Fred Hutchison column

Frederick J. Hutchison attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, as an undergraduate, and Cleveland State University to get his Master's degree in business. He was a CPA and MBA and worked as a technical expert in governmental auditing and accounting for the Ohio Auditor of State until he underwent surgery for a brain tumor in the winter of 1997, after which he was granted a disability pension that freed him to pursue his passions. This enabled him to pursue writing, politics, and the intellectual and spiritual treasures that were the joy of his heart. This was the beginning of a twelve-year period of authorship, which includes his first book titled The Stages of Sanctification.

Fred was a man of many interests and had a passion for intellectual exchange, the arts, culture, history, politics, and spiritual studies. He was a brilliant seeker of truth. He was a philosopher, historian, psychologist, student of classical literature, science buff, and political writer. He claimed to be a classic autodidact (self-taught) and polymath (student of many subjects), and he chased intellectual excitement for most of his life. He was designated as a "Christian Intellectual" by a Department of Philosophy of Talbot University program.

Fred was an author, mentor, speaker, counselor (to close friends), and witness to everyone who knew him. His passion was the restoration of Christian values in the United States, and he was a frequent contributor to RenewAmerica. His essays on the history of conservatism came out of a desire to see real, meaningful cultural and spiritual awakening in this country.

Fred's brain tumor recurred and he died at age 60 on August 10, 2010. He left behind a great treasure of wisdom, and a sterling example we can follow with confidence.

Fred Hutchison

January 23, 2014

Originally published April 7, 2008 I have been writing a series of essays on the five kinds of conservatives, but only recently realized that there are also . . .

Fred Hutchison

December 27, 2013

Originally published December 21, 2006 Augustus Caesar's actions in Rome started a chain of events that governed the circumstances of Christ's birth in . . .

Fred Hutchison

December 12, 2013

Originally published April 2, 2008 In consideration of a gay advocacy column by Ann Fisher, a gay rights bill in the legislature, and a public invitation . . .

Fred Hutchison

November 22, 2013

Originally published March 17, 2008 The birth of the conservative intellectual movement in the 1940's happened at about the same time that the nihilistic . . .

Fred Hutchison

October 31, 2013

Originally published March 11, 2008 In our journey through history, we have reached the culture war of the twentieth century that began in the 1920's and . . .

Fred Hutchison

October 17, 2013

Originally published January 14, 2008 In 1920, Edith Wharton wrote The Age of Innocence, which was about the high society of Old New York in the 1870's. She . . .

Fred Hutchison

October 3, 2013

Originally published October 29, 2007 In the last essay (part 7), we considered how Hegel propagated the cult of modernism. The modernists had faith in the . . .

Fred Hutchison

September 19, 2013

Originally published October 18, 2007 Columnist Jonah Goldberg's heart is in the right place about the right to life, but he is a naive innocent when it . . .

Fred Hutchison

September 13, 2013

Originally published October 1, 2007 Conservatism passed through a series of fiery trials during the nineteenth century. The previous essay (part 6) viewed . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 30, 2013

Conservatism passed through a series of fiery trials during the nineteenth century. I will tell the tale in two parts. This essay will view conservatism and . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 22, 2013

Originally published July 31, 2007 Prior to 1600 A.D., much of what we now regard as conservative ideas was taken for granted by most people of the West. . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 15, 2013

Originally published June 25, 2007 According to traditional conservatism, a large part of our wisdom comes to us from the past. According to Christian . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 8, 2013

Originally published June 11, 2007 Historically, Europe enjoyed three periods of rapid cultural advance: 1) 1050-1250 A.D., 2) 1375-1520, and 3) 1600-1750. . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 1, 2013

Originally published May 13, 2007 My last essay was A Brief History of Conservatism, Part 1, 800 B.C. to 1300 A.D. During that journey of 2,100 years, we . . .

Fred Hutchison

July 25, 2013

Originally published May 8, 2007 Is a married couple who aborts their child more likely to divorce? If so, is there a direct relationship between high . . .

Fred Hutchison

July 18, 2013

Originally published April 20, 2007 During this time of political setbacks for conservatives, it is a good time to consider the vital role of Conservatism in . . .

