There are basically two ways for a people to maintain social order: law backed by coercion, and convention or custom backed by social sanctions. To be sure, the two are intertwined, and every society employs a mixture. But establishing and maintaining an enduring order depends on a fairly low coercion-to-convention ratio.
The real battle is just beginning, for it is clear that the militantly pro-abortion forces in our country will stop at nothing to restore their constitutional “right to abortion” by packing the Court, passing federal legislation of fraudulent constitutionality, or, failing those goals, to liberalize abortion legislation throughout the fifty states by winning elections in the states and localities.
There was a time when politics was understood not simply as the maneuverings of special interest groups seeking power, but as a way of talking about the best ways for human beings to live together in the world. Yoram Hazony’s new book, Conservatism: A Rediscovery, is firmly situated in this older understanding of politics. It is also a brilliant, moving, and compelling account of what it means to be a conservative in today’s world
Baptists will also be faced with very real questions about who will best represent them in the public square on something as straightforward as abortion. Like it or not, abortion is the area where those who hold the keys to institutional power in the SBC have decided to double-down in defying the will of the messengers.
The view of politics I am promoting here does not mean that the ends justify the means. No; but we need to be clearer about the proper ends of political action. Again, our political stances should not be developed, articulated, and pursued primarily in view of minimizing offense so that the gospel can be heard.
When a problem is posed—for DiAngelo the key issue is race or skin color, but no real solution is offered, we have a recipe for cultural disaster and chaos. It is—in a sense—bad news with no good news whatsoever. Even through DiAngelo’s understanding of the problem is not as deep as Augustine’s, there is no meaningful solution whatsoever.
Pastor Tim Keller thinks “many American Evangelicals have no coherent understanding of how to relate the Bible to politics.” . . . Keller got this part right. American Evangelicals, really many American Christians, lack a coherent political theology. Yet Keller’s own comments place him among them.
No doubt, any contemporary Southern Baptist attempt against Disney will be mocked by some of the more cosmopolitan Southern Baptists of 2022. Such a boycott would represent a return to 1997, which is viewed with embarrassment.
Freedom of conscience is an indispensable right that we cannot jettison. Yet, does a commitment to soul liberty require what Williams said he abhorred, namely, “an infinite liberty of conscience”? Can any society, including our own, withstand unlimited religious and moral pluralism?
The scientist is not a disinterested observer but employs a variety of non-scientific sources of knowledge, including intuition, imagination, tradition, and faith. A detached approach to science is impossible.
