the glory and the horror

Married men make better fathers from Yahoo! News

Very interesting. I’m not sure what to think of this. Not that the empirical measure of number of activities participated in with children makes a father “good,” but it does seem to suggest that there’s a committment level to the family that comes with the committment of marriage.

From First Things:

Christians as Patriots

I’m not sure that this is all that tightly written of an article. First, he equates people with the general polity/nation as a whole, but not really defining what it is that we are loving if we “love our country.” Secondly, he doesn’t answer some of his own questions. Assuming we follow him to the point of loving our country because of the reasons he puts forth. He still doesn’t answer what I think is a more pressing question. He says “Periods of crisis like the present remind us, often tragically, that our security and freedom ultimately rest upon the willingness of citizens to fight and possibly to die for their country should the need arise.” Should such love as he describes it be enough to drive us to fight, and possibly die, and don’t forget – kill, for a country we love? We love our family, our children, as they are given to us, not because they are good, or will be perfect, but merely because they are our children. Would we kill for our family? Would we kill for the Christ we love? Is that what God calls us to?

I think there is an inherent difference between individual persons, such as our family members, and the nation, as an institution. One is stated explicitly as having been made in the image of God. The other thing is fluid, arbitrary, temporal, and constantly changing based on the whims of politicians and generals. The love Meilaender calls us to have for nation cannot be equated to the love that God calls us to have for fellow human beings.