I reviewed Ric Locke’s Temporary Duty a while back. If you’ve been thinking about buying it, this would probably be a good time. Or you can go to his web site and hit the Donations link at the upper left. Ric has been diagnosed with Stage III, inoperable lung cancer, and his financial situation is tight.

Ric was kind enough to give me encouragement and advice when I was thinking about doing an e-book. He’s in my prayers.

Our friend Hunter Baker recently gave a speech on the Christian view of freedom, and how it differs from the secular humanist view, at an event in Tennessee. You can read the text here, at his blog.

From Rousseau’s perspective, Christianity and particularly what he called “Roman Christianity” presents a serious problem because there will always the difficulty of double power since the church will not simply yield to the state. Where there is conflict, the church will go where it believes God is leading it. In Rousseau’s mind, such a conflict should be impossible. The state must rule without question. He praised Hobbes for trying to put the two powers back together under the rule of Leviathan in which the state would control religion completely. What is needed, Rousseau wrote, is theocracy such that there is no pontiff other than the prince and no priests other than the magistrate. The only real sin in this new state Rousseau envisioned is intolerance. It is not even enough to have theological intolerance and civil tolerance. Theological intolerance cannot be tolerated. Anyone who “dares to say outside the church there is no salvation ought to be expelled from the state . . .”