Christian liberty

Progress, in the sense of the progress that has progressed since the sixteenth century, has upon every matter persecuted the Common Man; punished the gambling he enjoys and permitted the gambling he cannot follow; restrained the obscenity that might amuse him and applauded the obscenity that would certainly bore him; silenced the political quarrels that can be conducted among men and applauded the political stunts and syndicates that can only be conducted by millionaires; encouraged anybody who had anything to say against God, if it was said with a priggish and supercilious accent; but discouraged anybody who had anything to say in favour of Man, in his common relations to manhood and motherhood and the normal appetites of nature. Progress has been merely the persecution of the Common Man.  - G. K. Chesterton, "The Common Man"

Don't let Chesterton's typical Roman Catholic ignorance of all things Protestant (here, the Puritans) keep you from reading him. You might start with The Everlasting Man, then read The Thing and What's Wrong with the World. Other than Scripture, there's no better antidote to the almost-universal stupidities of our age...

...I am a nobody.  - Apostle Paul

A year or two ago, a group of pastors and elders were working with a tall-steeple church on the East coast to bring a musician on their staff under discipline for his sexual assaults against young men he taught at a local college and supervised as director of his church's high-profile music ministry. As we worked, we had conversations with others who were providing similar help concerning survivors of sexual abuse at Bob Jones University and Bill Gothard's Institute in Basic Life Principles. It's noteworthy that long before Christianity Today or World went on record against Bob Jones University and Bill Gothard, Dad Bayly rebuked these Christian celebrities and warned the Evangelical world against them. When and where?

Concerning Bob Jones and his university, Dad's warning went into print back in 1969 in his monthly "Out of My Mind" column in ETERNITY magazine. Bob Jones University had just requested permission to arm their campus security guards with automatic rifles and submachine guns...

The Supreme Court of these United States declares Hobby Lobby will no longer be required to submit to Washington D.C.'s oppression and we're supposed to be happy and grateful? Are you kidding me?

The cornerstone of our nation's principles of government is the recognition that all men have an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, yet Christians are tickled pink and giggling with excitement that closely held family corporations of a certain inordinate religiosity will no longer be obligated to pay for the slaughter of their employees' children. It doesn't take much for the court jesters inside the Beltway to make us grateful, does it?

Sometimes I think I have a clear view of the game plan. The relationship between Christian citizens of these United States and their civil magistrates is much like professional wrestling...

In preparation for future course lectures, I’ve been reading and taking notes on the published doctoral dissertation of Horton Davies on The Worship of the English Puritans (reprinted by Soli Deo Gloria). One of the chapters compares the set forms of prayer used by the Anglicans with the extemporary prayers used by the Puritans.

Here is a summary of the arguments used by the Puritans against set forms of prayer: