IN EARTHEN VESSELS
  • Home
  • About
  • I Believe
  • The Big Picture
  • Reach Out
We have this treasure in earthen vessels
2 Corinthians 4:7

Why Distributism Still Matters

9/6/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Originally posted in 2016. Edited and reposted for Labor Day 2020.

The Increasingly Unequal States of America (2018)

Estelle Sommeiller & Mark Price, Economic Policy Institute

While We Were Out
Daniel Schwindt, The Distributist Review

Why We Need More Economic Participation
Richard Aleman, The Distributist Review

​
Bernie May be Right: The Nordic Model of Health Care Works
Edwin G. Dolan, Huffington Post

When Capitalism Only Rewards Shareholders
Bruce Scott, PBS Newshour
0 Comments

When Rebels Rage (Hos 8:1-9:9)

8/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Originally posted Feb 17, 2014. I re-taught this class on Sunday, July 29, 2018, but the video seems to have gone AWOL (lol). Maybe next time!

In our detour a few weeks ago, we noted that because of their inflammatory tendencies, most people would like to keep religion and politics as far away from each other as possible. But we cannot maintain a high view of biblical justice, honor and righteousness by keeping our faith out of the voting booth. The relationship between religion and politics runs deeply throughout Scripture. Peter reminds us to, “Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king” (1Pe 2:17 NKJV; see our first post for Works Cited). Paul goes even deeper, calling “every soul [to] be subject to the governing authorities . . . for conscience’ sake,” since public figures are “God’s ministers” (Rom 13:1-7, emphasis added). Rebellion, then, is essentially a heart problem, rooted in the same sort of passion, pride, lies and idolatry that got Israel into trouble in the first place. It’s no wonder then that when Israel forsook God, she would turn to politics as the solution to her many problems.

Or perhaps we have it backward: in Israel’s case political rebellion led to spiritual rebellion. The Lord says in Hosea 8:4, “They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not” (unless otherwise indicated, all remaining Scriptures are taken from the ESV). It is not that Yahweh didn’t know who their rulers were; the problem lay in the fact that they ignored his will in choosing them. Even from the beginning of the Divided Kingdom, Israel had gone her own way. Though in his providence God allowed Israel to split for spiritual reasons, it was politics that drove away the northern tribes (1Ki 12:1-24). So while Judah was always led by the house of David, Israel was ruled by ten dynasties, all of which ended in bloodshed. In fact, “Between 752 and 732 B.C. four of Israel’s rulers were assassinated (cf. 2 Kings 15),” providing the background to several of Hosea’s statements (see Hos 7:5-7, from which this quote from the BKC is taken).

Israel’s spiritual unfaithfulness is both a cause and effect of these upheavals. Remember that it was for pragmatic political reasons that Jeroboam built the calves at Dan and Bethel in the first place (1Ki 12:25-33). So while Jeroboam’s kingdom was entrusted to him so that he might restore the Law, he instead defied it further, repeating Aaron’s sin and explicitly violating the first two of the Ten Commandments (Exo 20:3-6; 32:1-4). But the Lord had had enough of being confused with cattle: “With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. I have spurned your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? For it is from Israel; a craftsman made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces” (Hos 8:4-6). It is with good reason, then, that Solomon warns, “My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not associate with those given to change,” (Pro 24:21 NKJV) because when rebels rage, there’s no end to the destruction that can be done.

We also see that spiritual rebels seek political solutions. This is perhaps the greatest heresy of the modern age, and both conservatives and liberals are often guilty of it. When man ignores what the Bible says about right and wrong, justice falls as well; and where justice has fallen, nothing is sacred, twisting politics into naked greed and sheer power. Israel could identify the problems that faced her—famine, poverty, weakness—but she did not recognize them as the consequences of her sin. So instead she sought help elsewhere: “For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey wandering alone; Ephraim has hired lovers. Though they hire allies among the nations, I will soon gather them up. And the king and princes shall soon writhe because of the tribute” (Hos 8:9-10). But as the prophet pointed out before, Assyria would be their conqueror, not their savior (see 5:13; 7:11).

But this is not to say Israel could save herself by becoming a fortress and preparing for a siege. “For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds” (8:14). As the ESVSB points out, “Ephraim trusted religious shrines for security; Judah her armaments. Both will prove to be futile.” So rather then experience the alleged fertility associated with Baal worship, they would instead find famine and the rations of exile: “Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. They shall not remain in the land of the LORD, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria” (9:2-3; see 2:9-12). So Israel’s kings had done the exact opposite of what Moses had commanded, and exactly what Samuel had warned them against (Deu 17:14-17; 1Sa 8)!

