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On August 27, 2013 By In Scribblings

Marc Hays: A New Letter From C. S. Lewis

A few years ago, I decided to write letters to my literary heroes in order to thank them for their work, to encourage them to produce more, and to open up the possibility that they might write me back.  Several of them have. Now, the men who have shaped who I am are accessible to me for future contact. I’ve found that we all have feet of clay and most of the men that I respect know that fact as well. I am always honored when I get a return email in which they actually thank me for having written to them. I never expected return emails in the beginning, but more often than not, receive them. I’ll never forget the night that I was shopping at Publix, pushing the shopping cart, having an email conversation with Peter Leithart.

Recently, a letter has surfaced that was written by C. S. Lewis in response to a thank you letter sent to him by a twelve-year-old girl. It’s always good to see your heroes act with grace and honor. Here’s a link to the article on Mere Orthodoxy. A special thanks to the folks at Mere Orthodoxy as well for posting this letter for us to see.

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On August 23, 2013 By In Theology

Are We Blessing, Cursing, or Neither? Is “Neither” Even Possible? – Part 1

“Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be.” James 3:10

My question: “Are we blessing, cursing, or neither? Is the “neither” category even possible?”

Most Christians take special care to abstain from vulgarities and blasphemies. Vulgarities often put private matters on public display, such as bathroom or bedroom activities, which ought to remain private rather than becoming coffee-break humor or hammer-meets-thumb expletives.  Everyone knows what happens in the bathroom, but you’re supposed to leave it there, not bring it out with you. Everyone knows what happens in the bedroom, besides sleeping, but that is also meant to be a private matter. It is supposed to happen “off-stage.” Blasphemies, of course, take God’s name and use it in a less than hallowed manner. Number 3 on the Top 10, declares, “He will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” (Ex. 20:7) If you had to choose one, then bring your filth out of the bathroom with you before you use God’s name carelessly or worse yet, pejoratively. However, when you do choose, choose to keep what’s private private and what’s holy holy. Vulgarities and blasphemies can hardly be considered blessings.

Another verbal matter to be considered is the direct curse. The word “damn” has a specific purpose. This is not a word that cannot be appropriately used, but it is one that commonly gets misused, and overly misused, in our culture, often preceded by a blasphemy as to Who is being called upon to do the damning. We teach our children that it is not our place to condemn someone else to eternal perdition, nor should it be our desire to do so. “Damn” and “hell” are neither vulgar nor blasphemous; rather they are words that ought not be tossed around.

So we abstain from careless speech, coarse jokes, and flippant curses. Now what? Are we to assume that refraining from a short list of words and phrases means that we are controlling our tongue? That we are blessing our brother?

While there are no neutral words, no words that don’t convey what’s going on in our hearts, there is a difference between words spoken with an implied blessing and those spoken with an overt blessing.  An implied blessing could be contained in the simple, “Good morning,” depending on one’s inflection. This can also be an overt blessing depending on you inflection, like “Good morning!”  This can also be a curse if said too loudly, too early. (Prov. 27:14) There can also be implied blessing in casual conversations. The mere fact that you take the time to speak to someone can mean more to them than you’ll ever know. That sounds sappy and cliché, but that doesn’t make it untrue. Even if you have nothing in common with the person except the current weather, there can be a blessing in making small talk.

Every sentence we say can be used as an implied blessing, but are we willing to go further than this? Are we willing to take the effort that it takes to use our words for overt blessings; blessings that would be hard to be mistaken as anything else? Are we willing to take our eyes off of ourselves and our personal problems in order to be an overt blessing to those around us today?

However, before we have something profitable to say, we must be aware of what’s going on around us. Wisdom is contextual, so wise words are typically only wise if spoken in due season. This requires listening before we speak. Listening takes effort and time. Listening means getting down off our soap boxes and actually considering what the other person is saying. We can view every conversation today as an opportunity to take our eyes off of ourselves, shut our mouths for a minute or two, and listen to our neighbor. Then, and only then, can we overtly bless them.

We can’t heal diseases with our spoken word, but we can speak words seasoned with salt. We can’t feed the multitudes with one order of fish and chips, but we can buy someone lunch and then let them do the talking. If we actually listen, maybe we’ll actually have something to say that matters.

