalism were not in the area of holiness, but in picking battles. If I am without love, then my not smoking will not cover up for it . . . a lesson modern liberalism is just now dealing with here in California where liberals are now smoke free and as cranky as a church lady at a pool hall.

Many of my friends think the biggest problem facing the church is post-modernism. I wish I thought that were true. French philosophers who make no sense without their jargon (the French don’t care what they think as long as nobody else can understand it.) are not much of a threat to modern Americans. Let’s face it, most of us cannot pronounce Foucault without laughing let alone take him seriously as the provider of an all-encompassing worldview. We are more apt to say “Whatever�? than “hegemonic discourse�? when someone tries to get us down.

My students (and yes, their professors!) struggle with the simple desire to live for pleasure. Now I am all for that if by pleasure we mean true human flourishing. I want to be happy . . . really, really happy. Sadly, I have discovered that living my life to be happy in the short term pretty much guarantees I will not be (happy) and does mean that I will be rotten. The worst news is that no product or change of attitude can change the damage I do to be soul if I live for short-term pleasure. Drive your car caring only about today’s destination and you will be getting a new car on the morrow. Run your life caring only about today’s happiness and you will want to trade in for a new life and no Clarence will be able to convince you that yours has been a wonderful life.

Every generation of lightly read adults has a new reason for their simple hedonism. Skinner helped their parents, now post-modernism helps today’s students. They don’t understand the ideas, but they have some vague sense that if they say, “What is truth anyway?�? that grownups will nod knowingly and let them have another beer.

Nothing new in that. Alcibiades had his sophists. Beau Brummel his Enlightenment. Benedict Arnold his justifications. Elvis had the worry about the bomb. We have Foucault.

But while we watch Buffy and ingest her hapless ways somebody should remind us that: love flees the promiscuous, souls get damaged by sin and are hard (if not impossible) to repair, and time wasted cannot be regained.

We have to find our function, what humans are meant to do and do that. Which seems simple enough until you remember that humans are the only reasoning animals of which we are aware . . . Mr. Ed, PETA, NFL sideline reporters not with standing. We are designed to think and thinking requires giving up some good for others. It also requires giving up behavior that takes away the time we need to meditate, pray, dialogue, and read.

Which brings me to Hugh Hewitt’s recent question. Should we be watching MTV? Of course somebody must just to find out what new hedonistic sewer is now recommended living space for modern young adults. If you are running the metaphysical hospital than you will have to go there. Or you might be trying to change the culture of pop music and create actual art and so need to know what the competition is up to. I suppose, though it hard to imagine what would have happened to young Mozart in the modern studio system. He hardly survived his father and a few lunatic royal patrons. What would have happened when marketing found Magic Flute?

MTV is all about (from what I can see) hedonism, consumerism, and materialism. It is void of spiritual values (any spiritual values) and full of empty-headed people who think looking good is being good. What sage has every recommend spending our time with that? Time spent on MTV (or on Christian television for that matter) could be spent with your family, or making something, or talking . . . or just about anything. It is not going to lead to human flourishing in any large doses and it is hard to “get�? in small doses.

The rest of us probably should turn off MTV, or Nick at Night, or the Sci Fi channel, or even talk radio (some of the time!) and try living our life and not watching it. Should I want my Buffy? Probably not. Small amounts of television will not kill me and amusement can be amusing on a holiday, but if I want to be happy, then I will spend most of my time someplace else.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Having at last finished the rough draft of an eight-year book project, I can at last return to the joy of blogging!

It should be easy to be thankful this year, because of the blessings of this season of my life. However, I must admit that as a sarcastic person, a child of my era, it is hard for me just to be thankful without making myself nauseous. Nobody rolls their eyes if you complain or attack, but to say that I love my wife, children, and life is to invite ridicule. How did this happen?

Marketing did it, in part. We are so used to seeing people act happy who are not that we assume that anyone who acts happy isn’t. After all we know from deepest experience that getting that new Han Solo blaster for Christmas will not make us happy. We know that the right toothpaste will not make our love life soar. If we are the right age, we also know that having a great love life is good, but also is not the sort of thing that will produce human flourishing. So we react with cynicism when someone claims to be happy. What is he selling?

