[Allow me preface this article by saying that what I have written is highly speculative. I am not endorsing or championing any particular policy, simply musing on future possibilities.] There is currently widespread anxiety about the disruptive and dangerous effects of rapid technological advancement. AI, robotics, self-driving vehicles and other inventions threaten to make human …
“You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great and powerful people, but how your liberties can be secured; for liberty ought to be the direct end of your government.” Patrick Henry, Anti-Federalist leader Right-wing critics of America and/or the Constitution often seek to legitimize …
One of the great errors of the mainstream conservative movement is the slavish attitude towards money. These mainstream conservatives almost universally present the unrestrained pursuit of money as the greatest virtue, and they even dare to assert that this attitude is completely in-line with both Christianity and Americanism. By contrast, the Bible is quite clear …
Of all of the figures surveyed in this essay, Henry David Thoreau is perhaps the most radical and is the clearest precursor of 1960s “hippie movement.” Thoreau is probably most famous for his book Walden (1854), which details his experience of living alone in the wilderness on Walden Pond. He uses the narrative of his …
Like Melville, Emerson also sought to escape completely from the Christian heritage of New England. But rather than speaking of a return to paganism, Emerson argued that each generation is able to directly apprehend divine truth through its own experience, thus making religious tradition unnecessary. In his famous essay Nature (1836) Emerson writes, “Our age …
Christian nationalists are painfully aware of the popularity of trans-racial adoption in Evangelical circles. As children of different races have different loyalties, obligations, temperaments and abilities, it is most unjust to place children into families of racial aliens. This practice seriously hinders the Christian in his duty to live in distinct, ethnic communities as ordained …
Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick (1851) is known primarily as a whaling adventure, but the book also features a thoroughly anti-Christian and pro-pagan message. In the early chapters of his novel the narrator Ishmael begins a friendship with the Polynesian Queequeg, with whom he is forced to share a room (and a bed) at an inn. …
The current miserable state of America can in many ways be traced to the worldview developed by New England humanists in the mid-19th century. While we have seen that some of these humanists, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, were vaguely aware of the problems caused by industrialization and other social changes, they were not able to …
[This post is one of the sections from our recently published Bible study guide available for free download] Despite the numerous miracles that the Israelites witness, their rebellious and sinful attitude continuously asserts itself. They refuse to trust in the power of God and soon grumble against Moses. Rather than rejoicing in their salvation, they …
The Scottish jurist Thomas Craig (1538-1608) writing in defense of the hereditary monarchy of England, argues that the family was, historically, the blueprint for the monarchy. They are similar in that both arose from paternal authority: “Now families at first were kind of small monarchies…In those families, government by many, whether aristocratical or democratical was …