So This Happened

I'm often the last to read the thing everyone is buzzing about, but in case you missed it, too:

Confessions of Liberal Intolerance is an article about intolerance of and condescension towards different ideas in academia, written by (progressive) Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. Interestingly, in the article some black professors describe being discriminated against as Christians and conservatives in academia as being like the prejudice they face outside of it.

Heterodox Academy's line-up of contributors.

"For they looked for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is the Lord."

There is nothing at all surprising about the world being drawn to baseness and power.

That is what people are drawn to, in their nature. And people are easily deceived. The sheep look for a shepherd, but often they pick a king -- or a wolf -- instead. We look for Cincinnatus, but we follow a Caesar.

It is wrong to assert that political concerns and exertions are meaningless or worthless for the believer -- political ambivalence smacks of a gnostic approach to loving one's neighbors. As if it isn't my concern if my neighbor lives under the oppressor's thumb or has his day in court. We can lament cultural injustice and decline. We can discuss when began the grounding of "the ship that sailed the moon" (1973?)

"For they looked for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is the Lord."

But as we rightly labor and exert ourselves in this country (our national neighborhood) to love our neighbor by advocating and appealing for truth, protection for the innocent, just laws, and freedom and mercy, which acknowledge the divinely-decreed, deep and intrinsic value of each and every image-bearer -- we do so at rest in our souls, as citizens of the better country.

For no matter what, with respect to our Job Description: Nothing has changed from yesterday to today and nothing will change in November 2016 or November 2020 or November 2200.

Love God.
Love your family ("little platoons").
Love your church.
Love your neighbors.

These are subversive acts.

Do the things God has given your hands to do with vigor and pleasure.

Fill the earth and subdue it with your work, knowing the good work of your hands done by the grace of God will never perish or tarnish and not be lost.

-- Anne

As the Sparks Fly Upward

City Journal book review by Steven Malanga on questioning the noble savage: "Welcome to the Jungle" LINK

Westminister Confession of Faith: Of the Civil Magistrate

A document produced in 1647 still has wise words for us today, particularly #s 1 and 4...

1. God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under Him, over the people, for His own glory, and the public good: and, to this end, hath armed them with the power of the sword, for the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evil doers. (Romans 13:1-4, I Pet. 2:13-14)

2. It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a magistrate, when called thereunto: in the name of managing whereof, as the ought especially to maintain piety, justice, and peace, according to the wholesome laws of each commonwealth; so for that end, they may lawfully, now under the new testament, wage war upon just and necessary occasion. (ie, magistrates may wage and fight a just war. Prov 8:15-16, Rom 3: 1-2,4, Psalm 2:10-12, I Tim. 2:2, Psalm 82: 3-4, 2 Sam 23:3, I Pet. 2:13, Luke 3:14, Rom 13:4, Matt 8:9-10, Acts 10:1-2)

3. Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word and sacraments; or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, or, in the least, interfere in the matters of faith. Yet, as nursing fathers, it is the duty of the civil magistrates to protect the church of our common Lord, without giving preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest, in such a manner that all ecclesiastical persons whatever shall enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned liberty of discharging every part of their sacred functions, without violence or danger....[2 Chron 26:18, Matt 18:17, Matt 6:19, Heb 5:4, John 18:36, ad so on)

4. It is the duty of people to pray for magistrates, to honor their persons, to pay tribute or other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority, for conscience' sake. Infidelity or difference in religion does not void the magistrates just and legal authority, nor free the people from their due obedience to them: from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted, much less hath the Pope any power and jurisdiction over them in their dominions, or over any of their people; and least of all, to deprive them of their dominions, or lives, if he shall judge them to be heretics, or upon any pretence whatsoever. (1 Pet 2:17, Rom 13:6-7, Rom 13:5, Titus 3:1, I Pet 2:13-14, 16, Rom 13:1, Acts 25:9-11, 2 Pet 2:1, 10-11, Jude 8-11)