Americans are also intellectually tougher on things they want than on things they don’t want. We believe in knowledge, but feel post-modern guilt about it. We think being a republic is better than living under a tyranny, but feel multi-cultural angst about such a bold (!) assertion. We love holidays, but feel like that must be a product of consumerism forgetting that they had more holidays than we in the Middle Ages! Say you are sad and nobody will quibble, but say you are happy and everyone will wonder what you are hiding.

Will as anyone who knows me can testify, I have problems. My own imperfections sometimes overwhelm me. When I remember the sins of my youth, I can only stand in awe at the power of God (and other people) to forgive. There is nothing good that I deserve and yet good has come unbidden and unexpected. Lent is easy for me, but thanksgiving is hard.

Nor is this merely my problem. I know when I compliment a student they think it flattery and when I rebuke them they hear truth! And yet often the most sincere thing I have to say is the praise that comes to my heart unbidden and which the culture gives me no way to speak. Without anything to sell, then let myself permission to give thanks and for one moment to be happy with rolling my own eyes at my folly.

My family life is very rich and rewarding. My wife is growing, thriving, and becoming dearer to me this year. My four blessed children, two teenagers (!), prove that your kids can be your friends. I love talking to them. My parents are still fighting for the Kingdom of God and are off on new adventures. They are my friends and a model of Christian living. My brother is brilliant and funny and the sort of traditional Christian most people think has vanished.

My church? I have a good clergy who gave up all they had for the Truth. Father Michael, the last Cavalier. Father John, gentle in his sorrows. Father Brendan, marine and an American in who there is no guile. Father Stephen, joyful future of our parish. And a building full of people who turned their backs on the spirit of our Age to follow the Holy Spirit.

My friends? Time would fail me to speak of Phil Johnson, the most valiant defender of Western values ever to be so lovable, Fred, a theologian who cartoons, Paul, an educator who loves learning and hates forms, JP, a philosopher without peer who is also real, Thomas, who teaches for love and not money, Al, the Yoda of my philosophy . . . and an entire Torrey community that is fun and clever (Hilary! Janna! Jen!).

Today I am most thankful for my students. Recently I saw Jesse, one of the immortal first Torrey students, and was reminded of what those thirty-two meant to me. They were bold, brave, and so bright. Sometimes I could not sit in the classroom with them for the light that came off their young souls and when I pray for them they still bring tears of joy to my eyes. (We have not forgotten you Angie! May your soul and that of all the faithful departed rest in peace.) My present students who just put on a luminous Our Town continue that tradition. I am lucky in my employment to be surrounded by greatness.

But, if you are still with me, I am most thankful today for Colin Anderson. Today he is in Iraq . . . an honors graduate of Biola who volunteered to defend us. Now Colin is the sort of guy who just hates praise, the very sort of fellow who would volunteer to defend freedom and then make light of it. He would be the first to list his faults and tell me how imperfect he was as an undergraduate. And let’s assume all of what he would say is true (though I do not!). Today, whether he likes it or not, I say that I admire Colin Anderson for what he is doing for me and thank him. Well done, young man.

Colin is on his second tour of duty in Iraq and when I saw him before he left he did not complain, he did not quibble, he had the determined look of a man who was going to do his duty. He knew his mission and rejoiced in the progress he had seen. He wanted, so modestly, to change the world for the better. How different than the whine of those who confuse playing X-box well with doing something! How different from the pasty academic who thinks that writing about a thing is the same as doing a thing! Colin reminds us what is to be a man and God help us there is something still good about a nation which can produce men who have read the classics, have every material advantage, and chose to serve us in a distant land.

