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Archive for the ‘Natural Law’ Category

“Employable men are marryable and marryable men are employable”

Posted in Christian Conduct, Culture, Family & Family Issues, Natural Law, Social Issues on September 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I often listen to the Christian news podcast, The World and Everything in It. It’s basically a reformed-ish version of NPR, and produced by the same folks who publish World magazine. I highly commend it (my only quibble being the quasi-benediction at the end of each episode).

There was a really great segment this morning with their regular “Monday Moneybeat” with David Bahnsen. It was an excellent treatment of the masculine malaise of younger men in the U.S.A. and their economic underperformance. Perhaps the most impactful quote for me was “employable men are marryable and marryable men are employable.” Standing ovation! Listen to the episode here; the segment begins at 22:10, and the transcript is below.

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MARY REICHARD, HOST:  Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: The Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s time now to talk business, markets and the economy with financial analyst and advisor David Bahnsen. David heads up the wealth management firm the Bahnsen Group, and he is here now. Good morning to you.

DAVID BAHNSEN: Good morning, Nick, good to be with you.

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“The order of this charity”

Posted in Christian Ethics, Common Grace, Conscience & Casuistry, Natural Law, Paternalism & Patriarchy, Political Theory & Theology, Postwar Consensus, Nationalism, Puritans & Puritanism, Social Issues, William Ames on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The following is drawn from William Ames’ Marrow of Theology 2.16, “Of Justice and Charity toward our neighbour.” A Reformed orthodox treatment of the ordo amoris or order of love.

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13. The order of this charity is this: that God is first and chiefly to be loved by charity, and so he is, as it were, the formal reason for this charity toward our neighbour. Next after God we are bound to love ourselves, namely with that charity which respects true blessedness; for loving God himself with a love of union, we love ourselves immediately with that chief charity which respects our spiritual blessedness. But secondarily, we should love others whom we would have partake of the same good with us. Moreover, others may be deprived of this blessedness without our fault, but we ourselves cannot; and therefore we are more bound to will and to seek this blessedness for ourselves than for others.

14. This is why the love of ourselves has the force of a rule or a measure for the love of others: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

15. Hence it is never lawful to commit any sin for another’s sake, even though our offence may seem small, and to be a chief good which we should seek for another. For he that wittingly and willingly sins, hates his own soul. Pro 8.36, He that sins against me, offers violence to his own soul. Pro 29.24. He that partakes with a thief, hates himself: he hears cursing and does not declare it.

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Puritan punishment

Posted in Crime & Punishment, Natural Law, Social Issues, The Civil Magistrate on March 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Bumped into this online. Looks to have been a handout for public middle or high school students. Was pleasantly surprised over the lack of spite for the Puritans. A more balanced, secular treatment. And I’m for a major rethink of our criminal justice system. I think moderate corporal punishment is much more humane for many criminals than simply throwing them into a cage with other hardened animals for years on end.

“A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back” (Prov. 26:3).

puritan_punishmentsDownload

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Manton, “Preference of Duties: Morals Before Rituals”

Posted in Audio Resources, Conscience & Casuistry, Legalism & Antinomianism, Natural Law, Puritans & Puritanism on December 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

This small treatise reflects something of the high watermark the Puritans left the Church in Christian ethics & casuistry, written by the Westminster Divine, Thomas Manton. Access the audio here. He does a masterful job of exposing a subtle, legal attitude so often prevalent in the church, that outward, religious observances must always and without qualification supersede concerns of human life and well-being. A colleague of mine shared it with me during the Covid church closure mess of 2020. It was quite relevant then and remains so today. A must-read for every Reformed pastor if not every serious Christian. And visit the complete audio library here.

[TM] The Preference of Duties – Morals Before RitualsDownload

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Motherly work, a Faustian bargain, and masculine Protestantism

Posted in Culture, Family & Family Issues, Motherhood & Childbearing, Natural Law, Protestantism & Romanism, Transgenerational Faith on December 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

A couple of good articles here and here, promoting biblical and natural-law views of women, motherhood, and childbearing contra feminism. I have tremendously little knowledge of Taylor Swift or her music; but the analysis from someone who does only confirms my suspicions and that Swift is a tragic symbol of feminism’s Faustian bargain.

On the other side of the gender coin is this article. I’ve never read this author before, but he definitely strikes a chord with me about a prescription for solid, biblical masculinity with a healthy, and distinctly Protestant embrace of church tradition:

Men Need a Masculine Protestantism

And as usual, standard caveats (Rom. 12:9).

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