I wrote this post before Bradley Manning decided he wanted the name Chelsea. So the subject matter of the post is even more important than I thought when I wrote it yesterday afternoon.<>
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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Mark Horne: Is Professional Atheism About To Get A Regime Change?
Here is how it begins:
For many years on this site I’ve critiqued the demagogic tendencies of a number of the ‘leaders’ of the modern skeptical movement (see the bottom of this post for some links). I’ve often faced resistance (and sometimes hostility) from card-carrying skeptics for pointing out the foibles of these so-called champions of science, and the dangers of having such people as figureheads of a movement dedicated to truth and reason – but I had no inkling that in the space of just a few short years the reputations of a number of them would begin coming undone at their own hands.
The first tremors began, perhaps, two years ago with the ‘Elevatorgate’ scandal within skepticism, in which Richard Dawkins outed his ‘drunk uncle’ persona to those within skepticism by entering a controversial argument he didn’t need to engage in, and making comments that were always going to set off a firestorm….
And on it goes. Happy hunting.<>
Uri Brito: I drink because I am a Christian!
The Associated Baptist Press writes that there are a number of Baptists wanting to return to wine for the Lord’s Supper. The entire debate is rather interesting and provides a rather sharp turn in the broader baptist culture in America. This article led to a piece by James Rogers at First Things who wrote about his daughter’s response:
“This brought to mind my daughter’s comment of a few months ago at a small dinner we hosted. We were chatting with our guests about some wines we liked. At one point Megan said, “I don’t like alcohol. I only drink because I’m a Christian.”
Here is an old piece I wrote with a Lutheran Minister a few years ago on this matter.
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Mark Horne: A question for the other KC writer: Should Chrisitans participate in or even help form a black market?
When Obamacare really kicks in and the rationing starts, are we supposed to tell people to follow orders and die, or should we look for illegal alternatives, and help create some?<>
Mark Horne: HyperInflation? If only!
I was listening to Murray Rothbard on iTunesU discuss Keynes. I was surprised that he said that sometimes Keynes made sense in some of his writings (most definitely not his “General Theory”). He especially remarked that one of Keynes’ early small book on money (I didn’t catch the title) had a profound insight on hyperinflation.
Hyperinflation is how the people prevent the government from stealing their resources.
This makes a lot of sense to me. The government creates fiat currency to get others to give up real assets in exchange for that money. At some point, when the people decide to stop being exploited, the jig is up. The people count the money as worthless and the government is no longer able to get things in exchange for it.
It is a horrible crisis for the society that lacks a currency for awhile, but usually (I think?) the government doesn’t survive the crisis.
So hyperinflation is society’s way of ending the states counterfeiting regime.
Sadly, our government is probably going to succeed in scarfing up societal resources for some time in the future. If we ever have hyperinflation, it will probably not be soon.<>
Mark Horne: Michael Bird responds to Don Carson on the Kingdom
You an see his reply here. Bird does a much better job than I did picking out the most important mistake. Reading Bird, I think it might be enough to say that Carson sees confusions that make a task difficult as reasons to believe the position is not valid.
Liberals mess up the definitions of many things that Christians hold dear. We can’t drop terms and concepts and imperatives just because liberals pervert them or others are mistaken about them.. So just because someone turns “The Kingdom” into a wrong agenda, doesn’t excuse us from pursuing the right agenda.<>
Mark Horne: Did anyone else know that C. S. Lewis gave advice on counseling a homosexual?
I had no idea. Thanks to Justin Taylor for pointing it out and reprinting it in a more readable form (i.e. took out abbreviations).
I find it interesting that Lewis doesn’t even consider a “cure.”<>
Mark Horne: (reply) Ron Paul asks why we are at war in Yemen?
Ron Paul asks why we are at war in Yemen? – Kuyperian Commentary.
But, Justin, we have to make sure we have a well-fed supply of terrorists to send to Syria or the next regime-change operation. It isn’t so much “blowback,” when they manage to strike US civilians. More like “mission drift.”<>