Recently he was in harm’s way and one of the brave men he serves with was hurt by the infamous cowards who plant bombs on the roadside because they are afraid to face our boys in open fight. He stays to help the people who would have those very same cowards as tyrants if Colin left. He stays to protect Iraq from deranged killers who have no cause but terror, no leadership that is not mad, and no ideology except the worship of the most sinful inclinations of the human heart. Colin is allowing himself to be a sword of justice to kill the tyrant. And he would hate my praise and simply say he was doing his job. To say he is doing a great work is to risk embarrassing him before his friends, but it is true and somebody should say what is true. He would retreat from any hyperbole because he is a man.

An American man doing his duty.

So somewhere far from his wonderful family and friends Colin Anderson stands on guard for me. For me and for Hope, L.D., Mary Kate, Ian, Jane, Phil, Fred, Thomas, Jesse . . . all of us . . . where do we find such men?

God help him. God be with him. Thank you God for him. God save Colin Anderson . . .an American man who makes me thankful to live in such times, because I know him.

God Blog keeps me from blogging!

I have been spending the past two weeks preparing for God Blog Con here at Biola! As a result, I have not had time to actually blog. That is ironic, no?

Tonight I will try to reflect on a year or so of God blogging and what I think it can mean for the church. Come to Biola and let’s talk!

This summer I spent several weeks together trying to see the Good, the True, and the Beautiful with a group of students. These ideas are important if only because we ultimately find them in the Mind of God. Our quest begins with the fear of the Lord and it ends in our seeing God. This is the advice I gave those students at the end of the summer.

When we look at problems like Hurricanes Katrina and Rita such humility stands us in good stead. We can only hope to see God as Job did when he said (42:5), “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you, therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Easy answers will not work. Answers that are good but not part of our own experience are not effective either. We need to experience what we claim and not just talk about it. How?

First, try to fill your life with beauty. Look at your room. Is it orderly? Does it contain art or is it a self-indulgent statement about self? Now look in the mirror. Do you look like a clone or are you dressing for your body type and God-created personhood? Try to decorate and dress to please God and to create lasting beauty.

Take an art class that is not required. Listen to classical music and to good contemporary stuff even if you have to go off the normal track to find it. Most of all go to live theater and live concerts. Avoid expensive shows and find the authentic concerts done by folk for the love of art.

Second, walk humbly before God. You had a chance to grow this summer. Not everybody had this chance, but they were given other gifts by God. What can you learn from them? Hesitate before saying what you “know.” Begin with listening and you can never go wrong.

This is especially true in dealing with authority in your life. How can you honor them? Do not presume to teach them. Instead honor what God has done in their lives and is doing in yours because of their willingness to send you to something like the Academy.

Don’t lecture your teachers. Listen to them. Ask good questions. If they attack the faith, then ask better questions! They may kill Socrates, but they can never silence his questions!

Third, remember that all three parts of your soul matter. You have a head: use it. Don’t fall back into the habit of consuming hours of media a day. Try to read as much as you surf the web or watch videos. Don’t let your heart grow cold as you learn. Read your Bible and pray every day. Every day. No excuses.

As you face the fall, you will be tempted to go back to easy answers. Avoid those. Instead, go for answers to the Bible and to great Christian leaders. Ask your pastor to point you to some of those. Good places to start are John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Chrysostom, and Justin Martyr. These are not easy authors, but they actually have something to say worth the time.

The rise of the Church of Nigeria is good news, important news, and will change the world for millions of souls on the planet. How many papers will cover it?

HT: the brilliant Warnock.

I want to clarify that when I worry about the birth rate in the nation I am not suggesting that the fault is all in this generation.  Sometimes those of us who worry about this kind of thing sound like twenty-something people are selfish Scrooges wishing for no more Tiny Tims.

Our culture makes it very hard to get married. It is often impossible to make it on one pay check. Check out the taxes government takes from anyone who might be able to do so. We keep trying and failing. Student loans to get the college union card strap many young adults.

My generation failed as role models. Who wants to marry when Mom and Dad are divorced or in a loveless marriage? Many young adults are harmed by the bad examples we have been. Many of us are trying to do better, but we have much to redeem.

