Today is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, and I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t say something about it.

Lincoln was always an important figure to me, even as a kid. All the books about young Lincoln told how he was forever getting in trouble with his father for reading instead of working. I could always identify with that.

Still can.

There’s a strong revisionist movement today, especially among conservatives, to re-define Lincoln as a tyrant, the arch-conspirator who laid the foundations of the imperial federal government, a godless, syphilitic bigot who tromped on civil rights and wasted 600,000 lives in an unconstitutional war.

I understand it, but I don’t buy it. Continue reading Thinkin’ of Lincoln →

As all my vast literary following is aware, I have a special interest in what Sociologists call (I think) the Honor-Based Culture. I’m not a sociologist of any kind, but I’ve had to try to work out how the mindset works in order to write authentic characters in my Viking novels. It’s a subject of special interest these days, because pretty much all Islamic cultures are honor-based.

I get the impression that when Honor-Based Cultures are discussed, they’re generally treated as if they’re anomalies. Strange plants that grow only under controlled conditions.

I’m coming to believe otherwise. I think the Honor-Based Culture is the default human organizational system. It springs from fallen human nature. It’s what all cultures will be unless they’ve been a) suppressed by a more powerful force, like the Helots under Sparta, or b) transformed through belief, as with Christianity (and Christian culture long retained many elements of the Honor Code nevertheless).

I’m writing all this in order to set up a kind of shocking idea that occurred to me today. I think we’re developing a new Honor Culture.

“How can this be?” you may ask. “Aren’t we trying to suppress violence in every way? Aren’t our Western governments generally doing their best to suppress the carrying of arms, which is central to Honor Cultures?

Well, it’s a new kind of Honor Culture. Follow me closely, and I shall explain all: Continue reading Honor-Based Liberals →

Miami-Dade County school libraries had 49 copies of a book praising life in Cuba before the school board voted to get rid of them. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling against the school board, so naturally the usual suspects are upset. I thought this was one of the right ways books could be removed from school libraries, but there’s a supreme court case from 1982 saying, according to the article, a school board does not have “the right to remove books from a school library if the board ‘disliked the ideas contained in it.'”

Really?

Professor Richard Colling has taught that Christians can believe in evolution too, and he’s still teaching at a Christian college. Can you believe it? I’m kidding, but there were some calling for his dismissal. Apparently, things are working out for Colling now.

When speaking up on campus. David French states:

When I speak on campus, one of the most frustrating experiences is hearing conservatives–and many faithful Christians–describe themselves as “silenced” or “afraid” to speak when there is no formal, legal barrier to their speech. . . . I hear these complaints, and don’t doubt their sincerity, but here is what these folks are really saying: “There are many things that I value far more than my conservative (or, sadly, Christian) principles, including the regard of all my peers, the ease of my academic career, and feeling welcome and accepted during the Thursday-Sunday party circuit. Please change the university so that I can speak my mind without any cost or consequence.”

He says it’s especially disappointing for Christians to complain, because the Bible teaches us not to fear such things, even to anticipate a struggle against the world’s wisdom. If God is for us, who can be against? What is light opposition compared to eternal weight of glory?

Forgiveness and Irony