The Curmudgeon's 2017 Top Ten

The authorities of my young life always told me that, "Everybody's doing it," is not a good reason to do it. Parents, school teachers, youth group leaders would ask, "If everybody was setting themselves on fire, would you do it?" That seems to clench the argument until you think, "Well everybody's not setting themselves on fire, but they are going to the dance, or wearing their hair longer, or seeing Alfie." 

I have noticed that everybody, including Bloggers, is posting year end top 10 lists. This seems good enough excuse for me to do so, too. Now I don't qualify to play with the Davids who slay their 10s of 1000s, or even the Sauls who slay their 1000s. But that doesn't stop me from joining in the boasting - er, telling others how my humble efforts have been used. 

So, here are my top 10 Blog posts of 2017. I give the title linked to the Blog post, tell the number of looks (which is not the same as number of readers) the post got, and provide a brief description of the content of the post.

1. The Regulative Principle Doesn't Work (3426) I point out the liturgical chaos in the Presbyterian Church in America, which holds the regulative principle of worship, and argue for the prescribed worship of The Book of Common Prayer.

2. Who Cares What Tim Keller Thinks? (3256) I respond to Tim Keller and 99 other evangelical leaders who wrote the President to tell him the Christian view of refugees and immigration.

3. Critical Race Theory, RTS, and SBTS (2772) I describe Critical Race Theory and its influence at Reformed Theological Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

4. People Ought to Care about What Michelle Higgins Says (2757) I describe Michelle Higgins' (a black female on staff of a PCA church in St. Louis) race views and analyze a poem of hers.

5. It Was All Over Before Terry Johnson Entered the PCA (2370) I respond to the Rev. Terry Johnson's lament about the worship he experienced at the 2017 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America.

6. The Dishonoring of an Honorable Man (1955) I write of the character of Dr. Morton H. Smith and about the failure of Reformed Theological Seminary to be represented at his funeral.

7. I Think I've Been Intellectually Snobbed (1819) I respond to Dr. Sean Lucas' and Dr. Otis Pickett's responses to my Blog on Critical Race Theory (#3 above).

8. What about Hugh Freeze? (1783) I write about former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, a professing Christian whose moral scandal led to his resignation.

9. Russell Moore Lives, but There Will Be Blood (1693) I write about controversies surrounding Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, because of his views of and involvement in politics and certain social issues.

10. Does John Piper Believe in Salvation by Works (1225) I explore the controversy regarding John Piper's view of works in relation to salvation by faith, now and at the judgment.


Don't forget or pass up the opportunity to know yourself before beginning a new year. Find out if you, too, may be a Curmudgeon by reading the brief 30 Indicators You Could Be a Curmudgeon.    

30 Indicators You Could Be a Curmudgeon

You Might be a Curmudgeon...

...if you are descended from a father who frowned when a church song leader called on everyone to smile.

...if you are descended from a father who in the early days of feminism responded to a receptionist who offered to get him a cup of coffee, "I didn't think y'all did that anymore."

...if you are descended from a father (who answered,"fried" when a Yankee's asked how he liked seafood, to which the man responded, "That's the way YOU like it") who answered, "That's what I said."

...if you find Elizabeth Warren to be the most obnoxious politician of your lifetime.

...if you like the way Mitch McConnell looks and speaks.

...if what others call pessimistic you regard as a reasonable and rational realism.

...if sometimes you think Job's wife gave good advice.

...if you are tempted to deliver a crippling body blow to anyone who says, "How can we turn this negative into a positive?"

...if you have an empathetic understanding of Greta Garbo's famous saying.

...if you think multi-culturalism is destroying the highest form of civilization mankind has produced.

...if sometimes when the family is having fun at Christmastime you disappear for awhile.

...if you'd rather hear H.L. Mencken than Robert Schuller deliver a sermon.

...if you are mystified how any man can identify with Joel Osteen.

...if you think putting John Wayne in charge for 5 years could fix most of society's ills.

