A Glimmer of Hope

Watching the news of the recall election in Wisconsin, one little tidbit caught my attention.  Apparently a number of Democrats who were not Scott Walker supporters voted for him.  Why?  Apparently because they disliked the recall process.  Normally a recall is held when there some sort of malfeasance on the part of an elected official.  Recalls are not intended to be a "redo" of an election simply because someone dislikes the outcome.

So apparently, a number of Democrats took the position that we have regular elections every four years and having a recall over policies is not the intent of the law - the rule of law needs to hold so they voted to reaffirm the lawful election rather than vote party line on something they found wrong on principle.  

That kind of stand for principle gives me a little bit of hope not all is lost on the left side of the aisle.  Whatever one thinks of Walker or his policies, the recall seemed out of line from the get go.  Glad a new precedent was not set.  

Why I Am Conservative - Economics

I find it odd that issues surrounding macroeconomics divide Christians.  The Christian left seems primarily concerned with social justice issues and the disparity between rich and poor and the Christian "right" seems more concerned with personal responsibility and limited government.  To be clear, neither side thinks the poor should be ignored, the question is how to best manage a national and global economy - debates about helping the poor are about the balance between government program and private charity and that would require a different post.

For me, the matters related to economy and government are fairly simple.  But I need to be clear that I do not believe there is a prescribed economic system in the Bible.  The Old Testament deals with Jews under a theocracy, the New Testament deals with Jews and Christians living under Roman rule. Neither is directly parallel to being citizens of a constitutional democratic republic.  Theories about Capitalism, socialism, Marxism, had not been developed.  Neither Adam Smith nor John Maynard Keynes  nor Milton Friedman were around in the 10th century B.C.  (More)

Why I am a Conservative - The Sword

One of the key planks in conservative thought is a strong national defense.  Critics on the left, including the Christian left, often suggest the conservative position is nothing more than feeding a lucrative war machine at best and a direct contradiction of Jesus command to turn the other cheek at worst.  And typically the accusation against Christian conservatives is that they are dupes of the Republican party on this issue as well as others.

But I have to disagree.  Once again, I think the position of the Christian conservative has a matter-of-fact view of humanity as fallen and in rebellion against what is true and good, and because of the fall, because of the corruptibility of human nature, it is necessary to have both a police force at the local level and a standing army at the national level precisely because there are those whose aggression cannot be restrained by anything less.  (More)

The Problem of Unity - Part 5

I wrote a meandering thought experiment on Christian unity a long time ago.  More thoughts:

Here is a further illustration of the problem. Regarding the question, "What is essential?" we could attempt to categorize a list of doctrinal issues. We could categorize them in a descending hierarchy with the "Essential" things on top and the "non-essentials" on the bottom.  The problem really lies in the middle, the things some consider essential, but which others either do not, or do not agree with.  (More)

The Real Misogynists

Odd that theological complementarians are called misogynists when this stuff it going on everyday without comment from the political left, the Christian left, or supposed "women's" groups. 

An article appeared earlier this week at Frontpage detailing the unconscionable sexual degradation of conservative women.  The most recent egregious case was that of commentator S.E. Cupp depicted in Hustler as needing to be "shut up" by having a particular object photoshopped suggestively into her mouth.  It is one article of many that could be cited.  In it former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Former Florida Congresswoman Katherine Harris and current Wisconsin lieutenant governor Rebecca Kleefisch have all been attacked using vivid sexual imagery and conservitive commentators like Laura Ingram, Michelle Malkin and Elizabeth Hasselbeck have been subjected to rape language. (more)

Egalitarians, Complementarians, Patriarchalists and Misogynists - Oh My!

I'm not one who thinks that defining the role of women in the church is an "essential" on which the church stands or falls, but boy do folks get bent out of shape over it.  I've been in some pretty conservative churches over the years and I've never felt like this was a huge issue in the overall scope of things, because I never felt the difference between egalitarian and complementarian was all that great.

Recently  Rachel Held Evans called complementarianism patriarchy.  That seemed to me more than a little false.  Count on Tony Jones to up the ante. He referred to Russell Moore and John Piper as misogynists, haters of women. 

The reason for the consternation was apparently a statement by Moore that too many complementarians were living as practical egalitarians, which carried the suggestion to egalitarians that to be consistent, complementarians needed to "push women down" more.  I think Moore spoke poorly, but knowing what most complementarians think about "servant leadership" I tend to think the point is that Moore feels men often exercise no leadership at all, behave in a passive manner that serves no one. I do not think he was "pushing women down" as Tony Jones opined.  (More)

Why I Am a Conservative - Original Intent

Since it has become fashionable for some to portray politically conservative evangelicals as either unthinking lemmings who have been duped by the Republican Party or worse power hungry theocrats bent on establishing a fundamentalist theocracy, I thought I should get back to a topic I started long ago on Why I am a Conservative.  

My only post on the topic so far dealt with the concept of limited government as it is related to the Christian concept of the fallen nature of human beings.  (I had also written on why I fear theocracy). (More)