The lack of children is a large scale problem that says more about culture than any individual. It certainly cannot be solved by individuals making bad choices for themselves. Society makes it hard to get married until late in life. To me that, not hedonism in the young or any such problem, is the root of it.

Another important point to balance my worries is that not everyone is called to marriage.

One of the most pious men I know is called to celibacy. Another very wonderful woman is celibate because she met no man that would have been appropriate to her gifts and calling. Her gifts and calling are very great and she is the model of a true lady. Not only is singleness a calling, but it can also be as much a bloodless martyrdom as marriage is for the married.

Being single is a great gift and calling. The traditional church has a very high view of the person who is faithful to that calling and reserves its highest positions for the celibate single person.

Belief in demons is not just vital philosophy (as an affront to naturalism) and it is not just good theology (following the demands of Scripture). It is also a vital part of the cosmic poem or story.

Stories matter. Good stories move us and they explain the world in which we live. Bad stories, like the Darwin myth, do the same thing but point us in the wrong direction. Good stories have a cleansing effect on the soul making it ready for the next truth. Any good story can cleanse, heal, and teach. A good fictional story can lead us to truth as can history. Of course, reality matters and so fiction has limits that truth does not.

Christianity is a story. It is a true story and the greatest story that can be told. As such it has perfect balance and accounts for all our demands and hopes both empirical and emotional. Devils are necessary for the emotional wholeness of the Christian story. That is one powerful reason to think they exist if (as we believe) Christianity is the “greatest story ever told.”

The nature of evil demands the existence of evil.

It is impossible to pray for the destruction of any human soul. Created in the image of God, we cannot ultimately hate any human. I am deeply opposed to the philosophy of Osama Bin Laden. I think his actions in advocating terror wicked and that he should be brought to justice. Despite this my deepest prayer for him is that he repent and in receiving earthly justice find heavenly mercy. He has sinned in time, his sin is in the past, and he still has a future. As a temporal being, he can change and so be redeemed. All of us who know our sinfulness are thankful that change is possible. We can become different than we were.

Yet the wound in the cosmos is so deep, deeper than even human evil can cause, that something else, someone else, must be held responsible. The Incarnate God can take on Himself human sin, but there is a cosmic going wrong that demands the severe mercy of justice. It is not just human evil, which is temporal and so can be forgiven, that we find in the horror of 9/11. There is a diabolical evil that is one with the evil of the concentration camps, the gulag, and any other place where bad and horrid things happen. There is an offense that is a stink in the celestial city. This stench comes at certain times and in predictable ways. It seems the work of an infernal intelligence.

Against such an evil godly wrath and hatred is appropriate. The devils provide the element of the story that allows for this wrath and hatred to have an object. The men who fell short, who sinned, who were used by wickedness are not appropriate subjects for this perfect wrath. Blind rage against the “machine” is not directed enough and also inappropriate. Gravity did not know what it did. It did harm, but did not mean to do so. Our sense of justice demands someone, not just something, to assault.

There exists beings, persons, that knew what they wanted and what they were devoted to do it. They stood by and laughed when humans died. They stand outside of time and are find what delight they know in pain and suffering. Against them, beings that cannot turn because they experience no time at all, God is turned in righteous rage. Against them we battle fully and without stint. We battle not against flesh and blood for they use flesh and blood.

Devils are doomed for the wrath of High Heaven is turned against them. They fill a necessary place in the story: a personal evil that faces pure justice. No man need look at the Twin Towers and believe that the real intelligence behind the evil will ever escape. Bin Laden may find mercy, but Lucifer never will.

Of course the wise man does not rejoice in this fact or presume on it. Once the Devil himself was a being so great in God’s order that we would have trembled at his beauty. Even now in his fallen state, there is much of the shattered light of Heaven in him. For the sake of that light, we fight against him with appropriate humility. We fight in the Name of the Lord and (thank God) not in our own power. As Jude reminds us even Saint Michael rebuked the Devil in the Name of the Lord. So it should be with us.

May God rebuke him we humbly pray. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

the evangelical outpost: Countdown to GodBlogCon: “Countdown to GodBlogCon”

Can you afford to miss history?