...if you wonder, if Christian women are raising their sons to be the kind of men they think their husbands should be, who in the future will play football, fight the wars, take charge in times of crisis, and man-up?

...if you would not be disappointed if the NFL disbanded.

...if you know the NBA plays some game, but not basketball.

...if you think baseball players should be forbidden to wear jewelry and required to wear the bottom of their pants at the knee.

...if you'd like to deliver an uppercut to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and say, "Good night, sweet princess and prince."

...if you like D.G. Hart even though he makes snarky comments about the church year.

...if you like to tell D.G. Hart that his great book The Lost Soul of American Protestantism bore fruit many years later in making an Episcopalian of you.

...if you have concluded that The Episcopal Church doesn't know what to do with all the emphasis on repentance during Advent because there are no sins save homophobia, white and male privilege, and in general not approving acts and attitudes condemned by John the Baptist.

...if it's clear to you that in your own little corner of the ecclesiastical world Anglo-catholicism means the English Catholic, without the Pope, the church of Henry VIII, not the church of Cranmer, Edward, or Elizabeth.

...if, when you arrive in heaven and are greeted by a song leader or praise team and told you have to sing gospel hymns and/or praise and worship songs, you will wonder if you arrived in heaven.

...if you think retailers, who put out Halloween stuff while summer sales are still going on, Christmas as soon as Halloween over, Valentine's as soon as Christmas Eve is over, Easter as soon as Valentine's is over, should be executed till the rest get the message.

...if you think the para-church is not beside but in competition with the church.

...if you think it would be more accurate to call "naturalist- physicians" "non- physicians."

...if you think it is ridiculous that a man or woman can vote in elections and die for their country but may not buy a six pack of beer or a pack of cigarettes.

...if you think Steve Bannon needs a shave and a shower.

...if you read The Curmudgeon and agree with him 50% of the time and think he's nuts the other 50%.

Wicker, McDaniel, The Flag, Primary

Ryan Walters and The Curmudgeon Disagree

                                           











I have got to know through his writings Ryan Walters, who holds a Master's Degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, calls himself an "independent historian, and publishes The Mississippi Conservative Daily (though it is written in TX and is not published daily). We disagree about quite a few things, though we both consider ourselves conservatives. Ryan is as committed a supporter of State Senator Chris McDaniel as there is. Senator McDaniel came within a hair's breadth of defeating Mississippi's senior Senator, Thad Cochran in 2014. McDaniel, Walters, and many others believe that McDaniel was cheated out of what was his by the shennandigins of Haley Barber and those they consider to be "The Establishment." Their cry for the last 3+ years has been "Remember Mississippi." Now all political eyes are on Senator McDaniel to see if he will challenge the junior Senator Roger Wicker or choose to run for some other statewide office in 2018. In 2014 Chris McDaniel was endorsed by Donald Trump. In the upcoming election the President has endorsed Roger Wicker. Below is a Blog by Ryan, looking at a Recent Mason Dixon poll, followed by my response.

Ryan Walters

Poll Shows Why The Establishment Should Fear McDaniel

Even though there is no current race for a Mississippi US Senate seat, you wouldn’t know it by all the news and speculation. In the most recent news, the Mason-Dixon company recently polled a potential race between Roger Wicker and Chris McDaniel. And the survey of more than 650 Mississippi voters gave Wicker the lead by a margin of 49 to 33.

On its face, the poll seems to give Wicker a commanding lead and provide the Establishment some much-needed breathing room. But there is trouble in the numbers!

For an incumbent US Senator who has served for nearly a decade in that position, not to mention more than 10 previous years in the US House, to be under 50 percent is more than a little troubling. Equally troubling is the large number of “undecided” voters – 18 percent. And most “undecideds” have a strong tendency to break away from the incumbent toward election day.

These numbers are even more problematic given the fact that Wicker has been running against McDaniel for several months. He was once “Senator Invisible,” but now he’s “Senator News Cycle.” One can hardly scroll through Facebook without seeing Wicker’s face.

