David M. Hodges ⁽¹⁸⁵⁾

Note: Direct links to specific paragraphs may not work. Most of the anchors for these direct links were created by code I wrote for the Pious Eye site and had run when pages loaded. As my new site is static, dynamic coding from the old site has gone away. I apologize for any inconvenience. If and when time permits, I’ll manually fix some of these issues. — D.M.H. Swanson, Kevin. Apostate: The…

Belatedly, I’ve decided I must oppose a strike against Syria. The purpose of the U.S. military is to defend America’s sovereignty and to protect Americans’ liberty, not to be the world’s superhero or the police arm of the U.N. (or any group of foreign nations). (I’m aware that international support is mostly absent in this case. My point is that international support has no relevance to whether or not the U.S. military…

Anyone who knows me knows my conviction that contemporary Americans feel too much and think too little. Lack of “impulse control” isn't just for the “poorly socialized” anymore; it's a culture-wide phenomenon. Emotionally charged, cognitively vacuous rants and shout-downs have replaced calm, controlled, rational discussion in many (most?) venues. This trend especially prevails where topics that have always been emotionally charged are concerned. One such topic is rape. As a couple news…

Although this modified image is not in the public domain because modified, visitors in search of public domain, and other free-to-use, Hayek images may find Flickr user Levan Ramishvil's Friedrich Hayek album, which I discovered in 2024, worth visiting. – D.M.H. “‘Social’ or Distributive Justice.” Chapter 9 in Law, Legislation and Liberty: A New Statement of the Liberal Principles of Justice and Political Economy, Volume 2: The Mirage of Social Justice. Chicago:…

Among current books I'm reading, some of which I may even finish someday, is A. W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God (Chapel Library MOBI edition, available free, as are EPUB and PDF versions). I'm only at the eight percent mark in my reading, but have already run across what strikes me as a non sequitur. Though I would accept the label of “Calvinist” (Believing that, because God is sovereign creator of all…

In a couple book reviews, I took issue with one author's anti-individualist rhetoric and expressed gratitude (though not perfect satisfaction) for another's effort to distinguish between different uses of the word “individualism.” I've just discovered that the use of “individualism” to refer to quite different things, so that true individualists may end up condemning and arguing against what they and others wrongly label “individualism,” is not a new phenomenon at all. In…

I just posted the message below to a Gordon Clark discussion group on Yahoo!. Find the original post (minus added links) here. The series of three posts I found confusing may be found here, here, and here. This whole discussion has me confused. My understanding of the Trinity is that the Triune God is one being (not one "person") eternally existing as three persons and that the second of these divine persons,…

Brauns, Chris. Bound Together: How We Are Tied to Others in Good and Bad Choices. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013. 208 pages. Paperback. ISBN 978-0-310-49511-6. On balance, this is an excellent book: well organized, theologically Reformed (in Baptist mode), engaging. Since I am a critical, glass-half-empty sort, and since I’m writing this review in the midst of assorted life problems and annoyances, I will attempt to offer some criticisms. Don’t let these criticisms…

Frazee, Randy. The Connecting Church 2.0: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013. 978-0-310-49435-5. Cover price $16.99. Something is wrong with the contemporary church in America. But what? Where did the church go wrong and how can it be put back on the right course? Books exploring these questions have become their own genre. The Connecting Church 2.0 is one recent addition to the genre. A new edition of…

Petty, Scott. Science and God. Little Black Books. Kingsford, Australia: Matthias Media, 2011. Paperback. 108 pages. ISBN 978-1-921896-19-4. Rating on 5-star scale: 2 stars. Promoters identify Science and God as intended for Christian youth between the ages of 14 and 20. Its author, Scott Petty, is a youth minister in Sydney, which seems to support this identification. So, if you’re the parent or friend of a 14-20 year old, or if you’re…

Creation Conference 2013: Why Origins Matter, also promoted as an Answers in Genesis “Answers Conference” and an Institute for Creation Research event, Monday 28 January 2013 and Tuesday 29 January 2013, hosted by Southern California Seminary at Shadow Mountain Community Church, 6:30 PM to around 10:00 PM each evening. I attended most of this event, leaving during intermission on Tuesday. Here is what the schedule of presentations looked like: In addition to…

Concerning the Manhattan Declaration (available on the Manhattan Project site, accessed 04 February 2013)….I have just signed this declaration). However, I thought I should note that my signing is not a blanket endorsement of all the wording found in it (though I do endorse most of the wording). Specifically, I am not entirely comfortable with all the wording in the preamble. For instance, that preamble states that Now, none of the actual…