The two extremes of our culture are on display in how they deal with demons. Our culture is awash in the assumption that smart people are all naturalists. Naturalists believe that nature is “all there is, was, or ever will be” (to paraphrase Carl Sagan). As a result many folk have intellectual guilt when they trust their own observations and decide that matter and energy in mindless motion cannot account for all they see. However, since our government schools will not allow the intelligent discussion of the Divine (or the infernal) most Americans are left to construct their own theology. Men and women will do theology even if forbidden to be educated in the science and so we are left with notions of the supernatural no more sophisticated than references on the Simpsons and movies can make it. This leads to near-insanity as religious groups who cast out demons of fat, philosophy, and just about anything else testify.

Can we believe in demons without going mad? The simple answer is yes. All traditional Christians have believed in demons and the stronger the church age the more sane the discussion. It is when the church is in decline that you get the half-Christian rants of folk like King James (yes that King James) on the doctrines of witch craft and demons. Normal Christian ages are in contact with main stream church thinking and so develop a moderate approach to the supernatural.

What is that? It is a view that keeps four things in mind.

First, God is good and is the author of no evil. Demons were created by God and so are not perfectly evil. They exist so there is goodness them. No evil being can be perfectly evil (logically) since existence comes from a good God. So as was mentioned by a previous post, the Devil and demons are not the opposite of God and His holy Angels. They are degenerate angels . . . good code gone bad to become the worst virus in the operating system of the cosmos.

Second, some evil is caused by fallen nature. The fine workings of the cosmos were messed up by human sin. As a result people are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fecundity becomes cancer. The design of the Universe is consuming itself. Demons need not be blamed for this sort of evil.

Third, if demons act, they act through control of the soul of a man. Demons are not material. They may be able to imitate bodies, but they are never really incarnate. They do not really understand human feelings (as the Incarnate God does) and so are not able to love us. (Angels are not cut off from the Divine so they can experience love of humanity through their love of a God who does know our state.)

I have seen things not best accounted for by natural events. I have personally seen exorcisms that brought relief to the person involved. If demons are real, and the witness of Scripture is plain that they are, then being open to intelligent (though diabolical) agency in some areas is logical. I would suggest that good pastoral discernment be applied when evil seems beyond the normal capacities of the person involved. “Big” showy manifestations like those in the film (and those sometimes found in the Bible) are real, but may not be the most serious kind. Demons do not want to be found out. Their control must be subtle or can be removed.

In my tradition, the Sacraments of the Church are means of grace to keep the spirit of man fresh and alive. For all Christians the grace of God is available as a power the Devil and his hosts cannot bear.  Frequent, meaningful worship is a good way to avoid the sort of easy-to-manipulate spirit demons like. I would also advise avoiding evil. To go to an evil place or to intentionally engage in evil activity is always an invitation for bad things to happen. Frequent confession of sin and a humble heart are places unkind to the diabolical.

Our chief personal foe in the Church is never any human being. Every human being, no matter how low, has a chance at redemption and the image of God stamped in his soul. The only intelligences beyond redemption (of which we are aware) are devils.

Our naturalistic culture prides itself on its reason, but the best selling books and movies are hardly ever secular. When Dan Brown can write a book that justifies the worship of Lucifer, then there is a yearning for spiritual things that is not being met. The Devil is happy to meet it as the consumption and control of human souls is the only selfish pleasure he can know. To ignore him, or become overly concerned about him, is all the same to him. I dislike even this post as the diabolical delight in any press no matter how negative. Their cause is hopeless, lost, and foolish. The redeemed need not fear the devil for Michael the great angel and all the hosts of heaven are enough to guard the elect of every nation. Behind the Heavenly Hosts stands the All Powerful, All Wise, and (best of all) Loving Father. In the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ every devil in the air must flee and bow the knee.

Jesus Christ is Lord!  



Ritual bias alert: The film that provoked this discussion was made by a Biola graduate.

The erudite Joe Carter dislikes my views on civil religion. Here is my response.  

