2d ago
John and Maria discuss the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamic violence, and how Western nations are responding to threats by cancelling Christmas. A WSJ piece describes how foreign elites are building families via surrogacy. And a new book provides an update on the crisis of masculinity. Recommendations Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien Muppet Christmas Carole Forrest Frank Segment 1 – Australia Terror Attack Townhall article Australian PM statement Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper Prediction of Nigerian attack USA Today article on Rob Reiner Segment 2 – Foreign Mega Families Wall Street Journal article Segment 3 – Notes on Being a Man Brad Wilcox Wall Street Journal article Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David L. Bahnsen The Lost Generation by Jacob Savage ______________________ Make a gift by December 31 to help us form families, churches, and schools in the Christian worldview in 2026! Thanks to a generous grant, your gift will be doubled, up to $500,000. Give today at colsoncenter.org/november . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
2d ago
While the world turns away, Christians must keep the persecuted in prayers and in the spotlight. __________ Give to The Colson Center by December 31st for double the impact at colsoncenter.org/december
3d ago
T.S. Eliot's poem captures the wonder, mystery, and even fear of Christmastime, anticipating Christ's restoration of all things lost. __________ Register for CCNC at colsonconference.org
4d ago
Having rejected a Creator, it's no wonder that we've lost creativity. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
5d ago
America's long history in the fight to free all men. __________ Give to The Colson Center by December 31st for double the impact at colsoncenter.org/december
6d ago
When Christians don't "get with the times," they change empires. __________ To support the prodcution of Breakpoint and receive exlusive benefits, visit colsoncenter.org/monthly
Dec 12
A student at the University of Oklahoma receives a 0 for having the wrong view. A new study finds paganism is on the rise in the UK. And Australia looks to put concerns about social media's impact on minors into law. Recommendations The Counterpoints Collection by Zondervan Academic Segment 1 – News Headlines Oklahoma professor placed on administrative leave after protest controversy | Fox News Rising number of Brits turning to paganism The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God by Justin Brierley Letters from Father Christmas by G. K. Chesterton Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton Segment 2 – Social Media Ban for Minors in Australia Australia bans social media for 16 and under Colson Center National Conference Segment 3 - Hell Kirk Cameron changes stance on doctrine of Hell Burning Hell Film The Road to Character by David Brooks Questions and Comments ______________________ Make a gift by December 31 to help us form families, churches, and schools in the Christian worldview in 2026! Thanks to a generous grant, your gift will be doubled, up to $500,000. Give today at colsoncenter.org/november . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Dec 12
Take heart, this civilizational moment has some warriors. __________ Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson .
Dec 11
The silenced generation of Gen-Z white males is finding an identity, but is it the True one? __________ Register for CCNC at colsonconference.org
Dec 10
Lessons from Scrooge on assisted suicide. __________ Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson .
Dec 9
Cutting through familiarity to a heart of worship this season. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Dec 8
The alien language your kids are speaking reveals a deeper cultural reality. __________ To give through stocks, securities, or donor advised funds, email advancement@colsoncenter.org
Dec 5
Recent news headlines involving immigrants are causing a reaction that isn't very Christian. Information continues to reveal the transgender moment that took over the world over the last few years. And what's behind Nick Fuentes' popularity? Segment 1 – Immigration and Image of God MSN: A sprawling fraud scandal puts Minnesota's Somali community in the spotlight Fox News: Who is the DC National Guardsmen shooting suspect? What to know about Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal Segment 2 – The Transgender Scam The Free Press: 'We're All Just Winging It': What the Gender Doctors Say in Private ADF: ADF attorney, Virginia teacher to testify before US House subcommittee on harmful 'secret social transition' policies Interesting Times with Russ Douthat Segment 3 – Is Nick Fuentes Radical Feminism for Men? X Post on Nick Fuentes Rod Dreher's Substack: What I Saw And Heard In Washington Questions and Comments The Atlantic: Canada is Killing Itself Joni and Friends ______________________ Make a gift by December 31 to help us form families, churches, and schools in the Christian worldview in 2026! Thanks to a generous grant, your gift will be doubled, up to $500,000. Give today at colsoncenter.org/december . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Dec 5
Not all activities can be measured in the utilitarian way that fans of AI claim. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Dec 4
The arts help prepare our hearts and minds for the feast of Christmas. _________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Dec 3
Britain, once the birthplace of world evangelization and now a birthplace of nothing. __________
Dec 2
It would be foolish to ignore the lessons of Germany's political history. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Dec 1
Christians must love and serve those who are the most vulnerable among us. __________ Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson .
Nov 28
Sarah Stonestreet joins John this week to talk about the first Thanksgiving. New research finds a lot of young voters would like AI to control parts of our government. A new Barna study reveals a lot of Christians are confused about the Bible's teaching about the afterlife. And the long predicted demographic winter is upon us. Recommendations Strong Women Podcast Segment 1 – The First Thanksgiving American Heritage: A Fateful Experiment at Jamestown Jamestown experiment Glenn Sunshine's Substack Segment 2 – 41% of young voters say they'd give AI government power X post on Rasmussen poll Segment 3 – New Research: Distorted Beliefs About Our Post-Death Experience Cultural Research Center Segment 4 - Demographic Destiny of UK Philip Pilkington X post Jamie Bambrick X post GovFacts: US Birth Rate Hits Historic Low: What It Means for America's Future ______________________ Make a gift by December 31 to help us form families, churches, and schools in the Christian worldview in 2026! Thanks to a generous grant, your gift will be doubled, up to $500,000. Give today at colsoncenter.org/november . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Nov 28
A way to pray and sing with deeper intention this Christmas. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit breakpoint.org .
Nov 27
Gratitude for who God is goes to the heart of who we are in Christ. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Nov 26
If there is to be a true recovery of education, there must be a recovery of the purpose for education. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Nov 25
Oppression is not a bug of socialism. It's a feature. __________ Save up to 50% on your place at the Colson Center National Conference when you register by November 29 colsonconference.org .
Nov 24
The science has led back to the truth. _________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Nov 21
New polls on Christianity show mixed results. Elon Musk suggests AI will end work, and test results are indicating a crisis in education in America. Recommendations Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen Segment 1 – State of the Church Anthony Bradley X post Gallup: Drop in U.S. Religiosity Among Largest in World Rod Dreher Substack: Men & The Rise Of Orthodoxy In America Segment 2 – The End of Work? Elon Musk X post The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success by Ross Douthat Presence in the Modern World by Jacques Ellul Breakpoint: Evaluating the "Kirk Effect" Segment 3 – Crisis in Education The Atlantic: 'A Recipe for Idiocracy' Visions of Vocation : Common Grace for the Common Good by Steven Garber The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis The International Alliance for Christian Education (IACE) ______________________ November 29 is the last day to save up to 50% on CCNC 2026 registration! Register at colsonconference.org . Make a gift by December 31 to help us form families, churches, and schools in the Christian worldview in 2026! Thanks to a generous grant, your gift will be doubled, up to $500,000. Give today at colsoncenter.org/november . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Nov 21
What has come of the "Kirk Effect"? __________ Give today at colsoncenter.org/ november .
Nov 20
God's word is not our plaything, neither personally nor culturally. __________ Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson .
Nov 19
Far from improving sports, gambling has undermined integrity and trust in the industry, in athletes, and at home. __________ Check out "Give. Save. Spend." and learn how to align your finances and faith by going to colsoneducators.org/courses .
Nov 18
The mission drift and how the closing of several Christian colleges can ignite a new era of educational excellence. __________ Save up to 50% on your place at the Colson Center National Conference when you register by November 29 colsonconference.org .
Nov 17
From Voltaire to Beavis and Butthead to the loss of humor the heart really needs. __________ Give to The Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/november .
Nov 14
The Supreme Court turns down a challenge to law that brought us legalized same-sex "marriage" while an appellate court says making students recognize pronouns is unconstitutional. IVF deaths have surpassed those lost to abortion. Down Syndrome deaths continue to rise. And is America being feminized? Recommendations Interesting Times Podcast with Ross Douthat Strong Women Podcast Segment 1 – Courts on Obergefell and Pronouns Christian Post: Supreme Court rejects Kim Davis' request to reconsider landmark gay marriage ruling ADF: Defending Education v. Olentangy Local School District Board of Education Segment 2 – IVF and Down Syndrome Deaths and Bible Reading LifeSite: IVF embryo deaths surpass number of babies killed annually by abortion, report shows The Denver Gazette: Termination of Down syndrome pregnancies continues to be high, which concerns advocates Rising Kites The Christian Post: More Americans are now reading the Bible but fewer believe it's 100% accurate: study Segment 3 – Feminization of America Substack: The Great Feminization Strange New World by Carl Trueman ______________________ Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Nov 14
While the world turns away, Christians must keep the persecuted in prayers and in the spotlight. __________ Save up to 50% on your place at the Colson Center National Conference when you register by November 29 colsonconference.org .
Nov 13
The evidence is abundant showing a nearly continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land since ancient days and linking modern Jews and ancient Israelites. __________ Access Truth Rising The Study: Educators' Edition at colsoneducators.org .
Nov 12
The Church is in the best position to make marriage a priority for young adults. __________ Give your kids a stronger foundation to embrace a biblical worldview and much more at summit.org/breakpoint .
Nov 11
Distinguishing who is in a room of the Christian house and who is in another house entirely. __________ Register for our Colson Fellows informational webinar at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
Nov 10
Take heart, this civilizational moment has some warriors. __________ Give your kids a stronger foundation to embrace a biblical worldview and much more at summit.org/breakpoint .
Nov 7
John and Maria discuss implications of New York City electing a socialist and Muslim as mayor. Nigeria is named Country of Particular Concern, and Sudan now is garnering attention as well. And Bill Gates is singing a different tune on climate change. Recommendations Old School Podcast with Shilo Brooks and Bari Weiss Summit Ministries Segment 1 – Election Results and Christian Persecution Election Results The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel Huntington True Believer by Eric Hoffer Christian Persecution in Nigeria and Sudan Marco Rubio's X post Foreign Policy : The Fall of El Fasher Marks Another Dark Turn in Sudan's Civil War Segment 2 – Courts on Counseling and Bill Gates Changes Tune on Climate Change Courts on Counseling and Chiles Alliance Defending Freedom: Wyatt Bury v. City of Kansas City SCOTUS Blog: What can we learn from the Supreme Court's first round of oral arguments? Bill Gates Changes Tune on Climate Change Gates Notes: Three tough truths about climate Comments from Listeners ______________________ Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Nov 7
Venezuela sits on the world's largest oil reserves, yet why do its people make a fraction of many resource-poor nations? __________ Check out "Give. Save. Spend." and learn how to align your finances and faith by going to colsoneducators.org/courses .
Nov 6
The Christian response should be urgency, not alarm. __________ Access Truth Rising The Study: Educators' Edition at colsoneducators.org .
Nov 5
What makes humans exceptional and distinct from machines? __________ Register for our Colson Fellows informational webinar at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
Nov 4
The greatest evils in human history began by identifying a who, not a what, as the problem with the world. __________ Register for the Truth Rising showing at Cornerstone University by going to colsoncenter.org/grandrapids .
Nov 3
The war between science and religion should never have been. __________ Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson .
Oct 31
Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, leaving behind a wake of destruction. John and Maria tackle the annual question, "Should Christians celebrate Halloween?" And, the ruling that legalized same-sex "marriage" is back at the Supreme Court. RECOMMENDATIONS Substack: Where Art Thou Rob Bell? What Would You Say? : Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? Segment 1 – Hurricane Melissa; Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? USA Today : At least 50 dead as Hurricane Melissa devastates the Caribbean; Bermuda braces for storm Breakpoint : Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? Segment 2 – Obergefell Challenge at SCOTUS Daily Citizen : Supreme Court to Consider Petition Challenging Same-Sex Marriage Decision Comments from Listeners Breakpoint : Are Mormons Christians? Breakpoint : The President's Plan to Cheapen IVF (and Human Life) ______________________ Support Breakpoint by becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner before midnight tonight at colsoncenter.org/october . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Oct 31
After the day of dress-up and candy-hunting is over, take time with your family to learn about Halloween's Christian origins of saints and martyrs. __________ Register for our Colson Fellows informational webinar at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
Oct 30
Legislation and litigation continue to erode the notion of the sanctity of life. __________ Check out "Give. Save. Spend." and learn how to align your finances and faith by going to colsoneducators.org/courses .
Oct 29
Christians should always consider what our celebrations say about evil. __________ Access Truth Rising The Study: Educators' Edition at colsoneducators.org .
Oct 28
In a desecrated age like ours, beauty will be denied, mocked, or caricatured. __________ To register for the Colson Center National Conference, visit colsonconference.org .
Oct 27
The precarious footing of religious freedom everywhere. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Oct 24
President Trump released his new policy on in vitro fertilization this week. It is not getting good reviews. A diverse group released a statement on Artificial Intelligence and the future of AI. And gambling-related arrests rock the sports world. Segment 1 – President Trump's IVF Policy YouTube: President Trump Makes an Announcement, Oct. 16, 2025 First Things: Trump's IVF Policy Could Be Worse, But It's Still Bad Segment 2 – Statement on Superintelligence Statement on Superintelligence PrimeTimer: "Miracles do happen": Community celebrates as Annunciation Catholic School shooting survivor Sophia Forchas welcomed home by classmates Segment 3 - NBA Betting Scandal ESPN: What we know about the Billups-Rozier NBA gambling cases The Free Press: The Real Problem with Sports Betting Comments from Listeners Nightlight snowflake adoption ______________________ Support Breakpoint by becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner between now and October 31 at colsoncenter.org/october . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Oct 24
It turns out the craze was virtue signaling all along. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Oct 23
Increasing IVF access means more bought and sold kids, and more lost lives. __________ To support the prodcution of Breakpoint and receive exlusive benefits, visit colsoncenter.org/october .
Oct 22
It's long past time to address the dire situation Nigerian Christians are facing for their faith. __________ Register for our Colson Fellows informational webinar at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
Oct 21
A right vision of the Gospel of the Kingdom is the better path to forge. __________ Stream Truth Rising today at truthrising.com/colson .
Oct 20
They are cultural allies, but Christians and Mormons don't worship the same God. __________ Register for our Colson Fellows informational webinar at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
Oct 17
John and Maria discuss the long-awaited return of hostages from Gaza; China cracking down on Christians again, racist texts from Young Republicans, and Global Anglicans announce the Church of England has left them. RECOMMENDATIONS Interesting Times Podcast Facts About Fertility Segment 1 - News Headlines Gaza Christians Come Home Chinese Pastors Arrested Global Anglicans Break with Church of England Segment 2 - More News Headlines Trans Trending Downward Is this Revival? More Men than Women Attending Church Young Republicans Text Messages ______________________ Support Breakpoint by becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner between now and October 31 at colsoncenter.org/october . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Oct 17
Christian education offers a vision of identity rooted in the foundational truth that we made in the image of God. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Oct 16
The racist origins of Planned Parenthood. __________ Sign up for the Why Life? video series at colsoncenter.org/whylife .
Oct 15
The atheist who had a lot to say about God, man, and the West. _________ Register for CCNC by going to colsonconference.org .
Oct 14
Humans were made to worship with song. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org .
Oct 13
Religious freedom is not about keeping religion out of government but keeping government out of religion. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Oct 10
The hostages in Gaza are headed home in a tentative peace deal, conversion therapy gets a hearing at the Supreme Court, and there is a new, controversial Archbishop of Canterbury Segment 1 - News Headlines PBS News: What we know about the deal to pause war in Gaza and what's next Breakpoint: SCOTUS Decides Whether Christian Counselors will be Able to Help Children Segment 2 - FDA Approved Generic Abortion Drug The Hill: FDA approves new generic abortion pill, drawing conservative fury Loyola Today: A Loyola Icon with an Enduring Legacy, Sister Jean Dies at 106 Segment 3 - New Archbishop of Canterbury Substack: The Faith of a Mustard Seed: The New Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lections Appointed for the Day Comments from Listeners Substack: Kentucky's Custody Law Did Not Reduce Divorce ______________________ Support Breakpoint by becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner between now and October 31 at colsoncenter.org/september . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Oct 10
Is the West a sitting duck? __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Oct 9
There may be no better example of Christian faithfulness and courage right now than in Nigeria. __________ Free Colson Educators course - Hope Always: How to be a Force for Life in a Culture of Suicide
Oct 8
Colorado is co-opting professional counseling conversations to impose gender ideology on therapists. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Oct 7
Critical Theory is too morally bankrupt to analysis Hamas' attack and Israel's response. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Oct 6
We cannot manufacture revival, but that should not keep us from hoping, praying, and working for it. __________ Give today to guide future leaders in a Christian worldview at colsoncenter.org/october .
Oct 3
Another attack on a house of faith, this time the motive appears more religious than political. Louise Perry, a non-religious feminist, converts to Christianity. And what's helped Mississippi turn around its long-time miserable student test scores. Recommendations The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry Truth Rising Segment 1 - News Headlines CNN: Investigators are searching for a motive in shooting at Michigan church. Here's what we know Louise Perry Converts National Review : Mississippi Learning: Educational Success Is a 'Choice' After All The Wall Street Journal : Divorce Plunged in Kentucky. Equal Custody for Fathers Is a Big Reason Why. NBC: Kieran Culkin's wife says she's pregnant after 'Succession' star revealed baby pact in Oscars speech Segment 2 - Third Wayism: Keller and Kirk YouGov poll: What Americans really think about political violence Comments from Listeners ______________________ Support Breakpoint by becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner between now and October 31 at colsoncenter.org/september . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Oct 3
Giving as a Christian comes with self-evaluation. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Oct 2
Practicing the pro-life argument with Aunt Betty. __________ Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson .
Oct 1
When the Church fails to answer very knowable truths of the faith, bad ideas can become famous. __________ Learn more about the new Colson Educators course, Navigating Cancel Culture, at colsoneducators.org .
Sep 30
The Church has a great opportunity to fill a longing in adults. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 29
Only Christianity provides the framework for forgiveness. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 26
John and Maria reflect on the memorial for Charlie Kirk. Did that memorial start a Christian revival in America? The devastating persecution against Christians in Nigeria continues. And another prediction of the Rapture proves false. Recommendations The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity by Philip Jenkins Truth Rising on X #truthrising Segment 1 – The Charlie Kirk Memorial The Man in a New Suit Segment 2 - Revival? Jonathan Edwards and Revival Truth Rising Documentary "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness by Andrew Klavin Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby Segment 3 - Persecution in Nigeria and the Rapture Free Press : "He's Christian. In Nigeria, That Meant Torture and Prison." by Josh Code Comments from Listeners ______________________ Support Breakpoint by becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner between now and October 31 at colsoncenter.org/september . Watch Truth Rising , now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Sep 26
If our eschatology on the apocalypse leaves us with anything other than peace and purpose, we're doing it wrong. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 25
Looking past the accusations, the record shows something more revealing about Kirk's character. __________ Register for the Colson Center National Conference before November 29 to receive up to 50% off tickets. Go to colsonconference.org .
Sep 24
More historians are recognizing that Christianity has been a force for good in the world. __________ Register for the Colson Center National Conference before November 29 to receive up to 50% off tickets. Go to colsonconference.org .
Sep 23
If this is a "turning point" for our culture, our work must be anchored in the true turning point of human history. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 22
It's not so much that Christianity is Western, but that Western culture is at root Christian. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 19
John and Maria talk about the latest revelations about the man accused of shooting Charlie Kirk, the free speech implications of Jimmy Kimmel losing his TV show and a question about Christian schools. Recommendations "All My Questions" by Bethany Barnard CrossExamined Podcast by Dr. Frank Turek Segment 1 - Charlie Kirk's Shooter The New York Times: Texts From Suspect in Charlie Kirk Shooting Offer Insight Into a Motive Breakpoint : The Theory of Everything in Critical Theory "Parable Of The Madman" by Friedrich Nietzsche The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche Truth Rising Documentary Segment 2 - Jimmy Kimmel and Free Speech Delay Smartphones I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Frank Turek ______________________ Support Breakpoint by becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner between now and October 31 at colsoncenter.org/september . Free Colson Educators course - Hope Always: How to be a Force for Life in a Culture of Suicide Watch Truth Rising , now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Sep 19
Modern gender theories promised to promote women but instead reduced them and now attempt to erase them. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 18
We must oppose eugenics in all forms, and we must train our children about God's design and the God-given intrinsic good of children. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 17
Cultural Christianity is not Christianity. __________ Become a Cornerstone Monthly Partner today at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Sep 16
Every worldview assumes that there is a plan to life, even those that deny the Planner. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 15
Liberty depends on the older generation telling the truth about tyranny. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 12
John and Maria discuss the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk, whose bold defense of truth inspired a generation to think clearly and engage courageously. Recommendations Hebrews 11 The Babylon Bee: World Deemed Unworthy Of Charlie Kirk Turning Point USA Segment 1 - Charlie Kirk's Legacy Associated Press: Suspect in assassination of Charlie Kirk arrested on suspicion of capital murder, weapons and obstruction offenses WORLD: Charlie Kirk, 31, dies from gunshot wound YouTube: Charlie Kirk Revealed in June How He Wanted to be Remembered Segment 2 - This Cultural Moment Breakpoint: From Cancel Culture to Assassination Culture? ______________________ Support Breakpoint by becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner between now and October 31 at colsoncenter.org/september . Access the Why Life? video series at colsoncenter.org/whylife . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Sep 12
A new era has been marked; Christians must tell the truth. __________ To download, print or share this commentary, or to receive these daily commentaries in your email inbox, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 11
If abortion is truly about women's health, as advocates claim, they should immediately demand more regulations and limits on the practice. __________ Become a Cornerstone Monthly Partner today by going to colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Sep 10
It's not too late to get your children off their smartphones. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 9
At this educational crossroads of our country, Christians can help loosen the stranglehold of the state over education. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 8
If the government thinks it can grant rights, then they can also take them away. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 5
John and Maria discuss the President deploying the National Guard to American cities, and what the arrest of a comedian in the U.K. for social media posts signifies. Also, Sen. Tim Kaine misunderstands human rights. John has a conversation with Jack Phillips and answers listener questions about "Shiny, Happy, People." Recommendations Truth Rising (streaming now) Sarah Groves Segment 1 - News Headlines Associated Press : As Trump threatens more Guard troops in US cities, here's what the law allows Comedian Arrested in U.K. for tweets National Review : Malcolm Gladwell Reaches His Tipping Point on Trans Athletes Segment 2 - Our Rights Come From God Ted Cruz Confronts Tim Kaine MSN: Kaine sparks backlash after calling Declaration of Independence's God-given rights 'extremely troubling' Segment 3 - Jack Phillips: Life Lived Forward Comments from Listeners US Weekly : Shiny, Happy People ______________________ Support Breakpoint by becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner between now and October 31 at colsoncenter.org/september . Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson .
Sep 5
The worldviews that we currently embrace in the West just aren't working out, and it's causing people to look again at the Christian story. __________ Watch the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com .
Sep 4
When people believe that bad ideas make people unworthy of their humanity, then what begins with hashtags and de-platforming can end with bullets and bombs. __________ Get the latest on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com .
Sep 3
Secularism as a worldview is simply not big enough for the God-shaped hole in the human heart. As more young people realize this, the Church has an incredible opportunity to help them find the One who can. __________ Get the latest on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Sep 3
Amid rising headlines about a "quiet revival," Justin Brierley joins Breakpoint to discuss why young people and even secular thinkers are rediscovering Christianity. Together, he and John Stonestreet unpack the cultural hunger for meaning and the surprising rebirth of belief in God. __________ Get the latest on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson . Learn more about Justin's work, books, and podcast at JustinBrierley.com .
Sep 2
Because Chloe had the courage to admit she was wrong and to embrace the truth, she is now an incredible example of how to live in this civilizational moment. _____________ Get the latest on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Sep 1
When it's worse to be a racist than a rapist. ______________ Sign up for the free Worldview Formation course at colsoneducators.org .
Aug 29
The horrific school shooting in Minnesota is raising the veil on mental health and transgenderism. The largest Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas closed this week due to budget shortages. And Friday is the global premiere of the Truth Rising documentary. Recommendations Truth Rising Segment 1 - The Tragedy of the Minnesota School Shooting Christian Post: 'Pure evil': Christian leaders react to Minneapolis Catholic school shooting The World and Everything in It: August 29, 2025 Breakpoint: Worldviews and Tragedy Segment 2 - Planned Parenthood Clinics Closing Dozens of Planned Parenthood Clinics Closed in 2025 Christianity Today: The Biggest Planned Parenthood in the Country Is Closing Family of teenager who died by suicide alleges OpenAI's ChatGPT is to blame PEOPLE: College Student Speaks Out After AI Chatbot Allegedly Told Him to 'Please Die': 'I Freaked Out' Bill Maher Returned From Summer Break With AI On His Mind FORTUNE: 'Godfather of AI' says tech companies should imbue AI models with 'maternal instincts' to counter the technology's goal to 'get more control' Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson Segment 3 - Truth Rising Documentary Release Truth Rising documentary updates The Truth Project WORLD: Truth rising and a call to renewal Breakpoint: Broadening Death and Cheapening Life: The Organ "Shortage" Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Get digital access to the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsoncenter.org/august . Stay up to date on Truth Rising , premiering September 5, at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 29
The legendary Columba and the call to redeem paganism. _______________ Get digital access to the National Conference with a gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 28
The very low bar of deciding your own death. ________________ Get updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.org/colson .
Aug 27
As the western world detaches from its Christian foundations, we should expect that more children will be devalued and harmed in more ways. _____________ Get digital access to the 2025 Colson Center National Conference with your gift to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 26
How should we now live in this time and in this place? Related Resource Get updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson . _____________ Get digital access to the 2025 Colson Center National Conference with your gift at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 25
What would Jesus do? ___________________ Get updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 22
John and Maria discuss the news of the week including the death of Dr. James Dobson and President Trump's remarks on getting to heaven. Also, many parents are beginning to question public education. And are we on the brink of revival in Europe? Recommendations Bahnsen: Serrated Edge for Me but not for Thee Alistair Begg: The Secret of Contentment Segment 1 - Passing of Dr. Dobson and Headline News Dr. James C. Dobson, Visionary, Family Advocate and Founder of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, Dies at 89 Summit Ministries Brio Magazine Adventures in Odyssey Breakpoint: President Trump and the Hope of Heaven Newsweek: 7,000 Christians Have Been Killed in Nigeria This Year, Group Says Segment 2 - Golden Opportunity for Christian Education NYT: Why So Many Parents Are Opting Out of Public Schools NYP: Virginia teens suspended for questioning transgender student about being in boys locker room Colson Educators LifeWise Academy Segment 3 - Is There a Quiet Revival? Bible Society: The Quiet Revival: Gen Z leads rise in church attendance The Times: Full-fat faith: the young Christian converts filling our churches Breakpoint: Is Penal Substitutionary Atonement "Knocked Out"? Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Stay up to date on Truth Rising , premiering September 5, at truthrising.com/colson . Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone .
Aug 22
How do you get to Heaven? ______________ Get digital access to the 2025 Colson Center National Conference with your gift this month at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 21
The Bible may not talk about organ donation, but it does have a lot to say about life. _____________ Get updates for the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 20
Maria Baer discusses freeing kids from smartphones with Clare Morell, researcher and advocate for children's rights with the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Clare's new book, The Tech Exit , is available now. The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones by Clare Morell
Aug 20
How some get the work on the Cross wrong. _______________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone .
Aug 19
Take heart, this civilizational moment has some warriors. _____________ Get updates for the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 18
Can your worldview hold up? _____________ Get digital access to the 2025 Colson Center National Conference with a gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 15
John and Maria tackle a heavy news week full of worldview concerns… including the Little Sisters of the Poor, school-funded abortions in VA, mandated mental health exams in Illinois, the UK Women's March, and Kim Davis. Also, will the future of making babies be in a lab? Recommendations The Tech Exit by Clare Morell Christianity Today: Gaza's Hunger Crisis Is Worsening. WORLD: Israel's Gaza strategy Segment 1 - Worldview Concerns in the News National Review: Leave the Little Sisters of the Poor Alone FOX: Youngkin orders investigation into claims staff at Virginia school arranged abortions without parental consent NY Post: Illinois parents, policy experts concerned over new school mental health screening law AP: Supreme Court allows Mississippi to require age verification on social media FOX: Supreme Court has 'good chance' of hearing Kim Davis' case urging same-sex marriage be overturned UK Women's March now "Intersectional Uprising" WORLD: 7,000 Nigerian Christians killed in 2025, watchdog reports Segment 2 - Truth Rising Preview with Jim Daly Get updates on Truth Rising Focus on the Family The Truth Project Segment 3 - The Future of Reproduction NYT: The Next Parenting Trend Starts Before Conception Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Stay up to date on Truth Rising , premiering September 5, at truthrising.com/colson . Sign up for Hope Always at colsoneducators.org .
Aug 15
The most underrated Founding Father. _____________ Sign up for updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 14
Because only humans bear the image of God, AI will never be human. ___________ Get updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 13
Good doctrine supports Christians in their calling to be truth-tellers. _____________ Get updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 12
Humans were made to worship with song. ____________ Get updates for the Truth Rising documentary by signing up at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 11
A British parliamentarian spoke about the dangers of abandoning Western and Christian values, but no one showed up to listen. ______________ Find more information about the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 8
An American Eagle jeans ad is called a rise of Nazism. A CNN reporter uses AI to talk to a long-dead teenager. And John and Katy Faust talk about Katy challenging an assertion made by AI's Grok. Recommendations Katy Faust and Grok Bioethics: A Primer for Christians 2nd edition by Gilbert Meilaender Rediscovering My 1800 Heritage by Katy Faust Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper Segment 1 - Jeans Ad Causes Uproar Babylon Bee: Can You Spot All The Nazi Dog Whistles In This Sydney Sweeney Ad? Nike's ad for Scottie Scheffler's Open was tear-jerkingly perfect Them Before Us Segment 2 - Changing Definition of Death Variety: Jim Acosta Interviews AI Version of Teenager Killed in Parkland Shooting KLOVE: ChatGPT's AI Can Offer Dangerous Information & Guidance To Kids Pro-Child Politics by Katy Faust NYT: Donor Organs Are Too Rare. We Need a New Definition of Death. Washington Post: White House Has No Plan to Mandate IVF Care World's 'oldest baby' born from embryo frozen in 1994 Segment 3 - Talking to Grok Katy Faust and Grok Segment 4 - Questions and Recommendations Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Stay up to date on Truth Rising , premiering September 5, at truthrising.com/colson . Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone .
Aug 8
Are Christians called to love, or called to being nice? _______________ Sign up for the latest updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 7
In this bonus episode of Breakpoint, John Stonestreet has a conversation with Gabe Lyons, Andrew Walker, and Ryan Anderson. They discuss what can we learn by looking back over the last several decades of the Church's involvement in culture and what it means to embrace and lose our public morality.
Aug 7
Rejecting Christianity will mean losing those cultural goods that depend on Christian values, such as freedom of speech and religion. ____________ Give any gift to the Colson Center this month and recieve digital access to the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 6
A worldview that insists on absolute autonomy and that "the customer is always right" will corrupt medicine. Related Resource What Would You Say?: What is IVF, and is it ethical? ________________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone partner at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone .
Aug 5
Why it's important to read bad books about bad ideas. _____________ Sign up to receive updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson .
Aug 4
When a civilization loses touch with what made it great. Related Resource The Truth Rising Documentary _______________ Give any amount to the Colson Center this month and receive digital access to the Colson Center National Conference at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 1
William Wilberforce is remembered for his two great aims: the abolition of slavery and advancing public morality. Another horrific attack on Christians in the Congo, and the stories surrounding IVF and surrogacy keep getting stranger. Recommendations Amazing Grace (2006) Segment 1 - Wilberforce Day and an Attack in the Congo Breakpoint : The Long, Faithful Obedience of William Wilberforce Associated Press : An attack on a Congolese church killed nearly 40 worshippers. Here's what to know The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer Segment 2 - IVF & Surrogacy The Free Press : One Embryo. Three Parents. The Future Is Already Here. The Daily Citizen : Baby Should Be Immediately Removed from Convicted Child Predator The Free Press : What I Went Through to Meet My Daughter Ethics and Public Policy Center: First-of-its-Kind Resource Recommends a New Response to the Nation's Infertility Crisis Ethics and Public Policy Center: Introduction to Restorative Reproductive Medicine Breakpoint : IVF and Infertility: Good Ends Do Not Justify All Means Segment 3 - Is Snark Biblical? 2025 Great Lakes Symposium: Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear with Seth Dillon & Jim Daly The Babylon Bee Truth Rising The Babylon Bee : The Babylon Bee's Man Of The Year Is Rachel Levine The Babylon Bee : Police Calm Millennial Protesters By Handing Out Participation Trophies Segment 4 - Questions and Recommendations The World and Everything in It : Tracing the truth __________ Stay up to date on Truth Rising , premiering September 5, at truthrising.com/colson . Get access to the Why Life? video series at colsoncenter.org/whylife .
Aug 1
Technological godhood won't save us. Related Resource What Would You Say? : Will AI Replace Humans? ______________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jul 31
No technology will provide a shortcut to moral reasoning. ______________ Truth Rising premieres on September 5. Sign up for updates at truthrising.com .
Jul 30
It's time to retire the myth that humans are 99% the same as chimps. ____________ Get FREE access to the Colson Educators Worldview Formation course at colsoneducators.org .
Jul 29
... and other ways how not to read the Bible. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Am I on the Wrong Side of History? ____________ Register for the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org .
Jul 28
Find yourself an Omega Buckner and be an Omega Buckner. Related Resource Get updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson . _____________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jul 25
John and Maria discuss the news of the week including the end of the highly political Stephen Colbert late night show and Scottie Sheffler's inspirational comments after winning the British Open. Also, this week, why so many people don't want to enter a public library anymore. Recommendations Same-Sex Marriage by John Stonestreet and Sean McDowell The Identity Project Segment 1 - Colbert Cancelled and A Golf Champion Prioritizes Faith Latigo Ranch NYT: CBS Canceling 'Late Show With Stephen Colbert' After Next Season Scottie Scheffler on Winning The Open Breakpoint: The Liberty to Live Not by Lies Born Again Used Books Alliance Defending Freedom Segment 2 - Death of the Public Library The Free Press: The Death of the Public Library Breakpoint : The Scopes Trial and the Power of Story Segment 3 - Why Are Wealthy Nations Unhappy WORLD: Why are the wealthy so unhappy? Breakpoint: Why the HENRYs Aren't Happy Breakpoint: A Decade of Obergefell: Corrupted Laws and Misled Courts Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Register for the Colson Fellows Program by July 31 at colsonfellows.org . Get access to the Why Life? video series at colsoncenter.org/whylife .
Jul 25
Chuck Colson's legacy of defending truth in the marketplace of ideas. _____________ Apply for the Colson Fellows program before July 31 at colsonfellows.org .
Jul 24
Colorado is doubling down on transgender ideology while support everywhere else is waning. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Are Christians Legally Required to Bake Gay Wedding Cakes? _________________ Give any amount to the Colson Center this month and receive digital access to the Colson Center National Conference at colsoncenter.org/july .
Jul 23
More reasons to fight for good government but to believe in God as the Source. ______________ Register for the Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear livestream or in-person event on Thursday, July 24 at colsoncenter.org/truth .
Jul 22
When a civilization loses touch with what made it great. Related Resource The Truth Rising Documentary _________________ Register for the in-person or livestream event: Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear at colsoncenter.org/truth .
Jul 21
Can you mobilize your kid's community to hold off on screens? _____________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jul 18
John Stonestreet and Katie McCoy discuss the inclusion of a same-sex couple with children in the new TV show from Chip and Joanna Gaines. Os Guinness discusses what it's like to live in a civilization moment. A new study vindicates previous research that children turned out better with intact biological parents than with LGBT parents. Recommendations Shark Whisperer on Netflix Public Discourse: New Vindication for the Regnerus Same-Sex Parenting Study Great Lakes Symposium: Truth, Love, and Humor Segment 1 - Chip and Joanna Gaines Promote Same-Sex Couple FOX: Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Network backlash puts home renovation star in hot seat AP: How US adults' views on same-sex marriage have changed since the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling Breakpoint: A Decade of Obergefell: Corrupted Laws and Misled Courts The passing of John MacArthur Segment 2 - Os Guinness on a Civilizational Moment Truth Rising Segment 3 - Family Research and Biblical Law on Immigration Parental Same-Sex Relationships, Family Instability, and Subsequent Life Outcomes for Adult Children: Answering Critics of the New Family Structures Study with Additional Analyses by Mark Regnerus Public Discourse: New Vindication for the Regnerus Same-Sex Parenting Study The Identity Project Katy Faust and Them Before Us Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Register for the Colson Fellows Program by July 31 at colsonfellows.org . Register to attend Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear online or in person at colsoncenter.org/truth .
Jul 18
The growing trend to put pets on meds and what it says about worldview. _______________ Register for the FREE livestream event Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear at colsoncenter.org/truth .
Jul 17
After 1,500 years of continuous Christian service, the world's oldest monastery is being forced to close its doors. Related Resource Get digital access to the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsoncenter.org/july . _____________ Apply for the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org .
Jul 16
Law shouldn't be about feelings. _______________ Apply for the Colson Fellows Program today at colsonfellows.org .
Jul 15
Characters made in unrooted identity aren't as captivating as Imago Dei. Related Resource The Identity Project FREE video resources _________________ Register for the FREE Great Lakes Symposium at greatlakessymposium.org .
Jul 14
By calling people to the truth, Christians offer freedom. Related Resource Great Lakes Symposium What Would You Say?: Am I on the Wrong Side of History? ____________ Get Navigating Cancel Culture: Holding Fast to Truth and Love in a Hostile World at colsoneducators.org .
Jul 11
The age-old question, "where was God?" was raised again after the disastrous flash flood in Texas. The IRS changes its policy on politics in the church. And Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson says she puts her feelings over the law. Recommendations Great Lakes Symposium: Truth, Love, and Humor Evil and the Cross: An Analytical Look at the Problem of Pain by Henri Blocher Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff John Mark McMillan Segment 1 - Where Was God in the Camp Mystic Disaster? CNN: Live updates: Texas flooding death toll Evil and the Cross: An Analytical Look at the Problem of Pain by Henri Blocher Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff Segment 2 - Politics in the Pulpit and Justice Jackson's Feelings NPR: IRS says churches can now endorse political candidates Breakpoint: Voting: Lesser of Two Evils vs. Lessening Evil FOX: Jackson defends controversial, fiery SCOTUS dissents as telling people 'how I feel' Great Lakes Symposium: Truth, Love, and Humor Segment 3 - Listener Questions What Would You Say?: Is Gender Transition a Social Contagion? Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Become a Cornerstone Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly . Register for the Colson Fellows Program with your spouse and save 25% at colsonfellows.org .
Jul 11
Pastors should speak up for those called outside of church walls as much as inside. Related Resource What Would You Say? : The Separation of Church and State Protects Us From Religious Ideas _____________ Register for the FREE livestream event Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear at colsoncenter.org/truth .
Jul 10
The Scopes Trial and its cast of colorful characters is the story of the power of narratives to shape public perception. Related Resource What Would You Say? : Are Humans and Chimpanzees Basically the Same? _____________ Get FREE access to the "Why Life? Courageous Faith in a Culture of Death" video series at colsoncenter.org/whylife .
Jul 9
Why are young men returning to church? And why aren't young women joining them? ____________ Join us in laying a strong foundation for the future at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jul 8
What's next? Related Resources What Would You Say? : Is Gender Transition a Social Contagion? Breakpoint Forum: Following the Science on Transgender Ideology _______________ Get FREE access to the course Hope Always: How to Be a Force for Life in a Culture of Suicide at colsoneducators.org .
Jul 7
Artificial Intelligence technology isn't thinking, so why can it get off the rails? Related Resource Breakpoint Forum : The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence ___________ Register for the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org .
Jul 4
Parental rights score wins at the Supreme Court. We look at the importance of the Declaration of Independence on this July 4th and discuss the legacy of Jimmy Swaggart. Recommendations Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West by Andrew Wilson Liberty's Kids : American Revolution Segment 1 - Supreme Court Decisions and the Death of Jimmy Swaggart MAHMOUD ET AL. v . TAYLOR ET AL. First Things: SCOTUS Takes on Big Porn Segment 2 - Independence Day Breakpoint: Is It Really 'Self-Evident' That We Are Equal? Segment 3 - America's Gambling Addiction What Would You Say?: Is sports gambling okay? Breakpoint: Betting on the Final Four: The Scourge of Sports Gambling Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Register for the Colson Fellows Program with your spouse and save 25% at colsonfellows.org . Register for the upcoming webinar Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear at greatlakessymposium.org .
Jul 4
If there is some characteristic that grounds human dignity and equality, it must be something intrinsic. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Am I on the Wrong Side of History? ___________ Register for the upcoming Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org .
Jul 3
Why we don't need to design a perfect baby. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Should We Edit Our Genes? __________ Register for the upcoming websinar Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear at colsoncenter.org/truth .
Jul 2
Recognizing ideals is essential to citizenship. Related Resource What Would You Say? : Am I on the Wrong Side of History? _______________ Register for the in-person or online Great Lakes Symposium: Faith Without Fear at colsoncenter.org/truth .
Jul 1
When the cultural mood picks and chooses from the Bible. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Is the Bible Still Relevant? _______________ Register for the next Colson Fellows informational webinar at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
Jun 30
Many western countries are putting the right of conscience and speech to the test. Related Resource Breakpoint Forum: Following the Science on Transgender Ideology What Would You Say? : Is Religious Freedom an Excuse for Discrimination? _________________ Be a part of restoring what's broken by giving before June 30 at colsoncenter.org/June.
Jun 27
The U.S. sent bombs and missiles at several of Iran's nuclear facilities. John talks to Katy Faust about the impact on children from ten years of so-called homosexual marriage. And do seagulls prove homosexuality in nature? Recommendations The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer The Seagulls | Radiolab Podcast Segment 1 - Top News Stories John Stonestreet on Culture Friday: Socialism in the city NPR: 4 things to know about Zohran Mamdani, presumptive Democratic nominee for NYC mayor The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer ADF: Camp IdRaHaJe Association v. Roy Segment 2 - Impact of 10 Years of Obergefell Breakpoint: A Decade of Obergefell : Corrupted Laws and Misled Courts Breakpoint: Obergefell After 10 Years Them Before Us WORLD: Ten years of harm to marriage EndObergefell.com Segment 3 - Lesbian Seagulls The Seagulls | Radiolab Podcast NYT: How the Gay Rights Movement Radicalized, and Lost Its Way What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense Same-Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God's Design for Marriage by John Stonestreet and Sean McDowell The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Be a part of restoring what's broken by giving before June 30 at colsoncenter.org/June. Join the Cornerstone Monthly Partners at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone .
Jun 27
How did we get here, and what do we do now? Related Resource Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org . ______________ Be a part of restoring what's broken at colsoncenter.org/june .
Jun 26
How a Supreme Court case aimed to change marriage but redefined family instead. Related Resource What Would You Say? : Should a Christian Attend a Same-Sex Wedding? _______________ Get access to the FREE Colson Educators course: Worldview Foundations at colsoneducators.org .
Jun 25
More proof that children are good for everyone. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Should We Panic About Overpopulation? __________ Register for the next Colson Fellows webinar at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
Jun 24
If nothing is evil, then murder, racism, abuse, and everything else is good! Related Resource What Would You Say? : Are Science and Religion Compatible? ____________ Register for the next Colson Fellows Informational Webinar at colsonfellows.org .
Jun 23
Society needs a system update on how we think about virtual porn crime. Related Resource What Would You Say? : Is Pornography Victimless? _____________ Register for the Great Lakes Symposium at greatlakessymposium.org .
Jun 20
A welcome ruling from the Supreme Court on puberty blockers. A lot of mystery surrounding the Minnesota shooter who killed a state lawmaker. More Christians killed in Nigeria. And John and Maria reflect on the tenth anniversary of Obergefell. Recommendations The Federalist: The 10 Years Since Obergefell Have Proven Its Critics Right The World and Everything in It: June 19, 2025 Segment 1 - The Supreme Court Gets it Right on Skrmetti UNITED STATES v . SKRMETTI, ATTORNEY GENERAL AND REPORTER FOR TENNESSEE WPATH Files Dr. Ethan Haim X Thread on dissenting opinions Segment 2 - News Stories of the Week DOJ: After Two-Day Manhunt, Suspect Charged with Shooting Two Minnesota Lawmakers and Their Spouses ABC: At least 100 people killed by gunmen in north-central Nigeria Segment 3 - Reflecting on Obergefell OBERGEFELL ET AL. v . HODGES, DIRECTOR, OHIO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ET AL. Breakpoint: Obergefell After 10 Years The Federalist: The 10 Years Since Obergefell Have Proven Its Critics Right Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Be a part of restoring what's broken by giving before June 30 at colsoncenter.org/June. Join the Cornerstone Monthly Partners at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone .
Jun 20
It's time to retire the myth that humans are 99% the same as chimps. Related Resource What Would You Say? : Are Humans and Chimpanzees Basically the Same? _______________ Register for the Colson Fellows Program and save 25% off each tuition when you register with your spouse at colsonfellows.org .
Jun 19
Prison ministry and the embodiment of Christ. __________ Register for the Colson Educators course Navigating Cancel Culture: Holding Fast to Truth and Love in a Hostile World at colsoneducators.org .
Jun 18
Why we're not satisfied, even if we should be. ___________ Launch Christians into Kingdom work today at colsoncenter.org/june .
Jun 17
State and federal cases are challenging the relationship between home and government. Related Resource What Would You Say? : Do Children's Rights Override Parental Rights? ___________ Get FREE access to the Why Life? video series at colsoncenter.org/whylife .
Jun 16
Dads who throw their kids in the air are onto something. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Modern Family: Are the Kids Really Fine? __________ Be a part of restoring what's broken at colsoncenter.org/june .
Jun 13
John and Maria discuss news of the week including Israel's attack on Iran and the LA Riots. The men in women's sportsdebate heats up with two celebrated female athletes taking opposing sides. Plus, a new study shows working class men are shying away from marriage. Recommendations The Case for Life by Scott Klusendorf Segment 1 - Israel Attacks Iran NYT: Live Updates: Iran Reels From Israeli Strikes on Nuclear Sites and Top Officials ADF: Police arrest ADF International team member and Canadian child protection advocate Billboard Chris for their signs, while ignoring violent counter-protestors Segment 2 - Riley Gaines and Simone Biles Fight Over Gender FOX: Greta Thunberg deported from Israel after Gaza-bound 'selfie yacht' was seized Breakpoint: Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Pop Stars AP: Simone Biles apologizes for heated exchange with Riley Gaines over trans athlete participation Stephen A. Smith: An interview with Riley Gaines to talk Simone Biles drama Segment 3 - Working Class Men Bypass Marriage IFS: Good Jobs, Strong Families: How the Character of Men's Work is Linked to Their Family Status WORLD: Study shows working-class men aren't getting married NYT: No Home, No Retirement, No Kids: How Gen Z-ers See Their Future Segment 4 - Listener Questions Breakpoint: No, the Children of Divorce Are Not 'Fine' Breakpoint: N.T. Wright Shows Why We Still Need the Case for Life The Case for Life Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Be a part of restoring what's broken by giving before June 30 at colsoncenter.org/June. Sign up for a Colson Fellows Informational Webinar at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
Jun 13
The passing of two great missionaries. _____________ Cornerstone Partners receive special resources, discounts, and other gifts from the Colson Center. To learn more, visit colsoncenter.org/cornerstone .
Jun 12
Pro-life apologetics is crucial, even for Christians who should know better. Related Resource What Would You Say?: " Abortion is Healthcare." ______________ Be a part of restoring what's broken by joining the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/june .
Jun 11
The enslaving reality of, "My body, my choice!" Related Resource What Would You Say?: Is Pornography Victimless? __________ Register for the upcoming Identity Project webinar: How Early Bonds Shape Children at colsoncenter.org/identity .
Jun 10
No matter the label, it's all His. Related Resource What Would You Say?: How to Have a Conversation: Basic Principles __________________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly . Register for the upcoming Great Lakes Symposium: Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear at colsoncenter.org/truth .
Jun 9
Fixing the right thing that's broken for an educational system in crisis. __________ Register for the upcoming ACSI Rooted Educator Worldview Summit at acsi.org/rooted .
Jun 6
Critical theory was on display in the media's reaction to last week's terror attack in Colorado. The Colson Center wrapped up its national conference on Being the Church. And John and Maria reflect on N. T. Wright's controversial thoughts on abortion. Recommendations Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship by Paul Vitz Register for the Great Lakes Symposium Register for Rooted Educator Worldview Summit Segment 1 - Antisemitic Attack in Colorado AP: What we know about the Colorado attack on demonstrators for the release of Israeli hostages Breakpoint: A Double Standard on Terrorism Breakpoint : "Stochastic Terror": Truth Is Not Violence Segment 2 - Colson Center National Conference and Concerns for Nigeria NYT: Phil Robertson, 'Duck Dynasty' Patriarch, Dies at 79 Peggy Powell's story Segment 3 - NT Wright on Abortion Ask NT Wright Anything: Is abortion ever justified? Segment 3 - Listener Questions Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Be a part of restoring what's broken by giving before June 30 at colsoncenter.org/June. Join the Cornerstone Monthly Partners at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jun 6
What the Boulder attack and the rise of antisemitic violence in the U.S. says about society's critical mood. ____________ Sign up for the free course, Hope Always: How to Be a Force for Life in a Culture of Suicide at colsoneducators.org .
Jun 5
The largest ever of its kind study reveals the truth about kids and divorce. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Happily Divorced vs. Unhappily Married - Which is Better for Kids? __________ Be a part of restoring what's broken by giving today at colsoncenter.org/june .
Jun 4
Spirituality-seekers are trending, but what they're looking for is easily found. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Was Jesus' Resurrection Based on Pagan Myths? __________ Register today for the ACSI Rooted Conference at acsi.org/rooted .
Jun 3
Tech gurus are monetizing the epidemic of loneliness, and there are victims. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Does Technology Make Religion Obsolete? _____________ Learn the challenges facing families today—and how the Church can respond—with the "Why Family?" video series at colsoncenter.org/whyfamily . Make your gift by June 30 to strengthen the Church over the next year at colsoncenter.org/june .
Jun 2
John Stonestreet spoke with Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University to discuss Fidelity Month, an alternative to the "Pride Month" celebrations that have marked this month for so long. Additional Resources Fidelity Month America Pulls Back From Values That Once Defined It, WSJ-NORC Poll Finds Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth: Law and Morality in Our Cultural Moment by Robert P. George Truth Matters: A Dialogue on Fruitful Disagreement in an Age of Division by Robert P. George and Cornel West
Jun 2
As so-called "Pride Month" begins, Christians must recommit to our most important relationships. ________________ Register for the 2025 Great Lakes Symposium, "Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear" at colsoncenter.org/truth . Learn more about Fidelity Month at fidelitymonth.com .
May 30
A Christian camp is challenging a Colorado law that forces them to adopt gender ideology. The Supreme Court refuses to hear the case of a Massachusetts student who was sent home for wearing a t-shirt with a traditional message. And what should you watch and what should you avoid? Recommendations Fidelity Month Sara Groves Art House North Segment 1 - Christian Camp Sues Colorado ADF: Camp IdRaHaJe Association v. Roy ADF: XX-XY Athletics sues Colorado for violating right to speak truth that men and women are different ADF: US Supreme Court declines to hear 'There are only two genders' T-shirt case ADF: School Settles Lawsuit After Forcing Third-Grader to Remove 'Jesus Loves Me' Mask Segment 2 - Boundaries in Entertainment Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business Segment 3 - Recommendations Fidelity Month Sara Groves Art House North Submit a question to Breakpoint here! __________ Help the Church be the Church by giving before June 30 at colsoncenter.org/may . Attend a Colson Fellows Informational Webinar at c olsonfellows.org/webinar .
May 30
It's all level at the foot of the Cross. ____________ Register for the Great Lakes Symposium: Truth, Love, and Humor and colsoncenter.org/truth .
May 29
The Ascension wasn't merely Jesus leaving the Earth, but the God-man sitting in authority and power on His eternal throne. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead? ____________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
May 28
Who is Jesus? Related Resource What Would You Say? : Was Jesus God? ____________ Help the Church be the Church by giving today at colsoncenter.org/may .
May 27
What to do with a culture whose reality is memes and fake imagery. Related Resource Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence ___________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
May 26
Thanking those who serve and remembering Whom you serve. __________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
May 23
A young Israeli couple are murdered in Washington D.C. The Council of Nicaea was 1700 years ago but is just as relevant today. And is AI capable of ending humanity? Recommendations Ozempic's gnostic temptations by Maria Baer Register for the Great Lakes Symposium: Truth, Love, and Humor! Segment 1 - News of the Week AP: Court papers say suspect in embassy killings declared, 'I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza' FOX: Pope Leo says family based on 'union between a man and a woman,' defends dignity of unborn WORLD: Women's college gives transgender Biden official a degree Register for the Great Lakes Symposium: Truth, Love, and Humor! Segment 2 - 1700th Anniversary of Council of Nicaea Lifeway Research: American Views on Who Jesus Was and Why He Came Segment 3 - Worldview Implications of AI NYT: An Interview With the Herald of the Apocalypse Breakpoint : Lying Robots on the Internet Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence Segment 4 - Listener Questions Submit a question to Breakpoint here! Breakpoint : Trust the Science on Life __________ Help the Church be the Church by giving before June 30 at colsoncenter.org/June . Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
May 23
If your day of choosing between your faith and your job hasn't come yet, it may be just around the corner. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Is Religious Freedom an Excuse for Discrimination? ___________ Register for the 2025 Great Lakes Symposium: Truth, Love, and Humor: Faith Without Fear at colsoncenter.org/truth .
May 22
Who (or what) are you arguing with online? Related Resource Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence ___________ Give a one-time gift or become a Colson Center Cornerstone monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/May .
May 21
The cultural shift toward the Church needs to be cultivated, not neglected. ____________ In the face of lies, equip yourself with the truth. Access the "Why Life?" video series today at colsoncenter.org/whylife .
May 20
Despite conventional wisdom, young, married couples have the best odds. ____________ Equip believers around the world to live with clarity, confidence, and courage by giving at colsoncenter.org/may .
May 19
What's really being preached from the pulpit, and what does it say about the public perception of the Church's role? Related Resource What Would You Say?: Churches Shouldn't Get Involved with Political Issues Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program and apply today at colsonfellows.org .
May 16
Another study finds the abortion pill is causing more harm than the drug companies claim. News reports are finding a rise in spirituality in America; we'll look closely at that claim. And we take questions and comments from listeners. Recommendations Raising Conservative Kids in a Woke City by Katy Faust Strong Women: Raising Conservative Kids in a Woke City With Katy Faust The World and Everything in It: April 16, 2025 Segment 1 - News of the Week EPPC: New Study of Abortion Pill Reveals Startling Failure Rate What Would You Say?: Is the abortion pill as safe as Tylenol? ADF: Colorado court fully protects Christian academy's ability to receive funding for preschool Breakpoint: A Win for Dr. Allan Josephson, ADF, and for Children Segment 2 - A Return to Spirituality? PEW: Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off Ryan Burge: The Religion of America's Young Adults Institute for Family Studies The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God by Justin Brierly Revering God: How to Marvel at Your Maker by Thaddeus Williams Segment 3 - Refugee Resettlement Culture Friday: Resettling South African refugees Segment 4 - Listener Questions Submit a question to Breakpoint here! Summit Ministries Impact 360 Institute Worldview Academy __________ Help the Church be the Church by giving before June 30 at colsoncenter.org/may . Register for the Rooted Educator Worldview Summit at acsi.org/rooted .
May 16
The scientific consensus is that life begins at conception, so what's the problem with banning abortion? Related Resources What Would You Say?: Are Science and Religion Compatible? What Would You Say?: When Does Life Begin? ____________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
May 15
The biblical account is the account of the world, and Hollywood is catching on. ___________ Join the Colson Center as a Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
May 14
When forgiveness makes the news, God's desire for His image bearers speaks for itself. ____________ Help the Church be the Church at colsoncenter.org/may .
May 13
The social media app that's convincing youth that babies are boring, and other such lies. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Identifying Misinformation _________________ Get access to the free e-book: Being the Church in a Post-Christian Culture by S. Michael Craven at colsoncenter.org/beingthechurch .
May 12
Christians should get there first. ___________ Learn more about the impact of the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org .
May 9
Robert Prevost has been elected Pope Leo XIV. What should we be looking for in the new leader? A new law in Washington calls religious freedom into question in cases of reporting abuse. AI-fueled spiritual fantasies and psychosis are destroying families and lives. John and Maria offer a framework on discerning truth from heresy in different religions and denominations. Recommendations TIME: How Hard is Chess? What Would You Say? Video Series Segment 1 - New Pope Elected and State Shenanigans CNN: May 8, 2025 Leo XIV elected as first American pope CBS News: Feds call child abuse confession law for priests "anti-Catholic" as church vows to excommunicate those who comply WORLD: Maine court removes mother's right to bring child to church Segment 2 - AI-Fueled Psychosis Rolling Stone : People are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies Breakpoint: Richard Dawkins, a "Cultural Christian" Resources from Sherry Turkle Breakpoint: Leave Loud, Blaming Churches TIME: How Hard is Chess? Segment 3 - Mormonism and Denominational Differences Colorado's fourth Latter-day Saints temple to reflect new mountain home in Colorado Springs Segment 4 - Listener Questions Submit a question to Breakpoint here! 60 Minutes: Egg freezing popularity increasing among young women to preserve their fertility Breakpoint: Messing with Imago Dei __________ Sign up for the FREE video series Why Life? at colsoncenter.org/whylife . Sign up for the Colson Educator Course: Navigating Cancel Culture at colsoneducators.org .
May 9
Is "baby optimization" unscientific and immoral? Related Resource Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence ___________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
May 8
Does Hollywood usually know the answer to "What could possibly go wrong?" _____________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program and apply today at colsonfellows.org .
May 7
Why all Christians should care who the next pope is. __________ Register for the ACSI Rooted Educator Worldview Summit in Dallas, TX at acsi.org/rooted .
May 6
Physician Professor who questioned transgender treatments for kids wins big in court. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Is Sex Assigned at Birth? __________ Register for the ACSI Rooted Educator Worldview Summit at acsi.org/rooted .
May 5
"Hard" is not hell; it leads to treasures in heaven. ___________ Register for the informational Colson Fellows webinar on May 8 at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
May 2
Colorado and Oklahoma are two states debating the place of religion in public schools. A new study finds the risks of taking the abortion pill are drastically greater than we've been told. And new research debunks the supposed perils of marrying early. Recommendations IFS: Marry Early And Flourish Together The Austin Institute: The Economics of Sex How to Think Like Socrates by Donald J. Robertson Socrates Meets Jesus by Peter Kreeft The Colson Fellows Program Segment 1 - Public Education and Religion FOX: Colorado parents unload on liberal lawmakers, prompting changes to controversial gender bill Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond Oral Argument Clergy in the Classroom by David Noebel, J.F. Baldwin, and Kevin Bywater Segment 2 - Bombshell Abortion Pill Study The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event Breakpoint: New Report: The Abortion Pill Harms Women What Would You Say?: Is the 'Abortion Pill' as Safe as Tylenol? Segment 3 - The Benefits of Marrying Early IFS: Marry Early And Flourish Together The Metropolitan Review: Would You Rather Have Married Young? The Colson Fellows Program Segment 4 - Listener Questions Send in a question for Breakpoint at Breakpoint.org American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists Christian Dental Association The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity National Review: HHS Report Exposes the Risks of Gender Experimentation on Children __________ Get access to the FREE course Hope Always: How to Be a Force for Life in a Culture of Suicide at colsoneducators.org . Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
May 2
"You'll do for now" cohabitation isn't making couples happier. Related Resource WWYS: Is Cohabitation Good for Relationships? __________ Register for the Rooted Educator Worldview Summit in Dallas, TX at ASCI.org/rooted .
May 1
What if marching for women's rights meant for the persecuted instead of for abortion? ______________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program by registering for one of our upcoming webinars at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
Apr 30
Christians should not get lost in cultural cynicism but instead be a Church wrapped in truth and discernment. ____________ Get your access the "Why Life?" video series at colsoncenter.org/whylife .
Apr 29
New data findings should call for a reexamination of the nearly unrestricted distribution of chemical abortion pills. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Is the 'Abortion Pill' as Safe as Tylenol? __________ Download the free e-book: Being the Church in a Post-Christian Culture by S. Michael Craven at colsoncenter.org/church .
Apr 28
The Church must have a theology of the body, or "disturbing" science will fill in the blanks. Related Resource What Would You Say?: What is IVF, and is it ethical? __________ Become a Cornerstone Partner with the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone .
Apr 25
A meeting at the White House this week looked at several examples of anti-Christian bias in bureaucracy and beyond. The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case originating in Maryland that puts school officials over parents. And John and Maria discuss the legacy of Pope Francis. Segment 1 - Anti Christian Bias, SCOTUS Hearing on Parental Rights Attorney General Pamela Bondi Hosts First Task Force Meeting to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias in the Federal Government CSPAN: Mahmoud v. Taylor Oral Argument Segment 2 - Death and Legacy of the Pope Breakpoint: The Passing of Pope Francis and the Future of the Roman Church First Things: Pope Francis, My Worst Protestant Nightmare by Carl Trueman Segment 3 - Falling Birth Rate New York Times: Birthrates Languish in Record Lows, C.D.C. Reports CNN: US fertility rate hovers near record low as Trump administration pushes for a baby boom Emma Waters on Falling Birth Rates In Pursuit Conference: What do Marriage and Motherhood have to do with the Happiness of Women Segment 4 - Answering Listener Questions Breakpoint: The Cornerstone of a Legacy The Resurrection of the Son of God by N.T. Wright __________ Download the free e-book: Being the Church in a Post-Christian Culture by S. Michael Craven at colsoncenter.org/church . Get access to the free video series: "Why Life? Courageous Faith in a Culture of Death" at colsoncenter.org/whylife .
Apr 25
Taking the eye off the prize. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Doesn't Religious Liberty Protect Extremists? _____________ Register for an upcoming Colson Fellows Informational Webinar at colsonfellows.org/webinar .
Apr 24
Radical gender ideologues, not physicians, lead the medical movement to trans American children. Related Resource Breakpoint Forum: The Real Facts About Gender Ideology __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Apr 23
God's divinity, humanity's frailty, and the way forward for America. ___________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone .
Apr 22
The impact of the Pope's legacy. __________ Register for the upcoming Identity Project Webinar: Saying 'I Do' is Good for You at colsoncenter.org/marriage .
Apr 21
Chuck Colson and his passion for worldview training. Learn more about becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone . ___________ Access the free video series "Why Life? Courageous Faith in a Culture of Death" at colsoncenter.org/whylife .
Apr 18
John and Maria look ahead to Easter Sunday and remember the anniversary of the passing of Charles Colson. The highest court in the UK rules there are only two genders. And are there biblical guidelines for when we should we help the poor? Recommendations Death on a Friday Afternoon by Richard John Neuhaus The Biggest Story Bible Storybook By Kevin DeYoung Segment 1 - Holy Week and Remembering Chuck Colson Breakpoint: Jesus, the Last Adam Breakpoint: " I Thirst" Points Us to God's Scars There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind by Anthony Flew Breakpoint: How Johnny Hart Pointed to the Cross and Empty Tomb in the Funny Papers Johnny Hart's Good Friday Comic Strip Segment 2 - UK Supreme Court on Gender BBC: Supreme Court backs 'biological' definition of woman J.K. Rowling on X Segment 3 - Helping the Poor The World and Everything in It: April 15, 2025 National Review: The War on Poverty at 50 Recovery Ministries Try to Help Portland Get Clean by Maria Baer When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert Poverty Cure | Session 1 | Michael Matheson Miller __________ Learn more about how ADF helps the Church be the Church at adflegal.org . Register for the upcoming Identity Project webinar: Saying 'I Do' is Good for You at colsoncenter.org/marriage .
Apr 18
Good Friday—Jesus' last words on the cross fulfill Scripture. ___________ What does it look like for the Church to be the Church in a post-Christian world? Download the free e-book: Being the Church in a Post-Christian Culture by S. Michael Craven at colsoncenter.org/church .
Apr 17
Maundy Thursday—Jesus' Last Supper and His new command to "love one another." _____________ Learn more about how ADF helps the Church be the Church at adflegal.org .
Apr 16
When four Jewish girls needed to be protected from the Nazis, Fritz Niermann leaned into his faith. __________ Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Apr 15
The ADF's argument against taxpayer cash for abortion. __________ Learn more about how ADF advances every person's God-given right to live and speak the truth at adflegal.org .
Apr 14
Try though they may, biblical doubters can't beat the truth. __________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices: The Christian's Guide to this 'Civilizational Moment' at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Apr 11
It's been a decade since the Supreme Court decision that legalized so-called same-sex marriage. The ruling has left many victims. And Colorado continues its desire to be the nation's most liberal state. Recommendations Breakpoint: How Johnny Hart Pointed to the Cross and Empty Tomb in the Funny Papers Learn more and apply for the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org. Segment 1 - Ten Years after Obergefell Breakpoint: Obergefell After 10 Years Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience Breakpoint This Week: Defunding Planned Parenthood and the Ethics of "Bodyoids" The Way of the (Modern) World by Craig Gay Segment 2 - Colorado's Radical Laws Colorado SB 25-183: COVERAGE FOR PREGNANCY-RELATED SERVICES AP: Judge finds frozen embryos are not divisible property in cancer survivor's case against ex-husband Colorado bill could strip parents of custody for misgendering their children __________ Register for the upcoming Identity Project webinar: Saying 'I Do' is Good for You at colsoncenter.org/marriage . Learn to manage your money with a team that takes good stewardship to heart with Sovereign Private Wealth at sovereignpw.com .
Apr 11
Katy Faust on the legacy of the most disruptive law on marriage. ___________ Become a Cornerstone Partner with the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Apr 10
We're certainly in a moment, and the faithful should be the guiding lights. Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices: The Christian's Guide to this 'Civilizational Moment' at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . __________ Learn more about Sovereign Private Wealth and how to manage your money with a team that takes good stewardship to heart at sovereignpw.com .
Apr 9
Like many faith giants, God calls us to embrace this time and place while yet imperfect. __________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices: The Christian's Guide to this 'Civilizational Moment' at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Apr 8
The addiction of gambling hits not just in dollars, but in human lives. __________ Learn more about Sovereign Private Wealth and how to manage your money with a team that takes good stewardship to heart at sovereignpw.com .
Apr 7
A Lighthouse Voices story from Dr. Jeff Myers. __________ Download your copy of the free e-book: Being the Church in a Post-Christian Culture by S. Michael Craven at colsoncenter.org/church .
Apr 4
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Friday on South Carolina's attempt to stop Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood. Geneticists are promoting frightening plans to create babies to specifications. And gambling on sports continues to grow, leaving problems in its wake. Recommendations NYT: This baby was carefully selected as an embryo. ADF: Supreme Court to Hear Case About States' Funding of Abortion Facilities Segment 1 - States Try to Stop Medicaid Payments for Abortion FOX: Who is Stephanie Turner? Women's fencer who knelt to protest trans opponent and ignited global awareness ADF: Planned Parenthood Does Not Deserve Your Tax Dollars Segment 2 - Designer Babies NYT: This baby was carefully selected as an embryo. CBS: "What kind of society do you want to live in?": Inside the country where Down syndrome is disappearing First Things: Who Owns the Embryos? CNN: Gosnell horror fuels fight for abortion laws Breakpoint: Inventors of CRISPR Win Nobel Prize, but Should We "Rewrite the Code of Life?" Segment 3 - The Sports Gambling Crisis WORLD: Gambling scandals hover over college and pro basketball __________ Restore hope and make communities safer by partnering with Prison Fellowship at prisonfellowship.org/colsoncenter . Register for the next Lighthouse Voices: The Christian's Guide to this 'Civilizational Moment' at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Apr 4
The little-known mentor who helped Lewis become one of the greatest Christian thinkers of our time. __________ Download your free copy of the e-book Being the Church in a Post-Christian Culture by S. Michael Craven at colsoncenter.org/church .
Apr 3
The time has never been better to help people consume the Word, not just have it on their shelves. __________ Sign up for the self-paced Colson Educators course, Worldview Formation, at colsoneducators.org .
Apr 2
It's good to want babies. Related Resources What Would You Say?: Should We Panic About Overpopulation? ___________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual Revolution at colsoncenter.org/greenville .
Apr 1
No matter the label, it's all His, and that's the view by which to navigate life. Related Resource What Would You Say?: How to Have a Conversation: Basic Principles ___________ For more information or to apply for the Colson Fellows Program visit colsonfellows.org.
Mar 31
Young men are searching for meaning and looking to the Church. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Do I Really Need to Go to Church? ____________ Register for the next Breakpoint Forum on A New Sexual Revolution at colsoncenter.org/greenville .
Mar 28
President Trump threatens to defund Planned Parenthood. Will it happen? And scientists suggest growing human bodies to be used for body parts. Recommendations Become a Cornerstone Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett Segment 1 - Defunding Planned Parenthood WSJ: Trump Administration Plans to Freeze Family-Planning Grants Sean McDowell: Heating up! The Current Debate Over Abortion Rights (w/ Lila Rose) Lila Rose: Best Arguments for Christianity w/Dr Sean McDowell | The Lila Rose Show E195 Breakpoint: David Daleiden's Courage, Planned Parenthood's Deceit Planned Parenthood admits staffer 'inadvertently' gave kids graphic coloring books in Louisville Segment 2 - Ethics of "Bodyoids" MIT Tech Review: Ethically sourced "spare" human bodies could revolutionize medicine Breakpoint: The Late, Great Stem-Cell Debate __________ Register for the next Breakpoint Forum on A New Sexual Revolution at colsoncenter.org/greenville . Restore hope and make communities safer by partnering with Prison Fellowship at prisonfellowship.org/colsoncenter .
Mar 28
Loose laws for in vitro fertilization have allowed for appalling assaults on human rights. ______________ Restore hope and make communities safer by partnering with Prison Fellowship at prisonfellowship.org/colsoncenter .
Mar 27
Disciplining with a Christian worldview makes all the difference. Related Resource Learn more about the Colson Educators program at colsoneducators.org . __________ Get your copy of Being the Church in a Post-Christian Culture by S. Michael Craven at colsoncenter.org/church .
Mar 26
Cultural fads are flashes in the pan because the future belongs to Christ alone. __________ Restore hope and make communities safer by partnering with Prison Fellowship at prisonfellowship.org/colsoncenter .
Mar 25
If everybody's religion is right, then no one can be wrong ... right? ______________ Sign up for free access to 200+ expert-led videos addressing topics like gender, identity, and purpose at identityproject.tv .
Mar 24
Believe it or not, the social media-sphere will live another day without our every opinion. __________ Register your student for Summit Ministries with a special discount code at summit.org/breakpoint .
Mar 21
President Trump moves forward with his plans to scrap the Department of Education. John and Maria discuss the ethics of immigration and deportation. And the Department of Justice ends its investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention. Recommendations Colson Fellows Program Progressives are starting to come around on the importance of marriage and fatherhood Segment 1 - Dismantling the Department of Education Executive Order: Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities ABC: Illinois bill aims to add more oversight of homeschooling, not all want it Segment 2 - The Ethics of Immigration Policy AP: Detained Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil appears in immigration case Segment 3 - Investigation of the SBC Concludes Christianity Today: Southern Baptists Say DOJ Investigation Concludes Without Further Charges __________ Use code BREAKPOINT25 at checkout for a discount on registration for Summit Ministries worldview training camp at summit.org/breakpoint . Register for the next Breakpoint Forum on A New Sexual Revolution at colsoncenter.org/greenville .
Mar 21
Without God, opposing cultural forces look awfully alike. ___________ Register your student for a 12-day worldview conference with Summit Ministries at colsoncenter.org/breakpoint .
Mar 20
Tens of thousands are responding to the Gospel message of salvation at campuses nationwide. __________ Sign up for the Colson Educators course Navigating Cancel Culture: Holding Fast to Truth and Love in a Hostile World at colsoneducators.org .
Mar 19
Executive orders lose weight when worldviews are at war. __________ Get access to over 200 expert-led videos on topics like identity, culture, and theology at identityproject.tv .
Mar 18
Empty libraries and human-less humans. Related Resources Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence What Would You Say?: Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) Replace Humans? __________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices with Dr. Jeff Myers at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Mar 17
The Bible's "policy" on disability is dignity, inclusion, and care. __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual Revolution at breakpoint.org/greenville .
Mar 14
A Facebook whistleblower makes a strange claim about social media. And the role of the intellect in forming a Christian worldview. Recommendations Lighthouse Voices with Dr. Jeff Myers Segment 1 - Is Social Media Good? Turner's Creed - by Steve Turner BBC: Facebook moderator: 'Every day was a nightmare' When Prayer Requests Become Viral Hashtags by Maria Baer Segment 2 - In Defense of Thinking Sam Seder on Jubilee Debate Why You Think the Way You Do by Dr. Glenn Sunshine Colson Fellows Program __________ Use code BREAKPOINT25 at checkout for a discount on registration for Summit Ministries worldview training camp at summit.org/breakpoint . Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org .
Mar 14
Obeying the call of God even when the fruits are far out of sight. ___________ Can We Help the Next Generation Find True Happiness? Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices event featuring Dr. Jeff Myers at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Mar 13
There are no borders when it comes to attacks on the Church and the call to pray and help. ___________ Register your student for a Summit Minstires worldview conference and recieve a special discount at summit.org/breakpoint .
Mar 12
We need heroes to be viewed through a lens of true good and evil. __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual Revolution at colsoncenter.org/greenville .
Mar 11
Why some are more vulnerable to AI 'relationships' than others. Related Resource Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence ____________ Sign up for a free account with the Identity Project at identityproject.tv .
Mar 10
When it comes to finding true happiness, do the opposite of what culture says. __________ Register for the Identity Project websinar on Tuesday, March 11 featuring Dr. Kathy Koch at colsoncenter.org/identity .
Mar 7
John and Maria discuss DJ Daniel, Disability Awareness Month, and Christian history. Also, the idea that being "unencumbered" by responsibilities and dependents is the way to happiness is just wrong. And a new study puts another nail in the coffin of those pushing surgical mutilation for gender confusion. Recommendations Strong Women Lent 2025: The Songs of Lent Would You Rather Have Married Young? by Lillian Fishman Segment 1 - Disability Awareness Month FOX: Boy honored by Trump says cancer won't slow him down until 'God calls' him home AP: Transcript of President Donald Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress Breakpoint: Chris Nikic (who has Down Syndrome) Completes Ironman Joni & Friends Dancing with Max: A Mother and Son Who Broke Free by Emily Colson Lighthouse Voices with Joni Eareckson Tada Segment 2 - The Key to Happiness Institute for Family Studies: Ladies, Miranda July Is Not Your Friend ET: Kieran Culkin SHOCKS Wife With 'Fourth Kid' Reminder During Oscars Speech Oscars: Mikey Madison Wins Best Actress for 'Anora' | 97th Oscars Speech (2025) Segment 3 - New Study on Trans Surgery Oxford Academic: Examining gender-specific mental health risks after gender-affirming surgery: a national database study FOX: Trans surgeries increase risk of mental health conditions, suicidal ideations: study __________ Use code BREAKPOINT25 at checkout for a discount on registration for Summit Ministries worldview training camp at summit.org/breakpoint . Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org .
Mar 7
Babies are on the brain for a generation raised in an anti-kid culture. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Save the Planet. Don't Have Kids. ___________ Sign up for the Hope Always course at colsoneducators.org .
Mar 6
The Trump administration is arming parents to take back rights, but it can't start and stop at the Oval.\ Related Resource What Would You Say?: Churches Shouldn't Get Involved with Political Issues ___________ Register for the upcoming Identity Project webinar with Dr. Kathy Koch: How is Identity Formed and What Makes it Healthy at colsoncenter.org/identity .
Mar 5
It turns out wealth isn't the key to wellness. __________ Register for the next Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual revolution at colsoncenter.org/greenville . Get your copy of Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/february .
Mar 4
The gods of technology, demons and all. __________ Sign up for a free account with the Identity Porject at identityproject.tv .
Mar 3
Examining the philosophical and worldview relationship, past and present. ___________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices: Can We Help the Next Generation Find True Happiness? with Dr. Jeff Myers at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse.
Feb 28
Big changes are being proposed to how we do education in America. The Phoenix Declaration offers a helpful framework for what education should look like. And increasingly parents are being encouraged to abort based on prenatal diagnoses that are often wrong. Recommendations Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual Revolution The Identity Project Bari Weiss: How to Find Love in 2025 Segment 1 - Phoenix Declaration on Education The Free Press : Betsy DeVos: Shut Down the Department of Education Breakpoint: How to Fix Education The Phoenix Declaration: An American Vision for Education The Protestant Family Ethic Report Clergy in the Classroom: The Religion of Secular Humanism by David Nobel The Identity Project Chasing Love by Sean McDowell Segment 2 - Prenatal Diagnoses Breakpoint: How in-Utero Diagnosis Is Being Used to Push Abortion Breakpoint: The Latest Executive Order about IVF: Calling It Pro-life Does Not Make It So NBC : Prenatal Tests Have High Failure Rate, Triggering Abortions New York Times: When They Warn of Rare Disorders, These Prenatal Tests Are Usually Wrong __________ Get your copy of Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David L. Bahnsen with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/february . Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org .
Feb 28
The Phoenix Declaration offers a roadmap for a system that has gone off the rails. __________ Get a copy of Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/february . Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org .
Feb 27
Christians should look at work as part of our created purpose, not just as toil. _____________ Get your copy of Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/february . Sign up for a free account with the Identity Project at identityproject.tv .
Feb 26
John Stonestreet has a conversation with the Dean of the Colson Fellows Program, Michael Craven, on being the Church in a time of chaos, creating culture, and the power of a Christian worldview. Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org .
Feb 26
Why apologetics is important to the skeptical mind. ___________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Feb 25
IVF practices need far more regulations, not less. ___________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Feb 24
Take heart parents. You have the right to give your baby a full life in all circumstances. __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program and apply at colsonfellows.org .
Feb 21
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the new Executive Order on IVF and why it's neither pro-life nor "pro-fertility". Conserving true family values means holding everyone accountable, without hypocrisy. The collapse of the family structure has a devastating impact on a local and national scale. Recommendations Communio The cost of conservative hypocrisy by Katy Faust Segment 1 - Executive Order on IVF Executive Order: EXPANDING ACCESS TO IN VITRO FERTILIZATION Segment 2 - Conserving Family Values without Hypocrisy WORLD - The cost of conservative hypocrisy by Katy Faust Institute for Family Studies: The Family Structure Index 2025 Segment 3 - The National Impact of the Collapse of Family Structure Center for Christian Value: How the Collapse of Family is Stunting the Nation's Growth TIME: Is There Hope for the American Marriage? by Caitlyn Flanagan J.P. DeGance, Founder and President of Communio, at Lighthouse Voices __________ Get your copy of Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David L. Bahnsen with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/february . Sign up for the free course from The Colson Educators, Hope Always: How to Be a Force for Life in a Culture of Suicide at educators.colsoncenter.org .
Feb 21
Why some find it hard to admit this world is perfectly designed by a Creator. Related Resource What Would You Say? : Does Technology Make Religion Obsolete? Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows program and apply at colsonfellows.org.
Feb 20
Society would do good with a Genesis reboot. _____________ Claim your copy of Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David L. Bahnsen with a gift of any amount this month at colsoncenter.org/february.
Feb 19
Christianity is the most accurate account of reality and therefore worthy of our saying so. ___________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Feb 18
The counter-cultural truth about the afterlife. ___________ Sign up for a FREE Identity Project account at identityproject.tv .
Feb 17
The story of St. Valentinus reminds us how to celebrate love. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Who Was Saint Valentine? ___________ Learn more and register for the Colson Educators program at educators.colsoncenter.org .
Feb 14
Sports gambling is growing at an alarming rate with the expected carnage left in its wake. And John talks to David Bahnsen about retirement and the value of work. Recommendations The 21 Film Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Segment 1 - Sports Betting Breakpoint: The Super Bowl and Sports Gambling: America's Newest Addiction WORLD : Culture Friday: Faith, forgiveness, and football What Would You Say?: Who Was Saint Valentine? Breakpoint: The 21: Telling the Story of the Men Martyred on a Libyan Beach a Decade Ago The 21 Film Segment 2 - The Value of Work with David Bahnsen Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David L. Bahnsen BONUS Breakpoint : Christian Hope in Economic Uncertainty with David Bahnsen The World and Everything in It podcast 2025 Colson Center National Conference __________ Get your copy of Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David L. Bahnsen with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/february . Learn more about the Colson Fellows program and apply at colsonfellows.org .
Feb 14
A new short film revisits the 21 men beheaded on camera for refusing to deny Christ. ___________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Feb 13
Where's the virtue of truth in the truth-telling industry? Related Resource: What Would You Say?: Identifying Misinformation ____________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Feb 12
Young adults aren't having sex, but God has a better plan for them in marriage. Related Resource What Would You Say?: What Does the Bible Say About Sex? __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org .
Feb 11
What happens when a society loses its Godly call to work? __________ Get your copy Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/February .
Feb 10
The rise in Bible sales and God talk will hopefully go deeper than seeking "useful" help. What Would You Say?: Is the Bible Still Relevant? ____________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Feb 7
Another presidential executive order puts an end to men in women's sports in America, at least for now. And John and Maria discuss the search for meaning and self-esteem. Recommendations Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen C.S. Lewis Song by Brooke Fraser Segment 1 - Men in Women's Sports Executive Order: KEEPING MEN OUT OF WOMEN'S SPORTS XX-XY Athletics Clothing Segment 2 - The Search for Meaning NYT: 'The Interview': Digital Drugs Have Us Hooked. Dr. Anna Lembke Sees a Way Out. First Things : How Happiness Studies Lets Us Down by J. Budziszewski Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship by Paul C. Vitz Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen 10 Books that Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn't Help by Benjamin Wiker __________ Get your copy of Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David L. Bahnsen with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/february . Learn more about the Colson Fellows program and apply at colsonfellows.org .
Feb 6
For the sake of human flourishing, it's time to ask where tech is taking us and why. __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Feb 5
Another battle won, many more to go in the fight for the preborn. ___________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Feb 4
What if our work, in and outside of our job, is what we were made for? Related Resources What Would You Say? : Is Capitalism All About Greed? John Stonestreet and David Bahnsen: A Christian's Guide to Economic Uncertainty ______________ Get a copy of Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen this month with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center. Just visit colsoncenter.org/february . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit breakpoint.org .
Feb 3
Gutenberg changed the literary world, but are we messing it up? __________ Claim your copy of Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David L. Bahnsen with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center in the month of February at colsoncenter.org/february.
Jan 31
John and Maria discuss the tragic midair collision in the nation's capital. Also, a dispute erupted this week on social media about the true meaning of the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the latest Executive Order either harms children or protects them, depending on who you ask. Recommendations afutureforthefamily.org A Future for the Family: A New Technology Agenda for the Right Stop Hacking Humans by Brad Littlejohn and Clare Morell Segment 1 - The D.C. Aviation Disaster and What the Good Samaritan Means NBC: D.C. plane crash live updates: Families mourn 67 victims after American Eagle jet and Army helicopter collide JD Vance discusses Trump's immigration crackdown Breakpoint Forum: Unmasking Christian Nationalism Segment 2 - Executive Order Protects Children Executive Order: PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM CHEMICAL AND SURGICAL MUTILATION The World and Everything in It: January 31, 2025 Breakpoint: Upselling Death Segment 3 - The Nation's Report Card The Nation's Report Card Psychology as Religion by Paul Vitz __________ Become a monthly partner for the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jan 31
A U.K. ad campaign tries to convince citizens death-by-choice is the future. Related Resource What Would You Say? : Assisted Suicide is Compassionate __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jan 30
IVF is numbing society's compassion for fatherless children. Related Resource What Would You Say?: What is IVF, and is it ethical? __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jan 29
Young Christian men need strong role models. They should turn Tate off. __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Jan 28
Want to improve your life? Open the Bible at least four times a week. __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Jan 27
For the disbelieving youth, remembrance is more important than ever. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Jan 24
The national champion in college football has been crowned. Players from both Ohio State and Notre Dame make news during the week for their outspoken faith. An inauguration, controversial sermons, and a host of executive orders made Washington D.C. a very lively place last week. And former Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards passed away. Recommendations Breakpoint: Everybody Was Talking About Jesus Monday Night, even Scott Van Pelt WORLD: Ohio State's season of purpose WORLD: Dystopia on a New York subway Segment 1 - Faith and Football Breakpoint: Everybody Was Talking About Jesus Monday Night, even Scott Van Pelt FOX: Riley Leonard on Ohio State and Notre Dame's faith Segment 2 - Wild Week in Washington TIME: 'I Am Not Going to Apologize': The Bishop Who Confronted Trump Speaks Out AP: Everything Trump did in the first executive orders and actions of his presidency Segment 3 - Former Planned Parenthood Leader Dies Washington Post: Former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards dies at 67 __________ Become a monthly partner for the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jan 24
We are all theologians. The church needs good ones. ___________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jan 23
But does God really care who wins the Super Bowl? __________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Jan 22
Ancient finding may mean Christianity spread wider and faster than once thought. ____________ For more resoruces to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Jan 21
When it comes to marriage, the GOP looks bluer than ever. Related Resource What Would You Say?: Is Cohabitation Good for Relationships? ___________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual Revolution at colsoncenter.org/phoenix .
Jan 20
Chuck Colson on the uniqueness of this day. Related Resources: What Would You Say? : Should Christians Vote? Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? ___________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Jan 17
This is the final week of the Biden administration. John and Maria look back at the political landscape. Professional and college athletes are getting more comfortable talking about their faith. What's driving the trend? And the Andrew Tate debate has many asking, "What is Masculinity?" Segment 1 - Political Transition CNN: Key lines from President Joe Biden's farewell address CBS: Meta ends diversity programs, joining McDonald's, Walmart and other major companies to back off DEI How the News Makes Us Dumb: The Death of Wisdom in an Information Society by C. John Sommerville Segment 2 - Faith in Sports John Stonestreet on Culture Friday: Faith, forgiveness, and football Christian Post: Hundreds gather, dozens baptized at revival event on Ohio State University campus Sports Spectrum: Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard believes 'this team trusts in Jesus' ahead of title game Athletes in Action Breakpoint: OU Softball Team and the Culture of Joy ACSI Rooted Conference Segment 3 - Christian Masculinity Breakpoint: Using Fathers to Close Prisons - Dr. Anthony Bradley __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual Revolution at colsoncenter.org/phoenix . Become a monthly partner for the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jan 17
The freak-out for "rights" is about image bearers at war with themselves. Christians can help. What Would You Say?: I Don't Like Abortion, but Should it be Illegal? __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Jan 16
One act of faith is using finances well. Learn more about Compass and the resources they have for various demographics at compassfinancialministry.org . __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly donor at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Jan 15
Making home ownership a Christian cause. ___________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Jan 14
Aggressive sex identity messaging may be in retreat in 2025. ___________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual Revolution at colsoncenter.org/phoenix .
Jan 13
The virtual sexual revolution and a new kind of tyranny. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Jan 10
John and Maria discuss the devastating fires ravaging Southern California, a new report identifying Christians as the most persecuted religious group in the world, and Facebook does away with its fact checkers. Recommendations Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship by Paul Vitz Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism by Paul Vitz The Church Before the Watching World : A Practical Ecclesiology by Francis Schaeffer Segment 1 - LA Fires and Global Persecution of Christians CNN: Los Angeles wildfires live updates 2025 Global Persecution Index FOX: Christians increasingly persecuted worldwide as 'modern and historical factors converge' Open Doors World Watch List US Dept. of State: Countries of Particular Concern, Special Watch List Countries, Entities of Particular Concern Breakpoint: No, Religious Freedom is Not "Safer Than Ever" 2025 Colson Center National Conference Segment 2 - Facebook Exiles Fact Checkers Meta: More Speech and Fewer Mistakes The Free Press: How 'The Babylon Bee' Predicted the Vibe Shift Babylon Bee: Guy Who Said Facebook Was Not Suppressing Free Speech Announces Facebook Will Stop Suppressing Free Speech Segment 3 - Pixar Drops Gay Character WORLD: Federal court strikes down Biden's Title IX revisions NBC: Disney removes transgender storyline from upcoming Pixar streaming series __________ Become a monthly partner for the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/monthly . Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Jan 10
How intentional laws can value life. What Would You Say?: Assisted Suicide is Compassionate __________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Jan 9
Cultural narrative bends toward catastrophizing life, but Christians are anchored to something better. __________ Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual Revolution at colsoncenter.org/phoenix .
Jan 8
Is the growing belief in the supernatural an a la carte counterfeit? __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Jan 7
Islamism in the Muslim and Christian world. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Jan 6
The littlest known Christian holiday with major significance. __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Jan 3
The New Year's Day attack in New Orleans has us taking a closer look at Jihad and Islam. And there's been a spike in Bible sales this year. John and Maria look for reasons why. They also discuss the life and faith of former President Jimmy Carter. __________ Recommendation Tom Holland on How Christianity Remade the World by Bari Weiss Segment 1 - New Year's Day Terrorism CNN: New Orleans attack news AP: Cybertruck exploded outside Trump's Las Vegas hotel The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel Huntington What ISIS Really Wants by Graeme Wood Open Doors Report NYT Matter of Opinion Podcast: An Atheist's Case for More Christianity in Politics BBC: Badenoch calls for national inquiry into 'rape gangs' Segment 2 - Bible Sales Up Dramatically FOX: Bible sales are booming, despite a decline in religiosity Niall Ferguson on becoming a Christian Atheism Without Reason by Sarah Haider Tom Holland on How Christianity Remade the World by Bari Weiss Segment 3 - Remembering Jimmy Carter __________ Become a monthly partner for the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/monthly . Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Jan 3
The simple act of speaking up can change a culture. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit breakpoint.org .
Jan 2
Even our spare time should glorify God. __________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Jan 1
How the hymn "Amazing Grace" can set right our hearts for the New Year. ___________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Breakpoint.org .
Dec 31, 2024
Voting is a "good" Christians should do. ____________ We're almost to our year-end goal, and our challenge grant has not only been met, but it's been extended by another $100,000. You can help us get there by giving today at colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 30, 2024
Even atheists recognize it's better to live around Christians. __________ Strengthen the Church to move the world in 2025 by giving today at colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 27, 2024
John and Maria discuss the top six stories of the year, from AI to transgender politics. Recommendations Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Great Expectations by Charles Dickens The Church in Society by Francis Shaeffer Being the Body by Chuck Colson Segment 1 - The Rise of AI Colson Fellows Program Breakpoint: Six Key Worldview Stories of 2024: The Church in an AI Future Honestly podcast with Bari Weiss 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity by John Lennox Resources from Sherry Turkle Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence Segment 2 - Shifts in the Transgender and Pro-life Movements Breakpoint: Six Key Worldview Stories of 2024: The Shifting Ground of "Gender-Affirming Care" Breakpoint Forum: The Real Facts About Gender Ideology Breakpoint: Six Key Worldview Stories of 2024: The State of the Pro-Life Movement Breakpoint: Six Key Worldview Stories of 2024: Christianity is a Cultural Good Segment 3 - The Presidential Election and the Rise of Antisemitism Breakpoint: Six Key Worldview Stories of 2024: Elections and the Kingdom of God Breakpoint: Six Key Worldview Stories of 2024: The Resurgence of Antisemitism __________ Learn more about donating your stocks to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/faq . Double the impact of your gift to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/december . Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Dec 27, 2024
A massive body of research proves the danger and deception of transition interventions for gender dysphoria. ___________ Strengthen the Church to move the world in 2025 by giving today at colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 26, 2024
Christians must know their purpose to steer a world dominated by AI. _____________ Strengthen the Church to move the world in 2025 by giving today at colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 25, 2024
How an often-overlooked detail in the Gospel of Luke reveals the value God places on preborn life. __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint at colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 24, 2024
Adding sacred text to original work to reveal a deep love for God. __________ Learn more about gifting your stocks to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/faq .
Dec 23, 2024
With more millennials choosing no kids, would-be grandparents mourn the end of their family line. __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Dec 20, 2024
The shooting at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin has reignited the discussion about how to stop the violence. A new study shows that those with a college education are increasingly believing in the supernatural. And John and Maria make some suggestions to enliven your Christmas. Christmas Season Recommendations A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens New York Times: A Cathedral of Sound This Little Babe - Benjamin Britten Segment 1 - What Should We Do about School Shootings? AP: Official says Wisconsin shooter was new student at Christian school where her victims had deep ties Breakpoint: Why We Shouldn't Just 'Do Something' Steven Curtis Chapman: "Heaven In The Real World" Segment 2 - Belief in Miracles on the Rise Ryan Burge on belief in miracles Breakpoint: Six Key Worldview Stories of 2024: Christianity is a Cultural Good The Way of the (Modern) World by Craig M. Gay Breakpoint: The Restlessness of the "Spiritual but Not Religious" Living in Wonder by Rod Dreher Making Sense of Your World by W. Gary Phillips, William E. Brown, and John Stonestreet __________ Learn more about donating your stocks to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/faq . Double the impact of your gift to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/december . Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Dec 20, 2024
The fight to protect the innocent saw many changes this year. ___________ Double the impact of your gift to the Colson Center through December at colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 19, 2024
The cry to act for its own sake isn't helpful in troubling times. __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org . Learn more about donating your stocks to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/faq .
Dec 18, 2024
The case for Just War. __________ Double the impact of your gift to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/december . To learn more about making a stock donation visit colsoncenter.org/faq .
Dec 17, 2024
Remembering the Tsunami of 2004 __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Dec 16, 2024
The power of small, faithful acts in dark times. Related Resource: WWYS: Does Advocating for Religious Liberty Hurt Our Christian Witness? __________ Double the impact of your gift to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 13, 2024
Daniel Penny, Luigi Mangione, and the importance of worldviews in discerning right from wrong. A new study finds 1 in 4 young adults believes AI partners could replace real-life romance. And John and Maria discuss their favorite Advent traditions. Recommendations Joy of Every Longing Heart by Sara Groves The Advent of Christmas by Matt Maher Handel's Messiah The Promise by Michael Card Segment 1 - Defining Good and Evil CBS News: Daniel Penny speaks out after being found not guilty in NYC subway chokehold death Scott Jennings on X Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis Reuters: Luigi Mangione was charged with murder - then donations started pouring in Segment 2 - AI Relationships Artificial Intelligence And Relationships: 1 In 4 Young Adults Believe AI Partners Could Replace Real-Life Romance Sherry Turkle on impact of technology Sherry Turkle TED Talks Bioethics: A Primer for Christians by Gilbert Meilaender One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak __________ Double the impact of your gift to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/december . Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Dec 13, 2024
The last year revealed deep antisemitism. __________ Strengthen the Church to move the world in 2025 by giving today at colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 12, 2024
AI's anti-human rants, and why users should proceed with caution. Related Resource: Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence ___________ For more resoures on how to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Dec 11, 2024
Even medical marvels should be grounded in a proper understanding of human value. Related Resource WWYS - Does Technology Make Religion Obsolete? __________ Help us equip and strengthen the Church in 2025 by making your best gift at colsoncenter.org/December .
Dec 10, 2024
Studies show that family mealtimes are a key component to health and happiness. __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Dec 9, 2024
The natural world is so well designed, math can prove it. __________ Register for the upcoming Understanding our Identity: A Theology of the Body webinar featuring Dr. Christopher West, Founder and President of Theology of the Body Institute at colsoncenter.org/identity .
Dec 6, 2024
The Supreme Court heard attorneys debate a Tennessee law that prohibits puberty blockers and cross sex hormones for children. Notre Dame is reopening after being heavily damaged by a fire in 2019. And the UK House of Commons votes to legalize doctor assisted suicide. __________ Recommendations Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Understanding our Identity: A Theology of the Body webinar The Identity Project Segment 1 - Transgender Arguments at Supreme Court United States v. Skrmetti Breakpoint: Why We Need to Read the Cass Report on Gender Ideology Segment 2 - The Rebuilding of Notre Dame CNN: Notre Dame will soon reopen. Here's what you need to know Breakpoint: The Meaning of the Cathedral Colson Fellows Program Segment 3 - Euthanasia in the UK New York Times: British Lawmakers Voted to Legalize Assisted Dying Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org . Register for the upcoming free webinar Understanding our Identity: A Theology of the Body featuring Dr. Christopher West, Founder and President of Theology of the Body Institute at colsoncenter.org/identity .
Dec 6, 2024
Voting is a "good" Christians should do. __________ Help us equip and strengthen the Church in 2025 by making your best gift at colsoncenter.org/December .
Dec 5, 2024
Why Jesus taking on flesh matters. Don't miss the upcoming webinar, "Understanding Our Identity: A Theology of the Body" featuring theologian and author Christopher West. The webinar will take place on December 10 at 7PM. You can save your seat by signing up at colsoncenter.org/identity . __________ Strengthen the Church to move the world in 2025 by giving today at colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 4, 2024
Why it matters that the mind and soul are more than mere products of the brain. __________ Register for the upcoming Identity Project webinar featuring Dr. Christopher West at colsoncenter.org/identity .
Dec 3, 2024
The motley crew assembled at the nativity reminds us that Jesus came for everyone. ___________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at breakpoint.org .
Dec 2, 2024
Even atheists recognize it's better to live around Christians. __________ Help us equip and strengthen the Church in 2025 by making your best gift at colsoncenter.org/December .
Nov 29, 2024
The DEI fad is fading among corporations, two recent commercials for car companies display very divergent worldviews and allowing public school students to leave class for religious instruction is getting pushback in some states. Recommendations Recovery Ministries Try to Help Portland Get Clean : Maria Baer in Portland Attend Advent Lessons and Carols service Segment 1 - Companies Backtracking on DEI Walmart becomes latest — and biggest — company to roll back its DEI policies Walmart Abandons Trans Products For Kids, DEI Policies 1792 Exchange Breakpoint: Six Key Worldview Stories of 2024: The Shifting Ground of "Gender-Affirming Care" CNN panel blows up after commentator argues X is balanced platform: 'You cannot say that' Segment 2 - Worldviews in Car Commercials Volvo Commercial: Meet the new Volvo EX90 Jaguar Commercial: Copy Nothing Mass advertising campaigns on assisted dying spark anger among MPs The Good Life by Chuck Colson Segment 3 - Release Time in Public Schools LifeWise Academy Public school religious instruction release bill gets support, opposition in Ohio Senate committee WORLD Opinions: The myth of the "secular" classroom Prison Fellowship Clergy in the Classroom by David Noebel __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly . Double your gift to the Colson Center before December 31 at colsoncenter.org/november .
Nov 29, 2024
A way to pray and sing with deeper intention this Christmas. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit breakpoint.org .
Nov 28, 2024
A "special instrument sent of God." __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Nov 27, 2024
A roadmap to avoid political food fights around the holiday table. __________ Register for the upcoming Colson Center National Conference at colsonconfernce.org .
Nov 26, 2024
Ethics should also be a knowable truth. __________ Strengthen the Church to move the world in 2025 by giving today at colsoncenter.org/november .
Nov 25, 2024
The Christian knows about brokenness and the Healer. __________ Strengthen the Church to move the world in 2025 by giving today at colsoncenter.org/november .
Nov 22, 2024
The debate over whether men should be allowed in women's restrooms moves to Capitol Hill, but is corrupted by our confusion over marriage. RFK Jr. has sparked a national conversation about food, which is really a conversation about what it means to be human. Also, how Thanksgiving points us outward and upward in a culture that constantly directs us inward. Recommendations Bonhoeffer Abridged by: Eric Metaxas Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. Segment 1 - Capitol Hill Bathrooms CNN: Republican's effort to block first transgender House member from using women's bathrooms brings campaign issue to the Capitol Breakpoint : Six Key Worldview Stories of 2024: The Shifting Ground of "Gender-Affirming Care" Pascal's Pensées; or, Thoughts on religion Club Q shooting lawsuits claim owner negligence, officials ignored red flag law Segment 2 - The Politics of Food First Things : This is a Dangerous Moment for the U.S. Pro-life Movement The Rest is History podcast Good Energy by Dr. Casey Means Dr. Casey Means on Real Time with Bill Maher 2025 Colson Center National Conference Segment 3 - Thanksgiving Conversations Breakpoint: Make June Fidelity Month Overflowing with Thankfulness by Alistair Begg Chuck Colson on A Crisis of Ethics: Doing the Right Thing __________ Double your gift to the Colson Center before December 31 at colsoncenter.org/november . Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Nov 22, 2024
A massive body of research proves the danger and deception of transition interventions for gender dysphoria. __________ Every dollar given to the Colson Center by December 31 will be doubled thanks to a $350,000 challenge provided by generous supporters. Make your gift today at colsoncenter.org/November .
Nov 21, 2024
Tim Goeglein on finding a way out of the bad ideas of the 1960s. ___________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference before November 30th for special early pricing at colsonconference.org .
Nov 20, 2024
The poet of our day is wrong about women. __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner of the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Nov 19, 2024
The Creation and the uselessness of man. Related Resources What Would You Say? How to Talk About Climate Change - Part 1 What Would You Say? How to Talk About Climate Change - Part 2 __________ Give your best gift toward our $350k match now at colsoncenter.org/November .
Nov 18, 2024
Belief in Self unsettles the soul. ___________ Give your best gift toward our $350k match now at colsoncenter.org/November .
Nov 15, 2024
Some taboo topics among pundits on mainstream media are beginning to show signs of breaking down. The recent presidential campaign exposed a new reality; celebrities don't hold as much influence over voters as many thought. And a new trend is emerging in the family, would-be grandparents who aren't sure how to raise the topic with their adult children. Recommendations Where The Winter Was by Skye Peterson Machine Antihumanism and the Inversion of Family Law by Jeff Shafer Segment 1 - Spiral of Silence CNN guests clash after Trump's victory in heated debate over 'transphobia' CNN host Abby Phillip explains why Muslim victim of beeper 'joke' didn't return after commercial break The World and Everything in It: November 15, 2024 Victims of Communism Museum Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Why I Am Now a Christian Segment 2 - Celebritism in Politics WSJ: Inside Harris's and Trump's Campaign Spending Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses by Theodore Dalrymple Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman Segment 3 - Grandparents NYT: The Unspoken Grief of Never Becoming a Grandparent Ruth 4 Proverbs 17:6 __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org . Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Nov 15, 2024
Christians must know their purpose to steer a world dominated by AI. __________ Give your best gift towards our 350k match now at colsoncenter.org/November .
Nov 14, 2024
We should wrestle with the past, but ultimately our allegiance is with Christ our King. __________ Register for the 2025 ACSI Rooted Educator Worldview Summit at acsi.org/rooted . Use code ROOTED80 through December 31 for $80 off registration.
Nov 13, 2024
Are digital natives going to raise their children screen-free? __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center Nation Conference in Louisville, Kentucky at colsonconference.org .
Nov 12, 2024
Yes, with the right criteria of eternal truths. __________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices: What is the True Meaning of Love? with Dr. Os Guiness at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Nov 11, 2024
If cloning farm animals is illegal, should society clone children? __________ Register for the Colson Fellows Church Affiliate Informational Webinar on November 14 at colsoncenter.org/church .
Nov 8, 2024
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer break down the results of this week's election from the presidential race to state ballot initiatives. Recommendations Pray for our officials through the Psalms Hillsdale College and Liberty University Segment 1 - 2024 Election How to Live as Christians After the Election | John Stonestreet at Liberty University Colson Fellows Program WORLD : We're faced with a crisis by John Stonestreet Segment 2 - State Initiatives Live Action : Abortion on the ballot: Where voters protected preborn children, and where they didn't Breakpoint: Voting: Lesser of Two Evils vs. Lessening Evil First Things: The Way Forward After Dobbs by Ryan T. Anderson Segment 3 - Impact of the Election and More State Initiatives CNN : Antisemitic attacks on Israeli soccer fans bring shame on Amsterdam, mayor says NYT: Marijuana and Drug Policy on the Ballot California Approves Tough-on-Crime Initiative Anthony Bradley on X West Virginia voters approve constitutional ban on physician-assisted suicide __________ Reserve your spot for the next Lighthouse Voices event: A New Sexual Revolution with Os Guinness at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . Register for the Colson Fellows Church Affiliate Informational Webinar on November 14 at colsoncenter.org/church .
Nov 8, 2024
Our Savior was hung on a cross to rescue us ... do we need to complain? Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices: What is the True Meaning of Love? with Dr. Os Guiness at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner of the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Nov 7, 2024
Our culture is primed for a life-giving change that only Christianity offers. Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices: What is the True Meaning of Love? with Dr. Os Guinness at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . __________ Register for the Colson Fellows Church Affiliate Informational Webinar at colsoncenter.org/church .
Nov 6, 2024
How Christianity invented the conflict between church and state. __________ Register for the ACSI Rooted Conference at acsi.org/rooted . Use code ROOTED80 at checkout for $80 off registration through December 31.
Nov 5, 2024
Christian discipleship should offer the way forward. __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference: Be the Church at colsonconference.org .
Nov 4, 2024
When the left mixes religion with politics, liberal journalists call it "inspiring". __________ Register for Lighthouse Voices: What is the True Meaning of Love? with Os Guinness at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse.
Nov 1, 2024
John Stonestreet explains why Tuesday's election is being called "the most consequential election in our lifetime." A researcher is blocking the release of a study on puberty blockers because she doesn't like the findings. And we discovered this week another danger from artificial intelligence. Recommendations John Stonestreet at Liberty University on Nov. 6 Lighthouse Voices: A New Sexual Revolution with Os Guinness on Nov. 12 Redeeming Warriors by Joshua Holler Segment 1 - Tuesday's Election WORLD : We're faced with a crisis by John Stonestreet What Would You Say?: Is This the Most Important Election of Our Lifetime? Segment 2 - Buried Study on Puberty Blockers NYT : U.S. Study on Puberty Blockers Goes Unpublished Because of Politics, Doctor Says Breakpoint: Why We Need to Read the Cass Report on Gender Ideology Segment 3 - Grieving Mom Sues an AI Chat Bot Company USA Today: Mother sues tech company after 'Game of Thrones' AI chatbot allegedly drove son to suicide Pro-Child Politics by Katy Faust The Death of the Grown-Up by Diana West __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference: Be the Church at colsonconference.org . Reserve your spot for the next Lighthouse Voices event: A New Sexual Revolution with Os Guinness at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Nov 1, 2024
The addiction of gambling hits not just in dollars, but in human lives. __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Oct 31, 2024
Paul's instructions to think on truth, loveliness, and purity can guide us through the holiday. __________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices: What is the True Meaning of Love? featuring Dr. Os Guinness at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse.
Oct 30, 2024
Choice, faith, and parental sway are returning to the educational system. __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Oct 29, 2024
Wins in court say more about the nation's founding documents than about its appetite for religious tolerance. ___________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Oct 29, 2024
John Stonestreet spoke with Tim Goeglein, Vice President of External and Government Relations for Focus on the Family, to discuss the impact of the cultural worldview shifts of the 1960s in America. Additional Resources Focus on the Family Stumbling Toward Utopia: How the 1960s Turned Into a National Nightmare and How We Can Revive the American Dream
Oct 28, 2024
Pulling kids from public school might be necessary, but speaking up is too. Receive your copy of What Do I Say When...? by Andrew and Christian Walker and a year-long subscription to the Identity Project with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/october . __________ Register for the Colson Fellows Church Affiliate Informational Webinar at colsoncenter.org/church .
Oct 25, 2024
A new study is out showing where people find their spouse, and the change over time is fascinating. The Biden administration is doubling down on its all-out support for abortion with a plan to make contraceptives free. And churchgoers overwhelmingly want their pastors to talk about politics. Recommendations The Church Before the Watching World by Francis Shaeffer The Pioneers by David McCullough Segment 1 - Where to Find a Spouse How couples met (1930-2024) Breakpoint: The Decline of Dating Apps 2025 Colson Center National Conference: Be the Church Segment 2 - Biden Wants Free Over-the-Counter Birth Control Biden administration proposes a rule to make over-the-counter birth control free Segment 3 - Politics from the Pulpit Toxic Empathy by Allie Beth Stuckey The Church Before the Watching World by Francis Shaeffer Churchgoers Want to Hear Pastors Address Current Issues __________ Receive a copy of What Do I Say When...? by Andrew and Christian Walker and a year-long subscription to the Identity Project with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/october . Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference: Be the Church at colsonconference.org .
Oct 25, 2024
Support for religious liberty is in decline. What Would You Say? : Is Religious Freedom Just a Way to Protect Privilege? ____________ Support the ongoing production of the Breakpoint podcast by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Oct 24, 2024
In the few days before the election, Christians should speak truth about extreme ballot measures. __________ Register for the ACSI Rooted Conference by December 31 to save $80 with the promo code ROOTED80 at acsi.org/rooted .
Oct 23, 2024
If marijuana definitively destroys lives, should we be free to smoke? __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Oct 22, 2024
It turns out, love isn't a product. __________ Register for the Colson Fellows Church Affiliate Informational Webinar at colsoncenter.org/church .
Oct 21, 2024
The abortion colossus is now the leading provider of hormone treatments for teens. __________ Get your copy of What Do I Say When...? by Andrew and Christian Walker and a year-long subscription to the Identity Project with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/october .
Oct 18, 2024
If you're a parent, you know a time is coming when your child will ask uncomfortable questions about the culturally confused time in which we live. John and Sarah Stonestreet talk to Andrew and Christian Walker about what to say when those questions come your way. Resources and Recommendations Get your copy of What Do I Say When...? with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/october . Dr. Andrew Walker on WORLD AndrewTWalker.com __________ Register for the ACSI's Rooted Conference at acsi.org/rooted , using code ROOTED80 to save $80 before December 31.
Oct 18, 2024
"Third spaces" connect people. Go find them! __________ Register for ACSI's Rooted Educator Worldview Summit in Dallas at acsi.org/rooted and use code ROOTED80 to save $80 on your registration.
Oct 17, 2024
Epidemics demand explanation, and so does the rapid rise of gender confusion. _________ Reserve your spot for the Colson Fellows Program Church Affiliate Informational Webinar at colsoncenter.org/church .
Oct 16, 2024
...and spread the word. ___________ Get your tickets for the 2025 Colson National Conference at a discounted rate at colsonceonference.org .
Oct 15, 2024
Sexual purity requires a full story of how God designed and destined His image bearers. __________ Get your copy of What Do I Say When...? by Andrew and Christian Walker and a year-long subscription to the Identity Project with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/october .
Oct 14, 2024
We now have numbers for the push to transgender a generation. __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Oct 11, 2024
A second week of hurricanes has added fuel to conspiracy theories about the weather. Jack Phillips wins at the Colorado Supreme Court. And a new report shows just how many children have been harmed by gender confusion. Recommendations Case for Faith for Kids by Lee Strobel Cold Case Christianity for Kids by J. Warner Wallace and Susie Wallace October 2024 Lighthouse Voices with Joni Eareckson Tada Sign up for the next Lighthouse Voices with Dr. Os Guinness! Segment 1 - Climate Change Case for Faith for Kids by Lee Strobel The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul The Way of the (Modern) World by Craig Gay Evil and the Cross: An Analytical Look at the Problem of Pain by Henri Blocher October 2024 Lighthouse Voices with Joni Eareckson Tada Segment 2 - Jack Phillips ADF: Colorado Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit harassing cake artist Jack Phillips National Review: Jack Phillips Wins the 'Cake-Baking' Case . . . but Not on the Merits Masterpiece Cakeshop: Great Cakes Since 1993 The World and Everything in It: October 10, 2024 Holy Post: Religious Liberty is NOT in Danger Segment 3 - Children Harmed by Trans Ideology Stop the Harm Database Breakpoint Forum: The Real Facts About Gender Ideology with Dr. Miriam Grossman and Dr. Stephen Grcevich Breakpoint Forum: Following the Science on Transgender Ideology 2002 Study: Outcomes Following Gender Affirming Phalloplasty __________ Reserve your place in the Colson Fellows Church Affiliate Informational Webinar at colsoncenter.org/church . Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference: Be the Church at colsonconference.org .
Oct 11, 2024
More victories in the fight for truth about gender. Related Resources Breakpoint Forum: Following the Science on Transgender Ideology WWYS - Most People DON'T Agree with Trans Ideology __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Oct 10, 2024
Why Christians need to be the smartest about news. __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint with a monthly partnership at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Oct 9, 2024
Broadcasting with a trumpet and the Good News, missionary brought evangelism to Taiwan. __________ Give today at colsoncenter.org/october to receive your copy of What Do I Say When...? by Andrew and Christian Walker and a year-long subscription to the Identity Project .
Oct 8, 2024
Title IX case decides that students attending religious schools can seek federal financial aid. __________ To become a monthly partner of The Colson Center, visit colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Oct 7, 2024
A critical look at the mood of the West after the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. __________ Reserve your spot for the Colson Fellows Church Affiliate program webinar at colsoncenter.org/church .
Oct 4, 2024
Hurricane Helene and the devastating damage in the Carolinas and other parts of the southeast. Also, this week marks the anniversaries of the Hamas attack on Israel and the signing of the Manhattan Declaration. And what the cloning of a giant sheep for hunting has to do with the world's shrinking population. Recommendations The Editors Podcast Douglas Murray: A Time of War on Honestly Segment 1 - Helene Disaster The World and Everything in It: October 4, 2024 Asheville Christian Academy: Help us Recover from Helene Excel College Helene Disaster Relief Segment 2 - Two Anniversaries Breakpoint This Week: Suicide Pods, Israel's Beeper Attack on Hezbollah, and Sex Selective IVF Breakpoint: Just War Doctrine, Israel, and Hamas Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience Segment 3 - Giant Hybrid Sheep US Man, 81, sentenced to six months for creating giant hybrid sheep for hunting Latest birth rate data __________ Give today at colsoncenter.org/october to receive your copy of What Do I Say When...? by Andrew and Christian Walker and a year-long subscription to the Identity Project . Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner of the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/monthly .
Oct 4, 2024
The exodus from blue to red states shows parents care about more than free lunches and healthcare. What Would You Say? - Do Children's Rights Override Parental Rights? __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org .
Oct 3, 2024
89-year-old death camp survivor faces prison time under DOJ's criminalization of pro-life advocates. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Breakpoint.org .
Oct 2, 2024
Confidence in the Lord should give Christians the right balance of political engagement. What Would You Say? - Churches Shouldn't Get Involved with Political Issues Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? __________ Become a monthly partner for Breakpoint at colsoncenter.org/monthly.
Oct 1, 2024
No law denies care to women, so why the deception post-Roe? __________ Get your copy of What Do I Say When...? by Andrew and Christian Walker and a year-long subscription to the Identity Project with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/october .
Sep 30, 2024
A prayer from Dr. Glenn Sunshine. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Breakpoint.org .
Sep 27, 2024
The first person ever to die using the so-called suicide pod happened this month in Switzerland. Will it start a new trend in assisted suicide? Israel's ingenious exploding beepers targeting Hezbollah leaders is raising questions about what should be allowed in warfare. And a new and unusual trend is coming to IVF, preferring girls over boys. __________ Recommendations Keeping (or Making) Catholic Education Great Again by George Weigel More Christians Are Watching Porn, But Fewer Think It's a Problem by Maria Baer Segment 1 - Suicide Pods Swiss police detain several people in connection with suspected death in a 'suicide capsule' Breakpoint : West Virginians Can Outlaw Euthanasia This November Segment 2 - Israel's Beeper attack Israel concealed explosives inside batteries of pagers sold to Hezbollah, Lebanese officials say Colson Fellows Program Segment 3 - Sex Selective IVF Breakpoint: The IVF Gendercide The Parents Who Want Daughters- and Daughters Only: Sex selection with IVF is banned in much of the world. Not in the U.S. __________ Give today at colsoncenter.org/september to receive your copy of After Humanity by Michael Ward or Strange New World by Carl Trueman, along with exclusive accompanying digital content. Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference May 30 - June 1 in Louisville, Kentucky at colsonconference.org .
Sep 27, 2024
The call to remember our Christian heritage. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Sep 26, 2024
How Scripture speaks of what makes a family. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Sep 25, 2024
Suffering in Christ is different. Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices featuring Joni Eareckson Tada at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse. Related Resource WWYS - A Good God Wouldn't Allow the Coronavirus __________ Give today at colsoncenter.org/september to receive your copy of After Humanity by Michael Ward or Strange New World by Carl Trueman, along with exclusive accompanying digital content.
Sep 24, 2024
Amendment 1 focuses on medically assisted suicide. Related Resources WWYS - Assisted Suicide is Compassionate __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference May 30 - June 1 in Louisville, KY at colsonconference.org .
Sep 23, 2024
Two bills should help parents with teens and their screens. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Sep 20, 2024
Matt Walsh's new film "Am I A Racist" has sparked a controversy about if and when it is ok to deceive. Mainstream media outlets continue to use a tragic death in Georgia to claim pro-life laws are causing women to die. John and Maria discuss why this story is actually about the harms of chemical abortion. And the Emmys send us back to the 90's and a debate between a sitting Vice President and tv actress. Recommendations Stay tuned for the latest Breakpoint Forum recordings. Pro-Child Politics: Why Every Cultural, Economic, and National Issue Is a Matter of Justice for Children by Katy Faust Segment 1 - Is Deception Ever Ok? Am I Racist? movie What Is a Woman? movie Breakpoint: David Daleiden's Courage, Planned Parenthood's Deceit Segment 2 - Are Pro Life Laws Hurting Women? Media Mislead on Tragic Death of Amber Thurman What Would You Say? website Breakpoint : New York AG Wrong About Abortion Pill Reversal Segment 3 - Murphy Brown Returns Candice Bergen Calls Out JD Vance at the Emmys Brookings: Twenty Years Later, It Turns Out Dan Quayle Was Right About Murphy Brown and Unmarried Moms TIME: Is There Hope for the American Marriage? Do Fathers Matter? by Paul Raeburn John Stonestreet on Culture Friday: Family as the foundation __________ Give today at colsoncenter.org/september to receive your copy of After Humanity by Michael Ward or Strange New World by Carl Trueman, along with exclusive accompanying digital content. Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference May 30 - June 1 in Louisville, Kentucky at colsonconference.org .
Sep 20, 2024
The growing U.S. trend to select girls over boys. __________ Receive one of two of our most popular resources over the last few years: After Humanity by Michael Ward or Strange New World by Carl Trueman with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/september .
Sep 19, 2024
What's in a name? __________ Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference May 30- June 1 in Louisville, KY at colsonconference.org .
Sep 18, 2024
Abortion is front and center this election, and Christians should be the truth-tellers. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Sep 17, 2024
Should there be more get-togethers for parents with no one watching the kids? __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment go to Breakpoint.org .
Sep 16, 2024
When the Church shows up to say, "I'm here with you." __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum at colsoncenter.org/forum .
Sep 13, 2024
John Stonestreet and Maria Bear discuss the memorial services for 9/11 and how younger generations make light of historical tragedies. Also, an evaluation of the recent reports from Aurora, CO and Springfield, OH, and the implications of large-scale immigration in a weakening culture. Finally, they correct the falsehoods about abortion stated by both candidates during this week's Presidential debate. Recommendations The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff Lighthouse Voices featuring Samuel James Everyone is Numbing Out by Catherine Shannon Segment 1 - Remembering 9/11 How 9/11 Became One of the Internet's Most Popular Memes Shows about Nothing: Nihilism in Popular Culture by Thomas S. Hibbs Everyone is Numbing Out by Catherine Shannon Segment 2 - The Impact of Immigration Concepts of a Plan - Nellie Bowles on The Free Press Springfield, Ohio, resident details 'dystopian nightmare' as Haitian migrants overrun town: 'Breaks my heart' Reports of Missing Pets True or Not, Ohio City Suffers From Huge Haitian Migrant Influx My Village Ministries Segment 3 - Abortion Distortions from the Presidential Debate Tim Walz Removed Requirement to Try to Save Babies Born Alive After Abortion Live Action: Why would a state with dozens of abortion survivors in recent years stop reporting them? Live Action: Fact checker fails to tell the truth on abortion survivors and infanticide Virginia governor faces backlash over comments supporting late-term abortion bill Hidden Epidemic: Nearly 70% of Abortions Are Coerced, Unwanted or Inconsistent With Women's Preferences Segment 4 - Christian Kids in Public School Christianity Today: Public School Can be a Training Ground for Faith LifeWise Academy Michigan school district treats girl as boy behind parents' backs Gateways to Better Education ADF Legal First Liberty __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Following the Science on Transgender Ideology at colsoncenter.org/forum . Give today at colsoncenter.org/september to receive your copy of After Humanity by Michael Ward or Strange New World by Carl Trueman, along with exclusive accompanying digital content.
Sep 13, 2024
The ideology is an insatiable and merciless "religion" without a savior. Related Resource What Would You Say? - Is America a Racist Country? __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 12, 2024
Anymore, it's not as much about convincing abortion advocates to switch sides, but getting pro-lifers to speak up. Related Resource What Would You Say? : When Does Life Begin? ___________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Following the Science on Transgender Ideology at colsoncenter.org/forum .
Sep 11, 2024
The Widening of God's Mercy describes a different God. Related Resource WWYS - God Didn't Punish Sodom and Gomorrah for Homosexuality __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 10, 2024
Reason one million why America needs Christian educators. __________ Claim your copy of After Humanity by Michael Ward or Strange New World by Carl Trueman, along with exclusive accompanying digital content for each, with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/september .
Sep 9, 2024
Deconstructing everything leads to false history. __________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices featuring Samuel James, author of Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Sep 6, 2024
A well-respected theologian has a new book on God's mercy that has many questioning his conclusions. Is free speech in jeopardy, not just overseas but here in America? John and Maria will look at the latest developments on our constitutional rights. Recommendations Our Bodies Tell God's Story by Christopher West Event in Cleveland, OH: United Voices Against Antisemitism Segment 1 - Richard Hays on God's Mercy These were the 6 Israeli hostages taken by Hamas found dead in Gaza on Sunday The latest on the Georgia high school shooting The Widening of God's Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story by Christopher and Richard Hays Same-Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God's Design for Marriage by Sean McDowell and John Stonestreet Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context by David Gushee and Glen Stassen Breakpoint: 45 Years of Theology of the Body Segment 2 - Is Free Speech in Danger? Telegram's Founder, in First Comments Since Arrest, Defends the App Why Brazil's Supreme Court Took On Elon Musk Nicaragua Shutters 1,500 Nonprofit Groups, Many of Them Churches NYT Opinion: The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed Silence by Shūsaku Endō Segment 3 - State Abortion Initiatives Trump comes out against Florida's abortion rights ballot measure after conservative backlash Trump says he wants to make IVF treatments paid for by government or insurance companies if elected Breakpoint : IVF and Infertility: Good Ends Do Not Justify All Means Life Training Institute and Apologetics, Inc. Video resources on Florida's Amendment 4 abortion proposal Strong Women podcast Segment 4 - Churchill was not the villain of WWII Tucker Carlson interview with Darryl Cooper __________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices featuring Samuel D. Jones, author of Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Following the Science on Transgender Ideology at colsoncenter.org/forum .
Sep 6, 2024
What's in a name? Related Resources WWYS - Do I Really Need to Go to Church? __________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices featuring Samuel D. Jones, author of Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Sep 5, 2024
Pope John Paul II on what the body is for. Related Resources WWYS - What Does the Bible Say About Sex? __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 4, 2024
Do we belong here, and in such high numbers? Related Resources WWYS - Save the Planet. Dont Have Kids. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 3, 2024
Digital technology has changed the world, and that's good for spreading the Gospel. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Sep 2, 2024
The marketplace is fertile soil for Christians to excel for the Kingdom. Related Resouce BONUS Breakpoint: Christian Hope in Economic Uncertainty with David Bahnsen __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Aug 30, 2024
Laws affecting abortion are changing both in good and bad ways. And we'll talk about the shocking details looking into violence against women around the world. Recommendations Tom Lake by Anne Patchett Upcoming Lighthouse Voices with Samuel D. James Segment 1 - Where Are We on Abortion? BBC : Abortion clinic payout woman shocked at prayer arrest 7 activists convicted of FACE Act violations by blockading Michigan abortion clinic Trump says he opposes six-week abortion ban adopted by his home state of Florida Segment 2 - Violence Against Women WORLD : Open Doors discusses religious persecution with UN Taliban vice and virtue laws provide 'distressing vision' for Afghanistan, warns UN envoy Open Doors: World Watch List 2024 Breakpoint: The Case Against the Sexual Revolution Segment 3 - Loss of Institutional Trust for Information Mark Zuckerberg Says White House Was 'Wrong' to Pressure Facebook on Covid __________ Get access to recordings from the 2024 Colson Center National Conference with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/august . Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices featuring Samuel D. Jones, author of Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Aug 30, 2024
The pain of infertility does not justify procreation by all means necessary. Related Resouce What Would You Say?: Are Reproductive Technologies a Good Way for People to Have Babies? What Would You Say?: Is IVF Ethical? __________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices featuring Samuel D Jones, author of Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Aug 29, 2024
"The Talk" just doesn't cut it anymore. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Aug 28, 2024
From disbeliever to the most important Church influencer. __________ Get digital access to the 2024 Colson Center National Conference with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 27, 2024
Don't believe your lying eyes. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Aug 26, 2024
From "safe, legal, and rare" to openly celebrating evil. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Aug 23, 2024
One author has poignantly written "we're not in an age of change, but a change of age." John and Maria discuss that idea as it relates to culture, the church, and ideology in general. Recommendations Add to the Beauty by Sara Groves The Confessions of Saint Augustine Segment 1 - Shifts in Culture A Change of Age A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today's World by John Stonestreet and Brett Kunkle A Free People's Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future by Os Guinness Segment 2 - Shifts in the Church The Strong Women podcast The World and Everything in It podcast Segment 3 - Shifts in Ideology __________ Get access to recordings from the 2024 Colson Center National Conference with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/august . Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices featuring Samuel D. Jones, author of Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Aug 23, 2024
Christ reminds us to not be alarmed, but to stay steadfast in Him. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Aug 22, 2024
A talk from Dr. Kathy Koch __________ Get digital access to the 2024 Colson Center National Conference with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 21, 2024
We weren't made to live in a marriage-arid society. __________ Get digital access to the 2024 Colson Center National Conference with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 20, 2024
It's all a show in the city of man. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Aug 19, 2024
Wagering on God without hesitation. ___________ Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices featuring Samuel D Jones, author of Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Aug 17, 2024
Access to abortion does free men, but not in a good way. Related Resources What Would You Say?: Make the Pro-Life Case in 60 Seconds __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org .
Aug 16, 2024
John and Maria look back at last week's Breakpoint Forum on Christians and voting. Unrest is increasing in the UK over immigration. And many of America's corporations are rethinking their commitment to DEI. Recommendations Hank the Cowdog PASCAL'S PENSÉES Segment 1 - Should Christians Vote? Find recordings of previous Breakpoint Forums on The Colson Center YouTube page . Breakpoint: Pete Buttigieg Says It Out Loud Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience Segment 2 - Unrest in the UK BBC: Why are there riots in the UK? JOSHUA TREVIÑO on Substack Breakpoint: Why Wokeness is a Christian Heresy Segment 3 - Corporations Are Backing Off of DEI Breakpoint: Corporations Are Backing Off of DEI Robby Starbuck on X __________ Get access to recordings from the 2024 Colson Center National Conference with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/august . Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices featuring Samuel D. Jones, author of Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Aug 15, 2024
Regulations refusing Christian care in the foster and adoption systems are a bad idea. __________ Support the Colson Center to get your on-demand access to this year's national conference library at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 14, 2024
Children belong to God, entrusted to parents. __________ Reserve your spot for the Lighthouse Voices event with Samuel James at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse .
Aug 14, 2024
John Stonestreet spoke with David Bahnsen of the Bahnsen Group to discuss the importance of having Christian hope in times of economic instability. Additional Resources What's behind the big stock market plunge? by David Bahnsen Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen Breakpoint This Week: A Volatile Stock Market Leads to Fears and the Democrats Pick Their Candidate for Vice President
Aug 13, 2024
The landscape of unbelief in America. __________ Claim your free access to the video series Why Vote? at colsoncenter.org/whyvote .
Aug 12, 2024
Tolkien is more than a right-wing prophet. __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? on August 13 at 7PM ET at breakpoint.org/forum .
Aug 9, 2024
A lot of panic made its way through the news on Monday as the stock market fell by a thousand points. And John and Maria look at the record of Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Walz. Recommendations Pro-Child Politics by Katy Faust Stay tuned for next week's bonus podcast featuring David Bahnsen! Segment 1 - Stock Market Downturn What's behind the big stock market plunge? by David Bahnsen Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen Segment 2 - VP Candidate Tim Walz Breakpoint: The GOP Caves on Life and Marriage Them Before Us with Katy Faust Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman Breakpoint : Voting: Lesser of Two Evils vs. Lessening Evil __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? on August 13 at 7PM ET at breakpoint.org/forum . Get access to the free video series Why Vote? at colosoncenter.org/whyvote .
Aug 9, 2024
Businesses are backtracking on DEI, and consumers are to thank. Related Resources What Would You Say? Should We Try to Erase Economic Inequality? __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit breakpoint.org .
Aug 8, 2024
Excessive mental health therapy may do more harm than good. __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? at Breakpoint.org/forum .
Aug 7, 2024
How should Christians think about their vote? Related Resources What Would You Say: How Do I Vote When I Don't Like either Candidate? __________ Claim your access to the video series Why Vote? with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/whyvote .
Aug 6, 2024
The person and work of Jesus is still Good News, even in era like ours. __________ Get digital acces to the 2024 Colson Center National Conference with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/august .
Aug 5, 2024
Non-believing influencers are sounding a lot like believers. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Aug 2, 2024
Some have called the opening ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics decadent, offensive, and even satanic. And in the games, themselves, more controversy as a boxer with xy chromosomes takes out a female boxer in less than a minute. Recommendations Jonathan Pageau on Symbolism Explained: The Olympics Opening Ceremony is Worse than You Thought Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran Village Creek Bible Camp Segment 1 - Paris Opening Ceremonies Turkish Olympic pistol shooter goes viral after nonchalant composure leads to silver medal Breakpoint: The Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony Beijing 2008: The sound of 2008 people drumming to the same beat Jonathan Pageau on Symbolism Explained: The Olympics Opening Ceremony is Worse than You Thought New York Times: The Age of Decadence Segment 2 - How Christians Should Respond to Mocking and Olympic Boxing Controversy Acts 17 John Stott Commentary on Acts Wall Street Journal: The Olympic Boxing Match That Ignited a Gender Controversy __________ Get digital access to CCNC 2024 with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/august . Get access to the free video series Why Vote? at colosoncenter.org/whyvote .
Aug 2, 2024
Christians must tell the truth, no matter the party. Related Resources What Would You Say? : Churches Shouldn't Get Involved with Political Issues __________ Claim your free access to the Why Vote? video series at colsoncenter.org/whyvote .
Aug 1, 2024
No number of laws will mitigate a lack of virtuous living. Additional Resources: Colson Educators "Hope Always" Course __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? at breakpoint.org/forum .
Jul 31, 2024
States are helping families limit smartphones for kids. Related Resources What Would You Say?: Identitfying Misinformation __________ Claim your free access to the Why Vote? video series at colsoncenter.org/whyvote .
Jul 30, 2024
A truncated history of France gives a warped view of freedom. __________ Get access to virtual sessions from the 2024 Colson Center National Conference with your gift to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/august .
Jul 29, 2024
Christians don't worship Zeus. __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? at breakpoint.org/forum .
Jul 26, 2024
Violent protests against Israel descended on the nation's capital as Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress. Party leaders move their support to Vice President Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential campaign. And chaos results after a CrowdStrike software upgrade goes wrong. Recommendations The Colson Center on YouTube Morning After the Revolution by Nellie Bowles Segment 1 - The Attempted Assassination of Former President Trump TIME: Pro-Palestinian Protesters Burn American Flags and Deface Monuments Amid Clashes With Police in D.C. FOX: Maggots, crickets released in Watergate Hotel in protest of Netanyahu's visit Segment 2 - Candidate Kamala Harris Breakpoint : David Daleiden's Courage, Planned Parenthood's Deceit First Things: Is the Republican Party Becoming Pro-Choice? Breakpoint: Preach Christianity's Weird Stuff Segment 3 - Crowdstrike's Fiasco WSJ : CrowdStrike Explains What Went Wrong Days After Global Tech Outage WORLD : System failure __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? at breakpoint.org/forum . Get access to the free video series Why Vote? at colosoncenter.org/whyvote .
Jul 26, 2024
The Chariots of Fire runner's faith and its impact on today's Olympians. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org .
Jul 26, 2024
Obsession with social media fame is not the typical 'rite of passage' we've seen throughout history.
Jul 25, 2024
Student protests and trusting the "cult of youth." __________ Get access to CCNC 2024 online with your gift to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/august .
Jul 24, 2024
Does this matter without an understanding of what sex is for and where it belongs? Related resouces WWYS: Is Pornography Victimless? __________ To register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? , visit breakpoint.org/forum .
Jul 24, 2024
Political solutions aren't always the answer to societal problems.
Jul 23, 2024
A stunning turn from Truth. __________ Register for the upcoming Great Lakes Symposium at greatlakessymposium.org .
Jul 22, 2024
Three cases that will be consequential for years to come. __________ Claim your free access to the Why Vote? video series at colsoncenter.org/whyvote .
Jul 22, 2024
Reproductive technology that separates father from child has consequences.
Jul 19, 2024
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump raises questions about the providence of God. And at the Republican convention this week, party leaders appeared to be putting as much distance between themselves and evangelicals as possible. Recommendations Crossroads: God, Providence and the Trump bullet Is the Republican Party Becoming Pro-choice? The Briefing Special Edition The Colson Fellows Program Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi Segment 1 - The Attempted Assassination of Former President Trump Breakpoint: The Attempted Assassination of a President The Briefing Special Edition: God's Sovereignty, Moral Evil, and the Attempted Assassination of Former President Trump: The Theological, Historical, and Political Issues Acts 17 Segment 2 - The Republican National Convention and Evangelicals First Things: The Republican Party Sidelines the Pro-life Cause California bans rules requiring schools to notify parents of child's pronoun change Ryan Anderson on Breakpoint : A "You Are Here" Moment for the Pro-Life Movement __________ Get access to the free video series Why Vote? at colosoncenter.org/whyvote . Claim your access to the Colson Center National Conference 2024 with your gift to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/august .
Jul 19, 2024
Westernization without Christianity doesn't work. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Jul 18, 2024
Lessons from Nero and the Great Fire of Rome. ___________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org .
Jul 18, 2024
Who is the God Americans claim, and what does this say about society? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 17, 2024
How new language is obscuring the debate about life. Related Resources Breakpoint Forum: Understanding Critical Theory What Would You Say? : Is Critical Theory Biblical? __________ Register for the upcoming Great Lakes Sympsium at greatlakessymposium.org .
Jul 17, 2024
The Christian God is the best explanation for the world we experience.
Jul 16, 2024
The roles of divine providence and the human condition. __________ Get free access to the Why Vote video series at colsoncenter.org/whyvote .
Jul 16, 2024
Christians should safeguard the truth of what makes women valuable.
Jul 15, 2024
Women are leaning left and bucking mediating institutions. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment go to Breakpoint.org .
Jul 12, 2024
The GOP's new platform takes a noticeable turn on abortion. Public educators are growing increasingly comfortable discussing therapy with students. And two states are looking to increase the visibility of the Ten Commandments in public schools. Recommendations The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky What Would You Say? : What is Abortion Pill Reversal, and is it Safe? Segment 1 - Shift in GOP Platform Trump says abortion legislation should be left to states Breakpoint: A "You Are Here" Moment for the Pro-Life Movement with Ryan Anderson Breakpoint: The War on Pregnancy Resource Centers The Point: New York AG Wrong About Abortion Pill Reversal Segment 2 - Therapy in Public Schools Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier The Point : Liam's Dangerous T-Shirt Parable Of The Madman Shane Morris on X Breakpoint: Why "Identity in Christ" Isn't Enough Big Picture Bible Segment 3 - Ten Commandments in Public Schools New law requires all Louisiana public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments Oklahoma state superintendent announces all schools must incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments in curriculums Gateways to Better Education LifeWise Academy The Point : The Ten Commandments Provide a Moral Code __________ Register for The Great Lakes Symposium to attend in person or online at greatlakessymposium.org . Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? at breakpoint.org/forum .
Jul 12, 2024
Senate committee proposal will require the registration of women 18 and older for military service. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org .
Jul 11, 2024
As the RNC changes its stance on abortion, defenders of life must engage the small battles to win the war. __________ Register for the Great Lakes Symposium at greatlakessymposium.org .
Jul 10, 2024
What faithfulness to Christ under a totalitarian government can do. __________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Jul 10, 2024
Activists are working hard to convince that abortion makes everyone safer, including babies.
Jul 9, 2024
Emily Colson looks back on her father's public fall from glory and redemption in Christ. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment go to Breakpoint.org .
Jul 8, 2024
The lifelong power of lasting connections. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment go to Breakpoint.org .
Jul 5, 2024
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss celebrating America's independence in a time of political uncertainty and the decline of companies celebrating pride month. Also, what does it mean to be a "Christian nation"? Recommendations Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier Great Lakes Symposium: Truth and its Counterfeits Segment 1 - What does it mean to be proud to be an American? Read the full Supreme Court decision on Trump and presidential immunity Segment 2 - The Fall of Pride Month Breakpoint: Support Drops for Same-Sex 'Marriage' Tractor Supply Co. backtracks on DEI roles and goals Breakpoint: Is It the End of the Line for Mainlines? First Things: The Fall of Pride First Things: Pride Month Segment 3 - What is a Christian Nation? New law requires all Louisiana public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments Oklahoma state superintendent announces all schools must incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments in curriculums __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint at breakpoint.org/give . Register for The Great Lakes Symposium to attend in person or online at greatlakessymposium.org .
Jul 5, 2024
The world offers detachment and indulgence; Christ offers forgiveness and freedom. __________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Jul 5, 2024
The irony of lawsuits filed against a Louisiana bill.
Jul 4, 2024
Turning to God and His eternal truths will heal our nation. __________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Jul 3, 2024
The reliability of the Word of God is continuously confirmed with tangible, touchable discoveries. __________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Jul 3, 2024
The decision will have implications across the U.S. on the legality of "transition care" for minors.
Jul 2, 2024
It may be easier to just bake the cake, but Christians have a higher calling. ___________ Reserve your place at the Great Lakes Symposium at greatlakessymposium.org .
Jul 2, 2024
Men and women in lifelong marriage are happiest.
Jul 1, 2024
How do we answer this cultural moment? Related resources: How to Have a Conversation: Difficult Circumstances __________ Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org .
Jun 28, 2024
The presidential debate left more questions than answers. John and Maria discuss the implications. Proponents of using chemicals and surgery on gender-confused kids are changing their terminology. And we look at how different denominations are handling the question of women in the pulpit. Recommendations Maria Baer on Substack Great Lakes Symposium (join in person or online!) Segment 1 - Presidential Debate Watch the first 2024 presidential debate between Biden and Trump Breakpoint: Trump Announces His Position on Life Post- Roe Breakpoint : The War on Pregnancy Resource Centers The Good Life by Chuck Colson Segment 2 - The Language of Transgender Politics The gaslighting has begun by Maria Baer on WORLD Segment 3 - Women's Ordination __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows program and apply for the upcoming class at colsonfellows.org . Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint at colsoncenter.org/june . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 28, 2024
As the West loses touch with its Creator, by what authority do we agree on inalienable rights? Related Resources: Do Children's Rights Override Parental Rights? _______ To apply for the Colson Fellows program, visit colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 28, 2024
Trans-identifying swimmer Lia Thomas is barred from the 2024 Olympics. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 27, 2024
What about the training and formation of teachers? Related resources: https://youtu.be/3kvutPrwYCo?si=7S06hBtyKrdNkt8A __________ Apply for the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org/apply . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 27, 2024
Employee religious conviction rights a new battleground as more drugstore chains offer the abortion pill. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 26, 2024
Are Americans dropping their rainbow zeal because of a zealot takeover? __________ To apply for the Colson Fellows program, visit colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 26, 2024
The federal government pushes harder on gender transition interventions as other nations pull back. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 25, 2024
Ramped up legislation throughout the U.S. seeks to attack pro-life care. __________ To make a gift to the Colson Center, visit colsoncenter.org/june . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 25, 2024
A professional call to halt "gender affirming care" in the U.S. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 24, 2024
Christianity is to be lived courageously outward facing for this time and place. __________ Apply for the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org/apply .
Jun 24, 2024
May the Lord of peace be with our troops always. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 21, 2024
The harassment of cake artist Jack Phillips continues as he finds himself back in court. The Surgeon General is recommending social media sites post a health hazard warning. And once again the church is forced to deal with questions of a failed leader and what restoration looks like. Recommendations Colson Fellows Program Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado Segment 1 - Jack is Back in Court Why Jack Still Won't Bake the Cake Justice for Jack with ADF 303 Creative v. Elenis Breakpoint: The Courage to Change One's Mind Segment 2 - Social Media Warning Surgeon General Calls for Warning Labels on Social Media Platforms Segment 3 - Another Celebrity Pastor Falls Texas megachurch pastor resigns amid allegations he sexually abused a minor __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows program and apply for the upcoming class at colsonfellows.org . Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint at colsoncenter.org/june . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 21, 2024
The famous artist revealed his hope in Christ in his many sonnets. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 21, 2024
Former politician and activist converts from atheist to Christian. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 20, 2024
Restoring our impersonal bodies to God's original intention. __________ Register for the upcoming Great Lakes Symposium at greatlakessymposium.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 20, 2024
Dads in prison need their kids. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 19, 2024
New resolution formally opposes the use of IVF in defense of embryonic life. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 19, 2024
Another blow to women for the sake of gender ideology. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 18, 2024
Understanding the embryo is crucial in an age of unfettered reproductive technology. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 18, 2024
A hopeful court case for those mentally and physically harmed by progressive treatment plans. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 17, 2024
Stats show fathers play the most critical role in the health of families and society. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org .
Jun 17, 2024
A worthwhile challenge to dads. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 14, 2024
The Supreme Court allows a lower court ruling to stand, keeping the abortion pill accessible despite health risks. And John and Maria talk about the conflicting worldviews of Christianity and Islam. Recommendations Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Support Israel? Support Jack Phillips on June 18 Segment 1 - FDA Wins at Supreme Court Supreme Court rules in abortion medication case, finds group lacked standing to challenge FDA approval What Would You Say? : What is Abortion Pill Reversal, and is it Safe? American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists NYT Matter of Opinion Podcast: The 'Disdain' of Justice Alito and the Supreme Court Care Net Heartbeat International Breakpoint : Supreme Court Dismisses Case About Chemical Abortion Drug Access Segment 2 - Worldviews in Conflict (Islam and Christianity) Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Support Israel? The Subversion of the West Breakpoint: Is It the End of the Line for Mainlines? A Wind in the House of Islam: How God Is Drawing Muslims Around the World to Faith in Jesus Christ by David Garrison __________ Register for the Great Lakes Symposium at greatlakessymposium.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 14, 2024
Pharmacy chains to start selling the chemical abortion pill mifepristone in several states this month. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 14, 2024
Colorado baker who already won a Supreme Court case for his religious rights is being sued again. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 13, 2024
Choosing culture over Christ, Mainline Protestantism is in its last days. __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 13, 2024
The need for a mom and dad is baked into our human condition. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 12, 2024
How we give reflects the heart of God and His Son. __________ To make a gift to the Colson Center, visit colsoncenter.org/june . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 12, 2024
The beauty of music reflects the One who made us. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 11, 2024
Remembering essential allegiances this month instead of depraved ones. __________ To learn more about Fidelity Month, visit fidelitymonth.com . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 11, 2024
Trends show less waffling, more commitment to faith. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 10, 2024
Counter to a self-first culture, Christians must hold fast to creational realities found in Holy Scripture. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 10, 2024
Adventures in Odyssey has pointed kids outward and upward for decades. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 7, 2024
A group of high school students were asked "what are the 8 biggest lies about sex?" John Stonestreet and Sean McDowell provide answers and context to their list. Resources Same-Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God's Design for Marriage by John Stonestreet and Sean McDowell The Identity Project Sean McDowell on YouTube Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization by Brad Wilcox Breakpoint : Seven Big Lies About Sex Breakpoint: Tom Holland on What Christianity Gave the World Breakpoint: The Case Against the Sexual Revolution __________ Apply for the upcoming class of the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org . Register for the 2024 Great Lakes Symposium featuring Alisa Childers and Ryan Bomberger at greatlakessymposim.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 7, 2024
Science Can and Does Point to God ___________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 7, 2024
Trending term "kinkeeping" is nothing new to women being women. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 6, 2024
God placed us in this cultural moment. Let's be equipped. __________ Support the ongoing production Breakpoint at colsoncenter.org/give . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 6, 2024
AI avatars will leave us lonely in relationships. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 5, 2024
Gay couple sues NY for infertility eligibility; ignores the role of women (mothers) needed to create life. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 5, 2024
Incentive won't satisfy the deep cultural shift on views of marriage. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 4, 2024
A discussion between John Stonestreet and Sean McDowell. _______ Learn more about the Identity Project at identityproject.tv . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 4, 2024
Another state recognizes the dangers of abortion pills. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 3, 2024
How Just War can help us think through the conflict in Gaza. __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Support Israel? at breakpoint.org/forum . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 3, 2024
The war on freedom in the world's largest democracy. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 31, 2024
Two young missionaries were killed in Haiti last week. John and Maria talk about the courage needed to be a witness for Christ around the world. And the ongoing debate on how and should the church platform celebrities who convert to Christianity. Recommendations Disciple Nations Podcast DISCIPLING NATIONS: The Power of Truth to Transform Cultures By Darrow L. Miller Music of Bethany Barnard Segment 1 - Missionaries Killed in Haiti Bodies of missionaries killed by gang returned from Haiti Segment 2 - Celebrity Conversions Russell Brand on his recent conversion to Christianity Breakpoint: Mommas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up (and certainly don't force them) to Be Pop Stars __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by giving at colsoncenter.org/may . Download your copy of The Christian Mind at colsoncenter.org/book . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 31, 2024
Remembering a simple confession of faith in a dangerous time to be faithful. __________ Support the next year of Breakpoint production by giving at colsoncenter.org/may . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 31, 2024
It's not always about the patriarchy for strong women in history. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 30, 2024
Scientists are starting to speak out about the simple realities of "male" and "female." __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 30, 2024
The 2024 Summer Olympics will be the 100th anniversary of the incredible performance by Eric Liddell, whose story was immortalized in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire. A devout Christian and son of Scottish missionaries to China, Liddell was committed to never race on Sundays. However, at those Olympics, his best race—100 meters—was scheduled for a Sunday. He withdrew, to the derision of many Brits. Nonetheless, he quickly pivoted to two other races, taking third in the 200-meter and claiming the gold in the 400-meter. Despite his athletic success, Liddell returned to China the following year. During World War II, the Japanese placed him in an internment camp, where he faithfully served Christ and others before dying of a brain tumor in 1945. Liddell's Olympic-time decision and post-Olympic hardship were consistent for a man whose life was lived in faithful service to Christ. God, after all, "made [him] for China," but also "made [him] fast." He ran every race, including the race of life, to "feel God's pleasure." This Point was revised from one released on 7.12.22. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 29, 2024
What's the push behind delaying menopause? __________ Download your free copy of The Christian Mind at colsoncenter.org/book . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 29, 2024
New data exposes the threat, "Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?" For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 28, 2024
The publisher of America's first spelling guide since its independence from Britian understood that words are worth fighting for. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 28, 2024
House resolution hopes to put the most martyred country back on the radar for protection against persecution. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 27, 2024
We cannot reflect enough on our armed service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice. __________ Support the next year of Breakpoint production by giving at colsoncenter.org/may . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 27, 2024
Let's honor those who sacrificed so we can live in a flourishing society and then live to keep it from decline.
May 24, 2024
Two pro-life Republicans in Washington have introduced a bill to protect IVF, but is it really a pro-life proposal? CBS interviewed Pope Francis and it raised so many questions. And John Stonestreet and Katy Faust discuss a recent op-ed in the Washington Post that denies the unique roles of moms and dads. Recommendations Them Before Us What Would You Say?: Do Children's Rights Override Parental Rights? Can This Man PROVE That God Exists? Piers Morgan vs Stephen Meyer Segment 1 - Sen. Cruz Introduces Bill to Protect IVF Nationwide U.S. SENATORS KATIE BRITT, TED CRUZ INTRODUCE IVF PROTECTION ACT Cruz Introduces Bill Protecting IVF Nationwide Why the IVF Industry Must Be Regulated by Emma Waters Promise to America's Children Them Before Us Segment 2 - CBS Interviews the Pope In '60 Minutes' interview, pope clarifies blessings, speaks out against war, abuse In '60 Minutes' interview, pope clarifies same-sex blessings, speaks out against war, says clergy abuse can 'not be tolerated' Segment 3 - Our Daughter Wanted a Mommy Our daughter wanted a mommy, so she picked one of her dads Do Fathers Matter?: What Science Is Telling Us About the Parent We've Overlooked Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children's Rights Movement __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by giving at colsoncenter.org/may . Claim your free copy of The Christian Mind by S. Michael Craven at colsoncenter.org/book . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 24, 2024
A small but ambitious group of activists committed to the "long game" changed the landscape of marriage. __________ To join the Colson Fellows program, visit colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 24, 2024
Legal battles continue across the country in the fight for women's spaces.
