Tag: history
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Thanksgiving Day History Lesson
I know it’s a long way to November, but here’s an old X thread on Thanksgiving, excerpted from “The Light & The Glory” by Peter Marshall & David Manuel: The men were gathered in the common house to conclude their conference on military instruction when the cry went up, “Indian coming!” Indian coming? Surely he…
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Calvinism and America’s Founding
On and around January 3, 2025, I put up a number of posts on X about the role of Calvinism in America’s founding. I reproduce some of them here, along with a few other notes. — The first Great Awakening, which was very Calvinistic in nature, was certainly instrumental in America’s founding. George Whitefield –…
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Christopher Columbus
An old post on Columbus from X: Today is Columbus Day, and Christopher Columbus is certainly a man worthy of remembrance and celebration. Of course, in this “politically correct” era, it is commonplace to attack Columbus. We have seen attempts to turn this day into “Indigenous Peoples Day” (why would we celebrate people who practiced…
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Flynn-Paul on Amerindians
Here is Jeff Flynn-Paul on what early Western explorers believed about the people (“Indians”) they encountered in the new world of the Americas: Where does that lead us in terms of European prejudice against the Indians they found in the Americas? The historian Alden T. Vaughan summed up the longstanding consensus on European prejudice toward…
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The Corporate and the Individual
One of the greatest dividing lines today in terms of social and political visions is corporate vs individual identity. Should we judge individuals as individuals (e.g., judge each man by his own actions and character)? Or should we judge individuals as members of groups (e.g., the characteristics of the racial, national, gender, etc, categories to…
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Reno on the Post-War Consensus, Populism, and Liberalism
A few quotes from R. R. Reno: “Neoliberalism” is the word that gets tossed around to describe our current system. It describes an economic and cultural regime of deregulation and disenchantment. The ambition of neoliberalism is to weaken and eventually dissolve the strong elements of traditional society that impede the free flow of commerce (the…
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The Folly of Racial and Ethnic Arrogance
Racial and ethnic arrogance are just as sinful and foolish as personal arrogance. Humility is a virtue in every domain of life. — Some seem to think natural law teaches races should be segregated (a kind of natural law kinism of sorts). Wolfe leaned this direction in his book on Christian nationalism (though how far…
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Usury
Ronald Wallace summarizes John Calvin’s view of usury: “For centuries before Calvin’s day, the Church and most other authorities had applied the Biblical condemnation of usury quite directly to commercial practices, and had prohibited loans at interest. Exceptions had been allowed. Interest had been deemed payable, for example, when the loan could be shown to…
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Movements that do not police themselves are bound to fail.
An X thread from October ’24: It is crucial to understand the times and to understand the Scriptures. Many Christian movements have fizzled out quickly because their leaders misunderstood the cultural situation. Or, the movement got traction, grew, and became influential, but did damage because it was more culture-shaped than Scripture-shaped. An example of the…
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A Note on Social Contract Theory
Social contract theory, originating primarily with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, is not only contrary to a biblical theology of the state, but also tells a story that is so patently absurd it is hard to believe it ever gained credence in the first place. Social contractualists, in brief, assume that men, by nature, are…
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