True Masculinity

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"I was the one completely responsible for her safety. What other choices were there."

Christianity and Liberty in America

The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live.

- Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835

The Duty to Stop Voting [for certain things]

College and Maturity

The college system is not designed to mature people... If you’re waiting for your son to reach the college years to start working toward maturity, you’ve waited too long. We’ve got to start working toward maturity long before then … I got married my sophomore year at college, had a daughter when I was a junior, and, of course, having to work, raise a family, and do all of those things, my grades actually went up [though people were afraid of the opposite] just because of the level of maturity with which I approached that time of my life.

We have young men now who will go off to college, they don’t have to get a job, and we tell them not to get married until after that period of their life is over … so the 2 main things that God uses to mature a man are removed from them while they’re put in an environment where all the worst that the world has to offer is available to them 24 hours a day.

- Voddie Baucham

The Nanny State and Allowance

Before Thee Let My Cry Come Near

“Without a restoration of the Psalms to an honored place in worship, our musical worship of the Lord will continue to have the gravitas of a glad bag full of styrofoam packing peanuts.”

– Douglas Wilson, Mother Kirk: Essays on Church Life (p. 138)

Here is a video of one of the Psalms we had the privilege and pleasure of singing acapella today in our annual outdoor worship service at the Conquest Beach Park. 

Before Thee Let My Cry Come Near from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.

Full Daughters

Q: How does a father protect his daughter as she approaches the marriageable age?

A: "The best way I know to put it is:  ‘A father protects his daughter by “keeping her tank full’.’  When your daughter is a little girl, there ought to be a lot of praise and compliments and affection and time with dad.  Dad cares about her and dad takes her out on dates."

-Doug Wilson

[photo: getty images]

.45 Coulter

The Framers’ primary reason for including the right to bear arms in the Bill of Rights was so that the people could defend themselves against the government just as they do by means of the vastly-overrated 1st amendment. Interestingly, the Supreme Court is constantly having to remind Americans of their 1st Amendment rights - issuing over 100 decisions in the past half century alone.  The Court has only ruled on the 2nd Amendment in a handful of cases ever - the last time in 1939.

Ever Notice the Inscription on the Liberty Bell?

“Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof.”

-Leviticus 25.10

“By Order of the ASSEMBLY of the Province of PENSYLVANIA for the State House in Philadelphia”
Pass and Stow Philadelphia 1753

Interestingly, our Founding Fathers' view of church and state was such that it did not keep them from ordering quotations of Leviticus to be inscribed on state property [in the 1750's].  Thankfully, contemporary scholars and politicians are here to tell us what the Founding Fathers really thought, lest we be misled by their actual words and deeds.

Lord's Day Prayer - 13 June 2010

If You, Lord, should keep track of all our sins, Oh Lord, who could stand before You.  But with You there is forgiveness so that You will be feared.


-Psalm 130

Merciful Father, we are a people who know Your forgiveness, help us to be a people who know Your fear.    We have not been forgiven little, help us not to love little.  Keep us from luke-warmness, which is our natural response to your constant goodness.  Make us to be like Your Son, consumed by zeal for our Father and zeal for the glory of His name.

Amen.

Theology and the 3 Year Old

The following conversation took place during a family van ride the other day:
Gideon [3]: “Daddy, is Jesus big?”  
Me: “Yes, Gid – Jesus is very big.”  
Gid: “Then how did they kill Him?”  
Me:  “sigh … The answer is very long, will you listen to me if I tell you?”  
Gid: “No … [pause] … actually yes.”  
Me:  “Well before Jesus died, He had a normal body just like you and me.  He was as big as a normal man.  That’s how they killed Him.  But He didn’t stay dead, did He? They put Him in the tomb for 3 days, and then what happened to Him?”  
Gid: “He rose back to life.”  
Me: “Yes!  And when God raised Him back to life …” 
Gid: “God?... Jesus is God!”  
Me: “Yes, He certainly is, but I meant God the Father … when God the Father raised Him back to life, He gave Him a new body – a wonderful, glorified body.  And that new body is really big.”  
Gid: … [after a minute of contemplating, I see in the rear view mirror what looks like Gideon holding up both arms and making the sign-language shape for ‘I love you’ with his fingers.  He then said:]... “When Spiderman does this, webs shoot out of his hands!”  
…   end of theology lesson.

National Eclipse

The main problem we face today is not economic but political. Sound economists are in substantial agreement concerning what ought to be done. Practically all government attempts to redistribute wealth and income tend to smother productive incentives and lead toward general impoverishment. It is the proper sphere of government to create and enforce a framework of law that prohibits force and fraud. But it must refrain from specific economic interventions. Government's main economic function is to encourage and preserve a free market.
When Alexander the Great visited the philosopher Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for him, Diogenes is said to have replied: "Yes, stand a little less between me and the sun." It is what every citizen is entitled to ask of his government.

- Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson
[photo: Christianlibertarians.com]

Carts, Horses, and Governments

"We are a nation that has a government, not the other way around."

- President Ronald Reagan

"Yeah Bacon!"

It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.

-Francis Bacon, [1561-1626]

If ...

Here's another gem from our bedtime poetry readings:

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

John Wooden, RIP

12-Step Economic Recovery Program

A 12-Step Economic Recovery Program for Impoverished African-Americans
by Gary North [abridged]

These begin with a presupposition: class position isn't primarily about one's level of income, but rather, his worldview: specifically his theory of cause and effect.

1. Join a church. I don't mean some shrinking, liberal, mainline denomination, especially one whose name begins with the word "United." I mean a Bible-preaching, hell-fire-and-damnation church, which warns people weekly that sins produce negative results. Avoid the never-ending liberal blame-shifting. The woman whom You gave me, she handed me the fruit!

2. Donate 10% of your income to your church. This is called tithing. It says to yourself and your church's deacons, "Every good and perfect gift comes down from my unchanging Father and I rely on Him for my money. This 10% off the top is a token of my faith that there's more where that came from."

3. Finish school. Graduating from high school or college doesn't make you smart. It makes you reliable. It sends a message to future employers: "I finish what I start, even something as inherently boring as school." No man who looks back, once he’s put his hand to the plough, is fit for the kingdom of God.

4. Get married and stay married to the same person. This takes advantage of the productivity offered by the division of labor. It's also a huge motivation for #5…

The Real Robin Hood

Though modern-day versions of the Robin Hood story often portray the man as the original Socialist, Ridley Scott’s new film, starring Russell Crowe, is purported to be provocatively more authentic. Here is are some shortened excerpts of Kathy Young's fine article about it:

Scholars note, the earliest [13/14th century] Robin Hood ballads do not mention ‘robbing the rich to give to the poor’.
The one person Robin assists financially is a knight who is about to lose his lands to greedy monks at an abbey. (Corrupt clerics using the political power of the Church are among Robin Hood's frequent targets in the ballads.) The Sheriff of Nottingham is Robin's chief opponent; at the time, the sheriffs' role as tax collectors made the object of loathing by peasants and commoners. Robin Hood is also frequently shown helping men who face barbaric punishments for hunting in the royal forests, a pursuit permitted to nobles and strictly forbidden to the lower classes in medieval England; in other words, he is opposing privilege bestowed by political power, not earned wealth.

Dutch's Quote of the Day

'Status quo' is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in’. 


– Ronald Reagan