Fred Hutchison

July 11, 2013

Originally published March 31, 2007 The central philosophical problem of modern democracy is the clash between natural law theory and social justice theory. . . .

Fred Hutchison

July 4, 2013

Originally published March 7, 2007 Leo Strauss (1899-1973), the father of Neoconservatism, predicted that liberalism must give way to relativism and that . . .

Fred Hutchison

June 27, 2013

Originally published February 13, 2007 Democratic politics is ultimately a battle of worldviews. A rising worldview will eventually prevail over a declining . . .

Fred Hutchison

June 20, 2013

Originally published January 17, 2007 Both the Roman Republic and the American Republic enjoyed a period of energy and vitality. The thesis of this essay is . . .

Fred Hutchison

June 13, 2013

Originally published December 7, 2006 Frances Schaefer once said, "There are not many men in the house." What he meant was there are not many worldviews, and . . .

Fred Hutchison

June 6, 2013

Originally published November 19, 2006 In this essay, we shall consider the nature of moral reasoning and why it essential to the health of a republic. We . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 30, 2013

Originally published November 3, 2006 This essay asks two questions: Are Europeans in the throes of passive cultural and political suicide as they ignore the . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 23, 2013

Originally published September 8, 2006 In 1921, Karel Capek wrote the play RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots), about machines that became intelligent and turned . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 16, 2013

Originally published August 26, 2006 The war by America, Britain, and Israel against Islamist terrorism is destined to be a long war in which all the depths . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 9, 2013

Originally published August 9, 2006 During part one of this essay, we took a tour of history, beginning with the birth of European civilization and finishing . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 2, 2013

Originally published July 22, 2006 Every civilization has a theory about what man knows and how he knows it. The theory of a particular civilization will . . .

Fred Hutchison

April 25, 2013

Originally published July 11, 2006 In advance of the 2006 World Cup football (soccer) games in Germany, 40,000 women were estimated by several major internet . . .

Fred Hutchison

April 18, 2013

Originally published June 30, 2006 American Muslims tell us that Islam is a religion of peace. Jihadist leaders abroad describe Islam as a religion of war . . .

Fred Hutchison

April 11, 2013

Originally published June 1, 2006 In my prior essay, I described seven historical waves of bad ideas for education that are responsible for the American . . .

Fred Hutchison

April 4, 2013

Originally published May 17, 2006 The crisis in public education is well known. High dropout rates, low test scores, deficits in reading, math, and history, . . .

Fred Hutchison

March 28, 2013

Originally published April 14, 2006 In an earlier essay, I called for a national conversation on illegal aliens. Thankfully, we are finally having that . . .

Fred Hutchison

March 21, 2013

Originally published April 11, 2006 We, the men of America, are still here in spite of forty years of gender warfare against us. We are still here because . . .

Fred Hutchison

March 14, 2013

Originally published April 2, 2006 The culture war is in part a fight against evil. This essay will focus upon the nature of evil, how we should confront . . .

Fred Hutchison

March 7, 2013

Originally published March 18, 2006 Theology has more influence on world views and on political ideologies than most people can guess. One particular . . .

Fred Hutchison

February 28, 2013

Originally published March 3, 2006 Last fall, I had extended e-mail debates with two credentialed scientists. One was a defender of Einstein, and the other a . . .

Fred Hutchison

February 21, 2013

Originally published February 15, 2006 The worldview of political liberalism suffers from an inner contradiction that must in time prove fatal. The historic . . .

Fred Hutchison

February 14, 2013

Originally published January 19, 2006 The cultural war debate often centers on life and death issues such as abortion and euthanasia, and the question of . . .

Fred Hutchison

February 7, 2013

Originally published January 4, 2006 The traditional definition of a sociopath is one who is "morally insane." When a culture becomes morally insane, it . . .

Fred Hutchison

January 31, 2013

Originally published November 29, 2005 When President George W. Bush nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court in Oct. 2005, it was a prototypical . . .

