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12 September

Fall 2012 Prose & Poetry Recitation

For each season of the year, we endeavor to commit some verse or a prose selection to memory.  Thereʼs no better way to relish the beauty and power of our native tongue or reflect deeply on the truth that makes us free.

Past selections have included David Middletonʼs Of Magnanimity, Christina Rossettiʼs In the Bleak Midwinter, and a letter of moral counsel, “Few Words,” written by Thomas Jefferson to a little lad, the son of one of Jeffersonʼs friends. 

For the fall of 2012, our selection is William Cowperʼs God Moves in a Mysterious Way. Cowper (1731–1800) is generally regarded as the greatest evangelical poet of 18th-century England.

Families and friends are encouraged to join us in making poetry, rhyme, and eloquent expression an enjoyable aspect of life in American homes again. 

 

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31 July

Summer History & Heritage — #8 (July 30)

This is our last summer post. Your teacher will be spending much of August putting together our quarterly test (25 questions in a bright yellow booklet) based on summer posts 1-8 and a review of the prior spring test (Spring 2012 H&H Test).

This week we begin with “More on John Taylor of Caroline,” additional excerpts from historian Clyde Wilsonʼs “The Cassandra of Caroline County.”  Here prof. Wilson gives us much food for thought on the Virginia sage, his times, and todayʼs time of troubles.

More on John Taylor of Caroline (1753-1824) — (C. Wilson; Chronicles, June 2012) The True Aim of the Revolution: There is a convention of nationalist historiography that those who fought the War of Independence had as their goal a powerful central government forAmericans.  Like most all of nationalist mythology, it is not true. Some soldiers, like Hamilton and Marshall, did subsequently devote themselves to the cause of central-government power.  But there were many more whose later careers indicated that they viewed the war as a liberation from central power and its construction as a betrayal. Taylor was only one among a host of such patriots.

Taylorʼs Republican Virtue: As staggeringly incredible as it seems toAmericans today, Taylorʼs republicanism was not just lip service.  He fought the War of Independence from private to colonel while refusing all pay and rewards for his service. He was by no means alone.  His behavior was common among revolutionary officers, except for Massachusetts, where a clamor for bounties and pensions from the common treasury for even the most minimal of service was heard almost from the beginning.

The Courtʼs War on the Constitution: Taylor is equally incisive and prophetic about the anti-democratic judicial tyranny under which we live.Though doubtless he could not have imagined the extent to which the Constitution has been twisted, he discerned early and clearly the principle at work.  Though the Congress had no delegated power to charter corporations, and indeed such a power had been voted down at Philadelphia, he found almost from the first day Colonel Hamilton avowing that a bank corporation was “necessary and proper” to carry out delegated powers.“To me this new notion of a constitution by implication is, I confess, exactly like no constitution at all; nor has it been proved to my satisfaction, that principles ought to be lost in verbal definitions. . .”The “habit of corrupting our political system by the instrumentality of inference, convenience and necessity, with an endless series of consequences attached to them, is the importer of contraband principles, and the bountiful grantor of powers not given, or withheld by our constitutions.”The game that the Supreme Court and others were playing with words to draw unintended inferences from plain language Taylor calls “alchemy,” “superstition,” and “witchcraft,” not inappropriate descriptions of your average Supreme Court opinion. . .

Todayʼs Politics—Beyond Even Taylorʼs Prophetic Powers: Far-seeing as he was, Taylor could hardly have imagined a society in which politics is entirely about seeking favors from government, with occasional distractions by a competition among personalities, self-congratulation that we are not as others are, and fulminations of rulers with adolescent fantasies of endless global empire.For him, politics was a contest between the taxpayers and the crafty tax consumers who preyed upon them.I doubt he could have envisioned a diabolical system in which nearly all of us are both taxpayers and tax consumers at the same time—though he would understand that the former category involves net loss, and the latter net profit.

The Right to Stand Your Ground — (Chronicles; July 2012, various authors)When it comes to self-defense against an aggressor, American law and custom, somewhat unlike that of Britain, typically stressed this right?The Brits, going back to the medieval Norman conquest and the kingʼs insistence on a monopoly of the use of force, leaned toward a victimʼs “duty to retreat” if possible before offering resistance. MostAmericans, on the other hand, believed a “True Man,” so long as he was in a place he had a right to be, need never run from an assailant.

Americans Donʼt Retreat — (Roger McGrath; Chronicles, July 2012)

In the following excerpt, historian Roger McGrath provides us with a sense of the contrast between the British andAmerican approaches to self-defense:

Eighteenth-and 19th-century Americans were firmly convinced that when threatened they had no duty to retreat and that they had an inalienable right to arms for their defense.This attitude was a consequence of the frontier experience—theAtlantic seaboard wasAmericaʼs first frontier—and several rebellions against authority, especially the War of Independence.It was different in England.Use of lethal self- defense required one to prove that the action was justified and that there was no possibility of retreat.  Not only were the requirements for self-defense different—when deadly force was employed—but the burden of proof was on the person who defended himself.The logic behind this was anathema toAmericans. The English crown wanted a monopoly of violence. The man who committed a homicide in self-defense, even after he had “retreated to the wall” (fled as far as he possibly could), was guilty of a crime, and needed a royal pardon before he was relieved of the consequences.According to Blackstone, “justifiable homicide” was a determination only for the execution of a criminal for a capital offense, the unavoidable slaying of a fugitive, and the killing of a person resisting arrest by an officer of the law.

