day no. 16,861: political parenting

“The paternal state not only feeds its children, but nurtures, educates, comforts, and disciplines them, providing all they need for their security. This appears to be a mildly insulting way to treat adults, but it is really a great crime because it transforms the state from being a gift of God, given to protect us against violence, into an idol. It supplies us with all blessings, and we look to it for all our needs. Once we sink to that level, as Lewis says, there is no point in telling state officials to mind their own business. Our whole lives are their business. The paternalism of the state is that of the bad parent who wants his children dependent on him forever. That is an evil impulse. The good parent prepares his children for independence, trains them to make responsible decisions, knows that he harms them by not helping them to break loose. The paternal state thrives on dependency. When the dependents free themselves, it loses power. It is, therefore, parasitic on the very persons whom it turns into parasites. Thus, the state and its dependents march symbiotically to destruction. When the provision of paternal security replaces the provision of justice as the function of the state, the state stops providing justice. Those who are concerned about the chaos into which the criminal justice system has fallen should consider what the state’s function has become. Because the state can only be a bad imitation of a father, as a dancing bear act is of a ballerina, the protection of this Leviathan of a father turns out to be a bear hug.” — Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction

Godly patriarchy produces future kings by training today's sons. Toxic patriarchy protects its own interests by refusing to raise tomorrow's warriors for fear they may rise up to usurp them. 

Godly matriarchy (oikodespotein) nurtures and raises boys in the home before turning them loose to be men on their own. Toxic matriarchy never cuts the cord and keeps the boy dependent even after he can shave. It smothers a son into incompetence by refusing to let him suffer the consequences of independent action or responsibility.

When the State wants to play the parent, it ends up taking on the worst characteristics of fathers and mothers. The State was not charged by God to parent which explains why it is so bad at it… and why it is so bad at the justice it is supposed it be doing.

day no. 16,860: the water in which we all swim

“People in the West, even those who may imagine that they have emancipated themselves from Christian belief, in fact, are shot through with Christian assumptions about almost everything. . . All of us in the West are a goldfish, and the water that we swim in is Christianity, by which I don’t necessarily mean the confessional form of the faith, but, rather, considered as an entire civilisation.” — Tom Holland

Habakkuk 2:14

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Numbers 14:21

But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

Psalm 22:27

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

Isaiah 11:9

They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 40:5

And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

day no. 16,859: somewhere north of racism

Acts 17:26

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

All men descend from one blood line.

"Scientific racists, who asserted the biological inferiority of blacks, scoffed at the suggestion that they could progress to freedom, but the Southern divines despised the scientific racists." — Douglas Wilson, Black and Tan

The North assumed black men were descended from a different evolutionary stream than white men. The South rightly despised this notion as un-Biblical. The South sinned in calling their cousins second-class citizens. The North sinned in calling their brothers brutes. The South treated their brothers as beasts, but the North said the brothers were beasts, albeit beasts deserving better treatment. The North was like those of our day who treat their pets better than others treat their children. They demand ethical treatment of animals while mistreating their fellow man. The South was like those of our day who treat their children like pets. They take advantage of what they have instead of taking it with gratitude.

"The religiously orthodox Old South, in contradistinction to the religiously liberal Northeast, stood on its prejudice in favor of a literal reading of the Bible's account of the monogenesis of the human race and rejected scientific racism." — Douglas Wilson, Black and Tan

The South sinned in saying that black people should be treated different than other people. The North sinned in saying that black people were not people. The South said some men were more men than others while the North said some men could judge other men to be merely man-like. The North appealed to science. The South appealed to Scripture. The North did not read science any more rightly than the South did their Bibles, but the South could be rebuked by better exposition, whereas the North no longer heeded the Word.

"The North needed to repent of one kind of racism and the South needed to repent of another kind." — Douglas Wilson, Black and Tan

Strictly speaking, the North were the only racists. They were the ones insisting that black men were not of the same race as white men. They scientifically asserted that black men were not, strictly speaking, men in the same way that white men were. The South was guilty of ethnic animosity in assigning an inferior nature to black men, but the North was guilty of racial vanity in assigning an inferior evolution to blacks. In short, the North said whites were better than blacks and the South said white men were better than black men. The one was racist, stating that whites were a better class of creature than blacks. The other was ethnist, stating that one species of men were better men than others.

The South essentially touted the pedigree of the poodle over the pit bull while the North considered whites to be men and blacks to be dogs. That is racism in high form. That is the kind of racism that would find no hypocrisy in assuming the high road.

day no. 16,858: starving to death and sewing machines

As soon as Mr Beaver said, “There’s no time to lose,” everyone began bundling themselves into coats, except Mrs Beaver, who started picking up sacks and laying them on the table and said: “Now, Mr Beaver, just reach down that ham. And here’s a packet of tea, and there’s sugar, and some matches. And if someone will get two or three loaves out of the crock over there in the corner.”

“What are you doing, Mrs Beaver?” exclaimed Susan.

