How Christianity Helps Us Recognize Good Authority
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“I find something distorted and distorting in how seemingly all our public conversations concern authority in its worst and most illegitimate expressions.” - The Dispatch
As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“I find something distorted and distorting in how seemingly all our public conversations concern authority in its worst and most illegitimate expressions.” - The Dispatch
“This essay is the third in a series looking at moral forms of resistance through the lens of just war statecraft. Some of these ideas are adapted from my forthcoming book” - Eric Patterson @Providence
“Meanwhile, Pennsylvania truck driver Bob Bolus says he is leading a U.S. ‘Freedom Convoy’ of trucks from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C., as soon as today with the goal of gridlocking the Capitol Beltway to protest vaccine mandates and Covid-19-related restrictions” - National Review
“The Biblical world-view is not that of the rebel. Jesus says to carry the pack two miles when compelled to carry it one mile. This is a reference to the Roman law that required occupied peoples to carry packs for a mile for Roman soldiers.” - CPost
“We live within a society (and sometimes even attend churches) that views law as intrinsically negative. Commands equal negative restrictions. … But, a proper distinction between the law and grace does not conclude that the law is negative – only that it is insufficient to save us.” - Zach Dietrich
“The conclusion of a syllogism cannot be valid if either premise is false. In this case, I think there is good reason to doubt both premises. To demonstrate that, I want to begin with the second premise, with plans to address the first premise in a future post.” - Ben Edwards
“Tim Stephens, who serves as pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta, was arrested Monday after refusing to abide by the order from Alberta Health Services to refrain from holding worship services that don’t comply with the provincial COVID-19 rules.” - C.Post
“Tony Spell repeatedly flouted the public health restrictions at his Life Tabernacle Church in the Baton Rouge suburb of Central, and he faces six state criminal counts as a result….Lawyers for Spell also are appealing Jackson’s ruling that Spell is not entitled to damages.
“Luther may have gone too far in urging the Princes to crush the Peasant Revolt by force, which they were sure to do anyway. But in doing so, he laid out some thoughtful principles about when legitimate protests go too far.” - Veith
“We are most certainly to obey God, but as Romans 13 indicates, one of the ways we obey God is to obey those God Himself has sovereignly and providentially put in authority over us. This includes civil magistrates. Even those we don’t like. Even pagan Roman emperors.
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