Gems from the North (1)

Gary North has the rare privilege of being ignored by evangelicals and hated by liberals and. The evangelicals plaster him with the latest pejorative label and then turn their backs. The liberals use him as an example of the danger in their fear-mongering, “Christian ayatollahs are coming to get you” books. This treatment is unfair, because neither group have ever bothered to read his books. The following quote never gets quoted.

Gary North in an excellent economist (having earned a Ph.D without forgetting how to think or losing his love of the scriptures), a knowledgable theologian and political theorist (having worked as a staffer in Washington). He has written an enormous number of books covering a wide range of topics (he must write faster than NT Wright). He is the publisher of a long-running investment newsletter, got lost on Y2K, but has bounced back.

I have always found his books stimulating. I do not agree with everything he says. I am uncomfortable with his excessively polemic writing style, but he always makes me think. I have not read all his books, but everyone I have read has left me challenged. In my view, a Christian economist who has not read his work is only partially educated.

I have just finished re-reading Millennialism and Social Theory (1990). This book is not very well known, but it raises some important issues that very few Christians have thought about. In the next few posts I will put up some quotes from this book and comment on the issues raised.