There will undoubtedly be a barrage of angry emails over my upcoming post — The irrational modern woman and “rape culture” — and so, hoping to further explain my position on the matter, and why it is not just convenient, but necessary to have a universal and Biblical moral code for sexual pursuit, I present the following story as an addendum for your consideration: a story about how I, as a youth, was given a choice about whether or not to protect a woman; and how, due to a combination between sexual liberalization and her lack of communication, I failed — in every respect — to protect her as was my God-given duty. If this does not convince others of the correctness of my sexual conservatism, I hope at the very least to inspire sympathy for my position — that this issue is not simply one of reason and Law, but of actual experience and regret on my part. (more…)
13. May 2013
21. April 2013
The trouble with niceness: bravery, stoicism, and the cancer patient
I couldn’t have been more than ten when my grandma passed away. I remember her, wasted away, lying on her bed in an aging manufactured home, with an IV in arm, dying of cancer. By that point she’d been so saturated with morphine that conversation was impossible, slurred speech uttering impossibilities and hallucinatory babble, a loving old woman’s mind worn with the onslaught of opiates and an ever-increasing, inescapable misery. I can think of many words to describe the scene, mostly tragic; but brave is certainly not one of them. And unlike so many organizations and people frequently do, I wouldn’t dare use the word brave to describe anyone dying of AIDS, or anyone else battling cancer, or any other person suffering from any other sort of disease, however warm I may appear by doing so. We may perhaps call them stoical, recognizing that certain smile in the face of adversity, and comparing them with the renowned Roman ascetics; but to call them brave is neither fair not true. (more…)
8. April 2013
On rape and the law
Earlier in the month of October, I heard a troubling story about a man. Now, the man is not me (as some writers have a tendency to conceal), nor is he a man I know, but he is very close to a person who’s close to me. We can very rightly say the man is a fool: carousing with strange women, drinking to inebriation, cheating on his partner — certainly that he lacks sexual virtue. But having spent quite a bit of time running about the streets like a dog, he was eventually hit by a car. (more…)
25. February 2013
Trapped in the closet?
However long are the periods between its resurfacing, the closet — or at least, the modern concept of it — never fails in this generation to reappear: the closet, which had been hiding a megachurch pastor, now brought to disgrace; the closet, belching forth conservative politicians, long hidden, into headlines of ignominy; the closet, bringing Christian therapists into question, and salvation from the power of sin into disrepute. However it finds its entry, the revealed closet is always embarrassing to its former residents; oftentimes shocking, devouring the unexpected; never benign, painting not single persons, but entire ideologies and peoples with hypocritical hues and slanderous strokes. (more…)
23. February 2013
A tyranny effeminate
Forget the present era with all its corrosion and absurdities, dear reader, and hearken back to days of revolution — not our own, but another; across the Atlantic, where tumult and hope birthed misery and disaster, and French patriots instead of alienating their king took him prisoner.
Witness Carlyle’s masterful account of the revolution: how French men, harassed and subdued by military patrols and martial law, sat cowering in their homes until food stores ran dry — a time of great famine — and their children began to starve. No food in sight! Children wailing in the streets! Something must be done! And yet, nothing could be done; for broken spirited and famished, poorly armed — if armed at all — and permeated by a sentiment of inefficacy, what could man do but wait and weep? (more…)
14. February 2013
The psychological advantages of leftism
Throughout my journey into adulthood, I have become aware that two conditions prevail upon birth. The first is atheism, a child’s ignorance of the Godhead, man being exiled from the Garden of Eden, and forever dependent upon revelation — whether passed through tradition, or given directly — for communion with the divine. No child is born speaking the Laws of God; no child comprehends the majesty of the Almighty; but yet, as he grows, perhaps he might develop divine notions: ideas resulting from the complexity of nature, from the mystery of his existence, from the window into the human soul — from the conscience, the knowledge of good and evil, the burning desire of an immortal entrapped within a mortal shell. He may learn from others about the existence of God far before he discovers God without help; but he always acquires heavenly knowledge. It is never innate, unless imposed by an act of divine intervention. (more…)
24. January 2013
Jesus is coming… for your guns!
