The Family: Together in God’s Presence by John and Noel Piper

The Family: Together in God’s Presence by John and Noel Piper

Children should see how Mom and Dad bow their heads in earnest prayer during the prelude and other non-directed times. They should see how Mom and Dad sing praise to God with joy in their faces, and how they listen hungrily to His word. They should catch the spirit of their parents meeting the living God.

Something seems wrong when parents want to take their children in the formative years and put them with other children and other adults to form their attitude and behavior in worship. Parents should be jealous to model for their children the tremendous value they put on reverence in the presence of Almighty God.

This is a powerful and convicting piece, written decades ago. I wish I had seen it then.

‘A People Prepared’ By Kevin D. Williamson

‘A People Prepared’ By Kevin D. Williamson

Children who have not been taught any better think only of themselves. But we can be taught. As it turns out, we can learn to think, and learn to be human. As it turns out, you can get there from here, here being Bethlehem, its filth and its indifference. 

He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 

Happiness, like much else, is learned. For a long time, I thought that this time of year would always be for me a time of bitterness and regret, mourning for things that were not lost because they were never in my possession to begin with. But there is not any reason for that. No good one, anyway. I have a different kind of family now and blessings beyond counting. I know that my Redeemer liveth.

This has got to be one of the most powerful articles I have ever read. What a story of redemption!

Learning for Liberty by Joseph Clair

Learning for Liberty by Joseph Clair

The true aim of a college education is the development of a citizen: a free person. A free person is not merely freed from certain things, but is freed to and for certain things. This picture of education that came down to us from Greek, Roman, and Christian sources (with important contributions from Jewish and Islamic thought and culture) tells the story of freedom for a way of life—a way of life understood as the movement from slavery to freedom to service above oneself. The story consists of four interlocking notions of freedom: intellectual, political, economic, and spiritual. 

I couldn't agree more!

The Countercultural Idea of a Christian University by Ted McAllister, Andrew Yuengert

The Countercultural Idea of a Christian University by Ted McAllister, Andrew Yuengert

This vision of truth is capable of ordering human life. It is desperately needed by us, by our students, and by our culture. By its nature it is invisible to the modern mind: it exists but cannot be encompassed by any formula or analytical frame. It is beyond the boundaries of any one discipline or ideological program. We do not create this vision to use it; instead, we enter into it and invite others. We approach its environs in earnest, respectful conversation by finding the limits of each discipline and relating each to each, by our growth in humility about what partial knowledge and power can accomplish. This vision is within the grasp of a Christian university.

I love this defense of the principles that SHOULD motivate a university, but are unfortunately rare.

Edmund Burke on Revolutionary Armies and Taxes By Bradley J. Birzer

Edmund Burke on Revolutionary Armies and Taxes By Bradley J. Birzer

As with all things, liberty is a good that can be easily perverted, especially when one takes it out of context, exaggerating its gifts at the expense of the gift giver. No free society can exist unless individual persons restrain their own passions and govern their own souls.

This something I need to keep and reflect on when I teach this book... In fact, Birzer has a whole series I will need to peruse here.

Word and Anti-Word: A Christian Humanist Meditation By Bradley J. Birzer

Word and Anti-Word: A Christian Humanist Meditation By Bradley J. Birzer

Each of these persons played his part in the Economy of the West, forcing us to confront and acknowledge his or her sacrifice for Western Civilization and for, most importantly, Christian civilization. Such acts re-center us, moving us toward wholeness. Each such act reflects the true Act, the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.

This stunning article (from 2013!) traces the saviors of Western Civilization through its darkest times with beauty and persuasion.

Preaching a Conspiracy Theory by Allen C. Guelzo

Preaching a Conspiracy Theory by Allen C. Guelzo

It is the bitterest of ironies that the 1619 Project dispenses this malediction from the chair of ultimate cultural privilege in America, because in no human society has an enslaved people suddenly found itself vaulted into positions of such privilege, and with the consent—even the approbation—of those who were once the enslavers. The 156 years since emancipation are less than a second on human history’s long clock, so that such a transformation is more in the nature of a miracle to be celebrated than a failure to be deplored for any seeming slowness. It is a miracle Frederick Douglass celebrated; it is a miracle Sergeant William Carney celebrated on the ramparts of Fort Wagner; it is a miracle Dorie Miller and the Tuskegee Airmen celebrated; and it is a miracle Colin Powell and Ben Carson have celebrated. Why not the 1619 Project?

One of my favorite historians writing on the travesty that is the 1619 Project.