“October 19 [was] the birthday of Russell Kirk (1918-1994), whose book The Conservative Mind gave shape and direction to a rebounding transatlantic political and philosophical tradition. Kirk rooted conservatism, not in a political platform, but in a deep-seated respect for tradition, faith, order, morality, and precedent.” - Acton
As presented to the Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics, September 16, 2020, with the title The Biblical Origin of Individual Civil Liberties, and Two Competing Views on Their Legitimacy and Implementation.
“Almost the entirety of the book hinges on whether the reader accepts VanDrunen’s …thesis: the ‘Noahic covenant’ of Genesis 8:21–9:17 is the foundational principle of any Christian political theology.” - Ehrett
“In Europe, ‘liberal’…means free market economics and liberty in general. Which is why the ‘Liberal Party’ in Australia is actually what Americans would describe as the conservative party. Whereas in the United States, ‘liberal’ has come to mean progressivism, openness to change of every sort, and left-leaning ideologies.
“Even according to Protestant traditions with the gravest views of sin, fallen human beings do not get everything wrong when thinking about morality. Since Scripture itself affirms that the created order reveals God’s moral law, Christians should not turn their backs on natural law for the sake of promoting biblical teaching.” - Public Discourse
“…millions of well-meaning people think it’s a virtual synonym for compassion. But socialists themselves are constantly retreating from their own handiwork. It’s socialism until it doesn’t work, then it was never socialism in the first place.” - IFWE
“Join a political movement if you like, but don’t confuse it with an intellectual movement. To the extent that you wish to pursue intellectual authenticity in public, you will need to give up on direct political influence.” - Daniel Burns
“When trust fails, the virtuous circle turns vicious, and then the state has to find other ways to encourage or compel cooperation in order to function….
“He ought to know that he is playing with fire. When he demands we rechristianize the civil laws, he owes us an account of why our Christian ancestors were wrong for almost a thousand years as they built Western civilization on a natural law tradition that culminated, and logically must culminate, in political liberalism.” - Law & Liberty
“That’s coming from the Left. But prominent figures from the Right have been saying something similar. …Some conservatives are saying that our ideology of freedom has led to the destruction of the morality that is necessary for any society….Some conservative intellectuals have gone so far as to advocate a non-democratic authoritarian government.” - Gene Veith
