Sunday, May 31, 2009

Atrocities of Statism

Statism produces another atrocity besides torture.

Willful Ignorance.

Statism is the worship of the State -- complete obedience in return for the State's promise of holistic salvation.

Writing in "The 'Water Cure' for Mancow Disease," William Norman Grigg observes,

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side," observed Orwell, "but he has the remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." In some cases, like the one presently under examination, the nationalist is vividly aware of atrocities only when they are committed by the "other side," and is hopelessly blind to them when they are carried out by the government he worships.

Obama not only will not release torture photos that are acknowledged to exist, but won't acknowledge others, such as the ones Scott Horton knows to exist.

Ignorance is bliss.

We hope.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

John Calvin

John Calvin died on this date in 1564. The 500th anniversary of his birth will be celebrated in some circles this coming July 10.

America was not just a Christian nation, but a Calvinist nation, and not a "Judeo-Christian" nation. Calvin and Calvinists produced the American ideas of resistance to tyranny and representative democracy.

Princeton Calvinist B. B. Warfield defined calvinism this way:

He who believes in God without reserve, and is determined that God shall be God to him in all his thinking, feeling, willing—in the entire compass of his life-activities, intellectual, moral, spiritual, throughout all his individual, social, religious relations—is, by the force of that strictest of all logic which presides over the outworking of principles into thought and life, by the very necessity of the case, a Calvinist.
New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. II: Basilica - Chambers

Abraham Kuyper, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, presented his lectures on Calvinism at Princeton, and summed up the Calvinist worldview:

In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, 'That is mine!'

Calvin was certainly not an anarcho-capitalist. But that is because, while Christianity had made a lot of progress in creating Western Civlization, it had not yet progressed that far, and Calvin, though revolutionary, was still necessarily a man of his time. His views on usury may have led, unintentionally and indirectly, to the Bush-Obama bailouts. Logically, however, Calvin's ideas lead to anarcho-capitalism:

Outline: Calvinist Defense of Anarcho-Capitalism

Defining "The State"

Calvin has been called the "Theologian of the Holy Spirit." That logically leads away from dependence on the State: Statism vs. Calvinism

Why Calvinism for Anarchists

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Would Jesus Celebrate Memorial Day 2009?

It appears that this is my 4th Memorial Day post on this blog.

They Died in Vain (2006)

Would Jesus Celebrate Memorial Day? (2007)

They Died In Vain: Memorial Day 2008

The change in Presidents does not change my assessment of the issue: Should we honor those who choose to fight?

The United States has three holidays which honor those who chose war over peace: Veterans' Day (those who fought and lived); Memorial Day (those who fought and died) and Independence Day (those who took up arms to abolish their government). ("Armed Forces Day" is a distant fourth.)

Shouldn't a Christian nation like America have a day to honor those who withstood the temptation to violence and vengeance and chose peace instead?

If you disagree with the answer implied in my questions, join me at the Ozarks Virtual Town Hall, Saturday morning at 10:30 am Central time.


Type in your comment or question in the box or phone in and talk live.

Imagine: a holiday to honor conscientious objectors.

It would ruin everything for the State.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Biohackers

Imagine your 10-year-old kid comes home from school with a hamster that glows in the dark. He says the older brother of one of his friends a few doors down the street grows glow-in-the-dark animals in his basement.

He also makes genetically modified E. coli in a closet and sells it to labs doing cancer research. He uses a DNA "thermocycler" bought on eBay for $59.

Should the government make all this illegal? After all, this bio-tinkering could "theoretically lead to the creation of harmful viruses like Ebola or smallpox, since their genomes are available online."

Although glow-in-the-dark hamsters are a couple of years away, creating glow-in-the-dark bacteria is already "a popular trick among biohackers," according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal:

In Attics and Closets, 'Biohackers' Discover Their Inner Frankenstein - WSJ.com

Without going into an AP biology class on this blog, here's the relevance of this for a Congressional campaign:

434 members of Congress are too clueless to draft legislation relating to this issue. Even the geekiest of them couldn't keep up with these biohackers. The other member of Congress knows there's no need to, even if it were Constitutional to do so. Which it's not.