Fred Hutchison

January 24, 2013

Originally published November 6, 2005 In my last issue analysis titled The Revolt against Reason, I wrote, "It is up to the conservative movement and . . .

Fred Hutchison

January 17, 2013

Originally published October 29, 2005 The culture war is part of a collision of two worldviews. Can the disagreements between these worldviews be settled . . .

Fred Hutchison

January 10, 2013

Originally published October 6, 2005 Those who believe that man has an innate nature and design generally oppose abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, stem . . .

Fred Hutchison

January 3, 2013

Originally published September 30, 2005 The culture war is deadlocked. Conflicts between contradictory worldviews generally produce clear winners and losers, . . .

Fred Hutchison

December 27, 2012

Originally published September 15, 2005 The California legislature voted to legalize gay marriage on Sept. 6, 2005. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the . . .

Fred Hutchison

December 20, 2012

Originally published August 27, 2005 I am writing a book about Western culture, and I also write essays about the culture war. Obviously, I am interested in . . .

Fred Hutchison

December 13, 2012

Originally published August 18, 2005 President George Bush once said that public schools should expose students to both evolution and intelligent design . . .

Fred Hutchison

December 6, 2012

Originally published June 22, 2005 America has a de facto policy of open borders and virtually unlimited immigration along the southern border with Mexico.  . . .

Fred Hutchison

November 29, 2012

Originally published June 1, 2005 The issue of patriotism has become unusually contentious in American politics. To gain perspective of our present partisan . . .

Fred Hutchison

November 22, 2012

Originally published May 20, 2005 The policy of Senate Democrats in 2005 to filibuster conservative nominees for the Supreme Court — coupled with . . .

Fred Hutchison

November 15, 2012

Originally published April 19, 2005 The fight between the right-to-life movement and the right-to-die camp has all the ferocity and bitterness of two . . .

Fred Hutchison

November 8, 2012

Originally published April 12, 2005 By coincidence, both Terri Schiavo and Pope John Paul II, the great advocate of the value of life, had feeding tubes . . .

Fred Hutchison

November 1, 2012

Originally published March 25, 2005 The state and federal judges who have reviewed Terri Schiavo's* case are influenced by the medical diagnosis made by a . . .

Fred Hutchison

October 25, 2012

Originally published March 19, 2005 When a controversial issue in science is politicized and seems to become a fad, does an ordinary person have the tools to . . .

Fred Hutchison

October 18, 2012

Originally published February 28, 2005 The seminal idea of western music is that music reflects the harmonies and moral order of the universe and, therefore, . . .

Fred Hutchison

October 11, 2012

Originally published February 17, 2005 "We didn't need dialogue. We had faces." Gloria Swanson spoke these lines when she played Norma Desmond, a fading star . . .

Fred Hutchison

October 4, 2012

Originally published February 10, 2005 This essay is a rebuttal of the philosophy of materialism and its modern use to deny the existence of God. Atheists . . .

Fred Hutchison

September 27, 2012

Originally published February 4, 2005 Last September, I wrote an essay about the rise of the new atheism which began with the birth of modernism, around 1750 . . .

Fred Hutchison

September 20, 2012

Originally published January 28, 2005 In September 2004, Discover Magazine had a special Einstein issue. Fifty-eight pages of glossy magazine space was . . .

Fred Hutchison

September 13, 2012

Originally published January 23, 2005 A coherent philosophy or ideology must be true to the world view upon which it is based. When a philosophy or ideology . . .

Fred Hutchison

September 6, 2012

Originally published January 17, 2005 In 1980, I wrote a twenty-page paper in which I predicted the collapse of liberal humanism. A year or two earlier, I . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 30, 2012

Originally published January 7, 2005 Happiness cannot be long sustained unless one lives a life of meaning and purpose. How does one obtain a strong sense of . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 23, 2012

Originally published December 30, 2004 Deism had a rapid rise to popularity and an even more rapid fall into oblivion. The rapid extinction of the once . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 16, 2012

Originally published December 9, 2004 The postmodern worldview is schizophrenic. It is split in two, and the two parts contradict one another. Francis . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 2, 2012

Originally published December 2, 2004 The Conservative movement has many intellectual streams. Some of the names that readily come to mind are Traditionalist . . .