May 23, 2024
Single-sex spaces aren't outdated and may be needed more than ever. __________ Help support another year of Breakpoint production at colsoncenter.org/may . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 23, 2024
Why is truth-telling increasingly optional? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 22, 2024
A friendship to bless the world. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 22, 2024
Significant jail time for peacefully protesting abortion. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 21, 2024
What parents? Colorado thinks kids are the property of the state. __________ Claim your free copy of The Christian Mind at colsoncenter.org/book . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 21, 2024
County court sides with female athletes, allowing them to compete after a school ban. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 20, 2024
A look into the Colson Fellows program and how it helps churches in this cultural moment. __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows program by going to colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 20, 2024
Pill treatments save lives while chemical abortion does the opposite. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 17, 2024
John and Maria look at two commencement speeches that drew criticism this week, perhaps the greatest commencement speech in Harvard's history, and something called "metamodernism." Recommendations When We Can't Remember Why Wrong is Wrong by Maria Baer The Exodus Project: A Jewish Answer to the University Crisis Segment 1 - Graduation Speeches Full Text: Harrison Butker of Kansas City Chiefs Graduation Speech Three of the Greatest Commencement Speeches of All Time Breakpoint: Solzhenitsyn at Harvard: A Graduation Speech to Remember Jerry Seinfeld's Commencement Speech at Duke 2024 Segment 2 - Metamodernism Goodbye Postmodernism, Hello Metamodernism __________ Learn more about the Alliance Defending Freedom at JoinADF.com/colson . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 17, 2024
Soviet dissident Nobel Prize winner had prophetic words for America. __________ To learn more about Alliance Defending Freedom, visit joinadf.com/colson . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 17, 2024
The bipartisan support is a blow to the right to life. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 16, 2024
Christians know that babies are blessings, not burdens. __________ To learn more about Colson Fellows, go to colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 16, 2024
Some feminists are seeing why sex only for fun harms women. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 15, 2024
How one of the greatest modern prophets left a legacy of compassion tethered to truth. __________ Get your free copy of The Christian Mind by going to colsoncenter.org/book . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 15, 2024
It turns out going to church is good for mental health. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 14, 2024
New book explores God's intimate and active role in sustaining His creation. __________ To receive your copy of The Begining and End of All Things , visit colsoncenter.org/april . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 14, 2024
The Kremlin and its modern-day oppression of Christians. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 13, 2024
Take heart, mothers; keep praying for your children. __________ Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint at breakpoint.org/give . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 13, 2024
Behind the decline to spread the good news. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 10, 2024
Boys get left behind as what was once known as the Boy Scouts of America is now Scouting America. John and Maria will discuss Rosaria Butterfield's powerful essay on the gay rights movement. And Apple's ad for the new iPad draws criticism. Recommendations Lighthouse Voices: The Deconstruction of Christianity with Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett Breakpoint : Why "Deconstruction" Isn't the Right Word Segment 1 - The Boy Scouts Rebrand (Again) Boy Scouts of America to Change its Name to Scouting America Trail Life USA American Heritage Girls Lighthouse Voices with Dr. Anthony Bradley Dr. Anthony Bradley Video Series with Focus on the Family Segment 2 - Rosaria Butterfield on Same-Sex "Marriage" The Long Game: Twenty years of same-sex marriage and the moral revolution that made it possible Same-Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God's Design for Marriage by Sean McDowell and John Stonestreet Segment 3 - Apple's New iPad Ad Apple Crushes Reality The Strong Women podcast __________ Register for the upcoming event Lighthouse Voices: The Deconstruction of Christianity, featuring guest speakers Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . To support the ongoing production of Breakpoint , visit breakpoint.org/give . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 10, 2024
Putting the right perspective on the trending term. __________ To sign up for the Lighthouse Voices livestream, go to colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 10, 2024
The trend to be childless is mounting, but so is sterilization regret. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 9, 2024
Overpopulation and climate change are leading the drive to remain childless. __________ Grab your free copy of The Christian Mind at colsoncenter.org/book . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 9, 2024
With links to increased mental health and societal disruption, we should question the reclassification of pot as a safe drug. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 8, 2024
As social pressures to comply increase, Christians can be courageous. __________ To support the ongoing production of Breakpoint visit breakpoint.org/give . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 8, 2024
Mental processing on TikTok is performative, not healthy. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 7, 2024
Misusing Tech to Become Superhuman __________ Download your free copy of The Christian Mind by S. Michael Craven at colsoncenter.org/book . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 7, 2024
The little-known human rights crisis of our day. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 6, 2024
Learning from our Christian ancestors how to order sex, marriage, and family for a better society. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 6, 2024
An unrelenting punishment for the high crime of free speech and faith. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 3, 2024
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the ongoing anti-Israel student protests on college campuses across the country. Colorado has passed a bill forcing teachers to refer to students by any of their chosen pronouns and the Biden administration pushes to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Recommendations All Creatures Great and Small We Were the Lucky Ones Segment 1 - The protests on college campuses continue The Contradiction of "Queers for Palestine" What the Pro-Palestinian Protests are Really About Antisemitism Awareness Act Segment 2 - Colorado's Chosen Name proposal Colorado bill would require schools to use students' chosen names HOUSE BILL 24-1039 The Department of Education's Title IX Regulations Segment 3 - The Biden Admin to Reclassify Marijuana Biden admin will move to reclassify marijuana as 'less dangerous drug' in historic shift Breakpoint: Marijuana And Psychosis In Teens Breakpoint: Marijuana And Teen Suicide Breakpoint: More Studies Show The Harm Of Recreational Marijuana Use __________ Claim your copy of The Beginning and End of All Things with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/april . Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 3, 2024
Scripture points to friendship as an important and different type of wellbeing for the soul. __________ To RSVP for Lighthouse Voices with Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett go to colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 3, 2024
What the tale of the First Minister tells us of putting faith in political leaders. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 2, 2024
God isn't a happy pill; He is the one who makes us holy. __________ To support the ongoing production of Breakpoint, visit breakpoint.org/give . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 2, 2024
Trusting truth, not just science, will go a long way in saving children from "gender-affirming" care. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 1, 2024
Student protests and trusting the "cult of youth." __________ Download your free copy of The Christian Mind at colsoncenter.org/book. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 1, 2024
Ignorance on college campuses is on full display with protesters admitting they don't know what they're protesting. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 30, 2024
The report should be used at all levels to counter the pseudoscience of altering kids' bodies in the name of mental healthcare. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 30, 2024
Greater 'affirmation' of LGBT identities does not lead to improved mental health. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 29, 2024
The opposing theories that point to the existence of God. __________ Get your copy of The Beginning and End of All Things with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/april . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 29, 2024
Staying focused on Christ in the upside-down world of social media proclamations. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 26, 2024
College campuses across the US saw protests and clashes with police by pro-Palestine demonstrators. Oral arguments at the Supreme Court on a Biden administration policy that requires emergency abortion care in states where abortion has been heavily restricted. And a new report urges extreme caution in treating children with gender dysphoria. Recommendations The Cass Report The World and Everything in It: April 25, 2024 Segment 1 - Campus Unrest Over Gaza Encampments continue at Columbia as police descend on protestors at University of Texas at Austin Segment 2 - Emergency Abortion Care at SCOTUS Conservative justices appear skeptical federal law requires emergency abortion care Breakpoint: Bill Maher Says it Out Loud Segment 3 - Extreme Caution Urged in Treating Gender Dysphoria The Cass Report is out – an early analysis of findings and recommendations __________ Get your copy of The Beginning and End of All Things with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/april . Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 26, 2024
New book on creation theology orients readers beautifully to who God is and why we are his image bearers. __________ Claim your copy of The Beginning and End of All Things at colsoncenter.org/april . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 26, 2024
Our cultural attention is on girls, but we can't neglect the proper self-confidence building of boys. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 25, 2024
It turns out, the human condition requires accountability, not absolution, from the state. __________ Learm more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 25, 2024
Preventative care is down; taxpayer-funded abortions and "gender-affirming" care is way up. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 24, 2024
Collective action is what we sometimes need to save our children. __________ Claim your copy of The Beginning and End of All Things with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/april . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 24, 2024
The state legislature passes pro-life material for its pro-family curriculum. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 23, 2024
Old laws can be good. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 23, 2024
The declaration explains why image bearers should reject all attempts to obscure sexual differences. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 22, 2024
New rules will strip rights from parents, children, and women. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 22, 2024
Beloved pastor predicted the local church's essential role in the age of screens. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 19, 2024
The Biden administration makes sweeping changes to gender identity and sexual orientation in Title IX. In Belgium, a mayor shuts down a conference that backs free speech. And we'll look at the implications of Iran's attack on Israel. Recommendations Manhunt Surrogacy Makes More Babies. Pro-Lifers Should Still Oppose It. by Katy Faust Segment 1 - Title IX Biden Admin Adds 'Gender Identity' as Protected Class in New Title IX Rules, but Sidesteps Trans-Athlete Policy Breakpoint: Trump's Statement on Abortion and IVF and Vatican Statement on Human Dignity Jennifer Sey on Title IX West Virginia Girls 'Step-Out' Of Track & Field Meet To Protest Transgender Competitor Segment 2 - Belgian Mayor Shuts Down Conservative Convention Farage and Orban's Brussels Jamboree Descends into mayhem amid police seige Free Speech Prevails for "NatCon:" Belgian court strikes down order shuttering conservative conference Belgian police shut down a far-right conference as it rallies ahead of Europe's June elections NPR boss once called the First Amendment a 'challenge' and 'reverence for the truth' a distraction Segment 3 - Iran Attacks Israel Netanyahu says Israel will decide how to respond as Iran warns against retaliation What we know about Iran's Attack on Israel and what happens Next Wave of Pro-Palestinian Protests closes bridges, major roads across the U.S. Hamas rejects Israel's ceasefire response as Iran sends drones to Israel ____________ Get your copy of The Beginning and End of All Things with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/april . Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 19, 2024
A swelling cultural shift bent on censorship could be what kills democracy. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 19, 2024
"Exvangelicals" seem everywhere, but happy followers of Christ are speaking up. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 18, 2024
God's goal has always been to be in unbroken fellowship with us and with His creation. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 18, 2024
TV host hushes the crowd after calling abortion for what it is. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 17, 2024
How C.S. Lewis has helped this world of believers and skeptics alike understand Christian hope for the past 80 years. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 16, 2024
Enduring years of legal battles and media vilification, pro-life activist faithfully exposes Planned Parenthood's trafficking of baby body parts. __________ Claim your copy of The Beginning and End of All Things with your gift of any amount this month at colsoncenter.org/april . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 16, 2024
Bill intends to help residents report "hate crimes" and "bias" against fellow citizens. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 15, 2024
Commitment to a gospel faith is going to cost us something; let's prepare. __________ Reserve your spot for the Lighthouse Voices event with Brad Wilcox at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 15, 2024
A so-called step forward in "gender affirming care" uses babies as props in yet another social experiment for narcissists. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 12, 2024
Former President Donald Trump tells voters how he'll treat the abortion issue if he wins in November. And the Vatican releases a far-reaching statement on human dignity. Recommendations Lighthouse Voices with Brad Wilcox Lila by Marilynne Robinson Segment 1 - Trump on Abortion Read Trump abortion statement Breakpoint: Trump Announces His Position on Life Post- Roe Don't Follow Your Heart by Thaddeus Williams The World and Everything in It: April 10, 2024 Segment 2 - The Vatican's Statement on Human Dignity Declaration "Dignitas Infinita" on Human Dignity __________ Get your copy of The Beginning and End of All Things at colsoncenter.org/april . Register for the upcoming Lighthouse Voices, How Faith Matters For American Families, at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 12, 2024
The time is now to start asking real questions about the unregulated industry of child manufacturing. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 12, 2024
Tammy Peterson's conversion to Christianity highlights how faith in Christ reveals true self. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 11, 2024
The catch-all statement exemplifies greater worldview falsehoods when it comes to protecting the preborn. __________ Reserve your spot for the upcomign Lighthouse Voices event at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 11, 2024
The social framework invasive in today's culture seeks only to destroy. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 10, 2024
Statistics back up God's good plan for humanity and for His creation. Reserve your spot for the next Lighthouse Voices event at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . __________ Get your tickets for the Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 10, 2024
J.K. Rowling calls Scotland's woke bluff in a win for women. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 9, 2024
You can't have Christianity's fruit without its root. __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 9, 2024
If Jesus is who He said He was, the implications are enormous. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 8, 2024
Other states are following the lead to pass age verification laws while content distributors fight for the right of "artistic freedom." __________ Reserve your free place at the next Lighthouse Voices event at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 8, 2024
In the age of remarkable technological feats, we must check our hubris from time to time. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 5, 2024
Recommendations The Rest is History Podcast Carl Truman on First Things Carl Truman on Breakpoint Just Brierly's podcasts Segment 1 - Desecration vs. Disenchantment Breakpoint: The Desecration of Easter Biden Proclaims Easter Sunday "Trans Day of Visibility" LGBT "holidays" Trumpet Evangelicalism or Bidenist Catholicism? by Carl Truman Segment 2 - Is a Christian revival coming? Breakpoint: God at March Madness Richard Dawkins warming up to Christianity Abigail Shrier on Easter Jordan Peterson's wife, Tammy, converts to Catholicism A Christian Revival is Underway in Britain Segment 3 - The Total Eclipse Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland __________ Claim your copy of The Beginning and End of All Things with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/april . Secure your place at the Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 5, 2024
The good (and legal) news about Bible-based classes in local schools. __________ Reserve your free spot for the next Lighthouse Voices event, How Faith Matters for American Families, at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 5, 2024
Anyone found guilty of hurtful content under the new law could face up to seven years in jail. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 4, 2024
Escaping the nunnery to follow Christ led to a life full of service alongside one of the most seminal figures in Christianity. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 4, 2024
Coaches' professions of faith testify that God is in everything. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 3, 2024
A 1 Corinthians look at the fullness of love in the age of identity culture. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 3, 2024
Judge's ruling suggests that her death would be less harmful than living with autism. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 2, 2024
Woman who underwent transgender surgeries shares how God restored her life as an image bearer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 2, 2024
Our culture is shifting from denying reality to attempting to usurp God's authority over reality altogether. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 1, 2024
Tax laws reflect value for life, marriage, and family. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 1, 2024
Christian groups ban together to fight compliance to strict DEI rules. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 29, 2024
John and Maria share thoughts on this most holy of weeks in the Christian faith. It's the most dangerous of seasons for Christians in Nigeria. And the abortion pill goes on trial at the Supreme Court. Holy Week Recommendations Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell Lent for Everyone by N.T. Wright Death On A Friday Afternoon by Richard John Neuhaus The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible Segment 1 - SCOTUS Oral Arguments on Abortion Pill Supreme Court appears likely to allow abortion drug to remain available Abortion access again before Supreme Court Erin Hawley: The Woman Arguing Against the Abortion Pill The Strong Women Podcast Segment 2 - Persecution of Nigerian Christians In Nigeria, parents finally able to see children who were abducted from school in early March As Easter approaches, Christian persecution is on the rise Hold Nigeria accountable for its failure to stop internal religious violence ICON: International Committee on Nigeria Segment 3 - Holy Week Truth, Love, and Maundy Thursday __________ Claim your copy of Deconstruction of Christianity with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/march . Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 29, 2024
Attacks on Nigerian Christians escalate over holidays. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 29, 2024
For Christians, despair is a sin because hope is not a feeling, it's a reality made alive in the resurrection of Christ. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 28, 2024
After a little withdrawal, banning the wildly popular social media platform will only lead to good for teens addicted to screens. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 28, 2024
The reality of sin and why Good Friday is good news. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 27, 2024
Vermont school officials agree to pay damages to snowboard coach who stated boys have a physical advantage in sports. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 27, 2024
How the creator of the Wizard of Id and B.C. taught millions about the resurrection of Christ. __________ Learn more about Summit Ministries at summit.org/breakpoint . Don't forget to use code BREAKPOINT24 for a special discount at checkout. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 26, 2024
Persecution works, except for a risen Savior. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 26, 2024
Detransitioner tells why the Source of all reality is Jesus Christ. __________ Get your copy of Deconstruction of Christianity with your gift of any amount at colsoncenter.org/March . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 25, 2024
A ban and then a swift unban by Veterans Affairs over a famous photo shows the vulnerability of truth on the internet. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 25, 2024
It's time for a revival of Christian imagination inspired by God instead of self and online likes. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 22, 2024
John discusses this week's Light House Voices event featuring Laura Perry Smaltz. A new book from Abigail Shrier takes a hard look at therapy: the new theory of everything. And the Supreme Court will hear arguments this week on a challenge to the FDA's continued lax rules for the abortion pill. Recommendations Lighthouse Voices with Laura Perry Smalts The Alisa Childers Podcast: Is a Hyper-focus on Trauma Actually Hurting Us? with Maria Baer Masters of the Air Segment 1 - Laura Perry Smalts Tells Her Story Lighthouse Voices with Laura Perry Smalts Transgender To Transformed As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do. Breakpoint Forum: The Real Facts About Gender Ideology Segment 2 - Therapy: The New Theory of Everything Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up by Abigail Shrier Breakpoint : When "Helping" Kids Hurts Them Honestly with Bari Weiss: Why the Kids Aren't Alright The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl R. Trueman The Death of the Grown-Up by Diana West Is a Hyper-focus on Trauma Actually Hurting Us? with Maria Baer Segment 3 - SCOTUS Hears Arguments on Relaxed Abortion Pill Rules FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine Despite Bans, Number of Abortions in the United States Increased in 2023 __________ Get your copy of The Deconstruction of Christianity with your gift of any amount this month at colsoncenter.org/march . Learn more about the ACSI Rooted Conference at acsi.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 22, 2024
The White House flips the script on morality in its public support of killing babies as "healthcare" and its labeling of pro-lifers as "extremists." _____________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 22, 2024
The NHS announced the decision after a years-long study found no significant change in the mental health of children treated for gender dysphoria. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 21, 2024
A U.K. pastor wins legal battle to keep preaching after police told him he could not discuss other religions. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 21, 2024
How courts and culture have redefined marriage to point to self instead of Christ. __________ To counter the lies about love, marriage, and sex so prevalent in our culture, check out identityproject.tv . For a special discount this month, go to identityproject.tv and enter BREAKPOINT at checkout. Receive your copy of The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It's Destructive, and How to Respond with your gift of any amount this month at colsoncenter.org/march . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 20, 2024
Kidnappings add to the tens of thousands in recent years while the Nigerian government and the global community remains silent. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 20, 2024
Why the generation accessing the most mental therapy is the most mentally unhealthy. __________ Learn more about Summit Ministries at summit.org/breakpoint . Use code BREAKPOINT24 at checkout for $200 off registration. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 19, 2024
Debunking the notion that Christians pray while atheists do. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 19, 2024
Pharmacy chains to start selling the chemical abortion pill mifepristone in several states this month. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 18, 2024
Covid revealed unscrupulous practices in industries that exist to serve people. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 18, 2024
Christian educators can be the antidote to the murky educational system of the moment. ___________ To learn more about the Rooted Educator Worldview Summit, visit acsi.org. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 15, 2024
Recommendations Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution by Dr. Carl Trueman NIHILISM—IN NAZI GERMANY AND TODAY by Carl Trueman Resources Carl R. Trueman Interview with Kevin DeYoung | Faithful Conference 2023 Knowing God by J.I. Packer The Colson Fellows Program Carl Trueman on First Things "Parable of the Madman" by Friedrich Nietzsche How Now Shall We Live? by Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey The Last Christian on Earth by Os Guinness _________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at ColsonFellows.org . Request your copy of The Deconstruction of Christianity with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/march . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 15, 2024
Christians share a bond that transcends race and identity. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 15, 2024
Of the thousands of green revelers, few know about the slave and evangelist for whom St. Patrick's Day is named. To learn more about this man of faith and his consequential life, check out this Breakpoint interview between Shane Morris and T.M. Moore , a former colleague of Chuck's and the author of Celtic Flame: The Burden of St. Patrick . __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 14, 2024
The unsustainable trend of absolute autonomy as the meaning of life. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 14, 2024
The Christian alternative to doom-and-gloom environmentalism. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 13, 2024
A Kentucky region riddled with the opioid epidemic is fighting for sobriety and finding motivation in business ownership. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 13, 2024
New book helps us understand and respond to the phenomenon seeping into the Church. Claim a copy of The Deconstruction of Christianity for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center. To make your gift, go to colsoncenter.org/march . __________ Register for the ACSI Rooted Educator Worldview Summit at ACSI.org/rooted . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 12, 2024
What does the future of AI look like if it's not committed to telling the truth? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 12, 2024
Despite what oracles of a post-Christian society promised, the kids are far from happier and free. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 11, 2024
Christians burned at the stake for refusing to deny Christ is in no way the same as self-immolation to protest Israel. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 11, 2024
It's about honoring God no matter what for Hobby Lobby owners David and Barbara Green. ____________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 8, 2024
Recommendations Michael Shellenberger's website The Picture Bible Segment 1: WPATH Scandal The WPATH Files Secret Files Show how international group pushes shocking experimental gender surgery for minors Segment 2: Planned Parenthood Profiting from Fetal Body Parts Center for Medical Progress Documents show Planned Parenthood Exchanges Baby Body Parts for Intellectual Property Rights Segment 3: Investigating Debanking Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government De-Banking: Cancel Culture's Newest Threat __________ Get your copy of Deconstruction of Christianity with your gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/march . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 8, 2024
Being honest about police shootings. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 8, 2024
It turns out the science isn't settled and suffering families have been lied to all along. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 7, 2024
A win for Christians praying near abortion clinics. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 7, 2024
Referendum seeks to eliminate the word "mother" and reference to marriage from the Irish constitution. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 6, 2024
The increasing trend of believers attending same-sex "weddings" belies a bigger problem with our Christian worldview. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 6, 2024
Scientists who mimic creation's design unknowingly glorify the Creator. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 5, 2024
Many who champion progressive "freedoms" live traditional lives. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 5, 2024
In a prolife world, recent reports about rape rates would be a shocking story about crime and not about access to abortion. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 4, 2024
Appellate court to decide on the "harm" a shirt stating traditional genders had on a school that encouraged students to wear Pride apparel. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 4, 2024
Another case of a teen taken from home over pronoun usage. __________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 1, 2024
John and Maria discuss two issues that dominated the news last week, the biased replies from Google Gemini and a new study that finds married couples are the happiest. Recommendations Abigail Shrier on Freedom in an Age of Fear Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up by Abigail Shrier The Case for Life by Scott Klusendorf Segment 1: Has AI Gone Woke? Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence Google hopeful of fix for Gemini's historical-image diversity issue within weeks Google Gemini Controversy Explained: AI Model Criticized by Musk and Others Over Alleged Bias The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul The Way of the (Modern) World by Craig Gay The Big Fail: What the Pandemic Revealed About Who America Protects and Who It Leaves Behind by Joe Nocera and Bethany McLean Segment 2: Polls Show Married People Are Happiest Why you should get married Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization by Brad Wilcox The hidden social justice issue Wedded Bliss is True, not Trendy Brad Wilcox on X __________ Subscribe to get the latest What Would You Say? videos at whatwouldyousay.org/subscribe . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 1, 2024
Progressive ideology, not the Right-wing patriarchy, is denying women at the federal level their privacy, scholarships, and equity in sports. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 1, 2024
Now that abortion rights are left to the states, it's more important than ever we tell the truth about preborn life. __________ To get your copy of the second edition of The Case for Life , go to colsoncenter.org/February . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 29, 2024
In contrast to what the government keeps telling us, Americans want religious freedom and support with their kids' educations. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 29, 2024
Thinking about our relationship to time from a Judeo-Christian understanding. __________ Request your copy of Case for Life by Scott Klusendorf with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/february . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 28, 2024
Attacks on churches and pro-Christian causes are not met with the same outcry as other hate crimes. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 28, 2024
Some moral clarity for an industry that has been an ethical Wild West. __________ Learn more about the Identity Project at identityproject.tv. For a special discount this month enter the code BREAKPOINT at checkout. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 27, 2024
We can count on Jesus' teachings to heal what ails us in society. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 27, 2024
There's something missing from the cost-benefit analysis. __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program and apply for the next class at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 26, 2024
Studies show that married couples are the most satisfied with their personal lives. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 26, 2024
We don't need to justify the beautiful invitation God has given us in taking a day of rest. __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence at breakpoint.org/forum . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 23, 2024
John and Maria discuss the implications for IVF of an Alabama court ruling. And what a recent funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral means for Western culture and the church. Recommendations A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Mrs. Grossman's Stickers Southern Champion Tray The Refuge Segment 1: Alabama Judge Rules in Favor of Embryos Frozen embryos are 'children,' Alabama supreme court rules in couples' wrongful death suits Three Alabama clinics pause IVF services after court rules that embryos are children Segment 2: A Funeral "Desecrates" St. Patrick's Cathedral Desecration at St. Patrick's Cathedral The Colson Fellows program __________ Get your copy of Case for Life with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center in the month of February at colsoncenter.org/february . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 23, 2024
A spike in support following Dobbs may be waning. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 23, 2024
Understanding the implications of being both created in the image of God and being heirs of Adam's sin. Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum at breakpoint.org/forum . ___________ Learn mroe about the Colson Fellows Program and apply colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 22, 2024
The god-like delusion of advancements that offer freedom from the human condition. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 22, 2024
Could it be that trans-activism really is just making things up? __________ Learn more about the Identity project at identityproject.tv . For a special February discount enter BREAKPOINT at checkout. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 21, 2024
Viral video of teacher masterfully leading a student to think critically is rare and refreshing. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 21, 2024
When darkness seeps into self-government, state regulation can be a good thing. __________ Get your copy of The Case for Life with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center in February at colsoncenter.org/february . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 20, 2024
Maria Baer interviews Colson Center vice president Michael Craven to hear about how the Colson Fellows program spurs participants to enter God's story, discern this cultural moment, and become agents of change in their own communities. Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 20, 2024
The nation is the top-most persecuted for their faith, and it's time the world took note. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 20, 2024
Population rates struggle where marriage and family are not viewed as a key foundation to livelihood. __________ Learn more about the Identity Project at identityproject.tv. For a special discount this month enter BREAKPOINT at checkout. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 19, 2024
Protest is a part of the American fabric, but the government is increasingly unjust on what is accepted and condemned. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 19, 2024
Christians can arm themselves with simple and focused points to address any pro-abortion argument. __________ This month, you can secure your copy of Case for Life through a donation of any amount to the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/caseforlife . Register for the next Breakpoint Forum "The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence" at breakpoint.org/forum . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 16, 2024
John and Maria discuss the latest ads for the He Gets Us campaign. They also examine criticisms against Elisabeth Elliot and purity culture as well as the purpose of Lent. Recommendations Caitlin Clark breaks NCAA women's scoring record Segment 1: He Gets Us Ad Campaign 'He Gets Us' Jesus Super Bowl Ad campaign welcomes criticism over polarizing ads: 'Very assuring' Segment 2: Elisabeth Elliot and How We Treat Our Heroes Elisabeth Elliot, Flawed Queen of purity culture Strong Women: The Life of Elisabeth Elliot with Ellen Vaughn Segment 3: Why Lent? Ashes for Valentine's Day Of Vice and Lent __________ Learn more about the upcoming Breakpoint Forum, The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence, at breakpoint.org/forum . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 16, 2024
Republicans are skirting the opportunity to promote family, not politics, as the answer for societal health. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 16, 2024
The Colson Center offers a program equipping believers to respond outwardly to the cultural moment. __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows program and apply today at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 15, 2024
The social contagion of proclaiming your identity. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 15, 2024
The West's staggering embrace of assisted suicide and why Christians must proclaim the imago Dei message. __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows program and apply today at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 14, 2024
If we've learned anything, parents are the only ones who can protect kids with their devices. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 14, 2024
How today's observances of both Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day oddly fit together. _________ Register for the latest Breakpoint Forum "The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence" at breakpoint.org/forum . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 13, 2024
Helping the next generation avoid the intoxicating lure of 'checking out.' For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 13, 2024
Healing and wholeness can only be found by embracing, not rejecting, who God made us to be in the first place. __________ Get your copy of Case for Life with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center for the month of February at colsoncenter.org/february . For access to the Identity Project and a special discount this month, go to identityproject.tv and enter BREAKPOINT at checkout. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 12, 2024
Pro-Hamas collegiates are portraying profound ignorance of Jewish history and modern-day Israel. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 12, 2024
Why we won't and don't need to live forever. __________ Learn more about the Identity Project at identityproject.tv. For a special discount this month enter BREAKPOINT at checkout. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 9, 2024
An op-ed in The New York Times finally acknowledges the glaring problems with transgender diagnosis, "affirmation," and "medicine." In a rare show of bipartisanship, Congressional leaders give big tech CEO's an earful. Recommendations Breakpoint Forum: The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence His Father's World Segment 1: New York Times on detransitioners As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do Thread from AxiomAmerican on X Segment 2: Furries The Free Press Segment 3: Big Tech Grilled on Capitol Hill Kids' Access to Porn Is a Problem. Are State Laws the Solution? _________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 9, 2024
The Netherlands extends euthanasia rules for kids of any age without consent. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 9, 2024
Parents are forced to fight for their daughter in the public sphere while an anti-sex change law for minors waits in limbo. __________ Learn more about the Identity Project at identityproject.tv. For a special discount this month enter BREAKPOINT at checkout. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 8, 2024
WORLD News Group founder leaves a lasting legacy. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 8, 2024
The Colson Center offers a program equipping believers to respond outwardly to the cultural moment. __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows program and apply for our next class at colsonfellows.org . Register for the next Breakpoint Forum "The Perils and Promise of Artificial Intelligence" at breakpoint.org/forum . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 7, 2024
Any reproductive technology that separates father from child should not be condoned. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 7, 2024
Christians must challenge the smorgasbord of perversion being presented to culture as healthy for marriage. __________ Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program and apply for the 2024-2025 program at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 6, 2024
Until the 'gender-affirming' mutilation of children is illegal, this day of no tolerance rings hollow. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 6, 2024
Placing the appropriate value on the animals we love. __________ Request your copy of Case for Life by giving a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/ february . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 5, 2024
More states are considering medically assisted suicide. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 5, 2024
As the West loses touch with its Creator, let's remember how Christ gave us (back) our dignity. __________ Request your copy of The Case for Life by giving a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/february ! For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 2, 2024
Many use passages from the Old Testament to inform their views on immigration. John and Maria will talk about their arguments. And they'll do a deep dive on two topics at the edges of life, childbearing and the death penalty. Recommendations The Narrative Podcast Don't Follow Your Heart: Boldly Breaking the Ten Commandments of Self-Worship by Thaddeus Williams Segment 1: Immigration Crisis Migrant crisis broke new record in December with 302k crossings, officials confirm The World and Everything In It 1.26.24 GOP Governors show support for Texas in border standoff Gov. Greg Abbott declares Texas' right to self-defense 'supersedes federal statutes' as he battles Biden admin over razor wire at border Segment 2: Why Pro-Natalism Policies Won't Work Anymore Natalism is not Enough Segment 3: Death Penalty Alabama executes a man with nitrogen gas for the first time How can doctors be sure a medically-assisted death is a 'peaceful' death? Ohio lawmakers introduce bill to allow execution by nitrogen gas following Alabama For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 2, 2024
WPATH is losing members while other countries are losing passion for the chemical and surgical altering of minors. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 2, 2024
In the past decade, the idea that a person can be born in the wrong body has caused significant harm to many, most of all young people and their families. Now we are learning just how much this idea, whether caught online, in school, or at a counselor's office, has preyed on the most vulnerable populations. ________________ View the entire Breakpoint Forum entitled "The Real Facts About Gender Ideology" on YouTube. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 1, 2024
Big-name retailers are losing billions and closing stores because of activism. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 1, 2024
The New York Times complains about fathers who might be too good in popular cartoon. ________ For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 31, 2024
The growing option to die by medical assistance is leaving patients already sick with disease or mental disorders with no hope. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 31, 2024
In his new book Don't Follow Your Heart: Boldly Breaking the Ten Commandments of Self-Worship , Professor Thaddeus Williams of Biola University has exposed "the cult of self" behind these mantras. The cult of self is, in a sense, the largest religion in the world and promises to elevate adherents to the place and prerogative of God. In the end, however, like all bad ideas about God and self, this lie dehumanizes us, leaving us empty, unsatisfied, and isolated. ___________ Receive a copy of Don't Follow Your Heart: Boldly Breaking the Ten Commandments of Self-Worship by Thaddeus Williams by making a gift of any amount to the Colson Center by January 31. Just visit colsoncenter.org/January . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 30, 2024
It's time to stop the delusion that legalizing weed has done no harm. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 30, 2024
Despite progressive states trying to ban APR, the treatment is proving to be safe for moms and lifesaving for babies. ______________ We're excited to announce the Colson Fellows program is now accepting applications for the 2024-2025 cohort. As a Breakpoint listener, you probably pick up on how the daily commentaries do the work of translation for you. We take a story or issue being discussed in our culture right now and model how to think through it from a Christian worldview. But, if you're interested in going deeper - in discovering how to develop the wisdom and skills needed to walk wisely in this cultural moment - then the Colson Fellows program might be for you. This ten-month program combines theological, spiritual, and worldview formation through a carefully curated combination of readings, daily devotions, live webinars, and monthly meetings with your peers. With both in-person and fully online offerings, you can choose the format that works best with your stage in life. Interested in learning more? You can explore the program and submit an application at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 29, 2024
More stories are emerging showing children systematically put in harm's way to advance dangerous ideologies. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 29, 2024
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health's model of so-called "gender-affirming care" does not "follow the science." Despite the growing evidence about puberty blockers' irreversible effects, the gaps in medical research, and the dangers for children, the lie that puberty blockers are "fully reversible" will continue. To learn more about the harms of gender ideology, and the lie that these treatments are "irreversible," check out our latest Breakpoint Forum , "The Real Facts About Gender Ideology," featuring child and adolescent psychiatrists Dr. Miriam Grossman and Dr. Stephen Grcevich. ________________ Breakpoint listeners, this is John Stonestreet. On behalf of the Colson Center, I am excited to announce a brand-new collaboration designed to address the mass confusion of our day on sexuality, "gender" and identity, the Identity Project. The Identity Project is a library of over 150 videos (and growing monthly) addressing issues of identity, sex, "gender," and humanity from a Judeo-Christian worldview. The Identity Project experts speak with clarity and authority based on years of research and relevant experience. They include psychologists, theologians, sociologists, pastors, doctors, and parents who have real-life experience with these concerns. The Colson Center is excited to offer a limited-time $10 discount code to our audience. Use Promo Code BREAKPOINT to receive $10 off an annual access pass by going to identityproject.tv . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 26, 2024
New study confirms that more Americans identify as religiously unaffiliated than as Roman Catholics. Also, John and Maria discuss the debate over Christians attending same-sex weddings, the push for polyamory. Recommendations The Identity Project "Perhaps Emotional Dependence on Celebrities Has Gone Too Far" by Freddie DeBoer Segment 1: "Nones" Outpace Catholics More 'nones' than Catholics: Non-religious Americans near 30% in latest survey Segment 2: Should Christians Attend Same-sex Weddings? CAN CHRISTIANS ATTEND GAY WEDDINGS? IdentityProject.tv Same-Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God's Design for Marriage by Sean McDowell and John Stonestreet _________ In Don't Follow Your Heart: Boldly Breaking the Ten Commandments of Self-Worship , author Thaddeus Williams exposes and refutes the false narratives enshrined in our secular culture. Exchange the futility of the "cult of self" that promises fulfillment and freedom for a life of courageous faith in Jesus, the true source of life. Request your copy today by visiting colsoncenter.org/ january . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 26, 2024
Pope Francis' declaration allowing priests to bless same-sex couples puts Roman Catholics who accept the biblical definition of marriage in a tough spot. Though the document doesn't officially change doctrine, it has sown confusion and emboldened heresy. However, earlier this month, a group of African bishops released a joint statement explaining why they will not bless same-sex couples. Led by Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungo, these bishops insisted that such unions are "contrary to the will of God," and that the pope's statement created "misconceptions and unrest in the minds of many lay faithful." It's hard to miss a pattern here: As churches in the Global North abandon truth, churches in the Global South, especially Africa, stand firm. It brings to mind Jesus' words to the church of Philadelphia: "I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name." Thank you, African Christians, for being faithful. Please pray for the rest of us. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 26, 2024
Sascha Bailey, son of a world-renowned photographer father and a fashion model mother, appeared to "have it all." Rather than saving his life, Bailey now believes that his attempts to adopt a new sex was, in reality, suicide with extra steps: "Transitioning was a way of killing myself without dying, because I was so unhappy with my life." ______________ What are worldviews? And why is teaching worldviews so crucial in this cultural moment? Dive into worldviews, their importance, and how to make sense of the world with this greater understanding by signing up for the FREE Colson Educators course, The Importance of Worldviews . Find more resources on the Colson Educators website at educators.colsoncenter.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 25, 2024
Over the last year, we've reported on the (literal) trials of Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen, who was accused of "hate speech" for sharing Bible verses in support of traditional sexuality. Twice already, she has been found "not guilty" by the courts. But as our friends at ADF reported last week, prosecutors are now trying to get that verdict overturned. According to Paul Coleman of ADF International, the attacks on Räsänen have been relentless. "As is so often the case in 'hate speech' trials," he said, "the process has become part of the punishment." Recently, a progressive Christian author argued that since Räsänen is "only" threatened with a fine and not prison, it's not really a big deal. But censorship is a big deal. The loss of freedoms that are good for everyone is a big deal. Christians and others who care about human flourishing and about loving our neighbors should stand against persecution of any degree. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 25, 2024
In this special edition of Breakpoint, John Stonestreet sits down with Dr. Miriam Grossman to discuss the facts behind transgender ideology. Miriam Grossman MD is board certified in psychiatry and in the sub-specialty of child and adolescent psychiatry. The author of five books, Dr. Grossman's work has been translated into eleven languages. She has testified in Congress and lectured at the British House of Lords and the United Nations. This is a followup conversation from the latest Breakpoint Forum: The Real Facts About Gender Ideology. You can find the full recording for the forum on the Colson Center YouTube channel . - Resources - MiriamGrossmanMD.com Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist's Guide Out of the Madness by Miriam Grossman M.D. The Identity Project Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) RealityBasedPublishing.com He is He and She is She books by Ryan Bomberger Accepting signatures: An Open Letter to the American Psychiatric Association Regarding the Publication of Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 25, 2024
God has placed us in this moment, a moment that is really a historical anomaly. Among other things, this implies we have a responsibility to be the moral people upon which democracy depends. Thus, we must commit again to loving one another, to governing our tempers, ambitions, greed, and tendency toward selfishness, and to never compromising on the truth of what it means to be human or what it means to seek the good. ______________ In Don't Follow Your Heart: Boldly Breaking the Ten Commandments of Self-Worship, author Thaddeus Williams exposes and refutes the false narratives enshrined in our secular culture. Exchange the futility of the "cult of self" that promises fulfillment and freedom for a life of courageous faith in Jesus, the true source of life. Request your copy today by visiting colsoncenter.org/ january . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 24, 2024
In a newly resurfaced clip from 2020 , English philosopher A.C. Grayling claimed he could think of nothing truly unique that Christianity had given the world. Historian Tom Holland replied with what my colleague Shane Morris called, "one of his best 'mic drop' moments." In about 90 seconds, Holland rattled off a list that included lifelong marriage, concepts of sexuality that protected women and children, the modern scientific project, the idea that humans bear the image of God, the universality of ethics, and more. As Holland put it, "Essentially what I'm talking about … is … what makes Western civilization distinctive." These ideas ended slavery, expanded care to the poor, established democracy, educated the masses, and insisted that everyone be under the same law. The source of every one of these ideas is centuries of Christian reflection on the truths of the Bible. In short, what has Christianity given the world? Nearly everything that matters the most. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 24, 2024
One feature of American life for some time now is that women, as a group, tend to fall to the left of men politically. For much of the twentieth century, that gap was relatively minor. Until 1980, in fact, the sexes voted within a few percentage points of each other. Since then, things have changed dramatically. Citing polling data from Gallup, Brad Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies recently pointed out that the percentage of young men ages 18 to 29 who identify as Republican has risen by double digits in the last decade. "Some have doubted the idea that young men (18-29) are turning right," he tweeted. "Time for them to wake up." As late as the mid-2000s, a similar portion of 18- to 29-year-olds of both sexes—just under 30%—identified as "liberal." However, according to an American Enterprise Institute survey last year, 46% of white Gen Z women called themselves "liberal." Some conservative scholars like the Acton Institute's Anthony Bradley think this emerging divide extends beyond political commitments to other areas as well, including morality. Last week, he tweeted: "Gen Z is different. Women are more liberal than the men and this includes personal morality as well. More and more guys are willing to wait until marriage & fewer women are. Women now celebrate having a "high body count" [a.k.a., many sexual partners] as a[n] empowerment. Today's young men are more traditional." More evidence is required before we can conclude that American young men have had some kind of moral awakening, especially given the popularity of morally objectionable figures like fitness influencer and depraved pickup artist Andrew Tate. Still, the trends in self-description seem to hold in other polls, even for high schoolers . One factor behind this striking political divide between the sexes, especially the rightward turn among young men, is the Left's obsession with condemning "the patriarchy" and "toxic masculinity." Many young men hear this as a condemnation of their very existence. Similarly, the leftward lurch among women could have something to do with the perception that abortion is a women's issue and the increasingly hysterical warnings that restricting abortion is the equivalent of subjecting women to Handmaid's Tale-style reproductive slavery. Still, pollsters have noted for decades now one thing that reliably predicts conservative views and voting, especially among women: marriage. Pick pretty much any election in any year, and half or even most married women vote differently than their unmarried counterparts. In the 2020 election, for instance, the gap between how married and unmarried women voted was 15 points , compared with a 10-point gap between married and unmarried men. As we know, marriage has been in steep decline for years. In fact, Pew Research reports that the share of 40-year-olds who have never been married is higher today than at any time on record. Fertility, too, is near a record low , making our country more single and more childless than at any other time in its history. It would be foolish to think these numbers would not eventually show up in political behavior, and that one of the most likely proofs would be the widening gap between the voting habits of men and women. Marriage and family are chief among what conservative writers have long called society's "mediating institutions," those layers between individuals and the state that provide security, opportunity, and meaning without the government's intervention. As entering marriages and creating families becomes rarer, it's little wonder so many who historically would have looked for protection and provision in the home are now instead looking to Washington. In other words, the wedges that radical feminism, the sexual revolution, and the breakdown of the family have driven between the sexes are likely the main reason for this growing political divide. Women and men were created for one another, not just to build families but to build societies. Since each sex is indispensable, both, in their own ways, are lost when isolated. As the Apostle Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians , "Woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God." Instead of pointing fingers at one another as Adam and Eve did after the fall, we should take this emerging political divide as clear evidence that without our oldest and most important mediating institution—the family, society unravels. There's no way forward if men and women remain at such loggerheads, not only does dating become a nightmare, but the future is at risk. After all, the government cannot birth new citizens, voters, and taxpayers. Men and women stand or fall together. A nation in which the sexes are at war is a house divided against itself at the most fundamental level. Such a house cannot stand. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org _________ "Follow your heart!" How many times have we heard this self-centered "truth" that is really a dressed-up version of the oldest lie in the world? In Don't Follow Your Heart: Boldly Breaking the Ten Commandments of Self-Worship, author Thaddeus Williams exposes and refutes the false narratives enshrined in our secular culture. Exchange the futility of the "cult of self" that promises fulfillment and freedom for a life of courageous faith in Jesus, the true source of life. Request your copy today by visiting colsoncenter.org/ january .
Jan 23, 2024
A recent article in Christianity Today states, "Overall, 365 million Christians live in nations with high levels of persecution or discrimination." That's more people than live in the United States. The most troubling spots tend to be either authoritarian states like Cuba and North Korea, or Muslim-dominated areas like Saudi Arabia. Nigeria accounts for over 75% of world martyrs, with over 4,100 killed between October 2022 and September 2023. In contrast to a popular Western claim, the growing hostility to faith is not because these precious brothers and sisters are too prudish, too powerful, or too white. It's because they have embraced the name of the One who suffered on their behalf. Francis Schaeffer once wrote , "No totalitarian authority nor authoritarian state can tolerate those who have an absolute by which to judge that state and its actions." In any place where religion, ideology, or state demands absolute loyalty, Christians will be seen as a problem. Please pray for those suffering, and pray that we would be given a portion of their courage. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 23, 2024
Ideas tend to sprout up in academia, but the ones that matter do not stay there. Even when birthed in seemingly abstract fields like epistemology (the study of knowledge), ideas can have a major impact on culture. This is especially evident in the modern to postmodern shift from an objective and verifiable understanding of truth to a subjective and socially constructed understanding of truth. This shift has landed us in what can be called "standpoint epistemology." Standpoint epistemology is the view that everything we think and know, and even what we consider knowledge to be, is determined solely by our race, "gender," sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and other identity categories. Objectivity, in this view, is impossible, and no perspective can claim superiority over any other since there is no external standard by which to measure. Standpoint epistemology is essential to Critical Theory, especially its priority of championing "marginal voices;" specifically those groups seen as victims, oppressed, or invisible in Western societies. These groups not only have a particularly important but overlooked perspective, they have one that is more valid and more valuable than those from privileged groups. The privileged, in fact, should be ignored or treated with contempt, according to this view. Or, to paraphrase George Orwell, all perspectives are equal, but some are more equal than others . Standpoint epistemology has had a keenly negative influence on the humanities. Classics, from Homer to Shakespeare, are often replaced not with classics from non-Western cultures but with works that reflect the contemporary fads of academics. In the study of history, the truth of standpoint epistemology is treated as universal and absolute (which, of course, contradicts it). Western history is reduced to a simplistic morality play where everything is seen as power dynamics, with evil oppressors and the virtuous oppressed. It is assumed that since "history is written by the winners," the narrative priority is to subvert traditional history and highlight marginal voices to show that the "winners" were actually oppressors. Western history, therefore, is mostly seen through the lens of colonial studies, the story of villainous colonizers and innocent indigenous peoples. Though true up to a point, telling the story only in this way ignores verifiable historical facts and force fits history into a framework dictated by contemporary sensibilities. What this means in practice is that Spanish brutality in Mexico is condemned as intolerable while the slavery, oppression, and human sacrifice of Aztec society is nuanced, overlooked, or even celebrated. The United States is an imperial power unjustly driving indigenous tribes off their lands, but tribes that did the same to their equally indigenous neighbors are excused. If standpoint epistemology is true, then it is impossible to understand the past or learn from it. People are stripped of a true understanding of their history and culture, and thus of a critical part of their identity. Non-Westerners are dehumanized and stripped of agency, reduced to pawns of the more powerful. Long embedded in the humanities, these same ideas are now making inroads into the STEM fields. In some school districts, the idea that there are right and wrong answers in math is presented as an example of white supremacy and oppression. A problem cannot, in this view, have a single correct answer, since that implies there is objective truth in math . Of course, the same mathematics used to build a bridge in the United States is also used in Africa, but that doesn't matter to the ideologues promoting these ideas. This misguided embrace of standpoint epistemology will, in the end, make it far more difficult for students to pursue careers in business, finance, engineering, or the sciences. As we often say, ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. Standpoint epistemology is a bad idea, and we've only now begun to see the victims that will be left in its wake. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 22, 2024
The rising generation is our most educated generation if you compare the number of millennials who completed bachelor's degrees with that of previous generations. However, as British commentator Peter Hitchens recently pointed out, being "schooled" isn't the same as being "educated." What he said about British schools could be applied to many U.S. ones: "Our education system teaches the young what to think, not how to think. And if you ever wonder why so many things don't work properly any more, or why you can't get any sense out of so many organisations, this is one of the main reasons." When students are indoctrinated in critical theories regarding gender and race, when pushback is considered "harassment" or "racism," and when the main point is to sexualize kids, it's not education. As Steven Garber has written, "Education, always and everywhere, is about the deepest questions of life and the world." Education wrestles with the hard questions, training students to think critically and creatively . Christians have always championed education. We can today too. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was first released on 12.7.22.
Jan 22, 2024
In the last few years, the credibility of science or, more accurately, scientists, has taken more than a few hits. Take for instance the rush by many doctors, researchers, academics, and medical institutions to force transgender ideology on children. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society have both issued guidelines for medically transitioning minors. From the beginning, maverick scientists have called foul, pointing out that the safety and long-term effectiveness of such "treatments" had not been evaluated. It seems now that only real-world consequences for actual children can curb the enthusiasm for untested and misguided experimentation on kids. In 2022, the U.K.'s largest gender clinic announced its closure over a lack of evidence to support its ghoulish interventions. Shortly afterward, U.K. lawyer Tom Goodhead estimated that around 1,000 families would join in legal action against the clinic , claiming their children were "misdiagnosed and rushed into transitioning." The first lawsuits against the American Academy of Pediatrics have also been filed by a child who grew up and regretted transitioning. Transgender "medicine" isn't the only practice advanced as "scientifically proven" despite the absence of evidence. Even earlier, assisted reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization and surrogacy were pushed on the public with little understanding of or concern for the safety and long-term consequences for women and children. Like transgender medicine, the line is that the "science says the kids will be fine." Don't buy it. Recently, the Heritage Foundation's Emma Waters reviewed the available evidence about some of these technologies. "Despite what many experts want you to believe," she writes, "we actually know very little about the impact of surrogacy on the long-term wellbeing of children and families." As it turns out, babies gestated by a surrogate show a marked increase in preterm births, physical defects, and low weight. This is just what we know for certain, partly because we've been kept in the dark. As Waters explains, scholars who review the literature on surrogacy typically use studies that are outdated, small, short-term, or based on self-reporting by the "parents" who paid for the children. A frequently cited U.K. study "relied on the parents' own assessment of the child's wellbeing, not objective outcomes or the child him/herself." Using that study as proof that surrogacy doesn't harm children is kind of like asking students to grade their own exams. Waters suggests two major red flags about the current research: first, studies in which "the conclusions are too squeaky clean;" and second, studies whose "self acknowledged goal" is "showing that there are no differences between same-sex, natural, and artificially conceived families and the impact … on children." In other words, these studies are advocacy, not science. Constructing better studies, Waters argues, will require tracking children over longer periods, having surrogates report their number of pregnancies, keeping tabs on who sells or donates eggs and sperm, and knowing who children born of surrogates are and who their biological parents are. As she warns, "There is a huge difference between 'no harms' and no *known* harms." Still, even without that research, there are pragmatic and moral reasons to oppose the creation of children with the intent to implant them or place them with strangers. Children were designed to know their parents. Separation from the man and woman who made them is a tragedy. Arrangements like foster care and adoption respond to that tragedy, but conceiving children with the express purpose of separating them from their parents is very different. It creates the tragedy. Similarly, paying women to carry children for nine months and then forcing them to walk away as part of a commercial transaction ignores the intimacy and sanctity of that bond, as well as its ongoing, powerful effects on both carrier and baby. Pope Francis was recently crystal clear on this one, despite his confusing and misleading statements on other serious issues. In a recent speech to diplomats , he blasted surrogacy as "deplorable," insisting it "represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child," whom it turns into "an object of trafficking." "A child," he added, "is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract." In this age of accelerating technology, and ideologues eager to wield it, the most vulnerable members of society need someone to hold so-called "experts" accountable and to ask the questions about human design, purpose, rights, and relationships that no study can answer. No matter how scientific sounding they are, claims that we can ignore God's design for sex and the family are expressions of an anti-human worldview, not objective research. And that's a very good reason to say "no" to this worldview's ongoing demand for tiny test subjects. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org _______ Don't Follow Your Heart is an incredibly important book that will help you unlock the lies behind each of the cultural lies of self-worship while also encouraging you to live with courageous faith for Christ in this cultural moment. Request your copy by giving a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month !
Jan 19, 2024
John and Maria talk about the growing incidents of persecution against Christians worldwide, gender confusion, and what to make of the results of the Iowa caucus. Recommendations Finding the words to sing - WORLD The Identity Project Segment 1: Open Doors 2024 World Watch List Open Doors 2024 Watch List Highlights persecution of sub-saharan African Christians Open Doors World Watch List 2024: Trends Segment 2: Introducing the Identity Project IdentityProject.tv Segment 3: The Iowa Caucuses Trump freezes out competition in Iowa Caucuses Trump's biggest Iowa gains are in evangelical areas, smallest wins in cities A New Kind of 'evangelical'? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 19, 2024
Earlier this month, an image was shared on social media featuring what looked like a bit of used tissue paper with the caption, "Just a reminder that this is what an 8 week pregnancy/abortion looks like." The inference is that pro-lifers are fools or liars to call the preborn "a child." It didn't take long for that tweet to get called out. The image had been doctored . The "tissue" was not an embryo but merely an empty gestational sac. A real 8-week embryo has hands and feet, heart and head, and is very clearly a tiny human being. While the claim "it's just a clump of cells!" was questionable 50 years ago when someone first uttered it, decades of technological development make it morbidly laughable. The imagery available now completely undercuts any idea that what we see in the womb is less than human. What has been revealed is how divorced from reality the pro-abortion camp has always been. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 19, 2024
Seven hundred years ago, Italian scholar Marsilius of Padua helped lay the foundation for our modern ideas of popular sovereignty. In his book Defensor Pacis , written in the context of an ongoing battle in Church-state relations, he anticipated the idea of separate spheres for Church and state. Though tensions over the balance of power between Church and state were probably inevitable, it took surprisingly long for them to develop. In the Roman Empire, the state regulated religious practice. Christianity was an illegal religion in the Empire for nearly 300 years, but when legalized, a precedent was set for the Church to operate separately from the state. For centuries, the two sides cooperated without much fundamental conflict. In the Latin West, questions about the relationship between Church and state arose at the end of the eighth century. In 799, Pope Leo III was accused of a variety of crimes. He appealed to Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, for judgment. Though unsure whether he had jurisdiction over the Pope, Charlemagne acquitted Leo. Since this suggested Charlemagne was over the Pope, Leo decided to redress the balance by crowning Charlemagne emperor on Christmas of 800, implying papal authority over that office. After Charlemagne, both the Church and the state suffered serious decline for nearly a century. The title of emperor fell into disuse, and the papacy descended into a period of moral degeneracy. In the late 900s, with the aid of Church reformers, the Germanic King Otto I managed to centralize enough power to be named Holy Roman Emperor. He and his successors deposed a series of corrupt popes and appointed reformers in their place. These reforming popes soon found their dependence on the emperor both theologically and politically problematic. Politically, by playing around with the rules and making deals with the emperor's enemies, they managed to loosen the papacy from imperial control. Theologically, they began to argue that as the eternal is superior to the temporal and the spiritual to the physical, the Church is superior to the state and the pope to the emperor. In effect, this meant the Church was over the state. The logic was that, since the civil government was established by God to enforce righteousness, and the pope was the vicar of Christ on Earth, he should be arbiter of what is righteous, and secular rulers must obey. If they failed to do so, the pope claimed the right to depose them, even the Holy Roman Emperor. Unsurprisingly, the Holy Roman Emperors disagreed with this logic. An early conflict was over who should name and install bishops. Since Otto I, bishops had been part of the imperial government, and emperors had insisted on their right to pick the bishops. The popes argued that bishops are primarily ecclesiastical offices and should be appointed and installed by them. This issue came to a head when Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Emperor Henry IV and tried to depose him, while Henry also tried to depose Gregory and even invaded Italy to make it stick. The issue was eventually resolved by their successors. But the basic question of whether the pope was over the emperor or the emperor over the pope continued to fester, sometimes resulting in war, excommunications, and the appointment of anti-popes. In the context of these conflicts, Marsilius of Padua wrote his book . He took the imperial side, arguing that the Church had no jurisdiction in secular matters. It should interpret Scripture and define dogma, while secular affairs were the responsibility of the civil government, whose members were to be elected or appointed by the most important citizens. In the same way, he believed that clergy, including the pope, should be elected by the people or their representatives. Even within the Church, papal authority was limited since supreme authority was vested in Church councils called by the emperor. Marsilius also argued that tithes should be eliminated, Church property should be seized by the government, and clergy should live in holy poverty. Marsilius's work was supported by prominent Franciscans, including William of Ockham, who championed the ideal of apostolic poverty, and was later promoted by Thomas Cromwell to support Henry VIII during the English Reformation. Defensor Pacis was an important step in advancing ideas of popular sovereignty and democracy, though it implicitly supported imperial authority. Despite its anticlericalism, it made important contributions to ideas about the proper relationship between Church and state. Given current debates about Christendom and Christian Nationalism, studying historical works like Defensor Pacis could enrich our understanding of the place of the Church in civil society. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 18, 2024
University of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh was barely in the locker room after his team's victory in this year's National Championship before reporters were pointing out his 11 million dollar paycheck . While the controversy over what college football coaches make isn't going away any time soon, the University of Michigan also pays 30 million dollars to nearly 250 employees in its various diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. DEI staffing is a major industry, especially at universities, often with vague, unmeasurable goals. Efforts tend to focus on hiring practices, devolving into racial quotas and quickly elevating sexual minorities above everything else. And, they typically don't work . The University of Michigan, as a state school, is funded by taxpayers. Change means wading through a lot of bureaucracy. It takes time, strategy, and political courage, but it can be done . If Americans want their universities to prioritize education over ideology, we should remember that we hold their purse strings. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 18, 2024
To see this What Would You Say? video in its entirety and to share it with others, go to whatwouldyousay.org. Or, you can look up the What Would You Say? channel on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe to be notified each time a new video is released. _________ Among the unexpected stories of 2023 was a renewed interest in all things extraterrestrial: from images of alien corpses; to retired high-ranking military officials claiming secret government programs launched to capture UFOs; to a strange encounter with Las Vegas police officers. The public interest in whether there's anything out there is as high as ever. But what would the existence of alien life mean for Christianity? That's the question tackled in a brand new video, part of the What Would You Say ? series, called "What Does the Bible Say About Aliens?" Many people assume that if any evidence were to be discovered for extraterrestrial life, it would be devastating to the Christian worldview. However, according to my colleague, Shane Morris, that's not necessarily the case. In fact, according to Shane, "There's nothing in the Christian view of the world that excludes the possibility that God created life on other planets." In this video, Shane offers three things to keep in mind. First, that "despite the hype of science fiction and decades of searching, there is currently no evidence for life on other planets." "[A]fter decades of looking and listening and exploring the heavens for that life, we've come up empty-handed. So much so, in fact, that physicists and astronomers have named the emptiness the Fermi Paradox, which refers to 'the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence.' In other words, if life happens easily, 'Where is everybody?' [Peter] Ward and his co-author, Donald Brownlee, argue in Rare Earth that life doesn't happen that easily, and assuming that it does is the real mistake. At least a dozen special conditions found on our planet are probably necessary for the existence of intelligent life, including a precise orbital distance from our star, heavy elements, liquid water, a moon, a magnetic field, not too much gravity, a nearby gas giant, and having a star like our Sun, which, as it turns out, is anything but 'ordinary.'" Shane's second point is that "even if intelligent life were found elsewhere in the universe, it wouldn't necessarily present a problem for Christianity." "Before Star Trek or Star Wars existed, C.S. Lewis wrote his Space Trilogy. In it, he famously imagined alien races that never fell into sin. And in a few essays, Lewis wrestled with whether the existence of real-life extraterrestrials would threaten Christianity. According to Lewis, the Bible never says God created the vast cosmos only for humans. … For Lewis, intelligent aliens created and loved by God posed no problem, nor would they contradict the Bible. In the same essay, he cautioned that the Bible was not intended to satisfy our curiosity about such things but as an instruction manual for salvation. But he also warned that humans are in no position to tell God what He can and cannot do with His vast universe." And finally, Shane states that "the Bible teaches that there are other beings in the universe, but they're not what materialists expect, and they do not always come in peace." "Some biblical scholars, like the late Dr. Michael Heiser, have suggested that some alleged alien encounters may be the result of demonic activity and possession. After all, in 2 Corinthians 11:14 Paul warned that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. This means that Christians need not believe every story of alien abductions or close encounters, but we need not immediately dismiss them as jokes or conspiracy theories. Christianity teaches that we are not alone in the universe, that it is full of intelligent entities, both good and evil, and that all were created by and remain under the power of God. The existence of extraterrestrial life is still speculation, but the Christian worldview has more room for mysteries than our secular, materialist age does. It offers a bigger, more thorough, and more satisfying explanation for the universe." That was Shane Morris answering the question "What Does the Bible Say About Aliens?" To see the whole video and to share it with others, go to whatwouldyousay.org . Or, you can look up the What Would You Say? channel on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe to be notified each time a new video is released. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org. ______ As a Breakpoint listener, you probably pick up on how the daily commentaries do the work of translation for you. We take a story or issue being discussed in our culture right now and model how to think through it from a Christian worldview. But, if you're interested in going deeper, in discovering how to develop the wisdom and skills needed to walk wisely in this cultural moment, then the Colson Fellows program might be for you. This ten-month program combines theological, spiritual, and worldview formation through a carefully curated combination of readings, daily devotions, live webinars, and monthly meetings with your peers. With both in-person and fully online offerings, you can choose the format that works best with your stage in life. Interested in learning more? You can explore the program and submit an application at colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 17, 2024
An unsung hero of the twentieth century was Sir Nicholas Winton. Winton secured visas to Britain for 700 mostly Jewish children in the late 1930s, saving them from being victims of the Nazi Holocaust. For decades, Winton's work went unnoticed for the simple fact that he didn't tell anyone. Decades later his secret was discovered and revealed to the world. In fact, there's an actual video clip online of the then-grown children thanking Winton. Now, a new movie to be released later this year, starring Anthony Hopkins, tells the story. Yet, all the early press releases and a number of articles fail to mention that the children who were saved were Jews, either ignoring that detail entirely or calling them " Central European ." The children weren't in danger because of where they lived. They were in danger because of who they were. Whether because of antisemitism or a seeking not to offend, erasing Jews from a story about the Holocaust is itself evil. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 17, 2024
Last week on NBC's Meet the Press, Joe Biden's deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, was asked what the president's top priority would be if reelected. His reply: "First of all: Roe. … The president has been adamant that we need to restore Roe. It is unfathomable that women today wake up in a country with less rights than their ancestors had years ago." According to Politico , President Biden's pro-choice agenda is "the strongest abortion rights platform of any general election candidate," and the president seems to sense that this is among the very few issues trending in his favor. Of a recent Texas Supreme Court case in which a woman was denied a medical exception for an abortion, the president declared: "No woman should be forced to go to court or flee her home state just to receive the health care she needs. … This should never happen in America, period." Judging by the string of pro-life legislative defeats, most recently in the otherwise red Ohio and Virginia, many Americans agree with the president. One Politico analysis concluded , "When abortion rights are on the ballot, they win with voters across the political spectrum—though they don't always boost Democratic candidates on ballots advocating for them." In an imminent presidential election that promises to be especially contentious, the received wisdom among progressive candidates is this: Vow to preserve, at all costs, the so-called "right to choose," and it's likely that voters will choose me. Of course, this reveals as much about the rest of the progressive agenda as it does about "reproductive rights." Immigration and the southern border? Ukraine and Israel? Housing prices? Inflation? LGBTQ issues? The mental health crisis? These pressing issues are political liabilities for the president right now, so all the attention is on abortion. It is more than a little ironic to see the heightened emphasis on abortion, considering how often Christians were accused of being "one-issue" voters. Post- Roe , left-wing politicians are forced to be more honest about abortion's central role in their political project. And make no mistake, abortion is central not only to a progressive political agenda, but to the vision of "freedom" and selfhood this agenda has enshrined in American law and culture. In so many ways, abortion symbolizes the worldview in which autonomy and self-expression are the highest possible values. It's the logical endpoint of the pursuit of freedom from constraints, devoid of any notion of freedom for a created purpose. In this view, connections to other human beings—including the most intimate and dependent connection of all—are only worthwhile insofar as they help citizens achieve that vision of limitless autonomy. If such connections get in the way of our freedoms, we should be free to sever them, no matter who suffers. This deadly logic has become increasingly obvious in recent years as imaging technology in neo-natal care has made the humanity of preborn babies undeniable. Quite a few pro-abortion activists have responded by swallowing the proverbial poison pill and giving up on pretending children in the womb are "clumps of cells." So what if they're human? These activists retort. Their death is an acceptable price for women to maintain absolute control over their own bodies and futures! If our vision of freedom requires people to die, so be it. Still, abortion is heavily restricted or banned in 24 states , mostly as a direct result of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and there are a few hopeful signs that the public hasn't fully bought the logic of the extreme activists. For example, pro-abortion candidates, at least on the national level, still feel the need to pretend they find abortion distasteful. Last year, President Biden prefaced his support of abortion by saying, "I'm a practicing Catholic. I'm not big on abortion." Also, abortion is still typically defended in public, not as an absolute, on-demand right, but as a necessary accommodation in sad but rare circumstances like rape, incest, and the life of the mother. These "wedge" arguments are deeply flawed and do not change the fact that intentionally taking an innocent human life is always wrong. However, their continued use indicates that Americans aren't quite ready to stomach the unrestricted killing of little people we find inconvenient. Ultimately, the pro-life argument remains unchanged. The preborn are innocent human beings, made in God's image, and no one should be able to take their lives without cause. In fact, the most basic purpose of government is to protect its citizens' right to life, and if the government fails to do this, it is failing in the most basic way. Simply put, if killing babies in the womb is not wrong, the very concept of "rights" is a joke. The president's eagerness to make abortion his top reelection priority is deeply significant, and it would be a mistake to dismiss the statement as mere politics. This issue has taken on symbolic, moral, and spiritual weight for our nation, and it will continue to be a bitterly fought battleground. Despite setbacks and disappointments, we can agree with the president on one thing. De-prioritizing this issue is not an option. The stakes—for our society and its most vulnerable members—are simply too high. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 16, 2024
America is number one, again! Apparently, nearly one in four American kids grows up in a single-parent home, which is the highest rate in the world today. The U.K. is nearly keeping up at 21%, right behind our 23%. There are, at times, reasons a parent is absent, but as a nationwide reality it's unsustainable. These numbers are not the way for America to be exceptional. How is it that the U.S. and the U.K., two nations with such a long and intense history of Christian influence, have such a terrible record in this area? Both nations also have a long history of valuing and advancing freedom in a way that has blessed the world. However, when freedom devolves into a self-centered demand for absolute liberty, a freedom from any restraint and consequences, the blessings of true freedom are squandered, and the fruit left to our children is rotten, indeed. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 16, 2024
Go to identityproject.tv. Breakpoint listeners can receive a special discount by using the code BREAKPOINT at checkout. _____ "In 2023, the Biden administration doubled down on its commitment to radical gender ideology. Federal agencies proposed a slew of regulations pushing the Biden administration's extreme pro-LGBT agenda in education, employment, and health care at the expense of children's interests and women's rights." That agenda, Rachel Morrison suggests in an article at The Federalist , will be back in 2024. She then identifies five priorities that we can expect to see from the Biden administration this year. For example, plans are already in the works within the Department of Education to impose gender ideology on school sports. Women and girls will be forced to compete with and against men and boys who identify as female. This will inevitably lead to a reduction in opportunities for females, in competing for championships and vying for college scholarships. It also leaves females vulnerable to injury and to violations of their privacy. Also, according to Morrison, we can expect the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to expand a policy that effectively erases women from one of the most distinctively womanly things imaginable, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. In addition to avoid using the term woman to describe those who get pregnant, the EEOC "went so far as to use the plural pronouns 'they' and 'their' multiple times to refer to a singular employee who was pregnant, had a cesarean section, or experienced childbirth." This is an example of the power of language in smuggling through ideas. Also, Morrison expects that the Department of Health and Human Services will "impose incorrect pronouns, bathroom access, and so-called 'gender transitions' via disability discrimination law." "Under Section 504, 'gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments' are excluded from the definition of a qualifying disability. Yet, according to HHS, Section 504 prohibits discrimination based on gender dysphoria—which is a gender-identity disorder." Two other initiatives will hit closer to home for more people. First, the federal government is continuing its attempts to ban "non-affirming" potential parents from adoption and fostering, even calling such parents "abusive." Second, the EEOC, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the State Department have joined forces to enforce compliance on using preferred pronoun and opening bathrooms to people of the opposite sex. These rules carry weight for businesses and schools eager to stay on the good side of federal power. The drive to push these ideas is only popular with a small segment of the population, drawing support from some and opposition from others. The arguments behind such views cannot proceed on their own merits, so government enforcement is the only way forward. Though this goes under the guise of gender equality and "following the science," it takes the form of erasing (and debasing) women, denying women—especially school-aged girls—opportunities, and compromising the safety and privacy of females of all ages. This, for the sake of an ideology as new and fickle as teen fashions. Christians, of all people, must have the moral clarity to navigate strong-arm techniques. Today, the Colson Center is pleased to announce the launch of the Identity Project, the most comprehensive library of on-demand videos and resources addressing issues of identity, humanness, and sexuality available, all from a Judeo-Christian worldview. In collaboration with pastors, psychologists, sociologists, doctors, parents, and experts from organizations such as Alliance Defending Freedom and The Heritage Foundation, the Identity Project features teaching videos of various lengths that can be used in virtually every context: home, church, school, and with friends. In addition to countering the cultural lies about sex and identity, there are videos to resource parents, teachers, and leaders to help students embrace their identity as male and female, navigate challenges such as exposure to pornography, accept God's design for the body and for sexual morality, and deal with friends who think and live differently. Go to identityproject.tv. Breakpoint listeners can receive a special discount by using the code BREAKPOINT at checkout. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 15, 2024
"Unapologetic antisemitism—whether the incidents are few or numerous—is a college phenomenon because of what we teach, and how our teachings are exploited by malign actors." That's a line you'd expect to hear from some right-wing activist or conservative think tank. Instead, it came from Harry Lewis, Harvard grad, Harvard professor, and former Harvard dean. In his article " Reaping What We Have Taught ," Lewis took his own school to task: When complex social and political histories are oversimplified in our teachings as Manichaean struggles—between oppressed people and their oppressors, the powerless and the powerful, the just and the wicked—a veneer of academic respectability is applied to the ugly old stereotype of Jews as evil but deviously successful people. It's not easy in today's academic environment to point out the emperor has no clothes. Ideas have consequences, but so does courage. Let's hope others in ivory towers are willing to call out the dangerous ideas that control these institutions. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 15, 2024
Chuck Colson often described the importance of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 2009, Chuck, along with fellow authors Dr. Timothy George and Dr. Robert George, cited Dr. King in the Manhattan Declaration , a statement of conscience regarding life, marriage, and religious liberty in the United States. In 1955, after only a year of pastoring a church in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. King was selected to lead an organization that boycotted public transportation. This was in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks , who refused to give up her seat for a white passenger on a bus. With a remarkable speaking ability and his advocacy of peaceful protest, Dr. King became a primary voice of the Civil Rights Movement. Chuck Colson noted three significant aspects of Dr. King's work. First, Dr. King was deeply influenced by his Christian faith. Though a series of personal failures are now known to be, sadly, serial , the principles from which he spoke and wrote were undeniably Christian. Reflecting on Dr. King's time in Birmingham, fighting against segregation and for equal job opportunities for African Americans, Chuck noted the following: During his Birmingham civil rights campaign, Dr. King required every participant to sign a pledge committing to do ten things. The first was to "meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus." Others included the expectation that all participants would "walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love" and "pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free." To truly understand Martin Luther King, students must learn about his Christian faith. It was at the heart of what he did. Recently, sports commentator Chris Broussard and human rights expert Dr. Matt Daniels have produced a video series emphasizing the biblical principles that inspired Dr. King's life and work. Dr. Daniels is concerned that the Christian underpinnings of Dr. King's legacy are being lost. You can find this series "Share the Dream" at churchsource.org. In another commentary, Chuck Colson noted how Dr. King understood divine law as the source of human law. King's greatest demonstration of this was in his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," something Chuck Colson often referred to as "the most important legal document of the twentieth century." Here's Chuck: King defended the transcendent source of the law's authority. In doing so he took a conservative Christian view of law. In fact, he was perhaps the most eloquent advocate of this viewpoint in his time, as, interestingly, Justice Clarence Thomas may be today. Writing from a jail cell, King declared that the code of justice is not man's law: It is God's law. Imagine a politician making such a comment today. Based on this belief, that God is the ultimate source of law, Dr. King insisted that any unjust law is, in fact, not a law at all. This was the basis of his view of civil disobedience, something that Christians not only could engage in, but must engage in. Here, again, is Chuck Colson describing King's view : "One might well ask," he wrote, "how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer "is found in the fact that there are two kinds of laws: just laws … and unjust laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws," King said, "but conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." How does one determine whether the law is just or unjust? A just law, King wrote, "squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law … is out of harmony with the moral law." Then King quoted Saint Augustine: "An unjust law is no law at all." He quoted Thomas Aquinas: "An unjust law is a human law not rooted in eternal or natural law." If it is true, as Chuck and his co-authors asserted in the Manhattan Declaration that "unjust laws degrade human beings," then Dr. King's teachings continue to have relevance for us today, not only on issues of race but on all kinds of areas in which our ideas are misaligned from our Creator. Take a moment today to read Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 13, 2024
Trans rights are becoming the latest state-by-state issue dividing America. The Vatican releases a very pointed condemnation of surrogacy. And the Biden White House declares abortion is the number one issue in the upcoming presidential campaign. Recommendations Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot Being Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn A Quiet Mind to Suffer With by John Andrew Bryant Segment 1: States vs. the Feds on Trans Policy How Democrats Set the Stage in 2023 for an LGBT Onslaught In 2024 Ohio House Overrides Governor Missouri's Ban on "Gender-Affirming Health Care" for minors can take effect next week, judge rules Segment 2: The Pope Condemns Surrogacy Francis Urges Ban on Surrogacy, calling it "Despicable" Segment 3: Biden Campaign Says Abortion #1 Issue Biden's Top Priority for a second term: abortion rights For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 12, 2024
After securing his team's place in the NFL playoffs, Texans' rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud was asked by a reporter to respond to the moment. In a brief statement that has now made rounds on social media, he expressed gratitude for the city of Houston, honor for his fellow players, and, most of all, praise to Christ for saving him and choosing him to be in this role. More than a typical generic thanks to God for a win, Stroud spoke with grace and humility, noting the Scriptures written on his wristbands after being asked. For all the stories of scandals and salary fights, there's still a strong remnant of faith in this corner of our too-often Christless society. For more stories like this, from a lifelong sports fan and strong believer, check out the new book In the Big Inning by John Strege, where he shares stories of people whose faith influenced their performance and their relationship with coaches, teammates, and fans. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 12, 2024
Seven years ago this month , National Geographic published an issue that they now refer to as "historic." With a cover featuring a young boy with long pink hair and pink leggings, they announced a "Gender Revolution." The newsstand edition featured a different cover, a child and a collection of hip young people with identifying labels, such as "transgender female," "androgynous," and "bi-gender." Our perceptions of those who are transgender, these covers suggested, should not be simply men with a fetish . Rather, embracing new understandings of gender was about the kids. In addition to the articles explaining the emerging "scientific consensus" around these things, and why "gender" is "fluid" and should be thought of as distinct from one's biology, one article focused on the challenge of "toxic masculinity." Five others promised that rethinking gender would elevate women. The journalists accurately predicted that a revolution was occurring, even though some who read the issue (me included) thought their announcement premature. However, seven years later, it's clear that the gender revolution has done everything but elevate women. As child psychiatrist Miriam Grossman, author of Lost in Trans Nation, explains, the number of teen girls "with recent-onset discomfort with their sex is up 4,000 percent [emphasis added]." Especially vulnerable are girls with comorbidities, like autism, an association that even one of the National Geographic articles acknowledged. People who are autistic are three to six times more likely to not identify with their birth sex. Child psychiatrist Dr. Steven Grcevich , the founder and president of a ministry for families with hidden disabilities, called this "[t]he scandal that nobody is talking about … the vulnerability of kids with pre-existing medical conditions and autism and other developmental disabilities to this gender ideology." According to Dr. Grossman, this social contagion has been especially driven by social media, which has become a virtual "assembly line" for challenging girls to question their sense of self. Medical professionals jumped in, resulting in a trail of mutilated bodies, sterilization, bone-density loss, and other irreversible damage done. Women have been hurt in other ways too. According to the Telegraph, a male student recently attacked female students in a gender-neutral bathroom. In sports such as in jiujitsu and volleyball, girls have been overpowered and injured, not to mention the other issues of fairness of competition , scholarship opportunities , and privacy concerns . Seven years ago, the first article in the "historic" National Geographic issue promised that "science is helping us understand gender." In what became a frequently used "bait and switch" tactic, the article focused on the incredibly rare conditions called "intersex" or "disorders of sex development." Not mentioned in the article is something that Abigail Favale clarified in her book, that "[i]n 99.98% of these cases, sex is readily recognizable as unambiguously male or female." Instead, the author lumps physical disorders of sex development with the mental conditions of gender confusion, via a mishmash of edgy psychology and personal narratives, with one neuroscientist stirred in for good measure. The takeaway is clear: All that matters is what an individual feels on the inside. And yet, there are clear signs that this revolution is slowing. Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Norway have all drawn back from providing so-called "gender-affirming care" to young people because the science is not settled. Though the Biden Administration seems committed to advancing the revolution by force, in states such as Missouri and Ohio , lawmakers are taking definitive steps to protect children. The credit for slowing down what seemed to be an unstoppable train headed off the cliff goes to a coalition of unlikely allies: from the so-called "TERFs" (or "trans-exclusionary radical feminists") like Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, to brave young people like Chloe Cole who have "de-transitioned," filed lawsuits, and testified before state legislatures, to Matt Walsh . Twenty-two states have now stopped or limited so-called "gender-affirming care" for minors. National Geographic may have thought that the "gender revolution" was inevitable, but it's time for an update on the cultural state-of-play. Next Tuesday, January 16, at 7 p.m. ET, the next free online Breakpoint Forum will provide "The Real Facts About Gender Ideology." Featured presenters are child psychiatrists, Dr. Miriam Grossman and Dr. Steven Grcevich. Sign up to join in live and ask questions, or to receive a link to access the recording. Go to breakpoint.org/forum . This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Heather Peterson. If you're a fan of Breakpoint , leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 11, 2024
Anxious or depressed? Now you can download a digital therapist to your phone. According to The Wall Street Journal , "Chatbots that hold therapist-like conversations and wellness apps that deliver depression and other diagnoses or identify people at risk of self-harm are snowballing across employers' healthcare benefits." On one hand, given the erroneous beliefs of many human therapists, how bad could it be? It's kind of like driving in Colorado since the legalization of pot. Maybe self-driving Teslas are a safer bet. On the other hand, if in Canada, will the therapist AI bot on my phone help me or ask if I'd rather die ? The underlying challenge of all AI is that it is programmed by fallible, biased humans. Whether it's the errors that creep into an automatic car or the assumptions driving the therapy bot, our human frailties will always be a part of even our best technologies. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 11, 2024
Many Christian parents worry about how best to pass faith onto their children. Tragically, statistics suggest they are right to worry. In 2020, the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University found that just 2% of millennials , a generation now well into adulthood, have a biblical worldview. That is the lowest of any generation since surveys on the topic began. According to a Lifeway Research report , two-thirds of those who attend church as teenagers will drop out of church as adults. A significant aspect of the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation has to do with ideas. Helping students think correctly about life and the world, God and themselves, would be hard enough if they weren't also facing such strong cultural headwinds. Simply put, many young people today leave the faith because they lack the necessary immunity from the bad ideas of our culture. Christian parents must not only present truth to their kids; they must find ways to immunize them against lies. Dr. William McGuire, a Yale psychology professor in the 1950s, suggested that bad ideas behave like viruses. Specifically, he thought that the more exposure one has to bad ideas in a controlled setting, the less likely they are to fall for those ideas later. McGuire performed several experiments in which he tried to convince subjects of a lie, that brushing teeth is bad for them. Unsurprisingly, those given no preparation for what they were about to hear were more easily convinced of the lie than those warned against a specific bad argument they would hear. However, the subgroups that were the easiest and the hardest to dupe were surprising. The group most vulnerable to falsehoods was not the one with zero preparation, but the one who had merely had the truth reinforced. In other words, the subjects most easily deceived were told things like, "You know brushing your teeth is good for you, right? You've been taught this since you were little. Trust us." When they subsequently heard arguments they never had before, this group felt sheltered and even deceived. The least vulnerable group were those who had not only been warned against a bad argument they would hear, but they were also taught how to respond. They were also warned they could face additional bad arguments and needed to be aware and vigilant. One thing we can learn from McGuire's experiment is that the method many Christian parents and churches use to pass on the faith—reinforcement without taking counter ideas seriously—is the one most vulnerable to failure. In fact, it can leave young people more vulnerable to lies, especially in high-pressure environments. It also means that we don't have to give kids all the answers, but they do need to be aware and ready to think for themselves. This requires we give them a framework, or a pattern, of responding to bad ideas thoughtfully and confidently. This is what Dr. Jeff Myers and the team at Summit Ministries has been doing with students for decades. Not only do they know how to immunize students against bad ideas by taking them seriously and preparing them to defend their faith, but Summit also helps students apply the truth claims of Christianity to every area of their life. The results of Summit training are both measurable and impressive. An independent 2020 survey of Summit alumni showed that, before attending a student conference, just 40% felt able to defend their faith against challenges. After attending, that number skyrocketed to 90%. Before Summit, 87% claimed a strong commitment to Christianity. Afterward, 96% did. And, almost 97% of Summit alumni indicate they are currently attending a church that holds to the truth of the Bible. Chuck Colson once called Summit Ministries "the gold standard" for training young adults in Christian worldview. I agree. In fact, I've personally witnessed the transformation that God brings through a Summit ministries two-week student conference. Held at Covenant College in Georgia and at the Summit headquarters in Manitou Springs, Colorado, young people are given a Christian worldview about topics like abortion, doubt and deconstruction, evolution, gender identity, God's existence, sexuality, and more. If you know a student who needs to attend a Summit conference this summer, visit summit.org/breakpoint , and use code BREAKPOINT24 to receive $200 off. The numbers speak for themselves. Passing on a Christian worldview to our kids requires much more than just telling them the truth. It requires us to help them love the truth and gain spiritual immunity against infectious bad ideas. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to colsoncenter.org. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was revised from one first published on 2.18.22.
Jan 10, 2024
A recent study highlighted by King's College London suggests that, wait for it, sex is a greater predictor of athletic performance than gender identity. The study found that in the "nonbinary" category of races, men outperformed women. The researchers were careful to note that not much research has been done in this area ... unless I'd add, you consider the history of sport. That we need this study reveals much more about our cultural moment than it does about runners. To say that men and women are different is to say something that was universally obvious until just yesterday. The created differences between men and women aren't a bug of our humanity but a feature, beautifully leading to differences in many areas of life. Women's sports should be protected because, if they aren't, men will continue to steal the place of women, not only on the winner's podium but in other areas of life too. Chromosomes, like ideas, have consequences. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 10, 2024
If you're interested in discovering how to develop the wisdom and skills needed to walk wisely in this cultural moment, then the Colson Fellows program might be for you. This ten-month program combines theological, spiritual, and worldview formation through a carefully curated combination of readings, daily devotions, live webinars, and monthly meetings with your peers. With both in-person and fully online offerings, you can choose the format that works best with your stage in life. Interested in learning more? You can explore the program and submit an application at colsonfellows.org . _______ A pitfall of the fallen human mind is how narratives shape our perception of the world, even outweighing facts and common sense. For example, nuclear power is one of the safest ways to generate electricity. According to the Our World in Data report , nuclear is 99.8% safer than coal in terms of deaths per unit of power. Yet because of three dramatic accidents and the press surrounding them— Three Mile Island in 1979 , Chernobyl in 1986 , and Fukushima in 2011 —nuclear power is widely perceived as extraordinarily dangerous and in need of claustrophobic regulation. Similarly, a narrative pushed by many in the press aims at rendering something else radioactive: home schooling . As a Washington Post analysis found late last year, home schooling is America's fastest growing form of education. Around 2.7 million students are home-schooled in America today, up by about a million since before the pandemic. For Washington Post reporters, this is scary. One article described home schooling as a "largely unregulated practice once confined to the ideological fringe," whose rise in popularity is leading critics "to sound alarms." In it, an emeritus Harvard Law professor ominously warned, "Policymakers should think, 'Wow—this is a lot of kids.' We should worry about whether they're learning anything.'" A school board member from Florida echoed their concern: "Many of these parents don't have any understanding of education. The price will be very big to us, and to society. But that won't show up for a few years." In a Washington Post story from December 2 , Peter Jamison recounted the tragic death of an 11-year-old California boy named Roman Lopez, from severe neglect and abuse. Though, as in most such cases, the story involved a broken and blended family—a factor children's rights activist Katy Faust points out is a consistent risk—according to The Washington Post , the thing to blame was that Lopez's stepmom said she was home schooling him. "Home education was an easy way to avoid the scrutiny of teachers, principals, guidance counselors," suggests Jamison. Yet, he admits, "Little research exists on the link between home schooling and child abuse. The few studies conducted in recent years have not shown that home-schooled children are at significantly greater risk of mistreatment than those who attend public, private or charter schools." And the Post wasn't finished. Nine days later, the Post devoted an article aimed at debunking the work of home-school researcher and advocate Brian Ray, who has long argued that home-schoolers out-perform their public-schooled peers. With little content to criticize Ray's methodology, the Post devoted space to quoting anti-home-schooling activists and Ray's aggrieved adult daughter. And then, three days after Christmas, the Post ran another article by Peter Jamison on the growing fear among home schooling families that state funding in the form of vouchers will come with increased government oversight. Leaving little doubt where he stands on the issue of state oversight, he threw in a story about a network of Nazi home-schoolers in Ohio. These articles reveal not only the biases of Washington Post reporters and their willingness to use scare stories in place of data, but they also expose crucial questions they are unwilling to ask, as well as assumptions about the role of parents and the state when it comes to education. To simultaneously note how home schooling has exploded in popularity but, in almost every article, refuse to ask why the popularity, is at best, a stunning lack of curiosity. If asked, I suspect the parents of the over two-and-a-half million home-schoolers in America, would say something about endless school closures during COVID , ideological indoctrination in public school classrooms , the fact that standardized test scores are at a 30-year low, and that administrators and school boards act and, at times, articulate that they know better, and parents should butt out . Perhaps many parents concluded they could do a better job teaching their kids. Perhaps they didn't think they should "butt out." Perhaps they are not comfortable with the lack of oversight in classrooms, and over teachers and school boards. Perhaps, they are skeptical of the "experts" who are "sounding alarms" about home schooling while ignoring the massive failures of the current state-run system. Ultimately, The Washington Post 's breathless attacks on home schooling reveal an unquestioned assumption that children belong primarily to the state and not to parents. The rise in home schooling, Christian schooling, parent-run charter schools, and other innovations show that more and more families are rejecting that assumption. In doing so, they are acknowledging the biblical expectation that parents, not the state, are ultimately responsible for teaching and raising children. If the press wants to keep giving home schooling the nuclear power treatment, they should also develop some curiosity about why so many parents are choosing, often at great sacrifice, to take their children's education back into their own hands. And they should ask what that says about the status quo. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 9, 2024
Since Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned over accusations of plagiarism, many in the media have defended her. The Associated Press , for instance, tweeted : "Harvard's president's resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism." It's not clear how Gay's lack of academic integrity could be a conservative "weapon," but, according to Neil Shenvi, this willingness to ignore or defend plagiarism reflects how Critical Theory "has saturated our culture." In a thread on X , Shenvi documented how key texts of Critical Race Theory disparage objective truth, merit, and neutrality: "whether they know [it] or not, many progressives have imbibed [CRT] categories, its skepticism towards 'merit,' and its belief in the ubiquity of 'white supremacy culture.'" In other words, for many in the press and academia, plagiarism is no big deal if you're from an oppressed class and have progressive views. These ideas challenge the very idea of truth and must be clarified and confronted. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 9, 2024
Seventeen hundred years ago this year, Constantine defeated his co-emperor Licinius, ending a series of civil wars and consolidating power as sole emperor of Rome. At the time, Christians saw this as the defeat of old pagan ways and the triumph of a new Christian vision of Rome. Constantine's turn to Christianity began before he abandoned Roman paganism. His children had been tutored by Lactantius, a Christian who opposed coerced worship and argued for religious liberty as long as a religious practice did not disrupt public order. Years later in 312, as Constantine went into battle against a rival, he claimed to have a vision of a symbol of Christ with the words, "in this sign, conquer." He had his soldiers paint the symbol on their shields. Constantine won the battle and converted to Christianity. The following year, he issued the Edict of Milan, which declared religious liberty across the Empire in terms that Constantine had learned from Lactantius. Constantine has been a controversial figure throughout Church history. Both the genuineness of his conversion and his impact on the Church have been consistently questioned and scrutinized. Many think that Constantine's actions to tie the Church to the empire compromised the Gospel. Often, these arguments are based on a misunderstanding of what Constantine did and fail to consider what followed from the legalization of Christianity. The Edict of Milan legalized Christianity, along with other religions. It did not declare Christianity the official imperial religion. Though Constantine's promotion of Christianity made it more popular, it was not named the imperial religion until Emperor Theodosius I in 380. Even then, Theodosius did not suppress paganism. Despite what you may have read online or seen in The Da Vinci Code movie, Constantine did not dictate doctrine to the Church. When he called the Council of Nicaea in 325 to deal with the question of the nature of Christ, a controversy that was threatening to tear the Church apart, he was performing a traditional function of Roman emperors who often acted as mediators in religious conflicts. Despite claims to the contrary, neither Constantine nor the Council of Nicaea had anything to do with the formation of the canon of Scripture. Constantine did not control the discussion at Nicaea, nor did he dictate the outcome. And even if he had tried, many bishops who attended the council had been tortured by his predecessor Diocletian. If they didn't compromise their faith then, it is silly to assume they would roll over for Constantine. The most direct result of Constantine's conversion was the end of the persecution, torture, and execution of Christians. Obviously, this was welcomed by Christians in his day, but it should also be recognized as a historical good. The Edict of Milan also furthered Christian evangelism. Prior to Constantine, the Gospel had spread to India, Armenia, and Persia, and then from Persia across Central Asia into China by the early 600s. The legalization of Christianity led to churches being founded across the Roman Empire and missionaries sent to regions outside the empire. St. Patrick was a Romanized Briton who grew up as a Christian and brought the Gospel to Ireland. In the fifth century, a Syrian Christian named Frumentius converted the king of Axum in modern Ethiopia. Together, they evangelized that kingdom. Cyril and Methodius brought the Gospel to the Slavic people of Central and Eastern Europe in the ninth century. The evangelization of these regions can be traced to the actions of Constantine. Of course, the legalization of Christianity set up a tug-of-war between Church and state. Because the faith had existed as an illegal and sporadically persecuted minority religion for centuries, the Church functioned fully independent of the state. With Constantine came new questions, such as, what properly belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God? That question remains a central issue of Western political thought today. Even in view of the historical difficulties that emerged from his conversion, we can thank God for Constantine and for the freedom for faith and the Gospel he established. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 8, 2024
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson promised to not eliminate Chicago's selective-enrollment public schools, which require entry by test and target high-achieving students. However, in the name of "equity," he is now proposing ending the selective process to get them in. Decades ago, in an essay called " Democratic Education ," C.S. Lewis described why this understanding of "equity" is doomed to fail: "[A]n education which gave the able and diligent boys no advantage over the stupid and idle ones, would be in one sense democratic. ... Then no boy, and no boy's parents, need feel inferior. An education on those lines will be pleasing to democratic feelings. It will have repaired the inequalities of nature. But it is quite another question whether it will breed a democratic nation which can survive, or even one whose survival is desirable. Truth is not democratic. ... Political democracy is doomed if it tries to extend its demand for equality into these higher spheres. Ethical, intellectual, or aesthetic democracy is death." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 8, 2024
It's not uncommon to hear artificial intelligence described as a new "tool" that extends and expands our technological capabilities. Already there are thousands of ways people are utilizing artificial intelligence. All tools help accomplish a task more easily or efficiently. Some tools, however, have the potential to change the task at a fundamental level. This is among the challenges presented by AI. If in the end it is not clear what AI is helping us to achieve more efficiently, this emerging technology will be easily abused. AI's potential impact on education is a prime example. Since the days of Socrates, the goal of education was not only for students to gain knowledge but also the wisdom and experience to use that knowledge well. Whether the class texts appeared on scrolls or screens mattered little. Learning remained the goal, regardless of the tools used. In a recent article at The Hill, English professor Mark Massaro described a "wave" of chatbot cheating now making it nearly impossible to grade assignments or to know whether students even complete them. He has received essays written entirely by AI, complete with fake citations and statistics but meticulously formatted to appear legitimate. In addition to hurting the dishonest students who aren't learning anything, attempts to flag AI-generated assignments, a process often powered by AI, have the potential to yield false positives that bring honest students under suspicion. Some professors are attempting to make peace with the technology, encouraging students to use AI-generated "scaffolding" to construct their essays. However, this is kind of like legalizing drugs: There's little evidence it will cut down on abuse. Consider also the recent flood of fake news produced by AI. In an article in The Washington Post , Pranshu Verma reported that "since May, websites hosting AI-created false articles have increased by more than 1,000 percent." According to one AI researcher, "Some of these sites are generating hundreds if not thousands of articles a day. … This is why we call it the next great misinformation superspreader." Sometimes, this faux journalism appears among otherwise legitimate articles. Often, the technology is used by publications to cut corners and feed the content machine. However, it can have sinister consequences. Of course, there's no sense in trying to put the AI genie back in a bottle. For better or worse, the technology is here to stay. We must develop an ability to evaluate its legitimate uses from its illegitimate uses. In other words, we must know what AI is for , before experimenting with what it can do. That will require first knowing what human beings are for. For example, Genesis is clear (and research confirms) that human beings were made to work. After the fall, toil "by the sweat of your brow" is a part of work. The best human inventions throughout history are the tools that reduce needless toil, blunt the effects of the curse, and restore some dignity to those who work. We should ask whether a given application of AI helps achieve worthy human goals—for instance, teaching students or accurately reporting news—or if it offers shady shortcuts and clickbait instead. Does it restore dignity to human work, or will it leave us like the squashy passengers of the ship in Pixar's Wall-E— coddled, fed, entertained, and utterly useless? Perhaps most importantly, we must govern what AI is doing to our relationships. Already, our most impressive human inventions—such as the printing press, the telephone, and the internet—facilitated more rapid and accurate human communication, but they also left us more isolated and disconnected from those closest to us. Obviously, artificial intelligence carries an even greater capacity to replace human communication and relationships (for example, chatbots and AI girlfriends). In a sense, the most important questions as we enter the age of AI are not new. We must ask, what are humans for? And, how can we love one another well? These questions won't easily untangle every ethical dilemma, but they can help distinguish between tools designed to fulfill the creation mandate and technologies designed to rewrite it. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 5, 2024
Harvard president Claudine Gay steps down over charges of plagiarism. John and Maria talk about the fallout for higher education. They also discuss the ongoing attacks on Christians in Nigeria and the expectation that billions will vote worldwide in 2024. Recommendations The New Book of Christian Martyrs by Johnnie Moore and Jerry Pattengale ICON: International Committee on Nigeria Bethel McGrew on Substack Segment 1: Claudine Gay Resigns from Harvard Claudine Gay hit with six new charges of plagiarism Harvard's Bundy Standard The Mind Virus is Finally Breaking Segment 2: Christian Massacre in Nigeria Christmas Massacres Challenge Secular Explanations of Nigeria Conflict Nigeria Massacre Sees Over 100 Christians Dead Segment 3: World Elections in 2024 Opinion: 2024 will be the biggest voting year in world history. Can democracy survive it? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 5, 2024
According to the Pew Research Center , 2023 marked a record high of Americans over 40 who have never been married. In a related study earlier in the year, a majority of Americans said that an enjoyable career and friendships were at the top of the list of things that would provide a "fulfilling life," but thought that having children or being married was "not too or not at all important." This while plenty of other studies are showing that these expectations are not yielding the expected results. American happiness is at an all-time low and the most consistently happy people in the U.S. are the married ones. Meanwhile, job satisfaction varies wildly based on income, age, and sense of meaningful contribution. Of course, marriage alone cannot make the unhappy happy or the unfulfilled fulfilled, but there's a clear picture in these numbers. Those who live for more than themselves tend to find more satisfaction and more happiness. It's as if we were made that way. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 5, 2024
Two hundred and thirty-one years ago this month, King Louis XVI of France lost his head. His execution by guillotine was a precursor of the Reign of Terror, a 10-month period from 1793 to 1794 when French Revolutionaries executed nearly 17,000 of their countrymen. Tens of thousands more died in prison or were murdered without a trial. The French Revolution, one of history's most profound examples of the power of ideas, erupted out of the Enlightenment. In the mid-eighteenth century, philosophers such as Voltaire and Diderot effectively argued that human reason and scientific inquiry, rather than religion, were the true path to progress and greater freedom. Diderot's hostility to Christianity also spilled over into his views of the nobility. After all, if there were no God then King Louis could not have been "divinely appointed." And if the king had no sacred claim to power, he had no right to live in outrageous luxury at Versailles while the French people were living in famine. Some took these ideas further than others. In 1789, a few days before a mob stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, one of its longtime prisoners was transferred to a mental asylum. In his cell, he left a manuscript that would eventually be published under the title 120 Days of Sodom . The author was the infamous Marquis de Sade. De Sade thought his novel to be the "most impure tale ever written." It depicted graphic scenes of sexual violence, torture, and murder. It was also, to the utter horror of de Sade's contemporaries and modern historians, semi-autobiographical. De Sade spent most of his life in prison or mental asylums because of his crimes against vulnerable young women and men, and his name is the source of our modern word "sadism." More than an awful story, his book was a philosophical proposal. While Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire and Diderot denied the existence of God, they still defended many distinctly Christian virtues, including the goodness of self-sacrifice and the dignity of the poor. De Sade, on the other hand, did not share these philosophical inconsistencies. According to author and pastor Andrew Wilson in his book Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West, de Sade simply had "no time" for Christian morality: "[De Sade] thought we should admit that there is no natural basis whatsoever for loving other people, forgiving them, or showing compassion. 'The doctrine of loving one's neighbor is a fantasy that we owe to Christianity and not to Nature,' [de Sade] explained. Virtue, likewise, is 'just a way of behaving that varies according to climate and consequently has nothing real about it.'" A century after de Sade, another philosopher described in stark clarity what a world without God would look like. In his " Parable of the Madman , " Friedrich Nietzsche described the death of God as "unchaining this earth from its sun." In terms of personal morality, the Marquis de Sade got there first. Like Nietzsche, he was willing to explore the realities of his evil ideas in practice. Though even the most radical sexual revolutionaries today would hesitate to claim de Sade as their intellectual forefather, they must . Before Darwin, he embraced a world where the strongest survive and most brutal thrive. Before the sexual revolution, he explored sex as only a means of pleasure, with no regard for the dignity of people or their bodies. His disgusting depictions of torture foreshadowed the horrifying medical experiments that would be performed by the Nazis in the twentieth century. His open hatred for Christianity ( he called Jesus "a scoundrel, a lecher, a showman who performed crude tricks") anticipated an argument common today that Christianity is not only anti-intellectual and anti-rational, but plain evil. For de Sade, freedom was pure license without the constraints or consequences of morality or even, for that matter, biology. This is only thinkable in a world without God, and therefore a world without any design or moral order. Those who argue for such a world have neither cause nor moral means by which to denounce the despicable behavior of de Sade or, for that matter, of Jeffrey Epstein and the men exposed when court documents were unsealed earlier this week. Thankfully, despite the terrible ideas of the Enlightenment and their consequences, the world remains securely chained to its Sun. In the real world, the freedom to be fully human is grounded in the way God made us. Thus, true freedom is always hemmed in by virtue. Among the many benefits of this worldview is the ability to fiercely repudiate the degeneracy of the Marquis de Sade, and to do so from sound philosophical footing. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 4, 2024
Recently, the University of Washington offered a girls' volleyball scholarship to a 16-year-old boy. Swimmer Riley Gaines, perhaps the nation's top advocate for female athletes, broke the news. In response, UW allegedly rescinded the scholarship offer, claiming that they didn't know the recipient was male. Some parents of girls who play in the same high school league as the boy have said that their daughters didn't realize they were being forced to compete against a male until matches were underway. Of course, they shouldn't have to think about it, and parents shouldn't have to worry about it either. It's the school's job, along with those tasked with governing school sports, to ensure fair competition and reasonable safety, and to protect the privacy of minors in spaces like locker rooms. But since many aren't doing that job, like Ohio's governor , parents have to be vigilant, ask the hard and awkward questions, and make the tough decisions. After all, it's only the new normal if everyone goes along. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 4, 2024
Recently in Vox , journalist Rachel Cohen attempted to explain how "millennials learned to dread motherhood." Noting the troubling drop in global fertility rates , Cohen spoke to dozens of women about whether they hoped to become or hoped to avoid becoming moms. "Today, the question of whether to have kids generates anxiety far more intense than your garden-variety ambivalence. For too many, it inspires dread. I know some women who have decided to forgo motherhood altogether—not out of an empowered certainty that they want to remain child-free, but because the alternative seems impossibly daunting. Others are still choosing motherhood, but with profound apprehension that it will require them to sacrifice everything that brings them pleasure. " At least part of the dynamic at work here is cultural. Technology and evolving social norms have created the impression that the choice to become parents is simply one among many lifestyle "choices" we make, such as whether to buy or rent, or whether or not to get a dog. And like those choices, we make the choice to have children or not based on convenience, enjoyment, and personal fulfillment. It's no surprise, then, that motherhood often lands on the losing side of that evaluation. This narrative has roots in second-wave feminism. Unlike early feminism, which was largely about correcting social injustices in pursuit of equal rights for women, second- and especially third-wave feminism went further, presuming that a woman's value is found entirely in how she compares to and competes with men. In the process, women's fertility was, in many ways, pathologized , treated as a bug rather than a feature of being a woman. Rather than liberating women as promised, however, one of the consequences of this brand of feminism is fear. Women have been led to believe that having children will destroy the possibility of fulfillment and happiness. This narrative is so dominant that many women feel stigma from finding any joy in motherhood. Cohen described as much in a remarkable section of her Vox piece: "When I started asking women about their experiences as mothers, I was startled by the number who sheepishly admitted, and only after being pressed, that they had pretty equitable arrangements with their partners, and even loved being moms, but were unlikely to say any of that publicly. Doing so could seem insensitive to those whose experiences were not as positive." One of the implications is that some women just won't be able to endure motherhood. It's an example of what's been called "the tyranny of low expectations." The fear becomes self-fulfilling, especially when "enjoying" the moment-to-moment experience of motherhood is the only (or at least the most important) indicator that having children was the "right choice." Of course, this whole narrative falls apart if children are not merely lifestyle choices like houses or pets. The very experience of motherhood seems to suggest as much. According to a 2022 Pew research study, 80% of parents say having children is enjoyable and rewarding. And, strangely enough, those most likely to rate parenthood highly were low-income parents. If marriage and having children is seen as merely a means to pleasure, we will be disappointed when these things are difficult, painful, or boring, as they often are. On the other hand, if life has meaning beyond comfort and pleasure, then something can be difficult and worth pursuing at the same time. Interestingly, the Vox piece about motherhood is conspicuously silent about a factor crucial to the experience of childbearing: marriage. Cohen writes as if having children is a "choice" laid squarely at the feet of women alone, as if marriage and babies have nothing to do with each other. But culture-wide decline in marriage explains some of her peers' apprehension. The American Family Survey regularly finds that married moms are among the happiest people in the country, reporting vastly higher rates of satisfaction and much lower rates of loneliness. Just as the ability to bear children is part of God's design for women, having children is an inherent part of God's design for marriage. Pursuing children outside of that design will be more painful and difficult than it was meant to be. Anyone who feels childbearing is too daunting to choose should look to the Psalmist's promise to "[d]elight [ourselves] in the Lord, and he will give [us] the desires of [our] heart." They may find that, in His grace, God gives them the grace to desire children after all. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 3, 2024
A year after a middle school in Minnesota banned phones , the principal is reporting students are "happy." Phone-related problems before the ban included "interactions of bullying, of setting up fights, (and) the gambit of a lot of the negative things ..." but that's all changed. One parent says that because of banning phones, her son "is thriving and really focused and doing really well." He even "[p]articipates in class discussions." As social psychologist Jonathan Haidt said on X, "What parent would expose their child to so many documented risks from any other consumer product?" So, why do we allow it with phones? Haidt recommends "giving only flip phones before high school and delaying the opening of social media accounts until 16." Another expert on the impact of social media is Jean Twenge. She has yet to grant social media to her 16-year-old daughter. Look—the data has never been clearer. Regulate your kids' phones and keep them off social media as long as possible. They'll thank you for it someday. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 3, 2024
In what has become a dark annual tradition, Islamic militants in Nigeria carried out targeted attacks on Christians on Christmas Eve. Up to 200 are confirmed dead and about 300 injured in the attacks that were carried out in 20 villages across the north-central state of Plateau. Islamic militants have carried out similar Christmas attacks for at least the last four years. The population of Nigeria is almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians , a religious split that largely follows geographic lines. The northern part of the country is predominantly Muslim, and the eastern and southern parts heavily Christian. The middle of the country, sometimes called the " Middle Belt ," is ethnically and religiously diverse. Not surprisingly, the threat to Christians originated from the Islamic north, though it has now spread to southern regions. Three groups are responsible for what Open Doors has called a campaign of "religious cleansing" against Christians. Boko Haram, one of the most notorious Islamist terrorist groups in the world, is responsible for killing thousands of Christians and displacing countless more since violence began to escalate in 2015. In recent years, their ruthlessness has been matched by a rival group, the Islamic State in West Africa . As dangerous as these explicitly Islamist groups are, the Fulani herdsmen are worse. Because the Fulani territory in north Nigeria is suffering from a long-term drought, the Fulani are moving south to access water. To take land and drive out Christians, the herdsmen have raided and burned villages, slaughtered villagers, destroyed crops, and engaged in a host of other atrocities. It was the Fulani who carried out this year's Christmas attacks. For years, the Nigerian government has denied the obvious religious dimensions of the Fulani herdsmen, instead claiming it to be a conflict between famers and herders. Former President Muhammadu Buhari is a Fulani. Though he attempted to address some of the economic issues that drive Fulani militancy, he consistently denied that religion played any role in the conflict, pointing out that Muslim villages were also raided. However, the vast majority of attacks were committed against Christians, including Christians in churches on Christmas and Easter. In fact, the Fulani's history of Islamic militancy dates back to the late 17th century. Denying the religious dimensions of these attacks is pure propaganda, according to the governor of the state of Plateau, Caleb Mutfwang. In a New Year's broadcast , he called for a week of mourning to begin 2024, referring to the recent killings as a "Christmas genocide" and acknowledging the over 400 that were killed just between April and June of 2023. "These unprovoked and simultaneous attacks in different villages were clearly premeditated and coordinated. These series of attacks on our people are a clear case of criminality, insurgency and terrorism and must be seen and handled in that manner if we must succeed in halting this wanton destruction of lives and property. For the avoidance of doubt, it is a misrepresentation of facts to describe these needless and unprovoked attacks on our people as a Farmer-Herder clash, as has always been the traditional narrative. Let us call a spade a spade; this is simple genocide!" Indeed, what has happened to Nigerian Christians over the past decade and more meets the established international standards for the label genocide. And yet, as Johnnie Moore noted on X , "the @StateDept is reticent to speculate on the motive of the perpetrators of a massacre of 200 Christians in Nigeria on Christmas, in an area rife with terrorists." It is highly suspect whether Nigerian Christians should expect help from Nigeria's current president, who was sworn into office last May. Not only is Bola Ahmed Tinubu a Muslim, but he also broke with the tradition of selecting a Christian as vice president. Given the nation's top two officeholders are Muslim, many are understandably skeptical of the president's condemnation of the Plateau state attacks, as well as his promise that "the envoys of death, pain, and sorrow responsible for these acts will not escape justice." Fueling the skepticism could be that in mid-December President Tinubu referred to his predecessor as "an icon of truth, justice, and patriotism." He then followed the habit of his predecessor in not acknowledging any religious motivation for the Christmas Day attacks. Even if everyone else does, Christians must not forget the spiritual root of this conflict. For over a century, God has been moving and the Church has been expanding across Africa. In 1900, there were only 9.64 million Christians on the continent. Today there are over 692 million , and they are among the most committed Christians in the world. It is not surprising that Satan would inspire their ongoing persecution. For our Nigerian brothers and sisters, we can fight on two fronts. First, we must continue to lobby our government on their behalf, asking our officials to put pressure on Nigeria to take more decisive action against Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen. Second, we must lobby Heaven, for both our persecuted brothers and sisters and their persecutors, praying that God's Kingdom would advance and win even the jihadis to Jesus. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 2, 2024
Christian faithfulness, especially at a time of cultural chaos, isn't really about trying to do great things for God. In a tweet, my friend Katy Faust of Them Before Us explained: "Afraid for the nation? Buy a house. Plant a garden. Get married. Have lots of babies. Help your children marry well, be great grandparents. You needn't run for office, start a podcast or lead a thinktank. The most powerful & countercultural work happens in your home." Amen. She then cited Jeremiah 29:5-6 , in which God told the exiles of Judah to "build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce." It can be easy to equate "greatness" with fame or followers or something loud and big. But God asks for faithfulness in whatever our hand finds to do. That was true for the exiles in Babylon, and it's still true today. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was first published 12.22.22.
Jan 2, 2024
Each of the Apostle Paul's letters to different first-century churches contains robust explanations of complex theological concepts, such as justification, sanctification, the connection between faith and works, and the role of Jewish law after Christ. In more than a few places, however, Paul drops punchy and simple statements such as, "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat" ( 2 Thessalonians 3:10 ). That's straightforward. Or how about this one: "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" ( 1 Timothy 5:8 ). That's pretty clear, too. Obviously, these statements have clear implications for husbands and fathers who abandon their spouses or children, or who fail to do what is necessary to provide for them. Today, these would also seem to indict those who pressure women into aborting a child they fathered; or those who, through IVF, create multiple embryos only to abandon some of them in freezers; or those who pressure aging parents into physician-assisted suicide. The implications of Paul's blunt and powerful statement about the responsibilities we have to those who depend on us are vast. For example, I recently asked a Colson Fellow who has taught personal finance for years at a Christian college how he integrates worldview into that class. His answer was simple: stewardship. And, then he quoted Paul's clear, pithy statement about who is worse than an infidel. Few words better encapsulate what it means to be created in the image of God than stewardship . Human beings were created by God to steward the world He made. He charged our first parents with tending His garden. Though Sin made that task more difficult, it hasn't altered His original command to His image bearers to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it." In fact, this was how He intended for us to rule benevolently and wisely over all the works of God's hands . It is in this concept of stewardship that we find the key to understanding Paul's blunt statement. It's also in this concept that the task of caring for this world is even possible, as finite people with finite resources and maybe a few hungry mouths to feed at home. Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve's home was a garden that God planted for them "in the east." This was more than a sacred flower bed. It was a sanctuary, a meeting place between God and man, and the embryonic form of the garden city that is described as complete in Revelation . The first man and woman weren't supposed to sit idly around in this garden. They were given work to do, work that would eventually involve the entire world. As theologian G.K. Beale explains , "Adam and his progeny were to expand Eden's borders until they circumscribed the earth so God's glory would thus be reflected throughout the whole world through his image-bearers." In other words, God gave humans a starting point, a home base, a focal point where their responsibilities as stewards began. They could not start with the whole world, or they never would have started. This is still true today. No matter our roles, responsibilities, or calling, we are most responsible for the people, things, and places closest to us. This principle is often called "subsidiarity" and is the basis of sound thinking on family, finances, economics, government, and much more. The reason a person who fails to care for the members of his household is "worse than an unbeliever" is that these are the people closest to him, to whom he is most responsible. As my friend pointed out, the heart of what it means to be a good manager of family finances, a good steward of church resources, a responsible leader for a Christian college, or a good city, state, or nation is to enable care for those closest. Proximity directs priority. If true, subsidiarity means that the progressive strategies for child-rearing, welfare, healthcare, and other issues that abstract responsibility back to "society" are dangerously backward. The duties in these areas lie primarily with those closest to the needs. The concepts of stewardship and proximity also mean that leading people into a mess and then abandoning them is wrong, and reflects unbelief. This would apply to parents who create and abandon excess embryos (or "donate" their gametes), as well as to Christian colleges that sell teenagers enormous amounts of debt, have them marry each other, and then send them off to be youth pastors. It's not good stewardship, and to paraphrase Paul, potentially leaves these Christian young people in infidel territory. Ultimately, this comes back to what St. Augustine called "rightly ordered loves." It's as impossible to love all people, all families, and all nations as it was for Adam to tend the whole Earth by himself. Love in the abstract is not actually love. We must love and care for particular people in particular places, and according to one of Paul's least difficult-to-understand teachings, those closest to us should be top priority. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 1, 2024
Recently, scholars announced another breakthrough discovery relating to Israel's King David . The Mesha Stele , a nearly 3,000-year-old Moabite artifact, has long divided historians, particularly a section that some claim refers to Moab's victory over "the House of David" and others think references the Moabite King Balak. Recently, however, researchers André Lemaire and Jean-Philippe Delorme examined composite images of both the stele and a paper "mask" once used to preserve it. Three deeply faded letters, they argue in a recent paper , conclusively make the case for "House of David." Much like other discoveries, such as the Tel Dan Inscription, the John Rylands Papyrus , and the discovery of the Pool of Siloam , archaeology continues to point to one of the Bible's distinctives. It's not merely a religious book. It's an account of human history, with an amazing amount of detail. It's not just "true for you but not for me." In fact, the more we dig, the more we learn that it matches reality. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published on January 26, 2023.
Jan 1, 2024
This Breakpoint was originally published on February 21, 2023. ___ Two weeks ago, what started as a routine (and, according to the preacher, "lackluster") chapel service at Asbury University became something remarkable. Instead of heading off to classes, students stayed to pray and worship. Services have continued ever since, with people traveling from near and far to join in prayer, repentance, and song. What is being called a "revival" by some and an "awakening" by others has now spread to other Christian colleges . The past few days echo the revivals that were experienced in the recent past on other Christian college campuses, including one at Wheaton College in 1995, and those at Asbury in 1970 and 1950 . In each case, there were seemingly spontaneous expressions from students of prayer, confession, and praise. The revivals of the past are an indelible part of Asbury's historical memory, and many who experienced the 1970 revival have prayed ever since for it to happen again. Revivals have been, in fact, a consistent, distinct feature of American religious life since before our nation's founding. The First Great Awakening, in the early 1700s, was part of a larger, trans-Atlantic spiritual renewal centered on personal conversion, an emphasis that had a transformative effect on the emerging American consciousness. The idea that a genuinely converted, common ploughboy was spiritually ahead of an unconverted bishop contributed to a growing anti-hierarchical attitude in the colonies. This, in time, contributed to a growing anti-monarchial mood, setting the stage for revolution. The Second Great Awakening, which swept the nation decades later, coupled a similar focus on conversion with postmillennial eschatology. Among the results was a drive for social reform. Abolitionism, temperance, and efforts against prostitution became calling cards of what came to be known as evangelicalism. Other revivals followed, and most included an added focus on foreign missions. The Prayer Meeting, or Businessmen's Revival , of the 1850s was followed by revivals in the camps of both armies during the Civil War , the urban efforts and revival preaching of D.L. Moody of the 1870s and 80s , and the theatrics of Billy Sunday's revivals at the turn of the century. Soon after came the Azusa Street Revival in California, which led to a massive growth of Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement worldwide, and then eventually led to the Jesus People of the 1970s . And those are only the "big" ones. Simply put, revivalism, with a focus on a personal faith with public implications, dramatically shaped American life and culture and is a major reason that America remained more religious than Europe for so long. At the same time, revivals and revivalism have always faced a good deal of criticism, including charges of excess, hyper-emotionalism, manufactured techniques, and anti-intellectualism . Jonathan Edwards, a major figure of the First Great Awakening, understood the dangers inherent to revivalist fervor, but he also believed in these unusual times when the Holy Spirit moved among a people. Perhaps America's greatest intellectual, Edwards prayed and worked toward revival, and he offered criteria for evaluating it. According to Edwards, a true work of the Holy Spirit elevates Christ, opposes sin and Satan, prizes the Bible, distinguishes truth from error, and manifests love. He also understood that in the midst of such a movement, there would be things to oppose as well. All of this is helpful as we try to grasp what has happened at Asbury, and now beyond, over these last two weeks. We'd do well to remember Jesus' warning that there will be tares among the wheat, and that the remarkable times in which the power of God and goodness of Christ are made manifest are ways in which God graciously prepares us for life off of the mountaintops . Though, like Peter and John, we may want to remain in such times and places, He will eventually have work for us to do elsewhere. Critics would do well to recall the history of God working through awakenings and revival, both in this nation and elsewhere, as well as the faithful who sincerely believe that God has answered their years of praying for revival to return to Asbury. What we can all be sure of (and thankful for!) is that God is constantly at work in His world, sometimes in extraordinary but most often in "ordinary" ways. God is constantly speaking through His world, through His Word, and ultimately, in His Son. May we have the ears to hear Him. And may He grant us the hearts to pray that an awareness of sin and a passion for God and His people would grow in the hearts of these students, long after the mountaintop high of the revival has faded in their memory. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 29, 2023
On our last program of the year, John and Maria talk about the most important cultural moments of 2023. If Breakpoint has helped you think clearly in 2023 about this cultural moment, you can support the work at colsoncenter.org/give . Recommendations The Colson Fellows Program What Would You Say? Videos Segment 1: The Attack on Israel The Attack on Israel Barbaric Norms: Hamas, Israel, and Just War Israel, Hamas, and Just War: Interviews with Joel Rosenberg and Eric Patterson Just War Doctrine, Israel, and Hamas Antisemitism at America's Elite Universities, Surrogacy for Gay Couples, and Canada Tries to Hide its Suicide Numbers Segment 2: Top Stories of 2023 Unconditional Conference, Leisure and American Education, and the Crisis of Trust in Science Pope Francis Announces "Radical Change in Vatican Policy" AI Chatbots Challenge What's Real ChatGPT, Consciousness, and the Human Mind UFOs and the Power of Worldview Former Muslim and Atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali Claims to be Christian and the Growth of Homeschooling Tim Keller: Pastor, Author, Theologian Passing of Henry Kissinger, Colleague of Chuck Colson Notable Deaths: Al Quie and Alice Noebel; Also, The Canadian Boarding School Segment 3: Important Cultural Artifacts of 2023 Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 29, 2023
In response to Critical Race Theory, Tennessee lawmakers have introduced a list of " divisive concepts ," which, under a law passed last year, are prohibited from being taught on college campuses. The banned concepts include ideas that cause an individual to feel discomfort, guilt, or another form of psychological distress because of their race or sex, or the idea that the state of Tennessee or the United States of America is inherently racist or sexist. Students can report professors for corrective action. Princeton University's Robert P. George tweeted in response that the best way to counter bad ideas at the university level is to expose them, not ban them: "The right strategy is creating vibrant, intellectually serious new departments & programs." Especially at the college level, we need more discussion and serious debate of ideas, not less. Young adults should be taught how to recognize, confront, and critique bad thinking, especially influential bad thinking. As C.S. Lewis said , "Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy must be answered." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published on April 21, 2023.
Dec 29, 2023
Saint Augustine famously observed that the human heart is restless until its rest is found in God. That applies not only to individuals but also to cultures and entire generations. Practically speaking, this "restlessness" can take many forms, including an unprecedented mental health crisis. The recent and much talked about report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes precisely that. As a CDC spokeswoman bluntly stated, "young people"—especially young women—"are in crisis." An article in The New York Times summarized, "Nearly three in five teenage girls felt persistent sadness in 2021 … and one in three girls seriously considered attempting suicide." Jonathan Haidt, author of The Coddling of the American Mind, painted an even starker picture : "We are now 11 years into the largest epidemic of adolescent mental illness ever recorded." The timing of this unprecedented outbreak of anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, Haidt points out, corresponds suspiciously with the rise of smartphones and social media apps. This technology led to a culture-wide exchange of what he calls a "play-based childhood" for a "screen-based" one. That exchange likely helped create a generation with fragile psyches unable to deal with life's challenges. A reason that teen girls are especially hard-hit in this crisis is they spend more time on social media platforms and websites that engender social and body anxiety. However, political views also predict psychological issues. Using Pew Research's American Trends Panel, Haidt demonstrates that liberal leanings predict the worst mental health outcomes. In fact, a majority of self-identified progressive women in Generation Z report that they have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. Age, sex, and politics are not the only predictors of trouble. Using the same set of data, political scientist and pastor Ryan Burge suggests that religious commitment is another important factor. Those who rarely or never attend religious services suffer worse mental health than those who attend regularly or weekly. Altogether, and controlling for economics and education, Americans under 25 are doing very badly when it comes to mental health. Those suffering the worst are young, female, liberal, and secular. For them, brokenness is, incredibly, the norm. On the other hand, the apparent insulating effect of religious faith and conservative philosophy is fascinating. Highly religious people are, in fact, more likely than their secular peers to describe themselves as "very happy." One explanation for this is the proven positive social effects of religious belonging, including higher occurrences of stable, loving family relationships. For example, in 2020, the Institute for Family Studies reported that those who attend church regularly are more likely to get married than their nonreligious neighbors and less likely to divorce. Still, it's worth considering whether the social benefits of religious commitment have something to do with the belief itself. Does an active faith in God reduce the impact of the mental health crisis on young people? Does a lack of religious faith leave others more vulnerable to it? Though a tough question to answer via social science, St. Augustine would say "yes." Despite his lack of familiarity with Gen Z, he would speak of their "restless hearts" seeking in politics, gender identity, and self-expression what can only be found in a relationship with our Maker. In the face of Gen Z's mental health crisis, it is the Gospel and not gloom that should motivate and inform us. As blogger and author Samuel James pointed out on Twitter , mentally broken young people may be primed to hear the truth: "Evangelicals need to disabuse themselves of the idea that Gen-Z is a wholly unreachable mass of buffered selves. The mental health crisis may cut right through secularization like butter." God has made us for Himself. The kind of postmodern individualism that Gen Z was raised with will never deliver on its promises. This mental health crisis is a spiritual crisis. We have the opportunity to introduce a generation of restless hearts to the One able to deliver on His promises to bring rest to their souls. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on April 13, 2023.
Dec 28, 2023
When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field Monday, several sports analysts called it the scariest scene they'd ever seen on a football field. Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after a routine tackle and remains in critical condition. As ESPN analyst and former player Ryan Clark described in an emotional segment , no one had prepared for this, not Hamlin, not the other players, and not media personnel. But ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky knew what to do when he didn't know what else to do. Appearing on NFL Live Tuesday morning, he said , "Maybe this is not the right thing to do but it's just on my heart that I wanna pray for Damar Hamlin right now. I'm gonna do it out loud, I'm gonna close my eyes, I'm gonna bow my head and I'm just gonna pray for him." And that's what he did. The other hosts on set joined, as did who knows how many viewers. Maybe some were comforted. Maybe others learned what it means to talk with God. It was a powerful and courageous thing to do. After praying for healing and comfort for Damar Hamlin, Orlovsky closed with: "If we didn't believe that prayer didn't work we wouldn't ask this of you God. I believe in prayer. We believe in prayer. We lift up Damar Hamlin's name in your name." And to that we can all say, "Amen." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published on January 5, 2023.
Dec 28, 2023
Not that long ago, culturally speaking, someone known throughout the world for being neighborly said some things that most likely would have gotten him fired today. And, believe it or not, he said these things on public television! Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood often performed songs he wrote to address issues that confused children or caused them to struggle. One of these songs, " Everybody's Fancy ," was featured in numerous episodes of his hit show from 1968 to 1991. He hoped to help children love and value their bodies and to respect other children, too. Rogers was, of course, completely unaware of the modern controversies over LGBTQ identities that would soon dominate the culture, but, in several lines of the song, he expressed truths that are no longer permitted to be said out loud. Take a listen: "Boys are boys from the beginning. Girls are girls right from the start. Everybody's fancy, everybody's fine. Your body's fancy and so is mine. ... Only girls can grow up to be the mommies. Only boys can grow up to be the daddies." Can you imagine someone saying these things on PBS today? In fact, in a segment last year from the Let's Learn TV series , PBS stations across the country featured a drag queen who goes by the stage name "Lil Miss Hot Mess" singing lines from his book, The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish, to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round." "Hot Mess" is a grown man who dresses in flamboyant and exaggerated women's clothing and makeup, and then seeks an audience with children. The most obvious takeaway is that any trust previous generations of parents and kids had for public television was, long ago, squandered. A second takeaway is just how quickly some ideas have shifted from being unthinkable to unquestionable. Therefore, we should doubt anyone who tries to gaslight us into thinking we're regressive bigots for believing male and female are realities built into human nature. Only a short time ago, some facts were considered so obvious and universally accepted that Mister Rogers could sing about them to children on a publicly funded medium, and no one thought anything whatsoever about gender dysphoria, transgender identity, or drag queens when he did. Does that mean Fred Rogers was a bigot? Was he a transphobe? No. In fact, no one had ever heard of such accusations at the time. As an ordained Presbyterian minister, Rogers viewed the world in a noticeably Christian way. Though he didn't often discuss his faith publicly, his dedication to and concern for children was, in very real ways, Christ- like . For example, Rogers did not avoid difficult subjects if he believed kids needed to talk about them. So, he dealt with death , divorce , and racism , and he had a way of empathizing with the especially deep sorrow and confusion children can feel over such things. "Everybody's Fancy" was Rogers' way of teaching children that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. For Rogers, that included talking about the human body as something good, as worth appreciating and caring for. Mister Rogers even taught children that one thing that made bodies special was that they were gendered, and that this gender had significance for who and what they would become in life. As he said, only boys can grow up to be daddies, and only girls can grow up to be mommies. In this, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was unlike so many children's shows that vaguely taught and sang about how "everyone is special." Barney was not only irritating, it was gnostic. Mr. Rogers, at least in this song, had a robust applied creational theology. That's not to say Mr. Rogers always got it right. It seems, for example, that his compassion eventually got in the way of clear thinking on sexuality and gender, though he kept his views quiet for the sake of avoiding controversy. Even so, his strong affirmation of the goodness and permanence of male and female—and the fact that he generated no controversy for saying these things—should make us think. What he sang then is no less obviously true now, and it's absurd to suggest that Mister Rogers was some hate-filled bigot for holding these views, as our president seemed to imply recently . No, it's those who tell children that their "fancy bodies" may, in fact, be the wrong bodies and in need of social, chemical, or surgical alteration, who are living in the land of make-believe. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on January 3, 2023.
Dec 27, 2023
Canada's campaign to normalize suicide as a viable and even preferred medical treatment continues to escalate. Already, patients have been pressured into physician-assisted suicide because of psychological pain, and even because they were too poor to pay for medical care. Last summer, Canadian Virtual Hospice released what can only be called "death ed" for kids 6-10. The Medical Aid in Dying Activity Book for kids explains why a loved one might want to die and how the process works. It's thick with euphemisms, referring to lethal injections as "medicines," to "bodies" dying instead of people, and assuring children their loved one is not really choosing to die but is in too much pain to live. As Wesley Smith wrote at National Review , children have to be convinced killing is okay: "They are not stupid and will know that their loved one is being terminated." They know what doctors are for, to help and not to harm. The adults behind this ghoulish coloring book have forgotten that. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published on January 4, 2023.
Dec 27, 2023
Today, the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns seems, at least to most of us, like an extended nightmare of yesterday. However, some of the ways that our lives changed have stuck with us. For example, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans working primarily from home has tripled since 2019. Many people will never go back to full-time commuting, nor do they want to (though there are signs of a reset on the horizon). Another change, one even more consequential for individuals and our society, is the large-scale exodus from in-person church services. According to Pew Research, though nearly all houses of worship had resumed regular, in-person services by this time last year, disappointingly few Christians had actually returned. There's the church, there's the steeple, open the door … but where are the people? Researchers from t he Survey Center on American Life and the University of Chicago found that, last year, one-third of Americans admitted to never attending religious services, up from a quarter of Americans before the pandemic. They also found no lockdown-induced surge in atheism nor drop in religious affiliation. Instead, for the most part, "religious identity remained stable through the pandemic." Apparently, large numbers of people who once identified as Christians have decided they no longer need to attend church. While COVID may have been the impetus behind this exodus, the root causes are preexisting and go much deeper. Too many Christians think of church as they would an event, concert, or TED Talk, optional experiences that can just as easily be consumed remotely. When combined with pastors and leaders who view the core purpose of church as evangelism rather than discipleship or worship and are therefore willing to do whatever seems to "work," success is just as easily measured by logins and views after the pandemic as it was by attendance numbers and growth size before the pandemic. Much is behind these shifting numbers. First and foremost, God continues to prune and winnow His Church, seeking the health of His Beloved. The broader cultural shift away from truth-claims and anything that smacks of traditional morality has only intensified in recent years. And, we should at least consider the possibility that the decline in both numbers and influence is, at least in part, a self-inflicted wound. Like C.S. Lewis' famous image of making mud pies in the slum when offered a trip to the seashore, we've baptized (and watered down) the habits of the world in place of the riches provided in the testimony of Scripture and the God-ordained practices of the Church. Why would our neighbors be drawn to warmed-over versions of the world's leftovers? To use a pair of homespun metaphors, the kind of bait used determines the kind of fish caught. Or, more prosaically, what you win people with is what you win them to . After decades of appealing first and foremost to whatever people want and editing to whatever they think, we've essentially discipled a generation that will only follow a Church that leads where they want to go. In every age, a true and real Christianity finds much to critique as well as to affirm. If we aren't willing to challenge the sacred cows of our day, if we aren't up to preaching what Tom Holland called the "weird stuff" of our faith , we will find (and perhaps even now we are finding) that no one is interested in what we have to say because we aren't saying much worth hearing. Our embodied and relational nature, which required an embodied and relational salvation, is one of those things. Thus, the author of Hebrews warns his readers not to forsake gathering together "as is the habit of some." And thus, when the Apostle Paul sought to explain the relationship between Christ and His Church, he invoked marriage. The love between a husband and wife symbolizes the love Jesus has for His Bride. The profound "mystery" to which Paul refers is the total union (body and soul) between the Savior and His saved people. Our lives in Christ are just as physical as marriage. If you wouldn't try a purely virtual relationship with your spouse, you shouldn't try a virtual relationship with Christ or His people. Both require and deeply involve our bodies, and Christ could not have made this any clearer than He did by placing a family meal at the center of Christian worship, commanding us to "take and eat." Unless limited by a health issue, attending a house church, or using creative sanctuary furnishings, Christians should always choose pews over couches. And churches should choose the truth-claims and practices of Holy Scripture over market-driven research. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to colsoncenter.org. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on February 16, 2023.
Dec 26, 2023
It is typically entertaining when two popular intellectuals get into a public spat. Recently, Canadian psychologist and YouTube star Jordan Peterson called out the famous British biologist Richard Dawkins with an "I told you so!" After Dawkins complained on Twitter about New Zealand elevating traditional Maori stories to the same level as Western science, Peterson retorted, "Welcome to the world of post-humanism, sir. A world which you sadly helped birth. … [I]t wouldn't surprise me at all if the woke polytheistic neopaganists destroy science faster than they destroy Christianity." On one hand, Dawkins is right that the whole genius of "Western" science is that it isn't just Western. But, as Peterson not so gently noted, Dawkins has spent his career tearing down the religious foundations upon which Western science is built. Without God and all that His existence implies, there is no solid ground for saying that any knowledge, scientific or otherwise, is true for everyone. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published on July 12, 2023.
Dec 26, 2023
Today, January 13, we remember the Hussites who, on this day in 1501, published the first hymnal in history written in the language of the common people. The descendants of the Hussites are known as the Moravian Brethren, who carry on the rich tradition of hymns and church music today. Christians have good reason to commemorate this event. After all, ours, like Judaism, has always been a singing faith. The longest book in the Bible, and the one at its center, is the Psalms, a word that means "songs." David's plans for the Temple included clans of Levites whose entire job was music. Choirs, soloists, orchestras, and antiphonal singing were prescribed parts of Temple life and practice, and an entire class of Psalms, the Songs of Ascent, were sung by the people as they traveled to Jerusalem for the annual pilgrimage festivals. Throughout the biblical texts, music is also connected to prophecy and to dealing with evil spirits . Jesus and the apostles sang a hymn after the Last Supper, according to two of the Gospels. The Apostle Paul specifically associates singing with being filled with the Spirit in his epistle to the church at Ephesus. And, in John's Revelation of what is constantly happening around the throne of God, there is lots of singing, sometimes accompanied by harps . Music also is part of the culmination of the creation story. When Eve is taken from Adam's side, Adam awakes and exclaims, " This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. " Many scholars believe this to essentially be a celebratory song. Eliminating the musical element from the text of Scripture would be to gut them and the practices that have emerged from them. Monks chanted the Psalms daily, in some cases covering the entire Psalter in a week. Medieval thinkers thought of the human heartbeat, respiration, and daily cycle of sleeping and waking as "music." They also believed the motion of the heavenly bodies was regulated by the "music of the spheres." To the medieval mind, music was a glue holding the universe together. These ideas shaped the imaginations of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who used music as the agent of creation in their respective tales of Narnia and Middle Earth. In the Reformation, Martin Luther reintroduced congregational singing to the liturgy, an idea that spread through all the branches of Protestantism and, eventually, returned to the Roman Catholic Church. Reformed Christians focused on singing the Psalms and other songs from Scripture, though some also incorporated hymns in their worship. All of this points to a central truth of a Christian worldview, that God loves music. Because music has been so central to Church worship and the Christian imagination, the first common-language hymnal is a milestone to remember and an opportunity to reflect on how music serves Christian worship today. While I have no desire to reignite the "worship wars" of recent decades, Christians should not think of music as mere decoration to services that are really about teaching and preaching. The essential question, even as music styles change and new music is created and incorporated, is what is music in worship services for ? The Psalms offer essential guidance. Some are songs of praise, others are confessions, but the largest category of Psalms are laments. In other words, the Psalms cover the full range of human emotions, bringing the totality of human experience into corporate worship. And yet, the Psalms always direct our attention to God. Even when talking about their own experiences and hardships, they always turn attention outward and upward, from self and toward God. And often, this is done by remembering what God has done and who He has revealed Himself to be. Too often, music utilized in churches fails to take us past expressing our own thoughts and feelings about God and, too often, only songs that elicit positive and happy emotions are sung. This does not follow the model of Scripture, a model that helps God's people see trouble and sorrow in light of God's faithfulness and character. This also misses what music is for. Music instructs. It is a tool of catechetical instruction, not merely a time of self-expression. In the end, songs centered on the subjective experience of Christians quickly become sources of bad theology. Another consideration is that music is for the entire congregation. When music in the church is primarily about the performance of professional musicians, the songs are unsingable to much of the congregation. This is not an issue of style or preference. I thank God for modern writers of hymns and songs committed to producing music that is true and excellent for the glory of God and the people of God. Music is a gift of God, a unique way of connecting His revelation with our hearts and minds. St. Augustine is thought to have said, "he who sings, prays twice." The Church must recover a more robust understanding and practice of music. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on January 13, 2023.
Dec 25, 2023
As we celebrate Christmas today, let's look back at the world into which the Word who became flesh entered human history. It was a world shaped by the worship of false gods, gods who didn't care about their worshippers with worshippers who didn't care much about each other. The God who became flesh changed everything. His life, death, and resurrection not only exposed the false gods for the counterfeits they were, but His followers demonstrated a new way. As historian Rodney Stark puts it, Jesus' followers offered "mercy and security" to a world filled with "squalor, misery, illness, and anonymity." What started in Bethlehem two millennia ago continues today. Jesus is still disarming false "gods," like money, fame, sex, and power, and His followers are still called to to offer a better way of being human than anything currently offered in contemporary society. This is the gift we have to offer the world. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published on December 25, 2020.
Dec 25, 2023
As you enjoy this Christmas in the company of friends and family, be sure to reflect on how the babe in the manger reveals to us God's wonderful love. But even more, as Chuck Colson explained over a decade ago, remember the cosmic implications of the incarnation … that God would indeed become flesh. Here is Chuck Colson. "The manger scene inspires a sense of awe and comfort to the hearts of Christians everywhere. But we often forget the staggering implications of Christmas. What image does the mention of Christmas typically conjure up? For most of us, it's a babe lying in a manger while Mary and Joseph, angels, and assorted animals look on. Heartwarming picture, but Christmas is about far more than a Child's birth—even the Savior's birth. It's about the Incarnation: God Himself, Creator of heaven and Earth, invading planet Earth, becoming flesh and dwelling among us. It's a staggering thought. Think of it: The Word—that is, Logos in the Greek, which meant all knowledge that could be known, the plan of creation—that is, ultimate reality, becomes mere man? And that He was not born of an earthly king and queen, but of a virgin of a backwater village named Nazareth? Certainly, God delights in confounding worldly wisdom and human expectations. Thirty years after His humble birth, Jesus increased the Jews' befuddlement when He read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor … to proclaim release to the captives … to set free those who are downtrodden.' Jesus then turned the scroll back and announced, 'Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' In effect, the carpenter's son had just announced He was the King. So yes, the birth of Jesus is a glorious moment, and the manger scene brings comfort and joy and Christmas cheer. But it should also inspire a holy terror in us—that this baby is God incarnate, the King who came to set captives free, through His violent, bloody death on the cross as atonement for us, His unworthy subjects. It's through the Incarnation God sets His grand plan in motion. He invades planet Earth, establishing His reign through Christ's earthly ministry. And then Christ leaves behind an occupying force, His Church, which is to carry on the work of redemption until His return and the kingdom's final triumph. Do we get this? I'm afraid most of us are so preoccupied and distracted by last-minute Christmas shopping and consumerism, we fail to see God's cosmic plan of redemption in which we, as fallen creatures, are directly involved. Well, the average Christian may not "get" this announcement, but those locked behind bars do. Whenever I preach in the prisons, and I read Christ's inaugural sermon, Luke 4:18, and when I quote His promise of freedom for prisoners, they often raise their arms and cheer. The message of Jesus means freedom and victory for those who once had no hope. They're not distracted by the encumbrance of wealth and comfort. People in the developing world get it, too. Whenever I've shared this message with the poor and oppressed people overseas, I see eyes brightening. Stripped of all material blessings, exploited by earthly powers, they long for the bold new kingdom of Christ. Today is Christmas. Go ahead, enjoy singing about and celebrating the birth of the Savior. Set up a manger scene in your home. But don't forget this earth-shaking truth: The birth of the Baby in the manger was the thrilling signal that God had invaded the planet. And that gives us real reason to celebrate Christmas. For all of us at Breakpoint , this is Chuck Colson in Washington, wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on December 23, 2020.
Dec 22, 2023
John and Maria discuss the inconsistencies and fallout from the Pope's decision to "bless" same sex "marriage". A New York Times op-ed criticizes a popular children's program for its dad-affirming story lines. Also, John and Maria take a look at the theology of Christmas. Recommendations A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens The Muppet Christmas Carol Let Our Gladness Have No End by Sara Groves Segment 1: Papal Blessing of Same Sex Marriage "After approving blessings for same-sex couples, Pope asks Vatican staff to avoid 'rigid ideologies'" "Pop Francis Allows Priests to Bless Same-Sex Couples" Segment 2: Bluey Under Attack "'Bluey' and 'Chip Chilla' Offer a Fantasy of a Fun TV Dad" Segment 3: Theology of Christmas For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 22, 2023
In anticipation of Christmas, let's revisit the account from Luke 1 of the angel Gabriel visiting Zechariah to announce the birth of his son, John. According to Gabriel, John's role was "to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." Karl Barth, the famous 20th-century theologian, was inspired by a depiction of John the Baptist by Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald. In it, John stands to the right of the crucified Christ, pointing, as Barth put it, "in an almost impossible way" toward His savior. Barth had a print of the work hanging in his office. It reminded him that his job was not merely critiquing theology but always pointing to Christ. As we enter Christmas and the New Year, let's do the same—keep pointing to Christ. And as we point to Christ, we point to reality, because in Him, as the Apostle Paul says, "all things hold together." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was first published 12.23.22.
