#224 Calvin on Cheney

I had to post this if for nothing else than for the great picture. If you're unaware of the Scottish Prebyterian Samuel Rutherford, and his concept of Lex Rex, then you should certainly look into him at some point in your life of being an American citizen. Considering it doing your due diligence as a patriot and lover of freedom.


The article is from David Neff, an editor at Christianity today, and may surprise some people. I have been constantly surprised each day over the past week or two as I've been reading through Pulitzer Prize winner Charlie Savage's Takeover. The guys knows his shit and documents it well. We're used to assuming that for Calvin, all governments were ordained by God, regardless of whether they govern justly or not. But Neff corrects this notion, pointing to Calvin himself:

"...what about the unfaithful political leader? Calvin wrote that 'dictatorships and unjust authorities are not governments ordained by God.' They are no longer 'God's ministers' if they 'practice blasphemous tyranny.'"

Neff's article is here.

Savage's book is here.