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Archive for the ‘Social Issues’ Category

Pope Leo v. Aquinas (and Holy Writ!)

Posted in Christian Ethics, Protestantism & Romanism, Social Issues, The Civil Magistrate on October 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Pope Leo apparently just said, “Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life.”

Thomas Aquinas said, “Therefore if a man be dangerous and infectious to the community, on account of some sin, it is praiseworthy and advantageous that he be killed in order to safeguard the common good . . . .” (ST IIa-IIae, q. 64, a. 2).

And, “It is permissible to kill a criminal if this is necessary for the welfare of the whole community. However, this right belongs only to the one entrusted with the care of the whole community — just as a doctor may cut off an infected limb, since he has been entrusted with the care of the health of the whole body” (ST IIa-IIae, q. 64, a. 3).

Rome the same, “everywhere, always, by all,” right?

Semper protestans!

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“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.

* * * * *

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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Parish mission: pouring oil on troubled waters

Posted in Establishments, Parish Theory & Practice, Social Byproduct, Social Issues, Thomas Chalmers on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

In the following passage, Thomas Chalmers writes of the secondary, ‘collateral’ benefits of an aggressive, national parish system in bringing the Gospel to the masses. The “moral distance” of estranged classes within society would tend to melt away, and so indirectly rejuvenate the outward social and political order of the nation:

“The more that this [moral] distance is alleviated by the subdivisions of locality, the more do the charities of common companionship mingle in the commotion, and exude an oil upon the waters that assuages their violence. They are the towns of an empire, which form the mighty organs of every great political overthrow, and if a right parochial system in towns would serve to check, or rather to soften, the turbulence that is in them, then ought the establishment of such a system to be regarded by our rulers as one of the best objects of patriotism” (Chalmers, Works, 14:388).

Not that we can revive a national establishment without a mass awakening and a groundswell of support both by people and princes. Yet, Chalmers contended, we can all engage in local parish mission at the grassroots level, seeking the regeneration of communities as we pray and wait for national repentance.

[image source]

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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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American Reformer

Posted in Christendom, Confessional Subscription, Constantine, Establishments, New England Puritanism, Old Testament Theology, Postwar Consensus, Nationalism, Protestantism & Romanism, Social Issues, The Church in America, The Social Status of the Church on July 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Continuing to follow with interest Timon Cline et al over at American Reformer. Still parsing the field of contemporary “Christian nationalism” and trying to discern the good and the not-so-good; so I share this with some tentativeness, yet general appreciation thus far. Classical Protestant ethics and socio-political ethics fascinates me, so anyone participating in a retrieval has my attention.

Have enjoyed reading this article about John Witherspoon and the colonial Presbyterian iteration of establishmentarianism, contra Kevin DeYoung’s pluralistic take of the American revision of the WCF 23. Looks like others there have also written on the same. I still wonder to what degree Witherspoon may have been influenced by Enlightenment liberalism and what bearing that may have had on how he approached Christian magistracy. But that there is more continuity with the original WCF 23 than not just seems to sync with what I’ve understood about public religion in colonial America. Absolute separation just seems laughable on so many counts. I am also reminded how Dr. William Young opined that the American revision of WCF 23 did not technically contradict the original 1646 statement. While my denomination is the only NAPARC body committed to the original edition, I am at least coming to appreciate that we may have more of a genetic connection with colonial Presbyterian than I had first thought.

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Recent reading: strong gods and black rednecks

Posted in Audio Resources, Culture, Postwar Consensus, Nationalism, Race, Kinism, "Race Realism", Recent Reading (Book Recommendations), Social Issues on May 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

In the last few months, I finished a couple of really insightful non-fiction titles. The first was R. R. Reno’s The Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West. This was the most helpful overview of what the “post-war consensus” (PWC) actually is and why it is on life support if not in its death pangs. Basically, the PWC was birthed in the aftermath of World War II and the horrors both on the battlefield and in the concentration camps. “Never again!” was the motto in Europe and the U.S., and the modus operandi of the elites was to tamp down on all discourse—religious, political, or social—that could elevate the blood pressure of the nations and so risk a reprise of the world wars. Liberalism in the broader sense of tolerance, acceptance, and openness, was the prevailing doctrine. But what it ended up doing was fueling the populisms and nationalisms we have witnessed in the last decade or so. In the end, we are humans who need “strong loves.” Something to be passionate about—and even die for!

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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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Calvin on public flogging

Posted in Crime & Punishment, Social Issues, The Civil Magistrate on January 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number.  Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee” (Deut. 25.2-3).