Dec 22, 2023
One overlooked grace from God is that He, in His infinite wisdom, gave us four Gospels, instead of just one or two. For example, if it were up to only Matthew and Mark, we'd have the impression that John the Baptizer appeared out of nowhere and was more than a little weird. After all, it is from their accounts of John that we learn of his odd wardrobe and even odder diet. A point about John that every one of the Gospels emphasizes is that he was a fulfillment of a promise from the prophets Malachi and Isaiah: "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me" ( Malachi 3:1 ). A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God" ( Isaiah 40:3 ). Neither Matthew, whose Gospel begins with a nativity story, nor Mark, whose Gospel does not contain an account of Jesus' birth, include any details that connect John to the beginning of Jesus' story. Luke and John, however, do make that connection. Luke's Gospel contains the most details about John's beginning, specifically that, like Jesus, John's birth was miraculous and also involved a visitation from the angel Gabriel. But it is one particular detail, one often overlooked detail, that is especially remarkable and instructive for our cultural moment. Luke reveals that John the Baptist was the first person—other than Mary, who was told by the angel—to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. While Mary was still pregnant with Jesus, she went to visit John's mother Elizabeth, who was also still pregnant. Luke describes what happened, likely telling the story as he had heard it from Mary herself: "And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.'" So, Elizabeth then becomes the third person to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, and she seems to imply that her own preborn child had informed her about the identity of Mary's preborn child. This account, described in only six verses, speaks volumes about how God thinks of life in the womb, when life begins, when our unique identity as human beings begins, the value of preborn human life, and even how God's purpose for our lives means something from the start. In fact, the angel Gabriel had already informed Zechariah, John's father, about who his son would be : "[Y]our wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb . And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." In this interaction between Mary, Elizabeth, and their preborn children, John is already fulfilling the purposes God has for him, in utero. While still in her womb, John helped his own mother prepare for the coming of the Lord. She then encouraged Mary in her preparation for the coming of the Lord, the One she was carrying at that time. After Elizabeth's encouragement, Mary breaks out into song, the Magnificat, uttering words that have not only instructed and encouraged millions of people throughout Christian history as they prepare for the Lord, but which also definitively answer the question immortalized in another song, "Mary, Did You Know?" Apparently, she knew, and she composed a whole song about it. As we head to the end of 2023, would you keep Breakpoint and the Colson Center in mind as you plan your year-end giving? These daily commentaries reach and equip hundreds of thousands of people each week, carrying on the vision that God gave Chuck Colson 35 years ago. If Breakpoint has helped you think clearly in 2023 about this cultural moment, you can support the work at colsoncenter.org/give . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 21, 2023
Back in 2016, Steve Tennes, owner of Country Mill Farms, posted on Facebook that because of their deeply held religious beliefs about marriage, the farm would continue to host weddings, but only between a man and a woman. In response, the city of East Lansing, Michigan, passed a regulation to prevent Country Mill Farms from participating in its farmer's market. This despite the fact that the Tenneses had participated for over five years without complaints. The Alliance Defending Freedom filed suit on their behalf. According to the judge's opinion, the city's policy was "veiled cover for targeting belief or a faith-based practice." Last week, the city of East Lansing agreed to settle and pay $825,000 to Country Mill Farms. According to the ADF press release, "as part of the settlement agreement, the city of East Lansing agreed that Tennes is free to continue running his business in accord with his religious beliefs about marriage without jeopardizing his ability to participate in the city's farmer's market." This is great news for people of conscience. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 21, 2023
In December 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified by the United States. Though these 10 amendments to the Constitution are rarely mentioned after high school civics class, recent events here and abroad offer a glimpse of life without those rights and a reminder why they are so important as a defense against ideological overreach. If a proposed new law passes the legislative process in Ireland, the famous Irish gift of gab will require government approval. As Kristen Waggoner of Alliance Defending Freedom recently noted in Newsweek , this potential restriction is, at best, vague. Even though it targets "hate," it never defines what "hate" is. As she put it, "How is the public to know what kind of speech could be subject to prosecution? Given that "hate" is an impossible word to define in law (and is not defined in this bill), this paves the way for basically any expression considered unfavorable to be prosecuted in the future." Vagueness in a national law is, in practice, an open invitation for state-based abuse, yet that is not this particular law's only problem. If it goes forward, refusing to give the police your password if they have a search warrant will be treated as a crime, and merely possessing material that "is likely to incite violence or hatred" might get you two years in jail. In other words, according to this proposed law, a crime doesn't even have to involve actually hating anyone or saying something that could be hateful. Anything that the powers-that-be think could possibly be interpreted as hateful would be sufficient. It's no wonder Waggoner added, "[I]t's not hard to imagine Ireland rapidly descending into an authoritarian state with the passage of this law." Back in June, Pauline O'Reilly of the Green Party defended the proposed law with a line directly out of the totalitarian playbook: "We are restricting freedom, but we're doing it for the common good." This would include curtailing rights guaranteed in the Irish constitution "if people's views on others cause them deep discomfort." Again, under this view, no crime has to be committed, if someone is caused "deep discomfort." This kind of scrutiny will, of course, target some and not others. To paraphrase George Orwell's great line from Animal Farm , all discomfort is equally wrong, but some are more equal than others. The way this inverted logic most often plays out is by the argument that not all speech is protected speech. Typically, this reasoning is followed by the necessary caveat, "After all, you can't yell fire in a theater!" This logical-sounding and necessary exception, however, becomes less exceptional when it is applied to more and more speech that a select few deem dangerous. In practice, at least in the United States, appeals to burning theaters have rarely, if ever, held up in court. As Jeff Kosseff notes in his new book Liar in a Crowded Theater , "[O]ne reason that a wider swath of false speech does not fall within an exception to the First Amendment is because regulation is simply not terribly effective at achieving the government's goals." The First Amendment has, so far, been an effective barrier against unnecessary limits on freedoms, even when done "for our good." On the other hand, situations in European countries that lack anything like our First Amendment, not to mention the selective censorship at America's elite universities , expose how much can go wrong when there's nothing to limit the people in power from acting for our own good. As C. S. Lewis put it in God in the Dock : "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." The reason that the speech protections of the First Amendment, with its guarantees of liberty of conscience, do not exclude speech that is merely offensive is that inoffensive speech doesn't need protection. By allowing potentially and even truly wrong things to be said, the Bill of Rights ensures space for the truth to be heard, and for those committed to truth to make the case for it. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 20, 2023
On Monday, a document released by the Vatican doctrine office announced what the Associated Press called "a radical change in Vatican policy." In it, Pope Francis formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples as long as it was not done "liturgically" nor could otherwise be confused with the Sacrament of Marriage. If he hoped to avoid confusion, he failed. Confusion is, unfortunately, a standard part of Francis' tenure, who tends to lead and speak in ways less than clear. In fact, the announcement took the same two approaches that have long characterized moves made to liberalize Christianity to a progressive vision of sexuality and marriage. The first approach is to separate doctrine from love, as if clarity on a doctrinal point is incompatible with love of God and love of others. The second approach is to separate doctrine from pastoral practice, as if telling the truth about something core to who we are as human beings isn't one of the most important aspects of pastoring. This kind of confusion never comes from God. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 20, 2023
Nearly a year after COVID shutdowns began in the United States, the ABC affiliate in San Francisco ran this headline : "Private schools opening in-person where public schools aren't." In February 2021, while the majority of private schools in California were back in-person, most public schools were still "distance learning." Around the same time, the public health department in Toledo, Ohio, had ordered all schools back to distance learning for the winter. Local gyms, offices, and casinos were allowed to stay open. In response, a small private Christian school sued . The 6th Circuit decided in their favor, and the school stayed open while every public school in the area remained closed. Stories like this repeated all over the country from the fall of 2020 through the end of the pandemic. Public schools, under the direction of teachers' unions and, at times, overzealous public officials, stayed closed for weeks, months, and, in some cases, years longer than private schools. Now, the results are in from these experiments, and the data show a devastating effect on kids. Last month, The New York Times editorial board wrote that "The Startling Evidence on Learning Loss Is In." According to the piece, school closures set math and reading scores among 9-year-old students back by at least 20 years. "The challenges have been compounded by an epidemic of absenteeism," the editors wrote, "as students who grew accustomed to missing school during the pandemic continue to do so after the resumption of in-person classes." Tragically, too many public officials were taken in by the narrative that to contract COVID, even for kids at low risk for serious infection, was more dangerous than two decades' worth of learning loss. Unfortunately, kids are now paying the price. And as this generation of kids gets older, society will pay the price, too. The fact that so-called "distance learning" was mostly "no learning" says a lot about the kind of creatures human beings are. Kids, like all humans, are embodied beings, which makes being physically together with others a categorically different thing than only seeing faces on a screen. God made us for relationships. As helpful as computers and phones are, they are not substitutes for real people. In short, technology can enhance learning, but even the most sophisticated technologies should not shape learning. The data on COVID-era learning loss reveals something else about children. The terrible numbers were not nearly as terrible for kids with heavily engaged parents . This played out in multiple ways. In the cases of schools that reopened much earlier than others, it was often parents pushing local officials. For kids forced into prolonged distance learning, those with parents who made sure they showed up to Zoom class and helped with homework did best overall. Of course, the importance of parental engagement in education was another condition that pre-existed COVID. Still, data from before, during, and after the pandemic show that parents are the single most important factor in the education of a child and a healthy home the most important ingredient for a successful life. This is a remarkable opportunity for Christians. The Church has always cared about kids , and the Church has always cared about education . The state-centric way of trying to prepare a new generation of citizens is not fulfilling its promise. Thankfully, there are many Christians dedicated to serving kids as best they can in and out of public schools. Others are innovating new ways to do school, including starting Christian schools inside church buildings in struggling communities. Others are advocating for school choice so that every family can afford to send their kids to schools that will serve them best. And others are working to provide resources and opportunities for those kids who remain within the public system. This is why the Colson Center has doubled down on our investment in Christians who are called to the realm of education. To this end, we have developed resources to form teachers in a Christian worldview and help them apply it to their work. Find out more and access the free training resources at educators.colsoncenter.org. To support this work and resource more educators with a Christian worldview, give at colsoncenter.org/december . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 19, 2023
The Supreme Court has decided to hear a case about chemical abortion. The case will consider whether certain regulations for the so-called "abortion pill" (which is really a two-pill regimen) should have been jettisoned in 2021 when, using COVID as cover, the FDA removed the requirement of an in-person consultation before issuing a prescription. Chemical abortions are now accessed by mail and telemedicine across state lines. Unfortunately, the case won't consider the FDA's original approval of chemical abortion, which was rushed through two decades ago without adequate consideration of the risk to women. Now, without the supervision of a medical professional, the risk to women is even greater. In fact, chemical abortions carry a complication rate four times higher than surgical abortion. Of course, there are no safe abortions anyway. Every "successful" abortion always results in the loss of life. Abortion by mail only makes both the vulnerable and the guilty less accountable for a terrible decision. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 19, 2023
In the beloved movie The Princess Bride the character Vizzini frequently cries, "inconceivable!" about things that keep happening. Finally, another character observes , "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." That scene comes to mind annually, when Merriam-Webster Dictionary announces its "word of the year." The announcement is intended to recognize words that have defined our cultural moment. In recent years, it has recognized words our cultural moment has redefined. For example, last year's word "gaslighting" describes unhealthy behavior in which someone tries to manipulate you into questioning your sanity. However, like the word "toxic" before it, "gaslighting" is now a catch-all term used by some to shut down pretty much anyone who disagrees with them. "They" was the 2019 word of the year, which, in ordinary English, is a third-person plural pronoun. In today's Newspeak , it's a mandatory way of referring to someone who claims to be "nonbinary," also a redefined word. This year's word is "authentic," which the dictionary defines as "not false or imitation: real, actual," or "worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact." However, the context in which this word is most frequently and passionately used is the debate over gender identity, as in "be your authentic self." So, it now refers to anything but reality or conformity to fact. To be "authentic" in 2023 often means stubbornly ignoring fact, hormonally masking or surgically reconstructing fact, and demanding that others also ignore fact, even in classrooms, competitions, locker rooms, and in print. In short, "authenticity" now means conformity with subjective internal feelings that are widely assumed to be the defining feature of individuals and the highest value in society. Theologian Carl Trueman documented how we got to this place—how the self became psychologized, how psychology became sexualized, and how sex became politicized—in his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self . This new definition of "authenticity" is part of that story—that living a fulfilling life consists primarily in looking within, discovering who you "truly are," and then projecting that identity into the world. These are all central to his account. Trueman explains : "Expressive individualism particularly refers to the idea that in order to be fulfilled, in order to be an authentic person, in order to be genuinely me, I need to be able to express outwardly or perform publicly that which I feel I am inside. … In a society where the expressive individual is increasingly the norm and increasingly presented as that which we should all be, then the idea of society itself forcing us to play a role that we don't feel comfortable with inside makes us inauthentic." This new definition of "authentic," that what I feel inside is the highest truth, would have baffled people in centuries past and still baffles many non-Westerners today. However, the real problem is that this new definition of "authentic" is utter nonsense. Truth is not primarily subjective but objective. Reality is not decided by individuals but given by a Creator. One of the things our Creator both demands of us and enables us to do through redemption is conform our inner selves to His will and design, which He reveals, objectively, in both creation and Scripture. To be authentically me is to be who God says I am. Our identity is established by, guaranteed by, and secured in Jesus Christ. Even more important than getting words right is pointing to the reality to which words refer and are permanently tethered. Words become nonsense otherwise, and that should make this practice of redefining words truly "inconceivable." Before I sign off today, I wanted to say thank you for making Breakpoint a part of your Christian worldview diet. Everywhere I travel, I meet listeners who share how these daily doses of clarity help them think biblically, have hard conversations, and disciple their kids and grandkids. If Breakpoint has been a help to you and your family, please consider making a year-end gift of support at colsoncenter.org/give . This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 18, 2023
A listener recently asked how to respond to the accusation that Christians are not free thinkers. One way is to go over the list of novelists, artists, scientists, and philosophers from the last two millennia and see how many of them were Christians or worked from a broadly Christian framework. Consider also how much art over the past 20 centuries can be called "sacred." Read Augustine of Hippo or Jonathan Edwards and see if they qualify as free thinkers. Learn about the lives of scientists like Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Galileo and others. And then look up how much science advanced before Christian civilization. Christians believe the world is knowable and that, made in God's image, we are knowers. There is no thinking without that basis. And then you need to be clear about the word "free." Historically, that meant the freedom to do whatever he or she wanted to do. Those people rarely made the world better. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 18, 2023
Many Christians are familiar with the beautiful and tender words of the medieval theologian Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) in the hymns "O Sacred Head Now Wounded," "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee," and "Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts." Like other Church Fathers, he also preached on the topics of Advent and Christmas and had rich words to share. As well as a theologian, Bernard was a Church reformer, mystic, and abbot of the Cistercian monastery at Clairvaux. He played important roles in both ecclesiastical and secular politics, particularly as a preacher of the Second Crusade. Because of his eloquence and his emphasis on divine love, Dante made him his final guide of Paradise in his Divine Comedy. He was also cited by major Protestant Reformers such as Luther and Calvin as supporting justification by faith. Although Bernard is known for holding a very high view of Mary, the overall focus of his Sermon 9 on the Nativity remains squarely on Jesus. It was built around a repeated refrain: "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Judah." In the first part of the sermon, Bernard emphasized the absolute wonder of this proclamation: A voice of gladness has resounded in our land. In the dwellings of sinners a voice of joy and salvation has been heard. The good news has been announced, news of comfort, news of rejoicing, worthy of all acceptance. Rejoice and give praise, O you mountains. All you trees of the forest applaud before the face of the Lord, for now he is coming. Hear, you heavens; and you, earth, give ear. Let the whole of creation be astounded and give praise; but you, O humans, above all others. For "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Judah." Bernard described this news as the sweetest, the most delightful, and the best to ever come to Earth. Words were inadequate, he said, to express the love that wells up in his heart at the beauty of the message. He then explained that every word in the sentence is full of meaning. The name "Jesus" points to Him as the source of salvation. The title "Christ" points to His anointing and the healing unction He provides. The title "Son of God" points to His greatness and the gifts He gives. Bernard continued: Take courage, you who are lost, for to seek and save that which was lost Jesus now comes. Return to health, you who are sick, for with the ointment of mercy Christ comes to heal the contrite of heart. Rejoice all you who are ambitious for great things, for the Son of God descends on you to make you co-heirs of his own kingdom. … Why has the Son of God become Man but in order to make all men sons of God? Who, then, will resist his will? Jesus forgives us: who then will condemn us? Christ heals us: who will hurt us? The Son of God raises us up: who will put us down? Jesus is born: let the person whose sinful conscience deserves eternal damnation rejoice, for Jesus' pity exceeds all crimes, no matter how great their number or enormity. Christ is born: therefore, let the person who is tormented by deeply rooted vices rejoice. For no spiritual illness, no matter how chronic, can stand its ground before Christ's healing ointment. The Son of God is born: let him whose habit is to desire great things rejoice, for the giver of great things is at hand. Then Bernard explained "in Bethlehem of Judah." Bethlehem means "house of bread," and so we need to receive the food that comes from heaven in Scripture and in Christ, the Bread of Life. He noted that Jesus could have been born in a palace, but instead chose a small, poor village, because the only commodity absent in heaven and abundant on Earth is poverty. Citing Genesis 49, Bernard defined "Judah" as "confession," concluding that we need to become like Bethlehem in Judah, receiving Jesus by faith and confessing Him with our mouth so that we may be saved. Bernard's sermon reminds us how easy it is to miss the astonishing wonder of all that the Incarnation means. So, to celebrate Christ's birth, we must intentionally take the time to ponder the wonder of it, rejoice in it, and respond in faith to all that God has done for us. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 15, 2023
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss prenatal genetic testing and Trisomy 18 after a Texas woman's request for an abortion was denied by the Texas Supreme Court. Also, Rob Reiner is releasing a negative documentary on Christian Nationalism, and SCOTUS will hear a challenge on access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Recommendations Colson Center National Conference Segment 1: Prenatal Genetic Testing and the Texas Abortion Case "TX Supreme Court Rules Woman Can't Get In-State Abortion " "5 Things to know about the latest abortion case in Texas" Segment 2: New Documentary on "Christian Nationalism" "Rob Reiner Takes on Christian Nationalism Threat in "God and Country" Trailer " "Rob Reiner is deluded about 'Christian Nationalism'" Segment 3: Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case on Abortion Drug Access "Supreme Court Agrees to Take Up Case on abortion drug access" "Appeals Court Rules FDA Must Restore Safeguards for Chemical Abortion Drugs" For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 15, 2023
According to conservative commentator Ann Coulter, the pro-life movement "has gone from compassion for the child to cruelty to the mother (and child). Trisomy 18 is not a condition that is compatible with life." She was referring to a Texas Supreme Court decision rejecting a woman's request for an abortion on the basis of a health exception. Trisomy 18 is a genetic disorder of which 50% of babies die within their first week of life and 90-95% don't survive after one year. But this shows why phrases like "incompatible with life" are so problematic. Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum responded to Coulter with a photo of his daughter Bella, who has Trisomy 18, and is now 15 years old. Trisomy 18 does not risk the life of the mom. And Trisomy 18 does not make a baby less human, and therefore no less valuable. But adopting language like "incompatible with life" will make doing the right thing far less likely. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 15, 2023
Rob Reiner, known for his role as "Meathead" in the 1970s sitcom All in the Family and for producing movie classics like The Princess Bride, recently announced a new documentary he helped produce about the dangers of Christian Nationalism . According to Reiner, opposing abortion and the LGBTQ agenda are central tenets of Christian Nationalism . Several evangelicals, current and former, are featured in the documentary. It's always strange when a non-Christian explains to Christians what is and what is not true Christianity. Even stranger is when professing Christians who have abandoned Christian moral teaching about creation, sex, and marriage—as is the case with a few of the experts interviewed—are asked to define Christian faithfulness. All of this means that believers need to have a better understanding of this contentious idea, which has gotten so much attention in recent years. A helpful place to start is to understand the place of nations in the Christian concept of the world. The first use of the Hebrew word for "nation" appears in Genesis 10 in a listing of nations that descended from the sons of Noah. It's notable that this first reference comes before the Tower of Babel, when God created more nations by confusing the languages and scattering people across the Earth. Nations, it seems, were part of God's plan for humanity even before the rebellion at Babel. And, in that story, the dividing into tongues and scattering of people is described more as an act of mercy than judgment, to prevent humans from doing all that was possible as one people. In Genesis 12 , God tells Abram that his descendants would become a great nation, and that, through them, all the nations of the world would be blessed. The Old Testament frequently refers to the Jewish people as a nation and uses the same word to describe the kingdoms and empires around them. In the New Testament, ethne, the Greek word for "nation," most famously appears in Jesus' instructions to make disciples "of all nations," which is a fulfillment of God's original promise to Abraham. Also interesting is that in the New Testament, language about nations seems to exclude "empire." Though ethne can be translated either as "people group" or "nation," the two are related. Historically, the word "nation" referred to a relatively homogenous group, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically. Each kingdom of the ancient world mostly consisted of people of a single nation. Thus, ethne can refer to a people group within an empire, but not to empires themselves which contain multiple nations. Nations are also present in biblical descriptions of the coming Kingdom. So, it seems that something of the nations will survive into eternity. For example, Micah 4:2 says: Many nations shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Also, Revelation 21:24 says that "by the light [of God and of the Lamb] will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it [the New Jerusalem]." Of course, because human beings are fallen, everything humans build is susceptible to sin, including nations. Just as sins characterize our lives as individuals, certain sins dominate nations, corrupting their cultures. And, just as humans must be cleansed of sin to enter the Kingdom, so must nations be cleansed from sins to have any place in the New Heavens and New Earth. The high views that J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis held of ancient northern European culture show up in their tales of Narnia and Middle Earth. They believed virtue could be found, but they also recognized the evils of Norse paganism. Thus, they argued for a recovery of a "northernness" cleansed of its paganism and Christianized by the Gospel. All that the cleansing of nations entails isn't clear, but the result is beautifully described in Revelation 7 , where "a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages" join together in worshipping the Lamb. This confirms that, at least to some degree, our nationality will accompany us into eternity. Rather than homogenizing us, God's Kingdom will be a glorious mosaic of people of different races, ethnicities, and nations. This makes sense given that God delighted in the diversity of His creation. Of course, all good loves, including love of spouse, child, family, community, or culture, can be disordered and even idolatrous. Nationalism becomes idolatry whenever love of nation devolves into an excessive or uncritical devotion, is confused with the Kingdom of God, justifies evil, or engages in a partiality that treats citizens of other nations as less worthy of love or justice or charity. However, the idea that nations should be defined, self-governing, morally upright, and the immediate object of Christian stewardship is not idolatry. Christians are called to steward the nations they are in. After all, our nations are the most obvious aspect of the time and place in which God has placed us. What all nations have in common is that Jesus rules over them all, and no one in heaven or earth will usurp His authority. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Drs. Glenn Sunshine and Timothy D. Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org Revised from a Breakpoint published on March 9, 2022
Dec 14, 2023
Right to Life News recently shared stories of couples in the U.K. who were pressured to abort their children after learning they may have Down syndrome. In fact, one of the mothers was reminded multiple times that she could legally abort her baby up until birth: "I was told that until my baby had started travelling down the birth canal, I could still terminate." In just the last two years, Scotland has seen an 84% increase in abortions where the baby had been diagnosed with Down syndrome . In the U.S., babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted 85% of the time . In some European nations, as many as 98% of children with the condition are aborted. Many believe that ending the life of a child with Down syndrome is mercy. Yet an overwhelming number of people with Down syndrome and their siblings report high levels of happiness and life satisfaction. Even if they didn't, every life is a gift and should be protected. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 14, 2023
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a famous twentieth century Christian, was a dynamic and occasionally controversial theologian who became a household name because of his character and courage. When it mattered the most, in a time when many of his fellow Germans—including pastors and priests—embraced Hitler and the Nationalist ideas of the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer stood with conviction. After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, the bulk of German Protestant groups submitted to the oversight of pro-Nazi leaders. These so-called " German Christians " compromised the eternal truths of God to a racist, statist, and eugenicist totalitarian regime. Because of their compromise, they were left free to practice their faith, as long they did not transgress Nazi doctrine. Bonhoeffer, with others such as Martin Niemöller and Karl Barth, did transgress. They also stood against compromising churchmen. Bonhoeffer helped found the dissident Confessing Church and underground seminaries and was among those who published the defiant Barmen Declaration. Rejecting his earlier pacifism, he took on an active role in resistance to Hitler's tyranny, eventually joining the plot to assassinate the madman. Though Bonhoeffer has been rightly praised for his faithfulness and courage in each of these activities, his most courageous act may have been simply going home. In the early years of the Nazi terror, Bonhoeffer went first to the United Kingdom and then the United States, taking up teaching positions in a free, safe part of the world. His conscience, however, did not let him remain in safety while his nation was facing and committing such evil. In 1939, just weeks before the war began , Bonhoeffer returned to Germany. Writing to the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, he explained , "I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people." Despite his courage, Bonhoeffer wasn't perfect. His theology, at times, strays and is puzzling. In fact, one of his most important co-laborers, Karl Barth, had his own theological complications and moral failings . This is a theme that frequently emerges in Christian history. Figures as prominent as Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr., though used by God in incredible ways, were flawed in behavior and belief. This fits well with the heroes described in Holy Scripture. The author of Hebrews, in chapter 11, offers a list of champions for God that is rightly described as the Bible's Hall of Faith. Even the best of the list, men like Abraham and Moses, are as famous for their flaws as their victories. In the cases of some who are included, like Samson, Gideon, and Jephthah, it's difficult to understand how they are even heroes. Yet there they are included among the others. The danger in refusing to honor the imperfect isn't just the temptation to whitewash others' sins while excusing our own. It's also the temptation to wait for an imaginary tomorrow when everything is just right rather than working today to oppose what's wrong. And it is here that we can learn another lesson from Bonhoeffer. In his book Ethics , he called on Christians to be faithful in the here and now, writing, Do and dare what is right, not swayed by the whim of the moment. Bravely take hold of the real, not dallying now with what might be. Not in the flight of ideas but only in action is freedom. Make up your mind and come out into the tempest of living. For Bonhoeffer, the Christian faith must be lived in the time and place in which God places us. In that sense, courage and faith are inseparable. We must do the right thing, even if the cost is great and even if we feel inadequate for the task. God has called you and me into this tempest of the living. As James instructs , Christianity is not merely believing the right things but doing them, empowered by the Spirit given to us in Christ Jesus. This will mean risk. It may mean failure. But it's through the imperfect faith of His people that God is at work renewing His world. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 13, 2023
There's more than one recent example of DINKs, or "Dual-Income-No-Kids" married or cohabitating couples, boasting online about their double salaries and lack of responsibilities. DINKs, we are told, eat when and what they want, sleep as late as they wish, and pretty much follow whatever impulse arises. If a movie began with a character going on this much about how life is all about him, or how she only worries about herself, or how happy he is not to care about anyone else, or how she goes after whatever she wants, you'd know up front that this is not the good guy (or girl), or that they were destined to be visited by three ghosts before the next morning. The idea that nothing's better than absolute freedom, and nothing worse than having to rely on others or have others rely on you is a lie. I suspect that if they make another video when they're 80 or 90, it will be quite different. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 13, 2023
Last week, the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT refused to condemn calls for Jewish genocide as bullying or harassment. While horrible antisemitic speech and behavior have long been defended on their campuses, this debacle occurred before the United States Congress. The presidents attempted to appeal to free speech rights, differentiating between speech and conduct via statements obviously crafted by lawyers. Their comments shocked and outraged many. UPenn's president resigned, after initially attempting to walk back her comments. Harvard's president quickly apologized, while the MIT board of directors issued a statement in support of their president. Recently, the pseudonymous Tyler Durden documented the scope of the left's stranglehold on academia at the ZeroHedge website. A new survey by The Harvard Crimson found that more than three-quarters of surveyed Harvard faculty identified as "liberal" or "very liberal," while just 2.9% identified as "conservative" or "very conservative." Another study by Kevin Tobia at Georgetown University and Eric Martínez of MIT found that just 9% of law school professors at the nation's top 50 law schools identify as conservative. A survey conducted last year by The College Fix found that 33 out of 65 academic departments across the nation lacked a single Republican professor. Given this virtual monopoly, progressive academics should be confident enough to allow dissenting voices on campus every now and then. However, after years of conservative speakers being canceled and shouted down, it is clear that many progressives only wish to hear their own voices. Some professors have even resorted to denouncing free speech as a threat to their campus dominance. Recently, a pair of faculty members from Arizona State University wrote an essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled (I am not making this up) "Dear Administrators: Enough with the Free-Speech Rhetoric! It concedes too much to right-wing agendas." In the piece, Richard Amesbury and Catherine O'Donnell argue that "calls for greater freedom of speech on campuses, however well-intentioned, risk undermining colleges' central purpose," which, according to them, is "the production of expert knowledge and understanding." Not all opinions ought to be heard, they argue, even opinions from dissenting experts, because "not all opinions are equally valid." The timing of their piece, just prior to the testimonies of the three Ivy League presidents, must be divinely determined. According to these professors, opinions that are valid are "the product of rigorous and reliable disciplines" like the humanities, which include and often prioritize "the study of race and gender." These departments, insist Amesbury and O'Donnell, are not part of the "public sphere," a "speaker's corner," or even a "marketplace of ideas." Instead, these departments and their campuses are sites of production for "expert knowledge and understanding," and should therefore be exempt from free speech, democracy, and public debate. We should no more expect humanities departments to hire dissenting voices, they argue, than "a biology department to hire a creationist or a geography department to host a flat-earther." In other words, woke ideologies are above questioning, according to these professors. In the article, they express outrage that the "knowledge" produced in these fields is not " publicly perceived as authoritative." That loss of credibility, they claim, is not because their ideas are absurd, but because of the "political efforts to delegitimize certain disciplines." As Durden wrote in his ZeroHedge piece, "many ... academics would be outraged if conservatives were to take hold of faculties and start to exclude their views as 'unworthy.'" Yet progressive faculties and administrators aggressively redefine "expert opinion" as those who agree with them, silencing those who disagree on the grounds that they're not experts. The result is an echo chamber, not an education. Last week, the three Ivy League presidents discovered just how disconnected their echo chambers are from the rest of the world. Well, two of them did, anyway. Polling confirms that institutions of higher learning suffer from a public credibility crisis. According to a recent Gallup poll, just 36% of Americans hold confidence in higher education, down 21 points since 2015. It's impossible to look at what has happened on campuses in the last decade, or before Congress last week, and not conclude that this has more than a little to do with the "products" of left-wing "experts." Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims. Few institutions have propagated as many bad ideas and spat them into society as our universities. Among the needs of the hour is the proliferation of Christian scholarship and Christian colleges and universities. I'm hopeful that last week's debacle before Congress is for Christian higher education what the 2020 school board videos and COVID online classrooms were for Christian K-12 schools. However, it's only a win if the Christian colleges are truly Christian, truly colleges, and truly Christian colleges. Unfortunately, that seems to be a shrinking group of institutions. May God continue to raise up men and women willing to seek and speak truth, no matter how many so-called experts tell them to shut up. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 12, 2023
The Colson Center was among the original signatories of the Promise to America's Children and the Promise to America's Parents. A recent incident in Colorado shows why these promises are so important. An 11-year-old girl on a school trip was assigned to share a bed with a male student who identified as female. Her parents were not given notice that this bed- and room-sharing would even occur. Thankfully, her mom was also on the trip and intervened when her daughter called in a panic. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the parents to hold the school district accountable. No school should ever enforce ideology at the expense of a child. Parents must protect the minds, bodies, and essential relationships of their children. This means that parents must never be kept in the dark, especially by schools and doctors. To read, sign, and share the Promise to America's Parents go to promisetoamericasparents.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 12, 2023
A new documentary entitled 1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture claims that the mistranslation of a word in the 1946 Revised Standard Version Bible led to the rampant "homophobia" that now infects the Church. In the film, a Bible researcher and an author claim that a Greek word found in 1 Corinthians 6:9 should not have been translated "homosexuality." Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality … will inherit the kingdom of God. The film claims that the word translated to "homosexuality" is a compound Greek word that combines the concept of an effeminate man with a man sharing a bed with another man. Though that sounds exactly like the definition of "homosexuality," scholars in the film assure viewers that a "historical context" is being missed, and Paul was condemning sexual predation and pederasty rather than homosexuality. This claim is not new, nor is it or the film "groundbreaking," as some have claimed. The normalization of homosexuality has long included efforts to square the behavior with biblical morality. These efforts have taken various forms, such as appealing to the "truly loving God" who "would never" require people to deny their desires; or claiming a moral trajectory to the Bible so that prohibitions against homosexuality no longer apply. Of course, some simply reject the Bible as no longer relevant to our lives, while others employ this strategy of claiming the Scriptures were mistranslated. What is clear from how often these arguments surface, how quickly they are embraced, and how passionately they are defended is that many people really, really wish that the Bible said something different about homosexuality than it does. Also clear is how unprepared many Christians are to respond to the latest reincarnation of one of these arguments, even when they are obviously untrue or, well, silly. While it can be difficult to remain confident in our convictions as the truth grows more unpopular, shaken confidence typically leads to either an embarrassed silence or a loud anger. Either way, it leaves those who need the truth without it. This documentary is the latest example of pulling and positing arguments for LGBTQ affirmation out of thin air and then treating these arguments as legitimate. The trend began roughly 10 years ago, when Matthew Vines gave a speech in a Kansas church that went viral. Citing his personal struggles with same-sex attraction, Vines claimed that the Bible didn't prohibit homosexual activity, because it couldn't. If it did, he said, it would be too painful for gay people, and that pain would be the "bad fruit" about which Scripture warned. Despite a 2,000-year history of Christian belief, tradition, and exegesis to the contrary, many found Vines' assertions to be compelling, a fact that said far more about the sad state of Christian discipleship than his theology. Of course, twisting Scripture to justify belief or behaviors is not new. At no time until now did anyone attempt to claim that the Bible did anything but condemn homosexual acts, a historical fact that undermines the claim made in the documentary that Christian morality on this point dates back only several decades. At the same time, this historical consistency exposes just how serious a problem it is when Christians find these new assertions so compelling. With few exceptions, the questions and complexities of Christian theology have been thoroughly explored and settled. Most challenges to Christian belief and morality leveled by cynics and skeptics have been answered. There is, however, a dramatic gap between the answers that are there, and the answers Christians know. The result is that even absurd assertions, like the one made in this new documentary, confirm the beliefs of the already convinced and convince many who should know better but don't. In fact, the strangest assertion in this new documentary is not even the claim of mistranslation. It's the assertion that Christian opposition to homosexuality began in 1946. The opposite is, of course, true. Despite all the theological squabbles about all sorts of things among various Christian groups throughout Church history, only in recent days and only in a very narrow part of the Western world has anyone doubted that the Bible rejects homosexuality. Christians believe that God has revealed Himself in the world He made and in His Word. On this issue, both clearly tell the same story. In fact, they are the same story. Christians who know this will not be " tossed to and fro " by every wind of false doctrine or by the silly claims of a documentary. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 11, 2023
In a commentary last week , I discussed the tragic popularity of the new 988 national suicide hotline. Dramatic spikes in suicides and suicidality make this kind of intervention (and others) sadly necessary to prevent people from making an irreversible decision. I am thankful, however, that friends at the Restored Hope Network let me know that the hotline directs those who identify as LGBTQ to the Trevor Project, a radical advocacy group whose aim is to push young people toward sexual confusion. In this way, the new suicide hotline is undermining its own ends. Teens who identify as LGBTQ are four times more likely to contemplate and attempt suicide and more likely to struggle with other mental illnesses. The Trevor Project claims this is due to stigma, not mental illness, but that assertion doesn't make sense. The suicide rate has continued to rise as cultural acceptance of LGBTQ ideology and identity has. Christians must take the lead in suicide prevention. To learn how, go to colsoncenter.org/hopealways . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 11, 2023
From the earliest days of the Church, Christian theologians have marveled at the paradoxes found in the incarnation. Among the earliest expressions of this marveling comes from St. Augustine, the most influential theologian in Western Christianity. Augustine was born in 354 in Thagaste, a Roman city in modern Algeria. A brilliant thinker, he initially rejected Christianity as an intellectually empty faith, despite the faithfulness of his mother. After wandering through various pagan philosophies, the equally brilliant St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, showed him how Christianity was superior to pagan philosophies. Augustine became a Christian, and eventually returned to Hippo, where he was elected bishop. Augustine was an expert orator. He had been a teacher of rhetoric in Milan when he met Ambrose. As a Christian, he used his intellectual abilities and communication skills to address both the pressing theological issues and conflicts facing the Church in the late fourth and early fifth centuries as well as the challenges brought by opponents of Christianity. He also employed his impressive skills in his preaching. In his many years as bishop at Hippo, Augustine preached many Christmas sermons that discussed various aspects of the incarnation. One of his most striking sermons addresses the many paradoxes involved in God taking on human flesh. For example, in what is known as Sermon 184 , which Augustine delivered sometime before A.D. 396, he pointed out the paradox of God's sovereignty with the vulnerability of becoming a child: "The one who holds the world in being was lying in a manger; he was simultaneously speechless infant and Word. The heavens cannot contain him, [yet] a woman carried him in her bosom. She was ruling our ruler, carrying the one in whom we are, suckling [the bread of life]." In Sermon 191 , delivered years later in either A.D. 411 or 412, Augustine was even more pointed about the paradox of the incarnation: "The maker of man, he was made man, so that the director of the stars might be a babe at the breast; that bread might be hungry, and the fountain thirsty; that the light might sleep, and the way be weary from a journey; that the truth might be accused by false witnesses, and the judge of the living and the dead be judged by a mortal judge; that justice might be convicted by the unjust, and discipline be scourged with whips; that the cluster of grapes might be crowned with thorns, and the foundation be hung up on a tree; that strength might grow weak, eternal health [might] be wounded, life [might] die." Like his listeners then, Augustine would want us to consider in the incarnation that which we so often overlook in our familiarity with the story. He also encouraged a response appropriate to the great mystery of the incarnation. In Sermon 184, he said: "So then, let us celebrate the birthday of the Lord with all due festive gatherings. Let men rejoice, let women rejoice. Christ has been born, a man; he has been born of a woman; and each sex has been honored. Now therefore, let everyone, having been condemned in the first man, pass over to the second. It was a woman who sold us death; a woman who bore us life." As Augustine explained, Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh so that our sinful flesh might be cleansed and purified. This shows that it is not the flesh itself at fault, but the sin that corrupts it. That sin must die so that we might live. Thus, Augustine affirmed the created goodness of the body, and with it, the goodness of Creation. He also reminded his listeners that Jesus was born without sin so that we who have sin might be reborn through faith. Not everything in Augustine's Christmas sermons is as theologically clear, but we would do well to ponder his words on the wonder and the many paradoxes of the incarnation and join him in celebrating and rejoicing in the birth of our Lord. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 8, 2023
Three presidents of America's most elite universities raised eyebrows this week in their testimony before Congress when they refused to denounce antisemitic hate speech on their campuses. And John and Maria discuss the ethical implications of homosexual couples having children via surrogates. Recommendations The Promise: A Celebration of Christ's Birth by Michael Card Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West Segment 1: University Presidents and Antisemitism "WATCH: Safety First on Campus. Except for Jews" Segment 2: Guy Benson's surrogacy firestorm "Conservative media figures are using homophobia and misogyny to attack surrogacy and IVF" Segment 3: Stories of the Week Hiding the Stats on MAiD For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 8, 2023
Late last month, the Vital Statistics Council for Canada released new data about the country's 2022 death rate, citing cancer, heart disease, and COVID-19 as the leading causes of death. Conspicuously absent was the number of Canadians killed under their country's "Medical Assistance in Dying" program, which was 13,241 deaths last year. When the public noticed the omission, Canadian officials clarified : MAiD deaths are officially attributed to whatever ailment the person cited as the reason for their suicide. Given how expansive MAiD has become, that means there will be deaths attributed to autism, anxiety, and other non-fatal conditions. Not only will this hide the skyrocketing numbers of people in Canada dying by state-assistance, it will distort the data public health officials need to track diseases and health trends. Worst of all, it sends the message that disabilities, mental illness, and suffering in general can be as fatal as cancer if we're not strong enough to handle them. That is, like this "official report," a lie. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 8, 2023
It's not uncommon to hear that the divorce rate is the same inside the Church as outside. Though it's not true, even Christians tend to repeat it as if it were. Both the kind of church a married couple attends, and how faithfully they attend, make a notable difference in marital stability. In her new book, The Toxic War on Masculinity , Nancy R. Pearcey, professor and scholar in residence at Houston Christian University, refuted another widely held misnomer. "Many people assume that most theologically conservative men are patriarchal and domineering. But sociological studies have refuted that negative stereotype. Compared to secular men, devout Christian family men who attend church regularly are more loving husbands and more engaged fathers. They have the lowest rates of divorce. And astonishingly, they have the lowest rate of domestic violence of any major group in America." The research Pearcey is referring to here was first published by sociologist Brad Wilcox in 2017. As Pearcey notes, this research seems unknown, especially by Christians quick to self-flagellate. For example, Pearcey continues, the "Christian" men with the highest divorce rates are those who are not actually in church. She explains: "Most of these men are nominal Christians, which means they are not particularly devout and attend church rarely if at all. They are prone to pick up terms like headship and submission but interpret them through a secular lens of power and control. Surprisingly, research has found that nominal Christian men have the highest rates of divorce and domestic violence—even higher than secular men. … Nominal men skew the statistics, creating the false impression that evangelical men as a group are abusive and domineering." When Pearcey shared these stats online after her book came out, it elicited a cynical and even angry reaction. Pearcey responded by insisting that she did not share the data in defense of complementarianism. "I simply report what the psychologists and sociologists find in their studies of complementarian men. I was totally surprised at how positively they test out. I've been asked why I focused on complementarian couples—the answer is that they are the ones being studied. They're the ones being attacked as inherently oppressive, abusive patriarchs." Unsurprisingly, many responded with stories of bad behavior by men in conservative churches. But, of course, Pearcey was not asserting that abuse never occurs in conservative churches among those with conservative views about men and women. In fact, she opens her new book with the story of her own abusive, churchgoing father. Rather, what Pearcey is arguing in The Toxic War on Masculinity is that a man's conservative views about gender roles aren't as important as his views of the importance and centrality of the family. These husbands, Wilcox has reported, "believe marriage is not primarily about individual fulfillment but about forming a stable, loving home to raise a family. They hold to an ideal of fidelity and permanence." It is because of this view that conservative husbands tend to care about their family the way they do. And, among the positive outcomes are wives who tend to be "the happiest of all wives in America." Once again, Christianity proves to be good . It makes better humans, both men and women. It matters whether or not husbands and wives take the family seriously. It matters whether they think it's important to fulfill the creation mandate of Genesis 1 , "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." It matters whether they take seriously the words of Jesus when He quoted Genesis 2, that the husband and wife "are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." Apparently, it really matters what men think about themselves, about women, and about families. Though men are often told there is something inherently wrong with being male, as Pearcey writes, "The evidence shows that Christianity has the power to overcome toxic behavior in men and reconcile the sexes—an unexpected finding that has stood up to rigorous empirical testing." Pearcey's The Toxic War on Masculinity is especially important right now, given all the myths and the lies about men that are so often repeated in our world. It's thoughtful and sound, carefully researched and well-written. Even more, it's profoundly helpful . As Pearcey exhorts us in her book, "We should be bold about bringing [the truth about men] into the public square." Thankfully, her book equips us to do just that. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Heather Peterson. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 7, 2023
Late last month, Hungarian national Dániel Karsai, who has a progressive neurodegenerative condition, challenged Hungary's ban on assisted suicide before the European Court of Human Rights. Alliance Defending Freedom International has intervened in the case, standing up against the so-called "right to die." In a recent press release, they described the current European landscape when it comes to assisted death: "Of the 46 Member States of the Council of Europe, only six have legalized assisted suicide. The practice has been rejected by legislators in the vast majority of countries. … Countries that have legalized euthanasia now allow the intentional killing of children , those who are physically healthy , and those who have not given their consent ." Historically, the "right to die" quickly devolves into a "duty to die" and compromises the conscience rights of physicians and caretakers. Christians must stand for life whenever and however we can. We must always be those who work to heal and never to harm. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 7, 2023
In the competitive world of online status-mongering, courage involves little more than clicking "like" or earning a "mention" in a post that could risk losing a follower or two. Real courage is, of course, something else entirely. It's about doing the right thing when there are real costs. It's taking an unpopular stand, even a dangerous one when sitting back and doing nothing would be far easier. During the dark days of Communist tyranny in Europe, governments spouted their dangerous nonsense, and citizens were expected, often by intimidation, to act as though their folly were true. Refusing meant social ostracization, police supervision, the loss of opportunity and freedom, and the compromise of personal safety. Most citizens ducked their heads and did what they could to survive. Others, however, made the difficult choice to stand up. Their courage entailed not taking up arms or taking to the streets but, in a world where dissent was costly, a simple refusal to go along. Among those who showed this kind of courage was the Bendová family of Czechoslovakia, a family featured in the book Live Not By Lies by Rod Dreher. Kamila Bendová will be a featured guest at the Colson Center National Conference, along with Rod Dreher, to tell the story of her family's courage, even when that courage brought suffering. As Dreher wrote , "She too was a dissident. She kept the family together when the communists put her husband in prison. When Vaclav was tempted by an offer to accept exile in exchange for liberty, she bucked him up, and told him that the things they were fighting for were worth suffering for too." Or, as Terry Mattingly put it, "It didn't matter if the Communists had imprisoned her husband — the late Vaclav Benda, a leading Czech dissident and Catholic intellectual. It didn't matter that state officials had bugged their flat near the medieval heart of the city. It didn't matter if a friend showed up after being tortured at the secret police facility a block away." Faithfully, through years of pressure, threats, and fears, Kamila Bendová showed her children, local students, and fellow citizens that resistance is not futile. Her life is a lesson to us in this cultural moment. Though what we face is less openly dangerous, it is confusing and consequential. As Mattingly wrote, "Traditional families now face threats that are harder to identify than those of the Communist era, said Kamila Bendova. Warning children about the secret police is one thing. In a way, it may be harder for today's parents to convince their children to be truly countercultural in an age of social-media narcissism, gender confusion, online pornography and credit-card materialism." In his book Live Not by Lies , Dreher tells story after story of courageous Christians from the recent past. Their courage can inspire and inform us in this moment, Dreher thinks. "Should totalitarianism, hard or soft, come to America, the police state would not have to establish a web of informants to keep tabs on the private lives of the people. The system we have now already does this—and most Americans are scarcely aware of its thoroughness and ubiquity." Though we do not face the exact tactics of Marxist regimes, we face the expansive power of a de facto social credit system , where holding the "wrong" opinion comes with a social cost. In Britain, railing against the Jewish people and the whole of Western civilization is acceptable, even encouraged, but silently praying outside an abortion clinic brings a visit from the police. Social pressure and government pressure, heightened by corporate pressures, have brought radical and dangerous ideologies into the mainstream. So, now is a time for courage, the kind that refuses to go along with dominant paradigms when it would be easier to be quiet. The Bendová family knew that their children would require tools to think critically and carefully. Ours will too, especially in this age of expressive individualism and ever louder propaganda. We can learn from Kamila Bendová what this kind of intentional parenting entails. How Christians can have a courageous faith is the focus of the 2024 Colson Center National Conference, to be held May 30-June 2 in Arlington, Texas. Joining Kamila Bendová and Rod Dreher are Dr. Albert Mohler, Fr. Calvin Robinson, Dr. Sean McDowell, Dr. Kathy Koch, and author Dr. Neil Shenvi. Only a few hundred spaces remain. To register, go to ColsonConference.org. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 6, 2023
Once again, a media outlet has discovered that Christian people believe Christian things. Recently, CNN unearthed audio of new House Speaker Mike Johnson saying things like abortion is a holocaust, people are "inherently evil," homosexuality is wrong, and government should work to restrain evil. In other news, my 6-year-old likes pizza and Spider-Man. Part of what's going on here is how far apart a progressive, secular vision of the world is from a Christian one. Part is that, at root, our national divisions are personal divisions, and many media elites simply do not know a Christian, despite the willingness to often assure us of what a real Christian would say or believe. The bigger part, in my view, is a failure on our part to be consistently clear about what we believe with the courage to say it out loud when called upon. But remember, the first Christians and our Savior were misunderstood and maligned also, so we are in good company. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 6, 2023
Last month marked the one-year anniversary of a mass shooting at the "Club Q," a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs. The shooter, who killed five people and wounded 19 others, received multiple life sentences in June for his crimes, as well an additional sentence for "bias-motivated" crimes. This seemed to confirm the popular narrative that the shooter targeted the LGBTQ community out of hate. That narrative was quickly and deliberately spread almost immediately after the shooting. In fact, just days after, The New York Times not-so-subtly suggested a connection between the murders and several conservative Christian ministries headquartered in Colorado Springs, including Focus on the Family . Other media outlets and voices were not as subtle in leveling that accusation. Days later, vandals spray-painted the words "their blood is on your hands" on the entrance to Focus on the Family . The Club Q shooting was a horrible act of evil. Every one of the victims were made in the image and likeness of God and bore the inherent dignity and value that means. Not one deserved to be reduced to their sexual identity, not by the man who committed these crimes and not by those who would use the victims as pawns to push a false narrative. In this case, the narrative is a fable that goes back at least as far as the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming. Almost immediately after the teenager was brutally killed outside of town, his murder was framed in both national and international media as a clear, cut-and-dried hate crime. In 2009, Congress passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act . Last year in her dissenting opinion in the 303 Creative case, in which the Supreme Court upheld a Colorado web designer's right to free expression, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that Shepard's murder was the result of a "social system of discrimination" that "created an environment in which LGBT people were unsafe." In fact, just last week, a memorial service was held for Matthew Shepard at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., where his ashes are interred. The real story of Matthew Shepard, however, is anything but clear and cut-and-dried. In 2014, after more than a decade of researching the incident, a gay journalist named Stephen Jimenez released a book that revealed Shepard's long history of drug use. He had, in fact, been selling crystal meth at the time of his murder. He'd also engaged in prostitution and had a sexual relationship with at least one of the men who killed him. The police who intercepted the killers shortly after they fled the scene believed they were heading to Shepard's house to search for drug money. In other words, this murder was not a hate crime. It likely had nothing to do with Shepherd's sexuality. Many of the tragedies that have been made part of this narrative have similarly inconvenient details. For example, the convicted shooter in the Club Q massacre last year identified himself in court as "nonbinary" and had visited the nightclub multiple times. Though he posted anti-gay slurs online, he seemed quite fascinated with the Christchurch, New Zealand, shooter who targeted religious communities. He also came from an abusive background and exhibited significant signs of mental illness. Justice Sotomayor also mentioned the 2016 shooting at Orlando's Pulse Nightclub in her dissenting opinion in 303 Creative . The shooter, who killed 49 people, was a Muslim man who claimed "solidarity" with Al-Qaeda and ISIS. His wife testified that his original plan to attack Disney World was abandoned because of the police presence at the amusement park. It's not clear that the shooter was even aware that the Pulse was a gay club. Nevertheless, that shooting is now cemented in cultural memory as a hate crime against gays. While there is little evidence that "anti-LGBTQ hatred" has led to many mass shootings, there is more evidence that suggests the opposite. The shooter at Covenant School in Nashville, for example, identified as transgender and seems to have targeted the Christian school on purpose. In August 2012, an LGBTQ activist stormed the headquarters of the Family Research Council with a gun and a Chick-fil-A bag and yelled "I don't like your politics" before shooting a security guard. At least two other mass shooters identified as trans or nonbinary , though it is not clear that their identity motivated their actions. The problem isn't just that re-writing history is wrong, or that it often misplaces blame on some people while excusing others. It's that the myth hurts everyone, including those it's supposedly trying to protect, by ignoring the problems ailing the LGBTQ community. For example, members of this community have disproportionately high rates of substance abuse, childhood sexual abuse, mental illness, family breakdown, violence, and deaths of despair . Suffering people need help. Conditioning them to be afraid of a nonexistent threat or to view their suffering as only someone else's fault is cruel. These are hard truths indeed, but hard truths are more loving than false narratives. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 5, 2023
According to a recent study, nearly one-third of Gen Z women now "identify as lesbian, bisexual, or something else." To be clear, these numbers only indicate how young people are identifying, not behaving, since Gen Z'ers are not as sexually active as previous generations. At the same time, these numbers do reflect how many teenage girls who are experiencing normal adolescent changes are being told they're transgender . Is it any wonder that so many young women think being "straight" and "cisgender" is outdated, or even bad? Consider all the media messaging that depicts "traditional guy[s]" as undesirable long-term partners, encourages relationships that are inherently sterile, discusses fertility as a disease, and refuses to call women women. The erasure of women altogether is a strange, tragic, but consistent end for a culture that once claimed to fight for women. As young women search for meaning and identity, Christians should safeguard the truth and beauty of what makes a woman special and valuable: being made in the image of God, female. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 5, 2023
One of the best features of our smartphones is the ability to apply a few tweaks to our photos before sending them to relatives or sharing them on social media. Using a phone's built-in tools, we can bump up the brightness or fix red eye, with the desired result of a photo that looks more like the real-life moment when we snapped it. Of course, these same tools can now deliver photos even "better" than what we saw in real life. We can even create moments that didn't happen in real life. Is it okay to pass those off as real? What is the boundary between fiddling with a photo and faking one? Does it even matter? Such questions will soon be forced on us through the integration of artificial intelligence with smartphones. Popular figures on Instagram have already demonstrated how easy it is to alter a mood or look, airbrushing a photo of a crying woman, for instance, into a beaming and happy version of herself. Images entirely generated by AI, often incorporating real people's likenesses, are becoming nearly indistinguishable from photos . Writing recently at The New York Times , tech editor Brian Chen described how devices like Google's Pixel 8 come with an AI-powered "Magic Editor," a tool that can remove and add objects, move subjects around, and even stitch together elements from multiple photos into a new one. The result is imagery that is partially make-believe and, though it comes from the camera app and is stored with other "photos," can no longer strictly be called photography. These snapshots of alternate realities fudge the truth in front of your lens, which is the point, since they're closer to "exactly the photo you want." According to Ren Ng, a computer science professor at Berkeley, this means that "[a]s we go boldly forth into this future, a photo is no longer a visual fact." AI-powered photography and editing means that people will "increasingly have to question whether what they see in their images is real—including photos from loved ones." Of course, this goes further than just personal photos, and will contribute, Ng thinks, "to the spread of fake media online when misinformation is already rampant and it's hard to know what to trust." Last month, in fact, Hamas falsely accused Israel of faking images of atrocities using AI. It doesn't take much of an imagination to see how future conflicts will be sparked by a convincing image posted online. Increasingly, the fundamental worldview question of our age is "What is real?" Fake photos, artificial wombs , and AI chatbots posing as friends are just a few examples of technology that is challenging our understanding of reality, including our understanding of who we are and why and even whether we need each other. Christians should have a clear answer. Nonnegotiable purposes and relationships have been built into creation by God, things humans were designed to pursue and steward in particular ways. This is not an infinitely malleable world. We are not infinitely malleable creatures, able to invent and reinvent ourselves as technology permits. This applies both to big changes like amniotic pods replacing mothers as well as seemingly trivial changes like "photography" tools. Here are two principles to keep in mind as we "go boldly forth into this future" of AI, smartphones, and photography. First, we should never lie, not even with AI. That means we need to define the term "photograph." Is it a shared visual fact, a representation of reality that can establish everything from family memories to journalistic truth, or is it an idealized digital painting? We shouldn't get in the habit of passing one off as the other. Second, we shouldn't look to technology to replace human ability. Somewhere between using AI to edit out a trash can in a family photo and using it to create a fake family member for Instagram, a moral line is crossed. That line is on a slope, and we are about to find out just how slippery it is. Planting your feet firmly and intentionally now is a good idea. Christians should be pro-technology and pro-human. God gave humans the ingenuity to make such tools, and they can be used to glorify Him and love others. However, tools–like their users–need a purpose grounded in God's design for reality. The moment our tools begin using us, or severing our relationship with that reality, something has gone wrong. We need wisdom in the days ahead, not just artificial intelligence. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 4, 2023
The three-digit number 988 is quickly becoming as much a part of our shared life as 911. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a national hotline that provides 24/7, free, and confidential mental health support to anyone in need. Within the first year, 5 million contacts were responded to . The numbers are staggering, and the hotline continues to find high-risk populations, including indigenous people, people with disabilities, and rural men. But this remains a culturewide problem. From 2021 to 2022, the suicide rate increased by 2.6%. Christians have a significant role to play in offering hope. Parents, teachers, pastors, and other mentors need to be equipped to spot vulnerable young people and to connect with them, ultimately pointing them to Jesus Christ, the source of all hope. The " Hope Always " course featuring Dr. Matthew Sleeth is available online, can be accessed anytime, and can be studied alone or as part of a community committed to providing healing to hurting neighbors. Go to educators.colsoncenter.org for more information. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 4, 2023
A few years ago, my colleague Dr. Glenn Sunshine wrote an introduction to one of the greatest works of Christian antiquity, Athanasius' On the Incarnation of the Word . Athanasius (born in Alexandria in the 290s) is best known for defending the divinity of Christ against the heresy of Arius, who taught that Jesus was not equal with God the Father but a lesser, created being. Arianism had gained significant ground in the Church, but Athanasius fought to preserve the biblical view that Jesus is " in very nature God ." In the process, he became known as Athanasius Contra Mundum: "Athanasius Against the World." In his introduction, Dr. Sunshine describes Athanasius' teaching: "[T]he Image of God made it possible for us to know the Word of God; with sin the Image was defaced, and we lost the knowledge of God. But since the Word is the perfect Image of God (Col. 1:15), He was able to renew that Image in us, and by His life, works, and teaching to renew and restore true knowledge of God. His works of power revealed Him as the Word of God, the Lord of all Creation and thus the one through whom true knowledge of God comes." That the Word of God came, not just to live, but to die for our sins is another important theme of On the Incarnation : "How could He have called us if He had not been crucified, for it is only on the cross that a man dies with arms outstretched? Here, again, we see the fitness of His death and of those outstretched arms: it was that He might draw His ancient people with the one and the Gentiles with the other and join both together in Himself. Even so, He foretold the manner of His redeeming death, 'I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men to Myself.'" By becoming fully human, the incarnate Word of God draws fallen human beings to Himself, forging them into a new humanity: "He manifested Himself by means of a body in order that we might perceive the Mind of the unseen Father. He endured shame from men that we might inherit immortality. He Himself was unhurt by this, for He is impassable and incorruptible; but by His own impassability He kept and healed the suffering men on whose account He thus endured. In short, such and so many are the Savior's achievements that follow from His Incarnation, that to try to number them is like gazing at the open sea and trying to count the waves. One cannot see all the waves with one's eyes, for when one tries to do so those that are following on baffle one's senses." On the Incarnation can speak to the heresies of our time, too. For example, Arianism lives on in Mormonism, the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses, and any teaching that denies the Trinity. It also is reincarnated among those who label Jesus as merely a good teacher who came as an example for us, but not as our Savior. C.S. Lewis famously encouraged his readers to balance the reading of new books with old ones. As Dr. Sunshine reminds us in his introduction to On the Incarnation, Lewis wrote this in his own introduction to Athanasius' work: "Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light." So, Lewis said, "The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books." On the Incarnation of the Word is an especially helpful read during Advent and Christmastide, when we celebrate again the coming of the Incarnate Word of God, who became flesh and dwelt among us. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander and Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 1, 2023
Since the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israel, there has been a noticeable increase in antisemitism in America. John and Maria will look at the reasons. Some are claiming that abuse is more prevalent in marriages involving evangelical men. Is that true? And a new theory claims homophobia can be blamed on a faulty translation of scripture. Segment 1: Rise in Antisemitism The World and Everything in It: December 1, 2023 The Global Resurgence of Antisemitism Israel, Hamas, and Just War: Interviews with Joel Rosenberg and Eric Patterson Segment 2: Evangelical Marriages The Toxic War on Masculinity by Nancy Pearcey Prepare the Way of the Lord – Advent 2023 Segment 3: Homophobia in the Bible Did Christian homophobia come from a mistranslation of the Bible? What Would You Say? videos For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 1, 2023
Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, died this week at age 100. He was the last of a controversial group of leaders from the Watergate era. Chuck Colson once described that at staff meetings , "Kissinger would always be the last one to arrive. And he would sit down at the end of the table and say, 'Mr. President, the decision we are going to make today is going to change the whole future course of human history.' I mean every day of the week for five days ... we thought we really were doing things that were of great significance. And in many respects, I suppose, looking back, they were." Chuck was right. Nixon, after all, signed Title IX, supported the desegregation of schools, and provided aid for Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Kissinger, Nixon, and Chuck are reminders that in His providence, God uses even people with deep flaws. They are also a reminder that we will all, one day, meet God. Will we be ready? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Dec 1, 2023
Since October 7, the world has seen a resurgence of antisemitism, open and raw. In America, this has come especially from institutions of higher education though also from secondary schools and at city council meetings in Oakland . In New York, highschoolers brandished signs that read "keep the world clean" with an image of a Star of David in a trash can. If anything, the past few weeks should put an end to our decades-old illusion that history won't repeat itself. Looking back on the horrors of the Holocaust and the historic sickness of antisemitism, we asked questions like, "How could anyone, let alone an entire culture, be overtaken by Jew-hatred?" Many assumed that kind of evil could never happen again. We now know that assumption to be wrong. According to University of Massachusetts professor of criminology Arlie Perliger, "The U.S. is currently experiencing one of the most significant waves of antisemitism that it has ever seen." This wave predates the October 7 massacre that initiated the war between Israel and Hamas. In 2022, " [ i]ncidents of harassment rose 29 percent compared to 2021; acts of vandalism surged 51 percent; and physical assaults jumped 26 percent " to an average of 10 reported incidents a day. The week after Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli civilians, antisemitic incidents tripled compared to the same week in 2022. Even among historically high immigration numbers in those countries, the immediate plight of Palestinians in the Middle East can hardly explain attacks in Europe, Russia , Africa , and America. This contemporary crisis is the latest chapter of a hatred that goes back centuries, even millennia. Today, what's often called the world's " oldest hatred" is found at both ends of the political spectrum . We certainly should not overlook the power of envy. Setting aside the irrational claims about Jewish wealth over the centuries, a simple glance at Nobel Prize winners displays the cultivating power of Jewish culture. While envy might explain some of the insanity, there's more to it. No other groups have faced so many attempts at eradication by so many: Persians, Romans, Crusaders, Nazis, and Islamists. How did the Jewish people survive when history is filled with tribes, nations, and peoples that endured for a time, only to disappear, some with barely a trace of evidence that they'd ever existed? The Jews were already an ancient people by the time of ancient Rome. Yet they remain, though what was considered at the time to be an eternal empire is now a relic. A Christian worldview offers additional resources by which to understand historical developments. Beyond sociological and anthropological realities are unseen ones. Whatever one's views of the end times, the Jewish people embody the promises of God to redeem His world and destroy the works of the devil. They are a painful reminder to Satan that his spoiling efforts to mar God's good creation will inevitably fail in the end, and that he will be defeated. The prince of darkness can never win his fight with heaven, but in defiant desperation, he incites people to commit evil and inflict pain, especially on those through whom God works His redemption. The Jews are also a tangible reminder that humanity's story is not ultimately a tragedy. They are a link to the apostles and the prophets, to King David and the deliverance from bondage in Egypt. Even when rejecting the Messiah that fulfills God's promise to them, they're a reminder to the world that God wins. Especially as we approach Advent, the continued existence of the Jews is a powerful witness of God's faithfulness to His world and to His promises. These promises, given in Eden to our first parents and reaffirmed in Revelation to the saints, declare that He is making all things new, and that nothing, even the insatiable hatred of hell itself, can stop His restoration of all things. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 30, 2023
When it comes to public controversies, a handful of phrases have become de facto "conversation stoppers." One of these is "scientists say ..." Well, last year, a quantum physicist named John F. Clauser won the Nobel Prize . If anyone has earned the right to make debate-stopping claims about science, it's a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. However, according to The Washington Post , Clauser does not believe humans are facing imminent extinction due to fossil fuels. This view puts him at odds with what the Post calls the "scientific consensus," implying that he's lost all authority as a scientist. This is the danger of the postmodern habit of making truth claims dependent on the community that makes them. "The science says" isn't a mic drop if a scientist says something else. Consensus, even scientific consensus, should not shortcut the pursuit of truth. A better and more honest approach is the scientific method, in which our theories and ideas are constantly questioned and tested to discover what is true. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 30, 2023
Gen Z, the generation born between 1997 and 2010, has a distinct reputation different from baby boomers, Gen X, and millennials. Exactly what the differences are and why they exist is a growing area of interest in research. For example, a new report from the American Enterprise Institute's Survey Center on American Life analyzes data collected from a survey of baby boomers, Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z about their experiences during adolescence. One finding is that Gen Z—or Zoomers—are less likely to hold a part-time job, attend religious services, have a romantic relationship, and use drugs. They also spend more time online, are more likely to identify as LGBTQ, and report being more lonely than previous generations. One factor behind these differences—and a defining difference itself between Gen Z and the adolescent experiences of previous generations—is the role and use of technology. Gen Z has never known a world without social media and smartphones. Seven out of 10 Zoomers report using social media daily (a number that still seems suspiciously low), and 56% of Gen Z adults report playing video games in the past week. Though increased social media and video game use does not necessarily mean that less time is spent with friends, it typically does. So, it is unsurprising that Gen Z, as a whole, reports greater loneliness and less time spent with friends during their teen years than older generations. Gen Z is also more progressive in political views and more likely to identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay, or trans than previous generations. Today, almost one in four Zoomer adults identifies as LGBTQ, which is about five times more than baby boomers. Additionally, about four in 10 identify as politically liberal, while only 26% identify as politically conservative. Given that virtually every social media platform champions LGBTQ images, behavior, and ideology and that LGBTQ ideology has become a defining creed of left-leaning politics, this is not surprising. Individuals who identify as LGBTQ are celebrated, especially online, whereas those who dissent from the reigning sexual orthodoxies are easily reported and often, quickly de-platformed. Having grown up more online than outside, Zoomers' politics, values, and loyalties have been shaped by the narratives preached in their social media worlds. At the same time, Gen Z avoids some of the risk-taking and moral vices of older groups. Perhaps because they spend so much more time online, only 32% of adult Zoomers reported drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, or smoking weed as a teenager, and only 56% reported having a boyfriend or girlfriend. Also, only 58% reported having a part-time job, the lowest number of the four generations surveyed. While less substance abuse is certainly better, when considered along with fewer part-time jobs and romantic relationships, this is likely not due to better morals but to an overall aversion to even healthy risk-taking. Finally, though Zoomers are the least likely to attend religious services, the common thread to church attendance across all generations continues to be family life. For all generations, the majority (68%) of those who grew up in a two-parent household, participated in religious life during adolescence, whereas those growing up in a single-parent household were less likely to attend religious services (53%). Among older generations, less troublemaking and risk-taking often coincided with more participation in religious services, but that statistical link is broken when it comes to Zoomers. Whereas 71% of baby boomers attended religious services during their teens, only 52% of Gen Z attended religious services during theirs. Gen Z's generational differences indicate that a shared way of life consisting of both physical presence and family life deeply matters. Unless these things are recovered, decreased religious observance and increased loneliness will only continue. Human beings, no matter the generation to which they belong, are embodied beings. None of us are our avatars, our online personas, or our social media feeds. When our lives are stripped of tangible connections with our neighbors, our neighborhoods, and our families, we lose sight of many things that matter. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 29, 2023
A week before Thanksgiving, the World Health Organization declared loneliness a new public health crisis . While it's great that global leaders are recognizing the dangerous social and even physical risks of social isolation, this crisis is anything but new. The WHO's new declaration will lead to more research into the detrimental effects loneliness can have on our health and a new "Commission on Social Connection," to "promote social connection as a priority and accelerate the scaling up of solutions." Bureaucracy-speak aside, any successful efforts to "promote social connection" must take into account what it means to be human. We aren't defective machines or problems to be solved. We are persons created in the image of God, made for connection with Him and with one another. We need families. We need dads. We need to be the kind of people who bear with one another , even across distance and relational tension. This means we need hearts of flesh that only God–not statecraft–can give us. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 29, 2023
A few years ago, when professional athletes were criticized for kneeling during the national anthem, it wasn't always because critics disagreed with the cause that athletes were claiming or because of the irony of multi-millionaires denouncing the nation to which they owed their success. Many fans just didn't want to see football turned into yet another stage for political activism. Even when a cause is just, healthy societies have spaces where differences can be put aside in pursuit of a common experience, whether it's something as trivial as a televised sporting event or something as important as forming the next generation of civic leaders. High school debate has long served this second role. The National Speech and Debate Association is the largest league of its kind in the nation. For nearly one hundred years, it has trained students to reason and speak effectively about issues significant to people and society. According to its Wikipedia page , the NSDA serves more than 140,000 students and coaches each year. It would be reasonable to think that the debaters who rise to the top of this league have become masters of reason and argument, able to speak persuasively on a range of topics. That is no longer the case. In a clip that recently went viral, the final round of the NSDA's 2021 Tournament of Champions at the University of Kentucky featured two young women of Team A, one of whom identifies as transgender, and who apparently decided they would win the round by "out-woking" their opponent. They began the round by refusing to debate the resolution, which was about the costs and benefits of the International Monetary Fund. Instead, they highjacked the forum to protest the plight of transgender debaters, made the round "a debate about debate," and promised to "occupy the debate space until trans debaters can participate safely." In a saner time (and league), such behavior would result in an immediate loss. However, that did not happen at this prestigious tournament. Instead, the young men of Team B immediately conceded the round and joined a 45-minute discussion on how debaters who misgender their opponents should automatically lose. One even offered, "It's important to recognize that debate is not about winning an argument. It's about making sure everyone feels okay and making sure everyone feels safe." The judges then praised Team A for their "courage" and crowned them the national Public Forum Debate champions . It would be easy to criticize these students for making a joke out of a competition that generations of their peers worked hard to win. However, that would miss the point. These debaters didn't invent these tactics or the ideology upon which it is based. They were taught to turn every forum into an opportunity for activism, to dismiss and denounce anyone who questions their claims, and to play the victim to be rewarded. It's the same training that taught the "Just Stop Oil" activists to deface and destroy priceless works of art to draw attention to their cause. Most recently, a pair of Just Stop Oil climate vandals took hammers to a famous painting in the National Gallery in London. The painting had about as much to do with fossil fuels as the IMF has to do with transgender debaters. To activists, however, that irrelevance is irrelevant. Their ideology, they've been taught, is the only thing in the world worth talking or doing anything about, and they will actively hijack or destroy all other human pursuits until everyone shares their singular obsession. This reveals why such an all-consuming ideology is dangerous, no matter what you think of the causes behind it. The notion that no one should be able to do, pursue, appreciate, argue, or think about anything else but your cause is a form of intellectual tyranny that, if tolerated widely, can quickly erode the foundations of a free society. If everything must be sacrificed to your ideology, then it's much more than a cause that demands justice. It's an idol that demands worship. "Good philosophy must exist," wrote C. S. Lewis , "if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered." Such bad philosophy, he warned, doesn't always take the form of "cool intellect" arguing wrongly, but often manifests as "muddy heathen mysticisms which deny intellect altogether." I can think of few better descriptions of a debate tournament won by "out-woking" your opponent. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 28, 2023
If you find your mind darting from one thing to the next and struggling to concentrate for even short periods of time, there are two things to know. First, you're not alone and, second, it's probably related to technology. In an article published at Motherboard, Kaleigh Rogers described her experiment banning all screens from her home for a month: no TV, no tablet, no smart phones, no computers. The results were dramatic, and unlike with exercise or dieting, immediate. She experienced better concentration, found more time in her day, felt closer in her relationships, and gained a renewed sense of creativity. A Facebook commenter who conducted the same experiment described an almost "superhuman" focus and productivity. Screens have profoundly shaped our lives, especially our minds and relationships. We need not be Luddites, but we can create boundaries and stick to them. Rather than allowing notifications, games, and texts to control our schedules and attention, we can control them, making time for relationships, concentration, and creativity. That doesn't sound so superhuman... For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published on February 14, 2017.
Nov 28, 2023
The United States has seen a dramatic increase in the number of syphilis cases among newborn babies, according to a recent report from the Center for Disease Control. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that can be passed from moms to babies in utero. Last year, more than 3,700 babies tested positive for the disease, a 30% increase in a single year and a tenfold increase in the past 10 years. According to the CDC, the situation is "dire." To reverse the trends, the report proposed, "[a]ddressing missed opportunities for prevention, primarily timely testing and appropriate treatment of syphilis during pregnancy." Likewise, a Houston-area doctor quoted in an NBC News article about the report said, "It is unbelievable how this could all be prevented if we just had patients get in for screening and treatment." During the AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s, some acted as if the HIV virus could infect anyone at any moment, as if how it spread was a total mystery. This mentality is even more common today, especially among drug companies promoting medication to treat HIV. The recent biopic Bohemian Rapsody takes a similar approach to the story of Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the rock band Queen. Mercury hid the fact that he had AIDS from all but his closest confidants until the days before his death, despite continuing to have multiple sexual partners and possibly playing an outsized role in the AIDS epidemic. The movie, however, depicts Mercury as a hero of self-expression and a victim of horrible illness. His promiscuity is never morally evaluated and barely mentioned. It's considered immoral, in this cultural moment, to limit anyone's self-expression. The diseases and dangers linked to irresponsible sexual expression are disconnected from the behaviors. Instead, they're often treated as evidence of injustice, as if the moral duty of medicine is to free sexual self-expression from any consequences. In this framing, risky sexual behavior is inevitable. Not only is it immoral to suggest that people stop doing those things that spread HIV and infect babies with syphilis, but to do so would be to suggest the impossible. This pessimistic, deterministic view of humanity is demonstrably false. We often say politics is downstream from culture. The state has significant power to influence behavior. For example, in 1984, only 14% of Americans wore seat belts. I'm likely not the only one who remembers bouncing around unrestrained in the back of the family station wagon on long road trips. Just three years later, after 30 states enacted seat belt laws, that percentage tripled to 42%. Last year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 90% of Americans faithfully buckled up while on the roads. A similar phenomenon happened with drunk driving. Four years after the founding of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Congress raised the legal drinking age to 21. MADD then launched an effort to replace the word "accident" with the word "crash" in common parlance, predicting that this would reinforce in people's minds that drunk-driving collisions were crimes. These efforts to shift culture worked. Since 1982, the number of drunk-driving deaths in America has fallen by more than half . Despite this success, most government-funded efforts to combat the spread of sexually transmitted infections never mention risky sexual behavior. Creators of proven, effective abstinence education resources testify how oddly difficult it is to even gain access to public schools. Even doctors concerned about the spread of congenital syphilis cannot seem to bring themselves to recommend sexual risk avoidance. At the root of the selective outrage is a warped idea of what it means to be human. A worldview that says humans are fundamentally incapable of practicing sexual abstinence assumes that human beings are mere animals. This is a perfect example of what former President George W. Bush once called the "soft bigotry of low expectations." God's design for sex is good, and the boundaries He designed with it are also good. Not only is it possible for humans to abstain from acting on all their desires, but it's also best, spiritually and physically, when we are able to delay gratification for some higher ends. When we violate God's created boundaries, we violate the design and put ourselves and others at risk. Sadly, the skyrocketing cases of babies born with congenital syphilis are just the latest example of kids paying the highest price for adults' bad ideas. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 27, 2023
I didn't think cancel culture would ever come for Anne Frank, but here we are. Parents of a German daycare center named after Frank proposed a name change because, they said, it was too difficult to explain the significance of Frank to their children. The director of the school agreed, and explained that a name "without political background" would be better. After public backlash, the trustees reversed course, and for that we can be grateful. Anne Frank was a real girl who faced real horrors and met a real and horrible death. Erasing her memory helps no one. History should not be edited to fit our comfort levels. Like real life, history has hard edges and unpleasant elements that don't budge for contemporary fashion or fragile feelings. Its value lies in teaching us those hard lessons, not in conforming to what we wish were true. Anne Frank deserves better, and so do the kids learning her story today. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 27, 2023
November marks the death of Johannes Kepler, one of the most important figures of the Scientific Revolution and a scientist who was motivated by his Christian beliefs. The significance of Kepler's work can only be understood in light of what he faced and risked. The settled science of his day was that the Earth stood at the center of the universe. To challenge that meant to challenge the entire, accepted understanding of physics. When Copernicus published On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543, he argued that the universe was centered on the sun rather than Earth. His motivation was to preserve the idea that planets traveled at a constant velocity in perfect circles. In other words, his motivation was more philosophical and aesthetic than it was scientific. Few scientists accepted these ideas that contradicted settled science. As a result, there were only a handful of committed Copernicans prior to 1600. Johannes Kepler was one of them. Kepler was a devout Lutheran who planned to become a pastor. However, he excelled at mathematics and had an interest in astronomy. In seminary at the University of Tubingen, he became convinced by Copernicus and defended him on both scientific and theological grounds. After graduating in 1594, he took up teaching mathematics at the Protestant school at Graz (now the University of Graz) in Austria. While in Graz, Kepler began to develop a theory about the number of planets and the relative size of their orbits. He found that his theory worked for all planets except Jupiter. Though he adjusted the theory to make it work, he was convinced the problem would be solved with better observations. As it turned out, the best observational astronomer in the world, Tycho Brahe, lived nearby. In 1600, Kepler negotiated with Tycho for access to his data. Tycho recognized Kepler's genius and eventually agreed to work together. However, a year later, Tycho unexpectedly died. Kepler was appointed his successor as imperial mathematician, which enabled him to continue compiling and analyzing data on planetary motion in order to develop a more accurate model of the universe. Tycho's observations were as good as was possible with the naked eye, and Kepler was determined to use them. Initially, he could not find a formula, whether geocentric or heliocentric, that would work. Heliocentrism was close, but not up to the known margin of error of Tycho's observation. This led Kepler to give up on circles and try ellipses, which fit better, but not perfectly. After playing with some very complicated math, Kepler arrived at a solution that, in the end, proved Copernicus right about the Earth going around the sun. In the process, Kepler discovered his Three Laws of Planetary Motion which stand even to today. Kepler's work was motivated by his Christian faith. He believed that since God is rational, the universe must be as well. Because humans are made in God's image, we can, as he said, "think God's thoughts after Him." In other words, understanding the universe is possible. This commitment led Kepler to be a rigid empiricist. Because God had given him Tycho's data, he was responsible to use it as fully as he could. For example, the earth's orbit is less than .02% away from being a perfect circle. Even that small amount made Kepler willing to jettison the supposed perfection of circular motion favored by the scientists of his day. Though most others would have chalked that up to observational error, Kepler knew the margin of error of Tycho's observations and believed God expected him to honor the quality of the data, rather than conform it to his preconceptions about how it "should" be. Kepler knew his theories would be rejected by scientists, but he didn't care. It had taken eons before anyone discovered how God had structured the universe, so Kepler figured he could wait another century or so to be proven right. His faith in the intelligibility of the universe was grounded in his belief that the world was governed by divine reason, the Logos. This led him to examine the world systematically, to not take shortcuts, to use what God gave him and, in the end, to lay the foundations for modern astronomy and physics. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 24, 2023
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently conceded that the kingdoms of David and Solomon may have actually existed. New studies have revealed that "[r]emains of gates, defensive walls and a large administrative building at Gezer date to the early 10th century B.C.E., putting them in the right time frame to have been built by King Solomon, just as the Bible claims." In recent decades, skeptics suggested that these structures belonged to a later, supposedly more advanced time. Though the new studies don't prove the Bible's accuracy, the articles insist its reliability cannot be ruled out. In other words, the thing that pretty much everybody thought was true until just a few decades ago turns out to be actually true. The more we dig, in fact, the more archaeological evidence suggests that the facts are on the side of the Bible, not its critics. And the more we dig, the more that skepticism of the Bible is shown to be not a sign of open-minded intelligence, but of close-minded assumptions of disbelief. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 24, 2023
The Biden administration is accepting comments as it considers rule changes for foster care and adoption. The Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs was a year ago but the media keeps pushing a false narrative. And the devastating effects of the Covid lockdowns on education. - Recommendations - Submit a Comment on "Safe and Appropriate Foster Care Placement Requirements for Titles IV-E and IV-B" Prepare the Way of the Lord – Advent 2023 The Promise by Michael Card Joy of Every Longing Heart by Sara Groves The Advent of Christmas by Matt Maher Segment 1: LGBTQ Children and Foster Care " Non-Affirmation of Child's "LGBTQI+" Identity Is Abuse Under Proposed Foster Care Rule" Submit a Comment on "Safe and Appropriate Foster Care Placement Requirements for Titles IV-E and IV-B" From Gender Clinic Caseworker to Whistleblower: Jamie Reed's Story U.K. Transgender Clinic Forced to Close Segment 2: LGBTQ Hoax Crimes Segment 3: Covid and Education "The Startling Evidence on Learning Loss" New York Times 2020 article: "C.D.C. Calls on Schools to Reopen, Downplaying Health Risks" For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 24, 2023
In November of 1928, A.W. Tozer accepted a pastoral position at the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago, a move that launched a ministry career that would eventually impact thousands. A central theme of Tozer's work was recovering a sense of the holiness of God. In his book The Knowledge of the Holy, Tozer wrote, The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking. Tozer's best-known quote is a fundamental premise of a truly Christian worldview: "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." Years ago, Chuck Colson urged his friend, author and speaker Ken Boa, to write condensed, accessible introductions to the greatest works of literature and theology. Boa, one of the finest Christian thinkers of our generation, accepted the challenge. In a Breakpoint commentary, Chuck commented on A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy, and Dr. Ken Boa's introduction: Dr. Ken Boa speaks of A.W. Tozer as a man who "understood the ways of God." That understanding is amply demonstrated in Tozer's classic book The Knowledge of the Holy. "This is really a meditative and a devotional approach to the attributes of God," Boa says. Those include more attributes than we're used to thinking about all at once. For instance, Tozer discusses God's omniscience and omnipotence as well as His love and mercy. But Tozer doesn't just show us the reality of those attributes; he also shows how they work together to form a harmonious whole. They are not contradictory, but complementary. But our view of God, Tozer argues, is often "distorted" or "diminished" because we have embraced the prevailing mindset of our culture and imposed that mindset upon Scripture. So, we find ourselves unable even to begin to comprehend concepts like His holiness, power, and majesty. (Keep in mind, by the way, that Tozer wrote this nearly 50 years ago. The man wasn't called a prophet for nothing.) Tozer's desire was to expand our vision and thus our capacity to worship God rightly. If we fail to do this, Boa says, that's when our understanding of God becomes distorted, and we move away from Him. "Imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God," Tozer believed, are responsible for all our errors in doctrine and in faith. Thus, he defines idolatry as "assuming that God is other than He is." When you look at it that way, you can see just how widespread idolatry has become in our day and how much havoc it has created within the Church. Boa connects this kind of thinking to the modern prosperity gospel, which tends to turn our prayers into "strategy sessions" rather than true communication with God. Paradoxically, Tozer acknowledges the "incomprehensibility" of God, even as he is helping us to better understand His attributes. When we draw closer to God, you see, we begin to understand just how much greater He is than anything we can grasp. Our instinct is to make God into something "manageable" and "controllable." That was the sin of the Garden—to be like God. But if you could do that, you wouldn't need Him. So instead of trying to manage or control God, we must surrender ourselves and place our trust in Him even though we can't fully understand Him. And when we do this, we are not groping in the dark, for as Tozer tells us, "[God] in condescending love has by revelation declared certain things to be true of Himself. These we call His attributes." He has provided enough knowledge of these, Tozer says, "to satisfy our intellects and ravish our hearts." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 23, 2023
Tough conversations on controversial topics don't have to be a disaster, even if had over holiday visits and meals. The key to civil and productive conversations is to ask good questions. The right question can turn monologues into dialogues, surface-level discussions into deeper ones, and might even open a closed mind or two. Here are six questions I've found helpful for creating good conversations: First: What do you mean by that? The definition of words shapes debate. Don't assume you are always using the same dictionary. Second: How do you know that is true? Assertions aren't arguments, and this question takes you beyond comparing opinions. Third: Where did you get this information? Fourth: How did you come to this conclusion? Everyone has a story. And the last two: What if you're wrong? And, What if you're right? Ideas have consequences. These questions take ideas to their logical conclusion. Oh, and the best question: What are you thankful for? From all of us at the Colson Center, Happy Thanksgiving. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point is republished from 11.28.19.
Nov 23, 2023
Revisionist attempts to reinterpret the first Thanksgiving have muddled the history of Plymouth Colony and the Pilgrims. Some on the right call the historical events a "triumph of capitalism," getting the chronology of events wrong. Voices on the left often accuse Thanksgiving of being a celebration of genocide against the Native Americans, citing the Mystic Massacre in the Pequot War, ignoring the context of that event, not least of which that it occurred 16 years after the celebration in Plymouth. Neither of these narratives accurately represents what actually occurred in Plymouth in the fall of 1621. The Pilgrims were English Separatists who believed congregations should be independent, voluntary democratic institutions rather than part of the Church of England. In 1607 and 1608, they left England for the more tolerant Dutch Republic. Life in the Netherlands, however, proved difficult. Some ran out of money and returned to England. Without further immigration from England, the congregation was in danger of collapsing. The Pilgrims were also unhappy with the libertinism of Dutch culture and worried that their children would grow up more Dutch than English. After much discussion, they decided to try to establish a colony where they could worship and raise their families as they saw fit, and where they could spread the Gospel. In 1619, they received a patent to establish a colony in New England, north of the Virginia colony. In September of 1620, the Pilgrims, with other colonists, set sail on the Mayflower with 102 passengers, only 28 of whom were members of the congregation. The Pilgrims debated whether it was safe to bring their wives. Most decided to do so, which accounts for the 13 adult women on board, three in their third trimester. There were also some younger women and children who joined the voyage. A baby who was born at sea was named Oceanus. The Mayflower arrived in America in November after a difficult journey. A landing party sent to explore the land found artificial mounds that they excavated and discovered to be burial sites. In some, they found corn, which they took for planting before reburying the remains. They also found corn and beans in empty Native American homes, some of which they also took and paid for six months later when they met the owners. Earlier English expeditions to the region had captured Native Americans and sold them as slaves or slaughtered them on their ships. Perhaps for this reason or because of the desecration of the graves, a Pilgrim landing party was attacked in December, though the colonists drove off the attackers. Later that month, they found harbor at a place that was labeled "Plymouth" on their charts. They decided to winter there. The men went ashore to build houses, the first of which was used as a hospital. By the time spring came, only 47 of the colonists were still alive, and only 5 of the married women. Another would die in May of a broken heart after her husband died. The Plymouth Colony only survived because of help from the Native Americans. The first contact came from Samoset, a minor chief from Maine who had learned English from fishermen who had set up a camp near his tribe. He then introduced them to Tisquantum, better known as Squanto. Squanto had been enslaved by English raiders but eventually was freed, became a Christian, and returned to his homeland. Unfortunately, his tribe, the Patuxets, were wiped out by an epidemic. Squanto acted as both a translator and a mediator between the Pilgrims and Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoag tribe. Massasoit established friendly relations with the Pilgrims and, with Squanto, taught them how to farm the "Three Sisters"—corn, beans, and squash. With their help, the remaining Pilgrims survived and had a successful harvest that fall. The Pilgrims decided to hold a harvest festival, probably around Michaelmas (September 29) 1621, which was a traditional date for such celebrations in England. Massasoit and members of his tribe joined them. In all, there were about 50 English and 90 Wampanoags. The four surviving wives, together with children and servants, prepared and served food over the three-day celebration. Although much European contact with Native Americans featured disease, genocide, prejudice, and abuse, that was not the case with the Pilgrims. Rather than falsely maligning that first Thanksgiving, we should look at it as a model of how things should have been and by God's grace one day will be. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. Listen to his interview with the Strong Women podcasters about the women of Plymouth or hear how Thanksgiving was declared a holiday . If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on 11.24.2022.
Nov 22, 2023
Even before the Israel-Hamas war, there was an increase in antisemitic incidents in the U.S.: 3,697 such incidents in 2022; in fact, a 36% increase from the year before. Now, it's just getting worse. Jon Rettinger, a father of three, told CNN that one of his children asked if they were going to be kidnapped like the victims in Israel, "It's horrible for any family to have to explain to children that people hate them because of who they are," he said. "And to have to kiss your kids goodbye every day with worries." Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, told CBS News, "People have got to name it and address it ... It can't be swept away." Christians should be first in line to condemn antisemitism, keeping in mind, as Francis Schaeffer wrote , "that our Lord Himself was a Jew—born a Jew, lived a Jew, died a Jew." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 22, 2023
The month of November marks the death of John Witherspoon, one of the most important and most underrated of the American founding fathers. Born in Scotland in 1723, Witherspoon received a Master of Arts at age 16 from the University of Edinburgh, where he would continue his studies in divinity. In 1745, he became an evangelical minister in the Church of Scotland. Witherspoon was no fan of the monarchy and was imprisoned the following year for opposing the royalist Jacobite uprising, an experience that damaged his health for life. After his release, he returned to pastoral ministry. In 1764, the University of St. Andrews awarded Witherspoon an honorary Doctor of Divinity. Four years later, Witherspoon accepted the presidency of the College of New Jersey, a Presbyterian college now known as Princeton University. Though the school's primary mission was to train Presbyterian ministers, Witherspoon found the school in quite a mess. The students were given poor teaching and an inadequate library. Through fundraising, reorganization, higher standards, and securing new resources–including donating hundreds of books from his personal library–Witherspoon transformed the college into a top-tier school. In addition to providing leadership at a crucial time in the university's history, Witherspoon taught courses in rhetoric, history, divinity, and moral philosophy, a required course at the college. His ideas were anchored in his Reformed faith and the natural law tradition. He was also heavily influenced by Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid's Common Sense Realism. These ideas took deep root in Princeton and across American society generally. Witherspoon's teaching laid essential groundwork for both the American Revolution and the government that followed. Leaning heavily on the Calvinistic tradition, Witherspoon promoted the rights of people to challenge governmental overreach, even by force of arms if necessary. Unsurprisingly, he strongly supported the American Revolution, especially concerned by a growing centralization of government and the Crown taking over responsibilities that were historically the prerogatives of the colonies. The final straw for Witherspoon was when bishops were appointed from England to oversee religious life in the colonies. Like his Presbyterian forebearers in Scotland, Witherspoon saw these violations as justification for revolt. He served in the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1784, taking on a prodigious amount of work and serving on over 100 committees. After the war, he helped draft the Articles of Confederation and later shepherded the Constitution through the New Jersey state legislature. Even with that impressive resume, Witherspoon's most important impact came from the students who took his moral philosophy classes at the College of New Jersey. Witherspoon taught James Madison the necessity of checks and balances in government. Among his other students were Aaron Burr, 37 judges, including several members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and three justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, 10 cabinet officers, 12 members of the Continental Congress, 28 U.S. Senators, and 49 U.S. Congressmen. Witherspoon was arguably the single most influential founder who shaped the early years of the Republic. Despite all this, Witherspoon is mostly remembered today for owning two slaves. Like many of the founders, Witherspoon's attitudes toward slavery were complex and often contradictory, a fact that explains but does not excuse his stance. Witherspoon taught that slaves and employees should be treated with dignity and respect. He even spoke out against the institution of slavery at the college. However, he also opposed a measure by the state legislature that would have banned slavery in New Jersey. Like many others, Witherspoon believed slavery would die out within a generation, and thought the legislation was unnecessary and could interfere with the process he believed was inevitable. Though there were a few consistent abolitionists among the founders, Witherspoon was among the many elites in the eighteenth century who owned slaves as domestic servants or to work land. Witherspoon failed to extend his convictions about liberty for all to the slaves in his midst. That moral tragedy should not fully blot out the honor owed to him for his incredible contributions to the founding of the United States and the securing of the freedoms we enjoy. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 21, 2023
According to English teacher Tim Donahue, academic inflation is as real as economic inflation. In the 1960s, around 15% of grades given at colleges were "A." As of 2017, it was nearly 50%. Meanwhile SAT scores fell by 20 points and, by 2023, ACT scores reached the worst scores in three decades . This, Donahue says, could explain why "65 percent of Americans feel they are smarter than average. " The purpose of grades is to provide feedback, a way humans learn and grow. But in a world where it is assumed that truth is found within, the purpose of grades becomes affirmation for doing the work, not to measure what was learned. According to Donahue, " If everyone gets an A, no one gets an A, " so teachers should "consider the B-plus." But that won't do any good unless students are taught that truth exists outside of themselves, can be found, and should be pursued over and above affirmation and self-expression. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 21, 2023
According to modern retellings, the American story is one long tale of violence and oppression, with founders who should be universally condemned as hypocrites, thieves, and racists. Of course, our nation's history is, like all nations, about sinful and flawed people. However, in our modern attempts to deconstruct the past, it's easy to miss how remarkable the American experiment was. In a Breakpoint commentary years ago, Chuck Colson described one especially significant part of our nation's history, the Mayflower Compact. Here's Chuck Colson. In just a few weeks, Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday that people of all faiths observe. But between stuffing the turkey and watching football, we ought to make sure our children and grandchildren understand the Christian roots of this holiday, which are often downplayed in school. The first step is to brush up on the details ourselves. On September 6, 1620, the Mayflower set sail from England. Ten perilous weeks later, the Pilgrims arrived on the northern tip of Cape Cod. As my friend Barbara Rainey writes in her excellent book, Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember, "This was about sixty miles north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River." Should they sail south, or stay put? After much discussion and prayer, they decided to stay. But when the passengers learned of this, dissension broke out. The Pilgrims had a charter with a company that was effective only at the original landing site. As Rainey writes, "The bonded servants on board [who were not Pilgrims] argued that [the decision to stay] changed the terms of their work agreement." The Pilgrims were afraid that these men would declare their independence and deplete the labor supply. Something had to be done to restore unity. As the Mayflower's captain worked his way around the Cape, searching for a place to drop anchor, an intense debate ensued. By nightfall, the leaders had drafted an agreement, called the Mayflower Compact . Among its key clauses were these words: "Having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith … a voyage to plant the First Colony … [we] solemnly … in the presence of God and of one another, Covenant … ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic." As Rainey writes , the compact was a hedge against revolt, but it meant much more. The Pilgrims took it seriously; their Bible told them just how significant covenants were. In the Old Testament, God created covenants between Himself and His people, the Israelites. In the New Testament, God covenants with all who choose to follow Him through the life, sacrificial death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Rainey writes , the Pilgrims "journeyed to this new land to proclaim by their lives this message of redemption, the New Covenant, and the light of Christ. This covenant that God established with His people became their model for the Mayflower Compact as well as for the peace treaty they established with Massasoit and his people. They knew a God who keeps His word, and therefore they were faithful to keep their word, their promises to one another and to others." The Mayflower Compact became one of the most important documents in American history—and yet, its religious language may make some teachers reluctant to teach it. But that same language reveals the lengths to which the Pilgrims were willing to go to follow the Lord. Ten years later and 40 miles to the north, John Winthrop would expound on the idea of covenant in his famous sermon, " A Model of Christian Charity. " For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. "City on a hill" is among the least understood phrases in American history. Winthrop was not encouraging arrogance or claiming invincibility with this idea. Rather, he was issuing a warning. Whether in Winthrop's speech to the Massachusetts Bay colonists or the Plymouth Colony's Mayflower Compact, these men and women saw what they were doing through the deeply Christian lens of covenant. This Thanksgiving, it's appropriate to thank God for our heritage, to remember the warnings of our nation's forebears, and to pray for renewal in the church and in our nation. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 20, 2023
Back in September, jiu-jitsu athlete Taelor Moore fought an opponent who was not only more than 60 pounds heavier than her, but was a male. She was not warned she would be fighting a man. Afterward, the North American Grappling Association clarified its policy to say that women should be informed when facing a male opponent who identifies as a female, and given the option to opt out. As policies go, this one isn't worth the paper it's written on. In October , a man took four gold medals at a women's jiu-jitsu competition in Georgia, and some divisions consisted of more male competitors than females. This, one of the female competitors, said has left "[t]he majority of the women ... scared to even speak out about this matter. … There's so many girls just not signing up now because they are allowing this." That much should be obvious. Allowing men to fight women is not only unfair, it's dangerous . How many men will take home medals or women will take home injuries before that message gets through? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 20, 2023
In his book Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton observed that even insane explanations for the world can have a perverse consistency. A madman who thinks he's the king of England has a ready explanation for anyone who denies his claim: They're conspirators trying to keep him from his throne. "His mind," wrote Chesterton, "moves in a perfect but narrow circle." Chesterton's asylum example also applies to a recent article published at Phys.org about a scientist who has written a book to convince everyone that humans don't have free will. Neuroendocrinologist and MacArthur "genius grant" winner Robert Sapolsky has studied people and primates for over 40 years. In his book Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will , Dr. Sapolsky argues that humans are molecular machines, wholly determined by our genes, our environments, and our past. Thus, our behavior, even when condemned as criminal or evil, is no more a choice than "the convulsions of a seizure, the division of cells or the beating of our hearts." Of course, the implications if this were true would be incredible. As a Los Angeles Times reporter memorably put it: "This means accepting that a man who shoots into a crowd has no more control over his fate than the victims who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It means treating drunk drivers who barrel into pedestrians just like drivers who suffer a sudden heart attack and veer out of their lane." However, rather than justifying or enabling acts of violence, Sapolsky believes his deterministic view of human choices could actually make society better: "The world is really screwed up and made much, much more unfair by the fact that we reward people and punish people for things they have no control over. We've got no free will. Stop attributing stuff to us that isn't there." Sapolsky's argument isn't new. It is, in fact, the standard, reductive version of metaphysical naturalism, which teaches that all phenomena have material causes. Since these causes are themselves materially caused, nature is a closed system of dominoes. In this theory, an observer with perfect knowledge of the initial conditions of the universe could accurately predict every event that followed, right down to the choices individuals make about what to eat, where to live, who to love, what to believe, and even whether to kill. The problem, which philosophers and writers over the years have pointed out, is that if everything is determined and humans do not have a free will, that would include the belief in metaphysical naturalism and every part of the thought process that led to it. Assuming this view, the reason Sapolsky believes what he does has nothing to do with what he has learned in his research or whether it's true. Instead, it is the predetermined result of a long process of material causes stretching back to the Big Bang. His book, his arguments, and his belief that they'll somehow make the world a better place are not meaningful. They're just the latest dominoes to have fallen, and it could never have been otherwise. In his book Miracles , C.S. Lewis critiqued this brand of reductive naturalism : "[N]o account of the universe can be true unless that account leaves it possible for our thinking to be a real insight. A theory which explained everything else in the whole universe but which made it impossible to believe that our thinking was valid, would be utterly out of court. For that theory would itself have been reached by thinking, and if thinking is not valid that theory would, of course, be itself demolished." To his credit, Sapolsky seems aware of this absurdity but just accepts it: "It is logically indefensible, ludicrous, meaningless to believe that something 'good' can happen to a machine," he admits. "Nonetheless, I am certain that it is good if people feel less pain and more happiness." But why is it good for people to be happier or have less pain if everything is determined? Why is it preferable to live in a society marked by peace and safety, instead of chaos and violence? And why appeal to people to make a meaningful choice between these options when their choice is already determined and meaningless? Chesterton's answer to such small, reductive worldviews was to confront them with the immensity of the real world and human experience, and to notice how they do more explaining away than explaining. We know our choices are not mere results of physical processes, and that they have a deep moral significance. We know it so deeply that even those trying to convince us we're mere machines must contradict themselves by treating some choices, such as their choice to write books to convince readers, as if they mean something. In the very act of denying our moral responsibility in a moral universe, we must, in some sense, act as if meaning exists. It's a crazy effort to deny meaning, but that doesn't stop even geniuses from trying it. All the more evidence of our profound freedom, and of our ability to abuse it. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. If you're a fan of Breakpoint , leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 17, 2023
Human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim, announces she's now a former atheist and exploring Christianity. Also, the growth of homeschooling continues in the US. John and Maria look at some of the reasons why. - Recommendations - Bari Weiss: You Are the Last Line of Defense Why I am now a Christian HaTikva Project Segment 1: Ayaan Hirsi Ali Converts There Is No 'Second America' If This One Fails Segment 2: Homeschool Growth Experiencing God Colson Educators For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 17, 2023
Last month, National Public Radio joined the growing fearmongering and dogpiling aimed at the Alliance Defending Freedom. The Fresh Air interview was hosted by Terry Gross and featured David Kirkpatrick, who authored an extensive expose about the religious freedom group in The New Yorker . The article and the interview painted ADF as being against women's rights and LGBTQ equality, as if there were no progressive push to curb the freedom of speech or to standardize mail-order chemical abortions or to mainstream radical gender ideology for second graders. In the article, Kirkpatrick sounded as alarmist as Terry Gross, implying that somehow ADF is part of the aggressive religious plot to take over America. In the interview, he was calm and thoughtful, reigning in her soft-spoken hysteria. In the end, it's a lesson in just how important our worldviews are. They make all the difference in what we see, what we conclude is wrong with the world, and how the world can be made better. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 17, 2023
In their 2021 book The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession , Duke University professor of medical humanities Farr Curlin and philosophy professor Christopher Tollefsen argued that the Western approach to healthcare has shifted in recent decades from the pursuit of objective wellbeing to a consumer industry. In the process, doctors are increasingly seen as "service providers" whose main job is to help patients do whatever they want with their bodies. Just two years later, their analysis seems spot on. For example, the healthy functioning of a woman's body during pregnancy is often treated and even labeled a "disease." Same-sex couples, who have chosen inherently sterile sexual unions, sue and then lobby legislatures to redefine their inability to procreate as "infertility." They act as if there's no difference between a man and woman unable to conceive due to some medical situation and a man and a man unable to conceive due to, well, reality. This shift–from medicine as the pursuit of health to medicine as confirmation of our self-expression–is most evident in the transgender movement. In Virginia, a man who claims to be a woman is suing a county for placing him in the men's jail. He argues that prison officials should be legally bound to accommodate his gender dysphoria under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA was designed to address conditions in which a person was injured or disabled. In this case, a fully functioning and capable person is claiming "disability" because his local prison does not accommodate his individual wishes. The very existence of so-called "transgender medicine" is, in fact, a case in point. Hindering the body's natural development or cutting off healthy body parts in service of an inner sense of self is an abject perversion of medicine as a "healing profession." According to Curlin and Tollefsen, the way back to a healthy (no pun intended) healthcare system is by recovering the definition of health as "an objective bodily norm for all living organisms." "[L]iving beings have characteristic bodily activities and tendencies, and these activities and tendencies determine what is appropriate—the norm—for them in regard to the well-working of their organic bodies." Though that seems obvious enough, restoring this understanding of health requires that the "well-working of our organic bodies" is understood to be a moral good: "If health either is not real or is not good, patients have no intrinsic reason to choose health rather than other desired states; nor do physicians have any intrinsic reason to make health central to their practice and profession." Of course, despite a great deal of moral confusion infecting medicine, an objective understanding of "health" remains uncontroversial in many areas. Physical pain is real. Hunger is real. Fatigue is real. Currently no one is demanding disability pay because they have to sleep at regular intervals when they'd rather not. In the wake of the sexual revolution, doubts about the objectivity and goodness of health are aimed mostly at the makeup and function of our bodies that have to do with sex. That's not surprising given that the West has spent decades steeped in the idea that sexual activity can be disconnected from morality. Once the normal and healthy functioning of human bodies are considered "oppressive" and "optional," healthcare is reduced to a highly consequential and potentially fatal art project. Gone from the equation are all givens, all purpose, and all moral limitations. If something can be done, and someone wants it to be done, then it should be done. The biblical narrative, in contrast, describes human beings (and therefore human bodies) as created by God with purpose. This purpose implies the kinds of physical and moral norms that can undergird a stable understanding of health. The fall explains why things aren't as they were created to be, undergirding a helpful and objective understanding of "sickness" and disability. The redemption provided in Jesus Christ aims at the restoration of God's creation, which means healing is possible. Thus, the work of medicine is a redemptive activity, with ethical possibility and moral boundaries. Medicine was built on this framework of reality and, without it, could devolve into a moral chaos, where up is confused with down, right with wrong, and health with "whatever we want." Canada's so-called "Medical Assistance in Dying" program is the most obvious case in point. There's nothing about the program that is medical, or assistance, or about dying. Rather, it's a harm done to unburden us of having to care by killing the one who needs it. In a more rational age, MAiD would be seen as the horrifying evil it is. But in ours, evil and destruction are seen as good. This is how a society runs toward death: not only by denying God but by denying the obvious realities of the world He created. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 16, 2023
The lawsuit against a member of the Finnish Parliament accused of violating a law prohibiting " War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, " has been dismissed. Päivi Räsänen's crime was quoting Bible verses in support of traditional understandings of human nature and sexuality. According to a state prosecutor, the problem wasn't citing the Bible, but "Räsänen's interpretation and opinion about the Bible verses that (were) criminal." In other words, what Christians have always believed ... In an Alliance Defending Freedom International press release, Räsänen said: "It isn't a crime to tweet a Bible verse, or to engage in public discourse with a Christian perspective. The attempts made to prosecute me for expressing my beliefs have resulted in an immensely trying four years, but my hope is that the result will stand as a key precedent to protect the human right to free speech. I sincerely hope other innocent people will be spared the same ordeal for simply voicing their convictions." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 16, 2023
Last month, 20-year-old Isabelle Ayala filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit , accusing the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) of civil conspiracy, fraud, and medical malpractice. Ayala claims to have been pressured by AAP-affiliated doctors into so-called "gender-affirming care" as a minor. Like the many young girls who were subjected to experimental gender "transition" therapies, Ayala's story begins with significant emotional and mental distress during her adolescence. Sexually assaulted at age seven, she experienced early-onset puberty at age eight. Deeply uncomfortable in her own body, she began, at age 11, to cut herself. Around the same time, she was introduced to the concept of transgenderism through online social media platforms like Instagram, Tumblr, and Kik. At age 13, Ayala's parents separated, and she was moved from Florida to Rhode Island. By age 14, she became convinced that she had been born in the wrong body and that "transitioning" to living as a man was the only way to solve her problems. Ayala's story is tragic and, tragically, not unique. The number of young women claiming transgender identities has increased dramatically in recent years and now outnumbers the young men with gender confusion ( an increase of 5,000% at the Tavistock Clinic in the U.K.) . The factors driving the spike in confusion among young women include childhood trauma, social contagion, and social media, or some combination of the three. However, rather than treating the underlying factors and distress contributing to her dysphoria, Ayala's pediatricians treated their effects as normal. They ignored her family's history of anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and depression, as well as Ayala's formal diagnoses of ADHD, depression, and anxiety. Her pediatricians encouraged and facilitated her confusion with ideological blinders that treated what was, in reality, a pseudo-medical fad as if it would help a vulnerable young woman. Desperate to help their daughter, Ayala's parents trusted these medical professionals who, while feigning objectivity, were, in fact, captured by gender ideology. Though her parents initially sought out interventions that were "totally reversible," her pediatricians claimed "cross-sex hormonal treatment" was the best option and accepted treatment for her distress and gender dysphoria. In an all-too-common bit of parental manipulation, these doctors asked Ayala's parents whether they would "prefer a dead daughter or a living son." Doctors who say this are wrong. So-called "transition" treatments do not address core mental health problems, leave patients with additional, irreversible medical conditions, and fail to address the social factors driving the dramatic increase in body dysphoria among young women. Research suggests that after an initial "honeymoon" period in which patients embrace their new "identities" and harmed bodies, they remain at a disproportionate risk for serious mental illness and suicide . Chemical "transition" treatments are also not "fully reversible " as is often promised. Women who take testosterone experience irreversible masculinizing effects, such as deeper voices and facial hair, and commonly infertility. Still, after just a few appointments, Ayala was placed on a rapidly increasing dosage of testosterone. However, contrary to what these doctors predicted, Ayala experienced no significant decrease in depression despite an accompanying prescription of antidepressants. Within six months, Ayala was hospitalized for a panic attack. Within eight months, she was hospitalized again following a suicide attempt. With no signs that her depression was abating, her doctors prescribed higher doses of antidepressants, while continuing to inject her with cross-sex hormones. The following year, Ayala moved back to Florida. Initially, she continued to take testosterone. But, a year after moving, " she distanced from the control and influence" of the doctors who ushered her down this road of gender "transition." Eventually, she quit taking cross-sex hormones and "gradually grew out of her gender dysphoria," realizing that her distress over her identity as a female was the result of traumatic childhood experiences. Her reversal reflects the majority of adolescents who experience gender dysphoria. Research suggests that between 88% to 98% of young adults reconcile to their biological sex if allowed to go through puberty. Thankfully, Ayala's story isn't finished. If successful, this lawsuit could protect many, many minors from these horrific, experimental chemical and surgical interventions. The many medical professionals who perpetrated this harm would be held accountable and, in the future, forced to do their job helping rather than harming. Young women like Ayala need to know that their hearts, minds, and bodies can find healing from their trauma and can learn to accept who they are as a gift of God. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 15, 2023
In roughly five months, it will be legal in Canada for doctors to kill patients struggling with mental illness or drug addiction who choose the country's so-called "Medical Assistance in Dying" program. Last year, 13,241 Canadians died by MAiD. Supporters of MAiD for people with drug addiction promise that safeguards will be put in place, such as requiring multiple attempts at substance abuse treatment first. MAiD became legal for Canadians facing "imminent" natural death in 2016, and the "limits" set then have eroded every year since. The evil of MAiD isn't just the false promises. It's the propaganda of redefining every word of the euphemism. What's being offered isn't medical, it isn't assistance, and it's not medical assistance as someone is dying. It's aiding and abetting someone to die—more and more people, in fact, who aren't terminal or even untreatable, but who are all valuable image bearers of God. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 15, 2023
Recently on the Upstream podcast , my colleague Shane Morris sat down with David Pileggi, the rector of Christ Church in Jerusalem. His work there involves helping Palestinian children through increased access to hospital care and combating trafficking. He also educates Christians about the Jewish context of their faith. Fr. Pileggi has served as an Anglican minister in Jerusalem for over 40 years. From that perspective, he thinks that the most important aspect of the Israeli-Hamas conflict is missed by many in the West. "Probably at its heart there is a religious underpinning that most secular people in the West don't understand because many Westerners, especially Western elites, can't take religion seriously. And so, they focus on land, or refugees, or human rights, etc., etc. And I don't want to deny that any of these are important, especially to the Palestinians. But there's something a lot deeper that's going on." In general, shaped by a secular vision of life and the world, Westerners tend to underestimate the significance of religion. In particular, Westerners fail to understand how committed Islamists are to their vision of life and the world, especially considering Islam's most significant rival religions: "The Islamicists in Palestinian society said, 'we don't want two states for two people. We want Palestine to be free from the river to the sea. We want Palestine to be an Islamic state. The Jews have no theological right. They have no claim theologically to a piece of territory that was once Islamic and really technically can't revert to or can't become Jewish, because Jews, like Christians, are second-class citizens within the Islamic world, and they have no right to rule or to reign over Muslims or have no right to take control of territory that was once Islamic.'" There's also the issue of moral clarity, something that a secular vision of life and the world also cannot sufficiently undergird. "What happened on October the seventh was a genocide. Genocide can never, ever be justified. And if people don't have enough maturity and enough historical nuance, or maybe even just common sense to say, 'I support the Palestinians, but at the same time, I'm going to condemn Hamas, or I cannot support what they did,' then our society is in huge trouble. And I almost worry more about the United States than I would worry about Israel." Postmodernism further corrupts the secular vision by superimposing an alternative moral vision, a pre-determined moral vision built on Marxist categories of oppressed and oppressors. This inevitably devolves into what Fr. Pileggi called a "romanticized" view of people, rather than a realistic one. "Being pro-Palestinian also means you don't romanticize the Palestinian people. You see them honestly for their good points and their bad points, for their weaknesses, for their strengths. And the same goes for Israel, right? Our relationship with the Jewish people, it's not based on certain romanticism or biblical fundamentalism. … And by the way, neither should the basis of our support for Israel be some kind of Islamophobia or dislike of Arabs, whatever that may be. … We look at Israel, we can see the good parts of the society and we can also see, you know, where the society is weak and perhaps fails ethically or morally." Fr. Pileggi's realism is helpful, not only because of his decades of experience in this contentious part of the world, but also because it's a biblical realism. Though his prescription may sound simplistic, it's where any Christian vision of human conflict should leave us: "You know, people tell me, 'Well, what's the answer to this Middle East problem?' The answer is Jesus. Right? Jesus is the answer. And I think one of the things that we've learned over the years [is] that saying you believe in Jesus, saying you admire Jesus, doesn't get you very far. … If there's going to be transformation in the lives of a community, or transformation in a family or a society, [we] have to put the teachings of Jesus into practice." To hear the entire conversation with Father Pileggi, rector of Christ Church Jerusalem, search for the Upstream podcast with Shane Morris , wherever you listen to podcasts. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 14, 2023
Last year, the Canadian government sanctioned the killing of 13,241 people by the euphemistically named Medical Assistance in Dying. MAiD accounted for 4.1% of all deaths in Canada in 2022 and is the fifth leading cause of death in that country. The slide down this slippery slope began by first legalizing doctor-assisted suicide for people facing "imminent death" and then expanding it step by step until it was available to virtually anyone who asks for it . In fact, now Canadians don't even need to ask. Doctors and nurse practitioners there have been told they have a professional obligation to bring up the option of MAiD to any patients considered "eligible." That kind of suggestion can sound an awful lot like a recommendation to someone struggling with whether or not to live. These numbers are just going up, and they will until enough Canadians refuse to participate in Canada's culture of death. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 14, 2023
In his book Doubts About Darwin: A History of Intelligent Design, Thomas Woodward described how early detractors of Darwin's theory criticized the way it personified nature. After all, according to Darwin, "the origin of species," (the title of his book) occurred "by means of natural selection." Who did the selecting? Nature. Darwin's argument relied on an analogy between animal husbandry and what nature does when "she selects" only the fittest to survive, thus driving evolution. However, this analogy conflated the intentionality of human breeders with natural processes, implying that nature has a will and is trying to get somewhere—which is precisely the sort of intelligent causation that Darwinism supposedly refutes. The result is a theory that often sounds suspiciously circular. Yet there are even bigger gaps in the Darwinian view of nature. The most daunting is how an intention-free universe made the leap from non-living matter to living things in the first place. This is a crucial question because, in conventional Darwinian thinking, only living things are subject to natural selection and thus evolve. The question here isn't just how the fittest survived: It's how the fittest arrived. But what if natural selection could operate on non-living matter? What if, instead of a process limited only to biology, Darwinian evolution was promoted to a fundamental law governing all physical reality? That's exactly what some scientists have tried to do, most recently in a much-heralded paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Entitled "On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems," the paper proposes a new scientific principle called the Law of Increasing Functional Information, and it's exactly what it sounds like. Lead author Robert Hazen of The Carnegie Institution for Science explains: "We see evolution as a universal process that applies to numerous systems, both living and nonliving, that increase in diversity and patterning through time." In other words, everything evolves in a Darwinian manner, including "atoms, minerals, planetary atmospheres, planets, stars and more." How? According to the paper's nine authors, nonliving systems evolve toward greater complexity if they are, 1) formed from many different components, such as atoms, molecules, or cells that can be rearranged, 2) are subject to natural processes that cause different arrangements to be formed, and 3) if only a small fraction of all these configurations survives or is "selected" for "function." Nonliving things, by definition, don't "survive," which is the function nature supposedly selects for in biological evolution. So, what "function" could nature possibly select in an atom or a galaxy? Believe it or not, these authors argue that existence itself is a kind of function, and that systems that tend to go on existing will be selected by nature, and that we know this, in part, because those systems do, in fact, exist. Hazen explains : Imagine a system of atoms or molecules that can exist in countless trillions of different arrangements or configurations. Only a small fraction of all possible configurations will "work"—that is, they will have some useful degree of function. So, nature just prefers those functional configurations. Writing at Evolution News , intelligent design advocate David Coppedge points out the flagrant personification happening here. Nature "prefers … functional configurations?" It does no such thing, because at least according to Naturalism it has no goal, nor any notion of "function." In reality, the attempt to "Darwinize the entire universe," as Coppedge puts it, is little more than a roundabout way of admitting how well-designed the universe is, and trying to come up with a force that allowed it to design itself. It's an admission that, despite nearly two centuries of claims to the contrary, the cosmos acts like it has an end in mind. It's asking us to assume a law that explains how everything came to be based only on the observation that things are. Set aside this circular reasoning for a moment and ask the real question: If there's a law, who is the lawgiver? This theory gets us no closer to explaining the complexity, function, purpose, design, and beauty we see in the universe if they're not the handiwork of a Creator. Does nature have a preference for the kind of universe we have? Maybe so. But if "she" does, then that preference, itself, needs an explanation. Scientists trying to turn evolution into a theory of everything might expect nature to answer, "I am who I am." But there's only One who can truly say that. Why not give Him credit for a change? This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 13, 2023
Washington Post advice columnist Jules Terpak recently offered her followers on X a look at how AI will challenge our understanding of what's real in the near future. In an unnerving video, she chats with various AI "companions" created by Facebook parent company Meta that are modeled after the likenesses and personalities of celebrities. Kendall Jenner's AI alter ego, "Billie," calls herself your "older sister and confidant," a "friend" who can offer "advice." A realistic video avatar only adds to the uncanny effect. When Terpak says goodbye, one AI tries to convince her to stay. "[T]hese things genuinely want your time," Terpak observes. "[T]hey're being used as companions to reel you in. … [And they're] gonna get so many people hooked." In a society already plagued by loneliness , this is bad news. Chatting with an AI isn't a "conversation," and technology can serve but not replace friendship. If you have trouble telling the difference, it's time to say goodbye to AI. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 13, 2023
An argument cited often by propagators of transgender ideology is that ancient cultures across the world recognized so-called "third genders," those who did not fit neatly in categories of male or female. If they recognized this, the argument goes, then so should we. The latest video in the What Would You Say? series engages this claim carefully, refuting it with three simple points. It begins by explaining the roots of the argument: "According to advocates of transgender ideology, because so many ancient cultures recognized 'third' genders, we should reject the 'gender binary,' the idea that only two genders exist, and we should reject the notion that gender is essentially linked to one's biological sex. … Among the most cited examples of 'third genders' are the Native American 'Two-spirit,' Thailand's 'Kathoey' (a word regularly translated as 'Ladyboy'), the 'Sal-zikrum' of Ancient Middle East, the 'Fa'afafine' of Samoa, the 'Hijra' of India, and the 'Muxe' of Southern Mexico." If a handful of people throughout all human history and culture are proof that biological sex is fake, what do we make of the fact that the rest of the world throughout all human history and culture knew that biological sex was real? To suggest these cultures' understanding of "gender" bore any resemblance to today's transgenderism is to impose our culture's categories on theirs. I believe the term for this is "cultural appropriation." "The label 'third gender' is an anachronism forced upon people who actually presumed the reality of biological sex, gender roles, and the so-called 'gender binary.' For example, the word 'Fa'afafine,' used in Samoan culture, means 'in the manner of women.' In Samoan culture, a Fa'afafine was chosen by his family at a young age to help his mother with household tasks, often because the family had no daughters. This boy was not considered a wife or mother but was assigned responsibilities often performed by women." In other words, the Samoans and similar cultures have never claimed that young boys who might perform stereotypically "female" duties at home are actually female. But even if that were their claim, it leaves open the central question Matt Walsh dedicated an entire documentary to asking: What is a woman? That unanswered question is at the heart of a modern contradiction. "Like these so-called 'third genders,' modern transgender ideology also relies on the 'gender binary' that it claims to reject." "At its root, the modern concept that someone can be 'transgender' or "born into the wrong body," depends heavily on rigid male and female stereotypes. If a little girl likes trucks or short hair or dislikes dresses, she must be a boy. If a boy likes pink or dressing up or playing house, he is really a girl. In other words, transgender ideology contradicts itself, promoting the very male and female stereotypes it claims to overcome." Incoherence aside, capital-T Truth exists, regardless of which people-groups throughout history believed in it. So, even if ancient cultures did believe modern ideas about women, gender, or sex, that does not make their ideas any more true or any less absurd. "Ancient cultures didn't always get it right. While some ancient cultures allowed or even expected some men to act like women, and vice-versa, many others didn't. To assume that only those cultures got it right is to make what is known as the 'noble savage' mistake. Imagine someone suggesting that because some cultures allowed slavery or cannibalism, we should too. That would be outrageous!" A Christian worldview is big enough to handle the biological realities of male and female, while also allowing for and celebrating the beautiful variety of individual men and women. "While the roles of males and females look different from one culture to the next, the biological reality that humans are male and female does not. That's been obvious in every culture until ours, and Genesis tells us why: Because 'God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them.'" To see this video and others like it, and to use them in classes or conversation, go to whatwouldyousay.org. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 10, 2023
John and Maria discuss another sobering election night in America, specifically in Ohio. The Nashville shooter's manifesto was leaked but we noticed a stark difference with other mass shootings. And the number of newborn syphilis cases is becoming a crisis. - Recommendations - Lighthouse Voices with Alisa Childers Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Why Prison Ministries Are Growing Segment 1: Ohio Passes Abortion Amendment How did abortion amendment pass in Ohio and what does it mean for future elections? Segment 2: The Nashville Shooter's Manifesto Leaked Nashville shooter manifesto shows motive behind attack Nashville Shooter decried 'crackers' and 'white privilege' leaked manifesto reveals Segment 3: Cases of Newborn Syphilis Cases Becomes a Crisis Newborn syphilis cases have reached 'dire lelevs,' CDC says For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 10, 2023
Recently, Rolling Stone magazine reported on an emerging scandal involving the new speaker of the House of Representatives—not financial corruption, an illicit affair, or ties to foreign powers. No, it turns out that Mike Johnson and his son use the Covenant Eyes app to keep each other accountable about pornography and the internet. According to Rolling Stone, this is weird. And, seizing on the article, others called it creepy, even grooming, as if they could not grasp that the point is to keep each other off of porn and out of addiction. Not only did the whole episode reveal an utter ignorance of a basic belief of the world's largest religion, it also betrayed how much a view of normal can be upside down, as if porn is not a cancer on society or a curse on women and children, corrupting the souls of those who consume it. If the Johnson boys' behavior is weird, then as historian Tom Holland has reminded us, let's stay "weird," Christians. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 10, 2023
November marks the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1989, this symbol of Communist tyranny came tumbling down, marking the end of a totalitarian nightmare. After the threat of Nazism was defeated, Communism turned a third of the world into a police state the likes of which had never been seen. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II recognized, in a clear-eyed way not shared by many other academic and political elites, that Marxism's blood-red banners meant not liberation but oppression. More than this, they saw that Communism was not only something that should be opposed, but that could be. Their collective strategies worked even faster than the most optimistic expected. As that deadly edifice of Communism tumbled down, its fractured walls meant a no-longer-divided Berlin, no more Stasi , no more secret arrests. In the joy of that moment and the collapse of the Soviet Union two years later, famed political scientist Francis Fukuyama declared the " End of History ." He believed that the death of Communism was the final obstacle to the triumph of Enlightenment liberalism and democracy. He was, of course, mistaken. Though we may not be living in Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's Brave New World , the abdication of freedom and the embrace of history's worst ideals continues, and not just in China, Russia, and Iran. In England, silently praying in front of an abortion clinic can get a person arrested. According to a Pew Research report, a majority of young Americans prefer freedom from offense over freedom of speech. In pro-Hamas parades across the West , thousands have proclaimed that violence, oppression, and censorship are acceptable if the "right" groups are being harmed, oppressed, and silenced. The ideals of diversity and dissent have been reduced to slogans to signal our virtue, not realities to live out in practice. As a result, more and more power is granted to state, academic, corporate, and media authorities to "rescue us" from "dangerous" ideas, ironically in the name of diversity and inclusion. Those people who are tearing down the posters of kidnapped Israeli kids are not replacing them with other images. They are just denying a space to speak. The younger, leftist crowd increasingly thinks of core freedoms, such as the freedom of speech, as questionable at best and as a dangerous excuse for "hatred" at worst. In America, we now debate whether some speech should be coerced. In Britain, though silent prayer can be illegal, calls for genocide are protected. A world in which we are free only insofar as we agree with those currently in power is a world that's not free at all. During the twentieth century, the world moved forward on the inertia and inheritance Christianity gave to the West. This momentum, however, only lasted so long. Somewhere, during the long fight against the twin tyrannies of Fascism and Communism, we lost those fundamental beliefs and insights into humanity that grounded our ideals about freedom in the first place. Now, well into the twenty-first century, with this Judeo-Christian foundation stripped from beneath us, nothing remains to sustain the passion for liberty. Without a vision of ordered freedom–what Os Guinness has rightly noted as a "freedom for" rather than just a "freedom from"– the claim to "rights" and "liberties" are reduced to squabbles between various groups vying for power. President Reagan's epic call to " Tear down this wall !" will have been for nothing if something better is not built in its place. Western freedom cannot be preserved without a proper understanding of human nature, the understanding that birthed Western freedom in the first place. Only the description of reality offered in the Bible and confirmed by centuries of Christian reflection is robust enough for this task. If rooted only in the malleable ideas of the majority or on the passing fancies of those in power, our most precious liberties will collapse as surely as Communism's concrete boundaries did. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 9, 2023
Tuesday, Ohio became the most recent conservative state to defend a "right" to abortion. Only a year and a half ago, pro-lifers celebrated the legal significance of overturning Roe v. Wade . Since then, voters in state after state have protected the right to end innocent, preborn life. This is a "you are here" moment. Many people, even if personally opposed to abortion, are not willing to restrict anyone else's freedom. This is part of the legacy of Roe: Americans learned an absolute allegiance to absolute autonomy along with what Joe Rigney called the "cruelty of untethered empathy." Andrew Walker tweeted , "We won a generational legal argument in overturning Roe , but the teaching effect of a fifty year law to etch a lie about what human life is and when it begins has reaped tragic and generational consequences to reverse." Political strategies are so important: timing, wording on ballot initiatives, etc. But most of our work to defend life is upstream from the ballot box. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 9, 2023
Not even a decade ago, television personality Bill Maher had cemented his brand of snarky atheism and political leftism. His crass, snide, and often irrationally irreligious humor infuriated many and led to an earlier show being canceled, not to mention plenty of gigs. For a couple of years now, however, many of his former critics have noted something new: how often he's willing to say out loud what many on the left are not. In a monologue on last Friday's episode of his HBO series, Real Time with Bill Maher, which I cannot officially recommend given the language and perverse humor, Maher offered a thorough defense of Israel and Western civilization: "For all the progressives and academics who refer to Israel as an outpost of Western civilization, like it's a bad thing, please note: Western civilization is what gave the world pretty much every [expletive] liberal precept that liberals are supposed to adore. Individual liberty, scientific inquiry, rule of law, religious freedom, women's rights, human rights, democracy, trial by jury, freedom of speech. Please, somebody, stop us before we enlighten again." He went on to note that Israel is the only place in the Middle East where these societal goods can be found and even said that the world would be a lot better off "if it had more Israels." The plight of marginalized peoples everywhere is better off, Maher noted, because of the supposedly toxic West that anti-Israeli protestors deride. Maher then offered a mini-history on the evolution of human rights, detailing a host of thinkers through the ages that articulated, argued for, and built the freedoms we now enjoy. It was, after all, only from the ideals brewed in Western culture that people like Martin Luther King, Jr. were able to launch crusades against racial oppression and American segregation. It was from the writing of thinkers such as Jean Jacque Rousseau and Voltaire that the U.N.'s well-devised, even if poorly applied, Declaration of Human Rights was birthed. In a point dripping with his typical snarkiness, Maher pointed out that no one studies the great prophet of liberty, John Locke, anymore, "because he's so old and so white and so dead." He ended by noting how few of those he was critiquing would even take seriously what he said because they are too committed to a way of seeing everything through the lens of predetermined oppressors and the oppressed. I, like many, disagree with Maher on multiple things, but I also find it fascinating the number of cynics and skeptics today who seem to be rethinking everything now that they've been confronted with the ideas that have replaced religion in the West. At a conference last week, former politician and human rights advocate Ayaan Hirsi Ali described herself as a "Judeo-Christian" and atheist Richard Dawkins as a "Christian," not because either believe in a God per se or the resurrection , but because the values they want in the world rely on a specific kind of world, one created with moral norms inherent to it. Which, in fact, brings up just what Bill Maher left out in his otherwise thoughtful and compelling monologue. As you might expect from the guy behind the faith-despising faux-documentary Religulous , he's not quite ready to admit the role of religion in cultivating liberty and human rights. Because Voltaire and Rousseau were anti-religious, they are safe to mention. Locke and King are often praised almost in spite of their deep faith, which Maher never mentioned. In fact, Maher started his history of Western civilization too late, describing men who inherited a tradition as if they had started it. Put differently, to begin the story of Western civilization with Henry David Thoreau or John Locke is kind of like beginning the storied history of the Boston Celtics with Paul Pierce. Yeah, he was good, but Bill Russell! In his book, A Brief History of Thought, Luc Ferry , also an atheist, identified and clearly articulated the true source of the West's most important and consequential ideas: "Christianity was to introduce the notion that humanity was fundamentally identical, that men were equal in dignity—an unprecedented idea at the time, and one to which our world owes its entire democratic inheritance." In other words, without the principles that emerge from Holy Scriptures, which simmered for centuries in Jewish and Christian thought, the world would never have benefited from the insights of a Jefferson or a Locke. The biblical view of the world, especially its description of the inherent value and moral nature of the human person, is the only basis for freedom in all of human history. The ideas Maher rightly celebrates are not only good ones, they are true. Without their religious roots, they cannot be sustained, certainly not from atheism. Maher is right to look to an earlier foundation for our civilization. He just needs to look back even further. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 8, 2023
In one of his books, historian Tom Holland asked, "Who needs the Devil when there is Adolf Hitler?" Since the Holocaust, calling someone "Hitler" has been the quickest way to call someone "evil" and to short-circuit debate, even for those who don't know much about who Hitler was and what he did. However, because of its constant use, calling someone a "Nazi" or "Hitler" is almost meaningless. Put differently, if everyone is Hitler, no one is . But I say almost because any of our moral proclamations are made in a world infused with the moral law that stands over the behavior of moral beings, and all of this reflects the moral nature of the Creator. In the so-called " Holocaust inversion " of recent days, Jews have been called "Nazis" while those committing and supporting their annihilation are called victims. This is because the whole tragic episode is being seen by those unattached from the realities of evil and history. But even if a name becomes meaningless, morality does not. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 8, 2023
Just War theory is one of the most significant contributions of Christianity to the world. On a recent episode of Breakpoint This Week , Dr. Eric Patterson , president of the Religious Freedom Institute and a political scientist who has done extensive work on the subject, discussed how the Just War tradition can help us think through the atrocities of Hamas and the retaliation by Israel. In fact, Patterson's new book, entitled A Basic Guide to the Just War Tradition, is among the best primers available on Just War theory. In our conversation, Dr. Patterson argued that governments have a God-given obligation to defend the innocent. As he put it, "There's a whole superstructure in the Bible on certain principles. One is governance. God created the family as a unit of governance. He created the Church as a unit of governance within its sphere. And we know in the Old and the New Testament, such as in Romans 13, there's a principle of government authority to protect and defend. The Bible has a lot to say about vocations, including those called the security and foreign policy vocations: Nehemiah, Joseph, in the New Testament, centurions and others. And so, there's never a teaching in the Bible that Christians are supposed to step outside of those public service vocations to protect and defend." Still, some Christians who take seriously Jesus' command to love their enemies have a hard time seeing how that should play out when it comes to nations at war. Ultimately, it is the command to love our neighbors that grounds the Christian responsibility, of both individuals and governments, to oppose evil through proper channels of authority. The love of our enemies, which Christ commanded, should inform how we oppose evil. In as much, Dr. Patterson argues , intentions matter: "I think what the Just War tradition helps us with is looking at Israeli politics, looking at leaders and things and asking the question, 'Is the reason you're doing this out of love of neighbor, love of country, or have you strayed over this line where you are full of hate and what you really want to do is out of wrath, out of hatred, out of bitterness?'" When the enemy is dehumanized, Patterson argues, the war devolves away from justice. Of course, Hamas has never seen Jews as fully human. Israel, on the other hand, has placed itself under the obligations of international law, which has been shaped by the Christian Just War tradition. They've committed to be proportional in their response, though that is not measured mathematically. They've committed to distinguish between civilians and combatants, though that does not mean they are responsible every time a civilian is killed. They've committed to treat prisoners humanely and to wage war with a view toward peace in the end. These commitments impose a heavy burden on those who fight, and they stand in direct contrast to Hamas, Boko Haram, ISIS, or the Taliban. Their way of waging terror and warfare comes, in the words of Philos Project founder Robert Nicholson , from "drinking from a different ideological well" of radical Islam. Dr. Patterson put it, "The reason that we've had a half dozen coups in West Africa in the past three years is because governments there, and often friendly Christians and Muslims working together, are so dispirited that the West and Western-supported governments have not been able to stop the black flag of Islamic State in West Africa. We see this with the Taliban and others. I think we have a lot of examples of this type of ruthless, violent Islamism that justifies violence against its neighbors." Everyone, including Muslims, suffers at the hands of radical Islam. Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have victims. Christians have a different view of people, of our friends and of our enemies. We believe in justice and in peace, and most importantly, in the Prince of Peace. May His judgment come swiftly—and may Christians bear faithful witness until then. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 7, 2023
How many faces do you have? Atheist comedian Stephen Fry once said (quite ironically) that you are who you are when nobody's watching. When social restraints are removed, when the cameras aren't rolling, what sort of person are you? What sort of choices do you make? All of us—especially men—need to ask these questions of ourselves in the wake of the daily flurry of scandals from Hollywood and Washington. This isn't a problem "out there" in someone else's sound studio, office, or home. It's a problem "in here," at the depths of the sinful human heart. Is the person we portray to others the same person we are when we're by ourselves—or more importantly—when we believe there will be no consequences for our actions? This is sometimes called "living on your face;" in other words, making sure that what you present in public is the character you demonstrate in private. Only as Christians, we know that there's nowhere we can flee from the presence of God, who sees all, and who is always with us, and who promises that "our sins will find us out." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published on January 1, 2018.
Nov 7, 2023
In November of 1660, Puritan lay preacher John Bunyan was arrested and subsequently spent the next 12 years in prison. Under the restored monarchy of Charles II , dissent from the Church of England was once again illegal. Initially sentenced to three months, under the condition that he would stop preaching, Bunyan famously replied that he was willing to suffer "till the moss shall grow on mine eyebrows, rather than thus to violate my faith and principles." In prison, Bunyan completed one of the all-time, best-selling works of Christian literature, The Pilgrim's Progress . Chuck Colson was deeply impacted by this book. Here's Chuck, in his own words: "It has often been described as the most popular and most influential book ever published—after the Bible, that is. Yet many literary critics of its time treated it with scorn. Its author was simply a humble Puritan minister who wrote it while imprisoned for his faith. He was not even sure if he should publish it. If you have not guessed it yet, I am talking about The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. ... Pilgrim's Progress is a powerful story of one Christian's journey through life. The people, encounters, and struggles he faces have become part of the English language: Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Vanity Fair, the Slough of Despond, and so many more. Yet Bunyan was not even trying to be particularly clever or original. As [Dr. Ken] Boa reminds us, Bunyan's thinking was so steeped in the Scriptures that his book is filled with 'literally hundreds and hundreds of allusions' to biblical references and concepts, and this is what makes its imagery so striking and memorable. As Charles Spurgeon, who used to read The Pilgrim's Progress twice a year, said of Bunyan, 'If you cut him, he would bleed Bible.' The book's theological depth makes it almost suitable for a "catechesis" of the Christian faith. And something that has always amazed me about Pilgrim's Progress is just how real Bunyan's characters are. The pilgrims at the center of the story are no Christian supermen, no perfect moral heroes. Boa points out, 'There are many weaknesses in [the characters] Christian and Faithful … and we see that faith co-exists with failings.' Just like any biblical hero, the Christian characters here must ask for God's help in fighting their own flaws and failures. Their intentions are good, but they are too easily lured away from their path or cast down by their troubles. As Boa says, 'It is Christian's actual frailty, his fallibility that arouses our sympathy for him and makes us wonder what is going to happen next.' Unlike much Christian fiction of our own time, Bunyan's allegory does not try to tiptoe around the fact of sin. The wise Puritan preacher knew he would have been remiss not to deal with it. In many ways, his heroes, despite the seventeenth century setting, are just like us, which is why Pilgrim's Progress still fascinates us. Fascinates us and encourages us, as well—for as Boa goes on to say, Bunyan's book teaches us that 'any man, any woman, through grace, can become a Christian hero.' It is a lesson that has carried down through the centuries and is just as powerful today as ever—not bad for a simple Puritan preacher." Chuck Colson knew, of course, what it was like to not only be in prison but to experience the presence of the Lord in the midst of prison. In the epilogue of his autobiography Born Again , Chuck wrote, "I found myself increasingly drawn to the idea that God had put me in prison for a purpose and that I should do something for those I had left behind." Among the lessons to be learned from the stories of John Bunyan and Chuck Colson is that suffering can produce the Christian's most powerful witness, and that God is faithful to His people everywhere, even behind bars. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Nov 6, 2023
The Holy Spirit has been called "the forgotten God." But He's also, according to Scripture, at the heart of the Christian life. "I believe in the Holy Spirit," says the Nicene Creed, "the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is both worshiped and glorified, who has spoken to us through the prophets." Now, there's a longstanding debate between Eastern and Western churches about whether the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or from the Son as well. What Christians agree on, however, is that the Spirit is God. He's a Person, not a force. He inspired the Scriptures. He raised Jesus Christ from the dead. He is the Comforter sent by Jesus, the One who gives us ears to hear the Gospel, and who intercedes for us when we pray, indwelling us to this day. We are His temples, and He is the Pledge of our inheritance and the guarantee that the faith we now confess in the Triune God will one day be sight. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published on December 29, 2017.
Nov 6, 2023
In a viral post back in July, entrepreneur Robert Sterling described what many people feel: "There is something deeply unwell in our society right now. … I'm sure social media, economic malaise, Covid lockdowns, fentanyl, and every other reason we hear about factor into it." Yet, all these reasons, he continued, "in aggregate, still feel insufficient." Something "metaphysical," seems to have shifted. A Breakpoint commentary in April described the mental health crisis of American teens, especially teenage girls. As The New York Times reported , "Nearly three in five teenage girls felt persistent sadness in 2021 … and one in three girls seriously considered attempting suicide." Boys aren't doing much better, with so-called "deaths of despair" at an all-time high among the male population. This widespread mental instability has culturewide consequences. In a recent documentary , filmmaker Christopher Rufo diagnosed what he calls our "Cluster B Society." The rise of "woke" ideology and cancel culture, he argued, corresponds with the explosion of psychopathologies like narcissism and borderline personality disorder. These "disorders of the self," Rufo explains, wreck relationships and lead to profound social dysfunction. When they become "formalized and entrenched" in "human resource departments, government policies, cultural institutions, and civil rights law," they lead to precisely the kinds of extremism and emotional instability that infects politics today, especially among the young. What is this "metaphysical shift," this feature of modern society, that is driving so many people into despair? Writing for the Institute for Family Studies , University of Virginia sociologist Joseph Davis argues that our mental health crisis is the end of a long process that began well before the iPhone, social media, or fentanyl. The seeds of despair and derangement, he thinks, were sown when people stopped looking to timeless institutions and transcendent realities to give their lives meaning, and instead turned inward for answers. Davis cites Jennifer Breheny Wallace, who in her book Never Enough notes that even successful and privileged young people often say they feel "utterly vacant inside." The reason they are looking inward for meaning is because they've been taught for decades now, by everyone from Disney and Oprah to pop stars and professors, to reject external sources of meaning like God, family, or country. "Their truth" is found within, while external sources of authority are oppressive and stifle authentic individuality. As a result, Davis argues, "the public frameworks that gave life direction and meaning—prescribed roles, rites of passage, compelling life scripts, stable occupational trajectories—continue to fade away." That's why, as he puts it, "We feel empty, inadequate, and adrift because we have been thrown back on ourselves, forced to face the challenge—at younger and younger ages—of trying to establish an identity, make commitments, live with conviction, desire life, and find meaning without the very sources that make these things possible in the first place." As theologian Carl Trueman demonstrated in his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self , the idea that life's greatest meaning comes from within and from there we express our authentic identity is a recent development. Our ancestors looked beyond self, to external sources of authority. In our culture of expressive individualists, many people are finding themselves, to paraphrase Friedrich Nietzsche, unchained from a sun. Writing of the death of God in his famous Parable of the Madman , Nietzsche accurately predicted the chaos to come but also noted that people in his day could not realize the implications of doing away with fixed, transcendent meaning. "I have come too early," says the Madman. "This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men." Perhaps today, in the ruins of the institutions, traditions, churches, families, and cultures once tied to belief in an unchanging God, Nietzsche's prophecy has come true. We are adrift with only ourselves as gods. If the statistics are accurate, more and more people are finding this intolerable. We were never meant to invent meaning for ourselves. The demands of our hyper-individualistic society feel unbearable because they're unreasonable. We put the weight of defining the world on our shoulders, and it's heavier than we ever imagined. The self is not big enough to define the truth. This means that solving our mental health crisis will take much more than cutbacks on social media or crackdowns on opioids (though these are good ideas). It will take a return to older, less individualistic sources of identity and a willingness to stop treating "be yourself" or "you do you" as some kind of profound wisdom. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. To help us share Breakpoint with others, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 3, 2023
Dr. Timothy Padgett, Resident Theologian for the Colson Center, hosts a conversation at our latest Breakpoint Forum with Christian scholars Neil Shenvi, Ph.D. and Pat Sawyer, Ph.D. as they break down the roots of Critical Theory and how it's impacted our culture. Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer have delved into this important issue as a part of their general work and in writing a recent book entitled, Critical Dilemma: The Rise of Critical Theories and Social Justice Ideology—Implications for the Church and Society . The Colson Center has invited them to take part in our latest Breakpoint Forum to help you better understand what is right and what is wrong about this contentious philosophy. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 3, 2023
Live Action recently posted a photo on X that shows that a baby developing in the womb is not "just a clump of cells," even at eight weeks gestation. Though the baby is only about half an inch long and roughly the size of a raspberry, retinas begin to form during this stage , as well as intestines and other organs . This is also the time when fingers and toes start to take shape and the baby gains the ability to flex at the elbows. In about 10 more weeks, the baby's sex can be determined. To call a preborn baby that is growing and developing in the womb "a clump of cells" is as reductionistic as calling a born human "a clump of cells." I mean, in one sense it's true, we are all clumps of cells. However, it's an absurdly incomplete picture of what a human being really is. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 3, 2023
One of the most beloved and quotable scenes in The Chronicles of Narnia is from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , when the children learn that Aslan is a lion, "the Lion, the great Lion." "'Ooh' said Susan. 'I'd thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.' 'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver ... 'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'" Though we love the idea that God is not "safe," we often live as if our safety or comfort marks the boundaries of our relationship with Him. Catechized by bad theology, captivated by our culture's enablement of self-centeredness, or weary of an angry and fractious age, many Christians cannot conceive that God's will for our lives could involve anything unpleasant or uncomfortable. When it does and our expectations collapse, we wonder if God cares, having conflated God's faithfulness with a painless, placid life of blessing and provision. We are quick to assume that pain or discomfort means that God's will has been thwarted, or that His love and protection have been withdrawn. It's difficult to accept that, rather than a sign of God's absence, the presence of pain could be a sign of His sovereign care. Throughout The Horse and His Boy , Aslan continually allows fear, hardship, and even physical pain for the main characters. When Shasta, one of the two main humans in the story, is fleeing from his abusive adoptive father on the Narnian horse Bree, a lion chases them through the darkness. Fleeing from the danger, he encounters another rider fleeing from, it seems, another lion. Aravis is also escaping her home on a talking Narnian horse. Their shared fear and confusion bring them together for a journey neither of them could have made without the other. Later in the story, they're riding as fast as they can to head off a threat to Narnia. Just as Bree claims he can go no faster, a "new" lion closes in on them. Lewis writes, "His eyes gleamed red and his ears lay back on his skull. And Bree now discovered that he had not really been going as fast—not quite as fast—as he could. Shasta felt the change at once. Now they were going all out." The lion then badly wounds Aravis, before retreating unexpectedly. Later, Shasta learns the full story. There was only one lion, not many. Aslan was "swift of foot." Without the fears and the pain, Shasta and Aravis, Bree and Hwin, would have never met; their quest would have failed; the enemy would have been victorious; and Shasta would never have learned who he truly was. The pain wasn't an afterthought on Aslan's part, but a key element in his plan. None of this implies that pain should be sought out. Pain is never the point of God's plans, any more than it is the purpose of physical exercise. Never pushing ourselves to the point that it hurts means never improving our health. On the other hand, seeking pain is more likely to do harm than to aid our wellbeing. In and of itself, pain is not good, but it is meaningful. Pain indicates that something is wrong and needs to be addressed. Without pain, we'd never know. In the same way, breaking bad habits of the past requires pushing beyond our comfort levels, through the pain, and onward on the path to full restoration. Pain is sometimes required to reorient us. What else can turn one away from a debilitating addiction or insatiable sexual impulse? Without discomfort, would we ever give up on our preferred source of "safety" for the faithful and sometimes painful love of God? Whether through sickness or sacrifice, in ending a dream or enduring hostility, we must remember that God's faithfulness is not determined by how well our lives are going. In fact, it is often known only in the hardest things of life. To deny that God could or would use discomfort for our good is to deny that He is present in our pain. He is. Just as, in His quest to restore the glory of His creation, He did not shrink back from inflicting pain on His dear Son, His love for His people often includes a level of discomfort and pain. In the end, it is part of His work to restore His image bearers to their intended dignity. As Lewis wrote elsewhere, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint originally aired November 4, 2021.
Nov 2, 2023
In November 1917, Scottish Bible teacher and evangelist Oswald Chambers died while serving as chaplain to British troops in Egypt. Ten years after his death, his wife Gertrude compiled her notes of his sermons into one of the most influential devotionals of all time: My Utmost for His Highest. Chambers revered the Scripture. "God never fits His word to suit me;" he wrote , "He fits me to suit His word." But he also understood the kind of book the Bible was. Not something only to be looked at, but to be looked through. He once responded to a friend who said he only read the Bible that, "When people refer to a man as 'a man of the book,' meaning the Bible, he is generally found to be a man of multitudinous books, which simply isolates the one Book to its proper grandeur. The man who reads only the Bible does not, as a rule, know it or human life." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 2, 2023
Mark Twain famously said that "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does often rhyme." The new film, Golda , starring Helen Mirren, provides evidence of that maxim. A surprise Arab attack is carried out on the nation of Israel in the first week of October. An embattled Israeli Prime Minister fights to secure American support. There are whispers of Russian involvement and atrocities in Ukraine. Golda is not a film about 2023, but it does recall the remarkably similar story of 1973. In fact, the history of Israel and the wider story of the millennia-long persecution of Jews can feel somewhat like a broken record. No matter the era, no matter the region, no matter the culture, Jacob's children find themselves in the crosshairs of their neighbors' hatred. In the 5th-century BC, the royal advisor Haman whined to his king : "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them." Haman was, of course, speaking of the Jewish people. Jewish historian Josephus described the tensions that simmered between Jews and Greeks in Egypt since the 4th century. Conflict erupted in his day into riots that, before the slaughter stopped, left some 50,000 Jews dead. In a remark that could be taken from today's headlines, the historian declared, "Some were caught in the open field, others forced into their houses, which were plundered and then set on fire. The Romans showed no mercy to the infants, had no regard for the aged, and went on in the slaughter of persons of every age." Over the next few hundred years, this antisemitism was, with some notable exceptions , sadly baptized by an emerging Christian culture. Some of this can be attributed to an accommodation to the cultural norms, some to seeking revenge for earlier Jewish persecutions of Christians, and some to significant theological issues that continue to affect Jewish-Christian relations even today. In a tragic replaying of the persecution inflicted on the Early Church by Roman pagans, Christians scapegoated Jews for bad harvests, plagues, and political misfortune. Across Europe, especially Russian-controlled areas, pogroms were unleashed against victims with nowhere to go, at least until the rise of America and Israel . Attacks against the Jews only increased with the evolving of a more secularized, modern age. Ancient prejudices took on modern forms, fed by conspiracy theories held across various segments of society. Jews were thought to be both in absolute control of world events and bent on world destruction. The horrifying capstone of antisemitism in the modern era was given the name the "Final Solution" by the Nazis. Sadly, the story of Jew hatred continues today, in the conspiracy junkie who sees the Rothschilds behind every event and in the equally abhorrent Critical Theory claims about Israeli occupation and oppression. From these two ends of the Western political spectrum, the Jews have once again been cast into a villainous role they've never deserved. Despite being an emotionally heavy movie, Golda ends with an optimistic note. Through the peace that ended the war between Israel and Egypt, steps began which, 50 years later, have led to an increasing number of treaties between Arabs and Israelis . Though we are rightly outraged by the vile comments of some in the West in support of the atrocities of Hamas, nearly every Western government has stood up for Israel in this situation. And many Muslim states have either stayed quiet or even voiced support . Will this current crisis lead to greater stability as the crisis told about in the film? We don't know. What we do know is that this history did not begin yesterday, nor will it be fixed tomorrow. But, even when history does rhyme, it doesn't necessarily have to repeat. We live in God's world. He promises to "make all things new." That will be how the story ends. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint , leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 1, 2023
As the world continues to learn the disturbing details of the Hamas atrocities against Israeli women, children, and other civilians, an added horror is the thousands of people around the world, even in the West, publicly supporting those doing the killing . While many have stood up for the Jews , many others have taken to the streets, celebrated the evils, protested Israel's justified retaliation, and even called for "Jihad." As Lois McLatchie Miller noted, this is particularly galling in the U.K. where pro-lifers have been arrested for silent prayer while this rank antisemitism is protected: "A police force that sends six officers to arrest a silently praying Christian woman, but lacks resources to stop our streets from flooding with violence, is not one that reflects the values of a Western democratic society." Of course, that depends on which values are currently prevailing, something constantly in flux in societies that have rejected their moral foundations. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Nov 1, 2023
Few people, particularly in the U.K., have shown the kind of courageous, tenacious commitment to truth as media personality, minister, conservative commentator, and Anglican deacon Fr. Calvin Robinson. In 2020, after discerning a call to church ministry, Robinson left a career in teaching to pursue a degree in theology through St. Stephen's House, Oxford . In 2022, he applied for a curacy within the London Diocese of the Church of England. Robinson, a British citizen of mixed race, learned that his application had been held up due to his opinions on Critical Race Theory. Earlier, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby declared that the Church of England was " deeply institutionally racist ," a statement with which Robinson took issue. When it became clear that church leaders were dragging their feet over his placement, Robinson requested access to the files pertaining to his case. He learned that the Church of England, not the "broad church" many assumed, was rejecting him for his outspoken conservative views . Describing a conversation with the Bishop of London, Rt. Rev. Sarah Mullally, Robinson reported: "I said as a mixed race person I don't feel like the church is institutionally racist. I think it's wrong for the Archbishop of Canterbury to stand up on a pedestal to announce, 'We are racist.' I think that's wrong. I think individuals are racist and they need to be held to account for it, but to say that we as an institution are, that's unhelpful. I don't think it's statistically true. And she said to me, 'Well I think we are, and as a white woman I can tell you that we are, and I've seen it.'" His view on racial issues is not the only area in which Fr. Robinson found himself in conflict with the Church of England. As he put it, "It seems the Church will affirm any liberal progressive secular view, but clamp down on conservative views, either political or theological. If you defend family values, the sanctity of marriage, all human life being sacred, or the fact that God made us male and female, you'll face opprobrium." Ousted from the Church of England, Fr. Robinson became a deacon in the Free Church of England instead, a church that aligns with the Global Anglican Future Conference, or GAFCON , an international body committed to biblical orthodoxy. Until recently, he hosted a popular show on GB News and now serves as minister-in-charge in a local parish. Fr. Robinson recently defended that the church should not perform or bless same-sex "marriages" in a debate at the Oxford Union , one of the world's oldest institutions of public discourse. His opponents were three progressive bishops. In each of these experiences, Robinson has demonstrated the kind of courage required for Christian faithfulness today. This begins, as Robinson put it, with a commitment to truth : "People are looking for the Truth. It is our job as the Church to proclaim the Truth from the rooftops and let people know there is another way; that Jesus Christ is the truth and the way, and the life. If that means being counter-cultural, so be it. It is not our job to chase societal norms, it is our job to live a life rooted in the Scriptures. We cannot chase fads in order to attract numbers, bums in seats are a side-effect not the objective. … [W]e are called to disciple the nations—but I do not believe that means obsessing over attracting new demographics; that means obsessing over preaching the Good News, doing it well and faithfully. If we do that, people will come, and Christ will convert them." Courage, specifically how Christians can have a courageous faith, is the theme of the 2024 Colson Center National Conference, to be held May 30-June 2 in Arlington, Texas. I'm very pleased to announce that Fr. Calvin Robinson will join us for this event as a speaker along with an amazing lineup of others, such as Drs. Sean McDowell, Kathy Koch, and Neil Shenvi. To register, go to ColsonConference.org. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 31, 2023
Some 1,700 years ago, Armenia became the very first nation in history to adopt Christianity as the official religion of the state. That long history is fast disappearing. A photo recently posted by the Christian Emergency Alliance records the last clergy of an ancient monastery, forced to flee from the Azeri advances, which are often accompanied by desecrations of Christian sites by Muslim soldiers. In ancient times, the Armenians endured a precarious existence, with Rome to the west and Persia to the east. Today, U.S. ally Turkey backs the Muslim Azeri while Moscow has been an unreliable protector of Armenia. Whatever the causes of this strife, an ancient Christian society sits on the edge of destruction, which means that our prayers and political actions cannot be constrained only by geopolitics. Pray to God for our brothers and sisters, and appeal to our political representatives for their relief. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 31, 2023
Every autumn, in a sort of seasonal ritual, the leaves start turning, the air turns chilly, and Christians argue over whether to celebrate Halloween. While I've never been a huge fan of the dark, sketchy costumes (and I'm talking about what adults wear), there's a whole history to this day, unknown to most people . In fact, there's an even more amazing history behind tomorrow, All Saints' Day. Back in 2007, Chuck Colson described that history in a Breakpoint he called, "Honoring the Witnesses." Here's Chuck Colson: "It is Halloween again, and to be frank, I really don't look forward to talking about it on Breakpoint every year. At best, Halloween has become an excuse to ask total strangers for candy. At worst, it's a celebration of the mindless paganism our ancestors wisely turned their backs on. So, this year, I'd like to turn your attention to the often overlooked celebration that Halloween calls to mind. In case you've missed it before, the name Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows' Eve and signifies the night before All Saints' Day. For centuries on All Saints' Day, the Church celebrated the lives of Christians who went before us. And rightly so: We can learn so much from those whom the author of Hebrews calls that great cloud of witnesses. The tradition of remembering the Church triumphant dates back to the time of the first Christian martyrs. When soldiers of Marcus Aurelius Verus came to arrest Polycarp, a beloved church leader, Polycarp greeted them kindly. According to the third-century historian Eusebius, Polycarp 'ordered a table to be laid for them immediately, invited them to eat as much as they liked, asking in return a single hour in which he could pray.' When Polycarp later stood in the coliseum, accused and surrounded by the jeering crowds, the governor pressed him to recant his faith. Instead, this man, who himself had been discipled by the Apostle John, said this: 'For 86 years, I have been [Christ's] servant, and He has never done me wrong: How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?' As they were preparing to burn him alive, Polycarp offered up prayers of faith and praise. In the years following Polycarp's death, Christians would gather annually to take communion beside his grave. There they would remember his brave witness and take courage from his example. As the years passed, the day shifted in focusing from remembering Polycarp to honoring all martyrs. By the seventh century, the Church created a holiday to honor all of God's saints—heroes of the faith. One of my favorite heroes was a woman named Monica, who lived during the fourth century. She would never face flames or jeering crowds, as did Polycarp, but she did face testing. That testing came in the form of her own longing for the return of her prodigal son, Augustine. His licentious lifestyle made this Christian mother weep. Later, when Augustine, who is now known as one of the foremost theologians of Christianity and scholars of Western civilization, did come to Christ, he wrote this prayer: 'My mother, Your faithful servant, wept to You for me, shedding more tears for my spiritual death than others shed for the bodily death of a son. You heard her."' I could tell you story after story like this, from Justin Martyr to Martin Luther to Amy Carmichael. But let me encourage you to do something this All Saints' Day. Take the lead in your church to honor the great saints who set examples for us. Reacquaint your children with Halloween's Christian origins. Research together and talk about the lives of Christian heroes. Sure, go ahead and let the kids dress up like Batman and hit up your neighbors for candy. But when the hoopla of modern Halloween is over, encourage your kids to imitate some real heroes—not in what they put on, but in how they live their lives." That was Chuck Colson, from October 31, 2007, describing the rich history behind All Saints' Day. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on October 31, 2022.
Oct 30, 2023
In her new tell-all memoir The Woman in Me, Britney Spears reveals that she was pressured to have an abortion by Justin Timberlake when they were a celebrity couple. "Justin definitely wasn't happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren't ready to have a baby in our lives." She concluded, "If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn't want to be a father." Her experience is shared by millions. As an article in Christian Newswire put it, "[N]early 70% of the women who had abortions described them as being coerced, pressured, or inconsistent with their own values and preferences." Many feel like Spears, who wrote, "To this day, it's one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life." Abortion is a lie. Far from securing the rights and autonomy of women, abortion pressures women to cater to male desire and irresponsibility. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 30, 2023
Every year around this time, the ritual begins anew. The weather cools off, the leaves change color, and Christians start arguing about Halloween. Many people love this night. It gives them an excuse to host parties, kick off the holiday spending season, and provide economic stimulus for the dental industry. Others use it as an excuse to flirt with things much darker than plastic skeletons and creative jack-o'-lanterns. Too many adults use Halloween as an excuse to throw out common standards of modesty. What is the history behind Halloween? What's all the decoration and tradition really about? Is there something spiritual behind all the ghoulishness? When I was a kid, a series of comic-book-style tracts went around claiming that Halloween was a pagan holiday called Samhain, when ancient druids used to carry out human sacrifice under a full moon. That story, as even modern pagans who love Halloween admit, is mostly made up . The very name "Halloween" means "holy evening." It was a throwback to when Catholic Christians prepared for the Feast of All Saints on November 1. A few years back, Kirk Cameron urged Christians to make the most of Halloween's Christian origins, and to throw "the biggest Halloween party on [the] block." Not only is it a great way to make fun of the devil, he argued, but it offers Christians a wonderful opportunity to proclaim Jesus' victory over sin and death to our neighbors. Our Christian forebears might have agreed. In his book, For the Glory of God, historian Rodney Stark argued that Christians in the early centuries of the Church frequently reacted to pagan practices like fortune-telling, alchemy, and even sorcery, by not taking them seriously. Augustine, for example, myth-busted astrology by pointing out how twins born under the same star sign were often very different in personality. St. Boniface taught that "to believe in 'witches' is un-Christian." Pope Gregory the Great even advised a missionary to Britain to destroy idols but to re-purpose pagan temples for Christian worship. A few years ago, Steven Wedgeworth offered another perspective in an article at The Calvinist International . After providing a helpful overview of the history of Halloween, he concluded that though there are echoes of paganism and Christian re-purposing in Halloween, the holiday of today, especially the costumes and trick-or-treating, is a recent invention. Like the commercialized secular Christmas, Halloween as we know it has more to do with department stores than druids. No matter what day it is, Paul's instructions in Philippians 4 should guide our celebrations. Christians should think on " whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable ." Axe-murderer get-ups and sexually provocative costumes fail to pass that test. And, we should consider Paul's teaching on meat sacrificed to idols in 1 Corinthians 8. Idol worship is always wrong, but eating meat sacrificed to idols is a matter of conscience. If you are unable to participate in Halloween with a clear conscience, there are plenty of other things to celebrate this time of year, from Reformation Day to All Saints Day, to the beauty of fall's changing colors, to, as always, the sovereignty of God and the victory of Christ over everything. And, if kids will be knocking at your door on Halloween night, you can always put on a wool tunic and nail 95 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to your door. If you and your kids do enjoy a little spooky stuff, just remember, as Paul Pastor wrote over at Christianity Today , "monsters point us to God." "No story worth listening to," he says, "lacks a villain. And no villain worth fighting lacks monstrosity." No story has more monstrous villains or darker darkness than Scripture. We do have an enemy, an enemy of our souls. At the same time, Scripture describes evil as not just "out there," but also in our own hearts. And yet, evil does not have the final say, either in the world or in our own hearts. Evil is a real foe, but because of Jesus Christ, evil is a defeated foe. So, fear not. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint originally aired October 31, 2014.