I defer to no man in my dislike for Jean-Jacques Rousseau. First, he is a figure from French history not named Joan. We can therefore assume that he is a fuzzy minded hypocrite. Second, he was in fact a fuzzy minded hypocrite. So let’s have nothing to do with Jean-Jacques.

I am also all in favor of knowing philosophical roots of ideas. In fact, that is my profession. But surely Mr. Carter nobody in rural West Virginia for the last one hundred and fifty years had anything like a glimmer of what Jean-Jacques Rousseau had in mind when they practiced civil religion?

Like Burke and Aristotle I have a great dread of philosophy in politics. Philosophers are always looking for the Big Picture and Being Consistent, but human relations and government are an art and not a science. In this I agree with Aristotle and Burke and not with Plato or the French Guy.

I am from the old tradition of “muddle through” and not from the “make it a consistent to the intellectuals” school of thought. In fact, in his quest for Philosophical Order in government, isn’t it Carter who betrays America’s Anglo-heritage for French “rigor.”

Give me George III, mad is a hatter, rather than Napoleon with a mind as clear as crystal. Give me a nation with lots of old traditions and funny corners not all of which can be made orderly and I will show you a free state. Everyone knows they still pray in school in West Virginia and promote religion. Nobody cares much even if it is not (strictly speaking) legal. Actually stopping it would rend the very fabric of our state. It would be like asking Utah to actually treat the Mormon faith like “everything else.” It isn’t going to happen at a social cost we are willing to pay. Meanwhile we muddle through with leftists knowing that rural Utah will come with a cost and right-wingers knowing that they will pay a cost for the culture of Berkeley.

Civil religion is like that in the actual US experience. We are overwhelmingly Christian and just about everyone treats the Divinity of civil religion as the Christian God. That is our mental image when we pray. We are allowed that mental image. In fact, in most places it is tacitly encouraged (muddle). Part of our liberty is an ability to understand “God” as being (mostly) the God mentioned in the Constitution (”in the year of Lord”) while allowing those who opt out (Jews and Moslems) enough latitude to do so since the main secular function of the deity is still served.

We have many good citizens who are Jewish or Muslim and Americans accept that they understand “God” differently. Why? Because in the tradition of Burke and America our civil religion acts more as a limit on government and a tip of the hat to the origin of our liberties than as the Establishment of a Secular God. The God of Jews and Moslems is enough like the Christian god to fill that role.

Can one be a good American and a Hindu? Yes, if he or she is willing to admit that there is a higher power (filled by the place holder name God) from whom rights come.  

Can one be a good American and an atheist? Yes, if one is willing to accept that one has a world view inconsistent with the founding documents of the state. He or she will have to pretend in court that man has free will and in politics that there are rights that come from something Higher than government. If they can do that (and most atheists do in practice), then they are functional theists.

Civil religion is therefore some of what Christians believe, but not all of it. It is like getting people to admit that Atlantis exists, but not forcing them to name the largest city. It is something . . . and it has a mostly protecting role that it can play for all persons . . . even those who dislike it.  

First, the pro-life movement is alive and well in Arizona. It looks pretty dominant at a state level outside the executive branch. This is a tribute to the savvy organizers and the political maturity of the grass roots folk I met. What a pleasure to be on the same team with such folk!

Second, if the pro-life movement lost charismatics and Catholics it would be in trouble as far as workers go. Where are Reformed churches? Where are the Orthodox?

Third, everyone wants the Democrat Party to be open to their views. Many do not trust Republicans and would be happy to “go home.” There have been some positive moves on the part of the Democrat Party, but these are then negated by the leadership. Most people I chatted with have no real hope the Democrats will ever be anything other than the “Culture of Death” party.

Fourth, the movement is still very white. Other than speakers the room was not very diverse (despite efforts by the pro-life groups). I think this a bad thing. It does not reflect the country, the Church, or the pro-life majority in America. What can be done? It is clear groups are trying so it is not from want of desire or effort.