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On August 23, 2013 By In Books

The Great Cigar Fraud – GKC

One of my favorite books by Gilbert Keith Chesterton is a collection of essays entitled, Tremendous Trifles. Within this favorite there are several favorites. One is called “A Tragedy of Twopence.” There’s nothing like a good story that ends with a good moral, especially if you’d have never seen that particular moral coming out of that particular story; hence, my undying love for Chesterton. Here’s what I mean:

 

“I was walking about a German town, and I knew no German. I knew, however, two or three of those great and solemn words which hold our European civilisation together—one of which is “cigar.” As it was a hot and dreamy day, I sat down at a table in a sort of beer-garden, and ordered a cigar and a pot of lager. I drank the lager, and paid for it. I smoked the cigar, forgot to pay for it, and walked away, gazing rapturously at the royal outline of the Taunus mountains. After about ten minutes, I suddenly remembered that I had not paid for the cigar. I went back to the place of refreshment, and put down the money. But the proprietor also had forgotten the cigar, and he merely said guttural things in a tone of query, asking me, I suppose, what I wanted. I said “cigar,” and he gave me a cigar. I endeavoured while putting down the money to wave away the cigar with gestures of refusal. He thought that my rejection was of the nature of a condemnation of that particular cigar, and brought me another. I whirled my arms like a windmill, seeking to convey by the sweeping universality of my gesture that my rejection was a rejection of cigars in general, not of that particular article. He mistook this for the ordinary impatience of common men, and rushed forward, his hands filled with miscellaneous cigars, pressing them upon me. In desperation I tried other kinds of pantomime, but the more cigars I refused the more and more rare and precious cigars were brought out of the deeps and recesses of the establishment. I tried in vain to think of a way of conveying to him the fact that I had already had the cigar. I imitated the action of a citizen smoking, knocking off and throwing away a cigar. The watchful proprietor only thought I was rehearsing (as in an ecstasy of anticipation) the joys of the cigar he was going to give me. At last I retired baffled: he would not take the money and leave the cigars alone. So that this restaurant-keeper (in whose face a love of money shone like the sun at noonday) flatly and firmly refused to receive the twopence that I certainly owed him; and I took that twopence of his away with me and rioted on it for months. I hope that on the last day the angels will break the truth very gently to that unhappy man.

…..
This is the true and exact account of the Great Cigar Fraud, and the moral of it is this—that civilisation is founded upon abstractions. The idea of debt is one which cannot be conveyed by physical motions at all, because it is an abstract idea. And civilisation obviously would be nothing without debt. So when hard-headed fellows who study scientific sociology (which does not exist) come and tell you that civilisation is material or indifferent to the abstract, just ask yourselves how many of the things that make up our Society, the Law, or the Stocks and Shares, or the National Debt, you would be able to convey with your face and your ten fingers by grinning and gesticulating to a German innkeeper.”

 

This Chesterton excerpt was copied and pasted out of the Project Gutenberg Ebook available here.

The Kindle version is available for free here.

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On August 20, 2013 By In Scribblings

Marc Hays: The Failure of the Sexual Revolution

Last week, I did a short review of Theodore Dalrymple’s book, Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass. Since then, I’ve discovered that most, if not all, of his essays are available to read online.  Below is the conclusion of his article entitled, “Tough Love.” Here’s the link to the entire article at the City Journal.

The sexual revolutionaries wanted to liberate sexual relations from all but the merest biological content. Henceforth such relations were not to be subject to restrictive bourgeois contractual arrangements—or, heaven forbid, sacraments—such as marriage; no social stigma was to attach to any sexual conduct that had hitherto been regarded as reprehensible. The only criterion governing the acceptability of sexual relations was the mutual consent of those entering upon them: no thought of duty to others (one’s own children, for example) was to get in the way of the fulfillment of desire. Sexual frustration that resulted from artificial social obligations and restrictions was the enemy, and hypocrisy—the inevitable consequence of holding people to any standard of conduct whatsoever—was the worst sin.

That the heart wants contradictory, incompatible things; that social conventions arose to resolve some of the conflicts of our own impulses; that eternal frustration is an inescapable concomitant of civilization, as Freud had observed—all these recalcitrant truths fell beneath the notice of the proponents of sexual liberation, dooming their revolution to ultimate failure.