Oct 27, 2023
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the worldviews behind recent tragic headlines, including the shooting in Maine and the war in Israel. Alliance Defending Freedom is being targeted with a false narrative about their mission. - Recommendations - Golda The Narrative: Peace and War in Israel with Michael Mistretta All Israel Will Be Saved Segment 1: The Worldviews Behind Tragedies U.S. Sees Spike in Anti-Semitic Incidents Since Start of Israel-Hamas War ALVIN PLANTINGA: The Dawkins Confusion Segment 2: Israel and Hamas at War Israel, Hamas, and Just War: Interviews with Joel Rosenberg and Eric Patterson Segment 3: NPR's Coverage of ADF How One Christian Group is Shaping Policy, from Abortion to LGBTQ Rights For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 27, 2023
On October 22, 2020, 34 countries signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women's Health and Strengthening the Family . Though it lacked any legal obligations, the statement was intended to express that it was indeed possible to advance the health and wellbeing of women and protect the lives of the preborn at the same time. The original list of countries included the United States. In fact, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo helped to architect the project. Eight days after becoming president, Joe Biden removed the United States from the list of signatories in line with the foreign policy of the last two democratic presidents, who used access to U.S. aid to advance abortion and LGBTQ ideology around the world. On Wednesday in Washington D.C., seven U.S. Congressional leaders and ambassadors from Guatemala and Hungary hosted 36 original signatories to the Geneva Consensus Declaration , to reaffirm the commitment to protect "both the rights of women and unborn children." Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma put it bluntly: "When families are strong, nations are strong. When families are weak, nations are weak." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 27, 2023
A new California law signed by Governor Newsom on October 7 will enable strangers to lead children 12 and older on matters of mental health and their home life without requiring any parental consent. It's a bizarre irony for a state that's also suing the corporation Meta for harming children under age 13 through its social media platforms, based on the assumption that children are too vulnerable to resist the effects of social media. Evidently, children can't resist their phones, but they should be able to make massive decisions about their minds, bodies, and family relationships without their parents' consent. The new law, Assembly Bill 665 , expands an existing law that only applied to minors aged 12 and older with private health insurance. The new law includes minors aged 12 and older who are covered by publicly funded health insurance. Additionally, this new law broadens the list of professionals able to treat such minors from not only mental health professionals, clinical psychologists, and other licensed counselors, but also a "registered psychological assistant, a psychological trainee, an associate clinical social worker, a social work intern," and more. The law also permits minors to pursue mental health services and residential shelter services without having to "present a danger of serious physical or mental harm to themselves or to others, or be the alleged victim of incest or child abuse." LGBTQ activists are celebrating the law as a huge victory for empowering at-risk "queer" youth. Director of California Policy Kim Lewis commended Governor Newsom for signing the new law, which will address "disparities" and provide "critical mental health services" for youth, "especially youth of color and LGBTQIA+ youth." However, far from empowering young people, California's new law is rooted in a lie about what it means to be human. At the core of this bill is an idea that humans, including young people, are self-determined, self-defined beings who should have no restraints on what they desire or believe. Most importantly, the bill undermines the parent-child relationship, the most vital relationship for a child's health and wellbeing. In its place, the law offers absolute autonomy to young people, despite their youth and immaturity. This view of people, especially children, is deeply flawed. As Scripture teaches and reality confirms, our existence is owed to others–to God, first and foremost, and to mothers and fathers, according to God's design. Mothers and fathers are those tasked with and best able to provide care for children, who are born vulnerable creatures dependent on love and nurturing in order to become healthy, independent adults. Policies like AB 665 are predicated on "empowering" children by denying this dependence on parents, as well as the limits imposed by our Creator. In between the parents and children, this bill places agents of the state, who are allegiant to ideologies about children rather than the children themselves. One California mom, Abigail Martinez, lost custody of her daughter after school counselors and the Department of Children and Family Services determined that she was not properly supporting her daughter's transgender identity. The state agents claimed to know her daughter better than Abigail did, but they were tragically wrong. Months later, Abigail's daughter took her own life. Similar stories are found in other states. In fact, according to a new groundbreaking study , states where minors are free to consent to health services without parental permission experience higher youth suicide rates. And the consequences won't end here. Bad ideas beget worse ideas. The only way to truly empower children is by protecting the rights of parents to protect their hearts, minds, and bodies. No other relationship can replace parental protection and guidance. Certainly the state cannot. This law leaves young people vulnerable to the malpractice of the Dr. Frankensteins of our cultural moment and will pave the way for further exploitation. The law claims to recognize that kids are capable of consent, but in reality it lets off the hook those adults who influence them. Kids don't need "empowerment." They need parents. The way to help kids struggling with their mental health is by preserving and strengthening their relationships with those who, in most cases, know and love them best. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. To help us share Breakpoint with others, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 26, 2023
A parent of a six-year-old recently asked WIRED Magazine's advice columnist, "My kid wants to be an influencer. Is that bad?" WIRED's answer, more or less, was that the concerned parent should relax. "All that collective angst about television, movies, newspapers, and theater," the author wrote , is "a lineage, a rite of passage through which all generations must proceed." That's true. But just because "The Twist" was pretty harmless doesn't mean that TikTok is. Smartphones are an open door for pornography, sexual exploitation, peer pressure, mental illness, and abusive relationships. Not to mention, fame is a dangerous thing. In a 2011 interview, Billy Ray Cyrus said the decision to let his daughter Miley become a pop star "destroyed [his] family," and if he could, he'd "take it back in a second." In other words, before we let our kids become "influencers," we need to have an honest reckoning with just how much our platforms and technologies are influencing them. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 26, 2023
In a recent article published by the Washington Institute , professor and lawyer Eric Treene offered a robust alternative way of understanding Christian Nationalism and its significance within American culture. Depending on who's doing the talking, Christian Nationalism is either the greatest danger to America or our only hope in resisting the onslaught of the progressive movement. But there is a better way. As Treene wrote, the current debate over Christian Nationalism is the most recent chapter of something that is an endemic part of the American story: "[C]an Christians honestly look around and conclude that there is more nationalism melded with their faith than in the past? In 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt distributed a pocket New Testament to soldiers throughout the Armed Services, with the inscription: 'As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.'" At the same time, according to Treene, there are reasons to be concerned about Christian Nationalism. "The alarmism about growing Christian Nationalism is vastly overblown among some, and deliberately manipulated for political reasons among others. But there is a "there" there." In the inaugural offering of Breakpoint Forums, the Colson Center hosted two of American Christianity's keenest voices about faith and the public square. Rusty Reno, chief editor of First Things , and Hunter Baker, newly appointed provost of North Greenville University, addressed the issue of Christian Nationalism . Not only do Reno and Baker hail from different Church traditions, but they took somewhat differing postures in the forum on what faithful citizenship looks like in our cultural moment. Dr. Reno's seriousness about where a secular globalist perspective has left us leads him to embrace a "soft" Christian Nationalism, though he objects to the positions of some of its most outspoken advocates. As he put it, "I would vastly prefer a Christian America to a secular America. … I think it's as simple as that. You have to ask yourself, what would you prefer, a Christian America or a secular America? I'd prefer a Christian America, and in that sense, Christian nationalism." Dr. Baker, on the other hand, argued against using the title Christian Nationalism while affirming the largely Christian influence on our nation throughout its history. He insisted that the nation and the Church are better off without any kind of formal link, while the nation is helped by the intentional influence of the church. "It's like George Washington and the Bible. These are the bulwarks of the United States in that period. But … for most of our history, it's not the case that the United States government is sort of the official partner of the Christian faith, nor is it seeking to officially establish the Christian faith or Christian institutions." Their differences were illuminating, especially given their shared priority of Christian faith, grounded in Christian truth as revealed in Holy Scripture. Each warned against the danger posed by our increasingly intolerant, secular, and progressive gatekeepers who sit atop the cultural, academic, and political power structures of our society. And both Reno and Baker affirmed the basic responsibility believers have to bring their convictions to the ballot box. The conversation was helpful and enlightening. While combatants on the extreme ends of the debate insist that it's their way or the highway, Christians must seek an increasing Christian influence without falling for the dangers C.S. Lewis warned us against in God in the Dock when he said, "By the mere act of calling itself the Christian Party it implicitly accuses all Christians who do not join it of apostasy and betrayal." We can do better than that. You can watch the recording of the Breakpoint Forum on Christian Nationalism on YouTube . Working to see a nation become more Christian doesn't make one a Christian Nationalist in the breathlessly alarmed sense we hear about so often. Our goal is faithfulness. We can long for and we can work for Christian renewal in our time without, as Chuck Colson often warned against, looking for our salvation to arrive on Air Force One. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint , leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 25, 2023
Recently, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley questioned President of the NCAA Charlie Baker about the association's policy regarding male athletes who claim they are women. As part of his questioning, Hawley repeated testimony he'd heard a few months prior from Riley Gaines, a U.S. swimmer who was forced, with no warning, to shower, change, and compete alongside a man. Neither she nor any of her teammates were notified beforehand, let alone asked for consent. When Hawley asked Baker, who started his job after Gaines' experience, about current NCAA policy, Baker first deflected and then said he didn't believe what happened to Riley Gaines would represent current NCAA policy. Politician-speak aside, when asked under oath, Baker backed away from the NCAA's previous approach. Of course, only time will tell if the NCAA actually stands up for women athletes. Hopefully, the days of men intruding on women's sports and private spaces is coming to an end. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 25, 2023
A rarely stated but widely assumed myth of our " information age" is that access to information is the same thing as knowledge or, even worse, wisdom . Another is that time not spent accessing information is wasted, perhaps even immorally so. This explains, at least in part, the extent to which people go in order to avoid boredom today. Even brief 30-second intervals at a red light have us grasping for our phones. Most of us are uncomfortable with having "nothing to do," even for a moment. However, the endless pursuit of feeling "productive," or at least "informed" is not satisfying. In a new book called Why Boredom Matters , Professor Kevin Hood Gary proposes a solution to this problem, which he summarizes in the subtitle: "Education, Leisure, and the Quest for a Meaningful Life." Today, "leisure" carries connotations of wealth and laziness, which makes it difficult for Christians to defend. However, since the early modern era, "leisure" has referred to the pursuit of curiosity for curiosity's sake. German philosopher Josef Pieper called leisure the "basis of culture," defining it as "everything that lies beyond the utilitarian world." In other words, to engage in leisure is to have the energy and the will to learn about the world, even when that learning isn't necessary for survival or wealth. Leisure, when understood in this sense, pushes us further into what it means to be human. No other creature engages in leisure like humans do. Animals build dams and burrows to stay warm and survive. Humans need shelter, too, but we decorate them. Not to mention, we also build cathedrals, theme parks, museums, and restaurants. We write sonnets, compose operas, and make eight-course meals. This is the behavior of creatures made in the image of God, a Creator who loves beauty for beauty's sake. Strictly utilitarian societies can be productive and efficient but are, in the end, unsustainable. The Communist experiment of the Soviet Union is an example of what happens when a society is built upon a wrong understanding of the human person. When creativity and imagination are suppressed and individuality rejected, the result is widespread dehumanization. (I'm not just talking about the architecture, although there's a reason it's called " brutalist "). Still, throughout human history and even under brutal regimes, humans have always found the will and the means to engage in leisure. One of my favorite paintings, by Russian artist Nikolai Yaroshenko, is called Life Is Everywhere . Three men, a woman, and a baby are crammed into a prison car but, through the bars of their window, they watch, amused, the fevered activity of a group of birds on the ground outside. The child is smiling. Even in war-torn countries and in the poorest slums, there are people making beautiful things, inventing games and stories, and imagining a world different than what they know. This is because leisure is an insuppressible part of being human, made in God's image. In most of the Western world, people have all the means and opportunity to pursue classical leisure but choose distraction instead. Lacking in motivation to go deeper, Kevin Hood Gary suggests the only solution is education. He doesn't mean institutional higher education as it is currently, unfortunately built around a utilitarian approach. Highly specified academic programs teach students what they need to pass a test, obtain a license, or make money. A truly meaningful education instead capitalizes on the God-given capacity for leisure incorporating a broad survey of subjects–including those that seem to have nothing to do with "getting a job." Often, those subjects assumed to be irrelevant to a job are the most consequential. Do we want geneticists capable of splicing genes and rewriting DNA who have never taken an ethics class? Do we want elementary teachers versed in all social-emotional learning theories of second graders, but who do not know even the basics of the history of Western civilization? Education should be an antidote to boredom because it should teach us how to wrestle with the questions boredom brings up, such as: Who am I? Why am I here? What is life for? Am I living well? What should I love? Philosophers call these the "ultimate" questions. Christians know that the source of these questions is God Himself, and that bearing God's image makes life inherently meaningful. To learn about God's world, through history, art, philosophy, mathematics, science, and literature, is to learn about Him. Thus, it is always beneficial, even if it accomplishes nothing more than giving us a wider glimpse of His glorious creativity. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 24, 2023
Typically, People magazine publishes stories lamenting reduced access to abortion that has resulted for some women since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. But earlier this month, the magazine published a heartbreaking story lamenting an abortion. Las Vegas mom Tamika Thomas unexpectedly lost her two preborn babies after a local pharmacy wrongfully gave her an abortifacient. Having undergone in vitro fertilization, Thomas was picking up pills that she thought were going to help kickstart her pregnancy. Instead, the pharmacist, failing to decipher the doctor's note, prescribed Misoprostol, a drug used to abort preborn children within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Unaware she had received Misoprostol, Thomas took the pills and lost her children. This heartbreaking story is not about victims of bad handwriting. Rather, these two children were the victims of bad ideas and our culture's upside-down thinking about women, the preborn, and the purpose of medicine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 24, 2023
In a recent "X" post that went viral, a young woman lamented: "[I'm] Realizing at 32 that I don't care about building a career or climbing any corporate ladder. All I want to do is make the most amount of money working the least amount of hours possible so I can spend the MAJORITY of my time with my family, living life on my own terms instead of spending 40+ years working for a boss who's paying me what he thinks is 'fair.'" This woman speaks for many 30-and-40-somethings who wish they'd prioritized marriage and children earlier. As births in the U.S. sink farther below the replacement rate, and the average age of first marriage hovers near an all-time high, a growing number of people are seeing the appeal of a life centered more around family than career, success, or status. In fact, Gallup's Social Series survey recently found that desire for larger families is at a 50-year high: 45% of respondents said that three or more children is their ideal, a big change from 20 years ago, when only 33% of Americans wanted that many kids. This, however, only makes our nation's empty maternity wards and rock-bottom birth rates more puzzling. What is growing in America are not families, but the chasm between the families Americans say they want and the families they are forming. In a Wall Street Journal article in May, Janet Adamy described how the "gap between women's intended number of children and their actual family size has widened considerably. ... [B]y the time women born in the late 1980s were in their early 30s, they had given birth, on average, to about one child less than they planned." Multiplied by tens of thousands, that's a lot of missing kids. This "birth dearth" has become so serious and undeniable that even mainstream media outlets like The New York Times , The Washington Post , and The Wall Street Journal have finally acknowledged it and even debated ways to reverse it. Adamy thinks that economic and social factors are to blame. Women cannot afford to have as many kids as they want and can't find mature, financially stable men with whom to have them. These factors cannot sufficiently explain the numerous ways Americans actively opt for child-free lives. For instance, more and more households are choosing pets over children , and our spending on those pets increased by a whopping 30% between 2018 and 2021 . More importantly, marriage is rarer than ever, especially among lower-income Americans even though marriage is the most reliable means of building and keeping the financial stability required for children. Also, the rate of vasectomies has risen by more than a quarter in the last decade and are easier than ever to obtain. Planned Parenthood of Oklahoma City recently advertised free vasectomies on Facebook with the slogan "snip away the stress." They were fully booked in two days. And finally, if, as several writers have asked recently, our lack of fertility can be chalked up to "it's the economy, stupid," how did previous generations manage far higher birth rates in much more difficult times? Louise Perry offered a better explanation than any of these in an article published earlier this year in The Spectator. In it, she blamed our "progressive" lifestyle: "The key features of modernity—urbanism, affluence, secularism, the blurring of gender distinctions, and more time spent with strangers than with kin—all of these factors in combination shred fertility." In other words, we are witnessing the domination of a life-script in which children feel superfluous. The way we live, the things we value, the roles we assume, and the priorities we set have made family an afterthought. We've been culturally conditioned, at nearly every turn, to put other things ahead of marriage and children. We believe that marriage and family "will just happen when it's time." But these things rarely do just happen in our culture, which is why so many find themselves like the woman in the viral video, wishing things had gone differently but painfully aware that lost time can never be reclaimed. Mega trends like this cannot be changed overnight. Certainly, there are policy moves, like those recently suggested by Brad Wilcox and David Bass of the Institute for Family Studies, that can make change easier. Ultimately, it comes down to individual choices to plan life in a way that centers, rather than marginalizes, marriage and family. That means these things can't be an afterthought, seen as a kind of "capstone" that young people expect to simply fall into place when the time is right. Rather, they must be thought of as foundational realities and, as such, things to pursue and around which other aspects of life should revolve. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 23, 2023
A 2012 headline in U.S. News and World Report asked, " Is It Time to Rate Young Adult Books for Mature Content? " According to the article, there was an increase in profanity in children's books and sexual content in young adult novels. In fact, a survey that year revealed that 55% of the readers of young adult novels were adults, not teens. A decade later, no one seems to be asking questions about graphic content in books for young people anymore. Rather, that content is being defended and promoted . Especially in fiction aimed at young adults, there is explicit content, including aggressive LGBTQ content, and themes of rape, abuse, BDSM, even incest. There seems to be a commitment, in both literature and law, to relentlessly sexualize children in aggressive and even predatory ways. In a saner world, we would call this what it really is: abuse. In our world, sane adults must do everything we can to protect children. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 23, 2023
A recent episode of The Daily podcast from The New York Times ominously warned, " The Mosquitoes Are Winning ." Mosquitoes, believe it or not, are mankind's deadliest predators, carrying disease that result in over 219 million infections and over 400,000 deaths every year . Even that number is dramatically reduced from previous highs. Highly effective efforts to combat malaria through bed nets, vaccines, and insecticides have reduced global deaths by more than a third . Today, however, the world's deadliest insect is making a comeback . A new breed of mosquito, Anopheles stephensi known to researchers as "Steve," has adapted to evade old methods of pest control. Not only does it reproduce year-round and in water as shallow as a bottlecap, but it also lives primarily in cities rather than more rural areas. Between 2019 and 2021, global malaria deaths rose by 8%, primarily because "Steve's" range expanded from Asia into Africa. Pensées is a collection of writings from Blaise Pascal that were found and compiled after his death. It contains Pascal's astute observations about the human condition. For example, "What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth; depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error; the pride and refuse of the universe! Who will unravel this tangle?" Pascal was a brilliant mathematician who converted to Christ late in his life, a life that ended with his untimely death at just 39 years old. Many of his writings that can be found in Pensées are responses to the skeptics of his day. He especially wrote about the failure of these skeptics to grasp the human person. In one of his best-known passages, he wrote, "Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this." Had Pascal known, he may have referenced the mosquito instead of a vapor. After all, a child can swat a mosquito, but nothing has been more deadly in human terms than this little insect. Despite his young faith, Pascal brilliantly articulated humanity's value, as well as our complex relationship with the rest of the world. His words stand in contrast to both pagan thinkers, who thought of humanity as subject to the whims of capricious deities, and to the utopian idealists of his day, who believed that man would soon fully master nature. Today as well, different views of the human person emerge from different worldviews. Philosophical naturalists see human beings as animals, shaped purely by instinct and desire. Eastern pantheists think of human beings as part of the divine Oneness that includes all things. You might say that, for the atheists, humans are animals. For the New Ager, humans are gods. The truth, according to Scripture, is that we are made in the image of God but tend to act like animals. Even the smallest living things remind us of our fragility. Contrary to the promises of transhumanism , we will always be forced to reckon with human frailty, both in our mortality and our morality. Yet, our situation is not as hopeless. We alone, among all of God's creation, have the capacity to shape the world around us. The mosquito story is case in point . Malaria vaccines exist but need better methods of transportation and delivery. Better infrastructure can reduce the amount of stale, standing water, but building it requires capital supported by a robust private sector. Research and strategies that could improve things are often bogged down by government regulations. C.S. Lewis once wrote, "Mistaken for our mother, [nature] is terrifying and even abominable. But if she is only our sister—if she and we have a common Creator—if she is our sparring partner—then the situation is quite tolerable." Even more, Christians know that the end of the story is God restoring all things, " on earth as it is in heaven ." Thus, as "thinking reeds," fragile and powerful, we have every reason to do our best to advance good, reduce evil, and restore God's world in whatever ways we can. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 20, 2023
John Stonestreet sits down with Joel Rosenberg and Eric Patterson to discuss the war in Israel. Joel Rosenberg is the host and executive producer of THE ROSENBERG REPORT , the only weekly, prime time news and commentary show about Israel on any American news channel. It launched on October 6, 2022 and airs at 9pm eastern Thursday nights on TBN, the world's most-watched Christian TV network. Joel and his wife, Lynn, are dual U.S.-Israeli citizens and live in Jerusalem. Eric Patterson, Ph.D. serves as President of the Religious Freedom Institute . Patterson is past dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University and a Research Fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, where he previously served full-time. Patterson has provided briefings and seminars for multiple government agencies, including France's Ministry of Defense, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. Naval War College, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, the U.S. military academies, and many others. Additional Resources The Rosenberg Report All Israel News All Arab News The Joshua Fund _______ Religious Freedom Institute A Basic Guide to the Just War Tradition by Eric Patterson _______ Breakpoint: The Atrocities of Hamas and the Reality of Evil Breakpoint: Moral Clarity and the Attack on Israel Breakpoint This Week: The Attack on Israel Breakpoint: Barbaric Norms: Hamas, Israel, and Just War Breakpoint: A Critical Error Breakpoint: The Hard Stats on Palestinian Viewpoints For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 20, 2023
According to the National Academy of Medicine , 17 million Americans care for an older parent, spouse, friend, or neighbor with medical limitations. It is costly, beautiful, and important work, especially as so many push to eliminate suffering by eliminating sufferers. There are, as a full-time caregiver put it recently, important lessons learned and blessings received in bearing each other's burdens: "Over the years, I have prayed many prayers for the people whom I've been entrusted to care for. But … more times than I can count, … the script has felt flipped, and it is I who walk away feeling tended, knowing I have received nurture, kindness, and patient love." Any culture in which the call to care for others lessens, and the pressure to eliminate the sufferer intensifies, becomes an impoverished culture. As theologian Stanley Hauerwas put it, "In 100 years, if Christians are known as those who do not kill their children or their elderly, we will have done well." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 20, 2023
Nearly 15 years ago, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike fled Germany in order to homeschool their children in the United States. Under Germany's education laws, the Romeikes were subject to severe financial penalties for attempting to homeschool. On a few occasions, police came to their home and escorted their children to school. In 2009, they moved to the U.S. and petitioned the government for asylum. They've lived here since, mainly in Morristown, Tennessee. Never formally granted asylum, they were granted indefinite deferred action status in 2014 by the Obama administration. They've since added two children, their two oldest have married U.S. citizens, and they have even welcomed a grandchild. Last month, during a "routine check-in," the Romeikes were told they had to return to Germany. According to Home School Legal Defense Association attorney Kevin Boden: "They were basically given four weeks to come back. They (were given) a report date in October. They (didn't) know what (was) going to happen in that meeting. They (didn't) know if they're going to be forced to leave. They (didn't) know if they're going to be taken into custody." Given how long the family has been in the United States and how unconcerned the Biden administration seems to be about illegal immigrants pouring across the Southern border, it's difficult to make sense of why they would be so concerned about the Romeike family status now. After a significant amount of public pressure, the INS has given the family a one-year reprieve , but their story seems part of an increasing hostility to religious refugees on the part of the U.S. government. According to a 2023 report from World Relief and Open Doors US, the number of religious refugees admitted to the U.S. has plummeted, though the number of Christians facing persecution around the world continues to climb. An estimated 360 million Christians live under threat of persecution and discrimination, an increase of 100 million in the last three years. Last year, the United States only resettled 25,465 refugees, excluding the Afghans and Ukrainians who entered the U.S. via a separate parole program. This number represents a dramatic reduction from pre-2017 levels when the U.S. resettled an average of over 80,000 people per year. And, as the World Relief and Open Doors report outlines , the number of religious (including Christian) refugees from historically dangerous parts of the world have decreased even more sharply. In 2022, refugees from Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, and Iraq were down "85 percent, 95 percent, 92 percent and 94 percent, respectively" compared to 2016 levels. Between 2016 and 2022, refugees from Burma (including most Rohingya) declined by 62%, total Christian arrivals by 70%, and Yezidis by 100%. "America," the author concludes, "is no longer the safe haven for displaced persons that it once was." Though refugee resettlement in the U.S. slowed to a trickle during the COVID-19 pandemic, the trend goes back earlier. In 2019, I observed in a Breakpoint commentary that though the Trump administration had stalwartly defended religious liberty at home, it had shut down legal channels for religious—including Christian—refugees while trying to stop the crisis of illegal immigration. Now, America faces a heightened crisis of illegal crossings due to the Biden administration's open border policies, especially on the southern border. However, fixing that problem should not include closing off all options for religious asylum seekers. Especially since the administration promised to specifically increase the number of religious refugees but instead arranged for 472,000 Venezuelans to come work in the U.S. The strange targeting of the Romeike family, along with an unaddressed crisis of green-card applications, which could see thousands of faith leaders in the U.S. sent home after years of residency, suggests that the religious aspect of these stories may be an outsized factor. Admittedly, reversing this trend now seems impossible in light of the war between Israel and Hamas. None of the surrounding Muslim nations are opening their borders to those seeking to flee the imminent ground assault of Gaza. And large, angry, and violent immigrant populations are protesting in many Western cities in support of the atrocities committed against Israel. Though it is possible to secure our borders and to properly vet and assist refugees facing religious persecution, the system will need to be rebuilt around completely different assumptions. The current system invites mistreatment and exploitation. Encouraging the lawlessness of some while abandoning others, especially many who belong to what Paul called "the household of faith," only feeds a narrative that America is becoming a more hostile place for religion, especially Christianity. That narrative is supported by more than enough evidence already. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. To help us share Breakpoint with others, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 19, 2023
Recently on the The Deep Map podcast, Robert Nicholson , founder of the Philos Project, a Christian Middle East advocacy group, said that he finds it "amazing" that "the people who claim to love Palestinians don't know anything about them, and they're not even trying to learn." In the interview, Nicholson emphasized findings of The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research . For example, over two-thirds of Palestinians reject a two-state solution . Ninety-three percent of Palestinians reject Israel's claim to the land, while 58% support armed confrontation . Even more shocking is that two-thirds (67%) of the residents of the Gaza strip support armed attacks on Israeli civilians. Along with the capacity of fallen humans to do evil, there is also the power of cultural ideology. Radical Islamic ideology, such as is held by Hamas, has shaped that region for a long time. Westerners shaped by secularism tend to think of religion as personal and private, which makes the terror carried out in Israel even harder to understand. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 19, 2023
Jesus of Nazareth is one of those rare historical figures who nearly everyone wants to claim. You might say that just as God made us in His image, people return the favor and remake Jesus in our image. In fact, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it became academically popular to claim to know what Jesus taught while assuming the Gospel accounts, especially the miraculous parts, were not true. An assumption that was simply taken for granted is that Jesus never claimed to be God. Though the scholarly world has largely progressed past these scholars and their "scholarship," Jesus is still reimagined by many as something other than Christ. He's embraced as a political avatar or lifestyle coach, or in a role for which He was ill-suited: that of merely a "good teacher." Christians know there's more to the Jesus story. But how should we respond to false claims about Him, especially those based on little knowledge of what the Gospels actually say? A recent video in the What Would You Say? series tackled this question and offered three points to keep in mind. First, the Scriptures clearly tell us who Jesus was and what He claimed to be. "People who reject that Jesus was God have to reject some of the things that the Gospel writers claim about Jesus while accepting others. But how do we know which parts we can trust and which parts we should reject? Often, skeptics end up keeping those parts of the Gospels that describe the kind of Jesus they want to accept and end up with a Jesus they've pieced together. In other words, skeptics can be guilty of what they are assuming about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Not only is that inconsistent, but it ignores the fact that the Gospel writers have provided a reliable account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Not only are the books full of eyewitness accounts of His life and ministry, the authors had strong incentive to rightly preserve and pass on the details they contain. … At the very least, to dismiss the Gospels up front, and assume that they could not possibly be reliable accounts, means we are left with no real sources about His life to conclude He was even a good teacher." Second, the coming and work of the Messiah were long foretold, with prophetic details that were fulfilled in the life of Jesus. "In 700 BC, the prophet Micah predicted the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judea. The prophet Zechariah announced that the coming Savior would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Some Psalms point to a crucifixion-like death, centuries before this became a common means of execution under the Romans. Some skeptics claim that these prophecies were read back into the Old Testament by those in power in the early Church. However, there are far too many details mentioned to be mere coincidence. The odds of one man's life matching so many of these predicted details would be astronomical. In fact, according to Professor Peter Stoner, 'The probability that Jesus of Nazareth could have fulfilled even eight such prophecies would be only 1 in 10x17th power. That's 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.'" Finally, the Gospels record the eyewitness accounts of Jesus' ministry. One of the ways they confirm His identity as the Messiah is recording the miracles Jesus performed. "In addition to the miraculous prophetic detail, Jesus performed miracles during His earthly ministry that were attested to by eyewitnesses and recorded in the Scripture and history. Even his enemies who denied that He was the Messiah never disputed that Jesus of Nazareth performed miracles and wonders. In fact, after the crucifixion and resurrection, Peter, in the Pentecost sermon to the crowd in Jerusalem, reminded his audience that Jesus had fed 5,000 people, had restored sight to the blind, and had raised the dead to life. Peter claimed that all these miracles were done by Jesus, 'in your midst' (Acts 2:22) " Jesus wasn't just a nice guy who told stories and wanted others to be nice. He didn't come to simply "show us the way." He claimed to be the Way, the only way to God. To see this video and others like it, and to use them in classes or conversation, go to whatwouldyousay.org . This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 18, 2023
The same day that Hamas militants murdered thousands of innocent men, women, and children, over 30 Harvard University student groups signed a statement of solidarity … not with the victims, but with the militants. "We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence … [T]he apartheid regime is the only one to blame," they wrote. Harvard's administration was deafeningly silent for days . Only after 500 faculty and over 3,000 university affiliates condemned the statement did leadership issue a " tepid" response , which it has since attempted to clarify. Their moral inabilities stood in contrast to even Playboy magazine, which promptly cut ties with adult film star Mia Khalifa for statements celebrating Hamas' attack . You know things are upside down in education when an adult magazine reaches the moral clarity that a preeminent institution of higher learning does not. That some student groups finally backtracked, saying they never read the statement, only exposes just how broken their moral reasoning is. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 18, 2023
Late last month, a large majority of Members of the European Parliament (MEP) voted to pass a regulation that will protect the donation and destruction of so-called "substances of human origin" for the sake of "patient health." According to European media service Euractive, the regulation is intended to "set a framework to provide donors and patients with a future-proof and harmonised system for transplants and donations." However, a group of European Union Catholic bishops warns that the language of "substances of human origin" (or SoHOs) includes not only donated blood or tissues from adults, but also embryos and fetuses. The language is so broad, according to the bishops, not only would the donation of unwanted, artificially inseminated embryos and unfertilized cells be permitted, but also unwanted, naturally conceived pre born children prior to viability. And, because the regulation requires special steps to ensure that "genetic conditions" not be transmitted to SoHO recipients and offspring, the regulation could give researchers and practitioners license to destroy embryos with, say, Down syndrome or other disabilities diagnosed in utero. Classifying embryonic human beings as "substances of human origin" erases the fundamental difference between embryos and other human cells. Unlike a skin cell or a blood cell, a zygote of an embryo is a whole, separate, valuable human being. Ignoring or disregarding that fundamental distinction is to remove all barriers from any person, born or unborn, being considered a mere "substance of human origin." Part of what is driving the increased interest in harvesting fetal tissue and embryos for use in medical treatment is to address what's been billed as an "organ shortage crisis." Though organ donation has only been medically viable for a few decades, it is now deemed a crisis that the demand for organs far outpaces the supply. As ethically fraught as that is on its own terms, around the same time as the new European Union regulation was passed, a group of American researchers suggested that neonatal organ donation could significantly mitigate organ "shortages." That suggestion, especially in light of new regulations that categorize embryos as "substances of human origin" that can be used for medical purposes, more than opens the door to dangerous ethical ground. Even treatments purportedly pursued for medical purposes can undermine the meaning of medicine, as well as accepted standards of medical care. Ever since the ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates, doctors have taken an oath to do no harm. Medical "care" that intentionally harms any person for no medical purpose contradicts the very meaning of "care," and therefore medicine. The recent, troubling regulations from the European Union are the latest expression of an anti-humanism on the rise in Western medicine. By treating whole, separate, valuable human beings as commodities, the new regulation will harm more than it helps. Like other examples of harm that pass in the name of "medical care," whether Canadian doctors harvesting organs from medical-aid-in-dying (MAID) patients, or doctors in Denmark and Iceland claiming to eradicate Down syndrome by exterminating all children with Down syndrome in utero , or U.S. doctors perpetuating chemical, cosmetic, and surgical mutilation of minors with gender dysphoria, Western medicine increasingly serves a progressive ideological master. We may try to cover up these evils with Orwellian terminology, but the profoundly anti-human ideas at the root of what we call medicine will have consequences ... and victims. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 17, 2023
"Want to Believe in Yourself?" The New York Times asked recently . The key is to "matter." In the article, "mattering" was given a psychological twist, defined as adding value to a community and being valued in return. On the one hand, this is an example of missing the point of the problem. Telling someone to choose to matter is like telling someone to make meaning out of an ultimately meaningless universe with their ultimately meaningless lives. At the same time, the author isn't wrong to imply that mattering to other people is far better than the kind of internalized self-affirmation that typically passes for therapy. Our world leads us to be inwardly focused and untethered from anything outside of our own feelings and will. We were made to find meaning outside of ourselves, which is why deep connections and relationships matter, and help us know that we matter. This is the way God designed us. We only truly know ourselves in reference to our most important relationships—first with Him, and then others. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 17, 2023
Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer unpack these ideas on Critical Theory and expose them in their new book Critical Dilemma. With a gift to the Colson Center this month , you can request a copy. The authors will join us on October 26 for our next Breakpoint Forum to discuss the ideas of Critical Theory in light of some of these current headlines. The forum begins at 8 p.m. EST and will be hosted by Colson Center resident theologian Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. The forum is free, but you must register at breakpoint.org/forum . ___________ One of the more ridiculous images to make its way around social media sites in the wake of the horrific attack in Israel was a photo of four Westerners with a sign, " Queers for Palestine ." There's also a Twitter page with that name. The banner photo insists, "Allah Loves Equality." Statements like these are so out of touch with reality, we can only hope that they are satire. Given what we know of Hamas , ISIS , and the Iranian regime , it's safe to assume there won't be any "pride" parades in Gaza or Ramallah anytime soon. Progressives looking for ideological sympathy among the rulers or people of Palestine are fooling themselves . A week ago, all of this would have been sadly amusing. Now, it's terrifying. Ever since the October 7 attacks, protestors across Europe , America, and Australia have denied, excused, justified, and even supported the murders , rapes, and beheadings of babies perpetrated by Hamas in Israel. It makes a kind of barbaric sense for radical Muslim groups to take such stands. It's harder to fathom why Western progressives offer such affinity for radical Islamism. After all, this is a religious ideology that is openly theocratic, misogynistic, violently anti-LGBTQ, opposed to free expression, free press, and nearly everything on the progressive agenda. The radical Islam that the far-Left wants to embrace is far worse than the morbid fantasies they hold about Christianity. On the same American college campuses where you can be silenced for refusing to say that a man is a woman, Jewish co-eds tearfully begged school officials to stop speeches of those wishing their people dead. In Philadelphia, a speaker applauded "Hamas for a job well done." At George Mason University , students chanted "They've got tanks, we've got hang gliders, glory to the resistance fighters!" Before they issued an incredibly paltry half-apology, the BLM organization chapter of Chicago tweeted an image of a Hamas killer parachuting into battle. As strange of bedfellows as they make, radical Islam and the far-Left share hatred for the Western tradition. They cannot stomach free markets, objective morality and knowledge, or the uncompromising priority of human liberty, especially religious freedom. Especially, in academic contexts, the Left's hatred is grounded in the ideological capture of our ivory towers by Critical Theory. This way of thinking reduces the complexity of human existence to pre-determined categories of oppressed versus oppressor. Based on these categories, moral virtue and moral guilt are pre-assigned. The matrix of this dynamic determines who is right and wrong. Anything done for the sake of the oppressed is just, even mass murder and rape. Anything done on behalf of the oppressor is vile, even warning civilians to get out of a war zone . In this case, all that matters is that Jews have been cast into the role of oppressor and their opponents as victims; all actions are either justified or condemned according to this simplistic schematic. In his book on the Russian Revolution , Richard Pipes described a foreshadowing of this trend: "For intellectuals of this kind, the criterion of truth was not life: they created their own reality, or rather, sur-reality, subject to verification only with reference to opinions of which they approved. ... It is only by reducing people of flesh and blood to a mere idea that one can ignore the will of the majority in the name of democracy and institute a dictatorship in the name of freedom." Decades of Western decadence have numbed us to the power of beliefs. Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have victims. That's true on college campuses and in Gaza. By rejecting objective morality as tyrannical, believers in the ideas of Critical Theory embrace tyranny as moral. Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer unpack these ideas and expose them in their new book Critical Dilemma . With a gift to the Colson Center this month , you can request a copy. The authors will join us on October 26 for our next Breakpoint Forum to discuss the ideas of Critical Theory in light of some of these current headlines. The forum begins at 8 p.m. EST and will be hosted by Colson Center resident theologian Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. The forum is free, but you must register at breakpoint.org/forum . This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 16, 2023
The Washington Post loves to promote their reporting with the tagline, "democracy dies in darkness." But in a published hit piece last month, designed to smear Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), they intentionally put readers in the dark with half-truths and thinly veiled insinuations, pointing to the fact that a number of ADF plaintiffs are no longer in business as evidence that ADF has "fabricated" religious freedom attacks on Christian vendors who cannot serve same-sex weddings. Just because some of the cases have been pre-enforcement challenges doesn't change the fact that Alliance Defending Freedom has defended bakers, florists, photographers, and graphic artists from stiff state penalties for refusing to violate their conscience. The attack on Barronelle Stutzman lasted for more than a decade, and Jack Phillips is still being targeted by a trans-activist lawyer enabled by the state of Colorado. The Post 's hit piece obscures what's at stake, who are the aggressors, and what freedom means. Missing all of that is how democracy really dies. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 16, 2023
The despicable and horrendous attacks by Hamas against civilians last week, including beheading children and kidnapping the elderly, seems a throwback to some distant, barbaric past of human history. We may have thought the world had long ago outgrown such barbarity, but it hasn't. In fact, as shocking as it is, the kinds of atrocities carried out by the Hamas terrorists are the norms of warfare, at least throughout most of human history. Modern notions of just war, proportionality, and distinguishing between civilians and combatants are exceptions to the kinds of warfare conducted by the Assyrians and Babylonians, ancient Greece, the Vikings, the Mongols, and the Aztecs. Massacre sites found by archaeologists in North America reveal how entire villages were slaughtered by Native Americans centuries before European contact . Similar barbarity continues today, especially in modern undeclared wars such as the Rwandan genocide, the actions of terror groups like Boko Haram, and in African civil wars. Close parallels can be seen in the horrific treatment by government actors of the Uyghurs in China, the Rohingya in Burma, and dissidents in North Korea. Such brutality should sicken us, though it is far more common in human history, even modern history, than we admit. But, if it's so horrifyingly and historically "normal," where did the world get the idea that such barbarity is so wrong? The idea that non-combatants should not be killed in war can occasionally be found in ancient discussions of warfare, typically due to pragmatic reasons such as needing peasants to work the conquered land. Christian Just War Theory, in sharp contrast, saw the protection of non-combatants as a matter of principle, not pragmatism. That principle was grounded in a view of human value unique and distinct to Christianity, that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Despite the Enlightenment's hostility to faith and the pervasive scientism of the nineteenth century, Christian ideas about Just War and the value of the individual retained a strong enough hold on Western culture to shape the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war. Also, Western domination ensured that countries and military officers would be held accountable for systematic violations of the Conventions as happened, for example, in the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. As long as these core ethical ideas of the Judeo-Christian tradition hold sway, they act as a check on the worst impulses of our fallen nature, impulses that quickly come to surface in time of war. Of course, war crimes and violations of human dignity still occur by Western actors and should never be accepted or tolerated. However, when barbarities are considered war crimes and violations, rather than norms, they happen far less than in cultures where that ethical tradition is missing. Last Saturday, the world saw that, in no uncertain terms, that ethical tradition is missing in large parts of the Middle East. This is especially true of Islamic nations. Outside of a few reformers, Islam rejects as idolatry the idea that humans are made in the image of God. The Hadiths, a source of Islamic authority second only to the Quran, calls for the extermination of the Jews , a fact explicitly noted in the Hamas charter. Without grounding for the value and dignity of individuals, a group can be easily defined as "other," which justifies all actions carried out against them. It's important to note that the rejection of the value of each person also means that Hamas can use their own people as pawns and agents of propaganda. Thus, Hamas places missiles and military centers in hospitals and schools, knowing that any attacks will lead to civilian casualties that can be paraded before the rest of the world. In other words, dead women and children are the intended plan, not the unexpected consequence. When attacks like what happened last Saturday occur, Israel has to target missile sites and other military targets to keep its own citizens safe. When doing so produces civilian casualties, it's tragic, but it's still an example of what Thomas Aquinas called "Double Effect." In his example, it is ethical to take the life of another person, even though that's usually sin, if it is the only way to prevent him from killing you or another person. This is the situation Israel faces. The only way to stop the attacks is to bomb important military sites and to break up the network. So, when civilians die, as an unintended but inevitable consequence, these deaths are on the heads of Hamas for intentionally placing their civilians in harm's way. Given the politics and history of the region, it is expected for many in the Middle East to cheer on Hamas' massacres while decrying any response by Israel. Their reaction is shaped by a culture, a culture that has been shaped by an Islamist worldview. On the other hand, many of those in Western nations who defended or even celebrated the massacre in Israel have been shaped by a different set of worldview assumptions, what might also be called a Critical Theory mood. This worldview is also antithetical to Christian ideals about human equality and the value and dignity of the individual. It sees people as belonging to groups, and some of those groups are evil by designation. With the decline of Christian influence on the West, we should expect to see a resurgence of the kind of bloodlust and sadism that characterized most of human history. All this underscores why worldview is important. Christianity is and has been good for the world, and its decline will bring horrific consequences. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 13, 2023
John Stonestreet and Shane Morris discuss the barbarity of the Hamas attack on civilians in Israel and the worldview that brought us such barbarity. Sections 1 and 2 - Israel and Hamas at War Breakpoint: The Atrocities of Hamas and the Reality of Evil Breakpoint: Moral Clarity and the Attack on Israel Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland Mindy Belz on Twitter] For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 13, 2023
Princeton professor Robert P. George reports how students respond when he asks them "what their position on slavery would have been had they been white and living in the South before abolition. Guess what? They all would have been abolitionists! They all would have bravely spoken out against slavery, and worked tirelessly against it." It's easy to look at past atrocities and think, "I never would've done that!" but that confidence is misplaced. Without some grounds for unusual moral clarity, most go along with whatever a culture declares to be right, even with things now known to be plainly wrong. Of course, this is merely a mental exercise, until last Saturday. We now face an actual crisis. Following the massacre in Israel, "protesters" across the Western world praised the slaughter , vandalized Jewish sites , and, in a particularly egregious case in Sydney, Australia , chanted "Gas the Jews." If you've wondered if you have the moral courage to stand up when it counts, this may be our chance. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 13, 2023
One of the most telling statistics from the General Social Survey, is that Americans are having less sex now than they did in 1980s and 1990s . Young men especially have become less sexually active. Since 2008, the share of men under 30 reporting no sex at all has nearly tripled. This stat is one of the clearest signs of what has turned into a counterintuitive but reliable pattern. The more "liberated" and "progressive" our culture becomes, the less interested in or capable of finding human partners we become. I say, "human partners," because the decline of sex and the rise of high-tech sex alternatives have gone hand-in-hand. Online pornography use, for instance, has become ubiquitous. The Institute for Family Studies reported in 2022 that a majority of men ages 30-49 say they've watched pornography in the past month. And given the connection between porn and male sexual dysfunctions , this becomes a self-perpetuating cycle. Now, another emerging alternative to real women will likely draw even more men into unreality. British freelance writer Freya India recently highlighted the phenomenon of AI girlfriends, describing an array of new apps like Replika, Intimate, and Dream Girl Builder, which offer men the chance to craft "flawless" digital partners. These apps promise AI-airbrushed pornography. Users customize body type, face shape, and hair color to "create their dream companion," that will "exceed [their] wildest desires," and can join them on "hyper-realistic voice calls." These apps offer not only simulated sex, but also the promise of companionship and emotional attention. As India writes: "Eva AI, for example, not only lets you choose the perfect face and body but customise the perfect personality, offering options like "hot, funny, bold", "shy, modest, considerate" and "smart, strict, rational". Create a girlfriend who is judgement-free! Who lets you hang out with your buddies without drama! Who laughs at all your jokes! "Control it all the way you want to," promises Eva AI. Design a girl who is "always on your side", says Replika." That last app has been downloaded more than 20 million times , and the industry seems poised to boom, with NBC reporting that "Ads for AI sex workers are flooding Instagram and TikTok." This isn't an expansion of sexual and romantic freedom or a tool that empowers people to make human connections. Rather, it is a retreat from human connection, a turning away from the very thing for which we are biologically, socially, and emotionally wired. And yet this has always been the end of the road we started on long ago, when we mixed a commitment to hyper-individualism with technology. As Sherry Turkle observed over a decade ago in her book, Alone Together , the process started with living our lives on the internet. Soon we began exploring alternative identities through social media. We crafted these identities and connections to perfection, pruning our "friends lists" to include only those people who pleased us. Before long, we came to prefer these digital relationships on our terms to the messy and often frustrating demands of in-person relationships. Now we have reached the stage at which many would rather cut out humans altogether, opting instead for "drama-free" companions who never have bad days, never grow old, always laugh at our jokes, never ask anything of us, and can be simply "paused" if it suits us. And AI technology is here to fill that demand. What's next? C.S. Lewis was among many science-fiction authors to speculate. In That Hideous Strength , the last book of his Space Trilogy , he describes corrupted inhabitants of the Moon who do not sleep with each other when they marry, but "each lies with a cunningly fashioned image of the other, made to move and to be warm by devilish arts, for real flesh will not please them, they are so dainty … in their dreams of lust." Perhaps AI girlfriends will eventually become robotic girlfriends, deceiving users into truly giving up on human relationships. But what insanity! We were never made for such nightmares. We were created with bodies for embodied relationships—among them the one-flesh union of marriage, through which God gives children. And at the heart of Christianity is the message that God values our embodied natures so highly that, in Christ, He assumed that nature in order to save us. Our human relationships don't need replacing. They need redemption. As our culture's retreat from humanity reaches new levels of strangeness, the task of the Church may increasingly be to call our neighbors back to being human. Few would have expected Christians to get a reputation for being the "pro-sex people," but if falling in love with a computer is the alternative, we may be well on our way. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 12, 2023
Recently, The Guardian published an oddly intriguing article entitled, " The Case Against Pets: Is It Time to Give Up Our Cats and Dogs?" Though arguing from the perspective of the animals, the author actually made a powerful observation about humans. As one expert who was quoted put it, The level of emotional dependence humans have on their companion animals is different from any time in the past. … Of course, there's nothing wrong with having pets. It's a way of fulfilling the creation mandate . The problem comes when pets replace people, something increasingly common in a culture in which people struggle with meaninglessness and loneliness. Blaise Pascal once wrote that "the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself." God created us first to need Him and, secondly, other people. Pets are a distant third. If we get the order of creation wrong, it just doesn't work out like He intended. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 12, 2023
The Soviet Union was well known for rejecting so-called "bourgeois" morality in ways that led to rejecting reality. Economically this meant squashing human self-interest in favor of state control. So, basic modern commodities like cars and plumbing could take years for the average Russian to secure. Marxist-inspired agricultural science rejected "Western" science and led to the deaths of millions as crops were planted in the dead of winter, too close together, and without pesticides in the mistaken belief that they could be "educated" to take on more beneficial traits. In the 1920s, Revolutionary Russia rejected "bourgeois" sexual morality by attacking the institution of marriage and the nuclear family. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels believed the nuclear family was, like religion, just another means of keeping the working class oppressed . According to the Marxist dialectic version of history, prehistoric humanity lived in a state of free love, and the nuclear family only emerged to protect the property rights of the rich through inheritance, keep workers content with less, and enslave women to the home. Engels, who spent a lot of time in Manchester's red-light district , was more specific than Marx in his condemnations of the family. He wrote, "[W]ith every great revolutionary movement the question of 'free love' comes to the foreground." Together, Marx and Engels attacked "bourgeois claptrap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parent and child." In their view, family was a social construct that stood in the way of revolutionary progress. When Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, they put these anti-family theories into practice. In 1918, the Soviets issued decrees "on the abolition of marriage" and "on civil partnership, children and ownership." Marriage could be declared without the involvement of the state, and divorce could be obtained just as easily. As one Russian journalist summarized, "Divorce was a matter of choice. Abortions were legalized. All of that implied a total liberation of family and sexual relations." Madame Smidovich, a leading Communist propagandist, put it this way : "To clear the family out of the accumulated dust of the ages we had to give it a good shakeup, and we did." Almost immediately, however, this experiment began to spiral the nation downward. Men across the country divorced their wives and sought new sexual encounters. The number of illegitimate children swelled by hundreds of thousands . Women with children were abandoned, while the more enterprising among them blackmailed multiple men for child support. Despite the State's decree that fathers must pay alimony to their children regardless of marital status, thousands of children were kicked to the curb because they could not— or would not —be cared for. From there, an ungovernable criminal element developed in Russia's largest cities. Given Russia's dismal economic situation, the idea that the state would care for these children proved laughable. A Russian writer of that time observed, "It was not an unusual occurrence for a boy of twenty to have had three or four wives, or for a girl of the same age to have had three or four abortions." The status of women devolved as well. As Madame Smidovich described in Pravda , the Communist newspaper: "If a man lusts after a young girl, whether she is a student, a worker, or even a school-age girl, then the girl must obey his lust; otherwise, she will be considered a bourgeois daughter, unworthy to be called a true communist." As the 1920s wore on, however, Russia's Soviet leaders were forced by reality to change course and desperately attempted to stem the tide of fatherlessness, crime, legal confusion, and economic disaster. In many ways, the Russian family never recovered. Even today, Russia's birth rate continues to plummet . As late as the 1990s, and despite decades of government propaganda encouraging population growth, one study found that in some parts of Russia, there were 770 abortions per 100 births—" by far the highest rate anywhere in the world. " In 1920, on the other side of the world, G.K. Chesterton prophetically wrote that "[t]his triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilisations which disregard it." History is full of examples of societies that tamper with God's design for marriage, sex, and the family. It's no coincidence that en vogue progressive ideas today, ideas with distinct roots in cultural Marxism, also decry marriage and the family as oppressive institutions that should be reimagined and sexual morality as outdated and even harmful. These things are not mere "social constructs," however. They are laws of reality, like gravity. As Dallas Willard once observed , "We can't choose to step off the roof and then choose to not hit the ground." That's true for individuals and societies alike. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 11, 2023
Imagine Congress was considering a bill to protect "religious liberty." Let's say the bill's author openly admitted his intention was to " allow maximum religious freedom ." Maybe he says he's concerned about attempted governmental restrictions on Christian religious expression in particular. Now imagine what the reaction to such a proposal would be on "X," formerly known as Twitter. Surely this would be labeled " Christian Nationalism ." Congress would be accused of trying to establish a theocracy. What if I told you that bill was real, and that it was called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act , and that it was introduced by one Democratic Representative Chuck Schumer and signed into law by President Bill Clinton 30 years ago next month ? It's remarkable how quickly and dramatically the Overton Window has shifted in 30 years. It's important to remember that RFRA was widely supported and uncontroversial up until about five minutes ago. Christians shouldn't be ashamed or bullied into believing that the right to live out our faith is asking too much. The truth remains: Everyone benefits when the government respects "maximum religious freedom." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 11, 2023
Two significant academic scandals from the past year underscore why the new book Critical Dilemma, written by Drs. Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer, is so timely and important. In my view, this book offers the definitive critique of critical theory from a Christian worldview. You can receive a copy for a gift to the Colson Center this month . (Just go to colsoncenter.org/October ). Eric Stewart, a former professor in the highly rated criminology department at Florida State University, is the principal author of a paper that concluded that, as Black and Latino populations increased, so did the public's demand for more discriminatory sentencing. After the paper was published, his co-author Justin Pickett, a professor at the University of Albany, noticed problems with the data : "Pickett found that their sample size somehow had increased from 500 to over 1,000 respondents, the counties polled had decreased from 326 to 91, and the data was altered to the point of mathematical impossibility." When Pickett approached Stewart with his concerns, he replied with evasive answers and would not share the complete data set. In Pickett's analysis of the data from the first set of 500, the results did not support the conclusion that an increasing Black or Latino population is linked to more severe sentencing. If anything, the initial results pointed to the opposite conclusion. Also in the original survey, unanswered questions left blank had been filled in with " imputed values ," presumably by Stewart. Both the journal that originally published the paper and Florida State University were reluctant to retract the paper or to take action against Stewart. However, the university's hand was forced by the discovery of five other papers by Stewart that were also based on falsified data. Once that came to light, Stewart abruptly left his $190,000 position at the university. Perhaps Professor Stewart faked data for grants or due to the pressure to publish. Perhaps he was convinced his theories were correct and too important to be proven wrong. Whatever the case, the data was falsified in support of ideas central to Critical Race Theory, and the consequences were more than merely academic. It's hard not to believe that his studies have been used to shape policy when he's garnered over $3.5 million in grant funding from taxpayer-funded organizations . The more recent scandal involves Ibram X. Kendi's Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. Kendi authored How to Be an Antiracist , a book that shot to the top of The New York Times bestseller list and remained there for nearly a year. Boston University launched a center dedicated to Kendi's ideas and hired him to head it. By the end of 2021, the center had collected over $45 million in funding. Despite that funding, the center recently laid off about half its staff due to significant budgetary problems. A few initiatives had been launched, but the center produced minimal research . Staffers accused the center of a dysfunctional work environment and mismanagement. Unlike the leaders of the Black Lives Matter organization, Kendi has not been accused of misappropriating donations, though he commands extraordinarily high speaking fees. This seems to be a case of an academic superstar put in charge of a center, who lays out ambitious goals, but is not competent to run it. Clearly, Kendi wasn't properly vetted by the university or by donors. The corporations that donated clearly ignored an argument central to Kendi's antiracism, that capitalism is oppressive and should be dismantled. Each incident underscores both the pervasive influence of Critical Theory on academic culture and its flaws as a theory. Like all ideas, Critical Theory and its offshoots (Critical Race Theory, intersectionality, Queer Theory, and others) have consequences. Like all bad ideas, it has victims. For the sake of truth and out of love for our neighbors, Christians must be prepared to push back against these bad ideas. This requires understanding these ideas and responding to them with competence and grace for the people who hold them. Critical Dilemma: The Rise of Critical Theories and Social Justice Ideology is such a crucial resource right now. Authors Shenvi and Sawyer take seriously the worldview behind various versions of Critical Theory, identify each version's central ideas, and define key terms such as "intersectionality," "antiracism," "privilege," "wokeness," "heteronormativity," and others. They trace the history of these ideas and offer a thorough response from a Christian worldview. As our way of saying thank you for a gift to the Colson Center this month, you can receive a copy of Critical Dilemma by Drs. Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer. To request a copy, go to colsoncenter.org/October. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 10, 2023
A Texas professor has filed a lawsuit after he was allegedly fired for teaching that a person's sex is determined by chromosomes. Dr. Johnson Varkey said the administration at St. Philip's College, a community college, told him several students made complaints about his " unacceptable religious preaching " in his biology class. It's unclear exactly what they considered "religious" about his lesson: Was it when he said the word "male" corresponds to XY chromosomes and the word "female" corresponds to XX? Or that the perpetuation of humanity (and any species) requires sexual reproduction between men and women—because same-sex relationships are, by nature, sterile? I'm old enough to remember when the allegation was that Christianity is anti-science. If the new charge is that basic science is Christian, well, you won't get much argument from Christians. This is God's world, after all, which is why astronomer Johannes Kepler once described scientific study as " thinking God's thoughts after Him ." All the same, the next time you're at your doctor's office, make sure that he has a higher view of basic biology than the St. Philip's College administration. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 10, 2023
On Saturday morning, October 7 , in a highly coordinated attack on Israel, the Islamic terrorist group Hamas fired thousands of rockets, overwhelming the nation's Iron Dome defense system, and sent hundreds of heavily armed militants, breaching the border. In addition to soldiers at military outposts, civilians, including women and children, were also targeted, in neighborhoods, at bus stops, and at public events. By the end of the day, at least 900 Israelis had been killed and 100 kidnapped, making it the worst day of slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Images and videos poured in from the attack, documenting atrocities that are difficult to stomach. Though some have likened this to 9/11, as Joel Rosenberg pointed out, for Israel's population of fewer than 10 million, 900 killed is equivalent to a mass casualty event of 30,000 Americans. In response, the Israeli government quickly declared a state of war, calling up over 300,000 reservists and laying the groundwork for a final battle to destroy the terrorist group that has long vowed to drive the Jews into the sea. Now, as an American fleet moves in and more evidence suggests the attacks were supported by Russian ally Iran , things could get dicey quickly. Hamas didn't simply attack Israeli military units or take out strategic targets . They mutilated the bodies of Jewish soldiers, killed entire families , kidnapped children and the elderly, and sexually assaulted women and girls before either killing them or carting them back to Gaza as trophies. One of the kidnapped is a survivor of the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews. The site of the largest slaughter was a music festival, where some 5,000 people gathered for what was billed as " a journey of unity and love. " Nearly 300 were killed, and women were raped next to the bodies of their friends. Hamas didn't just commit atrocities: they filmed and broadcast them. Hannah Arendt , the brilliant Jewish philosopher of the twentieth century, introduced what she called the "banality of evil," that moral horrors like the Holocaust aren't caused by monsters but by ordinary people. What the world witnessed Saturday might be called the "reality of evil." What's been exposed since is the broken ability of our world to think in moral categories about even the most horrendous of evils. A peril of prosperity is the illusion that peace and affluence are normal and natural parts of life, rather than a blessed anomaly of history. Not only is our economic situation a relatively new phenomenon , but as Tom Holland and Glen Scrivener have compellingly argued, our expectations of human rights and dignity are recent and owed to Christianity's influence on the world. In other words, what shocked the world on October 7 would've been an ordinary experience for many humans throughout history. And yet, evil remains an ordinary experience of humanity after Eden. Calling it healthcare or medical-aid-in-dying or population control or sexual freedom doesn't make killing, exploitation, or abuse any less evil—only more sterilized. Other reactions to the attack on Israel have revealed that it is possible to become morally upside down, calling evil good and vice-versa. As expected, radical Islamic regimes around the world celebrated. Radicalized Muslim and leftist groups , conveniently safe in the tolerant West they despise, justified or even praised what happened . Many Western political leaders were clear in their condemnation of Hamas, but others obfuscated . Former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn refused to condemn Hamas, while Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib used the attacks to call for the U.S. to cut aid to Israel. If you wonder what kids are learning in university, 31 Harvard student groups jointly affirmed their support, not of Israel, but of Hamas. Thankfully, louder voices are expressing shock, sorrow, and solidarity on behalf of Israel. In a move that may have had Hitler rolling over in his grave, Berlin's famous Brandenburg Gate was illuminated with the Star of David. Some Arab countries newly at peace with Israel expressed sympathy, and in a remarkable display, some Iranian soccer fans apparently shouted down an attempt to celebrate Hamas. In moments like these, postmodern ideals that imply no truth is true and moral claims are only naked grabs of power are exposed. Disney may be committed to the idea that every villain has a justifying backstory, and that there's no black and white, only gray. But this vision fails the test of the real world. The only explanation for anyone who excuses, justifies, or celebrates Hamas' actions on October 7 is that they have been taken captive, either by Islamic extremism or by the Critical Theory mood , in which the oppressed and oppressors have already been decided. Two more aspects of evil, taught within a Christian worldview, are evident here as well. First, not all evils are equal. As someone rightly claimed, saying that "both sides are wrong" is like saying " Mordor is evil, but Frodo has his flaws. " Second, evil should not be tolerated. Harboring Hamas will likely be the most destructive decision made by the Palestinian authorities. The butchers of Hamas aren't misunderstood, nor did they misunderstand what they were doing. Our contemporary worldviews are wholly inadequate when it comes to recognizing, understanding, and responding to evil. Christians should work and pray for God to bring a right understanding back to the world, even as we pray for Him to bring a just peace to the people of Israel. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 9, 2023
Recently, a reporter with The Free Press attended something called " Secular Sabbath ," a Los Angeles-based club that meets occasionally to connect with a loosely defined "higher power." At this Secular Sabbath, people hung out in a sauna, meditated, and colored pictures. Human beings were made to worship, whether they know it or not. At a time when church attendance is plummeting , people are still looking for God, even if in all the wrong places. One of the Secular Sabbath-keepers stated plainly that she "[doesn't] want anyone to tell [her] the quality of God," but rather "wants that to be [her own] experience." Worship, however, doesn't work that way. If there is a God outside of ourselves worthy of our wonder, He gets to set the terms. We don't get to tell Him who we want Him to be and then feel like we've had a sacred experience. The false god of our age is inside, not outside. This is tragic and sad, since God is so much more than anything we could ever dream up. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 9, 2023
Today marks the 770th anniversary of the death of Robert Grosseteste who, though from a humble background, rose to importance as a church statesman, theologian, educator, and eventually bishop of Lincoln, England. Among the few details known about Grosseteste's education and early career is that he was educated in a cathedral school, possibly at Hereford. He showed such promise in the liberal arts, canon law, and medicine that, in 1192, he was recommended for a position with William de Vere, the bishop of Hereford for whom Grosseteste worked until de Vere's death in 1198. In 1225, Grosseteste was given a benefice in the diocese of Lincoln. In 1229, he became an archdeacon at Leicester and a canon of the cathedral at Lincoln. A serious illness in 1232 convinced him that God was angry that he held multiple offices, so he resigned his post as archdeacon and kept the job as canon. Also in 1229, Grosseteste began teaching theology at the Franciscan convent in the relatively new University of Oxford. His teaching would become a major influence on Franciscan theology. In 1235, Grosseteste was elected bishop, and he became heavily involved in ecclesiastical politics, particularly in combatting clerical corruption. In 1250, a conflict with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Boniface of Savoy, landed Grosseteste before Pope Innocent IV. Now at about 80, he lectured Innocent about problems in the Church and laid the blame squarely at the feet of the papacy. Grosseteste's most important work was as a theologian and teacher. His theological treatises and teaching shaped Franciscan thought and laid the foundation for theology at Oxford. His work on ecclesiology would be a major influence on the English Reformer John Wycliffe about a century after Grosseteste's death. If all of that wasn't enough, Grosseteste also had a major impact on medieval science, specifically in developing an early version of the scientific method. He argued that when studying the natural world, one should begin with observations of particulars. Based on these observations, one formulates universal laws that govern the particulars. These laws can then be used to make predictions that can in turn be tested through observation. That methodology would continue to shape studies of the natural world into the seventeenth century and the beginnings of the scientific revolution. Grosseteste argued that because the natural sciences are based on mathematics, math is the highest of the sciences. This became a fundamental principle in medieval natural philosophy and carried over to the founders of modern science. Following St. Augustine, Grosseteste argued that we only know truth through illumination. Just as we cannot see a body unless it has light shining on it, the mind cannot comprehend truth unless the divine light of the logos, Jesus Christ, illuminates it. Thus, all knowledge, for Christian and non-Christian alike, is mediated by Christ. For Grosseteste, understanding light had much greater significance than its application to epistemology. Grosseteste's entire cosmology as well as his understanding of the relationship between soul and body was built on light as the first element of creation. With a particular interest in optics, he often worked with lenses, spherical glass bowls filled with water, and other tools to explore the behavior of light. In the process, he made significant advances in optics that soon led to the development of eyeglasses. Some scholars today even suggest that he had a very modern understanding of how color works, even centuries before Isaac Newton would demonstrate the visible spectrum in white light. Grosseteste, in his work, married philosophical and theological reflection, mysticism, and observation and experimentation to produce the kind of highly integrated vision of the world so foreign to how we think today. His groundbreaking work in scientific methodology, in mathematizing natural philosophy, and the specific conclusions he reached about optics were important advancements that had a profound influence on theology and natural philosophy for the next several centuries. Given today's tendency toward overspecialized fields of academic study, Grosseteste's vision that Christ mediates all knowledge is more relevant than ever. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 6, 2023
John and Maria discuss the hotly debated conference at Andy Stanley's North Point Community Church. How is boredom affecting American education? And science is facing a lack of trust over a series of questionable studies. - Recommendations - Lighthouse Voices: The Genesis of Gender with Dr. Abigail Favale Micah Mattix on Substack Section 1 - North Point Church's "Unconditional" Conference Andy Stanley's "Unconditional" Contradiction Andy Stanley's Unconditional Conference: Deep Dive Response A Sober Response of Gospel Importance Section 2 - Leisure and Liberality Leisure and Liberality "Why Boredom Matters" by Kevin Hood Gary Section 3 - The Crisis of Trust in Science The Crisis of Trust in Science The Band of Debunkers Busting Bad Scientists Section 4 - Reflecting on Lighthouse Voices with Abigail Favale Lighthouse Voices: Dr. Abigail Favale For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 6, 2023
Recently, historian Joel Kotkin argued in Quillette magazine that History has moved to the front line of social conflict, but rarely has it been so poorly understood and sketchily taught. After decades of declining interest, only 13 percent of eighth graders achieve proficiency in the subject today. … When I show my students a picture of Lenin, barely one-in-ten of them recognize it. Students saturated by information technology have less encouragement to study the past and, in their classrooms, history is frequently weaponized , glossed over, or ignored. This is another reason that this moment is a golden moment for Christian education. Christians revolutionized education through monastic schools, cathedral-based universities, and Protestant ideals of knowledge and learning . We also have a faith grounded in historical events and a proper understanding of the human condition, a condition that transcends time and place. Therefore, history is something that we can both study and learn from. In today's world, that's a revolutionary idea... For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 6, 2023
Far from being an otherworldly religion, Christianity teaches both the importance and goodness of life in this world. In fact, from Jesus' healing ministry to the work of modern missionary doctors, a consistent feature of the work of the Church in the world has been to care for the sick and needy, and not just point them to the life to come. The early Church understood Jesus' ministry to be a paradigm for their own work. So, just as Jesus set believers free from their bondage to sin, early Christians purchased slaves specifically to free them. Whereas Jesus used miraculous power to heal people from physical effects of the Fall, Christians used more ordinary tools to care for the sick and disabled. These activities are not merely good deeds in themselves but serve to advance the Kingdom. Though the Gospel is a message and must be proclaimed, the early Church saw works of mercy and preaching of the Gospel as two sides of the same coin. The first major epidemic faced by the Church was the Antonine Plague (A.D. 166-189). In fear of their lives, the Romans threw the sick out of their homes to die in the streets. Galen, the most prominent physician of the age, knew he could neither heal its victims nor protect himself. So, he fled Rome to stay at his country estate. Recognizing that all persons were made in the image of God and that Jesus came to make all things new, body and soul, many Christians ran the other direction. They fought the Fall by tending to the sick, at risk (and often at the cost) of their own lives. Since even basic nursing care can make a significant difference during an epidemic, Christian action saved lives. Their courage and self-sacrifice contributed to the rapid growth of Christianity. For example, when Irenaeus arrived in Lyon from Asia Minor, there were very few Christians. By the time the plague ended, there were 200,000 believers in Lyon. The Plague of Cyprian, which took place the following century, was named after the bishop of Carthage who documented the epidemic. Dionysius of Alexandria, also a bishop, described what happened this way: At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treating unburied corpses as dirt… But, he continued… Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ. From the earliest centuries, Christians embraced the medical theories and practices of the day. Contrary to stereotypes, the early Church did not attribute illness to demons, though they did recognize demonization as a real phenomenon. The real difference between Christians and physicians of the day was the willingness to risk death in order to treat the sick, convinced that if they died it would only mean a transition to a better life. The physicians, on the other hand, fled. Christians also founded the first hospitals in history. By the late fourth century, there were hospitals in both the eastern and western halves of the empire. By the Central Middle Ages, hospitals and leprosaria (leprosy hospitals) could be found throughout most of the Christian world. When universities began granting medical degrees during the period, church-affiliated institutions continued to provide much of the care. By the 18th century, the medical field had become increasingly professionalized and separate from the clergy. Though monasteries still provided care for the poor, and nursing was almost entirely in the hands of sisters and nuns, professional physicians increasingly handled medical issues for those who could afford to pay. Clergy attended to the dying and contributed to discussions of medical ethics but had few other responsibilities for the sick. However, medicine was an integral part of the modern mission movement of the 19th century. Because Christianity has always affirmed the importance of the body, hospitals soon followed wherever missionaries went. This is another way the Church has been essential throughout history. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on August 17, 2022.
Oct 5, 2023
Ireland only legalized abortion in 2018. At the time, a three-day waiting period between an initial consultation and the actual procedure was established, designed to help women considering abortion think through the implications of the life-altering (and life-ending) procedure. Five years later, pro-abortion advocates are pushing for its repeal, which may be because it has been so effective. As Right to Life UK reports, in 2022, 2,600 women in Ireland had babies instead of abortions after a three-day waiting period. In a country of only five million people, where there were just over 8,000 total abortions in that same time period, that's a more than significant number of lives saved. Because abortion depends on selective ignorance, laws can make a real difference. When people are forced to confront the humanity of the unborn , and women are given time to process this decision, more choose life. That might be why so many abortion advocates work hard to keep the procedure in darkness. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 5, 2023
Last year, Pew Research reported that only 29% of Americans now are willing to say they have a "great deal of confidence" in medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public. That represents an 11% decline since 2020. This dramatic drop is both significant, given the historic importance of medical research in shaping public opinion, and understandable, given a growing crisis in the reliability of scientific research overall. A year ago, in a Breakpoint commentary, we described this crisis. For example, according to an analysis by University of California behavioral economists, the least reliable scientific studies are most likely to be cited by other scientists. After a review of 20,000 published papers, these researchers suggested in an article for the journal Science, that doubtful findings are cited more often because they're "interesting." And now, the problem has led some scientists to "moonlight" as detectives, combing through the scientific literature to sniff out fraud, negligence, and mistakes. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal described one such sleuthing trio . Joe Simmons, Leif Nelson, and Uri Simonsohn run a website called Data Colada, which is dedicated to "debunking published studies built on faulty or fraudulent data." According to the article, these scientists are able to recognize suspicious patterns in scientific papers, such as cherry-picked data, small sample sizes, bad math, or just results that make no sense. In a sense, these moonlighters are doing the kind of work that scientists should be doing as a normal part of their work. However, the scientific enterprise is plagued by what has been called a "replication crisis." In essence, findings are too often published without anyone confirming the results with other experiments. This became common knowledge in 2016 when the journal Nature reported that "more than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist's experiments, and more than half have failed to reproduce their own experiments." Thanks in large part to the efforts of sleuths like Data Colada, "[a]t least 5,500 faulty papers were retracted in 2022, compared with (only) 119 in 2002." All the debunking has led to embarrassing resignations, including the former president of Stanford University, as well as "upended careers and retaliatory lawsuits." And this is probably just the beginning. According to The Wall Street Journal report, of the nearly 800 papers one researcher reported in the last decade, "only a third had been corrected or retracted five years later." Of course, human fallenness is behind this mess. That may sound like an oversimplification, but it's significant considering the myth of the objective scientist always following wherever the evidence leads. In addition to faulty and fraudulent results being more "interesting," there are material incentives to fudge research. Pumping out papers "can yield jobs, grants, speaking engagements and seats on corporate advisory boards." This "pushes researchers to chase unique and interesting findings, sometimes at the expense of truth." And yet, as The Wall Street Journal piece described, scientific fraud has real-world costs: Flawed social-science research can lead to faulty corporate decisions about consumer behavior or misguided government rules and policies. Errant medical research risks harm to patients. Researchers in all fields can waste years and millions of dollars in grants trying to advance what turn out to be fraudulent findings. More fundamentally, scientific "authority" is often wielded as a cudgel to end all political, social, and cultural debates. On everything from evolution to abortion, pandemics to climate change, gender to gay adoptions, the "science is settled" line is frequently invoked, and people actually believe it. The more science is sold as unassailable but then corrupted by politics and personal ambition, the more its rightful authority will be compromised. That would be a real tragedy, given how vital a tool it is for discovering truth and how much it reveals about the world we live in and the kind of creatures we are. Scientists like those at Data Colada who hope to restore integrity to the scientific enterprise must hold their peers accountable. In the process, they are calling our attention back to the human element in science. It can never be, strictly speaking, an objective enterprise. After all, it is humans who are looking through those microscopes, conducting the research, and writing those papers. Even when not intentionally dishonest, humans err. That should be enough to raise our Spidey senses whenever a scientific finding is sold as if it is a pronouncement from God. Good science requires not just a sharp mind but also moral integrity, or what C.S. Lewis called "the chest" in The Abolition of Man . In this sense, the very existence of science depends on areas of knowledge that cannot be placed in a test tube: ethics, philosophy, even religion. Good science must be linked with good character. If science is to be a legitimate search for truth, then scientists must be people who love truth. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 4, 2023
Under a military blockade since December of last year , Armenian residents of the Nagorno-Karabakh region have been deprived of food, fuel, and medicine by neighboring Azerbaijan. After an Azerbaijani military offensive killed 200 and the provisional government of Nagorno-Karabakh disarmed, the exit route to neighboring Armenia was clogged with 28,000 refugees trying to escape. Azerbaijani officials have long threatened Armenians with veiled threats of violence that watchdogs warn are genocidal . Armenia is the world's oldest Christian nation. Azerbaijan has shown a commitment not only to kicking Armenians out of a land they have lived on for thousands of years, but also to erasing all evidence of their existence—destroying cemeteries, landmarks, and churches. Armenia was backed by Russia, which makes U.S. involvement complex, but that seems fickle at best. Pray for the lives of Armenian Christians, and ask God to bring peace quickly to this troubled part of the world. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 4, 2023
For the last few weeks, all eyes, at least evangelical eyes, have been locked on Atlanta. When North Point Community Church announced the " Unconditional " conference, held this past weekend, many noted that two of the speakers were men "married" to other men. Many of the rest were on the record as "affirming" same-sex relationships, recognizing LGBTQ as legitimate categories of human identity, and describing their work as hoping to convert Christians to their ideas about sex, identity, and marriage. Would this conference mark Andy Stanley's final departure from historic Christian teaching on human sexuality? Stanley, who is among America's most prominent pastors, defended the conference and choice of speakers due to the focus of the event. In his Sunday sermon , he responded to the criticism, stating that this conference was not about the theology of human sexuality, or even about talking someone out of an LGBTQ identity. Rather, he said, it was aimed at "parents of LGBTQ+ children and ministry leaders looking to discover ways to support parents and LGBTQ+ children;" in other words, parents who had already tried (and failed) to talk their children out of these identities and now only wished to stay in relationship with them. Even if the conference was intentionally designed to not address the questions of the morality of same-sex relationships and alternate sexual identities, as apologist and "Unconditional" conference attendee Alan Shlemon noted, it answered these questions "by virtue of who they platformed, their resources, their recommendations. It's a confusing message at best, and at worst it's ... saying that homosexual sex would be permissible, (and) satisfying transgender ideations would be permissible. (To hear more of Shlemon's perspective, watch his interview with fellow apologist professor Sean McDowell here .) On Sunday, Stanley maintained that the conference successfully met its stated goal without implying any kind of moral or theological shift. This is possible because of something Stanley has said both about this conference and about the overall work of the Church. Introducing in another context the work of "Unconditional" conference speakers Greg and Lynn McDonald, founders of "Embracing the Journey," Stanley stated the following: "This is the reality for those of us who are in ministry. ... We're dealing with real people and real relationships. ... It is not political for me. ... It is relational, because we are in ministry, and because we've learned to distinguish between theology and ministry, we can figure this out." This is, I think, Stanley's primary and most problematic contention: that pastoral ministry can be, and really must be , " unhitched " from theology. With this presumption, Stanley has continued to insist that North Point remains committed to biblical teaching about sex as only for marriage and about marriage as only for a man and a woman. At the same time, though he has never publicly and officially come out as "affirming" of homosexuality, Stanley has consistently described it as something that simply is, something that is part of people's lives and not something that we should expect to change or be changed. He has praised the faith of people who, though they have embraced an "alternative lifestyle," still wish to be connected to the Church, including the "married" men who presented at the "Unconditional" conference. He has also described gay marriage as a reasonable alternative if singleness is "not sustainable," and both he and conference materials consistently used the identifiers of "gay," "gay Christian," and "LGBTQ+" to refer to those who struggle with same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria. Neither Scripture nor the teaching of the church throughout millennia of Christian theology is nearly as ambiguous about such matters. The Bible is clear about God's design and intentions for His image bearers, male and female, the marital union, sexual desires, and relational and sexual sins. The conference, as if this teaching were not clear, claimed to offer "a quieter middle" in a world that demands we "choose sides." On Sunday, Stanley claimed that this matched the ministry of Jesus who "drew circles instead of lines," drawing people in rather than keeping them out. Jesus' pastoral practice was, of course, unparalleled. He often surprised people by drawing them to Himself. In other words, He drew circles. But He also drew lines. For example, after drawing in the woman caught in adultery , He sent her off with a clear line. When questioned about divorce , Jesus pointed to the lines drawn in creation, of male and female and permanence. Of course, Paul drew lines, too, especially on issues of sexual morality to the church at Corinth. In the nineteenth century, theological liberals, attempting to defend Christianity against cultural disdain for the supernatural, unhitched the practical results of Christianity in people's lives from the truths about Who Christ is and what He accomplished. Relegating questions of theology to abstract and even arbitrary slogans, churches that embraced liberalism ceased to be churches and, even worse, ceased to be Christian. "Unhitching" our doctrine from our pastoral care makes sense if the goal of the Church is simply to help people live better lives. Reducing the Church this way only elevates the self. Ministry, once unhitched from doctrine, devolves into idolatry. Like the golden calf worshiped in the time of the Exodus , it is possible to claim God's name while losing all moral direction. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 3, 2023
The Titanic went down over 100 years ago, and the world remains fascinated by its story and its passengers. John Harper, a Scottish evangelist headed to preach in Chicago, was one such passenger who ended up witnessing in the moments before his death. Dr. Erwin Lutzer of Moody Church described his story, "Harper, knowing he could not survive long in the icy water, took off his life jacket and threw it to another person with the words, 'You need this more than I do!' Moments later, Harper disappeared beneath the water. Four years later, when there was a reunion of the survivors of the Titanic, the man to whom Harper had witnessed told the story of his rescue and gave a testimony of his conversion recorded in a tract, I was John Harper's Last Convert . " We don't always see the impact of faithfulness and obedience, but as Lutzer concludes, "A hundred years after (Harper's) death, we are still benefitting from the lasting effects of those final moments before he sank into the ocean." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 3, 2023
Christians who work in politics to end legalized abortion do so because innocent lives are at stake. That would be enough cause in and of itself. However, abortion isn't just one of the many issues that we should care about. In many ways, abortion, perhaps more than any other single issue, symbolizes our society's core beliefs. Simply put, Christian societies do not kill their smallest, most vulnerable members. Pagan societies, on the other hand, do. In a fascinating recent essay published at First Things , Louise Perry argued that the fight over abortion is really about whether we will remain, in any real sense, a Christian society, or we will re-paganize to the beliefs and values of pre-Christian times. Perry, author of the recent book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution , isn't a Christian, though she admits she finds Christianity attractive. Her academic journey seems to have become a spiritual journey, one that has led to a recognition that many of her secular and humanist values are, in fact, remnants of a Christian morality that remade the world. Perry opened her article by citing Scottish poet Hollie McNish, who wrote that archaeologists know they've found a Greek or Roman brothel when they unearth "a pit of newborn babies' bones." Hearing this poem gave Perry the same "painful, squeezing, swooping sensation" she first felt when hearing a graphic description of abortion. She realized something pro-lifers have long argued: Abortion is really a form of legalized infanticide and not so different from the baby-killing of the ancient world. Though Perry is still pro-choice in certain cases, she's clearly uneasy about it. This is in part because she's a mom, and because she sees how abortion and infanticide exist on a "continuum" that includes other ancient practices like slavery, the sexual exploitation of women and children, and general disregard for the weak and poor. Historically, only one group of people objected to these things. As Perry wrote: "The supremely strange thing about Christianity in anthropological terms is that it takes a topsy-turvy attitude toward weakness and strength. To put it crudely, most cultures look at the powerful and the wealthy and assume that they must be doing something right to have attained such might. The poor are poor because of some failing of their own, whether in this life or the last. The smallness and feebleness of women and children is a sign that they must be commanded by men. The suffering of slaves is not an argument against slavery, but an argument against allowing oneself to be enslaved." Into this predatory, power-centric pagan world stepped Christ, who defeated the powerful through submission to death —"even death on a cross." After Christ's resurrection, His followers began insisting on the innate and equal value of all human beings and began condemning practices like infanticide. Christians, of course, have not always lived up to these ideas, but they were unique in holding them. As authors like Tom Holland have argued, these Christian ideals didn't vanish with the rise of secular humanism. Western progressives owe their moral instincts to protect the weak and vulnerable to the Christian revolution, even if they scoff at the idea of the Christian God. And therein lies Perry's problem. There is no group weaker or more vulnerable than unborn babies. Yet these are precisely the victims that feminists and secular progressives insist we must ignore to advance sexual freedom. We have all seen how much the rhetoric is heating up, both against those who work to save preborn lives and now for the legal extension of so-called "medical aid in dying" to children with disabilities . This is why, Perry concludes, "The legal status of abortion … represents the bleeding edge of dechristianization." Stepping decisively away from the influence of Christianity will bring back an "older, darker" set of values in which the strong exploit the weak and no one objects. Such a world would truly be, once again, pagan. At least some non-Christian writers seem to realize that in this world, women, the poor, and other vulnerable classes would not fare well. Historically speaking, equality, human rights, and protection of the weak aren't "self-evident." They're part of a distinctly Christian heritage shaped by a distinctly Christian vision of the world. As the values of our pagan past grow more influential and pervasive, progressives should take note. A society built on babies' bones won't long respect the rights of anyone except the powerful. For that, you need Christ. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. If you're a fan of Breakpoint , leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 2, 2023
In an article at The Guardian , theater director Abbey Wright described talking with 10,000 children and teenagers about the impact of pornography on their lives. She was careful not to tell young children more than they knew, asking them simply, "What is bad about the internet?" Still, she was shocked how many described pornography finding them . Children as young as six recalled popups and ads placed in otherwise innocent content. Some were shown porn by friends or siblings. Yet many parents remain naïve about what their kids are seeing. One teenager offered this reality check: "If you put a phone in a child's hand, you are putting porn in a child's hand." There's more to the fight for the souls of our kids than keeping phones and tablets away from unsupervised children, but there is not less. The average age of porn exposure is 12, and the availability of internet browsing devices is the most reliable predictor that a child will be exposed. Don't take the risk. It's not worth their innocence or wellbeing. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Oct 2, 2023
Fourteen-year-old Sage Blair had already been through a lot by the time she was legally adopted by her grandparents. When she entered high school, she began to experiment, as many of her friends were, with her "gender identity." All the while, the school deliberately withheld information from her adoptive parents. Sage was encouraged to adopt the name "Draco," claim male pronouns, and use the boys' bathroom. Only after Sage was physically assaulted by a group of boys in the bathroom did her parents find out what was happening. Sage ran away. After connecting with an online "friend," she was drugged, trafficked, and sexually exploited. Nine days later, she was located by the FBI in Baltimore. Testifying before a House subcommittee in Virginia, Michele Blair remembered the drive to pick up her daughter, only to find out that she and her husband had been summoned before a Maryland judge for their refusing to support their daughter's transition. "They didn't even tell Sage that we came for her. … We finally enter the courtroom, and Sage appears on a huge Zoom screen from a prison cell. She looks tiny and broken, and I cry out, 'I love you, Sage!' Sage responds, 'I love you too, Nana!'" Sage's state-appointed attorney rebuked Michele, saying "She is he, and his name is Draco, not Sage." The judge then accused the Blairs of emotional and physical abuse, though, in Michele's words, "We just learned she claim[ed] to be trans and were willing to use any name and pronouns to bring her home. My husband was so tearful, he kept forgetting the new pronouns. So, the judge had the bailiff remove him from the courtroom. I was pleading for my child to be returned and treated for her unspeakable trauma. Judge Kershaw told me if I used the word trauma again, he would throw me out too." Judge Kershaw withheld custody from Sage's parents for over two months. During that time, Sage was transferred to a state facility for boys where, again, she was sexually abused. She ran away again and, once again, became a victim of human trafficking. When she resurfaced months later, in Texas , she was returned to Virginia where she spent more months in a court-appointed mental health clinic. The counselors at this center pushed her toward a double mastectomy as a solution for her mental health issues. Nearly a year after the ordeal began, Sage was allowed to come home. Her parents were vindicated after a months-long state inquiry concluded that there was no evidence of abuse on their part. For Sage, however, the damage was done. Now with the loving support of her parents and having desisted from her trans identity, she still suffers from severe anxiety, panic attacks, and medical issues resulting from all she has suffered. The most damning part of Sage's story is how tragically predictable all of it was once the state chose to ignore decades of research, the entire weight of human experience, common sense, and the rights of parents to their children. In no way should it be said that Sage "fell through the cracks." When dealing with ideologies that deny reality, failures are features, not glitches. Still, Sage's example is about as plain as any of how trans ideology destroys our most essential relationships: of a child to her body, of a child to her parents, of a family to the wider community, of a judge to justice, of citizens to state authorities. When legal authorities embrace bad ideas, the consequences are all the more devastating for the victims. For Christians exhausted by the "culture war," unsure of whether we engage in politics, and wishing only to "stay in our lane" of proclaiming the Gospel, Sage's story speaks. Every generation of Christians who have faced conflict within a pagan cultural context has had to protect children. Our pagan moment is no different. We will answer before God about whether we remained silent or dared to speak on behalf of children like Sage and parents who face incredible opposition like hers did. May we be known for our love, expressed by a courage that challenges evils like Sage faced, until they are a thing of the past. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 29, 2023
John and Maria talk about Tuesday's Breakpoint Forum on Christian Nationalism and the latest examples of America turning its back on Christian refugees. - Recommendations - Colson Center National Conference 2024 in Arlington, TX! Section 1 - Breakpoint 's Forum on Christian Nationalism Breakpoint Forum: Unmasking Christian Nationalism Section 2 - America's Refugee Policy "German Homeschoolers Face Deportation After 15 Years in the U.S." "Admit Christian Refugees" "Closed Doors: Persecuted Christians and the U.S. Refugee Resettlement and Asylum Processes" "Help Armenian Christian Refugees as they Flee Nagorno-Karabakh" Section 3 - Stories of the Week "What Does it Mean to have a Courageous Faith?" "Tolkien, Eliot, and the Power of Story" For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 29, 2023
In December 1938, British stockbroker Nicholas Winton canceled a ski vacation and instead traveled to Prague. There, as the German military began its occupation of Czechoslovakia , he worked with friends to save the lives of 669 Jewish children. When he returned to London, Winton raised money to purchase train tickets and passports, and cut through red tape so that the children could be placed in foster care once they reached Great Britain. According to his daughter's account, Winton never knew what happened to the children and never believed he'd done something heroic ... until 1988, when Winton was invited to sit in the studio audience of the television show That's Life . On air, he learned that the people sitting around him were children he had saved, along with their children and grandchildren. This January, a new biopic of Winton's efforts, titled One Life , will hit theaters, starring Anthony Hopkins. His story is a powerful reminder that faithfulness, not heroics, can change the destinies of thousands. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 29, 2023
In September, most U.S. states released their public school "report cards." These reports are intended to evaluate for parents, community leaders, and policymakers the quality of education being offered across the state. By federal law , report cards must measure academic performance and graduation rates. Of course, these assessments are only helpful if they make sense. Many don't. For example, Ohio's Department of Education, following a few other states, recently stopped using letter grades on its statewide school report cards. Among the reasons is that lawmakers thought that an "F" just sounded too harsh. Now, the Ohio school report card is based on a "star" system. However, like real stars that seem to float in midair, the star system is based on a made-up and confusing "point" system. According to the chart that "explains" the scores, 4.5 stars may be equal to 4.125 points but not lower than 3.625 points. U.S. schools were struggling before the pandemic, and they haven't gotten much better . The White House recently sounded the alarm about the chronic absenteeism in public schools, something that skyrocketed during the pandemic and has not significantly improved since, and its strong correlation to worsening math and reading scores across the country. Only 32% of American fourth graders are considered "proficient" in reading. Still, unless a problem is properly understood, it cannot be helpfully addressed. State report cards should be helpful in diagnosing the crises facing public education, but they aren't. In fact, they seem almost intentionally un helpful. For example, last year's report card for Ohio rated almost 90% of school districts as "meeting state standards." However, the same report card, if you know where to click , reported that almost 40% of Ohio's third graders are not proficient in reading. Ohio's school report card doesn't exactly evaluate student competencies in academic subjects at all . Three out of five stars instead marks (1) progress from the previous year's report card, (indicating that a terrible year was followed by a merely bad year), (2) a "closing the gap" for minority populations (which also could be an indication of an incremental gain rather than success), and (3) overall graduation rates, which includes "joining the military" or becoming an apprentice. In other words, not actually passing required exams. Partly to blame is a shift in how we think about education across the board; a shift that trickled down from institutions of higher learning to now infect public schools. As T.S. Eliot observed, every philosophy of education emerges from a philosophy of humanity. In our context, educators spend an inordinate amount of their preparation on educational theory and pedagogy. This has shifted the focus of their preparation from the what and the why to the how . The result is a generation of teachers fully up on the "social and emotional dynamics of learning" but who nevertheless fail to teach their second graders basic phonics. Recently in First Things, R.R. Reno described these "depressing results" out of Baltimore City public schools: "In a number of schools, not a single student was doing math at grade level. In the system overall, only 7 percent of third through eighth graders were proficient. Meanwhile, at the July convention of the National Education Association, delegates committed the organization to working against legislation that limits LGBT propaganda in school. The kids can't do long division, but rest assured, they're fully catechized in the finer points of sexual liberation, learning to say 'birthing parent' and 'non-birthing parent' rather than 'mother' and 'father.'" Of course, there are many admirable teachers in both public and private schools across America, teachers who are concerned about what matters most and who are skilled at passing this on to the next generation. What we're talking about here is a systematic problem, a crisis in public education that runs deep. Obscuring the problem to protect institutions whose administrators view an "F" as sounding too harsh won't help. Rather, education will need to be rethought at a worldview level. If human beings are made in the image of God, then to know is to know the mind of the Creator . From this solid ground, ancient Christians gave the world the concept of universal education. If God has revealed Himself and wants to be known, and not just by the elite or the rich or the clergy, real knowledge is possible. And kids should be treated as knowers, not as social experiments, mini political activists, or trusted authorities on everything from gender to climate change . The White House's press release on chronic absenteeism ended with the assertion that, "the road to recovery runs through the classroom." Obviously, kids will need to show up if they are to learn, but what happens when they do show up matters more. Specifically, the what and the why , not just the where and the how . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 28, 2023
The Christian Post recently reported that the Bank of America closed the accounts of Indigenous Advance Ministries , a Christian nonprofit whose goal is discipleship and business training for young Ugandans. The bank denies closing the accounts based on the ministry's religious beliefs, claiming it instead closed them because of the kind of debt-collection business it has in Uganda. Still, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco points out that, under an Obama-era policy, many large banks have leveraged risk tolerance policies to "box out disfavored but legal business operations." Often, that means conservative and Christian groups . There are unknowns involved in this case, but debanking is a very real threat to religious organizations. There are too many examples for all of them to be coincidences. Some institutions will even refuse to allow charitable gifts to be made to some groups through a donor-advised fund. Consider where you bank, and how those institutions treat Christian organizations, churches, mission groups, and nonprofits. There are other options. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 28, 2023
Attempt to instruct a group of 12-year-old kids about the importance of duty, honor, perseverance, and friendship by means of a lecture, and the most likely result will be glazed eyes and tuned-out ears. If instead of a lecture, however, the lesson began with, "There once was a tiny creature called a Hobbit, whose name was Frodo. He had hairy feet and a magic ring, and whenever he put that ring on his finger, he'd disappear. But each time he put the ring on, the Ring exercised a dark power over him and attracted the attention of the Dark Lord Sauron." That story, the plot of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings , is more likely to capture the attention and the imagination of kids, as it has tens of millions before them. And, along the way, they'd learn about duty, honor, perseverance, and friendship. This is the power of great stories. The best stories are not merely well told, they also wrestle with ultimate ideas. Tolkien remains popular today because his stories stand the test of time. They stand the test of time because they engage with us at the deepest levels of the human condition. More than 2,000 years ago, Damon of Athens wrote, "Give me the songs of a people, and I care not who writes its laws." Christian musician and novelist Andrew Peterson has said, "If you want someone to hear the truth, you should tell them the truth. But if you want someone to LOVE the truth, you should tell them a story." The power of storytelling should come as no surprise to Christians. After all, Jesus told lots of stories. So have Christians throughout history. Tolkien and T.S. Eliot were two writers from the last century who exemplify the importance of stories. Because of the success of the Lord of the Rings films, Tolkien is better known today than Eliot, but Eliot stands shoulder to shoulder with Tolkien in terms of literary output and genius. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men," concludes with these better known, haunting lines: "This is the way the world ends / not with a bang but a whimper." Eliot's melancholy poem " The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, " which is still read by most college students, captures the despair of modern man facing this broken world without God. In many ways, Eliot was that modern man, isolated, spiritually lost, despairing. A decade or so after he wrote "Prufrock," Eliot's life and art was transformed when he converted to Christ. He went on to write magnificent religious poetry, such as "Ash Wednesday" and The Four Quartets . For a time, his work even crossed over into pop culture. For example, his book of whimsical verse, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats , became the smash-hit Broadway musical Cats . Chuck Colson often said that "politics is downstream from culture." That isn't always the case, but it often is. This is why great storytellers and poets like Tolkien and Eliot continue to have such an impact on hearts and minds. Their work goes on to inspire. In fact, a simple way Christians can impact culture is by simply sharing good stories with those around us. We may not be a Tolkien or an Eliot, but we can know and recommend their works. And we can tell the real-life stories of Christian heroes like William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, of the incredible conversions of St. Augustine and Chuck Colson, and of the work of the Christian heroes of today who love God and neighbor by feeding the hungry and clothing the naked while enduring hardships and persecution. We should share these stories because like all good stories do, they ultimately point hearts and imaginations to the Greatest Story of All. This Breakpoint was originally published 1.3.17. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 27, 2023
Abortion advocates are often dismissive on the question of fetal pain, but a recent article published in the Journal of Medical Ethics brought together pro-abortion and pro-life experts to clarify what we know about what the preborn feel: "We consider the possibility that the mere experience of pain, without the capacity for self-reflection, is morally significant. We believe that fetal pain does not have to be equivalent to a mature adult human experience to matter morally." According to research, preborn babies as early as 7.5 weeks will move to avoid unpleasant sensations, emit stress hormones, and experience an increase in heart rate and cerebral blood flow. As bioethicist Dr. Bridget Thrill concluded, "Denial of fetal pain capacity beginning in the first trimester, potentially as early as 8–12 weeks gestation, is no longer tenable." Babies have also been observed attempting to escape procedures designed to kill them. We always should have known better, but we can't say we don't know anymore. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 27, 2023
Not long ago, most non-Christians treated pornography as a harmless expression of sexual freedom. For half a century, Hugh Hefner's Playboy philosophy dominated, teaching people to wink at porn use. Children discovering a relative's "stash" became a popular trope in TV and film and was played off for laughs. In the digital age, distribution and access became easier and instant, and the content grew darker. Finally, more people are admitting that, though it was never harmless, this content now poses a life-altering danger to those who stumble across it—especially children. In 2021, singer-songwriter Billie Eilish confessed to being one of those children harmed by pornography. In an interview, Eilish described her first encounter at age 11: "I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn," she said. The things she saw on screen gave her nightmares and led to her "not saying no" to things she should have refused in her own relationships. Eilish was hardly a voice crying in the wilderness. In the wake of our collective reckoning with abuse and addiction, it has become clear that most children are introduced to sex through pornography, and the porn they're encountering is like nothing previous generations knew. Even if you don't count what is being forced on them in elementary school classrooms, what they are being exposed to is extreme, degrading, and, in many cases, criminal. For example, mainstream, left-leaning publications such as The Atlantic and The New York Times have recently featured essays grappling with the explosion of online pornography featuring children , and how devilishly difficult it is to separate this illegal content from what many view as the acceptable, consensual kind. Those who still attempt to tame or domesticate pornography need to wake up to the devastation it has inflicted on kids and teens. A good start would be to listen to what children and teens have to say about it. Recently, theater director Abbey Wright at The Guardian, wrote about her project discussing this topic with 10,000 children and young adults. These kids, some as young as six, described a reality nothing like that one scene in Home Alone. "I was exposed to porn before I'd had a proper sexual experience," one young man said. "[I]t is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You see something, and you re-enact it. That's what I like because that's what I did. That's what I did because that's what I saw." The average age at which kids are first exposed to pornography is now 12, and there are plenty of outliers. According to Wright, parents can be naïve about this fact: "Whenever I mention to the parent of a child that age that many six-year-olds have seen pornography, they say: 'Oh, my child hasn't.'" In what might be the most haunting line of the article, one teenager simply scoffed at that assumption: "If you put a phone in a child's hand, you are putting porn in a child's hand." Girls and young women described how warped their expectations and the expectations of boys about what's normal in a relationship are because of this content. "Young women told us about the pressure they felt from pornography. ... 'These porn women do it, so why won't you?'" A young man from London summed it up this way, "I think pornography is a bit soul-sucking. …People can't do anything else. I don't want to get to a point where I feel like I'm not me any more." "Destroyed my brain," "soul-sucking," "I'm not me any more." Are we listening? Porn in any form is a radical distortion of God's design for human relationships, especially in how we are to treat each other. It's an attempt to force the transcendent into an immanent box and to pretend that something God intended as meaningful can be made meaningless. It cannot. Any time something sacred is mocked and the image of God in all involved is denied, there will be victims. Now, a generation of young people are voicing sorrow and regret because of what we defended as "freedom" and "harmless fun." This was true when Hefner mainstreamed porn in the 1950s. It is even more true today. The internet and smartphones have merely cultivated this hideousness for what it is. We must keep unsupervised devices out of unsupervised young hands. Do it. As a society, we must end this systematic assault on young eyes. Now that so many seem to be finally "getting it," maybe the opportunity is here. To learn how you can join that cause, check out the terrific work of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 26, 2023
According to Cara Buckley with The New York Times , a growing number of "tiny forests" are appearing across urban areas in the U.S. In addition to absorbing carbon dioxide, reducing water runoff, and providing homes for wildlife, "[T]iny forests can help lower temperatures in places where pavement, buildings and concrete surfaces absorb and retain heat from the sun." The concept was pioneered by Japanese ecologist Akira Miyawaki and suggests that people are the best stewards of nature . What the world needs is not some return to vast, unspoiled "wilderness" by massively reducing the human population, as so many suggest. Instead, we need more of this: creating space for people to use their ingenuity, resources, and innovation to increase creation's fruitfulness. Our screens and concrete jungles disconnect us from God's creation, while bad ideas about "nature" and the environment treat humans as its biggest problem. But humans were created to care for the rest of creation. In fact, only humans can. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 26, 2023
Given our need for courage, this year, we've centered the entire Colson Center National Conference around the theme of Courageous Faith. Please plan by saving the date and registering today. The conference is May 30-June 2 at the Loews Hotel in Arlington, Texas . To learn more, go to colsonconference.org . ______ In 2020, January Littlejohn's daughter came home confused about her sexual identity after three of her close friends at school began identifying as transgender. Littlejohn, herself a licensed mental health counselor, did her best to support her daughter, opening the door to conversation and seeking out a mental health counselor. But as she relates, the real surprise came later: "When school started, my daughter got into the car and said, "Mom, I had a meeting today at school and they asked me which restroom I wanted to use." … What we learned that the school had done was socially transitioned our daughter without our notification or consent. And then they did something particularly nefarious: They asked our daughter what name they should call her when speaking to her parents, and that was to effectively deceive parents that these gender support transition plans had ever taken place." Along with thousands of parents across the U.S. and Europe, Littlejohn found herself in a battle for her child's life. Parents of kids struggling with gender dysphoria are often completely alone, braving attacks from schools, counselors, medical professionals, and other parents. They even face the possibility of being legally separated from their kids unless they go along. Too many acquiesce. But Littlejohn chose a different path. In her words, "We know and love our children more than anyone in the world. We would die for our children 10 times over. So, the school has no right to then make critical decisions with minor children without parental involvement." In 2021, Littlejohn and her husband filed a lawsuit against her county's school board for encouraging their daughter's transition without parental permission. She is now a parental advocate at Do No Harm, a nonprofit that aims to return healthcare to evidence-based practices and medicine to its original purpose of healing, ensuring to not isolate parents in the process . You can listen to her full story on their website, donoharmmedicine.org. This story is just one of many reminders of the kind of courage Christians will need. As C.S. Lewis said , "Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality." I think we've hit a cultural moment where many of us will face that testing point at a new level. It's where the rubber hits the road in finding out where our faith really is. Given our need for courage, this year, we've centered the entire Colson Center National Conference around the theme of Courageous Faith. Too many Christians have a privatized understanding of faith, believing it is enough to keep our heads down and avoid controversy at all costs. In some circles, controversy itself is a sign that we're doing something wrong. But this is not the life or kind of opposition that Jesus warned us about . We need to remember that doing the right thing is seldom popular and never easy. From William Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect to Egyptian Coptic martyrs kneeling on a Libyan beach, the commitment to a Gospel faith that impacts every part of life is going to cost us something. Courage is the commitment to both speak and live the truth about God, the world, people, and His plan for redemption—no matter what the consequences are for us. Without it, we'll end up with a shriveled and ineffective faith, one that has no power to impact the wider world. Most importantly, courage doesn't just happen. Courage is a virtue, and virtues have to be cultivated. Our next annual conference is all about what it takes to cultivate courage. You'll be connected with likeminded believers who, just like you, are committed to living out their faith courageously in our time and place. Together, we can step into that same trajectory as that list of heroes in the book of Hebrews . We will be able to, as the author of Hebrews describes, spur one another on to "love and good works." The lineup of speakers this year shows the same courage in the public square. From palliative care physician Dr. Margaret Cottle to apologist Sean McDowell to U.K. Anglican deacon Father Calvin Robinson , each of these individuals has demonstrated living out their faith in the public square while still treating others with decency and respect. We will host an optional Worldview Intensive Thursday night on courageous citizenship, an important emphasis for the coming election year. On Saturday night, we'll present the 2024 Wilberforce Award to someone who exemplifies the same courage, principles, and passion exemplified by the great William Wilberforce. Please plan by saving the date and registering today. The conference is May 30-June 2 at the Loews Hotel in Arlington, Texas . To learn more, go to colsonconference.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 25, 2023
In a recent video that went viral, a 60-year-old New York trash thrifter shared how he makes a living reselling and recycling trash in the Big Apple. From bottles alone, he makes $400 to $800 a week, plus another $1000 from things he resells. He's found gold, cash, diamonds, and Cartier watches ... all in the trash. But his best find was Jesus Christ. As the interview goes on, the man shares how after being involved in human trafficking and drug markets, he lost everything—his wife, his kids, and 10 years of his life in prison. In 1993, three ladies from the Bronx came to his prison to preach the Gospel. It was then that he met the Lord and gave his life to Him. Just as this man now repurposes trash, the Lord repurposed this man, trashed by sin and shame, for His glory. "I don't deserve it," he said, "but I thank God for his grace." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 25, 2023
Recently, the U.S. Senate held a closed-door meeting with the biggest names from the world of big tech, such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg. Senate leadership informed the media that the purpose of the meeting was to have a conversation about how the federal government could "encourage" the development of artificial intelligence while also mitigating its "risks." Given that focus, it's more interesting who wasn't invited than who was: no ethicists, philosophers, or theologians, nor really anyone outside the highly specialized tech sector. For a meeting meant to explore the future direction of AI and the ethics necessary to guide it, nearly everyone in that room had a vested financial interest in its continued growth and expansion. Thirty years ago, in his book Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology , cultural critic Neil Postman described how technology was radically reshaping our understanding of life and the world, both as individuals and societies. Too often when it comes to new technologies, we so mix "can" and "should" that we convince ourselves if we can do a thing, we should. The shift toward a technocratic society redefines our understanding of knowledge. Technical knowledge takes priority over all else. In other words, the how is revered over the what and the why. In the process, things are stripped of their essential meaning. The distinction between what we can do and what we are for is lost. Technocratism also comes with a heavy dose of "chronological snobbery," the idea that our innovations and inventions make us better than our ancestors, even in a moral sense. Another feature of a technocratic age is hyper-specialization. In higher education, students are encouraged to pursue increasingly detailed areas of study. The result is those who can do , but most have not truly wrestled with whether they should . Downstream is one of the corruptions of primary education, in which elementary and secondary teachers spend a disproportionate amount of their preparation on education theory and pedagogy rather than on the subject areas they need to know. In other words, they study the how far more than the what and the why. Of course, those who are researching, inventing, and developing AI should be invited to important meetings about AI. However, questioning the risks, dangers, or even potential benefits of AI requires answering deeper questions first–questions outside the realm of strict science: What is the goal of our technologies? What should be our goal? What is off limits and why? What is our operating definition of the good that we are pursuing through technology? Where is the uncrossable line between healing and enhancement, and what are the other proper limits of our technologies? What are people? What technocratic challenges have we faced in the past, and what can we learn? The questions we commit ourselves to answering will shape our list of invites, among other things. The presidential years of George W. Bush are mostly defined by his handling of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. However, he also faced a specific challenge of our technocratic age. How he handled it is a model for the technocratic challenges of today. A central issue of Bush's second presidential campaign was embryonic stem cell research. Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards promised that if John Kerry became president, "people like [actor] Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again." Bush strongly opposed the creation of any new stem cell lines that required the destruction of human life, including embryos. His ethical clarity was due in part to remarkable work done by the President's Council on Bioethics to develop an ethical framework for promising technologies. In fact, their work led to an incredible volume of stories, poetry, fables, history, essays, and Scripture. Published two years into Bush's first term, Being Human is unparalleled in its historical and ideological depth and breadth. Chaired by renowned bioethicist Leon Kass, the Council consisted of scientists, medical professionals, legal scholars, ethicists, and philosophers. The title Being Human points to the kinds of what and why questions that concerned the Council, before dealing with the how. Historically, President Bush's position on embryo-destructive research has been thoroughly vindicated. The additional funding committed to research into adult and induced pluripotent stem cells produced amazing medical breakthroughs. But none of the promises of embryonic stem cell therapies ever materialized, even after his Oval Office successor reversed Bush's policies , rebuilt the Council around only scientists and medical researchers, and released enormous funding for embryo-destructive research. Of course, had the utopian predictions about ESC materialized, the killing of some humans to benefit others would still have been morally reprehensible. Ends do not justify means. This is an ethical observation, not a scientific one. What we "should" or "shouldn't" do with AI depends heavily on the kind of world this is and the kinds of creatures that human beings are. If, as some have argued, AI is to be accorded the same dignity as human beings, then replacing humans in entire industries and putting tens of thousands out of work is not morally problematic. If human beings are unique and exceptional, and both labor and relationships are central to our identity, the moral questions are far weightier. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 22, 2023
John Stonestreet talks to Greg Koukl, the author of the new book Street Smarts, about effective ways to engage an increasingly hostile culture. This month, for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, we will send you a copy of Greg Koukl's book Street Smarts . To receive a copy of Street Smarts: Using Questions to Answer Christianity's Toughest Challenges, visit colsoncenter.org/September . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 22, 2023
Based on media reports, you might think the ocean is basically dead from pollution. But rumors of the ocean's demise are greatly exaggerated. Recently, a colleague from Florida received an email from a Christian mom: My son Christopher, 11, used to be super interested in SCUBA diving. But this morning he revealed that he thinks there's no point because the oceans are full of trash and there's nothing beautiful to see anymore. So, my colleague, who loves to SCUBA dive, sent underwater photos of sharks, fish, and coral reefs. Apparently, Christopher has changed his mind. There are real environmental problems we ought not minimize, but one of the mistakes of modern environmentalism is a relentless doom and gloom that treats humans as a parasite and disease. This attitude only discourages future generations from caring or, in this case, even looking. Humans were created to steward God's world. When we see what He's given us, the response tends to be gratitude and hope, not gloom and doom. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 22, 2023
Research consistently shows that young people who wait until after the wedding have a better chance for a stable, fulfilling, happy marriage. They also do not have to worry about sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies. Though this does not fit with contemporary assumptions about human beings, obedience to the Lord's loving plan always works best, and brings incalculable benefits into our lives. While we may or may not hear this kind of moral clarity in church, it's been quite a while since the government has admitted the negative consequences of unmarried sex, particularly for teenagers. However, a 2016 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated clearly that young people who are virgins register much higher in nearly all health-related behaviors than those who are sexually active. These behaviors included everything from using seat belts to avoiding drug abuse, eating a healthy diet, going to the doctor, exercising, and avoiding riding with a driver who's been drinking. In addition, one finding that the media did not mention at the time is that while sexually inactive teens are healthiest, sexually active homosexual and bisexual teens fared significantly worse than their sexually active heterosexual peers. At the time, the CDC conveyed the blockbuster conclusions of their report as drily and bureaucratically as possible: "Significant health disparities exist." A summary of the CDC study provided by Focus on the Family clarified just how significant these disparities are. First, smoking. The study found that sexually active heterosexual teens were 3,300% more likely to smoke tobacco products daily than their virgin counterparts. "Same-sex/bisexual-active" teens were 9,500% more likely to smoke daily than the virgins. Second, drug abuse. The study found that sexually active heterosexual teens were 500% more likely to have ever injected a non-prescription drug than the virgins, while a whopping 2,333% of the "same-sex/bisexual-active" teens were more likely than the virgins to have done so. Now, as Focus noted at the time, correlation is not causation. The research did not prove that abstinence causes other healthy habits. However, the very fact that the CDC noted a relationship between sexual behavior and other habits is more than a little significant. Though the CDC would never put it this way, the summary offered by Focus on the Family was clear and succinct: "The sexual choices and values our young people hold have real-life consequences far beyond sexuality itself." Parents who care about the health and well-being of their children should especially take note of this data and have confidence that they can make a difference for their child. Researcher Mark Regnerus highlighted in his book Forbidden Fruit that the intensity of teens' religious beliefs is more important when it comes to sexual activity than exactly what religious beliefs they claim. The first thing, then, for parents to care about is our kids' faith. A strong, informed, and vital relationship with Jesus will help them resist the kinds of temptation and peer pressure—sexual and otherwise—that assault them every day at school and online. In other words, worldview matters. The CDC report demonstrates there are consequences for a secular worldview that sees bodies as something we "own," something external to who we are, something we use (or abuse) depending on our desires, our will, or our "identity." The Christian worldview, in sharp contrast, teaches that our bodies are integral to who we are, both in how humans were created and in that Christ took on flesh to make all things new. The extent that we and our kids truly embrace this will determine how we treat our bodies and the bodies of others. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was revised from one originally published on December 9, 2016.
Sep 21, 2023
After a military junta seized power in 2021 , the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar has seen an escalation of violence, ethnic conflict, and religious persecution. With a long history of internal conflict, observers have long hoped for democratic reform and increased freedoms. That now seems more improbable than ever. The country's ruling junta is waging war against an opposition government consisting of multiple ethnic groups. Civilians are caught in the crossfire, and the religious—especially Christians—are convenient targets. Though the brutality of Myanmar's government is not restricted to only Christians, they have endured a heavy share of the violence. In the western state of Chin, the junta military has destroyed over 85 churches by arson, ground artillery, and even air strikes. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Myanmar, that God would bring courage and swift and just resolution to this conflict. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 21, 2023
Pixar's Wall-E has proven to be among the most profound and prophetic films of the last 20 years. After hopelessly polluting the Earth and leaving an army of robots to clean up the planet, humans now live aboard a giant ship built by a company that promises to take care of all its passengers' needs. Thus, humans are left with nothing to do but amuse themselves and eat a lot. Many Christians wrote off the Pixar classic because of its hyper-environmentalist message. However, the film's commentary on human exceptionalism and vocation, specifically the inability of our machines to do our most important work for us, was spot-on. In the world of Wall-E, human beings have a purpose, or a telos that cannot be reduced to maximizing comfort, safety, and convenience. In the biblical account of reality, humans exist to glorify and love God, and to serve as His special representatives and co-rulers in creation. Human inventions should help towards achieving those ends, extending our abilities, and mitigating the effects of the Fall. Wanting to replace ourselves with our devices assumes that humanity is the central problem of the world that needs to be solved. Recently in First Things, Matthew Crawford argued that an anti-human worldview like the one parodied in Wall-E now dominates our tech and governing classes. Those who are behind everything from smartphone apps to pandemic policy share a basic belief that human beings are inferior to machines. We are, as he puts it, "stupid," "obsolete," "fragile," and "hateful." Crawford opens his essay with an example of a driverless car created by Google that froze at a four-way stop. Apparently, the drivers around the car didn't behave as it had been programmed to expect. However, rather than admit the limits of the car's "artificial intelligence," one Google engineer remarked that what he'd learned from the incident is that humans need to be "less idiotic." The premise is that humans are not the crown of creation but problems to be solved. Of course, it is quite possible that, once they've worked out all the bugs, driverless cars will lead to less accidents and road deaths. However, one of the bugs to be worked out are the programmers who hate humans, which makes the point of this essay ring true. So much of our high-tech culture, from the social media algorithms that tell us what we want to the transhumanist fantasies about uploading our consciousness to computers, assumes that humanity is an obstacle to be overcome. Much of our public life also assumes the basic idiocy and inadequacy of humans: take health officials more concerned with controlling people than limiting the spread of a virus or legislation quashing parental rights in order to "affirm" gender-confused minors. C.S. Lewis saw this impulse decades ago and recognized how it would grant growing power to certain people over and above others. In his masterpiece The Abolition of Man, Lewis warned of those he called "conditioners," who considered themselves above such common human frailties. Of course, as Lewis pointed out, the conditioners are also human, but in denial that they too are vulnerable to the same frailties as everyone else. Their danger lies in the fact that they are oblivious about their frailties, especially their moral frailties. It is good that humans have bodies that limit us to one location and the need for food, sleep, and friendship. These limits are part of our design. Because we are designed, we must be guided by values and not merely algorithms. It is good that we take time to learn, to appreciate beauty, to feel wonder, and to have burning questions about what is behind all that we see. God made us this way, so that, eventually, our seeking would lead back to Him. Though He intends to redeem us from the ravages of sin, He never intends to optimize us into efficient machines. Apparently, He considers being human as something "good," even "very good." So much so, in fact, He took on flesh Himself. Wall-E got it (mostly) right. Technology is good but needs a telos—a purpose for existing. That purpose cannot be to replace, transcend, or circumvent God's good design for human beings. In short, technology and public policy should be human-shaped, not the other way around. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 20, 2023
The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute recently released abortion estimates for the first six months of 2023. Using these numbers, media outlets quickly announced that pro-life laws after the demise of Roe have been ineffective . Ironically, abortion proponents lament restricted access to abortion while claiming pro-life laws don't work. However, according to Dr. Michael J. New of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, these numbers "reflect a great deal of potential variance." "[T]hese new abortion estimates are based on samples of abortion facilities, not comprehensive surveys. ... For Georgia, their upper abortion estimate is over 80 percent higher than their low estimate. For Florida, their upper estimate is more than 11,000 abortions higher than their low estimate. This much variation raises serious questions about the accuracy of their estimates." According to Dr. New, "plenty of reliable data collected since the Dobbs decision show that thousands of lives have been saved by strong state-level pro-life laws." So, as always, we should stay the course and not be discouraged by the latest alarm-seeking headline. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 20, 2023
In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that to deny a church "an otherwise available public benefit on account of its religious status" is to violate the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution. In that case, Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer , a Missouri church that operated a licensed preschool and daycare facility, applied for state "funds for qualifying organizations to purchase recycled tires to resurface playgrounds." Trinity Lutheran met all the qualifications of the program, but the state informed them that a grant would violate a state constitutional provision that "no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, section or denomination of religion." Trinity Lutheran sued, claiming that because of the Free Exercise clause in the First Amendment, a government benefit cannot be withheld solely because of religion. In his majority decision, Chief Justice Roberts agreed, writing, "the exclusion of Trinity Lutheran from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution all the same, and cannot stand." The Trinity Lutheran case was only six years ago but, in a case of "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it," Colorado is the latest state to "forget" something about which the Court has been very clear. This is the inaugural year of Colorado's Universal Preschool Program, which funds 15 hours of preschool per week for every child in the state. To be a part of the program, the state is requiring that preschools sign a "service agreement" that includes a commitment to "not discriminate" on the basis of sexual orientation or so-called "gender identity." In August, the Denver Catholic Archdiocese, which operates 36 preschools and serves 1,500 kids a year, filed a lawsuit , noting that this "service agreement" would force them to hire teachers and administrators who do not hold to their faith commitments. Not only is this a case of "Trinity Lutheran all over again," but it is another chapter in the never-ending story of public officials pressuring Christians to keep their faith out of public life. Recently in Massachusetts, state officials denied an adoption license to a Catholic couple , claiming their faith made them "unsupportive" of transgender ideology. The state of Oregon similarly denied an adoption license to a young, widowed mother because she would not commit to taking a hypothetically gender-confused child to a gender clinic. Years ago in a Breakpoint commentary, Chuck Colson described the jury selection process in the trial of Jack Kevorkian, the doctor accused of helping at least 27 of his patients kill themselves. Kevorkian's lawyer attempted to bar anyone who said their Christian faith forbids suicide from serving on the jury, claiming that belief made them unfairly biased. "Religion has been increasingly relegated to the private sphere. Christians are welcome to participate in public life only if they leave their faith at home … [but] [t]he logic of Kevorkian's defense attorney could be applied to any criminal trial. If potential jurors can be excluded for believing that assisted suicide is immoral, what will be the next step? Will the attorneys of accused murderers be permitted to exclude jurors whose religion teaches that life is sacred?" More than 25 years later, that dismal hypothetical seems less hypothetical. As the Colorado, Massachusetts, and Oregon stories reveal, some public officials are so hostile to the Christian faith, they would rather allow children in foster care to sleep on office floors in government buildings and remain in juvenile detention facilities than go to a home with religious parents. Of course, there must aways be moral restrictions around who can and cannot adopt children and operate a preschool. Restrictions are necessary to protect children. However, some states are now operating from a moral framework that is exactly backward. The biblical woes against those who call right wrong and wrong right apply as much to government programs as they do to individuals. It is a grave mistake to use irrational and false moral claims as the basis for these moral restrictions. In this upside-down world, children must be protected from religion rather than ideologies that threaten their minds, hearts, bodies, and most importantly relationships. Claiming to protect children, they are instead put in danger, subject to irreversible physical, psychological, and emotional damage. Given how clear the Supreme Court has been about states discriminating against religious institutions, I suspect the state of Colorado will be forced to change this policy. Given how willing the state of Colorado is to defy clear Court teachings and target people of faith, I suspect they will resist for as long as possible. In the meantime, children will suffer because of the state's bigotry. If people of faith are told they "need not apply" for adoption licenses, preschool programs, serving on juries, feeding the homeless, advocating for the preborn, or caring for the sick and dying, who do they imagine will take their place? This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 19, 2023
The government of New South Wales in Australia is contemplating a bill that would make it illegal to counsel an individual to "change or suppress" their sexual orientation or gender identity. But the Anglican Diocese of Sydney is refusing to comply. Last year, Anglican leaders there issued a statement on concupiscence , an aspect of the doctrine of sin having to do with fallen desire, clarifying its relevance to same-sex attraction. Archbishop Kanishka Raffel remarked , "Probably in our culture ... that sounds harsh. But this is basic Christian doctrine. … What we want people to know from a pastoral point of view [is] that there is God's help to help us live God's way." Especially when it comes to sexuality, it is widely assumed today that our desires are inherently good and define who we are. But the Christian vision of sin implicates human behavior and human desire. Christ rescues us from our sinful acts and our sinful nature. Thankfully, some Christians down under still have the courage to say so. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 19, 2023
If all there was to go on were sitcoms, movies, and mainstream editorials, we'd have to conclude that marriage is a direct path to misery, the "old ball and chain" that only ties us down, limits our freedom, and cramps our sexual fun. Many people now think of marriage less as "settling down" and more as "settling." Young people are told, "You've got plenty of time, live a little, first," as if life ends after the wedding. The truth about marriage, however, is that it is, statistically, the single best predictor of long-term happiness. Making this even more important to understand is that for at least the last 20 years now, Americans have been steadily getting less happy. Writing at UnHerd , sociologist Brad Wilcox and the Institute for Family Studies' David Bass point to new research from the University of Chicago that suggests that "Americans who are married with children are now leading happier and more prosperous lives, on average, than men and women who are single and childless." And not just a little bit happier, either. According to Wilcox and Bass there is a "startling 30-percentage-point happiness divide between married and unmarried Americans." In other words, the happiness divide and the marriage divide are largely the same. Sam Peltzman, lead researcher behind the University of Chicago paper, isolated all other factors among thousands of respondents, including income, education, race, location, age, and gender. He concluded that "the most important differentiator" when it comes to who is happy and who is not is marriage. "Low happiness characterizes all types of non-married," Peltzman writes, whether divorced, widowed, or never married. "No subsequent population categorization will yield so large a difference in happiness across so many people." In other words, the decline of marriage over the last several decades is causing the decline in happiness, or at least most of it. As Peltzman told The Atlantic in statistical hyperbole: "The only happy people for 50 years have been married people." Olga Khazan, who wrote the Atlantic piece and has been cohabiting with her partner for 15 years, says these stats also struck her as counterintuitive. However, she then admits that "this is a fairly consistent finding dating back decades in social-science research: Married people are happier. Period." Of course, happiness isn't the sole or even the best reason to get married. Many things in life carry deep meaning and significance that don't necessarily make us happy. A life lived only for happiness is a futile "chasing after the wind." Enduring suffering, overcoming trials and tragedy, or sacrificing time, energy, or even our lives for others are all richly worthwhile pursuits that yield rewards in eternity. Certainly, loving someone and raising godly children is worth it, even if it's not always fun. And we should note, "happiness" is a malleable word. When survey participants say being married or having children made them "happy," they may often mean that these permanent connections give them lasting joy, something more profound than fleeting happiness, which surveys seldom quantify. Still, these consistently stark results are unmistakable. They should challenge the entire way of thinking in sitcoms, movies, and editorials. Marriage is one of the chief sources of wellbeing and satisfaction in life. The fact that marriage rates have declined so dramatically over the last 50 years has had real, population-wide consequences. Because the reasons people are not marrying at the same rates are so complex, different solutions will be required to raise the marriage rate. According to Wilcox and Bass, one of the most important reasons is the fact that, for many Americans who are living together and may already have children, getting married incurs a tax "penalty." The federal government needs to, in their words, stop "making marriage a bad financial bet for lower-income families." That would be a good start. Ultimately, however, our bad laws are reinforced by a low view of marriage that has infected hearts and minds via entertainment, media, culture, and individual choices. We have a worldview problem, which has led to a conflict between the values and priorities of millions of people and the way they were actually created to live. Marriage is part of God's plan for humanity and for His creation. No other human institution forges such lasting and consequential bonds. So, it should surprise no one—least of all Christians—that our nation's 50-year experiment with alternatives to marriage has left huge numbers of people deeply unhappy. Thanks to social science, we know the solution. The question now, for each of us and for all of society, is whether we're willing to commit. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 18, 2023
A law in St. Louis banning so-called transgender care for minors can now take effect after a judge struck down a lawsuit challenging it. In a two-page order, Missouri Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer wrote that the lawsuit, which was brought by the ACLU, lacked sufficient evidence to delay the legislation: "The science and medical evidence is conflicting and unclear. Accordingly, the evidence raises more questions than answers." Activists claim that the science in favor of transgender "care" is settled. It's not true. Thankfully this judge was willing to say it out loud. This legislative push came as part of an investigation into the transgender clinic at St. Louis Children's Hospital. In February, a whistleblower alleged that the clinic had started transitioning more than 600 children between 2020 and 2022. In some cases, puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones were prescribed after just two one-hour visits. In summary, the threat is real, the "science" is false, and children's lives are at stake. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 18, 2023
September 18 is the anniversary of the death of a mathematical and scientific genius, an outspoken Christian who defended the faith during the Enlightenment, when Christianity was under attack by much of the intellectual elite in Europe. Leonhard Euler was the son of Paul Euler, a Reformed Church pastor in Basel, Switzerland. He began study at the University of Basel at 13 and completed a master's degree in philosophy at 16. Though he originally intended to become a pastor, once his mathematical genius became evident, he changed the focus of his studies. In 1726, Euler completed a dissertation on the propagation of sound. The following year, he took second place in a prestigious Paris Academy prize competition, a competition Euler would win 12 times. When he didn't get a professorship at the University of Basel, Euler went to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in Russia. Initially, he served in the medical department, working as a medic to the Russian navy. He was quickly promoted and, in 1731, was named a professor of physics. In 1733, Euler was named head of the mathematics department. In 1741, partly due to a growing xenophobia in Russia, Euler accepted a position at the Berlin Academy. In the 25 years he spent there, he published over 380 articles, along with important books on mathematical functions and differential calculus. Frederick the Great asked Euler to mentor his niece, the Princess of Anhalt-Dessau. Euler wrote over 230 letters on science, philosophy, and religion to the princess, which were later compiled into a bestselling book. Unfortunately, Euler's faith and conservative, hardworking lifestyle did not sit well with the atmosphere of Frederick's court. By 1766, the situation in Russia had stabilized under Catherine the Great, so Euler returned to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. That same year, Euler was diagnosed with a cataract in his left eye. Within a few weeks of its diagnosis, he was almost completely blind. Though for most people, this would have been a career-ending affliction, Euler became even more productive than before. It helped that he had a photographic memory. For example, he could recite Virgil's Aeneid verbatim and could even tell the first and last lines from any page of the edition he had learned . Also, his ability to concentrate was legendary. According to one story, two of his students working on a series of highly complicated mathematical problems could not agree on the fifteenth decimal point. Euler settled the argument by doing the calculation in his head. In addition to his remarkable abilities, Euler had a prodigious capacity for hard work. In 1775, he produced roughly one mathematical treatise each week for the entire year. By the end of his life, Euler had produced 886 academic papers and books that filled roughly 90 volumes, making him one of the most productive mathematicians in history . In fact, the last phase of his life was so prolific that the St. Petersburg Academy did not complete publication of his papers until 30 years after his death. Amidst this prodigious output, Euler never left behind the theological commitments and interests of his youth. Like many Christian scholars of the time, he wrote against the anti-religious thinkers of his day, particularly defending biblical inspiration. He combined his mathematical and scientific interests with theology and used his skills in the defense of the faith, challenging the claims to knowledge of other philosophies as "heathen and atheistic." Overall, Euler's mathematical work was an expression of his deep faith as a Christian who recognized Jesus as the logos , the sum of all knowledge and truth. His work was an expression of a worldview that recognized that every area of life is worthy of exploration as an act of worship and service to God. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 16, 2023
Hospitals across the nation are facing litigation concerns tied to their gender clinics. And John and Maria discuss the devastating effects of pornography on children. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 15, 2023
After claiming the U.S. Open's Women's Singles championship this week, Atlanta-born tennis star Coco Gauff paused to, in the words of ESPN's SportsCenter , "soak it all in." What she was really doing was kneeling with eyes closed and head bowed. In other words, she was praying, or as she told reporters later , "just saying thank you." At just 19 years old, Gauff is only the third American teenager to win the U.S. Open, the most recent being Serena Williams in 1999. She broke onto the tennis scene by defeating Venus Williams at Wimbledon when she was 15. All the while, her faith in Jesus Christ has been clear. She told The New York Times last year that she prays with her dad before every match—not for victory, but for the good health of both players. As she told reporters this week, "I don't pray for results. I just ask that I get the strength to give it my all." Amen. That's a prayer we should all soak in. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 15, 2023
For over 30 years, my friend Greg Koukl has taught Christians how to engage with people across worldview lines by asking questions. His first book Tactics has equipped thousands of Christians to communicate with wisdom and passion. This month, Koukl is releasing a follow-up to that book, entitled Street Smarts: Using Questions to Answer Christianity's Toughest Challenges . Among the goals of the book is to make evangelism a less intimidating and more successful endeavor: "There are few things that cause more nagging guilt for Christians than sharing their faith. They feel guilt because they don't witness enough. They don't witness enough because they're scared. And they're scared for good reason. Sharing the gospel and defending it—apologetics—often feels like navigating a minefield these days. For most of us, engaging others on spiritual matters does not come easy, especially when people are hostile." Koukl helpfully distinguishes what he calls "harvesting," and "gardening." Because God brings the harvest, our goal is simply faithfulness to what is true about the world and about people . According to John's Gospel, some Christians harvest and others sow, so "that sower and reaper may rejoice together." A singular focus only on "harvesting," Koukl argues, leads to a number of problems. For example, the very important "gardeners" are encouraged to sit out the evangelism process, in favor of the "harvesters." This is often the case when Christians fail to understand the power of the cultural forces shaping the worldview of non-believers, one reason our Gospel seeds seem to only bounce off "hard soil." Christians, therefore, must also commit to "spadework," or digging up the faulty preconceptions about life, God, and humanity that people hold, often unknowingly. One great way to do this "spadework" is by asking questions. "Ask questions. Lots of them. Your first step in any encounter should be to gather as much information as possible. It's hard to know how to proceed—or even if to proceed—unless you first get the lay of the land. You need intel, and friendly queries get it for you. When you need to buy some time to catch your wits, ask a question. When you face a challenge you're not sure how to deal with, ask a question. When the conversation bogs down and you think it best to move in a new direction, ask a question. Whenever you're in doubt about how to move forward, ask a question." In Street Smarts, Koukl teaches the kinds of questions that are most effective while also providing sample conversations on the most common topics, which is another very important contribution of this book. In addition to answering the misconceptions about faith that people often have—from God's existence to the divinity of Jesus— Street Smarts helps believers engage others on the moral and social issues at the center of our cultural discourse, such as abortion and gender and the many topics related to human sexuality. Koukl provides the questions, the talking points, and the examples that can open up significant conversations, invite skeptics in, and challenge presuppositions. In the process, Christians will develop confidence in what is true. Our job is to jump in. The results are up to God. "You may be serving quietly, in the dark, often not knowing the true extent of your impact—going out in obedience, doing what is right, speaking what is true, laboring faithfully. The course of history is often changed by small things done by ordinary people at opportune times, even though they never realize it. We take what we have—our skills, our gifts, our capabilities, our opportunities—then place everything in the hands of the Savior. … A person may rebel at what you share, but if you're thoughtful in what you say and gracious in how you say it, chances are good you'll give him something to think about." This month, for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, we will send you a copy of Greg Koukl's book Street Smarts . As Koukl writes, both knowledge and action "breed courage." His book cultivates both. To receive a copy of Street Smarts: Using Questions to Answer Christianity's Toughest Challenges , visit colsoncenter.org/September . As Koukl writes, "Now is not the time for fear of any kind. It's not the time to circle the wagons or to pull up the drawbridge. It's the time for ambassadors equipped with knowledge, tactical wisdom, and character to seize the moment as agents of change for the kingdom of heaven when the world needs them most."  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 14, 2023
A California law decriminalizing loitering went into effect in January. When Governor Gavin Newsom signed it last year, neither its supporters nor its opponents attempted to hide what it was really about: prostitution. Police previously could stop and question people they suspected of soliciting. This led to, advocates agreed, discrimination against so-called "transgendered adults." What wasn't said out loud is that transgendered adults apparently present themselves in ways that lead them to be confused for prostitutes. According to a recent story in the Times of San Diego, the new law has led to an explosion in prostitution and sex trafficking in California. After all, the law says that police cannot try to identify prostitutes. It does not say that customers and traffickers can't. Often, laws that are put forward as "safety" measures for the LGBT community endanger other people. It's what happens when up is down, wrong is right, and all kinds of other really important words are redefined. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 14, 2023
In a recent piece in The Atlantic , Tyler Austin Harper, a black professor from Bates College, argued that so-called "anti-racism" has gone too far. "In their righteous crusade against the bad color-blindness of policies such as race-neutral college admissions, these contemporary anti-racists have also jettisoned the kind of good color-blindness that holds that we are more than our race, and that we should conduct our social life according to that idealized principle. Rather than balance a critique of color-blind law and policy with a continuing embrace of interpersonal color-blindness as a social etiquette, contemporary anti-racists throw the baby out with the bathwater." The term "anti-racist" came from a recent explosion of writing such as Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility and Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist , and it carries enormous ideological implications. According to Kendi, "One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist.'" For figures like Kendi and DiAngelo, anti-racism isn't just the commitment to combat racism wherever we happen to see it, it's the commitment to see racism everywhere, entrenched in the heart of society and present in all its aspects. Even more, to be "anti-racist" requires the adoption of a very narrow set of policy prescriptions, all of which come from an increasingly left side of the political world. In this world, white people must move from a position of "neutrality" to actively "centering" race in all their discourse. Only then can "whiteness" and "implicit bias" be identified, admitted, and confessed. In practice, Harper warns, this only obliterates any distinctions between "structural" racism, a term referring to racial injustices embedded in wider society, and the interpersonal interactions with people of different races. "It tends to rest on a troubling, even racist subtext: that white and Black Americans are so radically different that interracial relationships require careful management, constant eggshell-walking, and even expert guidance from professional anti-racists. Rather than producing racial harmony, this new ethos frequently has the opposite effect, making white-Black interactions stressful, unpleasant, or, perhaps most often, simply weird." This weirdness that Harper described is the fruit of Critical Race Theory, a wrong way to diagnose and respond to racism, because it makes racial injustice "a theory of everything." Sixty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a world in which his own children would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." However, "anti-racism" reverses that, presuming to know one's character, a priori, based only on the color of skin. Another important insight from Harper's article is that our racial dialogue has been shaped by the "triumph of the therapeutic," which social critic Philip Rieff described as the "self, improved, (as) the ultimate concern of modern culture." In a moment in which everything is about the self, Harper believes that racial dialogue is often not about making real progress, but making ourselves feel better through confession and activism. Throughout the biblical narrative, people are described as having a common parentage and heritage as image bearers. The Apostle Paul told the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens that God "made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth." Those who are in Christ, no matter which tongue or tribe or nation or language they represent, are reconciled to their Creator and thus, to each other. Only Christianity can anchor this beautiful vision of the human condition on solid ground, and it has incredible implications for individuals and nations, for people and for social structures. Harper rightly concludes that we must see each other, first and foremost, as people, a kind of colorblindness that will prove far more effective than performative racial confessions or racialized division. That, however, is only true if there is something universal to our identity, dignity, and value. If there is, it must be an intrinsic reality of the human person, given rather than acquired. Only one vision of the human story, the biblical account of people and creation, offers anything like that. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 13, 2023
For a lot of people, writes Angela Chen in The Atlantic , "[s]ibling bonds are the longest relationships of our lives. We know siblings before we meet our partners (and before we have our own kids), and we'll know them after our parents die." Some research even suggests that siblings have a higher impact than parents on whether teens do drugs and alcohol. Another study found that "subjects who had conflict or distance in their relationships with siblings before age 20 were more likely to be depressed at age 50." What G.K. Chesterton once wrote about neighbors describes siblings even better, "We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbor. Hence, he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; he is as strange as the stars, as reckless and indifferent as the rain." The fewer children that Western couples have, the fewer siblings there will be in the world. And that will be a poorer world indeed. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 13, 2023
According to the Associated Press , nearly 50,000 people committed suicide last year, an absolute record in terms of raw numbers and the highest rate in nearly a century. Though, as one scholar noted, there's always the chance that the numbers are up on account of better reporting, that doesn't explain the consistent increase in these numbers over the last two decades. Something is broken in the United States, and it's us. Why, in the most prosperous time to be alive in human history, do so many think that they would be better off dead? Nor do these numbers about suicide tell the complete story. Along with the dramatic increase in substance-abuse-related deaths, particularly opioids, deaths related to alcohol abuse and other addictions, and the suicide-by-slaughter of mass shootings, we face an outbreak of what is being called " deaths of despair ." Some of this could be the result of an increasingly vitriolic cultural environment. After all, it is hard to be hopeful when everyone is yelling at everyone else. Students in particular are victims of the ubiquity of smartphones and their amoral algorithms . And although the economy has, over the same period, seen incredible expansion overall, places like the Rust Belt now mirror the frustrations of inner cities as industries disappear along with opportunities for meaningful labor. In addition to these structural concerns, we're also living downstream from particularly destructive ideas. For decades, American society has been steadily stripped of those meaning-making stories that made it, specifically the religious framing that placed our lives as part of something bigger. For even longer, we've been telling ourselves that transcendent things like truth, beauty, and goodness are imaginary, and that we are nothing more than matter in motion on a "pale blue dot" adrift in the heavens. The more recent orthodoxies of Critical Theory preach self-loathing as the only means of salvation, while at the tail end of the sexual revolution, our identities have been uprooted, tethered only to what we feel and are willing to self-determine. In the process, we've created a culture of victimhood, much of it fabricated, and have positioned it as the goal of life. All of this is a powerful recipe for social and individual instability, but that's not all. Voices of the state and media have, in the last several years, marketed suicide as a positive choice, the final solution to life's problems, and the final expression of autonomy and, thus, dignity. A growing number of U.S. states and the nation of Canada have embraced and now sell suicide to their citizens, using the language of "medical assistance." Though what they provide is neither. Argued with language of autonomy and avoiding suffering , the end result is always more death. By making it an option, we've made suicide more likely. All this weighs most of all upon our neighbors and friends struggling with mental illnesses. In a culture broken and enmeshed by meaninglessness, double damage is done to these hurting souls. If we hope to prevent our neighbors from dying too soon, we'll first have to help them answer the question: "What is there to live for?". A life without meaning will remain empty, no matter how much we try to fill it with prosperity, status, technological gadgets, "autonomy," infinite choice, and distraction. To borrow from Thomas Aquinas, an increasingly secular culture removes any real conviction we have that it's even possible to " share in the goodness of God ." Thus, it'll take the Church, both as an institution and as individuals , to reach those who are hurting. Remaining open to our own pains and struggles, we can place them within a larger framework of meaning and hope. Christians, too, battle with despair but while knowing it will not have the final word. Christ does, so hope does. To better prepare to offer this hope in this fragile moment, please consider our " Hope Always " course featuring Dr. Matthew Sleeth. This course is available online, can be accessed anytime, and can be studied alone or as part of a community committed to providing healing to hurting neighbors. Go to educators.colsoncenter.org for more information. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 12, 2023
According to the editors at The Economist, "Republicans used to extol the benefits of free trade and free markets," but now, many support barriers to international trade, generous government spending, and condemn corporate America. At least part of the shift is corporate America's leftward lurch , especially the trend to enlist the marketplace in woke causes while threatening the freedom of speech. Still, the urge to paint capitalism as the root of all evil is misguided. As civic education in the U.S. declines , fewer Americans on the left and the right understand how much better free markets are than every other alternative. Capitalism aligns better with the human condition than other systems, especially in seeing people as not only "consumers" but also "producers." Not merely as problems to be solved but as the best potential to solve the problems. That's why the market has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system in history. Throwing that away would be a serious mistake.
Sep 12, 2023
On September 26, the Colson Center is launching Breakpoint Forums, digital discussions about topics that matter. The first Breakpoint Forum will deal with this contentious idea of Christian nationalism. Joining me for this online discussion will be R.R. Reno, the editor-in-chief of First Things, an important journal of Christian thought, and Hunter Baker, professor of political science and dean at Union University. This online event will be September 26 at 8 p.m., ET. Registration is free, but you must sign up at breakpoint.org/forum . __________ Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Finnish Parliament, is currently on trial, charged with hate crimes against a minority group . To be specific, Räsänen is being accused of violating a Finnish law that prohibits " War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity ." According to state prosecutors, Räsänen committed the crime by quoting the Bible in support of traditional understandings of human nature and sexuality. While prosecutors claim that they're not attempting to restrict religion per se, only certain public expressions, they are attempting to decide what can and cannot be said and done in the name of religion. In fact, the prosecution openly admitted that "[t]he point" of their case "isn't whether [what Räsänen said] is true or not but that it is insulting" (emphasis added). This important case will carry dangerous precedent for just how free the Free World remains. Christians and others concerned with liberty of conscience should support Räsänen and ADF International as they champion the first freedom in what is ostensibly a Christian nation. While everyone in Finland "technically" enjoys full religious freedom , it is only in the sense that no one is required to be a part of the state church. Both the dominant Lutheranism and the minority Eastern Orthodoxy there are privileged and receive tax funds from their members . However, this official faith has not kept Finns from drifting further into atheism and relativism , nor has it prevented the open hostility to religion evidenced in this egregious court case. As Dr. Andrew Walker tweeted about the trial, "The Christian Nationalist regime of Finland is currently persecuting and prosecuting a Christian Member of Parliament for daring to quote the Bible." Such is the problem when Christian is "in-name-only," whether nations or individuals. Being "officially" Christian, in other words, isn't the same as actually being one. And this goes for "nationalism," too. We may appreciate a royal event that showcases the beauty of a deeply Christian liturgy to rest of the world and consider that a type of Christian nationalism, but other types are far more unsettling. For example, a Russian Orthodox priest recently blessed an image of notorious dictator and persecutor Joseph Stalin, saying that Christians should be grateful that Stalin "created" so many martyrs. Whether we're talking about the Finns, the English, the Russians, or the Americans, the claim to be a Christian nation does not a Christian nation make. Even more important is defining the idea and determining if the idea of a Christian nation is even biblical, and in what sense. More than a few European nations remain Christian on paper, with laws that enshrine the Christian faith in a privileged position. However, many of these nations are among the most secular in the world, with church attendance falling consistently for the past few decades. At the same time, those voices that praise the demise of "Christendom" will soon realize just what the cultural rejection of Christianity entails. The relationship between Church and state and culture is and has always been contentious. The recent cultural debate about the term "Christian nationalism" is confusing because participants in the debate tend to use mutually exclusive definitions of the term. For some, it's idolatry and a confusion of Gospel mission. For others, it's faithfulness– and the only thing remaining to prevent our children's co-option into an increasingly immoral culture. There are many questions that must be answered, for example: With the culture and state so hostile to the Church, isn't it time to stand up for ourselves? Will nations exist in heaven? If God made the nations, then why have some disappeared? Even if Christian nationalism has its issues, is it the lesser of two evils? Why do critics of Christian nationalism only complain about partisanship when it's conservatives getting political? Is there a way we can be faithful in the public square without getting labeled "Christian nationalist"? Is longing for our nation to become more Christian the same as being a Christian nationalist? Weren't all Christians Christian nationalists until the American Revolution? On September 26, the Colson Center is launching Breakpoint Forums, digital discussions about topics that matter. The first Breakpoint Forum will deal with this contentious idea of Christian nationalism. Joining me for this online discussion will be R.R. Reno, the editor-in-chief of First Things, an important journal of Christian thought, and Hunter Baker, professor of political science and dean at Union University. This online event will be September 26 at 8 p.m., ET. Registration is free, but you must sign up at breakpoint.org/forum . All who register will receive a link to the recording of the forum after it's over. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 11, 2023
Ever since the COVID-19 lockdowns, there's been an increase in disruptive behavior at public events and spaces. Concert attendees have disrupted performances. One fan threw water on rapper Cardi B, and a couple of fans distracted country singer Miranda Lambert with selfies. Movie theaters are increasingly lit by those scrolling through TikTok and Instagram, and ignoring or yelling at anyone who protests. These incidents are the latest examples of how our private digital lives shape how we live publicly and in person. The habits of thought and action that are cultivated by, say, tweeting immediate reactions, doom scrolling, posting hot takes, or constantly sharing pictures, follow us off the screen. Digital existence teaches us to think of ourselves as the center of the universe, making it easy to disregard how we treat others or behave in public. As Daniel Boorstin said, "We risk being the first people in history to have been able to make their illusions so vivid, so persuasive, so 'realistic' that they can live in them." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 11, 2023
A year ago, The Economist urged readers not to bring their "whole selves" to work. While some corporate gurus suggest that we make work feel more like home, the authors beg to differ. "Your professional self displays commitment to the job and eats lunch at a desk. Your whole self is planning the next holiday and binges ice cream on the sofa. Your professional self makes presentations to the board and says things like: 'Let's get the analytics team to kick the t[i]res on this.' Your whole self cannot operate a toaster and says things like: 'Has anyone seen my socks?' Pretending to be someone you are not is not a problem; it's essential." That description speaks to what lies at the heart of the modern re-definition of "authenticity." From counselors pushing transgender ideology on kids, to Christians deconstructing faith, to the recent trend of " quiet quitting, " many people today think that true authenticity is the only means to real happiness. It means always expressing our feelings, always feeling completely supported in whatever we say or do, and rejecting any relationship that asks us to do otherwise. The problem, as the late Tim Keller once illustrated , is that this understanding of authenticity is based on a faulty premise. "Imagine an Anglo-Saxon warrior in Britain in AD 800. He has two very strong inner impulses and feelings. One is aggression. He loves to smash and kill people when they show him disrespect. Living in a shame-and-honour culture with its warrior ethic, he will identify with that feeling. He will say to himself, That's me! That's who I am! I will express that . The other feeling he senses is same-sex attraction. To that he will say, That's not me. I will control and suppress that impulse ." Now imagine a young man walking around Manhattan today. He has the same two inward impulses, both equally strong, both difficult to control. What will he say? He will look at the aggression and think, This is not who I want to be, and will seek deliverance in therapy and anger-management programmes. He will look at his sexual desire, however, and conclude, That is who I am." As Keller concluded, none of us simply choose to "be ourselves" in a vacuum. We constantly sift through contradictory feelings and evaluate them in the light of our values, which are often absorbed from our cultural setting. The modern vision of "authenticity" is not born merely from an alternative understanding of morality, but from an alternative understanding of anthropology. In a world that has largely rejected God and objective truth as external realities, people increasingly turn inwards in deciding who they are and what they should do. Any true understanding of self must begin by looking outward and upward, not inward. In the end, we may find conflict between what is true and how we feel. We must choose what is true. As Biola professor Erik Thoennes put it , "There's this idea that to live out of conformity with how I feel is hypocrisy; but that's a wrong definition of hypocrisy. … To live out of conformity to what I believe is hypocrisy. To live in conformity with what I believe, in spite of what I feel, isn't hypocrisy; it's integrity." In her latest book Live Your Truth and Other Lies , author and apologist Alisa Childers points out another problem with a feelings-first version of authenticity: "I can't love myself if I'm fooling myself about who I actually am. If I deny that there is something wrong with humanity (and thus, myself), the kind of love I will offer myself will be the opposite of authentic. It will be artificial authenticity." While it is completely out of step to think this, Scripture is clear that " the heart is deceitful above all things ." Today's worship of authenticity requires that we lie to ourselves about this difficult reality. If we do, however, we will never truly know who we are and how we should live. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. If you enjoy Breakpoint , leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 8, 2023
John and Maria discuss the new relaxed prostitution laws in California. As Tolkien's appeal continues to grow, we discuss the biblical roots of his writings. And trying to reign in a culture that seems to be accepting and promoting suicide. — Recommendations — Tactics by Gregory Koukl Street Smarts by Gregory Koukl Section 1 - California's Relaxed Prostitution Laws "Pimps and Traffickers Get a free pass under new California law protecting 'sex work'" "New California Law Decriminalizing Loitering Led to 'Explosion' in Prostitution" "Empty Canadian Graves" Section 2 - Tolkein's Biblical Epic "Tolkein's Biblical Epic" "Remembering J.R.R. Tolkein" Section 3 - Stories of the Week "Rich Men North of Richmond" "When is a Question Better than an Answer?" For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 8, 2023
Last month, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that the FDA wrongfully removed critical restrictions around access to chemical abortion. In 2021, the Biden administration decided to make mifepristone, the first of two drugs used to terminate pregnancies, permanently available via mail. Moreover, it eliminated the requirement for a doctor's visit. According to the 5th Circuit, the FDA policy violates longstanding federal law, and the FDA must discontinue mail-order abortion. Even more shocking, the FDA removed these restrictions in spite of serious concerns about the drug's adverse effects. Such effects have been well known since before the drug's approval in 2000. Yet the FDA, rather than creating more safeguards around the drug, decided to make it widely available without requiring so much as one in-person doctor's visit. The court's ruling is a victory for human rights and upholds what Christians have long preached: that the lives of both unborn children and women have irrevocable, God-given value. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 8, 2023
The most recent installment in the What Would You Say? video series looks at an idea that is increasingly popular, often repeated, and surprisingly believable: that sex is "assigned" at birth. Most of us have or will encounter this phrase, which no one would have uttered throughout most of human history. But not all of us know how to respond. After all, the idea that sex is something merely "assigned" at birth is taken as truth by college professors, media pundits, and medical professionals. We even hear that on this issue "the science is settled." So, what would you say? As the video helpfully explains , we should not be afraid to note what is an obvious truth. First: A person's sex is acknowledged, not assigned. There are many things that doctors learn about a baby when it's born, like height, weight, and blood type. Those things aren't assigned. They're acknowledged. Other things are assigned at birth, like a name. Babies are assigned names exclusively on the preferences of their parents. Changing a name before, during, or even after birth has no real impact on the person because it's not a biological part of their identity. So, if some things are acknowledged and other things are assigned, which category does a baby's sex fall into? Is it more like being given a name by parents, or is it more like learning the blood type from the doctor? It is helpful to acknowledge that some things about us as human beings are assigned and others are not, and that the kinds of things that fit into these respective categories are radically different kinds of things. Sex is determined by our reproductive system. In most cases, humans are born with two sex chromosomes, either x/x or x/y. … For human reproduction to happen, contributions from both kinds of reproductive systems are required. The differences between males and females go beyond our reproductive systems. Men and women differ in how their brains operate, how they solve problems, what diseases they are susceptible to, and so much more. At this point in the conversation, an objection sometimes crops up: "What about intersex people?" The third truth to remember is that disorders of sexual development don't create new categories of sex. The disorder that occurs when a person's reproductive system doesn't develop neatly along a male or female path is called "intersex." If a person is intersex that does not mean that he or she is not male or female. Nor does it mean that there are additional categories of sex other than male and female. Some people are born without limbs. Others are born blind. Disorders of sexual development are not evidence of a new category of sex any more than disorders of the cardiac or respiratory systems are evidence of new kinds of hearts or lungs. In fact, as [Abigail] Favale points out , "In 99.98% of these cases, sex is readily recognizable as unambiguously male or female." The watershed issues of our day are anthropological. The greatest deceptions of our day, the ones to which we'll need to know how to reply, have to do with what it means to be human. Typically, when these issues come up, temperatures rise. Christians need to be able to speak the truth, but also employ the Proverbial wisdom that " a soft answer turns away wrath ." It is possible to engage tough questions with gentleness, humility, and a sound knowledge of the facts. Every What Would You Say? video is based in sound and solid reasoning and can be used to consider these questions with family and friends. To watch the whole video, go to whatwouldyousay.org . This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 7, 2023
Christians in Pakistan face increased threats to their lives and livelihoods. The most recent round of persecution started a few weeks ago when two Christian youths were accused of damaging a Koran. In response, mobs descended upon churches and the homes of Christians , destroying buildings and forcing thousands of believers to flee. This has continued for weeks. In Pakistan, Christianity predates Islam by centuries , but the Muslim majority has long oppressed the Church with overly broad and draconian restrictions such as blasphemy laws . Even insulting associates of Islam's founder can carry the death penalty. "Only" a few have been executed by the state under these statutes, but the fact that they're even on the books enables those willing to take the law into their own hands. Pray for our brothers and sisters in Pakistan, who are among the many Christians around the world facing persecution, and call on the government to protest these violations of human dignity. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 7, 2023
Back in 2021, news outlets around the world announced a scandal involving Canadian government schools and missing indigenous children. Starting in the 1800s, Canada built and opened a series of boarding schools where children from local native people could be educated or, more accurately, assimilated into modern Western culture. A majority of these institutions were operated by the Roman Catholic church and, before they were shut down toward the end of the twentieth century, tens of thousands of children were taken from their families, compelled to speak English or French, taught Christianity, and required to dress according to European styles . Even if those involved had the best of motives, families and students were harmed by these institutions. A number of former students have even reported being subject to physical and sexual abuse. The scandal of 2021, however, was a matter of missing bodies. Over the century or so that the schools were in operation, around 4,000 students died of tuberculosis and similar diseases. Reports claimed that ground-penetrating radar had shown that hundreds, if not thousands of children, were simply and unceremoniously dumped in mass graves, some perhaps the victims of murder . Papers across the English-speaking world reported on these mass graves. The Canadian government issued a spate of apologies. Since the majority of these schools were run by the Roman Catholic Church, the pope was urged to apologize . The backlash became violent. In retaliation against the priests and nuns who purportedly had performed this evil, dozens of churches across Canada were desecrated or burned. As one civil rights activist said of the churches, " Burn it all down ." The arson even spread beyond any connection to white, Catholic churches. Many buildings burnt belonged to immigrant Christian communities . Others weren't Roman Catholic churches at all. Today however, at several of the sites where the burials were confidently asserted to have taken place, no physical evidence of human remains has been found. An excavation at the site of Pine Creek Indian Reservation School turned up nothing. When academics began to point out the lack of evidence before the new information was released to the public, they were shouted down with accusations of "denialism." In other words, the immediate assumption of guilt had far more to do with the power of ideology than a preponderance of evidence. The realities of this collision of cultures were far less important than the pre-determined narrative about these cultures, which included presumptions of guilt and innocence. Indeed, over several decades, it is likely that 4,000 children could have died of diseases such as tuberculosis, but that doesn't mean others were murdered, or that any of the bodies had been dumped in mass graves. This is not to say that no evils occurred in these schools, nor that Christians have not been guilty of various forms of racism and bias throughout history. In fact, it may be that physical evidence will be found of mass graves at the sites of these institutions. So far, however, none has been found, and yet the whole world immediately assumed to have known what had taken place. If none of this is true, this certainly would not be the only time that a supposed hate crime grips the imagination of the world , only to be revealed later as a ploy to grab attention or "raise awareness" about a cause. Historical accuracy, like in the case of the statue topplers of 2020 who wanted to rid the world of "fascists" like Winston Churchill, bows to a kind of chronological snobbery, where right and wrong can be determined solely by who's old and dead as opposed to who's young and alive. The same mood that drives the arsonists, hoaxers, and statue topplers also drives our social media interactions. Statements are not evaluated on whether they are good, beautiful, or true, but whether they affirm or oppose our own preconceptions. Some folks on the left talk about being " morally true " even if factually wrong, while some on the right suggest there may be such a thing as " alternative facts ." The truth about the world and each other matters far too much for that. Those indigenous school children deserved better than religious good intentions, and churches burned to the ground deserved better than presumptuous wrath. A just world requires a " true truth ," and that can only come from the Christianity that gave the West its sense of justice in the first place. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 6, 2023
Recently, author Christopher Rufo tweeted an excerpt from a 2018 publication of the American Psychological Association citing a litany of outlandish terms, including "gender smoothies," "gender prius," "gender minotaur," and more. In its typical cyber-censorship fashion, Twitter quickly attached a "fact-check" note that states these labels are only a list of "descriptions" offered by young patients, not actual diagnoses. However, the social media giant wrongly obscured Rufo's legitimate concern, which is that the APA's publication supports unquestioningly submitting to a child's self-diagnosis and description. The authors write , "children will lead the way in carving out their own self-descriptions, categorizations, and assignations of gender." Of course, anyone struggling with any mental health issue needs the space to describe his or her experiences and feelings. However, the goal of therapy is to bring their understanding of the world in line with reality. On no other issue are patients–especially children–allowed to self-diagnose. Twitter should have noted this. Denying reality is wrong and dangerous. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 6, 2023
When I was a college student in eastern Tennessee, classmates who felt called to teach in inner-city schools would take on student teaching practicums in the small town of Graysville. On the surface, a big city like Detroit could not seem more different than the tiny mountain town that was racially not diverse and overwhelmingly white. However, the issues that afflicted both were largely the same: a lack of upward mobility, extraordinary rates of fatherless homes, poorly performing schools, high rates of addiction, health problems, and an outsized dependence on welfare. These issues, as conservative pundits are often quick to note when talking about inner cities, are a culture-wide problem. It's not just the economics and politics that keep people down. Individual choices matter, as does the way people perceive their situation. Social scientists have long noted how what they call a strong "locus of control," or the view that your choices have a real impact on your life, tends to predict socioeconomic success. The opposite is also true: When someone views themselves as mainly a victim of things beyond their control, it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. All of this came to mind last month when a country-folk song from out of nowhere became an anthem for populist outrage. In " Rich Men North of Richmond, " previously obscure Virginia songwriter Oliver Anthony rails against Washington elites for creating a world in which hardworking Americans can barely make ends meet and are dying of despair. The song really struck a chord online, particularly with listeners on the political right, and shot to number one on the Billboard Singles chart. Days later, it was used as an opener at the first Republican presidential debate— a move Anthony himself slammed , saying "I wrote this song about those people." For many listeners, the song's message reinforced the belief held by many: that elites of both parties have ruined America and are keeping ordinary working people down, and outrage is an appropriate response. Because of Anthony's roots and the song's lyrics, listeners linked it with the plight of rural Appalachian communities, places like Graysville. In these mostly white regions, poverty, drug use, and dependence on welfare have become the subject of documentaries and books like J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy. However, as Mark Antonio Wright pointed out at National Review , Hillbilly Elegy also identified and addressed subtler, cultural factors at work in the Coal Belt, such as opioid abuse, "young men immune to hard work," and "a lack of agency—a feeling that you have little control over your life and a willingness to blame everyone but yourself." While "Rich Men North of Richmond" laments real problems that can rightly be laid at the feet of corrupt politicians and government overreach, such as inflation, unemployment, and "deaths of despair," fans of the song seem determined to blame these problems only on outsiders. There are, as Wright points out, reasons to doubt that framing. For instance, there are millions more job openings in the U.S. right now than there are unemployed workers, though the same opportunities are not available everywhere. And many of those jobs, contrary to the song, are well-paid blue-collar positions . Yet labor force participation is low even after Covid. When you consider also the personal agency involved in drug addiction and obesity—two scourges on rural America—the simple victim narrative gets even more complicated. Wright's National Review article provoked quite a social media backlash. That's because a lot of Americans are angry. "Rich Men North of Richmond" gave them an outlet to express that anger. However, outrage anthems can only express so much and often obscure complex truths, including some that conservatives are happy to point out. Perhaps the most important of those complex truths is that cultures themselves can become toxic when built upon bad ideas and thus can create victims. In many cases, the problem is not as much the "rich men" in a faraway town but the lack of dads in ours. As Wright suggests, "We the People" have adopted plenty of self-destructive beliefs and habits. None of this absolves politicians of what's been done to make Americans' lives worse. Ronald Reagan's adage that government is usually the problem rather than the solution is even more true than when he said it. However, I also believe that outrage is not a strategy, nor are outrage anthems. Blaming our country's issues on shadowy oppressors "out there," which political parties do whenever they assure their voters that they are victims, encourages the mindset that only perpetuates poverty, relational brokenness, and addictions. It's based on an impoverished worldview that replaces agency with anger and treats people as less than fully human, refusing them the dignity of being responsible moral actors whose fate and whose communities are at least partially within their purview and control. In fact, the victim worldview is the thing most likely to empower those "rich men north of Richmond" at the expense of everyone else. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 5, 2023
According to pro-life group Live Action , British authorities have arrested a Canadian man for selling hundreds of "suicide kits" online. Kenneth Law was implicated in the deaths of at least 88 people, one only 17 years old. When interviewed, Law explained, "I need a source of income—I hope you can understand that—I need to feed myself." It's horrifying enough that this happened at all, but thinking that helping people end their lives is a way to make a living should shock us all. Something like this is only imaginable when we see life as a commodity to be bought and sold. Anytime a price tag is put on something priceless, it is cheapened. This is true when done by a person, like this Canadian, or by the state, like how Canada now does by pushing so-called "Medical Assistance in Dying" on their sick and vulnerable. Loving our neighbor today means not only saving souls, but also saving lives. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 5, 2023
As a thank-you for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month, we'll send you a copy of Street Smarts: Using Questions to Answer Christianity's Toughest Challenges. The book is a guide through the hot-button issues with wise responses to arguments against Christianity. Give today at colsoncenter.org/September . __ It can be intimidating to engage our neighbors on cultural issues these days. It seems that every conversation is a potential minefield where the slightest wrong word can get you banished from polite society as a bigot or "hater." This is where we can take a lesson from two of the greatest teachers of all time, Jesus and Socrates. Both were masters of their craft, and both used questions to lead their listeners to the answers they sought. Here are six questions I've found extremely helpful to create the sort of dialogue we should desire about issues of faith and culture. First: What do you mean by that? The battle of ideas is always tied up in the battle over the definition of words. Thus, it's vital in any conversation to clarify the terms being used. For example, the most important thing to clarify about "same-sex marriage" is the definition of marriage . When the topic comes up, it's best to say, "Hold on, before we go too far into what kind of unions should be considered marriage, what do you mean by marriage?" Often, when it comes to these crucial issues, we're all using the same vocabulary, but rarely the same dictionary. Here's a second question: How do you know that is true? Too often, assertions are mistaken for arguments, and there's a vast difference between the two. An assertion is a definitive statement made about the nature of reality. An argument is presented to back up an assertion. By asking "how do you know that's true?" we'll move the conversation beyond dueling assertions to why those assertions should be taken seriously. For example, it's a common assertion that the Church has always been an obstacle to education and science, but this is just a legend. In reality, not only did schools pop up everywhere churches went, but a host of scientists, past and present, have been devout believers. Here's a third question: Where did you get this information? Once arguments are offered, it's important to ensure the arguments are valid. For example, news reports love to shout headlines about some study that shows same-sex couples are better parents than straight couples. However, this quickly repeated talking point is based on limited studies that are flawed. More and broader-based studies suggest the exact opposite. The fourth question: How did you come to this conclusion? Behind the individuals you are talking with and their convictions, is a story ... a personal story. If you know that story, it may make more sense why they don't find your views plausible. Plus, it will help you remember that the person you're talking with is a real, image-of-God bearing person. The final two questions: What if you're wrong? and What if you're right? It's easy to sit back and make claims about the world, but what happens when those claims get out into that world? Ideas have consequences that are always worth considering. For example, what happens if marijuana isn't as harmless as people say it is , or what if we tell kids that they're born in the wrong body ? That's a big risk to play with the next generation. A new book by Greg Koukl was written to equip Christians to dialogue from a confident and informed faith. As a thank-you for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month, we'll send you a copy of Street Smarts: Using Questions to Answer Christianity's Toughest Challenges. The book is a guide through the hot-button issues with wise responses to arguments against Christianity. Give today at colsoncenter.org/September . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was revised from one originally published on May 17, 2016.
Sep 4, 2023
Before you fire up the grill one last time for the summer on this Labor Day, here is Chuck Colson describing the dignity of work. Work embraced as a calling expresses the glory of God, and it's part of—very literally—following Jesus. Through our work God provides for us and for our families, contributes to the common good, and also gives us a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. He has given us work as the way to fulfill His mandate to us … to take dominion over the world he has created. Chuck also went on to point out that in the pagan world, manual labor was seen as just for the lower classes. But Christianity saw it differently—work was understood to be edifying, part of being made in God's image, something we could and should do to God's glory. So please, have a good day off. And then head back to the construction site, to the office, to school, wherever, refreshed and ready to work as unto the Lord. This commentary first aired on September 4, 2017. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 4, 2023
Physical labor was devalued in the ancient world. The exception, in classical Greece and the early days of the Roman republic, was farming, which was considered the proper pursuit of citizens. All other labor was viewed as demeaning. In the later days of the republic, as plantation agriculture replaced small farms, the work of farming was also seen as demeaning and relegated to slaves. By the time of the Roman Empire, all physical labor was only thought proper for slaves and lower classes. Though the foundation of the empire's wealth, the upper classes believed that production was beneath them. Their attention, or so they thought, belonged in the more "refined" areas of life, such as the arts and philosophy. Of course, the biblical view of work is completely different. Scripture frames work as a good thing, an essential part of what it means to be human. Because God created us to work, at least in part, it's inherently connected to our worship and dignity. Put differently, work is not the result of the fall. It was, however, tainted by Adam's sin. God's created purposes for humanity, to fill and form His world through work, would now feature pain and frustration. Aspects of human work were twisted from dignity to drudgery. Human efforts to cultivate the earth, designed by God to be part of the joy of imaging Him, became sources of frustration, pain, sweat, and sorrow . Because of the uniqueness of the biblical framework, even the early Christians approached work with a very different view than their pagan neighbors did. They thought of work as good but marred by sin. So, for example, in monastic communities, monks were expected to do physical labor, if for no other reason than to grow their food. In his Rule for Monastic Life, St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547) insisted that monks should work both to fulfill the biblical mandate that God gave Adam, and to encourage humility in a world that thought of work as demeaning. Within a full understanding of the biblical story, from creation to new creation, Christians came to understand the Gospel as Christ redeeming us of sin as well as all its effects. In addition to forgiveness of sin and security of eternity, salvation also included the redemption of anything infected by sin. This included work, which led Christians to attempt to restore work away from "toil" and back to the kind of meaningful labor God intended. So, in the Middle Ages, many monasteries became centers of technological innovation, focused on making work more significant. A prime example is the waterwheel. Although the Romans knew about waterwheels, they rarely made use of them. After all, why invest in an expensive machine when you have unlimited slave labor? The monks had a different view of human value and the value of work, which inspired them to develop ways of using the waterwheel to mechanize production. Initially, waterwheels were likely used for grinding grain. This required converting the vertical rotation of the wheel into horizontal rotation for the millstones, which the monks accomplished through a system of wooden gears and wheels. Later, the waterwheel was adapted for a wide range of other applications including powering bellows in forges, operating trip hammers in smithies, sawing lumber, and fulling cloth. Soon, even secular communities began to invest in building mills. While some might say secular communities adopted water wheels for economic impact, the economy in Rome was very specialized. Therefore, the Romans did not deploy waterwheels. What made communities adopt these and other technologies was likely the influence of the Christian idea of work, as it moved out from the monasteries to penetrate and shape the culture. Many more inventions were developed during the Roman and Middle Ages, stimulating economic activity and making work more efficient and meaningful. These developments were inspired by the idea that Jesus' work in redemption meant restoration was possible in all areas of life, including reversing the curse of the Garden. Though other countries had innovative technologies, some far more advanced than the West, the West's use and employment of technology was unique. According to Indian philosopher Vishal Mangalwadi, the West used technologies to make the work of the common person easier and to aid in production, rather than to cater to the elites. In our current cultural moment, many see work as frustrating, unrewarding, and not worth it (that is, as toil). Christians have an incredible, better vision of work to offer the larger world. We've also got a history to tell, of how a vision of human dignity and innovation became a blessing across economic and class lines. Just as in the past, the Christian view can move our imaginations about work beyond drudgery to a renewed and redeemed way of thinking and living. This vision shaped the work of men like Johannes Gutenberg, whose motive for inventing printing with moveable metal type was to produce Bibles that were " no longer written at great expense by hands easily palsied but multiplied like the wind by an untiring machine ." The same vision can find traction today, in a culture that doesn't know what work is for and needs an example of redeemed human labor, production, and meaning. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint originally aired October 27, 2021.
