day no. 17,452: too good at golf

"If we keep the prohibition of Deuteronomy 22:5 in mind, this has direct application for women in such sports. 'The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.' This text prohibits cross-dressing for men, but it also bans women from putting on 'the gear of a warrior' (keli geber). If women shouldn’t be placed in combat roles, and they shouldn’t be, then they shouldn’t be in warlike training. College football would be out, for example... While certain forms of athletic competition are both lawful and useful for girls, there is no reason to believe that it should occupy the same importance for girls as it does for boys. To assume that it should be 'equally important' to both sexes is to demonstrate that you have internalized the rancid egalitarianism of our day, and have prayed to receive Title IX into your heart." — Douglas Wilson, Athletics and Christian Community #3

The prohibition from Deuteronomy is not saying that a woman can never put on a bullet proof vest, but it is saying that she should not be in the habit of wearing one. She can protect herself if the trouble comes to her door and she can have a basic understanding of how the tools of liberty work and where they are kept and how they are handled, but she should not be an expert. She can only do so much and becoming an expert at reloading magazines comes at the cost of being better at making biscuits. On the flip side, men should not be too good at golf. Golf is hard and it requires a lot of time and dedication and money to excel at. If you are too good at gold, that is really too bad. Something, if not some things, are suffering badly from neglect. All that time swinging a club came from somewhere.

That said, competition and physical prowess and gamesmanship are transferable skills that men can and should learn in athletic areas. Men were made for pitting their strength against another. It sharpens them, like iron upon iron. Women were made to help. They need older women to help them learn how to love their husbands and children and the older women need help keeping up with the homes they've kept up with for decades. 

Everything does not need to be equally important to be as important as it should. A man does not need to care as much about baking a cake or cooking dinner than a wife does and a wife does not need to care about football as much as her man does, but both benefit from caring about that which God has given them to sharpen them in their respective roles.

day no. 17,451: feminism: a crash course in blessing the curses of others and cursing your own

Genesis 3:16

Unto the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

Part of the curse of Eve is the temptation to believe that the curse of Adam is superior.

"Eve's curse isn't good enough, they (feminists) want to share Adam's too." — Voddie Baucham

Feminism, not content with its own curse, clamors for the curse of Adam. It wrongly asserts that his privileges are greater than his responsibilities and falsely assumes that the woman's responsibilities are not privileges.

Feminism blesses the curses of Adam and curses the blessings of Eve.

day no. 17,450: rocking chairs and resting well

“It might be said symbolically that Americans have a taste for rocking-horses, as they certainly have a taste for rocking-chairs. A flippant critic might suggest that they select rocking-chairs so that, even when they are sitting down, they need not be sitting still. Something of this restlessness in the race may really be involved in the matter.” — G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America 

Americans are restless. 

Rocking chairs allow one to rest without resting completely and that is, in microcosm, the essence of the American spirit. We strive, we reach, we push... or at least, we used to. 

We did not find rest in Jesus, however. That is not why we have stopped striving. We have not found contentment. No, we grew discontent with our discontent and so we found a new way to be discontent... laziness.

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." — Augustine

Doing nothing is not resting. A rocking chair can genuinely relaxing. It maximizes the relationship between exertion and relaxation. A minimal twitch of the leg can set the entire body back and forth. In that way, a rocking chair is perhaps a good picture of resting in Christ while doing that which He prepared beforehand for us. 

We must do something and we must rest. In Christ, we can do both. Without Him, we either work ourselves to death or we die to our work. We get anxious or we get lazy, but we do not rest.

day no. 17,449: borrowing Christianity's tools to beat it with

“It looked not so much as if Christianity was bad enough to include any vices, but rather as if any stick was good enough to beat Christianity with.” — G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Christianity is accused of being too fussy because it condemns drunkenness, but it is also accused of being too fast and loose because it requires wine in communion. 

Christianity is accused of being too bloodthirsty because it requires the execution of convicted murderers, rapists, and kidnappers, but it is also accused of being too merciful because it forbids the execution of innocent unborn children, the elderly, and the handicapped.

Christianity is accused of being too prudish because it forbids fornication and adultery, but it is also accused of being too profane because it requires regular relations between a husband and wife.

Christianity is accused of being too vulgar and base because it talks openly about sex, but it is also accused of being too prim and proper because it condemns open displays of overt sexuality.

Christianity is accused of being too materialistic because it insists on tangible obedience, but it is also accused of being too spiritual because it looks to a city not built by human hands.

Christianity is accused of being too old fashioned because it has been around a long time, but it is also accused of being too novel because it has only been around since the death of Christ.

Christianity is accused of being too divisive and is blamed for all of the blood of human history, but it is also accused of being too compromising and is blamed for being too wimpy to matter.

Christianity is accused of being too boring and it is accused of being too excitable.

Christianity is accused of being too much work and it is accused of offering too much grace.

Christianity is accused of being too hot and it is accused of being too cold.

Christianity is accused of being too much and it is accused of being not enough.

Christianity is accused of being too Christlike and it is accused of not being Christlike enough.

All that to say, there are any number of ways to accuse Christianity of falling short, but there is only one way to measure how short something falls, and that is Christ. He is only the standard against which Christianity can be compared. So, even in accusing Christianity, the heathen must borrow Christian tools. 

