CultureStack

In an address celebrating Constitution Month, I discussed the blessings of liberty and the four pillars the founders claimed were necessary to perpetuating that liberty. I also discussed how we can better engage with our fellow citizens to solve the problems our society faces

Principles of The Declaration & Constitution: Imago Dei, True Law, Church & State, and Happiness Drawing on Biblical teachings and the writings of Aristotle, Locke, and Cicero, I discuss some of the most basic and perhaps least known principles underlying the Declaration and Constitution of the United States. This episode is taken from a live speech I delivered at a church event commemorat...

I was asked to speak in my church on Constitution Day. In my faith, we believe this document was inspired by God, but that we have deviated from many of its important ideas. One of our former leaders, Ezra Taft Benson, taught that the United States had "apostatized in various degrees from different Constitutional principles as proclaimed by the inspired founders." I chose to briefly expl...

Is Pride Month compatible with Christianity? Many believers believe so. Written version Pride Month is appealing to Christians and other people of good faith because they see it as a way of showing charity, compassion, and Christ-like love. It can appear to be a way of fulfilling the Second Great Commandment that everyone can rally around, transcending religious and ideological divides. But with P...

Benjamin Fincher, the host of the How to Rewrite Your Stars podcast, invited me on his show where we discussed the Culture Stack concept, particularly as it applies to the transition of the United States from republicanism (classic liberalism) to progressivism to Wokeism - particularly as they relate to human happiness and flourishing.

It was my pleasure to be a guest on Greg Denning's Be The Man podcast, where we explored the concept of a "culture stack", the idea that every society is built on moral, political, economic, and cultural layers that interplay and change over time - and are changing as we speak.    We discussed Aristotle's formula for happiness outlined in his great classic, Ethics, and how western civili...

The United States Declaration of Independence mentions three inalienable rights. "Life" and "liberty" seem fairly intuitive, but “the pursuit of happiness” seems a bit more vague and subjective. In reality, it refers to a specific way of being described by Aristotle around 350 BC and painstakingly developed by many others over the 2,000 years that followed. It gives rise to a particular meaning of...

Only in recent years have Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings become contentious. Justices Scalia, Kennedy, O'Connor, and Stevens all received 100% votes in favor of confirmation. Ruth Bader Ginsburg? 97%   More recently, however, nominations have become much more contentious and partisan. Neil Gosuch (2017) received 55% and Brett Kavanaugh (2018) received just 51%. In 2020, Amy Coney Barrett...

Seventy years ago, the faculty of the University of Chicago published a 54 volume series entitled "The Great Books of the Western World" - an attempt to identify and make readily available the most important ideas that made our civilization possible. In the introduction to that series, the editor wrote: "It is not necessary to burn the books. All we have to do is to leave them unread for a few gen...

In spite of his absurd and often offensive outward behavior, Trump has governed like an actual conservative. I believe Trump will win the election and if he doesn't, it will be his own fault. His record makes a reasonable case for reelection, even though his personality and conduct do not.    In this episode, I explore what Trump has done well, what he has done poorly and the impact this...

A friend of mine, a lesbian and eloquent, resolute defender of LGBT+, asked me, "how are abortion and gay marriage not a question for the judiciary?" The highest law of the land that a judge recognizes in her official capacity is not your God or mine, who may very well recognize a right to abortion, gay marriage, prayer in schools, or the death penalty. It's the Constitution, which requires that t...

Widely misunderstood, Constitutional Originalism is not a desire to return to slavery and the days before women could vote. It's simply the belief that a judge's job is to determine and rule on the meaning of the law - the will of the people - as most recently enshrined into law. It makes no moral judgments like "abortion is good/bad" or "the death penalty is good/bad." Value judgments are left to...