The failure hit the underclass hardest. Not for a moment did the sexual liberators stop to consider the effects upon the poor of the destruction of the strong family ties that alone made emergence from poverty possible for large numbers of people. They were concerned only with the petty dramas of their own lives and dissatisfactions. But by obstinately overlooking the most obvious features of reality, as did my 17-year-old patient who thought that men’s superior physical strength was a socially constructed sexist myth, their efforts contributed in no small part to the intractability of poverty in modern cities, despite vast increases in the general wealth: for the sexual revolution has turned the poor from a class into a caste, from which escape is barred so long as that revolution continues.

Here’s a link to my review from last week.

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On August 16, 2013 By In Culture

How the Messianic Tendencies of the Government Promote the Suicidal Tendencies of the Poor

Life at the BottomTheodore Dalrymple is the pen name of Anthony Daniels, an English medical doctor/psychiatrist and essayist. He is quite the essayist. First-rate if you ask me, and he has greatly informed and influenced my understanding of the plight of the poor under a socialist regime.

I have been reading his collection of essays entitled, “Life at the Bottom:  The Worldview That Makes the Underclass.”  The front cover bears a recommendation by Thomas Sowell which states, “A classic for our times. It is as fundamental for understanding the world we live in as the three R’s.” If I wrote a book that Thomas Sowell viewed as fundamental, I would say so on the front cover, too. Dr. Daniels is a physician in England, and has served in inner-city hospitals and prisons in London and Sub-Saharan Africa. Wikipedia reports that he interviewed over 10,000 people who had attempted suicide as research for this book. Needless to say it is a sad book. It is sad because it relates stories of hopelessness and despair, brought on by murder, rape, theft, domestic abuse, child neglect, drug addiction, and drunkenness, which are all proliferated by the government’s attempts to fix everything. It is also sad because Dalrymple’s penetrating analysis falls woefully short of producing an answer to the problems. These people are not only caught in the downward spiral of the government’s social commode, but they continue to make wicked personal choices, which are no one’s fault but their own. They need the Light that shines in the darkness if they are to find the pathway out of despair.

However, this is not to say that Dalrymple’s analysis of the situation is fatally flawed. He is a “scientist,” and has collected the “data” from his lifetime of interviewing. Though failing to correctly abstract the Biblical “universal” problem at hand, he has correctly diagnosed many of the symptoms. Through Dalrymple’s essays, I am becoming increasingly convinced that it is not only outside the God-ordained duties of the civil government to legislate and oversee the redistribution of wealth for the supposed betterment of the poor, but also that, despite the best of intentions, this perpetual “help” from the government becomes a detriment to their personal and social well-being. Dalrymple has correctly identified this detriment as a petrification of their state of squalor by the creation of a world view that holds them captive.

Dalrymple relates that there is squalor in England, but it is not economic. It is spiritual, moral, and cultural. The transformation of the lower class into the lower caste, from which there is rarely an opportunity to escape, has been caused by a social welfare system that has inasmuch removed any fear of the possibility of hunger. From the dawn of time men and women have been driven to work, beg, borrow, or steal for the purpose of getting enough calories in order to make it to the next meal. Even the poorest of people in non-socialized countries have a telos, a purpose. Their purpose is to survive the day, and that purpose brings a certain amount of satisfaction when they accomplish it.  Dalrymple’s essays remind us that without the chance of starvation, the poorest of society have their sole purpose removed. Instead of it being replaced by something profitable, they are left with boredom, which will eventually lead to crime, gluttony, drunkenness, illicit sexuality, and eventually despair. This kind of life destroys any real self-esteem, and “with no self-esteem, there is no chance of self-improvement.” This purposeless life leads many to regret being alive at all.

“That’s easy for a middle-class guy in America to say,” you might be thinking to yourself, “telling people to find their purpose and satisfaction in surviving the day.” Yeah, it does come across as harsh, but the reality of the matter, one that many refuse to accept is that you cannot legislate away poverty and you cannot ultimately sidestep your Creator. If He has created you in His image, and He has, then certain rules apply. Not just rules like the “thou shalt nots,” but the underlying fabric from which all of the positive laws spring. The two realities that God is, and God made us in His image.

