rebuildingfromtheruins

The Problem With Absolute Civility

The world wants you to be “civil.” Don’t forget to first be truthful.

January 15, 2021

Smooth and deceptive words often wear the mask of civility. According to today’s “tone police,” incivility is the worse possible sin. But civility is like a knife. A surgeon and thief may both use it to cut you. But the purpose of one is to heal you, the purpose of the other is to threaten and kill you.

Christian Love? Or Pagan Decadence?

Don’t Throw Away The Gifts You Have Been Given

January 13, 2021

In our weekly church study, we are working through Bruce Shelley’s work, Church History in Plain Language. It is, as the title indicates, an accessible introduction to church history.

In a recent study, we considered the explosive growth of the early Church. In 300 years, the Christian faith went from Jewish sect to imperial religion. The nature of the expansion of the Church is a fascinating discussion and one that is beyond this article. One critical factor to point out, however, is the distinctive way the early Christians lived. Theirs was an ethic of love.

The Fifth Column

Behold the Rise of the Evangelical Quislings

January 8, 2020

In the tumultuous decades of the 1930s and 40s, as the world entered another set of military and political pangs that became known as World War II, it was introduced to the term “Fifth Column.” It is a short-hand way of describing citizens of a country that will be shortly invaded, but who secretly help the enemy invading force (and soon to be enemy occupying force) by preparing the country for its invasion.

Christ and Culture

A Brief Recap of Three Points

December 29, 2020

I’m a little late on this but a few weeks ago, our church hosted the inaugural discussion in what I hope will be an ongoing series entitled, “Christ and Culture.” This first discussion was about the relationship between Christ and Culture. Pastor Weldon McWilliams IV of Paterson, NJ, and Pastor Baron Wilson of Roanoke, VA, were gracious interlocutors. You can catch it all here.

There’s a lot to unpack, and I’m not going to do it here. I do want to respond to three things that came up during our 2 hours together.

Work, Wages, and Lockdowns

Why our present economic lockdown is a grave injustice condemned by the prophet James

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

If you think the ongoing economic lockdowns of small businesses are a matter of economic indifference, you’re missing the point. This is a big deal. Lockdowns are the luxury of the ruling and professional class. Lockdowns are easy in one’s McMansion, when you’re getting paid no matter what businesses are deemed “non-essential,” and when you have no disincentives against lockdowns.

Horton Hears A Who

Friday, December 18, 2020

Michael Horton, a fellow minister in my church federation, recently denounced the dangers of Christian Trumpism evident in the recent pro-Trump “Jericho March.” In doing so, Horton unwittingly advocates what CS Lewis warned against— fighting one battle with the weapons of another. Don’t address a flood with a fire extinguisher.

In Defense of the Middle-Class

The middle-class is a “common grace” good, a mindset worth fighting for, even as the upper-class and under-class assault it.

Thursday, December 17, 2020

FIRST THINGS FIRST: DISTINCTIONS AND DEFINITIONS

First, let’s talk about some important foundational items before we get talking about the middle-class.

In his short essay, “Common Grace,” John Murray gives what is the best definition of common grace: “every favor of whatever kind or degree, falling short of salvation, which this undeserving and sin-cursed world enjoys at the hand of God.”

An Almost Case Against the Internet

“You just made a case against the internet on the internet— so, yeah, you’re a hypocrite. And an idiot.”

The internet, photographed earlier today

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

I want to offer one last reflection (for now) on the internet and Big Tech and our consumption of it all.

It seems to me that Christian thought and analysis on the merits of the internet is very fundamentalistic and pietistic. We look at this thing (is it a thing? surely the wires and silicon chips are found somewhere on earth?) and ask, What can the internet do for me as a Christian?

Totalitarian Follow-Up

“This is going to get darker before it gets lighter.”

Monday, December 14, 2020

Part of my goal in the previous post was to make us more aware of how the forces of Big Tech slowly condition us to love the slavery that’s already in our own hearts. My goal in this and the next post is to help us not have an uninformed, romanticized view of the power and potential of the internet.

Christmas with Anselm

Saturday, December 12, 2020

I love the Christian holidays, the so-called Evangelical feast days— Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and now Advent and Christmas. I would include Trinity Sunday in there (it beautifully sums up the Resurrection season by arriving right after Pentecost Sunday), even if it doesn’t commemorate an aspect of the Historia Salutis, but that’s a discussion for another time.