MaxedOutMama
Monday, October 25, 2004
Plugging Lancelot Finn
Every once in a while you come across something so good you want to spread the news, and I want to spread the news about Lancelot Finn. You can visit his home page here, and he also has a blog here, entitled Towards A Good Samaritan World.
His header on his home page is "For open borders, freedom from tyranny, solidarity with the world's less fortunate, and humble but incorruptible devotion to truth." You'll find a number of articles explaining what are generally considered conservative positions. But then conservative is a word which may have many definitions. Lancelot on Europe:
Americans see Europe like a retired grandmother. It’s fun to visit her; her hospitality is excellent. We’re happy to look through her old photo albums, and feel a twinge of nostalgia. We like to listen to stories of her youth. But when it comes to important business, or our dirty little secrets, we don’t consult with her—her ideas are a little too conservative and out of touch.
Lancelot Finn seems to be a libertarianish Christian, which is a far more common breed than conceived of by current political rhetoric. In fact there's a very good theological justification for his positions. His writing is better than I describe and I heartily recommend both his page and his blog. People who are really thinking and at least observing always end up being really impossible to characterize in a few words. So I'll quote from a post:
"Some people think that homosexuality is a cause of cultural decline. It seemed to me last night (is this a confirmation of the claim?) that the romantic had bled out of heterosexual culture into the gay community. I lived in Russia for a while (a more homophobic culture) and sensed that it was a much more romantic culture than ours. More passionate. More in love with beauty. I love Russia for that. I almost wonder if, as homosexuality becomes more acceptable, straight guys get scared of showing affection for each other, and the strong masculine friendships that are an important element of chivalric culture are weakened. In which case homosexuality is an indirect cause of cultural decline, though it's the straights' fault. This is just speculation, of course.
As a Christian, I believe that homosexuals are sinners... just like the rest of us. That realization diminishes the urgency of the question, is homosexuality a sin. I don't feel called upon to answer it. But I think Jesus, were he to come today, would choose the gays (among others) over upstanding bourgeois Protestants, as he once chose tax collectors and a woman taken in adultery over the Pharisees, and would cure the AIDS victims, and comfort the lonely."
His header on his home page is "For open borders, freedom from tyranny, solidarity with the world's less fortunate, and humble but incorruptible devotion to truth." You'll find a number of articles explaining what are generally considered conservative positions. But then conservative is a word which may have many definitions. Lancelot on Europe:
Americans see Europe like a retired grandmother. It’s fun to visit her; her hospitality is excellent. We’re happy to look through her old photo albums, and feel a twinge of nostalgia. We like to listen to stories of her youth. But when it comes to important business, or our dirty little secrets, we don’t consult with her—her ideas are a little too conservative and out of touch.
Lancelot Finn seems to be a libertarianish Christian, which is a far more common breed than conceived of by current political rhetoric. In fact there's a very good theological justification for his positions. His writing is better than I describe and I heartily recommend both his page and his blog. People who are really thinking and at least observing always end up being really impossible to characterize in a few words. So I'll quote from a post:
"Some people think that homosexuality is a cause of cultural decline. It seemed to me last night (is this a confirmation of the claim?) that the romantic had bled out of heterosexual culture into the gay community. I lived in Russia for a while (a more homophobic culture) and sensed that it was a much more romantic culture than ours. More passionate. More in love with beauty. I love Russia for that. I almost wonder if, as homosexuality becomes more acceptable, straight guys get scared of showing affection for each other, and the strong masculine friendships that are an important element of chivalric culture are weakened. In which case homosexuality is an indirect cause of cultural decline, though it's the straights' fault. This is just speculation, of course.
As a Christian, I believe that homosexuals are sinners... just like the rest of us. That realization diminishes the urgency of the question, is homosexuality a sin. I don't feel called upon to answer it. But I think Jesus, were he to come today, would choose the gays (among others) over upstanding bourgeois Protestants, as he once chose tax collectors and a woman taken in adultery over the Pharisees, and would cure the AIDS victims, and comfort the lonely."