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23 July

Summer History & Heritage — #7 (July 23)

This week, our Q&A are based on Almanac biographical sketches and Tabletalk lessons on the Bible and historic Christian theology. An introduction to agrarian sage John Taylor of Caroline (Caroline County, Virginia), a remarkable patriot with whom all Americans should have some familiarity, appears on page 2.

Thomas McKean — (Almanac, July 10)

This American Founder (1734–1817) served in a variety of public offices for Delaware and Pennsylvania as well as the United States over a 50-year political career?In the StampAct Congress (1765) he proposed a voting method that acknowledged the independence and equality of the existingAnglo-American republics: each colony, regardless of size, would be accorded one vote.This principle prevailed not only in the stamp crisis with Britain but in succeeding continental congresses.

Jonathan Edwards — (Almanac, July 12)

This New England pastor-theologian (1703–1758) may indeed have been Americaʼs greatest philosopher, but his preaching manner would hardly go over well today? “In fact,” writes George Grant, “he read his densely theological and tautly philosophical sermons from painstakingly researched longhand manuscripts—often in a flat, monotonous voice. Only rarely did he deign to make eye contact with his congregation. Though not unpleasant in demeanor, he hardly cut a dashing or charismatic figure.”

Plutarch — (Almanac, July 17)

According to Boswell (a fair biographer in his own right), this Greek scholar (c. 46–126 AD) was “the prince of the ancient biographers”?  He is best known for his Parallel Lives, character studies of illustrious Greeks and Romans arranged in pairs, from which we derive much of our sense of the thematic unity of a Greco-Roman world.  He served imperial Rome faithfully, but devoted himself chiefly to his Greek heritage and his communal roots (Chaeronea in provincial Boeotia, NW ofAthens).

Gospel — (W. Robert Godfrey; Tabletalk, June 2012)

The Greek New Testamentʼs euangelion, from which we get “evangelism” as word and concept, ordinarily appears as this word in our English Bibles?  Meaning “good news,” the word was not foreign to pagans in the ancient world who used it to refer to happy announcements of any sort.In the Bible the emphasis of Christʼs apostles is on its heavenly origin (from God), its holy character (true, gracious, glorious, etc.), and its divine power to save sinners (through faith).

Circumcision — (Tabletalk, June 27)

“[Abraham] received [this sacramental sign?] as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still [without the sign]” (Rom. 4:11). The sacrament was the basic membership rite of the Old Covenant, pointing to the fact that the Israelites, by faith like their ancestor Abraham, had been cut from the world and consecrated to God.

Furthermore, the sacrament was an authenticating seal or mark of Godʼs ownership of and promises to Abraham and his true, that is faithful, descendants.

Sacraments — (Tabletalk, June 25-29)

These religious rites (for Protestants, Baptism and the Lordʼs Supper) may be defined as visible signs and seals of invisible spiritual realities, the Word or Gospel in pictures? The New Testament rites call for common physical elements like water and bread & wine, at the same time affirming a very close connection between the material signs and the non-material blessings they signify. Thus classical Protestantism insisted that true divine benefits were conveyed by the divine rites, but only for believers.

John Taylor of Caroline — (Clyde Wilson; Chronicles, June 2012)

“A crocodile has been worshiped and its priesthood have asserted, that morality required the people to suffer themselves to be eaten by the crocodile.”  Such was the scathing critique of his nationʼs general or central government and the chief promoters of its powers penned by this Virginia planter and statesman (1753–1824)? His books, including An Inquiry Into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States (1814), champion the liberties of the states and the people.

More on John Taylor of Caroline — (C. Wilson; Chronicles, June 2012)

What follows are a couple of reflections on John Taylor written by history professor emeritus Clyde Wilson in “The Cassandra of Caroline County.” (In passing, are my students and readers all familiar with the Cassandra of Greek mythology?)

A Man of Modest Ambitions: John Taylor never sought public office, though three times Virginia, a commonwealth overflowing with gifted men, sent him to the U.S. Senate to fill unfinished terms. He preferred the practice of good husbandry on the plantation north of Richmond where he spent his life.  In Taylorʼs opinion, a good farmer was worth far more to his fellow citizens than any number of eminent politicians, bankers, stock speculators, judges, military heroes, or busybodies. Of course, the farmers he honored were of the presubsidy variety.  What would he have made of agribusiness or a government that paid farmers not to grow their crops?

