26 February 2016

The US Fifth Republic

This is a subjective exercise to be sure but it is certainly in keeping with the frameworks imposed by many others on the American narrative and its historical development.

Many countries occasionally will replace their constitutions, re-write their laws and effectively re-create themselves. This can be occasioned by a huge political shift, a coup, a war or something along those lines.

21 February 2016

The False Narratives of Meese, Scalia and Originalism

Recently former Attorney General Ed Meese was interviewed on LPR's Issues Etc. and asked to comment on the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the coming battle over a replacement for him.

Meese consistently expressed concern for the Constitution, praised Scalia for his stances, values and defense of the document. In addition Meese also identified himself as a devoted Lutheran.

The entire interview was a fraud.

14 February 2016

The Razor's Edge: Covenant Faithfulness and Apostasy Part III

When you break with a group like the Brethren you have taken a wholly different path and it's no surprise that some who have done this end up working out the implications.

For many years I've often thought about someone like Garrison Keillor, host of the radio show 'A Prairie Home Companion'. He's retiring this year and has recently been making the news. Many people mistake him for being a Lutheran as his show based on a fictional town in Minnesota often pokes fun at Upper-Midwestern Christian and thus Lutheran culture. But Keillor was raised Plymouth Brethren and he's mentioned it many times in the show and done pieces about how his family didn't celebrate Christmas etc...

The Razor's Edge: Covenant Faithfulness and Apostasy Part II

The antithesis requires that our children will grow up knowing that it means something to be a Christian and this affects the whole of life and the decisions and plans that we make.

But it also means that they will realise it's not the 'both-and' of mainstream Christianity but the definitive 'either-or'.
There are plenty of issues and questions that can be addressed and answered by the incorporation of 'both-and' thinking, and can even be done so in a non-accommodationist way. We can widen the question, embrace types of multi-perspectivalism and thus to a degree embrace and entertain a reduction in certainty without giving in to absolute extremes.

13 February 2016

The Razor's Edge: Covenant Faithfulness and Apostasy Part I

When the antithesis is heightened, so is the risk. The Plymouth Brethren represent not only a more conscientiously separatist form of Christianity but their antithesis in this case also extends to the Christian narrative as a whole.

08 February 2016

The Reality of the Demonic

All Christians committed to the veracity of Scripture acknowledge the reality of the demonic and yet there's a wide spectrum in how this is understood and applied.