Fifth, the pro-life cause is very well led in Arizona. The leadership is aggressive, smart, and well organized. If only these folk ran FEMA!

(Finally, on a personal note Todd and Jen Wright are just amazing!)

A Mistake about the Pledge

The chief error of good hearted people who think the words “under God” do not matter in the pledge is their low view of “civil religion.” Academics can hardly say “civil religion” without sneering and thoughtful Christians often fall into the same trap. Because civil religion is not Christian, orthodox Christians feel it does not go far enough. After all, they like to point out; the god of the Pledge might be some wicked Hindu deity.

Worrying about this in a nation that is culturally overwhelmingly Jewish and Christian seems a bit silly. I am willing to allow for the tiny percentage of the population to understand God in (what I take to be) odd ways to keep civil religion going.

Why? Civil religion in the United States limits the power of the state. It is not the positive affirmation of one religion, but recognition that there is a realm where the secular cannot go. It is more negative than positive in terms of what it affirms.

The state recognizes by civil religion that there is other, a God, who has given humankind rights and ability that they cannot touch. You do not have to be a Christian to believe this or even a monotheist. It should comfort even an atheist who loves freedom. It also allows Christians and other monotheists (Jews and Moslems) to swear allegiance to the state in good conscience. Since we do the bulk of tax paying, fighting, and working in this nation, this seems a good idea. I do not expect my pledge of allegiance to be a Creed, but I do expect it to acknowledge that most free men of the West owe their first allegiance to a Creed and not a state.  

I will not swear absolute allegiance to the state. I view the “under God” clause as making the same point as the Declaration of Independence. It limits more than it affirms. My rights do not come from the state. They come from the Creator. The state cannot take away what it did not give. My allegiance to the state is qualified. My obedience will be limited by the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.

That radical view is at the heart of the American experiment. When we were engaged in an all out war with a godless system that demanded total allegiance from its citizens, the US government wisely inserted “under God” into the pledge to make clear what had always been understood. My duty to the state is not absolute.

These words have not led to a theocracy, but their overt removal (after they were added) will suggest that the modern secular state will brook no rival. That would be a bad idea for the vast majority of Americans who will not say, “Caesar is Lord.”

We have no King but King Jesus.

I am speaking on the morrow at the Arizona Right to Life Conference. Hope to see you there!

Disneyland Rides by Religious Tradition

In order to lighten the national mood, or do my part in it, I have decided to do some research on which Disneyland rides should be favored by various Christian religious groups. Following hours of field study and reading, the following list is correct to the best of my knowledge. I have given only a brief reason for each of my choices. Rest assured a book could have been written.

(In fact, some Radical Orthodox theologian is free to use this as the basis for his/her seminary dissertation “Constantine, Milbank, and Walt: A Biblical Purging of the Hegemony of the Neo-Platonic Disney Ride in the Imagination of the Late Twentieth Century Evangelical with Special References to Ordination of Womyn and the Oppression of the Animals.”)

Ride for All Calvinists:
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
No matter what you do, you end up in Hell. It is reported that some elect riders end up in Club 33 at the end. The rest of us have no way to confirm this.

     Presbyterian Secondary Ride:
          Indiana Jones Adventure
     In which you discover that no matter what you do, you look in the eyes of the idol. This leads you through hundreds of pre-programmed variations that feel free, but are not. At the end of the ride you discovery you can have wealth, worldly wisdom, or eternal life. You cannot have more than one. The ride decides. There are frequent splits in the ride track.

Lutheran Ride:
Splash Mountain
     A ride in which you begin wondering what can be so frightening in this particular ride, slowly see your own character leading straight to a fearful doom, but then discover that a terrifying plunge leads straight to your Laughing Place. All of this happens without your ever moving as you are carried along by the Water of the ride.  

Anglican Ride:
     Alice in Wonderland:
     It is an English ride after all and that is always cool. Follow a questionable character down a theological hole on an aging ride system and end in post-modern confusion. Did I mention it is English?

     Episcopal Church USA Secondary Ride:
          Mad Tea Party:
     It will be fun to spin in circles until everyone gets sick!
     