There is a Messiah, who will set the world to rights. He delights in feeding the poor. In healing up the broken-hearted. In bringing joy to those who despair. In setting the prisoner free. In giving purpose to the hopeless. His name is Jesus, and next post, I will examine Dalrymple’s conclusions in the light of His Word.

 

Here’s a link to purchase this important work on Amazon:

Life at the Bottom, by Theodore Dalrymple

If you’re a Kindle person, you can get the book for cheap!

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On August 13, 2013 By In Scribblings

Ron Paul asks why we are at war in Yemen?

Droning Al Qaeda in Yemen even as we are funding them in Syria… blowback much?  And don’t forget, we know what the ones in Syria are doing.<> на вирусы

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On August 13, 2013 By In Scribblings

Don’t Talk to the Police

 

How Sergey Aleynikov Learned Never to Talk to the Police – The embedded video is worth taking the time to watch if you’ve not seen it.  Although the advice may sound counter-intuitive or even impious on first blush (respect for authority and all that), there is a good case to be made for not speaking to the police as a matter of increasing the chances of justice.  Remaining silent is a right offered you, not stubborn disobedience.<>Free online gameзаказать поисковое продвижение seo

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On August 7, 2013 By In Books

Triple 1070 Personal Finance Curriculum: A Review

Textbook Triple_10701I’ve recently had the chance to review a personal finance curriculum geared toward home schoolers/private schoolers called “Triple 1070: Biblical Personal Finance.” It is a 13-week course incorporating biblical principles of stewardship into a textbook, workbook, cumulative tests, and a 6 DVD set that endeavors to create a reality-show about four young people touring America while learning about personal finances. Overall, I appreciate what Triple 1070 is attempting to do. However, this is not a blanket endorsement, as I will explain below.

From a “finance curriculum” standpoint, this series is essentially Dave Ramsey for teenagers, which I mean as a compliment. Dave’s been giving a lot of sound, financial advice for several years, and Triple 1070 has repackaged those principles into a format that is geared toward the “reality-show” generation. The name “Triple 1070” refers to the principle of saving 10%, investing 10%, giving 10%, and living off of 70% of your income. This can help to create an “emergency fund” with the savings, a plan for the future by investing, service to those around you through giving, and paying your monthly bills with the rest. Although this approach is not distinctively Christian, it does follow along well with principles of stewardship laid out in God’s Word.

The advice given to young people is to avoid debt if possible, pay off debt quickly when acquired, buy used instead of new, understand the laws that govern the economy, budget wisely, etc. As with all instructional aids we bring into our homes, we will find ourselves disagreeing with some details along the way, but overall, the Triple 1070 curriculum can provide some great opportunities for us as parents to enter into conversations with our high-schoolers, that might not have happened without provocation.

From a “production” standpoint, I think the DVD’s will be very successful. For all the emphasis we stress on the written word in our home, and for all the internal frustration caused to my inner man by even turning on a TV set, the reality is that when we go to grandma and grandpa’s house, the TV is on and the kids are mesmerized. Neil Postman ruined me, but perhaps if there’s going to be a TV around, we can put it to some productive uses. The production of the Triple 1070 “reality show” is very catchy. The jerky camera movement gives us old people fits, but for some reason that’s the way it’s being done now, and Triple 1070 does this at least as well as anyone else. The cast members are personable, respectful, and seem to genuinely care about the things they are learning. The advisors take principles that can be hard to understand and boil them down for the younger audience. I believe that if you use these videos and books to enter into conversation with your children about personal finances, this curriculum can serve as a catalyst and be of great benefit to your household.

For all of my “yays” there are a couple of “nays.” As I mentioned earlier, this is not a blanket endorsement. This curriculum is intended to be a “personal finance” curriculum as opposed to an “economics” or “history” curriculum, and Triple 1070 has tried to be faithful to that purpose. However, it would be nigh unto impossible to divorce the three entirely, and who would want to? When Triple 1070 moves from finances into macroeconomics, the content of the curriculum leaves much to be desired. Since the curriculum is endeavoring to present the economy from the perspective of “the way things are” as opposed to “the way they ought to be,” much gets taken for granted about the way things actually are. One example of this is in the chapter introducing the Fed. Without going into details here, the only source cited for the chapter is “History of the Federal Reserve, from federalreserveeducation.org.” This website is a product of the Federal Reserve and tends to be highly uncritical of itself.

