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“Patrick could put himself—imaginatively—in the position of the Irish. To him, no less than to them, the world is full of magic. One can invoke the elements—the lights of heaven, the waves of the sea, the birds and the animals—and these will come to one’s aid, as in the incantation of the “Breastplate.” The difference between Patrick’s magic and the magic of the druids is that in Patrick’s world all beings and events come from the hand of a good God, who loves human beings and wishes them success. And though that success is of an ultimate kind—and, therefore, does not preclude suffering—all nature, indeed the whole of the created universe, conspires to mankind’s good, teaching, succoring, and saving.

Patrick could speak convincingly of these things. He could assure you that all suffering, however dull and desperate, would come to its conclusion and would show itself to have been worthwhile. He could insist that, in the end, you too would hear the words “Your hungers are rewarded:  you are going home. Look, your ship is ready.”  He could speak believably of the superabundance of a God who in response to humble prayer feeds his lost and wandering people with heavenly manna—and a crew of lost and starving sailors with the herd of very earthly pigs.” (How the Irish Saved Civilization p. 131)

“The key to Patrick’s confidence—and it is the sort of ringing, rock-solid confidence on which a civilization may be built, an unmuffled confidence not heard since the Golden Ages of Greece and Rome—is in his reliance on “the Creator of Creation,” the phrase with which the “Breastplate” opens and closes.  Our Father in heaven, having created all things, even things that have since become bent or gone bad, will deliver us, his children, from all evil.  But our Father is not only in faraway heaven, but lives among us.  For he created everything by his Word, which was with him in the beginning, which became flesh in the human Jesus, and flames out in all his creatures:

I see his blood upon the rose

And in the stars the glory of his eyes,

His body gleams amid eternal snows,

His tears fall from the skies.

I see his face in every flower;

The thunder and the singing of the birds

Are but his voice—and carven by his power

Rocks are his written words.

All pathways by his feet are worn,

His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,

His  crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,

His cross is every tree.

This magical world, though full of adventure and surprise, is no longer full of dread. Rather, Christ has trodden all pathways before us, and at every crossroads and by every tree the Word of God speaks out. We have only to be quiet and listen, as Patrick learned to do during the silence of his “novitiate” as a shepherd on the slopes of Sliabh Mis.” (How the Irish Saved Civilization p. 132-133)

At the doctor this morning with my wife. We are tired (long story)… There’s a funny old man in the waiting room with us, they told him he had to drink a huge cup of stuff and he just laughed and took the cup. After fumbling around with it, he dropped the straw and asked or another one, he apparently dosent say please or thank you and i was only waiting for one or the other.  He reminds me of the guy from Up in appearance and disposition.

Secondly, and this may seem off subject but it isn’t because this post has no defined subject. But i just watched hot Rod Blago say that he was sorry for saying he was “blacker than Barak Obama” he went on to say while fighting back what (in my opinion) looked like hysterical laughter that he was speaking “metaphorically”, closing up his comment with something along the lines of, obviously it’s a metaphor because i am not blacker than Barak Obama. Thanks for clearing that up Rod.

Speaking of white guys talking about race, Mr. Reid didn’t say anythig racist. I am sick of hyprocrite republicans who are labled racist for saying stuff that isn’t racist and now Mr. Reid says negro and is catching some flack and instead of being consistent republicans are being overtly self-serving. Am i really suprised? No. Is a double standard wrong? Yes. Why are republicans complaining about a double standard while demanding one from the top? This is my fear, not flaming liberalism but secular conservatism. What’s worse? That all depends on what those conservatives are trying to conserve. Keep in mind that i believe the Bible is true.

I could go on and on, and normally i would, just in my head, but i really wanted to try posting from my phone…

Just read a great article on Christmas here and thought i would pass it right along.  If it is any incentive, i highly recommend it, especially if you or anyone you know refuses to celebrate this joyous season (or certain aspects of it) because of the supposed pagan roots…

“Some object to the celebration of Christmas on the grounds that it used to be a pagan holiday. But that’s ok. We used to be pagan too.”—Douglas Wilson

“Since the Savior’s advent in our midst, not only does idolatry no longer increase, but it is getting less and gradually ceasing to be. Similarly, not only does the wisdom of the Greeks no longer make any progress, but that which used to be is disappearing. . . . On the other hand, while idolatry and everything else that opposes the faith of Christ is daily dwindling and weakening and falling, the Savior’s teaching is increasing everywhere.”— Athanasius

This is a project i was a part of. Just so you know, we didn’t get the greatest grade but i am still very proud!

“Impending defined is, about to happen. Our video is a poem of words and images. We felt very limited in our personal … all » ability to accurately give convincing evidence to anyone, even slightly critical, that we could actually and permanently change the world. We opted to look back on history and observe how others have changed the world. We saw multiple situations where people have made a major difference in the world but by first changing themselves. This is something that is very obvious and fundamental. However, because we live in an age where we are bombarded with millions of factors of influence, we came to the conclusion that personal transformation is the ONLY thing that will enable us as Christians to invoke anything deeper than mere emotional influence or persuasion. We are called to make disciples and lead others to conformity to Christ therefore we must be conformed to Christ. This project has challenged us to examine ourselves, and what we really believe about our callings. The pattern given to us in the Bible always begins by introspection, and only then can we evolve into an exponential revolution. We wanted this video to be attractive to inquiring minds. We want it to invoke curiosity and not necessarily provide people with the same, cliché’ answers they have always heard. We wanted it to provoke people to discover their own answers. This is a video that must be watched multiple times to be understood, however, the video is merely a catalyst, the impending poem is our life song.”