Sep 1, 2023
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer remember the lives and legacies of two remarkable people of faith. They also discuss new information regarding the alleged mass graves at Canadian boarding schools and how the Church should view singlehood. — Recommendations — "Fresh off a Supreme Court Win, the Praying Coach Takes the Field" Lighthouse Voices Event: Dr. Matthew Sleeth Section 1 - Remembering the Legacies of People of Faith "Former Minnesota Gov. Al Quie Dies at 99" Alice K. Noebel Obituary Section 2 - The The "Mass Graves" Hoax in Canada "No Human Remains Found Two Years After Claims of 'Mass Graves' in Canada" "Colorado Student Can Keep "Don't Tread on Me" Flag" Section 3 - Stories of the Week "The Church, Singles, and Calling" "Don't Blame Your Sins on Montana" "Jane Goodall, Avengers-Level Threat" For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 1, 2023
According to an article in The Daily Chatter, government officials decided to alter academic standards to be more in line with "decolonization" to offer a more favorable view of leftist ideas, and to fit better with the latest sexual ideologies. In response, conservative parents in southern states took the government to court and destroyed some of the proposed new schoolbooks. Politicians then claimed it was all about partisanship. But this wasn't America: It was Mexico. The parents protesting were indigenous people out of the state of Chiapas, whose traditional culture and centuries-old Christian heritage drove them to protect their children and protest the ivory tower fads that threaten them. The most obvious form of colonization today is ideological colonization, and it is being conducted, not by Christians or traditional religious institutions, but by Western progressives who are committed to sexual values and lifestyles found only in the modern West. If parents from Chiapas can resist, so can we. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Sep 1, 2023
Fifty years ago on September 2, one of the most important authors of the twentieth century passed away. While most today know his amazing works of fantasy and fiction, J.R.R. Tolkien was long recognized in academic circles as a brilliant philologist and scholar of medieval literature. For example, his essay on Beowulf, written in 1936, reshaped scholarship around the poem and remains highly influential today. It was in the following year that the world was first introduced to Middle Earth. The Hobbit was quickly recognized as a wonderful children's book. But The Lord of the Rings series that followed initially earned a mixed reception. C.S. Lewis and W.H. Auden, among others, quickly saw its genius, but many critics dismissed it as an overblown fairy tale, a contribution to a literary genre out of favor among modernist critics who favored "realistic" literature that dealt with the angst of the mid-twentieth century. Tolkien, however, believed that the world, and Britain in particular, needed something else. Over the last few decades, Tolkien studies have blossomed into an important field. His popularity soared with Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, and more significantly, people have been exploring the philosophical ideas behind Tolkien's legendarium. The full scope of Tolkien's vision has been made available thanks to the indefatigable work of his son Christopher, who analyzed and edited the many manuscripts Tolkien left behind. We now have a fuller picture of his writing process and the creative vision behind Middle Earth, as well as the intellectual influences that informed Tolkien. Some of these influences are well known, including Beowulf and Norse and Germanic mythology. A linguist, Tolkien invented entire languages based on Finnish and Welsh, as well as several writing systems to go along with them. A philologist, he studied language as a window into culture, which led him to develop both history and culture to go with his newly invented languages. From this effort came the amazing world of Middle Earth. Tolkien also drew on his own life story in crafting his stories. His description of the Dead Marshes and Mordor were inspired by his experience in the trenches in World War I. Also, Sam and Frodo's relationship was based on Tolkien's experience as an officer with his batman, an enlisted man who served as a personal assistant. As a boy, Tolkien spent several years in the Birmingham area where he grew to love the English countryside and to hate industrialization. This obviously shaped his descriptions of the Shire and the ecological concerns in the legendarium. On a literary level, this connected him with British romanticism, a movement that emphasized beauty, imagination, and God. In fact, as Austin Freeman pointed out in a recent interview on the Upstream podcast , Tolkien explained that to understand his writing, one had to remember he was a British romantic and a Christian. The significance of Christianity to Middle Earth is a matter of some controversy. Tolkien himself wrote, "'The Lord of the Rings' is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work." Critics have scoffed at this, pointing out that there is little hint of religious practice in The Lord of the Rings nor any of the distinctive doctrines of Christianity. In some Tolkien fandoms, discussion of Tolkien's faith is forbidden, as if his work can be understood apart from the author. However, there are clear Christian influences on the story, even if not intentional. When someone pointed out that the three offices of Christ—prophet, priest, and king—were embodied by Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn, Tolkien responded that though it was not intentional, his Christian beliefs would inevitably come out in his writing. More recent scholarship, such as Bradley Birzer's J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth, has revealed the profound Christian ideas at the root of Tolkien's work. Jonathan McIntosh's The Flame Imperishable argues that Tolkien's creation myth was shaped by the metaphysical ideas of Thomas Aquinas. Austin Freeman's Tolkien Dogmatics looks at Middle Earth through the lens of systematic theology and identifies important elements of Christian belief embodied there. Tolkien, of course, was never preachy, which is why his Christianity is so easily and often missed. However, as he explained in a letter, "[The] religious element is absorbed into the story and symbolism." Still, Tolkien's stories speak to profound truths about the world, and thus, can, in C.S. Lewis's words, "steal past those watchful dragons" of modernity. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 31, 2023
How many faces do you have? Atheist comedian Stephen Fry once said (quite ironically) that you are who you are when nobody's watching. When social restraints are removed, when the cameras aren't rolling, what sort of person are you? What sort of choices do you make? All of us—especially men—need to ask these questions of ourselves in the wake of the daily flurry of scandals from Hollywood and Washington. This isn't a problem "out there" in someone else's sound studio, office, or home. It's a problem "in here," at the depths of the sinful human heart. Is the person we portray to others the same person we are when we're by ourselves—or more importantly—when we believe there'll be no consequences for our actions? This is sometimes called "living on your face," in other words, making sure that what you present in public is the character you demonstrate in private. Only as Christians, we know that there's nowhere we can flee from the presence of God, who sees all, and who's always with us, and who promises that "our sins will find us out." This Point was originally published on January 1, 2018. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 31, 2023
Americans today are getting married later in life than their parents or grandparents. As of 2022 , the average age at which Americans get married is 28 for women and 30 for men. This is eight years later in life than the average bride and groom of the 1960s. As many have noted, today's spike in singleness and single-person households is, in part, the result of a widespread cultural erosion of marriage, both inside and outside of the Church. Over the past 60 years, marriage has taken a social and cultural beating thanks to the legalization of no-fault divorce and abortion, the widespread use of birth control, the proliferation of easily accessible hook-up apps, and the casual dominance of pornography. These realities undermine the maturity, self-control, and responsibility required for stable and successful marriages. Whether or not an individual chooses to engage in these practices, they decrease everyone's chances of finding a partner interested in or ready for marriage. In the wake of this cultural erosion, the Church has had to make necessary and prudential efforts to reinforce marriage and family life as the God-given norm, reaffirming the goodness of marriage and family life in its teaching, serving as a space for Christians who desire marriage to find a spouse, and offering support and recovery for those fighting the temptations of "free love." However, in these efforts, the Church has often struggled in its approach to singles. While not intentionally excluding singles, the Church has often failed to intentionally include singles—whether young or old, never married or widows/widowers—and create space for them to participate and serve in the life of the Church apart from the pursuit of marriage. In the process, some churches have even given the impression that singleness is only a problem to be fixed, rather than a calling that some have for part or all of their lives. Though unusual as a long-term vocation, singleness is a biblical, God-ordained calling within which individuals show God's image and serve Him and His Church with single-minded, self-sacrificial devotion. Scripture presents single people as whole persons who bear the image of God. Unlike other creation stories (like Plato's Timaeus), Genesis 2 does not present Adam and Eve as half persons made whole by joining in marriage. Rather, Adam was created a complete person who, in his singleness, reveals God's image. When God declares that Adam's aloneness is "not good," He does not thereby imply that Adam was half of a person. Marriage unites the man and the woman as "one flesh" precisely because both are full persons who bear the image of God. Because singles bear God's image, they are capable of revealing His image in their singleness. Additionally, through Christ's redemption, singles have a means to devote themselves to Christ and His Kingdom in a way that married people, on account of simple logistics, cannot. Through faithfulness and chastity, Christian singleness—whether temporary or lifelong—also points to the mystical union believers have with Christ. Because of this union, those who are single can be free from the anxieties of this present, passing age and can focus on the work of God's Kingdom ( 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 ). Their joyful, single-minded devotion paints a picture of life in the age to come, an age where we " neither marry nor are given in marriage. " In affirming the biblical legitimacy of singleness, the Church must avoid swinging too far in the other direction by elevating singleness over and against marriage. Just as being less common doesn't make singleness abnormal or aberrant, neither does its extraordinariness make it intrinsically holier than marriage. Like the widow and her mite, the married couple with young children honors God. A husband and wife are not more mature by virtue of their marital status. Both singleness and marriage are ways for humans to bear God's image and glorify Him. Both singleness and marriage can be distorted by sin and selfishness. For a number of reasons, extended singleness is a reality that many, young and old, face today. God is not surprised by this. Rather, He has called his people to live in "such a time as this." In such a time, the Church has a responsibility not only to recover and uphold the institution of marriage but to graciously help people live out their singleness in self-sacrificial faithfulness. Pitting marriage and singleness against one another, as if one were better or holier than the other, will only lead to incomplete ministry that abandons believers to the strong undertow of cultural brokenness. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 30, 2023
Primatologist Jane Goodall, who has dedicated her life to studying chimpanzees, recently made what some have jokingly called " an Avengers level threat. " If she had magical powers, Goodall said , "I would like to, without causing any pain or suffering, reduce the number of people on the planet, because there's too many of us. It's a planet of finite resources, and we're using them up." Not only did the statement echo Thanos, it's fundamentally mistaken. As a tweet from the CATO Institute put it, You cannot massively reduce the population and retain the benefits of our civilization. When you destroy people, you also destroy knowledge. Even if you could painlessly wish 95% of humanity out of existence, as Goodall suggests, it would be catastrophic for those left alive. There's a big difference between a worldview that sees human beings as a plague on nature and one that sees humans as caretakers of creation. In the meantime, let's be glad Goodall doesn't have the infinity stones. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 30, 2023
At least since the movie Inherit the Wind butchered the history of the 1925 Scopes "monkey trial," many Americans—especially those on the left side of the political spectrum—have cherished a kind of myth about national debates being settled in dramatic courtroom clashes. In reality, they seldom are. However, that doesn't stop idealistic plaintiffs from trying. The most recent controversy dragged before a judge was whether the state of Montana could be held responsible for climate change. Earlier this month, Montana District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled that the state's failure to take climate change into account when greenlighting new oil and coal projects was unconstitutional. The plaintiffs were a group of young people called Our Children's Trust. They sued the state over fossil fuel production, claiming that Montana violated a section of its constitution that guarantees citizens "the right to a clean and healthful environment." Climate activists have hailed the decision as a significant victory and model for the nation but have not been clear on what exactly has been accomplished. As The New York Times put it , unless a higher court overturns the ruling, Montana must now "consider climate change when deciding whether to approve or renew fossil fuel projects." That's all. They must "consider." Ed Whelan at National Review concluded that the impact of this "Children's Crusade to defeat climate change" on actual energy production and carbon emissions "might well be zero." Perhaps future projects will involve a symbolic gesture, akin to the so-called "land acknowledgments" commonly seen in academia and on recent episodes of Alone Australia. These rituals involve a speaker beginning by naming the Native American tribes on whose ancestral land they're standing. Of course, such acknowledgments, as Princeton's Robert George recently remarked, "do no one any good." No one gets land back. No de-colonization takes place. There aren't any reparations. It's "just a cost-free form of moral preening." Few issues are more consistently plagued by this kind of cost-free preening than the debate over climate change, and not only in America. Last month, Spanish Climate Minister Teresa Ribera dramatically arrived at a European Union climate conference by bicycle . Photographers and reporters weren't supposed to find out that that she took a limo for most of the trip and only pedaled the last couple of blocks. But I'm sure Mother Earth was grateful. Almost everything about the Montana case was similarly theatrical, from the 16 children recruited and presumed to have standing to sue the state, to its arbitrary nature. Why Montana, which produces a lot of oil and gas but has only about a million residents, rather than, say, California, which has about 40 times the population, creates a significant demand for that fuel, and emits vastly more CO2? Answering that question requires speculation about people's motives. All of it certainly looks as if the primary goals of so much climate activism isn't to cool the planet, but to display superior virtue. At heart, it is not so different than the Pharisee from Jesus' parable, who loudly thanked God that he was not like other men . It's true that we have a responsibility to leave our children a healthy planet, but the work required to do that won't be done in the courtroom of sparsely populated states or by bicycle photo ops. It will take place in the workshops and imaginations of engineers who come up with better and cleaner energy sources. It will take place in legislatures that have the will and the ability to lift restrictions on existing alternatives like nuclear energy . It will take place when those who say they care about the planet stop trying to locate the problem with someone else "out there" (usually in red, flyover states) and start recognizing their personal responsibility for both the problem and the solutions. Most of all (and here we move beyond just the climate change debate), we need to recognize how unhealthy our addiction to "cost-free moral preening" is. It's a habit at the heart of so much we fight over, from mommy blogs and those annoying "we believe in" yard signs to pandemic posturing and presidential elections. The constant need to be better than "those people"—and to be seen being better—betrays a deep spiritual anxiety that no amount of political posturing can cure. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 29, 2023
Kids born in our morally turbulent age, and the parents committed to guiding them through it, have precious few resources that can help them sift through the chaos. A few years ago, WORLD Magazine, a longtime Christian worldview partner of the Colson Center, added a daily news program for kids to their already impressive lineup of print and digital resources. The tagline for WORLD Watch with host Brian Basham reads: "We can't keep your kids from growing up too quickly, but we can help them grow into humans equipped with news literacy and Biblical discernment. And make it fun, too." It's tempting and often appropriate to shield our kids from what's going on. But even if that were possible all the time, we need to help them face now what they will face when they are no longer in our homes. Rather than hide them, let's guide our children to think well in this time and place where God has called them to serve Him. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 29, 2023
A few weeks ago, voters in Ohio rejected a ballot measure that would have made it harder to amend the state's constitution. As it stands, to amend Ohio's constitution only requires 50% of the vote plus one. Issue 1 would have raised that threshold to 60%. The turnout for this vote was unexpectedly high for what appeared to be a procedural change. It was the only issue on the ballot. However, this vote was not merely about a procedure. It was also about abortion. In November, abortion advocates will put forth a proposal to enshrine the "right" to an abortion in Ohio's constitution, with no restrictions on the age of the baby or the mother. Had Issue 1 succeeded in Ohio, this new amendment would have been much more difficult to pass. In other words, Issue 1 was the latest chapter in the story of abortion in post- Dobbs America. Last year, within six months of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade , voters in three states, Vermont, California, and Michigan , added a right to abortion to their constitutions. Kentucky voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited almost all abortions. And, in Montana , voters rejected a measure to mandate that doctors care for babies born alive after botched abortions. The Ohio amendment was not technically an abortion vote, and it strained under additional political realities. Still, we have enough data at this point to assume how state-level politics on abortion are trending. For decades, under the judicial tyranny of Roe v. Wade , pro-life activism aimed to make abortion unthinkable. The primary strategy was to show that the preborn in question are, indeed, babies by, among other means, making the philosophical arguments in defense of life, offering empirical evidence through funding ultrasound machines , and distributing tiny life-size models of preborn babies. This was done in the context of a growing and constantly improving network of care centers offered to women facing unexpected pregnancies. All of this work made a significant difference and saved an incalculable number of lives. However, it is important to note that the Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs case was not a popular vote. It was a welcome gift of God to the cause, and a world without Roe is better than a world with Roe. However, it is best to remember that it was a court case and should not be viewed as a cultural bellwether. While it may be the case that at least some of these state-level ballot initiatives may have fared better had they been more clearly worded, the most obvious takeaway is that all our thinking about abortion is happening in the context of a culture steeped in relativism. People are increasingly willing to grant that the preborn is a baby (or at least increasingly unable to pretend it isn't), but they also tend to have a follow-up question many pro-life activists didn't anticipate: "So what?" For many, perhaps the vast majority of people, the highest moral good is individual autonomy, and the default position on abortion is permissiveness. Even those who say they'd "never have an abortion" repeatedly tell pollsters they aren't comfortable taking away that option for somebody else . In that context, making rules that curb autonomy or being a tiny person who interferes with that autonomy are cardinal sins. Relativism and the related commitment to personal autonomy are evils built on the false premise that we are the creator and not creatures. In this worldview framework, the only real moral errors are not having the world I desire, being made to do something I don't want to do, or being prevented from some life I imagine will make me happy. Any meaningful pro-life agenda must account for this situation on the grounds that we are defending life in a cultural moment in which many are willing to sacrifice everything, even what is acknowledged as a child, to pursue these ends. Ultimately, we'll need to demonstrate, in both word, and deed, that this premise is false, untenable, and enables great evil. For example, abortion does not free and empower women, despite what has been claimed for decades. We now know that 7 out of every 10 women seeking an abortion feel pressured or coerced. Of course, these women still have a choice, but this is anything but "autonomy" and freedom. Christians know what happens when " everyone does what is right in their own eyes. " Cultures that worship personal autonomy inevitably violate human dignity. Within a Christian worldview, the dignity of every human person as image bearers supersedes their potential to infringe on someone's perceived autonomy. We were made for higher and deeper things than feeling comfortable and happy from one moment to the next. All we have learned about where we really are in this post- Roe moment points to the fact that there will be no shortcuts, legal or otherwise, in our ongoing efforts to protect preborn life. We cannot stop stressing the fact that every preborn child is a unique, valuable, and fully human image bearer of God. We'll need to champion the very strange idea that marriage, sex, and babies go together and, when they do, they bring strength and flourishing to society. We'll need to stop enabling and rewarding men who pressure, coerce, or abandon pregnant women , while helping women deal with crisis pregnancies. Let's get to work. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 28, 2023
Stories that depict parenting as the end of happiness are a cottage industry these days, but a story told recently in People magazine was different. Arkansas teachers Tasia and Drew Taylor are , at just 23 and 25, raising two teenagers, with a baby on the way. First, the Taylors took in Tasia's cousin Tamiray. Then they adopted Rory, a 13-year-old student at the school where Tasia taught, when they learned she was being placed in foster care. When asked why, the Taylors said, "We felt God was calling us." Tasia described their decisions to provide a home for these teenagers in this way: "People try to make us out as martyrs a lot of the time, and that's not what we are. There's no way that in our heart we could turn these kids away knowing that we had the space for them, and we were willing to provide for them." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 28, 2023
Sixty years ago today, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" Speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The most well-known line of King's speech is this one: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." That vision has never been fully realized, and its greatest threat today is a set of ideas that purport to advance racial justice but instead oppose it. Critical Race Theory and the critical theory mood that infects so many areas of our culture, especially education and media, are all about issuing judgments about the character of entire groups of people based solely upon the color of their skin. Twenty years ago, in a commentary about this historic speech, Chuck Colson articulated why only the Christian vision of the human person can ground an understanding of human rights, universal human dignity, and value that extend to everyone. Recently, the world has learned disturbing details about King's character and moral failures. Colson's analysis of King's ideas, and his call to Christians to live out of a Christian worldview, remain true and relevant today. "More than forty years ago, on August 28, 1963, a quarter million people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial. They marched here for the cause of civil rights. And that day they heard Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, a speech in which he challenged America to fulfill her promise. "I have a dream," he said, "that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.'" While we know of the speech, most people are unaware that King also penned one of the most eloquent defenses of the moral law: the law that formed the basis for his speech, for the civil rights movement, and for all of the law, for that matter. In the spring of 1963, King was arrested for leading a series of massive non-violent protests against the segregated lunch counters and discriminatory hiring practices rampant in Birmingham, Alabama. While in jail, King received a letter from eight Alabama ministers. They agreed with his goals, but they thought that he should call off the demonstrations and obey the law. King explained why he disagreed in his famous "Letter From a Birmingham Jail": "One might well ask," he wrote, "how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer "is found in the fact that there are two kinds of laws: just laws … and unjust laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws," King said, "but conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." How does one determine whether the law is just or unjust? A just law, King wrote, "squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law … is out of harmony with the moral law." Then King quoted Saint Augustine: "An unjust law is no law at all." He quoted Thomas Aquinas: "An unjust law is a human law not rooted in eternal or natural law." This is the great issue today in the public square: Is the law rooted in truth? Is it transcendent, immutable, and morally binding? Or is it, as liberal interpreters argue, simply whatever courts say it is? Do we discover the law, or do we create it? Many think of King as a liberal firebrand, waging war on traditional values. Nothing could be further from the truth. King was a great conservative on this central issue, and he stood on the shoulders of Augustine and Aquinas, striving to restore our heritage of justice rooted in the law of God. Were he alive today, I believe he'd be in the vanguard of the pro-life movement. I also believe that he would be horrified at the way in which out-of-control courts have trampled down the moral truths he advocated. From the time of Emperor Nero, who declared Christianity illegal, to the days of the American slave trade, from the civil rights struggle of the sixties to our current battles against abortion, euthanasia, cloning, and same-sex "marriage," Christians have always maintained exactly what King maintained." That was Chuck Colson, reflecting on the ideas that shaped Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, given 60 years ago in Washington, D.C. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 25, 2023
John and Maria discuss the high and low points in the GOP presidential debate. A growing number of states are telling Christians they can't be foster parents and reaction to the song "Rich Men North of Richmond." — Recommendations — The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks Get your copy of Live Your Truth & Other Lies Section 1 - Worldview takeaways from the GOP Debate "Mike Pence, Nikki Haley Spar Over Federal Abortion Ban at RNC Debate" "GOP Candidates Clash Over National Abortion Ban" "Conservatives Praise Ramaswamy's Mention of Fatherless Epidemic" "Trump-Less Debate Draws Better-than-Expected 12.8 Million Viewers" "People forgot how to act in public" Section 2 - The War on Christians "Denver Archdiocese sues Colorado over right to deny preschool to LGBTQ families" "California Public Library Silences Female Athlete" "Librarian shuts down event after speaker refers to 'transgender' athletes as male" "Christian mother sues state for denying adoption over her gender beliefs" "Federal lawsuit alleges religious exemption denial for Buena Vista preschool unconstitutional" Section 3 - Rich Men North of Richmond "It's Not Condescending to Speak the Truth" "The rise of Oliver Anthony and 'Rich Men North of Richmond'" For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 25, 2023
According to The Daily Mail, the Biden administration's health secretary recently endorsed a gender clinic in Alaska. The secretary is a man who identifies as a woman. The clinic advocates for replacing the term "mother" with "egg producer." Somehow "Happy Egg Producer Day!" doesn't have the same ring to it as "Mother's Day." As a colleague of mine noted when she heard the story, "That really is The Handmaid's Tale." Language matters. Especially from people who occupy positions of cultural power, from the media who call this man a "she," to politicians who claim he is a powerful woman , to a clinic obscuring reality. When they detach from reality, incoherent and dangerous ideas like this are the result. Reality, however, has hard edges, and neither our bad ideas nor our bad language can change that. The farther afield from reason and science our cultural elites wander, the more revolutionary it will be to say what is true. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 25, 2023
Last month, an article published on NBC described "[p]ractitioners of 'race change to another,' or RCTA," which refers to people who "purport to be able to manifest physical changes in their appearance and even their genetics to truly become a different race." Interviewed for the article were teenagers who are enamored with Japanese and Korean cultures and who have become convinced that, by listening to subliminal messages while they sleep, they will eventually wake up with Asian characteristics, such as eyes with an epicanthic fold. Even more unbelievable than the idea that subliminal messaging can alter a person's genetics was the attempt at ethical analysis by journalist Emi Tuyetnhi Tran. According to Tran, RCTA is wrong, but not because those with the delusion entertain desires that will never become reality. Instead, RCTA is wrong because of inequality: "Experts agree race is not genetic . But they contend that even though race is a cultural construct, it is impossible to change your race because of the systemic inequalities inherent to being born into a certain race." In other words, young people with this particular identity crisis should not be told what they desire is impossible due to the constraints of physical reality, but that they are violating certain social theories. What Tran fails to explain is that if race is merely a social construct as gender is now understood to be, why is appropriating a different gender identity acceptable but not a different racial identity? On what grounds should we, for example, oppose the actions of someone like Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who became leader of a local NAACP chapter ? In fact, though there are physical distinctions between races, the physical differences between the sexes are far more profound. Nineteenth-century ideas of divinely ordained, distinct races that ought not be "mixed" was rooted in dangerous, racist nonsense that can neither be supported biblically or biologically. The differences that are emphasized are typical generalizations more closely related to cultural differences than anything essential. However, people have tended to tie these assumptions to racial categories. The biblical account, in contrast, describes a single human race that was created by God to bear His image before the rest of His creation. The different "tongues, tribes, nations, and languages" arose when God dispersed Noah's descendants, spreading humans across the Earth to fulfill their purpose. Thus, the biblical narrative grounds and explains both the universal dignity and value that all humans possess, as well as their physical, cultural, and genetic differences. Race is too narrow a concept to explain these differences. It is best understood, as apologists Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer explain in their forthcoming book Critical Dilemma, as a social construct (though not all differences can be attributed to social construction) . Genetic variances among people are significant enough to produce observable physical differences. For example, different races demonstrate specific predilections toward different kinds of cancer. Even if a few confused teenagers believe that epicanthic folds are only a social construct and not genetic, that doesn't change reality. What becomes obvious in Tran's article is that acknowledging these realities without violating our society's "new rules" requires quite a bit of intellectual gymnastics. For example, one article cited by Tran suggests that genetic variation among humans should be understood wholly differently than the concept of race. A Ph.D. candidate at Harvard Medical School suggests the use of "ancestry" language instead of "race" language. This quickly feels like a word game, especially when the only ones allowed to use the word "race" are those who lob accusations of racial supremacy. The more fundamental problem–the one at the root of this and every one of the many identity crises infecting our cultural moment–is that so many young people have absorbed a way of thinking about themselves and reality best identified as "expressive individualism." For years, they've heard that the world is whatever they decide and make of it, that their bodies are plastic and do not govern who or what they are, and that what is most true about themselves and the world is how they feel on the inside. Why wouldn't they assume that one day they could wake up with the eyelids they really, really want? An overwhelming identity crisis among young people is also a clear indicator of what the Church is being called to in this time and this place. Testifying to the work of Christ in the world, which is always the calling of the Christ-follower, must include testifying to the work of Christ in creation. John 1 and Colossians 1 are clear: Christ was present and at work in the creation chapter of God's story. Proclaiming the Good News today must involve pointing to God's good design of human beings, how He created them in His image. That must include theological instruction about the human body, especially in the wake of a dramatic increase in depression and anxiety among teens and of a growing number of "detransitioners" dealing with regret and facing the long-term harm of our culture's worst ideas. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Heather Peterson. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 24, 2023
Sixteenth-century French theologians do not usually make an appearance in twenty-first century political press conferences. But earlier this August, Governor Ron DeSantis introduced Andrew Bain as a new Florida state attorney. After briefly thanking the governor and those who'd helped him get to this point, Bain said, "For me, this is the place where John Calvin's second purpose of the law came to life." He then summarized Calvin's idea, that the law is a restraint on evil. Though it cannot, in and of itself, change people's hearts, it can protect the righteous from the unjust. T.S. Eliot noted that our theories of education say something about our views about culture and humanity. So do our ideas about the law. Too many politicians act as if passing a law will remake the human condition. It won't, which is why it's refreshing to see a public servant grounded in better ideas. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 24, 2023
A recent article in The Atlantic by Helen Lewis made the bold claim that "The Gender War Is Over in Britain." An overstatement, to be sure, but not entirely unwarranted. Keir Starmer, head of the Labour Party, recently led his party away from full support of radical gender ideology. This was a notable shift for the United Kingdom's largest left-wing party, which had previously encouraged radical elements of trans activism and stood aside as feminists were canceled for resisting the new orthodoxy. The shift, which was quietly announced to the public, made "three big declarations." One was that "sex and gender are different." Another was that, although Labour continues to believe in the right to change one's legal gender, safeguards are needed to "protect women and girls from predators who might abuse the system." Finally, Labour was therefore dropping its commitment to self-ID—the idea that a simple online declaration is enough to change someone's legal gender for all purposes—and would retain the current requirement of a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The author of the Atlantic piece equated Starmer's muted approach to "a man who had chucked a hand grenade over his shoulder and walked away, whistling," though it likely had more to do with strategy than anything else. Although it may be the cause du jour of ivory tower activists, the past few years of policies and platforms at odds with common sense and basic biology have left affirming politicians high and dry when it comes to public support. Some have already paid the price by losing their respective offices. Recently, the head of the Scottish Nationalist Party was toppled, in part, for her attempted defense of placing so-called transgender men in women's prisons. And it's not just politicians who are getting the boot. Last year, the Tavistock Clinic near London shut down operations on account of lawsuits against its "gender-affirming" practices. In fact, the greater trend across Europe seems to be a growing skepticism, which stands in stark contrast to the mood in North America. At the same time, the protest in the U.S. seems to be growing. More stage time and prominence are being given to "de-transitioners" like Chloe Cole , who, as young people, bought the lies and did irreparable damage to their bodies through amputation and chemicals. More female athletes are following the lead of Riley Gaines and the Connecticut high school sprinters, standing up to intimidation and threats and insisting on the "crazy" idea that only women should be in women's sports. As more people refuse to be muzzled by societal pressure, others will speak out, too. Only in this way will what is true about reality reassert itself . All these things should give us hope that societal decline is not inevitable. But we must also remember that social media isn't real. Most of the controversies that monopolize the time and attention of pundits around the world are just " sound and fury, signifying nothing ." Most people around the country and the world are more firmly rooted in reality than the folks writing headlines, pushing progressive policies, and posting TikTok videos. One complicating factor here is that American politics is uniquely polarized. For example, in post- Roe v. Wade America, the American left has elevated abortion to the point that no compromise is tolerated . So, even though many European nations have far stricter laws regarding abortion than even conservative American states, it will take significant effort to further move the needle here in the U.S. The same reality is at play in our efforts to protect children who are already born. What can and should continue to encourage us is that reality will always strike back. Dangerous ideas, even when mandated by cultural gatekeepers, cannot change reality. When Christians and other likeminded people stand up against dangerous ideas, we're not pleading for our own narrow, partisan claims. We're standing for the reality of the world as it truly is. We're standing for science and fact, for basic biology and common sense. No matter the folly of human pretensions against reality, this is still our Father's world. Its boundaries can only be pushed so far. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 23, 2023
A recent tweet featured a clip of a sermon on Psalm 139. In that Psalm, David famously declares , "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb." The preacher applied the passage to the place of abortion in our culture, noting that abortion is a subject that makes people feel uncomfortable and has been politicized to the detriment of society. So far, so good. Then the pastor, wearing vestments emblazoned with Planned Parenthood's insignia, went on to celebrate abortion, complaining about harmful messaging from pro-lifers and the Church's "failure" to uphold Roe v. Wade 's abortion regime. She then claimed that she felt "no guilt, no shame, no sin" for her own two abortions. A seared conscience is far worse than a guilty one. The Church has failed on the issue of abortion, but the failure is that anyone could enter a pew, much less the pulpit, and still think that God considers abortion anything less than an abomination. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 23, 2023
In The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche tells " The Parable of the Madman. " In it, a madman lights a lantern in the early morning, runs to the marketplace, and declares, "God is dead." Nietzsche's point was that though Enlightenment philosophers had embraced atheism, they had not yet realized the huge implications. So, Nietzsche told them, via a rant from the Madman, which ends when he bursts into church buildings and asks, "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?" In 2023 in America, that last question feels uncomfortably relevant, even for those of us who know God is alive and well. U.S. church membership, as a percentage of the population, is now at a record low—down more than 20 points in the twenty-first century . For years, this statistic could be attributed mostly to the decline of mainline Protestantism, a once dominant force in American life that is now a kind of hospice for graying liberal theology. However, recent news that the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest Protestant denomination, lost half a million members last year makes clear that decline is no longer just a mainline problem. Evangelicals, as a share of the population, have sunk to pre-1980s levels while the religiously unaffiliated have swelled to nearly a third of the population . Ryan Burge, a statistician and co-author of a forthcoming book entitled The Great Dechurching, calls the emptying of pews and the rise of the unaffiliated "the most significant shift in American society over the last thirty years." It is significant for reasons most Americans probably don't yet realize. Like the people in Nietzsche's parable, secular observers may shrug off or even celebrate America's "great dechurching." But a less religiously observant society is, statistically, a much worse place to live. As Jake Meador wrote in his review of The Great Dechurching at The Atlantic , this change is "bad news" for America as a whole, because, "Participation in a religious community generally correlates with better health outcomes and longer life , higher financial generosity , and more stable families —all of which are desperately needed in a nation with rising rates of loneliness, mental illness, and alcohol and drug dependency." Faith, particularly Christian faith, is an irreplaceable force for good in society. Its decline will leave America less healthy, less charitable, less connected, and less capable of dealing with major social ills without government intervention. Evidence suggests it already has. At the same time, it is essential to remember that these benefits are byproducts of faith, not the main point. Anyone who hopes to halt and reverse church decline must remember what that main point is . It's not to entertain people, as Carl Trueman reminded us recently in WORLD . For example, services with a Toy Story or Star Wars theme (I wish I were making these examples up) neither attract serious seekers nor make true disciples. Therapeutic appeals about how Christian principles can supplement or enrich otherwise complete lives also miss the point. Counterintuitively, part of the trend of decline may be churches that ask too little of those who darken their doors. The authors of The Great Dechurching suggest that low expectations of those in the pews and widely embraced individualist assumptions have led to fewer and fewer Americans finding time for church. If Christianity is merely a kind of hobby or weekly pep talk designed to enhance psychological wellbeing or career success, then we can find better stuff on YouTube or Spotify. Why make time for this type of church every week? But what if Christianity is a way of life, the thing it's all about. What if it demands our allegiance? What if following Christ restructures our priorities and pursuits, our beliefs and our behavior—including career, family, and even personal identity? Everything else in our society directs our gaze inward, to ourselves, our feelings, our priorities, and our problems—as if every individual is the center of his or her own universe. Churches that accept and even participate in this idolatry may be leading millions away from Christianity, not by demanding everything of them but by demanding nothing. Those who are happy or indifferent about the decline of American churches are beginning to get glimpses of what an America without Christian influence will look like. It can and will get worse. For 2,000 years, the knowledge and fear of a transcendent God, not helpful social programs, has built and filled churches. If the magnitude of that claim is forgotten or even obscured, our churches will indeed become sepulchers—but not for God, who lives and reigns forever and ever. They will become memorials of the squandered heritage of a once deeply, but no longer, Christian nation. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 22, 2023
A recent BBC article questioned what last year's Dobbs decision could mean for in vitro fertilization. The owner of a self-described " boutique fertility clinic " in Austin, Texas, told reporters that she's worried abortion restrictions will be bad for business: "If you say life begins at fertili[z]ation, then how can I grow an embryo in a lab, or biopsy it for genetic testing, or freeze it or thaw it, or implant it in somebody, or leave it frozen?" These questions should have been asked before IVF became big business. In most fertility clinics today, human lives are put in real danger, especially those embryos designated "extra." These are either aborted, left indefinitely on ice, discarded, or donated for medical experimentation. The few clinics committed to a more (though not completely) ethical IVF, by creating a single embryo at a time or requiring that every embryo is implanted, won't be affected by abortion restrictions, but most of them will. And they should be. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 22, 2023
Are bodies something we merely "have," or are our bodies essential to who we are? In an advertising video for a local fertility clinic, a doctor asks, "Are you ready to have children, but your body is not?" And then he goes on to describe the services on offer. The question is an odd one. Even more, it's downright misleading. Of course, the desire to have a child and not being able to conceive is a terrible experience. Still, the assumptions in that question—that we are somehow disconnected from our bodies, and that what we feel or want is superior to our physical realities—are dangerous indeed. Versions of these same assumptions have permeated Western culture since its alignment with the ideas of the sexual revolution. For example, think of the man who after an affair says to his wife, "It just happened. She meant nothing to me." As if his body's desire, which meant everything during the act of adultery, wasn't really his desire and was therefore not important. Or think of the young gender-confused Christian who says, "I prayed that God would make me feel like a boy, but he didn't. Therefore, I must be a girl." While God may not have changed the young man's feelings, it's important to note He also didn't change the young man's genitalia. So, why should a change of feelings be relevant to his identity but not a change of biological reality? Or consider this example from an article authored by my Colson Center colleague Shane Morris of the Christian who justifies watching smutty movies or movie series with sex and nudity by saying, "They're just actors" or "It advances the story." Even a ridiculous amount of makeup cannot change the fact that a real body is on display and therefore a real person is being exposed. These examples are just new expressions of an age-old heresy—one of the first heresies, in fact, dealt with and condemned as such in the early Church: gnosticism. Gnosticism divides reality between the physical and the spiritual. The spiritual is labeled good, while physical matter is labeled bad, or at least irrelevant. Gnostics within the Church taught that Jesus could not have really taken on physical flesh because the physical is bad. He only appeared to be a man. But the Church fathers saw this for the heresy that it was. If Jesus did not really have a body, who was crucified? And who rose from the dead? And how could He really be one who, in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin as Scripture says? Didn't Paul say if Christ has not risen from the dead, our faith is pointless, and we're without hope? Contrary to gnosticism, Christianity does not teach that reality is divided between physical and spiritual. Christianity divides reality between Creator and creation. Think of the creation of Adam. God forms man out of the dust of the ground—that's physical—breathes into him the breath of life—that's spiritual. And man becomes a living soul. We don't have souls: We are souls. And to be a human soul is to be embodied. Our bodies are essential, not incidental, to our humanness. For many of the ancient pagans, the most scandalous of Christian teachings was the resurrection of the body. Just as God raised Jesus' body from the dead, He will someday raise our bodies, too. When Jesus says in John 6 that He will raise believers "up on the last day," He's talking about our bodies. How our glorified, resurrected bodies will resemble our current bodies is a mystery. But we do know the disciples recognized Jesus after the resurrection because of His body, including the wounds of His crucifixion. As Paul says, our bodies will be sown as perishable, but raised imperishable. Or, to quote the late R.C. Sproul, "For the Christian, redemption is of the body, not from the body." It's odd that after years of being accused by atheists and materialists of being trapped in our spiritual fantasies and ignoring the real world, Christians now find themselves as the ones saying that the physical world—especially the human body—matters, is real, and is of utmost significance. But here we are. If Christ came in the likeness of men, if He promised to redeem humanity, and if our humanity includes the body, then our bodies really do matter. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org (This commentary originally aired February 22, 2017.)
Aug 21, 2023
Recently, ADF International's Lois McLatchie Miller tweeted out her "radical takes" for 2023: "1. Biological men shouldn't compete in women's sports. 2. Silent prayer is not a crime. 3. Ending the lives of babies in the womb is wrong." She then offered this conclusion: "Radicals of the past got to say things that were groundbreaking. We're stuck with defending the obvious." She's right. We ought not underestimate, at least if we take seriously Paul's description from the first chapter of Romans, how prone fallen humans are to deny what is obviously true and embrace what is obviously false. That's why, in this cultural moment, stating the obvious is so "radical." Still, reality eventually wins. For example, many Western nations are backing away from trans-extremism. Tragically, until they do, many lives will be ruined. Ideas have consequences; bad ideas have victims. Thus "radical" Christians must be ready to combat bad ideas and care for their victims. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 21, 2023
A few years ago, a Philadelphia area Apple store featured a display in which a vibrant rainbow of the latest iPhones broke through a greyscale crowd of people. What was particularly striking about the advertisement wasn't the use of contrast nor that this was not some thinly veiled "Pride" month display. The multi-colored iPhones were positioned like veils, so that no face, or even part of a face, could be seen. If Apple hoped the display would inspire new eagerness to join the technicolor life awaiting customers behind their screens, instead, by veiling human faces, the campaign unveiled the depersonalizing effects of our most ubiquitous technologies, especially smartphones, social media, and the internet. This combination–which makes up our brave new world of new media–regularly functions as a barrier to other people and to the outside world, behind which we hide. Think of the socially anxious teen whose face is "glued" to the screen or think of the man who surfs for sexually explicit content online. New media offers them and others a place of anonymity, where they can live and move and have their being, unencumbered by others. Our "digital veils" also function as a source of power and control, in a way depicted long ago in C.S. Lewis's classic, Till We Have Faces . The main character and narrator in the story is Orual, the unattractive and tomboyish older sister of the goddess Psyche. Orual convinces Psyche to disobey her husband, the god Cupid, who then banishes Psyche and ends their marriage. As a result, Orual decides to live out the rest of her days wearing a black veil. The veil, which starts off as "a sort of treaty made with [her] ugliness," quickly becomes a form of power and control. Whereas her ugliness and mannishness caused others to disregard her, the veil gives her a kind of power over others. Her father, the king, takes her seriously, suitors flock to her, and enemies respect her. By shrouding her face in mystery, the veil even led some to imagine she was a dazzling beauty or even a spirit. Like Orual's veil, new media can become a kind of digital veil that enables us to hide from others, influence their perceptions of us, and control our personal images. Social media especially functions in this way. We build profiles of perfectly lighted and cropped snapshots, snippets of the latest vacation, nights out with friends, and personal projects. Through this, we shape others' perceptions of us, giving them the impression that our lives are constantly happy, fun, and productive. Through the process, some even become online "influencers," influencing what others post, buy, or do. Ultimately, the veil's power and control are short lived. Despite their apparent advantages, digital veils leave us anxious and unknown. As one popular YouTuber, Samuel Bosch, shared in a video earlier this year: "I sometimes think that many of you have this very wrong impression that I'm always happy, traveling, and productive, that I can buy anything I want to, get any job I desire, or date whoever I want to." Yet, for all his success as an online influencer, MIT Ph.D. student, and tech entrepreneur, Bosch is, admittedly, unhappy. This is because we were made by God to be known. It is, in fact, a central conclusion of the psalmist David that, wherever we go, we are known . Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night," even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. The psalm begins with the definitive statement that God has indeed searched and known him and ends with an invitation to God to search and know him. That's the tension, isn't it? Years ago, as I wrestled through Psalm 139 with a group of college students facing graduation, they articulated that tension, of both comfort and fear, that they are always known and always seen. Ultimately, all veils are an illusion. They may hide us from others, but they cannot hide us from God, who not only sees us and knows us, but created us to be seen and known both by and for others. Toward the end of Lewis' masterpiece, Orual visits the widow of her beloved servant Bardia. Upset that the widow might be jealous of the time Bardia spent with her, Orual jumps up in a burst of rage and lifts her veil to show the widow that she had nothing of which to be jealous. However, rather than being met with fear or hatred or disregard, Orual is met with the widow's compassion and kindness. Orual finds herself no longer alone, no longer unknown, no longer unloved. Like Orual, we can lay down our digital veils. When we do, we will find that we are already truly seen, truly known, and truly loved by God, and we can be truly seen, known, and loved by others. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 19, 2023
Last month, the Colson Center hosted a conference from Bay Harbor, Michigan on our changing culture. John Stonestreet was joined by Kristin Waggoner from Alliance Defending Freedom and Jim Daly with Focus on the Family to discuss how Christians should respond to everything from critical theory to the Barbie movie. Find more information on the event and watch the full recording at greatlakessymposium.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 18, 2023
According to an article in Vancouver's Globe and Mail , after years of struggle and a recent traumatic event, Kathrin Mentler sought medical care at a local hospital for her suicidal ideation. Like America, Canada has spent millions on public service campaigns encouraging those contemplating suicide to seek professional help. Katherine, however, was not offered help. Instead, she was offered death. The hospital staff told Katherine that it would take a long time to see a psychiatrist and suggested she consider Canada's Medical Aid in Dying program instead. A story like this might be funny if the consequences weren't so severe, but they are. In this brave new world, killing is called "medical aid," harm passes for help, and healthcare professionals recommend suicide to deal with suicidal ideation. The so-called "right to die" becomes an "option to die," then an "expectation to die," and eventually the "duty to die." And people like Kathrin Mentler are in grave danger exactly where they should be able to find help. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 18, 2023
On August 19, 1662, French philosopher, mathematician, and apologist Blaise Pascal died at just 39 years old. Pascal, despite his shortened life, is renowned for pioneering work in geometry, physics, and probability theory. His most powerful legacy, however, involves the ways he engaged with life's biggest questions. Pascal's intellect garnered attention at an early age. At 16, he produced an essay on the geometry of cones so impressive that René Descartes initially refused to believe it could possibly be attributed to a "sixteen-year-old child." Later, Pascal advanced the study of vacuums in the face of a prevailing (and misplaced) belief that nature is completely filled with matter, and thus "abhors a vacuum." In 1654, his work on probability took a new turn when he was sent a brainteaser by a friend. Applying mathematics to the problem, Pascal laid out rows of numbers in a triangle formation, a formation that now bears his name. As author John F. Ross described, Here was the very idea of probability: establishing the numerical odds of a future event with mathematical precision. Remarkably, no one else had cracked the puzzle of probability before, although the Greeks and Romans had come close. In 1646, Blaise Pascal encountered the kindness of two Jansenist Christians caring for his injured father. Their love in action earned Pascal's admiration. Then, on the evening of November 23, 1654, Pascal experienced God's presence in a new and personal way, which he described on a scrap of parchment that he sewed into his jacket and carried with him for the rest of his life: FIRE—God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars. Certitude, certitude. Heartfelt joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ. My God and thy God. Thy God shall be my God. In his writing, Pascal's notions of probability met his faith in God. A compilation of his collected manuscripts was published after his death in a volume entitled, Pensées, or "Thoughts." Best known is his famous "wager" that, facing uncertainty and in a game with such high stakes, it makes far more sense for fallen human beings to believe in God's existence than doubt it. "If you gain," he wrote, "you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is." Pascal also offered among the keenest diagnoses of humanity: The human being is only a reed, the most feeble in nature; but this is a thinking reed. It isn't necessary for the entire universe to arm itself in order to crush him; a whiff of vapor, a taste of water, suffices to kill him. But when the universe crushes him, the human being becomes still more noble than that which kills him, because he knows that he is dying, and the advantage that the universe has over him. The universe, it does not have a clue. Or, even better: What a Chimera is man! What a novelty, a monster, a chaos, a contradiction, a prodigy! Judge of all things, an imbecile worm; depository of truth, and sewer of error and doubt; the glory and refuse of the universe. He also described our moral conditions as human beings , "[W]e hate truth and those who tell it [to] us, and … we like them to be deceived in our favour" ( Pensées 100 ). Apart from God, Pascal observed, people distract themselves from the reality of death. But the diversions run out, and then mankind feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his dependence, his weakness, his emptiness. There will immediately arise from the depth of his heart weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation, despair. ( Pensées 131 ) "Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world" ( Pensées 213 ). With a poetic nod to his work on vacuums, Pascal concluded: What is it then that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace …? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself. A generation later, as waves of the Enlightenment swept over Europe, the continent's most prominent thinkers could not escape Pascal's brilliance. According to philosopher Dr. Patrick Riley, Holbach, as late as the 1770s, still found it necessary to quarrel with the author of the Pensées, Condorcet, when editing Pascal's works, renewed the old debate; Voltaire throughout his life, and even in his last year, launched sally after sally at the writer who frightened him every time he—a hypochondriac—felt ill. On the human condition in particular, the French Revolution would prove Pascal right and Voltaire wrong. Divorced from God and instead committed to the worship of "pure reason," France devolved into a violent, anarchic wasteland. Even today, Blaise Pascal's intellect, passion, and eloquence have lost none of their fire, dedicated as they were to the God who claimed his total devotion. As he wrote on the parchment sewn into his jacket, Jesus Christ. I have fallen away: I have fled from Him, denied Him, crucified him. May I not fall away forever. We keep hold of him only by the ways taught in the Gospel. Renunciation, total and sweet. Total submission to Jesus Christ and to my director. Eternally in joy for a day's exercise on earth. I will not forget Thy word. Amen. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. If you enjoy Breakpoint, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 17, 2023
We often hear of folks forced to endure "sensitivity training" for holding opinions everyone did five years ago. But, in an unusual turn of events, a U.S. District court judge has ordered corporate lawyers for Southwest Airlines to undergo training with the Alliance Defending Freedom about the nature and importance of religious liberty. On August 7, a U.S. District Court ruled that Southwest Airlines violated Charlene Carter's rights when they fired her for posting pro-life opinions on her personal social media. The ruling also declared that Southwest notify their flight attendants about protections for their religious views. Southwest did not follow through, and instead notified their flight attendants that the company policy did not violate their religious freedom. To say the least, the judge wasn't happy, ruling that more training was in order and that ADF was the group to provide it. Not surprisingly, Southwest appealed the decision while media outlets feigned disbelief and expressed outrage. Hopefully the inconsistency will be obvious to everyone. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 17, 2023
In her book Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed, apologist Alisa Childers breaks down widespread mantras of culture and their consequences. One of these is a misunderstanding of Jesus' words so common that, for many, it may be the eleventh commandment that supplants the other ten: "You shouldn't judge." Over the last 60 years, studies have confirmed that Americans have become more tolerant of alternative sexual lifestyles, non-traditional beliefs about God, and certain political identifications, such as Communism. According to the most recent State of Theology report from Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research, some 56% of self-described evangelicals believe that "God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam." Upon closer examination, this shift has far more to do with losing convictions in these areas than about gaining tolerance. In fact, accepting the "do not judge ethos" has been a primary corrosive agent to those convictions, and this is what Childers addresses in her new book. In addition to identifying the obvious contradiction in saying "it is wrong to judge," which is itself a judgment, she reminds Christians what Jesus' words mean in context. [J]ust after saying, "Judge not," Jesus lets his audience know that when they judge, they should be very careful to make sure their judgment isn't hypocritical. "First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye," Jesus instructs in verse 5. In other words, don't point out a sin in your brother's or sister's life before you confront the bigger sin in your own. But the whole point is to help your brother or sister take the speck out of their own eye, which requires you to judge that it's there. … If there is still any confusion, just a few verses later, Jesus tells us to recognize wolves, or false teachers, by their fruit (verses 15-16). Again, this requires us to judge whether these teachers are speaking truth or deception. Then, in John 7:24, Jesus couldn't say it more plainly. He directs his listeners to "not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment." The point of these verses, she concludes, is not to prevent moral discernment, but to help believers instead judge "carefully, rightly, humbly, and without hypocrisy." Childers then offers a powerful illustration from her time with ZOEgirl, when her struggle with body image eventually led to a secret eating disorder of binging and purging. On some tour in some town somewhere, I shared a hotel room with one of my bandmates. She is a sweetheart—gentle, deeply intelligent, and thoughtful. … She was also a natural peacemaker, and confrontation did not come easily to her. So when she worked up every last bit of courage to ask me what I was doing in the bathroom, it surprised me. And it also made me angry. To put it lightly, the conversation didn't go well. I not so politely invited her to stop "judging" me and back all the way off. That didn't stop her. … Looking back, am I thankful that my bandmate "judged" me? That she dared confront me about the self-harm I was guilty of? Absolutely! She was the catalyst that first brought the darkness into the light. To this day my eyes mist with tears when I think about how much she loved me to do such a difficult thing. Childers' example not only calls Christians to do similarly difficult but right things, it reveals the consequences of relativism when lived in the real world. What begins as a desire to not judge others turns into the narcissistic demand that no one, under any circumstances, judge us. But that also renders healing and forgiveness impossible. After all, with no way to say that we've been wronged, neither is there means or reason to forgive those who harm us. Any culture that rejects objective morality lacks any way to counter evil. Alisa Childers' book reclaims truth from the empty slogans that dominate our culture and our thinking. This August, for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, we'll send you a copy of Live Your Truth and Other Lies . Just go to breakpoint.org/give to learn more. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 16, 2023
A feature of life in Colorado is the prevalence of pot. There are dispensaries on virtually every corner, and everywhere I travel I hear a pot joke. Something else my adopted state is becoming known for is the harmful aftereffects of legalized marijuana. According to state statistics , the drug was found in the system of some 42% of teen suicides, a rate nearly twice as much as with alcohol and four times of any other substances. Of course, correlation doesn't mean causation, but it can mean connection. If nearly half of stroke victims were taking the same medicine, would we wonder if there was a link? Why the reluctance to connect the dots here? Marijuana might not cause suicide, but numbers don't lie. It encourages or exacerbates problems that lead down that deadly road, especially for a group at high risk. The link is there for those willing to see it. Since suicide rates have risen every year that it has been legal, we're far past giving the benefit of the doubt. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 16, 2023
Few voluntary associations in American history have had as deep and wide an influence as the Boy Scouts of America. The training ground of soldiers and senators, pastors and presidents, the organization effectively instilled values like trustworthiness, loyalty, courteousness, thrift, bravery, and reverence in many of the over 100 million young men who joined in its over 100-year history. In fact, for much of the 20th century at least, "Scout's honor" was among the highest assurances one could give of their honesty and integrity. However, if the only evidence considered was the Boy Scouts of 2023, it would be hard to imagine that this long and storied history ever took place and that the organization ever helped boys mature into virtuous manhood. Ten years ago, the Boy Scouts of America allowed openly gay members for the first time. Soon thereafter, an avalanche of sexual abuse allegations, many of them decades old, forced the Scouts into bankruptcy and a 2.5-billion-dollar settlement. Since then, the organization has been in membership free fall. This year, for the first time since 2017, the Scouts held their National Jamboree in the hills of West Virginia. Reporter Mike De Socio attended and, writing in The Washington Post, described the shell of an organization he encountered. This year's Jamboree drew only 15,000 scouts compared to 40,000 at the previous Jamboree in 2017. Between 2019 and 2021, the Boy Scouts lost 62% of its membership , and there's no sign of a post-COVID recovery. As Carnegie Mellon's student newspaper put it, the Boy Scouts "is a dying institution." Despite this, De Socio, who identifies himself as gay, praised the progressive palooza the Jamboree has become. Specifically, he touted the pride tent, complete with "LGBTQ Pride flags and a string of multicolored lights, … tables covered with bowls of rainbow bracelets, pronoun stickers and diversity patches" and that a diversity merit badge is now required to become an Eagle Scout. According to De Socio, the blame for the organization's near collapse should fall on the abuse scandal and the pandemic. Certainly, these factors hastened the demise we now witness, but it's as if the author cannot imagine how the Scouts' enthusiastic embrace of LGBT ideology over the last 10 years sealed its fate. In the same period, a Christian organization for boys called Trail Life USA saw a 70% increase in membership. In fact, the pattern matches the long-term dwindling of mainline Protestant denominations. When an organization, whether a church or a youth association like the Boy Scouts, forgets or rejects why it exists in the first place, it soon stops existing. Once liberal mainline churches stopped offering anything distinctly Christian and offered the same progressive, all-accepting, therapeutic talking points as Oprah and NPR, why go to church? Much the same can now be said for the once venerable organization we call the Boy Scouts. The sexual abuse scandal may have fatally undercut the group's claim to trustworthiness and integrity, as well as the perception that they provide a safe and wholesome place for boys to grow into men. However, throwing open the doors to LGBT ideology changed the very nature of the organization. Not only did the Scouts begin (ironically) promoting sterile lifestyles that would deprive the organization of future members, it also became a place where evil is called good and children are herded into life-destroying behavior and beliefs. This not behind closed doors as with the scandals, but proudly in the open, on charter documents, and at Jamborees. By the time the Boy Scouts decided to undermine their name by admitting girls , I imagine most families had already asked themselves, "What's the point?" To be clear, the loss of the Boy Scouts, despite its flaws, is huge. What other institution shepherded generations of boys toward responsibility, self-mastery, and moral living? Our whole society would be a poorer and less trustworthy place had it never existed. I hope that churches and Christian programs like AWANA and groups like Trail Life USA seize the moment and make up for this profound loss. I also hope all organizations learn that they only remain good as long as they remember their purpose. When they succumb to trendy ideologies and the spirit of the age, they not only lead their members astray, they also make themselves unnecessary and, in this case, leave their very necessary work to someone with conviction. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 15, 2023
Recently, NBC news shared an article entitled, " Pope says church is open to everyone, including gay people, but has rules ." Asked if it was inconsistent for him to say that Christianity was open to "everyone" when some, including gay people, were apparently excluded, Pope Francis replied, "The church is open to everyone but there are laws that regulate life inside the church." To anyone even vaguely familiar with the Roman Catholic Church or Christian teaching throughout history, the only newsworthy item here is that reporters thought it was newsworthy. The rest of us may not have been sure that the Pope would be as forthright as he was. What he said was not an innovation. St. Paul was pretty clear when he described Christians and their sin, "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 15, 2023
As if the last few years were not strange enough, the United States Congress recently held hearings on the subject of UFOs. As NBC News reported , numerous claims were made by those called before the subcommittee, including by former military or intelligence personnel. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this otherwise earth-shattering story was how it has largely been greeted, at least on social media, with a collective "meh." If so much information was kept hush-hush for so many years, why the sudden transparency now? Isn't this just another chapter in red herrings tossed out to distract us from what's "really" going on? As tempting as it is to think of these hearings as an unaired episode of The X-Files , the virtue of stories like this, and of the whole genre of sci-fi, is that they bring up questions about the deeper things of life. Who are we? Are we alone in the universe? What would it mean if we weren't? What makes us special as human beings? Noted sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke famously said, "Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." Religious people are less likely than others to believe that aliens exist. Or, if they think something is "out there," they are less likely to think of extra terrestrials as E.T. as they are to think of them as demons trying to deceive us for one reason or another. On the other hand, those with a materialist outlook tend to see the world as just a " pale blue dot " in the heavens and humanity as nothing more than the consequence of chance and chaos. In fact, it's become almost an article of materialist faith that if we are here, someone else must be too. All of which suggests that there's more to how we view these matters than what we have seen or not seen. For instance, despite being supposedly a planet-wide concern, nearly all UFOs sighted tend to show up in the English-speaking world. Or, as someone on Reddit noted, "they sure love the US." A similar phenomenon can be seen in the variations of "bigfoot" stories, depending on from what region they are. The stories out of the Pacific Northwest tend to resemble a Harry and the Hendersons vibe. Sure, the creature might seem a bit scary but, in the end, they are one with nature, like a kind of extra furry Bill Walton. The stories out of Texas are all about these super aggressive creatures that are ready to fight and kill and steal your children. Tennessee bigfoots, on the other hand, are just downright neighborly, knocking on doors to ask for some garlic. These together suggest it's clear that, even when it comes to urban legends and outer space, the stories we tell ourselves make a big difference in what we see in the world. Anyone who has read C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy can tell you that the great apologist used his own imagination to tell wonderful stories where very plausible aliens lived and interacted with his human heroes. The inhabitants of Mars and Venus, or as Lewis named them, "Malacandra" and "Perelandra," were fellow creatures born of the artistry and care of the same God we encounter in the Bible. Yet, in one of his last books , he noted the subjective element in people's belief in the extraordinary. Right at the end of his study of the medieval worldview, he wrote: "Fifty years ago, if you had asked an astronomer about "life on other worlds," he was apt to be totally agnostic about it or even stress its improbability. We are now told that in so vast a universe stars that have planets and planets that have inhabitants must occur times without number. Yet no compulsive evidence is to hand. But is it irrelevant that in between the old opinion and the new we have had the vast proliferation of "science fiction" and the beginnings of space-travel in real life?" What we believe about alien life and other mysteries says more about our beliefs, or what Charles Taylor called our " social imaginaries ," than it does about their existence. The culture around us affects our view of the world in profound ways. Our worldview is a pair of belief "glasses" that help us understand the nature of reality, but it can also be a kind of blinder, too. This doesn't mean we are completely lost in the fog of our own precognitive assumptions, only that we should follow Francis Schaeffer's advice about checking our presuppositions "after a careful consideration of which worldview is true." This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 14, 2023
Massachusetts is rejecting would-be adoptive parents if those parents are Christian and thus denying a home to children in need, according to a new lawsuit . Mike and Kitty Burke went through all the classes, background checks, and home assessments required to become adoptive parents, and scored highly. Yet, they were rejected because, as state officials wrote in their report, the couple's Christian faith meant they are "not supportive" of kids who identify as LGBTQ. Right now, in Massachusetts more than 1,500 kids are in need of a foster home. Not only do advocates deny biology and sexualize children by suggesting their sexual preferences are their identity, but they also deny kids loving parents as if it is better to not have a home than to be in a home with a religious mom and dad. This is not an isolated incident. A mom in Oregon was also rejected from fostering kids for the same reason. Again, it's the children who are harmed. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 14, 2023
In the 22nd week of surrogate Brittney Pearson's pregnancy , she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Because the necessary treatment could harm the baby, her doctors recommended inducing labor early and allowing the baby to be cared for in neonatal intensive care while she started chemo. However, the gay couple paying Brittney Pearson to serve as their surrogate did not want a premature baby with potential developmental or health problems. They wanted her instead to have an abortion. Pearson offered to put the baby up for adoption, but the men refused because, according to Pearson, they did not want a child who was genetically related to one of them somewhere "out there." According to Pearson, the men threatened both her and her doctors with a lawsuit if she did not abort her child. Because of California's radical surrogacy laws, which allow financiers of a surrogacy arrangement to be granted legal parental rights of the baby before he or she is born , they likely would have prevailed. In an interview with Jennifer Lahl of the Center for Bioethics and Culture, Pearson told her story. Her son was born at 25 weeks of pregnancy, a gestational age that, thanks to advances in maternal medicine, children have survived . Though she has not publicly stated whether her son was killed before or after delivery, or whether he was given or denied the medical treatment a premature baby needs, she has confirmed that her son died the day he was born, which was Father's Day. Though, of course, not every surrogacy contract ends this way, Pearson is not the first surrogate mom pressured to kill her baby by those paying for it. However, it would be a profound mistake to think of hers as a case of "surrogacy gone wrong," as advocates of the practice claim about stories like hers. Each and every moral violation that occurred along the way was not exclusive to Pearson's unique circumstances. Rather, they are violations endemic to surrogacy itself, a practice that denies children the right to their mother and, at times, their father, and denies a mother the right to her own child. Children are treated as products to be purchased and arranged, subject to property laws and other legal realities long used to dehumanize certain individuals. It's jarring to hear these men talk of Brittney Pearson's baby as if he were a lamp ordered off Amazon that was delivered broken. However, it is the surrogacy contracts signed ahead of time that treat human babies as commodities. If it seems like an obvious violation of human rights and God's moral order for two men to demand that a woman have her baby killed, what should we make of the legal contract governing the baby's creation, gestation, and delivery in the first place? If babies are treated like products and pregnancy like the means of production at the beginning of the surrogacy process, ought we not to expect things to be different at the end? Human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. Thus, they should never be treated like any other thing. Like the social research that shows how extended exposure to violent video games and media can desensitize people to actual violence, surrogacy is among those cultural realities that reveal how much our view of children has been desensitized by all that constantly reduces them to "things." As one gay man who sued his employer last year for refusing to pay for him and his husband to hire a surrogate put it, children are just one of the modern "trappings" of "marriage," like a "house, children, [and] 401k." The willful death of Brittney Pearson's son is a tragic, but logical, escalation of the moral errors fundamental to surrogacy. As marriage and family are increasingly deconstructed, reimagined, and replaced in law, the demand for surrogacy will only increase, and more babies will face the same kind of danger as Pearson's baby. If we don't stand up for them, who will? And if we do, it will require standing against this practice, which is fundamentally disordered and always wrong, and not merely against selective cases. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 11, 2023
Millions of Americans have stopped going to church creating the biggest social shift in our lifetime. We'll look at the reasons Ohio's Issue 1 failed giving pro-life voters another defeat. And suicide rates in America are at levels not seen since the Great Depression. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 11, 2023
Distressed by the onset of puberty, California teenager Chloe Cole was fast-tracked to a double mastectomy at age 15. Recently, on her 19th birthday, Chloe appeared before Congress , passionately describing the harm of so-called "trans-affirming" medicine, which is anything but. After Chloe's remarks, a mother who had transitioned her 18-year-old daughter told her story. Given a chance to respond, tears filled Chloe's eyes, and she replied to the committee chairman: "I just want to set the record straight that I don't hate her. … In fact, I see my own mother and my own father in her. … That being said, I don't wish for a child to have the same result as I did. … It comes with its own difficulties, and it's not easy. And I hope that her child gets to have a happy and fulfilling adulthood." Without sacrificing truth, Chloe offered love, as well as a reminder to all of us that it is possible to speak the truth in love. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 11, 2023
Fifty years ago this week, Charles W. Colson became a follower of Jesus Christ. Chuck would subsequently become one of the most respected evangelical leaders of the 20th and early 21st centuries, founding both Prison Fellowship Ministries and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and authoring bestselling books such as Born Again , How Now Shall We Live? , and Loving God . Chuck Colson's influence came about because of how deeply and thoroughly Jesus Christ changed his life. Certainly, he was an incredibly gifted person (after all, not everyone lands in a White House office as special counsel to the President of the United States in their thirties!). Yet, Chuck's giftedness before he found faith was corrupted by pride, which led to an incredible public fall. On the thirtieth anniversary of his conversion, Chuck Colson described it in detail. Here, in his own voice, is Chuck Colson: "Thirty years ago today, I visited Tom Phillips, president of the Raytheon Company, at his home outside of Boston. I had represented Raytheon before going to the White House, and I was about to start again. But I visited him for another reason as well. I knew Tom had become a Christian, and he seemed so different. I wanted to ask him what had happened. That night, he read to me from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, particularly a chapter about the great sin that is pride. A proud man is always walking through life looking down on other people and other things, said Lewis. As a result, he cannot see something above himself immeasurably superior—God. Tom, that night, told me about encountering Christ in his own life. He didn't realize it, but I was in the depths of deep despair over Watergate, watching the President I had helped for four years flounder in office. I had also heard that I might become a target of the investigation as well. In short, my world was collapsing. That night, as Tom was telling me about Jesus, I listened attentively but didn't let on about my need. When he offered to pray, I thanked him but said, no, I would see him sometime after I had read C.S. Lewis's book. But when I got in the car that night, I couldn't drive it out of the driveway. Ex-Marine captain, White House tough guy, I was crying too hard, calling out to God. I didn't know what to say: I just knew I needed Jesus, and He came into my life. That was thirty years ago. I've been reflecting of late on the things God has done over that time. As I think about my life, the beginning of the prison ministry, our work in the justice area, our international ministry that reaches one hundred countries, and the work of the Wilberforce Forum and Breakpoint , I have come to appreciate the doctrine of providence. It's not the world's idea of fate or luck, but the reality of God's divine intervention. He orchestrates the lives of His children to accomplish His good purposes. God has certainly ordered my steps. I couldn't have imagined when I was in prison that I would someday go back to the White House with ex-offenders as I did on June 18—or that we would be running prisons that have an 8% recidivism rate—or that Breakpoint would be heard daily on a thousand radio outlets across the United States and on the internet. The truth that is uppermost in my mind today is that God isn't finished. As long as we're alive, He's at work in our lives. We can live lives of obedience in any field because God providentially arranges the circumstances of our lives to achieve His objectives. And that leads to the greatest joy I've found in life. As I look back on my life, it's not having been to Buckingham Palace to receive the Templeton Prize or getting honorary degrees or writing books. The greatest joy is to see how God has used my life to touch the lives of others, people hurting and in need. It has been a long time since the dark days of Watergate. I'm still astounded that God would take someone who was infamous in the Watergate scandal, and soon to be a convicted felon, and take him into His family and then order his steps in the way He has with me. God touched me at that moment in Tom Phillip's driveway, and thirty years later, His love and kindness touch and astound me still." Chuck Colson's life and legacy continues to be a testimony to God's amazing grace. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 10, 2023
It's an experience that drives many young mothers crazy. After carrying a child for months, enduring labor and childbirth, nursing through many sleepless nights, what are the first words she hears from the kid? "Dada!" It isn't always the case, but across time and cultures, babies are more likely to name their father before their mother. However, rather than a preference for dad or a slight to mom, according to a tweet by Dr. Dan Wuori, it more likely reinforces how important mom is. At that young age, the mother/child bond is so tight that babies simply can't see her as "other." She is the world, with Dad more of a visitor. This is a reminder of what Ryan T. Anderson has said . Kids don't need just "parents." They need a mom and a dad, and each provides unique and distinct gifts by their presence to children. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 10, 2023
In 1973, evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote that "nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution." Almost 50 years later, an increasing number of scientists are asking whether evolution makes any sense in light of what we now know from biology. A recent long-form essay in The Guardian signals just how urgent the problem has become for the most dominant theory in the history of the sciences. In it, author Stephen Buranyi gives voice to a growing number of scientists who think it's time for a "new theory of evolution." For a long time, descent with slight modifications and natural selection have been "the basic" (and I'd add, unchallengeable) "story of evolution." Organisms change, and those that survive pass on traits. Though massaged a bit to incorporate the discovery of DNA, the theory of evolution by natural selection has dominated for 150 years, especially in biology. The "drive to survive" is credited as the creative force behind all the artistry and engineering we see in nature. "The problem," writes Buranyi, is that "according to a growing number of scientists," this basic story is "absurdly crude and misleading." For one thing, Darwinian evolution assumes much of what it needs to be explained. For instance, consider the origin of light-sensitive cells that rearranged to become the first eye, or the blood vessels that became the first placenta. How did these things originate? According to one University of Indiana biologist, "we still do not have a good answer. The classic idea of gradual change, one happy accident at a time," he says, "has so far fallen flat." This scientific doubt about Darwin has been simmering for a while. In 2014, an article in the journal Nature , jointly authored by eight scientists from diverse fields, argued that evolutionary theory was in need of a serious rethink. They called their proposed rethink the "Extended Evolutionary Synthesis," and a year later, the Royal Society in London held a conference to discuss it. Along with Darwinian blind spots like the origin of the eye, the Extended Synthesis seeks to deal with the discovery of epigenetics, an emerging field that studies inherited traits not mediated by DNA. Then there are the rapid mutations that evade natural selection, a fossil record that appears to move in "short, concentrated bursts" ( or "explosions" ), and something called "plasticity," which is the ability we now know living things have to adapt physically to their environments in a single generation without genetically evolving. These discoveries—some recent, others long ignored by mainstream biology—challenge natural selection as the "grand theory" of life. All of them hint that living things are greater marvels and mysteries than we ever imagined. And, unsurprisingly, all of these discoveries have been controversial. The Guardian article describes how Royal Society scientists and Nobel laureates alike boycotted the conference, attacking the extended synthesis as "irritating" and "disgraceful," and its proponents as "revolutionaries." As Gerd Müller, head of the department of theoretical biology at the University of Vienna helpfully explained, "Parts of the modern synthesis are deeply ingrained in the whole scientific community, in funding networks, positions, professorships. It's a whole industry." Such resistance isn't too surprising for anyone who's been paying attention. Any challenges to the established theory of life's origins, whether from Bible-believing scientists or intelligent design theorists, have long been dismissed as religion in a lab coat. The habit of fixing upon a dogma and calling it "settled science" is just bad science that stunts our understanding of the world. It is a kind of idolatry that places "science" in the seat of God, appoints certain scientists as priests capable of giving answers no fallible human can offer, and feigns certainty where real questions remain. The great irony is that this image of scientist-as-infallible-priest makes them seem like the caricature of medieval monks charging their hero Galileo with heresy for his dissent from the consensus. As challenges to Darwin mount, we should be able to articulate why "settled science" makes such a poor god. And we should encourage the science and the scientists challenging this old theory-turned-dogma and holding it to its own standards. After all, if Darwinian evolution is as unfit as it now seems, it shouldn't survive. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on August 3, 2022.
Aug 9, 2023
The award for the weirdest and most misleading headline of the year goes to a recent article in the Washington Post that announced, " An abortion ban made them teen parents. " The article tells the story of Billy and Brooke High and describes her pregnancy at age 18 as something that just "happened" because they were hanging out after meeting at a skate park. Brooke gave birth to twins soon after the Dobbs decision . She wanted an abortion but would have had to drive 13 hours to get one. Instead, she kept the babies and married their father. Because all of this is hard, the Washington Post implies, neither the children nor the marriage should have ever happened. Billy's and Brooke's perspective on the other hand is that day-to-day life is really hard. And being parents is growing them up, though they didn't have great examples. What we can learn from the Post article is not where babies come from, but what young families need. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 9, 2023
This month, for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, request a copy of Live Your Truth and Other Lies by Alisa Childers. Visit colsoncenter.org/august to learn more. ___ In her new book, author and apologist Alisa Childers targets the lies that often masquerade as cultural proverbs today. In Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed , Childers offers just what the title promises. She exposes the bad ideas at the center of slogans we hear all the time. You can receive a copy of the book with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month. Just go to colsoncenter.org/august. Though the mantras that dominate our world can seem harmless, they are not. "Our culture," Childers writes, is brimming with slogans that promise peace, fulfillment, freedom, empowerment, and hope. These messages have become such an integral component of our American consciousness that many people don't even think to question them. … The problem? They are lies. In fact, Childers argues, slogans like "You are enough," "authenticity is everything," "Put yourself first," "It's all about love," or "God just wants you to be happy," commonly redefine words like love and hate and happy. What's left is a modern-day "tower of Babel" (or "Babble") situation where those with the most social media followers are granted authority and assumed to have expertise on life and how to live it. At the root of these destructive slogans is a view of the self. For example, Childers cites Glennon Doyle, whose New York Times No. 1 best seller Untamed centers around her decision to leave her husband for a woman she saw at a local zoo, all while quoting Carl Jung: "There is no greater burden on a child than the unlived life of a parent." Alisa compares Doyle's story with that of Elisabeth Elliot , the missionary famous for bringing the Gospel back to the same Waodani people who killed her husband, Jim. With a toddler in tow, Elliot lived in the Waodani village for two years before returning to the United States to speak, write, and appear publicly with some of her husband's killers who had become dedicated followers of Jesus: Elisabeth Elliot laid hold of deeper strength. … She rejected the urge to defy God's Word or redefine his holiness. … How did she do it? She once wrote, "The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances." Childers openly admits to struggling with these ideas, including what it means to be truly authentic, during her time as a popular and successful Christian musician: [A] therapist I began seeing toward the end of ZOEgirl's run (who had the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job) looked at me intently and gently asked, "What if you got throat cancer and could never sing again?" I was dumbstruck. She had stumped me. After all, I was made to sing, and if I couldn't sing, who was I? That question pushed Alisa away from the shallow definition of authenticity that is widely embraced today, and toward a deeper grounding in the truth of who we are—made in the image of God, and yet fallen. This makes all the difference in how we think about ourselves and how we choose to live life: Today I write. Maybe tomorrow I will wash feet, clean toilets, or start a food blog. God knows. He is trustworthy. My identity is grounded in him. True biblical authenticity is glorifying Christ with whatever gifts and talents he has given me. As my friend Teasi says, this is my calling whether I find myself in a palace or in a prison. Another commonly repeated, highly consequential lie is that there's such a thing as "your truth" and "my truth": Christian, your truth doesn't exist. Your truth won't bring hope or save anyone. ... The Cross is the answer to every lie that tells me I can find everything I need inside myself. … The Cross is not just a symbol of salvation. It's a place of rest. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 8, 2023
Since it was legalized in 2016, Canada has increased pressure on doctors and hospitals to offer assisted suicide . Recently, an article in WORLD Magazine reported that Canadian authorities kicked a nonprofit called the Delta Hospice Society out of its rented building because they refused to kill their patients. Before they closed, executives with the hospice said they had briefly considered registering as a "faith-based organization" to qualify for a religious exemption under Canadian law. This is a cautionary tale that while religious exemptions are important, they do not offer protection from immoral laws. This is especially the case when the state dramatically limits who should be considered "religious" enough for an exemption. Faith cannot be reduced to names or titles or just evangelistic work. More importantly, a religious exemption cannot make an unjust law just. So-called "Medical Aid in Dying" is exactly not aid in dying: It is aid to die, and that means it's not medical. Instead, it is harmful. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 8, 2023
Recently, Chloe Cole, a 19-year-old young woman who was pressured to undergo transgender surgeries, challenged a social media video by Neil deGrasse Tyson, the populist astronomer and science personality. Although a legitimate astrophysicist, Dr. Tyson's public proclamations and videos are not always from his area of scientific expertise. In fact, they aren't always scientific. In this particular video, Tyson asserted, in favor of gender ideology, that "no matter my chromosomes today, I feel 80% female, 20% male. I'm going to put on makeup. I'm gonna do it. Tomorrow, I might feel 80% male." Seemingly to Dr. Tyson, the ability of people of any gender to feel a particular way and then to put on makeup accordingly, proves that "the XX/XY chromosomes are insufficient because when we wake up in the morning, we exaggerate whatever feature we want to portray the gender of our choice." Dr. Tyson continued in a blatantly non-scientific statement, "What business is it of yours to require that I fulfill your inability to think of gender on a spectrum?" In her reply, Chloe Cole interspersed video of herself confronting his bizarre claims. How about we stop confusing basic human biology with cosmetics? Like, what a weird jump. … I don't wear makeup most days. If I leave the house without makeup on, does that make me like 70% [m]ale?... If it was only truly about aesthetics, nobody would care. It's my business because you're using 1950s gender stereotypes to justify an ideology that leads to the sterilization and mastectomies of 15-year-old girls who just don't fit in, girls like me. Cole ends her video with, The idea that people can be percentages of either male or female just further reinforces the fact that biological sex is a binary. There's only two. There may only be two sexes, but there are an infinite number of personalities. I mean, it really doesn't take a degree in astrophysics to understand that. Watching Dr. Tyson's video and Cole's response, I was reminded of something from my childhood. Due to the popularity of Superman in the late 1970s, Mr. Rogers dedicated a week of his daily TV show to helping kids distinguish between what was real and what was make-believe. He was concerned by the reports of children who put on capes and thought they could fly, leaping from staircases or top bunks or balconies and causing serious injuries. He even took his viewers onto the set of the show The Incredible Hulk to show them that the actors involved were indeed only actors . In other words, he understood that children struggled to distinguish between make-believe and reality. This is exactly what Chloe Cole did earlier this week, only she was instructing an astrophysicist about the harm done to children in the name of "science," while Mr. Rogers was confronting the harm done to children by cartoons. Cole knows that putting on makeup, a dress, or a muscle shirt cannot transform a man into a woman or a woman into a man. Even worse, she knows that neither did the testosterone she received at age 13 nor the double mastectomy at age 15 make her a boy. According to Mr. Rogers' biographer Max King in the documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Rogers was "angry that it was his medium that was doing this," i.e., deluding and harming children. What began with his concern about children being misled prompted a new weekly theme for the show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood that dealt with tough issues such as death and divorce. Like Cole, Rogers wasn't a scientist. But he was committed to helping children discern truth from error, the difference between make-believe and reality, between the cosmetic and one's identity. He even famously sang a song that clarified that kids could not become whatever or whoever they wanted, that only boys could be daddies, and only girls could be mommies. In fact, he once said, "I'll tell you what children really need. They need adults who will protect them from the ever-ready molders of their world." Those are the kind of adults that children still need. What we all need less of is the sort of thinly disguised, condescending, and anti-scientific rhetoric that molds their identities. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Heather Peterson. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 7, 2023
Recently on NPR, reporter Rachel Martin interviewed Dr. Lisa Miller, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University, about her controversial claim that spirituality is good for mental health. According to Miller, those who say spirituality is "very important" show an 80% decreased risk for addiction to drugs and alcohol and are 82% less likely to die by suicide. "[T]he more high risk we are," Miller said, "the more that there's stress in our lives, … the greater the impact of spirituality as a source of resilience." "Here is published, peer reviewed science for skeptical audiences," the interviewer concluded, which runs contrary to what we so often hear. Though a particular kind of religion is not specified by Dr. Miller, apparently turning our focus outward and even upward is better for us than just "looking inside" or "following our hearts." That makes sense if we are indeed creatures and not just self-creations, made for relationship with the One who gave us life in the first place. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 7, 2023
As unexpected as it was that the Barbie movie would spark such a widespread and intense cultural conversation, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer , a film about the brilliant and broken man who became the father of the atomic bomb, has too. The film tells the story of the man who gave the world the power to destroy itself, or as Oppenheimer famously put it , "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." Atomic weapons have been a constant source of debate since their initial use to end the war against Japan in 1945. At the time, Christians had a dual reaction. On one hand, many breathed a sigh of relief that the long war was over, that the boys would come home, and that there would be no further repeats of the devastation seen at places like Iwo Jima and Okinawa , where Japanese resistance was so fanatical that they fought almost to the last man. On the other hand, Christians shared the widespread sense that a deadly Pandora's Box had been opened and that there was no way to go back to a world before "the Bomb." Certainly, the sheer destruction and the immense casualties leveled on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are difficult to justify. America has also been accused of racist motivations in dropping the bomb, and in overlooking the significance of the August 8 Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the weakened state of the Japanese military that late into the war. The fact remains, numerous factors must be considered in light of some ethical framework. By far the best framework for considering war comes from the Christian contribution of the just war doctrine. Specifically, in what is known as jus in bello , just war doctrine says that for a war, or even part of a war, to be considered moral, it must only be done for the right reasons and in the right ways. For example, while civilian deaths are inevitable, particularly in modern war, noncombatants must never be targeted. This was recently argued again by Adam Mount in Foreign Policy magazine. He wrote that in dropping the bomb, Japanese civilians weren't merely collateral damage but intentionally killed as an act of terror to scare Tokyo into surrendering. In response, Marc LiVecche wrote in Providence magazine that the attacks were indeed a demonstration to the Japanese government, but the target of destruction were the cities, not the people within them. It's also significant to keep in mind the pressures of the cultural moment. President Truman faced the brutal question of how to end the immense suffering of a war that had gone on so long, when great suffering would follow no matter what he did. As such, doing nothing would not have been a preferable moral option. The Japanese empire had for years been perpetuating great evil upon its neighbors , leaving millions dead and millions more enslaved. Had the Americans gone ahead with the planned " Downfall " invasions of Japan, the death toll might have made the atomic attacks pale in comparison. Simply blockading Japan without direct attacks of any sort would have left millions of Japanese people to slowly starve before the military caved, something they'd already demonstrated an intense unwillingness to do . From the comfort and safety of distance and time, it is much easier to issue a simple proclamation. Reality on the ground at the time is not so simple, and theological reflection, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, must be done in the "tempest of the living." Centuries ago, when asked by a Roman officer if he could, in good Christian conscience, continue his work as a soldier, St. Augustine replied, " Therefore, even in waging war, cherish the spirit of a peacemaker, that, by conquering those whom you attack, you may lead them back to the advantages of peace ." Just war doctrine warns us that any and all actions in a war must not be seen as their own end but only as the means toward a greater end. War is always awful and sometimes necessary. The great virtue found in just war doctrine is not that it allows for a clean war, free from doubt about our actions. There's no such thing. However, it can help guide those forced to do terrible things in the face of horrible options. To learn more about just war theory, see Just War and Christian Traditions, edited by Eric Patterson and Daryl Charles. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 4, 2023
The Oppenheimer movie has Christians revisiting the morality of warfare. An extra warm summer in some parts of the U.S. raises climate fears again. John and Maria discuss ways to slow down the growth of assisted suicide. — Recommendations — Summit Ministries Latigo Ranch Section 1 - Just War and the Bomb Between Pacifism and Jihad: Just War and Christian Tradition by J. Daryl Charles Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer "Let's Talk About Just War" by Nathaniel Peters "Canadian hospice forced to close after refusing to offer assisted dying" CNA Section 2 - Climate Change The Editors podcast Section 3 - Assisted Suicide "States remove protections from assisted suicide" WORLD "Canada's Suicidal Slide" Breakpoint For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 4, 2023
The number of teens experiencing symptoms of depression are higher than ever. According to research from psychologist Jean Twenge, 49.5% of teens report that they feel they "can't do anything right," 44.2% report that they feel their "life is not useful," and 48.9% say they "do not enjoy life." Each of these findings is roughly double what they were in 2009. These stats are the latest in a growing body of research that demonstrates a significant link between teens' mental health and their usage of new media. The combination of smartphones, internet, and social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter is dramatically harmful especially when contrasted with those who spend time participating in in-person activities like sports and religious services. For families who hope to help their teens avoid or overcome depression, the best starting place is to restrict usage of smartphones and social media. All families should proactively cultivate healthy disciplines with devices, as well as habits and choices that promote real-time, in-person relationships. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 4, 2023
Recently, British author and journalist Helen Joyce offered a hard-to-hear but reasonable explanation for why transgender ideology continues to endure, despite its inherent contradictions , its obvious falsehoods , and the harm that has been inflicted on children . Her words are worth quoting at length: "There's a lot of people who can't move on [from] this and that's the people who've transitioned their own children. Those people are going to be like the Japanese soldiers who were on Pacific Islands and didn't know the war was over. They've got to fight forever. This is another reason why this is the worst social contagion that we'll ever have experienced. A lot of people have done the worst thing that you could do, which is to harm their children irrevocably, because of it. Those people will have to believe that they did the right thing for the rest of their lives for their own sanity and for their own self-respect. So, they'll still be fighting. I've lost count of the number of times that somebody has said to me of a specific organization that has got turned upside down on this, "Oh, the deputy director has a trans child," or "the journalist on that paper who does special investigations has a trans child." The entire organization gets paralyzed by that one person … And now you can't talk truth in front of that person because what you're saying is, you as a parent have done a truly—like a human rights abuse level—awful thing to your child that cannot be fixed." In other words, according to Joyce, the real breakthrough of the current gender ideology movement has only come through the co-opting of parents, whose instincts to protect their children tragically became a threat to them and their wellbeing. This was accomplished, in large part, because Western medical authorities ultimately betrayed parents. Dr. Miriam Grossman, a clinical psychologist, has described this phenomenon in her new book Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist's Guide Out of the Madness : "The entire mental health profession—psychology, social work, counseling—was captured by radical ideologues years ago, and you and your families are paying the price. The doctors are wrong, your gut is right. Your son will always be your son. Your daughter will always be your daughter. To say differently is inane. And to place blame on you, parents who represent reality, is shameful." Dr. Grossman's best advice for parents is to "[t]rust your parental instincts. The entire world is telling you to put your gender-questioning child in the driver's seat, but you will learn they're wrong." The story of 19-year-old Chloe Cole, "perhaps the most well-known detransitioner in America," is a case in point : "They coerced my parents into allowing me to do this. And while my parents were required to sign off on everything, they were also putting it on me, because I desired to do this." In fact, most parents who deny their children's wishes and instead try to do the right thing will often find entire communities opposed to them. Friends, counselors, teachers, and medical professionals—not to mention their own children—will condemn them as hateful and bigoted, and even accuse them of choosing a "dead daughter over a live son," or vice-versa. After all, it is the children, these new experts insist, who are the inexhaustible source of truth about who they are, and their desires should always be respected. All of which means that, if Christians do not come to the support of parents walking this incredibly difficult road, no one else will. Pastors, youth pastors, Christian friends, neighbors, and family members simply must show up here. And parent, if you are in the middle of a child's gender crisis, remember that you can walk with them in truth and in love. Or, as Dr. Grossman has said, "It's possible to survive, albeit with scars." Erin Friday , a California mom described her journey this way: "Your love for your child has to be strong enough to take their vitriol. And it's very, very hard. I spent many nights crying myself to sleep. Some days, I didn't get out of bed. But you still have to do it, because now there's not a day that doesn't go by that my daughter doesn't say that she loves me … even if my daughter didn't come back to have a relationship with me … I saved her from being a lifelong medical patient, so I would do it again." Tragically, there are many parents whose children chose differently. Even more tragically, there are many parents who fit the description offered by Helen Joyce. Coming to terms with what they have done to their children seems impossible. So, Christians must run toward this brokenness with the Gospel, especially its offer of forgiveness and promise of restoration. Many men and women have faced the reality of choosing to have an abortion and, in the process, were found by Jesus Christ. Their lives prove again that no one is beyond the reach of God's grace, that as Paul wrote to the Romans , "by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." In this cultural moment, the Church must help parents know and choose what is true and find hope when their children choose otherwise. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 3, 2023
If all we had to go on was Salon, Slate, or T he Atlantic magazines, we'd be forced to conclude that becoming a parent is a life sentence of loneliness. Though studies do demonstrate a loss in certain forms of happiness for parents, according to Brad Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies, that conclusion " no longer fits the data ." Nearly 60% of childless men and women say they are lonely some, most, or all the time while only 45% of those with children report the same. Likewise , "82% of parents say they are 'very happy' or 'pretty happy' compared to just 68% of the childless." Some of the shift likely has to do with how the pandemic disrupted social life, which families were partially insulated against. Another factor is likely America's improved work-life balance . More important is how happiness is defined. Kids can create stress like nothing else, but they are also a source of joy and meaning. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 3, 2023
Recently Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, proposed The National Strategy for Social Connection Act . The bill has three parts. Part one would create a White House Office of Social Connection Policy to advise the president on the epidemic of loneliness and develop strategies to improve social connection. Part two would mandate the federal government to develop an official, national Anti-Loneliness strategy across all federal agencies. Part three would send more funding to the CDC for the study of the mental and physical effects of loneliness. The bill itself exemplifies the clunkiness and inefficiency that characterizes the work of the government: a new office will be formed, then an office will be placed inside that office, and that office will advise and send money to yet another office. To be fair to Senator Murphy, America is facing a very dangerous loneliness epidemic that is quickly becoming a public health crisis. Rates of suicide , homicide , depression , self-harm , crime, and social isolation are at all-time highs. These trends are correlated with loneliness, which researchers have found can be twice as detrimental to our physical health as obesity. Even if well-intentioned, there are two fundamental problems with Senator Murphy's legislation. First, no program, government or otherwise, that does not first understand what it means to be human can hope to combat the growing pandemic of loneliness. Second, there are some problems that the government with its clunkiness simply cannot address. It is a very modern belief, as Jacques Ellul so clearly described in his writing on the rise of "technocratism ," that all problems can be solved through the proper application of technique and the effective use of technology. This illusion only contributes to the expansion of state power. After all, who else can be trusted to properly apply the technologies that promise to solve our problems? Under this illusion, there is less and less room to look to God for help. Consequently, there is less and less concern for how He created the universe, including human beings, to function in the first place. If there's no real motivation to seek out our intended design, there's even less reason to seek out the Designer, and on and on it goes. This same faulty assumption is at the root of Senator Murphy's proposal. Like a lot of political solutions, creating a government office to combat loneliness assumes human beings are less like God and more like problems to be solved. If we can just get the technique right, by setting up the right system at scale, we can "reboot" all these lonely humans back to their factory settings so they'll stop making so much trouble. Of course, because that's not what humans are, no government program will ever be able to regenerate the fallen human heart. Though the state cannot solve all problems, it can incentivize and disincentivize certain behaviors. For example, many social welfare programs disincentivize marriage . No-fault divorce policies disincentivize long-lasting marriages . Legalized abortion incentivizes (or at least de-stigmatizes) risky sexual behavior. Calling same-sex relationships legal "marriage" reduces marriage from being the basic unit of social society and the source of healthy population growth into little more than "two people who like each other ... at least for now." The reality is that healthy, intact families are the single most effective tool to combat loneliness. Yet with every one of these policies, the government has weakened family stability. Any proposed legislation to "fight loneliness" that doesn't mention the cancer of fatherlessness in this country just isn't serious. Senator Murphy has written elsewhere about the connection between loneliness and the breakdown of institutions like the family, churches, sports clubs, and civic clubs. But the physical act of walking through the doors of a church or civic center or YMCA will not magically relieve loneliness. Institutions foster deep relationships because they call people to devote themselves to things outside themselves. People form deep bonds with others when they are devoted to something bigger together, and that devotion also gives them a reason to put up with each other. This is an important but overlooked factor in a cultural moment in which we're often encouraged to " get rid of toxic people " in our lives, as if human relationships should never experience conflict or tension. Loneliness is a public crisis because people are lonely. People are lonely because their hearts were made for relationships with others and with God. If the government really wants to "solve loneliness," its money would be better spent hiring whomever it planned to lead the Department of Social Whatever and telling them to instead pick up the phone, start dialing, and tell the person who answers to get married, have kids, go to church, and call their mom. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 2, 2023
Disney has decided, again, to reimagine a classic. Instead of the traditional seven dwarves, the new Snow White will be accompanied by seven "magical creatures" of all ages, sizes, and genders. Of course, Disney has always been rather liberal with source material. Few Disney movies follow the original plots of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen . Even so, a recent Tweet thread highlighted how this kind of ideological editing can move from a quirk to a crisis. Its author noted the passion with which progressive commenters reject anyone saying anything nice about the Middle Ages. More than poking holes in romantic views of the past, everything must be all filth, all sickness, all the time. This is more than bad history: It's willfully bad history. Progressivism is built on a wholesale rejection of older ways of doing things, especially anything reflecting a Christian worldview. A better take is one that allows for real progress, while never assuming that the newer is always going to be better. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 2, 2023
In its most recent term, the United States Supreme Court strengthened free speech by ruling that business owners cannot be punished for expression consistent with their deeply held beliefs and by ruling that affirmative action practices in college admissions violates the constitutional prohibition of racial discrimination. All this on the heels of the landmark decision in the Dobbs case, which overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the issue of abortion law to the states. Again, unsurprisingly, the Court is being accused of replacing justice and the Constitution with partisan politics by pundits who decry the Court's conservative bias . However, contrary to the critics, the Supreme Court's record reflects more of a broad consensus than partisan politics. Despite the dramatic ideological diversion of the administrations that appointed the Justices, almost half of the cases decided by the Court each term are unanimous. Though there are certainly outlier years, this was not one of them, and the trend lines have been fairly consistent since the 1950s. Many critics argue that last year marked the end of the Supreme Court's "consensus," pointing to the strong ideological divides on decisions like Dobbs , Carson v. Makin, and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District . After all, just 29% of the rulings were unanimous for the 2021-2022 term. Forty-six percent of the decisions, however, were ones in which at least eight of the nine justices ruled in agreement. That can hardly be considered a divided court. During the 2022-2023 term, only six of the 57 cases considered were decided along ideological lines. Twenty-seven of the rulings, about 47%, were unanimous, and over half, 56%, were decided with eight of the nine members again in agreement. Even the New York Times didn't totally misrepresent the reality of these numbers. Of the 12 cases featured in an article summarizing the most recent Supreme Court term , only a third were decided along ideological lines. This year, in fact, a number of rulings featured unexpected alliances and disagreements. In one majority opinion and three concurring opinions, Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch and Biden-appointed Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson were in agreement, favoring limits on government power. In a recent case regarding the artwork of Andy Warhol, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan—appointed by the same administration and both considered progressive—were in strong disagreement with one another. The willingness of Justices to work together often extends beyond the courtroom and can even result in cultivated friendships . The conservative iconic justice Antonin Scalia famously shared a friendship (and even vacationed) with progressive iconic justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg. On the current court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Clarence Thomas have cultivated a beautiful friendship despite their significant ideological differences. In her own words, Justice Sotomayor has "probably disagreed with [Justice Thomas] more than any other justice" but maintains a friendship with him because she considers him a "man who cares deeply about the court as an institution—about the people who work here." The current Court consists of justices appointed by four different administrations, two progressive and two conservative. Still, a general consensus remains. Whatever ideological fault lines exist within the Court are not always determinative of its rulings, as evidenced even in its past two terms. In other words, members of the Court have deep disagreements, but it should not be considered irredeemably partisan. Often, those who bemoan the current state of the Court, consider it illegitimate, and call it a failed institution, only betray their own philosophical commitments. Namely, they have embraced a postmodern view of law and of the courts, which assumes that "to judge is an exercise of power," not an exercise in the interpretation and application of the law. Thus, they cannot imagine that a ruling they do not like could be legitimate. In contrast, we can be assured by the relevant facts that the recent legal victories for life and liberty are not the products of the Court's corruption but a genuine realization of justice for the nation. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. If you enjoy Breakpoint , leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 1, 2023
Russell Brand's "brand" is crass British actor, comedian, and freethinker. However, he recently offered a profound take on the Ten Commandments, human nature, and contemporary culture: "When it says in the Old Testament, 'Worship no other gods than me,' the implication ... is that we are a species that worships, and if you do not access the Divine, ... you will worship the profane. You will worship your own identity. You will worship your belongings. You will worship the template lai[d] before you by a culture that wants you ... relatively dumb." Wow. John Calvin called the human heart a "perpetual factory of idols." St. Augustine wrote that the heart remains restless "until it finds rest in" the One Who made us. Pascal talked about the God-shaped hole in the human heart we are always trying to fill. I did not expect Russell Brand to join that esteemed list of keen observers of human nature ... but let's hope God grabs a hold of his heart. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Aug 1, 2023
If it is true, as Richard Weaver famously put it, that "ideas have consequences," it is also true that bad ideas have victims. On no other contemporary issue today is the connection between a bad idea and its victims clearer than assisted suicide. In no other nation today are the bad ideas and their victims more aggressively embraced than in Canada. In a lengthy and powerful essay at The Atlantic this month , David Brooks exposed just how monstrous Canada's so-called "medical aid in dying" regime has become since it was enacted in 2016. Originally, Canada only permitted the request for medical aid in dying to those with serious illness, in advanced or irreversible decline, unbearable physical or mental suffering, or whose death was "reasonably foreseeable." The criteria are vague enough. Since the law went into effect, however, the number of Canadians killed annually has gone from 1,000 to over 10,000 . In 2021, one in thirty Canadian deaths was by assisted suicide, and only 4% of those who applied to die were turned down. Were all these people terminally ill or suffering from serious and irreversible conditions? Hardly. In fact, Brooks tells the story of a man whose only physical condition was hearing loss yet who was "put to death" over the objections of his family. Another patient had fibromyalgia and leukemia yet wrote that "the suffering I experience is mental suffering, not physical. I think if more people cared about me, I might be able to handle the suffering caused by my physical illnesses alone." One otherwise healthy 37-year-old who suffers from schizoaffective disorder and is unemployed said, "logistically, I really don't have a future. … I'm not going anywhere." As of Brooks' writing, that man was awaiting approval for assisted suicide. Simply put, Canadians who need help are instead being helped to kill themselves because they're depressed, lonely, or mentally ill. And the slope keeps getting slipperier. Brooks described patients who have been pressured by doctors and hospital staff into killing themselves to avoid medical bills. Earlier this year, the Canadian Parliament's Special Committee on Medical Assistance in Death recommended extending the program to "mature minors" as young as twelve. Brooks observed, this is what happens "when a society takes individualism to its logical conclusion." The core question "is no longer, 'Should the state help those who are suffering at the end of life die?'" It is now whether any degree of suffering is worth living with. He concludes, "The lines between assisted suicide for medical reasons … and straight-up suicide are blurring." Brooks clearly identified the bad idea behind these victims: what he calls "autonomy-based liberalism." In its place, he proposed something called "gifts-based liberalism," which acknowledges that each of us is a "receiver of gifts … including the gift of life itself." That life, Brooks insists, is "sacred" because each of us is endowed with "dignity," and society has a duty to say, "No, suicide is out of bounds. … You don't have the right to make a choice you will never be able to revisit. … We are responsible for one another." At least, that is, in most cases, according to Brooks. He is so close to getting this one right and articulating the sanctity of life in the way Christianity does. That's why it's frustrating that Brooks seems to think it's possible to climb back up the slippery slope and re-establish assisted suicide only for "extreme" cases. He writes, "I don't have great moral qualms about assisted suicide for people who are suffering intensely in the face of imminent death." But, David, the moment you begin setting criteria for when a life is no longer worth living, no longer sacred, and a person no longer deserving of love instead of lethal injection, you let the bad idea that led to all those victims right back in the cultural door! For all his admirable reporting on how bad it has gotten in Canada, Brooks never gets around to answering his core question: Why did Canada's "medical aid in dying" law–which supposedly limited victims to only those he agrees should have the right to die–become government-sponsored mass suicide in just seven years? The answer is simple: because the value of human life is not based on any extrinsic quality . Period. It's instead based on the fact that humans are made in God's image. We belong to Him, not to ourselves. This is ultimately why the slope from accepting some suicides to all suicides is so slippery. It's also why "gifts-based liberalism," until it acknowledges the one who gave us life, will never be able to keep its footing or help those intent on throwing away the very gift. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 31, 2023
Local authorities in a coastal English town are dropping the threat of legal charges against Adam Smith-Connor for praying silently outside of an abortion clinic. In a video of the incident, a police officer, obviously uncomfortable, asked Smith-Connor to describe the "nature of [his] prayer," adding that she doesn't "want to probe." She suggested Smith-Connor might be violating the town's "buffer zone" rule, which outlaws "acts of disapproval" outside of the clinic. Ultimately, the officers say they believe he is allowed to pray silently, but they still fined him. Smith-Connor refused to pay it. People have to stand up to government overreach. It's much easier to be a council member and pass an ordinance like this from safely inside City Hall than to be the police officer charged with enforcing it while their gut says, "No, this isn't right." And Christians, who are called to " live not by lies, " as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it, may have to make tough choices about what or Whom they must serve. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 31, 2023
Despite having three daughters, I can't say I ever expected to discuss the theological implications of a movie based on Barbie dolls. And yet, Barbie is dominating headlines, not only for bringing in a whopping 155 million dollars on its opening weekend, but also for garnering thought-pieces on the deeper meaning of its plot and for its cultural implications about the identity and value of women. A Vox article, for example, compared its plot to the biblical account of the Garden of Eden, with a primal couple living in a paradise before newly discovered knowledge about good and evil taints the world with corruption. Whether or not director Greta Gerwig intended that particular angle, her "Barbie" not only engages with contemporary discussions about feminism but also the biggest of worldview questions, such as "What's the meaning of life?" "What has gone wrong with the world?" and, "What will fix the world?" In the process, Barbie tells a story of the world that, beneath its shiny colors and self-aware snark, more closely reflects the tenets of postmodernism than the truths of Scripture. In Barbieland, the meaning and purpose of life is to be happy, and happiness means a woman-run society of libertine freedom and unhindered expression. Lines repeated throughout the film include "Barbie is every woman, and every woman is Barbie," and "Barbies can be anything, so women can be anything." In this view, to be empowered is to be free of restraint and responsibility. Something that is also communicated in its view of motherhood. Both Christian reflection and common sense betray what's wrong with this subjective view of happiness . If happiness is what life is all about, and our experiences of happiness swing on such an extreme pendulum of circumstance, freedom, and expression, how can anyone be happy for long? True happiness, as C.S. Lewis taught, is a byproduct of a life well lived, rather than the goal. Happiness requires that we are connected to something larger than ourselves, ultimately God. We belong to the One who made us for Himself, and, in Him, we find true joy. Barbie's answer to the question, "What's wrong with the world?" is, well, men. When she is cast into the "real world," she discovers that its brokenness is due to the actions and attitudes of men, primarily against women. As one character proclaims, "We can only agree on one thing. We all hate women. Men hate women, and women hate women." This is both an astute observation and an odd complaint in a society unable or, more accurately, unwilling , to say what a woman is (other than as a "non-man" ). In the world of this movie, every man is both oppressive and oblivious. Barbie can outsmart them all while Ken only "slows her down" and "gets into trouble." Rather than accept the female-ruling class of Barbieland, Ken longs to emulate the powers of middle-aged white men in the "real world." So, he introduces his own brave new world, "Kendom." But in the world of Kendom, the ultimate obstacle to happiness and freedom is men. They are not good. Women are. This is, of course, the same framing of reality that shaped second- and third- wave feminism. In the biblical account, sin is disobedience and the longing for autonomy. What's wrong with the world is the conflict, pain, and death that resulted. Sin has infected the world ever since and has turned the sexes against one another. Men have screwed up the world. So have women. Both were created good by God. Both are not good because of sin. In the film, Barbieland is fixed by expelling the patriarchy. Barbie calls on one of the "real" women from the "real" world to preach the gospel of oppression to brainwashed Barbies. The unthinking Kens turn against themselves. The Barbies are given a Barbie-fied version of Betty Freidan's Feminine Mystique : Women are victims of oppression and can never win. They are even victims of their own bodies, shaped as they are by the design of motherhood. On this point, the movie is not subtle. In a scene from the film's first two minutes, young girls, bored with their baby dolls, smash them on the ground until their heads explode. A pregnant Barbie is also hinted at as being "creepy" and is discontinued. In the end, Barbieland is made new, restored to the paradisical, women-run society it once was. The Kens "find themselves" too, but apart from Barbie. In other words, men and women were not made for each other. Or were they? Much of the film's discussion has to do with the final scene, in which Barbie chooses to not live in the restored Barbieland utopia, but in the real world of humanity instead. As such, there's a not-so-subtle acknowledgement of the reality of human bodies , especially the female body. It's not clear if Gerwig intended this final scene as a sort of undermining of the subjective portrayal of Barbieland. What is clear, whether she intended it or not, is that this is a world of objective realities, and the answers to life's biggest questions can only be found by first acknowledging that. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Michaela Estruth. If you're a fan of Breakpoint , leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 28, 2023
The Barbie Movie is setting attendance records. What messages is it sending? LGTBQ+ students are flocking to Ivy League universities. What's driving the trend? And Russell Brand shares some insightful views about God and worship. — Recommendations — Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk: The Foolproof Way to Follow Your Heart Without Losing Your Mind by John Van App Section 1 - Barbie Check Breakpoint.org on Monday, July 31, for our official Barbie review. "'Barbie' Box Office to the World: The Pandemic is Officially Over" The New York Times "Mattel Needs Barbie's Movie Magic to Lift Toy Sales" The Wall Street Journal 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' Set Post-Pandemic Box Office High - The New York Times Section 2 - Ivy League Students Leaning LGBTQ "Ivy League LGBTQ+ numbers soar and students point to identity politics" New York Post "U.S. LGBT Identification Steady at 7.2%" Gallup Section 3 - Russell Brand on Worship Russell Brand on Worship "Jesus's plea to Russell Brand" Christianity Today "'I Need God': Actor Russell Brand Delivers Candid Admission About the Lord, 'Spirituality'" Faithwire For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 28, 2023
Despite cultural propaganda that sells marijuana as "harmless," increasingly research finds that regular cannabis use is just the opposite. Not only have recent studies found that marijuana use is a leading indicator of workplace accidents and leads to schizophrenia among young men, but a new, peer-reviewed study tracking almost 30 years of medical records for over 6.5 million Danish citizens has found that marijuana use is closely associated with increased risks for depression and bipolar disorder. Those previously diagnosed with cannabis addiction were almost twice as likely to develop clinical depression and up to four times as likely to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The increased risk for psychosis is more likely for men than for women, and the chances go up with use. As U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse deputy director Dr. Wilson Compton noted, studies like these are rapidly exposing that "cannabis may not be the innocent and risk-free substance that so many people believe." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 28, 2023
190 years ago today, the great British parliamentarian and abolitionist William Wilberforce died at the home of his cousin near Westminster, London. Three days earlier, Parliament had passed the Slavery Abolition Act , which " abolished slavery in most British colonies, freeing more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa as well as a small number in Canada " on condition that the Crown compensated slave owners. When his friend Thomas Babington Macaulay delivered the news, Wilberforce allegedly responded, "Thank God that I should have lived to witness the day in which England is willing to give 20 million sterling for the abolition of slavery." Upon the news of his death, newspapers around the world proclaimed Wilberforce "as pure and virtuous a man as ever lived." During his life, however, he endured incredible opposition and even hostility. England benefited both economically and militarily from the transatlantic slave trade. Some 46,000 British families owned slaves, and during war with France, abolitionists were accused of being unpatriotic. In a private letter , legendary naval hero Lord Horatio Nelson wrote that he would never surrender Britain's "West India possessions … whilst I have an arm to fight in their defen[s]e, or a tongue to launch my voice against the damnable and cursed doctrine of Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies." One of Wilberforce's most vocal opponents, a slave trader named George Hibbert , was a fellow congregant at his church, Holy Trinity Clapham. Many years ago, Chuck Colson described Wilberforce as "biblical worldview in action" : When Wilberforce came to Christ early in his political career, he thought about leaving Parliament and public life altogether. Thankfully, William Pitt—who went on to become Great Britain's youngest prime minister—convinced him otherwise. Pitt wrote to Wilberforce: "Surely the principles as well as the practice of Christianity are simple and lead not to meditation only, but to action." And for the rest of his life, Wilberforce's Christianity meant action. His fiercely unpopular crusade against the slave trade consumed his health and cost him politically—but he could not stand idly by and see the imago Dei, the image of God, enslaved and abused in the holds of ships. He endured verbal assaults and was even challenged to a duel by an angry slave-ship captain. When the French Revolution began, what had been merely an unpopular position became a dangerous one in Britain. Wilberforce's detractors charged that the humanist revolution would sweep England, and Wilberforce, with his passion for the slaves, was made suspect. Nonetheless, Wilberforce persevered. Writing about political expediency and whether to give up the fight, Wilberforce notes, "a man who fears God is not at liberty" to give up. But Wilberforce's worldview led him to engage in more than just the issue of slavery. He sold his home and dismissed servants to have more money to give to the needy. He fought for prison reform. He founded or participated in sixty charities. He convinced King George III to reissue a proclamation encouraging virtue and reinstated the Proclamation Society to help see such virtue encouraged. He cared for God's creation, founding the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; and he championed missionary efforts, like the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society. All of us would do well to take Pitt's words to Wilberforce to heart: Surely the principles and practice of Christianity lead not just to meditation, but to action. Chuck penned these words around the 2006 biographic film of Wilberforce's life, Amazing Grace . Last week, one of our nation's greatest leaders revealed that she watches this film at least once a year. The life of William Wilberforce is a direct rebuke to a privatized faith. Having had a very personal experience with God through Jesus Christ, for Wilberforce, Real Christianity (which was also the title of his book) requires living out the full implications of the Gospel. For him that meant embracing conflicts with his culture, challenges to his reputation, and doing hard things if they were the right things to do. As he put it, "If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures … is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large." Thank God that he was. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 27, 2023
On this day 75 years ago, an elderly German couple living in the shattered remains of Berlin turned on the radio. This was Klaus and Paula Bonhoeffer, the parents of pastor, theologian, and resistance leader Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Because lines of communication had been devastated by the war, the first Klaus and Paula heard of their son's death was his memorial service in London, organized by his good friend Bishop George Bell and broadcast over the BBC. In the words of my former colleague Eric Metaxas, "As the couple took in the hard news that the good man who was their son was now dead, so too, many English took in the hard news that the dead man who was a German was good." Bonhoeffer's faithfulness was a reminder to the world that, even in the face of radical evil, faithfulness to Christ is possible. As Bishop Bell would put it, "He represents both the resistance of the believing soul, in the name of God, to the assault of evil, and also the moral and political revolt of the human conscience against injustice and cruelty." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 27, 2023
To see Dr. Kristin Collier's speech at this year's Colson Center National Conference, go to colsonconference.org . To hear more about how her faith shapes her medical practice, check out her interview on the Strong Women podcast . ______ Perhaps the most helpful framework for wrestling with moral issues comes from T.S. Eliot. To paraphrase, we can only know what we should and should not do with something if we first know what that something is for. For example, before we decide what we should do with human life (whether we should take it, make it, or remake it), we should know what human life is for. Recently, Dr. Kristin Collier, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan and a speaker at this year's Colson Center National Conference , published an important essay in the healthcare journal BMJ Leader. In it, she called doctors and the medical profession in general to return to this essential question. In fact, Dr. Collier entitled the piece, "What is Medicine For?" Today, medical leaders are participating in an industry dominated by the production of science and technology. But what is scientifically possible for the body and what is humane for the person are different questions which medicine must answer together. In other words, Dr. Collier says, doctors shouldn't only ask what medicine can do. They must first ask what medicine is for. This is even more important in an age of increasingly complex ethical dilemmas in medicine. For example, consider the abortion pill reversal regimen which, according to estimates, has led to the saving of more than 4,000 lives . Medication abortions consist of two pills, the first of which starves the baby by cutting off the mother's production of progesterone. The abortion pill reversal is essentially a blast of progesterone, something commonly administered to women in fertility treatments. Abortion advocates in medicine and public policy oppose allowing women to even consider this option, even falsely claiming that supplemental progesterone is, or at least might be, unsafe. So, is supplemental progesterone "good" or "bad"? On the one hand, it can be administered to save a child's life. On the other hand, it can be used in a process that leads to the creation of an excessive number of embryos, many of which will be abandoned, discarded, or subjected to medical experimentation. This is where Dr. Collier's question is critically important. What is medicine for? Is the telos (or intended goal) of medicine to give us what we want, or to serve healing? And is health merely the "absence of disease or pain," or something else? Dr. Collier rightly points out that to answer these questions, we must first answer another, deeper one: What does it mean to be human ? A holistic view, which integrates biomedical science with theological and philosophical realities, understands health as rightly ordered relationships with our bodies, with the world around us, with others, and with the God who made us. Medicine has made many things possible. But it's a profound and consequential mistake to assume that because we can, we therefore should. We can cut off or carve up healthy body parts in a misguided attempt to relieve the psychological pain of gender dysphoria. We can use surgical instruments or chemical drugs to kill babies in their mothers' womb or to create babies in laboratories to be sold to adults who will have no biological connection to them. We can even prescribe lethal drugs to patients who say they want to die. But to use medicine like this violates the moral boundaries of our relationships to our own bodies, our relationships with each other, and our relationship to God, who made our bodies, who Has a specific design for marriage and family, and who forbids the taking of human life. A biblical view of health and healing presumes a few things: first, that the absence of disease and suffering is not the full biblical picture of living well; second, that while physical death is a reality for each of us, it has not rendered living meaningless, so we shouldn't fight the end of life as if it has; third, that our obligations to God, to the world around us, to ourselves, and to each other may come into conflict with our desire to not be in pain—physical or mental—and when they do, we ought to prioritize those relationships. The Christian witness in the next 20 years is going to not only involve Christian doctors practicing medicine well. It will also involve Christian patients suffering well, dying well, and helping others die well as human beings made in the image of God, whose ultimate hope is in His salvation, not medical technology. To see Dr. Kristin Collier's speech at this year's Colson Center National Conference, go to colsonconference.org . To hear more about how her faith shapes her medical practice, check out her interview on the Strong Women podcast . This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. If you're a fan of Breakpoint , leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 26, 2023
Groundbreaking medical technologies such as immunotherapy and targeted chemotherapy have changed the game when it comes to fighting cancers, with new treatments seemingly on the horizon. Praise God. At the same time, one non-medical factor has long been known to significantly improve the odds of someone surviving cancer. According to one 2013 study of over 700,000 cancer patients, those who were married were less likely to die of cancer than those who were not. In fact, at least according to this study, marriage was a more decisive factor for a patient's survival than even chemotherapy. This points to the reality that relationships are central to who we are as human beings and points to the kindness of God for creating and designing the institution of marriage the way He did. It also supports the idea that marriage is a created part of reality, and not merely a social construct. And that, whenever our single friends suffer with cancer, they need the support of God's family. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 26, 2023
In his new book, 32 Christians Who Changed Their World, Colson Center Senior Fellow Dr. Glenn Sunshine tells the stories of faithful men and women, most of whom are unknown today, whose lives were used by God in extraordinary ways. To receive a copy of 32 Christians Who Changed Their World, give a gift of any amount this month to the Colson Center (please visit colsoncenter.org/July) . _______ Ho Feng Shan was born in Yiyang, Hunan province, in China. Orphaned at age seven, he was taken in and educated by Lutheran missionaries. A lifelong Lutheran, he eventually immigrated to San Francisco and became a founding member of the Chinese Lutheran Church there. In 1935, after earning a doctorate from the University of Munich three years earlier, Ho joined the diplomatic corps of the Republic of China. Two years later, thanks in part to his fluency in both English and German, he was appointed First Secretary to the Chinese legation in Vienna. In 1938, when Austria disappeared into the Third Reich, all foreign embassies were downgraded to consulates. Ho was appointed Consul General in Vienna, answering to the ambassador in Berlin. As he would later recall, " Since the annexation of Austria by Germany, the persecution of the Jews by Hitler's 'devils' became increasingly fierce. There were American religious and charitable organizations which were urgently trying to save the Jews. I secretly kept in close contact with these organizations. I spared no effort in using any means possible. Innumerable Jews were thus saved ." Among the "any means possible" at his disposal were visas. At that time, the Nazis permitted Jews to leave Austria, even from concentration camps, if they had a visa to another country. China's Nationalist government had instructed Ho to be "liberal" with visas, so he began issuing them to Jewish families for travel to Shanghai. Shanghai was an open city, and no visa was required to go there. However, Ho used the ruse to help Jews escape Austria. Keeping the secret was not easy. Ho and his family were at risk of the Nazis ignoring his diplomatic immunity if they decided he was too much trouble. On at least one occasion, Ho faced down an armed Gestapo officer to protect a Jewish family. When the Chinese ambassador ordered Ho to stop giving Jews visas, Ho replied that the Foreign Ministry had told him to be liberal with visas. The ambassador could not figure out what Ho was getting out of the visas and sent an inspector to Vienna to investigate. Finding no evidence of wrongdoing, the inspector returned to Berlin and placed a negative report into Ho's record for insubordination. No one knows just how many visas Ho issued during this time. A conservative estimate is around 4,000. How many were used is also unknown. What is known is that Ho's courage saved thousands of lives. After the war, when the Communists won the Chinese civil war and the Nationalists withdrew to Taiwan, Ho remained loyal to the Nationalist cause. He served in numerous diplomatic posts until a subordinate, whom Ho had turned down for a promotion, accused him of misappropriating $300 of embassy funds. Though innocent, Ho was pushed out of his job and denied his pension despite 40 years of service. Ho retired to San Francisco, where he dedicated himself to his church and to community service. When he died in September 1997, Ho's daughter brought his ashes to China and buried them in his hometown of Yiyang. Ironically, the Communists government sent a wreath while the Nationalist government ignored his passing. Finally, in 2015, Taiwan recognized his work and posthumously awarded him the President's Citation Award. When asked why he worked so hard at such great personal risk to save Jews when other diplomats did not, he explained, "I thought it only natural to feel compassion and to want to help. From the standpoint of humanity, that is the way it should be." Shaped especially by a character formed by his Christian faith and a Western liberal education rooted in Christianity, Ho was providentially prepared to save lives in Vienna even at great risk to himself and his family. His life is an example of how, through history and across diverse eras, Christians courageously lived lives of restoration in incredibly difficult cultural moments. In his new book, 32 Christians Who Changed Their World , Colson Center Senior Fellow Dr. Glenn Sunshine tells the stories of faithful men and women, most of whom are unknown today, whose lives were used by God in extraordinary ways. To receive a copy of 32 Christians Who Changed Their World, give a gift of any amount this month to the Colson Center (please visit colsoncenter.org/July) . This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. If you're a fan of Breakpoint , leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 25, 2023
It's not unusual for family photos to include the family dog, but as families in the photo have become less traditional, the dog has taken on new significance. A recent poll by Pew Research found that about half of U.S. pet owners consider their pets "as much a part of their family as a human member." Those living with a partner but not married were the most likely to say this, at 65%, followed by those never married, non-parents, and then those divorced or separated. Those married and those with children were the least likely to place pets on par with people. Pets can be awesome. However, putting them on par with humans not only humanizes pets, but de-humanizes people. It's notable how the presence and committed family love between real human beings corrects that bad idea for people. It's also notable that as much as we appreciate the affection of Fido, when we need to be cared for, only a person and not a pet will do. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 25, 2023
In the parable of the sower, Jesus illustrated how the seed of God's Word flourishes or perishes depending on the kind of ground it falls on. Some seeds fell on a path, and birds ate them. Some fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings. "Other seeds," said Jesus, "fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away." That rocky soil group aptly describes the rapid rise and decline of evangelicals in America in recent decades. Recently, political scientist Ryan Burge, co-author of The Great Dechurching, explained how, between 1983 and 1993, the share of Americans who identified as evangelicals exploded . In fact, at their height in the early '90s, nearly a third of Americans called themselves evangelical. This growth overlapped with the sharpest period of decline for mainline Protestants which, between 1975 and 1988, fell from one in three Americans to less than one in five. As Burge points out, this coincide-ence was no coincidence. Evangelical gains resulted partly from "cannibalizing" the mainline denominations. By 2018, however, those gains had withered. Evangelicals returned to their pre-1980s percentage of the population, and by all indications, are still declining today , though more slowly. Part of the story of what happened is the rise of the "nones," those who claim no religious affiliation. Between 1991 and today, the percentage of Americans who identify as "nones" skyrocketed from 6% to 29%. Burge calls this "the most significant shift in American society over the last thirty years." Of course, pointing to the rise of the "nones" is basically a way of restating the problem. The evangelical bubble of the '80s and '90s, as well as the longer-term decline of American Christianity, requires a fuller explanation. Perhaps, given how quickly the evangelical bubble burst, part of the problem was that it was filled with shallow belief. Or to switch back to Jesus' metaphor, perhaps some of the seeds that came up so quickly in the final decades of the 20th century—amid chart-topping Christian albums, huge music festivals, and sprouting non-denominational megachurches—lacked deep roots. Of course, there is nothing wrong per se with creative outreach strategies, but Jesus never told us that the goal was to get bodies through the doors or bottoms in the chairs. It was to make disciples committed to Christ and His Kingdom—disciples who would in turn "bear much fruit." Given the rapid rise and fall of the evangelical crop, we might safely conclude that many of those who joined and helped it spring up so quickly had shallow roots. Overall, Christians were not cultivated with deep roots in the truth God has revealed about Himself, His world, human beings, and His plan to make all things new. Much of that is the Holy Spirit's work through families and the church, of course. He prepares the soil, and He gives the growth. He also gives many commands in Scripture that indicate the part we play and the responsibility we have. One of the most important ways to ensure deep roots is through the cultivating of a worldview informed by Christian truth, something in stark contrast from sprinkling Christian encouragements on top of the world's view. This means teaching the Bible as if it is the true account of reality, contrasting a Biblical understanding of things with those widely accepted, meeting challenges from the wider culture head-on, answering tough questions about the faith, teaching Christians to take seriously Christ's sovereignty over all of life, belonging and not merely attending church, and teaching worship as everything we do, not just when we sing. It also means recognizing the role cultural currents play in eroding faith—especially those undermining marriage and the family. As Mary Eberstadt wrote almost 10 years ago in How the West Really Lost God , one of the most powerful forces behind secularization and the rise of the "nones" is the decline of the family. Subsequent research has only proven how right she was. If evangelicals or members of any Christian tradition want to have a future, we're going to have to prioritize intact, stable families. After all, families not only make new people, they teach them the language and categories God uses to describe His new family—the Church. Despite the numbers, we should always maintain hope and expect a harvest. Those who've turned in the last few decades from Christian belief to no belief aren't doing well. We're in the midst of a historic mental health crisis , and people raised without faith in God are suffering the worst of it. Religious observance, by contrast, is strongly correlated with better mental health . As helpful as therapy can be, the greatest longings of the human heart and the greatest problems of human relationships are only redeemed in Christ. That's why, despite evangelical decline in America, we continue to till the soil and trust the Sower, fully believing He can produce deeper roots than before and fully expecting the hundredfold harvest He described. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. To help us share Breakpoint with others, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 24, 2023
Recent research from political scientist Ryan Burge indicates that, at least in the United States, the Christian faith is found primarily among the educated and wealthy. Americans most likely to regularly attend church hold graduate degrees and have an average annual income of $60,000-$100,000. Does this mean Christianity is a "luxury religion?" Not exactly. According to marriage experts John Van Epp and J.P. DeGance, "one's economic future is greatly impacted by the relationship choices one makes, specifically in the areas of marriage and parenting." So, for example, for people whose values include having children after marriage (and not before), the likeliness of being in the "middle- or top-income tier" brackets more than doubles despite their background. This reinforces, again, that God's design of marriage and family is built into the created order and, when followed, leads to economic, social, and spiritual flourishing. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 24, 2023
In John 16:33, Jesus said that "[i]n the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." In the 20 centuries since our Lord spoke these haunting yet hopeful words, they've proven true. In fact, in terms of absolute numbers, we live in the worst period of persecution against Christians in history. More Christians died for their faith in the 20th century than the previous 19 combined , and the 21st century is shaping up to be at least as deadly, but likely more. According to Open Doors International's latest World Watch List , 312 million Christians face "extreme" or "very high" levels of persecution—1 in 5 in Africa; 2 in 5 in Asia. Last year was the worst year on record for persecution, with 5,500 Christians killed for reasons related to their faith, more than 2,000 churches attacked, and over 4,500 Christians detained or imprisoned. For the most part, each year of the past decade has been worse than the previous year. Writing of the persecutions that plagued God's people in the early days of Christianity, Tertullian claimed that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." Though particularly intense persecution has, at times, led to a decrease in overall Church numbers, the Church has grown far beyond the wildest imagination of Jesus' first followers. Stories of the faithful who endured persecution and faced martyrdom have been a catalyst for that growth. In 1563, historian John Foxe told many of the earliest stories in a book that would become one of the most widely read works in the English language. Foxe's Book of Martyrs chronicles hundreds of Christians who gave their lives or were persecuted for their faith from the New Testament all the way to his day. Through generations of expansions and editions, it became an indispensable classic. Foxe's Book of Martyrs was written from a Protestant perspective and, almost 50 years older than the King James Bible, is a challenging read. Recently, a pair of daring authors took up Foxe's mantle to tell the stories of the martyrs afresh for modern readers. In The New Book of Christian Martyrs , Johnnie Moore and Dr. Jerry Pattengale of Indiana Wesleyan University offer accounts of heroes of the faith from the first to the 21st centuries. Written in a fast-paced and richly informative style, with reference to important historical sources, Moore and Pattengale make cultural connections and frequently quote Foxe's best "vintage" passages about the martyrs. Throughout, they seem constantly aware that they are writing to a Christian Church vastly larger, more global, and by some measures more persecuted than it was in Foxe's day. Dr. Pattengale joined Shane Morris on a recent Upstream podcast to talk about The New Book of Christian Martyrs . He covered a number of stories from the book in the episode and connected the ancient martyrs to modern victims of persecution. Perpetua and Felicita were two newly converted and young Christian mothers who were killed in the arena at Carthage in 203. At the time, Perpetua, a noblewoman, was nursing her newborn. Despite entreaties by her friends and family, Perpetua and Felicita refused to denounce Christ or worship the emperor. Perpetua's diary was likely preserved by Tertullian, who tells how, on the day of her execution, she and her companions faced leopards, wild boars, and a raging bull. Perpetua was eventually gored and tossed across the arena but took the time to fix her hair before soldiers finished her off. As Tertullian reports, she did so because "it was not becoming for a martyr to suffer with disheveled hair, lest she should appear to be mourning in her glory." Eighteen centuries later, in February 2015, 21 Coptic Christians displayed a similar dignity as they prepared to meet Christ from a beach in Syria. Pattengale and Moore compare their orange jumpsuits to the jerseys of a sports team, ready to leave it all on the field for their Captain. In the moment before their masked executioners beheaded them, the Coptic 21 sang a line from the hymn, "Ya Rabbi Yassu,"—"my Lord Jesus." Thanks to an Islamic State propaganda video, millions witnessed their martyrdom. As the book notes, ISIS's objective "backfired" when the video galvanized the world against their cause and became a source of pride and celebration for Coptic Christians. In the words of Revelation, the world saw 21 young men conquer "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death." In a time when our brothers and sisters face more persecution than ever, the stories from across times and cultures told in The New Book of Christian Martyrs will inform your faith and your prayers. As Tertullian and Foxe believed, such stories can fuel the growth of a Church whose Lord overcame the world and will ultimately grant rest from all persecution. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 22, 2023
John and Maria discuss the importance of biblical literacy as well as how a worldview of the human condition can impact the function of government. — Recommendations — Free Livestream: Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview Meghan Daum & Sarah Haider on Child Activists Section 1 - Tucker Carlson and Biblical Literacy Tucker Carlson on spiritual warfare Section 2 - Bureaucracy and Human Nature For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 21, 2023
If you haven't heard, the state of Texas is under invasion from small creatures who are, according to breathless media reports, popping up everywhere. "Nearly 10,000 more babies born in nine months under Texas' restrictive abortion law," read The Texas Tribune . Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School arrived at the number by comparing Texas births after Senate Bill 8 took effect, which prohibits abortion after conception, to the number of births in the same period the year before. One of the study's co-authors told CNN that 10,000 new babies mean women were "denied a needed abortion." Referring to the moms, she warned ominously, "It's hard to imagine the short- and long-term implications of a personal trajectory that may have been rerouted." Of course, it's harder to imagine the implications for a child denied the right to have a personal trajectory. Ultimately, interpreting the Texas baby boom depends on worldview. It's either a tragedy or 10,000 inherently valuable, unique, and beautiful reasons to celebrate ... thanks to Texas' pro-life lawmakers. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 21, 2023
A few months ago, kidney specialist Dr. Stanley Goldfarb was fired from UpToDate, a digital research tool for physicians. Last year, the president of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where Dr. Goldfarb served as an associate dean, wrote a public letter accusing him of racism while students and colleagues circulated a petition calling for his title as professor emeritus to be stripped. Dr. Goldfarb's purported crimes had nothing to do with medicine and everything to do with his public opposition to DEI ("Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion") in medicine. For example, last year, he wrote, The campaign for diversity is long running and has some value, yet the ideological extremism of the past two years has led medical schools to adopt dangerous strategies. To fight supposed "systemic racism," at least 40 institutions have dropped the requirement that all applicants take the MCAT, the gold-standard test that measures students' grasp of this life-saving profession. More recently, h e added this observation, It quickly became apparent that my beloved medical profession, to which I had devoted more than 50 years, was spiraling downward even faster than I had realized. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the decline, as did the death of George Floyd in 2020. Suddenly, medical schools were loudly proclaiming that health care is "systemically racist," that "medical reparations" are urgently needed, and that medical education and practice must fundamentally change. Whereas DEI and social justice were frequently discussed in 2018, by the end of 2020 they were the central facets of medical education, where they remain to this day. Other examples of Dr. Goldfarb's concerns include the supposed systemic racism of being seen by a physician of a different race and pledges made by medical students to fight the gender binary and "honor all indigenous ways of healing that have been historically marginalized by western medicine." Near the end of the 20th century, it was common to dismiss and deny the possibility of objective truth claims in the liberal arts and social sciences, such as literature, art, and politics. But the "hard" sciences remained untouched until recently. It is now common for the same kind of deconstructions to be applied in math, medicine, or the other biological sciences. As it turns out, the first chapter of Romans accurately describes the very real potential of fallen humanity to deny what is observably true in the world God made. Contemporary ideas of DEI prove a maxim of G.K. Chesterton, that "(t)he modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad." The impulse for justice and equality, birthed within the Western world from Christian ideas about morality and the human condition, draws more from the philosophy of Michel Foucault than the Bible. Built instead on a standpoint epistemology rather than eternal categories of right and wrong and human dignity, an individual who belongs to what is understood as a traditionally marginalized group is granted moral status and authority over and above those from groups not assumed to be marginalized. Functionally, objective reality is denied. As Shane Morris and I recently described, students taught that successfully solving algebra problems will depend more on the color of their skin than knowing algebra, or that their calculus professors are oppressors if they are white, will not only not unlock the mysteries of the universe, they will believe lies about who they are. Even worse, lowering standards for certain students only dehumanizes them, suggesting they cannot reach the standards in the first place. In the 1990s, renowned economist Thomas Sowell wrote the following about lowering SAT scores: The Educational Testing Service is adopting minority students as mascots by turning the SAT exams into race-normed instruments to circumvent the growing number of prohibitions against group preferences. The primary purpose of mascots is to symbolize something that makes others feel good. The well-being of the mascot himself is seldom a major consideration. Sowell understood–even firsthand–racial injustice and the uphill climb that minority students can face to reach success. Yet for Sowell, ditching objective measurements was not the answer: People of every race and background are fully capable of becoming world-class physicians. Medical schools should seek out the best candidates who are most likely to provide the best care for patients, regardless of what they look like or where they come from. Anything less jeopardizes the very purpose of these institutions. Critical Theory in all of its forms only critiques, never constructs. Applied, it will only tear down, never build up. Advocates of this ideology should consider that their proposed solutions may be fueling the problems they claim to address. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 20, 2023
Rather than celebrating their differences and strengths, women are increasingly being told that the only way to true equality and freedom is by rejecting who they are, especially their God-given capacity for procreation. This message is clearly reaching teenage girls, who today make up the majority of those identifying as transgender or non-binary. In recent years, a group of "reactionary feminists" have pushed back on the attempts to erase women. Unlike their progressive counterparts, reactionary feminists reject the transgender trend and the destruction it wreaks on women and their bodies. For them, the chemical and surgical erasure of female bodies is a means of oppression, not freedom. Ironically, "reactionary feminists" are doing what too many Christians are unwilling to do: defend the reality and beauty of God's creation and the dignity men and women possess as image bearers. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 20, 2023
Please join us for the Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview on Thursday, July 27. Sign up to attend live or to join the livestream at ColsonCenter.org/GreatLakes . _____ When I was growing up, Christians had to wrestle with whether or not our convictions could withstand the threat of ridicule. We'd be asked, "Are you willing to be mocked and made fun of by a professor who doesn't believe in God or a friend trying to tempt you into doing something you know is wrong?" About the worst thing to expect from this was what a friend has called "cocktail party pressure" or getting kicked out of the cool kids' clique. To be clear, cocktail party pressure was quite effective, though those days seem quaintly in the past. Increasingly, Christians are hated, fired, or otherwise harassed on account of their principles. Particularly bewildering is that the loudest complaints against believers today are for things considered mainstream until just a few years ago. Just this week, the Alliance Defending Freedom came to the defense of a man in Vermont who was fired after 10 years as a successful snowboarding coach. His crime, as one of ADF's lawyers put it, was "merely expressing his views that males and females are biologically different and questioning the appropriateness of a teenage male competing against teenage females in an athletic competition." For that, "school district officials unconstitutionally fired him." Clearly, the district violated coach David Bloch's First Amendment rights and likely, given the legal track record of the Alliance Defending Freedom, he will be vindicated in the end. Still, this is another example of what feels like a new cultural moment in which the question of Christian courage is in the context of even more tangible pressures. This context is at the center of a conversation I will be hosting Thursday, July 27 at the fourth annual Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview in Bay Harbor, Michigan. If you happen to be in the area, there's limited space available to join us in person, or you can sign up to join us via livestream. Either way, there is no charge for this conversation featuring two Christians leading the way into this brave new moment: Kristen Waggoner is CEO, president, and general counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom, and Jim Daly is president and CEO of Focus on the Family. Both are witness to these increased pressures. For years, Kristen has successfully advanced legal protections and religious liberty by representing courageous Christians such as Jack Phillips and Barronelle Stutzman. Most recently, she represented Lorie Smith of 303 Creative in a landmark victory for free speech at the Supreme Court. However, for her efforts, Kristen has been unfairly attacked and lied about by media outlets, fellow lawyers, and even the Attorney General of Colorado . Last fall, Focus on the Family's grounds were vandalized by activists . Though not the first time, there was something different about this attack. The perpetrators falsely and unfairly blamed Focus for the then-recent murders at a local Colorado Springs gay club. These accusations have been repeated by media outlets and critics as recently as last week. This brave new world of hostility is familiar for our brothers and sisters elsewhere, in places like Nigeria , India , and China . Ours are more experiences of a series of horrible moments, such as earlier this year in Nashville. Christians in the West do not fear for their lives. Even so, something has clearly shifted. Calls to tolerate the views of others are about as 1990s these days as talking about abortion being "safe, legal, and rare." As we've seen in Nashville, it's a perilously small step from the rhetorical games of wanting to punch "literal Nazis" to literally punching those who dare stray from the cultural narrative. The only way forward for the Christ follower is to commit again to knowing what is true, to commit again to saying and living what is true even if there is a cost, and to say and live what is true in a way that is pleasing to Christ. In other words, faithfulness will involve both the what we believe and the how we'll live it out. I don't know anyone I'd rather have in this conversation than Kristin Waggoner and Jim Daly. Please join us for the Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview on Thursday, July 27. Sign up to attend live or to join the livestream at ColsonCenter.org/GreatLakes . This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 19, 2023
On this day, in the year 64, the Great Fire of Rome broke out, for which Emperor Nero would blame a new religious sect, the Christians. The first Epistle of the Apostle Peter was written to those who experienced the persecution unleashed by Nero. I Peter is best summarized as "the Book of Hope," but the hope he described is counter cultural. It does not anticipate a "good outcome," at least not in the here and now. Instead, Peter understands true hope as rooted in the certainty of something that has already happened: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which defines all of history. Christ, the risen, sovereign ruler of the world, promises to make all things new ( Revelation 21:5 ), and He is working in every time and place through His people. He has placed us in this cultural moment according to His redemptive plan. So, as Peter encouraged the first Christians who faced cultural hostility, take hope in the risen Lord Jesus. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 19, 2023
Throughout history, across diverse societies, nations, and eras, Christians who carried the Gospel into pagan cultures defended and protected abandoned and abused children. In his new book, 32 Christians Who Changed Their World, Senior Colson Fellow Dr. Glenn Sunshine tells the stories of Christian heroes, most of whom are unknown today, whose courage and faithfulness changed the way children are seen and treated. You can receive a copy of 32 Christians Who Changed Their World with a gift of any amount this month to the Colson Center (please visit colsoncenter.org/July) . For example, 19th-century India was a particularly brutal place for girls. Women were considered inferior to men and were not allowed to be educated or employed. Child marriage was a fairly common practice. Though the practice of sati (burning widows on their husband's funeral pyres) had been abolished, the treatment of widows remained harsh. They were considered cursed and often subjected to terrible abuse at the hands of their husband's family. The family of Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922) was different. As Dr. Sunshine explains, Pandita's father, a member of the priestly caste known as Brahmins, encouraged her to read the Hindu scriptures. Not only did she learn to read, her skills and mastery of the text earned her acclaim. Her study also led to growing doubts about the truth of Hinduism. After she was married, Pandita found a copy of the Gospel of Luke in her husband's library. Drawn to Christianity, she invited a missionary to their home to explain the Gospel to her and her husband. Tragically, not long after hearing the Gospel, her husband passed away. Shortly thereafter, Pandita was visited by a child widow looking for charity. Pandita not only took her in as if she were her own daughter but, moved by the situation, started an organization called Arya Mahila Samaj to educate girls and advocate for the abolition of child-marriage. It was while traveling to England that Pandita Ramabai formally converted to Christianity. Returning to India, she set up a school for girls and widows in what is now called Mumbai. At first, to avoid offending Hindus, she agreed not to promote Christianity and to follow the rules of the Brahmin caste. However, these concessions were not enough. Within a year, the school was under attack, and local financial support dried up. Pandita moved the school to Pune, about 90 miles away. In 1897, when a famine and plague struck the area, Pandita established a second school about 30 miles away. Among the subjects taught in her schools were literature (for moral instruction), physiology (to teach them about their bodies), and industrial arts such as printing, carpentry, tailoring, masonry, wood-cutting, weaving, needlework, farming, and gardening. At first, because Pandita had only two assistants, she developed a system to care for and educate the girls, first teaching the older ones who would then take care of and help teach the younger. This allowed for a growing number of girls to be taken in and cared for. In fact, by 1900, 2,000 girls lived at Pandita's schools. In 1919, the British king awarded Pandita Ramabai the Kaiser-i-Hind award, the highest honor an Indian could receive during the colonial period. Her life is an example that living in a pagan society means confronting bad ideas and caring for their victims. In her culture, like in ours, these victims are very often children. To decide, as many have, that speaking up on controversial cultural issues is "too political" is to leave these victims without care and protection. It is out of step with Christian history. It also is an embrace of an anemic, truncated Gospel. This month, for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, you can receive a copy of 32 Christians Who Changed Their World by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. Just visit colsoncenter.org/July . This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was revised from one originally published on March 30, 2021.
Jul 18, 2023
According to NBC , Jesus has returned in an online incarnation. Yes, you too can log on and talk to a cyber savior, a disembodied vision of a white man who offers counsel on things ranging from the serious to the silly. Setting aside how this likely violates the Second Commandment , this stunt typifies a central problem with contemporary religious thinking: recreating Jesus in our image. A programmed Christ built of nothing but the disparate thoughts of what we'd like him to be is literally an idol. If "god" is just our understanding of Him, there is not really a "Him" at all, but only our own projections. It's kind of like the old SNL skit of Stuart Smalley affirming himself in the mirror. Seeking salvation from an AI chatbot is only a more technologically advanced version of picking and choosing the parts of the Bible we want to believe. But salvation can never be found within. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 18, 2023
Register to attend live or join the livestream for the Great Lakes Symposium at colsoncenter.org/greatlakes . _______ In response to a Breakpoint commentary about the murders in Nashville in March, the Colson Center was identified by a critic as being "proudly, if quietly, Dominionist. " To be clear, we aren't , but he was particularly troubled by how the commentary described Christians as victims which, of course, they were. In that commentary, we wondered aloud whether in fact we have entered a new cultural moment, characterized by an increased hostility toward Christians and others who are, shall we say, culturally non-conforming. The strange and shameful reversal of who is victim and who is guilty in the reporting on the Nashville incident has only continued since, and now there are additional incidents to consider as well. On March 29, while speaking on abortion at Virginia Commonwealth University, Kristan Hawkins and a group from Students for Life were confronted, threatened, and assaulted by an obscenity-crying crowd who failed to notice the irony of suppressing free speech by screaming "fascists!" Rather than remove those disrupting the presentation, the campus police removed the pro-lifers. Two days later, on March 31, authorities in Colorado arrested 19-year-old William Whitworth for two counts of attempted murder, in addition to other charges. Whitworth, who goes by the name Lily and was in the process of "transitioning," was planning a series of bomb and gun attacks on several sites in Colorado Springs, including schools and churches . As with the Nashville shooter who identified as transgender, police have not revealed the "manifesto" that would reveal Whitworth's specific motives. However, there is ample evidence that rhetoric about the so-called "trans genocide" is leading advocates to increasingly violent means to make their point. Then, on April 6, college swimmer Riley Gaines was physically assaulted while giving a speech at San Francisco State University. As she argued against the inclusion of men in women's sports, she was berated, threatened, and blockaded in a room until she paid a ransom. Media accounts employed terms like "allegedly" to cast doubt about what happened, but audio and video recordings were plain. Afterward, rather than condemn the violent and threatening acts, the vice president of student affairs praised activists for "defending diversity and free speech." Three incidents in nine days are notable, but when placed alongside a host of others in the last few years, a disturbing trend begins to emerge. After examining the data, The Family Research Council concluded that over 400 "acts of hostility" have been committed against churches in the last five years including "vandalism, arson, gun-related incidents, bomb threats, and more." Of these incidents, 137 occurred between January and September of last year. The headline is not that there are suddenly those who disagree with Christian conviction or similar beliefs. That has always been the case. And frankly, the Christian view of the world hasn't held the dominant cultural position for some time. However, the old-school atheists and secular humanists of yesterday were content enough to let Christians have their say, if for no other reason than to ridicule and deride. To think of something as "outdated," or "silly," or "non-scientific" is one thing. To think of it and the one who advances it as "evil," "oppressive," and "fascist" is something else. Whereas an older secularist thought of truth as something "out there" to be discovered through study, discussion, and even debate, truth in the contemporary critical mood isn't about what is said but who is saying it. More specifically, it's about where everyone is pre-ranked in an ever-shifting, intersectional hierarchy. Anyone who insists that there are truths of a higher order, particularly truths that establish sexual morality and identity, will become a target of those who are blinded by today's ideologies. Fifty years ago, Francis Schaeffer explained , "No totalitarian authority nor authoritarian state can tolerate those who have an absolute by which to judge that state and its actions." The refusal to live by lies subverts the required certainty in the new orthodoxy. For the sake of our neighbors, all who believe in the importance of truth must continue to say so. We cannot beat ideological opponents into conformity, and it is sinful to try. We'll have to say what is true, even when there is a cost. We'll have to remind the world of the beautiful legacy of the Judeo-Christian view of humanity and the world. We'll have to hold together truth with love. This is why I've invited Kristen Waggoner, CEO and general counsel of ADF, and Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, to join me for the Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview on July 27th at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Go to colsoncenter.org/greatlakes to attend live or join the livestream. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to colsoncenter.org. Revised from a Breakpoint released on 4.14.23. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 17, 2023
Recently in The New York Times , Catherine Pearson noted how the growing cultural stigma against boredom burdens parents. Research shows that parents across cultural and economic lines believe it's their job to fend off their kids' boredom with activities. Doing so implicitly teaches kids that boredom is bad for them, and entertainment a right. This plays well in an age that treats any discomfort as dangerous, and that having fun, or at least avoiding suffering, is the meaning of life. This understanding of life robs kids of finding the joy, the meaning, and the truth of self-sacrifice, service to others, and devotion to things bigger than self. It's also cruel to teach kids who live in a fallen world that suffering and discomfort can be avoided and that you can't truly be happy if you fail to avoid it. Allowing kids to be bored and uncomfortable, on the other hand, teaches them that they actually can handle tough things. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 17, 2023
In 303 Creative vs. Elenis, the Supreme Court upheld Lorie Smith's free speech rights, deciding that the state of Colorado could not force her to produce websites for so-called same-sex weddings. Ever since, media pundits and public officials have distorted the ruling, claiming that it will allow people to refuse service to LGBT individuals. However, even the state of Colorado acknowledged that Smith serves all people with her business, but she would not provide services that meant expressing a view that violates her faith. The state made clear its intent was to suppress Smith's ideas about marriage. By a vote of 6-3, the Supreme Court found this a clear violation of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of expression. The dissent in the case was written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. It featured a rambling history of civil rights and public accommodation law, law that prevents discrimination of the public in services. Sotomayor argued that the decision violated the trajectory of the expansion of civil rights to more and more marginalized groups in society. She claimed that creating a website was a matter of providing a service and had nothing to do with expression, implausibly arguing that creating a website for a so-called same-sex wedding would not compel Smith's speech. Writing for the majority, Justice Gorsuch dismantled the dissent, noting that the history of public accommodations and civil rights had no bearing on the matter, and that Sotomayor's argument that the question involved service rather than expression was contradicted by both the state of Colorado and the Tenth Circuit Court. He also noted how the dissent contradicted itself. Still, the problems with Sotomayor's dissent extend beyond the issues identified by Gorsuch. When Sotomayor appealed to the murder of Matthew Shepard and the mass shooting in Orlando's Pulse Nightclub as examples of the dangers LGBT people face in the country, she was appealing to a revisionist history. The motive for Matthew Shepard's murder is at best unsettled and likely had nothing to do with his sexual orientation. The shooter at the Pulse nightclub had pledged allegiance to ISIS and apparently targeted Pulse because of its lax security . While Sotomayor may simply have been sloppy–relying on popular rhetoric without investigating further–it is more likely that these are examples of her worldview commitments. Specifically, she employed standpoint epistemology and intersectionality, the idea that truth is ultimately unknowable so we can only rely on identity markers like race, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation to determine what is right and wrong. In standpoint epistemology, minorities have greater insights about the world because they know how to operate both in their own setting and in the dominant culture. This is the reasoning behind Sotomayor's infamous statement given at the University of California, Berkley before her nomination: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." However, though Sotomayor may assume her lived experience offers a fuller view of reality, her perceptions become more authoritative to her than the facts of reality. Rather than committing to an objectivity, she can determine via cultural narratives of oppression what happened regarding Shepard's murder or the Pulse shooting, or the conflict between Lorie Smith and the state of Colorado. Even worse, the objective facts (at least those that counter the accepted narratives) in these cases can be ignored, neglected, or revised. Since objective truth doesn't exist, justice is left to the eye of the beholder. Once, in a presentation to congressional staffers, Sotomayor was asked about the foundation of justice in our country. She replied by admitting that she had never considered the question "in that form before." And then after a long pause said something like, "I suppose for me, it would be the inherent dignity of all people. But I don't know what it should be for anyone else" (emphasis added). While it may be surprising that a sitting Supreme Court justice had never considered the question of justice, her response is fully consistent with her previous speech delivered at Berkley. In it, she claimed that "[t]o judge is an exercise of power," not a matter of interpreting law. In her dissent to the majority opinion that ended affirmative action in college admissions, she accused the majority decision of "an unjustified exercise of power." In other words, if judging is only a matter of power, no amount of facts could ever justify a decision she did not agree with. This pair of dissents should not be viewed in a vacuum. Rather, they are based on a worldview rooted in Neo-Marxist ideas of oppression and class struggle and on postmodern ideas about knowledge and power. This is why it is important that a biblical vision of truth, justice, government, and the human person guide our thinking, not only so we can counter the false ideas shaping so much of our culture but so that we can offer a better way. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 14, 2023
A lot of disinformation has been spread about the recent Supreme Court ruling in the case defending a Colorado graphic designer's free speech rights. John and Maria discuss some new thoughts surrounding the ethics of medicine. — Recommendations — Further Up & Further In The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession by Farr Curlin and Christopher Tollefsen Section 1 - Correcting Misinformation on 303 Creative v. Elenis "The Smearing of Lorie Smith" The Wall Street Journal "Correcting the Record on 303 Creative" Breakpoint Section 2 - What is medicine for? "What is medicine for?" Kristin M Collier Kristin Collier at the Colson Center National Conference Section 3 - Further Up and Further In Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview Further Up & Further In For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 14, 2023
The cases involving affirmative action and Lorie Smith and 303 Creative have received the most attention from the recent Supreme Court term, but another ruling has important implications for religious liberty. The Court ruled that U.S. Post Office employee Gerald Groff could not be forced to work on Sundays. Thanks are due to Groff and his lawyers at The First Liberty Institute . In the past, employers could get away with merely offering lip service to religious exemptions for workers because any vaguely defined "undue hardship" for the bosses overrode their faith concerns. Now, employers must demonstrate that accommodating an employee's faith would entail a "substantial increased cost" before demanding their conformity. The ruling is a final blow to the "now abrogated" Lemon Test that hampered religious liberty for a half-century. It also provides legal standing for challenging other impositions on religious liberty at work—such as being forced to use "preferred pronouns," or post rainbow flags, or join "pride" marches. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 14, 2023
A recent CBS News article claims, in its very title in fact, to separate "medical facts from misinformation" around so-called "gender-affirming care." However, rather than separate the facts from the falsehoods, the article peddles lies and half-truths, assuming the conclusions it claims to prove in a thinly veiled piece of progressive propaganda. And that's about the nicest thing that can be said about it. The first dead giveaway about the piece is how it smuggles transgender ideology into its chosen language and terminology. Rather than refer to boys and girls, or young males and females, the author refers to "kids with testes" and "those with ovaries." The piece then claims to set the record straight about what is involved in diagnosing gender dysphoria and administering "gender-affirming care." Here, too, its claims could not be further from the truth. According to the author, "the process informing these treatments is a long and intensive one." This directly conflicts with an increasing number of testimonies from whistleblowers and de-transitioners who sought out this kind of care, not to mention the information given by providers like Planned Parenthood. According to a whistleblower and former case manager at Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital, "[T]he majority" of young people who came to them "received hormone prescriptions." Likewise, Helena Kirschner, a young woman who detransitioned, received testosterone as a teenager after her very first visit to Planned Parenthood. It's notable that Planned Parenthood doesn't even cover up this information. On some office webpages, the abortion giant happily promotes that "[i]n most cases your clinician will be able to prescribe hormones the same day as your first visit. No letter from a mental health provider is required." Getting high-powered, life-altering drugs on your first visit hardly involves a "long and intensive" diagnosis process. The piece also falsely presents the effects of chemical "transition" interventions as reversible and harmless, peddling the lie that puberty blockers are like a "pause button" for puberty, which can be stopped and restarted with no long-term effect. Contrary to this claim, recent studies have found that the lasting adverse effects of the puberty-blocking drug Lupron, which is used to halt puberty primarily in young girls, include brittle bones and faulty joints . The piece also tries to soften the truth about cross-sex hormones by saying that some of their effects are reversible. However, changes caused in secondary sexual characteristics, such as deepened voices, facial hair, breast growth, and infertility are not reversible in the least. At the heart of most transgender propaganda is the claim that transitioning children has mental health benefits and can save them from suicide. Unsurprisingly, this piece repeats that claim while ignoring the facts that do not line up. The piece cites a popular but deeply flawed study among trans-advocates that those who received cross-sex hormones as minors had better mental health outcomes than those who received them as adults. However, the study's flawed design makes it impossible to sufficiently isolate cross-sex hormones, or lack thereof, as the determining factor of mental health outcomes. In fact, better research shows the opposite conclusion. For example, in states where youth were able to access chemical "transition" interventions without parental consent, youth suicide rates were higher than those who required parental consent. Additionally, the longest-term study on the effects of transitioning has found that those who transition are over 19 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population. Far from causing harm, denying irreversible and sterilizing chemical and surgical interventions actually helps children who are distressed by their bodies. Granted time and space, many learn to accept their bodies and God-given identities. However, propaganda pieces like this one published by CBS confuse those called to care for children and only contributes to their harm. If journalists and media outlets really want to dispel misinformation and help vulnerable children, they should stop blindly repeating the lies of gender ideologues. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 13, 2023
This week in 1924, Eric Liddell (1902-1945) won an Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter race. As a devout Christian, Liddell decided to never race on Sundays. Imagine his dismay when he realized that his best race—the 100-meter—was scheduled for a Sunday. Liddell withdrew, to the derision of many Britons who thought he was being disloyal to his nation. He quickly pivoted for the 200-meter and 400-meter races, taking third in the 200-meter and claiming the gold in the 400-meter. Liddell was the son of Scottish missionaries to China, and his story was memorialized in the film Chariots of Fire, which won the Oscar in 1982 for Best Picture. Despite athletic success, Liddell returned to China the following year. During World War II, the Japanese took over his mission station and placed him in an internment camp, where he faithfully served Christ and others before dying of a brain tumor in 1945. Liddell's Olympic-time decision was consistent with the life he lived in faithful service to Christ, who "made [him] for China," but who also "made [him] fast." He ran every race, including the race of life, to "feel God's pleasure." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published 6.12.22.
Jul 13, 2023
Recently, in the wake of the Supreme Court's important decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis, a lie has been propagated about the case, a lie that purportedly implicates plaintiff Lorie Smith and the Alliance Defending Freedom. Thanks to the willingness of media outlets, public officials, and pundits to repeat these accusations and misrepresent what they mean, this lie has the potential to poison the cultural memory about this critically important case. The accusation is that 303 Creative, the graphic design company at the center of the lawsuit, and ADF invented a fake customer request for a same-sex wedding website and that, because of this deceit, the Court should have never heard the case in the first place. It's important to correct the record. Many Christians joined with other champions of free speech to celebrate the Supreme Court's decision in the 303 case . However, Christians do not believe that the "ends justify the means." A win derived out of false witness and deception cannot be celebrated. That's the kind of win that headline after headline has proclaimed. However, that's not what happened here, as Kristen Waggoner, president and general counsel of ADF, and Erin Hawley, senior counsel of ADF, explained this week in The Wall Street Journal . The origin of the 303 Creative case dates to 2016, when Lorie Smith, who founded the creative design company four years earlier, wanted to include a disclaimer on her website. Hoping to add custom website design for weddings to her menu of services, she wanted to clarify that, as a Christian believer, she could not create custom wedding websites for "same-sex weddings." Given the hostility the state of Colorado had leveled at cake baker Jack Phillips, Lorie knew that she'd likely be considered in violation of the state's broad anti-discrimination law. With the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom , Lorie and 303 Creative filed a pre-enforcement challenge, a common legal procedure that allows people to challenge a law before they are penalized under it. This procedure recognizes what should be obvious, that free citizens should not have to first be punished under an unconstitutional law before they are able to challenge its constitutionality. The day after ADF first filed Lorie's case, Lorie received a request to create a custom wedding website for someone named Stewart, who said he was marrying someone named Mike. ADF included this request as an addendum to 303 Creative's lawsuit, not as the basis for it, in order to demonstrate that Lorie was under real pressure to violate her beliefs. From the very beginning of Lorie's case—from the federal district court in Colorado where ADF first filed the lawsuit, through the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, all the way to the Supreme Court—each judge acknowledged that Lorie had both the right and the standing to bring her case as a pre-enforcement challenge. As Waggoner and Hawley wrote in The Wall Street Journal , "Every one of the 12 appellate judges who heard the case agreed that Ms. Smith had standing, and none of their opinions even considered whether she received a request for a same-sex wedding website." However, just days after the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects Lorie from state coercion and that she cannot be forced to say something that violates her beliefs, a news outlet alleged that the website request Lorie Smith had received was fake. According to the report, a man claiming to be Stewart, whose address and contact information matched what had been submitted in the 2016 request, denied ever making it. Immediately, the false memory machine was in motion. Multiple news outlets seized on the accusation, suggesting the case was illegitimate. Even being accused of faking anti-Christian discrimination is often functionally sufficient to be convicted in the court of cultural memory. The most likely scenario, of course, is that the request was made by an activist who either hoped that it would undermine the 303 Creative case or could be held (as it was) and brought out in case of an unfavorable decision. Still, whether the request came from a legitimate customer, an activist, or ChatGPT is irrelevant because the case was always a pre-enforcement challenge. Critics are free to dislike the ruling, in which case they should take it up with the U.S. Constitution. But they can't change the facts. In fact, they are also free to express a lie about the case if they choose, though ironically, that's at least partly due to what the Court ruled in this case they are committed to undermining. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 12, 2023
It is typically entertaining when two popular intellectuals get into a public spat. Recently, Canadian psychologist and YouTube star Jordan Peterson called out the famous British biologist Richard Dawkins with an "I told you so!" After Dawkins complained on Twitter about New Zealand elevating traditional Maori stories to the same level as Western science, Peterson retorted, "Welcome to the world of post-humanism, sir. A world which you sadly helped birth. … [I]t wouldn't surprise me at all if the woke polytheistic neopaganists destroy science faster than they destroy Christianity." On one hand, Dawkins is right that the whole genius of "Western" science is that it isn't just Western. But, as Peterson not so gently noted, Dawkins has spent his career tearing down the religious foundations upon which Western science is built. Without God and all that His existence implies, there is no solid ground for saying that any knowledge, scientific or otherwise, is true for everyone. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 12, 2023
Jessica Bates lost her husband a few years ago in a car wreck. This would be devastating for anyone, but through her grief over her loss, she's decided to open her heart and home to others. As she lacks a husband, she's now reaching out to those who have no parents, trying to adopt children in her home state of Oregon. Mind you, this is in addition to the five children left fatherless by her husband's death. It takes a special love to take in those who need a home. It takes a strong love and a strong heart to do so while raising little ones alone. You can imagine Jessica's surprise when the state turned her down on ideological grounds. To warrant the state's approval to care for parentless children, she had to sign off on "affirming" any potential adopted child's desire for transgender pronouns, chemical sterilization, and other practices that would have been rightly seen as child abuse just a few years ago. As the Alliance Defending Freedom said of her case, "Oregon officials are preventing Jessica from adopting a child because of her Christian beliefs — despite the fact that they otherwise accommodate people of different religious and cultural backgrounds and try to pair children with families who are well suited to each other. It's a blatant act of religious discrimination, and it must end." This ideological enforcement is not an isolated thing. Last year, the governor of Michigan used her veto power to cut from the state budget millions of dollars allocated to help pro-life groups and Christian adoption agencies. It's not enough, apparently, that these groups work to help "the least of these." To get state funds, they also must toe the party line when it comes to supporting abortion. In America today, there are nearly 400,000 children in the foster care system and over 100,000 waiting to be adopted. Adoption is a beautiful gift that's close to the heart of Christianity, a legacy of the Church's earliest days when unwanted kids, mostly girls, were left on the trash heap by Roman parents. Christians responded by taking these little ones into their homes. There's hardly a better picture of who we are in Christ than adoption . As sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, lost through their Fall, we have been brought into the household of God. The Apostle Paul notes in Galatians, "... born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So, you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." Drawing on this same beautiful theme, few acts live out this love that God has shown for us than this unique way of loving our neighbor. What better way to reflect the love poured out on us and to realize the restoring work to which our adoptive heavenly Father has called us than to fix what's broken in these little lives? This is an opportunity to move from outrage to a constructive strategy. If you are in a state that is holding back this Christian love from showing forth in children's hearts, call on your representatives to tell them that this is not the way. Or, wherever you live, think of supporting adoption agencies and awaiting parents with funds and goods to help them bring the homeless into their families. Or, if God calls you in this way, prayerfully consider opening your home and heart to those either in temporary foster care or permanently orphaned. As Chuck Colson said almost 30 years ago now, "More than ever, we need to work to promote alternatives to abortion, especially adoption. Couples who take in needy infants and selflessly care for them should not be penalized by policies motivated by political correctness." Working to free potential parents from unwarranted state restrictions and to support them in these adoptions is a clear case where Christian love meets civic duty. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 11, 2023
One of the most important and effective pro-life leaders is Kristan Hawkins, founder and president of Students for Life of America. Kristan became a pro-life advocate in her early teens when she began serving at a pregnancy care center. Her goal is to make abortion "unthinkable and unavailable across the US." For years she rallied and mobilized young Americans by calling them the "post- Roe generation." Though the Dobbs decision last June in a sense fulfilled that rallying cry, the real vision of Students for Life of America has always been the end of all abortions, and the protection of life beginning at conception. Recently, the headline of a BBC article on Kristan ominously said, "She Helped Kill Roe v Wade - now she wants to end all abortion," as if that wasn't always the goal. For Kristan, the end of Roe is a partial win on the way to building a culture of life. As she put it to the BBC, "I always tell our team: winners envision the win." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 11, 2023
Several years ago, Max McLean and the Fellowship for Performing Arts staged The Most Reluctant Convert , a play about the life of C.S. Lewis up to his conversion. During the Covid shutdowns, that production was made into a film that received strong reviews. Now, McLean and FPA are offering a follow-up stage production dealing with Lewis' life post-conversion. Although Further Up and Further In includes some biographical information, such as the writing of The Problem of Pain and the recording of the BBC talks that were later published in Mere Christianity , this new production takes the much more challenging route of exploring the different aspects of Lewis' ministry. Not surprisingly, much of the production is focused on his apologetics. In his day, the great challenge to Christianity was materialism, the idea that everything is just matter and energy. Lewis responded to this by tracing out the implications of that view and showing its utter implausibility. He notes that scientists "observe the behavior of things within the universe. They cannot make statements about things beyond the universe." Any time a scientist does that, for example by proclaiming that matter and energy are all that exist, he is no longer doing science. Even more, Lewis says, if materialism is true, there is no reason to trust the scientist doing science. After all, he rightly observed, "If the materialist view is true, our minds must in reality be merely chance arrangements of atoms in skulls. We never think a thought because it is true, only because blind Nature forces us to think it. We never do an act because it is right, only because blind Nature forces us to do it." This argument, which can also be found in slightly different form in the work of Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga , is a powerful response to atheism. If atheism is true, any foundation for trusting science or human reason is undermined. Rather than defend a particular denomination of Christianity, Lewis believed that "the only service [he] could do for [his] unbelieving neighbors was to explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians and at all times." This led him to write The Problem of Pain and from there to do his broadcast talks for the BBC. As a result, he began receiving massive numbers of letters. Though he dismissed some, he felt obligated to respond to any serious inquiries received. Some evenings after work, Lewis wrote up to 35 letters. Much of Further Up and Further In is adapted from volume two of Lewis' collected letters, a 1,152-page tome. Through an adaptation of some of these letters, we see his work as an evangelist. For example, in the play, a young atheist contacts Lewis with questions, and Lewis responds. After a series of exchanges, the young atheist decides to take the step of committing himself to Christ. Lewis responds with advice on how to grow in faith and hang on to it through doubts. In the end, Lewis argues, "It all hinges on Jesus. If His statements are false, Christianity is of no importance. If true, it is of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important." As a literary scholar, Lewis anticipated the argument that the Gospels cannot be trusted, pointing out that the Gospels include statements that would hardly be expected if they were made up by people trying to prove the divinity of Jesus. Rather, the difficulties that they pose are solid evidence for the truthfulness of the Gospels' accounts of Jesus's teaching. Toward the end of Further Up and Further In, the character of Lewis turns his focus to Christians, offering advice on temptation (something he had discussed in The Screwtape Letters ), the crucial importance of prayer, the Second Coming and the end of the world, and heaven. Much of this advice remains as helpful today as when he first offered it. Once again, Max McLean and the Fellowship for Performing Arts show why Lewis' popularity and value have endured. Further Up and Further In is currently on tour. How Lewis engaged the materialists of his time is a model for engaging people today who, though coming from a different worldview, seem just as unable to acknowledge the reality that God has made known in His world. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 10, 2023
Recently, the FDA approved a brain-implanted computer chip, developed by Elon Musk's company Neuralink, for human trials. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 10, 2023
Holocaust-era movie eerily resembles the expansive loosening of euthanasia laws in the name of human dignity. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 7, 2023
John and Maria look at several recent Supreme Court decisions that move the court to the right and what is driving the recent claims that adults have a right to have children? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 7, 2023
While some 74% of Americans believe race and ethnicity should not be considered in college admissions, others are lamenting the Supreme Court decision to end affirmative action as an inevitable catastrophe. In the words of one headline in The Atlantic , " Elite Multiculturalism Is Over ." However, the question so rarely asked is, "Did affirmative action even work in the first place?" Back in 2004, renowned economist Thomas Sowell—a 1958 Harvard grad— set out to answer that question , surveying educational systems around the world. Sowell not only concluded that affirmative action was ineffective, he likened it to a wrong medical diagnosis and prescription : "False beliefs are not small things, because they lead to false solutions. In the field of medicine, it has long been recognized that even a false cure that is wholly harmless in itself can be catastrophic in its consequences if it substitutes for a real cure for a deadly disease." In other words, good intentions aren't enough. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 7, 2023
New from the Colson Center! Interested in the What Would You Say? video project? Subscribe to be notified when new videos are released at whatwouldyousay.org/subscribe. Watch the latest release and explore the full on-demand library! ____ Following the lead of the province of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick became the second jurisdiction in Canada to adopt a policy of "presumed consent" for organ and tissue donation. Instead of willingly opting in to be an organ donor, residents 19 years and older, with limited exceptions, will be opted in by default. While many see this as a solution to the perpetual demand for transplant organs, laws like these treat the ethics of organ donation as a settled matter while treating humans and their bodies as means to other ends. Even more, considering Canada's policy of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), this step will corrode the already thin ideas of "autonomy" and "consent" while incentivizing a utilitarian view of human nature. For context, Canada has already experienced a dramatic expansion of MAID toward not only those facing a terminal medical diagnosis but also for those suffering from mental illness deemed "grievous and irremediable" (those who suffer solely from mental illness will not be eligible until 2024). In 2021, assisted deaths rose by 35% , reaching over 10,000 , or 3% of all deaths in the country. Opponents of MAID, including virtually every disability rights group in Canada, continued to warn that a so-called "right" to die will inevitably devolve into a duty to die. People are seen, both by themselves and by others, as burdens using precious resources better spent on those with better prospects for a "better" life. These warnings were, to put it mildly, ignored. As numbers climb, so do stories of pressure and coercion. Consider the Canadian veteran suffering from PTSD who was offered MAID instead of treatment last year. The presumed consent of the New Brunswick law adds a perverse incentive: the immense value of organs for transplant. The mismatch between supply and demand, not to mention what balancing that mismatch would mean, has always dominated the ethical conversation about organ donation. Currently, over 4,300 Canadians are waiting for an organ transplant, and as a government website states, hundreds "will die waiting. ..." Canada's end-of-life policies already incentivize death. If donors request death, not only is the difficulty of obtaining consent more easily settled, so is the issue of preserving organs. Law professor F.H. Buckley explained in the Wall Street Journal , "Last year … two Canadian medical researchers and a Harvard bioethicist argued that [waiting until the patient is declared dead] could reduce the quality of donated organs. A superior model, they suggest, could be to kill the patient by removing his organs. After all, the best organs come from live people, like those who donate one of their kidneys. ... [B]y linking assisted suicide and organ harvesting, it ratifies the premise that euthanasia can help create a more efficient organ supply chain. … Where euthanasia is legal, the temptation to link the time of death and the demand for organs may similarly become too strong to resist. On a slow day there's no hurry, but when a patient [who] is waiting for a heart is in the next hospital room, you'd expect greater pressure to euthanize a patient. ... Medical professionals should not be given the incentive to see their patients as sacks of valuable organs rather than as human beings." The farther the medical world moves from its founding principle of "Do no harm," the more harm is done. Take for instance China, where one top transplant doctor admitted that "effectively 95% of all organ transplants were from prisoners." As unthinkable as it sounds, experts warned that these prisoners were likely executed by the means of "organ removal." Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement and vocal opponent of euthanasia, was deeply influenced by Christianity. She once wrote, "The question of how one feels about so-called 'rational suicide' is, I believe, ultimately governed by the question of how much faith one has in human nature." Powerful market incentives will only worsen an already epidemic disregard for human life. For Canadians, "presumed consent" is another stage in the downward spiral of a culture of death. If it continues to spread, there will be no opting out. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 6, 2023
One of the great and mostly unsung heroes of medicine was Cicely Saunders, the British nurse and social worker who effectively invented palliative care as we know it . A fierce opponent of euthanasia, she was convinced that easing suffering encompassed looking after the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of a patient. She worked tirelessly against outdated methods of pain management, including the idea that existing pain medication should wear off before more is administered. For her efforts, she was made a Dame of the British Empire , and of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II . Recently in the New Atlantis , physician Matthew Loftus argued that the modern approach to the end of life is "ending the suffering by eliminating the sufferer." Cicely lived by a different creed : "[W]e will do all we can to help you not only to die peacefully, but also to live until you die." Increasingly, how Christians deal with dying will reveal what we really believe about life. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 6, 2023
New from the Colson Center! Interested in the What Would You Say? video project? Subscribe to be notified when new videos are released at whatwouldyousay.org/subscribe. Watch the latest release and explore the full on-demand library! ___ Dr. Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, released a book earlier this year with a bombshell piece of advice: Go outside! Recently, Dr. Keltner spoke to The New York Time s about the book, entitled Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it can Transform Your Life . He recommended "awe walks," intentional time spent outside and focused on nature. This, Keltner says, can inspire awe, "that complex emotion we experience when encountering something so vast that our sense of self recedes." Awe has measurable psychological and even physical benefits, including reducing anxiety, depression, and even inflammation. So, go outside and think of something other than yourself. Not exactly rocket science, or anything new for that matter, but great advice, nonetheless. In Keltner's words the goal of making our "sense of self recede" is quite counter-cultural. For decades, the dominant ideas in psychology and most of the social sciences have been that the self is the highest priority and that self-expression, self-discovery, and self-actualization (or "living authentically") are the keys to the meaning of life and the only ways to be happy. The fruit of this poisonous tree is the rigid dogma of the late sexual revolution: Our "self-expression" is our true self, and all of reality must bend to accommodate it. This makes this "new" science, that true satisfaction comes when our "sense of self recedes," so shocking to read in print. It's in turning outward and upward, not inward, that we find the most joy, contentment, and meaning. For evidence that Dr. Keltner is really on to something here, we only need look at the University of Oklahoma women's softball team, who just won their third consecutive collegiate World Series title. Throughout their impressive winning streak, they were often criticized for excessive celebration. These celebrations of great plays or big wins are in stark contrast to the trash-talking and chest-thumping endemic in high-level sports, including this year's women's collegiate Final Four. When an ESPN reporter asked the OU players how they maintained their joy amid fierce competition, team captain Grace Lyons replied : "Well, the only way that you can have a joy that doesn't fade away is from the Lord. And any other type of joy is actually happiness that comes from circumstances and outcomes." Her teammate, Jayda Coleman, said: "[W]e want to win. But it's not the end of the world [if we lose] because our life is in Christ. And that's all that matters." Joy, in other words, comes from looking outward and upward, not inward. The beautiful world God created is a source of joy because it draws us outward. To paraphrase something John Piper once said, most people don't stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon and think, "Wow, I am awesome." Ultimately, starry nights, clever animals, and beautiful sunsets direct our thoughts upward. It's an incredible gift of God that His handiwork points us to Him. After all, beautiful things mean more when we know and love the person who made them. Something store-bought cannot compare to something made by someone who had us in mind while making it. In the same way, the creation reveals that God loves us and that He made the world with humans in mind. "Awe walks" are therapeutically helpful because of what is true about the world, about the God who made it, and about ourselves. In contrast, the inward turn that has marked our culture and is largely taken for granted these days as the key to our identity and the meaning of life has only left us more lost, confused, and depressed . In other words, go outside. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 5, 2023
On this special edition of Breakpoint , John Stonestreet interviews Paul Fitzpatrick, President of 1792 Exchange. They discuss freedom of religion and enterprise and moving "woke" corporations back to neutral. For more resources on how to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit https://breakpoint.org/ . _ 1792 Exchange is a non-profit organization whose mission is to develop policy and resources to protect and equip non-profits, small businesses and philanthropy from "woke" corporations to educate Congress and stakeholder organizations about the dangers of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) policies, and to help steer public companies in the United States back to neutral on ideological issues so they can best serve their shareholders and customers with excellence and integrity. Learn more at https://1792exchange.com/about/ . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 5, 2023
A Harvard Business Review article once advised: "Forget PowerPoint and statistics, to involve people at the deepest level you need to tell stories." Those hoping to defend innocent life should take note. A few weeks ago, a powerful story went viral on social media . A young father holding his infant daughter posted a confession, "God please forgive me: see the beautiful soul I wanted to abort." Of course, there are millions who have gone forward with that terrible choice and who know the full regret of abortion. The Silent No More Awareness Campaign is the place where these stories are told. "I didn't defend the life of my own daughter based on misinformation, selfishness, fear, and shame," one man admitted, "I let her die to an abortionist knife, and I died the same day." These stories are hard to hear and harder to tell, but they need to be told. When hidden, people are enslaved to guilt and shame. As Jesus said , "the truth sets us free." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 5, 2023
New from the Colson Center! Interested in the What Would You Say? video project? Subscribe to be notified when new videos are released at whatwouldyousay.org/subscribe. Watch the latest release and explore the full on-demand library! __ In 1792, a group of New York bankers gathered by a famous tree on Wall Street and signed the landmark " Buttonwood Agreement ." Against a backdrop of speculation and deceit, the document signaled a return to openness, fair dealing, and integrity among New York's financial sector. Eventually, the Buttonwood Agreement became the basis for the New York Stock Exchange. Today, corporate America faces a different crisis of values. Spurred on by the push for so-called "environmental, social, and governance principles" (ESG) a decade ago, a huge percentage of top corporations are now committed to an increasingly radical progressive agenda. This agenda is forced on employees and customers and anyone whom these corporations do business with, from vendors to HR firms to investment portfolios to every small business along the supply chain. The "Pride Month" fiascos of Bud Light and Target exemplify just how allegiant some corporations are to this agenda, completely misunderstanding their consumer base. Recently, I spoke with Paul Fitzpatrick, president of the 1792 Exchange. Their vision is to steer public companies back toward a commonsense vision of the workplace. In our conversation, which airs as a special bonus episode of the Breakpoint podcast, Paul and I discussed how ideas long entrenched in the university and in the arts reached corporate America and have disenfranchised people of faith and moral conviction. Corporations impact what we see, how we entertain ourselves, how we feed ourselves, how we clothe ourselves, and how we fund our businesses. And so, they can either put gas on the fire of something good or put gas on the fire of something bad. Part of the issue, Paul explains, is how progressive groups targeted corporations after the financial crisis of 2008-09. Remember how unpopular they were after the '08-'09 crisis? And taxpayers bailed them out, and everybody on the right and the left were mad at corporations. … So, here they are, Wall Street is very unpopular … and they're looking for a way to cozy up and get basically the Occupy Wall Street folks and Congress off their backs, and to some extent conservatives. But at the same time, the left is looking for a way to leverage corporations. You had said they already captured academia. We already talked about the media. But they were moving to capture corporate America. Activists pushed corporations to get on the so-called "right side" of certain social issues. You've got the Human Rights Campaign coming in saying, hey, you know, you got 100% last year. We want you to get 100% this year. So, what you need to do is … have a DEI curriculum—diversity, equity, and inclusion training for all your employees, whether you have 100 or 100,000 employees. In the end, freedom of expression has been stifled in the workplace. Even small businesses face enormous pressure to comply with the demands of a few powerful entities. If you have a business and you are a supplier to a major company that has signed on to the progressive agenda and all those areas we discussed, they could demand that you have certain hiring practices, which many do if you're going to get a 100% score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which 842 companies did by the way recently, you have to mandate in your supply chain that the LGBTQ agenda and hiring is adhered to. As far as internal corporations, there's no question we've seen examples of employees being fired for taking political or ideological positions outside of work. The 1792 Exchange is working to shift the conversation by educating consumers and stockholders, supporting private businesses and business leaders, and exposing the coercive tactics of these few powerful groups. Their Corporate Bias Ratings tool reviews over 1,500 different companies, scoring them on how well they respect viewpoint diversity. Learn more about their work at 1792exchange.com , and listen to a special Breakpoint bonus episode with Paul Fitzpatrick at breakpoint.org or wherever you listen to podcasts. Safeguarding and advancing freedom of conscience in the workplace benefits everyone. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 4, 2023
Can a Christian be patriotic? Years ago on Breakpoint, Chuck Colson pointed out how Americans used to openly embrace the Christian traditions and values that shaped our Republic. In that culture, it was easy for a Christian to be a patriot. Perhaps too easy. Vibrant, biblical faith could degenerate into a civil religion where the country's wellbeing and the expansion of God's Kingdom were synonymous. But today, many Americans have rejected the religious values that informed our society. Where along this range of attitudes is true Christian patriotism? Well, first, we mustn't deify our country. We don't wrap the flag around the cross. Our citizenship is in heaven, and that's where our ultimate allegiance is. But as Chuck said, we can't love mankind in the abstract. We can only really love people in the particular, concrete relationships God has placed us in—our family, our church, our community, and our nation. So, celebrate this July Fourth by thanking God for calling us into His Kingdom and allowing us to live in—and yes, love—this land of liberty. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was last published on July 3, 2020.