Two thousand years of existence, two thousand years of heresies and reforms, abuses and revivals have bred a Christianity diverse and confusing, alive — and yet smothered by itself. Whatever passes for Christendom these days, we may be certain that the overwhelming majority misunderstand Christ in some way or another, misquote Him; crusades marching under banners which infuriate angels and drive men of orthodoxy to weeping, choirs belching forth obscenities which cause dead Fathers’ bones to creak and wail within their lost and forgotten graves. When a thousand mutually exclusive claims coexist, and a thousand sects profess them fanatically, we must accept that confusion on particular points is nearly universal. This is the curse of age. In the present state of affairs, it cannot be avoided. (more…)
31. December 2012
In partial defense of Psy and anti-Americanism (remembering Abu Ghraib)
In the final days of the Roman republic, when barbarous Mithridates stood at the gates and threatened both safety and pride, Cicero stood before the senate and implored them to grant military command to Gnaeus Pompeius. His impassioned advocacy had almost everything to do with talent — with Pompey’s almost divine military skills, apparent at an extremely young age for a general; with his past record, having recently eradicated a pirate menace in a single year, which until then had all but stopped Roman shipping; and his indomitable reputation, certain enemies surrendering at the sound of Pompey’s name alone. Pompey was invincible, Cicero declared — but equally important to his skill, and the fearful name in which it resulted, was Pompey’s sense of justice. (more…)
27. December 2012
On objective physical beauty and the concept of fashion
When in the course of discussion, seemingly irreconcilable differences become manifest concerning the existence and preference of beauty, such differences oftentimes appear indicative of beauty’s subjective nature — that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; that because men visibly differ in preference, nature acknowledges no formula for the definition of “attractive.” But yet I believe the opposite can be proven: that a standard not only exists, but that the pursuit of beauty and fashion only maintain legitimacy within certain boundaries; and that if the pursuit of beauty transgresses its limitations, it becomes a perversion. It is the object of this essay to prove this theory, perhaps not defining the particulars of beauty — not to say which shades or shapes are beautiful –, but rather to present a general defense of beauty’s objective existence. (more…)
15. December 2012
The failures of democracy (an ode to Aristides)
Oh, what America could do with an Aristides of Athens!
Of humble birth, but possessive of a virtuous spirit, Aristides championed order and decency against both foreigner and citizen, rich and poor alike. His triumphs too numerous to mention in so short a space, it must suffice to recall a few: how he exposed corruption in government — however close to him it lay; his defense of due process not simply for friends, but for criminals and enemies; his admirable conduct on the field of battle, defending Greece against the barbaric Persians; his forfeiture of pride in relinquishing the generalship to a more capable commander, and the subsequent unity of Athens in a turbulent time. Athens had her share of honorable men, for which she has become well known; but above them all in the pursuit of justice, perhaps, was Aristides (see: Plutarch’s eloquent account). (more…)
6. December 2012
On the perils of moral conviction
Years have passed since I first heard those words, long ago recorded in the darkness of Mediterranean anarchy: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Not simply years, but generations of rape and murder, of mobs and violence, of tyranny and oppression, of heresy and revenge had stagnated God’s Israel into a cesspool of evils, and yet, this? Notice that it never said every man did what was wrong in his own eyes. No, had it said that, humanity would have been in a far less precarious position. But man in the depths of depravity didn’t simply disregard what was right: by denoting that man did what was right in his own eyes, man had the effect of evil, but without the guilt, without the shame, without the impending sense of divine judgment. Derailed from the tracks of reason and Law, humanity’s train careened into pathways unstable and fit him for destruction, all the while gliding softly off the edge of a spiritual cliff. (more…)
24. November 2012
GM wins, America loses (a treatise on profit, loss, and coercion)
Editor’s note: this article appeared on The American Thinker, November 24, 2012
Having already heard Obama praised, repeatedly, for saving GM, and having witnessed both presidential candidates show support for the company, I’ve decided that it’s time to explain, not in emotional terms or statistics, but in simple philosophical truths, what exactly it was that Obama saved. For when the matter is closely examined without national prejudice, I believe that what he did by “saving” GM was actually quite sinister. (more…)
13. November 2012
Recollections of an unchaste youth
When I was about the age of five, I distinctly remember attending a wedding. The details of the actual ceremony, by this point, are almost entirely lost: I know whose wedding it was, and that they had either rented or borrowed nice table cloths. The strange part about the whole circumstance is that I remember the table cloths because I was beneath them with a young girl, and we were hiding beneath them because we were taking our clothes off. (more…)
11. November 2012
Moses and Mises: how businesses are better than charities
The world has seen its fair share of injustice and stupidity, but there exists one particularly obnoxious sentiment, masked in pretenses of Christendom, which denies the moral importance of business and profit. Citing most improperly Jesus Christ, ignorant Westerners tout the charity as the supreme duty of all Christians, as though Christ Himself was not a career carpenter and Paul not a tent maker. They pretend as though Judaism — the religion God personally founded — never had anything noble to say of the business operating wife, righteousness resulting in wealth, or that Mosaic property rights overtly establish the righteousness of ownership. They love to quote “sell all you have and give to the poor,” without noting the instructive purpose of that individual commandment to an individual person, and entirely disregard “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” But looking beyond this, there is a question still lurking behind the necessity of production which begs to be answered: whether or not a business is actually less moral than a charity.