And finally, spiritual rebellion invites political punishment. This is perhaps even harder to comprehend. Okay, sure, maybe there is a connection between one’s political views and one’s religious views, but does it really matter? If there is a God, does he really care about our political views? Why, yes. The God who providentially “works all things together for good” is the same God who providentially “rules the kingdom of men” (Rom 8:28; Dan 4:17, 25, 32; see Dan 2:20-22; 5:34-37). So while your politics can reflect your religious views, your political problems could also be consequences of your religion. Sometimes this means God’s people are employed as the means of judgment (Gen 15:16; Deu 20:16-18), but at other times they are just as guilty as anyone else (Jos 7:10-12, 20-21). Israel, however, had forgotten this, essentially voting against God for generations.

But the ultimate coup d’état was about to occur. The King of Israel would remind his people who was really in charge. Judgment is coming, and coming quickly. Listen to the Prophet: “Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD . . . the enemy shall pursue him” (Hos 8:1-3). “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. . . . Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel” (8:7-8). “Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents” (9:6). The trumpet had sounded, the battle lines were formed, vultures smelled blood in the air, the winds of war blew. Israel’s so called friends would form against her, shatter her strength, round up her refugees, and turn the plenty of the land to a barren wilderness. When we reject God’s claims over his people, we invite his righteous judgment.

As we have stated before, Jesus Christ is the ultimate political reality: he who created all things, redeems our fallen world, and reigns at his Father’s right hand (Col 1:15-20). The heart of Hosea’s indictment is still focused on the lack of true, spiritual worship (see 8:11-13; 9:1, 4-5), but politics played an important part in how these problems came about, how they got as bad as they did, and how God would repay them for it. As the late Russell Kirk once wrote, “Political problems, at bottom, are religious and moral problems” (The Conservative Mind 8). So when we treat God’s messengers as crazy fools, when we outlaw his word as “hate speech,” when we back believers into a corner in public discourse, we know the result: “he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins” (9:7-9). The church, then, cannot place her trust in political half-measures, but must instead rely on the God who rules above, for “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes” (Psa 118:9). Nor can we allow our views to be dominated by economics, defense or foreign affairs, for “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Pro 14:34). May we, then, as his people, intercede for our neighbors, that our nation might turn to God and repent of our rebellion against our Almighty God (Jer. 29:7; Gen 18:20-33).    
0 Comments

Crunchy Cons

12/18/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Last week, on Facebook, I promised an extended review of Rod Dreher’s new book, The Benedict Option, based on a much shorter version that appeared in the December 2017 issue of The Christian Chronicle. But before we get to that, it may help to understand how Dreher worked his way there, and for that we have to start with his first book, Crunchy Cons. For more on The BenOp and what it means to be the church, check out our thread on The Body of Christ.

As a Christian, I’ve never really felt at home politically. Sure, I’ve had my periods of partisanship, but in many ways I have just as many differences with conservatives as I have with their liberal counterparts. So I had to chuckle when I was walking through an airport one day and saw the hardback edition of Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher (2006). On the cover (above left) there was this rusty VW minibus with a GOP pachyderm painted on the front and a kayak strapped to the top, driven by a suited man flashing a peace sign. And check out that subtitle! But I gave it a pass. I’m not even sure I opened it. Now, it makes it into my top 5.

Thankfully, something about the book popped back into my mind while I was looking for some light reading in the summer of 2012. I wanted something thoughtful, generally conservative, but also more than just politics as usual. So I downloaded a sample of the extended paperback edition (2010) in iBooks, which also carried a new subtitle: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots. The sample was short, but effective—I was hooked. For example, in the new Preface I came across the following:

Though unabashedly rooted in the rich and fertile conservative tradition, Crunchy Cons seeks to go beyond the shopworn ideological categories of left and right. … It’s time we stopped asking what’s conservative and what’s liberal. Maybe instead we should create a new politics by asking: What’s good? What’s true? What’s beautiful? What’s authentically human?”
Having already read a bit of Aristotle, John Adams, and Russell Kirk, I could already see I was in for a treat. But the real selling point came next, in what Dreher called “A Crunchy-Con Manifesto.” See for yourself:

