Valiant for Truth - Church

For all of the delight inherent to a book penned by a witty Englishman and Reformed scholar, there are numerous points of frustration found in the political analysis of Carl Trueman in Republocrat. On occasion, he levels a substantive zinger at one or another political group, but he does so without displaying a sophisticated understanding of American politics. While the title Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative is catchy, it reflects an ambiguity with terms and concepts that stretches through the book.

Michael Horton’s front cover blurb on Carl Trueman’s Republocrat is as helpful as it is succinct: “Will delight, frustrate, and encourage healthy discussions that we have needed to have for a long time.” In the first of two reviews of Republocrat and Thomas Kidd’s God of Liberty, the delightful aspects of Trueman’s book will be highlighted against the backdrop of the American Founding.

Occasionally, Reformed churches are caricatured as “boring, cold, and serious” (147). Daniel Hyde, however, shows in Welcome to a Reformed Church: A Guide for Pilgrims that quite the opposite is true of those that function according to God’s Word. His book then is a “guide for pilgrims,” which winsomely introduces newcomers to Reformed churches in order “to clear up any misunderstandings” (xxvi). It does this by examining their history, confessions, doctrines, and practices.

To say that the issue of immigration in the United States is a “hot topic” would be an understatement. There is strong rhetoric on either side of the debate at the national level. But even within the Church there are strong opinions that resonate with cries of “compassion” on one side, “submission to the government” on the other, and every shade in between.

Though the issue of illegal immigration is no stranger to America’s history, the perfect storm of 9/11, the war against terror, political parties struggling for identity, and an economy that is moving from recession to depression has brought the issue to the fore of not only American politics but also to the attention of the church.