His Books (published between 1804 and 1823): Taylorʼs works are reputed to be slow going for readers.  His friend John Randolph of Roanoke is said to have remarked that the books would be very influential, if they could be translated into English. The criticism is exaggerated. Taylorʼs style is loquacious, colloquial, and full of nuggets of wisdom and wry humor.  He well repays the work of perusal.  His writing is playful and serious at the same time, like the best of 18th-century English prose, that of a good man discoursing with neighbors in the shade of the front veranda.

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17 July

Summer History & Heritage — #6 (July 16)

This week includes commentary on jazz great Duke Ellington, Andrew Jackson and the National Bank, and controversial Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. 

Duke Ellington — (Almanac, July 3)

Raised in middle-class Washington, D.C., this black composer (1899–1974) led an orchestra that stood atop the nationʼs jazz scene for four decades (1920s to the 60s)? He moved to NYC in 1922 to pursue his musical dreams, playing for theaters and dance clubs and developing a distinctive sound characterized by blues and improvisation.A virtuoso pianist as well, his best known works include the suite Black, Brown, and Beige (1943) and the songs “Mood Indigo” and “Sophisticated Lady.”

National Bank or National Banking System — (Almanac, July 5)

It wasAndrew Jackson (U.S. president from 1829 to 1837) who proved to be the fiercest opponent of the early version of this American economic institution?  In 1832 Jackson vetoed a bill to renew its charter (not scheduled to expire till 1836), and then proceeded to remove the U.S. stake in the institution in his second term. His opposition was based on his conviction that the system itself was unconstitutional and smacked of special privileges and public favors for the few at the expense of the many.

Jackson and the Bank — (a follow-up)

Even if one sympathizes with Jacksonʼs critique of the national bank of his day (this teacher does), the president may not have been prudent to move so aggressively to undermine the financial system.  Jackson was determined to pay off the federal debt (a good idea), and, as a result, many funds were withdrawn from the Bank of the United States.  What was left (along with new revenues) was distributed among several state banks. The immediate result was a kind of economic bubble or boom as many financial institutions, some sound some unsound, had more money to lend at lower interest rates. However, the bubble eventually burst and the Jackson years were followed by one of the deeper economic downturns or depressions in American history.  How much of the pain and suffering can be laid at the feet of Jackson and his gut-level dislike of banks and bankers is arguable.

Nathan Bedford Forrest — (Clyde Wilson; Chronicles, June 2012)

Sherman called him a devil, but Robert E. Lee considered this Tennesseean (1821–1877) the greatest soldier to have arisen from the War Between the States? Controversy attends his early life as a slave trader, his supposed responsibility for a “massacre” of Union troops at Fort Pillow,TN, and his involvement with the Ku Klux Klan after the war. But thereʼs no denying he was a brilliant citizen-general who triumphed repeatedly with very modest resources, much like Andrew Jackson.

More on Nathan Bedford Forrest — (Clyde Wilson; Chronicles, June 2012)

In “Neither Devil nor Mystery,” historian Clyde Wilson reviews two recent books about Nathan Bedford Forrest. Here are a couple of excerpts:

Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was no more a devil than you or I. He was an arresting character, a powerful leader of men, and one of those natural-born military geniuses who appear from time to time in history, which is not the same thing as a devil. The “devil” label was given to him by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who hoped to have Forrest murdered. . .

It is said that after the war an Englishman asked General Lee who was the greatest soldier produced by the late gigantic conflict in America.  Lee replied without hesitation that it was a gentleman in Tennessee whom he had never met—General Forrest. Sherman agreed with the assessment. Forrestʼs repeated astounding successes in pitting meager resources with skill and daring against superior forces resemble those of Washington andAndrew Jackson, likewise military amateurs, although Forrestʼs accomplishments were on a much larger scale. The citizen-general who could achieve victory with an economy of resources used to be an honored American type but has long since been replaced by the Grant model of a professional manager who marshals overwhelming materiel against an outnumbered enemy.

At the warʼs end, Bedford Forrest, like many Southern leaders in the 1870s, supported the aspirations of freed blacks and reached out to them in cooperative friendship. Some have suggested this was motivated by Christian conversion (Forrest did confess Christ publicly after the war) or was perhaps indicative of liberalization on his part. Professor Wilson believes nothing could be further from the truth, a complete misunderstanding of historic context, of Forrest and his times:

[His] stand had nothing to do with religious conversion and does not indicate an embrace of modern attitudes. Southerners knew their Bible well and knew that Scripture did not consider the status of a master in itself a sin—though being a bad master (or a bad servant) was evidence of a sinful disposition.

Forrestʼs reach across the color line had its true source in the paternalism and the close relations of races in the Old South, not in any late-life conversion to liberal attitudes. Forrest had been known as a good master.  He took 50 of his black men to war with him as teamsters and cooks and promised them freedom if they served faithfully. Subsequently, he signed 49 emancipation papers. If Forrest had truly moved toward the“modern” attitude of his own time—the attitude of progressive Northerners—he would have regarded the black people as an alien presence in the United States and wished for their disappearance. This was certainly the feeling of Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, and most Northerners until they discovered the usefulness of blacks as targets in place of whites and of black voters in controlling the South. It was because of old ties, and not a new attitude, that hundreds of black people attended Forrestʼs funeral, while they were barred from Lincolnʼs.