“Packing a load for each of us, dearie,” said Mrs Beaver very coolly. “You didn’t think we’d set out on a journey with nothing to eat, did you?”

“But we haven’t time!” said Susan, buttoning the collar of her coat. “She may be here any minute...”

“Now don’t you get fussing, there’s a dear,” said Mrs Beaver, “but just get half a dozen clean handkerchiefs out of the drawer. ‘Course we’ve got a hope. We can’t get there before her but we can keep under cover and go by ways she won’t expect and perhaps we’ll get through.”

“That’s true enough, Mrs Beaver,” said her husband. “But it’s time we were out of this.”

“And don’t you start fussing either, Mr Beaver,” said his wife. “There. That’s better. There’s five loads and the smallest for the smallest of us: that’s you, my dear,” she added, looking at Lucy.

“Oh, do please come on,” said Lucy.

“Well, I’m nearly ready now,” answered Mrs Beaver at last, allowing her husband to help her into her snow-boots. “I suppose the sewing machine’s took heavy to bring?”

— C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Without women, we'd go without food.

Without men, we'd never get going.

Without women, we'd starve.

Without men, we'd still be packing.

We need women to not starve to death.

We need men to avoid bringing the sewing machine.

Without women, we run out of lembas and can’t get back home.
Without men, we run out of time and get caught before we get going.

We need women to keep us going.

We need men to get us going.

Genesis 2:18

And the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him,"

We need men and women in order to make it.

We need each other.

We cannot be fruitful or multiply without each other.

day no. 16,857: footstools for dancing feet

Malachi begins at the end and ends where he began.

Malachi 1:11
For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

Wherever the sun rises, the Son will reign. No nation will be left behind. Christ will be acknowledged as Lord in every land.

Malachi 4:2-3
But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.

The sun of righteousness will rise and the wicked will be a footstool for dancing feet.

Romans 16:20
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

The body of Christ will follow in the footsteps of her Lord by treading down the wicked wherever they go as they leap for joy and dance with delight.

day no. 16,856: dissipation and despotism

“Those who throw themselves into dissipation will not inherit the kingdom of God. And they will inherit political despotism.” — Douglas Wilson, So Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ

You cannot give yourself over to lawlessness without also giving up your right to having a say in your governance. Those who kowtow to the tyrant within will be made to bow to the tyrant without.

2 Peter 2:18-19

For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

Tyrants cannot make good on their promises of freedom They don't have any to offer. They themselves are slaves to their own desire for unqualified power.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Chaos cannot inherit calm. You cannot build anything worth keeping by breaking up all foundations. Sin is not solid ground. It cannot hold itself together and it will not submit to standing on the Rock.

1 Peter 4:3-4

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.

The self-indulgent are always suspicious of the repentant. The dead fish floating downstream always make it more difficult for the living fish to swim against the current. The dead sea is a dumpster fire of self-seeking, lifeless deposits. The promised land is a place inhabited by living faith that is fit from resistance training. Its muscle is built up by getting reps striving against the grain of the zeitgeist.

day no. 16,855: Ophelia is THREE!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ophelia!!!

You are three years old today. You are growing up so quickly. In some ways, it seems like it was just yesterday that you were born into COVID times. In other ways, it seems like a lifetime ago since so much has changed since then, much of it, very recently, changed for the better.

And just like the times, they be a changing, so are you.

You are learning to talk and put sentences together. You are getting taller and you are getting a bit sassafrassier as well. Nothing unusual for a three-nager, but you're really leaning into it. You may have tiny pants, but they are also a bit bossy. 

I am excited to watch your level of commitment grow up and be directed at more noble causes than getting your milk from the fridge. If you are half as committed to Christ as you are to sitting on my lap during watch time downstairs, you will be a handful for the bad guys.

Here are a list of things I like and love about you:

You like your ice. I don't know how or why exactly you got hooked on putting your chew toys in the freezer, but you did and now you always do. It's very Oey and I love it.

You like asking about and being reassured that we're having pizza and ice cream on Friday nights. It is the last thing you ask about before each nap and nighttime.

You love playing after church and are really independent in sitting where you want and playing with whomever. You aren't scared. You, as you remind us often, are Oey.

You love our little black boots and have taken to wearing them everywhere and all the time lately. Although you often have them on the wrong feet. Maybe it feels better on our pigeon toes. I don't know.

You like Elmo. He taught you to pee in the potty after all. Speaking of which, you are pretty good about going to the bathroom in your teeny-weeny pee pot most days. You stay dry over nap more often than not, but you don't stay dry overnight yet.  

You like sausage. So much so, that most meat is sausage to you. You like bacon as well. You major in breakfast meats. 

You love the twins and often ask to hold them. You are a good big sister. 

You hold your own with the bigger girls. You are no shrinking violet. You know what you want and expect to get it. That often requires discipline, but assertiveness is not something you need to learn.

You are a sweet little lady and I like being your dad.

I love you Oey-biscuits.

Love, Dad