It is Christ or chaos.

day no. 17,448: secular utopia and other oxymorons

"Limited government is a specifically Christian political concept, and the secularists aren’t Christians." — Douglas Wilson, Darryl Hart, the Wall Street Journal, and the First Person Singular Pronoun in the Objective Case

The Definition of Chalcedon declared that Jesus was fully man and fully God without confusion. This confirmed that man did not become a God, but that God became a man. As such, men are limited. They are not gods in process. This is the foundation for the doctrine of limited government in every sphere. God has designed four spheres of government: self, family, church, and state. They all have genuine authoritative spheres. 

The will belongs to the self. You can say "No" to yourself and only you can say "No" to your will. Someone else can force you to do their will, but they cannot force you to surrender your will. They can make you do the thing, but they cannot make your heart into it. They can demand that you do it and that you mean it, but they can only make you do it, they cannot make you mean it. 

Education, health, and welfare belong to the family. Fathers are commanded to provide their children with a Christian education. They have options on how to provide it, but it must be provided. A distinctly Christian culture must be passed along to one's children. In addition, medicinal decisions are within the jurisdiction of the family. What to serve for dinner and what to take (or not take) when you have a headache are the decision of the family. There are some limitations on this, for sure, but only inasmuch as they encroach on the jurisdictions of others. So, you cannot serve your neighbor for dinner as God has forbidden you to murder them or to eat them if you should find them already deceased. 

Word and sacrament belong to the church. They are the Lord's Word and Table, but He has deputized the church to administer them. The Word does not belong to the church per se and the bread and wine are not the private possession of the church, but they are uniquely qualified to distribute them and declare, "Thus saith the Lord."

The sword belongs to the state. It possesses the ability and responsibility to execute vengeance as the deacon of God's wrath. Those who are convicted of a crimes deserving death are executed by the state. The state does not get to define what deserves death, but they are responsible to carry out the executions of those God has declared deserve to die.

All this to say, no earthly authority is absolute. Said another way, all earthly authority is limited. Or most succinctly -- only God is unlimited. As such, limited government is a Christian concept. Secularism will not produce a limited government, it will produce a state that imagines itself to be a god. The are no secular utopias because secularism cannot produce peace. Might makes right cannot make peace, but it can break things into pieces... and it often does.

day no. 17,447: adjectival affections

"I don’t want my faith to be deeply American. I want America to be deeply Christian." — Douglas Wilson, Darryl Hart, the Wall Street Journal, and the First Person Singular Pronoun in the Objective Case

Ordered affections require adjectives. It is a question of what is substantive and what is descriptive. Are you an American who has faith or are you a Christian who in America? Do you want American flavored Christianity or do you want Christian flavored America. Jesus commands us to disciple the nations. In order for them to remain nations, they will retain some sense of nationality. That means you will have French flavored Christians and Chinese flavored Christians, but the Christianity will be the constant. The nationalities bend and bow to Christ and die to themselves. Each has a treasure to offer their King, but all have the same King. Christianity does not bow to cultures, cultures conform to Christ. He is the constant, the arche, the One to Whom all things are being drawn, and to Whom all things will submit.

I love America and I love Christ and because I love Christ, I love Him before and more than America. I would rather see something American die in order to be more like Christ than to see anything Christian compromised in order to exist in America.

day no. 17,446: catholicity, depravity, and liberty

"Liberal political orders have, ‘in God’s providence,’ secured religious liberty, limited political power and recognized human dignity—and one of government’s duties is ‘to protect the free exercise of religion, including liberty of conscience.’ Government should “not interfere in matters of faith” despite having a responsibility to encourage ‘piety, justice, [and] public order.’” — Darryl Hart, The Presbyterian Middle Way, WSJ

"But liberal political orders did nothing of the kind. They did not secure religious liberty, they inherited religious liberty. They were certainly on third base, but they did not hit that triple. Christians secured religious liberty on account of what they had to work out between rival Christian factions. And Christians limited political power because they believed in the depravity of man instead of the perfectability of man." — Douglas Wilson, Darryl Hart, the Wall Street Journal, and the First Person Singular Pronoun in the Objective Case

The prodigal made a few friends on his father's dime, but he didn't make single penny of what he spent. He inherited all of it and spent it liberally. Secularism is not the root of religious freedom, religious liberty is the fruit of Christendom. Freedom of speech is the unique product of Christian culture and governance. Liberty is not a value of Islam or Judaism or Secularism. They cannot produce it even if they wanted to and they wouldn't even if they could. They don't want their neighbors to be allowed to peacefully disagree with them from the comfort of their own homes.

Religious liberty is the product of the only holy catholic and apostolic church. The protestant vision of unity and charity among brothers allows for liberty of conscience without condoning any unconscionable libertarian nonsense. In order for Christians to coexist, liberty of denominational preferences had to be permitted without providing a blank check for heresy to be tolerated under a guise of catholicity. In addition, limited government sprang from the doctrine of total depravity since no man is good, not one and ergo no one man should have unlimited power to rule without restraint. Christendom is the source, therefore, of both religious freedom and checks and balances and distribution of power in the government. In other words, trust your brothers to be Christian even when you disagree on secondary matters and do not trust your neighbor to be honest when he has more power than you do. Those two instincts pair well and have produced one of the best attempts at Christendom thus far.

May God lead us, like the prodigal, home before we spend all of His riches and may it not require a famine to motivate us to move, but may we get a famine if that's the only way to point us back in the right direction.