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10 July

Summer History & Heritage — #5 (July 9)

This weekʼs entries come exclusively from Christian Almanac and Tabletalk readings.

The Almanac articles for July are 3 & 5, 10 & 12, 17 & 19, 24 & 26, & 31.

The Rich and the Poor — (Almanac, June 12)

“Godʼs intent in endowing any person with more substance than he needs is that he may have the pleasurable office, or rather the delightful privilege, of relieving want and woe. Alas, how many there are who consider that store which God has put into their hands on purpose for the poor and needy, to be only so much provision for their excessive luxury, a luxury which pampers them but yields them neither benefit nor pleasure. . .”

The excerpt is from the pen of Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892), Baptist minister at Londonʼs Metropolitan Tabernacle and reputedly the greatest preacher of the Victorian Age.Spurgeonʼs spellbinding homilies are legendary, but his equally feverish labors on behalf of the destitute and deprived are less well known.

Louis XVII — (Almanac, June 19)

The fate of this little lad, the last of the Bourbon dynasty of France, has now come fully to light after 200 years of rumor and speculation?  Some had assumed that a ten-year- old boy who died in 1795 in the cold, darkTemple prison of the revolutionary regime was, in fact, the royal heir.Certainty, however, was beyond the grasp of researchers until complex DNAtests (on the childʼs preserved heart and his mother Marie Antoinetteʼs hair strands) came along.

Christopher Wren — (Almanac, June 21)

Si monumentum requiris, circumspice—If you would see his monument, look around. The inscription appears on a commemorative stone in Londonʼs St. Paulʼs Cathedral for this architect (1632–1723), the genius who directed theAnglican cathedralʼs reconstruction after the great fire of 1666? He had no formal training in architecture, but that proved no impediment to his artistic contributions to several public works, above all St. Paulʼs, one of Englandʼs many magnificent churches.

Sinking of the Titanic — (Almanac, June 26)

Itʼs been a hundred years since this tragic event, “both the darkest and brightest night in modern maritime history” declared Charles Linden in a notable June 1912 sermon? Linden, pastor of Yarborough Presbyterian Church in N.Y., highlighted the chivalry of the shipʼs male crew and passengers who, with few exceptions, gave up their lives for women and children. Curiously, many suffragettes of the day decried the patriarchal attitude of Linden and others as an obstacle to womenʼs rights and progress.

Woodrow Wilson — (Almanac, June 28)

Months after the Great War, as it was called at the time, ended in November 1918, this U.S. president took his fourteen point treaty proposal to the Paris Peace Conference? His innovative idealism was reflected in numerous articles, none more so than in calling for the formation of a worldwide security body, the League of Nations. The presidentʼs strenuous efforts to sell his peace package and his league toAmericans generally and the U.S. Senate particularly failed in 1920.

Faith — (Tabletalk, June 19)

The Protestant Reformers used the Latin words notitia, assensus, and fiducia to define the makeup of this theological virtue, in classical thought one of three such virtues? It first requires a person, they said, to know the basic facts about Jesus and His saving acts and, secondly, to affirm or consent wholeheartedly to the facts.Lastly, one must lean upon or entrust oneself to the One of whom the facts speak and keep up such trust, not perfectly or without lapse but truly, through the course of life.

Remission of Sins — (Tabletalk, June 22)

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us (Ps. 103:12). The biblical passage, one of many touching on the same theme, speaks of this spiritual reality or benefit, the key concept of which comes from a Latin root meaning “to send away?” The undeserved benefit, belonging only to the people of God for whom Christ shed His blood, is at the very heart of justification by faith alone according to French Reformer John Calvin (1509–1564).

Decalogue — (Mark Ross; Tabletalk, June 2012)

Derived from Greek and Latin roots meaning “ten words or sayings,” this term denotes the biblicalTen Commandments? The commandments are divided roughly in half into “two tables,” the first of which describes what love for God requires beginning with a prohibition of idolatry (“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”). The second table, headed by an exhortation to “Honor thy father and mother,” describes love for oneʼs neighbor.

High Priestly Prayer — (R.C. Sproul; Tabletalk, June 2012)

Jesus, in this New Testament prayer detailed in John 17, intercedes with His Father for His commissioned followers and all who will believe their testimony about Himself? Christʼs prayer appeals especially for the unity of His people (His Church), going so far as to ask that they may be one even as the Father and the Son are one.  Such unity, the prayerʼs content stresses, is fruit of purity, which in turn comes from embracing by faith the truth of the Word of God (Jn. 17:17).