Would the Framers of the Constitution agree with modern legal scholars that the Constitution must be "a living constitution" to address utterly unanticipated crimes like "biohacking" and "the threat to national security" it poses?

No. And double no. (And it's not [yet] a crime.)

Having people doing research for cancer in their basement is a good thing. The ability of train engineers and trolley conductors to use a cell phone in an emergency is also a good thing. The fact that a handful of people misuse cell phones and synthetic DNA is not a good reason to ban both for everyone.

America's Founding Fathers were passionate about having a limited government, with liberty for the People. Thy understood that this required public schools that taught Christian morality. Only when society at large wasn't stealing from each other and killing each other could we have liberty and limited government. Citizens of a Christian nation can be trusted with "affordable molecular biology equipment" and genetic databases, and will also promote Christian morality around the world. Then, rather than drafting sweeping laws, they will dwell safely with "a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence."

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Warriors and Peacemakers

"War will exist until the distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today."
-- John F. Kennedy

The calculated indifference of the [Clinton] administration to national defense has forced thousands of our most experienced and patriotic warriors to leave the military. We [Republicans] will once again make wearing the uniform the object of national pride.
-- Republican National Platform, 2000

It takes more courage
-- to pray -- unarmed -- for an armed attacker
-- than to kill -- armed with superior firepower -- an attacker.
It takes more courage
-- to follow the Prince of Peace
-- than to vote for war.
It takes more courage
-- to follow the Prince of Peace when all your friends call you names ("Coward!" "Traitor!")
-- than it does to obey the government's order to kill the innocent when all your friends obey too.

Monday, May 18, 2009

"Liberal Democracy" in American and Iraq

America was not created as a "Democracy." Proof. But some political scientists speak of America as a "liberal democracy," by which they intend a contrast with totalitarian centrally-planned governments like the "former" Soviet Union and China.

Duke University Divinity professor Stanley Hauerwas questions the ability of "liberal democracy" to be planted by governments after their military overthrows a totalitarian regime. Excerpts from a "Memorial Day" interview by Paul O'Donnell:

BeliefNet: Bonhoeffer wrote during the war that he thought Germany should not attempt to return to a liberal democracy if the Nazis were defeated.
Hauerwas: Bonhoeffer believed that Germany had not developed the ethos that, say, England had to support liberal democracy. Germany had been turned into a nation-state by Bismarck in the middle of the 19th century, and as a nation came very late to liberal democracy. The German version of liberal democracy, the Weimar Republic, had barely begun before the Nazis took over, whereas England had formed a liberal ethos over centuries.

B: But his beef with liberal democracy seems more philosophical and thoroughgoing. He says that the language of rights and liberties, as you write in your book, "cannot help but lead to godlessness and the subsequent deification of man, which is the proclamation of nihilism."
H: That's right, and in noting that, I hoped some people would see a parallel to the present day in this country.

B: The other place it seems this has application is in the current situation in Iraq. Many argue that the proper ethos is not present there either for liberal democracy.
H: To try to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy is absolutely crazy. Islam has no understanding of the separation between church and state because they don't understand Islam to be a church. The very idea that you could have separation between mosque and state from Islam's perspective is the imposition on them of Christian practice. Islam doesn't really have a place for state. They are a universalistic faith like Christianity, but they think there is no country that bounds Islam.


Hauerwas is right about Memorial Day, but wrong about "the separation of church and state." The "ethos" of a "liberal democracy" is Christian morality. The ethos of totalitarianism is the false religion of statism, rooted in envy. The modern myth of "separation of church and state" really means "freedom from" Christian morality. This destroys any hope for "liberal democracy."

