Mary de Rachewiltz, Ezra Pound, and the Battle for Western Civilization

Mary de Rachewiltz (1925-2026) has died at the age of 101. She wasn't exactly a household name but as the daughter of Ezra Pound and Olga Rudge, she was somewhat famous in European and American artistic circles. But her reputation was tarnished at least in part by her father Ezra and his associations with Fascism and Mussolini and the fact that she devoted most of her adult life to curating his work and memory.

Twisting the Scriptures, Undermining Biblical Principles, and the Supposed Stewardship of Voting (II)

Woods' appeals to New Testament limits on state power are also guilty of non sequitur. He confuses a Christian ethic and call to bear witness with enumerated powers. Likewise in his state of deception and delusion (32:00) he seems to find the Second Amendment in the Scripture - even when numerous passages in the New Testament repudiate the ethic of vengeance, self-defense, let alone the taking of life in self interest. His interpretations of Luke 22 and Christ's words regarding the two swords being enough are telling as he falls into the very same misguided interpretive traps as did the Pharisees who argued with him and the apostles in some of their worst moments of ignorance. The sword in Luke 22 has nothing to do with walking around with a gun strapped to you - or strategically placed under you car seat. And Christ made very clear in the garden that he was not calling them to take up swords and warned them against doing so. They were either an object lesson or a case of his exasperation due to their lack of understanding - which He knew would be clarified in short order. Woods completely misinterprets these passages as indeed he has demonstrated a repeated failure to grasp basic New Testament teachings and ethics.

Psychology, the Re-framing of Evangelical Parenting, and Roads to Apostasy

https://religionnews.com/2025/10/09/new-book-debunks-spanking-and-the-myths-of-christian-parenting/

https://religionnews.com/2024/05/30/adults-raised-in-the-christian-parenting-empire-of-the-70s-90s-push-back/

Evangelicalism has an established track record of compromise and worldly thinking. From its inception in the post-war context, this movement has left the doors wide open to worldly influence.

Therefore it's no surprise to read of these assaults on Biblical parenting being offered by women - women who are effectively teaching doctrine and ethics. Their disobedience to the Scriptures and the fact that they are given standing and an audience within the Evangelical sphere only further emphasizes this point.

The Church in Dark Ages - A Call to Dissent and Nonconformity (III)

Evangelicals have frequently looked askance at Roman Catholic scholastic theology and its long tradition of philosophical syncretism - and with good reason.

The Church in Dark Ages - A Call to Dissent and Nonconformity (II)

Medieval Romanism formulated its notions of law and justice in terms of a fusion between old Roman jurisprudence and the tribal codes and customs coming out of the Germanic world. Over time this would be re-tooled by other influences. The point being - Scripture had little to do with it.

Ghosts of Weimar: A Lament for Lutherans Struck Blind

I found myself frustrated listening to a couple of Missouri-Synod pastors discussing what they called The American Interim - an attempt to draw a parallel with the Augsburg and Leipzig Interims (1548-1555). German Lutherans were forced to make concessions in the wake of their 1547 defeat in the First Schmalkaldic War. Eventually the Protestant princes rose and in the Second war of that name they achieved victory marked by the 1555 Peace of Augsburg.

John Adams and Dominionism's Inescapable March Toward Authoritarianism

In an oft quoted 1798 letter to the Massachusetts Militia, John Adams stated:

“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Adams was a Unitarian who thoroughly embraced the Enlightenment and would over the course of his life grow more and more hostile to institutional Christianity. Like so many at that time he attended church services but (it could be argued) this was more a sense of social duty and moral principal than any notion of actual worship, communion, or submitting to revelation.

As such, it could be said that Adams typified the very kind of civic religion that continues to bedevil American society and has functioned to confuse and water down genuine Biblical faith.

Regardless this quote is often cited by the Evangelical Right as a justification for political action and a means of assessing contemporary American society.

A Different Sort of Non-Aligned Movement

When trying to explain how a First Reformation and non-resistance view might operate in today's world and how we might bear witness with regard to events, culture, and geopolitics - and yet not be part of it, I was reminded of the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War.

The Architect of Modern Evangelicalism (II)

In many cases his interpretation of culture, politics, and geo-politics will leave the American reader confused. Profoundly conservative, his views on economics are not at all in line with the American Right - and certainly not its waxing Libertarian wing. He condemns laissez-faire policies and the utilitarian arguments that capitalism so often resorts to. He understands that 'money creates power' and warns against it - but then still spends the whole of his life chasing after power and relying on alliances with those who possess wealth. I find it remarkable that he clearly understood and accepted the notion that a Christian political order without a regenerate populace would necessarily result in an oppressive system. It's something American Evangelicals largely do not grasp and of course they don't want to hear it as it flies in the face of the narratives about freedom and liberty. Americans can still dream and fantasize in a way never afforded to the claustrophobic ordering of nations in Europe.