  1. We are conservatives who stand outside the contemporary conservative mainstream. We like it here; the view is better, for we can see things that matter more clearly.
  2. We believe that modern conservatism has become too focused on material conditions, and insufficiently concerned with the character of society. The point of life is not to become a more satisfied shopper.
  3. We affirm the superiority of the free market as an economic organizing principle, but believe the economy must be made to serve humanity’s best interests, not the other way around. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.
  4. We believe that culture is more important than politics, and that neither America’s wealth nor our liberties will long survive a culture that no longer lives by what Russell Kirk identified as “the Permanent Things”—those eternal moral norms necessary to civilized life, and which are taught by all the world’s great wisdom traditions.
  5. A conservatism that does not recognize the need for restraint, for limits, and for humility is neither helpful to individuals and society nor, ultimately, conservative. This is particularly true with respect to the natural world.
  6. A good rule of thumb: Small and Local and Old and Particular are to be preferred over Big and Global and New and Abstract.
  7. Appreciation of aesthetic quality—that is, beauty—is not a luxury, but key to the good life.
  8. The cacophony of contemporary popular culture makes it hard to discern the call of truth and wisdom. There is no area in which practicing asceticism is more important.
  9. We share Kirk’s conviction that “the best way to rear up a new generation of friends of the Permanent Things is to beget children, and read to them o’ evenings, and teach them what is worthy of praise: the wise parent is the conservator of ancient truths … . The institution most essential to conserve is the family.”
  10. Politics and economics will not save us. If we are to be saved at all, it will be through living faithfully by the Permanent Things, preserving these ancient truths in the choices we make in everyday life. In this sense, to conserve is to create anew.​

Culture. Character. Wisdom. That’s where a Crunchy Con finds her WHY. But it’s not that Dreher says anything new. Instead, his genius lies primarily in the narrative approach he takes to his work, describing the HOW of a countercultural conservatism. Dreher simply tells the stories of people “putting truth and beauty first in their lives,” trying to “cobble together a practical, commonsense, and fruitful way to live amid the empty consumerist prosperity of what Henry Miller called ‘the air-conditioned nightmare’” (ch. 1). A good yarn reflects this beauty better than a good argument.

Dreher and I already shared certain loves: good books, Craftsman bungalows, Distributism, and classic Christianity. But in other ways, I hadn’t realized how deeply I too had been shaped by my consumerism. So I’m still working on these: putting down roots, caring for creation, and avoiding “refined flour, white sugar … processed foods … and … vegetable oil” (Crunchy Cons, ch. 3).

But what does all that have to do with politics? Well, quite a bit, actually. At its heart, politics isn’t about things; it’s about people, the polis (city): your family, friends, and neighbors. But that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t have any views on issues of public or national concern. It simply means that your expectations for political involvement have changed; you’re playing by a different set of rules. So in his final chapter, Dreher tells us WHAT a “crunchy-con political agenda might look like”:

  • Abolish or greatly restrict abortion and the death penalty.
  • Ban cloning, strictly limit human genetic research, and closely regulate the biotech industry.
  • Pass laws making it easier to homeschool, create alternative schools, or otherwise opt out of public education.
  • Make commonsense environmental protection a legislative priority.
  • Reform the agricultural, health, and commercial regulations to permit and encourage the flourishing of small farms and producers of local foodstuffs, and in turn repopulate rural America.
  • Shape zoning restrictions to favor the preservation of old buildings of historic value, require new development to conform to high aesthetic standards, and provide more public spaces for human interaction.
  • Adopt an attitude toward business laws that favors small businesses over large corporations.
  • Strengthen legal prohibitions against pornography, and appoint judges who believe in the rights of communities to set their own standards.
  • Use government, within limits, to look after the poor and the weak without creating a culture of dependency.
  • Reform the tax code to offer extra support to married couples who choose to have larger families.
  • Orient government toward encouraging an expansion of the role of civil-society institutions—religious, fraternal, and service organizations—particularly at the local level.
  • Discourage “one-size-fits-all” national standards in education and other areas. Devolve control from Washington to states and localities.
  • Impose an energy policy designed to sharply reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and to develop alternative sources of energy.

Reading that list is probably as shocking to you as it was to me five years ago. But the longer I’ve looked at it, picked it apart, studied it, and put it back together again, I’d probably only change a word or two. Where has this depth of conservatism gone? And how could we get it back again? For me, Dreher painted a picture of this politics more clear, succinct, and humorous than I had ever seen—before or since.

