Christianomics: A blog on economics, politics, and law

There is a growing lament among centrists and moderates that everything has become political (1). In Luke 11:17 Jesus says, “Every Kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.” And boy is America divided. From sports, to beans. Ice cream to pillows, politics (and the strife that it brings) seems to have invaded every aspect of our lives.(2) But how did we get here? The latest kerfuffle of the MLB All Star game is an excellent example. Following the drama of the 2020 election, the Republican-controlled legislature in Georgia passed a bill that changed election laws. The stated intent of the bill was to secure the integrity of their elections. Democrat politicians claimed this was a racist attempt to disenfranchise minorities. All of this is pretty typical for American politics. The MLB entered the picture when the Players Association threatened to move the All-Star game out of Georgia. After that it was game over. President Biden announced his support fo...

First everyone has a legal right to do what they did: Gina Carano had a right to post on her Twitter account. People upset at her post had the right to call for her being fired. Disney had the right to fire her. Disney also has the right to not fire Pedro Pascal (Mr. Mandalorian) and other employees for posting very similar nazi/holocaust content on their own Twitter accounts. (1) People upset at the hypocrisy of Gina’s firing have the right to boycott and #canceldisney .(2) And Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire have the right to partner with her for their next movie.(3) So all of that is legal and constitutional. And considering none of the actions are mandated by the government I would also claim this is the free market at work. However, free market or not, the fact that this situation happened at all, begs the question: “Where does this end? Leftists told Trump supporters to, “Build your own social media.” When Parler was shut down, they said, “Build your own servers.” Now when Disney ...

Barack Obama: “On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.” Donald Trump: “The Bible tells us, how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity.” ... “When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.” Presidents of the “United” States of America, like to urge their fellow Americans to be united. In his inauguration speech Joseph Biden called for unity six times. “To overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words.It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: Unity. Unity.” “With unity we can do great things. Important things.” “History, faith, and reason show the way, the way of unity.” “For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury.” “This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward.” “And together, we shall write an American story of hope, not fear. Of unity, not divisio...

Google and Apple are removing the Parler app for not censoring posts which incite violence. As a Christian conservative/libertarian this puts me in a tough spot. I don't like that these companies are doing this, but at the same time I'm happy that the major credit card companies and PayPal have cut off payments to PornHub(1). I also think it's okay for bakers to refuse to bake cakes for any reason, religious, bigoted, or otherwise(2). So to stay true to my principles I have to agree these companies are within their rights to do this. Now I will add a big caveat that the CEO of Parler has made some compelling statements regarding double standards(3). This could become a very strong legal case pertaining to any platform that would go a long way to clarifying the role of Section 230 and the bounds of censorship by private companies. But for now, we will have to wait and see how things play out. (Update: Parler has announced a lawsuit against Amazon (3.1)) Freedom of speech, h...

  “None is righteous, no, not one; … All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” - Romans 3:10,23 Christians (as opposed to someone like Rousseau who claimed people are inherently good) should have an advantage when it comes to discussing economics and politics. After all it’s an easy conclusion that human politicians will inevitably sin. And that sin will inevitably take the form of corruption. Fortunately for us, the founders (whether they were Christians or not) had this understanding of human nature. “Even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” - Thomas Jefferson The founders used this philosophy to write our constitution with its system of checks and balances. Their goal was not to make an efficient machine that “Gets stuff done.” Their intent was to delay, hamper, and impede, all for the sake of guarding against corruption. This makes sense because they had just finished fighting a war to es...