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02 July

Summer History & Heritage — #4 (July 2)

This week, in honor of Independence Day, a lesson on how our Revolutionary War began from longtime historian & professor, Roger McGrath:

Lexington & Concord — (Roger McGrath; Chronicles, June 2012)

These Massachusetts towns, on April 19, 1775, witnessed the dramatic first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War?  Suffering 300 casualties in their retreat to Boston, British Brig. Gen. Hugh Percy said “The rebels attacked us in a very scattered, irregular manner, but with perseverance and resolution. . .”  Percy knew, observes Roger McGrath, that he was facing “something far more dangerous” than a regular army: “well- armed Americans fighting to protect hearth and home, and their liberty.”

The Shot Heard Round the World — (Roger McGrath; Chronicles, June 2012)Roger McGrath, in the following excerpt, takes us through the key events that led up to Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775.  Itʼs a story few of his UCLA students knew, and the same could surely be said for Americans generally:

“While nearly all my college students had heard of Lexington and Concord and the first battle of our Revolutionary War, only rarely did any of them know why the British were marching on the small Massachusetts towns.

“During the summer of 1774, Gen.Thomas Gage, supported by a squadron of the Royal Navy and five regiments of soldiers, was appointed governor and captain-general of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts legislature was dissolved.

“But Americans were ornery and independent back then, and resistance was immediate and widespread.  The colonists even elected another legislature, which was declared illegal by Gage. Nonetheless, the legislature, led by John Hancock and Sam Adams, met in Concord and openly defied the British general.  By October, Massachusetts, outside of Boston, was virtually independent.

“Through the fall and winter and into the spring of 1775, the rebel government in Concord collected arms and ammunition, and throughout Massachusetts militia drilled. Most militiamen were farmers, but there were also hunters and trappers, craftsmen, mechanics, teamsters, sailors, and shopkeepers.

“Early in April 1775, Gage dispatched several spies to gather intelligence, including Ensign Henry DeBerniere and Sergeant John Howe. . .[Such reports inspired him to act.] He issued orders to march on Concord, capture the rebel leaders, and, most importantly, confiscate all arms and ammunition. The bloody colonists must be disarmed!  By the time that nearly 800 British troops, under Lt. Col. Francis Smith, were on the road to Concord, Americans all along the route had been alerted by Paul Revere, Will Dawes, and Sam Prescott.

“When the British reached Lexington, they found militia captain John Parker and 70 of his Minutemen—so named because they must be ready with rifle and shot in one minute—assembled on the village green. In the van of the British advance was Maj. John Pitcairn and his 400 light infantrymen, their scarlet coats and white breeches, and muskets and bayonets, catching the first rays of the rising sun. In the face of this impressive sight, Captain Parker ordered his Minutemen, ʻStand your ground, boys. Donʼt fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.ʼ

“Major Pitcairn and three other British officers rode to within a hundred feet of the assembled militiamen and shouted, ʻLay down your arms, you damned rebels, and disperse.ʼ Parker looked at Pitcairnʼs overwhelming numbers and decided a pitched battle would be suicidal. He ordered his men to fall out. They did so, but not one man would surrender his rifle. ʻDamn you!ʼ shouted Pitcairn.ʻWhy donʼt you lay down your arms?ʼAnother British officer shouted, ʻDamn them! We will have them!ʼ

“A shot rang out. American militiamen said a British officer fired. The British claimed an American fired.  What is known for certain is that hundreds of British guns belched smoke, eightAmericans were killed, and ten more wounded. The British then hurried onto Concord, encountering no opposition along the way but hearing guns fired and bells rung in the distance, signals that militiamen were being called to duty. By the time the British reached Concord, hundreds of Minutemen in small scattered groups were there to meet them.

“At Old North Bridge, the British troops opened fire on Minutemen, killing two and wounding four, but the Minutemen returned fire and advanced, killing and wounding 15 British officers and men. Outmaneuvered and stunned by the accuracy of the Minutemenʼs fire, the British abandoned their wounded and fled.  Fleeing British soldiers collided with reinforcements trying to move to the front. It was some time before Lieutenant Colonel Smith could reorganize his forces. Even then Minutemen sharpshooters continued to drop British troops wherever they were. By early afternoon Smith had begun a retreat to Boston.”

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And pausing only to fire and load.
(from Longfellowʼs “Paul Revereʼs Ride”)

Click here for a printable copy…

 

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26 June

Summer History & Heritage — #3 (June 25)

This weekʼs entries include a reflection on Lincolnʼs famous Second Inaugural Address, as well as summaries from our Christian Almanac and Tabletalk readings.

George C. Marshall — (Almanac, June 5)

This Army general and diplomat (1880–1959),Trumanʼs secretary of state at the time, delivered an historic commencement address at Harvard on June 5, 1947? The secretary warned against a post-WWII retreat to Americaʼs traditional posture of detachment or isolation from an exceedingly troubled international scene. The plan he proposed that day (later named after the secretary) called for a massive infusion of U.S. capital to rebuild the economic infrastructure of devastated European nations.