Fred Hutchison

July 26, 2012

Originally published November 23, 2004 "I, wisdom, dwell with prudence....By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, and . . .

Fred Hutchison

July 19, 2012

Originally published October 28, 2004 Marriage is the indispensable foundation and building block of our culture. We are in the midst of a hideous culture . . .

Fred Hutchison

July 12, 2012

Originally published October 26, 2004 Have you ever noticed how some judicial decisions defy common sense? The cold, abstract words of their decrees often . . .

Fred Hutchison

July 5, 2012

Originally published October 15, 2004 It was nice to listen to an intelligent articulate political debate for a change. Alan Keyes is probably the nation's . . .

Fred Hutchison

June 28, 2012

Originally published September 28, 2004 During the culture war of the last forty years, Evangelicals, devout Catholics, and moralists have been migrating . . .

Fred Hutchison

June 21, 2012

Originally published September 22, 2004 Lee Harris, author of Civilization and its Enemies, believes that neither liberals nor conservatives understand . . .

Fred Hutchison

June 14, 2012

Originally published September 14, 2004 When I was eighteen, I knew that the left is generally deceived. It required a few years to find out what the core . . .

Fred Hutchison

June 7, 2012

Originally published September 9, 2004 Debates about abortion are often very heated because they involve a head-on collision of worldviews. Abortion cannot . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 31, 2012

Originally published August 24, 2004 The scientists whose voices are quoted in the popular press sound like they are certain about global warming. But do . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 24, 2012

Originally published August 5, 2004 In this essay, I shall consider the transcendent source of justice, the universal moral law on which justice is based, . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 17, 2012

Originally published July 21, 2004 Fighting fallacies one at a time as they spring from a false ideology is like Hercules' battle with the Hydra — a . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 10, 2012

Originally published July 13, 2004 As I was sitting in a restaurant eating breakfast and reading the newspaper, I perused the voting records of the nine . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 3, 2012

Originally published July 8, 2004 This essay begins with a recap and commentary on Thomas Sowell's brilliant critique of the old liberal obsession with  . . .

Fred Hutchison

April 26, 2012

Originally published June 26, 2004 Certain aspects of the culture war have ancient roots. One of the central points of disagreement regards the existence of . . .

Fred Hutchison

April 19, 2012

Originally published June 17, 2004 In this essay, I discuss some psychological similarities between Postmodernism and barbarism. Both seem to inflict some of . . .

Fred Hutchison

April 12, 2012

Originally published June 13, 2004 How important was freeing the slaves to Abraham Lincoln? Was that his top priority? How did Lincoln view his primary . . .

Fred Hutchison

April 5, 2012

Originally published May 31, 2004 I coined the term "Hard Postmodernism" as a shorthand reference to a set of theories of cultural determinism. I define  . . .

Fred Hutchison

March 29, 2012

Originally published May 20, 2004 This essay begins with a brief outline of the rise and collapse of Modernism. In the aftermath of that collapse, a number . . .

Fred Hutchison

March 22, 2012

Originally published April 28, 2004 Over twenty years ago, I had an intermittent conversation about homosexuality with a gay man at work. Although he . . .

Fred Hutchison

March 15, 2012

Originally published February 14, 2004 Baron Montesquieu (Mahn-tes'-kyoo) De Secondat (French political philosopher, 1689–1755) wrote The Spirit of the . . .

Fred Hutchison

March 8, 2012

Originally published February 8, 2004 The culture war might be likened to fighting a war against a coalition of powers. Imagine WWI-style trench warfare on a . . .

Fred Hutchison

December 24, 2009

By now, most of my readers have heard of the scandal nicknamed "Climategate," involving the suppression of information that contradicts a supposed consensus of . . .

Fred Hutchison

December 14, 2009

In the movie Ben Hur, one of the Persian Magi who worshipped Christ in Bethlehem returned to Judea 30 years later to see the adult messiah-king. The old Magi . . .