By putting it all on paper, Dreher had hoped to inform conservative politics for the 2008 election. He sought to tell a different story than the dominant narrative provided by either party, or in the media. As he said in his opening chapter, “the conservative folks you’ll meet in the pages ahead will open your eyes, and in them you’ll see a sensibility marked by what G. K. Chesterton praised as ‘sanity, humor and charity,’ but also a recognition that American life is in crisis.” But the crisis only deepened. 2008 was a game changer for everyone, with a new recession and a new president, and by 2010 a new political subculture had emerged in response, the Tea Party.

That year Dreher wrote a new afterword for the paperback edition, reflecting on what had been achieved in the four years since Crunchy Cons had been published. But he was also more certain than ever that partisan politics was no longer the solution; something much deeper and more radical would be required:
The original subtitle of this book … promised ideas that might save the Republican Party. But now I doubt it’s worth saving in its present form. … This suggests that the crunchy cons should embrace the practice of what Vaclav Havel called “anti-political politics”—choosing to combat the cynicism and emptiness of formal politics by living virtuously and generously in one’s own community.
Politics simply wasn’t going to cut it. Crunchy Cons needed to forge another way of “living into the truth” (to borrow again from Havel), an alternative way of living out our “sanity, humor and charity.” And for that, Dreher looked to Benedict.
0 Comments

Strangers Loving Strangers

2/3/2017

0 Comments

 
PictureIllustration by Dan McGregor. Click on the picture to visit the original link.
What the Bible Says About Refugees
Jesse Carey, Relevant Magazine

Loving Strangers: The Most Unpopular Bible Teaching?

Bobby Valentine, Wineskins

Where Should Christians Stand?
Bobby Ross Jr., The Christian Chronicle

An Open Letter to American Churches
​Jon Foreman, The Huffington Post

The Moral Confusion of the Immigration Debate
Alastair Roberts, Alastair Adversaria

Starbucks Hiring Thousands of Military & Refugees
Starbucks Newsroom

0 Comments

When Two Letters Make All the Difference

1/19/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Originally posted Jan 22, 2016; Reposted on Jan 20, 2017

Adoption: What Joseph of Nazareth Can Teach Us about This Countercultural Choice

Russell Moore, Crossway
**Note: This page is the source of this picture and today's title.**

Adopting From Foster Care: 6 Fears That Aren't (Usually) True
Emma Davis, Today

The Altar of Molech
Fred Dominguez, Let God be Found True

The Liberal Theory of Justice Doesn't Support Abortion
Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online

The One and Only Culture War
J.D. Flynn, First Things

The Progressive Roots of the Pro-Life Movement
Daniel K. Williams, The New York Times

Roe v. Wade's 43-Year War on Blacks
Greg Morse, Desiring God

Sex is More AND Less Important Than You Think
Trevin Wax, The Gospel Coalition

There is No 'Pro-Life' Case for Planned Parenthood
Ross Douthat, The New York Times

Yes, Yale, Abortion is a Social Injustice
Matthew Gerken, First Things
0 Comments

Breaking Bad Mental Habits

12/2/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Disease of Being Busy
Omid Safi, On Being

6 Reasons You Seriously Need to Slow Down
Frank Powell, RELEVANT Magazine

7 Tips to Help Recognize When You're Wrong
Wes McAdams, Radically Christian

Why You Need to Try to Understand Other Perspectives
Wes McAdams, Radically Christian

The One Thing 'Tolerance' Can't Tolerate
Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times

The 7 Habits of Highly Depolarizing People
David Blankenhorn, The American Interest

0 Comments

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

11/24/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture by Olaf Growald of The Christian Chronicle. See below for Growald's photo essay on how Texas churches are fighting racism with the love of Jesus.
Churches of Christ in Greece Minister to Syrian Refugees
Lynn McMillon, The Christian Chronicle

Today, Anne Frank Would be a Syrian Refugee
Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times

Speaking Up on the Issue of Race in America
Harold Shank & Robert Solomon, The Christian Chronicle

Are Police Reforms Contributing to Chicago's Spike in Gun Deaths?
The Editors, The National Review

What Cops Today Can Learn from a Roman Centurion
Jerry Taylor, The Christian Chronicle

Photo Essay: In Texas, Christians Join Hands for Racial Unity & to End Violence
Olaf Growald, The Christian Chronicle

Why a Green Beret is Standing with Kaepernick
Justin Charters, Independent Journal Review
0 Comments

One Nation Under God

11/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
My Prayer for the United States of America
Wes McAdams, Radically Christian

