J.R.R. Tolkien’s Christian Anarchist stand against the faceless collective and the group-think that controls them
While most of us are fans of ‘The Hobbit‘ and ‘Lord of the Rings‘ novels, some of us probably aren’t as up to date on the rest of J.R.R.Tolkien’s work and thought. The majority would know that he was friends with C.S. Lewis, and was part of the Inklings. An Oxford circle of writers, who would meet on an informal basis in order to compare and critique each others’ writing. The group informally (and unconventionally) included the straight-talking, Dorothy Sayers, and is said to have centred around the groups’ shared Christian faith and Christian values. Though Sayers apparently never attended the Inking…
Crying wolf about Nazism, diminishes the heinous crime of Nazism and dehumanises others
In August 2016, I posted a quick response to the hysteria surrounding the election of Donald Trump. I headlined that post, ‘Why Trump is Not Hitler, & Why American Evangelicals Are Not German Christians’. My aim was to counter a lot of what I was seeing posted on social media by people who were usually level-headed and intellectually responsible. It was disappointing to see normally sane individuals suddenly join in the anti-trump rants – which really were, I’m angry because the Leftist power structures, and its monopoly on power, has been diminished – tantrums. Worse still, some Christian conservative academics…
Abortion: Kermit Gosnell and the slide to infanticide.
In May 2013 Dr Kermit Gosnell from Pennsylvania was found guilty of three counts of first degree murder of three children intended for abortion but born alive and then murdered, and one count of involuntary manslaughter for failing to properly look after a woman who had gone through an abortion. Even some hardened pro-abortion people admitted that the whole business was grisly in the extreme. Apparently one of the aborted children was so big that Gosnell quipped that he could ‘walk me to the bus stop’. Photos were shown to the jury which depicted babies with wounds in the back…
Almost two-thirds of millennials think Socialism is a good thing.
They say those who won’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. And narcissistic, selfie-obsessed millenials are proof to the veracity of that claim. Almost two-thirds of individuals born between 1981 and 1996 view Socialism in a positive light. .@carolinemarcus: Close to two-thirds of millennials in Australia view socialism in a favourable light. I’m a little bit shocked by the sheer number of people. They’ve obviously become so complacent about how good we have it. MORE: https://t.co/ykweMevBOK #thefridayshow pic.twitter.com/JTY5HnaVbK — Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 8, 2019 Meanwhile in the U.S. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey have introduced…
Be a Good Hater: Righteous Anger and the Rule of Christian Love
The provocative quote of the week goes to, Charles Spurgeon: “Be a good hater.” The statement, “be a good hater” is a challenge to resist evil (James 4L7). To resist the morality of the tyrant or the ‘crowd which has no hands’ (Kierkegaard, The Crowd is Untruth) In context, it means: to abhor evil: to regard it with extreme repugnance. [In Latin, “abhor” is Odium: with hostility; “repugnance”: resist, be an adversary of evil.] Our present age has an almost absolute fear of hate, yet most would agree that “let love be genuine. Hate what is evil, cling to that…
Banning the Holy Spirit and chaining the Word
As Western societies lurch from one disastrous fad to another, there have been increased efforts to ban what are called gay conversion therapies. Hollywood has naturally offered its obligatory contribution with the movie Boy Erased, Academia chipped in with a report from La Trobe University – the institution that birthed the Safe Schools Coalition – which joined with the Human Rights Law Centre and Gay & Lesbian Health Victoria to produce research to show that ‘LGBT conversion therapy remains a real problem in Australian religious communities.’ The Victorian government over 2016-2017 banned such therapy, and the Conservative government in the…
How to uproot the Christian church, a masterclass from Louis XIV
By 1685 Louis XIV had from the age of four been the King of France for 42 years, and he still had another thirty years to reign. From birth his mind and heart had been thoroughly trained to believe that God had anointed him to be France’s absolute ruler. His Huguenot subjects, the French Protestants who refused to submit to his Roman Catholic beliefs and practices, offended him. They stood outside of his thought-world. They stood against the beliefs that he cherished as true. Ultimately, he sensed that they stood outside of his control. The Huguenots offended the abysmal totalitarian…
We serve whatever our hearts are tethered to
What people think matters; how people see us matters. We anchor ourselves to the opinions and values of others. Men and women latch their value to the people we see as giving us value. Our worth is then neatly packaged into the confined space of that other person’s thoughts and whims. This is all okay up to a point. Humans were built for community, we need good government and organisation; men and women, living in fellowship, not in isolation, are human together. However, people tethering themselves to the thoughts of others without caution, spells potential disaster. For example, when we…
The Telegraph urges men to give their wives permission to commit adultery this Christmas.
The Telegraph UK published a piece yesterday encouraging married couples to, at the very least, discuss the possibility of a “consensual non-monogamous” marriage. According to the article, titled ‘Why men should give their wives a cheat pass this Christmas,’ monogamy might not be the only approach to long-term relationships, because “contrary to popular opinion, women tire of their sexual partners faster than men, and need just as much sexual adventure and novelty as their male counterparts – if not more.” The article goes on to argue that monogamy is hard, citing a YouGov study that showed one in five British…
John MacArthur to appear on The Ben Shapiro Show: Sunday Special
Here’s one not to miss. John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church, founder of Grace to You Ministries, and president of The Master’s University and The Master’s Seminary in California, will appear on the Ben Shapiro Show: Sunday Special to discuss the role of government, proof of God, and more. Dr MacArthur was a frequent guest on Larry King Live and has been acknowledged by Christianity Today to be one of the most influential preachers of our time. THE @BENSHAPIRO SHOW: SUNDAY SPECIAL! Sunday: Pastor John MacArthur joins Ben to discuss the role of government, proof of God, and more!!!…
Is anti-discrimination the first commandment?