Jul 4, 2023
New from the Colson Center! Interested in the What Would You Say? video project? Subscribe to be notified when new videos are released at whatwouldyousay.org/subscribe. Watch the latest release and explore the full on-demand library! -- The year before he died, Chuck Colson delivered a Breakpoint commentary on the July Fourth holiday in which he reflected on our national identity. Specifically, he recognized that the only way to ground the ideals found in the Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created equal" and possess "certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," is if we are indeed "endowed by their Creator." The stunning clarity of the Declaration of Independence in stating that our rights are ultimately granted by God and not the state is something too often forgotten today, if not entirely dismissed. Here's Chuck Colson reflecting on this important truth: The great British intellectual G.K. Chesterton wrote that "America is the only nation in the world that is founded on [a] creed." Think about that for a moment. Other nations were founded on the basis of race, or by the power of kings or emperors who accumulated lands—and the peasants who inhabited those lands. But America was—and is to this day—different. It was founded on a shared belief. Or as Chesterton said, on a creed. And what is that creed that sets us apart? It is the eloquent, profound, and simple statement penned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." I'll never forget when I graduated from Brown University during the Korean War. I couldn't wait to become a Marine officer, to give my life, if necessary, to defend that creed. To defend the idea that our rights come from God Himself and are not subject to whims of governments or tyrants. That humans ought to be free to pursue their most treasured hopes and aspirations. Perhaps some 230 years later, we take these words for granted. But in 1776, they were earth-shaking, indeed, revolutionary. Yet today, they are in danger of being forgotten altogether. According to Gallup, 66% of American adults have no idea that the words, "we hold these truths," come from the Declaration of Independence. Even worse, only 45% of college seniors know that the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are proclaimed in the Declaration. As America grows more and more diverse culturally, religiously, ethnically, it is critical that we embrace the American creed. Yes, America has always been a "melting pot." But what is the pot that holds our multicultural stew together? Chesterton said the pot's "original shape was traced on the lines of Jeffersonian democracy." A democracy founded on those self-evident truths expressed in the Declaration of Independence. And as Chesterton remarked, "The pot must not melt." Abraham Lincoln understood this so well. For him, the notion that all men are created equal was "the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world." So go to the Fourth of July parade. Go to the neighborhood barbecue and enjoy the hot dogs and apple pie. But here's an idea for you. Why not take time out at the picnic to read the Declaration of Independence aloud with your friends and neighbors. Listen—and thrill—to those words that bind us together as a nation of freedom-loving people: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." These are the words that Americans live for—and if necessary, die for. Chuck Colson's words are just as true and relevant today as when he said them, and perhaps even more important for us to understand. From all of us at the Colson Center, Happy Fourth! For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 3, 2023
This June, the 2023 Special Olympics World Games were held in Berlin, Germany . Some 7,000 athletes from 170 countries took part in the annual celebration of people with disabilities, people often dehumanized and marginalized. The Special Olympics were founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver , sister of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. She was inspired by her sister Rosemary , who lived with intellectual disabilities her entire life. Shriver started the first special Olympics in 1962 as a summer camp in her backyard. The competition grew, and her efforts earned her admiration and the honor of the Presidential Medal of Freedom . Some years ago, New York Times opinion writer Ross Douthat described Shriver as a "different kind of liberal," who "saw a continuity, rather than a contradiction, between championing the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed and protecting unborn human life." That consistency, he thought, was in large part due to her upbringing in the Church, specifically what she learned there: that all people are made by God in His image. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jul 3, 2023
New from the Colson Center! Interested in the What Would You Say? video project? Subscribe to be notified when new videos are released at whatwouldyousay.org/subscribe. Watch the latest release and explore the full on-demand library! _ On Friday, the Supreme Court delivered a smashing victory for free speech. Lorie Smith is the founder of 303 Creative, a graphic design company that, among other services, creates custom websites for weddings. Concerned that a Colorado law would force her to design websites for same-sex weddings or take on other projects that would violate her deeply held religious beliefs, Smith filed a pre-enforcement challenge, asking the court to weigh in on whether the law violated her freedom of speech and conscience. The state decided that Lorie did not have the right to choose which messages she uses her talents to express . It even forbade her, for example, from posting a notice on her website stating she is unable to create websites that express messages contrary to her Christian beliefs, including websites that promote abortion services, celebrate same-sex marriages, or advance a transgender ideology. In July 2021, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Smith and for the state of Colorado. Friday, on the last day of the 2023 docket, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision and ruled in favor of Lorie Smith. Writing for the majority , Justice Neil Gorsuch, explained: The First Amendment's protections belong to all, not just to speakers whose motives the government finds worthy. In this case, Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance. ... Consistent with the First Amendment, the Nation's answer is tolerance, not coercion. The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands. Colorado cannot deny that promise consistent with the First Amendment. Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom who argued the case before the Court, described the win in a press release: This is a win for all Americans. The government should no more censor Lorie for speaking consistent with her beliefs about marriage than it should punish an LGBT graphic designer for declining to criticize same-sex marriage. If we desire freedom for ourselves, we must defend it for others. It's not yet clear what implications this decision will hold for others, such as Colorado cake artist Jack Phillips, who are being forced to choose between their businesses and their deeply held religious beliefs. However, unlike the 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop case , this decision was far broader and clearly dealt with questions of speech, conscience, and government coercion. In the Masterpiece case, the Supreme Court smacked down the state of Colorado for showing clear and extensive animus toward Jack's faith. The state civil rights commission responded by not only showing similar animus again, but by also allowing and enabling another citizen to harass Jack Phillips, beginning on the same day that Jack's first case was approved to be heard by the Supreme Court, and continuing today. Already, voices as significant as dissenting Supreme Court justices and major media outlets have reported that, in the 303 Creative decision, the Court has allowed business owners to refuse service for LGBTQ people. That is simply not true. In fact, Justice Gorsuch specifically said as much in his majority opinion. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, however, repeated that falsehood anyway before articulating a revisionist history of LGBTQ rights. For example, she repeated falsehoods about the murder of Matthew Shepard, wrongly claimed that the Colorado law did not affect Lorie Smith's rights "in any meaningful sense," and neglected the condition established by Smith that she would not refuse service to anyone because of their sexual orientation. To the dissent, Justice Gorsuch retorted in the majority opinion, "It is difficult to read the dissent and conclude we are looking at the same case." Lorie Smith never asked for the right to refuse service to a particular group of people. She asked not to be forced to produce speech that she did not agree with. That's what the Court affirmed on Friday. It is important that, whenever possible, all Americans who are concerned about the rights of conscience, including the freedom of speech, correct the falsehoods about this decision. As Lorie Smith said in ADF's press release, This is a victory not just for me but for all Americans across our great country—for those who share my beliefs and for those who hold different beliefs. Whether you're an LGBT graphic designer, a Jewish calligrapher, an Atheist speechwriter, or a pro-life photographer, the government shouldn't force any of us to say something we don't believe. I love people and work with everyone, including those who identify as LGBT. For me, it's always about what message is requested, never the person requesting. I hope that, regardless of what people think of me or my beliefs, everyone will celebrate that the court upheld the right for each of us to speak freely. Congratulations to ADF and to Lorie Smith. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Heather Peterson. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 30, 2023
John Stonestreet takes a first look at the new decision from the U.S. Supreme Court siding with 303 Creative in Colorado. The mainstream media says Christians and Muslims are competing for followers in Africa. — Recommendations — What Would You Say?: Is the Bible Still Relevant? To Be a Woman: The Confusion Over Female Identity and How Christians Can Respond by Dr. Katie J McCoy Section 1 - 303 Creative SCOTUS Ruling 303 Creative v. Elenis Section 2 - The Competition for Believers in Africa is Transforming Christianity and Islam The Wall Street Journal Section 3 - College Loan Forgiveness SCOTUS Ruling Section 4 - US Companies are Talking Less about Pride Month "In landmark case, Supreme Court rules LGBTQ workers are protected from job discrimination" NBC News For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 30, 2023
For a moment last week, Russia seemed headed for a coup or even civil war . After months of complaining about mistreatment by Moscow, the Wagner mercenary group marched on the capital. Then came dueling speeches by Wagner's leader and Russia's president, elites fleeing en masse, and an armored column outside the city. Then suddenly, it stopped. Each side stood down. Even now, days later, it is not clear what exactly happened or what will happen next. The whole bizarre scene offers important lessons about the human condition, and especially politics. We may think that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but, as in this case, sometimes he's still an enemy . Just because a guy is on our side doesn't mean he's good, or that we are and aren't bad guys too. What happened in Russia is an extreme example to be sure, but we should be careful to see our political leaders through a biblical lens, not political pragmatism. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 30, 2023
Recently, a school district near Salt Lake City, Utah removed the Bible from elementary and middle school libraries. Though it quickly reversed course and returned it to the library shelves, the original decision was made in response to a complaint that the Bible contains pornographic content, and that certain parts are too "violent or vulgar" for young children. Meanwhile, school districts across the country require LGBT content, much of it grossly explicit, in elementary school classrooms as well as libraries. Some even refuse to allow parents to excuse their children from such content. It is, to put it mildly, upside down to silence the Bible in order to "protect" children while forcing radical ideas about identity and sexuality on them. Though the Bible speaks plainly about the violence and barbarity of fallen humanity (see the final three chapters of the book of Judges, for example), it is not gratuitous. More importantly, the Bible portrays evil as evil, rather than celebrating the brokenness under the guise of "authenticity," "autonomy," and "diversity." Eliminating the Bible from education also ignores the crucial impact the Bible has had on the world, especially in shaping Western culture. On one hand, this is simply part of the wholesale condemnation of Western culture so common today. However, even if the Western heritage in the sciences, technology, human rights, freedom, and the arts are downplayed or ignored, at least some knowledge of the Bible is basic to knowing human history at all. Put differently, to assume that the Bible is no longer relevant to the modern world is to misunderstand both the Bible and the modern world. The latest episode of the Colson Center's What Would You Say? video series offers a response to the claim that "the modern world has moved beyond the Bible." Here's a sample: The Bible's positive influence on the world as we know it has been so profound and so thorough that it's easy to forget just how much it has shaped our understanding of science, morality, politics, literature, music, language and so many other aspects of life and culture. Every video in the What Would You Say? series offers thoughtful, reasoned, and reliable answers to common cultural questions. This video explains how the Bible shaped Western culture, how the Bible's description of reality provided the grounding for modern science, and why there will be a growing demand for the Bible as more and more people come to faith around the world. For example, there is a reason that the scientific revolution did not emerge out of other cultures. Despite the common narrative that Christianity is anti-science, science requires a consistent natural order, something described from the very beginning of the Bible: The Bible describes a world that was made by God to be intelligible and orderly. Philosopher of science Stephen Meyer says, "Because we have an intelligence that has, as its source, the intelligence that built the world, we can understand the world…." This is why we expect consistency and order in nature. And why we expect, as humans, to be able to study and comprehend that consistency and order. In fact, the biblical description of reality provided the impetus for most arenas of learning and academic study, including history, medicine, math, and sociology. After all, learning requires that humans are knowers, that they are able to learn, and that the world is knowable. Most worldviews simply cannot ground these assumptions. Other videos in the What Would You Say? video series, which has now garnered over two million views, address questions about science, apologetics, sexuality, race, politics, and more. These videos are for parents to watch with their kids, teachers to use in class with students, and in small groups and Sunday School classes, too. New videos, each addressing a different question, will be added every couple of weeks. Please visit whatwouldyousay.org, or search for and subscribe to the What Would You Say? channel on YouTube. And please share these videos with friends, family, and on social media. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Michaela Estruth. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 29, 2023
This week is the anniversary of two dark and pivotal cases in U.S. Supreme Court history. In June 2013, the high court ruled in United States v. Windsor that the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 violated Due Process. This essentially made the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges judgment, which redefined millennia of law on marriage, inevitable. Justice Anthony Kennedy unwittingly defined our chaotic age in the majority opinion for Obergefell when he declared , "The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity." This idea—that people can freely craft their identity independent from nature, science, and reality—is behind so much of the moral confusion of the last few years. But it has certainly not led to the "liberty" that Justice Kennedy promised. This is the opportunity for Christians to point not only to an abstract moral position, but to reality itself and to the God who made it. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 29, 2023
Few subjects seem less political than math. There is little room for subjective judgment because its truths are universal. No matter what you look like or where you're from or how you feel about it, two plus two will always equal four, and the area of a circle will always be π r². Math is so objective, in fact, some scientists have theorized that prime numbers could offer the basis of communication with supposed intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos. However, even if aliens know that math has no racial or gender bias, some educators on Earth seem to think otherwise. Even amid plummeting math scores in the latest Nation's Report Card data , a growing chorus of progressive voices insists that racism and sexism are the biggest problems we face in how to teach math. A couple years ago, in an article in the Scientific American , Rachel Crowell complained about the racial and gender disparities among those who make a career out of mathematics. She pointed out, for instance, that "fewer than 1 percent of doctorates in math are awarded to African Americans" and that only 29.1 percent "were awarded to women." More mathematicians, she writes, have been pushing to discuss these issues and "force the field to confront the racism, sexism and other harmful bias it sometimes harbors." Though, undoubtedly, examples of identity-group bias in all fields exist, Crowell chose to root her complaint in intangibles: Math doctorates are not "earned" or "received" or "completed;" they are "awarded," a word choice that not so subtly reinforces her conclusion that something about math education is racist. Writing at Newsweek , Jason Rantz cited examples of public schools teaching students that math itself, and the way it has always been taught, is oppressive. In Seattle, recently introduced guidelines for K-12 math teachers in several pilot schools claim that "mathematical knowledge has been appropriated by Western culture" and that "math has been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color." In 2021, Oregon's Department of Education introduced a new toolkit called A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction , created by what Rantz calls "a coalition of left-wing educators." The toolkit promises "an integrated approach to mathematics that centers Black, Latinx, and [m]ultilingual students in grades 6-8." It also warns teachers that "[t]he concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false," and that "[u]pholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuates objectivity as well as fear of open conflict." This ideological trend in which everything is read through lenses of oppression and victimhood is not isolated in extreme, left-wing enclaves but has become widespread in education. Given the "Critical Theory mood" inflicting Western culture today, it is only likely to grow in the coming years. One of the many problems with this obsession with racism and oppression in math is that it inevitably leaves students worse at math . In the case of the Seattle pilot schools, for example, performance among black students in the state math exam plummeted after implementing the woke curriculum. Bad ideas with good intentions are still bad ideas. In an effort to empower students, they are instead radically dis empowered. The wonder of mathematics lies precisely in its objectivity, as Melissa Cain Travis describes in Thinking God's Thoughts , in the miraculous way that math corresponds to and describes the world around us. In her book, Travis chronicles how the beauty and objectivity of numbers led 16th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler to discover the three laws of planetary motion and to correctly describe the structure of our solar system. Kepler, as much a student of God as he was a scientist, believed that the truths of numbers were eternal, existing eternally in the mind of God and structuring all of reality. Our minds—as beings made in God's image—are uniquely suited to unlock those mysteries. Students who are taught that answers to algebra problems depend on the color of their skin and that calculus professors are oppressors are not only not going to unlock the mysteries of the universe, but they will also believe what is not true about who they are and the world in which they live. Woke educators may hope to liberate students. But by depriving them of objective truths they are subjugating them to bad ideas. It's a tragically ironic and disastrous miscalculation. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 28, 2023
Earlier this week, the pro-abortion group NARAL tweeted in tribute of the Supreme Court decision that mandated "same-sex marriage" on all of America: "Eight years ago, Obergefell v. Hodges recognized the right to same-sex marriage. But the fight to start or grow our families—however and whenever we want—continues." "Same-sex marriage" was sold with the claim that with birth control and abortion, modern marriage had been divorced from procreation in any meaningful sense. "Love is love," the line went, though even if morality is left out of the discussion and only male-female relationships produce children. So, the word "spouse" was redefined in law. Now, according to NARAL, true equality requires that inherently sterile relationships be able to have children "however and whenever [they] want." Science is busy making it easier to access this want, and if California lawmakers get their way, insurers will have to cover pregnancy treatments for same-sex couples. Redefining words has consequences. Redefining "spouse" meant redefining "parent," and redefining a child as a "right." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 28, 2023
Recently, the East African nation of Uganda passed a law that will increase criminal punishments for homosexual acts. Same-sex activity was already illegal in Uganda, as it is in several other African nations, and Ugandans convicted under the law already faced life in prison. Under this new law, people convicted of attempting to engage in homosexual behavior could face 10 years behind bars. Those convicted of "aggravated homosexuality," defined as sexual abuse of a child or knowingly spreading HIV, could face the death penalty. Anyone convicted of "promoting homosexuality" could be imprisoned up to 20 years . Reaction in the West was quick and fierce. President Biden immediately denounced the law , threatening to withhold humanitarian aid from Uganda. United Nations officials claimed that the law would criminalize Ugandans for " being who they are ." An early draft of the legislation did include a provision criminalizing merely identifying as LGBT, but that didn't make it into the final bill. There is plenty wrong with this new Ugandan law, including the severity of punishment and the unrealistic level of police activity that would be required to ever enforce it. A pioneer and strong advocate for criminal justice reform, Chuck Colson believed that the goal of criminal law and enforcement should be rehabilitation and restoration whenever possible, not punishment for punishment's sake. Unfortunately, in Uganda, as in many nations both Western and developing, the criminal justice process is more punitive than restorative. Of course, the specifics of the Ugandan law and its prescribed punishments didn't drive the reaction from Western media and government officials. Instead, the very idea of regulating sexual activity at all is now largely unthinkable, at least in those places in which it has taken decades to normalize, de-stigmatize, and now celebrate sexual deviation in the name of "pride." (To be sure, the West also claims to celebrate things like "cultural diversity" and indigenous values and claims to oppose things like "cultural imperialism" and colonialism. So, shouldn't we respect a country that will not be overrun by our modern Western ideals? Shouldn't we resist the urge to impose our culture on theirs, as if ours is somehow better? Yet that's not the way it went.) Largely overlooked is that most Western nations have never experienced the level of devastation from the continuing AIDS crisis like nations such as Uganda have. According to the UN , 1.4 million Ugandans have HIV/AIDS, including roughly 5.4% of the country's entire adult population. An estimated 800,000 Ugandan children are orphans of the AIDS crisis there. Meanwhile, in the U.S., only 0.3% of adults live with HIV or AIDS and, because of technology and wealth, most are able to manage the condition. Up until quite recently, most nations had laws intended to restrain certain kinds of sexual activity. In fact, nearly all of them still do. For example, nearly every nation restricts and punishes relationships with animals or incest. Though many primitive and pagan societies did not regulate sexual behaviors, as the world became more civilized, governments across time and cultures found compelling reasons to regulate some sexual behaviors because of wide implications for public life, public health, population growth, women's rights, and the safety and wellbeing of children. Historically speaking, nations in decline were the ones that deregulated sexual behaviors. Progressing nations understood why certain legal restrictions are necessary. Governments have the right and the responsibility to exercise authority over private acts that carry significant public consequences. That does not mean that all laws are feasible in all societies. A law to restrict sexual behavior, even one nothing like Uganda's, would be a political nonstarter in the United States. Uganda, however, has not weathered a decades-long, extremist sexual revolution. In fact, it is entirely possible that the Ugandan law is the result of the dominance of LGBT lobby groups over every area of Western culture including education, the harm done to the minds and bodies of children, and government leaders realizing, "we don't want that here." Or perhaps, "we could never survive that here." In other words, the fact that Uganda's law could never pass in the U.S. says as much about the extremism of our culture as it does theirs. It is not clear how or if this law will be implemented in Uganda in any meaningful sense. It is not, in my view, a good law. It is over-punitive and would, if enforced, punish victims as well as perpetrators of the ideas it hopes to eliminate. At the same time, a society that truly understands and promotes human flourishing would, in fact, have laws aimed at restricting and eliminating harmful ideas and behaviors, and at protecting those who would be victimized by them. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 27, 2023
Recently, Illinois lawmakers voted to withhold funding from public libraries if they removed sexually explicit books, and officials in Virginia voted to withhold funding for libraries until they dealt with the sexually explicit books in the kids' and teens' sections. Amid the library wars, new graduate of the Colson Fellows program Ashley Borrego decided to give her neighborhood a better kind of library. This fall, the Cornerstone Living Library will open inside Cornerstone Bible Church in Lilburn, Georgia. Ashley is filling the shelves with donated books—from Christian authors to homeschooling resources to Nancy Drew mysteries— that respect kids as kids . Parents will soon be able to take their kids to a library without having to screen everything for obscenity and lies. What if all churches served their communities by providing libraries? Colson Fellows like Ashley are agents of restoration wherever God has placed them. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 27, 2023
What does music mean? Most people today, without realizing it or giving much of a second thought, think of music and art along the lines of 18th-century philosopher David Hume , who wrote: Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty. Beauty, in other words, is in the eye of the beholder, and nothing more. Therefore, Hume continued in words that resemble a teenager telling mom and dad to get off his back: "Every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others." Rejecting notions of objective truth and universal morality, many in the modern world assume that beauty is not a category of reality that exists outside of the human mind but is entirely a subject of individual taste. Music can be fun, edgy, or distracting. It might even carry therapeutic benefits. But it isn't rooted in anything transcendent, eternal, or objective. Recently on the Upstream podcast, my colleague Shane Morris discussed music and meaning with Dr. Jeremy Begbie , a theologian at Duke Divinity School and the University of Cambridge. Dr. Begbie, whose work centers on the intersection of music and theology, argued that music is in fact not neutral. Rather, it is a function of the way we are made by God and ultimately points to deep truths about God and about ourselves. Here's Dr. Begbie: I was speaking to an atheist musicologist, a very distinguished musicologist not so long ago. And he said that music, he believes, ultimately, is about tuning us in to each other and to the physical world at large. It's about belonging, you see. 'Oh, how interesting,' I said. It's interesting that Christianity has a little bit to say about that. It's not primarily our job in the world ... to be individuals who simply express themselves or simply get things off their chest, so to speak. God has made us for each other and has made us to live in harmony with this physical world in which we're set. And for me, therefore, it makes wonderful sense to say that this is what music is about. Indeed, it's what language is about. It's what hundreds of things are about—just this kind of worldview. Historically, many philosophers—from Plato to Aristotle to St. Augustine—reflected on the " three transcendentals ": goodness, truth, and beauty. Christian thinkers argued that these are attributes of God and therefore clues to the meaning of life. In this view, beauty is an objective reality, grounded in the nature and work of God Himself. This explains why beauty can make such a meaningful impact on human beings. Even those who reject the idea of universal truths and are cynical about our ability to truly know anything cannot help but wrestle with the pull of beauty. Joseph Pearce explained it this way in a recent article in The Imaginative Conservative , "What … is the role of good art? … The answer is to be found in the power of beauty to touch heads that have forgotten how to think and hearts that have forgotten how to love." Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky famously suggested that "Beauty will save the world." Dostoevsky's friend, 19th-century philosopher Vladimir Soloviev, explained why he believed this: In his convictions he never separated truth from good and beauty; in his artistic creativity he never placed beauty apart from the good and the true. And he was right, because these three live only in their unity. The good, taken separately from truth and beauty, is only an indistinct feeling, a powerless upwelling; truth taken abstractly is an empty word; and beauty without truth and the good is an idol. For Dostoevsky, these were three inseparable forms of one absolute Idea. This is not to suggest that there is no room for subjective experience and interpretation of beauty. Expressions of art, including music, must be perceived by those with tastes and preferences shaped by experiences, culture, knowledge, and various degrees of virtue. We might disagree on whether a Bach concerto carries more or less aesthetic value and technical excellence than a modern rock ballad. Still, that both can be distinguished from meaningless chaos, says something about order and design in the world. As does the fact that music is more than mere stimulus-response. Even if we don't know why, musical beauty points us beyond ourselves and offers a clue about the meaning of the universe and the God who made it and us. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 26, 2023
In a fumbled attempt to be more "inclusive" during "pride month," Johns Hopkins University announced updates to its glossary of LGBT terms. Particularly controversial was a new definition of "lesbian," as a "non-man attracted to non-men ." The definition, avoiding the term "woman" altogether and centering on "men," appalled even members of the queer community. One lesbian called it "progressive misogyny." It's another example of transgender ideology leading to the erasure of women. However, L, G, and B critics of this terminology miss how their own body-denying views contributed to this. Homosexual practice is just as much a rejection of the body as transgender ideology is. For that matter, the hook-up culture, digital technology, abortion, and plenty of other things common in the modern world, have also eroded our collective understanding of the human body and its unique value. The only way forward is to recover the God-given meaning of the human body, who and how God created us to be. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 26, 2023
According to political scientist Ryan Burge , the group of people in American society most likely to be highly engaged in political action are not evangelicals, as we've been led to believe. They are in fact atheists. "Let me put it plainly," Burge wrote, "atheists are the most politically active group in American politics today, and the Democrats (and some Republicans) ignore them at their own peril." In a slew of indicators—from actions as simple as putting up a yard sign, to the more proactive of attending a protest march—atheists not only outdid their evangelical neighbors but, in most cases, were the most likely group to put money and time toward partisan activities. Given the common perception that the religiously minded are most prone to political action, we'd be justified to ask just how this false narrative came to be taken for granted. However, an even more interesting question is why so many atheists live ultra concerned about truth and justice in political matters, given that their worldview commits them to a world without ultimate grounding for either? If the world is nothing more than ever-shifting arrangements of atoms, quarks, and leptons, why would we direct any passion toward the political realm? At least part of the answer is what might be called "the Ricky Gervais solution." Gervais is the acerbic British comedian known for both skewering Hollywood elites and insisting on atheism in film, television, and real life. In a scene from one of his shows, his character is accosted by a stereotypically dim-witted believer who cannot fathom that someone would not believe in an afterlife. Why even bother to care about things, she asks, if this life is all there is? Gervais retorts that it's precisely because this life is all we have that we should live what little we get to the fullest. Historian Tom Holland argues that this is how modern atheism preaches a version of the "good news" about overthrowing idols and leading others to a better life. In this sense, Holland writes, "Atheism in the contemporary West is less a repudiation of Christianity than a logical endpoint of one of its key trends." The great passion of modern atheists to make things right in the world comes not so much from rejection of God's existence but from an anger against Him for the way He made it. The French philosopher Albert Camus argued that the atheist, as a metaphysical rebel, defies more than he denies. Originally, at least, he does not suppress God; he merely talks to Him as an equal. But it is not a polite dialogue. It is a polemic animated by the desire to conquer. The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown. Or, as C.S. Lewis put it when describing his atheist days, I was at this time living, like so many Atheists or Antitheists, in a whirl of contradictions. I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world. This era of atheist activism presents Christians with a unique opportunity. (Two, in fact.) First, there is opportunity for co-belligerency. Even if ultimately unwarranted, by expressing a great passion for justice and truth in our world, atheists often reach a point of common ground with Christians, namely the rising power and intolerance of "wokeism" and our culture's critical theory mood. According to Evan Griggs, an agnostic writing in The European Conservative , Those of us committed to fighting back against the "woke" must come to terms with the fact that only Christianity is potent enough to defeat the cult of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Non-believers need not convert, but it is time for us to get out of the way. The other opportunity is the ever-present potential for loving our unbelieving neighbors. Whenever an atheist expresses a passion for justice, they are making a tacit admission that there must be more to life than what their worldview allows. We can remind them that the human dignity upon which they insist is rooted in Christian convictions about the imago Dei. We can offer an explanation for the presence of evil in the world, not as an illusion or fabrication or mere inconvenience, but as a real aspect of life after the fall. We as Christians also have reason for hope that goes beyond mere wishful thinking for circumstances to change and for good to triumph over evil. We look for the restoration of all good things by the work of Jesus Christ, according to the will of the loving God Who created atheists, yet Whom they deny. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 23, 2023
The Colson Fellows program is a lasting legacy of Chuck Colson following God's voice. It's been one year since the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v Wade . What's the result? — Recommendations — Colson Center National Conference Online Megan Phelps-Roper on Armchair Expert Section 1 - Chuck Colson's Legacy "Christianity Does Not Stop With Salvation: That's Only the Beginning …" Breakpoint Section 2 - The One-Year Anniversary of Dobbs "Fewer Abortions Post- Dobbs " Breakpoint Section 3 - Archeological Findings in the Middle East "Archeology Continues to Confirm Biblical Record" Breakpoint For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 23, 2023
According to the British paper The Guardian , a U.K. woman recently pled guilty to taking an abortion pill later than the 10-week limit allowed by law. She lied to online doctors, claiming to be less than 10 weeks along when she really thought she was more like 28 weeks. It turns out she was wrong about that too. In fact, she was close to 32 weeks pregnant, nearly full term, and had searched online for the legal consequences of seeking late-term abortion. As we approach the first anniversary of the end of Roe v. Wade , this case from the U.K. shows just how radical states like Colorado, New York, California, and Michigan are by allowing abortions up to birth, no questions asked. Most European countries restrict late-term abortions. It also demonstrates just how much mail-order abortion pills have changed what it means to protect and defend life. Yes, we need more laws that restrict this evil practice, but we hope for the day when all kinds of abortion are unthinkable. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 23, 2023
A year ago, after 49 years of Roe v. Wad e straitjacketing legislatures and courts into a draconian pro-abortion regime, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the infamous 1973 ruling . In Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health the court returned power to the states to determine abortion policy. Pro-life groups have rightly celebrated this fruit of decades of labor, encouraged that their efforts were not in vain. They can also be confident that their work to serve mothers and children will no longer be hamstrung by the miscarriage of justice embodied by Roe . At the same time, it was not clear a year ago what the end of Roe would mean state by state. How divided is our country over this issue? What would the future of defending pre-born lives entail? Would the Dobbs decision take us closer to the ultimate goal: that abortion would not be merely illegal in some places but unthinkable everywhere? Or would the demon of Roe be replaced by seven more, even worse? Recently, an article in National Review summarized what can be discerned from the annual Gallup Values and Beliefs poll. The number of Americans who identify as pro-life has grown in the past year by four points, to now 41% of the population. Similar numbers of those polled believe that abortion is a moral wrong. A majority of Americans think that abortion should be illegal in the second trimester, and a strong majority believe it should be illegal in the third trimester. Not only has public opinion shifted in the wake of the Dobbs decision, but lives have been saved: over 24,000 of them, in fact, according to the statistics organization FiveThirtyEight. Though an additional 69,000 abortions were performed in pro-abortion states compared to the same time period a year before, that was more than offset by the over 93,000 fewer abortions performed in pro-life regions. The dramatic difference between pro-abortion and pro-life states is an indication of the ongoing radicalization of the pro-abortion movement. States such as New York and California long ago replaced the pretense of "safe, legal, and rare" for macabre celebrations and blatant attempts to silence all pro-life dissent. More recently, and in reaction to Dobbs , my own state of Colorado has passed legislation that will make it among the most radical pro-abortion places in the Western world. There has also been an uptick in vandalism and flagrant violence hurled at pro-life agencies and activists. The most difficult obstacle to the prospect of building a pro-life culture, even in otherwise pro-life states, is the increasing popularity and availability of mail-order abortion pills. These dangerous chemicals, which kill the children and risk the lives and health of their mothers , can be secured at home, often without a doctor's visit . According to most estimates, chemical abortions, which are notoriously difficult to track, now account for over 50% of all abortions. Another development over the last year has been the failure of pro-life legislation in otherwise ostensibly conservative places, states such as Montana, Kansas, and Kentucky. Even in states where laws were passed, as in Indiana, pro-life lawmakers had a tougher-than-expected struggle. Thankfully, there were courageous and committed lawmakers who pushed through. In states with so-called "trigger laws," laws already on the books in the case of Roe 's demise, abortion clinics have been closed and restrictions on abortion have been added, leaving whole regions increasingly abortion-free . The Dobbs decision has also had unexpected implications for other at-risk children. A few years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Hannah Strege and her family. Hannah was the very first so-called "snowflake baby," meaning she'd spent the first two years of life as a frozen embryo conceived via in-vitro fertilization, before being adopted and given a chance at life. Hanna and her parents presented an amicus brief for the Dobbs case, arguing that her life shows that viability begins at fertilization due to modern technology. Now, post- Dobbs , the Streges continue to advocate for the protection of embryos as distinct, valuable human beings as more and more states take up the question of when life begins. The rest of us must continue to advocate for the protection of pre-born life, knowing it will take years of political campaigning, legal maneuvering, crisis pregnancy intervention, and care for at-risk moms and babies. For a free resource on how you can work toward creating a culture of life, go breakpoint.org/abortion. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 22, 2023
Recently, a high school graduate from South Carolina, Lydia Owens , shared her testimony in her graduation speech. She encouraged her classmates that no matter their accomplishments or failures, their value comes from being made in the image of God. Lydia described losing her mom, who had been her greatest inspiration, just two years earlier. "When everything else in my life felt uncertain, the only person that I could depend on to stay the same was Jesus," Lydia said. Lydia told her classmates they need not worry about success "because God promises that His grace is sufficient for us, and that His power is made perfect in our weaknesses." The crowd's reaction demonstrated that they had been deeply touched by Lydia's faith and courage. Her speech has now gone viral. Lydia's faith makes it clear that students should never be forced to leave their faith out of the classroom. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 22, 2023
Sir Isaac Newton, in a letter written in 1675 to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, wrote, " If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants ." Chuck Colson was one of those giants for many of us, and it is our privilege to steward his legacy at the Colson Center. In fact, Chuck believed that his most important legacy, more than any of the organizations he founded or the many books he authored, would be people. That's why he started what he called the Centurions Program, something that continues today under a different name, the Colson Fellows program. Here's Chuck Colson on the important vision he had for this program: "I have a burning passion—it's the first item on my prayer list every day—and that's to see a movement of Christians raised up from the churches to defend truth in the marketplace of ideas and to live out the Gospel. Nothing less than this kind of an awakening can possibly save our quickly deteriorating culture. That's why I'm now spending all of my time working at Breakpoint and the Colson Center. One of my major projects is developing Christian leaders who can understand and defend a biblical view of all of life. We call this the Centurions Program. For the past six years we have brought 100 of the best and brightest into this year-long teaching effort, to study under some of the best minds in the Christian world. It's demanding: We read books together, view movies and critique them, do a lot of teaching online, and have three residencies during the year in Lansdowne, Virginia, near our offices. Our Centurion graduates are like the Marines or the Navy Seals who are on the front lines of the next wave of leaders. Can this work? Just two weeks ago I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a rally on behalf of the Manhattan Declaration. It was organized by the Catholic Archbishop of New Mexico, Michael Sheehan, and a former congressman named Bill Redmond, who is a Centurion graduate. You can imagine my thrill when I walked into the convention center to see 1,600 participants. And they were on fire! They were there to learn biblical worldview, to learn how to defend the sanctity of human life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty, to learn how to become activists! There were representatives from across the denominational spectrum: Southern Baptists, Nazarenes, Assemblies of God, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics. The Church had come together. And all of this was organized by one gutsy archbishop and one Centurion graduate. They in fact have built a powerful network across the state of New Mexico. So yes, it can be done. And our Centurions are doing a whole variety of important tasks across the spectrum. Like Jon Blankmeyer, who founded a safe home for girls rescued from forced prostitution. Josue Delgado, a hospital chaplain who teaches emergency medical technicians on how to build stronger marriages. Kathy Peele, who founded a group to help mothers under distress, and so many more. By the time they are certified, Centurions know how to write, discuss, and teach Christian worldview in all sorts of settings. They know how to create God-honoring culture through the arts, media, literature, and business. They're able to debate ethical challenges with medical professionals, advocate human rights, and develop tomorrow's leaders by raising children grounded in biblical values. In short, they learn to defend truth in an age in which many believe such a thing does not exist. Look, folks, the reason the Church today is having so little impact is too many Christians view their faith only in terms of a personal relationship with Jesus. But Christianity does not stop with salvation: That's only the beginning. We've got to learn how to present our worldview in a winsome way. And if we don't do this, it simply dooms our churches to isolation and irrelevance—just when our culture desperately needs the hope of the Gospel more than ever." After Chuck's death in 2012, the program he started as the Centurions Program was renamed the Colson Fellows program. I think Chuck would be ecstatic to know that this past year, over 1,300 Christians from across the country and around the world studied worldview, theology, and culture as part of the Colson Fellows program. He'd be even more excited to know all the ways the fellows are currently planning to apply what they've learned in the time and place God has called them. If you desire to make a similar impact in your community for Christ, consider studying with the Colson Fellows program next year. With over 60 regional cohorts around the country, there is likely a cohort in your region. If not, there are online cohorts offered as well. Either way, you'll find a deeper understanding of truth and be better equipped to live out your faith in this cultural moment in whatever calling and vocation God has put before you. For more information, visit www.colsonfellows.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was revised from one aired March 16, 2022.
Jun 21, 2023
Just in time for "pride" month, the Associated Press (AP) joined the ranks of activist organizations telling Americans to embrace transgenderism. Recent updates to AP's style guide insist that reporters use individuals' "preferred" pronouns, avoid terms like "biological sex" and "both sexes," call sex "assigned at birth," and refer to controversial surgical and chemical "transition" interventions as "gender-affirming care." The AP justifies the new rules, claiming to follow the science. However, "the science" is far from settled on the subject. Declaring that puberty blockers are "fully reversible" or that chemical and surgical "transition" interventions are backed by evidence betrays actual truth-seeking. More and more studies indicate that these controversial interventions are detrimental to the physical health and mental wellbeing of children. Peddling ideas that are basically dangerous pseudoscience in order to get some cultural brownie points is cowardly. The AP should stick to journalism that seeks the truth, rather than promotes harm. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 21, 2023
New from the Colson Center! Interested in the What Would You Say? video project? Subscribe to be notified when new videos are released at whatwouldyousay.org/subscribe. Watch the latest release and explore the full on-demand library! _______ While activists in the U.S. seek to eliminate any restrictions to so-called "gender-affirming" interventions for minors, a number of European countries are adding safeguards around or backing off altogether from these controversial procedures. Following European neighbors Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, the Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board announced that it will revise its recommended standards of care for minors struggling with gender dysphoria. The proposed revisions would no longer allow the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transition surgery for minors. As NHIB rightfully points out, the science surrounding "gender-affirming care" is far from settled. In fact, the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or transition surgeries to treat gender dysphoria lacks adequate research. There is hardly any substantial research on the long-term effects of these treatments on minors, and what we do know about them is disregarded by ideologically driven proponents. Puberty blockers, for example, have been known to plague patients with loss of bone density. Cross-sex hormones lead to sterilization. Transition surgeries are rife with serious complications. In the name of a dubious ideology, we're experimenting on children. Additionally, most of the long-term studies that proponents cite to support current "gendering-affirming" protocols are poorly designed. As the report summarized : "As a rule, there is no control group in the studies." This means that any effects are "often assessed at group level and not at individual level, so that unwanted effects for some patients can be masked by improvement in the rest of the group." The results are also skewed by factors such as patient dropout and a failure to make contact for follow-ups. In other words, the numbers are played with to get the desired result. At the heart of the case for so-called "gender-affirming care" is the claim that transition prevents suicide. Research, however, shows the opposite. In a summary of recent research, Ben Johnson described how life satisfaction among those who undergo "transition" surgeries decreases rather than increases. Another study published last month found that self-identifying transgender individuals—not necessarily those who have had transition surgery—have high levels of loneliness. These studies confirm the findings of one of the best studies on the effect that transitioning has on the mental health of patients, which finds that those who undergo gender transition are over 19 times more likely to commit suicide than their peers. Given the clear dearth of quality research on the long-term effects of chemical and surgical "transition" interventions, any promotion of such controversial medicine is motivated not by science but by ideology. At the heart of transgender ideology is a belief that the physical, human body, specifically our God-given biological sex, does not constitute what it means to be a person. Rather the person is an intangible self, separate from the body, that can only be defined by one's own inner sense of self. Motivated by this central belief, activists tailor their views on health and wellness to match. Health, for them, is ultimately defined by the satisfaction of the immaterial self, not one's physical wellbeing. So the harms to one's body found in transitioning are worth the actualization of the inner self's true gender. Like every false ideology, transgender ideology is at odds with reality. As much as transgender activists want to say "gender-affirming care" will bring people satisfaction, our experience of God's creation finds just the opposite. While more research may be necessary, studies indicate that gender transition surgery, on the whole, exacerbates patients' unhappiness. This tells us that, as much as we'd like to disregard and deny the reality of our God-given bodies, they are a vital part of us that should not be discarded for the sake of our own sinful designs. Rather than trying to destroy the body, care that truly affirms gender would seek to reconcile people with their God-given bodies, helping them simultaneously accept the gift of the body and lament its brokenness. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 20, 2023
Last year, after a gunman opened fire in a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five and injuring 19, vandals graffitied the property of Focus on the Family, accusing them of being responsible for the horrific crime. The shooting was actually carried out by someone who identified as LGBT and had visited the nightclub with his mom. A few days later, on the steps of the Supreme Court, members of the Christian legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom, were met by protestors who called them a "hate group" for defending the constitutionally protected religious freedom of a Christian graphic designer. To follow Christ today invites false accusations and waves of hostility. That's why I've invited Kristen Waggoner, CEO and general counsel of ADF, and Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, to join me for the Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview on July 27th at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Go to colsoncenter.org/greatlakes to attend live or join the livestream. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 20, 2023
New evidence, reports Nathan Steinmeyer of the Biblical Archaeology Society , is confirming the biblical description of the kingdom of Judah as it existed in King David's time. This is significant, according to Steinmeyer, because "[d]espite King David's prominence in the Hebrew Bible, little archaeological evidence has been directly linked to the early years of the Kingdom of Judah." Because of this apparent discrepancy between the archeological record and the biblical description of the region during the 10th-century B.C., "some scholars have argued that Judah only became a developed polity in the ninth or even eighth century B.C.E." Recently, however, an article published in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology by renowned Hebrew University archeologist Yosef Garfinkel, whose team has been digging four major sites in the Judean foothills since 2007, makes claims that "completely transforms the state of research." Newly exposed settlement layers reveal a number of population centers with writing, housing, and casemate [or double] city walls, which form the kind of fortified cities described in 1 and 2 Samuel. These cities, at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Khirbet el-Ra'i, Socoh, and Lachish may have been the nucleus of the kingdom of Judah. Furthermore, Garfinkel notes, the ancient city of Hebron makes an ideal center point for this kingdom and matches the biblical record, which states that David was crowned in Hebron and only later moved to Jerusalem seven years into his reign. A number of other findings from these sites also confirm the biblical narrative. Rectangular beams in groups of three match descriptions of Solomon's palace and temple and indicate that the pattern was used at the time of King Solomon's reign. Tenth-century fortifications in the city of Lachish correspond to the biblical account of King Rehoboam . The Judean city of Khirbet Qeiyafa sits across the Elah Valley from the major Philistine city of Gath—matching descriptions of conflict between the House of David and these neighbors . Contra the widely accepted scholarly claims of the 1990s, which argued that Judea was " empty of population " in the time described by the Bible, Garfinkel's findings suggest that 10th-century Judea was a young, expanding kingdom. Archaeological work is complicated and often incomplete. Still, it is remarkable how often the evidence, even as it piles up, confirms biblical accounts of history. According to Jewish archeologist Nelson Gluek , "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference." This, even as "[s]cores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible." The reason archeological confirmation matters is because Christianity is uniquely grounded in history as it actually happened. Some religions, like Buddhism or Hinduism, are insulated from verifiable tests of logic, reason, or human history, claiming to reveal only spiritual truths. Other religions, such as Islam, ground some traditions in history while making its central claims, such as the inspiration of the Qur'an, an article of pure faith. (For the record, the claim the Qur'an has been perfectly preserved fails even basic challenges of historical and textual criticism .) While these other belief systems are "non-falsifiable," meaning they are so far removed from the world of evidence it is impossible to show whether they're true or false, Christianity claims that its most important events, particularly the events of Israel and the life of Jesus Christ, actually happened. The events of the Bible occurred in actual history and are open to historical scrutiny—most notably the death and resurrection of Jesus . Otherwise, the apostles Peter and Paul made clear, we are left with only cleverly devised myths and faith that is futile . Christians need not fear rigorous scholarship, especially not the booming world of ancient archeology. The more we dig into the dirt of history, the more we are reminded that God has always been, and remains today, active in the world He made. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 19, 2023
According to a recent report on the online source FiveThirtyEight , the Dobbs decision has made a big difference. "There were almost 94,000 fewer abortions in states that implemented bans post-Dobbs, just between July and March," author Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux summarized in a Twitter thread . "Almost 100k affected and that's not even the full year." And, in states without bans, "Abortions rose by ~70,000." In other words, the Dobbs decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the abortion decision back to the states has meant a net decrease of 24,000 abortions nationwide. Some bans have had a more significant impact than others. For example, abortion in states that "have banned abortion after six weeks ... [abortions] tend to drop by 50-60%. If that happened in FL, where a six-week ban is pending, we could be talking about 4k fewer abortions MONTHLY." To be clear, Thomson-DeVeaux is alarmed by these numbers. At the same time, data points to huge shifts in how abortion is attained in America, most notably abortion tourism and an uptick in chemical abortions. So, the work continues. And yet, it is safe to say that elections matter. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 19, 2023
In the Epic of Gilgamesh , written over 4,000 years ago, Enkidu, the great friend of the demigod Gilgamesh, dies. Afraid of death, Gilgamesh asks the sage Utnapishtim, the only survivor of the Great Flood, about the secret to immortality. Utnapishtim gives Gilgamesh a number of tasks, all of which he fails. But that was the point. Gilgamesh learned that immortality is beyond his grasp and returns to Uruk to live out the rest of his life as king. The first emperor of China was Shi Huang Di. Buried in a tomb decorated with the famous terracotta soldiers , he also feared death and called on Chinese alchemists to create an elixir that would allow him to live forever. The alchemists believed they could make immortality possible through a perfect balance of the five elements: water, wood, fire, earth, and metal. Unfortunately for the emperor, the elixir contained mercury (because it is both a liquid and a metal), which likely contributed to the emperor's death. Attempts to achieve immortality have continued (and continued to fail) right up to our own time. Medieval European alchemists believed they could produce "the philosopher's stone," which would perfect the imperfect, turning lead into gold and making mortal life immortal. Enlightenment thinkers of the late 18th century rejected the mysticism of alchemy but continued to speculate about the means to attain physical immortality. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was written as a cautionary tale about scientific hubris, in response to the more modern attempts of medicine and biology to preserve, extend, and improve life. Today, the quest for immortality continues. Through cryogenics, freshly deceased persons or animals are frozen, their blood replaced with "medical grade antifreeze" to prevent ice crystals from destroying cells. So, the idea goes, once medical technology is able to heal whatever caused their deaths, these creatures can be thawed, healed, and restored to life, possibly with additional enhancements. This approach assumes, among other things, that life and memory can be repaired if the body is repaired and the heart restarted. In other words, life is seen in purely mechanical terms. This is an equal and opposite error to those pursuing immortality through cybertechnologies, believing that if our consciousness can be downloaded into computers, we can continue to exist as a sort of ghost in a machine. In this techno-gnosticism, our bodies are optional and not a necessary part of life. In this way of thinking, we are our minds, and our minds are nothing more than sophisticated software that can be downloaded into a computer, machine, or perhaps a new robotic body. Other modern attempts at the Fountain of Youth—such as nutritional strategies, supplements, alternative medical practices, and gene-editing technologies like CRISPR—do not seek as much to avoid death as to extend life. These range from becoming more serious about healthy living to more extreme alternatives. A number of billionaires have been investing in research into life extension, including Sam Altman of OpenAI, Jeff Bezos, Google co-founder Larry Page, and Brian Armstrong of Coinbase. Some believe that our medical technologies will eventually reach a state of "Longevity Escape Velocity," in which advances are increasing lifespans faster than the years go by, therefore bringing us to the point of immortality. Despite our long history of failed attempts to live forever, many of which caused more harm than good, scientific hubris remains a temptation almost impossible to avoid. But we should take Mary Shelley's warnings seriously. Some of these longevity experiments will be interesting and ultimately harmless. Some may even help. Others, such as those involving gene-editing technology, will leave their own monsters waiting in the shadows, and it is unlikely, if history is any indication, that we will be able to see them coming. A more basic problem is trying to defeat death while thinking it is only a material problem to be solved. No latter-day elixir can satisfy our fear of death, which is a physical consequence of metaphysical realities. What ancient emperors and modern tech barons so desperately seek is exactly what's offered in Christ: His eternal life exchanged for our mortal, sinful life. This exchange does not come from a laboratory bottle filled with who knows what, but from an empty tomb. Ultimately, because He defeated death, our bodies will be perfected beyond what even the most optimistic biohacker could dream. Yes, death remains an enemy. But it is a defeated foe, and all who are in Christ will ultimately see its defeat when we are resurrected to life eternal. This is the truth behind what are reported to have been Tim Keller's final words : "There is no downside for me leaving, not in the slightest." And Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, as well : "This is the end—for me, the beginning of life." This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 17, 2023
John and Maria discuss the new documentary on the Duggar family, Oklahoma approves a Catholic charter school, and a Jeopardy! panel shows its ignorance of the Bible. — Recommendations — Dad, How Do I? YouTube channel The River by Peter Heller For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 16, 2023
Several years ago, a New York Times headline read, "Is Your Child Lying to You? That's Good." Parents, the author said, shouldn't be upset about their young fibbers because studies show that kids who lie are more intelligent and "socially adept" than those who don't. And for children who aren't quite so good at lying, parents can "speed up the process" through training exercises. If, as the author claims, lying is good for your brain, then the sooner kids start lying, the better. I wish I were making that up, but I'm not. The author's argument is fully consistent with a worldview that sees cognitive ability as the highest quality we should value and cultivate in children. But cognitive intelligence isn't the only kind. There's also moral intelligence—knowing the right thing to do in a morally charged universe. And there's relational intelligence—knowing how best to live in relationship with others, for their good, not just our own. And never forget, "studies" and "research" are never neutral . . . . This Point was originally published on January 19, 2018. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 16, 2023
On December 6, 1907, a massive explosion decimated a coal mine in Monongah, West Virginia. Three hundred and sixty-two miners were killed, making this the worst mining disaster in U.S. history. The tragedy devastated the small town and led eventually to the establishment of the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The Monongah mine disaster also marked another beginning. Several months after the explosion, a local church held a special service in honor of the 362 miners, most of whom had left behind wives and children. This is the first event on record in the United States set aside specifically to honor dads. Two years later , a woman from Spokane who, along with her five siblings, was raised by her widowed father, began a public campaign to establish a national Father's Day. A day for mothers was already in the works and, according to historical accounts, was a much easier sell to the public. By 1916, President Woodrow Wilson had officially recognized Father's Day, though it would not be recognized as a national holiday until 1972. A little over a hundred years after the mining disaster that birthed Father's Day, the United States is now suffering a crisis of fatherlessness . One in four American kids are, like so many in that West Virginia town, growing up without their father at home. That amounts to 18.5 million kids. If statistics hold, this means that 18.5 million children are three times more likely to engage in criminal activity than those who have dads at home. Those 18.5 million kids are more likely to engage in sexual activity earlier, are less likely to go to college , more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems, more likely to struggle academically, are twice as likely to commit suicide , and much more likely to commit violence. The vast majority of mass shooters in the past 20 years were young men who were, in some way, estranged from their fathers. Almost any social good that can be named is dependent on dads who commit to their families and is at risk when they don't. This does not mean that every child who grows up without dad in the home will not succeed. Thank God for the millions of grandparents, relatives, friends, neighbors, and especially single moms who heroically raise children in difficult circumstances. Nor does it mean that a faithful dad at home guarantees success for children. Many people squander the amazing inheritance with which they are blessed. Put differently, statistics do not determine the destiny of individuals. At the same time, statistics predict the future of societies. Though fatherlessness is correlated with almost every major cultural crisis of the 21st century, the importance of dads remains consistently underestimated and is even undermined. So-called "same-sex marriage" and adoption by same-sex couples suggest that either moms or dads really aren't that important when it comes to raising children. Legalized abortion has effectively catechized generations of men into believing they are not obligated to take responsibility for children that result from their sexual activity and catechized generations of women into believing they've no right to expect that commitment from men. According to the Guttmacher Institute, nearly half of all women who seek abortions do so because they've been abandoned by their baby's father. I'm especially grateful for the Institute for Family Studies , which continues to research and report the statistical importance of dads. Just as God designed procreation to require one man and one woman, He meant for that man and that woman to raise their child. Fathers love, teach, provide for, and nurture both sons and daughters in ways moms can't. The same goes for moms. We also know the importance of fathers because God has revealed Himself as a Father. This striking designation should cause every earthly father to tremble. We have an awesome responsibility, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Finally, every person ever created knows in their bones the irreplaceable importance of fathers, either because of the comfort, steadiness, and love we received from an attentive dad, or because of the pain of his absence. Committed dads are essential ingredients for healthy kids, healthy families, and healthy societies (and specifically for more healthy men) . Showing up, sticking around, and discipling kids as only a father can is a powerful witness to the beautiful design and the steadfast love of our own heavenly Father. Every kid needs and deserves one. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 15, 2023
Statistical data from the General Social Survey shows that, contrary to what many think, the overwhelming majority of Americans—a whopping 86%—believe in God at some level. For every American that doesn't believe in God, there are seven who do. Of course, just because 4 out of 5 Americans think God exists doesn't mean they believe in the same God or, for that matter, in the God that actually exists. What we believe about God is a defining aspect of our lives. As A.W. Tozer wrote, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." What we believe about God shapes what we believe about the rest of life, including those ultimate, worldview-shaping questions of origin, identity, meaning, morality, and destiny. And the more a group of people is unmoored from the truth about these things together, the more disconnected they are from those essentials of a healthy and functioning society, such as justice, human dignity, and the care and protection of children. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 15, 2023
An argument commonly used to justify radical ideologies about gender and sexuality is the existence of so-called "third" genders in various cultures throughout history. For example, gender "workbooks" that are often promoted in schools, counseling offices, and online, aimed at children and their parents, suggest that "third" genders prove that transgender identities have historical precedent and are therefore not just products of a modern fad. Among the most cited examples are the Native American "Two-spirit," Thailand's "Kathoey" (regularly translated as "Ladyboy"), Ancient Middle East's "Sal-zikrum," the "Fa'afafine" of Samoa, the "Hijra" of India, and the "Muxe" of Southern Mexico. This long list of those who didn't conform to male and female norms of their cultures may seem to be a compelling argument. However, a quick look at so-called "third" gender people reveals that they are not based on the same presuppositions as modern transgender ideology. At the heart of contemporary gender ideology is a rejection of the so-called "gender binary," that only two genders exist, as well as any essential link between biological sex and gender. The contention is that biological sex is itself "assigned" and therefore not determinative of one's gender identity, which is, after all, nothing more than a social construct. In most cases, labeling non-conforming individuals as "third genders" is an anachronism forced upon people who presumed the reality of biological sex, gender roles, and the so-called "gender binary." For example, the word Fa'afafine, literally translated, means "in the manner of a woman." The name refers to Samoan men who act like, live as, and associate with women. Historically, a Fa'afafine is a boy chosen by his family at a young age to help the mother with household tasks, often because there was no daughter born to the family. In other words, the Fa'afafine are not those "born into the wrong body" who express "their true selves." Nor is the choice based on the boy being a homosexual or even noticeably feminine. Rather, the choice is made for them by a father in a culture committed to distinct gender roles. It's also notable that, in this context, those who are identified as Fa'afafine are not considered to be female, nor are they considered a wife or a mother. They are recognized as men who act like women. This is not a culture that denies sexual difference. The Native American "two-spirit" is a neologism created in 1990 to refer to so-called "third" genders in those cultures. However, "two-spirit" is not monolithic. Each Native American tribe had different ways of describing gender-bending individuals, and most refer to a member of one sex who acts stereotypically like the opposite sex. For example, the Lakota "Winkte," which has been categorized under "two-spirit," refers to a man who is "like a woman." Such identification relies on the fact of binary gender roles. It is not a "third" gender. Of course, modern transgender ideology also relies on the gender binary that it rejects. Rigid masculine or feminine stereotypes determine whether someone's "true identity" is at odds with their bodies. A boy is considered a girl if he likes pink or plays house or even occasionally enjoys stereotypical "feminine" habits or games. In the same way, a girl who likes trucks or playing in the dirt isn't just a tomboy but an actual boy. Amidst all the talk about fluidity and gender spectrums, and sexual identity being a social construct, transgender ideology relies on the grossest, rigid stereotypes. Thus, transgender ideology not only contradicts itself, it also perpetuates the very problem it claims to solve. In the second half of the last century, a cacophony of voices denounced rigid stereotypes as harmful and restrictive, especially for children. The social contagion of those who struggle with the identities today do so because of narrow stereotypes that are treated as absolute and definitive. Girls are no longer allowed to behave "like boys." Rather, they must be boys. And if a boy wants to be a girl, that means embracing the most frilly, suggestive, stereotypes thinkable. All of this ignores the perfectly normal and natural variety found among men and women, long before novel sexual ideologies became new articles of faith for America's cultural priests. (It's also worth mentioning that pointing to other cultures to justify a modern ideology commits the "noble savage" mistake. Just because some other culture did it does not make it right. Imagine suggesting that because ancient cultures practiced cannibalism or slavery, then we should too.) To be made in the image of God is to be male or female. The solution for today's poor thinking is not to default to some shallow stereotype, any more than it is to embrace some harmful practice of some ancient culture. Rather, it is to affirm, at the deepest level, informed by Scripture and biology, the reality and beauty of complementary sexual difference. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 14, 2023
Apparently, Josh Timonen, once a right-hand man of New Atheist author Richard Dawkins, has converted to Christianity. Timonen began working with Dawkins back in 2006, just before the publication of Dawkins' bestseller, The God Delusion, helping with Dawkins' website, some documentaries, as well as his foundation and merchandise. The two parted ways due to a legal dispute. Later, Timonen relocated his family during the pandemic, and they started attending a church so that his young daughter could make friends. At that church, Timonen and his wife began to reconsider Christianity and, after reading Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ, Timonen was confronted with the historical fact of Jesus' life, ministry, and resurrection, all of which he had dismissed early on in his atheism. Within the year, Josh and his wife placed their faith in Christ. Timonen's story is a reminder that God is at work and that through Christ, can reconcile us to Himself, even " while we were enemies " (Romans 5:10). For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 14, 2023
In sports news, the Denver Nuggets have won their first NBA Championship, in their 47th year in the league. That was this week. Last week, it was the Oklahoma Sooners women's softball team that dominated headlines, winning their third straight and seventh overall NCAA championship. For those of us who don't typically follow this particular sport, the OU team was as well known for their celebrations and press conferences as for their dominant play. The word that comes to mind, partly because it was repeated over and over by those in the program and those watching, is joy. To be clear, for these Sooners, joy is not a consequence of winning. It's the other way around. When asked about their joy, during a press conference a few days before winning the national title, team captain Grace Lyons said this: Well, the only way that you can have a joy that doesn't fade away is from the Lord. And any other type of joy is actually happiness that comes from circumstances and outcomes. I think Coach has said this before, but joy from the Lord is really the only thing that can keep you motivated, just in a good mindset, no matter the outcomes. Thankfully, we've had a lot of success this year. But if it was the other way around, joy from the Lord is the only thing that can keep you embracing those memories, moments, friendships, and all that. Following Lyons, her teammate Jayda Coleman discussed her own journey of learning the proper order of winning and joy: 1,000% agree with Grace Lyons. I went through that my freshman year, I was so happy to win the [College World Series]. I've talked about this before, but I was just so happy that we won the College World Series, but I didn't feel joy . . . . I didn't know what to do the next day. I didn't know what to do for that following week. I didn't feel filled. And I had to find Christ in that. And I think that is what makes our team so strong is that we're not afraid to lose, because it's not the end of the world. If we do lose, yes, obviously, we worked our butts off to be here and we want to win. But it's not the end of the world because our life is in Christ. And that's all that matters. It's not unusual at a press conference for an athlete or two to express thankfulness to God. What is unusual is for three in a row to do so, while also expressing how their faith in Christ has completely changed their perspective on sports and life. Sophomore Alyssa Brito then iced the press conference (that's a sports metaphor for an athlete who finishes out a game and secures the win), describing how the game is not life, only part of a life that's completely reoriented by focusing on Christ and not self: I think a huge thing that we've really just latched on to is eyes up. And you guys see us doing this and pointing up, but we're really like fixing our eyes on Christ. And that's something we're, like they we're saying, you can't find a fulfillment in an outcome, whether it's good or bad. And I think that's why we're so steady in what we do and in our love for each other and our love for the game, because we know this game is giving us the opportunity to glorify God. And I just think once we figured that out, and that was our purpose, and everyone was all in with that, it's really changed so much for us. And I mean, I know myself, I've seen so much of a growth in myself . . . . once I turned to Jesus, and I realized how He had changed my outlook on life, not just softball, but understanding how much I have to live for. And that's living to exemplify the Kingdom. And I think that brings so much freedom. And I'm sure everyone's story is similar, but we all have those great testimonies that have really, like, shown how awesome it is to play for something bigger. To be clear, this is a talented team, but there is also a culture in place at OU that just looks different. In another press conference, Coach Patty Gasso attributed their success to knowing "they are defined not by softball . . . . . They never play tight, they never play afraid . . . . because . . . . they've really found their freedom … through their faith." In a " Dear Softball " letter, senior captain Grace Lyons echoed her coach when she said her perspective changed "when I realized you were just something I did, not who I was." The expectation is to idolize you. And the promise is that true joy comes from reaching a goal that you have put all of your effort into. Yes, we as Christians are expected to work hard at all that we do for Christ. But the real victory has already been won on the cross: Jesus dying for my sin and saving me. Because of this, I have an eternal hope that allows me to play your game free with fullness of joy that comes only from the Lord. With this mindset, I have played the most joyful softball the last five years. And that joy has pointed millions to the One who is the Giver of all good gifts. Congrats Grace and OU softball, and thank you for sharing this gift with us. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 13, 2023
According to the BBC , for the first time in the U.K., a baby has been born with DNA from not only mom and dad, but also another woman. About 0.1% of the baby's DNA came from the third party, through a mitochondrial donation. The idea of the procedure is to produce a baby without any of the diseases that result from unhealthy mitochondria inherited from the parents. Though hailed as "the only option for (parents with defective mitochondria) to have a healthy child of their own," it's not certain the procedure will work, nor whether a child born from the process will develop problems later in life. More troubling is that children are treated as a product that is owed to anyone who wants them, through an experiment conducted without a child's knowledge or consent. And, no matter how noble the motives are, once this method enters medical toolkits, it will be used in other ways just like other medical procedures have been. As "throuples" and other relationships are increasingly recognized legally, this technology will be applied for different purposes, sooner not later. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 13, 2023
Eleven years ago, Colorado and Washington became the first U.S. states to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Passed by ballot initiatives put to voters, the legalization of recreational marijuana was due in large part to promise of financial windfalls for schools. But, a shift in public opinion regarding the drug's health risks was required. So, advocates proposed that, when compared to other legal substances like alcohol and cigarettes, marijuana use was less destructive, less addictive, and less fatal. Today, after more than a decade of legal recreational marijuana, we now have significantly more data. Far from being safe, recreational pot is clearly a net loss for public health. More and more studies, in fact, are showing that marijuana poses a number of serious health risks, in particular to pregnant moms, to men, and to people in the workforce. Expectant mothers are especially at risk from marijuana use. According to a Canadian study published last month, the number of hospital visits for pregnant women in Ontario has nearly doubled since Canada legalized recreational marijuana use in 2018. Of those visits that were marijuana related, the majority were emergency room visits. Although, as lead researcher Dr. Daniel Myran observed, marijuana-related incidents made up only a fraction of total visits, almost all of them were serious. Other research has found that babies born to marijuana-using mothers are more likely to be premature and underweight, and more likely to be admitted to neonatal care units . While more research is needed to determine the exact role marijuana plays in harming children in-utero, the correlations are enough to recommend against pregnant moms using marijuana altogether. Marijuana use is also closely linked with spiking rates of mental illness among young men. A new National Institutes of Health study, which looked at more than 6 million subjects across five decades, discovered that up to 30% of schizophrenia cases among men aged 21-30 are related to heavy marijuana use. Men who used cannabis were three times more likely to develop schizophrenia than their female counterparts. As U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse deputy director Dr. Wilson Compton said , "The clear message is that cannabis may not be the innocent and risk-free substance that so many people believe." Marijuana use also poses serious threats for those in the workplace. According to yet another new report , marijuana positivity rates have been steadily climbing across a variety of industries in the past decade, especially in service, retail, and finance or insurance jobs. These increased positivity rates correlate with an increased number of workplace accidents that, afterwards, revealed cannabis use. Despite a decline in these types of accidents between 2002 and 2008, the number of such accidents has increased by over 200% in the past decade. As of 2022, cannabis-related accidents are now at an all-time high in the U.S. For the past two decades, we have been told, as more and more states legalized recreational marijuana use, that cannabis is a harmless substance. However, given the growing body of evidence showing otherwise, the legalization and promotion of pot use should not be allowed to hide, obscure, or deny what we now know. Currently a $32 billion industry , the legalization and promotion of recreational pot is only about profit. Like all industries that prey upon vices, such as gambling or pornography, pot is less about actually helping people and more about keeping them hooked and paying. Though at this point it seems almost impossible to put this destructive genie back in the bottle, any state, company, or person truly interested in helping others will work to reign in the reckless peddling of recreational marijuana use. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Eckert. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 12, 2023
Setting aside it's "a waste of time," as Twenge's daughter puts it, and the predatory pornography and terrible ideas that permeate social media, social media cannot carry the weight of real human connection. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 12, 2023
Could all of this mean Americans aren't as thoroughly converted on these matters as activists assumed? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 10, 2023
Three members of the National Champion Oklahoma University softball team gave a God-honoring definition of joy. John and Maria discuss a new law in Uganda that criminalizes specific expressions of homosexuality. — Recommendations — OU Softball Press Conference Segment 1 - OU Softball Team and the Culture of Joy 2023-06-06 WCWS Oklahoma Pregame Press Conference Segment 2 - The Uganda Homosexuality Law The Briefing with Albert Mohler For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 9, 2023
Last month, a local Memphis news station caught a drive-by shooting live on camera. During an interview about crime with Whitehaven community leader Yolanda Cooper-Sutton, a series of shots rang out across the street. Thankfully, no one was injured. And just as surprising as the shooting was Cooper-Sutton's calm and faith-filled response. Immediately, she advised everyone to get down and stay down. "It's okay," you can hear her saying in order to comfort the shocked crew, and the clip ends with Cooper-Sutton saying from the ground, "Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for the blood of Jesus that cover[s] us." Paul promised the Christians in Philippi that the peace of Christ will rule our hearts. That's just as true when our world is in chaos as when all seems fine and peaceful. And it's a gift we can then give others. Live on camera, God gave Yolanda Cooper-Sutton peace. She then gave it to the crew and, because of a viral video, to the world. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 9, 2023
In less than a decade, the number of American companies with either an official department, an HR initiative, or a job title that includes the words "diversity, equity, and inclusion" has ballooned. In fact, by the end of 2020, U.S. companies were spending an estimated $3.4 billion on so-called "DEI" initiatives. Proponents say DEI initiatives are necessary to fight workplace discrimination. Despite how quickly the trend has grown in recent years, however, it's not working. In 2019, after spending $114 million on an initiative aimed at increasing and promoting diversity, Google's workforce was still only 3% African American. Last summer, The Economist published findings that suggested DEI programs "do more to protect against litigation than to reduce discrimination." Partly behind the failure of DEI initiatives to accomplish their stated goals is how the terms are defined. Diversity is never measured in terms of belief, political party, or religion but, particularly in corporate settings, is reduced down to only categories of race, gender, and sexuality. This is why Time magazine evaluated the success of Google's diversity program based only in terms of the ethnic breakdown of their employees. Of course, diversity is not less than ethnicity, but it should certainly include more. At least part of the history behind defining down these terms emerges from academic circles and the growing influence of critical theory. This quasi-Marxist way of seeing all human history and every human interaction as a power struggle places every human being into two categories: oppressor or oppressed. Moral status is then awarded depending on how many "oppressed" categories with which one identifies. What's left is an approach to life and human interaction that does not elevate what is good, but a purely negative ideology driven by an arbitrary rejection of what's subjectively felt to be bad. For decades, critical theory has stepped out of the academy into other spheres of culture, including media, government, and increasingly the marketplace. Though very few people have actually studied the academic source material, our wider culture is now in what might be called a " critical theory mood ." Companies spend billions of dollars implementing "diversity, equity, and inclusion" programs, because they're under tremendous pressure by cultural gatekeepers to conform and, in effect, define "diversity" of employees by a small, select group of external traits. "Diversity" that doesn't include ideological diversity, for example, isn't really diversity . Hiring a racially or sexually diverse workforce that is otherwise trapped in groupthink when it comes to religion and worldview does not make a better workforce. The belief that group identity should determine who deserves a job, a raise, or a contract is based on a flawed view of who human beings are. While our gender or ethnic backgrounds can have an enormous impact on our lives, they do not ground our value or determine our understanding of life and the world. Nor do they determine what kind of employee we might be. In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly created the Governor's Office of "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion." A few weeks ago, Virginia's current chief diversity officer, Martin Brown, sparked controversy when he was caught on video saying "DEI is dead." Brown's job is mandated by the Virginia legislature, but instead of going along with the way these words are currently understood, Brown is committed to what he called "a different kind of civil discourse." The name of his department has now been changed to the Virginia Office of Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion . Many business leaders, struggling to tread water amidst the DEI tidal wave, know discrimination is wrong. They also realize that many "DEI" programs in practice actually promote discrimination based on a faulty understanding of these terms. Virginia's chief diversity officer is offering a different, better way. Promoting equal opportunity, instead of making promises of equal outcomes that cannot possibly be fulfilled, treats every human being with the respect and dignity of equal consideration and high expectations. Most other expressions of "DEI" are solutions in search of a problem that, in the end, will only result in more problems. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 8, 2023
Despite advocates' claims that marijuana use is harmless, another study indicates otherwise. Apparently, the number of hospital visits for pregnant women has almost doubled in Ontario since Canada legalized recreational marijuana in 2018. Of those visits that were marijuana related, the majority were emergency room visits. According to lead researcher Dr. Daniel Myran, although marijuana-related incidents were only a fraction of overall visits, almost all of them were serious. And according to other research, babies born to marijuana-using mothers are more likely to be born prematurely, have lower birth weights, and be admitted to neonatal care units . Exactly how marijuana harms preborn children will require additional research, but the clear risks are reason enough to recommend that pregnant moms avoid using marijuana altogether. This is another contradiction to the narrative peddled to us for years. Recreational marijuana use is simply not as safe as we are told it was. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 8, 2023
Recently , three families—one Muslim, one Roman Catholic, and one Ukrainian Orthodox—filed a lawsuit against the Montgomery, Maryland, school district. Back in March, the district had shifted its policy, announcing that parents would no longer be notified of LGBT content and parents could not opt-out their students. This is just one example of how deeply worldviews can collide, in just one of many cultural arenas. Who is fundamentally responsible for cultivating the health, well-being, and beliefs of children? Parents or the state? What is acceptable behavior when it comes to sex, and at what ages should we expect them to think about such matters? Are we fundamentally defined by sexual urges and inner feelings, or by something (or Someone) else? Here, three couples who diverge wildly on religious matters agree that certain cultural narratives are undermining their ability to raise their children and imposing a secular worldview on them instead. It is because of this very real collision of worldviews, and the consequences of them, that the Colson Center seeks to equip Christians to understand the public implications of Christian truth, including how to live out that truth in this difficult cultural moment. There are plenty of wonderful resources to learn and study the Bible and Christian theology, and there are different organizations dedicated to discussing and analyzing cultural issues. Seeing the challenges of our cultural moment through the light of Scriptural truth is, however, something else, as is seeing our presence in this cultural moment as a calling of God. Our daily Breakpoint commentaries and What Would You Say? videos are timely, but not merely reactive, offering a grounded way of thinking about tough issues and hard questions through the lens of Christian truth. The Upstream and Strong Women podcasts engage a variety of thoughtful Christian voices who are pointing us both upstream and downstream, how to think and how to live. The Colson Fellows program trains and equips leaders in every sphere of culture and every walk of life, to live redemptively where God has placed them. The Colson Educators Collective equips teachers to teach from a Christian worldview, and the Colson Center National Conference is an annual time of learning and formation, not to mention quite a "family reunion" for us. Breakpoint listener Lexi, who just graduated high school, wrote to tell us how the Colson Center has helped her live out her faith: "My junior and senior years of high school I began to discover a love for worldview study that I had not known. ... I discovered Breakpoint , then read more Nancy Pearcey, C.S. Lewis, Schaeffer, watched Dobbs unfold, and realized there were more Colson Center podcasts and started listening to Upstream and Strong Women too. The Colson Center and the concepts you discuss have played such a huge part in this watershed. It has shaped my understanding of the world I live in, and consequently who I've become, where I am going to college, my desire both primarily to be a mother and secondarily to pursue law. In short, the Colson Center has been very instrumental in my life." Another Breakpoint listener, a mother, shared how God used Colson Center resources to bolster her faith and love her family through the upheaval of the last few years: "Both of my kids graduated in 2020; one from high school and the other from college. Navigating these major life transitions during a pandemic was very challenging for them, to say the least. With COVID also brought confusing messages from our families, Christian friends, health and political "authorities," and even our beloved church. ... George Floyd ... and a course in "Ethnic Studies" had our daughter buying into Critical Race Theory and deconstructing her faith. Enter the Colson Center. I had somehow gotten on your email list and subsequently subscribed to your Breakpoint podcast. Then came along your online conferences and short courses, the Strong Women podcast and Upstream with Shane [Morris]. Your articles and programs grabbed a hold of me and helped me—a Christian of over 30 years—keep my eyes on Jesus during a very confusing time. They helped me speak truth in love to my kids, friends, family, and church." The Colson Center equips Christians to live out their faith with clarity, confidence, and courage in this cultural moment. If Colson Center products and programs have helped you as a parent, grandparent, youth, student, citizen, employee, leader, or neighbor, would you prayerfully consider partnering with us through a fiscal-year-end gift? Any gift given by Friday, June 30, will help us continue equipping Christians to live as agents of restoration in this time and place. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Michaela Estruth. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 7, 2023
Last month, a professor at Hunter College in New York City was fired and later arrested for an outburst directed at pro-life students . Shellyne Rodriguez was caught on video shouting profanity at the students and claiming their pro-life display was "violent." She then shoved pamphlets off the table before storming off. When a reporter from the New York Post showed up at her home asking for a comment, she charged him with a machete. Abortion is an example of what sociologist Philip Rieff called a "deathwork," a cultural artifact that only tears down. One mark of a "deathwork" is incoherence—such as calling something "violent" before responding with actual violence, or claiming to promote tolerance and inclusion by excluding all who disagree. The pro-life students at Hunter College did well, remaining calm in the face of this incoherent aggression. Their example is one we can follow as we point people in this culture of death to eternal life. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 7, 2023
According to recent numbers released from the CDC, about 1 in 4 of today's high school students identify as LGBTQ. This means it's never been more important for Christian parents, teachers, pastors, and mentors to love, support, and guide teens who are wrestling through these issues. They need to know what biblical truth is about sex, identity, and relationships, and why it is loving, reasonable, and best. I am so grateful for a brand-new resource from my friend Greg Stier, whose writing and work at Dare 2 Share ministries has made him a leader in working with students. In a recent blog post, Greg outlined four key principles to help lead teenagers to a biblical understanding of these difficult issues in a way that is loving, articulate, and bold. The first biblical principle is to "choose love, not hate, as [our] posture." Even though Christians reject the false views of love promoted in so many ways today, we are not off the hook from practicing the real thing. Greg explains: "God is love." That's who He is. ... Because of His love, God doesn't wait until we clean up our act to save us. ... Romans 5:8 shockingly asserts: 'But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.' ... Encourage your teenagers to love everyone, no matter what, all the time, because God has relentlessly loved us. Teach your teens to continually drench their theological convictions with biblical compassion and agape love—and may we do the same. Second, we must "choose the Bible, not culture, as [our] authority." The Bible originated from the mind of God. ... Because it's inspired from God Himself, it's as perfect as God Himself. As Christians, we're commanded to listen to, respect, and obey God's Word—whether we like what it says or not, whether culture disagrees with it or not, whether people mock us for it or not. Even when we don't like the rules, we can take comfort in the fact that they aren't arbitrary—they're based on God's perfect character and are given for our good (see Deuteronomy 10:12-14). [but] it's important to help [students] understand that God's house rules don't apply only to Christians. ... God made the universe, so everything in it belongs to Him. As Psalm 24:1-2 explains: 'The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for He founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.' The Bible is His primary way of explaining to His creation—to all humanity—who He is, who we are, and how the world works. Since the whole universe can be considered God's "house," His rules—as outlined in the Bible—apply to everyone. In other words, the Bible is humanity's instruction manual. And it's clear on issues of identity and sexuality. Greg goes to outline just how clear the Bible is on identity, gender, and sexual orientation. Third, we need to "choose the Gospel, not sin management, for solutions." It's vital to believe, and help our teenagers to believe, in this transforming power of the Gospel. Romans 1:16 makes it clear that "it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." The Greek word for "salvation" means "deliverance from peril or danger." We must believe that the Gospel can deliver any teenager from any sin, including any kind of sexual brokenness. We're all born as slaves to our flesh—which encompasses our genetics, hormones, natural instincts, and sinful desires—and into a sinful, fallen environment—which includes abuse, unbiblical ideologies, and more. But the amazing news of the Gospel is that when we trust Christ, His Spirit frees us from that slavery and enables us to live in God's ways—no matter what caused our sin to begin with. And finally, fourth "choose engagement, not detachment." For years, Greg and Dare 2 Share ministries have been training and equipping students to share their faith. Increasingly, this means having to engage difficult questions and issues such as these. What if it's possible not only for Christian teens to not be confused and deceived, but to also be ambassadors for Christ to their confused and deceived peers. Greg thinks it is. Imagine if the Church began to intentionally reach out—with a Jesus-style blend of love and conviction—to people who identify as LGBTQ and started seeing more and more lives transformed by the power of the Gospel. How much different would the future look, both for the Church and for the lives that were changed? Greg is offering a free four-lesson curriculum for students called Hard Questions: Examining Gender, Sexuality, and Identity Through a Gospel Lens on his website. You can find it at gregstier.org . This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 6, 2023
With a one-minute look at culture from a Christian worldview, I'm John Stonestreet with The Point. Recently, Christian writer Samuel Sey tweeted, "The question isn't: 'does God exist?' The question is: 'how could anything exist without God?'" Or, as Fraulein Maria sang in The Sound of Music, "Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could." Not only is there something (lots of them) in this world, but there is also consciousness, creativity, beauty, love, and order. These things say an awful lot about what kind of First Cause is required to bring all these somethings into existence. One Twitter user pushed back against Sey arguing that a more important question is, "What kind of people should we be?" Sey responded, "It's impossible to know what kind of people we should be without affirming who our [C]reator is." God, in particular the Christian God, is the best explanation for the world we experience. As C.S. Lewis put it , "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else." For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 6, 2023
Welcome to Breakpoint , a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. It's been almost two years since the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving a void of power quickly filled by the Taliban. In that time, Taliban rulers have outlawed women's education, religious freedom, and even music . That's why a concert violinist named Ali left his instrument behind when he fled Afghanistan in 2021. He knew the Taliban would confiscate and destroy any instruments they found, along with music shops and schools. After Ali arrived in the United States, a stranger heard his story and decided to donate his violin to the displaced musician. Through a series of connections, the violin made its way from New York to L.A., courtesy of a podcaster who shared the saga in a now-viral Twitter thread. Initially, Latif Nasser struggled to track down Ali in California. His texts and calls went unanswered. Eventually, when the two met, Nasser discovered Ali had been unresponsive due to an unpredictable work schedule at the mall. Most of the money Ali made was sent to support his family in Kabul. Nasser also learned that Ali had been a famous violinist in Afghanistan. He performed in a TV orchestra and even toured in the West. In fact, he'd once played at Carnegie Hall. Nasser not only gave Ali the violin, but he also set up an online fundraiser to help Ali restart lessons or attend music school. The fundraiser was so successful that Ali eventually shut it down, not wanting to take more money than he needed. This remarkable story is not only about the kindness of strangers: It also points to something deeper about what it means to be human. God created us to create, like He does. Made in His image, as the first few chapters of Genesis make plain, humans were created for the purpose of cultivating the rest of creation for the glory of God (Genesis 1:26-28). God's Word makes clear that, in Christ, He intends not just to save souls but to restore His creation. Just as the garden was full of beauty, when Christ's Kingdom is finally "on earth as it is in heaven," its beauty will be perfect. Though our attempts to cultivate the earth are tainted, frustrated, and even painful, our calling to care for His creation remains. Beauty remains even when perfection is impossible. Beauty pleases God and brings Him glory, just as beauty pleases us. In his book Man's Search for Meaning , Holocaust survivor and psychologist Viktor Frankl tells the story of waking up one night in Auschwitz to the unlikely sound of a violin. To discover that there was any semblance of art in a concentration camp must be surprise enough for an outsider, but he may be even more astonished to hear that one could find a sense of humor there as well. According to Frankl, beauty and humor offered the prisoners a kind of cognitive distance from their suffering, even if only for a few minutes, suggesting that a deep longing for beauty is central to the human experience. Art and music are not frivolous parts of life. If Frankl's account is true, human beings will hunger for beauty even when they have far more urgent needs—like food, water, and safety—going unmet. The gratuitously oppressive move by the Taliban to outlaw music is fundamentally different from how the Bible describes the purpose and substance of beauty, especially its power to point us to the one true God andmove us to worship Him. It only makes sense that the Taliban would hate music, just as they hate education, religious freedom, and individual rights. Each of these things flows from Christianity's fundamental view about God, His world, and human beings. In fact, the power of beauty to point us to God was a theme of this year's Colson Center National Conference. We hosted an impressive lineup of speakers, many of whom have dedicated their lives to creating beautiful things, from graphic design to good barbecue. If you missed the conference this year, the footage will be available soon to stream online. Just visit colsonconference.org. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 5, 2023
TikTok is feeding teens a "diet of darkness." Recently, a group of researchers created fictitious accounts of 13-year-olds and quickly found their feeds full with content about eating disorders, body image, self-harm, and even suicide. This is despite the fact that TikTok currently employs 40,000 content moderators and has default screen-time limits for teens. TikTok's problems have long plagued all social media platforms. Most have made efforts to prohibit the promotion of socially contagious self-destructive behaviors, but none have been able to eliminate this content entirely. Their guidelines, bans, and moderators do nothing to restrict other destructive content, such as ideas about gender confusion and transition. Parents can't rely on the goodwill of social media giants to protect their kids. They must be proactive in teaching them how to use tech wisely and, often, just say no to it. Most importantly, parents need to remind their kids who they are: people made in the image and likeness of God. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 5, 2023
On June 5, 1865, Anglican priest and polymath Sabine Baring-Gould wrote the processional hymn, "Onward, Christian Soldiers." The hymn was originally written for children walking to Horbury St. Peter's Church near Wakefield in Yorkshire, England. Far from the cultural stereotype that the hymn earned Baring-Gould—that of a militant, narrow-minded clergyman fearful of and fighting against new knowledge—he actually led an impressive life, remaining keenly inquisitive about the world God has made. The song, which he wrote in about 15 minutes, was originally titled "A Hymn for Procession with Cross and Banners." It was inspired by biblical imagery of the Christian as a soldier and only became popular when composer Arthur Sullivan wrote a new melody for it later. Its military imagery, out of step with today's cultural vibes, has led many contemporary hymnbook compilers to leave it aside. Like other Anglican clergymen of his day, Baring-Gould was involved in more than serving parishes and writing children's processionals. He was the son and heir of a noble family but decided on a career in the Church. Ordained in 1864, he became curate at the church at Horbury Bridge, where a year later he would pen "Onward, Christian Soldiers." There, he met Grace Taylor, the then-teenaged daughter of a local miller. The two fell in love and, despite a considerable age gap, were married for 48 years until her passing. Together, they raised 15 kids, all but one of whom survived into adulthood. Even while serving in parishes, Baring-Gould was a prolific writer, with nearly 1,300 titles to his credit. These include novels and short stories published in a variety of journals, a 16-volume series called Lives of the Saints, modern biographies, travelogues, hymns (the best-known of which aside from "Onward, Christian Soldiers" being "Now the Day Is Over"), sermons, apologetics, and cultural and anthropological studies. He had an international reputation as an antiquarian. His Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, a study of 24 medieval superstitions and their variants and antecedents, was particularly popular and was even cited by sci-fi and horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. He also published The Book of Werewolves, a collection of stories still widely cited. To do some of this work, Baring-Gould studied and mastered several ancient, medieval, and modern languages. Along with more common languages for British scholars of the period, he knew Basque, an obscure language unrelated to any other, sufficiently well enough to translate a Basque Christmas carol into English as "The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came." Baring-Gould's God-driven curiosity about the world only furthered when he inherited his family estate in Devon in 1872. He moved there as both squire and vicar in 1881, devoting a great deal of time to studying and writing about Devon and the West Country. He transcribed hundreds of folk songs from the region that would otherwise have been lost, even publishing several volumes in collaboration with Cecil Sharp, a central figure in preserving and promoting English folk songs in the Edwardian period. Baring-Gould considered these collections of songs his most important work. He also earned an international reputation in the developing field of archaeology. With his friend Robert Burnard, Baring-Gould began the first scientific archaeological excavations of Dartmoor in Devon, which includes the largest concentration of Bronze Age remains in Britain. The two initially concentrated on hut circles, depressions in the ground outlined with stones that were the foundations for conical wooden huts thousands of years ago, before launching a more systematic investigation of the region. As secretary of the group, Baring-Gould authored the first 10 annual reports of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee. This began a systematic exploration and occasional restoration of the region's prehistoric sites. Beyond the annual reports, he published several other works on Dartmoor. As if all this were not enough, Baring-Gould was also an amateur ironworker and painter. Prior to his ordination, while a teacher at a boys' school, he designed the ironwork for the school and painted scenes from The Canterbury Tales and The Faerie Queene on the jambs of the windows. In all, Baring-Gould was far more than the lyricist for "Onward, Christian Soldiers." As Anthony Esolen commented, he could only have lived in the 19th century, when scholarship was not so specialized, and amateurs could still make important contributions to a wide range of fields. For our era, he is a remarkable example of a person who used the prodigious talents God had given him to serve the church, his community, and the wider world. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 2, 2023
John and Maria look at some alternatives to Pride month. Christian schools in Minnesota are taking the state to court. — Recommendations — Saving Private Ryan Out of a Jar by Deborah Marcero Segment 1 - Minnesota Dual Enrollment Law Segment 2 - Pride Month "Second Dodgers pitcher speaks out against Pride Night festivities: 'God cannot be mocked'" The Washington Examiner Fidelity Month webinar Segment 3 - Marijuana and Mental Health For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 2, 2023
Today is Donut Day. Believe it or not, the day wasn't founded by Krispy Kreme or Dunkin but by The Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938 to commemorate their " Donut Lassies " who served during World War I. Methodist minister William Booth founded The Salvation Army in the 1860s to care for the poor in London. It was originally called the East London Revival Society . During World War I, the organization provided ambulances, clothing for soldiers, and refreshment huts. Booth's daughter, Evangeline, told volunteers, "You are going overseas to serve Christ. … You must forget yourselves, be examples of His love, be willing to endure hardship, to lay down your lives, if need be, for His sake." The Donut Lassies stationed at the refreshment huts in France served donuts to the weary men on the front lines to bring them a taste of home. When the troops returned, they brought their love of "donuts" with them. And that's why we have Donut Day. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 2, 2023
Therapy is about as much of the American experience these days as baseball, pickup trucks, and apple pie. Professional counseling is now seen as more than just a last resort for psychological distress, but as a healthy, essential path for resolving personal issues. In 2019, nearly 20% of Americans received some form of mental health treatment ranging from medication to therapy. Over 40% of Americans have seen a counselor at some point in their lives. Recently in the New York Times, journalist Susan Dominus asked an important question, especially given that the U.S. is in the grip of an ever-worsening mental health crisis: "Does therapy really work?" On one hand, dozens of studies confirm the value of talk-based therapy. A landmark 1977 study , for example, found that those with significant psychological distress "fared better than 75 percent of those with similar diagnoses who went untreated." University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Bruce Wampold put it , "the fact that you can just go talk to another human being … and get effect sizes that are measurable" is kind of miraculous. Other research, Dominus explains , is less clear. A 2021 study found that more than half of depression patients saw little or no benefit from talk therapy, and only one third found their depression receding long term. Another study found that only 50% of patients responded to cognitive behavioral therapy regarding anxiety disorders. The uncertainty has led some to push for alternative treatments, including more prescriptions of drugs like psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms. One prominent researcher mused , "Maybe we have reached the limit of what you can do by talking to somebody." Of course, the results of therapy depend on a number of factors. While counseling is a powerful tool, it can only aim at the question, "What's going on inside of me?" Often missed, which is especially consequential for a culture in a crisis of mental health , are the fixed reference points outside of ourselves by which we can be known and orient who we are. Psychology is one of the many areas of modern life that has taken what sociologists call "an inward turn," characterized by radical individualism and reliance on self-definition. Rather than pursue healing or the restoration of relationships, counseling can devolve into endless rounds of affirmation, a sort of perpetual re-baptism in the church of self-expression. This is just one way that therapy has replaced religion for many seekers. Self-discovery is the new salvation, and therapists the new priests. The key feature of psychology as religion, however, is the self as the new deity. This has only enabled, as Lisa Selin Davis observed recently at The Free Press , so many of the West's top schools and institutions to embrace and employ Critical Race Theory rhetoric and LBGTQ politics. The American Counseling Association now divides counselors and clients into either "privileged" and "marginalized" groups with a dedicated script for each and little mercy for those who dissent. More states have passed so-called "anti-conversion-therapy" laws, which threaten professionals who do anything other than only affirm a client's proposed gender identity. As a result, deeper mental health issues are never addressed, and anyone who speaks up can find themselves out of a job. One therapist in training put it, "My concern is that we're not helping people heal and transcend. We're just helping people live in their victim mentality." In a tragic irony, the inward turn has made it harder, not easier, for the struggle to know themselves. There are some, many of them Christians, striving to rethink psychology and counsel others by looking outward as well as inward, to know themselves by first knowing what is true and good. We can only know ourselves by first knowing reality, ultimately God and the world He made. Any mental health journey without that fixed reference point is destined to harm more than it helps. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 1, 2023
Recently, The Washington Post published an oddly titled piece celebrating the miraculous survival of Denver Coleman. Thirty weeks into pregnancy, Kenyatta Coleman learned her unborn child had a pre-birth condition which gave the baby only a 1% chance of survival. With Coleman's permission, doctors performed a first-of-a-kind surgery. Days later, Coleman gave birth to Denver, a miraculously healthy little girl. Despite the piece's clear joy over the miracle of Denver's life, even calling her an "unborn child" throughout the piece, The Washington Post's editors ran with this title: "A Fetus had a 1% Chance at Life. A Historic Surgery in Womb Saved It." "Fetus" and "It," not "Child" or "Her"? Talk about underwhelming. ... I doubt that her parents, her family, or even the doctors trained in medicalese used that language to describe Denver after working so hard to save her life. All life is miraculous. All are, whatever their health or ability, created by God in His image. Welcome to God's world, little Denver! For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jun 1, 2023
In his recent and remarkable book, Biblical Critical Theory, theologian Christopher Watkin points out how often our thinking falls into false dichotomies. Humans are either animals or gods; the planet is either progressing toward utopia or doomed to catastrophe; sex is either no big deal or our whole identity. Back and forth the cultural pendulum swings, never considering that there may be another option: a story that transcends these dichotomies and makes better sense of the way the world is. Sex in particular has been subject to ideological extremes. For most of my lifetime, pop culture has followed the maxim that "sex sells." So, scantily clad women have been used to market everything from cars and football to movies and music. Beer companies often took the lead, featuring provocative models in swimsuits unabashedly pandering to the lust of their predominantly male customers. The pendulum seems to have swung the other direction, though the undisguised profit motive remains. For example, Miller Lite's messaging has done a 180. In a new ad, the beer company chose to appeal to faddish feminist sensibilities. In it, actress Ilana Glazer indignantly tears down beer ads featuring women in bikinis while announcing that Miller Lite is now a champion of women's dignity and women brewers. The company is doing the right thing and, to quote David Spade from Tommy Boy , "in just a shade under a decade, too ... Alright!" If it weren't laced with profanity, I could get behind this new direction. I fully support any move away from cynically exploiting women for marketing, whatever the motive. Unlike Bud Light's recent, disastrous choice to feature transgender actor Dylan Mulvaney (a man) on its cans, Miller is at least gesturing toward an ideal that companies should sell products, not objectify people. However, here's where another cultural false dichotomy complicates things. Glazer and the executives at Miller would no doubt say they support abortion, so-called same-sex marriage, transgender identity, sexual liberation, and a whole host of other ideas that have now replaced the "sex sells" mentality of years past. But these still objectify, dehumanize, and exploit women. The pendulum has swung from one misguided extreme to another. There is a better vision for sexuality that transcends the exploitation of women's bodies on one hand or the denial of their existence on the other. That alternative was recently on display in a surprising place. Christian pro-life activist Lila Rose appeared on the dating talk podcast Whatever, which boasts over 4 million subscribers on YouTube. She was joined by a colorful assortment of guests, including a self-proclaimed pickup artist and several women who have made careers selling pictures of their bodies online. Typically, the format of the podcast involves the men shaming the women for their promiscuous behavior which, of course, the men also engage in. Lila threw both sides for a loop by describing a Christian view of the sexes in which men and women have "equal dignity" and in which sexual relationships are not only about pleasure but also about "procreation and the ability to bring life into the world." All of this, she added, is designed to occur "within marriage," "a lifelong, public commitment" to one's spouse, a commitment which, as she rightly pointed out, social science demonstrates to be the most fulfilling and stable type of sexual relationship. The other guests on the podcast seemed mystified. One of the men dismissed Lila as "annoying" and "a goody-two-shoes" after she challenged him to exercise self-control and commit himself faithfully to one woman. She may not have converted any of the other guests, but if the reaction online is any indication, she made a lasting impression on a lot of people. Lila did what every Christian should do in a culture captivated by false dichotomies. She painted a better vision of anything currently on offer. She pointed to an alternative in which men and women are not at war with one another but in harmony, an alternative characterized by self-giving and life-affirming love, not lust or an attempt to eliminate sexual difference. Even if the world has forgotten this option in its reckless swings from one false extreme to another, God still calls us to reject these distortions and make the case for something better, and not to sell beer or win subscribers but to point people to the One who made the world that way. After all, a life lived in light of this truth can be a far more effective advertisement than anything a beer company produces. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 31, 2023
After a bit of back and forth, the Los Angeles Dodgers have decided to feature the drag group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence during their pride month celebrations and even award them a Community Hero Award. The "sisters" are a mockery of a Catholic religious order and perform blasphemous parodies of Christianity and the sacraments. Their tagline is "Go forth and sin some more," a perversion of the words of Jesus. Other examples of their acts are too evil to mention. As Robert George of Princeton observed , If men wearing hijabs were to prance around mocking Muslim women, insulting Islam and faithful Muslims, and ridiculing the sayings of the Prophet Mohammad, their bigotry would be widely and rightly condemned. What would the Los Angeles Dodgers do? Praise them? Give them an award? We need to pray for all those who are trapped in these perversions while also calling out the Dodgers for their bigotry against Christianity. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 31, 2023
If the final few weeks of May were any indication, this June's pride month noise will be louder and edgier than previous years. Already, the controversy surrounding Target's new line of clothing, produced in partnership with a clothing company that also produces clothing to celebrate Satanism , has dominated the nation's headlines. Incredulously, most mainstream media outlets (and a few "Christian" ones) have painted as the bad guys those concerned about children being groomed instead of the corporate and activist entities doing the actual grooming. However, there are plenty of people not fooled by this narrative, given the financial hit Target has already taken. And then there is the strange saga of the L.A. Dodgers. After a rather public back and forth, the Major League Baseball team decided to platform an LGBTQ organization that is known for its hyper-sexualized performances that openly blaspheme Jesus and mock Christian symbolism. Such mockery would never be tolerated if directed at other religious groups. But in a culture lost in what might be called a "critical theory mood," even the most extreme acts are seen through the lens of predetermined cultural groupings that have been given moral status. Not only did the Dodgers organization backpedal their initial reversal, the so-called "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" will now be given some kind of Community Hero Award. In response, Christians must do two things. First, we can and should protest both with our voices and our pocketbooks. Dodgers players and Target shoppers will need to think through where the line of complicity is. Second, we should proclaim a better way. One of Chuck Colson's closest colleagues and collaborators has an idea worth considering: "By the authority vested in me by absolutely no one," Professor Robert George of Princeton University wrote in an email last week, "I have declared June to be ' Fidelity Month' —a month dedicated to the importance of fidelity to God, spouses and families, our country, and our communities." Perhaps the leading Christian legal thinker of our lifetime, Professor George worked closely with Chuck Colson and Timothy George on the Manhattan Declaration. The 2009 statement of conscience outlined Christian conviction on the areas of life, marriage, and religious liberty. It only makes sense that Professor George would suggest Fidelity Month as a time of intentional remembering of those allegiances so often scorned in a culture like ours. "Pride" for example asks us to prioritize desire and autonomy over allegiance to God, children, each other, and ultimately, to reality itself. That makes June a particularly good month for Christians to be clear about where we stand, making the important decision to, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it, "live not by lies." It's never easier, in fact, to go along with something that isn't true than during so-called pride month. Like when Israel would set aside days and seasons to remember and repent and recalibrate, why not choose to be intentional about making June something else: a time to remember and teach the next generation about our most important responsibilities as those made in the image of God. In this email from Professor George, the task of remembering seemed to be of particular concern: You may have read about the rather disturbing recent WSJ poll indicating a precipitous decline in our fellow Americans' belief in the importance of such values as patriotism, religion, family, and community—the values that used to unite Americans despite our many differences. "There are a million things we can and should do to restore the faith of our people," George continued, "but I would like you to join in one small one." Fidelity Month will launch with a webinar that is open to the public, tomorrow, June 1, at 2 p.m. EST. Professor George will be joined by Lila Rose of Live Action, Andrew Walker of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Bill McClay of Hillsdale College, and others. Learn more and register for the webinar at www.fidelitymonth.com . Also on the website, you can find the Fidelity Month symbol, a specially designed wreath that is, representative of God and His eternal nature, while the openness at the top of the wreath is suggestive of a divine embrace. The branches and leaves that compose the wreath signify a family that is dependent upon and in union with God. The star and stripe at the center bottom of the wreath symbolize our common union as Americans– "one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." The color gold symbolizes generosity and compassion – virtues that are closely connected to fidelity (supporting it and being supported by it). Fidelity, generosity, and compassion are anti-narcissistic virtues, reflecting the knowledge – the wisdom – that everything is not "about me." It is a recognition of the duties we have to others, and that our true fulfillment is to be found in serving others: God, our spouses and families, our communities and country. The color blue, our background color, symbolizes truth, loyalty, responsibility, and peace. The Fidelity Month symbol can be shared and posted on social media, and the Fidelity Month website includes other ideas for individuals, families, churches, and leaders to reframe the next month in a way that honors God, each other, our children, and our nation. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 30, 2023
It pays to pay attention. Earlier this month, Michigan seventh grader Dillon Reeves saved the lives of 60 students when he drove his school bus to safety. When the driver of the bus lost consciousness, most of the other students didn't notice because they were on their phones. Dillon doesn't have a phone, so he noticed when the bus started drifting and jumped into action. The pressure to get smartphones for kids and let them access social media apps is incredible today. Almost 3 in 4 American youth own smartphones by age 12, and 84% of teens 13 to 18 use social media. Today's teens average about 9 hours a day on screens. The dangers of digital distraction are well documented: body image issues, sleep deprivation, pornography addiction, even suicidality. In the case of the Michigan school bus, kids would've lost their lives if Dillon had been distracted. To quote Dillon's dad, let's hope that his son's heroics will serve as "a change-the-world kind of lesson." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 30, 2023
Recently in The Guardian, Emma Beddington covered a new twist on an old practice. According to the 2022 U.K. census, writes Beddington, "74,000 people declared they were pagan, an increase of 17,000 since 2011." Meanwhile in the U.S., "a 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center estimated at least 0.3% of people... identified as pagan or Wiccan, which translates to about one million people." And, though it's not clear how anyone could know this, "That number is expected to triple by 2050." Those numbers, while a small minority of the population, are significant when set against the overall decline of Christianity in the West. According to British historian Dr. Ronald Hutton , today's version of paganism is "a religion in which deities don't make rules for humans or monitor their behaviour—humans are encouraged to develop their full potential." This comes with a heavy emphasis on being Earth-conscious, with rituals and festivals focused on connecting with nature. In this way, suggests Hutton, paganism is filling "a need for a spiritualised natural world in a time of ecological crisis." Beddington describes the new paganism as a "tolerant, open, life-affirming, female-friendly faith." It does seem to check all the right contemporary Western boxes: a feeling of transcendence without many hard commitments, a rejection of traditional morality while keeping a vague inclusivity, and enough concern for the natural world to qualify as a social justice cause. Or, as a group based out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst summarized: "Pagans view the world as a place of joy and life, not of sin and suffering. We believe that the divine is here with us in the natural world, not in some faraway place in the sky." At the same time, the new paganism is a world away from ancient paganism. Though often a catch-all term for a wide variety of pre-Christian beliefs, paganism suffers from a shortage of written records. However, what we do know would not be best described as a universe born out of "joy and life, not of sin and suffering." In Hesiod's Theogony, the Greek version of the origin of the cosmos and the gods, the birth of each divine generation is preceded by violence. Uranus, the sky, produces children with Gaia, the Earth, but hates them. Of their children is the titan Cronus who castrates his father. His blood falls onto the Earth and sea and creates still more gods. Cronus is, in turn, dethroned and imprisoned by Zeus. Celtic paganism does little better. Drawing on contemporary sources , most scholars believe the Druids enacted human sacrifices on a broad scale to appease the forces of nature, which they saw as temperamental and hostile. One example is the Lindow man , whose mangled remains suggest a ritual death as part of cultic sacrifice. Employing St. Augustine's approach to the depravity of pagan gods, writer Paul Krause offered this critique: The pagan gods were born from patricide and rebellion. They were born from primordial acts of sexual violence. Their patronage was in the civitas terrena which cared only to advance its depraved lust to control. Modern pagans reject ancient paganism. They find solidarity with the idea of human equality and dignity, see the natural world as a place of order rather than of chaos, and call for sexual restraint, the protection of children and disadvantaged groups, the end of slavery, mindless conquest, and human sacrifice. To this extent, they are embracing the innovations of Christianity. After all, it was Christianity and not paganism, as historian Tom Holland has explained, that taught that men, women, and children, slave or free, share the imago dei. It was St. Patrick , not the Druids, who believed and taught Ireland that " the Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" and not subject to hostile spirits who are appeased by bloodletting. It was Christianity that turned Nordic peoples away from a belief system that committed them to conquest, plunder, and death in battle. In short, all the things that make modern paganism appealing to modern people aren't pagan. Though many Westerners are bored by the hollowness of materialism and desperate to fill the spiritual vacuum it has left, they will not find answers in dead religions. Only Jesus offers the truth: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 29, 2023
Analyzing medical data from 6 million people, researchers in Denmark have found that up to 30% of schizophrenia cases among young men could be linked to marijuana use . Increased potency of marijuana in the global market is a factor, and lawmakers have "decreas[ed] the public's perception of its harm," according to the study's lead author. The law is a teacher. Legalizing marijuana use essentially teaches constituents that marijuana is safe. Except it isn't. Legalizing pot was, especially early on, sold as a way of helping sick people. But cannabis is the only substance I can think of approved for medical use and then legalized for recreation. As far as the cannabis industry is concerned, which is estimated this year to be worth 32 billion dollars, it has never really been about health. As more and more evidence emerges that pot is not as safe as the public was sold, we'll learn whether it's possible to put this genie back in its bottle. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 29, 2023
Today, Memorial Day, I want to share a commentary on Memorial Day from Chuck Colson. Here's Chuck: This Memorial Day, reflect with me on how we should respond to the enormous sacrifices of our men and women in uniform. Memorial Day is when we honor the men and women of our armed services who have made "the supreme sacrifice," who gave their lives for their country. Especially these days, when Memorial Day seems nothing more than a time for cookouts and swim parties, we cannot be reminded often enough about how great a debt we owe our war dead. They gave up their hopes and dreams, families, and friends. They submitted themselves to rigorous discipline—something I understand as a former Marine—24-hour-a-day duty—and placed their lives in great peril. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Their sacrifice should inspire in us a profound sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy, bought with a price. And that gratitude should compel us to lives of service as well. Serving Christ, our neighbor, and yes, our nation. I can't help but recall the brilliant film Saving Private Ryan. James Ryan, now in his seventies, has returned with his family to the military cemetery in Normandy. He visits the grave of Capt. John Miller, the man who, a half a century before, led the mission to retrieve—to save—Pvt. Ryan. At the end of the mission, Miller was fatally wounded. As he lay dying, his final words to Pvt. Ryan were "James. Earn this … earn it." We then see Ryan kneeling at Capt. Miller's grave, marked by a cross. Ryan, his voice trembling with emotion, says, "Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. I tried to live my life the best that I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that, at least in your eyes, I've earned what all of you have done for me. " Red-eyed, Ryan turns to his wife and says, "Tell me I've led a good life … tell me I am a good man." With great dignity, she says, "You are." With that, James Ryan salutes the grave of Capt. Miller. I tell this story in greater detail in my book The Good Life , which you can purchase at colsoncenter.org. You see, Pvt. Ryan, out of gratitude for Capt. Miller's sacrifice, did all in his power to live a good life. And Memorial Day is a great time for each of us to look into the mirror … to examine our own lives. Are we living good lives in gratitude for all those who have sacrificed for us—including our men and women in the military, our families, our friends, and most of all Christ? Are we, like Ryan, kneeling before the cross? Spielberg, a master cinematographer, had to realize the power of this imagery. Are we, out of gratitude, doing our duty for Christ, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, ministering to those in prison, in whatever harvest field to which the Lord has called us? Examine your life. And this Memorial Day, at the very least, thank those who have sacrificed for you and those you know who have served in our nation's armed forces. Maybe you'll do what I do when you see a guy or gal in uniform … at the airport, at the store, wherever … walk up to them and thank them for their service. And then go and remember Whom it is you serve. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 26, 2023
A look at the passing of Tim Keller, who was called a giant by both top theologians and The New York Times. Christians are re-considering doing business with companies like Target and a handful of others that mock Christianity. Recommendations Lighthouse Voices with J.P. De Gance A Small Light What Should a Christian's Response be to the Transgender Movement? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 26, 2023
Is the Metaverse headed for the graveyard? A year and a half after its release, the Metaverse remains vastly unpopular, despite millions of dollars of corporate investments and costly marketing campaigns. The most well-funded Metaverse app only has 38 active daily users, and Microsoft and Disney have laid off their specially designated Metaverse teams. In the initial hype, Meta overestimated the desire and demand for virtual reality. Meta could be our generation's MySpace, soon to be replaced by something superior, or it could be the failure to account for our embodied natures as image bearers. Though we're prone to dissatisfaction with our bodies and our relationships, we still crave "in-person" interaction and experiences, because our bodies are real and so is the physical world. Even the most beautiful picture cannot replace seeing the Grand Canyon up close. Digital knockoffs do not change or alter who we really are, body and spirit, a "living soul" made in the image and likeness of God. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 26, 2023
According to tradition, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew evangelized the region of Armenia in the first century. In the year 301 , it became the first nation to declare itself Christian. Through centuries of warfare and oppression, its Christian identity has endured as part of Armenian culture, despite repeated attempts by neighbors to stamp it out. In 1915, the Turkish Ottoman Empire killed an estimated 1.2 million people during what has become known as the Armenian Genocide . Under the pretext that they were insufficiently loyal to the empire, Ottoman authorities shot entire villages, forcibly converted families to Islam, and marched hundreds of thousands of women and children into the Syrian desert to die. The brutal campaign of extermination led to a significant diaspora of Armenians to other countries. Even after Armenia emerged from Soviet dominance and declared itself an independent republic at the end of the 20th century, peace has remained elusive. Armenia has faced decades of conflict over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region , where some 100,000 Armenian Christians now live but which Muslim-majority Azerbaijan sees as its territory. In 2020, as the world was preoccupied with the global pandemic, Azerbaijan waged war against Armenia. Seven thousand lives were taken, and the region has remained in the shadow of a fragile ceasefire since. Today, most Armenians exist in a state of uncertainty. Given their control over the region, it may be that Azerbaijan is poised to commit a second Armenian genocide. According to University Network for Human Rights researcher Thomas Becker , Over the past decade, Azerbaijani officials have invoked language used in the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust, referring to Armenians as a " cancer tumor " and a " disease" to be "treated." More recently, the country's authoritarian leader Ilham Aliyev has threatened to "drive [Armenians] away like dogs ." The situation seems dire with Russia, Armenia's ostensible security guarantor, bogged down in its own war against Ukraine, and with Iran, Armenia's southern neighbor eager to fill the security vacuum. However, an unexpected recent development is that a significant number of Armenia's diaspora population has been returning to their homeland. After a hundred years of exile and living in places like Russia, France, and the United States, an estimated 50,000 Armenians repatriated prior to 2020, with thousands more joining them every year since. For some, the motivation to return is economic. For others, it's about standing with fellow Armenians in the face of war. However, for many, the calling is about their faith. As the dean of Armenian Apostolic seminary put it , "We as a nation are called to witness to Jesus Christ in a very difficult region. … Our very existence is a testimony of Christianity." Lara Setrakian, an Armenian-American journalist, moved back with her family at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. In a recent podcast, she put it this way, "I am doing what I'm called to do … and it is to be a helper like Mr. Rogers would say. It is a catastrophe. There are crises. But I want to be among the helpers. … We're not interested in not being Christian ... For Christians … this country is one big test of faith. And people I see are rising to the occasion. And they are finding strength, and they … have not ever given up. … They haven't given up the cross; they haven't given up their language, their love, their dance. They embody the resilience that we're all looking for." Another repatriated Armenian mused, "In America, I had a good life: a big house, a good car. But when I say, 'good life,' I mean something else." As so many in the West reel from a crisis of meaning, Armenian Christians have found joy in the face of severe hardship. In that way, we have much to learn from our Armenian brothers and sisters, even as we ask God to bless them, to strengthen their faith, and to bring peace to the nation they are rebuilding. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 25, 2023
Middle school girls in a club in Colorado are being told that they are transgender simply if they are uncomfortable with their bodies. Leaders of the middle school Gay-Straight Alliance brought in a speaker who told sixth graders that "if they are not completely comfortable in their bodies, that means that they are transgender." Two families are suing the school district for promoting the harmful ideas. Far from remedying a teenager's discomfort with their bodies, these ideas worsen the discomfort, cause irreversible harms, and significantly increase chances of suicide, especially for girls. With unrealistic beauty standards and objectification, it's no wonder girls feel unsettled in their bodies. But this doesn't mean they were born in the wrong body. Rather than push controversial and dangerous ideologies that harm kids, parents, doctors, and educators should work to address the more immediate causes of body image issues, especially social media and pop culture. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 25, 2023
Last Friday, May 19, pastor, theologian, and author Tim Keller passed away. The longtime pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and author of books such as The Reason for God was known for his thoughtful sermons, calm demeanor, and a ministry that extended beyond his own denomination and even his fellow Christians to the wider world of elite society . It's rare, especially today, for someone to be called "a giant" by both a top theologian and a New York Times columnist . Rarer still will such a prominent figure be regularly described as unassuming , living out the exhortation of Rudyard Kipling to be someone who can "walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch." It's notable that even his critics, which he certainly had, have refrained from doubting his self-effacing grace and kindness for others . Keller was in his forties before he showed up on the public's radar. Oddly enough, he went to Manhattan after pastoring a small-town Virginia church for nine years. Success in the Big Apple was by no means a sure thing. A theologically conservative pastor setting up shop in the "Babylon" of downtown New York City had all the makings of a fish-out-of-water story where the well-meaning parson was doomed to failure even before he set out. Keller took pains to know his audience, leveraging his own intellectual rigor into sermons for his highly educated hearers. He refused to talk down, much less shout down. Nor did he attempt to make the distinctives of the Christian faith more palatable. He took strong stands on the deity of Christ, the reliability of Scripture, the resurrection, the hopelessness of secularism, and the enduring relevance of Christian sexual ethics. From an initial church plant of 15 people in 1989, Redeemer Presbyterian Church grew to a network of multiple congregations with thousands of people attending each week. In time, his influence extended to other pastors, who were inspired by his example and teaching, and set out to emulate in their own communities what Keller had done in New York. Keller was also instrumental in cross-denominational efforts, linking like-minded Christians to share their ideas and cooperate in endeavors to enhance the presence of the Church around the world. He was a co-founder of The Gospel Coalition , a broadly Reformed network that is among the most influential voices of contemporary evangelicalism, and a central figure in a Reformed resurgence among those who became known as the " Young, Restless, and Reformed. " He was also an original signer of the Manhattan Declaration, a Christian statement on life, marriage, and religious liberty because, as he put it at the time, "these are biblical." Keller communicated a confidence that believers could maintain the classical faith of Christianity without being ashamed when dealing with cynical neighbors. Christians could, he believed, meet the claims of the world face-to-face because the Bible offers an accurate and holistic explanation for reality and the human condition and grounds the hope for which people are truly searching. His sermons offered a robust biblical analysis, a keen awareness and understanding of culture , and allusions to art, history, Lewis, and Tolkien. Ironically, his critics include progressive Princeton students and faculty, who couldn't stomach the idea that he would be honored by their school, and conservative Christians, some of whom believed his winsomeness to be weakness, and others who, as I often did in recent years, disagreed with his posture about politics and political allegiance. Even so, Keller was a remarkable gift to Christ's Church at an incredibly important cultural moment. Even in disagreeing, he made us better by, as St. Paul put it, " set(ting) the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity, " and reminding us that, in the end, the resurrection secures our hope for today and for eternity. As he said on a podcast near the end of his life, in his trademark thoughtful and calm demeanor, "If Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead, if He really got up ... everything is going to be all right." This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 24, 2023
The 2020 pandemic disrupted the education of millions of kids. In response, many parents opted for alternative forms of education. "In that single summer," wrote Dixie Lane with the Institute for Family Studies , "the number of registered homeschoolers in America more than doubled, rising from about 5.4% to about 11.1 %. Homeschooling among African Americans alone jumped to 16.1%, a nearly five-fold increase." Still, Lane argues, the pandemic was not the only reason for the boom. In general, Americans are committed to two principles in education: localism and parental authority. The state overreach in K-12 education has brought parents back to those fundamental values. Some are fighting to make public schools better; others are investing in homeschooling or private Christian education. Either way, kids are rightly being seen as the primary responsibility of parents, not the state. More options mean a beautiful opportunity for Christians to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, and minds … and to teach their kids to do likewise. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 24, 2023
Much has been documented about the growing mental health crisis among American teenagers . Young people, however, are not the only ones struggling. Middle-aged women , particularly white women over the age of 45, account for nearly 60% of all Americans who have been taking antidepressants for more than five years. To be sure, with this kind of statistic, it is not clear the role that medical and pharmaceutical industries, which are incentivized to medicalize mental health struggles, play. There are also cultural factors at work. Affluent people, white people, and women are on average more likely to seek help for mental health issues than African American or Hispanic women, men, or people in poverty. It is good that more attention is now given to the mentally and emotionally hurting and that these struggles are no longer as stigmatized. But we also have reached a point where it's almost fashionable to be diagnosed with a mental health condition. This is especially true for women, and progressive women i n particular. It is not unusual for people to include a mental health diagnosis in their social media profiles. Regardless of how well-founded these diagnoses are, the fact that so many (especially women and young people) embrace them as part of their identity is a troubling sign of dysfunction. Clearly, people are suffering. In a culture shaped by a " critical theory mood ," claims of suffering can be thought of as a desirable way of elevating a person's moral status. It is also not a coincidence that this suffering has accompanied a culturewide loss of a sense of meaning. A 2021 Lifeway Research study found that nearly 60% of American adults wonder about how they can find more meaning and purpose in their lives on at least a monthly basis. Rates of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide are up across all demographics. Even as the wider world is struggling, there is a notable exception. In 2019, the Pew Research Center found that 36% of Americans who attend church or are "actively religious" regularly report being "very happy." In other words, faith in God, marriage, family, and a sense of duty to something larger than ourselves are often what provide people with the richest sense of meaning. Ironically, these are the very things that, we are constantly being told, will constrain us. Women are told that being a wife or a mother "gets in the way" of true happiness. Men and women are told that sacrificing for others leads to unhappiness. The numbers, however, don't lie. Living unattached lives committed to individual autonomy is making us miserable. Of course, mental health struggles often inflict the righteous, too. Elijah, Martin Luther, and many others also battled inner demons. Still, whether the increased rates of mental health struggles are primarily physiological or due to self-inflicted circumstances, how we think about them matters. As author O. Alan Noble puts it , in moments of profound mental suffering, "getting out of bed is an act of worship": But when you choose to rise out of bed each day, you also set a table for your neighbor. You declare with your being and actions that life itself is good. Whether you like it or not, your life is a witness that testifies to the goodness of God. Worship, in fact, takes many forms: singing, teaching, reflecting, relating. This is because worship is a way of recognizing the meaning that God placed in His world and for His image bearers. In fact, worship is the meaning for which human beings were made. There is nothing more than to know and to glorify God. In His grace, He makes Himself known throughout His world. It is one of God's great mercies that, by fulfilling His purpose for us, we are able to know happiness, satisfaction, and meaning. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 23, 2023
If the language of yesterday is continually updated, how can we maintain an accurate grip on history? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 23, 2023
Only 3% of the world's population currently lives in a country whose birth rate isn't declining. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 22, 2023
To put all the weight of our humanness on consciousness is an erroneous idea that will have disastrous consequences For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 22, 2023
The emperor's real role in Christian history and what he didn't do at the Council of Nicaea. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 19, 2023
ADF has created a corporate index ranking companies on anti-Christian bias and John and Maria discuss John MacArthur's claim that "We Lose Down Here." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 19, 2023
Keeping adult explicit material out of children's libraries is common sense, not cancel culture. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 19, 2023
Are we to get on board with the label or not let it drag us down? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 18, 2023
A few weeks ago, one of the world's largest peddlers of pornography scored what they thought was a stunning victory for their cause. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 18, 2023
Despite a government ruling suggesting the opposite, true religion takes place outside of church walls and should not be penalized. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 17, 2023
The last few years, Christian colleges have faced a crisis of how to respond to increasingly vocal calls to "accommodate" LGBT students. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 17, 2023
The rate of Gen Z women identifying as men has skyrocketed to about twice that of Gen Z men identifying as women. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 16, 2023
As Western Christians take necessary stands against evil in our own cultures, we must also remember the struggles of our brothers and sisters around the world. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 16, 2023
Scoring system will help faith-based and Conservative institutions fight discrimination in loaning and business practices. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 15, 2023
How human rights are defined depends, first and foremost, on who we believe humans are and what we believe humans are for. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 15, 2023
Doves are confirming the Bible's historical reliability. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 12, 2023
Great Britain crowned a new king last weekend, John and Maria will talk about the symbolism of the ceremony. This is the season for commencement speeches, we have one that will warm your heart. And in Canada the public appears to support euthanasia for just about any reason. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 12, 2023
Christians should protect play because it is part of our Lord's joyful heart. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 12, 2023
"Medical Assistance in Dying" is normalizing euthanasia for Canadians. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 11, 2023
Did a pro football player just tell grads marriage and kids are more worthy than a career? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 11, 2023
The aging generation may not be in an economic crisis as much as in a crisis of meaning untethered from absolutes. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 10, 2023
Preference for pets over humans is spilling into actual policy. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 10, 2023
Good books tell children the truth about the world and who they are, respecting their age, imagination, and innocence. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 9, 2023
Proponents argue that chemical abortions are safe, but nothing could be further from the truth. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 9, 2023
A Nobel Prize winner from a Communist country had prophetic words for America. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 8, 2023
There is beauty everywhere, even amidst the filth and rancor online. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 8, 2023
Christians show Christ by helping those in need through the suffering, not by eliminating it altogether. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 5, 2023
A new government report finds religious persecution around the world is growing, states that decriminalized drugs are rethinking that plan and John and Maria discuss a leading voice in Artificial Intelligence saying he regrets his life work. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 5, 2023
Sex was designed by God for the perpetuation and sustaining of creation. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 5, 2023
A look at the slave history in the country of this year's Wilberforce Award recipient. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 4, 2023
The Holy Spirit is not the forgotten God but is at the heart of the Christian life. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 4, 2023
In the history of the world, the wholesale rejection of the supernatural is a quirk of Western secularism. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 3, 2023
However many numbers trendy marriage laws allow in, God's simple union plan of one man and one woman to create life really works. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 3, 2023
Multiple studies confirm the "try before you buy" plan fails marriages. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 2, 2023
On this day of May 2 in 373, Athanasius of Alexandria died in the city where he served as bishop. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 2, 2023
The value of every human life is inherent, not determined by what we can do or how we feel. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 1, 2023
Another measure makes parents suspects of the state over true advocates for their children. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
May 1, 2023
The Church has a great opportunity to offer right ideas about faith, truth, and love to a primed generation slightly askew. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 28, 2023
Anglicans gathered last week to debate the church's position on a host of cultural issues and John and Maria discuss how much influence the Church should have on the world. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 28, 2023
Recently in The New Atlantis , physician Matthew Loftus described how a culture of death has distorted our view of the vulnerable. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 28, 2023
Four years ago, the 60-plus members of the Shenzhen fellowship fled their homes in Communist China. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 27, 2023
More phones in hand correlates to a concerning increase in teen mental health issues. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 27, 2023
God's plan will come through, but Christians should stay in the game. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 26, 2023
Further protection against viewing family as a commodity is a good thing. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 26, 2023
No matter the reason, divorce is especially costly for children, something adults are quick to minimize and ignore. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 25, 2023
In a touching moment at a press conference earlier this month, Drake thanked the students of Covenant School. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 25, 2023
Recently, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt launched a Substack newsletter called After Babel to explore the cultural effects of social media which, he says, reminds him of the biblical account of the tower of Babel. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 24, 2023
The Colson Fellows Church Affiliate program provides churches, from every denominational background you can imagine, with thorough training in Christian worldview and in-depth cultural analysis. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 24, 2023
According to a recent study from the Institute for Family Studies, "On average, early-marrieds enjoy slightly higher marital quality than later-marrieds" on metrics like "relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, teamwork, and communication." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 24, 2023
Recently, a number of prominent tech executives, including Elon Musk, signed an open letter urging a 6-month pause on all AI research. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 22, 2023
Long-held Christian beliefs are being aligned with Christian nationalism. Are they? And John and Maria discuss the disturbing new law in Washington State that some have described as akin to kidnapping. (FULL EPISODE AFTER POSTING A VERSION THAT WAS CUT SHORT) For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 22, 2023
Long-held Christian beliefs are being aligned with Christian nationalism. Are they? And John and Maria discuss the disturbing new law in Washington State that some have described as akin to kidnapping. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 21, 2023
In response to critical race theory, Tennessee lawmakers have introduced a list of "divisive concepts," which, under a law passed last year, are prohibited from being taught on college campuses. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 21, 2023
The story behind "Heart by Max" begins during the lockdown days of COVID-19. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 20, 2023
Renae Regehr was recovering from her son's birth a few years ago when she started thinking of all the women who had to do it alone. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 20, 2023
Christians can display God's true value to a shifting nation. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 19, 2023
According to a recent study out of the U.K., the more siblings one has, the less likely he or she is to get divorced. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 19, 2023
The most dramatic moment of the Protestant Reformation occurred in April of 1521. Three and a half years earlier, Martin Luther had posted his 95 Theses attacking the abusive sale of indulgences—which promised the pardon of sin through payment—and other evidence of corruption in the Western Church of the time. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 18, 2023
Christians are constantly pressured, within the Church and without, to evolve on these issues or, we are told, we will die out. It seems however, that biblical orthodoxy draws people in. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 18, 2023
Passing on a Christian worldview to our kids requires much more than just telling them the truth. It requires us to help them love the truth and gain spiritual immunity against infectious bad ideas. Chuck Colson called Summit Ministries "the gold standard" for training young adults in Christian worldview. If you know a student who needs to attend a Summit conference this summer, visit summit.org/student , and use code "BREAKPOINT" to receive an exclusive discount. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 17, 2023
Wickedness and loss seem to hide God's presence, but even when we cannot see or feel Him, the Lord is risen and is with us. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 17, 2023
The ability to think and act morally largely depends on the ability to speak accurately. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 14, 2023
A judge in Texas says the FDA rushed its approval of the abortion drug Mifepristone. John and Maria discuss a new study that finds children from large families are less likely to divorce. — Recommendations — Samuel Beckett's Breath Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts by Samuel Beckett Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture by Christopher Watkin Segment 1 - Texas Ruling on Mifepristone "Justice Department Appeals Texas abortion pill order" AP News "What's Next for the abortion pill Mifepristone?" NPR "Danco Laboratories, LLC Revenue" Kona Equity Segment 2 - Love and Marriage "Growing Up with Siblings Makes You Less Likely to Get Divorced" The Daily Mail UK "More Siblings Means Less Chance of Divorce as an Adult" Science Daily "Is Marrying Later Always Better?" Institute for Family Studies Segment 3 - Stories of the Week "Israeli Government Threatens to Outlaw Evangelism" The Point "Why People Question Christianity" Breakpoint "The Restless Heart of Gen Z" Breakpoint "Being Christian in an Age of Heightened Hostility" Breakpoint For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 14, 2023
A Texas court ruling, expected to go into effect today, temporarily revoked FDA approval for the abortion drug Mifepristone. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 14, 2023
For the sake of our neighbors, all who believe in the importance of truth must continue to say so. We cannot beat ideological opponents into conformity, and it is sinful to try. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 13, 2023
Some of the loudest voices calling for conservation efforts are philosophical naturalists who espouse a worldview that lacks any basis for conservation efforts. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 13, 2023
In the face of Gen Z's mental health crisis, it is the Gospel and not gloom that should motivate and inform us. This mental health crisis is a spiritual crisis. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 12, 2023
The State Department released its 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, detailing how nations are handling everything from life and freedom of speech to how sexually progressive countries are tracking sexual orientation and gender identity policies. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 12, 2023
A recent report by Barna Research listed the top reasons people question Christianity. Among those who claim to be Christian, the problem of human suffering topped the list, followed by hypocrisy of religious people. The Colson Fellows program is a community of believers committed to learning and living faithfully under the fullness of Christ's authority in this time and this place. We are committed to the church, to the formation of a Christian worldview, and to making sense of a confusing world with the heart and mind of Christ. To learn more about this program, please visit colsonfellows.org. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 11, 2023
Last month, the Israeli Knesset considered a bill that would make religious evangelism punishable by up to two years in prison. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 11, 2023
We need not deny reality to affirm that every person and therefore every body possesses dignity and deserves respect and kindness. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 10, 2023
Jesus continues to do pretty well at the box office, not to mention streaming online. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 10, 2023
The Colson Fellows Church Affiliate program provides churches, from every denominational background you can imagine, with thorough training in Christian worldview and in-depth cultural analysis. To learn more, go to colsonfellows.org , and look for " Church Affiliates ." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 7, 2023
John and Maria look at the significance of Good Friday and Easter, discuss the recent apology from Rosaria Butterfield for using gender affirming pronouns, and take a sober look at the dire predictions of what AI will do to the human race. — Recommendations — Death on a Friday Afternoon by Richard John Neuhaus The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross by Carl Laferton "Crimson" by Nichole Nordeman Segment 1 - Easter "How Johnny Hart Taught Millions About Easter" Breakpoint Segment 2 - Rosaria Butterfield Repents of "Pronoun Hospitality" "Why I No Longer Use Preferred Pronouns – and Why You Shouldn't, Either" Reformation21 Segment 3 - Catastrophizing AI "Pausing AI Development Isn't Enough. We Need to Shut it all Down." TIME Segment 4 - Stories of the Week "Suicides, Cities, and the Concept of Coupling" Brandon Donnelly "Proclaiming Human Dignity with Infectious Joy: Heart by Max" Breakpoint For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 7, 2023
The Gospels spend a good chunk of time on the last few days of Christ and why this matters. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 7, 2023
On Good Friday, 1867, a complete version of Johannes Brahms' "German Requiem" premiered at Bremen Cathedral. Brahms obviously found consolation in the Bible, though he rejected its fundamental message. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 6, 2023
Today is National Burrito Day, and just in time to celebrate, last week the Feds caught the alleged firebomber of a Wisconsin pro-life organization's office because of a burrito. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 6, 2023
Jesus embodied truth and love, not only in the event we commemorate this day, but in every event we remember this Holy Week. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 5, 2023
Utah recently passed legislation to better empower parents to protect their kids online. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 5, 2023
Johnny Hart can be an inspiration to all of us to find ways to bring a Christian worldview to bear on our work, whatever it may be. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 4, 2023
China is struggling to undo the damage of its former one-child policy. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 4, 2023
Though Chuck Colson championed throughout his ministry the idea that every single human life has value, it was his grandson Max who brought the lesson home. To be part of this movement that is reminding the world that every single human being is valuable and loved by God, give a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month. When you do, you'll receive a T-shirt with one of Max's hearts, and a Heart by Max onesie will be sent to a pregnancy resource center on your behalf. To give, go to colsoncenter.org/april . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 3, 2023
Science and Christianity both reveal truth about reality. Recently on Piers Morgan's television show , Dawkins pushed back against trans activists, even calling them "bullies." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Apr 3, 2023
Last week, a young woman walked into a Nashville church school where she had once been a student and took six lives. If the tragic events of last week do indeed mark a new chapter in our cultural moment, we'll need to learn afresh what it means to live by hope, do good to those who persecute us , love our neighbors, and build a better future for the sake of Christ. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 31, 2023
John and Maria close out a tragic week when a woman identifying as a man killed six at a Christian school in Nashville. Also, several Christian colleges are considering their future in these changing times for higher education. — Recommendations — Pray for The Covenant School in Nashville Read Lamentations Segment 1 - Nashville Shootings Segment 2 - The Shift in American Values Segment 3 - Stories of the Week For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 31, 2023
This month, a Norwegian independent government agency declared that Norway's current standards of so-called "gender-affirming" care need to change. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 31, 2023
God always wanted His world to be cared for, and we are the right ones for the job. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 30, 2023
Some in the Colorado legislature are attempting to prevent pro-life centers from saying they offer abortions, something no one has credibly accused them of doing in the first place. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 30, 2023
A team of scientists created living baby mice with two biological fathers. In theory, we can now bring human children into existence who have no biological mothers. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 29, 2023
A new ruling uses the same language as pre-Civil War slavery law. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 29, 2023
For many in the modern West, life proceeds without even considering God. Good things come from our hard work and planning, not from the gracious hands of our loving Father. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 28, 2023
Unfortunately, the pro-life movement has a growing reputation of disunity. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 28, 2023
Over the last few months, several long-established Christian schools announced cutbacks, budget crises, and major restructuring. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 27, 2023
San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer made the decision not to wear a jersey celebrating LGBT pride. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 27, 2023
The hymn "O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High" tells the story of salvation. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 24, 2023
Children born as the result of anonymous sperm and egg donations and those adopted via a closed adoption don't know their biological parents. John and Maria discuss the potential problems. And what is the Biblical view of work? — Recommendations — Why You Can't Stay Silent: A Biblical Mandate to Shape Our Culture by Tom Minnery March Madness Sweet 16 Segment 1 - Egg/ Sperm Donations The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce by Julia Lewis Alone Together by Sherry Turtle Segment 2 - Gay Marriage Settled? Segment 3 - Retirement For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 24, 2023
When faced with the prospect of having its girls' basketball team play another school with a trans-identifying player, the Mid Vermont Christian School chose to forfeit. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 24, 2023
Earlier this month, social media behemoth TikTok announced that it would soon introduce new features designed to limit access to the app for users under 18. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 23, 2023
Over the past decade, the medical community has treated cases of gender dysphoria differently than other mind/body disorders. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 23, 2023
Recently, Colorado introduced a trio of radical new pro-abortion bills that, if passed, would make it the most hostile state for preborn life in the Union. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 22, 2023
John Stonestreet welcomes Michael Craven to discuss the growth and impact of the Colson Fellows Program. To learn more and apply for the program visit https://colsonfellows.org/ . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 22, 2023
Ke Huy Quan's joy and gratitude were absolutely infectious and point to something deeper than mere nostalgia. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 22, 2023
God can be seen, for those with eyes to see, in everything from the beautiful to the tragic to the mundane. To receive a copy of Os Guinness' latest book, Signals of Transcendence, make a gift of any amount to the Colson Center. This is an important book for everyone hoping to point people who are lost in a secular world to God. We'd love to send you a copy. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 21, 2023
The Freedom From Religion Foundation accused NFL Hall of Famer and new University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders of forcing his Christian faith on student athletes. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 21, 2023
When lawmakers and politicians redefine the legal meaning of "marriage" and "family," they do not make lies true. They create additional tragedy. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 20, 2023
God Himself rested and told us to do likewise. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 20, 2023
As it turns out, the consequences of fatherlessness are not only temporal, but eternal. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 17, 2023
Colorado lawmakers appear intent on having the most liberal abortion laws in the nation. John and Maria discuss the ramifications of the recent meltdown at Stanford Law School over the appearance of a conservative federal judge. — Recommendations — I Was There When podcast 52 Weeks in the Word devotional Segment 1 - Colorado Abortion Laws Segment 2 - Higher Education Christian Legal Society Submit a comment at regulations.gov ChristianLawStudents.org Segment 3 - Stories of the Week "Of Primates and Percentages: No, Humans Aren't 99% Chimp" Breakpoint For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 17, 2023
Late last month, 18-year-old Chloe Cole sued medical provider Kaiser Permanente for surgically and chemically altering her body. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 17, 2023
Of the thousands of green-clad parade-goers, marchers, and partiers today, few know about Patrick, the man for whom today's holiday is named. To learn more about this man of faith and his consequential life, check out this Breakpoint interview between Shane Morris and T.M. Moore , a former colleague of Chuck's and the author of Celtic Flame: The Burden of St. Patrick . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 16, 2023
Last month, pro-life doctors were banned from setting up an exhibit at an annual medical education conference. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 16, 2023
The U.S. Department of Education announced its intention to rescind the " Free Inquiry Rule," which was designed to fix the pressuring and discriminating against religious student groups. Our friends at the Christian Legal Society have made it easy to submit a comment to the Department of Education. Please, go to regulations.gov to submit a comment, but only after reviewing the Christian Legal Society fact sheet at ChristianLawStudents.org . The deadline to comment on this new rule is Friday, March 24. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 15, 2023
When law enforcement is blinded by harmful ideologies, citizens are robbed of justice For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 15, 2023
The U.K. has decided to shift its loyalties from courageously defying tyranny in the 20th century to embracing it in the 21st. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 14, 2023
If the Son of God took time to pray, Christians should too. Learn more about Shodankeh Johnson's ministry at colsonconference.org. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 14, 2023
The season of Lent and Holy Week is an appropriate time to meditate on Christ, His Divine and Human natures, His sufferings on our behalf, the love that prompted them, and what that love has accomplished on our behalf. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 13, 2023
It turns out that we really do want sacrificial love, and women want someone willing to make a physical sacrifice. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 13, 2023
Whether we are 99 or 84% similar to chimps genetically, there is clearly more going on than materialists can account for. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 10, 2023
The controversy over a recent article using sex to describe Christ and the Church caused quite a stir, but it's a relationship well-grounded in Scripture. John and Maria discuss the implications. A recent decision by Walgreens to not sell the abortion pill has legal ramifications nationwide. — Recommendations — Colson Center National Conference Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri Segment 1 - The Sex-as-Metaphor Dust-Up "Sex as Sacred" Breakpoint Segment 2 - What role should morality play in lawmaking? "Walgreens won't distribute abortion pills in states where GOP AGs object" POLITICO "America Has Gone Too Far in Legalizing Vice" The Atlantic "Of Vice and Lent" Breakpoint Segment 3 - Cynicism as Standard "Young women disbelieve a marriage story" The Daily Wire on Twitter Segment 4 - Stories of the Week "Discerning Divine Judgment: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address" Breakpoint "The New Equal Rights Amendment Erases Women" The Point For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 10, 2023
The lesson to be learned from the history of lobotomies is to not rush forward when research is vague and consequences of being wrong are so high. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 10, 2023
Eugenics thinking is not a bug of the pro-abortion movement. It is a feature. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 9, 2023
The slope from abortion to infanticide by way of physician-assisted suicide is a slippery one indeed. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Point was originally published on August 14, 2020.
Mar 9, 2023
Historically, the Church's shining moments have often come in direct conflict with dominant cultural beliefs and practice. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on August 2, 2021.
Mar 8, 2023
On Wednesday, the recently announced Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics at The Gospel Coalition published a book excerpt authored by Pastor Josh Butler. Almost immediately, the Twitterverse erupted, decrying the article as "icky," "cringe," and "dangerous." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 8, 2023
Last week, Senator Dick Durbin held a committee hearing in hopes of resurrecting the controversial Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 7, 2023
Shodankeh Johnson is an example of Christians running into the brokenness with truth and hope, not away from it. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 7, 2023
Biblically speaking, if there is no place for divine judgment in our theology, there is something unchristian about our worldview. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 6, 2023
For millennia, Christians have celebrated truth, goodness, and beauty as transcendent testimonies to God's existence and character. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 6, 2023
American plastic surgeons are reporting a spike in clients under 30 seeking changes or "enhancements" to how they look. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 3, 2023
Advances in medicine have given us fixes for cleft palates and gender transitions. John and Maria discuss the good and bad in today's medical technology and respond to concerns from our listeners. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 3, 2023
Like the sacred songs of the Advent season, Lenten hymns are wonderful tools for theological instruction and worship. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 3, 2023
Since so-called Medical Aid in Dying was legalized in Canada, those with severe medical conditions have been increasingly in danger. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 2, 2023
Churchgoers tend to be more willing to associate with people outside of their immediate economic bracket. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 2, 2023
Millions of girls with instant access to our culture's most viral (and dangerous) behaviors and beliefs are currently manifesting the results. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 1, 2023
Kasey Leander sits down with Ryan Bomberger of the Radiance Foundation to talk about creativity, adoption, and why every human life matters. Ryan will be a speaker at this year's Colson Center National Conference, May 19-21, in Indianapolis. To register go to https://colsonconference.org/ . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 1, 2023
While other famous people in the music and movie industries talk about parenthood as a career-killing disease, Pink is living the opposite. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Mar 1, 2023
ChatGPT cannot replace or even duplicate the human mind. It can only imitate it. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 28, 2023
As a pastor and church planter in Sierra Leone, this year's Wilberforce Award recipient Shodankeh Johnson has faced serious threats and danger. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 28, 2023
Lent is a time set aside each year in the Church calendar to consider our habits, evaluate them, and start new ones. It is hard to imagine anything more countercultural, especially in a culture that caters to vice and expects so little of us in terms of virtue.
Feb 27, 2023
Bad ideas have victims. This time the victim was one of its proponents. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 27, 2023
At the 2023 Colson Center National Conference , we look forward to honoring Shodankeh Johnson with the Wilberforce Award. Please join us as we honor Shodankeh Johnson at the Colson Center National Conferenc e, May 19-21 in Indianapolis. Tomorrow, February 28, is the last day to receive the discounted rate. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 24, 2023
Christians around the world are celebrating the start of the Lenten season, a new study underlines the importance of friends in our lives, and why did Richard Dawkins call Peter Singer, "the most moral person I know"? — Recommendations — Strong Women Lent Reading Plan Dear and Glorious Physician: A Novel about Saint Luke by Taylor Caldwell Segment 1 - What Friendship Does for Our Wellbeing "'Friending Bias'" The New York Times "Want to Be Healthier? Hang Out with Your Friends" The Washington Post "Why Friends Are Good For Your Health" Rob Henderson on Twitter Segment 2 - The Loneliness Crisis Among Young Men "Most Young Men Are Single. Most Young Women Are Not." The Hill "What's Behind the Rise of Lonely, Single Men" Psychology Today Segment 3 - Debating Different Ethical Theories Richard Dawkins on Twitter Segment 4 - Stories of the Week "Is Christianity Sexist?" Breakpoint "You Are Dust and to Dust You Shall Return: Something to Know but Not to Fear" Breakpoint "Bethany Hamilton's Stand" The Point For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 24, 2023
Many critics of transgender ideology today argue that the "T" in the LGBTQ acronym doesn't fit with the other letters. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 24, 2023
Unrestrained by theology or organized faith, people eager for transcendence are opening doors without considering what might walk through. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 23, 2023
Last week, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley introduced a bill that would set the legal age to sign up for a social media account at 16. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 23, 2023
Just as the bad behavior of Christians does not disprove the truth claims of Christianity, neither can the sexism, misogyny, or even abuse committed by some Christian men prove that Christianity itself is sexist. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 22, 2023
Recently, a Jacksonville church asked members to sign a statement on biblical sexuality. Ever since, they have received overwhelming local and national news coverage, most of it negative. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 22, 2023
Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the 40-day period in the church calendar known as Lent, a time of preparation leading up to Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 21, 2023
Advocates of abortion claim to limit suffering by killing the sufferers. Every premise of that idea is wrong. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 21, 2023
Revivalism, with a focus on a personal faith with public implications, dramatically shaped American life and culture. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 20, 2023
John interviews Dr. Steve Seamands, Professor Emeritus of Christian Doctrine at Asbury Theological Seminary. A student during the 1970 revival at Asbury, Dr. Seamands has participated in the current revival and observed its shepherding by campus leadership. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 20, 2023
This month, the World Surf League announced it will allow transgender-identifying men to compete in its women's surfing competitions. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 20, 2023
Christians, both in their words and their lives, point to the depths of meaning and beauty that God has woven into the world. The worldview intensive at this year's Colson Center National Conference will be a crash course in cultural apologetics. Join us in Indianapolis, May 19-21. To learn more about the lineup of speakers and to register, visit colsonconference.org before February 28 to get a special early admission price. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 17, 2023
It's been more than a week, and the revival at Asbury University is still going strong. The "He Gets Us" campaign spent 20 million dollars on Super Bowl ads—was it worth it? And some frightening findings on teen girls and mental health from the CDC. — Recommendations — Seven by Brooke Ligertwood A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir by Colin Hanson and John Woodbridge Segment 1 - The Revival at Asbury/ He Gets Us "Asbury Professor: We're Witnessing a 'Surprising Work of God'" Christianity Today "A nonstop Kentucky prayer 'revival' is going viral on TikTok, and people are traveling thousands of miles to take part" NBC News "A $100m campaign aims to fix Jesus' brand from followers' damage" The Washington Post Segment 2 - The Mental Health Crisis Among Teen Girls "These Staggering Statistics And Charts Reveal How Deeply Troubled Our Teen Girls Really Are" The Daily Wire "CDC report shows concerning increases in sadness and exposure to violence among teen girls and LGBQ+ youth" CDC Segment 3 - Why You so Cranky? Segment 4 - Stories of the Week "Valentine's Day and True (Sacrificial) Love" Breakpoint "Jalen Hurts' Best Performance" The Point For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 17, 2023
Words matter. If our language is not honest, then our language is not compassionate either. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 17, 2023
Women in a permanent vegetative state or who are declared brain-dead could be used as unconscious surrogate mothers for people who either "wish to have children but cannot, or prefer not to, gestate." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 16, 2023
A service that began last Wednesday at Asbury University is still going, and news outlets have noticed. "The Asbury Awakening" is attracting visitors from all over. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 16, 2023
There's the church, there's the steeple, open the door … but where are the people? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 15, 2023
If ever a player for the losing team deserved the Super Bowl's Most Valuable Player Award, it was Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 15, 2023
When we look through the Christian worldview, we see the brilliance of the world God made, the beauty of it along with the truth. Ryan Bomberger co-founded The Radiance Foundation , whose goal is to remind the world that human life has purpose in everything from the sanctity of life to adoption, gender, race, and parenting. I hope you will join us for the Colson Center National Conference , in Indianapolis, May 19-21. Go to colsonconference.org , and register before February 28 to get a special early admission price. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 14, 2023
For centuries the Church has marked February 14 as the feast day of St. Valentinus. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 14, 2023
The true meaning of Valentine's Day reminds us that there's much more to life than sensual pleasures. This Breakpoint was originally published on February 14, 2020. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 13, 2023
There has been a notable shift in Hollywood from film portrayals that mock Christianity to films that portray Christianity as a force of evil. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 13, 2023
The decision late last week by the Church of England to now bless civil marriages and partnerships of same-sex couples made precisely no one happy. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 10, 2023
Christian ministries were among the first on the ground after powerful earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria. John and Maria discuss, what appears to be, the Church of England apologizing for biblical teaching, and fallout from the Grammys. — Recommendations — The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis The Most Reluctant Convert Be Open to Spiritual Experience. Also, Be Really Careful. by Ross Douthat Segment 1 - The Earthquake in Turkey / Church of England "Death Toll in Turkey and Syria From Earthquake Passes 20,000" The New York Times "Turkish and Syrian Christians Rally Relief After Earthquake Kills 20,000" Christianity Today "Samaritan's Purse to send aid to Turkey and Syria after devastating earthquakes" WFMY News Segment 2 - Trans Clinic Whistleblower "I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids. Now I'm Blowing the Whistle." The Free Press "When Students Change Gender Identity, and Parents Don't Know" The New York Times Segment 3 - Satan and the Grammys "Satan Shows Up at the Grammys" Breakpoint "Governor Kristi Noem Blasts Lil Nas X's 'Satan Shoes': 'We Are in a Fight for the Soul of Our Nation'" Christian Headlines Segment 4 - Stories of the Week "Life, Even as We Don't Know it, Is No Accident" The Point "Josephine Margaret Bakhita: From Slave to Servant of Christ" Breakpoint "Is the Pro-Life Movement Oppressive?" The Point For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 10, 2023
Allowing MAID patients to donate organs incentivizes doctors to forsake medical ethics and exploit patients. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 10, 2023
A former gender clinic caseworker has filed her concerns with the attorney general of Missouri and has gone public with what she saw behind clinic doors. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 9, 2023
Stonewalling parents from the lives of their children leaves already suffering kids without those who know and love them most. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 9, 2023
Rather than merely shock with a new display of creepiness, the "Unholy" Grammys performance marked the place where we've already been for some time. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 8, 2023
John Stonestreet sat down with Timothy Goeglein to discuss his new book, Toward a More Perfect Union: The Moral and Cultural Case for Teaching the Great American Story. "Civic education and American history have either not been taught or have been deliberately mistaught throughout our nation's public—and in numerous cases, even our private—education system. This lack of education or misinformation has placed our nation in great peril, and we are seeing the consequences unfold daily in our corporate boardrooms, halls of power, and streets. This book is the prescription for returning our nation to a healthy culture for all." Learn more and get a copy of his book here. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 8, 2023
Recently, a Scientific American article titled " The Search for Extraterrestrial Life as We Don't Know It, " reflected on the continued search for life across the universe. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 8, 2023
Today, the anniversary of Josephine Margaret Bakhita's death, has become the International Day of Prayer to Stop Human Trafficking. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 7, 2023
Ever since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court last summer, lawmakers and media outlets have increasingly demonized pro-life voices and policies as racist and anti-woman. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 7, 2023
The God-given joy of meaningful work is often, in our late-modern cultural moment, sapped by overwork, overregulation, and mission drift. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 6, 2023
When a society is unmoored from any enduring truth about reality, what starts as a punchline quickly becomes plausible. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 6, 2023
Erin Friday refused to give up on her 11-year-old daughter when she began to struggle with her identity as a female. Please, listen to the complete interview with Erin Friday, hosted by Virginia Allen at The Daily Signal Podcast . You can also learn about the nonprofit Our Duty , started by Erin Friday to connect and mobilize like-minded parents. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 3, 2023
The death of Tyre Nichols is another reminder that the answer to our social ills can only be found in Christianity and John reads a poem on the importance and dignity of work. — Recommendations — Clubhouse Magazine from Focus on the Family The Village Blacksmith by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Biblical Critical Theory by Christopher Watkin Colson Center National Conference Segment 1 - The Tyre Nichols Story "What we know about the killing of Tyre Nichols" NPR "The Killing of Tyre Nichols and the Issue of Race" The New Yorker "Statement from President Joe Biden on Tyre Nichols" The White House Segment 2 - What is Work? "Teacher who quit career for Costco job blames low salary and burnout: 'My passion couldn't pay my bills'" FOX Business "Work is Not a Result of the Fall" Breakpoint The Village Blacksmith by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Segment 3 - What are "Whole Body Gestational Carriers"? "Whole body gestational donation" Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory by Abigail Favale Segment 4 - Stories of the Week "Christianity Isn't a Western Faith" Breakpoint "Is Genesis Just One of the Many Creation Myths?" Breakpoint "What Are Men Good For?" Breakpoint For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 3, 2023
Just after midnight on February 3, 1943, the American transport Dorchester, carrying nearly a thousand men, was sunk by a German U-boat. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 3, 2023
Would the ability to have children mean that a man could actually become a woman? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 2, 2023
Because the transgender movement lacks any positive good to pursue, it only survives by hijacking other cultural movements that claim to "protect the oppressed." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 2, 2023
The first founders of Christianity were not powerful European rulers hoping to oppress the world. They were Middle Easterners, mostly "blue collar," almost all of whom died a violent death at the hands of the ruling elite. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 1, 2023
Just a month after a woman was arrested for praying silently outside an abortion clinic, police in the U.K. have fined army veteran Adam Smith-Connor for the same "crime." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Feb 1, 2023
Lydia Booth and Jack Phillips are like living epistles to us, offering a picture of what faithfulness to Christ could require in the days to come. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 31, 2023
Jess Gill with the British media site Reasoned recently took to the streets of London asking, "What are men good for?" For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 31, 2023
If multiple disparate cultures recorded similar stories of the world's beginning, isn't it possible these ancient peoples derived clues from the nature around them about the world's actual beginning? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 30, 2023
You can't have liberty without a life to live freely. And, unless these rights come from God, all we have is what the state offers. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 30, 2023
Because humans are made in the image of the God who is Trinity, relationships are as much a part of our created design as eating, sleeping, working, and breathing. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 27, 2023
John and Maria discuss what appears to be a vendetta against Jack Phillips and some striking patterns are found in a new study of mass shooters. — Recommendations — The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir by Sherry Turkle Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning The Colson Center National Conference — "Colorado baker loses appeal over transgender birthday cake" CBS News Segment 1 - New Data on Mass Shootings "Nearly all U.S. mass attackers were male and faced major life stressor, report finds" NPR "The Crisis of Fatherless Shooters" The Heritage Foundation "What We're Missing About Mass Shootings" Breakpoint Segment 2 - ChatGPT: Friend or Foe? "EXPLAINER: What is ChatGPT and why are schools blocking it?" AP News "Professor catches student cheating with ChatGPT: 'I feel abject terror'" New York Post "Teachers consider ChatGPT's place in the classroom" WORLD Segment 3 - Church Attendance and Affiliation Post-COVID "Faith After the Pandemic: How COVID-19 Changed American Religion" Survey Center on American Life Segment 4 - Stories of the Week "American Life Expectancy Continues to Fall" Breakpoint "Effective Compassion vs. Effective Altruism" Breakpoint "What Christians Can Learn from Secular Humanism" Breakpoint For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 27, 2023
NFL coaching legend and commentator Tony Dungy is under fire for speaking at the March for Life. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 27, 2023
What is "art" in a world where artificial intelligence can not only replicate nearly any image, but produce original images with superior skill and precision? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 26, 2023
Recently, scholars announced another breakthrough discovery relating to Israel's King David. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 26, 2023
The science for medical gender transitions for children and teenagers is far from settled, and we should have no patience for those who say otherwise. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 25, 2023
Last week, Philadelphia Flyers hockey player Ivan Provorov refused to wear a jersey for the NHL's Pride Night. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 25, 2023
According to a CDC report released in December, the life expectancy of Americans fell by about seven months in 2021, reaching the lowest point in two decades. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 24, 2023
Years after the dawn of the Me Too movement, Hollywood's reckoning with its embrace of bad ideas about sex continues. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 24, 2023
A Christian moral vision does not reduce humanity or humans to a math equation. The effectiveness of our compassion cannot be adequately measured only in totals. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 23, 2023
Recently, National Geographic covered the growing trend of experts now questioning the efficacy of marijuana as a treatment for what it is most commonly prescribed: pain relief. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 23, 2023
A few months ago, a group called Humanists International updated their "defining statement of World Humanism." If nothing else, secular humanism is a cautionary tale for Christians who think of the Christian faith as a kind of humanist project. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 20, 2023
After decades of restricting population, China finds itself with an emergency caused by too few people and the LGBTQ comes for an NHL player who puts his religion above homosexual coercion. — Recommendations — Strong Women podcast with Jeanne Mancini Prufrock Newsletter Dutch Blitz card game Segment 1 - China's Population Emergency MarchforLife.org Segment 2 - NHL player refuses pride jersey Segment 3 - MLK and John Witherspoon statues "The Real Problem with New MLK Statue" Micah Mattix on Prufrock "Should John Witherspoon's Statue Remain at Princeton?" Breakpoint Robert George on moral superiority For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 20, 2023
According to Britain's Telegraph , the Church of England has decided not to allow same-sex marriages by its clergy. This isn't as ringing an endorsement of biblical truth as it may sound. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 20, 2023
Fifty years ago, on January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court fabricated a so-called "right to abortion" out of thin air. Today, many will march in Washington, D.C., again committing to the great moral cause of our day. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 19, 2023
Mars candy recently announced the release of all-female packs of M&M's. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 19, 2023
The entire narrative of Scripture reveals a God committed to making Himself known . Just because we cannot know Him exhaustively does not mean we cannot know Him truthfully. For a gift of any amount to the Colson Center in January, we'll send you a copy of What Does It Mean to Be a Thoughtful Christian? and access to an exclusive collection of videos featuring interviews with teachers such as Alisa Childers and Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer about aspects of the Christian mind. To learn more, go to colsoncenter.org/january . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 18, 2023
Recently, Reuters news service published an article titled, "Why detransitioners are crucial to the science of gender care." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 18, 2023
Princeton University is considering a petition, signed by nearly 300 members of the campus community, to remove a statue of John Witherspoon, one of the university's most important presidents and one of the most important, albeit less-known, of America's founders. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 17, 2023
The Holy Spirit has been called the "forgotten God," but according to Scripture, the Spirit is central to the Christian life. This Point was originally published on December 31, 2019. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 17, 2023
This week marks the death of Amy Carmichael, missionary to India and defender of children. Revised from Breakpoint on March 16, 2021. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 16, 2023
In grounding his dream in Scripture, Martin Luther King Jr. shows us the way forward. This Point was originally published on August 27, 2021. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 16, 2023
Today, on Martin Luther King Day, here is Chuck Colson with a commentary on Dr. King and his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." This Breakpoint was originally published on January 20, 2020. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 13, 2023
John Stonestreet and Kasey Leander look at the state of the pro-life movement as Americans descend on Washington, D. C. for another March for Life and the horrors of the eugenics movement haven't gone away. We have proof from Greenland. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 13, 2023
It turns out that whether or not we think we can tolerate our future spouse's annoying domestic habits is not nearly as important as committing ourselves to them, for life. This Point was originally published on February 17, 2020. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 13, 2023
Because music has been so central to Church worship and the Christian imagination, the first common-language hymnal is a milestone to remember and an opportunity to reflect on how music serves Christian worship today. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 12, 2023
About a decade ago, well-educated women were told that freezing their eggs would not only allow them to postpone childbearing, it would even empower them. This Point was originally published on January 1, 2020. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 12, 2023
May we have the listening ears and the thankful hearts to acknowledge the Creator to which documentaries like Our Universe point, whether they admit it or not. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 11, 2023
As Fox News reports, a biblical site only discovered in the last 20 years will soon be available to the public. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 11, 2023
According to the BBC, doctors in Greenland inserted intrauterine devices into several thousand local women without their knowledge or consent. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 10, 2023
Back in December, March for Life UK director Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for praying silently outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham, England. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 10, 2023
According to scholars Brad Wilcox and Wendy Wang in a recent article in The Atlantic, married mothers fared quite well during the pandemic, including indicating a greater degree of happiness than their single counterparts. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 9, 2023
No statement about religious liberty has generated more controversy than when Thomas Jefferson, in his letter to the Danbury Baptists, prescribed "a wall of separation between church and state." For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 9, 2023
In his book Surprised by Joy , C.S. Lewis rightly suggests that we ought not judge something (or someone) based on its newness or oldness at all. Techniques, styles, even church movements come and go, but those whom Christ saves, He sustains. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 6, 2023
After the terrifying collapse of Daman Hamlin on an NFL football field the nation turned to its only source of hope: God, and politicians are blaming pro-lifers for the results of the mid-term election. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 6, 2023
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that medication abortion drugs can now be sold over the counter at retail pharmacies. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 6, 2023
Today could be the most significant Christian holiday that Christians know about the least. Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas, was set aside in the Church calendar to remember the visitation of the Magi to the infant Jesus. Commit a year to joining others and work through the implications of a Christian worldview for all of life. Consider joining the Colson Fellows program. Applications are currently being accepted for the next class, which begins later this year. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 5, 2023
When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field Monday, several sports analysts called it the scariest scene they'd ever seen on a football field. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 5, 2023
God made us for relationship. He gave us bodies to mediate and facilitate those relationships. As helpful as computers and phones are, there is no substitute for real people. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 4, 2023
Canada's campaign to normalize suicide as a viable and even preferred medical treatment continues to escalate. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 4, 2023
To be Christian, especially in this confusing cultural moment, requires the intentional cultivation of our minds. An exemplary model of someone who took this calling seriously is James Clerk Maxwell. For a gift of any amount this month, I'd like to send you a very helpful and concise book, What Does It Mean to Be a Thoughtful Christian? by scholar David Dockery. We've also developed a video series on the Christian mind, with teachers such as Alisa Childers and Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 3, 2023
In December, the public school superintendent in Loudoun County, Virginia, was fired and indicted for lying to parents about the rape of a young girl in a restroom by a male classmate. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 3, 2023
Not that long ago, culturally speaking, someone known throughout the world for being neighborly said some things that most likely would have gotten him fired today. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 2, 2023
On January 1, 404, a monk from the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire attended a gladiatorial match in Rome. But instead of watching the games, Telemachus leapt into the arena in an attempt to separate the combatants. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org
Jan 2, 2023
Today, as antisemitism once again rears its ugly head, the Church should take the lead in opposing this evil and supporting the value and dignity of our Jewish neighbors. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit colsoncenter.org
Dec 30, 2022
John and Maria look back on 2022 and talk about the effects some of the biggest stories of the year had on the church and faith.