10 Things Christians Should Remember About the Election
Hunter Baker, Crossway

I Pledge Allegiance
Drew Hunter, Crossway

The Seven Habits of Highly Depolarizing People
David Blankenhorn, The American Interest

Former Navy SEAL Wins Governorship as Vets Head to Congress
Hope Hodge Seck, Military.com

The Electoral College Still Makes Sense Because We're a Republic, not a Democracy
Donna Carol Voss, The Federalist

President Trump's Agenda for His First 100 Days in Office
Amita Kelly & Barbara Sprunt, National Public Radio
0 Comments

Why I’m Voting for Solidarity

10/28/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
There is a Better Way to Express my Christian Ethics
Ross McCullough, America Magazine

We Need to Regain our Prophetic Witness
Stephen Altrogge, The Blazing Center​

Character Matters Much More Than We Often Admit
The Economist

Our Candidates Reflect Who We Have Become
Chuck Hooten

Neither Major Party is Comfortable Helping the Poor
Max Ehrenfreund, The Washington Post

Both Major Candidates Pose Major Risks to the Pro-Life Cause
Matthew Loftus, The Federalist

Neither Candidate Can Be Trusted on Supreme Court Appointments
Timothy P. Carney, Washington Examiner

The Two-Party System Only Works Because We Let It
Michael Graham, The Federalist

The Politics of Solidarity: A Case for the American Solidarity Party
David McPherson, First Things
0 Comments

Main Street & the Middle Class

8/18/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Bad Faith of the White Working Class
J.D. Vance, The New York Times

Our Divisions Aren't Caused by Global Elites
Peter Spiliakos, First Things

Our Economy is Cartelized, Corrupt & Closed
David P. Goldman, First Things

The Myth of Cosmopolitanism
Ross Douthat, The New York Times

The Paradox of Plenty: Oil & the Third World
The Economist

What Would a Reform Agenda Look Like?
Robert P. George, First Things

Room to Grow: A Conservative Reform Agenda
The Conservative Reform Network

Will Raising the Minimum Wage Kill Jobs?
Kate Gibson, CBS News

0 Comments

The Gospel & the New Gnosticism

7/29/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Church, the Gates of Hell, & the City Gates
Trent Hunter, Canon and Culture

How Gay Marriage Won... and Lost
Peter J. Leithart, First Things

NY Times Claims Romans Calls for 'Execution of Gays'
Mollie Hemingway, The Federalist

Obergefell & the New Gnosticism
Sherif Girgis, First Things

Local Church of Christ Fights for Biblical Sexuality
Leah Jessen, The Daily Signal

Iowa's Law-Gospel Dialectic
Carl R. Trueman, First Things

Trouble in Bakersfield
Carl R. Trueman, First Things

What is Marriage to Evangelical Millennials?
Abigail Rine, First Things

0 Comments

Retraining Your Mind

7/21/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
12 Principles for Disagreeing with Other Believers
Andrew David Naselli & J.D. Crowley, Crossway

No, Your Brain is Not a Computer
Robert Epstein, Aeon

Why Some Elders Have Trouble Making Decisions
Bobby Ross, Jr., The Christian Chronicle

How Politics Makes us Stupid
Ezra Klein, Vox

Why You Vote the Way You Do
Jonathan Haidt, The Week

William James on Focus & Other Habits of the Mind
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

0 Comments

All of God's Children

7/14/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Photo by Johhny Nguyen during protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Click on photo for source.
An Attack on our Basic Humanity
Dale Hansen, Hansen Unplugged

A Nationwide Study of Police Shootings in 2015 (Take-Aways, Full Report & 2016 Data Year-to-Date)
Kimberly Kindy, Marc Fisher, Julie Tate, Jennifer Jenkins & Kennedy Elliott, The Washington Post

10 (Okay, 9) Commonsense Reforms from Campaign Zero
Tom Proctor, PuckerMob

How Conservatives Can Find Common Ground with Black Lives Matter
Celina Durgin, National Review

Ceasefire: Deterring Inner-City Violence
Lois Beckett, ProPublica

Jesus Didn’t Say “Blessed are the Poor… and the Rich”
Justin DaMetz, Progressive Christianity, Theology, Social Justice

Justice for Black Lives Begins with Us
Propaganda, Relevant Magazine

A Black Police Chief on the Dallas Attacks
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams with Chief Donald Grady II, The Atlantic
0 Comments

Brexit, Identity & Community

7/1/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
The hearth at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee, depicting the national flowers of Scotland (the thistle), England (the rose), and Ireland (the clover). Click on the picture for more information on the site.
Brexit and the Persistence of Nationalism
Mark Movsesian, First Things