What made America great was the idea of "Liberty Under God." Not the "separation of church and state," but the progressive elimination of church and state. Not the elimination of Christian morality, but the elimination of the idea that religious rituals practiced on Sunday can substitute for the practice of Christian morality the other six days of the week. And not the elimination of "government," but the elimination of "the government," the institution that wars against self-government and the practice of Christian morality in schools and businesses -- and especially in Washington D.C.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Taking Christianity Seriously

I've been having an extended conversation with an intelligent student about, well, everything.

But especially the Christian world view.

He's a self-admitted narcissist. He's into literature and "absurdist theatre." He isn't persuaded by my well-researched, compellingly logical, even self-evident arguments for Christianity. His life is completely subsidized, and he's on a self-indulgent vacation. I guess if the world economy holds up, and the entire human race is not plunged into depression -- or nuclear war -- he will live out his life in the elite world of the secular University as a "Professor of Literature" and mocker of the "Protestant Work Ethic."

He's returning home, back east, and I doubt he'll ever want to be in Southwest Missouri again.

So in the hopes that someday he might take human existence seriously, I've created a website to which he can return to our conversation.

www.TakingChristianitySeriously.com

Nothing is there yet; I'll add to it in the coming days.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Genocide, then Reconciliation

"You killed my wife and my children. I forgive you."


Does Neo-Conservatism, the Theory of Evolution, or the New Deal bring about reconciliation like this?

Bishop John Rucyahana from Wilberforce Project on Vimeo.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Disarmament Day

That's what "Mother's Day" might be called if Julia Ward Howe had her way.

Howe (1819-1910) is best known for her "Battle Hymn of the Republic," which seems to stand in favor of everything King Lincoln did to destroy America. She was part of the wealthy New England elite.

She also was the first to issue a "Mother's Day Proclamation" in 1870.

The first part sounds useful for advancing the original "American Dream" of the Prophet Micah's "Vine & Fig Tree" Vision:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

But the last part sounds like a plea for the United Nations:

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

I have doubts about the ability of any "Congress" to disarm the "powers that be."



Gloria Steinhem never embodied "motherhood" for me.

For that I turn to Proverbs 31:

10 Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.
13 She seeks wool and flax,
And willingly works with her hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships,
She brings her food from afar.
15 She also rises while it is yet night,
And provides food for her household,
And a portion for her maidservants.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
From her profits she plants a vineyard.
17 She girds herself with strength,
And strengthens her arms.
18 She perceives that her merchandise is good,
And her lamp does not go out by night.
19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
And her hand holds the spindle.
20 She extends her hand to the poor,
Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of snow for her household,
For all her household is clothed with scarlet.
22 She makes tapestry for herself;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates,
When he sits among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
And supplies sashes for the merchants.
25 Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.
26 She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
27 She watches over the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many daughters have done well,
But you excel them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in the gates.

Mothers like this
working in the home
are more likely to bring about peace
than mothers like Julia Ward Howe will
working in
the House.

Micah's Prophecy


And it will come about in the last days
That the
mountain of the House of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains
And it will be raised above the
hills

And the peoples will stream to it.
And many
nations will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the
mountain of the LORD
And to the
House of the God of Jacob,
That He may teach us about His
ways
And that we may walk in His
paths."

For from
Zion will go forth the Law
Even
the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

And He will
judge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.

Then they will hammer their
swords into plowshares
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation will not lift up
sword against nation
And never again will they
train for war.

And each of them will sit under his
Vine and under
his fig tree,
With no one to make them afraid.
For the LORD of hosts has spoken.


Though all the peoples walk
Each in the name of his god,
As for us,
we will walk
In
the Name of the LORD our God
forever and ever.

In that day, saith the LORD,

will I assemble her that halteth,
and I will gather her that
is driven out,
and her that
I have afflicted;
And I will make her that halted
a remnant,
and her that was cast far off
a strong nation:
and the LORD shall reign over them in
mount Zion
from henceforth,
even for ever.

Join us Saturday morning at 10:30 am Central time for a discussion of Mother's Day at the Ozarks Virtual Town Hall.