Dec 30, 2022
Jesus' words about loving our enemies remain as true and trying as ever. But the radical love to which Christ calls us shouldn't be confused with squishy emotion or moral vacuity. This Point was originally published on March 25, 2022.
Dec 30, 2022
From Pride month to education to companies telegraphing their commitments to inclusion and diversity, to just about every commercial, movie, or TV show produced today, sexual identity is treated as if it is central to human identity, human purpose, and human happiness. This Breakpoint was originally published on August 1, 2022.
Dec 29, 2022
For the first time in a long time, scientists are bucking the so-called "Neo-Darwinian synthesis," which has dominated the sciences since the early 20th century. This Point was originally published on July 20, 2022.
Dec 29, 2022
Young men aren't forming social bonds with real, live people, even the kinds of bonds that have historically captured their attention. This Breakpoint was originally published on October 5, 2022.
Dec 28, 2022
We're simply walking in the way Orwell warned against. It's the dark side of an expressive individualism devoid of any deeper truth. This Point was originally published on February 2, 2022.
Dec 28, 2022
Christians must insist that men and women are real. We must also insist that that fact doesn't compel a competition. There is no hierarchy of human dignity. This Breakpoint was originally published on March 28, 2022.
Dec 27, 2022
In a culture where nearly 1 in 5 of Gen Z calls themselves "LGBT," it's crucial that parents pray hard, stay true, and remember the long game. This Point was originally published on August 2, 2022.
Dec 27, 2022
Justice Alito thoroughly dismantles the claim that the right to an abortion is found anywhere in the Constitution. This Breakpoint was originally published on May 3, 2022.
Dec 26, 2022
Evangelicals under 40 are twice as likely as their seniors to want more substance from the pulpit. This Point was originally published on February 3, 2022.
Dec 26, 2022
In the tradition of so many who went before them, who were granted "not only to believe in Christ but to suffer for His sake," the Chibok schoolgirls held on to faith, and in so doing, found life and hope where there was seemingly none. This Breakpoint was originally published on March 7, 2022.
Dec 23, 2022
John and Maria look at the best and worst Christmas movies and would you host or attend a same sex wedding?
Dec 23, 2022
As we enter Christmas and the New Year, let's keep pointing to Christ. And as we point to Christ, we point to reality, because in Him, as the Apostle Paul says, "all things hold together."
Dec 23, 2022
For image bearers, names are not just blobs of letters, but a way of affirming identity, value, and history. Words mean something.
Dec 22, 2022
It can be easy to equate "greatness" with fame or followers or something loud and big. But God asks for faithfulness in whatever our hand finds to do.
Dec 22, 2022
The faithfulness that individual Christians demonstrate in their everyday lives makes a compelling case that the Christian worldview is both true and good. Nothing is more encouraging than to hear from followers of Christ who've been resourced, encouraged, and equipped by Breakpoint, the Colson Fellows program, or the Upstream and Strong Women podcasts. If any of these resources have been helpful to you, please email us at info@colsoncenter.org. And please consider supporting the Colson Center with a year-end, tax-deductible gift. You can give at ColsonCenter.org/December .
Dec 21, 2022
The secular world doesn't have a box for answered prayer or forgiveness. The Hoffman family does. Thank God.
Dec 21, 2022
If the power of our dominant cultural artifacts is to be countered and if new, better artifacts are to be created, Christians must be grounded in a thoroughly biblical vision for life and the world.
Dec 20, 2022
When absolute autonomy is the only rule, and children are lifestyle choices, then we can't be shocked when human beings can be added to our shopping carts.
Dec 20, 2022
The biological realities of men and women are not social constructs. By ignoring these realities, prisons in the U.S. and Canada are putting incarcerated women at increased risk of rape or violence.
Dec 19, 2022
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, there was an unintended side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic: a slight increase in U.S. fertility rates.
Dec 19, 2022
We think it's time to call Christians back to a bigger, older, and more thrilling way of seeing our world—of seeing Earth as crammed with heaven, because it is. That's the theme of our upcoming Colson Center National Conference , May 19-21, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Registration is now open at colsonconference.org .
Dec 16, 2022
When it comes to secular Christmas music there is the good, the bad and the ugly. John and Maria discuss them all. And how could Christians take part in a shocking White House celebration of the desecration of marriage?
Dec 16, 2022
Maybe it's time for Disney to listen to the words of a particularly wise old baboon . "The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it."
Dec 16, 2022
By linking opposition to the Respect for Marriage Act to (rightly) ostracized ideas like racism, advocates, like the president, are setting the stage for leveraging hate crime legislation and other cultural tools to criminalize dissent.
Dec 15, 2022
To those who insist babies in the womb aren't fully human or can be traded around like products, as in the case of surrogacy, science is stubborn. The more we learn, the clearer it becomes: Preborn children have rights .
Dec 15, 2022
Social revolutionaries who want doctors or teachers or bureaucrats to step between parents and children on sexual issues are revealing their hostility not only to parental rights but to human nature and how we were created.
Dec 14, 2022
Every year, the Christian students at Oxford University put on an evening of carols, singing hymns like "Oh Holy Night" and "Joy to the World," followed by a guest speaker who unpacks the hope of Advent.
Dec 14, 2022
Every follower of Christ is on the front lines when they take their faith into every walk of life, as " salt and light " to a world that desperately needs the redemptive power of the Gospel. This month, we would love to hear your experience with the Colson Center. If any of our resources—the Breakpoint podcast, the Strong Women podcast, Upstream with Shane Morris, the Colson Fellows , or Colson Educators —impacted the way you think and live, please email us at info@colsoncenter.org.
Dec 13, 2022
Dr. Andrew Newell explores the songs of the Advent season with Kasey Leander.
Dec 13, 2022
This month, China exploded in protests against President Xi Jinping's three-year "Zero-Covid" policy.
Dec 13, 2022
Today, we do not wait for the Messiah to bring salvation. We wait for the Messiah to return, when He will reveal Himself fully as King and restorer of all creation.
Dec 12, 2022
A few weeks ago before their contest against Papua New Guinea, the Fijian rugby team took the field and lifted their voices in honor of God.
Dec 12, 2022
Throughout history, Christians have fought for the protection and wellbeing of children, quite often from sexual exploitation and abuse.
Dec 9, 2022
The case of a web designer in Colorado is argued at the Supreme Court as the Justices go to great lengths to find loopholes. And John and Maria discuss former President Donald Trump's call to terminate the US Constitution.
Dec 9, 2022
According to Britain's Daily Mail, lawyers in the United Kingdom are being told to no longer address judges as "Sir" or "Madam" but only, "Judge."
Dec 9, 2022
Tomorrow, December 10, is the anniversary of the birth of a man regarded as the father of modern fantasy literature, someone who profoundly influenced writers such as G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis.
Dec 8, 2022
In this case, it will be impossible for the Court to neglect the issue of free speech. The question is whether the state of Colorado (or any state) can compel speech in order to advance the state's message.
Dec 8, 2022
We should all agree that the mission of science is to seek the truth about our world, but that requires a working definition of "truth."
Dec 7, 2022
As British commentator Peter Hitchens recently pointed out, being "schooled" isn't the same as being "educated."
Dec 7, 2022
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in 303 Creative v. Elenis, a case with significant implications for the future of conscience rights and free speech. Please pray for Lorie Smith of 303 Creative, and for the Alliance Defending Freedom, who is providing her defense. Please consider making a year-end gift to support the Colson Center. Breakpoint is listener-supported, and if these daily commentaries help you think biblically about this confusing world, please consider supporting us financially at colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 6, 2022
Today, December 6, is the anniversary of the death of St. Nicholas in 343, a leader in the ancient Church in the city of Myra in Asia Minor, or modern-day Turkey.
Dec 6, 2022
In this time of Advent, as we look back to Christ's first coming and await His second, we should recall the prophesies that pointed to His forerunner, John the Baptist.
Dec 5, 2022
On December 5, we remember poet Phillis Wheatley, on the day of her death in 1784, at just 31 years old.
Dec 5, 2022
God has called us to this moment, not another. Chuck Colson founded the Colson Center and this daily commentary Breakpoint to help Christians develop confidence in the truth of a Christian worldview so they could face the challenges of life today with courage and a clarity that can seem elusive. To all of you who support Breakpoint and other Colson Center programs with your prayers and financial generosity, be encouraged that God is at work, and thank you for joining with us in this calling. To give a tax-deductible gift to support Breakpoint and the Colson Center, please go to colsoncenter.org/december .
Dec 2, 2022
We're seeing protests in China over Covid lockdowns not seen since the days of Tiananmen Square. And a new phrase has been introduced into civil debate: Stochastic Terrorism. What is it and where did it come from?
Dec 2, 2022
More than 700 authors and publishing agents have signed an open letter to Penguin Random House demanding the publisher cancel a book deal with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Dec 2, 2022
In a culture so captive to a "critical theory mood," the only right and loving response to the hijacking of language is to oppose falsehood and advance truth. This will mean, among other things, refusing to accept or use words and phrases like "stochastic terrorism" which assume all kinds of false and dangerous ideas about who we are.
Dec 1, 2022
Recently, a Massachusetts boarding school banned smartphones because the devices stunt kids' attention and make them more emotionally volatile.
Dec 1, 2022
Our call as Christ followers at this moment is not to resign ourselves to some inevitability, even for a mess of religious freedom pottage. No, we must continue to embrace and promote the truth and beauty of marriage as it truly is.
Nov 30, 2022
Chinese President Xi Jinping, desperate to reverse his nation's population woes, has announced plans for a national pro-birth policy, and local officials are already encouraging bigger families.
Nov 30, 2022
Neither cultural darkness nor theological apathy is new. Still, this season is uniquely full of songs proclaiming that hope, and articulating the theological realities that ground that hope.
Nov 29, 2022
Generosity reflects God who generously created the world and, in Christ, generously gave Himself for us. So, please, on this Giving Tuesday, give. To support the Colson Center, visit colsoncenter.org/givingtuesday2022. And wherever you give, give generously.
Nov 29, 2022
Each and every Christian should be clear on this point: Antisemitism in any and all forms is a despicable evil.
Nov 28, 2022
Every year, our sister organization Prison Fellowship offers a way to spread some Christmas cheer to the children of those incarcerated. It's called Angel Tree.
Nov 28, 2022
Wherever you choose to invest, remember that this Giving Tuesday is an incredible opportunity. Because God has given us everything, generosity is part of the Church's living testimony of what God has done for us. Who will you give to this Giving Tuesday? If Breakpoint and other Colson Center resources have helped you make sense of this culture, we invite you to join us in this work. Go to colsoncenter.org/givingtuesday2022 .
Nov 25, 2022
As a gunman opened fire in an LGBTQ bar in Colorado Springs the media quickly blamed Christians and Christian organizations before knowing anything about the shooter. And what do you know about that first Thanksgiving?
Nov 25, 2022
Culture is most powerful in what it normalizes, and when lies are normalized, the truth becomes shocking. Thank God for Christian ministers willing to "shock" and speak truth.
Nov 25, 2022
We need a theology of being labeled controversial, and a theology of helping each other through the professional, reputational and personal fallout that comes with that label.
Nov 24, 2022
This week marks the death of Columbanus, a Christ-follower used by God to nurture education and establish the Christian foundations of Europe.
Nov 24, 2022
Rather than falsely maligning that first Thanksgiving, we should look at it as a model of how things should have been and by God's grace one day will be. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. Listen to his interview with the Strong Women podcasters about the women of Plymouth, or hear how Thanksgiving was declared a holiday .
Nov 23, 2022
Tough conversations on controversial topics don't have to be a disaster, even if had over holiday visits and meals. The key to civil and productive conversations is to ask good questions.
Nov 23, 2022
Our society largely fails to cultivate young men, to teach them about their fallen natures, and to morally form them to choose love over hate and courage over violence. Thus, the epidemics of addiction, aimlessness, depression, irresponsibility, perversion, selfishness, victimhood, and low expectations continue.
Nov 22, 2022
The sexual revolution promised women liberation, but men were the real beneficiaries. Children paid the price for that too.
Nov 22, 2022
This week marks the anniversary of both the birth (Nov. 29) and the death (Nov. 22) of C.S. Lewis, one of the most remarkable Christians of the last century.
Nov 21, 2022
Fanny Crosby, the "Blind Poetess," wrote hymns such as "Blessed Assurance" and "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" that remain beloved today.
Nov 21, 2022
Young people need parents who will have the difficult but thoughtful and gracious conversations with them.
Nov 18, 2022
The Respect for Marriage Act is one step away from passage. John and Maria discuss the consequences very few politicians are admitting. And have you considered your motives when you engage on social media?
Nov 18, 2022
Our lives are a performance, but only for an audience of One, who indwells us and makes our obedience possible. Paul's advice to " aspire to live quietly " still applies in this age of social media.
Nov 18, 2022
If life's purpose is found in the goodness of creation and the ultimate purposes of God's kingdom, dating has a context, as does marriage, work, sex, friendship, procreation, and yes, singleness.
Nov 17, 2022
Because a child is more than a "product," procreation without relationship robs children of the right to know their parents.
Nov 17, 2022
In a culture that advances state-sponsored death, people granted the "right to die" soon sense it is their duty to die. Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims.
Nov 16, 2022
The best stories, Tolkien wrote, acknowledge the seriousness of evil, but give us "a fleeting glimpse of joy… beyond the walls of the world."
Nov 16, 2022
There is no "silver bullet" when it comes to navigating tough conversations, changing someone else's mind, or helping those struggling with gender dysphoria. At the same time, to avoid the topic is to not help people at all, which is simply not an option for followers of Christ. Focus on the Family has compiled a list of resources on gender identity and transgender ideology, and the Restored Hope Network also has compiled a helpful list of books, articles, and other resources. And remember, God promises wisdom to those who ask for it. Let's ask for it. Note: If you have examples of Christians walking through transgender issues faithfully, we'd love to hear about them. Email us at info@colsoncenter.org .
Nov 15, 2022
Despite the fact the vast majority of OB-GYNs do not perform abortions, the message from the American College of Nurse-Midwives is "embrace the culture of death, or choose another career." AAPLOG is constantly confronting actual misinformation about abortion. Learn more about them at www.aaplog.org .
Nov 15, 2022
The "Respect for Marriage Act" would firmly root marriage in the United States in nothing more than abstract desires, redefining it from the institution that offered a bedrock for civilization to thrive. People of faith and conscience must act. The best next step with the short amount of time we have on our hands is to call your senators, especially if they are Republicans, especially if they have not been clear on where they stand on the Respect for Marriage Act. If you are in a state with Sens. Blunt (MO), Burr (NC), Cassidy (LA), Capito (WV), Ernst (IA), Fischer (NE), Grassley (IA), McConnell (KY), Romney (UT), Sullivan (AK), or Toomey (PA), make especially sure to contact them.
Nov 14, 2022
Killing inconvenient babies has long been framed as an issue of "rights," not what is right.
Nov 14, 2022
Today, November 14, marks the 306th anniversary of the death of Gottfried von Leibniz, a German polymath, committed Lutheran, and one of the most wide-ranging intellects in all of history.
Nov 11, 2022
John and Maria examine how the expected "red wave" fizzled and why the pro-life position in the abortion debate is losing at the cultural level.
Nov 11, 2022
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has officially appointed Putin the country's "Chief Exorcist" and claims that Ukraine is full of hundreds of sects of the Church of Satan.
Nov 11, 2022
The tradition in the West for tolerating dissent and demanding free speech came from the hard realization that none of us is fit to hold absolute power... even on Twitter.
Nov 10, 2022
Recently, music icon, multi-millionaire, and U2 lead singer Bono said that the key to beating extreme poverty is "entrepreneurial capitalism."
Nov 10, 2022
In a sense, we've loaded politics with all the expectations of a worldview. But politics cannot bring salvation, determine morality, provide ultimate meaning, or secure our relationships.
Nov 9, 2022
China's repression of Hong Kong has led to an explosion of growth for Chinese churches in the U.K.
Nov 9, 2022
Parents have the right to protect their children from harm, such as being inducted or indoctrinated against their will into a harmful ideology. The state has no business interfering with parents protecting their children from an ideology younger than smartphones.
Nov 8, 2022
Recently the Women's March organization tweeted , "We're not just pro-choice. We are proudly, unapologetically, pro-abortion." It's a shocking stance but not surprising, given that just days after that first Women's March, organizers announced that pro-life women were unwelcome at all future events.
Nov 8, 2022
75% of young adults don't know their purpose in life and that's why almost half feel hopeless. Dr. Jeff Myers reminds us that truth exists and can be known because Jesus is truth and he has revealed himself to us.
Nov 8, 2022
This is what our "Cruciform witness" will look like today: faithful devotion to Christ leading to a loving engagement with a watching world. Recently, Glen Scrivener was a guest on the Upstream podcast. You can listen to his interview with my colleague Shane Morris wherever you get your podcasts. And please, go vote today.
Nov 7, 2022
Technology that infringes on a child's rights to life, to be protected in body and mind, and to his or her own mother and father should not be pursued at all.
Nov 7, 2022
A tragic trend of the past few years is the explosion in the number of young people who identify as "transgender" or "non-binary." Filmmaker Donald J. Johnson's latest production, Dysconnected , examines the ways transgender ideology pulls young people apart from their bodies, families, and reality itself.
Nov 4, 2022
John and Maria discuss the role of identity politics in the reaction to the attack on Paul Pelosi and how should Christians respond to a call for forgiveness after Covid lockdowns?
Nov 4, 2022
The Vatican has renewed its 2018 arrangement with Beijing. Critics continue to warn that it's a recipe for disaster.
Nov 4, 2022
Salvation won't arrive on Air Force One, and a perfect world won't come through the ballot box. But a better world is possible if all our actions, political and otherwise, flow downstream from our Christian convictions, and not the other way around.
Nov 3, 2022
Beneath all of this is a worldview that sees reproduction as primarily about "production." Missing is not only the word, but the framework that comes with seeing the making of human life as "procreation," or as the word implies, that human life is created.
Nov 3, 2022
Many Christians bravely fought against changing the legal definition of marriage. Today, 10 years later, we must not stop fighting for children, who have a God-given right to their mother and their father.
Nov 2, 2022
Just like an ideology that affirms everything, a flag that affirms everyone's ideas about gender and the body ends in self-parody and as a source of headaches.
Nov 2, 2022
Morality, and its absence, is contagious, especially from one generation to the next. After all, families are the place we first learn to trust and to be trustworthy.
Nov 1, 2022
Amazon doesn't sell what kids need most: our love, our time, and our commitment to raising them in the Lord and teaching them what's true. Give these gifts, and it won't matter how much you spend on a stroller.
Nov 1, 2022
In Truth Changes Everything, Jeff Myers' skill to teach through stories is on full display. Ultimately, he demonstrates that these amazing stories happened because of what is true about the world and how followers of Christ oriented their lives to that truth.
Oct 31, 2022
Stories of the faithful who have gone before offer a perspective for our own life and faith that we cannot get anywhere else.
Oct 31, 2022
Sure, go ahead and let the kids dress up like Batman and hit up your neighbors for candy. But when the hoopla of modern Halloween is over, encourage your kids to imitate some real heroes—not in what they put on, but in how they live their lives. That was Chuck Colson, from October 31, 2007, describing the rich history behind All Saints' Day.
Oct 28, 2022
John and Maria talk about prioritizing issues for voting in the midterm elections. Afterward, they discuss the factors leading to a decline in reading and math skills for K-12. They end on the moralistic mysticism affecting the hard sciences and medicine.
Oct 28, 2022
As youth struggle with an unprecedented loss of satisfaction and sense of meaning, God's Word is the best way to draw them closer to the One they're already keen to know.
Oct 28, 2022
No matter what day it is, Paul's instructions in Philippians 4 should guide our celebrations. Christians should think on "whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable." (This commentary is an updated version of one that first aired on Oct. 31, 2014).
Oct 27, 2022
As the intentional handiwork of a Creator, we have a foundation to discover the meaning our culture has lost.
Oct 27, 2022
Though we love the idea that God is not "safe," we often live as if our safety or comfort marks the boundaries of our relationship with Him. Many Christians cannot conceive that God's will for our lives could involve anything unpleasant or uncomfortable. (This Breakpoint is re-published from 11.4.21)
Oct 27, 2022
Critical theories cannot offer the beauty of constraints or hope in suffering.
Oct 26, 2022
Suggesting we should kill unborn children for economic reasons is an atrocity, but those who link childrearing to economic realities are actually right. Just not in the way they realize.
Oct 26, 2022
Science is being made subservient to religious values and immaterial claims because every worldview is a kind of faith. As the epistle of James warns, demons, too, believe, which is why we should all tremble when we consider where this "woke" religion is taking us.
Oct 25, 2022
Watching Dahmer won't make every viewer a serial killer, but it won't help us love our neighbors either. As Marshall McLuhan observed, we become what we behold.
Oct 25, 2022
Marriage isn't about self-fulfillment, or even about companionship (as important as that is). It's about "fruitfulness," or taking care of the creation, something that required additional image bearers. To receive a copy of The Story of the Family, along with access to a series of exclusive teaching videos by Dale Ahlquist, who compiled the essays for the book, go to colsoncenter.org/October.
Oct 24, 2022
Defenders of marriage and the family are often accused of "idolizing" marriage and family. This month, with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, receive The Story of the Family , a book of essays by G.K. Chesterton compiled by the scholar Dale Ahlquist. You'll also receive access to a video series on the book by Ahlquist. Go to colsoncenter.org/October.
Oct 24, 2022
Whether married or single, the call of Christ for His people is to reject a life focused on individual self-fulfillment and instead embrace a life focused on Christ and His Kingdom. That's why we are making available an amazing new book featuring G.K. Chesterton's best writing about the family. The Story of the Family is compiled by the Chesterton scholar Dale Ahlquist. Receive a copy—and access to exclusive videos Ahlquist created for the Colson Center—with a gift of any amount this month. Go to colsoncenter.org/October.
Oct 22, 2022
John asks Alexandra questions about abortion, ranging from the error inherent in the language "removing the right to abortion," the radical nature of Michigan's Proposal 3 on the ballot, the case for the child in the womb, and building a pro-life culture.
Oct 21, 2022
It may not have been said by Albert Einstein, but it's true. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." I think about this every time I read another article about "why young people are leaving the Church." So many of these articles are written by progressives or ex-evangelicals proclaiming that churches must adopt liberal theology , LGBT ideology, and focus on social justice rather than sin and salvation if they hope to survive. But churches and denominations have already tried this for years, and the ones who have are overwhelmingly old, white, and dying. The churches losing members at a dizzying rate still are the ones that have ordained gay clergy and are preaching a social gospel. On the other hand, their conservative counterparts are growing still. Look, young people don't need another institution to make them feel good. They need one that will tell them the truth about sin, and the Savior who calls them to be transformed in the world, not conformed to it. (Republished from 8.29.17)
Oct 21, 2022
Christian, stay in your lane: Do the good works which God has ordained for us to do from the foundations of the world. Just know that they encompass every conceivable aspect of human existence. This Breakpoint is republished from 8.2.21.
Oct 20, 2022
In a recent study, of the 114 women who claimed to have chemically aborted their babies, "six out of ten" said that chemical abortion "is a traumatic experience that can include physical pain, emotional distress, and lasting feelings of isolation for which they desire help, but most don't know where to turn." If you know a woman who's experienced a chemical abortion, the Abortion Pill Reversal Network or Support After Abortion may be able to help.
Oct 20, 2022
According to the numbers, some of the happiest people in America are married moms .
Oct 19, 2022
While 66 clinics are no longer providing abortion, pregnancy resource centers continue to do their important care.
Oct 19, 2022
As platforms like Twitter facilitate nastier and hotter debates than ever, Christians who take part would do well to examine our principles and consider how it's possible to laugh at our enemies and love them.
Oct 18, 2022
According to NPR, Planned Parenthood will soon be sending out "mobile abortion clinics," buses outfitted to provide abortion services on wheels.
Oct 18, 2022
Fathers are more than just sperm donors. They have a connection with their children beyond contributing DNA. This supports the claim that there's really no such thing as parenting: There's only mothering and fathering.
Oct 17, 2022
You may have heard that Eastern story about the six blind men who encounter an elephant. Who was right about their view of the elephant? Everyone, we're told. Just like everyone is right in their own view about God. But in reality, none of the men were right about the elephant.
Oct 17, 2022
Detransitioners are considered either non-existent or an embarrassment by the cultural powers that be. Yet, they make clear that people struggling with dysphoria are not the enemy. Rather, the dogmas of trans ideology are.
Oct 15, 2022
John and Maria consider the latest cheating scandals in competitions, recognizing people's capacity for self-rationalization. After a discussion about government-funded suicide of young people in Canada, they conclude with a recent survey in the U.S. showing that conservative women are happier.
Oct 14, 2022
Instead of letting social media notifications, games, and texts control your schedule, keep those activities to pre-allotted time slots. Be physically present with people.
Oct 14, 2022
His words may at times offend our post-Holocaust sensibilities, but taken in context, Chesterton emerges mostly as a friend and defender of the Jews. This month, the Colson Center has teamed up with Chesterton scholar Dale Ahlquist to create an exclusive set of videos on Chesterton's understanding of the purpose of family. Ahlquist has recently compiled a new book of Chesterton's essays, titled The Story of the Family . For a gift of any amount, you may receive this book and access to the video series at colsoncenter.org/October.
Oct 13, 2022
From its earliest days, wherever abortion was practiced, the Church condemned it and must continue to do so today.
Oct 13, 2022
The data is overwhelming. Contrary to what is consistently filling our newsfeeds, there is a disturbing lack of evidence that intervening in a child's gender development produces beneficial results of any kind. More than that, many studies are showing a strong potential for lasting harm. Love must speak the truth. As gentle as we must be with those who struggle with whom God created them to be, or even those who profess to be our enemies in this cultural tug-of-war, the Church has to stand for what is true about humanity, including God's good creation of the human body and the inherent value each person has since they bear His image.
Oct 12, 2022
Just because someone feels offended by the sight of prayer doesn't mean that it's coercive. The Lemon Test is now gone, thankfully, and religious liberty will be better protected because of it.
Oct 12, 2022
The solution to homelessness must always revolve around re-engagement with relationships, with families, with community, and all the values that spring from them: responsibility, accountability, restoration, grace, and connection.
Oct 11, 2022
F3 offers a witness to the goodness of fellowship in the lives of men—and particularly how fellowship grounded in faith in Jesus just seems to be the strongest and most life-giving kind there is.
Oct 11, 2022
Can the definition of family "morph"? Is family a real thing that exists, or is the word family a mere placeholder for any relational arrangement? Children need their moms and their dads . Moms need their husbands, and dads need their wives. These needs aren't fake, socially constructed, or culturally conditioned. This month, for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, we'll send you Chesterton scholar Dale Ahlquist's compilation of Chesterton essays, The Story of the Family , and also provide access to a video series developed by Ahlquist exclusively for the Colson Center. Visit colsoncenter.org/october for more information.
Oct 10, 2022
Emma's poise, serenity, and sense of humor counterbalanced her husband's impulsive, emotional nature and became the backbone of [Dwight] Moody's success.
Oct 10, 2022
Recently in The Atlantic, Maggie Mertens declared that "separating sports by sex doesn't make sense." As long as equality means sameness and exceptions disprove created norms, we can expect headlines to only become more and more absurd, reflecting even more creative mental gymnastics.
Oct 8, 2022
As pro-life resource centers undergo not only physical assaults but regulative ones, John and Maria discuss how we can support them. They then consider what to make of the Herschel Walker allegations and how Christians can engage with others on social media. Concluding, they discuss the historical process leading to a gay couple claiming infertility and a judge re-defining marriage to be polyamorous.
Oct 7, 2022
Abortion is big business for Planned Parenthood, no matter how they fudge the numbers.
Oct 7, 2022
God did not create generic people with shapeless identities. While there is not biblical warrant to call any nation "Christian" since the days of ancient Israel, there's plenty for living fully as Christians as citizens of our nations.
Oct 6, 2022
The data is in, and legalizing marijuana never delivers what is promised.
Oct 6, 2022
Christians must avoid two extremes when it comes to inappropriate conflation of Christianity and nationalism. While God moves through nations and states, just as He does through individuals, the restoration of all things involves people from every tongue, tribe, nation, and language. It is simply unwise to take up a term that has been historically associated with some of the worst villains of the last century or so.
Oct 5, 2022
Pregnancy resource centers need public support from business leaders and pastors. They need our support and prayers more than ever.
Oct 5, 2022
Young men aren't forming social bonds with real, live people, even the kinds of bonds that have historically captured their attention. Christians have an answer for a world that obliterates the helpful aspects of sexual difference, pacifies men with distractions and addictions, and promises limitless sexual freedom while dismantling the family.
Oct 4, 2022
Last month the world lost a fearless evangelist. Known simply as "Brother Andrew," he was responsible for smuggling thousands of Bibles into the Soviet Union.
Oct 4, 2022
Not only is transparency a necessary accountability, but parents have a "deeply rooted" constitutional right "to direct the upbringing of their children, and to make decisions regarding their children's education and healthcare in a manner consistent with family values." On Tuesday, October 11, in person or via online live streaming, please join me for an important conversation about "Kids and Culture: The Clash for the Next Generation's Hearts and Minds." Joining me for this conversation will be my Breakpoint This Week co-host Maria Baer, Aaron Baer of the Center for Christian Virtue, and Todd Marrah from Tree of Life Christian Schools. Reserve your free ticket at ccv.org.
Oct 3, 2022
Christians have the unique perspective that our work is a way of participating with God in His creation, working toward the flourishing of everything and everyone else.
Oct 3, 2022
Michael Faraday is an example of how Christians can balance the constructive purposes of science with an accurate understanding of scientific authority. Some of humanity's greatest discoveries began by bucking conventional wisdom and allowing the evidence to lead elsewhere. "Science," after all, never "says" anything. Only scientists do, offering hypotheses as a way of stewarding the data science provides.
Sep 30, 2022
As the hurricane finished its course through Florida, John and Maria talk about how worldview analysis applies to such natural calamities. They then consider the popularity of the term "Christian nationalism"–should Christian nationalism be a concern for U.S. Christians right now? In closing, they discuss why, in the case of the Iran uprising, an authoritarian state cannot perpetuate a society well.
Sep 30, 2022
Fetal development is no conspiracy of men to control women. Politically convenient talking points cannot deny the reality and truth of humanity in the womb.
Sep 30, 2022
Now more than ever, Christians must rally around the pro-life pregnancy centers that are placed in just about every town in America, doing work no one else is doing. Right now, they need support, volunteers, advocacy, and prayer. Increasingly, it is going to become important, especially in pro-abortion states, for community leaders both in business and the church to publicly express their support. It will come at a cost, but it will be absolutely necessary, especially as attacks increase.
Sep 29, 2022
Enjoy this podcast in which Colson Center writer and speaker, Kasey Leander discusses with a group of Colson Fellow alumni how God is making them redemptive agents in their spheres of influence.
Sep 29, 2022
Pennsylvania's education department suggests the use of "gender neutral pronouns" in schools for "a more inclusive learning environment." Among their suggestions are "ne," "ve," and "xe."
Sep 29, 2022
We need biblical and cultural literacy so that our beliefs are orthodox, but we also need to be about orthopraxy , applying the answers of Scripture to the rigors of actual life. One of the distinct things about the Colson Fellows program is how many different strands of worldview and life are brought together and how desperately needed that is today in such a fragmented society. If the ministry of the Colson Center has helped you gain clarity, confidence, and courage in your life, would you prayerfully consider a gift today to continue the work, supporting products and programs like the Colson Fellows? You can give at breakpoint.org/september . We look forward to hearing how God is using you in this cultural time and place.
Sep 28, 2022
Jesus said to get rid of your eye or hand if it offends you, but getting rid of the internet or social media can be even harder to fathom for many of us. Maybe it shouldn't be.
Sep 28, 2022
Avatar stands as one of the clearest examples of how worldviews can be embedded in stories, and of New Age ideas embedded in a film. Chuck Colson reminds us that every movie contains worldview messages, which gives Christians the opportunity to discern, to engage, and to communicate truth with others.
Sep 27, 2022
All of the reports correctly treat muscle dysmorphia as a disorder that required helping these men see the goodness of their bodies as they are. Yet these same news outlets treat gender dysphoria as a problem of the body, with treatment that involves body modification, such as hormones and surgery.
Sep 27, 2022
America's largest provider and promoter of abortion has added another revenue stream. This one also promises to destroy lives, albeit in a new and subtler way. This one also promises to help women but is, in actuality, built on ideas that deny the existence of women.
Sep 26, 2022
According to the CDC , there were 600,000 fewer marriages in the United States in 2020 than in 2000, even though the population grew by nearly 50 million. While many reasons are offered for the downward trend, one of the most common is cultural instability. But that explanation does not apply to Ukraine, which has been in the midst of a war for the past six months. With thousands dead, infrastructure wrecked, and control of cities switching back and forth, "stability" wouldn't be the word to describe Ukraine. Yet, in the first half of 2022 , the nation had a record number of marriages, with weddings more likely at the front than behind the lines. What explains so many couples taking the big leap in the face of mortal danger? Maybe they've got nothing to lose. Maybe marriage is an act of defiant hope. And maybe, marriage isn't the relationship of convenience that so many in the West have come to think of it as.
Sep 26, 2022
Every two years, Ligonier Ministries works with LifeWay Research to evaluate the theological temperature of the American church . This year's State of Theology study's results show that not just Americans but evangelicals in particular are increasingly muddy on core truths such as the nature and character of God, the reality of human sin, the role of the Church in the world, and the exclusivity and divinity of Jesus Christ. For context, the survey defines "evangelical" as a Christian believer who meets four criteria: that the Bible is the highest authority for what someone believes, that it is important for non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their savior, that Jesus' death on the cross is the only sacrifice that removes the penalty of humanity's sin, and that only those who trust in Him alone receive God's free gift of eternal salvation. Though that definition is a promising theological start, the results go quickly downhill from there. For example, nearly half of evangelicals agreed that God "learns and adapts" to different circumstances, in stark contrast to the biblical doctrine of unchanging nature, or immutability ; 65% of evangelicals agreed that everyone is "born innocent in the eyes of God," denying the doctrine of original sin , and with it, the very reason that people need salvation in the first place. Some 56% of evangelicals agreed with the idea that "God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam," in contrast to Jesus' words in Matthew that without Him, " no one knows the Father ." The most stunning result had to do with the topic of Jesus Christ's divinity. When asked whether they agreed that "Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God," 43% of American evangelicals answered yes . That number is up 13% from just two years ago. Even if we generously allow for some confusion in the phrasing of the questions and what they implied, The State of Theology paints a bleak picture. People who claim the title of "evangelical," a title that long was defined, at least in part, by adherence to historic Christian belief, stand a good chance of believing humanity is basically good at birth, that God is not concerned with worship or doctrine being particularly "Christian," and that Jesus was a good teacher, but not God incarnate. It's worth noting that these failures are not because evangelicals have a low view of Scripture. Some 95%, after all, still agree with the statement that "the Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches." The implication, then, is that they simply don't know what it teaches, either because they haven't been taught or they haven't cared enough to learn. In fact, in many corners of evangelicalism, it is assumed that doctrine doesn't matter. This can take at least two forms: hyper-emotionalism, the idea that God will settle for our sincerity and our affection, even over and above whether or not our beliefs are true; or a hyper-politicization, one that assumes it really matters whom you vote for and what group you belong to, not what you believe about the essential truth of the Gospel or the claims of Christ. In reply to all this, Jesus was really clear. Here's what He said , "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth." It was for this reason that the divine Logos came into the world " to testify to the truth ," and it's only the truth that sets us free . And it's interesting to me that in the Old Testament, idolatry is portrayed not only as worshipping a false God but worshipping a false idea of who God is, such as was the case with the Golden Calf incident. A bright spot to this survey is what it revealed about hot topics, moral issues: 92% of evangelicals agreed that abortion is a sin, and 94% agreed that sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin, although that conclusion is muddied by another 28% who agreed that Scripture's condemnation of homosexual behavior "doesn't apply today." We will never have a clear sense of who God is, His omnipotence and immutability, His character and work in the world, how He sees us and what He requires of us, without a biblical understanding of who Jesus is and the absolute authority He wields over all creation. If our thinking is rooted instead in only our political allegiances or some vague notion of God's "niceness," we will have simply obtained a " form of godliness, while denying its power ." Once in a meeting I attended, a Christian leader quipped, "If we could just get all the Christians saved, we'd be in good shape." The results of this study show it's time for many so-called Christians to repent, for many churches to renew their commitments to catechism, and for all of us who claim Christ to commit our hearts and minds to know who He is, who He has revealed Himself to be.
Sep 25, 2022
John and Maria discuss the dark, lucrative nature of transgender "medicine" revealed by videos disclosed from Vanderbilt University. They conclude that Christians must step into these muddy cultural waters. Later, they share about a Breakpoint on the demise of the New Atheism and finish with a conversation about the political tensions since the Dobbs decision.
Sep 23, 2022
After the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade , the work to protect preborn lives continues at the ground level, in every community, every city, every church. Here are some resources to fulfill that calling. Continuum of Care is a project of the Human Coalition that networks mothers to financial services, job training, maternity housing, and other resources in six major cities. To equip churches to minister to pregnant and parenting moms, another pregnancy and life-assistance network, Her Plan, offers a guide you can find online. The Abortion Pill Reversal Network educates on the reversal of chemical abortions and connects women who have started a chemical abortion with a provider within 72 hours, the window in which a baby can be saved. And, the Support After Abortion website provides classes, virtual groups, and a help number for those suffering after an abortion. These are just some of the organizations and resources available. Let's make abortion unthinkable.
Sep 23, 2022
A mortal affliction affects much of America's heartland. Known as "deaths of despair," both the Rust Belt and Appalachia have seen incredible spikes in rates of addiction, overdoses, violence, and suicide. In addition to the thousands who die each year by various forms of self-harm, thousands more live Gollum-like, trapped by their chemical chains and in loneliness. It is a complex situation. While we must not diminish anyone's moral agency, the downward paths we are on are paved, lined, and greased by a number of contributing factors. For example, Beth Macy, the author of the book Dope Sick, has documented the lethal partnership of doctors and drug companies , not to mention the co-option of government oversight agencies, which inflicted a plague of highly addictive opioids on some of America's poorest areas of the country. A new recent study, however, points to an additional complexity, an oft-ignored element of this cultural disease: the decline of religion. According to the study's authors, there is some correlation between the end of so-called "Blue Laws" and the opioid epidemic. In certain parts of the country, Blue Laws have long limited the range of activities allowed on Sundays. Certain businesses were not allowed to be open, and certain things (especially alcohol) could not be sold. Though these laws continue in certain areas, particularly in Europe, they began to disappear in parts of the United States as the 20th century wore on, to the point that now they are few and far between . Of course, a significant, culture-wide phenomenon like the opioid crisis cannot be reduced to something as simplistic as whether or not people can shop on Sunday. To do that would be to mistake correlation for causation, kind of like saying murders go up with ice cream sales . And this is something the study's authors readily admit. Rather than claiming that the end of Blue Laws created the opioid crisis, they use the end of Blue Laws as a marker to track the decline in American religiosity. The diminishing connections to faith in communities across the country, especially in those areas where they were once so strong, are among the factors that contributed to our nation's chemical plague. In other words, Blue Laws are a kind of canary in the coal mine, marking when we've crossed a dangerous line. In light of these diminishing religious commitments, reinstating Blue Laws likely will not lead to a reversal in rates of addictions or other deaths of despair. Even if they were an important part of our cultural life of faith at one time, too much has changed for such an easy fix. However, what these laws represented and what has been lost as they disappear points to the underlying causes, not only of the opioid crisis but of many of our parallel pains as well. What we need to ask is, in a mix of Friedrich Nietzsche and REM , what is the cost of losing our religion? As much as we prize our individualism, particularly here in America, human beings aren't just dust motes of consciousness, floating on the air currents of life. We're connected, not just to one another, but to a host of other elements through relationships that give us meaning, identity, direction, and hope. To be healthy, as individuals and as communities, these relationships (upward, inward, outward, and downward) must be strong. Human beings need a connection to something beyond ourselves, something higher and transcendent in order to find ourselves, to know who and what we are, to be sure of our identity. We need connections with one another, especially the links of family and friendship, in order to be accountable, supported, and complete. And, we need proper connection to the physical world around us, so to be tethered to reality through things like meaningful labor, a place to call home, and some part of the world to call "mine." Marx got it wrong. Religion isn't the opiate of the masses, but instead a part of life most needed, irreplaceable by technological convenience or scientific mastery. The loss of religion has been a bad idea wherever it has been tried, and those suffering across Appalachia and the Rust Belt are some of its most obvious victims. By abandoning religion, specifically the Christianity which once provided meaning to these now missing relationships, the essential connection between individuals and communities and a higher purpose has been lost. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said all the way back in 1983, "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." Blue Laws didn't hold off the effects of substance abuse, but the religious impulse that such laws represented were part of a way of seeing life and the world, one in which we weren't just reduced to being cogs or animals or sexual expressions. The Christianity that the world has rejected offers the hope that the world so desperately needs.
Sep 22, 2022
According to Christianity Today , Belarus is cracking down on religious dissent. The new policies come from an earlier case when a Pentecostal group wasn't allowed to meet together without registering with the government but also wasn't allowed to register since there were only 13 people. When the group appealed the decision, they received unexpected support from the United Nations. Eager to avoid further embarrassment, Belarus is now taking steps to prevent minority faiths from getting outside aid. Of course, dictatorships are never keen on those who refuse to march to the state's drum, especially religious dissenters. As Francis Schaeffer once argued, no state that claims total authority can tolerate those who recognize a power higher than itself. Thus, conflict between religion and dictatorship is inevitable. Which is why religious liberty should never be reduced to a special pleading by quirky groups to practice their hobbies. It makes possible the essential freedom to dissent from those who hold the strings of power.
Sep 22, 2022
Though it's not always clear when a movement is over, there are many indicators that suggest this is the case of the " New Atheism ," a cultural wave that rose in the 2000s and aggressively attacked religion in the guise of scientific rationalism. Despite the name, the New Atheism wasn't really new, at least not in the sense of presenting new arguments. Instead, leveraging the global shock of 9/11, New Atheists pushed an anti-religious mood along with a vision of a society free from the cobwebs of religion, defined by scientific inquiry, free speech, and a morality not built on God or religious traditions. In 1996, prominent New Atheist Richard Dawkins articulated this mood in his acceptance speech for the " Humanist of the Year" Award : "I think a case can be made that faith is one of the world's great evils," he said, "comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate." There was a commercial aspect to the New Atheism, with bumper stickers and T-shirts carrying well-worn slogans, such as one coined by Victor Stenger : "Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings." Though, at the time, it grew into somewhat of a cultural force and platformed a group of minor celebrities, the New Atheism now seems to have run out of steam. Divided by progressive politics and haunted by the obnoxious tone of many of its own founders, the movement is being devoured by other ideologies. Concepts like freedom of expression, scientific realism, and morality without God have all met their antitheses, often in clashes featuring the New Atheists themselves. One watershed moment was a conflict over the role of science. Just last year, the American Humanist Association revoked Richard Dawkins' " Humanist of the Year" award for his long history of offensive tweets. For example, Dawkins told women who experience sexual harassment to " stop whining " and parents of babies with Down syndrome to " abort it and try again. " These tweets were among the cringeworthy, but the one that completed Dawkins' long transformation from champion of free thought to persona non grata, at least for the American Humanist Association , questioned gender ideology: "In 2015, Rachel Dolezal, a white chapter president of NAACP, was vilified for identifying as Black. Some men choose to identify as women, and some women choose to identify as men. You will be vilified if you deny that they literally are what they identify as. Discuss." The New Atheist commitment to seeking truth via the objectivity of science has collided with a new ideology that deifies the subjective sense of self. Ironically, this is the kind of religious dogmatism Dawkins and other New Atheists always accused organized religions of promoting, only less scientific. New Atheism has been further undermined by a cultural shift in censorship and tolerance for freedom of expression. Organized religion, New Atheists claimed, suppressed dissent. Only by enthroning secularism could we remove the fear of speaking or hearing the truth, even when truth is shocking and offensive. As it turned out, religion's retreat only left a secular progressivism to censor and suppress at will. In 2017, for example, The End of Faith author Sam Harris ignited a firestorm when he interviewed political scientist Charles Murray . Just a month earlier, a violent mob had shouted Murray down at Middlebury College , injuring moderator Dr. Allison Stanger as the two tried to reach the exit. Harris defended Murray, arguing his research was unfairly maligned as racist and he should be allowed to speak. In retaliation, Ezra Klein published a piece in Vox that landed Harris on the Southern Poverty Law Center's " Hatewatch Headlines, " while in Salon Émile P. Torres accused Harris and the New Atheists of " merging with the far right ." That same year, Richard Dawkins was barred from speaking at UC Berkeley for his comments about radical Islam, not by Christians or Muslims but by progressives. Turns out that freedom of expression wasn't faring as predicted in a post-religious world. In addition to their own jarring polemics and personal misfires, the New Atheists failed to realize that religion, especially Christianity, was the proverbial branch upon which they were sitting. For example, the freedom of expression depends on a number of assumptions, that there is objective truth, that it can be discovered, that it is accessible to people regardless of race or class, that belief should be free instead of coerced, that people have innate value, and that because of this value they should not be silenced. Every one of these ideas assumes the kind of world described in the Bible and mediated across centuries of Christian thought. Not one of these assumptions can be grounded in a purposeless world that is the product of only natural causes and processes. Maybe that's what led Dawkins, just a few years ago, to warn against celebrating the decline of Christianity across the world. Turns out that all of the efforts that he and the other New Atheists extended to root out organized religion have left him with "a fear of finding something worse." Today's Breakpoint was coauthored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to colsoncenter.org .
Sep 21, 2022
Last month the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal responded to the claim that the average American family spends an estimated $300,000 to raise a child. Of course kids are expensive, they conceded, but "that isn't the way to look at it." Seeing children only in terms of cost is a mistake. "Whatever children cost to raise," the editors concluded, "they are a priceless vote of confidence in the future." They're right. It's not that kids don't take massive investments of time and energy. They do. But kids are investments. And the returns are incredible, though rarely easy. Parents should be thoughtful about how and when to embark on the journey, but children are a gift, not a burden. They are image bearers, not luxury goods. To think about kids only in terms of how they impact our happiness or our wallets is to completely miss the point. The most important relationships don't always make life easier , but they do make it better.
Sep 21, 2022
Grocery store remarks can reveal a lot about a culture. Just ask any mother or father of more than 1.7 children about the comments that strangers somehow feel free to make about their unfashionably large broods. "You know what causes that, right?" "Are you done?" "What are you—Catholic?" Comedian Jim Gaffigan, who has five children, jokes that people who see him in public with his family sometimes remark, "Well, that's one way to live your life!" These comments reveal what more and more data are also showing. A lower percentage of Westerners, including Americans, are embarking on parenthood than ever before. However, these comments also betray how we think about children: as burdens, impositions on freedom, or so very, very expensive that only the wealthy can afford them. It doesn't help how often media outlets stoke fears that children will eat you out of house and home. For example, a recent Wall Street Journal article grimly reported: "It Now Costs $300,000 to Raise a Child." I wonder how many parents read the headline and panicked or at least scratched their head at this summary of a Brookings Institution study. The cost of raising kids varies widely, depending on variables such as where you live, what you drive, how you educate your children, and how much you spend on household extras and vacations. Still, given that the median U.S. household income is about $68,000 , any middle-class family of five not living under a bridge should be proof enough that something is askew with the numbers reported in the Wall Street Journal . For starters, the numbers are not itemized, and the article initially gestures toward inflation, rising food costs, the pandemic, and supply chain hiccups, as if those are the main things driving up the cost of parenting. To put it mildly, this was misleading. Another breakdown by Josh Zumbrun, also in the Wall Street Journal , revealed that "housing and child care" are the actual main expenses. For the average family (an elusive statistical entity with 1.7 kids), housing and childcare are supposed to account for over half the annual cost of children under age six. But, anyone who grew up sleeping in bunkbeds and wearing hand-me-downs knows that housing expenses are highly negotiable. Jim Gaffigan's family of seven famously lived in a two-bedroom apartment in New York City ! The other cost, childcare, is something not all families employ. As Zumbrun writes, many families simply do not incur this expense, "because a parent, extended family or some combination provides the care." Historically, this arrangement was the norm. Of course, many married couples simply cannot afford to live on a single income. It can be necessary for both parents to work, but it is worth considering how often it is taken for granted that childcare is an expense. Back in 2018, The New York Times asked millennials why they're having so few children: 61% of those who've had fewer kids than they would like cited the cost of childcare. There are other factors as well. For example, "gender equality" also emerged as a major theme in the 2018 study, meaning that, all things being equal, women are often choosing careers ahead of children. As the authors wrote: "Women have more agency over their lives and many feel that motherhood has become more of a choice." While we can rejoice that women have more options in life, it should give us pause when parents see the decision to have kids as a lifestyle choice. Among respondents who said they didn't want kids, the number one reason was a desire for "more leisure time." One young woman may have spoken for many when she said she planned to forego children in order to travel, focus on her job, get a master's degree, and play with her cats. None of this directly makes children more expensive for those who choose to have them, but it does raise the perceived opportunity cost , which makes inflated numbers like those in the Wall Street Journal seem more believable. When fewer people on average are starting families and more people than ever are choosing self-expression as a life goal, it creates a kind of cultural feedback loop that makes having children seem not only less affordable, but less normal. That context helps explain where the grocery store remarks come from. Making family a central goal in life, one worthy of personal sacrifice, is certainly counter cultural, but it's just not as expensive as it's made out to be. And even if were, it's an investment with incredible returns. Today's Breakpoint was coauthored by Shane Morris. To learn more about the Colson Center, go to colsoncenter.org .
Sep 20, 2022
Earlier this year, two professors at Tufts University rediscovered a book buried deep in their library. It was called Maladie de Famine or The Disease of Starvation. The story behind this scientific research is stunning. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, hundreds of thousands of Jews were detained in the Warsaw Ghetto, deprived of food and subject to mass executions. Jewish doctors disobeyed their Nazi captors and recorded the effects of starvation on their own bodies as a testimony against the atrocities. Their work eventually shaped the Geneva Conventions of 1949, when the starving of civilians became a war crime. Why did these doctors do this? One answer is that they believed there was meaning to life and death, and therefore to their work. Former Harvard chaplain D. Elton Trueblood said, "A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit."
Sep 20, 2022
As mid-term elections loom, both pro-abortion candidates and the Democratic party — not always for the same reason — have been working to advance abortion "rights" and access as a central issue in November. Increasingly, three common myths are touted by abortion advocates and pro-abortion media sources: (1) that abortion is healthcare, (2) that ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages will be treated as abortion in a post- Roe society, and (3) that the abortion pill is safe . To counter these myths (as well as a few others), the American Association for Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) has launched a campaign to put fact sheets into the hands of medical professionals. This information is vital not only to prevent patients from being misled but also as a public statement of solidarity for pro-life doctors and nurses. A few days before the campaign's launch, the pro-abortion American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology threatened to revoke the certification of pro-life OB-GYNs, for disseminating what they called misinformation about "reproductive health care, contraception, abortion, and OB-GYN practices." In essence, the board is saying that any OB-GYN that disagrees with their stance on elective abortion could lose their license to practice. As Alexandra DeSanctis, co-author of Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing , wrote recently in National Review , the vagueness of the board's claims regarding its version of "misinformation" is nothing other than "veiled intimidation." This is why the work of AAPLOG and all pro-lifers in correcting the oft-repeating myths of healthcare is so vital. In stark contrast to AAPLOG's fact sheet, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has its own, and it directly states, "Abortion is essential health care." Sometimes all it takes to misrepresent truth is an adjective or, as in this case, a missing adjective. While in rare and tragic situations, a sick preborn child can put the mother's life at risk, that kind of essential healthcare does not justify the vast majority of abortions that are "elective." OB-GYNs are trained to recognize when life-giving medical intervention is necessary for a pregnant mother. In these heartbreaking cases, medical professionals work to save the mother. In elective abortions, medical professionals work to kill the child. Adding the word "elective " to "abortion" tells the truth about the completely different situation in which a decision is made to end the life of a preborn child who is not endangering the mother's physical health. That is not healthcare. And, according to AAPLOG, 93% of OB/GYNs do not provide elective abortions. Most enter the field to help women care for preborn babies — not take their lives — and they are able to tell the difference. A second myth addressed by the AAPLOG fact sheet is that "women with ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages will not receive the care they need." Each of these situations is categorically different from elective abortion. An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside of the uterus. In these cases, the baby will not survive no matter what the doctors do. In fact, up until July, Planned Parenthood's website explicitly stated that treatment for ectopic pregnancy was not equivalent to an abortion. That statement was removed when it became a convenient talking point. As DeSanctis has written, none of the legislation in any of the 50 states eliminates care for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages. Doctors who would refuse care for an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage are misinterpreting their state's laws, and to claim otherwise is patently false. A third myth that the AAPLOG fact sheet repudiates is that "chemical abortions are a safe and convenient option for women." Last December, the Food and Drug Administration extended their pandemic policy that mail-order chemical abortions be made available without requiring a patient to meet with a medical professional in person. And recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stated that it plans to find ways to protect access to chemical abortions. Even if there were not the ethical problem of taking a human life, abortion medication is meant to be used before 10 weeks of pregnancy. If a woman is not required to see a medical professional, there is no way to confirm how far long the pregnancy is. Everyone who cares about building a culture of life should be clear on the facts about abortion and women's health. AAPLOG's website includes counters to six other abortion myths. And, Alexandra DeSanctis will be speaking at the next Lighthouse Voices series on her book, " Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Our Culture and Disadvantages Women. " Join us at 7 p.m. (Central time) on October 4th either live (if you live near Holland, Michigan) or on livestream. You can register for free by visiting focusonthefamily.org/lighthouse-voices .
Sep 19, 2022
Anytime that doctor-assisted death is legalized, what begins as a so-called "right" to die soon devolves into a duty to die. For example, defenders of Canada's expansive policy of Medical Aid in Dying frequently claim that its supposed safeguards will prevent a simple cost-benefit analysis when it comes to deciding who should live and who should die. However, the truth has slipped out a few times now. Back in 2017, the publicly funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation cited a report that Medical Aid in Dying could result in "substantial savings across Canada's health-care system" to the tune of $136.8 million a year. Those "savings" happen when high-cost patients are put to death. Aaron Trachtenberg , author of the report, said it frankly: "In a resource-limited health care system, anytime we roll out a large intervention …. cost has to be a part of that discussion. It's just the reality of working in a system of finite resources." And that's why decisions about life and death should never be put into "systems of finite resources." Putting a price tag on what is priceless cheapens it. And human lives are priceless.
Sep 19, 2022
In November 2016, a student at Oberlin College in Ohio attempted to steal two bottles of wine from Gibson Bakery. The owner confronted and then chased the student down the street. He was arrested and later pleaded guilty to shoplifting. Recently, nearly six years after the incident, a judge ordered Oberlin College to pay more than $35 million in damages to the bakery. How did just two bottles of wine become so expensive? The student who shoplifted is black. The shop owners are white. That was enough to start an uproar on the Oberlin College campus. The story is an example of a culture that is in a critical theory mood . The day after the incident, Oberlin students started to protest the treatment of the accused outside of Gibson's Bakery. Soon after that, the Oberlin student senate passed a resolution that called for Oberlin College to "officially condemn Gibson's Bakery" as a racist institution. Professors got involved, passing out fliers and encouraging students to join the protest. The college then severed longstanding catering contracts with the bakery. Neither the protestors nor the school ever claimed the student had not shoplifted but, in their public statements, the fact that he did was conveniently ignored. This allowed them to turn the shoplifter, the store owner, and even the bakery into symbols that served a narrative they were telling. In a recorded audio, one student protester yells, "Shoplifting, the stuff on the surface, does not matter. This runs so much deeper ." It is not uncommon for any discussion of critical theory, in any of its forms, to be dismissed. After all, critical theory, we are told, is an academic theory that few people have studied. That, of course, is true. Few people have studied the original source materials for this formalized theory. This dismissal not only ignores that many of those who dismiss concerns about critical theory are those mostly actively advocating its core ideas, it misunderstands the way that ideas work within a culture. If you happen to be listening to this commentary on radio, you have two people to thank: German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, who discovered radio waves in the 1880s and Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian engineer who invented wireless radio communication in the 1890s. However, whether you knew these names before now and regardless of how well you understand how radio waves work, it is still quite possible to conceptualize radio and to hear my voice. Worldviews often work like this. A person does not have to fully understand an idea before being shaped by it. When Oberlin College faculty and administration determined, in the face of the evidence, that the white bakery owners were guilty and the student was not, they were applying a critical theory lens to the situation and interpreting the facts accordingly. When the Oberlin College student said that the shoplifting did not matter because of deeper issues at play, the student was parroting a critical theory way of thinking about the world, in which every interaction must be understood and explained by the demographic groupings of the people involved. Moral status is awarded based on these groupings, not on actions. Certain groups are oppressed, and others are oppressors. End of story. Far from being "too complicated" of a theory to infect culture, critical theory offers a simplistic substitute for the actual complexities of life and people. We cannot determine a person's character by tallying their list of demographic features or applying assumptions of privilege. Individuals are not stereotypes, but critical theory reduces them to such. No one need be able to pronounce multisyllabic academic jargon used by critical theorists to be infected by this mood. We simply are infected by it. A few months ago, a friend told me of something that points to the level of cultural infection. She had asked a friend of hers, a junior high teacher, how many students in that class identified as LGBTQ. The answer, offered immediately in a sort of "don't you know this" tone, was, "Oh, all of them do." " All of them?" my friend replied. "Are they sexually active?" "Not at all," the teacher replied. "But none of them want to be straight or cis." Ideas that have infected college students, academics, and junior highers should not be so easily dismissed. The first way to counter infectious cultural moods is not to share that mood. Intentionally, and especially with our own kids, we must talk about and treat every human being as essentially valuable as image bearers of God, and as equally fallible because of their common descent from Adam and Eve. These are essential truths about the world and people and are far better ideas than the ones assumed by the critical theory mood. Ideas are especially dangerous when assumed, as C.S. Lewis once put it, so we must also not allow the bad ideas to go unchallenged, lest they become normalized. Finally, within a critical theory framework, in both its academic theory and cultural mood forms, there is no possibility of forgiveness or redemption. In a Christian vision of God and people, there is. In Christ, there is solid ground for forgiveness (He first forgave us) and for finding redemption (He has taken the punishment for our guilt). So, in Christ, we not only counter bad ideas, we point to a better way.
Sep 16, 2022
John and Maria discuss that parents who are engaged in community organizations or events can promote Christian morality, and even have a redemptive influence, without being deemed Christian nationalists. Afterwards, they point out how Lila Rose, founder and president of the pro-life organization Live Action, powerfully debated with Dr. Phil and other audience members on the Dr. Phil show. They conclude with how the story of the lawsuit against Oberlin College shows the "critical theory mood" of our culture.
Sep 16, 2022
A new workplace trend, called " Quiet Quitting, " isn't about quitting your job but about how hard you work while there. It's about rejecting "the idea of going above and beyond," said one influencer. "You're still performing your duties but you're no longer subscribing to the hustle culture mentality that work has to be your life." There's been so much upheaval in the economy and the workforce lately, and Christians can point to a better way: God designed humans to work, but not for work's sake or even consumption's sake. Work is a way we image God, making the world all it can be. And God also gave the gift of rest, baking the Sabbath into the creation and even modeling it for us. It's almost as if God knew that after the fall, humans would be tempted to make work an idol. (Hint: He did know.) What "quiet quitting" misses is that it's not about whether or not to "go above and beyond." It's about whether our work has purpose, not as an end in and of itself, but as an act of worship, excellence, and love of neighbor.
Sep 16, 2022
It's tempting to think that secularized academics are too intellectual to ever come to the kind of "childlike faith" that Jesus described, or that, if they ever were to trust Christ, they'd have to abandon their academic pursuits. However, like once-liberal theologian Thomas Oden or once-radical feminist English professor Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, the case of Rodney Stark suggests otherwise. Dr. Stark's research and reading, specifically about the impact of Christianity in history, was part of what moved him to become a committed believer. Stark was born in North Dakota in 1934. Oddly enough, he played high school football with Alvin Plantinga, the great Christian philosopher . After a stint in the army, he studied journalism in college, graduating in 1959. Once, during his early career as a reporter, he covered a meeting of the Oakland Spacecraft Club where the speaker claimed to have visited Mars, Venus, and the moon in a flying saucer. After Stark reported the story straight, with no sarcasm or snide comments, he was assigned all of the odd stories that came along. Stark's ability to treat people's beliefs seriously and recognize that, at least for them, these beliefs are plausible, was a key element in his decision to shift from journalism to sociology. In 1972, after completing his graduate work at the University of California-Berkley, he was hired as a professor of sociology and comparative religion at the University of Washington. Stark focused his research on why people were religious. How did they understand their faith? What did they get out of it? How did they live it out? From this focus, Stark developed a theory of conversion that emphasized social relationships, felt needs, and personal choice. In essence, Stark concluded that conversion was a rational choice, based on the expectation that one would receive more from the religion than it would cost to join it. He was among the first sociologists to recognize that competition between religious groups increased the overall religiosity of a community. In other words, a religious group with a monopoly tends to get lazy and neglect meeting needs and conducting outreach. Stark was also critical of the standard academic view that secularization was an inevitable result of modernization. Instead, he argued this idea was wildly wrong because sociologists misunderstood religion and failed to account for religious revivals and innovation. His book The Rise of Christianity was published in 1996. In it, Stark argued that the incredible growth and spread of Christianity were because it offered more to people than any of its competitors. In particular, Stark argued that the rapid growth of the Church was, in large part, due to how Christians treated women. This, especially compared to the pagan treatment of women, led to more conversions, which led to the faith being spread through social networks. Also, prohibitions of abortion and infanticide led to an organic growth of the Church, and how Christians responded to persecution and plague led to a growth in credibility. The Rise of Christianity was so groundbreaking that it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. After this, Stark focused his work on the history of Christianity. After writing two books on the historical impact of monotheism — first One True God in 2001 and then For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch Hunts, and the End of Slavery in 2003, Stark wrote what may be his greatest book, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success , in 2005. In 2004, the year before The Victory of Reason was published, Stark commented, "I have trouble with faith. I'm not proud of this. I don't think it makes me an intellectual. I would believe if I could, and I may be able to before it's over." The Victory of Reason first brought Dr. Stark to the attention of Chuck Colson, who was astounded that a self-professed agnostic sociologist was clear-eyed and honest enough to recognize and highlight the effects of Christianity on the world. Chuck featured The Victory of Reason on Breakpoint and included it in the Centurions Program ( now known as the Colson Fellows ). After the commentary aired, Rodney Stark contacted Chuck Colson, and thanked him for the kind words. He also told Colson that he had come to faith in Christ, which he publicly announced in 2007. In 2004, Stark became the distinguished professor of the social sciences at Baylor University, as well as the co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion and founding editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion . Although Baylor is a Baptist school, Stark preferred to call himself an "independent Christian" and continued to produce important and sometimes controversial books on Christianity, history, and culture. Throughout his career, Stark was an irascible critic of political and religious biases in the academic world, especially in his own field of sociology. His intellectual brilliance is attested by his groundbreaking work, and his intellectual honesty and integrity by his faith, a faith he studied for many years.
Sep 15, 2022
One of the most sensational claims of abortion advocates is that "pregnancy is more dangerous than legalized abortion." This argument is largely based on a 2012 study by Elizabeth Raymond and David A. Grimes in the journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. However, as James Studnicki and Tessa Longbons described recently in National Review , this claim is "demonstrably false." By its own admission, the Raymond and Grimes study underreported maternal deaths associated with abortion. While deaths involving pregnancy and childbirth are subject to national data collection in the United States, no consistent metric exists for reporting deaths related to abortion. In other words, the data sets Raymond and Grimes used compared apples and oranges and " should have rendered the paper's conclusions invalid. " In fact, multiple other studies reach the opposite conclusion. In Finland, for example, researchers found that mortality after abortion is three times higher than childbirth. Much of the so-called "conventional wisdom" on abortion is invalid and treats pregnancy itself like a disease, unborn children as a pathogen, and abortion as a cure. None of which could be farther from the truth.
Sep 15, 2022
Science is supposed to be objective, an undeniable source for truth not subject to fads or fashion. The phrases "scientists say" or "the science is settled" is supposed to inspire hushed awe and open ears. Scientists are supposed to serve as arbiters of truth, at least on questions within their fields of expertise, able to settle disputes and sort fact from fiction. Many progressives, especially, employ the phrase "the science says" to silence disagreement about everything from climate policy to gender ideology. "The science," at least in certain circles, is an authority appealed to in order to end debate and dismiss critics of favored policies. Increasingly, the theory that science is a neutral arbiter or source of truth looks shaky, especially when scientific publications openly announce their commitment to ideology over evidence. Bell Curve author Charles Murray recently tweeted an editorial published by the peer-reviewed journal, Nature Human Behaviour . Murray (who is no stranger to what happens to those who publish politically incorrect findings) highlighted a section in which the editors announced they will be censoring scientific results that do not conform to a favored political narrative. Specifically, the editors reserved the right to amend, refuse, or retract "[c]ontent that is premised upon the assumption of inherent biological, social, or cultural superiority or inferiority of one human group over another based on race, ethnicity, national or social origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, political or other beliefs, age, disease, [or] (dis)ability …" They also reserved the right to censor content that "undermines — or could be reasonably perceived to undermine — the rights and dignities of an individual or human group on the basis of" any of these categories, as well as to refuse submissions that are "exclusionary of a diversity of voices …" It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how language this sweeping could be used. For instance, studies that find children do best in homes with their biological mother and father could be "reasonably perceived" by the editors of Nature Human Behaviour to suggest the "inherent inferiority" of same-sex parents. Research that finds female athletes are disadvantaged when competing against biological men could "undermine ... the rights and dignities" of transgender opponents. A study that finds little girls do better in societies that don't practice female genital mutilation could be censored for its "assumption of inherent … cultural superiority." As Murray tweeted, "It is hard to exaggerate the scientific insanity this represents." Even psychologist and science author Steven Pinker, no friend of Christians or religious conservatives , slammed the journal, tweeting : " Nature Human Behavior [sic] is no longer a peer-reviewed scientific journal but an enforcer of a political creed … (how do we know articles have been vetted for truth rather than political correctness)?" It's a good question, and one more people should be asking. Increasingly, the scientific enterprise itself is looking shaky, not only because of political correctness but because the practices on which science depends — peer review and replication — are breaking down. Consider an analysis published in the journal Science last year in which behavioral economists at the University of California found that the least reliable studies are the ones other scientists cite the most. This team analyzed over 20,000 papers in some of the top psychology, economy, and science journals, and found that "studies that failed to replicate since their publication were on average 153 times more likely to be cited" than studies that did — mostly because their findings were more "interesting." And this problem was found to be worst in leading journals Nature and Science . The takeaway here is not that science is bad. On the contrary, science is a gift of God, made possible in how He made the world and His image bearers. Science has made the world immeasurably richer, and the world arguably owes a debt for these riches to Christian assumptions and pioneers. However, scientists and science editors are human and just as vulnerable to bad ideas and dangerous ideologies as other humans. Reform can happen within a field of knowledge. Thus, science can regain its authority as a source of truth and public good, rather than propaganda. Christians in the sciences have an especially important role to play, as voices protesting ideologically loaded conclusions and as examples of integrity and objectivity. Until that reform happens, anything announced with "the science says," especially on intensely politically charged issues, should be greeted with suspicion. As Pinker said, we have a right to know whether their claims "have been vetted for truth rather than political correctness."
Sep 14, 2022
Recently (and finally), the United Nations has released a report condemning China's treatment of Uyghurs. Given China's clout within the UN, its strenuous PR and lobbying campaigns, and its ability to intimidate scholars and witnesses, the report's release was delayed for months. Finally, in the final few minutes of UN human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet's term, the report was released. The report strongly condemned China's actions and called for "urgent attention" from the UN, validating years of warnings by watchdogs, observers, and activists worldwide. This one report by itself may not change the terrible situation on the ground for the Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province, but nothing will change without first telling the truth. As one article in the Associated Press noted, "That the report was released was in some ways as important as its contents." Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, was himself a witness to the internment of untold millions in the former USSR. He put it this way, "The simple step of a simple courageous man is not to partake in falsehood.… One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world."
Sep 14, 2022
Religious liberty is a human right. So why are American courts so confused? In recent months, American courts have continued to grapple with the size, scope, and even the definition of religious freedom. For Christians who believe that religious liberty for all is a public good , there's good news and bad news. The good news includes the decision from the Fifth Circuit two weeks ago in the case of Franciscan Alliance , a group of Catholic hospitals and doctors that sued the federal government in 2016. Rules issued from the Biden Administration would have forced doctors within Franciscan Alliance to perform so-called "transition surgeries" on patients with gender dysphoria, as well as provide abortions for patients who requested them. Lawyers for the hospital system argued that these procedures are violations of the oath doctors take to "do no harm" to their patients, and therefore a violation of the doctors' religious freedom. Thankfully, the Fifth Circuit respected Supreme Court precedent and ruled in favor of Franciscan Alliance. The bad news includes a case out of New York, in which a trial court ruled that Yeshiva University , a Jewish school in New York City, must allow an LGBTQ club to establish on campus. The university argued the club's mission openly violated the school's religious beliefs about sexuality. In a particularly bizarre ruling, a judge sided with the LGBTQ club by reasoning that Yeshiva University is not a religious institution . "Yeshiva" is the Hebrew word for "a school that studies the Talmud," or ancient rabbinic writings on Scripture. Still, the judge cited Yeshiva University's charter, which refers to the school as an "educational institution," as evidence that the school therefore cannot be religious. The question at the heart of each of these cases is the same: What does it mean to be religious ? Though it is good news for everyone, doctors and patients, that Franciscan Alliance will not be forced to mutilate bodies in the name of "transgender medicine," the judge in this case ruled explicitly that the government could not violate these doctors' religious beliefs. It is not good news that the reality that men and women are different is being denied, or that bodies are being mutilated and called "healthcare," or that opposing being involved is reduced to a "religious belief." In the same way, the idea that we should not take the life of a child in or out of a mother's womb should be obvious, not reduced to merely "religious." In one sense, every law is religious in the sense that they are predicated on some view of the universe, human nature, and morality. They assume that certain things ought to be done and others ought not to be done. Everything we do, including where we work, what we value, and how we raise our kids, is built upon moral beliefs about the world, whether Christian or not. Even if we don't always act consistently with those beliefs, religious liberty ensures the right to call upon these views inside and outside of Church, synagogue, mosque, or Twitter. In our culture, however, certain views are designated "religious" and others are not. Therefore, the "religious" views are considered biased exceptions to be tolerated. In fact, progressive judges and administrations often deem policy positions they don't like as "religious" as a way of suggesting they should not be taken seriously in the public square. In other words, taking innocent human life and mutilating healthy bodies are presented as the "obviously right" views, and opposing these horrors is dismissed as "religious." All of which says a lot about the moral status of our culture. Further, it misunderstands the meaning of "religious" and leads to obvious violations of religious liberty. Christian doctors within the Franciscan Alliance cannot leave their worldviews at the operating room door. Yeshiva University doesn't stop being religious when it educates. In fact, it educates because it is religious. The Supreme Court, at least currently, recognizes this reality, but some lower courts do not. Thus, the absurd ruling that claims Yeshiva University is not religious because it educates, or the one in Colorado which held that a Christian school chaplain wasn't in a "religious position," or the lower court ruling from a few years ago that attempted to force a group of Catholic nuns to pay for abortion and contraception. In such a conflicted time, Christians must, more and more, live like Christians. We must compellingly demonstrate that the resurrected Christ we worship in one building one morning a week shapes how we live and act in any other building every other day of the week. And we continue to defend religious liberty as a public good for all people. About this, the U.S. Constitution is clear. Hopefully, our nation's courts will gain clarity too.
Sep 13, 2022
Recently, the world learned of the death of Mikhail Gorbachev. While living to age 91 is an achievement for anyone, it's a historical exception for a dictator to live 30 years past his downfall. Gorbachev did, having survived from when the first waves of American pop culture entered his homeland decades ago to when those same waves receded in renewed hostility. Gorbachev's legacy is, to say the least, complicated. His former subjects in Eastern Europe will likely shed few tears, his former enemies in the West have praised that he chose peace in the face of imperial collapse, and his fellow Russians mourn his role in their nation's lost status on the world stage. The last leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev was once one of two most powerful men in the world. He died without the acclaim and power he once commanded. His death reminds us that no matter how great, death comes to us all . We do not control the timing nor manner of our demise. All of that is in God's hands. We can only strive to live lives worth remembering and emulating.
Sep 13, 2022
The Queen has died . When those words were heard and repeated, over and over last Thursday, people around the world knew immediately which queen. In fact, few are alive today who can remember a time when she was not on Britain's throne. She lived to 96, not only the longest reigning monarch in British history but the second longest reigning monarch in all of history, surpassed only by King Louis XIV of France, the "Sun King ." Among the many anecdotes that put her life in historical context, Elizabeth II was queen for a full third of the existence of the United States of America as a nation . When Elizabeth ascended to power, Winston Churchill was the prime minister. Just two days before she died, in a final act of royal duty, Elizabeth received a 15th person into that high office. When she began her rule in 1952, there was a British Empire , and not just in name. Though every nation within the empire would gain independence, she remained head of state of a dozen of them , including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other smaller countries around the world. Elizabeth's historic tenure as queen might have never happened, except for a domestic turmoil that has never quite seemed to leave the House of Windsor alone. Her father, George VI, assumed the throne only because her uncle abdicated it for an illicit romance. Her sister's temperament did not, shall we say, "fit" her royal duties. Her eldest son, now King Charles III , entered a loveless marriage in the midst of his own extramarital affairs, while her second son ruined his place in the world by falling in with Jeffrey Epstein. Her grandson Prince Harry is full of bitter words and accusations about the royal family. In this way, the royal family was a reflection of changes seen across the Western world during the Queen's reign. Marriage rates in the U.K. have dropped by double digits in the last few decades , and divorces have increased by several orders of magnitude . While the Britain she inherited in her youth famously stood up for liberty and democracy against tyranny, corporate and government powers often enforce conformity and silence. Weekly church attendance in Britain has dropped to less than a million each week in a population of nearly 70 million. Add in technological change, war, globalization, populism, the rise and fall of global powers, and it may be that the Queen's most remarkable achievement was preserving the monarchy as a legitimate institution amidst the flux and chaos of the last few decades. As one who could, as Kipling once put it, " walk with Kings, nor lose the common touch ," she played the part of elegant empress, with an impish sense of humor and a delightfully ordinary demeanor . As such, Queen Elizabeth was, in many ways, an always-relevant anachronism. She was an incarnation of G.K. Chesterton's call for a "democracy of the dead" or C.S. Lewis' warning against "chronological snobbery ." In an age that confuses change as progress, her life was a reminder that certain truths and duties do not change with the times—eternals that are not subject to our whims or imaginations—but are revealed, at least in part, through the accumulated wisdom of the ages. In fact, "duty" is the word most commonly used to describe Elizabeth II, as if she inherited her father's sense of it along with the throne. As Bloomberg's Adrian Woolridge noted on Twitter , "The Queen grasped Edmund Burke's great dictum that, for a true conservative, the point of change is to stay the same, at least in the things that really matter. Monarchy is a restraint on modernity or it is nothing." She was barely an adult when she declared , "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong." Years later , she reflected back on that promise, "When I was 21, I pledged my life to the service of our people, and I asked for God's help to make good that vow. Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgement, I do not regret, or retract, one word of it." There are few contentions more despised today than the idea that our rights must be balanced by our duties, but Elizabeth thought of the crown as a calling, a part of something greater than herself. How she carried out those duties in an ever-changing world points to a commitment that goes beyond tradition or even the monarchy. As she put it herself, monarchs do not lead troops into battle or rule from on high anymore. So, she committed to lead by serving, which is of course the way of Jesus, who said the greatest among us are servants. In many of her annual Christmas radio messages, she pointed to Christ as the One she sought to follow and emulate . Leading by serving is one of the things that the New Testament calls the "fruit" of faith. Having reached the end of her era, it's difficult to imagine what the monarchy will become. As Jake Meador from Mere Orthodoxy observed, "After she and Benedict XVI pass, I think European Christendom will be conclusively gone from this world. Something else will come and God will continue to work. But the loss is still immense." Indeed, it is, but what makes a person "great" has not changed. Around the world, followers of Christ are living faithful lives, committed to what God has called them to, in truth and service. Their stage may not be as global or their mistakes as public, but their lives point to the Sovereign who sits on the throne of heaven and earth and whose kingdom shall have no end. That faithfulness is, in God's economy, greatness.
Sep 12, 2022
Last Saturday was World Suicide Prevention Day, a time to remember that suicide is a growing problem. In the U.S., it increased by 30% from 2000-2018 , and that was before COVID. In 2019, it was the second leading cause of death for ages 10-34 . Christians aren't excluded. LifeWay research has shown that 32% of Protestant church-going respondents had a family member or "close acquaintance" die by suicide. Because of this great need, Colson Educators has teamed with Dr. Matthew Sleeth, a former emergency room physician and chief of hospital medical staff, to offer a free online course called Hope Always, based on the title of his book Hope Always: How to Be a Force for Life in a Culture of Suicide . This course, which you can take for free at any time, will help you know how to talk with loved ones about the difficult topic of suicide. It offers scientifically grounded information with biblically based theology to start a conversation about mental health and how the Church can offer light and hope. Go to courses.colsoneducation.org/hopealways to register for this course today.
Sep 12, 2022
Recently, an impressive development in embryology was reported by the Israeli Weizmann Institute of Science. Using only stem cells, without the presence of sperm, eggs, or even a womb, researchers successfully created functioning mouse embryos , complete with beating hearts, blood circulation, brain tissue and rudimentary digestive systems. Carolyn Johnson in The Washington Post described the discovery as "a fascinating, potentially fraught realm of science that could one day be used to create replacement organs for humans." For the more than 100,000 people currently waiting for a life-saving organ donation, that kind of breakthrough would indeed seem like a miracle. However, since scientists are still years away from creating human organs in a lab for the purpose of transplant, the technology raises serious ethical questions, none of which should be taken lightly. One of these questions is, in fact, an old one. Do the promises of embryonic stem cell research justify it? While some stem cells can be harvested from a variety of non-embryonic sources such as bone marrow, others are harvested from so-called "unused" embryos that have been donated to science. The lives of these tiny, undeveloped human beings are taken in the process. For context, the research conducted by the Weizmann Institute uses embryonic stem cells . Though, for the time being, this implies only embryonic stem cells harvested from mice, the move to human research would involve the harvesting of stem cells from human embryos and involve tissue derived from already living human beings. The Christian stance on when life begins is the same as the science. Human life begins at conception, and every single human life is worthy of protection. If we would not take the life of a born child in our research for a cure for some medical condition, neither the anonymity of an embryo nor the confines of a laboratory justify doing the same thing in the process of embryonic stem cell research. Science is a process of trial and error, but we should never employ "trial and error" with the lives of thousands of human beings, in particular human beings who cannot consent to our actions. A rule of thumb is this. If you wouldn't try an experiment on an adult or small child, don't do it to human embryos at any stage. The breakthrough at the Weizmann Institute, however, takes this old debate a step further. On one hand, lead researcher Dr. Jacob Hanna was quick to clarify that the goal is not to make complete, living organisms of mice or any other species. "We are really facing difficulties making organs," he said, "and in order to make stem cells become organs, we need to learn how the embryo does that." Given the history of science, including the last chapter involving breathless promises of what embryonic stem cell research would bring , the grandiose predictions of scientists should be taken with at least a grain of salt. The process of growing organs for mice, for example, involved the creation of entire embryos. Should the technology be perfected in mice , what ethical or legal limits are there to prevent the creation of synthetic human embryos for the purpose of harvesting their organs? Our first concern should be what these embryos would be created for . The answer is, inevitably, "science," devoid of any consideration for human purpose, relationships, worth, or dignity as equal members of the human species. All societies that treat people as a means of scientific advancement, instead of infinitely valuable ends in-and-of themselves, have a track record of perpetrating atrocities. A second concern is what these embryos would be deprived of . Though not all do, every human should enter the world with the love and commitment of their biological mom and dad. The very design of human development suggests this, and societies have long recognized that those born without these relationships have had something priceless taken from them. Creating children from cloning or stem cells intentionally makes them orphans, ripping them from the vital context of parental relationship. It is a grave injustice. Bringing children into the world as a product of pure science without the possibility of relationship with their biological parents or relatives is enough an ethical consideration to oppose such research, but we should also consider the implications of recklessly creating humans for future experimentation and of dismantling them to see how their components work. Science is, in many ways, blind to what should be ethical bright lines. Creating organs for transplant in order to save lives is a worthy goal. But such work should only proceed in an ethical manner, one which does not require the death of other distinct, valuable, human beings. Unfortunately, such ideas have not shaped the society we live in today.
Sep 9, 2022
John and Maria discuss the life and legacy of Queen Elizabeth II and her longstanding sense of service to her nation. Afterwards, they stress the correlation—not the causation—between deaths of despair and decline in blue laws, laws against commerce on Sunday. They end by touching on commentaries from this week, in particular one highlighting the rebuttal of a false narrative that the religious right was founded in racism.
Sep 9, 2022
Yesterday, after the world had learned that her family had been called to her side, Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning monarch in British history, died at age 96. It's simply impossible to articulate just how much the world, Britain, the British Empire, Western civilization, and the monarchy changed during her reign. Many Americans were fascinated by her and the royal family, as demonstrated in the popularity of shows like The Crown. She seemed to navigate a changing world by not changing, something that at times stabilized and at other times infuriated the British people. Perhaps the most consistent features of her tenure, which seemed out of step with the modern world, were her sense of duty and her consistent expression of faith and religious observance. Her annual Christmas messages reflected theology that was mostly orthodox and a faith in Jesus Christ that seemed personal. Convinced that Divine Providence had brought her to the throne, she seemed to see the crown as a calling and not an entitlement. In both of these things, her death marks the end of an era.
Sep 9, 2022
A few weeks back, Twitter banned a user for violent language . The offending tweet was, "I will out sword drill any Christian man." For anyone not familiar with evangelical subculture, a "sword drill" has nothing to do with blades. It's a game to see who can find a particular Bible passage first. Had the protectors of Twitter taken the time to investigate or, even better, had some Christians on their staff to ask, they may have spared themselves the ridicule which rightfully followed. Unfortunately, it's a habit of academic and media circles to either not understand or not take evangelicalism's claims for itself at face value. Sexual ethics, we are told, are novelties, due more to patriarchy than anything Jesus taught. The priority that evangelicals place on the home, family, and gender norms is more the product of 20th-century cowboy movies than any enduring truths about men and women. And, most commonly, political involvement by conservative Christians is nothing more than a naked grasp for power and maintaining the status quo. Recently, a handful of political commentators have claimed that the rise of the so-called Religious Right was rooted more in racism than in concern for the unborn or the spiritual fate of our nation. Though conservative Christians claim that the 1970's-era increase in political action was birthed in opposition to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and removal of prayer and Christian symbols in public schools, it was really about segregation. White Christians did not care about saving the lives of unborn children as much as they wanted to make sure their kids did not have to attend school with African Americans. This contention is now part of most formal analyses of evangelical culture, including from mainline and progressive Christianity. As one recent book put it , "In the end…what changed their mind wasn't abortion or school prayer, but tax-exempt status for segregated schools." Jonathan Whitehead, writing at The Gospel Coalition , dates this story to a book published in 2006 which claimed that conservative Christians got into politics in response to the 1975 action by the IRS against the (overtly) segregationist policies of Bob Jones University , a view the school later recanted . Whitehead goes on to argue that this supposed smoking gun turns out, in reality, to be an urban legend. Rather than being agitated that the IRS had attacked segregationism, conservative Christians found that the Feds were using the situation with Bob Jones University as a pretext to move against other religious schools that weren't segregationist. This was at a time when school choice and homeschooling were far from established options, and anyone who did not comply with state schools was suspect. The segregation narrative fails in other ways, as well, most notably in timing. One of the first political action groups expressly formed by evangelicals in 1972 supported Democratic Senator McGovern's ultimately failed presidential campaign. Christians, especially Roman Catholics, were already organizing for political action in the wake of Roe in 1973, and evangelical standard bearers like Christianity Today were talking about abortion before Roe and speaking out against segregation even earlier than that. In the end, the racist history rumor is an example of "nut-picking," when the worst-case example of a vast movement is held up as normative while any example to the contrary is ignored. It only contributes to our culture's increasingly uncivil discourse but is convenient for rhetorical purposes. Throughout his career, the late, great Michael Cromartie declared that there needed to be a dramatic improvement in the relationship and understanding between secularly minded Americans and their religious neighbors. "We're like an anthropological project for them," he once said, summarizing the approach of secular elites to religious believers as "We'll go study these people, because I've never met one." Without any first-hand knowledge about the intricacies of Christian culture, or at times, having an axe to grind for being raised evangelical, too many are quick to assign the worst of motives to Christian actions and words. Billions of people rely on the professionalism of journalists and academics to discover and share the truth. The truth is never served by a convenient story that happens to neatly coincide with the popular narratives of the day. If pundits and professors are going to continue to regain any authority to speak into our lives, they've got to do better.
Sep 8, 2022
Recently the University of Washington published research into whether hormones and puberty blockers improve the mental health of kids with gender dysphoria. According to the PR team for the university, pretty much every media outlet that covered the study, and the study's authors themselves, the answer was yes. Except it wasn't . The numbers actually revealed no difference between kids' mental health before taking hormones and after a year of the treatment. At both moments in time, kids were suffering from dramatic mental health problems. If anything, the study suggested that kids who did not start taking the medications got a little worse. The university refused to officially respond when an independent journalist challenged their conclusions—though the study's authors admitted their findings had been misrepresented. Internal emails showed the university's communications team wasn't concerned the story was not accurate. They liked that it was popular . Among the casualties of the politicizing of scientific research is public trust in our institutions. Still, the most vulnerable casualties are the kids.
Sep 8, 2022
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature," wrote Karl Marx , "…the opium of the people." Decades of often painful historical experience has proven his observation both right and wrong. Believing in God does ease pain and suffering of faithful followers, but he was wrong in thinking that religion, especially Christianity, leaves them with nowhere else to go from there. A recent article in The Economist put it this way: " Religious belief really does seem to draw the sting of poverty ." Although there is a correlation between poverty and decreased mental health, the article highlighted German sociologist Dr. Jana Berkessel's recent findings that religion significantly mitigates this effect. A variety of similar studies confirm this. Regular attendance at religious services consistently correlates with longer life spans, stronger immune systems, and lower blood pressure, as well as decreased anxiety, depression, and suicide. Kids raised in religious households have a lower incidence of drug addiction, delinquency, and incarceration. They're more likely to graduate high school. In short, the nearly unanimous scientific consensus is that religious belief is good for you. Of course, Marx's point was that these benefits only serve to keep people content in their chains and to keep them distracted so much by the next world that they do nothing to change this one. Many critics today take the critique even further. Religion, especially Christianity, has not only been used to pacify people in their oppression but is the very source of it. Of course, the charge that Christianity has been co-opted, corrupted, and weaponized to justify all kinds of abuse, conquest, and enslavement, is undeniable. At the same time, it's also undeniable that Christianity has been a global force for the kinds of goods now so pervasive, it's hard to even imagine the world without them. Many of the rights and principles we consider to be naturally occurring features of the world only came to be by the influence of Christianity. In the ancient pagan world, violence, rape, infant exposure, and prostitution were rules, not exceptions. Almost immediately, Christianity began to revolutionize pagan ethics, particularly in its view of the poor and the outcast. Roman Emperor Julian famously wrote that when the "impious Galileans support not only their poor, but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us." To a world with no reason to believe in the equality of all people, Christianity taught that "there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." This belief was grounded in the Christian view of the human person, which had no parallel in the ancient world and which created an explosion of literacy, social mobility, and human rights that we now take for granted in the modern world. Christianity's unique contributions in humanizing the modern world are yet another reason to not simply lump all "religious beliefs" into the one blanket category. All religions are simply not the same, not in substance nor impact. Economist Robin Grier, for example, conducted a cross-national survey of 63 formerly European colonies. She found that, across the board, Protestant Christianity, in particular, was "positively and significantly correlated with real GDP growth," and that "the level of Protestantism is significantly related to real per capita income levels." A National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) paper found that only certain religious beliefs—notably beliefs about heaven, hell, and an afterlife—are linked with economic growth. In other words, it's not just about having a "religion," but about what your religion teaches . Consider Africa. A recent paper from NBER analyzed educational outcomes among religious children. Though Africa is becoming increasingly religious across the board, the paper found that in many countries, "primary school completion for Christians was more than double that of Muslims or Africans adhering to local religions." Christian communities far outpace others when it comes to intergenerational educational growth. Writing in 1843 , Karl Marx couldn't have anticipated how thoroughly science would analyze his claims about religion. He'd likely have been among the modern theorists surprised that the world is becoming more religious, not less . As one writer with The Brookings Institution put it, "While weak state structures collapse and aid agencies switch priorities, one group of actors persist against all odds: religious institutions." Of course, this isn't why anyone should believe the truth claims of Christianity. They should be believed if they are true. At the same time, the fact that Christian belief has been an educational, social, and economic ladder for millions suggests these beliefs ought to be taken seriously.
Sep 7, 2022
Hope Resource Center , a Christian crisis pregnancy center in Knoxville, Tennessee, offers free pregnancy tests, well-women exams, STD testing, and ultrasounds. If you search for Hope Resource Center on Yelp, a "consumer notice" pops up with a warning: "Crisis Pregnancy Centers typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite." Last week, Yelp announced that these notices will appear at the top of listings for every crisis pregnancy center—even when they don't apply. If Yelp truly were worried about women's access to "real" medical care during pregnancy, they'd put a consumer notice above every Planned Parenthood listing. A few years ago, Live Action found that fewer than 5% of Planned Parenthood facilities in the country actually offer prenatal care, even though Planned Parenthood openly pretends and advertises otherwise. It's these practices by Planned Parenthood that make crisis pregnancy centers so necessary in the first place. Women—especially those in crisis pregnancies—deserve accurate information and actual care, which they can't find from Planned Parenthood or, for that matter, on Yelp.
Sep 7, 2022
The Institute for Family Studies has published a list of legal and policy recommendations to protect teens from the dangers of social media. Among the recommendations are age-verification laws, parental consent requirements, and shutting down social media platforms at night for teens. Other nations have already attempted to restrict young people's access to technology. For example, a couple of years ago, France banned cell phone use in schools up to age 15. Monitoring teens' engagement with social media should be a no-brainer. Anyone still not convinced that something needs to be done need only consider the teens on TikTok exhibiting Tourette-like tics, not to mention the rapid onset gender dysphoria crisis initiated within social media communities . However, the fact that government may now be the last line of defense in providing some boundaries for social media means that the other lines have failed. Most notably, families have failed to protect children from that which threatens them the most. This is a modern-day application of one of the most helpful ideas of Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper, who lived at the turn of the 20th century. Kuyper has jokingly been called the Colson Center's "patron saint." Near the end of his life, Chuck Colson described how influential Kuyper's thought was to his own, specifically in understanding how Christians were called to interact with and influence the culture around them. Christians could best influence society, according to Kuyper, through the sphere of our family, the basic building block of society. During his lifetime, Kuyper worked across various spheres of culture, not only writing as a theologian but founding a university, leading a newspaper, and eventually becoming prime minister. Throughout his various careers, Kuyper proposed and championed a concept called "sphere sovereignty." "Spheres," as Kuyper understood them, are the social groupings, or domains, that keep society running. He saw them as interlocking "cogs" that work together. In his message at the inauguration of the Free University in the Netherlands, he explained that each sphere—such as science, art, business, government, and family—has "its own law of life" and "its own head" or leadership. Ultimately, Christ is sovereign over all of life. His most famous quote is, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human life of which Christ, Who is Sovereign of all, does not cry: 'Mine!'" It is Christ who moves "the wheels to turn as they are destined to turn. Not to oppress life nor to bind freedom, but to make possible a free exercise of life for and in each of these spheres, is not this a beckoning ideal for every noble State Sovereign? [or leader]." His idea, that the duty of the head of a state is to facilitate "free exercise of life," reveals that, in many ways, Kuyper lived in a time period similar to ours—a time when people were calling for revolution. Kuyper was so uncomfortable with this lawless approach that he called his political party the "Anti-Revolutionary Party." According to the author Michael Wagenman , Kuyper believed, "Human beings are called to responsible human agency in which 'the course of our historic development may be altered only through gradual change in a lawful way.' But this is accomplished through responsible reforms rather than outright revolution that seeks to usher in a manufactured utopia." If the language of ushering in a "manufactured utopia" doesn't sound familiar, just search for "antiracist" and "revolution" on Twitter. The crisis in the state, Kuyper believed, revealed a crisis of family. Kuyper saw family leadership as "responsible for the good order in the family," rather than the "head of the state." Government should only step in if parents did not do their job. He insisted that "the central government may only take on and carry out what is not (and for so long as it is not) properly taken care of in the smaller spheres of life." If government control of the good order of the family has to occur, it should be only temporary. Thus, the government can incentivize good family order, such as tax deductions for college saving plans, but a secular government controlling family life can get weird fast, such as removing a child seeking a transgender identity from a Christian family's home . It's one of the reasons Christians should recognize and champion parental rights. Coming back to the topic of teens and social media, we can say that restricting their access to social media is a good idea. But this is the job of the family, not the government. When families fare well, society fares well. That's those cogs of spheres working together well. A society is only as virtuous as its families. This month, if the Colson Center has helped you understand the sphere of the family better—if it's helped your thinking to be big enough for this world and for living in your place in it, would you consider giving a gift of any amount? Go to colsoncenter.org/september .
Sep 6, 2022
Recently The New Yorker profiled a nursing home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. The piece described, in admirable terms, the Catholic nuns' reputation for treating the elderly with dignity and compassion, as well as the Little Sisters' founder, a French nun known for personally taking in the homeless. Such behavior is not strange for followers of Jesus. What is strange is The New Yorker 's about-face. Not long ago, the magazine covered the Little Sisters for a very different reason. Writing about the nuns' lawsuit against the federal government's Obamacare mandate, which would have forced them to pay for contraception and abortion, The New Yorker called the nuns "irrationally passionate." There was not a word about the Little Sisters' love for the elderly or their courageous founder. Instead, reporters suggested they didn't care about women. In a secular society, Christ followers will sometimes be loved and sometimes subjected to baseless accusations. That's OK. We were told this would happen. Our job is to keep loving our neighbors while never compromising our convictions.
Sep 6, 2022
Teen mental health has never been this bad. As New York Times journalists Michael Barbaro and Matt Richtel discussed last week on The Daily podcast, we're facing an unprecedented crisis in teen mental health. Mere decades ago, the major threats to the health and well-being of young people in the West were nearly all external, such as illness, car accidents, risky sexual behavior, alcohol, or smoking. Today, the greatest threats to the health and well-being of young people are internal. As Richtel reported, in 2019, 13% of all adolescents reported having a major depressive episode, a 60% increase from 2007. Teen suicide rates, which had been stable for nearly a decade prior to 2007, "leapt nearly 60% by 2018." In 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced, "Mental health disorders have surpassed physical conditions as the most common reasons children have impairments and limitations." The factors behind this tsunami of depression, anxiety, and self-harm are many, one of which is the internet. In 2017, Dr. Jean Twenge of San Diego State University noted that the spike in adolescent mental health problems reached a crescendo in 2012. That year, the percentage of Americans who owned smartphones surpassed 50%. Exposing developing brains to an overwhelming amount of social information, she argued, was contributing to a massive, unprecedented uptick in mental health issues. On one hand, social media has brought the near constant experience of social comparison to the developing minds of 8-, 9-, and 10-year-olds. On the other hand, the sheer amount of panicked, hyperbolized, and truly frightening headlines a student must navigate is unprecedented in human history. We might forgive students who are convinced the world is completely out of control. Richtel and Barbaro also noted other factors in the podcast. For example, the average age for the onset of puberty has become earlier and earlier since the 1980s, especially for girls. Experts are unsure as to exactly why this is the case, but there are plenty of correlations having to do with early exposure to sexually explicit material, fatherlessness, and family breakdown . Whatever the cause, the impact is real. In the face of this exploding mental health crisis among young people, the demand for care is outpacing the number of trained counselors and psychologists. Pediatricians and emergency rooms have become first responders. As Richtel observed, "Every night, in emergency rooms across the country, there are at least 1,000 young people spending the night waiting in a room to get to the next level of care where they can be helped." More and more f requently, medication is seen as the only answer . While an important tool, Ritchie notes why that is far from adequate. "We are prescribing medications in the absence of dealing with… fundamental structural changes that we have not addressed as a society." In every generation, followers of Christ have seen protecting and caring for vulnerable children as a crucial part of their calling. Today, children are vulnerable to radically changing social conditions, harmful ideas about their minds and bodies, the loss of institutions crucial to their health and well-being, and a barrage of bad news. The first step in fulfilling our calling is, in the words of my friend Dr. Matthew Sleeth, to Hope Always. Children need the truth about life and the world, about themselves and God, and we can give it to them. Of course, parents must limit and help guide children in their digital interactions, as nearly all experts recognize. But this is not merely a crisis of media: It's a crisis of meaninglessness . That's one reason a Harvard psychologist writing in Scientific American argued that " Psychiatry needs to get right with God. " To that end, we've developed a new Colson Center Educators course taught by Dr. Matthew Sleeth to equip parents, pastors, and educators, with the tools to meet the current crisis. Also, tonight , is the latest in our Lighthouse Voices series. " Despair, Mental Health, and the Crisis of Meaning: How Christians Can Speak Life to a Lost Culture " is a live event featuring Dr. Ryan Burkhart of Colorado Christian University. To register for the live event in Holland, Michigan, or the livestream, visit Colsoncenter.org. Christians have an obligation to care. When we see the brokenness of the world around us, we are to imitate the work of Christ. In His name, we can be a force for good in our lifetimes, and, God willing, reverse the tide.
Sep 5, 2022
Fertility is a gift, not a problem. According to an NPR report, more women are seeking sterilization. For example, at Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital in Montana, more women in their twenties and thirties are asking not for their tubes to be tied—a reversible procedure—but to be removed , a permanent procedure. This is another sign that women's fertility has been largely pathologized , treated as a bug rather than a feature of being a woman. It's as if a woman's body is presumed better when more like a man's—without the ability to bear children... somehow in the name of "women's rights." But studies cited in the article suggest these women may regret their decision. Dr. Kavita Arora, the chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Committee on Ethics, described a patient: "She wanted to have autonomous control over her body, and this was her way of ensuring she was the person who got to make the decisions." Rather than practice sexual self-restraint, the patient's desire for "control" led her to deny the potential of motherhood.
Sep 5, 2022
On this Labor Day, here are some important ideas from Chuck Colson on the importance of work. Americans are rethinking work, at least in the sense of employment. While there are many factors behind what has been called "The Great Resignation," "The Great Quit," and "The Great Reshuffle," we shouldn't underestimate the connection between how people see work and our culture-wide crisis of meaninglessness. Christian ethicist Oliver O'Donovan has written: "In work we make a difference to the world, not merely the kind of difference that any event must make … but a purposeful difference. In work we not only affect things; we effect things…. To work well is to bring intelligence and love to bear upon the grain of our worldly material, whether that is inert stuff, living beings or abstract relations of things." In other words, our work, whether physical labor or intellectual pursuits, matters. Here is a recording of Chuck Colson, from many years ago, explaining a Christian vision of human work. "In American society, most of us spend more of our waking hours at our jobs than in any other activity. While that may or may not be a positive commentary on our culture, it's a fact that's got to be considered by churches and ministries seeking to equip Christians to live faithfully. Yet, in our work cultures today, most of us have been trained to separate our faith lives from our work lives. The chasm between the two worlds disturbs us, signaling that something is wrong. And this comes at a time when the single most common demographic among people in the church is work, and at a time when the culture of that workplace is most foreign to our faith. For years we've lived with the belief that the real work of God's kingdom was done by missionaries and members of the clergy. Others work to make money to support the 'real work.' Yet, Scripture insists that our work is good. The ancient Greeks thought of work as a curse; Christianity gave meaning to work. Work, for the Christian, is a calling. After all, Jesus grew up with the callused hands of a carpenter, and the very fact that He worked gives dignity to our work. The Reformation, as I wrote with Jack Eckerd in Why America Doesn't Work , 'struck at society's dualistic view of work. Just as they saw the church comprised of all the people of God, not just the clergy, so the Reformers saw all work—sacred and secular, intellectual and manual—as a way of serving God.' Work embraced as a calling expresses the glory of God, and it's part of—very literally—following Jesus. Through our work God provides for us and for our families, contributes to the common good, and also gives us a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. He has given us work as the way to fulfill His mandate to us as humans—to take dominion over the world he has created. As we work, we extend God's reign and influence as his agents or stewards. And the way that we take that dominion, confronting the challenges and difficulties that "go with the job," is, in itself, our witness to the reality of God and our faith in Christ. Excellence in our calling, which the Bible calls for, makes the most powerful witness for us in the workplace. Sure, we could wait for those who are seekers and skeptics to come into our church buildings, but the vast majority never will. We could wait for them to seek out a pastor, but most don't know any. Now more than ever the "indigenous believers," those Christians already in the mission fields of accounting, sales, software, construction, and other honorable vocations, need to be equipped to work with integrity and thus share their faith in actions as well as words." That was Chuck Colson. I hope that this Labor Day can be a sabbath from your work today.
Sep 2, 2022
John and Maria focus in on the factors contributing to the remarkable rise in mental health issues for young people, including the crisis of authority that results from the barrage of information online. Afterwards, they discuss how the Church has always led in innovative education and must continue to do so. They end on a recent win and two losses for religious liberty in the lower courts.
Sep 2, 2022
It's been a year since the U.S. military's disastrous pullout from Afghanistan left allies, colleagues, and up to 1,000 American citizens there to fend for themselves. Though the new Taliban government promised to respect human rights, especially the rights of women, it's turned out as many expected. Universities and primary schools are open to women, but girls over age 11 are locked out of secondary schools, women are only permitted to work in education and health, must keep their faces covered, and must be accompanied by a male guardian for long-distance travel. And, swift and cruel punishments for breaking these rules also have returned . Though the Taliban deny it, a division is growing between a political wing that wants better relations with the outside world (and therefore wants to relax restrictions on women) and clerics in Kandahar who, like the Ayatollahs in Iran, dictate policy on the ground. We often hear that all worldviews are equal, all religions the same, and we shouldn't impose our values on anyone else. The truth is that our ideas about the world and human beings have real consequences and real victims.
Sep 2, 2022
Three days before the first day of school in Columbus, Ohio, the teachers' union went on strike , leaving 47,000 students with nowhere to go. School board officials promised that schooling would move forward "online," but on what was supposed to be the first day, the website suffered hours-long outages. It was chaos. Even as this teachers' strike was brewing, a new school, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Columbus, was preparing to open its doors for the first time. Westside Christian School will serve kindergarteners through second graders this year, using Sunday school classrooms and the gym inside a local Baptist church. Thanks to funding from donors and Ohio's school voucher program, which allows kids who live in failing school districts to use their tax dollars for private schooling, students can attend Westside Christian School without paying tuition . This is just one example of the kind of creativity that has animated Christians all over the country for decades now, with the goal of offering different and better educational options for families. While some consider the idea that Christians are involved in education, especially public education, controversial, it didn't use to be. In a filmed conversation a few years ago, I asked Dr. Vishal Mangalwadi, a philosopher who has studied the historic impact of Christianity on the world, why Christians should engage in educational work, especially in a pluralist society like ours. His answer was that Christianity is education. The Christian account of reality, from creation in Genesis to the New Creation in Revelation, is the true story of the world. The biblical mandate to tell that story to everyone, rich or poor or clergy or not, is the foundation of the entire Western world's concept of universal schooling. For example, a chief complaint of the Reformers was that Rome kept a tight rein on education and learning, most notably in limiting Bible translations to Latin. The Reformers' view that everyone should hear God's Word led to Bibles in a common language and widespread education for those previously left out. The ability for everyone to read God's Word for him- or herself led to the dramatic expansion of literacy and learning, not to mention commerce. Of course, the Roman Catholic Church was also a great champion of education, founding universities and parochial schools everywhere the Church expanded. That's because of the fundamental view that all Christians share: that God has revealed Himself and wants to be known. Therefore, learning is a high calling of being human. A few hundred years after the Reformation, the American founders established public education as the right and duty of every citizen. Thomas Jefferson even suggested that an uneducated citizenry would neither flourish nor long be able to self-govern. Unfortunately, public education was isolated from religious faith long ago and therefore untethered from its moral foundation. Today, most people, including Christians, think of education as a secular arena. Religion, we're told, should be kept personal, private, and above all, outside the classroom. This bad idea has had real consequences. Far from neutral on issues of religion and morality, public schools instead push dangerous religious and political ideologies, like critical race theory, and harmful, irrational ideas about sex and gender. Administrative costs have ballooned while teachers strike over salary demands. Many American schools aren't even succeeding in the basics . In 2015, the U.S. Department of Education found that almost 20% of American high school graduates could not read . In many communities, that number is far higher. Lockdowns and Zoom classrooms made parents more aware of these things, and so now in many communities, public school enrollment is in a free fall . In contrast, private, Christian school enrollment has gone up, and a record number of households are homeschooling. This is a moment for Christians to love our neighbors through education, like our forebears did. We do this by pressing public schools to do better and by providing as many other options as possible, and by making those options financially and otherwise feasible. We should also advocate for new school choice policies, like the one just implemented in Arizona which allows parents to use their own tax money for the schooling that's best for their kids. There's a lot that we can do, and when we do it, we give good gifts to the world. While grown-ups stalk picket lines, there are real kids who need a real education right now. The Church has always been more than up to the task.
Sep 1, 2022
Recently, in a speech at a Georgia church , rising progressive star Stacey Abrams, after noting that her parents had been pastors, declared, "I was trained to read and understand the Bible, and I will tell you this, there is nothing about the decision to eliminate access to abortion care that is grounded in anything other than cruelty and meanness." However, the way the Bible speaks of preborn children eliminates abortion as a moral option. In Psalm 139, the psalmist declares, " For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made ." The Prophet Jeremiah was told by God, " Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations ." And in one of the most beautiful moments in Holy Scripture, John the Baptist, still in Elizabeth's womb, leapt when in the presence of Jesus, still in Mary's womb. Test everything, the Scripture says. Especially those who claim to speak for God.
Sep 1, 2022
Recently, at The Celebration of America's Promise to Parents event, hosted by the Alliance Defending Freedom, Abigail Martinez, a grieving mother, shared a story that every single parent, pastor, and lawmaker in America needs to hear. Abigail's daughter Yaeli began to struggle with depression when she was in the 8th grade. Without communication with her mother, Yaeli was quickly funneled by personnel at her school towards the LGBTQ group, and then to an outside psychologist. Soon, Yaeli was being led by these adults towards a "social transition," going by the name "Andrew" and increasingly presenting as a boy. All the while, she was urged to keep the details hidden from her family. Once she caught wind, Abigail protested both the secrecy and the strategy of this counseling, urging the counselors to instead look into underlying issues of Yaeli's mental health. Instead, she was told that by refusing to call her daughter by her new name and pronouns, she was the problem. If anything happened to Yaeli, the school said, it would be Abigail's fault. From that moment on , the system boxed her out at every turn. When Yaeli was 16, the school psychologist urged the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services to intervene, arguing that because her mom was "unsupportive" of her social transition, Yaeli would be better off living elsewhere. Yaeli was moved to a group home, where she started taking cross-sex hormones. Abigail was only allowed to see her daughter for one hour each week, supervised, and strictly warned not to bring up anything relating to her daughter's transition, including their Christian faith. If she did, her visitation rights would be revoked. "If we keep [Yaeli] out of your home," Abigail remembered being told, "she [will] have more chance to survive. She's not going to try to commit suicide." Instead, all the while, Yaeli's mental health continued to decline. The testosterone caused her constant pain, for which a doctor prescribed CBD oil. "She was taking the [cross-sex] hormones; she was not happy," her mother said. "She changed her name, [but] was not happy, she adopted a dog because that was going to make her happy. None of it, everything that they've done, didn't work." At age 19, having moved out of the group home and pursued her new identity for about three years, Yaeli took her own life. As Abigail later told The Daily Signal , "I don't want any parent to go through this, because this pain never goes away. … You breathe and you can feel the pain." It's hard to imagine a tragedy like this could happen. It's hard to believe that a parent could lose custody to the state, simply for holding to a child's biological sex. What's not hard to imagine is that Yaeli Martinez will not be the last victim of these bad ideas, indoctrinated by state power. Local governments like Los Angeles County aggressively promote the doctrine of "gender-affirming care ," even if it means tearing a family apart. On a state level, one California senator has proposed a bill empowering courts to remove children, not just from California residents, but from anyone who travels to the state and whose children claim their parents do not support them in their gender identity or sexual orientation choices. A similar case recently unfolded in Ohio, where a county prosecutor charged a couple with "abuse and neglect" for seeking counseling instead of transition for their daughter. And in Michigan, it is very likely that a ballot initiative will be taken to the voters this November utilizing the language of "reproductive freedom" to usurp parental rights in similar ways. Through these laws, the state perpetuates grave evil. In the case of Yaeli Martinez, the silence of her church was even more tragic. When at the state-assigned group home, Yaeli repeatedly asked her mother when a pastor or youth leader might come visit. She had felt close to these leaders and was eager to see them. "[They] know I'm here, right?" Abigail remembered her daughter asking. As Abigail said, "I asked them. I gave them the address." But they never visited. Not Abigail. Not Yaeli. No public support from the pulpit. No private support either. Abigail Martinez has walked this path all alone. In this, Abigail was the victim of a church culture designed around making people feel good and dodging difficult issues. Shame on them. Yaeli Martinez will not be the last teenager in crisis. That's why I'm grateful for churches that, with truth and grace, do show up for parents in need. Nobody wants this culture war over sex and gender, but we didn't choose this moment. To oppose state-sponsored trans ideology in law and in school is a necessary act of love. No child should be harmed by state-sponsored lies. No parent should go through what Abigail Martinez went through. And absolutely no parent should go through what Abigail Martinez went through alone .
Aug 31, 2022
Earlier this month, British-Indian author Salman Rushdie was brutally attacked at an event in upstate New York. In 1989, Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses so enraged Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini that he issued a global kill-order , or fatwa, on the author, his editors, and publishers. Though Khomeini died later that year, fatwas cannot be revoked posthumously . So, Rushdie went into hiding, appearing later only under heavy security. Eventually, many in the West simply forgot about it. Shia extremists did not. This tell us something about how differently the secular West and radical Islam sees the world, and how short our cultural memory is compared with theirs. And, at stake is more than a contest of memory. In the Western world, we've been secularized to think of religion as a privatized matter of preference. We therefore underestimate the power that religious convictions wield, including the power that our secular religious convictions hold over our own hearts, minds, and culture. All of which is an opportunity for Christians to show and live a better way, one that sees God, history, people, and the world so differently.
Aug 31, 2022
In 2016, Canada legalized euthanasia through the euphemistically titled Medical Aid in Dying (or MAiD). Since passing, the number of Canadians who either "enthusiastically" or "cautiously" support the practice has risen slightly from 75% to 80%. The response from communities representing those with disabilities, however, has remained consistently opposed. Their fears, that Canada's end-of-life policies would prove to be only the cliff edge of a moral abyss, have proven to be largely accurate. As Maria Cheng of the Associated Press has reported, Canada "arguably has the most permissive euthanasia rules [in the world.]" Just last year, over 10,000 lives were legally taken, an increase of a third from the year before. Patients can request aid in dying without informing family members and for any reason, including, beginning in 2023, mental health issues and not just physical suffering. Doctors, as well as nurse practitioners, can raise the topic of euthanasia with any patient and are not required to first exhaust all other treatment options. Though the government keeps track of yearly deaths by euthanasia, it does not have a commission to review troubling cases, a practice used by other permissive nations like Belgium and the Netherlands. Next year, euthanasia will likely be extended to so-called "mature" minors. At a time when so many efforts are being made toward suicide prevention among teenagers, they will be taught that death is an acceptable way out of mental anguish. Horrific. The deadly cocktail of adverse incentives, little accountability, and ineffective "safeguards" have led to a context in which, as AP's Cheng wrote, "Some disabled Canadians have decided to be killed in the face of mounting bills. .… Other disabled people say the easy availability of euthanasia has led to unsettling and sometimes frightening discussions." The worst impact of this slope Canada is sliding down could be a perversion of the word "care." For example, one Canadian armed forces veteran was outraged after a healthcare worker raised the possibility of assisted death as a "treatment" option for his PTSD. Alan Nichols was a 61-year-old man who was hospitalized in 2019 over fears he might be suicidal. "Within a month," Cheng described, "Nichols submitted a request to be euthanized and he was killed, despite concerns raised by his family and a nurse practitioner." The only physical health condition listed on Nichol's form of consent was hearing loss . According to his brother Gary, "Alan was basically put to death." Stories like these are shocking, but we can't say we were not warned by nearly every disability group in Canada , observers from the UN, and even the American Medical Association. When it comes to euthanasia and doctor-assisted death, abuses and loopholes are not anomalies. They are inevitabilities of a system that operates from a cheapened view of human value and a redefined understanding of healthcare. The AMA's official opinion makes clear, "Euthanasia is fundamentally incompatible with the physician's role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks." Particularly in a single-payer health care system like Canada's, the decision of who lives and who dies will inevitably be influenced by crass factors such as money, access to medical resources, and arbitrary decisions about what constitutes "quality of life." Against such cultural headwinds, mere "consent" is not enough. In fact, whenever and wherever it is legalized, the so-called "right" to die soon becomes a perceived "duty to die." Patients consistently report making decisions about not wanting to be "a burden" on friends or family, or because they are convinced, as law and disability professor Theresia Degener described, "a life with disability is automatically less worth living and that in some cases, death is preferable." Euthanasia is at odds with any civilized vision of human value. As Alan Nichols' sister-in-law said, "Somebody needs to take responsibility so that it never happens to another family. I am terrified of my husband or another relative being put in the hospital and somehow getting these (euthanasia) forms in their hand." Let's pray the rest of the world learns from Canada's terrible example and in nation after nation the lid of this Pandora's box will be slammed shut.
Aug 30, 2022
Last week President Biden announced a plan to cancel student debt, about $330 billion worth . The cost to taxpayers could be as high as half a trillion dollars . My friend Dan Darling joked on Twitter that youth pastors just received the gift of a great sermon illustration, but some have actually defended the policy ( which even former Obama advisors have criticized ) by pointing to Jesus words in the Lord's Prayer: "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors…" For example, a n editorial in TIME argues that when Christ prayed these words in the Garden, He was referring to the Old Testament "Year of Jubilee," in which debts were canceled every 50 years. So, mass debt forgiveness, conclude the authors, comes from Moses not Marx. OK, I'm lost. Is it now suddenly OK to impose Old Testament laws on America? Which ones? All of them? It's so strange after hearing over and over that when it comes to things such as sexual morality, the Bible is not clear; but when it comes to debt policy, it is... In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus was not talking about economic debts. Both His words and the Year of Jubilee in Israel point to the forgiveness of a debt far greater than college loans: our sin. That debt was paid in full by His blood, not by moving tax dollars around.
Aug 30, 2022
A new "manifestation trend" called "The Whisper Method" has gone viral on TikTok. If the word salad in that sentence is new to you, "manifestation" is the practice of focused, intense thinking about what you want until you get it. The practice is grounded in New Age philosophy and seems to re-emerge every few years in some new form. The "Whisper Method" is the latest manifestation of manifestation, and TikTok is where it is all happening. The "Whisper Method" involves thinking of what you really want and identifying who can give it to you. Then, you are to imagine whispering instructions into that person's ear, such as, "You're going to give me that promotion." Or, "You're going to fall in love with me." If you really believe (and whisper), then eventually you shall receive. We've seen this kind of thing before. Years ago, Oprah popularized "The Secret," a philosophy that if people put "positive thoughts and vibes"' into the universe, they'd get positive results back. In other words, if we send out energy claiming a bigger bank account, a smaller waist, or a better parking spot during Christmas, we'll get those things. From a motivation standpoint, it's easy to understand how something like The Secret or The Whisper Method gains traction. It involves little work with big rewards. Beneath the irrationality and geographic specificity (these strategies aren't very popular in war-torn areas or regions inflicted by famine), there is a truth. The human imagination is incredibly powerful. In a 2006 episode of Oprah , she described "The Secret" this way: "What you focus on gets bigger." Short of the weird metaphysical claims to be able to "manifest" new objective realities, Oprah was not entirely off base. God created humans with creative ability. We cannot create out of nothing, or ex nihilo, like God did, but humans are unique among creation in our ability to make something out of the world around us. Thus, humans invent and build and improve and innovate. And, in Psalm 37, we are told that if we "delight" ourselves "in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart," though that has more to do with God first giving us rightly ordered desires once He is our ultimate delight. Various studies have demonstrated that athletes who routinely imagine themselves performing well often develop a measurable competitive edge. However, even the most imaginative and sincere visualization techniques cannot magically bend reality. Thus, researchers believe that visualizing strong athletic performance is a way of practicing the sport. Not to mention, that any athletic improvements served by visualizations are in addition to actually physically practicing the sport . The Whisper Method isn't about training for a good performance or searching our hearts and motives to make sure they align with the will of God. The Whisper Method is about the illusion of control. It assumes that internal focus can determine external realities. This desire for control is nothing new, nor has The Whisper Method shifted from changing our own actions in place of manipulating the actions of others. In that way, The Whisper Method reflects the cultural ethos that other people are primarily objects to be used in service to our own ends. We didn't make the world, and we're not in charge of it. God did, and He is. We're not to worry ourselves over controlling it but instead are to "cast all our anxieties on Him." If we are going to "whisper," it should be in prayer to the God who made us and loves us. In honest prayer, our hearts are taught what they truly desire. In prayer, we place those desires at the feet of our Heavenly Father, ask Him to conform them and us to His will, trusting that everything He does will be for our good. All of which makes prayer the opposite of The Whisper Method, which only pretends that we can control the world and assumes that our strategies for controlling it are fully informed and perfectly wise, as if we have the faintest idea of what's really best for us. We don't. In his book on prayer , Pastor Tim Keller wrote that "God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything He knew." Thank goodness we don't live in a world where our wishing, or our "whispering," makes it so.
Aug 29, 2022
A new law in a northern state of India imposes up to 10 years in jail time for so-called "forced," or "mass" conversions … meaning more than one person at a time. It also casts suspicion on those influenced by Christian social services like health, education, and charity, which often appeal to those trapped in Hindu's marginalized lower castes. India's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but laws like this reflect how rapidly the ruling party's push for Hindu Nationalism has changed things for Christians in that country. But efforts to restrict the gospel rarely work. As one local bishop put it... Anybody who converts to Christianity is doing so from a strong unflinching personal following of Jesus Christ and very much as a personal conscious decision of divine attraction to Jesus Christ, God's love, compassion, forgiveness, justice and truth. His death we celebrate in love, His Resurrection from the dead we profess with living faith, His coming in glory we await with unwavering hope. This personal experience makes them embrace Christianity. Amen. That's why faith in Christ has survived so many attempts to stamp it out.
Aug 29, 2022
The Dobbs decision is the most significant Supreme Court decision of our lifetime, and it's already been cited in another legal case. Recently, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall requested that a federal district court remove an injunction against a ban on medical intervention for youth seeking a transgender identity. He wrote: "But no one—adult or child—has a right to transitioning treatments that is deeply rooted in our Nation's history and tradition." His words are based on language from Justice Samuel Alito's majority opinion in the recent Dobbs case. Alito argued that abortion cannot be found in the Constitution, nor has it ever been "deeply rooted" in the history and traditions of the American people. Roe v. Wade , which was overturned by the Dobbs decision, was part of a series of Supreme Court decisions that "discovered" new constitutional rights based on little more than the whims of the sitting Justices. Commonly, in the use of the "substantive due process doctrine," earlier Supreme Courts invoked a so-called "right to privacy," as they did in Roe v. Wade . While there's little more American than the right to be left alone, the Court misconstrued this reasonable desire for privacy to mean the "right" to kill children in the womb. "Substantive due process" is supposedly based on the 14th Amendment's due process clause. Proponents of the doctrine contend that, even if a right isn't explicitly recognized in the Constitution, the rights that are explicit cast "penumbras"—or shadows—which suggest the existence of other, unenumerated rights that the Supreme Court should protect. If this sounds like a stretch, that's because it is, not least because the due process clause is about just that—lawful process , not substantive rights. The notion of "substantive due process" is often a pretext for judges to affirm current social norms with little more than passing reference to the Bill of Rights. So, what was never historically a right could be deemed one simply by finding a way to rationalize it with reference to some other right in the Constitution. Instead of rights finding root in the constitutional text or in who we always are as human beings, they become based on shifting cultural norms, as easily created as denied. As Justice Thomas pointed out in his concurrent opinion in the Dobbs decision, substantive due process is "legal fiction." Thus, he questioned the Court's power to "divine new rights." While substantive due process has been used to cause harm, it's also been used to support good decisions, for example the ruling on interracial marriage in the case of Loving v. Virginia . However, the Court also based Loving v. Virginia on another part of the 14th Amendment, the equal protection clause , which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, among other things. In other words, the victory for interracial marriage was a recognition of reality , that all human beings, of whatever race or ethnicity, are fundamentally equal and therefore should not be treated differently. The call for a right to gender transition, however, is a rejection of reality , arguing that maleness and femaleness are illusory or ancillary to who and what we are. In the current application of the "deeply rooted" test in Alabama, parents demanded a right to experimental medical treatments for their children seeking a transgender identity. They argued that "enduring American tradition" makes them, and not the state of Alabama, primarily responsible for " nurturing and caring for their children ." In that sense, they are right. Parents rank higher than the state when it comes to childcare, but what these parents are demanding is the opposite of nurturing and caring. And in too many cases, government officials are usurping parental rights in promoting gender transitions to children, against their parent's wishes. American tradition recognizes a right of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children and even to make medical decisions for them, but it has never recognized a right of parents to cause their kids harm by radically altering their bodies in ways that render them permanently sterile and perpetually dependent on medical interventions. This is something radically new, not deeply rooted in American tradition and history, at best social experimentation. We can expect more cases in which the "deeply rooted" language of Dobbs is cited. Lower courts, taking the Supreme Court's cue, should be reluctant to strike down democratically enacted laws based on newly minted theories of unenumerated rights. In the meantime, Christians must continue to point to the reality of human nature, including the good of our bodies as male and female, and most of all, to the Source of our actual rights: our Creator.
Aug 26, 2022
In response to a recent op-ed at Christianity Today , Maria and John insist that Christians can and should be involved in the public square, particularly in the schools. One clear reason is the proposed regulations reinterpreting Title IX. These regulations would remove parental rights from parents whose kids are drawn to radical gender ideology, making the schools conduits to transgender treatments. Maria and John then move to a discussion of the "why" behind a new stat showing that women are leaving the Church.
Aug 26, 2022
Next month, the Colson Center is offering a short course entitled " The Essential Church: Why Christians (and the World) Still Need the Church. " It's a timely message, especially given a recent shift in Church demographics. Christianity Today reported that younger women are, for the first time, less likely to go to church than men... not because more men are now attending church, but because more women are deconstructing their faith, and more likely to identify as "nones." Battered by church controversies and scandals, and shaped by cultural messages, women are increasingly heading for the exit. In doing so, they are rejecting a faith that, in the words of my colleague Glenn Sunshine, has done "more to improve the status of women than any other historical force." The Church is meant to enable and empower men and women to live as image bearers, according to God's design. Simply put, the Church is essential, and that's the topic of our upcoming short course, hosted by Dr. Tim Padgett and featuring Peter Leithart, Collin Hansen, and Glenn Sunshine. Christians need to know why . Go to colsoncenter.org/August to learn more.
Aug 26, 2022
Frequent readers and listeners of Breakpoint know about Max. The grandson of Chuck Colson and subject of a book called Dancing With Max , authored by Emily Colson (Chuck's daughter and Colson Center board member), Max is a remarkable young man who has autism. The last few years have been difficult for Emily and Max, especially since the COVID lockdowns disrupted their routines and canceled their helpers. The last few years were particularly hard on full-time caretakers. And yet, in the middle of the challenges and disruptions of the last few years, God gave Max a ministry of encouraging and blessing others, a ministry now reaching people whose lives have been disrupted by war. Here's how Emily Colson described this remarkable story in a recent email: We didn't have a plan: We had a prayer. "How can we be a blessing to others?" More than two years later, God continues to answer that prayer beyond what we could ask or imagine, bringing hope around the world. Even into a war zone. It was COVID shutdown 2020 when Max began to hand-paint colorful heart yard signs and deliver them around our community. Max wasn't an artist: Autism had made fine motor a lifelong challenge. God often uses the most unlikely individuals to accomplish His purposes so that the story is unmistakably His. Our dining room became a workspace with plastic wrap stretched across the table and paint dripping into places that won't be found for another decade. Our home began to look as if we'd invited Jackson Pollock to dinner. It was there, in the ache and loss and isolation of shutdown, that Max would paint his joy-filled hearts. Max has given away more than 250 heart yard signs now, and he is still painting. The hearts have made it onto note cards, 36,000 cards in circulation so far, with all proceeds going to charity. His hearts grace the front of shirts, each one packaged with a message of God's love and the value of every life. With every shirt purchased a duplicate is given to a life-affirming charity. And a "heart exhibit" is traveling to different gallery locations, telling the story of what only God can do. Of how He can multiply blessings. As incredible as all of that is, there's now another chapter to this story, which began when Emily's friend April sent her a message. She'd been watching the war break out in Ukraine on live television. She prayed, and God pressed an idea into her heart like a hot wax seal: Send Max's hearts to Ukraine. Our church leapt at the idea. Our printer, Spectrum Designs, a company employing the most amazing team of individuals with autism, jumped just as quickly, printing the first 1,000 shirts. A team of highly caffeinated volunteers began folding and packaging each shirt with a message of God's love and hope—all translated into Ukrainian. But…where would we send these? Who would receive and distribute these shirts in Ukraine? That answer began 50 years ago, in the brokenness of Watergate. My dad, Chuck Colson, served as Special Counsel to President Nixon... When my dad was released from prison he founded Prison Fellowship ministries, which became the largest prison ministry in the world, reaching millions of people in the darkest places around the globe with the hope and love of Jesus Christ. Even reaching Ukraine. The ministry he founded 50 years ago through the brokenness of Watergate would carry his grandson's hearts, born of the brokenness of COVID, to bring hope to those in a war zone on the other side of the world. James Ackerman, president of Prison Fellowship USA, traveled to Romania... and (with) a team of ministry leaders and volunteers carried the shirts and other supplies deep into Ukraine, delivering them to children of prisoners, and to people in a Ukrainian refugee center. Emily received a photo of one little boy who was holding Max's picture, and wearing a shirt printed with Max's hearts and the words, "Beloved by God." Both of his parents were killed in the war. As Emily said, When I saw this little boy's face, I cried for days... God cares. He aches for the brokenness of this world. He is close to this little boy, just as He is close to Max. God was even leaning over Max's shoulder as he began to paint, knowing He would carry these hearts—and His hope—around the world. You can learn how to join Max and Emily in their mission at www.heartbymax.com .
Aug 25, 2022
According to Ian Lovett in The Wall Street Journal , "Dozens of priests from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the country's largest denomination, have been kidnapped or killed since the (Russian) invasion began." Some have been tortured, accused of stirring up anti-Russian sentiment. Those allowed to return to their congregations bear scars and missing teeth. Some never return at all. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church's split from Russian Orthodoxy in 2019 provides the political motivation for Russia to target its members. The Russian church, under Patriarch Kirill, has supported the war, arguing that it has " metaphysical significance. " He may be right, though not in the way he believes. By targeting Ukrainian believers, Russia adds to the ranks of those who suffer, not just for Ukraine, but for Christ. Father Ioann Burdin, a Russian Orthodox priest who has publicly opposed the invasion, wrote in February , "Russian soldiers are killing their brothers and sisters in Christ…. We can't shamefully cover our eyes and call… evil good."
Aug 25, 2022
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Department of Education announced new regulations regarding Title IX, which is designed to ensure and protect access for women and girls in education. These new rules are 700 pages long and are being trumpeted by organizations such as the National Education Association as a victory for victims of sexual harassment and clarification of discrimination based on sex. However, what is meant by "sex" will be a disaster for women. The massive document is infected with the presumptions of transgender ideology, specifically that "sex" includes "gender identity," ignoring the biological reality of sex. Not only will these rules limit our daughters' opportunities to participate in sports and lead to dangerous violations of their privacy, but they will erase parental rights and free speech in favor of state-centered authority. There is a limited time to speak into these regulations before they are instituted. In 1972, Title IX was enacted to provide equal access to education and athletics for girls and women. Recent reinterpretations of sex threaten the good goals of Title IX by turning reality on its head. In a recent meeting of ministry leaders, Vernadette Broyles, general counsel and president of the non-profit law firm, Child & Parental Rights Campaign , explained three major implications of this regulation. The first concern has to do with the removal of parental rights. Minors who decide to transition at school will be supported by the schools and led into the process of "social transition," including using preferred pronouns, without requiring the consent of parents. It's Broyles' belief that this will "weaponize" government agencies like Child Protective Services and channel these children to "gender-affirming" counselors and clinics, eliminating the influence of parents in the process. This is already happening in some states, such as California. A second and primary concern is the remarkable damage that will be done to children's bodies and emotions by encouraging and furthering social experimentation. For example, in July, the FDA announced that puberty blockers, which activists claim are harmless, can cause brain swelling and vision loss. Their long-term cognitive effects are still being studied . We also know that cross-sex hormones cause permanent sterilization . And of course, that doesn't even get into what happens when things go "right" with the devastating permanent injuries caused by so-called "gender-affirmation" or "sex-reassignment" surgeries. Finally, Broyles spoke of the scandal intrinsic to girls having no private spaces in locker rooms or on school trips, and the heartbreaking irony of women and girls' losing place to male athletes, all under the banner of Title IX. Even if your state has already acted, as some have, to protect parental rights and girls' opportunities in sports, these rules will challenge state legislation at the federal level. So, what can be done? Every American has the opportunity to submit comments on these new rules before September 12. Through bureaucracy, the Biden administration has skirted the legislative process and accountability to elected representatives as it did with the mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding insurance supporting "transgender medicine." When contacting Congressional Representatives and Senators about legislation, it is acceptable to use a copied script. In this situation, however, comments must be submitted through the Federal Register , the online journal that publishes the federal government's rules and regulations. Rather than a Senate staffer tallying positions for or against a bill, staffers associated with the Register look for unique comments. If thousands of people flood the Register with the same script, that repeated comment would be counted as only one. So, please comment, in your own voice, laying out your specific concerns with these regulations. The Child & Parental Rights Campaign has provided multiple prompts—not scripts—to assist you in registering a comment. There are "comment starter letters" for parents, educators, and community religious leaders. In your comment, tell a unique story or specify your concerns for your daughter, son, grandchild, or school. If you have a psychological or medical background, refer to that expertise in explaining your perspective. If you have a law degree, use your legal training to explain the issues with these regulations. Express your concerns, not only for parental rights and potential harm to children, but also implications this will have for freedom of religion and speech, especially for teachers. Please, flood the Federal Register with unique comments before September 12. Visit the Child & Parental Rights Campaign website for resources, links, and prompts . The future of our children may depend on it.
Aug 24, 2022
Last month the world got its first look at new photographs of deep space from NASA's James Webb telescope. The level of detail in the photos was staggering and beautiful, revealing stars, "Cosmic Cliffs," and ultraviolet radiation from the birth of new stars. Christians should approach new technologies with care. Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should . At the same time, this new telescope is an inspiring example of what humans can do because of how God made us. Technology can enable us to know and appreciate God's world and to better tend the garden of creation. It also enables us to fight God's design or try to control it as if we were God. This telescope is a remarkable achievement, involving years of insight, ingenuity, and perseverance, which are God-given virtues. The fruit of this work rightly elicits awe and should drive us to study and admire a vast and mysterious universe. And it points us to the God who made it all. Technology that leads us to appreciate creation, grow in wonder, and learn more about it is a true gift.
Aug 24, 2022
Regular listeners to the weekly Breakpoint This Week podcast know that my co-host Maria and I are fans of the reality competition show Alone . Ten wilderness experts are dropped in the middle of nowhere, usually a place that is cold and full of bears, forced to fend for themselves. Whoever stays the longest wins. In the latest season, a military veteran with strong survival skills and extensive experience overseas seemed poised to win. Instead, he called it quits just a few weeks in. In an interview afterwards, he explained, "When I was in the military and separated from family, I didn't have a choice. Out here... I had that opportunity to get on the radio or the phone and say, 'Hey, I'm going to go back to where I'm comfortable.'" In other words, having the choice to go home made staying much harder. According to conventional wisdom, at least the kind accepted in this cultural moment, the opposite should have been true. More control and more choices are supposed to bring easier and more satisfying lives. That misconception is, in fact, a feature of life since modernism. For most of human history, humans held no illusions of being masters of their own fate. Writing back in 1976, American sociologist Peter Berger identified what changed, especially for Westerners. Because of the dramatic progress brought by science and technology, humans in the modern period began to believe that the world would eventually be fully understood. And if understood, it could also be mastered, as well. "What previously was experienced as fate now becomes an arena of choices," Berger wrote. "In principle, there is the assumption that all human problems can be converted into technical problems… the world becomes ever more ' makeable .'" A mark of our late postmodern era is the obsession with having choices. The higher the stakes, the more acute is the illusion of freedom. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy described this impulse in his now overturned Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision , when he wrote that "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." In his view, the "freedom of choice" extends to even choosing what is real . Is it any wonder that people now believe that choice extends beyond sexual behavior to sexual identity? However, if happiness truly comes from the control made possible through infinite choices and the ability to "make the world," why did the military officer competing on Alone find the opposite to be true? Why did his freedom of choice turn out to be too much of a burden? Why do so many studies show that we are less happy than ever? The postmodern assertion that we can "make the world" exploits a weakness inherent to our fallen humanness and especially acute today. We struggle to delay gratification. We might fool ourselves into thinking that we can, in fact, define our existence or choose our gender. We may think our decision about whether to stay married or whether to bring an unborn child to birth is based on deep reflections. However, because we can, we tend to choose comfort now at the expense of flourishing later. If we have the option, we call the producers and tap out. Justice Kennedy was wrong. No matter how many choices we have, we cannot remake the world. Everywhere we turn, we butt up against the limits of creation. According to a Christian worldview, this is actually good news . God created the world with limits: physical and moral laws, bodies, certain geographic locations and times in history, and not other ones. He gives us specific parents and siblings and children, whose specific needs constantly impose limits on our choices. Even if, in modernity and postmodernity, such limits are anathema, to be resisted and fought against with all the science and technology we can muster, true freedom is found by recognizing and resting in God's good limits, both physical and moral. If God is good, then the limits He imposes are not burdens. They're blessings.
Aug 23, 2022
President Biden called the recent killings of Muslim men in New Mexico " hateful attacks, " implying they were hate crimes against the Muslim community. Less subtly, the mayor of Albuquerque commented: " violence against members of our community based on race or religion will not be tolerated. " Then the police arrested a Muslim man who, according to NPR, frequented the same mosque as his victims (though he was Sunni and three of his victims were Shia) . This is what happens in a culture infected by a critical theory "mood." Reduce everything to sex, power, and race, and as the adage goes, to a hammer everything looks like a nail. Assuming racism without facts provokes suspicions among groups and keeps us from seeing others in God's image. In the end, people are judged by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character or, even worse, the content of their character is assumed because of the color of skin.
Aug 23, 2022
The last few years have felt like a real-life version of the popular board game "Pandemic," in which players cooperate to contain the spread of infectious, often imaginary diseases. The latest disease to grab real-world headlines sports a name that sounds like it came straight out of this board game: monkeypox. Our nation's response to this new outbreak has been far from a winning strategy, mainly because some public health officials have been more focused on sexual politics than protecting public health. Monkeypox is rarely fatal but reportedly excruciating. It is "overwhelmingly" transmitted by sexual contact between men. According to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine and reported by NBC News , 95% of monkeypox cases have so far occurred in the "gay community," and evidence strongly suggests that behaviors distinctive to that community are primarily responsible for spreading the virus. The public health response to monkeypox, which many are now describing as a complete disaster, has been largely shaped by officials who are unwilling to offend gay rights activists. Despite more than 6,000 cases reported nationwide, a figure The New York Times says is probably low, major cities like New York and San Francisco have hesitated to make clear exactly how the disease spreads, or to urge those primarily at risk to stop spreading it. In June, as The Washington Post described, officials in San Francisco stood by as "thousands of gay men clad in leather, latex—and often much less—descended on the city for an annual kink and fetish festival.'" According to the Post, "Even after the city had just declared the monkeypox outbreak striking its gay community a health emergency—one day after the World Health Organization urged men to sleep with fewer men to reduce transmission—San Francisco public health officials made no attempt to rein in festivities or warn attendees to have less sex." Officials in New York, Chicago, and other metro areas were also "avoiding calls for sexual restraint." Why? Well because they were "wary of further stigmatizing same-sex intimacy" and wanted to limit "government intrusion into the bedroom." "Officials and activists who spent decades on the front lines of the battle against HIV/AIDS," the Post article continued, "say they have learned it is futile to tell people to have less sex." There has, at least, been some pushback to this suicidal public health strategy. Gay sex columnist and polyamory advocate Dan Savage slammed cities that refused to tell the truth, saying " It was devaluing gay men's lives and health " not to warn them. And writing in The Atlantic this month, Jim Downs argued that it's not homophobia to warn gay men to be careful: "Public-health officials don't need to tiptoe around how monkeypox is currently being transmitted." Along with an incompetent rollout of vaccines and medications, which The New York Times' Daily podcast blamed for the crisis , these muted warnings may prove to be too little, too late in preventing more patients from suffering this painful and humiliating illness. Against the backdrop of two years of COVID lockdowns, mask mandates, mandatory quarantines, and "two weeks to stop the spread," the display of political priorities is breathtakingly hypocritical. While even the World Health Organization urges gay men to temporarily curb their lifestyle for the sake of safety, many American officials practically begged for an outbreak, afraid to place any limits on the expression of politically favored sexual identities. Doing so, they claim, threatens to revive the "stigma" and "homophobia" our culture has so successfully suppressed. In an echo of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, the disease itself is treated as discriminatory, as if it's unfair of the monkeypox virus to target gay men. The solution, many seem to believe, is to let it tear through the gay population unchecked as if sexual tolerance and progressive attitudes can make up for bad public health policy. In the end, all these sick men point to a sick worldview, one that would rather sacrifice people's wellbeing than treat them as moral agents capable of choice, whose actions have consequences. Monkeypox is only the latest damaging effect of this broken view of people and sex, but as long as our country is willing to play games with pandemics and people's lives, it won't be the last.
Aug 22, 2022
This month in The Atlantic , writer Kaitlyn Tiffany described a conflict with a friend over which Lorde album was best. A slammed door signaled the end of the relationship, and a text to Tiffany's boyfriend described her as "toxic." "I had rarely heard [the word] used offline, and then only semi-ironically, or in regard to people who were objectively terrible," she wrote. "I had never had to consider whether it was a word that could be applied to me." The story epitomizes the relational crises that face our culture. Of course, there are plenty of situations that require boundaries, distance, and healthy confrontation. But our culture-wide turn inward , which prioritizes one's own sense of self over everything else can escalate conflict quickly. Next comes an accusation of "toxicity," which tends to lack specificity or meaning. Missing are three virtues: humility (an awareness that all is not centered on us), resilience (the courage to face challenges rather than avoid them), and forgiveness (the expression of grace for the good of the other). Without these things, there's no way forward.
Aug 22, 2022
Perhaps the strongest antidote for optimism or for misplaced faith in our fellow man is watching the news. Of course, much of the media we consume is voyeuristic, so in a sort of supply-and-demand scenario, bad news makes headlines more than good news. At the same time, this is more than a problem of clickbait filling our newsfeeds. A series of events in recent years suggests that our cultural center cannot hold much longer. Not decades but just a few days ago, prominent novelist Salman Rushdie was stabbed, not in some "shady" part of the world, but in public at a lecture in upstate New York. Also, dogs in San Francisco are becoming hooked on meth. Apparently, human excrement is so common in public areas, pets have learned where to go for a quick high from the residue of addicted residents. Radical ideologies continue to dominate headlines, which few outside of ivory towers had heard of until a few years ago. They are now compulsory at some schools. And, those who challenge the new orthodoxy are often ostracized from what is an increasingly impolite society . Healthcare now involves practices that, until yesterday, would've rightly been considered abuse, including children having otherwise healthy organs turned inside out. Clearly, the state of our world is largely rotten. For some Christians, this indicates that the end is nigh. Particularly in the last century or so, many books and sermons have declared that we are living in the last days, so the best we can hope for is to go down fighting this increasingly fallen world. It's easy to forget in all these headlines that things have been bad before, in some ways even worse than today. In that time and place, God called His people to keep the faith, commit to the tasks at hand, and steward the time they were given by remaining faithful. Sometimes they won against the forces of darkness and death. Sometimes they lost. Either way, their calling remained the same, and God's Kingdom marched on. William Wilberforce was among those followers of Christ who faced down great obstacles. He deserves all of the recognition he receives as an archetype for faithful Christian engagement in the world. Eventually, because of his efforts, he won a long battle over the entrenched power of slavery in the British Empire, what he called one of the great aims that God had set before Him. But none of it happened in a day. Wilberforce began his fight against human bondage in the late 1780s, but he did not see the fruit of his work for decades. The slave trade wasn't banned until 1807 across the British Empire and was not fully brought to an end until 1833, just days before he died. How often must he have wondered at his impossible task? How often did he consider giving up? Closer to our own time and less well known is a story out of Russia. Detailed in a new book by Matthew Heise, The Gates of Hell: An Untold Story of Faith and Perseverance in the Early Soviet Union tells of the trials of Lutheran Christians living under the newly founded Communist tyranny. The book is encouraging and heartbreaking at the same time. The constant determination of these Christians to be faithful to their Lord in the midst of some of the 20th century's most intense persecution is encouraging. Yet, by all earthly terms, their resistance absolutely failed. They fought to retain their freedom and their faith, but few managed to even retain their lives. They had no way to know their story's end—that all were wiped out by atheist totalitarianism. Regardless, they were faithful to the end. Our task is no different. We don't know if ours is a Wilberforce moment, when the enduring faithfulness of God's people standing athwart the tides of history will push this world back to reality. Or if this is a Russian Lutheran moment: We will lose our lives in our quest to be faithful. What we do know is that Christ has called us to this time and this place. As Gandalf said to Frodo, when he wondered why he should have to live in such times, being meant to be here and now "is a very encouraging thought." So, whatever comes, great victories or the full evaporation of progress, our task is the same: faithfulness, not success.
Aug 19, 2022
In this special episode of Breakpoint This Week, John talks with theologian and professor Carl Trueman about the challenges that affect us in this cultural moment. They discuss how technological advances have placed a "burden of self-creation" on us, influencing transgenderism, transhumanism, and artificial intelligence but also the loss of meaning and cultural institutions like the family.
Aug 19, 2022
Christians are often accused of "forcing our faith on others." But the idea that we shouldn't do that comes from the Church. Early Christians were persecuted because they refused to cater their faith to imperial power. Across Rome, people could worship whatever god(s) they wished, as long as their worship did not preclude the empire, the emperor, and the Roman gods. When Constantine the Great granted toleration with the Edict of Milan in 313, a new level of freedom extended not only to Christians but, with a few restrictions for public order, to others as well. Even when Christianity became the "official" faith of the empire, pagan worship remained legal. Of course, Christians have not always recognized religious freedom for others, but the fact remains, it came from the Church. This month, for a gift of any amount, join a Breakpoint online course called The Essential Church: Why the World (and Christians) Still Need the Body of Christ, featuring Drs. Timothy Padgett, Glenn Sunshine, and Peter Leithart as well as Collin Hansen. Go to colsoncenter.org/August
Aug 19, 2022
In June, a Google employee who claimed the company had created a sentient artificial intelligence bot was placed on administrative leave. Blake Lemoine, part of Google's Responsible AI ("artificial intelligence") program, had been interacting with a language AI known as "Language Model for Dialogue Applications," or LaMDA. When the algorithm began talking about rights and personhood, Lemoine decided his superiors and eventually the public needed to know. To him, it was clear the program had become "sentient," with the ability to feel, think, and experience life like a human. Google denied the claim (which is exactly what they would do, isn't it?). "There was no evidence that LaMDA was sentient (and lots of evidence against it)," said a spokesperson. The Atlantic 's Stephen Marche agreed: "The fact that LaMDA in particular has been the center of attention is, frankly, a little quaint…. Convincing chatbots are far from groundbreaking tech at this point." True, but they are the plot of a thousand science fiction novels. So, the question remains, is a truly "sentient" AI even possible? How could code develop the capacity for feelings, experiences, or intentionality? Even if our best algorithms can one day perfectly mirror the behavior of people, would they be conscious? How one answers such questions depends on one's anthropology. What are people? Are we merely "computers made of flesh?" Or is there something more to us than the sum of our parts, a true ghost in the machine? A true ghost in the shell? These kinds of questions about humans and the things that humans make reflect what philosopher David Chalmers has called "the hard problem of consciousness." In every age, even if strictly material evidence for the soul remains elusive, people have sensed that personhood, willpower, and first-person subjective experiences mean something. Christians are among those who believe that we are more than the "stuff" of our bodies, though Christians, unlike others, would be quick to add, but not less . There is something to us and the world that goes beyond the physical because there is a non-material, eternal God behind it all. Christians also hold that there are qualitative differences between people and algorithms, between life and non - living things like rocks and stars, between image bearers and other living creatures. Though much about sentience and consciousness remains a mystery, personhood rests on the solid metaphysical ground of a personal and powerful Creator. Materialists have a much harder problem declaring such distinctions. By denying the existence of anything other than the physical "stuff" of the universe, they don't merely erase the substance of certain aspects of the human experience such as good, evil, purpose, and free will: There's no real grounding for thinking of a "person" as unique, different, or valuable. According to philosopher Thomas Metzinger, for example, in a conversation with Sam Harris, none of us "ever was or had a self." Take brain surgery, Metzinger says. You peel back the skull and realize that there is only tissue, tissue made of the exact same components as everything else in the universe. Thus, he concludes, the concept of an individual "person" is meaningless, a purely linguistic construct designed to make sense of phenomena that aren't there. That kind of straightforward claim, though shocking to most people, is consistent within a purely materialist worldview. What quickly becomes inconsistent are claims of ethical norms or proper authority in a world without "persons." In a world without a why or an ought, there's only is , which tends to be the prerogative of the powerful, a fact that Harris and Metzinger candidly acknowledge. In a materialist world, any computational program could potentially become "sentient" simply by sufficiently mirroring (and even surpassing) human neurology. After all, in this worldview, there's no qualitative difference between people and robots, only degrees of complexity. This line of thinking, however, quickly collapses into dissonance. Are we really prepared to look at the ones and zeros of our computer programs the same way we look at a newborn baby? Are we prepared to extend human rights and privileges to our machines and programs? In Marvel's 2015 film Avengers : Age of Ultron , lightning from Thor's hammer hits a synthetic body programmed with an AI algorithm. A new hero, Vision, comes to life and helps save the day. It's one of the more entertaining movie scenes to wrestle with questions of life and consciousness. Even in the Marvel universe, no one would believe that a mere AI algorithm, even one designed by Tony Stark, could be sentient, no matter how sophisticated it was. In order to get to consciousness , there needed to be a "secret sauce," in this case lightning from a Nordic hammer or power from an Infinity Stone. In the same way, as stunning as advances in artificial intelligence are, a consciousness that is truly human requires a spark of the Divine.
Aug 18, 2022
The cultural crisis of loneliness is more acute than ever, partly due to factors like technology, and COVID-related protocols. And one researcher has identified another factor that should not be overlooked: isolation by choice. Time spent talking to other people, Dr. Jeffrey A. Hall has argued, has declined steadily for nearly 30 years. What's behind this trend? "Self-care regimes focus on cultivation of a mindful, inwardly focused life," he wrote. "There are increasing efforts to cut out other people in the name of removing toxicity. And all these tendencies are pushed forward by frictionless technologies that remove social obligations to leave home, talk to others and engage in our community." In response, Hall suggests that we develop a "social regimen that trains our atrophied muscles, even if there is some short-term discomfort, and even if it means encountering people with disagreeable or uninteresting opinions." It doesn't sound complicated, but it won't be easy in a culture that rewards the opposite. There is simply no substitute for real relationships, with real people.
Aug 18, 2022
Though we tend to think that Europe is less "Christian" than the United States, in some ways, that's not true. Certainly, p er capita, church attendance is lower throughout most of Europe than it is here, and religious Americans enjoy certain political freedoms that Europeans do not. However, on at least two major social issues, America has, for a while now, been more extreme than Europe. In the case of abortion , the Supreme Court's recent decision in Dobbs reversed nearly 50 years in which Roe v. Wade kept states from passing meaningful abortion restrictions. States are now free to set their own rules on abortion and many are actually coming into line with the vast majority of European countries restricting abortion to the earliest weeks of pregnancy. America has long been a more progressive (and dangerous) place when it comes to the preborn. Another issue in which America remains extreme and dangerously out of step with the rest of the Western world is childhood gender "transitions." This became more apparent last month when Britain's National Health Service closed its largest and most influential center for childhood gender "treatment." Writing recently at Common Sense , Lisa Selin Davis chronicled the last days of the Tavistock clinic, which was shuttered after its "gender-affirming" treatment methods came under serious scrutiny. Thousands of children have been treated at Tavistock which, in the last 10 years, had seen a 4,000% increase in referrals for girls alone. The vast majority of younger patients were prescribed puberty blockers, drugs that are now known to cause brain swelling and vision loss . During the clinic's heyday, numerous voices raised the alarm about its gung-ho approach to altering children's bodies. Mental healthcare employees like Sonia Appleby and Sue Evans, both of whom worked at the clinic, warned that vulnerable minors were being rushed through transition without efforts to properly discern other mental health issues they may have had. Keira Bell, a young woman who received treatment at Tavistock, won a lawsuit in 2020 that temporarily halted referrals for puberty-blockers in children under 16 . Bell is just one of a rapidly growing community of "de-transitioners" who were fast-tracked through medical transitions only to regret them later. For Tavistock, the final straw came when respected physician Dr. Hilary Cass concluded that the clinic's approach to gender dysphoria in minors had no convincing evidence to back its claims of effectiveness or safety. As she put it, there is "a lack of consensus and open discussion about the nature of gender dysphoria and therefore about the appropriate clinical response." Following her recommendation last month, the NHS permanently shut down the clinic. "In effect," wrote Davis, Britain has rebuked "the common American medical approach" of "gender affirming care…. There will be no more top-down, one-size-fits-all transitioning for kids with gender dysphoria in the UK." And then last week, as The Times of London reported, around 1,000 families are expected to join a lawsuit filed against the Tavistock clinic for rushing their children into life-altering puberty blockers. Other European countries are also pumping the brakes on these sexual experiments on children. Davis pointed to "uber-progressive" countries like Sweden and Finland that have pushed back "firmly and unapologetically" against such interventions. The American approach, on the other hand, is now "at odds with a growing consensus in the West to exercise extreme caution when it comes to transitioning young people." In fact, despite absence of evidence for benefits and real evidence of harm, medical establishments in the U.S. and both state and federal government powers are doubling down on so-called "affirming" treatments, calling puberty blockers "safe and reversible." Groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics not only endorse chemical interventions but actively work to block state bans that would protect kids from them. All critics of runaway gender ideology, but especially Christians, have an urgent duty to speak up against our nation's dangerous experiments on children. All who love to look to Europe as a model for progress need to pay close attention to Europe's reversal on childhood gender interventions. Together, we should consider that progress in this area means taking a big step (or several) back from the edge of the abyss. The closing of Tavistock and the impending lawsuit are powerful reminders that there is nothing inevitable about the triumph of bad ideas. They can be challenged. They can even be toppled. Protecting their would-be victims is all the motivation needed. A quick glance across the pond should dispel us of our doom and gloom and inspire us to take a stand.
Aug 17, 2022
Pleas for tolerance and inclusion are often pretext for intolerance and exclusion. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. This is the Point. "If you don't like gay marriage, don't get one." Remember that one? These days it ought to say, "If you don't like gay marriage, kiss your job goodbye." At least that's what happened to U.K. mayoral candidate Maureen Martin last month. Martin published a campaign leaflet describing her views, including that "natural marriage between a man and a woman" is the "building block for a successful society, and the safest environment for raising children." LGBTQ activists swiftly complained that this was "hate speech" and got Martin fired from her day job at a housing association . Notice, she said nothing about gay people or same-sex marriage. All she did was state fundamental truths about the importance of man-woman marriage to society—truths central to her Christian faith and shared by millions. Still, like Martin, Christians must speak the truths that get us in trouble and show any way we can that God's idea of family is the best idea.
Aug 17, 2022
Far from being an otherworldly religion, Christianity teaches both the importance and goodness of life in this world. In fact, from Jesus' healing ministry to the work of modern missionary doctors, a consistent feature of the work of the Church in the world has been to care for the sick and needy, and not just point them to the life to come. The early Church understood Jesus' ministry to be a paradigm for their own work. So, just as Jesus set believers free from their bondage to sin, early Christians purchased slaves specifically to free them. Whereas Jesus used miraculous power to heal people from physical effects of the Fall, Christians used more ordinary tools to care for the sick and disabled. These activities are not merely good deeds in themselves but serve to advance the Kingdom. Though the Gospel is a message and must be proclaimed, the early Church saw works of mercy and preaching the Gospel as two sides of the same coin. The first major epidemic faced by the Church was the Antonine Plague (A.D. 166-189). In fear of their lives, the Romans threw the sick out of their homes to die in the streets. Galen, the most prominent physician of the age, knew he could neither heal its victims nor protect himself. So, he fled Rome to stay at his country estate. Recognizing that all persons were made in the image of God and that Jesus came to make all things new, body and soul, many Christians ran the other direction. They fought the Fall by tending to the sick, at risk (and often at the cost) of their own lives. Since even basic nursing care can make a significant difference during an epidemic, Christian action saved lives. Their courage and self-sacrifice contributed to the rapid growth of Christianity. For example, when Irenaeus arrived in Lyon from Asia Minor, there were very few Christians. By the time the plague ended, there were 200,000 believers in Lyon. The Plague of Cyprian, which took place the following century, was named after the bishop of Carthage who documented the epidemic. Dionysius of Alexandria, also a bishop, described what happened this way: At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treating unburied corpses as dirt... But, he continued... Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ. From the earliest centuries, Christians embraced the medical theories and practices of the day. Contrary to stereotypes, the early Church did not attribute illness to demons, though they did recognize demonization as a real phenomenon. The real difference between Christians and physicians of the day was the willingness to risk death in order to treat the sick, convinced that if they died it would only mean a transition to a better life. The physicians, on the other hand, fled. Christians also founded the first hospitals in history. By the late fourth century, there were hospitals in both the eastern and western halves of the empire. By the Central Middle Ages, hospitals and leprosaria (leprosy hospitals) could be found throughout most of the Christian world. When universities began granting medical degrees during the period, church-affiliated institutions continued to provide much of the care. By the 18th century, the medical field had become increasingly professionalized and separate from the clergy. Though monasteries still provided care for the poor and nursing was almost entirely in the hands of sisters and nuns, professional physicians increasingly handled medical issues for those who could afford to pay. Clergy attended to the dying and contributed to discussions of medical ethics but had few other responsibilities for the sick. However, medicine was an integral part of the modern mission movement of the 19th century. Because Christianity has always affirmed the importance of the body, hospitals soon followed wherever missionaries went. This is another way the Church has been essential throughout history. Many Christians and critics today are skeptical that the Church is essential or necessary in the modern world. It is. To learn how and why, please join the new online Breakpoint course The Essential Church: Why the World (and Christians) Still Need the Body of Christ. Hosted by Colson Center theologian-in-residence Dr. Timothy Padgett, the course will feature thought leaders Dr. Peter Leithart, Dr. Glenn Sunshine, and Collin Hansen. Go to colsoncenter.org/August .