Brexit and The Dis-United Kingdom
Peter Hitchens, First Things

Leave: A Vote Against a Technocratic Elite
Daniel Larison, The American Conservative

Leave: A Vote Against the New Globalism
R.R. Reno, First Things

The Burkean Case for Remaining in the EU
Mark Mills, Matter of Facts

Remain: Unity and Independence

David T. Koyzis, First Things

Brexit and the Rise of The Trump
Brian Kaller, The American Conservative
0 Comments

Renewing Christian Culture

6/17/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Culture, Anti-Culture & Nostalgia
Carl R. Trueman, First Things

Academic Freedom & Intellectual Life
Pena Hitz, First Things

Erasmus' Christian Humanism
Timothy George, First Things

Evangelism in Patrick Henry's "Liberty or Death" Speech
Thomas Kidd, We're History

Lessons Learned from Medieval Attitudes on Pagans
John Marenbon, Aean

Renewing Metaphysics & the Rebirth of Christian Society
Elliot Milco, The Paraphasic

The Salzburg Declaration: Building an "Ecology of Man"
The International Christian Network

0 Comments

Healing Communities

5/20/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Breaking the Cycle of Absentee Fathers
Laura Klairmont, CNN

The Christian Roots of Soil Conservation
John Murdock, First Things

Distributism is the Future
Gene Callahan, The American Conservative

For the Poor, Geography Can Mean Life or Death
Neil Irwin & Quoctrung Bui, The New York Times

Healing Families with Fear and Love
Matthew Schmitz, First Things

How a Minister in Flint, MI Got the President's Ear
Bobby Ross Jr., The Christian Chronicle

Singing for Children Without Voices
Bobby Ross Jr., The Christian Chronicle

Why Economics Needs Both Values and Utility
Curt Biren, First Things

Why a White Evangelical Gave Birth to Black Triplets

Aaron Halbert, The Washington Post

0 Comments

For the Least of These

3/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture"For the Least of These," by Sochi Watanabe. Please click on the above painting above for purchasing information.
Children Mine the Cobalt in Your Smartphone
Annie Kelly, The Guardian

How the Breakdown of Marriage Destroys the Poor
Greg Forster, First Things

The Green St. Church: Tiny Homes for the Homeless
Alex Hendrickson, Style Blueprint

Linking Inequality with Global Turmoil
Jay Ufelder, FiveThirtyEight

Rich Kids Stay Rich, Poor Kids Stay Poor
Ben Casselman & Andrew Flowers, FiveThirtyEight

Two Theories of Immigration
Mark R. Amstutz, First Things

We Are in This Together
Pete Spiliakos, First Things

0 Comments

Serving Others with Heart & Mind

2/26/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
10 Ways Poverty Impacts Education
Kristina Birdsong, The Science of Learning

Both/And Philanthropy
Leah Libresco, Fare Forward

Cultivating the Virtues: An Interview with Wendall Berry
Corby Kummer, Modern Farmer

Enlightenment Thought & Paying for Lightbulbs
Richard J. Mouw, First Things

Garden in the Desert
Peter J. Leithart, First Things

River From the Sky
Kathleen Toner, CNN

0 Comments

Still Praying for Syria

2/5/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Defeating ISIS Within a Cell of Prayer
Arthur Herlin, Aleteia

Report: Syria's al-Nusra 'More Dangerous' than ISIS
Ryan Browne, CNN

Why our Christianity Should Trump our Politics
Russell Moore, The Washington Post

Why We Need to Recognize the Christian Genocide
Kirsten Powers, USA Today

VIDEO: Starvation in Madaya
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN​

0 Comments

The Price of Progressivism

1/29/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Deadly Progressivism
R.R. Reno, First Things

Americans are Becoming More Pro-Life & More Pro-Gay
Carl R. Trueman, First Things

Planned Parenthood Should be Our Wake-Up Call
Betsy Childs Howard, First Things

Redefining Dignity: Gnostic, Elitist, Self-Destructive Will-to-Power
Roberta Green Ahmanson, Public Discourse

We Cannot Compromise on Matters of Life and Death
Wesley J. Smith, First Things

You Are Not an Ape
Wesley J. Smith, First Things
0 Comments

Love is the Final Fight

1/15/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
I Have a Dream
Martin Luther King, Jr., The National Archives