Continuing Anglican Secondary Ride:
     Frontierland Shootin’ Exhibition
     Having already paid once for your ticket, you get to pay again in order to take shots at pesky varmints that never seem to go away.

General Dispensationalist Ride:
     Mickey’s House and Meet Mickey
     In which you travel by foot through a series of discrete rooms each of which builds up to and naturally leads to the next. At times one wonders if the ride is not a bit unsophisticated for modern tastes, but there are so many delightful details that one soon forgets this fear. In the End, it culminates when some guests are taken away to Meet Mickey. As a result throughout the ride one is aware and eagerly anticipates a great future work for the original Disney character.

Evangelical Feminist Ride:
Peter Pan’s Flight
     A popular ride with long lines in which all the men are children or child-like, this ride begins in a full nursery, heads whimsically over the edge into Darkness following a charming if irrational leader, thus leaving the nursery empty.

Baptist Ride:
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey
In which we discover that one can only become a Real Boy by giving up smoking, pool playing, and drinking.

     Southern Baptist Secondary Ride:
     Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
     Where it is proved once and for all that nobody understands the Southern point of view, but where our Heritage is appreciated, the sound is very good, and the message even better.

Catholic Ride:
     It’s a Small World
     People from all nations gather together. The guest travels in one very stable boat, carried along by very pure Water, but the music in the ride is very annoying.

     Vatican II Catholic Secondary Ride:
     All of Disney’s California Adventure
     See it is like this: the old Park is just not cool anymore. It is hard to get teen agers to go. If we build a new park and leave out all the old characters, then we will be cool. Kids will love us. The fact that no one comes at the moment to the new park is not the fault of the new park but of the old park. Maybe we should close the old park?

     Latin Mass Secondary Ride:
     Davey Crockett’s Explorer Canoes
     This ride is not fun. In fact, it is hard work. Who expects a ride to be fun? Hard work is no more than park goers have always done. It was good enough for Walt. They don’t build rides like this anymore.

Orthodox Ride:
Jungle Cruise:
     An original Disney ride often overlooked due to its flashier neighbors, it contains the best script in the park which can cause you to further appreciate classic animatronics and overlook residually offensive items because of the ride’s age.

     Russian Orthodox Secondary Ride:
     Pirates of the Caribbean
     The most creative ride in the park and it was built by Walt! It is therefore old, beautiful, but full of disreputable characters you should not like but often do.

     Greek Orthodox Secondary Ride:
Storybook Land Canal Boats
This is a place that contains the best of all the other lands where one admires the age of the ride, the perfect preservation of the parts, its beauty, but secretly wonders if it is not just a bit slow.

     Antiochian Orthodox Secondary Ride:
     Gadget’s Go Coaster
     The best roller coaster in the park for its size, but that means it is pretty small.

Pride will often cause me to judge the sins of others, but not my own sins. However, fear of judgment will also often cause me to refrain from judgment when the time has come to judge.

If Jesus lived in an era when He needed to say, “Judge not”, most philosophers need to be reminded to judge. I often take (and I think I am not alone in this) Jesus words that I will be judged with the judgment I use as a good excuse for letting every sinner off the hook in the vain hope that my own sin will be excused. At least in my community for every self-righteous person, there are ten who will be up in arms at any condemnation of anyone.

We are a guilty age. What better explains the rush for gay marriage which few gays will use, than a desire for someone, anyone, to tell guilty people they are good? It will not work. It never works. Plato was right when he says that even if we are never punished for our guilt our souls are harmed. How I wish I could take back the bad things I have done! It does no good if others do not judge. Our souls judge us and find us guilty.

So it seems to me that our culture is far more in danger of never thinking anything divine judgment than in coming to an overly hasty conclusion that there is God in the whirlwind. We are so eager to hear the still small voice that I think we would miss a Divine shout.

Of course the good news is that we can be born again. The Holy Spirit can give us a new start and heal our self-inflicted wounds. God help me to hear the Divine pleading whether it comes softly or loudly!