For the past month a store at the retail center where we’ve shopped for years has displayed prominent signs stating “Going Out Business—Everything For Sale”. So yesterday I went in to say good-bye to Don, one of the employees who has frequently helped me select the right products. Over the years we’ve occasionally discussed the state of the world, and I expected that we would commiserate on the economy, his bad luck, the lack of jobs, etc. But we didn’t. When I asked him, Don smiled and...
Faith and American History
The Light of Christmas
The first Christmas was God’s intervention in human events with His plan for our salvation--easily the most important event in history. The Light came into the darkness. Christmas led to Christ’s death and resurrection--the once-for-all atonement for our sins. Incredible. It will be surpassed only by Christ’s second coming. But what would it be like today if God had not intervened, or if Christ had declined to do his Father’s will and take the place of the likes of us? What if there were no...
I’ve Read Good Essays, but This May Be the Bastiat
Thanks to a personal introduction from Gene Tullio (https://facebook.com/gtullio1), I’ve discovered the French economic philosopher Frederic Bastiat and his great work, The Law, originally published in 1850. As with my late-in-life reading of F. A. Hayek, I am embarrassed that I had never heard of Bastiat, and embarrassed that no one that I can recall either at UNC or LSE ever mentioned either man while I was earning two degrees. Anyway, Bastiat has it right on the profound connection between...
Perfection or Freedom?
It’s amazing how important worldview can be. Take the secular vs. the Judeo-Christian view of bad behavior and unfairly advancing self, family or friends. The secular worldview, if it were honest, would not criticize such selfish behavior, because if we are just batches of matter put together by chance and constantly evolving, how can there be right and wrong? Where do those concepts come from? Not from the survival of the fittest, for sure. In that system, everyone is someone else’s meal. But...
How is the U.S. to be a Christian Nation?
As noted in previous posts, there are several facets to the U.S. being a Christian nation, and here I want to focus on how the U.S. should be Christian nation. I ask the question: at the beginning of the twenty-first century, how should we live? The same way as the Founders lived: relying on God and looking to His truths as the basis for our laws and for our behavior, as the only true foundation for successful living. But I want to make a distinction which may not sit well with some fellow...
Independence Day 2011
In a December post I gave both general and specific reasons why I am certain that the Founders of this nation clearly intended for its laws and its society to be founded on Judeo-Christian principles. And that they expected the unhindered propagation of Christian ideals in the public square, in schools, and in the press. In fact, I believe that this question is so completely settled that the burden of proof to the contrary must be on those who believe otherwise. Show us the evidence. But I...
Remembering on Memorial Day 2011
It is Memorial Day, set aside to remember all who have served our country in uniform, and especially those who have given their lives to protect our nation. Memorial Day is about honoring the individual and his or her personal decisions, not about the pros or cons of any particular cause. I am a Vietnam-era veteran who served as a Naval officer for a little over three years. I’m careful never to equate the little I did with the sacrifices made by those who went in-country during those same...
The Time Bomb of a Nation without Fathers
Over the last several years I’ve worried about the underappreciated critical value of fathers to families, but a recent experience has multiplied that concern exponentially. Up until now I’ve been concerned about two situations: 1. In societies where multiple current wives are permitted, the problem is the competition between the children of the various wives, all vying for the attention and approval of the aloof father. Some are pegged as winners in this contest, and others as losers. In our...
Is the U.S. a Christian Nation?
This is an important question, and it has several facets, each of which is worthy of reflection. For the moment I’d like to focus on whether this is a Christian nation in the sense that it is supposed to be one, or at least was one in the beginning. In this context, the clear truth is that America was a Christian nation—at least that was the intent of the Founders. There are volumes of laws, court rulings, articles and letters all of which establish that the Founders and those in power for the...
Obedience to the Unenforceable
In our friend Fitz Allison’s insightful new book, Truth in an Age of Arrogance, I found a quote by someone I’d never heard of, Lord John Fletcher Moulton. I looked him up; he was a brilliant English mathematician and jurist at the beginning of the last century. The words that Lord Moulton spoke which struck me are, “The greatness of a nation, its true civilization, is measured by the extent of its obedience to the unenforceable.” Rule of Law is absolutely essential to freedom, commerce and...
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