Messages

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/01/inaugural-reflections-on-american-renewal# 

George Weigel's take is a good one, as usual.

From Dave Benke  "This editorial was of interest as a marker on the intersection of church and governing:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/opinion/josh-hawley-religion-democracy.html.  It relates to aspects of what I would call in the US a Reformed/Calvinist view of the world.  Here's an article by Josh Hawley outlining the specifics mentioned in the Times' editorial:  https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/june-web-only/age-of-pelagius-joshua-hawley.html."

David,  Thank you for the link to the "oats" before the NYTimes opinion horse processed it.  Hawley's commentary, in his own words, parallels the conclusions of many thinkers, including Charles Taylor, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Carl R. Trueman, John Milbank and to a degree, George Lindbeck.

For an interesting discussion of the topic from a slightly different angle, see Ealine Pagel's work Adam, Eve, and the Serpent.

Copy and paste the title of the essay to your search engine bar.  Should pop up immediately in a variety of locations.

Carl R. Trueman has an extended discussion of this issue in his new book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self:  Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism and the Road to Sexual Revolution   Crossway 2020.  Worth your time.

https://quillette.com/2020/09/26/the-bias-that-divides-us/

A good discussion of the "myside bias" that is so often evident on this forum.

https://boropark24.com/news/president-trump-calls-jews-a-blessing-for-the-world-wishes-shana-tova

Jonathan Haidt has done some very interesting studies as to how and why this may happen. Check out The Righteous Mind

https://careynieuwhof.com/when-christians-lose-their-minds-people-lose-their-faith/?fbclid=IwAR0GmxEo2kBU5s6LdwE_yXAYUVfF4s6r33ZYV-FiCmMrvVzti2xDYyq7x5Y

https://www.mauldineconomics.com/landing/covid-research

Some useful links

https://www.realclearfoundation.org/asset/vertical/rcfo/sms/LJ_statement.pdf

Relevant to the thread.

https://quillette.com/2020/09/08/police-violence-and-the-rush-to-judgment/

"But I think it could be said that (excluding WELS, which is unknown to me) you could have a primarily non-white new group in any mainline or evangelical denomination in this country come up with a Call for Racial Justice Reform and it would be seen as an effort to open up a substantial conversation without being seen in advance as unnecessarily confrontational.  Except in the Missouri Synod."  From D. Benke

     Of all the denominations, with the possible exception of WELS, Missouri may be the only one with an implanted memory chip in its shoulder re the imposition from outside of linkages through the acts of government toward "union" in the name of establishment of cohesive jurisdictional justice at a nation state level.  That and the fact that Missouri is only four to five generations removed from its founding as a linguistic and ethnic anchoring place for primarily German immigrants makes the identification of the stranger far easier and more natural than the welcoming of the stranger.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip3nV6S_fYU&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1USr0oF1FSXcAvKbObTHW8qXwK7RORg6wxJdKkZVOcsaBZ-PCM3PJ3IgE

This link was shared by a college classmate.  Thought the content relevant to the discussion.  About an hour, worth it.

Jean Bethke Elshtain has a very thoughtful developmental outline of the sovereignty question in her book Sovereignty God, State, and Self.  Her argument lays out how the issue of the question of the form of God's sovereignty shapes the understanding of political and personal sovereignty. 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/the-massive-trump-coronavirus-supply-effort-that-the-media-loves-to-hate/

A good read on procurement of PPE