Richard Henry Lee — (Almanac, June 7)

A Viginian and the great-uncle of a great Confederate general, this Founding Father (1732–1794) authored the first independence resolution of the American colonies? His resolution, approved by the Continental Congress on June 7, 1776, boldly asserted “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”  He was appointed to the committee charged with drafting the Declaration, but missed the chance to write it himself when he was called home to attend to his ailing wife.

The Righteousness of Man (in the eyes of God) — (Tabletalk, June 13)

Western man, for the last 300 years or so in what are called modern and postmodern times, has clearly been obsessed with his rights:  human rights, inalienable rights, civil rights, democratic rights, minority rights, womenʼs rights, gay rights, on and on.

Is it too much to ask him to revisit the question of his righteousness, of whether his words and deeds are in fact right in the eyes of God?

But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away (Is. 64:6).

Thus observed one of the ancients, the prophet Isaiah.  Commenting on the prophetʼs words, the French Reformer John Calvin (1509–1564) conceded that God could justly punish man not only for his blatant sins, but for his “good” deeds as well. Thus the original Protestants insisted on Christʼs righteousness alone, received by faith alone, as the ground for the salvation of sinners.

Talk of manʼs rights may have its place, but surely itʼs a subordinate place in the hierarchy of his concerns.  One suspects a good man, a truly righteous man living before the face of God, would be about his daily business (his duties) and little else.

So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, “We are unprofitable servants.  We have done what was our duty to do” (Lk. 17:10).

Justification by FaithAlone — (Tabletalk, June 11-13)

This Christian doctrine teaches that sinners cannot be declared righteous before God on any other basis than that of Christʼs obedience credited to them when they believe? Moreover, the saving belief of sinners, the doctrine says, is Godʼs gift to them in Christ, a gracious benefit of His labors for them, thereby excluding human merit and pride. Thus proclaimed the magisterial Protestants, like Luther and Calvin, of the 1500s, provoking no small controversy with the Roman Catholics of their day.

The Second Inaugural Revisited — (Katherine Dalton; Chronicles, June 2012)

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nationʼs wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

Thatʼs the last paragraph of Abraham Lincolnʼs brief Second Inaugural Address, delivered on March 4, 1865, and generally regarded as a gracious appeal for national forgiveness and reconciliation in the closing days of the Civil War.

The speech is chiseled into the north wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and not long ago Louisville author Katherine Dalton visited the site and reflected on the message and its meaning. Her view, that the address is rather bitter and less about reconciling the estranged sections of the country than justifying the Unionʼs cause and war effort, may be a minority report but cannot be dismissed lightly.  Daltonʼs meditation, as it appears in the June 2012 issue of Chronicles, appears in part below:

“.. .It was a bitter time, even in the North as victory seemed near, and it is a bitter piece of oratory.

“You donʼt think so?Read it again. The hardest language in that address is not its condemnation, which one would expect given the time and speaker, but the pretense of forgiveness. ʻIt may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just Godʼs assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other menʼs faces; but let us judge not that we be not judgedʼ  is not really a rhetorically extended olive branch. I think some schoolchildren still memorize the lines about ʻmalice toward none,ʼ but they were first spoken just a few weeks after a surrendered Columbia [SC] had been burnt by the Union Army.

“No: The Second Inaugural is as implacable as the Scripture it quotes—ʻwoe to that man by whom the offense comethʼ—while wearing the fig leaf of forgiveness. It is powerfully written, but it is a speech of justification, not reconciliation.”

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20 June

Summer History & Heritage — #2 (June 18)

Some of our entries this week are based on readings in Tabletalk or in Chronicles, two outstanding monthly periodicals centered in the Bible and Reformation theology (the former) and traditional Christian conservatism (the latter).

Veritas students are encouraged to read at least the daily Bible studies in Tabletalk for the summer months of June, July, and August.

The blog descriptions that occasionally appear based on articles in Chronicles represent the teacherʼs little efforts to let his students in on whatever he is reading and thinking about. Such things, a kind of enlightened sharing or give-and-take, are really the heartbeat of the teacher-student relationship, as Jesus made clear when He gave the reason why he called his disciples friends (Jn. 15:15).

We begin with a few Christian Almanac entries left over from our studies in May. The June Almanac articles, which students are encouraged to read, fall on the following Tuesdays & Thursdays: 5 & 7 — 12 & 14 — 19 & 21 — 26 & 28. 

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz — (Almanac, May 15)

Conceived for the delight of children, this Lyman Frank Baum story (1900) was part political parable, part morality tale based on the late 1800sAmerican scene?Scholars say the backdrop is Democrat William Jennings Bryanʼs populist campaign to add silver to the gold standard (16 to 1 oz. ratio) behind the nationʼs paper dollar. The moral, it would appear, is that everyday folks (“thereʼs no place like home”) can solve most of their problems without the “help” of policymakers in Washington, D.C.