30. October 2012
On marijuana and psychedelics
I’ve heard many arguments supporting or opposing the legalization of marijuana and drugs in general, most of them practical in nature, but almost entirely unsatisfactory. It seems more prudent, to this writer, that if we’re to have a meaningful policy concerning man — the mind of man, particularly –, we must first begin neither with opinion nor conjecture, but with truths about his very nature. (more…)
30. September 2012
Why I’m a Christian conservative (a reply to angry libertarians)
To my right lies a book written by hymn writer and philosopher Isaac Watts, a textbook once used at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale for generations, to train men in the art of reason. It opens thusly:
The pursuit and acquisition of truth is of infinite concernment to mankind. Hereby we become acquainted with the name of things both in Heaven and earth, and their various relations to each other. It is by this means we discover our duty to God and our fellow-creatures; by this we arrive at the knowledge of natural religion, and learn to confirm our faith in divine revelation, as well as to understand what is revealed. Our wisdom, prudence, and piety, our present conduct and our future hope, are all influenced by the use of our rational powers in the search after truth. (more…)
28. September 2012
The question of an egomaniacal Heavenly Father
While talking to my father only a short while ago, we stumbled upon a controversial question of great importance: that being whether or not it’s egomaniacal for God to demand that others worship Him. It seemed strange, at first, that He would embody a characteristic usually recognized as abusive, bizarre, and oftentimes difficult to explain to those outside the faith. But I believe these difficulties can be resolved, first, upon further inspection of man’s fall, and second, upon careful examination of what it means to be finite. (more…)
22. September 2012
Why I’m not a libertarian
300 pages into Ludwig von Mises’ economic masterpiece, Human Action, and I’ve found myself stopping for air. I’m not fatigued, as I was 300 pages into John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion; I’m not confused, like I was in the last portion of Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. Mises is a mastermind, too interesting and fresh to find tedious (though Calvin is mostly enjoyable), and far too clear and concise to be confusing. No, Human Action is one of the most profound books I’ve ever read. My momentary pause has far less to do with Mises’ difficulty, and far more to do with his spiritual emptiness: he must be read in segments because my soul buckles under the total burden of his meaninglessness. (more…)
20. September 2012
The silent man: on passion and will
Sir, Silent Man, whoever you are, though I see you throughout the week, and have for quite some time, you puzzle me. (more…)
31. August 2012
On proper affections
Plutarch once noted the great displeasure of Emperor Augustus, upon the latter’s witnessing some wealthy foreign women in Rome. Carrying puppies and baby monkeys, caressing the animals as they would have their own children, the women inspired Augustus to protest, and with snideness fit for an emperor, he spoke: what kind of people, he asked, would waste motherly affections upon animals? (more…)
19. August 2012
On absurdity
The other night I had a dream. An old friend of mine and I were sitting in a dingy bar, reminiscing about our collegiate days together, with a projected film ahead of us. She and I were both facing the same way, toward the projector screen, when an ad made me slightly uncomfortable: a woman, attempting to sell her latest comedy routine, was dressed somewhat scantily, cheaply attempting to lure my attention because her jokes were sub-par. The attempt failed. (more…)
Refuting the charge of blasphemy: a short dissertation on the Biblical purpose of government
Can the state ever really make men good?