Drawing on the work of two American writers, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, Paul Kelly wrote recently of ‘the three great lies corroding Western cultures’. In his view, these are: first, that disputes today are a battle between good (defined as the oppressed victims) and evil (defined as the privileged minority); secondly, that people will be made weaker by being challenged so they need to be protected and made safe; and thirdly, that we must always trust our feelings. All that is undeniable, but associated with these great lies is the confusion in our view of the law. In the…
Peter Hitchens warns, those who drive Christianity out of society are preparing the way for Islam.
Peter Hitchens has warned, the atheist campaign against God in the West is preparing the way for Islam. In an interview on Conversations with Vicky Warren, Hitchens said, “When they drive Christianity out of Europe, as they’re rapidly succeeding in doing, they will not create an atheist paradise. They will leave a space for Islam.” Hitchens went on to warn that material prosperity, military force and anti-terror laws are not a reliable or sufficient defense against Islamic take-over. With Christianity out of the picture the spread of Islam will be near impossible to resist. “Those people who now campaign for Christianity to be…
Capitalism needs compassion, compassion needs capitalism; socialism outlaws both.
Capitalism may be plagued by greed, as it hinders the free market through hoarding and monopolies, but ultimately capitalism creates room for compassion. Laws exist to fortify the free market, so as to protect the free market from the death blows of a greed-is-good culture. Through the referee of small government the free market is nurtured. Through capitalism, doors are opened for freedom; for people to be free to be compassionate; free to give out of the abundance of what they have earned. Free to give out of the abundance of what they are free to own and earn. Socialism,…
The death of sanctity.
Economics tells us that the value of a thing is nothing more or less than what someone is willing to pay for it. The most amazing painting, the rarest antique, the most ingenious book… none of these have any value if no-one wants them. What, then, is the value of a person? If this question were asked in eighteenth-century Britain, the answer would be something like “three guineas, maybe four. Does he have all his teeth?” At that time, the slave trade treated humans as a commodity within a capitalist framework. The economics definition applied:like gold, oil and toilet-paper, a…
MP and Marriage Equality Campaign co-chair wants a formal apology from the Anglican church for holding to a Christian view of marriage.
Independent New South Wales MP and Equality Campaign co-chair Alex Greenwich has told the Sydney Anglican church to apologise for their behaviour during the same-sex marriage postal survey. Greenwich accused the church of seeking to disrupt and undermine the inclusiveness of Australian society by insisting on the Christian definition of marriage. According to The Guardian, Greenwich wrote to Michael Stead, the bishop of South Sydney, seeking a formal apology from the Anglican church for their “harmful and damaging conduct.” “It’s deeply troubling that instead of seeking to repair the church’s relationship with the LGBTIQ community, who you knowingly harmed during…
Venezuelan politicians still in denial, labels Angelina Jolie’s concerns “right-wing propaganda.”
American celebrity and UNHCR Special Envoy, Angelina Jolie, who had recently visited Venezuelan refugees in Peru, has been accused of being a tool of “Right Wing Propaganda”. Venezuelan Socialist Party boss, Diosdado Cabello, as reported by The Washington Post labelled Jolie’s visit, as “right wing media”, distracting from a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants heading to the United States.” Cabello’s tweet: Angelina Jolie was in Peru on behalf of the United Nations special envoy. In an UNHCR press release yesterday, Jolie gave her assessment on the Venezuelan refugee crisis, saying that it was ‘all the more shocking for being predictable and preventable.’…
Directing Light Under The Shadow Of Nihilism: How Abortion Negates Freedom
For those who believe in absolute freedom, any “no” spoken to humanity from outside humanity, is repressive, and unfairly restrictive. In the shadow of this logic, even a lighthouse or global positioning navigation is offensive. Both the lighthouse and GPS direct humanity. They protect freedom, because in their very confrontation with us, they invite true freedom. They remind us of individual responsibility. Their existence shows us the necessity and power of decision. They direct us to make responsible choices. The existence of the lighthouse warns us that danger awaits. To act in absolute freedom and ignore this warning, is to…
Simone Weil: Marxism is a badly constructed religion.
Details about Simone Weil’s life and thought are enigmatic. Other than what’s included in the general encyclopedic biographies circling the internet, I know very little about her. Unlike someone such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, there is no long, authorised biography written by her friends. What knowledge I have been about to find out about her, is padded by what I’ve learnt from conversations with internet friends, whose admiration for her work has increased over the years. Simone was a French intellectual. Like Jacques Ellul, Weil worked in the French resistance, was an admirer of Karl Marx, and a contemporary of Albert…
The abortion of our conscience
It is the best of times. At no other time in human history has there been less war or invasion, plagues or pestilence, slavery or poverty. There has never been more knowledge, education and instant availability of information literally in the pockets and at the fingertips of more people than there is now. We are empowered, free and masters of our own destiny. We are civilised and enlightened and the major problems which plagued humanity for millennia have largely been solved. But it is the worst of times. We boast of social progress from the pagan ignorance of slavishly worshipping…
It’s not Wong to say “It’s okay to be white”
Senator Pauline Hanson has once again caused remarkable controversy by saying something entirely unremarkable. “It’s okay to be white.” Apparently this is highly controversial because an idiot said it once upon a time. That’s it. It’s not factually incorrect. There is nothing inherently intolerant, violent, hateful or inaccurate about it. Of course, if the outrageous motion put by the Senator to our Commonwealth Parliament was repeated in Cape Town, you can be sure Cyril Ramaphosa would be frothing at the mouth nearly as much as Senator Penny Wong is now. According to Penny, “everyone” knows the phrase is used by…
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