One other “nay” concerns the “biblical” nature of the curriculum. Since that term can be taken in a number of viable ways, I want to be charitable here, but “biblical” in the sense Triple 1070 is using it is a reference to principles which can be found in the Scriptures, along with bible verses about finances pasted on the TV screen in between segments. When I see the term “biblical”, I tend to get excited about exegesis, so their use of the term resulted in a little disappointment for me personally. This curriculum is nothing like a bible study, but once again, it could be used as a catalyst to get your children to ask some deeper, biblical questions than they may have asked otherwise. Then the exegesis can come from you or another teaching aid.

My recommendation would be that the Triple 1070 Personal Finance Curriculum should follow our children’s initial study of free market economics, rather than being that introduction. If you’re interested in using this curriculum, use it after your student has solid instruction in Austrian macroeconomics rather than before. After all, this is “personal finance curriculum,” not an economics course.

Here’s a link to their Facebook page.

Here’s a link to the company that produced it.

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On August 6, 2013 By In Books

Free Book Offer!

As a way of saying thank you for your support, we would like to offer you the opportunity to enter your name to win a copy of “The Church-Friendly Family.” CFF was endorsed by Douglas Wilson, Peter Leithart, and George Grant. In order to enter your name, you must do two of the following:
a) Subscribe to receive e-mail updates from KC on the website or subscribe to the KC Facebook page.
b) Add KC to your blogroll
c) E-mail us @ kuyperian.com@gmail.com and describe in one or two sentences how KC is helping to shape your worldview
d) Share a recent article on your FB page
*E-mail us at kuyperian.com@gmail.com to let us know you have fulfilled two of the requirements above.
Two winners will be announced on August 15th!

Summary of the book: “Of the making of books about marriage and the family, there is no end. The family is in trouble today―and has been since the sin of our first parents. But the rescue of the family requires more than just good advice, helpful as that can be. It requires more than just a focus on the family. It requires that the family be brought into the church of Jesus Christ. In The Church-Friendly Family, Randy Booth and Rich Lusk set marriage and family in the context of the church, showing how putting the church first enables the family to bear a rich harvest in culture, education, missions, and more.”<>java games downloadпродвижение ов омск

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On July 31, 2013 By In Culture

My Mower, My Nemesis: A Tragic Poem for Guys

Every hero has his nemesis, a villain still unbeaten

As Batman has his Joker, (both Christian Bale and Michael Keaton.)

Superman, Lex Luthor; Spiderman, the Goblin Green

I even have a nemesis, mine’s a Craftsman lawn machine.

 

It was given to me free of charge, by a friend I had befriended

All the belts and pulleys broken, needing only to be mended.

But with it came a caveat; a warning from my friend

Lest blessing turn into a curse and friendship quickly end.

 

He said he’d fixed this hunk-a-junk, time and time again

And he wondered if his gift to me might be some kind of sin.

I assured him that was not the case, for I knew how to mechanic

His gift, it was a blessing, not even mildly satanic.

 

I told him I would show this old lawnmower who was boss

But he knew full well his loss was gain, and that my gain was loss.

So with a prayer and blessing, he watched me drive away

“God grant you peace through trying times”–last thing I heard him say.

 

I got it home and jumped right in–pulled pulleys, belts, and springs

I ordered new ones on the web and I fixed everything.

I cranked her up and mowed the grass for most of that first summer

But when the drive belt snapped in two, it all became a bummer.

 

Long story short—it’s been the case for most of these three seasons

One thing fixed, another breaks, and I’ll never know the reasons.

And then one time the deck broke off—had to weld it back together

Wished grass would cease to grow so fast, I prayed for drier weather.

 

Wish I could say, “It works right now,” but right now it is broken

“God grant you peace through trying times”—no truer words were spoken.

So if you have the income of a famous movie actor,

I’ve got a pit to throw it in– my Craftsman garden tractor.

 

And when this mower finally dies, I won’t lose a moment’s sleep

Perhaps I’ll buy a zero-turn, or perhaps I’ll buy some sheep.

They’ll safely graze; they’ll eat my grass until they’ve had their fill

And if they become my nemesis, I can throw them on the grill.

rack of lamb

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