Category: Culture
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The Narcissism of Today’s Pop Culture: Falling in Love with Someone Other Than Yourself
I commented on the Barbie movie, so I guess I’m also obligated to comment on Taylor Swift too, right? I thought this article was very interesting and insightful. Like Hemingway, I am a Gen Xer, though his knowledge of more recent pop culture definitely exceeds mine. My knowledge of pop culture peters out pretty quickly after about…
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Trinity Tavern Thursday
About 18 years ago, the men of Trinity Presbyterian Church began gathering monthly for “Trinity Tavern Thursday.” This is a letter I sent out to the congregation to explain what we were doing and why. It’s republished here for a new generation of men at TPC, in the hopes that the TTT tradition will be carried on…
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Barbie and the Patriarchy
I can’t believe I’m actually going to comment on the Barbie movie….but here goes. A couple disclaimers: First, I have not seen the movie and do not intend to any time soon, so this is not an attempt to review the movie. In general, I would refrain from commenting on a movie I have not…
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Odds and Ends
I’m not any good at Twitter and find it a pain to use. In fact, I hate Twitter and try my best to avoid it. But if I did use Twitter, that’s probably where these short takes would end up. In the meantime, here is a hodge-podge of things I have thought about or read about…
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Clown Rights vs Crown Rights
The so-called culture war today comes down to what kind of ruler we want. It’s about the crown rights of King Jesus vs. the clown rights of Joe Biden (and his ilk). Who would you rather have rule over you — a king or a clown? Do you want the kingdom of God, full of…
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Interacting with Christian Nationalism (Part 4)
I appreciated a lot of Wolfe’s critique of VanDrunen’s radical two kingdom view, including the way he brought out its latent antinomianism. But there are still some problems with Wolfe’s two kingdom view, especially the heaven/earth, sacred/secular dualism built into it. I do not think Wolfe has done justice to the Calvinistic transformationalists (CT). Many…
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A Political Theology for the Present Moment
We do not live in the Christendom world inhabited by the Reformers. What it means to affirm a sacred/secular dichotomy in a Christendom situation is not the same as what it means to affirm that kind of dichotomy in a post-Christendom situation. We cannot just quote Althusius (or whoever) as if it were adequate to…
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Wolfe and Wilson: Questions about Christian Nationalism
I realize Canon Press and the Moscow guys are pushing Wolfe’s book hard, but it seems to me this must represent some kind of shift. Wolfe’s approach relies on Thomism and natural law (no hint of anything theonomic from what I can see so far) and emphasizes dichotomies like nature/grace and secular/sacred. These are not the…
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Interacting with Christian Nationalism (Part 3)
I’m not any further into Wolfe’s book but I did see his twitter thread from yesterday. Wolfe rejects ecclesiocentrism. It is not clear to me that the ecclesiocentrism he rejects is the same thing as the ecclesiocentrism someone like me might affirm. It is also not clear that Wolfe’s version of Protestant “two kingdom” political…
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Watching the Mid-term Game Film….
Nothing original here, but four quick take-aways from the mid-terms this week: 1. We are in a deep mess and we cannot vote our way out of it. Politics is downstream from culture. The culture is corrupt and so our politics is corrupt. Corrupt voters, swayed by a corrupt media, elect corrupt leaders who pass…
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