In recent months, this author has been accused of blasphemy by one of his intellectual friends, allegedly over the above political question. But though the question is simple, and the accusation upon first glance appears to be an isolated case, the charge upon further inspection assails far many more than myself, and comprises a collision between two very different, but often improperly defined, doctrines: those of the Christian libertarian and the Biblical conservative. It is this theological and political collision which I seek to explain, should the reader bear with me. (more…)
1. August 2012
Can liberty be regained?
Obamacare — upheld! Those were the words proclaimed on June 28th, which, had Washington, Madison, and Jefferson only been alive to witness them, would have bowed their heads in sorrow. But kings and prophets have long ago borne testimony that nations birthed in moral triumph are eventually handed to the unworthy, and the unworthy cannot maintain true liberty. (more…)
23. July 2012
In (partial) defense of President Obama’s Roanoke statement: individuals and collectivism
Though many issues divide the Republican and Democratic parties, one of the most crucial (and unfortunately, least understood) concerns the line drawn between individual and society. In a recent speech, the sitting president controversially remarked,
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. (more…)
3. July 2012
The danger of goodness: why Biblical Law matters to everyone
The Creator having impressed His image upon mankind, justice is oftentimes taught not in ways conventional and scholastic, but according to manners mysterious and ethereal. The other day, for instance, I had a dream in which I befriended a hamster. He lived beside my childhood home, and I would spend my time going over to visit him, chatting for short bits of time, and carrying him around in my hand. But there came a moment in the dream at which a third party entered. A kitten, leering out of childlike inquisitiveness, pounced onto the scene, and before I had a good chance to assess the situation, I found him leaping toward my friend with mischievous intent. (more…)
25. June 2012
Why Christianity is sexually conservative
In the present day and age, no political passion surpasses that exchanged between sexual liberals and sexual conservatives. Even within the buildings known as Christian churches, division permeates an already splintered people into smaller shards, the whispers growing into shouts, indignant people preaching sermons which do little to convince, and much more to infuriate. And when both sides reach that fevered pitch, what are we to decide? Aren’t we to call every sinner to Christ? What authority do Christian standards have beyond the church? And if God judges the nations, what kind of law does He call us to support? (more…)
7. June 2012
The religion of heroism
Editor’s note: this article appeared on the Christian Post on June 07, 2012
One of the greatest legends of Roman civilization concerns a general named Marcus Regulus. This man, having gone to war against a barbaric enemy, Carthage, and having been captured with little to no hope of escape, was given the prospect of liberty. His captors offered him a bargain few men could refuse — a chance to return to the safety and comfort of a thankful Rome — in exchange for a simple favor: the negotiation of an exchange of prisoners. If successful, Carthage offered him return to Rome; if met with failure, under oath before his gods, Regulus swore to return to his captors. (more…)
27. May 2012
Market based justice?
To whom has the Creator prescribed justice? To the rich, or to the poor?
Beneath every breast a singular answer lies, being placed by that holy finger therein so that men, having no excuse in transgression, could be brought to account for every violation of equity. Yet in the United States of America, though men oftentimes proudly proclaim themselves blind to status, that both rich and poor have equal standing in courts of law, quite the opposite can be proven when the reach of capital is considered. (more…)
26. April 2012
The evil of disorder
If one has spent any serious amount of time talking about politics with his neighbors, he’s sure to have heard someone say that “we all want the same things.”
At first the saying seems benign, a somewhat understanding and peaceful approach to political conversation, a suggestion that despite disagreement, neither party is evil, nor any countryman an enemy. But in reality, behind the mask of camaraderie and tolerance, and perhaps even deeper than the intentions of its professors, lies an ideology extremely harmful to society at large. For evils don’t often manifest themselves in total opposition to any universally positive quality. Instead, persuading with a charming tone and appealing oftentimes to the same qualities which noble men hold dear, they simply rearrange the manner in which those qualities take precedence over one another. (more…)
25. March 2012
Sharing the burdens of others: sympathy and empathy
Editor’s note: this article also appeared on The Christian Post on March 21, 2012
The other day, a young man I know through work, Eddie, approached me with tragic news. His good friend’s sister, who had recently given birth, had (due to what appears to be medical errors on behalf of the hospital) given birth to a practical stillborn. She was heartbroken, and though Eddie knew I was unacquainted with her or her family, he couldn’t help but share his sorrow. (more…)