I have been thinking alot about american government lately and particularly the topic of the “environmental crisis”. Doug says it like it is! I will have more to say about this soon!

Stewardship Schmoowardship – by Douglas Wilson
Topic: Wealth and the Christian

There are many things that are exasperating about the soi disant stewards of the environment, but the central exasperating thing about them lies right at the heart of their claim. This is especially true of Christians who tell us that Jesus requires us to be “stewards of the earth,” and that being green is a spiritual value.

And so it is. The problem is that the greens always turn everything brown. And here is why.

The Greek word for steward is oikonomos, the word from which we get economy, and economics, and all the rest of those dismal words. A steward provides household law; he is the one who keeps track of things, or is supposed to.

“And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward” (Luke 16:1-2).

The ability to give a reckoning, to give an account, is right at the heart of stewardship. Now when modern Christians talk about “stewardship of the earth,” they are almost always talking about cultivating feelings of general benevolence, coupled with good intentions that desire a good and green outcome. This cultivation is expressed by making a law in favor of the contemporary cause de jure, without any regard for what this does everywhere in the system. This is like a bookkeeper who makes an entry in the ledger in one place, without any awareness of the fact that this will affect his columns of numbers everywhere else in the ledger. He eventually turns the page, and is surprised, astonished, flummoxed. He promises congressional hearings, the kind of hearing that is guaranteed always to leave the real culprits alone. This is because the real culprits are the ones holding the hearings, which is kind of convenient, come to think of it. The last thing these people have on their minds is an accounting, and the last thing they are prepared to do is give an actual accounting. But that is what stewardship is.

Apart from a genuine free market, it is not possible to give an accounting. In a nation where the resources (and the environment that contains those resources) are all managed by the government, stewardship is a conceptual impossibility. This is because when the markets are not free, nobody knows the true price of anything. When no one knows the true price of anything, this removes intelligent incentives, and creates a host of perverse incentives. The only kind of stewardship possible is legal, perverse stewardship, or illegal, honest stewardship. Remember, the rule of law is not “making something legal.” The rule of law is a constant, and it governs the refs as well as the players. If refs can change the rules of the game in the course of the game, that is not the rule of law, not even if the ref blew his whistle when he did it.

Imagine a gigantic yard sale, covering five suburban yards. Suppose further that none of those working the sale were allowed to put a price tag on anything, most things were still for sale, and those that were not for sale were put off limits, according to their whims, by about three policemen who were wandering back and forth through the sale, swinging their billy clubs. Now, get a megaphone, stand on a nearby porch, and urge everybody to “be good stewards.”

Hernando de Soto has shown, in his The Mystery of Capital, that Third World nations have plenty of resources, plenty of wealth. It is available and near at hand. What they don’t have is the rule of law, and the attendant concept of clear title. When no one has clear title, there is no basis for the generation of wealth, and no basis for stewardship of the resultant wealth.

What I am about to say may seem a bit radical, so let me begin with a biblical illustration of the principle. The Bible says that a man who does not discipline his son hates his son (Prov. 13:24). This hatred is objective, measured by the results. It is not subjective, that is, it does not key off the emotional state of the father who is doing this awful thing to his son. He is probably a bleeding heart, not a “hater.” But he still hates his son.

In that spirit, with that qualification, it has to be said that environmentalists hate the environment, in just the same way that statists and liberals hate the poor. They talk like nobody’s business. Their phylacteries are wide, and they give lengthy prayers in the synagogues. They are the worst. They tie heavy burdens on the backs of others, which neither they nor their cronies are willing to bear themselves. They are false. They are wrong. They are hypocrites. And Christians who parrot their line are in rebellion against the very idea of stewardship. They hate it; they don’t want to give an accounting of just how it is that they destroy the environment, and bring about the extinction of species. They don’t care. All they want to do is roll their eyes when you come in and ask to see the books. Books? We don’t want books! We don’t want to reckon, we don’t want to count. All we want is a law that guarantees a fine result, with birds chirruping in the trees.

But stewardship looks at the results. A review of stewardship asks to see the books. But these fuzzy benevolence stewards wants an accounting department that never has to add up any numbers. Numbers are tiring. Numbers make my head heart. Numbers aren’t very green. Right. And people who think like that are terrible stewards.

Every resource in the world has a true price. That is the price established for it by the hand of God when men and women are trading peacefully, and not thieving from one another. The legalization of this thievery, which many professing Christians are muddled enough to advocate, destroys the rule of law, and introduces thuggery to the management of the yard sale. They want to make it legal for the cops to club anyone who tries to sell something that would be bad for global warming. Later on, this afternoon, they will be clubbing those who sell items that will accelerate the undeniable threat of global cooling. They don’t care about the results, just so long as they get to club somebody.