Abortion & the War on Blacks
Black Genocide

Ceasefire: Deterring Inner-City Violence
Lois Beckett, ProPublica

The Church Isn't Supposed to be Segregated
Wes McAdams, Radically Christian

Rebuilding Black Families
Juan Williams, NY Daily News

0 Comments

For You Were Strangers

12/18/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Ralia, 7, and Rahaf, 13, live on the streets of Beirut. They fled their hometown of Damascus last year with their father, after a grenade killed their mother and brother. Photo by Magnus Wennman.
When Jesus Sought Refuge
William J. Barber, II & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Patheos

PHOTOS: Where the Children Sleep
Magnus Wennman, Aftonbladet

How Refugees Saved Me
Russell E. Saltzman, First Things

Syrian Refugees & Religious Freedom
Ian Tuttle, National Review Online

Syria is Just the Beginning: Kenya's Growing Refugee Crisis

David McKenzie and Brent Swails, CNN
0 Comments

Cautious Compassion

12/11/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Ralia, 7, and Rahaf, 13, live on the streets of Beirut. They fled their hometown of Damascus last year with their father, after a grenade killed their mother and brother. Photo by Magnus Wennman.
Compassion, Yes, But Prudence, Too
Marc LiVecche, First Things

Don't Forget our Afghan and Iraqi Interpreters
Dane Bowker, The Washington Post

Failures in the International Refugee System
Nina Shea, National Review Online

How Refugees Make it in America
Clare Malone, FiveThirtyEight

Posing as a Refugee Isn't All That Easy... Especially for Terrorists
Jeremy Diamond, CNN
0 Comments

Cities & Their Citizens

12/7/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureIdeal View of the Acropolis and the Areopagus in Athens by Leo von Klenze.
The Greeks left a strong foundation of cultural, social, and political values that has been drawn on by almost every Western people since. That being said, the increasingly nationalizing tendencies of our own republican government, and the increasingly international form government is taking in modern Europe, have caused many to wonder why Greece never achieved this same kind of political union. Why remain several small poleis instead of becoming a single great, civilized nation, especially since military threats later absorbed these communities, first into the Macedonian kingdom and later into the Roman Empire?

To answer this question, one must first understand that the Greeks held some drastically different views on the concept of politics than most of us do today. The Greek word polis has no direct English equivalent. Because of this, we have attempted to render it in a number of ways, most commonly as ‘city-state.’ But this not only falls short of the full potential of its meaning, it also introduces some false connotations that were not meant by the Greeks themselves.

Kitto identifies this rendering of the word, “a bad translation, because the normal polis was not much like a city, and was very much more than a state” (64). He goes on to catalogue the various uses of the word in order to demonstrate its many shades of meaning: citadel, town, the market town, people, state, and cultural life (Kitto 68-75). For this reason, Kitto states that polis, “may mean as much as ‘the whole communal life of the people, political, cultural, moral’ – even ‘economic’,” while also retaining certain religious connotations (75). In short then, the polis is the Greek ‘community’ and often serves as a metonymy for the various aspects of the community’s wellbeing.

This more holistic view of ‘the city’ had natural implications for their view of citizenship, which meant much more than mere residence. Many a Greek lived within a city while never enjoying the rights and responsibilities of the citizen. In most Greek communities, citizenship was a birthright bestowed on male children born to a father who was a citizen and a mother who was a free woman. Other members of the community (at least at Athens) included metics (or ‘resident aliens’), women and slaves (owned by individuals in Athens and by the community in Sparta) who each enjoyed limited freedoms but were denied any political participation (Freeman 226-228). As Freeman continues, “Citizenship was thus a privilege and a closely guarded one,” but it also had its duties (228). In Athens a citizen was expected to participate in religious festivals, attend the Assembly, and fight the community’s battles as a hoplite (Freeman 226; Martin 82-83). In Sparta, a citizen was expected to not only fulfill these responsibilities, but also to provide enough food to support his military-style common mess (Greek sussition), and failure to do so meant a loss of membership in both the mess and the citizen body (Martin 77-78).

Taken together, a uniquely Greek concept of political unity begins to take shape. Greeks did not form ‘states;’ they formed ‘communities.’ Citizens were not residents; they were participants in the life and affairs of their community. Note the intimacy implied by the word itself: community. Such a sense is difficult to imagine in today’s modern world (though the same connection can still be seen in our words ‘city’ and ‘citizen’). The United States has over 300 million citizens. Cities have populations numbering in the several hundreds of thousands and even millions.