The Architect of Modern Evangelicalism (I)

I recently finished reading James Bratt's 2013 work - Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat. I cannot recommend it enough. It was an excellent work, well done, and at times even something of a page turner. While some American readers might struggle at times with the dynamics of 19th century European politics, enough is explained that I think most will be able to persevere through it.

Libertarian Myths Exposed and Refuted

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2024/05/07/1249203297/neoliberal-economics-the-road-to-freedom-or-authoritarianism

The report of this little exchange between Beveridge and Hayek is still relevant. This is all the more the case to me when I consider how the thinking of Hayek, von Mises, Rand, and other godless economists of the Austrian economic and Libertarian school continue to capture the hearts of many Evangelicals.

Historical Cycles: The Post-Napoleonic Context of Adolphe Monod, Reveil, and Some Contemporary Analogies (III)

As has so often been the case in Church history, persecution failed to defeat the faithful. They were instead defeated by peace and flourishing, and through compromise, the ability to attain status and respect in society. The American Beast did not persecute the Church, instead it seduced it. The crisis for American Christianity came at the turn of the twentieth century when the Classical Liberalism of its founding (with its secular assumptions) finally overtook and began to openly subvert the (by then) weakened and deformed Christian consensus – thus creating the crisis that would generate new cycles and chapters of reaction and compromise in American Church history throughout the twentieth century right up to the present.

Glorying in their Shame: Celebrating the Magisterial Reformation's Sacral Heritage (I)

or

The Distorted Thinking Which Dominates Reformed Political Thinking Today

https://americanreformer.org/2023/07/reformed-political-theology-today/

The article errs in its opening salvo. Psalm 2 must be interpreted in light of the New Testament. The tension Kennedy looks for is not there. The New Testament reveals Psalm 2 to be eschatological.

As a consequence of this error, there is an admittedly substantial heritage which Kennedy merely perpetuates. Begging the fundamental question, he offers nothing by way of remedy.

Postmillennial Clash: American Theonomy and British Whig-Revivalism

Having recently worked through Crawford Gribben's 2021 Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest, I was struck by many things but I have repeatedly revisited his reporting on the exchanges between American Theonomy and British outlets like the Banner of Truth. Later as Theonomy would emerge onto a larger stage it would be met with no small degree of hostility from within theologically conservative and Reformed circles in Britain. I don't believe Gribben sufficiently explored this and yet I think the episode to be rather instructive.

The UCC Backlash: Conservative remnants within old Congregationalist, Hungarian, and German Reformed Congregations

https://www.ironsharpensironradio.com/podcast/june-15-2023-show-with-ed-boyle-micah-clouse-on-is-there-hope-for-the-united-church-of-christ/

A recent episode of Iron Sharpens Iron caught my eye as it called attention to some of the conservative remnants and their resistance to theological liberalism within the United Church of Christ (UCC).

The Frankfurt Declaration: Its Disordered Assumptions, Deceit, and Dangers (II)

Providence lobbed the American Church a softball when it came to Covid. Did it rise to the occasion? No, the episode exposed a metastatic spiritual cancer, a real ugliness, and it revealed a reigning ethical system antithetical to the New Testament. The rotten harvest of a generation of Right-wing Dominionism came to bear in the selfishness and avarice we witnessed. The survival of the fittest ethic of capitalism and the sociopathic mercenary ethics of Libertarianism contributed to the deaths of over 1 million people – just in the US. These false social systems and ideologies have been deeply established in the minds and hearts of American Evangelicals due to an aggressive programme of false teaching that has been in place now for more than a generation. Covid exposed the rotten heart of the larger Evangelical movement – of American Christianity in all its mammon-loving repugnant splendour. Many Church leaders (including the supposed and farcical tyranny-resisters of The Frankfurt Declaration) have blood on their hands.

The Frankfurt Declaration: Its Disordered Assumptions, Deceit, and Dangers (I)

https://frankfurtdeclaration.com

This last summer a new doctrinal declaration appeared that for all its bluster has received surprisingly little attention.  From what I can tell the forces behind it represent an informal effort or loose alliance that would include the likes of John MacArthur, and people associated with James White and G3 ministries.

The False Dilemma of the 2022 Election

Albert Mohler and other Evangelicals are right, we as Christians cannot vote for Democrats. Amen. And they go further and suggest those that do so fall under condemnation. Amen to that as well.

Trueman: A Little Late to the Antithesis Game

https://wng.org/opinions/welcome-to-pride-month-christian-1654083759

Trueman is right to lament Pride Month and the latest shift in our culture that will (without a doubt) lead to the marginalisation of Christians. It's inescapable, and like Lot in Sodom – any Christian is bound to be vexed by the world and the conduct that surrounds us.

Dominionism and the Tucker Carlson School of Homiletics

Visiting another church this Sunday once more proved to be a serious disappointment. The congregation was something of a hybrid between Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism and yet Sacralist thinking dominated. The pastor continually confused the identity of the Church and the nation and begged the question regarding the Christian call to engage and dominate culture.