Front Porch Republic posted on article on Jan 8 by Casey Spinks entitled, Petroleum and Me, that said what I’ve been trying to put into words for a long time. A meditation on escaping “the consumptive way of life” it’s a fairly long essay, but worth the read. Spinks notes, “Of course, petroleum is not …
Some time ago I read a sermon on an Orthodox parish website. Unfortunately, I don’t know which parish. The sermon was about liberty (as the French would say) or freedom (as we Americans would say), putting it in context of the larger scheme of salvation. The fourfold path of liberty is as follows:: From Slavery …
In the previous essay I argued that rights are not "endowed by the Creator." Rather, liberty is "endowed by the Creator," and in turn, there are a pair of dependent principles that grow out of liberty: rights and responsibilities. The consequence of liberty is that I have rights for myself and responsibilities for others. The …
In Enlightenment political theory (this is the political theory that is foundational to the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution) the two primary natural "endowments" are life and liberty (and yes, the Declaration adds Happiness, but that's another story). Given the history of American jurisprudence, the most appropriate definition of liberty is "the right to …
I’ve been reading parts of Luther’s Bondage of the Will again to make sure I’m not misremembering his argument. Luther’s argument is quite similar to Calvin’s later argument that gets filed under “predestination,” although there are differences. In both cases I have no doubt that the Reformers are trying to figure out things that are …
Continue reading The Bondage of the Will & Christian Liberty
I read the article because of the title. "Rohingya see glimmer of hope in Suu Kyi’s election victory." I never heard of Rohingya and was curious why his name popped up in my news feed. Turns out that it was not a person. The Rohingya are a minority group in Myanmar. The article came from …
This post raised some questions. I seem to conflate conservatives and liberals. I fail to recognize the differences between the Republican and Democratic political parties in the U.S. (Yeah, I also noticed that they were statements rather than questions.) In answer I will quote John Médaille. I've lost the source of this quote. Sorry. He's …
[Having a hard time with that title? How about parentheses and one letter change: Amer(irony)ca. Sort of like Americana, but with a modern twist.] One of South Sioux City's newest projects in Freedom Park, a place that celebrates what America is all about and the sacrifices people have made for the U.S. It's got a …
At a recent family reunion, sitting over pizza at a Pizza Ranch – one of the great Iowa institutions where politicians come to meet Iowans before the Presidential Caucuses to explain their political views and aspirations – my niece asked me to explain my political leanings. (1) What is Communitarianism? (2) How does it differ from Libertarianism? …
I am fascinated by the response to spy scandal. For the most part I'm neither surprised nor upset by it, although I admit I find the trends ominous. I wrote much more extensively about this a year ago, found here. What interests me in the current flap is our focus on the government as the …
Just Another Jim 