G.K. Chesterton — (Almanac, May 29)

“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” Thus said this English journalist (1874–1936), best known for his Father Brown short story detective series, but also the author of many masterful disputations like Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man, and Whatʼs Wrong with the World?  A convert to Roman Catholicism, his wit and mastery of paradox made him a formidable apologist or defender of what C.S. Lewis later called “Mere Christianity.”

Edmund Randolph — (Almanac, May 29)

This Virginia governor (1753–1813) presented Madisonʼs plan for a new national government to the Constitutional Convention in May 1787?  What the governor offered and “the great little Madison” conceived was radical indeed, given that the convention was called “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation.” Modifications made to Madisonʼs Virginia Plan displeased the governor: he wouldnʼt sign the final document, though he later supported its ratification.

John Newton — (Burk Parsons; Tabletalk, May 2012)

“What will it profit a man if he gains his cause and silences his adversary, if. . .he loses that humble, tender frame of spirit in which the Lord delights?”Thus asked this Anglican minister and beloved hymn-writer (1725–1807), author of “Amazing Grace,” in his 1771 essay “On Controversy”? The former shipman and slave-trader turned fisher-of-men wrote on the whys and wherefores of godly debate with an eye, particularly, on Calvinists (like himself) andArminians locked in theological dispute.

catholic — (Tabletalk, May 28)

This adjective, when used in the ancient creeds to describe the church, is often mistaken to mean allegiance to the pope and Roman doctrine?  What is really in view is the universal character of the church, Christ by His blood having “ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. . .” (Rev. 5:9). Thus the worldwide spread of Christianity fulfills what was spoken by the prophets: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD. . .” (Ps. 22:27).

Sam Houston — (WayneAllensworth; Chronicles, May 2012)

Before the crucial battle of San Jacinto against the Mexicans (1836), this Texas founder (1793–1863) urged his forces “to be men, be free men, that your children may bless their fatherʼs name”? He also happens to hold the unenviable distinction of being the only American governor to be run out of office in two states: Tennessee & Texas.  In the latter instance, his fall resulted from his pro-Union stance, though he declined Lincolnʼs offer of troops to beat back Texas secessionists.

Audie Murphy — (WayneAllensworth; Chronicles, May 2012)

This Texan (1924–1971), the son of poor sharecroppers and so short the Marines wouldnʼt take him, turned out to beAmericaʼs most decorated soldier in WWII? His book, To Hell and Back (he became an author, actor & songwriter) said less about himself and his heroics than about the GIs, mostly infantrymen, with whom he served. Despite traumas and tragedies in postwar life, he was, says one author, “a magnificent warrior, an uncommon common man, grown from the soil of rural Texas.”

Tuskegee Airmen — (Roger McGrath; Chronicles, April 2012)

These African-American fighter pilots, belonging to WWIIʼs 332nd fighter group, are among our countryʼs most celebrated veterans, despite some distortions of their legacy? Called into being largely for political purposes by FDR, the determined black airmen, according to sources dating back decades, never lost a bomber under their protection to the enemy over the skies of Europe. In truth, they lost many and ranked last among the four P51 fighter units with whom they served.

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20 June

Summer History & Heritage — #1 (June 11)

We will have some summer posts (perhaps 6 to 8 of them) based on our June, July, & August Christian Almanac and Tabletalk readings, and whatever else this teacher happens to be reflecting on in the summer months. The posts will appear on the H&H blog on the Veritas website.

Students are encouraged to continue their Almanac & Tabletalk readings (a worthwhile scholarly habit to maintain or develop), but there is no penalty for failing to do so—only a reward for faithful, if informal and relaxed, labor. Students need not write about what they read, as they do during the regular school year; the teacher will supply the writings (Q&Aand summaries).

When we return to school in the fall, Lord willing, we will be greeted with the first 25 things we have to learn via the Summer 2012 History & Heritage Test (bright yellow booklet). Weʼll take the first few history classes on this exam.

For now, please consider our first summer entry.  Itʼs based on John Laughlandʼs “Putin and the Westʼs Suicide” in the May 2012 issue of Chronicles magazine.  Laughland is director of studies at the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation in Paris; his many books include A History of Political Trials: From Charles I to Saddam Hussein.

What Russia Can Teach Us — (John Laughland; Chronicles, May 2012)

The excerpt below is instructive in light of our recent discussion of the ideology of secularism (see Spring 2012 H&H Test, Q. #4). Apparently Russia, in spite of or perhaps because of her horrendous near-century of communism, is not as committed to total separation of church and state as modern America and western Europe.

“The town of Penza lies 12 hours southeast of Moscow by train.I had barely heard of it before I went there last December. The townʼs broad streets were busy yet strangely silent because of the thick carpet of snow that dampened all sound.  On the river Sura, fishermen sat huddled in the dark over holes they had cut through the ice.