“Now it follows: That the wicked man shall be condemned according to his desert. There is here no mention of such offences as were to be punished by death. For if there were murder committed, or adultery, or such like thing; they were punished by death. We have seen how God commanded that all such kinds of wickedness should be utterly rooted out: but here he speaks but of such injuries as deserve some other chastisement. And that is the cause why it is said, That the malefactor shall be punished according to his desert, yet so has he shall not have above forty stripes. For they used a whip made of an oxe hide, to chastise them which dealt wrongfully and outrageously with their neighbor, always provided that the offence deserved not death. It is said: That they shall not pass the number of forty strips. And why? To the intent that the man should not be mangled or disfigured in his body, but remain whole and found. You see then in effect what is here declared, to wit, first that the sentence must not be given in vain: and secondly that some moderation must be used, so as the rigor be not excessive. . . .

“Moreover secondly in this place here is mention made of moderating the chastisements which are used. For the judges ought always to consider that they fit in justice in the behalf of God, and therefore into that seat which is holy and dedicated to the doing of right, they may not bring their own passions, to feed their own choler, and to deal crossly and overwartly as they themselves lift. God therefore in saying, that there shall be a certain number of stripes, declares expressly that there must be a reasonable measure used in punishing. Verily when a man is not to be clean rooted out, but to live still in the world, God will not have him maimed that he should become unprofitable as touching h is body. For what a thing were it if a man should be so rigorously handled as to be made a cripple so as he can no more help himself? It were better he had been put to death at the first, than to be left to pine away in this world, and to be as a block. Now therefore when a man is to be left alive still, GOD will have the judges to ave a regard that he be not beaten of scourged in such wise as he disfigured or made unable to help himself. That is the very thing which God will have men to look unto.”

Calvin, Sermons on Deuteronomy, in loc.


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“Why Nobody Has Friends Anymore”

Posted in Communion of the Saints, Gregarious (Social) Principle, Social Issues, Theology of Community on November 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Comedian John Mulaney once joked that one of Jesus’ greatest miracles was having twelve close friends in his thirties. Sadly, the modern decline of friendship is real, and anything but a punchline.

The Survey Center on American Life reports that that in 1990, almost 70% of men had five or more close friends. By 2021, just 40% reported having that many. And the number who said they had no close friends quintupled. Women haven’t fared well, either, though their friend groups haven’t shrunk as rapidly.  

Part of the challenge is that time together is the oxygen of friendship. Deprive it of that, and friendship tends to die or at least become more distant. And today, perhaps due to a faster pace of life and more “stuff” piled into our schedules, spending time with friends requires more effort and intentionality than in decades past. Research shows that Americans now spend half as much time with their friends (three hours a week) as they did just a decade ago.  

Read the rest of this article by John Mulaney at Breakpoint.

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“An Evangelical Ministry,” by Principal D. Maclean

Posted in Audio Resources, Culture, Free Church of Scotland, Gospel Proclamation, Historiography, Individual & individualism, Light of Eternity, Secularization, Social Issues, The Sacred Ministry on June 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Just recently audio-recorded two articles by Free Church of Scotland Principal Donald Maclean (1869-1943). I have found several of the men of that generation not only profoundly rich theologically and spiritually, but that their English prose is also quite compelling. We are generally below the mark these days, I fear.

The following quote is a sample, from Maclean’s “An Evangelical Ministry.” Here, he answers the question as to the effect of Anglo-American Christianity’s emphasis on the social application of Christian around the turn of the 20th century: “The answer is sadly easy. The flood-tide to the Churches has, alas, not set in. The prejudices and hostility of sinful man have not been softened by the undoubted social amelioration effected. The heedless multitude still pass by. But even more serious is the reaction which the social application of Christianity has had upon the faith itself. Revealed truth itself cannot be affected by human reactions, for the Word of the Lord endures for ever. Nevertheless, the attempts to apply Christianity socially have profoundly affected the meaning which the Christian faith has for the average man and ordinary churchgoer. The emphasis on the social has largely stifled the spiritual nature of the faith. It has obscured the revealed fact that the Christian message was primarily to and for individuals. That the Son of God became man, and that man must be born again, are sufficiently strong reminders to us of the divine estimate of the immortal soul of man. The great doctrines of grace which the Bible so unmistakably connects with the redemption of the human personality, have been so rarely emphasised during more than a generation that, not only have these doctrines become unknown, but the spiritual faculties of hearers have been so weakened by disuse that spiritual discernment has faded away. The Church of to-day is consequently faced with the difficult but necessary task, arising from her former neglect, of re-educating her people in the fundamental elements of the faith which give it the character and distinction of being the Christian faith of revelation. For the business of the Church in its God-given mission is to the individual and through the individual to society. Moreover, the Christian revelation holds out no hope for society except in so far as the men and women who form it are Christian, which for the secular State is a futile and unattainable ideal. It is therefore all the more essential that the truth should be understood that a Christian society can only be fashioned out of and by Christian men and women.”

Special thanks to the Rev. John Keddie for assistance with photo above. More historic audio resources from the heritage of the Free Church of Scotland available here. All Thomas Chalmers titles are separate, here. And visit our entire audio library here.

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