Fred Hutchison

November 26, 2009

Conservatives will soon have one of the great joys of this life: the joy of rebuilding with like-minded comrades. I happen to believe that the time for . . .

Fred Hutchison

November 15, 2009

Letter to the Editor, First Things Robert George defines a person as a "dynamic unity of body, mind, emotion, will, and spirit." This is very similar to how . . .

Fred Hutchison

September 27, 2009

The Glenn Beck show sometimes displays a picture of the capitol building with a giant snake wrapped around the dome. This chilling image age is unforgettable. . . .

Fred Hutchison

September 21, 2009

Last November, the American people elected a man president who has never had management or executive experience, and who has only had two years experience in . . .

Fred Hutchison

September 17, 2009

Prior to the twentieth century, no one called health care a right. The idea seemed to have originated with the Progressive Movement in the early 20th century. . . .

Fred Hutchison

September 3, 2009

One can see a grassroots revolution in America in three places: The "tea parties" in the public square, the noisy "town hall" meetings between congressmen, . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 27, 2009

Renew America, now recognized by About.com as one of the top ten conservative web sites in the U.S., stands out as being the most Christian of the ten and the . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 12, 2009

Don't believe what you are told by Obama, Inc. about the proposed legislation to regulate medicine and medical insurance. Does this mean they are telling lies? . . .

Fred Hutchison

August 10, 2009

Natural law is a vital part of the conservative intellectual heritage. Among the five ancient kinds of conservatism, natural law is the second oldest. Natural . . .

Fred Hutchison

July 13, 2009

Self-deceiving pride leads the sons of Adam into many foolish vanities and conceits. Some people concentrate on the petty vanities, and others indulge in . . .

Fred Hutchison

July 10, 2009

Columnist Bob Herbert has historical amnesia about the Vietnam war but has total recall about the liberal myths of the anti-war movement. The central theme of . . .

Fred Hutchison

June 15, 2009

People are searching for the meaning of life as much now as they ever did. However, meaning is harder to find today because of a very tough skepticism in today . . .

Fred Hutchison

June 1, 2009

This is part 2 of an essay in which we are considering the "emergent church" — a postmodern cult disguised as a church — and the "seeker-sensitive church" . . .

Fred Hutchison

May 18, 2009

Part 1 of this essay deals with the rise of the "emerging church," which is postmodern and heretical. As such, it is a double threat to doctrinally orthodox . . .

Fred Hutchison

April 23, 2009

We have traveled a long way through the history of conservatism and are nearing the end of the story. It is 2009, and I am doing post mortems of the disastrous . . .

Fred Hutchison

April 2, 2009

President George W. Bush appointed a handful of neoconservatives to positions of power and influence. These officials were highly visible and controversial.  . . .

Fred Hutchison

March 17, 2009

(Letter to the editor — the Columbus Dispatch) In a spectacular moment of irrationality and moral confusion, columnist Gwinne Dyer drew a moral equivalent . . .

Fred Hutchison

February 26, 2009

In the last essay in this series, part 15, we discovered in history a strong correlation between Christian spirituality and the vitality of Western culture. . . .

Fred Hutchison

January 10, 2009

We live in an age in which the great man has become a rarity. We little understand how impoverished we will be when we can no long bask in the light of great . . .

Fred Hutchison

January 5, 2009

In our walk through the history of conservatism, we have reached the period running from 1973 to 1988. In 1973, abortion was legalized, and 1988 was the last . . .

Fred Hutchison

December 22, 2008

"Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the new born king." Have you ever noticed that during the Christmas season, we sing a lot more about the birth of . . .

Fred Hutchison

December 20, 2008

Letter to the editor of First Things: regarding Messianic Gentiles and Messianic Jews Mark Kinzer is justified in his complaint that the Jews have been . . .

Fred Hutchison

November 24, 2008

The meltdown of the conservative movement is a greater calamity than losing an election! The civil war among conservatives has left an unknown number of . . .

Fred Hutchison

November 3, 2008

Does Barack Obama believe in the universal moral law? Hard to tell. Obama insists he is a Christian and admits that evil exists, but answers questions about . . .