“Penzais much like other provincial Russian towns: Laid out on a grid, its streets are full of the modern clutter of shop awnings, while the people are well dressed. There is a comforting sense of normality. One thing, however, distinguishes Penza and its region (which is one of the 83 units of the Russian Federation) from every other political entity on the Eurasian continent. Some years ago the regional authorities decided to adopt as their official logo a 12th-century icon of the Holy Face. Jesus Christ therefore flutters from administrative buildings all over the place.

“The decision to do this was not unaccompanied by controversy, but it went ahead. It is a decision that is completely unimaginable in the West. American separation of Church and state and rampant secularism in Europe (to be more precise, hatred of Christianity)make such a choice unthinkable in countries like Britain, where a British Airways employee is still being persecuted for wearing a small crucifix on a chain round her neck, or Italy, where the European Court of Human Rights recently banned crucifixes in Italian classrooms. (The ruling was overturned on appeal, but only in the name of a politically correct appeal to ʻItalian culture,ʼ as if the crucifix were some sort of tribal totem.)

“Penzaʼs adoption of the Holy Face may be unique in Russia, but it is nonetheless indicative of a state of mind in that vast country that is the opposite of the mind-set of the West. To be sure, abortions proceed in Russia at a terrifying rate—about one million per year, which is proportionately over twice the rate of even an aggressively abortionist country like Britain, and which goes a long way to explaining Russiaʼs low birthrate—and therefore it would be foolish to imagine that Christianity somehow penetrates all Russian souls. . .”

Russia may have her problems; who wouldnʼt after 70 years of vicious tyranny? But the disdain for that land on the part of Brussels (the European Union) and Washington, D.C., says Laughland, isnʼt really because of a lack of human rights or democracy. Rather, itʼs Russiaʼs independent streak, her seeming interest in a return to her Christian roots, and of course her determination to obstructAmerican-led (NATO) intervention in eastern Europe and the Middle East.

For obvious reasons, todayʼs Russia seeks a multipolar world where various powers have their spheres of greater influence and may check and balance one anotherʼs ambitions. Western Europe and the U.S. do not appear to share that goal.

Another thing about Russia that hardly commends her to the secular elite in America and the West:  her antipathy to public policies legitimizing homosexuality. St. Petersburg recently banned homosexual advocacy and Moscow wonʼt allow gay-pride parades.

Such stubbornness, opting for religious tradition over an expansion of rights, says Laughland, infuriates “the guardians of political correctness in the West, in exactly the same way that Mrs.Thatcherʼs laws against the promotion of homosexuality [in Britain] did in the late 1980ʼs.” (The present Conservative prime minister in London, however, favors so-called gay marriage.)

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15 May

Spring History & Heritage — P.S. (May 14)

Our last three entries for the spring, 1 Q&Aand 2 summaries

 Dorothy Thompson — (John Willson, Chronicles, April 2012)

This Syracuse-educated journalist was, by all accounts in the interwar years, the most influential woman inAmerica, save Eleanor Roosevelt?  She wrote posts from abroad and columns for the New York Herald Tribune, and she was the first reporter expelled from Nazi Germany (by Hitlerʼs direct order). In spite of her personal success, her 1939 essay “The Dilemma of the Liberal” lamented the empty prosperity and elusive happiness of the age in the absence of faith and communal roots.

 “He descended into Hell” — (Tabletalk daily lesson,April 30)

The phrase “He descended into hell” in the old Apostlesʼ Creed, despite much controversy over its meaning through the ages, almost surely asserts that Christ bore the full wrath of hell while on the cross, satisfying the demands of divine justice for His people.

The notion of some that Christʼs spirit went down to hell for a time after His death, either to more fully atone for sin or to preach to confined souls there, seems out of character with several biblical passages and teachings. (To mention here just one, Jesus, undergoing the pangs of crucifixion, told the repentant thief with whom He suffered that that very day they would meet in paradise).

Thus, Jesusʼ descent into hell is better understood after the manner of John Calvin (1509–1564). The French Reformer observed, “After explaining what Christ endured in the sight of man, the Creed appropriately adds the invisible and incomprehensible judgment which he endured before God, to teach us that not only was the body of Christ given up as the price of redemption, but that there was a greater and more excellent price—that he bore in his soul the tortures of a condemned and ruined man.”

 The Solemn Spectacle of the Choctaws — (America, Vol. 1, pp. 246-247)

“I saw them embark to cross the great river, and this solemn spectacle will never leave my memory.One heard neither tears nor complaints among this assembled crowd; they were silent. Their misfortunes were old, and they felt them to be irreparable.” 

The observer was French nobleman and political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), and the observation is recorded in his famous Democracy in America (1835). What Tocqueville saw was the departure of the Choctaws from Memphis, Tennessee, across the frozen Mississippi, late in the Year of Our Lord, 1831.

The Choctaws were one of several NativeAmerican tribes whose fate (banishment to the West on reservations) was sealed by Andrew Jacksonʼs Indian removal policy, a prescription popular with mostAmericans and passed by Congress, “The Indian Removal Act,” on May 30, 1830.

Click here for a printable copy…

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