To the Greeks, however, political unity meant the opportunity to participate in a shared cultural, religious and economic environment. Such is the reason why Plato, when he set forth his vision for the ideal community, set the optimal size of the body politic at 5,000 and why Aristotle believed that “each citizen should be able to know all the others by sight” (though the total population, including women, children, metics, and slaves could approach as many as 50,000; Kitto 65-66). True community, then, is directly proportional to familiarity; the greater the familiarity, the greater the sense of community; and when this familiarity is lost, so is one’s sense of community.

This concept of political unity is further demonstrated by other social relationships enjoyed between citizens. In Athens, the community was not divided into wards, quarters, or boroughs but into demes, a word that simply means ‘peoples’ and implies a sense of common identification among its members (Martin 87-88). Unanimity was further maintained through voluntary associations, “some purely religious,” others related to “particular trades” or aristocratic families, and even through a sundry of rancorous drinking clubs (Freeman 226). As Freeman continues, “The Athenian citizen was thus given identity through a range of shared activities which went well beyond his involvement in the Assembly” (Freeman 226).

And though the Spartans chose activities that appear quite different on the surface (a rigorous martial upbringing, and the above-mentioned common messes) the intent was much the same. However, Spartan unanimity also came at a high moral cost, being reinforced from within through the perversion called pederasty, and from without by the systematic enslavement of their outlying neighbors. It was because of this misplaced emphasis on male unity that the Greeks “created outsiders such as barbarians, both free and slave, and, within the city, women and non-citizens in order to strengthen the identity of the citizen group” (Freeman 226).

Though later in our series we’ll have another opportunity to address Sparta’s neighbors, pederasty deserves special comment before we move on. Pederasty was a form of ritualized pedophilia that typically included a young man as the active partner and a younger boy as the passive one. Though each community had its own twists on this practice, in general the boys “were chosen to be the special favorites of males older than themselves to build bonds of affection, including physical love, for others” (Martin 78, 79). Thankfully, the Apostle Paul condemns the practice, along with other forms of homosexuality, in two ‘vice lists’ in the New Testament (1Co 6:9-11; Rom 1:24-27). So while Greek views on civics are generally ‘higher’ than our own, this was not so in every place on every issue.

To the Greeks, politics meant much more than participating in the political processes of the state; it emphasized the individual civic responsibilities owed to others as a trust and privilege held in common with one’s family and neighbors. It is in this vein of thought that Aristotle states so memorably that, “Man is a political animal,” by which he means that, “‘Man is a creature who lives in a polis’; and what he goes on to demonstrate, in his Politics, is that the polis is the only framework within which man can fully realize his spiritual, moral and intellectual capacities” (Kitto 78). The polis, then, is, in the words of Cartledge, a ‘citizen-state’ (56).

We can hopefully see now why the problem of Greek unity may not be in the Greeks themselves but in the way we have formed our questions concerning the goals of their culture and its effects on their political organization. The Greeks did not ‘succeed’ in the modern conception of ‘political unity’ precisely because it is a modern conception that the Greeks neither imagined nor desired. And though certain Greek views on identity and sexuality fail to measure up to the standard of the biblical witness, we have also failed to live up to their cultural legacy concerning their views on cities and citizenship.

Works Cited
  • Cartledge, Paul. The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece. New York: Vintage, 2003. Print.
  • Freeman, Charles. Egypt, Greece and Rome. 2nd Ed. Oxford, 2004. Print.
  • Kitto, H.D.F. The Greeks. Baltimore: Penguin, 1973. Print.
  • Martin, Thomas R. Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times. New Haven: Yale, 1996. Print.

0 Comments

Transcending the Terror

12/4/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
4 Things Christians Should Do When Tragedies Occur
Wes McAdams, Radically Christian

Fighting Terrorism with Transcendence
Gracy Olmstead, The American Conservative

French, Syrian Christians Pray After Paris Attacks
Erik Tryggestad, The Christian Chronicle

The Rise of Religious Terrorism in France
Carl Bialik, FiveThirtyEight

What ISIS Wants
Jon Foreman, The Huffington Post
0 Comments
<<Previous
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Academic
    Ancient Words
    Books
    Community
    Creation
    Hosea
    Isaiah
    Life In The Word
    Revelation
    The Body Of Christ

    Archives

    September 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

Picture
Photos used under Creative Commons from Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon, lungstruck, Rubén Díaz Caviedes, YoungLadAustin
  • Home
  • About
  • I Believe
  • The Big Picture
  • Reach Out