The Failure of the Academy: Politicization of Statistics and Definitions (Part 2 of 2)

We've reached a point where we have to start thinking a bit differently about money and how we live. I'm speaking to society as a whole. I'm hardly alone in this.

But more particularly I'm speaking to Christians.

For years we've been told by the Dave Ramsey's and Larry Burkett's that there's an ethical component to how we handle our money. And not a few will point out that economics was born from ethics.

It's true and yet I believe the modern Church and in particular the Church of the Western Democracies and especially the United States has got it wrong.

We've baptized avarice.

The Failure of the Academy: Politicization of Statistics and Definitions (Part 1 of 2)

Don't trust the metrics. Statistics can be and often are manipulated.


The Clinton era economic boom of the 1990s was a time of prosperity for some but few seem to realize that growth usually comes at someone else's expense.

I chuckle as I engage in conversation and read so many commentators who suggest the poor need to quit clamouring for higher wages and just work toward getting more education. That's a great idea for some but it won't work for all.

The whole system is predicated on the fact that there is a mass of cheap labour at the very bottom. There must be a pool or poor working class people that work for wages that they cannot live on. Without this, consumer prices would skyrocket and the consumer-based US economy would crash.

Five Centuries of Calvin (Part 2 of 2)

Interestingly the Reformation largely failed to achieve the goal of liberating the church from the state. On the continent of Europe, the state churches continued to dominate until the 19^th century. By then all of the state churches had slipped into Enlightenment apostasy and it took Pietism and the Free Church movement to finally get European Christians to start thinking differently about the idea of Christian Civilization. But as Pietism proved both a blessing and a curse, this too largely failed and many of those movements eventually departed from the faith and embraced theological liberalism.

Five Centuries of Calvin (Part 1 of 2)

Recently I've been listening to some seminary lectures from 2009. This was a big year for Reformed people because it was the 500^th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin.

All over the country and all over the world there were conferences celebrating Calvin and speaking of his influence in history and the shaping of civilization. The lectures range in topic from theology to politics to economics. Calvin truly is a titan in terms of civilizational influence.

Inbox: Denomination Clarification

(Answering Questions #23)

Q. Regarding your post on Denominations- If the unity is found in the Spirit, how are denominations a hindrance? Don't they help bring groups of like minded people together? You said congregations will fellowship. Don't denominations create a way for that to happen?

A. No. They promote schism and try to find and establish unity in a man-made form.

Whether the denomination is rooted in a tradition... cultural, theological etc... or, in a lowest common denominator approach, it's still trying to find the unity through the creation of some kind of factional bureaucratic affiliation. The Scripture knows nothing of this.