Now, if the poll had showed Wicker with a solid 60 percent of the vote, or more, along with very few undecided voters, then perhaps a conservative challenger might have a problem. But it didn’t.

(It’s also interesting to note that the poll, on the question of McDaniel vs. Wicker, did not give a breakdown of the numbers, as it did on job approval questions for Trump, Wicker, and Cochran.)

But no one is yet facing Wicker. No challenger has come forward to expose his liberal voting record. And no one has, as of yet, shown the majority of the state’s voters that Wicker has called for the state flag to be removed and placed in a museum. These issues, and many more, will most certainly swing those numbers in the opposite direction.

The numbers certainly did tilt when McDaniel began assailing Thad Cochran at every turn in 2014. And he did it while trying to build an organization and raise money. Now he has an organization, money, two PACs, websites, big backers, and the like.

So let not your heart be troubled. Cochran was once considered “unbeatable.” Polls showed him with massive leads early on in 2014. No one gave McDaniel even the slightest chance to beat Cochran. But he did, in the primary on June 3, and for many of his most die-hard supporters, again on June 24.

The Establishment had better worry about this potential matchup – Wicker vs. McDaniel. And this poll should only add to their stress.

The Curmudgeon

Reply

Ryan, you are nothing if not a believer that repeating an inaccurate statement somehow makes it accurate. Wicker is liberal in the same way that Ronald Reagan was a liberal. Both believed that it is better to get things done than to stand outside the process waving a flag of absolute purity. Wicker is part of the Senate leadership that has helped President Trump to make very good progress in getting his agenda enacted during this first year of his Presidency. Tax reform is that latest and perhaps most significant accomplishment for President Trump, the Senate and House leadership, and the Republican caucuses in the Senate and House. Sen. Wicker is a strong conservative and is so perceived in the Senate and the country,

You seem to hang one of your hats on the state flag issue. That is very revealing. One of the ways you would like to see Sen. McDaniel or some other representative of your point of view attack Sen. Wicker for having spoken in favor of changing the flag, and, even more important, to appeal to Mississippi’s voters by supporting keeping the Confederate battle flag in the upper left corner. That means, first, to say to the 38% of Mississippians who are black, “We know that flag offends you and that you cannot identify with it, but we don’t care. We will continue to cram the flag down your throats.” It says to older Mississippians such as I, who are proud of their Southern ancestors and heritage, but who are not racists, and who want a flag that will unify our people, “You obviously are not true conservatives, else you would be indifferent to what blacks and others think and feel about the flag.” It says to Mississippi’s young, college graduate, skilled people, “We are going to stay the way we are. If you don’t like it you can move” (and you are getting that wish, for they are leaving). This flag issue is not about pride in heritage, or acknowledgment of history, but about prejudice and provincialism and fear. And, it cannot be denied that the appeal to a certain segment of those voters, who cling to the flag no matter what, is racial.

Interestingly you leave out some things that the Mason Dixon poll reveals, such as Sen. Cochran, whom you and the McDaniel contingent have continued to savage surpasses even the President in approval ratings (Trump 51%, Cochran 54%) and Sen. Wicker whom you and other McDaniel surrogates have attacked relentlessly has a 70% approval rating among Republicans. RE Sen. McDaniel, I, too, would be interested in finding out both his positives and negatives among the voters.

Mississippians may also take note of Alabama. Roy Moore was hurt not only by the allegations of the nine women, but also by his political history. He greatly motivated Democrats and Alabama’s smaller percentage of black voters to go the polls and vote. In MS a pro-life Democrat could prove a significant challenge to a Republican with Sen. McDaniel’s views and political history.

Then Mississippi Republicans 86& of whom approve of President Trump are going to dismiss the President’s endorsement and likely appeals to Republican voters that he needs Sen. Wicker to help him get succeed in the hard struggles that will continue as he pursues his agenda.