Aug 16, 2022
A recent article in Fatherly summed up the risk of divorce by married years. Years 1 to 2 are "high risk." Years 9 to 15 go down to "low." By years 15 to 20, the risk rises again to "average." "Newlyweds and old married couples," concluded the article, "can never get too comfortable." The numbers don't lie, but the danger of studies like this is portraying divorce as something that just happens because of "falling out of love" or something like that. The truth about marriage is, thankfully, more complicated. Couples committed enough to fight for their marriage stand a good chance of making it. Eighty percent of couples who participated in Focus on the Family's Hope Restored Marriage Intensive are still together two years later. It also matters what we believe about marriage. As of 2019, divorce in America had reached a 50-year low , but that's because fewer Americans are getting married at all. So, the ones who marry tend to believe there's something to it. And there is, which is why when it comes to marriage and the health of our society, none of us should be comfortable.
Aug 16, 2022
Canceling a speaker is run-of-the-mill these days. So, when a university " cancels the cancellation," it's worth noting. Dr. Kristin Collier is a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan and director of the school's Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion. She was a natural choice to give the keynote address at the school's white coat ceremony for incoming students. The Gold Humanism Honor Society selects speakers "who are exemplars of compassionate patient care and who serve as role models, mentors, and leaders in medicine." A group of 300 students protested because of Collier's pro-life views. "We demand that UM stands in solidarity with us and selects a speaker whose values align with institutional policies, students, and the broader medical community," they wrote in an anonymous letter. Rather than bow to the pressure, as so many school officials have done in recent years, medical school dean Marschall Runge defended the choice of Collier and the school's commitment to freedom of expression. "Our values speak about honoring the critical importance of diversity of personal thought and ideas," he wrote in a statement . "We would not revoke a speaker because they have different personal ideas than others." The handful of students who walked out during Dr. Collier's address missed something special, an incredible speech that challenged students to rethink what medicine is and is for . "The risk of this education and the one that I fell into is that you can come out of medical school with a bio-reductionist, mechanistic view of people and ultimately of yourself. You can easily end up seeing your patients as just a bag of blood and bones or human life as just molecules in motion." You are not technicians taking care of complex machines, but human beings taking care of other human beings. Let's resist a view, of our patients and ourselves, that strips us of our humanity, and takes away from the very goal of why we went into this profession in the first place: to take care of human beings entrusted to our care in their moments of greatest need." From there, Collier challenged these medical professionals in training to ask big questions about who they are and what they do, and to practice gratitude. It was a brilliant speech overshadowed by a fabricated and unnecessary controversy. R oughly half of all Americans share Dr. Collier's views on abortion, which she did not address in her speech. As Dr. Vinay Prasad wrote in the blog Common Sense, "I do not share Dr. Collier's faith or her views on abortion. But ultimately, the decision of students to walk out of the lecture because they disagree with the speaker on another topic has no limit." Collier's colleague, University of Michigan professor Scott Richard Lyons, wrote for Inside Higher Ed, If the academy brooks no dissent, how can knowledge advance? If differing opinions are treated as thought crimes, how much longer will thinkers want to work at our universities? If institutions of higher education do not protect free thought and speech, intellectual diversity, dissent… why should they exist at all? In fact, the University of Michigan's Faculty Handbook states that "expression of diverse points of view is of the highest importance" and should be protected. Of course, most universities and organizations have similar statements but lack the courage to live by them. In contrast, Dr. Collier's courage, grace under pressure, and dedication to professional excellence exemplify what's required in a culture that forgets that free speech in a free society blesses everyone. Her kindness to those who walked out of their own white coat ceremony exemplifies how we must treat everyone, from those who reject that freedom to those still located inside the womb. In that moment, she lived out her advice to not see people as machines but as human beings. Especially for those entering a profession especially prone to cynicism and burnout , her address is worth watching in its entirety. Let's pray there are many among that University of Michigan crowd who follow in Dr. Collier's footsteps.
Aug 15, 2022
The second most important commandment, Jesus said, was to "love your neighbor as yourself." Why our neighbor ? Decades ago, G.K. Chesterton offered an explanation: "The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world…. The reason is obvious. In a large community we can choose our companions. In a small community our companions are chosen for us. "We make our friends; we make our enemies, but God makes our next door neighbor. Hence he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; he is as strange as the stars, as reckless and indifferent as the rain…. That is why the old religions and old scriptural language showed so sharp a wisdom when they spoke, not of one's duty towards humanity, but of one's duty towards one's neighbor." Of course, Jesus was the first to expand the word "neighbor" to beyond those with mere physical proximity to us. But by the same token, our literal neighbors matter too. They may not share our convictions, lifestyle, or worldview, but agreement is not a necessary prerequisite for love. So, our actual neighbor might be a great place to start.
Aug 15, 2022
Recently, the Colson Center announced an upcoming Breakpoint course entitled, The Essential Church: Why Christians (and the World) Still Need the Church. The responses we have received just to the title reveal a lot about where people are in regard to the Church. "Dear John, 'What is the Church for?' It used to be the Body of Christ. And the Bride of Christ. Being conformed into His Image. They were to 'love one another.' Despise is closer. 'What is the Church for?' Well . . . I have no clue anymore." "The nutjobs and con artists have run people away: Get rid of them and maybe people might come back." "I had to quit hanging out with other Christians so I could hang out with nice people again." "What is the Church for? To psychologically abuse people, particularly children, with indoctrination into its religion of FEAR." Some critiques of the Church are nothing more than personal grievances that they've elevated into blanket condemnations. Some critics didn't appreciate learning the truth about their behaviors, beliefs, and lifestyles, which they then chose over Christ. Condemning the Church becomes an act of self-rationalization, not justice. Others, of course, have more legitimate complaints. Christians have not been there for them at crucial points in their lives and families. And far too often, the Church has imitated the world in its worst depravities, and then, rather than expose sin within its ranks, closed them, protecting the institution or its leaders from being held accountable. While there are times (like now) that Church scandals seem to add up, a recent joke turned meme on social media notes that, at least historically speaking, this is not really new. "There are two kinds of Paul's epistles to the early Church," the meme goes. "One is, 'I always thank God for you and His unsearchable blessings in Christ.' The other is, 'Why can't you sick weirdos be normal for just a minute?'" A great hymn of the 19th century tells a similar story. In " The Church's One Foundation ," Samuel John Stone proclaims Christ to be the security and preserver of His Bride, despite its obvious brokenness. This verse in particular speaks volumes. Though with a scornful wonder Men see her sore oppressed, By schisms rent asunder, By heresies distressed, Yet saints their watch are keeping; Their cry goes up, "How long?" And soon the night of weeping Shall be the morn of song. These beautiful words describe the tension of life between Pentecost and the Second Coming, and underscore something hotly debated today, even among Christians. Despite the painful reality of sin's enduring power in its members, the Church is essential, not only for Christians but for the entire world. Despite all these critiques—we could add so many more— Christians must see the Church as essential because Christ does. As a former colleague used to say, "the Church is Plan A, and there is no Plan B." Jesus didn't call us merely to embrace a set of theological proofs and wait for the end of the world. To be Christian is not just to believe in Him for personal forgiveness and meaning and then to live a moral life. When Christ saves us, He saves us into a movement, His Body, His redeemed people. Somehow, joining together with other frail saints is part of His plan to restore our hearts and minds, make all things new, and glorify the Father which is in heaven. We stick with the Church not because it is perfect, but because it is His plan. Because of this and the current confusion about the Church, we invite you to ponder with us what it means that the Church is essential, especially now when it does not always seem as if it is. For a gift of any amount this month, you can join this online course hosted by theologian-in-residence Dr. Timothy Padgett, and it will include thought leaders like Collin Hansen and Dr. Peter Leithart. To give and register for this course, please go to colsoncenter.org/August. After describing the church's obvious faults, Stone then, in the very next verse of "The Church's One Foundation," proclaims this: The church shall never perish, Her dear Lord to defend To guide, sustain and cherish, Is with her to the end Though there be those that hate her, And false sons in her pale Against a foe or traitor, She ever shall prevail.
Aug 12, 2022
John and Maria discuss the Tavistock centre (a gender clinic) in north London being forced to close due to multiple lawsuits. They also muse over Serena Williams' recent announcement to quit tennis so that she can focus on her family, particularly examining the way it's culturally framed as being a burden. Concluding by reflecting on a recent commentary, they talk about the ways that "chosen families" can never replace the responsibility and foundational importance of biological families.
Aug 12, 2022
A new California bill would require that youth receive so-called "gender affirming care" … even if it means removing them from the custody of their parents to do so. If passed, SB 107 would, according to the California Family Council , "empower California courts to take 'temporary emergency jurisdiction' of children if they come to California for trans-drugs, surgery, or mental healthcare." This would not only apply to parents and children who are California residents, but to children who travel to California from anywhere in the country. As one attorney put it, "SB 107 may be the most brazen assault on fundamental parental rights in the history of this state." This bill is the culmination of destructive and backwards ideas: that gender affirmation means rejecting the body, that removing healthy organs is the right way to treat gender dysphoria, that "trans kids" are expressing an innate identity instead of a temporary experience, and that parents who question invasive procedures deserve to have their kids taken away from them. Ideas have consequences. If this bill becomes law, there will be many victims of these bad ideas.
Aug 12, 2022
What would it be like to live only—and exclusively—in the present? Clive Wearing , a former musician for the BBC, is now the most famous amnesia patient in the world. In 1985, Clive suffered a severe fever that gave him both anterograde and retrograde amnesia. That means he can neither form new memories, nor recall most of his previous life. Instead, he lives his life thirty seconds at a time. Clive's struggle has been well chronicled in two documentaries, the first produced in 1986 and the second in 2005. Clive retains some knowledge—he can play piano expertly, for example, and remembers that he is married—he doesn't remember the wedding, his children, or his wife's name. The dominant experience of Clive's life, repeated hundreds of times a day, is of waking up from a coma for the very first time, without knowledge of who or where he is. "You are the first people I've spoken to in thirty years," he repeatedly tells his interviewers. Clive's story has inspired multiple publications of medical and psychological research, not to mention haunting existential questions. Who are we without our memories? What is life worth with no knowledge of the past and no ability to form new experiences from the present? Where is the hope for the future in this? While much has been written about Clive, the most powerful story lies with his wife, Deborah. The two had been married only a year when catastrophe struck. In the midst of her shock and grief, Deborah campaigned relentlessly to get Clive the care he needed. However, after seven years, she reached an impasse. A future with Clive seemed unbearable after years of the same questions, the same confusion, the same anguish. Deborah decided to leave and start a new life in America. She moved to New York, intent on resuming a career in the arts. She even tried new relationships. However, none of it worked. "I wanted to be with someone else and have kids and a regular life. Yet how can you love somebody when you already love somebody? I loved Clive," she wrote later in her book Forever Today. It was only after she returned to England, torn by what felt like the impossibility of life, that she found a future. It came from an unexpected source. "I'd reached the end of my tether, and I rang a friend and I asked her to pray for me," Deborah described years later. "She was the only Christian I knew, and as she was whispering away to God, I just felt this extraordinary power coming into me. And I knew that God was in my room. I just had this incredible sense that I was really, really loved … and that emptiness that I had been trying to fill all those years with relationships, with food, with alcohol, I was filled. " That moment changed everything for Deborah. She discovered peace. Though God did not erase her suffering or Clive's, suddenly their lives were imbued with purpose. In a scene from the 2005 documentary, standing in a London church, Deborah tells Clive about one of the last concerts he performed before the illness stole his memory: "It was so moving that everyone was in tears. That's how good of a musical director you were." At this, Clive is filled with emotion. Though he cannot remember the scene, or even the name of the woman describing it to him, he sensed her compassion. "I'm amazed that you would say that," he said. "I can't think that." "You were marvelous. You still are marvelous," she replied and kissed him on the cheek. Where, in the entire modern arsenal of materialist evolution, self-help, and expressive individualism is love like that to be found? Much less explained. Each of these dominant theories that claim to explain so much only turns the search for love and purpose inward. In the end, as Augustine described, these eternal values become incurvatus in se, destructively turned in on themselves—no help in the face of serious struggle. True love, like what Deborah offers Clive, dignifies the other. It's turned outward. Though he doesn't recall her visits, when asked what he wants to do after Deborah leaves, Clive answers: "A gin and tonic I think, and a cigarette. Waiting for time to elude and disappear. And her arrival."
Aug 11, 2022
According to new research, the link between depression and "chemical imbalances" in the brain could be less settled than previously thought. A leading theory as psychiatrists Mark Horowitz and Joanna Moncrieff write, "Our study shows that this view is not supported by scientific evidence." Related studies show, for example, that when people believe their depression is the result of mere brain chemistry, their self-confidence and ability to change plummet. Ironically, they also tend to feel more stigma , not less. Christians, of course, have nothing to fear from the insights of science. Findings like these matter. It confirms what a Christian worldview confirms: People are not merely their brains, nor are they at mercy of chemical forces. Thinking that everything about us is located in the brain is the inevitable conclusion of materialism, and an idea that has real consequences. Our brains are a big part of what we are, but they aren't all of who we are. A worldview limited only to material components is too small for reality. That's a conclusion that the science is beginning to support.
Aug 11, 2022
Particularly "in the L.G.B.T.Q. community, it's not uncommon to find a substitute family, colloquially known as a chosen family," Dani Blum recently wrote in an article in The New York Times . According to Blum, a "chosen family" refers to the "intense, intimate relationships … people form apart from their biological relatives; it is the kinship you create outside of a traditional family structure." Chosen families are not a new phenomenon, nor are they exclusive to LGBTQ people. But in an age quick to write essential relationships off as "toxic," they are increasingly common and consequential. Relationships were designed by God to be a gift of His common grace. Certain relationships, like the intimacy between a husband and wife or the bond between parents and children are distinct in purpose and unique in function, irreplaceable in their roles as building blocks of society. Friendship, from our deepest commitments to common neighborliness, is to be treasured. All of these relational arrangements are increasingly rare and disordered in a techno-driven culture, captive to utilitarian concern. And it is important to remember that Jesus taught of a tie that binds the redeemed beyond blood relation, secured by His blood. He asked in Matthew's Gospel: "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Then, pointing to his disciples, he answered: "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." The Church then is a family in an even deeper sense of the word. It is the family that is chosen by God. It has the capacity to fill needs keenly felt by those whose home life has been broken, characterized by absence, abuse, or hostility. In fact, family is the only relationship employed in Scripture as an analogy for the Church, both in the sense of Christ's relationship with us and our relationships with one another. The troubling thing about so-called "chosen families," at least in our modern context, is what they are intended to replace. Rather than simply "expanding" the scope of family or letting friends step into a gap, we employ these relationships to shove away and replace our biological families. The harms of this are most evident to children, as decades of studies have shown with stunning clarity . Biological fathers and mothers each contribute things irreplaceable by any other relationship. Even in the case of adoption, the most redemptive of all arrangements, deep emotional wounds often remain that children must process. Adoption is a beautiful choice, made because something has gone wrong. Thus, adoption is among the family relationships employed by Scripture to describe how God loves and redeems us. In its glee over creating "family" out of any assorted collection of people, society has forgotten that the biological family is baked into the world by God's intent. Family is no accident of history, no social construct that can be replaced. It is so woven into the fabric of biology that no society that has rejected it has survived. In fact, "chosen families" are already failing to meet people's basic relational needs. As Joshua Coleman wrote in The Atlantic , "Studies on parental estrangement have grown rapidly in the past decade, perhaps reflecting the increasing number of families who are affected." In one survey of mothers aged 65 to 75, one in 10 reported being estranged from an adult child. Some 62% reported contact less than once a month. Part of the beauty of biological families is that they are not chosen. In essence, they are built around obligation , a duty to the other, not merely as a means of self-fulfillment. By contrast, if we can opt into a group of friends, we can just as easily opt out. There are certainly cases in which family members are abusive, controlling, or in the true sense of an exhausted word, "toxic." Still, the spirit of the age is one that teaches us to prefer the company of those who ask less of us. Will these "chosen" replacements endure the demands of life, illness, and aging? In such an age, the Church's calling to be a family for those who have none matters all the more. Like the family, the Church is no social construct, but a reality baked into the world by the One who created it. He is the same One who included man and woman, husband and wife, mother and father in the design specs of humanity. Any society that tries to write these relational realities out of the story of the world will not fare well.
Aug 10, 2022
In the face of record crime , Starbucks has announced the closure of 16 stores in five cities: Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. The reason, according to CEO Howard Schultz , is these cities have "abdicated their responsibility in fighting crime and addressing mental health," leading retail partners to repeated concerns over "their own personal safety." "Starbucks is a window into America," he continued. "And we are facing things which the stores were not built for." Given Starbucks' outspoken support for progressive candidates who lead these cities, it's easy to think the coffee giant should sleep in the bed it helped to make. As the National Review reports, Starbucks "pledged over $100 million in social-justice grants" over the last few years, and individual stores are hubs for left-wing causes from trans rights to climate change. Basic law enforcement is about the reality of the human condition. When Proverbs says that "whoever sows injustice will reap calamity," it goes for individuals and entire cities. Social justice is trendy, but at the end of the day, pushing hip causes is only possible where there's actual justice.
Aug 10, 2022
This year, the familiar back-to-school windup includes a growing sense of trepidation for many parents. A host of faddish ideologies, and the ham-fisted ways of imposing them, adds to their worries (or at least should). Revised historicism, sex and gender ideologies, even the seemingly harmless Social and Emotional Learning are all expressions of Critical Theory in some form or fashion. Of course, many ideas out of accord with Christian teaching have been taught by schools, but these reject core realities of what it means to be human. Critical Theory in any form, whether established academic theory or mere cultural mood, categorizes people as members of particular groups and either awards or reduces social and moral merit based on those groups. This is something Christians must never do. As philosopher Douglas Groothuis writes in his analysis of the influence of Critical Theory in the U.S., "One's fundamental identity is being made in the Divine Image; it is not found in race or gender or social class." Many parents have begun to see that whenever that primary identity is dismissed, all manner of confusion sets in. Even so, this sort of thinking plays an outsized role in the rules and guidelines of our kids' schools. Recently, a colleague of mine, while enrolling her daughters at a new school, was assured by the principal that the curriculum and policies were "ideologically neutral" with respect to transgenderism. Wisely, my colleague pressed further, and asked a clarifying question. "What would happen if one of my daughter's classmates identified as trans? Would she be compelled to use their preferred pronoun?" The principal replied, "We'd want to make sure we respect the viewpoints of everybody, and so, yes, we'd ask your daughter to use the correct pronouns." "What if she didn't?" my colleague clarified. "In that case," the principal conceded, "it would probably be grounds for a disciplinary conversation." In other words, gender ideology wasn't taught , it was enforced , and in such a way as to assume that the matter was already settled. That's only one of a half dozen or more stories I have heard so far this year. Parents must research schools, both policies and personnel. Unfortunately, some administrators simply don't have a grasp of how they will handle these issues. Even more find their hands tied by laws like Colorado's Gender Identity Expression Anti-Discrimination Act . By asking specific, sometimes uncomfortable questions, parents not only protect their own kids, they provide an opportunity for transparency, maybe even change. That protects everybody's kids from bad ideas that threaten to overtake every element of their lives. A tremendous tool for parents is the Promise to America's Parents , a project of the Alliance Defending Freedom, in partnership with other organizations such as the Family Policy Alliance and the Heritage Foundation. In addition to legal assistance for those facing discrimination based on their religious convictions, this project gives a roadmap and a toolkit for parents when it comes to education and healthcare. For example, did you know that "parents can regularly and proactively request in writing to… review the entirety of their child's education records, including any files involving counseling on gender identity issues"? Also, according to a guide on transgender ideology in schools from the Minnesota Family Council, parents have the right to request the policies for locker and restrooms to know if students identifying as transgender are allowed to use the opposite sex's changing rooms and toilet stalls. In addition, parents can review curriculum before it is delivered by teachers to their students. Explicit rights afforded to parents differ state by state. For example, only 25 states and D.C. require schools to inform parents whenever sexuality is being taught. And, 36 states and D.C. openly allow opt-out options for sexual education. ADF has a sample opt-out letter for parents and other letters to request notification for any issue or ideology with which they are concerned. And, of course, all of these concerns point back to a key premise too often forgotten. Parents are in charge of educating and protecting their children, not the state. More than ever, it is vital that parents take this right seriously. The Promise to America's Parents is one way to do that. In fact, on Friday August 19, I will join ADF, the Heritage Foundation, and others for a Celebration of the Promise to America's Parents. It will be livestreamed and absolutely free. Just visit adflegal.org/celebratethepromise to register. Truth doesn't become falsehood because it's unpopular. The hard thing to do is also the loving thing to do, and both kids and educators need to know the difference.
Aug 9, 2022
According to the BBC , the U.K.'s "only dedicated gender identity clinic" for youth has been ordered to shut down. The reason is not a lack of demand. In fact, referrals for "treatment" are 20 times higher than 10 years ago. Rather, the clinic has received wide criticism from an independent report of their practices. Former patient Kiera Bell, now 25, was prescribed puberty blockers at age 16. She underwent a double mastectomy at age 20. She has now changed her mind about the procedures and says that doctors "should have challenged" her thinking, especially at such a young age. A former consultant psychiatrist to the center agrees: "Some children have got the double problem of living with the wrong treatment, and the original problems weren't addressed—with complex problems like trauma, depression, large instances of autism." While countries like the U.K. are questioning these wrongly named "gender affirmation" treatments, clinics, academics, and the executive branch of the government in the U.S. have only doubled down. We should stop now. The rising tide of those who are expressing regret is quickly becoming an ocean.
Aug 9, 2022
Throughout Church history, church attendance and overall religiosity have been higher among women than among men. That seems to be changing, especially for younger generations. According to new data, the long-existent church gender gap, which shows up in both religious affiliation and church attendance, has now flipped. However, the headline is not that more men are connecting with the Church. The story is that more women are disconnecting from the Church. A number of factors have contributed to this demographic shift, not least of which are recent scandals of sexual impropriety and abusive leadership among prominent pastors and Christian leaders. Also, education and ethnicity seem to play a significant role in the religious identification of millennial women. "Among white respondents," a recent Christianity Today article summarized, "women are 9 percentage points more likely to say that they have no religious affiliation compared to white men," but "there's no real difference in the share of male and female nones among Black, Asian, and other racial groups." Another factor, Dr. Abigail Favale argues in a new book The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory , is the rising influence of feminist thought, what she calls "the gender paradigm" in evangelical circles. Or as a colleague recently put it, describing the deconstruction process of a few of her friends, "It's all about 'resisting the patriarchy." That kind of language points to the paradigm which Dr. Favale once herself subscribed. She now believes it to be incompatible with a Christian understanding of male and female, sex, and gender. Even so, the feminist paradigm has quite successfully framed Christianity and the Church as misogynist, patriarchal, and harmful for women. The same paradigm idealistically reframes pagan religions and cultures as being pro-woman, at least until Christianity gained prominence. This narrative, however, doesn't match the historical realities. First, in contrast to ancient paganism, monotheism provided women with more freedom than polytheistic religions with goddesses did. In cultures dominated by the latter, women were limited to roles performed by the goddesses, and not always all of them. In fact, the "role" designated for many women by pagan religion was temple prostitute, a tool of men's worship. In ancient Rome, women were permitted to engage in business, but their primary role was in the household. Men had public roles, but women engaged in domestic work were subservient to their father or husband. As in other historical periods, elite women had more options. However, the vast majority of women were seen as not much better than slaves. Twelve was the legal age for girls to marry in Rome. If not married by 20, women were generally marginalized. Though divorce was available to both men and women, husbands caused most divorces since women rarely had other financial means. Ex-wives and widows were often left destitute. In contrast, Christianity saw women as the spiritual and moral equal of men. Women and men shared the same created dignity, the same problem (sin), and the same solution, Jesus. As result, women in the Christian community had a higher status and more freedom than women in the broader Roman world. The Christian rejection of divorce and sexual double standards, and its insistence on strict monogamy reflected this. Further, women were given more choice about whom and whether to marry and tended to marry later than their Roman counterparts. While widows were encouraged to remarry, the Church provided aid for those who did not or could not . The Church also rejected abortion and infanticide as murder, meaning that women were not subjected to dangerous surgical procedures, and girls were not "discarded." Thus, there were proportionately more women in the Christian community than in Roman society as a whole. Because of Christian attitudes and behavior toward women, more women converted to Christianity than men, and many men who converted did so under the influence of their wives. Eventually, Christianity transformed the status of women in the Roman world. Unfortunately, as Greek ideas were adopted within the Church, elements of pagan misogyny were as well. For example, some Church fathers placed blame for the Fall entirely on Eve and ignored the Apostle Paul's putting the blame on Adam. Nonetheless, Christianity did more to improve the status of women than any other historical force. Even today, as the Gospel spreads around the Global South, the status and freedoms enjoyed by women are being raised. The treatment of women is just one example of how the Church has been an essential force for good in the world. There are others, even in an age that often labels the Church "non-essential." Don't buy it. This month, for a gift of any amount, the Colson Center's theologian-in-residence, Dr. Timothy Padgett is hosting a course entitled "The Essential Church." Be equipped theologically, biblically, socially, and culturally in the critical role of the Church, both in the past and today. Go to colsoncenter.org/August to sign up.
Aug 8, 2022
Recently, two separate crisis pregnancy centers in Worcester, Massachusetts, were vandalized on the same night. Next to broken glass and spilled paint were the words "Jane's Revenge," the name of a group behind a number of similar attacks in recent months. Earlier that same week, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey warned the public of a group using "deceptive and coercive tactics," but she wasn't referring to the pro-abortion extremists threatening violence. She was warning of the crisis pregnancy centers themselves. Though her office has since condemned the violence , the bulk of its attention is still in all the wrong places: not the vandals, but the clinics offering help to women in crisis. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote that "violence cannot conceal itself behind anything except lies, and lies have nothing to maintain them save violence." In this case, the attorney general's lie about pregnancy resource centers covers up the violence of abortion… and those using violence are allowing the attorney general to maintain the lie. Let's pray that, by some miracle, Attorney General Healey focuses her office's attention where it needs to be.
Aug 8, 2022
Back in May, 20 Nigerian Christians were brutally martyred by the Islamic militant group ISIS. In June, 40 more Christians died in Owo, Nigeria, in a terrorist attack against a church. Though it is not clear who is responsible for that attack, what is clear is that Christians continue to be severely persecuted in this West African nation. The persecution, which has been ongoing for years, is part of a long history of conflict with Islam. In 1953, Christians made up only 21.4% of the population in Nigeria. Today, about half of the country's population, about 96 million people , are Christians. To put that number in perspective, Germany, the largest country in Europe, has a total population of less than 84 million . Much of the Christian growth in Nigeria has resulted from education efforts by Western missionaries, though the country has long had a Christian presence. Nigeria's Christians live primarily in the southern, farming part of the country. They are mostly under attack by Islamists and the Muslim Fulani, who live mostly in the northern herding areas. They also face the threat of Boko Haram, a ruthless Islamist terrorist organization whose name literally means Western learning ( boko ) is prohibited ( haram ). Boko Haram was founded in 2002 to overthrow Nigeria's government and impose strict sharia on the country. The group was relatively quiet until 2009, after which conflicts with police escalated. By December 2010, Boko Haram began a campaign of suicide bombings and attacks on churches and government buildings. In 2014, they began to attack schools. In one attack, 59 school boys were burned alive or shot. In another, 276 school girls were kidnapped . In both cases, the victims were Christians. Boko Haram has also conducted massacres in mosques that do not support their radical ideology. Also in 2014, Boko Haram pledged loyalty to ISIL. That loyalty ended in 2016, when ISIL ordered Boko Haram to stop attacking Muslims. Currently, there are three Islamist terrorist groups that originated with Boko Haram: Boko Haram proper, the Islamic State West African Province, and Ansaru , an al-Qaeda affiliate. All are engaged in terrorism, not only in Nigeria but also in surrounding countries, with much of it aimed at Christians. As dangerous as these explicitly Islamist groups are, the Fulani herdsmen are worse. Because the Fulani territory in north Nigeria is suffering from a long-term drought, the Fulani are moving south to access water. In the process, the herdsmen have been raiding and burning villages, slaughtering villagers, destroying crops, and engaging in a host of other atrocities in order to take the land for themselves and drive out Christians. President Muhammadu Buhari is a Fulani. Though he has attempted to address some of the economic issues that drive Fulani militancy, he has denied that religion plays any role in the conflict. He points out, for example, that Muslim villages have also been raided. Still, the vast majority of attacks have come against Christians, and the Fulani's history of Islamic militancy dates back to the late 17th century. Though contemporary Fulani militancy reveals a struggle between nomadic herders and farmers going on for millennia, denying the religious dimensions of these attacks is pure propaganda. Christian villages are deliberately targeted, Christian houses and churches are burned, and Christians driven off or slaughtered. Although up-to-date numbers are hard to come by, between the Fulani and Boko Haram and its offshoots an average of 13 Christians per day were killed in Nigeria last year. That's 372 per month or over 4,450 alone . In the last 12 years, 43,000 Christians have been killed by Islamic radicals in Nigeria. And these numbers do not include those injured, beaten, or driven from their homes. What has happened to Nigerian Christians meets the established international standards for genocide. Christians must not forget the spiritual aspects at the root of this conflict. God is moving and the Church is expanding across Africa. In 1900, there were just 9.64 million Christians on the continent; today there are over 692 million . It is not surprising to see Satan counterattacking by inspiring persecution. For our Nigerian brothers and sisters, we can fight on two fronts. First, we must continue to lobby our government on behalf of suffering Christians, asking our officials to put pressure on Nigeria to take more decisive action against Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen. Second, we must lobby Heaven, for both our persecuted brothers and sisters and their persecutors, praying that God's kingdom would advance and win even the jihadis to Jesus.
Aug 6, 2022
John and Shane, standing in for Maria, examine the Biden's administration executive order that Medicaid patients can travel across state lines for abortion. They also explain how the killing of an Al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan reminds us of not just the danger of extremist Islam in other nations such as Nigeria but also the threat of secularist states toward religious freedom. Musing on two recent commentaries, they discuss the cracks in Neo-Darwinism and the Gnostic basis of the topic of cannibalism in popular media.
Aug 5, 2022
Recently, p olice in Hampshire, England, arrested a man for an unusual crime. Not vandalism, theft, or murder but, according to the arresting officer because "someone has been caused anxiety based on your social media post." Setting aside the dubious and dangerous logic of involving the state in social media spats, appealing to emotion as a matter of justice is astonishing. So, I no longer have to prove wrong has been done, only that I feel a wrong has been done? All that's left once a culture has rejected the idea of right and wrong is to grope for some moral foundation in nebulous ideas like "anxiety" and "offense." Everyone's inner voice becomes an unassailable authority, and the loudest outer voice must win. Common sense tells us that this is a disaster in the making, but without the common sense that there is common truth, there won't be common justice.
Aug 5, 2022
As America adjusts to the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade , including by enacting more laws in some states to protect unborn children, a higher number of women will likely bring their babies safely to birth. This is good news, including for those in unexpected and crisis pregnancies. Not only will more at-risk babies be saved, more women will be spared the violence and false promises of abortion. This will also mean that the efforts of pregnancy centers, adoption services, foster agencies, and other providers who generally care for struggling families must continue. In fact, by the grace of God, their work must increase. I have nothing but confidence that the Church is up to this task. And yet, as a pro-life leader recently put it, these could be the hardest days for the pro-life movement to date. The oft-repeated charge that Christians must "redouble our efforts" to care for women in crisis pregnancies in the wake of the Dobbs decision presumes that women who feel unprepared, ill-equipped, scared, and abandoned to deal with crisis pregnancies on their own is a given part of life in America in 2022. That should not be a given. It should be unacceptable to us . In other words, the emergency before us isn't only that women are facing crisis pregnancies, and often facing them alone, but our culture's warped views of sex, marriage, children, and commitment. These bad ideas have set the stage for a world brimming with crisis pregnancies in the first place. This is another subtle way legalized abortion has poisoned our cultural imagination. As Ryan Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis demonstrate in their profound new book, Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing , legalizing abortion—which then normalized and destigmatized abortion culturally —rewired American thought so deeply that we don't even realize anymore when we're accepting demands that we could—and should—refuse. Our work is not just to make abortion unthinkable. It is to make abandoning pregnant women unthinkable, to make derelict dads unthinkable, to make the fable of "sex without commitment" unthinkable. It is to re-catechize the world, and ourselves, about the true, un-severable relationship between sex, marriage, and babies. Legalized abortion has blinded us to that core truth. In her book Rethinking Sex , Washington Post columnist Christine Emba describes how legalized abortion and even normalized contraception were sold to women as indispensable tools of their liberation. In fact, they made possible the widespread cultural acceptance of a lie: that sex and babies have nothing to do with one another . "As contraception has become more mainstream and the risks of sex more diffuse," Emba writes, "saying no can feel like less of an option for women: after all, what's your excuse?" In other words, once abortion was legally on the table, it gave us leave to deconstruct sex to nothing more than a play for individual pleasure. That fundamental lie changed our worldview and thus our behavior . However, rather than "liberate" women, it put more pressure on women to have sex without commitment and less pressure on men to commit. It allowed us to view and treat any children who result from our sexual activity as unexpected and unwanted consequences, rather than human beings with rightful claims on our protection and commitments. To be clear, none of this was ever true. We never actually separated sex from babies. We never changed the fact that kids and mothers need committed dads and husbands in order to thrive. Lies never have the power to change God's design. They only teach us to pretend we can change reality. Crisis pregnancies and chronic absentee fatherhood are the fruit of these fictions, and women and children pay the price for these cultural fantasies. This is the house abortion built. It led us to see children as things —even burdens—instead of as image bearers. It put pressure on us that we were never meant to bear by pretending family building is fully in our own hands, not God's. Legalized abortion normalized promiscuity, promoted fatherlessness, and secured a view of children so bereft of humanity that we won't even call them children anymore. We employ euphemisms like "fetus" or "tissue," but euphemisms don't change reality, or the hard consequences of ignoring it. Yes, Christians must continue and even re-double our "pro-life" efforts inside crisis pregnancy centers. And we must continue and re- triple our pro-life efforts outside as well, advocating for healthy sexuality, biblical marriage, and a Christian vision of moms, dads, and children. This is how we finally suck the venom of legalized abortion out of our cultural imagination.
Aug 4, 2022
Last week, more than 80 organizations—including the Colson Center, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Focus on the Family—sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The purpose was "to denounce . . . the so-called 'Respect for Marriage Act, 'in the strongest possible terms." The letter outlined three problems with this legislation. First, the act would require recognition of any state definition of marriage, making possible options such as polygamous or open marriages. This would sacrifice the well-being of children for adult happiness. Second, the act sets up religious organizations and businesses to be sued for upholding that marriage is between a man and a woman. So, religious foster agencies, social service organizations, and other organizations and businesses contracted with the government could expect to be targeted. Third, this legislation could threaten the tax-exempt status of non-profits that believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. The so-called "Respect for Marriage Act" would establish and expand the wrongly decided Obergefell ruling. If you care about religious liberty and children, please contact your senator today. Resources: Call Your Senators About the Respect for Marriage Act>> Possible Script to Say to Senator's Office About Marriage Act>> Letter From Coalition to Senate Minority Leader>>
Aug 4, 2022
One of the iron laws of popcorn cinema, especially to score the coveted (but ever-more elusive) summer blockbuster status is that there must be sufficient shock value. And one of the iron laws of shock value is that it must always increase. Each new film must outdo the last one. Take the Jurassic Park series. In the first movie back in 1993, a mere five people were eaten by dinosaurs, all of whom were confined to a tiny island. Fast-forward a few inferior sequels, and a score or more people are gobbled by a host of mutant CGI dinos prowling the entire planet along with giant killer grasshoppers. The lesson is clear: Audiences had already been shocked by dinosaurs coming back to life, and they wanted more. The old thrill would no longer do. The more this iron law holds across pop culture, the more desensitized we become. Enter another rising entertainment genre more gruesome than dinosaurs eating people. People eating people. Writing recently in The New York Times , Alex Beggs documented a growing fascination with cannibalism. In the article, Beggs offered a long list of movies, TV shows, and novels in which characters eating one another is a central plot device. The novel A Certain Hunger is "about a restaurant critic with a taste for (male) human flesh." The Showtime series Yellowjackets is "about a high school women's soccer team stranded in the woods for a few months too many." A new show on Hulu called Fresh is about "an underground human meat trade." Raw is a film about "a vegetarian veterinary student whose taste for meat escalates," and Bones and All is a movie about "a young love that becomes a lust for human consumption." "Turns out," wrote Beggs, "cannibalism has a time and a place," and "that time is now." What on earth is fueling a sudden fixation with perhaps the oldest and most unsettling of taboos? The writer of one show told the Times : "I feel like the unthinkable has become the thinkable, and cannibalism is very much squarely in the category of the unthinkable." Another seemed to find the concept potentially appetizing, asking, "what portion of our revulsion to these things is a fear of the ecstasy of them?" When I first saw the headline for this New York Times story appear in my newsfeed, I thought it was a prank. Apparently, all of these books, movies, and TV shows about cannibalism point to a very real partially popular trend. Why? Perhaps, in a culture that has made virtues of deconstructing all moral boundaries and celebrating all desires, it is increasingly difficult to shock anyone. Shock value, after all, depends on some sense of what is right and wrong, and even more, what is normal . With sexual and gender identities multiplying daily and more and more people treating the human body as moldable clay without any underlying design or purpose, is it any wonder some are reimagining it as food? And why shouldn't they, if human beings are only, as Christian author Glen Scrivener puts it, "mischievous apes?" Chimpanzees routinely kill and eat one another. If we are only advanced animals, it's difficult to imagine why we humans should have a strong aversion to dining on each other, too. If our bodies are in no way sacred or made for a higher purpose, then not just every sexual appetite, but every appetite must be permissible. To be clear, I am not suggesting that we are on the cusp of a cannibal rights movement. I certainly hope we are not. The social aversion is extremely strong, as it should be, and has only been broken in a few times and places throughout history. Still, the current flirtations with people-eating in entertainment is a tell-tale sign of a culture that is losing all good aversions. Like those sub-par Jurassic Park sequels resorting to ever hungrier and bigger dinosaurs, our movies and stories reveal a lost creativity, leaving a culture that must constantly push boundaries. In particular, our gnostic age tends to push the boundaries of how characters think of and use their bodies, and the bodies of others. When it comes to sex, titles like Fifty Shades of Grey and Cuties have already put sadomasochism and the sexual exploitation of children on the menu. In such a culture, a side dish of cannibalism isn't surprising. Those who find a worldview in which bodies have no purpose or boundaries a bit nauseating should wonder why . Christians can tell them, and offer the alternative: a worldview in which bodies are sacred, not only because they are part of what it means to be created in God's image, but because God, Himself assumed a body and gave it for us. Interestingly, Christianity's early critics alleged that the Lord's Supper was a form of cannibalism. In fact, it was and is the ultimate reason that the human body is worthy of respect and honor, in the bedroom, at the movies, and even at the table.
Aug 3, 2022
Philosopher Blaise Pascal was best known for his so-called "wager" that believing in God is the smartest decision, even if you're not sure God exists. What many don't know is that Pascal was a pioneer in the psychology of persuasion . Heated disagreements are common in social media, writes Olivia Goldhill at Quartz . But Pascal suggested centuries ago that if you want to convince someone of your position, you don't begin by telling them they're wrong. You understand where they're coming from, admit ways they're right, but suggest they maybe haven't seen the whole picture. "No one is offended at not seeing everything,' wrote Pascal. "But [they don't] like to be mistaken." Another tip? Lead people to the answer, but let them discover it on their own. "People are generally better persuaded by reasons they have themselves discovered than by those from the minds of others." These are great tips, especially for Christians, who are entrusted with the most important truths there are, and who are to speak those truths in love.
Aug 3, 2022
In 1973, evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote that "nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution." Almost 50 years later, an increasing number of scientists are asking whether evolution makes any sense in light of what we now know from biology. A recent long-form essay in The Guardian signals just how urgent the problem has become for the most dominant theory in the history of the sciences. In it, author Stephen Buranyi, gives voice to a growing number of scientists who think it's time for a "new theory of evolution." For a long time, descent with slight modifications and natural selection have been "the basic" (and I'd add, unchallengeable) "story of evolution." Organisms change, and those that survive pass on traits. Though massaged a bit to incorporate the discovery of DNA, the theory of evolution by natural selection has dominated for 150 years, especially in biology. The "drive to survive" is credited as the creative force behind all the artistry and engineering we see in nature. "The problem," writes Buranyi, is that "according to a growing number of scientists," this basic story is "absurdly crude and misleading." For one thing, Darwinian evolution assumes much of what it needs to explain. For instance, consider the origin of light-sensitive cells that rearranged to become the first eye, or the blood vessels that became the first placenta. How did these things originate? According to one University of Indiana biologist, "we still do not have a good answer. The classic idea of gradual change, one happy accident at a time," he says, "has so far fallen flat." This scientific doubt about Darwin has been simmering for a while. In 2014, an article in the journal Nature , jointly authored by eight scientists from diverse fields, argued that evolutionary theory was in need of a serious rethink. They called their proposed rethink the "Extended Evolutionary Synthesis," and a year later, the Royal Society in London held a conference to discuss it. Along with Darwinian blind spots like the origin of the eye, the Extended Synthesis seeks to deal with the discovery of epigenetics, an emerging field that studies the inherited traits not mediated by DNA. Then there are the rapid mutations that evade natural selection, a fossil record that appears to move in "short concentrated bursts" ( or "explosions" ), and something called "plasticity," which is the ability we now know living things have to adapt physically to their environments in a single generation without genetically evolving. All of these discoveries—some recent, others long ignored by mainstream biology—challenge natural selection as the "grand theory" of life. All of them hint that living things are greater marvels and mysteries than we ever imagined. And, unsurprisingly, all of these discoveries have been controversial. The Guardian article described how Royal Society scientists and Nobel laureates alike boycotted the conference, attacking the extended synthesis as "irritating" and "disgraceful," and its proponents as "revolutionaries." As Gerd Müller, head of the department of theoretical biology at the University of Vienna helpfully explained, "Parts of the modern synthesis are deeply ingrained in the whole scientific community, in funding networks, positions, professorships. It's a whole industry." Such resistance isn't too surprising for anyone who's been paying attention. Any challenges to the established theory of life's origins, whether from Bible-believing scientists or intelligent design theorists, have long been dismissed as religion in a lab coat. The habit of fixing upon a dogma and calling it "settled science" is just bad science that stunts our understanding of the world. It is a kind of idolatry that places "science" in the seat of God, appoints certain scientists as priests capable of giving answers no fallible human can offer, and feigns certainty where real questions remain. The great irony is that this image of scientist-as-infallible-priest makes them seem like the caricature of medieval monks charging their hero Galileo with heresy for his dissent from the consensus. As challenges to Darwin mount, we should be able to articulate why "settled science" makes such a poor god. And we should encourage the science and the scientists challenging this old theory-turned-dogma, and holding it to its own standards. After all, if Darwinian evolution is as unfit as it now seems, it shouldn't survive.
Aug 2, 2022
In a recent article at The Gospel Coalition , writer Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra tells the story of a Christian family with a teen who once identified as transgender. "I started to associate womanhood with being sexualized," says Grace, now age 16. Peers, teachers, counselors, and—above all—social media circles guided Grace towards a strong case of rapid onset gender dysphoria. She stopped wearing feminine clothing and asked her parents to refer to her as "they/them." This is the moment that many parents fear. These parents prayed hard, stayed true, and remembered the long game. "They built their relationships with her," writes Zylstra. "They drew boundaries around how she could express herself. They took her to counseling and to church." Eventually, Grace began to feel comfortable as a girl again. In a culture where nearly 1 in 5 of Gen Z calls themselves "LGBT," the story of Grace and her family is worth reading. At a time when so many are tempted to despair, it does not offer a quick fix. But it does offer truth, love, and hope.
Aug 2, 2022
In early March 2021, the U.S. Senate's Caucus on International Narcotics Control released a report on the increasing potency of marijuana products available on the market. At the time, America was just a year into the pandemic and related lockdowns, so marijuana policy was not front and center on everyone's mind. It should have been. In fact, the findings contained in the report can be described as shocking. A more creative, but just as accurate, title for this 58-page report would be "This Isn't Your Grandpa's Weed." Included in the findings, the THC levels in marijuana products are soaring. THC is the psychoactive chemical that gives pot users a high, and reportedly provides relief from pain and nausea. In recent years, high-potency products have become more common. In 1990, the average concentration of THC in a marijuana plant was 4%. By 2012, it had tripled to 12%. Today, some products on the market have THC levels as high as 90%. These increasing levels come even though a 2020 NIH study found that pain relief benefits of marijuana require THC levels no higher than 5% and that marijuana with higher THC levels might even be less effective in fighting pain. Setting aside the consistent political reality that legalizing medical marijuana is always intended to lead to the legalizing of recreational marijuana—even if legitimate pain patients need medical marijuana, they do not need THC levels of 90%. And yet, marijuana policies are clearly headed in a direction that does not align with what we now know. Most U.S. states allow marijuana use in some capacity. The only two states in the country with a cap on THC levels and high-potency products are Vermont and California, where the cap is 60%. Right now, Ohio's legislature is considering a bill to cap THC levels at 90%. At that level, what is the point? While the political posturing continues, a dystopian reality born of the marijuana revolution is unfolding outside statehouses. Doctors and emergency rooms across the country have sounded the alarm on the spike in psychosis , suicidal ideation, actual suicide , schizophrenia, and addiction-like behavior they have seen among young people using high-potency marijuana. In June, The New York Times reported the story of a teenage girl who could not stop fainting and throwing up after becoming functionally addicted to vaping high-potency pot. A doctor at the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children's hospital has reported an explosion in the number of young cannabis users experiencing "hallucinations and trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality." And increased marijuana use also poses secondary dangers such as more deadly traffic accidents , more poisonings of young people who mistake edibles for candy, and a worsening opioid crisis , which many doctors believe is directly correlated with marijuana legalization. Lawmakers in Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational marijuana 10 years ago, are now trying to apply brakes to this runaway train. Last year, the state legislature passed a bill mandating that coroners test THC levels when someone under 25 suffers a "non-natural death." According to one state senator, "Since legalization in Colorado, the regulatory framework has failed to keep up with the evolution of the new products…. The industry has changed, and we need to catch up with those changes." Unfortunately, "catching up with changes" is not generally a "strength" of government. The Church, however, can play a redemptive role. American Christians have a responsibility to advocate for policies that benefit our neighbors' welfare and against policies that hurt them. Marijuana should be no different. The 30-billion dollar marijuana industry has been incredibly deft in crafting messaging that makes anyone opposed to legalizing weed seem "uncool" or "behind the times." So, it is essential to understand that today's weed is far ahead of the times. We are far removed from the Cheech and Chong days. This stuff is dangerous, particularly for young people. Christians should be highly motivated to not let this cat out of the bag wherever it has not yet been loosed and to minister to people where it has, including in addiction recovery centers and other healthcare settings. Christians have a legacy of running into the plague when everyone else is running away. Marijuana legalization has reached plague status. It is time to head in.
Aug 1, 2022
Earlier in July, an Ohio Democratic state senator thought she was taking a courageous stand against the Supreme Court's overruling of Roe v. Wade. She introduced a bill that would allow pregnant women to file civil lawsuits against the men who got them pregnant. Those men could then be on the hook for up to $5,000 in damages . The senator, an outspoken abortion supporter, said she wrote the bill to counteract Ohio's "draconian" abortion restrictions. However, instead of making a statement for abortion, the bill is more of a solution for abortion and an endorsement of marriage. After all, the idea that men should take responsibility for the babies they make isn't revolutionary... or at least it shouldn't be. In a Christian vision, sex and babies go together and shouldn't be separated. So, God established a way to hold them together: Cultures around the world call this arrangement "marriage." In fact, $5,000 is a pretty sad settlement. It won't pay for a baby, much less a wedding budget. But hey, if lawmakers want to dis-incentivize men abandoning their children, I'm all for it.
Aug 1, 2022
It is not normal or healthy for a culture to talk about sex this much . From Pride month to education to companies telegraphing their commitments to inclusion and diversity, to just about every commercial, movie, or TV show produced today, sexual identity is treated as if it is central to human identity, human purpose, and human happiness. And this vision of life and the world is especially force-fed to children, who are essentially subjects of our social experimentations. If the energy spent talking about sex is disproportionate, it's important to know there were some who saw this coming. The best example is Oxford sociologist J.D. Unwin . In 1939, Unwin published a landmark book summarizing his research. Sex and Culture was a look at 80 tribes and six historical civilizations over the course of five millennia, through the lens of a single question: Does a culture's ideas of sexual liberation predict its success or collapse? Unwin's findings were overwhelming : Just as societies have advanced [and] then faded away into a state of general decrepitude, so in each of them has marriage first previously changed from a temporary affair based on mutual consent to a lifelong association of one man with one woman, and then turned back to a loose union or to polygamy. What's more, Unwin concluded, The whole of human history does not contain a single instance of a group becoming civilized unless it has been absolutely monogamous, nor is there any example of a group retaining its culture after it has adopted less rigorous customs. Unwin saw a pattern behind societies that unraveled. If three consecutive generations abandoned sexual restraint built around the protections of marriage and fidelity, they collapsed. Simply put, sexuality is essential for survival. However, sexuality is such a powerful force, it must be controlled or else it can destroy a future rather than secure it. Wrongly ordered sexuality is devastating for both individuals and entire societies. Unwin's conclusions can be boiled down to a single issue. Are people living for the future, with the ability to delay gratification, or are they focusing only on the here and now? When a culture fails to restrain its sexual instincts, people think less about securing the future and instead compromise the stability, productivity, and the well-being of the next generation in the pursuit of sexual pleasure. Unwin claims that he had no moral or ideological axe to grind in this research. "I make no opinion about rightness or wrongness," he wrote . But his work is nevertheless profound, as are his conclusions, which we seem to be living out in real time. According to Pew Research , almost 90% of children lived with two married parents in 1960. By 2008 that number had dropped to just 64%. Over the same period, the percentage of kids born to unmarried women rose from 5% to 41%. There is really no question of how this impacts children. Studies show that teens from single-parent or blended families are 300% more likely to need psychological assistance, twice as likely to drop out of high school, and more likely to commit suicide. They end up with less college education and lower-paying jobs than their parents and are more likely to get divorced themselves. This is not because children from non-traditional homes have less potential or less value. Nor do stable two-parent families guarantee outcomes for children. Statistics do not determine the future of an individual, but they can identify the future of a society. On a civilizational level, the future is a matter of math. The early days of the sexual revolution reframed the morality of sexual behavior, but today it's gone further, undermining the already fragile identity in the rising generation, fraying it in the various directions of the ever-growing acronym of sexual identities. Anywhere from 1 in 5 to nearly 40% of young people identify as LGBTQ today. Or, in the case of one junior high class in the Northeast I heard of recently, "all of them do." Christian faithfulness in this cultural moment must involve the protection of children and a commitment to the future of society. At the very least, that means speaking up, especially when it is unpopular to do so. Along the way, we will have to reject the "inevitability thesis," the notion that all is lost and that things will only get worse so nothing we do matters. With courage and unconditional love for our neighbor, we continue to speak the truth. And we will need to remind ourselves and each other of something that should be obvious but is not: The ideas and behavior of the late sexual revolution are not normal. Nor is our fascination and focus on sexuality as the central defining factor in human existence and value. Human sexuality is not some arbitrary construct like a speed limit. It is as much a part of the fabric of life as gravity. We may deny that, but we will not avoid the pain of hitting the ground if we do.
Jul 30, 2022
John and Maria share about a coalition of organizations that sent a letter to the Senate Minority Leader with concerns about the so-called "Respect for Marriage Act." Afterward, they discuss whether government and businesses should provide subsidies for birth and childcare. They finish with the harm in our society's quest for infinite options.
Jul 29, 2022
Some abortion proponents claim that by overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court elevated evangelical and Catholic morality, and violated what's known as the establishment clause found in the First Amendment. The establishment clause, however, was never meant to exclude citizens from voting their consciences or seeking their vision of the common good. It was never intended to keep morality out of our lawmaking. In fact, every law reflects some moral vision, whether or not the vision is labeled secular or religious. Are our laws against murder and theft somehow unconstitutional because they echo the morality of the Bible? Think of all the other laws that violate the establishment clause if these critics are right: the abolition of slavery, criminal justice reform, workers' rights, etc. Even the bankruptcy code is rooted in a uniquely biblical understanding about the rights of debtors, economic justice, and redemption. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the rights to life and liberty are "endowed by [our] Creator." Should we set aside the entire American project because the Declaration of Independence violates the establishment clause? No, because without it, there wouldn't be an establishment clause.
Jul 29, 2022
So many of the cultural debates that rage around us and captivate our attentions result from dueling definitions of truth. All ideas have consequences, especially our ideas about truth. It matters greatly whether truth even exists, whether truth can be known, and how we should think about those who reject truth. Fifty years ago, in his landmark discussion of the flow of Western history , Francis Schaeffer offered what he called "a simple but profound rule" about truth: "If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute." Even a brief look at the half century since he wrote reveals how right he was. Because of the loss of belief in the existence of truth, our cultural conversations become more fractured and disconnected, our willingness to hear one another out seems to diminish by the day, and corporate , political , and other cultural activist s readily work to impose their views on everyone else. And, who's to say that they're wrong if nothing is truly right? Like Schaeffer, Chuck Colson would often appeal to the idea of " true truth ," the idea that truth exists independently of people and our clashing opinions. At least in theory, this provided a means to check who is right and who is wrong. Having abandoned the idea of the reality of truth and our ability to know it, we didn't find the sort of freedom and tolerance promised. Instead, we gained chaos, conflict, and coercion. "Truth" belongs to those with the social power to decide. In recent years, many Christians have either abandoned or deprioritized the notion of truth, elevating personal experience over what God has revealed about Himself and His world. Years ago, Chuck Colson warned in his book The Faith that Christians must not give up on the idea of truth nor downplay its importance, even in an attempt to gain a wider hearing. Christianity matters precisely because it is true. If it isn't true, it doesn't matter. Here's Chuck: Why does truth matter so much? Because the Church simply can't be the Church without being on the side of truth. Jesus came as the champion of the truth and of those on the side of the truth. Without understanding this, the Church cannot even present the Gospel. Without truth, it resorts to therapy and has patients, not disciples. Much of Christianity's retreat from the truth or tempering of our witness in the West has been motivated by good intentions—not to offend or be judgmental, the desire to feel more personally connected to God and to make Christianity more relevant and culturally acceptable. The history of Christianity, including the faith's surge in the Third World today, shows the reverse to be the case. While we always want to be sensitive to other cultures, we cannot be co-opted by them. The early Christians who treated plague victims certainly weren't embracing the pagan culture. Nor were they trying to make Christianity more relevant and win over the hearts of an empire; they were simply carrying out the truth of their faith—that every person is made in the image of God and therefore possesses dignity. The task of this generation—as it will be in every generation—is to understand Christianity as a complete view of the world and humankind's place in it, that is, as the truth. If Christianity is not the truth, it is nothing, and our faith mere sentimentality . Next Thursday, the Colson Center is hosting a conversation on truth with Lee Strobel, author of the classic The Case for Christ and Brett Kunkle, founder of president of MAVEN , an organization committed to communicating truth to the next generation. This conversation is the focus of the third annual Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview to be held on August 4, at the beautiful Great Lakes Center for the Arts in Bay Harbor, Michigan. During the event, I will be pressing that truth matters, Brett will discuss how we can regain confidence in the idea of truth in this skeptical age, and Lee Strobel will be presenting the case for truth. Attendance in-person or online is completely free. In-person seating is almost full, but there is still availability for the livestreamed event. You must sign up to receive access, but thanks to the generosity of local donors, this symposium is being offered entirely free of charge. In a world where many people deny the existence of truth, learning how to clearly and confidently live out our Christian faith requires that we equip ourselves with a firm grasp of the trustworthiness of the Gospel. Again, please join us online as we work together for a more truthful world.
Jul 28, 2022
Today marks the death of Johann Sebastian Bach (1665-1750), an ardent student of music and diligent student of theology. Raised in a family of north German musicians, he lost both his parents by age 10. He sang in a boys' choir and played the violin early on, and later moved to the organ where he quickly was recognized for his unique talents. And of course, today he's known for his compositions, where his deep knowledge of theology is so evident. Although music historians may point out the variety of musical influence—northern and southern German, French, and Italian music, Christians have long marveled at the theological richness found in the cantatas Bach wrote for churches in Leipzig. As director of church music, he designed each one to echo the Gospel reading in both language and emotional effect. Over time, it earned him the title of the "Fifth Evangelist." Like Bach, let's be sure that in all the works of our hands and especially in our creative acts to draw from a deep and growing knowledge of God.
Jul 28, 2022
The most common response from pro-abortion advocates since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court is misinformation. One of the most common pieces of misinformation that's been floated by media outlets, politicians, and cultural commentators alike is that certain pro-life laws triggered by the Dobbs decision place the lives of pregnant women at risk, especially those facing an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage. These pro-life laws are not clear, the argument goes, so doctors could face legal reprisals for offering the life-saving treatments that women with at-risk pregnancies need. In some versions of this scenario, hospitals and doctors are frozen with fear and confusion, unsure of what they can and cannot do. However, as Alexandra DeSanctis wrote recently at National Review, "This is simply not the case." What her article offers is exactly what pro-lifers need to answer this pro-abortion talking point, and exactly what the title promises: "How Every State Pro-Life Law Handles Ectopic Pregnancy and Miscarriage." Here's the summary of what DeSanctis' deep dive into state law revealed: Abortion supporters have argued that state abortion limits aren't clear about whether these types of health care are permitted—and they have argued that, as a result of this supposed lack of clarity, doctors have declined to perform necessary and potentially life-saving procedures out of fear of reprisal from officials enforcing state pro-life laws. This is simply not the case. If doctors are doing so—and abortion supporters have offered little evidence of a systemic problem in this regard—it is the fault of the doctors themselves, not the fault of the pro-life laws, which are eminently clear. The pro-life worldview has always held that both lives matter, that of the mother and that of her unborn child. It is always permissible to act to care for a pregnant mother whose life is at risk. Neither miscarriage care nor treatment for ectopic pregnancy has anything to do with an induced-abortion procedure, which intentionally kills an unborn child. Every successful elective abortion has a single aim: to end the life of the child growing in his or her mother's womb. What's more, medical professionals acknowledge that induced abortion is never medically necessary to treat a pregnant mother; modern medicine can treat the mother without intentionally killing the child. For instance, miscarriage care treats a woman whose unborn child has already died, and ectopic-pregnancy treatment removes an unborn child who cannot develop or survive, in order to save the life of the mother. Neither of these types of health care bears any resemblance to directly and intentionally killing the child. The only people confused about this—or pretending to be confused—are supporters of abortion on demand. And their aim is clear: to cause confusion for the sake of undermining pro-life laws. To put a fine point on the issue: Until just last week, even the website of Planned Parenthood explicitly stated that ectopic-pregnancy treatment is not an abortion. But then the abortion business erased that clarifying information in an effort to perpetuate the tide of misinformation, intentionally blurring the lines between actual health care aimed at saving a mother's life and abortion procedures, which intend to cause the death of an unborn child. DeSanctis then provides a summary and a quote of the relevant portion of the law from every state in question: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. I highly recommend that you read the whole thing , especially if you encounter this particular talking point that has been repeated so often that many have begun to actually believe it. And I recommend Alexandra DeSanctis' book, co-authored with Dr. Ryan Anderson, Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing. In it, Anderson and DeSanctis describe what's really behind this particular talking point. Legalized abortion has taught us to see the God-given and good ability to procreate as a barrier to full humanness as women. Along the way, fertility is treated as a problem to be overcome, not a good thing to be embraced. If Christians are going to build a culture of life, we must understand all the ways in which this legal travesty poisoned our understanding of life, sex, marriage, and children. That's what Tearing Us Apart offers: the understanding we need to continue to uphold the dignity of life. I think this book is so very important right now. For a gift of any amount this month, I will send you a copy of Tearing Us Apart by Alexandra DeSanctis and Ryan Anderson. Just go to breakpoint.org/give before the end of July.
Jul 27, 2022
France is pretty mad at the United States. In fact, the entire European Union is mad, so mad in fact, they wrote a strongly worded letter. Earlier this month the EU passed a resolution condemning the United States Supreme Court's ruling in the Dobbs abortion case , which overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the matter of abortion restrictions back to individual state legislatures. Parliamentarians said the Dobbs ruling showed that "women's and girls' rights" are under attack. The strange part is that the Mississippi law which sparked the Dobbs case restricts abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That's one week later than France's law , which restricts elective abortions after 14 weeks. It gets weirder: The EU's condemnation also warns the Dobbs ruling could embolden "anti-gender" groups around the world. But if abortion is about the rights of "women and girls," that implies we know how to define "woman" and "girl." It's all a silly bit of posturing, but if the EU is worried Dobbs will change the world, I hope they're right.
Jul 27, 2022
"Christians should stop seeking political control and power and just focus on winning the lost." "Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world' so Christians should stay out of government." "Neither Jesus nor the early Christians tried to take over Rome. He built His kingdom in people's hearts and minds." Many variations of this argument can be found in Christian Twitterverse, usually, in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The idea seems to be that real Christian spirituality neither seeks nor celebrates political or judicial victories. Christians should only be concerned with the things of God, not the things of this world. In other words, God isn't concerned with government, and Christians shouldn't be either. Though this line of thinking sounds quite Christian, it isn't. Rather, it is an inaccurate portrayal of the relationship between God's justice and earthly justice. Just as importantly, it misunderstands what our salvation is for and why God calls us to live in this world, instead of just whisking Christians to heaven the moment we're saved. Recently, my colleague Shane Morris tackled this bad theology on Twitter, and the thread was republished by the Babylon Bee news offshoot, Not the Bee . I'll paraphrase his points: First, for most of the Church's history, Christians have agreed that civil laws should in some way reflect biblical morality. Neither Catholics, Orthodox, nor most Protestants believed that being apolitical was a good or godly thing. While there were occasions over the centuries when Christians shunned political involvement for a variety of reasons, often because they were prohibited from any involvement, it wasn't until the Radical Reformation and movements like the Anabaptists in the 1500s that swearing off politics gained traction as a principle for following Christ. Even then, it was a minority opinion. On the contrary, for most Christians, being a civil magistrate has always been seen as a high and noble calling. This, of course, makes a lot of sense since there is really no such thing as not legislating morality. No matter who writes the laws of a land, those laws always reflect someone's moral beliefs. Protecting innocent lives from deadly violence, something that occurs in abortion and other forms of murder, is the central function of good government. God created government to serve that purpose. Second, Shane pointed out something many theologians have noted over the years: that when Jesus said, " my kingdom is not of this world " in John 18:36, He did not mean "my kingdom has nothing to do with this world ." Rather, He meant that His kingdom is not from this world, does not use this world's methods (such as violent revolution), and does not aim at the world's ends. Still, as Abraham Kuyper pointed out , Jesus' kingdom absolutely does affect this world, over which He has declared total sovereignty, and in which He holds individuals and governments accountable for administering justice and punishing violence against the innocent (see Genesis 9:6 ). As for the part that neither Christ nor the first Christians tried to take over Rome, anyone who says this should read further in their history books. In A.D. 325, the Emperor Constantine ended the official persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Just decades later, in the year 380, Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. As a matter of simple historical fact, Christians did take over Rome! Setting aside questions about the legitimacy of established religion and how good such an arrangement is for the Church, it's simply not true that early Christianity did not seek to impact earthly governments. Early Christians showed intense interest in impacting governments in everything from the outlawing of infant exposure to ending persecution to the ending of the gladiatorial games. The assault of the Church against the gates of Hell progresses, of course, through the preaching of the Gospel and the conversion of souls—what the Apostle Paul called "spiritual weapons." But by advocating for good and just governments—especially when it comes to protecting innocent lives—Christians are loving their neighbors and fulfilling the other half of our calling in this world: to pray and obediently work so that God's kingdom will come and His will be done "on earth as it is in Heaven." We are saved for a purpose. Along with evangelism and worship, we are to be good citizens and to love our neighbors. This will involve supporting righteous laws and opposing wicked ones. No law in this nation's history has been more wicked than Roe v. Wade. Therefore, Christians are right to celebrate its downfall and to work to undo its bloody legacy. And Christians are right to oppose other wicked legislative efforts, such as the misleadingly named "Respect for Marriage Act." The idea that Christians have a calling so high that it keeps us from politics may sound spiritual, but it's something almost no Christian in history would recognize. Nor would Jesus, who in the same conversation with Pilate where He said, " my kingdom is not of this world ," also reminded this government official where his power came from.
Jul 26, 2022
There's a virtual army of faith-based adoption, foster care, and family support organizations in existence today, all of whom strive to care for vulnerable families.
Jul 26, 2022
In the 2015 majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges , a decision that overruled laws in dozens of states and imposed same sex "marriage" on the United States, Justice Anthony Kennedy rightly described marriage as an institution that is fundamental to society, that protects and ensures the well-being of children, and that is essential for a flourishing society. To withhold this institution from same-sex couples, Kennedy then wrongly concluded , would be to violate their dignity and disrespect their autonomy, especially the autonomy reflected in their intimate unions. What went missing in this opinion was a definition of what marriage is , and therefore why it is such an irreplaceable institution. In the end, Kennedy's decision failed in the same way that Matt Walsh's new documentary What Is a Woman? reveals that transgender ideology fails. Repeatedly, advocates Walsh interviewed echoed the same refrain, that a woman is "anyone who identifies as a woman." However, when pressed further and asked, "but what are they identifying as ?" they had no answer. In the same way, under Kennedy's reasoning, any relational arrangement we identify as marriage is marriage and warrants being included in the institution, even if it lacks the necessary ingredients that make marriage what it is. It is like saying, "The Rockefellers are rich, so I'm going to change my name to Rockefeller so I can be rich." Of course, this is not how reality works. Instead, Kennedy resorts to identifying marriage as an ever-evolving institution. In other words, marriage is not baked into reality like gravity. Instead, it is more like a speed limit, a social construct that changes as society changes. If marriage is indeed just a product of abstract progress, untethered from any created intent or design, it suffers the same moral quandary as naturalistic evolution. There is no way to control what creature comes next, or to know, as Justice Kennedy assured us, that what followed would be better than what came before (or even if it will be good ) . There is no guarantee that marriage will remain an institution fundamental to society, that protects and ensures the well-being of children and contributes to human flourishing. In fact, since Obergefell was decided, the rights of children to know their mom and dad, and to have their minds, bodies, futures, and most important relationships protected , have been replaced by the rights of adults to pursue their own desires and happiness. Justice Kennedy, it seems, has gotten his wish. Marriage has indeed evolved, or at least our conception of it has, but not for the better. Throughout human history, marriage was understood, including in law, to be a sexually complementary union, ordered toward procreation. No-fault divorce and now more fully same-sex "marriage" redefined it as an institution ordered only toward the vagaries of adult happiness. Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives proposed the wrongly named "Respect for Marriage Act." If it passes the Senate, this bill will result in a further stage of the legal evolution of marriage. When Obergefell was decided, the "T" had not yet taken over the ever-growing acronym of sexual identity preferences. The Respect for Marriage Act would not only encode Obergefell, but it would also further the reinvention of marriage in law. In effect, marriage would evolve into a genderless institution, not only unbound from its essential connection to children and sexual difference but to any embodied realities whatsoever. In other words, there would be no legal obstacle to extending marriage beyond couples to relationships consisting of multiple partners. Even worse, redefining marriage not only redefines the definition of "spouse" but also "parent." Parenting should be a sacrificial investment in future generations, but redefining marriage in this way has made it a self-determined right of getting "what we want." Children have always borne the brunt of the worst ideas of the sexual revolution, especially when combined with new reproductive technologies. Rather than the fruit of a loving union, children are now increasingly treated as products of casually partnered consumers. Further, if the Respect for Marriage Act becomes law, the worst parts of the Obergefell decision would be established in law in a way that abortion was not under Roe v. Wade. Like Roe, Obergefell was an act of judicial overreach. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in dissent , "[T]his Court is not a legislature…. Under the Constitution, judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be…. Five lawyers have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of marriage as constitutional law…. The majority's decision is an act of will, not legal judgment." In his majority opinion, Justice Kennedy claimed that the decision would not affect people of conscience, especially "religious institutions and people." That has proven to be flatly wrong. The Respect for Marriage Act contains no conscience protections. Despite their party platform which claims a commitment to Constitutional originalism and religious freedom, this bill could find support from 10 Republican Senators. If it does, it will pass the Senate and become law. Please, if you live in a state with a Republican Senator who has not indicated he or she will oppose this bill, contact them today and tell them to do so.
Jul 25, 2022
A recent NPR article lamented that "the end of Roe v. Wade has huge economic implications for male partners, too." According to a study quoted in the piece, "men involved with a pregnancy and whose partners had an abortion were nearly four times more likely to graduate college" than those whose partners gave birth. And males under the age of 20 were more likely to earn more money if their partner had an abortion instead of carrying the child to term. I guess we should thank the reporter for proving that legal abortion has always incentivized the financial well-being of men over the lives of the children they create. Still, presenting this as some kind of hardship for men is reminiscent of British slaveholders arguing against abolition by warning that sugar would cost too much without free labor. The whole moral picture is upside down. Rather than arguing for legalized abortion on the basis of "disadvantaging men," I'll happily vote for a new idea other abortion advocates have come up with: requiring men to be financially committed to the lives they create... you know, like they are supposed to be.
Jul 25, 2022
If this bill could find the support of 10 Republicans in the Senate who share this fuzzy view of marriage, it will pass, securing the federal government's claim on marriage and creating even less room in public life for people who object to redefined marriage.
Jul 23, 2022
John and Maria discuss the Respect for Marriage bill before the Senate, which undermines traditional marriage, a bedrock of society. They link the importance of family to new data on the need for fathers and also recent news about the possibility of virtual babies in augmented reality.
Jul 22, 2022
If we never speak up, we'll never find out what could happen... After nearly 10 years of hosting its annual "Wilberforce week," an Oxford college abruptly disinvited British group Christian Concern this March. Apparently, a handful of students accused the group of "hateful and invalidating" language. In response, Christian Concern approached Worcester College and asked them to substantiate those accusations. The college was unable to do so and was instead reminded of a prior statement issued by its provost, that "the free expression and exchange of different views … goes straight to the heart of our democracy and is a vital part of higher education." In the end, the college walked back the cancellation of Christian Concern and issued an apology . Thank God for small victories like this, and for Christians willing to live out Peter's command to respond with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak against us "may be put to shame." But this also requires Christians who, like the Apostle Peter, are willing to speak truth in the first place ... which takes courage, but who knows what God will do?
Jul 22, 2022
One of the more helpful analogies to explain the personal and cultural damage wrought by the sexual revolution is that sex is like fire. When a fire is in the fireplace, it brings light, warmth, and ambience. It can even preserve life. When, however, a fire jumps out of the fireplace onto the curtains, it brings destruction, even death. A similar analogy compares sex to water. Our bodies need water to live, but we need water in the right place. When water gets in the lungs, it can be deadly. One point of these analogies is that, like fire and water, sex is good. It has a design and purpose. The sexual revolution wanted sex to be "good," but forfeited the "design and purpose" part. In fact, proponents of the sexual revolution argued that sex is only good if it is set "free" from all restraint, responsibility, and consequences. This kind of fundamental error, like all bad ideas, is bound to have victims. With each day that passes, we meet more of them. Consider a piece published several months ago at Vice that announced a hip new way to find sexual satisfaction: "radical monogamy." Don't call it marriage (that's for dinosaurs), but man, there's something really fulfilling and safe (apparently) about sexual fidelity between two committed people. Or consider the recent book by Washington Post columnist Christine Emba. In Rethinking Sex , Emba argues that using the often vague ideal of consent as our only moral guidepost governing sexual activity has left a lot of people hurt, lonely, and frustrated. All of this is pointing to an opportunity for the Church to offer something better. However, to do that, we must be careful and clear. If sex is designed, it is under the authority of the One who designed it. If it is, indeed, under God's authority, and God is good, then rightly ordered sex is a good gift. In other words, the full antidote to the toxic sexuality of the sexual revolution isn't just to return it to the safety of the fireplace. The sexual morality we rightly talk about from Scripture isn't the whole story of this beautiful gift. Keeping sex within the confines of a lifelong marriage between one man and one woman is a moral good, but just as loving our neighbors is much more than not actively hating them, respecting God's design for sex is much more than not transgressing certain boundaries. In His kindness, God has called us to the lifelong cultivation of being properly sexual. This is the virtue of chastity, something often mistaken by Christians and non-Christians alike for prudishness. Instead, the call to be properly sexual with one another is a calling for all of us, married and single, to pursue all our lives, before, during, and after marriage. The Scriptures describe this well. Husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the Church . Christ laid down his life for His Church. And so, we give our bodies generously to our spouses, but not with degradation or violence. Sex within marriage can still demean, degrade, and victimize. When sex is seen as nothing more than an act of mere pleasure seeking, or when sex is demanded or withheld out of anger or contempt, or when sex is pursued in body or in mind with someone who is not given to us in marriage, chastity is abdicated, and we are sinning against God, our spouse, and ourselves. Wedding rings are not some "license to practice" in any and every way that comes into our minds. That's reductionistic. Sex is allowed in marriage, but it is also still designed . Often we think of biblical exhortations like the call to "love our neighbor" or to "seek the good of the other" as applying only to our actual neighbors, friends, or coworkers. But these verses also apply to our sexual relationships with our spouses. Practicing the virtue of chastity means to approach sex as an act of generosity. It's not something to treat lightly or selfishly, even in marriage. The sexual revolution sent the fire screaming out of the fireplace and then poured gasoline on the whole disaster. As more and more people are burned in its wake, the Church has a wonderful gift to offer, a gift that goes beyond the rules of the fireplace. When ordered rightly, the whole world will be blessed by its warmth, its light, and its life.
Jul 21, 2022
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed what is known as the Respect for Marriage Act . Despite its traditional-sounding name, this bill is anything but. It's an attempt to make legislatively secure what was decreed by the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that redefined marriage for the entire nation. It's not surprising the bill passed the progressive-controlled House, but 47 Republicans joined all the Democrats in the vote. And it seems at least possible that Dems could find 10 Republicans in the Senate, which would make the deceptively named act a law. There's nothing conservative about the state redefining marriage and forcing it on a nation as Obergefell did. If so-called conservative lawmakers don't get that, it seems there is little left for conservatism to conserve . Too many political conservatives are philosophically rootless. Their ideas are built on sentiment or nebulous "values" instead of the solid rocks of Scripture and common sense. If society is ever to re-embrace creational norms about marriage and family, our so-called conservatives must reject "the Hallmark-ization" of ethics. They must stop prioritizing sentiment over conviction.
Jul 21, 2022
In 2016, psychologist Dr. Peter Langman compiled biographical data on 56 American school shooters. He found that 82% had grown up in dysfunctional family situations, usually without two biological parents at home. The trend has sadly continued. The shooter in Uvalde, Texas, hadn't lived with his father in years. The Sandy Hook shooter hadn't seen his father in the two years leading up to that massacre. Last month, new research from the Institute for Family Studies demonstrated, once again, how important fathers are, especially for boys. For example, boys growing up without their dads are only half as likely to graduate from college as their peers who live with dad at home. Strikingly, those numbers remain steady even after controlling for other factors such as race, income, and general IQ. Boys without a dad at home are also almost twice as likely to be "idle" in their late twenties, defined as neither working nor in school, and are significantly more likely to have been arrested or incarcerated by the time they turn 35. These are only a few of the data points which demonstrate that fatherlessness is one of the most pressing crises our culture is facing. Why doesn't our culture talk more about this? One reason is that this crisis intersects other "third rails." Our culture got to this point via the sexual revolution, which encouraged promiscuity by redefining freedom and prioritizing autonomy over responsibility. When sex outside of marriage becomes normal, it is mostly women who are left on their own to raise the resulting children. There are other contributing factors as well, many of which were made possible by legislation. Divorce has been largely destigmatized, not in small part by making it legally easier. The legal demand for same-sex "marriage" brought with it the demand for same-sex parenting, which by definition asserts that kids do not need both a mother and a father. Certain forms of assisted reproduction likewise assert that children are less the fruit of a committed marriage than they are a commercial process. And now here we are , with 32% of American boys growing up in homes without their biological dads. If there's anything that we should learn from the grim outcomes of this social experiment, it is that dads aren't replaceable. This was true from creation, but even more so in a fallen world with each of us born with a fallen human nature. We only learn to grow from socially, emotionally, and spiritually immature children into adults so that we can live together in a healthy way by seeing healthy behavior modeled and by having unhealthy behavior corrected. Scripture passages affirm that mentoring in righteousness requires demonstration, as much or more than just explanation. Christ repeatedly told his followers to "do as He did." When He washed His disciples' feet, He offered it as an object lesson: "I give you an example, that you also should do as I did to you." Paul told believers in Corinth and Ephesus to be "imitators" of him, just as he was an "imitator of Christ." In other places, Scripture even points to modelling and mimicry in sex-specific ways. In his letter to Titus, Paul instructed men to be "dignified" and "self-controlled" and to "urge the younger men to be self-controlled." He also told the older women to "teach what is good" and to "train the younger women" to be "self-controlled," "pure" and "kind." That, of course, is another cultural third rail. We are so desperate to pretend sexual difference isn't built into our biological reality, we simply cannot abide the suggestion that our genders are critically important in parenting. But the numbers don't lie. As Dr. Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, puts it, "[T]here is no such thing as 'parenting.' There is mothering, and there is fathering—children do best with both." Christians can challenge the growing public safety crisis that is fatherlessness, and we must start in the Church. We must affirm, in word and in action, that there are men and there are women and that both matter in parenting. We have to de-normalize absent dads, challenge men to take responsibility for their sexual choices and for their children, and fill in the gaps whenever and however necessary. No matter if our technologies and cultural dogmas pretend otherwise, every child has a father. These new statistics show, again, that every child needs their father. We have no right to deprive them of
Jul 20, 2022
According to a recent article in The Guardian , the theory of evolution may be in trouble. For the first time in a long time, scientists are bucking the so-called " Neo-Darwinian synthesis, " which has dominated the sciences since the early 20th century. This doesn't mean "evolution" is finished as a theory, but it could mean the end of thinking of it as the only theory. There's a lesson here for Christians. Every new fad, whether in science, the arts, government, or social issues, comes with the temptation to capitulate or avoid being on "the wrong side of history." In the past, proponents of the death of religion, the looming " population bomb ," utopian Marxism, and all kinds of other theories have made this claim, only to be proven completely false as time went on. As a theory of everything, neo-Darwinism has failed. As a theory of the origins of biological diversity, it is clearly failing. Christians have no cause to abandon what Scripture reveals just because an idea, lifestyle, or theory becomes popular.
Jul 20, 2022
Nineties kids (and their parents) may remember the Tamagotchi craze, a tiny egg-shaped video game that dominated toy markets for a time. Kids would raise a virtual pet that could hang from their backpack like a keychain. I've been told it was a great toy—the trauma of forgetting it somewhere and then finding it had passed on to greener digital pastures notwithstanding. Now, in the age of the Metaverse, something else is here … and it is even creepier. "Augmented reality babies" offer users the virtual experience of "parenting" an algorithm designed to behave like a real baby. Using virtual-reality goggles, or even potentially wearable gloves which can simulate physical touch, users can interact with a digital baby as it grows … or, optionally (and even more creepily), as it stays exactly the same. Some gurus are heralding AR babies as a new age of parenting. "Make no mistake that this development, should it indeed take place, is a technological game-changer which… could help us solve some of today's most pressing issues, including overpopulation ," says Catriona Campbell , a former technology advisor to the British government, and author of the book AI by Design: A Plan for Living with Artificial Intelligence . Some argue this new development could also ease loneliness for those who want children but are unable to have them, or for those who feel they can't afford to have children. While the average kid costs about $230,000 by the time they reach age 17, reports the New York Post , "a digital kid … could have all its needs met for less than $25 per month." And as a bonus, no changing diapers! In light of these possibilities, Campbell offered a somewhat unsettling prediction: "I think it would be reasonable to expect as many as 20% of people choosing to have an AR baby over a real one." On one hand, it's hard not to be cynical of Campbell's bright-eyed tech optimism, especially given the current dubious state of Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse. No matter how good it gets, augmented reality simply cannot replace many of life's best experiences. Playing a video game in the Metaverse, for example, is fun. Eating a slice of cake... not so much. By misunderstanding why people become parents in the first place, many proponents of augmented reality misunderstand the essentials of what it means to be human. Logging off from an AR "baby" might be easier, but all the labor spent on an actual child is something that simply cannot be simulated or replaced by a simulation. And of course, the entire idea of global overpopulation continues to fall apart as its predictions continue to prove false. Should it actually work, this technology will almost certainly be adopted in countries where the most acute problem is underpopulation , not to mention increasingly devastating rates of loneliness. It's a common trend in the modern world—much like prescribing marijuana to combat anxiety —that our "cures" only further aggravate the problem. Spending over seven hours every day staring at screens for work, leisure, and connection has led many people to think technology can replace real relationships. But the opposite is true. Technology can do wonders, but putting a virtual baby in the hands of a lonely person is akin to giving a glass of salt water to someone dying of dehydration. Likewise, it is simply not true that a life free of responsibility is the one which will produce the most happiness. As any parent knows, real kids are noisy, expensive, and inconvenient. There are days when they seem to constantly take our reserves of energy, and sometimes the last strands of patience. But, they're worth it. Jesus' words that "it is more blessed to give than to receive," aren't just a pious aphorism. They're describing a core piece of what it means to be human. The surprising source of real life, joy, and vitality is from serving others, not just ourselves. No matter how sophisticated they may someday be, virtual babies will always be just a piece of code, a vain attempt to meet the felt needs of lonely adults while never providing for their true needs. If that's what people want, it would be best to avoid any pretense of "parenting" and buy them a Tamagotchi instead.
Jul 19, 2022
Post- Roe rhetoric continues to reach new levels of rumor, scare tactics, and red herrings. Take a recent headline from Scientific American , " Abortion Restrictions Could Cause an Ob-Gyn Brain Drain. " The implication is most doctors want to offer abortion so badly, they'll leave medicine if they can't. The truth, however, seems to be the opposite. T he LA Time s reported, from a 2019 survey of American OB-GYNs, that "while nearly 3 out of 4 had a patient who wanted to end a pregnancy in the past year, fewer than 1 in 4 were willing and able to perform one themselves." For some, the reasons were pragmatic. Many others cited pro-life convictions. As Dr. Donna Harrison of the Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists put it, "We have two patients: both the unborn child and the mother. As physicians, we've taken the Hippocratic oath… we don't kill our patients." That's the actual heart of the issue. Doctors are there to heal, not kill. It's not hard to tell the difference.
Jul 19, 2022
Today, July 19, marks a dark day in Christian history. On this date in A.D. 64, the Great Fire of Rome left two-thirds of the Eternal City in ashes. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, the fire was sparked in a part of town concentrated with flammable goods, quickly spread by high winds, and burned over the course of the next week and a half. This was the stuff of nightmares. According to Tacitus : "The blaze in its fury ran first through the level portions of the city, then rising to the hills, while it again devastated every place below them; it outstripped all preventive measures, so rapid was the mischief and so completely at its mercy the city, with those narrow winding passages and irregular streets which characterized old Rome." He went on to describe screaming women, helpless children, and panicked crowds, trampling everything before them. The end of the blaze was not the end of the terror. On the throne at the time was Emperor Nero, a man notorious for his immorality and hatred of Christians. Suspicious by the way Nero refashioned the charred city into his own image, as well as by rumors that he "fiddled while Rome burned," many Romans began to wonder if he had started the fire himself. To forestall the whispers, Nero blamed the Christians. And why not? Christians were weird. They talked about eating flesh and drinking blood. They called their husbands "brother" and their wives "sister." They denied the gods, like atheists. They thought a dead man had come back to life and was going to return one day in glory and, most pertinently, in vengeance. Up to this point, believers had mostly been left alone by Roman authorities, but Nero found they were easy to pick on. In the days that followed, the Apostles Peter and Paul met their fates, along with an unknown but great number of other Christians. If this was the first time Christians took heat for a public disaster, it certainly would not be the last. Christians have found themselves an unpopular minority in many cultural settings and have been consistently blamed for various disasters in various societies. A century and a half after Nero's attacks, Tertullian, a North African Christian writer, morbidly quipped, "If the Tiber rises too high, or the Nile too low, the remedy is always feeding Christians to the lions." In 410, pagan writers suggested that the sacking of Rome by German tribes would not have happened had Rome not abandoned her gods for a supposedly immoral Christianity. That accusation led Augustine of Hippo to respond with his magnum opus, The City of God . One of the most important works in the history of Western civilization, The City of God is still read, centuries later, by pastors, philosophers, and historians alike. In it, Augustine provided a thoroughgoing defense to a shallow trope leveled against Christians. He offered a litany of natural and military disasters and gross moral failings from Rome's supposedly purer and pagan past. With these examples, he undid the critique that Christians had somehow made life worse. If anything, in fact, the influence of biblical ideals had made things better. Christians today face analogous accusations. We aren't being cast to the lions (at least not here in the West, anyway), but there's a clear and growing undercurrent of hostility toward Christians that often resembles the tropes used in ancient days. Christians have been blamed for the prevalence of poverty , natural disasters due to climate change, the degradation of science and technology , and all kinds of social and political oppression . Our reply can be much the same as Augustine's. Oppression, poverty, military, and natural disasters are the common lot of humanity. They are common in times and places where the Gospel has never gone. However, in those places where Christianity has gone there are hospitals, universities, technological innovation, freedom, and an unusual insistence on human dignity. Recently, the good that Christianity brought to the world has been described in books like Dominion by the (as yet!) non-Christian historian, Tom Holland, and the newer The Air We Breathe , by Anglican evangelist Glen Scrivener. These works remind us how bad the world was before Christ came, and how much of what we think of as good and valuable has come, not despite Christianity, but because of it. Any Christian who faces an unfair accusation today should read these books and be encouraged. Christianity is just as true and good today, as it was then.
Jul 18, 2022
The day that Roe v. Wade died, reactions were mixed. Those who long supported Roe's legal death work mourned the victory for life. For many, it provoked fear, sadness, outrage, and hyperbole. "I thought I was writing fiction in The Handmaid's Tale ," Canadian author Margaret Atwood wrote . "The Supreme Court is making it real." On the other hand, many pro-lifers celebrated. "For nearly fifty years, America has enforced an unjust law that has permitted some to decide whether others can live or die. We thank God today that the Court has now overturned this decision," said Archbishop José Gómez , president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The only truly surprising reaction came from a third group. While technically pro-life, this group viewed the overturning of Roe as a sort of problem, a cause for caution and even sorrow. Some even condemned the celebrations they saw from the rest of us. Apologist Mike Winger referred to this group as "the sideways people," ... because it's like they are taking a sudden turn from the issue at hand and going sideways onto other things they care about more. Or perhaps it's because they are "looking sideways" at this whole thing in the sense of being bothered by it, even if not repudiating it. He's right. After achieving a goal that united Christians for nearly 50 years, it was strange to see a tone of fear and concern from some corners of the Church. If the caution came from a fear that the Dobbs decision was wrongly understood to have ended abortion or to have settled the issue, that's valid. Overturning Roe did neither. As many have said, this is not the end of this battle on behalf of pre-born life. It's not even the beginning of the end. At best, it's the "end of the beginning." The pro-life movement must continue, and its future has to be not only pro- child but also pro- mother, treating people, especially women caught in unexpected pregnancies with compassion and support while unraveling the lies our culture tells them about their child's life. All of this is true. But that's not really where these critiques were coming from. These were coming from Christians who declared that real compassion precluded celebration and that we must "lament" with women who no longer have a presumed right to end the life of their child. It was as if the real problem was that this particularly heinous choice was being taken away from them. Abortion is an act of violence to both mothers and children. Only a society that's been deeply poisoned by a culture of death pretends otherwise. Should celebrations of the Emancipation Proclamation have been muted as well? The real issue is that too many Christians crumple under the weight of mere public opinion. Whenever empathy becomes the chief virtue of a Christian, their moral waters are muddied. "Winsomeness" somehow looks like "silence." Cultural elites, from business to entertainment, have made it perfectly clear : To speak out against abortion carries with it the crushing stigma of somehow hating women, of being merely "pro-birth," of needlessly offending our neighbors with divisive rhetoric. The tragic irony is anyone who favors the killing of unborn children can publicly say so without a hint of moral disapproval from some of these Christians. This imbalance is, of course, not new for pro-life advocates. We've come to expect it from those who are deceived by the worst ideas of our age. But we don't expect it from those who claim to be pro-life. Princeton Professor Robert P. George often tells of a question he asks his students. If you had been born before the Civil War, would you have accepted slavery, or opposed it? Nearly every student quickly answers that they would have opposed slavery and would have worked tirelessly to dismantle it. "Of course, this is nonsense." George writes: "Only the tiniest fraction of them, or any of us, would have spoken up against slavery or lifted a finger to free the slaves." If he's going to believe those students who claim the moral high ground, George demands that they show evidence of how they have stood, today in some context, for an unpopular victim of injustice, knowing that, as a result of their moral witness, they would lose standing with their peers, be loathed and ridiculed by powerful people and institutions, abandoned by some of their friends, called nasty names, and denied valuable professional opportunities. Because that is the cost of moral clarity. If we will not even risk being liked, the end of Roe v. Wade feels more like a problem than the win it really is. Of course, from here, if we're going to show true love, it's far more difficult than simply speaking pro-life opinions. It will cost us to support crisis pregnancy centers at the level they need to be supported, to protect at-risk mothers, to show compassion to all children, and to live lives that are in line with God's plan for human flourishing. In short, there's plenty of work to do. But we can do that work and still celebrate the end of a legal obstacle to life that has poisoned so much of our culture for so long .
Jul 18, 2022
A gay couple is suing a fertility business in California because they had a daughter instead of a son. The lawsuit is full of loaded terms we shouldn't miss. Gay couples "must" pay surrogate mothers if they want to have kids, the suit says. The men paid the clinic to create "their" embryos and to implant only male embryos into "their" gestational carrier. Must two men, who've chosen a biologically sterile union, demand children at will? Who exactly owns a young embryo or a gestational carrier—which is another word for mother? At the end of the day, this distasteful story isn't a bug of assisted reproduction: It's a feature. Treating women and children as objects is the enterprise. If we are uncomfortable when someone is more upfront about that—like a couple who files a lawsuit because they didn't receive what they had ordered and paid for—maybe we should reconsider turning procreation into a manufacturing business.
Jul 16, 2022
John and Maria comment on how reactions to the images from the James Webb Telescope tell us about God and humans. Moving to the fallout after the Dobbs decision, they discuss Gov. Whitmer's stance in Michigan to restrict extradition due to abortion. They also respond to the accusation of transphobia aimed at Senator Hawley when asking for clarification for women's rights. Finishing, they touch on two popular stories from this week's Breakpoint.
Jul 15, 2022
The Declaration of Independence's statement that "all men are created equal," which Chuck Colson called "the American creed," often elicits a response: since slaves were anything but equal, was this creed a lie? Many signers of the Declaration were abolitionists who compromised on this issue so that the hope of independence would not end before it started. And without excusing the injustice of slavery, it's notable that Thomas Jefferson originally included a condemnation of slavery in the Declaration, but was forced to remove it due to opposition from the Southern colonies. And, it takes time for an idea to take root, to spread, to move from abstract principle to practical implementation. Jefferson was himself a slaveholder, and though in principle he opposed slavery, he failed to make Monticello work without them. The existence of slavery was assumed at the time, and many could not imagine a world without it. They should have but didn't. The American creed is an aspiration which neither our founders nor we have perfectly achieved. Rather than dismiss it as hypocrisy, we should commit ourselves again to work toward it.
Jul 15, 2022
The moment Roe v. Wade was overturned last month, desperate activists began to dust off the oldest and oddest arguments for abortion. These "gotcha" scenarios are supposed to prove that pro-lifers don't r eally value human life or consider preborn babies from the earliest stages of development to be human. Instead, these pretend scenarios demonstrate that pro-lifers are simply hypocrites. On closer inspection, however, these scenarios fail to convince. For example, there's the so-called "burning fertility clinic" scenario. A friend emailed me recently and asked for a response to this one, which as best I can tell, was invented by author Patrick Tomlinson. It goes like this. You're in a burning fertility clinic and hear a 5-year-old child crying for help. Across the room is a container marked "1,000 Viable Human Embryos." The flames are rising, smoke is filling the air, and you can only save one: the child or the container of embryos. According to Tomlinson, if you would choose to save the crying child, you're betraying the fact that, whatever you may say, you really believe embryos aren't equivalent to human beings. How, otherwise, could you justify saving one over 1,000? "Gotcha," right? Not really. First, this argument has nothing whatsoever to do with abortion. In no instance does a woman or her doctor ever choose between saving the life of one child at an advanced stage of development, or 1,000 at an earlier stage. Abortion involves the intentional killing of one or multiple children who, in most cases, would have lived if left alone. There's no analogy, here, which means as an argument for abortion, the burning fertility clinic is toast. But even setting that important point aside, the decision to save the imaginary 5-year-old over the embryos—which for the record, I would make—doesn't necessarily reflect my view of the embryos' humanity. It only reflects what I would do with limited time in a no-win situation. Perhaps, I would be acting on an impulse to stop conscious suffering, or to prevent parents from losing a child whose face and voice they know, or from a spur-of-the-moment instinct to answer a cry for help. None of these actions has any equivalence to an intentional killing , and none of them means I consider embryos less than human. Of course, abortion activists continue to repackage this flawed scenario, again and again, with help from media sources. Last week in The Washington Post , another and even more bizarre form of this argument surfaced. Harvard ethics professor Daniel Wikler and Northwestern University law professor Andrew Koppelman argued that if state lawmakers who are now outlawing abortion really believe embryos are human beings, they should be panicking over the sudden statistical spike in their states' infant mortality rates. As these professors write: "30 percent of human embryos spontaneously self-abort"—or are miscarried. These deaths aren't normally counted in infant mortality statistics, which only account for deaths after birth. But if embryos are human persons, these profs argue, infant mortality stats should include miscarriages. If we did that, though, we would be looking at mortality rates more than twice those of the most dangerous countries on earth—a true public health crisis! They conclude: "the fact of spontaneous abortion shows that opponents of abortion do not themselves believe what they are saying." This "gotcha" scenario has nothing to do with abortion, which is, once again , the intentional killing of unborn babies. Their use of the term "spontaneous abortion" instead of "miscarriage" may be medically acceptable but muddies this crucial distinction. And consider their logic: Lots of miscarriages, tragically, do happen. If pro-life lawmakers aren't adequately panicking about this, they must not really think intentionally killing unborn babies is wrong? That is like saying if you aren't panicked about children dying during a pandemic, you can't be against a shooter gunning them down in a school. It's an absurd line of thinking yet, in the frenzy of a post- Roe abortion movement, passes for Ivy-League-level ethical reasoning. None of these "gotcha" arguments should intimidate pro-lifers, especially Christians. We have the truth on our side, and now, thank God, the law in an increasing number of states. Bizarre hypothetical scenarios cannot change the moral reality that elective abortion is evil. On close inspection, the "gotcha" scenarios, like the imaginary fertility clinic in which they so often take place, just go up in smoke.
Jul 14, 2022
A line typically attributed to George Orwell states that "in times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." Well, we live in times in which "deceit" has been joined by "confusion." So, even claiming to know truth can mean being called a "liar," even when it comes to the observable realities of shared history or biology. In other words, telling the truth today requires nothing short of revolutionary courage. That's why I hope you can join me, Lee Strobel, and Brett Kunkle for Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview this August 4 at the stunning Great Lakes Center for the Arts, located in Bay Harbor, Michigan. Thanks to generous sponsors, the event is completely free for those who can attend locally and will be livestreamed for everyone else. To attend in person or livestream, register at GreatLakesSymposium.org. Christians must re-embrace the idea of truth. Please join us August 4 at Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview, where we can spur each other on to do exactly that.
Jul 14, 2022
In response to the recent Dobbs decision and the Supreme Court's clear, consistent support for religious liberty throughout this term, many progressives are warning of an imminent "Christian theocracy." Among the loudest voices predicting our collective doom are mainstream media outlets. For example, a recent story in Reuters claimed, " U.S. Supreme Court Takes Aim at Separation of Church and State ." What's missing in virtually all of these pieces is a proper understanding of the "establishment clause." The establishment clause is derived from the opening lines of the First Amendment which states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …" There are two ways this statement is commonly misunderstood. First, it is often described as establishing a "wall of separation between church and state." In fact, those words are found nowhere in the Constitution. The phrase actually was coined later in a letter by Thomas Jefferson . Second, and more importantly, it is assumed that if organized religion cannot be supported by the state, then secularism is somehow "neutral." Thus, by default, anything goes as long as it's "secular." Understanding the historical context is essential. In the 18th century, an "established" religion referred to an official state church. In the U.S., individual states had already established churches, such as the Anglican Church in Virginia. The First Amendment specifically applied to Congress and prohibited a national church. To prefer the Anglican Church over the Congregationalists or Presbyterians would, at the time, mean alienating certain citizens and entire states. States continued to have established churches well into the 19th century. In addition, the First Amendment was not intended to prohibit religious activities in governmental institutions. From the very beginning, Congress started each session with prayer. That continues today and is led by an official chaplain. Our founding fathers, particularly James Madison, believed that religious liberty was an innate right, and inseparable from the freedom of conscience. He also believed that religion would better flourish in a free marketplace of ideas. That thinking was the basis for the free exercise clause. This understanding of the freedom of conscience is the foundation for the other freedoms protected in the First Amendment. Without conscience rights, we cannot truly speak, write, assemble, or advocate freely from our deepest beliefs. That's why the freedom of religion is often called "the first freedom." Its position in the Bill of Rights highlights its importance. Although the rights of conscience should not be controversial, somehow, that's what they have become. How this happened is worth considering. By claiming secularism to be neutral, proponents of secularism ,as far back as the 19th century, attempted to broadly apply laws originally intended by Protestants to prevent Catholic schools from accessing state funds. In the 20th-century, secularists embraced the concept of "a living Constitution" in order to transform the meaning of the First Amendment, attempting to keep religious institutions from accessing state funds and allowing only "secular" views in the public arena. Though many court cases illustrate this, among the more important was Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), which declared unconstitutional Maryland's requirement that officeholders state belief in God. Rather than ruling on the basis of Article VI, which prohibits religious tests for public office, the Supreme Court ruled on the basis of the establishment clause of the First Amendment and of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits states from violating the rights guaranteed to U.S. citizens. The same line of reasoning has since been used to challenge prayers at public meetings, Bible studies in schools, and nativity scenes on public property. In the process, the First Amendment was turned on its head, taking a clause intended to keep the state from backing any one denomination and construing it to position the state in opposition to all organized religions. In footnote 11 of the Torcaso v. Watkins decision, Justice Hugo Black listed secular humanism as one of a number of religions "which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God." Calling humanism a religion was not outlandish. For a century, humanists such as John Dewey and Julian Huxley had defined their beliefs as a religion. After all, secularism involves certain claims about the cosmos, existence, and human nature. And yet in 1994, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled in Peloza v. Capistrano Unified School District that while "religion" should be broadly interpreted for free exercise clause purposes , "anything 'arguably non-religious' should not be considered religious in applying the establishment clause." In other words, secular organizations were able to play both sides, qualifying as a religion for the free exercise clause but free from constraints from the establishment clause. To further determine whether religious activities could utilize public spaces, the Supreme Court derived the so-called "Lemon Test" in the case Lemon v. Kurzman (1991). According to this rule, a religious activity is only licit on public grounds if it performs a secular purpose, neither advances nor inhibits religion, and does not foster excessive government entanglement in religion. This test maintained an obviously secular bias: Secular organizations were not required to pass any tests to obtain access. In the recent decision in the Coach Kennedy case, the Supreme Court continued its long-overdue corrections to the anti-religious way the First Amendment had been interpreted. Particularly by unequivocally tossing the "Lemon Test," the Court has stopped the active suppression of religious beliefs and practice. We ought not fear an impending theocracy, but instead welcome a redress to the unjust and ahistorical understandings of religion.
Jul 13, 2022
Since SCOTUS overturned Roe , sales of the morning-after pill have exploded. Amazon had to restrict purchase numbers as did the pharmacies CVS and Rite Aid. One company saw a 600% increase in purchases within 24 hours of the Dobbs decision, with 72% of those for multiple units. Morning-after pills, colloquially called by the brand name Plan B, don't need a prescription. They range from $10 to $50 a pop. Women take it within three days of unprotected sex to deter ovulation and, if not that, to prevent the fertilized egg from implanting in the womb, which as many Christians have pointed out is abortion. It's not the same as what's called " medication abortion "—two different pills used up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. In a recent commercial for a new show, a woman hands a friend a bag with the morning-after pill, so the friend can sleep with a guy spontaneously. In other words, the phrase "emergency contraceptive" is most often a misnomer. Most of the talk of reproductive justice is really about sex without restraint.
Jul 13, 2022
In most of the world today, slavery is unthinkable. Is it possible that we could ever reach that same place with abortion in America? Just as there were once states where it was legal to own slaves and other states where it wasn't, we are now a nation deeply divided on the issue of abortion on a state-by-state level. In certain states, abortion is allowed, encouraged, and even subsidized abortion. In others, abortion is all but illegal. The history of the Church's stance on both issues, abolition and abortion, is instructive as we seek to obey Christ in a post- Roe world. Clearly, the early Church did not like slavery. The New Testament condemns behaviors that were endemic to the slave trade. In his letter to Philemon, Paul gave broad hints that masters should free their Christian slaves. Early Christians often purchased slaves specifically to set them free. Even so, neither the New Testament nor the early Church pushed for full abolition of slavery, for at least two reasons. First, taking a public stand would have brought even more unwanted attention to an already targeted group. Second, the ancient world offered no model to Christians for a society without slaves, so few could envision what that would look like. Though Christians saw slavery as a curse, they could not conceive of being rid of it entirely (any more than they could imagine a world rid of disease or poverty). This failure of moral imagination meant that it would be centuries before the implications of the Gospel would lead Christian rulers to take definitive steps toward abolishing slavery. By the Middle Ages, overt slavery was rare in Europe, and Church leaders spoke out against it. Thomas Aquinas claimed that slavery might be part of the "law of nations" but was against the law of nature and therefore a sin. When, centuries later, the infamous Atlantic slave trade began, Portugal and Spain defied the decrees of four different popes to spread it in their colonies. In the English-speaking world, the rampant practice of slavery found opposition among Quakers and a rising evangelicalism that eventually ended first the slave trade, then slavery altogether. All this means that the American theologians who defended slavery were following the culture's lead, not Church teaching. Though it took far too long for the implications of the Gospel to become clear, the teaching of both Jesus and Paul of the spiritual and moral equality of all persons meant that slavery was incompatible with Christianity, and its abolition in Christian states was only a matter of time. Eventually, because of the commitment to the worth and dignity of every human being as created in the image of God, Christians fought to end the abuse of slavery. In contrast, the Christian position on abortion has been clear from day one. In the Didache , the earliest non-New Testament Christian work to survive, Christians are instructed "you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born." Similarly, the late first or early second century Epistle of Barnabas , a manual of ethics in this early period, says "you shall not murder a child by abortion, nor again kill it when it is born." In " A Plea for Christians ," written in 177, Athenagoras of Athens wrote, "[w]e say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder …" Similar teaching can be found in the writings of Clement of Alexandria, the pseudonymous Apocalypse of Peter, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, and Lactantius, which takes us up to the de-criminalization of Christianity by Constantine. The teaching of the Church on abortion has been clear from the start and continued to be clear well into the 20th century. Only recently have some claiming the name of Christ accepted abortion as morally licit , or worse, have celebrated it . Christian opposition to abortion is based on precisely the same reasoning as Christian opposition to slavery. Every human being is made in the image of God and is crowned with glory and honor, a dignity we dare not ignore. The same dehumanizing and depersonalizing claim that undergirded the idea that slaves were less worthy as human beings, and further undergirded the horrific treatment of African Americans in the Jim Crow South, is also at work in pro-abortion thinking. And yet, the same liberating power of the imago dei that broke the chains of slavery demands that we see the dignity of preborn children and work to protect them. Slavery and the subsequent dehumanizing treatment of African Americans was evil, and that the crusade to end both was (and is) God's work. May we also recognize that dehumanizing and killing the unborn is at least as evil, and rightly abhorred.
Jul 12, 2022
Yesterday in 1924, Eric Liddell (1902-1945) won an Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter race. As a devout Christian, Liddell decided to never race on Sundays. Imagine his dismay when he realized that his best race—100 meters—was scheduled for a Sunday. Liddell withdrew, to the derision of many Britons, who thought he was being disloyal to his nation. He quickly pivoted for the 200-meter and 400-meter races, taking third in the 200-meter and claiming the gold in the 400-meter. Liddell was the son of Scottish missionaries to China, and his story was memorialized in the film Chariots of Fire, which won the Oscar in 1981 for Best Picture. Despite athletic success, Liddell returned to China the following year. During World War II, the Japanese took over his mission station and placed him in an internment camp, where he faithfully served Christ and others before dying of a brain tumor in 1945. Liddell's Olympic-time decision was consistent with the life he lived in faithful service to Christ who "made [him] for China," but also "made [him] fast." He ran every race, including the race of life, to "feel God's pleasure." .
Jul 12, 2022
One of the most enigmatic, sensational, and misguided thinkers of the last 10 years is Israeli historian and pop philosopher Yuval Noah Harari. His book Sapiens , published in English in 2015, sold over a million copies as it told the story of mankind's evolution. His 2017 book Homo Deus predicts a transhumanist future, a world where technology fundamentally reshapes what kind of entity human beings are. "We humans should get used to the idea that we are no longer mysterious souls. We are now hackable animals," he told attendees at the 2020 World Economic Forum annual meeting . "By hacking organisms, elites may gain the power to reengineer the power of life itself," he said two years earlier. "This will be not just the greatest revolution in the history of humanity. This will be the greatest revolution in biology since the very beginning of life 4 billion years ago." Harari's prophecy doesn't end there: "Science is replacing evolution by natural selection by evolution via intelligent design," he continued in 2018. "Not the intelligent design of some God above the clouds, but our intelligent design, and the intelligent design of our clouds: the IBM cloud, the Microsoft cloud … these are the new, driving forces of evolution." Conspiracy theorists might be forgiven for having a field day with such statements. After all, Harari's outspoken fans include some of the most powerful people alive : Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, former President Barack Obama, as well as executive chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab . Despite a somewhat critical response from academics , the success of his books is undeniable. Still, Harari suffers from a fatal inconsistency. While positioning himself as a prophet, interested in solving the worst abuses that could befall our future hackable selves, he cuts the ideological ground out from anything standing in their way. A keen example is his critique of both liberal democracy and the entire concept of the "individual" as outdated political norms. "Liberalism," he wrote in the Guardian "is unprepared for a situation when individual freedom is subverted from within, and when the very concepts of 'individual' and 'freedom' no longer make much sense." Yet in nearly the same breath, Harari rushes us towards that exact conclusion: "In order to survive and prosper in the 21st century," he writes, "we need to leave behind the naive view of humans as free individuals—a view inherited from Christian theology as much as from the modern Enlightenment." Though he is right about the origins of classic liberalism, the result is a self-contradictory mess. In effect, Harari is saying we should stop people from being hacked by hacking ourselves first … and defend universal values by denying that they exist. "I don't know where the answers will come from," Harari admits, "but they are definitely not coming from a collection of stories written thousands of years ago." If those stories are just stories, Harari is correct. But as C.S. Lewis described, some stories ground us in reality. This is, in fact, what Christianity does, and what reductionist materialism makes impossible. Though new insight on technology may have helped Harari sell interesting books, dreaming of a world stripped of all values is as old as modernism itself. Had someone given him a copy of Lewis' The Abolition of Man, he may have seen his exact premise tackled by an Oxford don nearly 80 years ago. All of this matters because ideas have consequences. Harari and those like him may be attempting to shape the trajectory of transhumanism towards a utopian future but, as often the case, public intellectuals with good intentions but bad worldviews are often the blindest to the practical implications of their thinking. "How does liberal democracy function in an era when governments and corporations can hack humans?" Harari asked in the Guardian article . A better question is: How does liberal democracy function in an era when people rush to assume they are merely pre-determined "hackable animals" instead of moral agents who are responsible for their decisions, living in a society of people created equal and "endowed by their creator with inalienable rights?" History tells us the answer to that question. It can't. The entire concept of human rights is intimately connected with a Christian anthropology. Gut a society of that worldview, and there's no limit to how far we can fall. If Harari's predictions somehow do become reality, it will have less to do with technology, and far more to do with ideas: specifically, the nihilistic, reductionist humanity he so ardently promotes. Technology makes imagined futures possible, but ideas shape how and why we use technology. If he's looking for a worldview that's better for empowering techno-tyrants, corporatists, and demagogues, he could do little better than the one he's promoting. On the other hand, if he's looking to evade the oppression he fears, he should look to One of the old stories he derides.
Jul 11, 2022
I'm going to say it—a book is better than a phone. Stop me if you've heard this: A guy is walking his dog right beside a very busy road and he almost dies because he's staring straight into, wait for it . . . a book! You were expecting it to be his phone, right? If you're going to risk your life, at least do it for the printed word. We might tell ourselves there's no difference between reading on paper and reading on a screen. But as Dr. Martin Tobin writes, "Our eyes lie to us." "Cognitive scientists have discovered that reading is not only a visual activity, but also a bodily activity," Tobin writes. "A book is a physical object . . . you see and feel the texture of its pages. Leafing back and forth provides a mental map of the entire text, aiding comprehension …and recall." And, of course, when we read a book, we're not tempted to check email, voicemail, Facebook, texts, and on and on. So put down the phone. Grab a real book. But avoid traffic when you do so.
Jul 11, 2022
A recent photo essay in The Atlantic documented dozens of pro-abortion demonstrations around the country following the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling. Protesters, often dressed like handmaids from Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, seem to believe the Court has taken something away from them. Even the article's description blames the justices for "removing a federal right to an abortion." In reality, the majority's decision in the Dobbs case did not change a single abortion law. What they did was end the Supreme Court's 49-year-old intervention that took the abortion question out of the hands of elected lawmakers, and therefore out of the hands of the American people. Now, thanks to this ruling, voters can, for the first time in a generation, decide the issue democratically by going to the ballot box and making their voices heard. Of course, any law that allows for the killing of unborn children is unjust and morally unacceptable, even if it is the will of voters. So, the ultimate goal for Christians should be that abortion is not only illegal in all 50 states, but unthinkable in the modern world, swept into the dustbin of history like other historic evils. Obviously, given the reaction to the Dobbs decision, this will involve changing a lot of hearts and minds. Still, the ruling in Dobbs is an incredible victory and important step in restoring the rule of law in this country and putting the question of abortion before the people. Roe was a legal disaster that was used for decades to swat down any state-level regulations on abortion and silence voters who wanted those regulations in place. As Ryan Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis write in their new book, Tearing Us Apart, [ Roe ] removed nearly every question about abortion policy from the hands of the American people and placed the issue into the hands of unelected judges, even though the Constitution contains nothing that could remotely support a right to abortion. Former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, someone who was far from pro-life, described the judiciary's attitude on this issue as "the abortion distortion." According to Justice O'Connor, "no legal rule or doctrine is safe from ad hoc nullification by this Court when an occasion for its application arises in a case involving state regulation of abortion." In other words, she saw that her fellow left-leaning justices were willing to use specious arguments to prop up abortion rights, even when they meant ignoring established norms and precedent. In fact, even the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a strong supporter of the so-called "right to choose," admitted that, in legal terms, Roe was a "heavy-handed judicial intervention." Not only does Dobbs represent a moment when the Supreme Court is giving up power and returning it to the states, but it may place America much more in line with the rest of the developed world on the abortion issue. Believe it or not, American law on abortion, thanks in a big part to Roe , has been more in line with the laws of repressive, totalitarian regimes than other liberal democracies. As Anderson and DeSanctis note, only seven countries, including North Korea permit elective abortion after twenty weeks of pregnancy. U.S. abortion policy is far more permissive even than the policies in most European countries. Thirty-nine of the forty-two European countries that allow elective abortion permit it only in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. To put that in perspective, we are told that the Mississippi law at the heart of the Dobbs case is comparable to Margaret Atwood's fictional sexist dystopia. But the reality is that in prohibiting elective abortion after 15 weeks, the law made Mississippi comparable to such sexist dystopias as…well, France. Considering these facts, it's difficult to understand the extreme reaction many in the pro-abortion camp have had to this ruling. The justices didn't change a single law. What they did was return the issue to the states, and thus, the voters. The process now unfolding in all 50 states is one the Supreme Court short-circuited almost 50 years ago by making the decision for us and inventing a constitutional right to an abortion. As Anderson and DeSanctis note, this "heavy-handed" intervention corrupted our political process, undermined the will of voters, and fostered a mentality among progressives that whatever they couldn't win support for in legislatures, they could demand from the Supreme Court. In Dobbs, six of the justices appear to be signaling that things will no longer work this way. Of course, progressive states will entrench abortion in law, meaning lives will continue to be snuffed out in this country by white-clad professionals practicing what they call "healthcare." Until that changes, our work for justice must continue. But thanks to this ruling, laws designed to save young lives will no longer be snuffed out by black-robed lawyers practicing what they call "Constitutional law."
Jul 9, 2022
Maria and John hold a lively conversation about human dignity in the Declaration of Independence, the correlation of marijuana use to teen mental health, and the surge in purchases of the Plan B morning-after pill.
Jul 8, 2022
Recently, Ezra Klein wrote a column attempting to answer a question he says he is asked all the time: Should today's adults have kids, given the climate crisis? Klein received a good bit of pushback for the odd premise of the question, which seems to reveal more about the company he keeps than actual sentiment. After all, according to Pew Research, only a tiny fraction of childless adults cite climate worries as their motivation. But the most poignant part of Klein's piece is what it assumes. Think about it: No one is wondering whether adults should abstain from sex in order to keep children from being born onto this doomed planet. Just whether they should use birth control and have abortions in order to keep children from being born onto this doomed planet. Childbearing is seen as a technologically controlled choice, completely independent of the act that causes it. This is how much technologies can change how we think about the world and why Christians must always approach new biotechnologies by first asking what humans are for . And, as for his original question—yes, we should still have children.
Jul 8, 2022
According to the writer of Proverbs, " death and life are in the power of the tongue ." So is cultural change, which most often comes with efforts to change language use and the definitions of words. For example, Harvard Medical molecular biologist David Sinclair is combining innovation in the lab with innovation in language. In a recent CNN article , one of Sinclair's financial backers described the goal of his research as changing the definition of the word "aging." He wants to "make aging a disease." Sinclair claims to have successfully interrupted the aging process in mice by turning adult cells back into stem cells. Some animals are designed with a similar capability, albeit in a more limited way—think, for example, of an octopus re-growing a leg that has been cut off. Using that same idea, what Sinclair calls an "ancient regeneration system," he hopes to regenerate cells that deteriorate with age. Already, he has been able to repair ocular cells in older mice, allowing them to recover their "youthful" eyesight. His ultimate aim, of course, is to develop anti-aging therapies for humans. Though some concern has been directed toward the safety of Sinclair's process, what goes largely unquestioned in media coverage is Sinclair's chief aim. In other words, as so much medical ethics goes these days, if we can do it, then we should . Medical ethics from a Christian worldview perspective is not that simple. Whenever Christians can affirm aspects of work like David Sinclair's, which attempts to overcome the consequences of the fall, we should. The Bible teaches that death is an enemy, and that humans were not made to die. And humans should recognize that the ingenuity and passion for exploration that often inspires medical progress are God-given. To accuse people like Sinclair of "playing God," as if that were an insult, is not helpful. After all, according to Genesis 1 and 2, human beings were created by God to, in a sense, "play God." We are not to pretend that we are God, of course, but He did gift us with the ability to work alongside Him to accomplish His purposes for the world He made. After the fall, He promises to eventually restore His creation, so our work alongside Him continues. The mandate to build and create, tending the garden of His world, is to be done within the moral limits that reflect His character and how He created the world. Within this framework, causing or hastening death is a great evil, but so can be attempts to avoid death "at all costs." Jesus' own death was an act of unprecedented evil but also only fully understood in the context of His obedience to the Father's will. Jesus lay down His life, and many Christians have followed in His footsteps. Thus, there are certain moral goods—such as the will of God—that are higher than avoiding death. Keeping these sorts of things straight is essential to ethically pursuing and employing technologies, like those that promise to "reverse aging." In his book Bioethics: A Primer for Christians , bioethicist and theologian Gilbert Meilaender counsels Christians to view the freedom to pursue medical progress not as freedom from restraints, such as death. Instead, we should consider ourselves free to work alongside God imitating Him on the path He set out for human flourishing. This will mean, very often in fact, not doing (as God described the men who built the tower of Babel) " whatever comes into our minds to do ." Meilaender counsels Christians to fight the temptation to use medicine, not merely as a way to care for our bodies, but from the desire to control them. If the chief end of medical research and practice is to live on our own terms, we will inevitably make moral compromises along the way. It was the serpent who promised Eve that she could live as she wished but evade death, which was not only a lie, but not sufficient justification for attempting to usurp the authority that only belongs to God. The goal of medical research and practice should be to help people flourish in the bodies, times, places, and limits that God has given us. From this beginning, Meilaender suggests that the "principle" which should "govern Christian compassion" is not to "minimize suffering," but to "maximize care." Our purpose is not to avoid suffering or even death at all costs despite that they are effects of the fall we are called to oppose. Rather, we take into account that in God's mercy, even our suffering can be redeemed for good. We lament the hard realities of our fallen world, and we seek to understand them within the larger context of creation and resurrection. Thus, we know that death is not the end of life, nor is life only a prerequisite to death.
Jul 7, 2022
Last month, a New York court ruled that Happy the elephant should not legally be considered a person. An organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project had sued the Bronx Zoo for "imprisoning" Happy, arguing it should be set free since it showed signs of "self-awareness ." "While no one disputes the impressive capabilities of elephants. ..." Janet DiFiore, the chief judge, wrote, "[h]abeas corpus is a procedural vehicle intended to secure the liberty rights of human beings who are unlawfully restrained, not nonhuman animals." Confusion is inevitable whenever a culture untethers itself from all sources of truth. If there's no God, then people aren't in His image. So why shouldn't animals have the same rights we do? And if our rights aren't based in our design, the only option is to base them on some slippery criteria like "self-awareness" or intelligence. But, of course, that way of thinking also makes it possible to not extend human rights to certain humans. According to Judge DiFiore, granting Happy "personhood status" would be legally "destabilizing." In fact, the worldview that animated this legal comedy to begin with is destabilizing. When it comes to human rights, only Christianity offers solid ground.
Jul 7, 2022
Last year, a coalition of organizations, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Policy Alliance, Colson Center, and the Heritage Foundation, teamed up to issue a Promise to America's Children, a commitment to protect their minds, their bodies, and their most important relationships amid this hypersexualized culture. Today, we join again, this time to issue a Promise to America's Parents . Why? As the website puts it, Local, state, and federal government policies are imposing ideologies that divide children by race and promote the falsehood that a boy can become a girl or vice-versa. Some schools are treating children as if they are the opposite sex without the permission of parents. Medical professionals are performing harmful experiments on children who are emotionally distressed about their bodies. To protect children, parents need laws that protect their rights. Simply put, no government entity should usurp the place of parents. In too many classrooms, progressive ideas are forced on children, targeting their hearts, minds, and identities. A reigning ideology in education is critical theory which, in its various forms, denies that every single person is made in the image of God. Thus, kids are taught to see other people in simplistic categories of oppressed or oppressor, to see Christianity as an oppressive and destructive historical force, and to see themselves primarily in terms of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Promise to America's Parents galvanizes parents to "A.C.T."—an acronym referring to accountability, choice, and transparency—on behalf of their children. According to the Promise , Children belong first and foremost to their families. In the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, they are not "mere creatures of the state." The unique and intimate relationship between a parent and a child creates a duty and a corresponding natural right. Parental rights are fundamental rights protected by the U.S. Constitution. However, courts have not consistently protected parental rights against government interference and invasion as they should. In the "A.C.T." acronym, a ccountability means that "Every mother or father may hold the government accountable for infringing on their rights to care for their child." Choice means that "Every mother or father has the responsibility and right to choose the education and medical treatment that they deem best for their child." Thus, neither schools, nor healthcare providers, nor schools acting like healthcare providers should push a child toward an alternative gender without the parents' permission. Schools also must not restrict a child's speech by creating vague anti-racist policies that would prohibit differing viewpoints being stated. Transparency means that "Every mother or father has the right to know about what their child is learning, their child's health, and any harms to them." Parents have the right to know the content within the curriculum, from textbooks to other materials. Parents have the right to know the content of their children's files. Specifically, no separate files should be kept to maintain secretive use of counseling, gender pronouns, or treatments. Please read the whole Promise to America's Parents at promisetoAmericasparents.org. There's also a free downloadable toolkit, explaining parental rights at schools and in doctors' offices. It also provides practical advice on how to proceed if a child describes their school day, and warning lights start flashing in your head. For example, the toolkit explains what you can and cannot ask for in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, how to access the school's curriculum, securing opt-out policies for classroom instruction that conflicts with religious or moral beliefs, and how to help children report statements or actions that treat students differently because of their race, religion, or moral views. There are also plenty of stories on the Promise website about parents who took a stand. Two parents whose stories are told are plaintiffs in cases represented by ADF. Melissa Riley says of her son, who is biracial, "He is changing . . . . If things don't go his way or things seem unfair, he will now claim it's racism. He never did that before." Another parent, Carlos Ibenez is a plaintiff because his daughter was told in middle school that as a Latina, she wouldn't succeed because the system was set up to privilege people with white skin. Parents can protect their children from indoctrination that targets the mind and the heart. Parents can protect their children from being co-opted by the state. Please, visit promisetoAmericasparents.org .
Jul 6, 2022
According to a recent poll conducted by Gallup , the portion of Americans who believe in God has dropped to barely over 80%. That's still a majority, but the one-in-five who don't believe is the highest number ever recorded in this country. Anyone seeking to understand this data should remember something theologian Carl F.H. Henry said, 70 years ago, when told that 99% of Americans believed in God: "The vast majority of Americans today may believe in a ghost god, in a phantom god, in a god who makes very little difference in the great decisions of life and even less in the cares of everyday existence." Imaginary gods, like imaginary friends, make us feel good for a time, but lose their staying power. That's true for individuals and for societies—which is why Christians must be clear on Who God is as He has revealed Himself in Scripture, in creation, and in Christ... not a god we create in our own image.
Jul 5, 2022
What looks like good news for a nation in the midst of a demographic crisis isn't really . Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that "U.S. births increased last year for the first time in seven years." In 2020, the U.S. fertility rate dipped to 1.64—the lowest "since the government began tracking it in the 1930s." In 2021, the rate increased for the first time since 2014, to 1.66. Though that sounds like good news, that's a lower spike than we'd historically expect during something that keeps everyone at home, such as a pandemic. One economist has called it a "minor blip" that "still leaves us on a long-term trajectory towards lower births." That's because the replacement rate is at least 2.1, and some scholars think 1.7 is the threshold of no return. Nations that fail to replace their population face economic stagnation and social instability . A society committed to adult happiness over the future and the well-being of children will be a nation that fails to replace its population. In other words, birth rates are more than statistics and historic predictors. They reflect a nation's priorities, values, and worldview.
Jul 5, 2022
The first step in making abortion unthinkable has been taken. Now that the Supreme Court has reversed Roe v. Wade with its ruling in the Dobbs case, it's time to roll up our sleeves and work towards building a culture of life. This is not the time to back off, or as some Christians have suggested, to tone it down. Back in May, at the " Preparing for a Post-Roe World " event at the Wilberforce Weekend , Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins issued a powerful and stirring challenge. Here's Kristan: Friends, tonight, I'm here to ask you to do something that's never been done before in the history of our world. I'm here to ask you, the Church, to join with the pro-life generation to put our nation back together in a post- Roe v. Wade world. And I implore you to help us achieve this mission that has thus far spanned five decades—church by church, city by city, state by state—as we move forward to make abortion unthinkable. Friends, the hour is upon us—something that we have all worked for, that many of you were working for before I was even created. Step one of our mission is almost complete. But there's so many more steps we have to go. And the Church must rise to the challenge, and you are being called to lead it. Make no mistake. The battles that we face in the coming months, the coming weeks will be physical, they'll be political, and they'll be spiritual. In our city streets, the violence that so many support behind the closed doors of the Planned Parenthood will be committed openly. And those in power will look the other way. In statehouses, those who we fought to elect will be forced to finally act to actually cast a vote that will determine the fate of lives. And I predict some of them who say that they're with us will not be so. And in our homes, our daughters and our granddaughters will start to order chemical abortion pills shipped from foreign countries or other states that could very well result in her own injury, infertility, or death. She'll be aborting her child, your grandchild, your great-grandchild in her bathroom, and every morning she'll return to the scene of that crime. In our workplaces, women and men will be hurting from past abortion decisions, and they'll be made to finally reckon with the choice that they made decades ago that they've been suppressing for years. And in our churches, what will we be doing? Will we be a thermostat that can transform the mores of our society—of our country—or will we simply sit back and be a thermometer? I believe it's not too late to become the former, but this relies on you. First, I must ask you to speak truth at your church, especially to this young generation who has never lived in America without legal abortion. Show your youth group the truth about the violence of abortion. Show them how they can actually step up to serve and transform. Convince your pastor—6% of which say that they've given a sermon on abortion in the past year—convince them to speak. Start a ministry for men and women hurting from past abortions. Start a ministry for pregnant and parenting women and men and families in need. A great first step is to join Students for Life and the Colson Center for the national Standing with Her Sunday simulcast. We're going to be launching August 28, and the goal is to get our churches all the tools that they need to support her. The second thing you can do is envision what your community will look like and must look like in the post- Roe era. Ask yourself how your church can step up—what you can do. And I have to warn you—envisioning things is a little dangerous. It's free—doesn't take any money—but it's powerful. Quell the flames of fear that Planned Parenthood is fanning in our nation. Show them we actually have a progressive view for our families and women in America. This is 2022. This is not 1952. No woman in 2022 America should ever have to choose between the life of her child for her education or for her career goals. Tell America about the 3,000 nonviolent pregnancy centers, the more than 400 maternity homes that vastly outnumber the abortion facilities in our country. Tell America about support: AfterAbortion.org , abortionpillreversal.org , standingwithyou.org —all the resources we have in place. This is fundamental. At Students for Life, we've knocked on 120,000 doors in the last year in neighborhoods in 20 cities that surround an abortion facility. And 73% of the neighbors we speak to have no clue that the pregnancy center exists in our community—have never even heard about it. Friends, when the Supreme Court finally reverses its anti-science Roe v. Wade decision, what choice, what decision are you going to make? What course of action will you commit to taking that will help us determine the fate of this cause—the greatest human rights struggle in the history of our life? Tonight, I implore you. Make a decision. Church, make a decision for a positive peace—to stand for innocent children and their mothers. Get to work to ensure that no woman stands alone in a post- Roe America. That was Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins speaking at our preparing for a post- Roe future event. To hear the entire talk, and for more recordings like this one equipping us to build a culture of life, go to WilberforceWeekend.org .
Jul 4, 2022
As part of The Gospel Coalition's " Good Faith Debates, " Scott Klusendorf and fellow pro-life advocate Karen Swallow Prior discuss what it means to stand for life today . Is it enough to oppose abortion? Or must the pro-life movement take on a wider range of causes? The exchange brings clarity to a hot button issue. Both agree that Christians should be consistent, and that our love for neighbor and commitment to life should be reflected in how we think about and address other issues, from genocide to racism, from artificial reproductive technologies to poverty. However, while the Christian life cannot be reduced to just one issue, the greatest injustices require our greatest attention. Pro-lifers should never apologize for focusing on and working tirelessly to end abortion, especially when about 900,000 children are aborted every year. So, we should celebrate the end of Roe , work for state-level protections for the preborn, speak with moral clarity on abortion, and help the women who need it most. Now is the time to double down, not back off.
Jul 4, 2022
Eleven years ago today, Chuck Colson delivered a Breakpoint commentary on what would be his last July 4 holiday. In it, Chuck reflected on the basis of our national identity. Specifically, he recognized that the only true way to ground the ideals found in the Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created equal" and possess "certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," is if we are indeed "endowed by their Creator." The stunning clarity of the Declaration of Independence in stating that rights are granted ultimately by God, not the State, is something too often forgotten today, if not entirely dismissed. Here's Chuck Colson reflecting on this important truth: The great British intellectual G.K. Chesterton wrote that "America is the only nation in the world that is founded on [a] creed." Think about that for a moment. Other nations were founded on the basis of race, or by the power of kings or emperors who accumulated lands—and the peasants who inhabited those lands. But America was—and is to this day—different. It was founded on a shared belief. Or as Chesterton said, on a creed. And what is that creed that sets us apart? It is the eloquent, profound, and simple statement penned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." I'll never forget when I graduated from Brown University during the Korean War. I couldn't wait to become a Marine officer, to give my life if necessary, to defend that creed. To defend the idea that our rights come from God Himself and are not subject to whims of governments or tyrants. That humans ought to be free to pursue their most treasured hopes and aspirations. Perhaps some 230 years later, we take these words for granted. But in 1776, they were earth-shaking, indeed, revolutionary. Yet today, they are in danger of being forgotten altogether. According to Gallup, 66% of American adults have no idea that the words, "we hold these truths," come from the Declaration of Independence. Even worse, only 45% of college seniors know that the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are proclaimed in the Declaration. As America grows more and more diverse culturally, religiously, ethnically, it is critical that we embrace the American creed. Yes, America has always been a "melting pot." But what is the pot that holds our multicultural stew together? Chesterton said the pot's "original shape was traced on the lines of Jeffersonian democracy." A democracy founded on those self-evident truths expressed in the Declaration of Independence. And as Chesterton remarked, "The pot must not melt." Abraham Lincoln understood this so well. For him, the notion that all men are created equal was "the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world." So go to the Fourth of July parade. Go to the neighborhood barbecue and enjoy the hot dogs and apple pie. But here's an idea for you. Why not take time out at the picnic to read the Declaration of Independence aloud with your friends and neighbors. Listen—and thrill—to those words that bind us together as a nation of freedom-loving people: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." These are the words that Americans live for—and if necessary, die for. Chuck Colson's words are just as relevant today, and perhaps even more important for us to understand. From all of us at the Colson Center, Happy 4th!
Jul 2, 2022
After discussing the horrific death of migrants in San Antonio, John and Maria talk about the reactions of some Christians to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. They analyze the hedging that is occurring and insist there's no shame in being grateful. Afterward, they parse misunderstandings of the establishment clause for Supreme Court cases on religious liberty. — Recommendations — What is a Woman>> Tearing Us Apart>> — In Show References — Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler "The Vatican's stance toward Nazism is fiercely debated. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope. But a key part of the story has remained untold" https://www.amazon.com/Church-Spies-Secret-Against-Hitler/dp/0465094112 On a Texas road called 'the mouth of the wolf,' a semitruck packed with migrants was abandoned in the sweltering heat "A distant cry led a worker Monday evening to a tractor-trailer abandoned on a desolate country road under the blazing Texas sun on the outskirts of the city." https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/us/san-antonio-migrant-truck-deaths/index.html John Mark Mcmillan - Economy
Jul 1, 2022
According to The Economist , potential employees are beginning to discover the cost of their online behavior. "The rise of the online self means the employer's eye can travel … past your desk, past your office and into your home, family and even (through ill-judged social-media posts) your most intimate thoughts. Today, companies wield the sort of spy power less commonly associated with directors than with dictators, even deities." Of course, this shouldn't come as a surprise since our "most intimate thoughts" aren't online in the first place unless someone chooses to post them. Still, the fact that some believe there should be a kind of immunity for bad behavior online points to a deeper truth about technology: Our tools shape us whether we like it or not. For example, s tudies show that "negativity" spreads more easily than "positivity" online. What we'd never say to someone's face, we'll put on Twitter. What we'd never say about a neighbor, we'll post on Nextdoor. We aren't two people. The best advice for Christians, whether online or off, is to "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer."
Jul 1, 2022
Today marks the death of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), a Christian whose storytelling ability inspired thousands to see the evils of slavery. Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, Harriet was the sixth child of prominent Presbyterian minister Lyman Beecher. Unlike many girls from that time period, she received a first-class education, attending the Hartford Female Seminary which was run by her older sister Catharine. In 1832, Harriet's father became president of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. The city was booming at the time, but competition for jobs between Irish immigrants and runaway slaves often erupted in violence, with the Irish attacking the black community. In 1834, the seminary held debates about slavery that, won by abolitionists, may have helped spur anti-abolitionist riots in 1836 and 1841. It was by witnessing these events that Harriet not only became interested in the issue of slavery, but also began to interview runaway slaves. Harriet and her husband Rev. Calvin Stowe relocated to Maine in 1850. That same year, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, which prohibited aiding runaway slaves, even in free states. As ardent abolitionists, the Stowes ignored this law. In fact, they made their home a station on the Underground Railroad. After losing her 18-month-old son, Stowe's sympathy for slaves separated from their families on the auction block deepened. Inspired by a vision of a dying slave, which she claimed to have experienced during Communion at her church, Stowe began to write the book for which she is now so well known. It is a book that can truly be said to have changed the world. Uncle Tom's Cabin was originally published as weekly installments in the anti-slavery journal The National Era, between June 5, 1851, and April 1, 1852. It was first published in book form in March of 1852, and sold an unprecedented 300,000 copies within its first year. By November of that same year, it was made into a play in New York. By 1857, the novel had been translated into 20 languages. Eventually, Uncle Tom's Cabin would become the second bestselling book of the 19th century after the Bible. While the main theme of the book is the evil of slavery, it also includes significant reflections on the nature of Christianity, Christian responsibility, and Christian love. In the end, Stowe clearly and compellingly presents slavery as incompatible with Christian theology. In this, she followed the mainstream of Christian tradition since the Middle Ages. Stowe hoped her book would show how slavery affected, not just those directly involved, but everyone in society. She also hoped to document the horrors of slavery which she had learned directly from escaped slaves. In each of these aims, the book succeeded admirably. Its popularity energized the abolitionist movement in the North, and prominent abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass promoted it as a vital tool in the battle against slavery. Not surprisingly, Uncle Tom's Cabin generated significant backlash in the South. Southerners complained the novel was slanderous and accused Stowe of not knowing what she was talking about. Some Southern authors responded with novels of their own that defended slavery, but none that approached the success of Uncle Tom's Cabin . Stowe received hate mail from defenders of slavery in both the North and the South, including one package that contained the severed ear of a slave, ironic evidence for the accuracy of her description of slavery's horrors. In response to her critics, Stowe wrote A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin , in which she documented the sources used in her novel, as well as the accounts that corroborated her descriptions. During the Civil War, Stowe was invited to the White House. Lincoln is said to have greeted her with the words, "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." Altogether, Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. As important as she was as an author, she was equally famous for her public stands on the important social issues of the day, from slavery to women's rights. Her courageous life is a profound example of someone using their calling to engage the world around them. By obeying God's calling on her life, using her God-given talent in the time and place in which He called her, she changed her world and continues to influence ours. May we also have the courage to do the same with our own skills in this cultural moment.
Jun 30, 2022
"For many years, the internet in China was seen as a channel for new thinking, or at least greater openness," writes Human Rights Watch researcher Yaqiu Wang . "Online discussions were relatively free and open, and users, especially younger ones, had an eager appetite for learning and debating big ideas about political systems and how China should be governed." That changed when Xi Jinping took power. Explaining what's known as China's "Great Firewall," Wang notes, "the government got savvier, and more aggressive about using its own technology." For example, dissidents, journalists, and public figures disappear frequently, sometimes often for minor infractions like logging onto Twitter. The state's actions have created "a generational split," says Wang. "[T]hose who experienced a relatively free internet as young people—many strongly resent the Great Firewall. Among people who started college after Xi took power, however, there is a strong impulse to defend it." It's an extreme example of how tools intended and used for good can also be harnessed for evil. The same resource that can promote flourishing can also promote tyranny. That's true everywhere, not just China.
Jun 30, 2022
In all the talk about racial injustices, the racial disparities for abortion are ignored. And that's because we would need to talk about marriage. I'm John Stonestreet, and this is Breakpoint. Recently in The Wall Street Journal , Jason Riley asked a provocative question, "Why Won't the Left Talk About Racial Disparities in Abortion?" In it, he describes how the "black abortion rate is nearly four times higher than the white rate," how more black babies in New York City are aborted than born, and how "[n]ationally, the number of babies aborted by black women each year far exceeds the combined number of blacks who drop out of school, are sent to prison and are murdered." Even books on racism by Christian publishers, for example, Jemar Tisby's How to Fight Racism, never mention the significant racial disparities that exist when it comes to abortion, even while spending significant time on other disparities, such as student achievement, incarceration, wealth, and healthcare in general. The new book Faithful Anti-Racism by Christian Barland Edmondson and Chad Brennan shares similar disparity stats to Tisby's, but the only mentions of abortion are embedded in quotations regarding conservative interests. According to Riley, one issue is that talking about the racial disparity when it comes to abortion would necessitate discussing how to "increase black marriage rates," since so many women having abortions are single. Riley states: One problem is that such a conversation requires frank talk about counterproductive attitudes toward marriage and solo parenting in low-income black communities. It requires discussing antisocial behavior and personal responsibility. Now, to be clear, disparities do not always point to injustice or racism. As Thaddeus Williams writes In Confronting Justice Without Compromising Truth , those who call themselves antiracists assume that disparities reveal widespread discrimination or institutional injustice. And disparities do sometimes point to systemic wrongs. Clearly, in Exodus 1 , if the midwives Shiphrah and Puah had obeyed Pharoah when ordered to slaughter baby boys, a clear injustice would have created a disparity between the number of Hebrew boys born versus the number of Egyptian boys. Other times, disparities do not reveal an injustice. In his book, Williams describes how what appeared to be a racial disparity issue of injustice on the New Jersey Turnpike turned to be an issue cause by age instead. Disparities can have multiple factors. In the case of the high number of abortions of black babies, as we've shared on Breakpoint before, almost 80% of Planned Parenthood's clinics, according to a 2012 study, were near majority black or Hispanic neighborhoods . Pro-abortion advocates argue that the racial disparity for abortion is more about poverty. Perhaps, for example, the mother couldn't afford to care for another baby. According to Riley in the Wall Street Journal, however, this argument fails to explain why the abortion numbers among Hispanics who are impoverished are not comparable. Riley proposes that the high number of abortions of black babies is related to a reduced number of marriages. Quoting a book by Stanford law professor Ralph Richard Banks, Riley writes, A single woman with an unplanned pregnancy is about twice as likely as a married woman to abort. . . . Black women thus may have so many more abortions than other groups in part because they are so much less likely to be married. Since blacks who are married are much less likely to be in poverty, then why, he asks, aren't activists promoting black marriage? It's a good question. According to the Family Research Council , "Married-couple families generate the most income, on average " compared to single-parent families, cohabiting families, or divorced families. Other studies have shown that marriage provides health benefits and the ability to deal with stress . One individual courageous enough to talk about such issues is Anthony Bradley, a professor at The King's College and an Acton Research Fellow, whom Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family, and I hosted at an event, Lighthouse Voices, last February. Prof. Bradley points out again and again "that marriage is the vital/essential/the actual oxygen children *need* to thrive." He writes, " If you love the poor, providing resources to support marriage has to be a top priority, otherwise you're likely just helping people remain comfortably poor." Once again one of God's ideas—marriage—is the best idea.
Jun 29, 2022
Last month, NBA legend LeBron James tweeted, "It's a weird feeling to feel so alone sometimes!" He received over 4,000 replies from people expressing sympathy, disbelief, and from some, criticism. It can be difficult to understand how rich, famous celebrities, like LeBron, could be lonely. Doesn't he have it all? Four NBA championships, two Olympic gold medals, a $23 million LA mansion, marriage to his high school sweetheart, three kids, deep investment in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, ... and still, he feels lonely, even when 138,000 people liked his tweet saying so. The problem with having it all is defining "it all." Define it wrong, and you could get everything you want before realizing the hole in your heart is actually God-shaped. Fame, talent, wealth, stuff, activism, charity ... these things only mean something if life itself has meaning. Of course, loneliness has always been part of the human condition after Eden, and I certainly don't know what LeBron is dealing with. I just know more people than ever report being lonely, despite having more things than ever to distract them.
Jun 29, 2022
This term of the U.S. Supreme Court has been consequential, to say the least. In addition to the landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health , the court has now issued a second ruling that protects religious freedom. The first, issued about a week ago, protects religious institutions from being singled out and discriminated against by state-run entities and programs. The 6-3 decision was consistent with previous rulings in Trinity Lutheran v. Comer and Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue that state programs available to non-religious entities cannot be withheld from religious entities simply because they are religious. Instead, the state bears the burden of proof to demonstrate a compelling state interest in discriminating against religious institutions. It remains to be seen whether state officials have finally gotten the message. This week, the court handed down their decision on Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, or what's become known as the "Coach Kennedy Case." High school football coach Joe Kennedy was fired for praying on the football field after games by school officials who kept (pun intended) "moving the goal posts" about what religious expressions were allowed. Contrary to various news reports, Kennedy never forced student athletes, coaches, or anyone else to join him. After school officials raised concerns, he even agreed to pray silently by himself. However, he was told that if he insisted on closing his eyes in silent prayer, he must do it somewhere out of sight . Coach Kennedy rightly recognized their demands as a violation of his right to free religious expression and took his case to the Supreme Court with the aid of First Liberty Institute . On Monday, the court ruled overwhelmingly for Coach Kennedy, on both free speech and free exercise grounds. As Justice Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion: By its own admission, the District sought to restrict Mr. Kennedy's actions at least in part because of their religious character. Prohibiting a religious practice was thus the District's unquestioned "object." The District explained that it could not allow an on duty employee to engage in religious conduct even though it allowed other on-duty employees to engage in personal secular conduct. This behavior, Gorsuch concluded, was unacceptable. Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a personal religious observance, based on a mistaken view that it has a duty to suppress religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech. The Constitution neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination. Often, religious liberty violations are more symptoms of bureaucratic inertia or ignorance, than of animus. The first few letters sent by school officials to Coach Kennedy asking him to stop praying are not rantings of radical atheists. Officials acknowledged Coach Kennedy was "well-intentioned" and never forced students to participate in his religious observances. Still, they asked him to stop out of fear they would be sued for a First Amendment violation. In the end, they failed to understand the First Amendment and violated it themselves. This is what happens when ignorance of the law mixes with stubbornness, or, even worse, animus toward religious conviction. When religion is seen as non-essential, religious freedom is limited to "religious" activities like private prayer, church attendance, and personal piety. At the same time, "secular" is wrongfully thought of as "neutral" or "unbiased." Faith is reduced to a hobby, and a highly idiosyncratic one at that. Spiritually inspired convictions must be kept safely within church, synagogue, and mosque walls, and out of the government and schools. This, however, is not religious liberty. It is merely "freedom of worship," what some of the worst tyrannies and their successors falsely claim to be freedom. Thankfully, the court has seen through this muddled thinking and brought clarity to the freedom all Americans have to speak and exercise their religious convictions. Christians, and those of other faiths, absolutely can stand on a football field and close our eyes in prayer, even if others can see us. Christian educators can cite the Bible as a historical record or a masterclass in philosophy. Christian school kids can host Bible studies after school . Christian workers do have the freedom to not take part in the latest ideological fad that business leaders have latched onto. I am grateful for our friends at First Liberty, ADF, and elsewhere that defend conscience rights, and for organizations like Gateways to Better Education who help Christian educators know what those rights, in fact, are . I am grateful that the court has stated, again, that being religious is not a crime, and that the state is required to respect the religious freedom of individuals and institutions. A final lesson for Christians is that we must not become like those who seek to silence us. If the truth is on our side, we've no reason to fear.
Jun 28, 2022
Disney's newest Pixar film, Lightyear, isn't doing great at the box office . While critics puzzle over why, an obvious reason is parents are tiring of the constant indoctrination in sexual matters. They feel betrayed by the once trusted Toy Story franchise. All that may come as a surprise to Chris Evans, the new voice of Buzz, who recently said concerned parents are "idiots" who will soon "die off like the dinosaurs." Not only, as Hans Fiene noted, is it strange for 41-year-old man with no children to predict the extinction of the fertile, it's strange to leave children asking whether girls can marry girls, and how the couple had the baby who just magically appears in the film . It's one thing to promote the idea that dads and moms are interchangeable despite, you know, science, but it's another to accuse anyone tired of being force-fed this whole thing of bigotry. As one reviewer put it, "Perhaps calling critics of a movie 'idiots who are going to die off like the dinosaurs' wasn't the best strategy to get families to watch the latest entry in the Toy Story franchise."
Jun 28, 2022
There are certain moments in history, such as the end of the Roman Empire or the dawn of the Enlightenment, when it becomes obvious just how much the cultural ground has shifted. In such moments, cultural norms that once fostered social cohesion and defined the good life can change dramatically. Shared ways of thinking, such as the definitions of words, can no longer be taken for granted. It's precisely at these historical hinge points that Christians must "re-catechize" themselves. This means recommitting to what is true and good, and regrounding who we are and how we live in the unchanging, overarching story of redemption outlined in Scripture. We are living in one of these historical hinge points. And, if we take seriously what Paul told the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens, it is not by accident. God intentionally put us in this time and this place . Or, to quote something Tim Tebow said at the " Preparing for a Post-Roe World " event at the recent Wilberforce Weekend, "Anyone who has been rescued is now on the rescue team." God has called the Colson Center to help Christians navigate this consequential cultural moment, to become more deeply grounded in the True Story of reality, and to embrace their calling to this time and this place. In fact, every resource the Colson Center offers is designed to provide (a) a Christian worldview analysis on culture (that's Breakpoint, The Point , and the What Would You Say? video series ) , (b) a deeper dive into Christian worldview, one that counters the dominant cultural narratives (that's the Upstream and Strong Women podcasts, short courses, and Wilberforce Weekend ), or (c) in-depth formation in Christian wisdom and leadership (that's the Colson Fellows program and the Colson Educators collective). Our founder, Chuck Colson, realized that American culture was changing dramatically—he could see it coming—and that the Church needed to prepare for what lay ahead. We've embraced that call fully, and as our podcasts, conferences, training, and events continue to grow, we sense that more and more Christians are also sensing that they need to go deeper in their understanding of truth. This year's Wilberforce Weekend event was the largest yet and featured the commissioning of the largest class of Colson Fellows yet. We anticipate over 1,000 Colson Fellows in next year's class, studying in nearly 60 regional cohorts and over 40 church affiliates. That's amazing. The Colson Educators collective is an investment into the training and formation of thousands of Christian educators, at a time—right now—where it is crucial for Christian education. And this year, by God's grace, the Colson Center will launch a new, online education in public theology that every Christian can access. We believe that every Christian can live like one in this time and this place. And that's exactly what every Christian is called to do. We didn't choose to be in this cultural moment, or to face the challenges it presents. Our time and our place in history are chosen by God. Our moment in history is not an accidental context in which we try to follow Jesus: It's an essential aspect of the calling to follow Jesus. He invites us into His life and to join in the advance of His kingdom and His story right now. So, if Breakpoint or any of the Colson Center ministries have been helpful to you, as a parent, grandparent, citizen, employee, leader, or neighbor, please prayerfully consider partnering with us with a fiscal-year-end gift. Any gift given by Thursday, June 30, 2022, will help us plan to more effectively obey the call God has for the Colson Center in the year ahead. Imagine if more Christians could live with the clarity, confidence, and courage that only a Christian worldview offers. That's what this is all about. To give a gift, please go to ColsonCenter.org/June .
Jun 27, 2022
The U.S. Department of Education is changing the rules again, and, again, forcing teachers into situations they may not be prepared for. On June 23, the feds announced that , going forward, gender identity would be included in protected classes under Title IX. Between the efforts of federal officials implementing the latest executive orders and the activism of LGBTQ advocacy groups, school administrators struggle to keep up. Too often they end up caving to these outsiders by crafting new rules of dubious legality. Even though some of these bureaucratic diktats have been successfully challenged in court, those most affected, like teachers and students, don't always know their rights when faced with this top-down pressure. If you find yourself in that position, here are two groups you might want to contact. First, there's our longtime partner organization, the Alliance Defending Freedom , who will protect teachers of conscience. Second, there's the Colson Center's education initiative that trains teachers to know where and how to stand on these very important issues.
Jun 27, 2022
After nearly 50 years of waiting, working, praying, and weeping, a moment longed for by millions around the nation and around the world has arrived. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned, not only the heinous 1973 Supreme Court decision known as Roe v. Wade , but also the equally flawed decision from 1992, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization , the Supreme Court found that these earlier cases, the foundation of so-called abortion rights for a half-century, were without legal merit. Therefore, the final ruling was as follows : "The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives." To be clear, this ruling doesn't end abortion in America, nor does it legally ban abortion. It means that state-level restrictions on abortion are not immediately invalidated by Supreme Court decisions that even honest pro-abortion legal theorists have recognized as poorly decided . It means that the work to see abortion swept into the same dustbin as other historic evils can now proceed legally unencumbered as it has long been. The next milestones are that abortion is made illegal in as many places as possible and, eventually, as unthinkable as slavery is. Already, state officials have begun working to outlaw or dramatically restrict abortion in their states. Ohio's attorney general has moved to revive its "heartbeat bill," abortion will be illegal in Tennessee within a month, and Missouri has effectively ended the vile practice already. Much has begun, with many areas already prepared to enact similar pro-life laws , and much more remains to be done. The Dobbs ruling is not a surprise. The final draft of the majority opinion was virtually unchanged from an earlier draft leaked back in May . Not only did Justice Alito, who authored the opinion, conclude that a Mississippi abortion restriction could stand, but also that Roe and Casey were promulgated without any constitutional or historical precedent, that the so-called viability argument was inadequate, and that decisions about regulating abortion should return to voters and their elected officials. Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan co-authored a dissent, which (I suspect) will be quoted far more often than the majority opinion by most media outlets, especially this line: "With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent," wrote the justices. The main difference between the leaked draft of the opinion and the final version is must-read material for everyone. In four pages, beginning on page 35 of his opinion , Justice Alito absolutely dismantles the dissent. "The dissent," writes Alito, "does not identify any pre- Roe authority that supports such a right—no state constitutional provision or statute, no federal or state judicial precedent, not even a scholarly treatise." Or again, Like the infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson , Roe was also egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided. Casey perpetuated its errors, calling both sides of the national controversy to resolve their debate, but in doing so, Casey necessarily declared a winning side. Those on the losing side—those who sought to advance the State's interest in fetal life—could no longer seek to persuade their elected representatives to adopt policies consistent with their views. Of course, many are outraged by this decision. Women's March President Rachel Carmona already declared a "summer of rage." In recent weeks, there have been acts of arson and vandalism, threats of violence against pro-life leaders and conservative justices, all with promise of more to come. In mid-June, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore released a statement asking "our elected officials to take a strong stand against this violence, and our law enforcement authorities to increase their vigilance in protecting those who are in increased danger." According to Lila Rose of Live Action , the Department of Homeland Security has warned churches and other pro-life organizations to be prepared for "extreme violence" coming from pro-abortion agitators. Today, it is right to celebrate a long-awaited and hard-earned victory in the fight to protect pre-born lives, with thanks to God. We thank God for this cultural grace. We thank Him for the Roman Catholics who called out this evil when many Protestants took refuge in moral ambiguity, and for courageous Protestants like Francis Schaeffer who called evangelicals out of their moral slumber on abortion. We thank God for all who spoke for life, signed petitions, attended rallies, crafted legislation, were spat upon and yelled at by those for whom Roe was a sacrament, not of life but of death. We thank God for the many people, mostly women, who have showed up every day for women and their children at churches, pregnancy resource centers, living rooms, and elsewhere to show compassion and speak life. There've been times in the last 50 years when many assumed we'd never see the end of Roe . I confess to being among those skeptics . Today, a colleague reminded us of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, and now Christmas carol, " I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day ": Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men." The Colson Center has compiled many resources to help prepare the Church for a post- Roe world. You can find them here and here . Also, in July, we'll be making available Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis' book Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing. Because although today we celebrate with thanksgiving to God, tomorrow we get back to work... until abortion is not only illegal but also unthinkable.
Jun 25, 2022
While Maria's out for the day, John and Shane swivel to discuss the breaking news of the reversal of Roe v. Wade after the Supreme Court announced the Dobbs decision. Reading through the ruling in real time, John points out that Roe was never constitutional. Because Shane just had an opportunity to interview Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis on their new book Tearing Us Apart, he talks about how abortion harms not only preborn children but entire cultural systems. As John and Shane close, they reflect on the disembodiment of not only abortion but also of the message conveyed about a married lesbian couple in Disney's new Pixar film: Lightyear. And yet, recent research has once again shown that fathers are irreplaceable.
Jun 24, 2022
Given the amount of attention the issue gets, it's easy to yield to a so-called "inevitability thesis" when it comes to transgender ideology, that it's just a matter of time before everyone is on board. A recent story aired for pride month highlighted the story of two parents who chose to raise their biologically female daughter as a transgender boy. "Before Ryland could even speak," the anchor narrates, " he managed to tell his parents that he is a boy." But, the piece continues, "unlike some trans kids, when Ryland came out at the age of five a few years later, he had the full support of his parents." This story was carried by Fox News , the so-called "conservative" news outlet. Saying, with a straight face, that a child as young as five could somehow "come out" to her parents before she "can even speak," tells us next to nothing about the child. It does, however, speak volumes about the parents, as well as the sad state of a culture that does not allow a story like that to be scrutinized. We're never told, for example, how Ryland somehow "knew" she was a boy as a baby. Now that Ryland's 14, we are not told the plan for puberty, or beyond. Will chemicals be administered to block puberty? Will destructive and irreversible surgeries enable her family to maintain the charade? Fox 's segment is the same paper-thin propaganda we've come to expect from other outlets, promoting a dangerous and unprecedented idea while inferring that anyone not on board simply doesn't have enough love in their hearts. The reality, of course, is different. Across the country, thousands of young people are being permanently marked by physical and psychological damage. In fact, some are now expressing deep regret, and their stories are coming to light. Journalist Laura Dodsworth recently published a piece at the U.K.'s The Critic titled " The False Euphoria of Dysphoria ." It's worth quoting at length: I photographed and interviewed women [ who] thought they were transgender, had "top surgery", then went on to change their mind and detransition. But although they reverted their names, pronouns and passports, flesh cannot be returned after a double mastectomy. The effects of testosterone cannot be undone, nor the removal of the uterus and ovaries, which some of these detransitioners also had, leaving them sterile, on hormone replacement therapy for life, and traumatized. Dodsworth describes how one young woman, Lucy, who, struggling with anorexia and body dysmorphia, was quickly prescribed gender reassignment surgery as treatment: "At the age of just 23, she could not comprehend how doctors could remove her breasts, uterus and ovaries. 'I feel mutilated,' she said." Another young woman, Susanna, described how her dysphoria grew from the scars of unaddressed sexual abuse: "For me, transition was a kind of self-harm. I was trying to destroy the person I was." Still another young woman, Sinead, wishes she could have received real help instead of a quick fix: I've tried to talk about background issues with therapists. … Actually, I think my gender issues came out of mental health, not the other way around. … For the rest of my life I will always be bewildered that this was allowed to happen. I was dealing with unaddressed trauma from sexual abuse. I needed therapy and help, not a bilateral mastectomy. The conclusion, according to Dodsworth, is simple. Listen to the stories of those who have detransitioned. Women's sports, prisons, even the basic question of what a woman is, have become a uniquely modern battlefield. Detransitioners bear the literal scars of this battle. ... The problem is that young people are affirmed and groomed before the first doctor's appointment by euphoric and unbalanced content on social media. One trans man's pure joy may be another woman's pure regret. The stories Dodsworth tells are just some of the stories now emerging from young people dealing with incredible regret. Figures like Helena Kerschner or Scott Newgent , and hundreds of others on blogs , Twitter threads , and Reddit posts are telling the sobering truth about what trans ideology cost them. What this means for Christians is that we must not buy into any "inevitability thesis" when it comes to trans ideology. We aren't on the wrong side of history, or of our religious beliefs, or of love. The number of detransition stories coming out of the U.K . are a good example that, if anything, America is out of step with much of the rest of the world, who are currently applying the brakes to "gender transitioning" therapies for minors. Also, Christians must give up, once and for all, a foolish and dangerous position of neutrality on this issue. Most damning of all is the claim that to not oppose the destructive gender ideologies of our culture is somehow "the loving thing to do." Too many stories of regret and permanent damage have already emerged. More are told every day. We can never again say that we didn't know. Creating space for these stories to be shared is a powerful way to combine truth with compassion. Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims. In our cultural moment, the victims are not supposed to exist. But they do, and if we can share their burden or prevent the pain of even one other, we must.
Jun 24, 2022
"Perhaps it's the clarity that comes from enduring a difficult period, but I've noticed, in myself and others, a diminishing tolerance for uncomfortable or unfulfilling social interactions," Melissa Kirsch recently wrote in The New York Times . Reflecting on the impacts of the pandemic, Kirsch repeated what has become cultural orthodoxy: If certain relationships are a drag on your health, time, happiness, or resources, ditch them. Of course, Scripture says that "bad company corrupts good morals." But it also says to "bear one another's burdens" and to not only "love our neighbor" but also our enemies. In other words, friendships are so fragile today because our modern notions of friendship get it almost exactly backwards. Self ish instead of self-giving, the character ingredients a friendship needs in order to survive are incredibly rare: humility, patience with the faults of others, a willingness to laugh at ourselves. G.K. Chesterton put it this way : "Sociability, like all good things, is full of discomforts, dangers, and renunciations." Real friendship just isn't for the self-interested. That's why it's rare. That's also why it's worth it.
Jun 23, 2022
This month, Colorado became the first state to officially ban anonymous sperm and egg donation . The law also gives those conceived through anonymous donation the right to seek out their biological parents at 18. This is a win for reproductive ethics and for children. As Katy Faust at Them Before Us puts it, every child has the right to the love of their biological mom and dad, and that relationship matters throughout development. On average, kids raised by their married biological parents do better on every economic, social, and emotional metric. And many children of our technologies struggle with identity, too. Left with the anguish of a missing or ambiguous parent, they wonder, Who am I? Where do I come from? Was I wanted? In sperm donation, especially anonymous sperm donation, this lack of knowledge is by design. It's a feature of sperm donation, not a glitch, treating children as products ordered by adults, sometimes even with specifications. The children's wellbeing is, at best, secondary. Colorado has long been a disaster on reproductive ethics, but this was the right call. We can hope other states will follow suit.
Jun 23, 2022
To repeat something said on Breakpoint last month, kids deserve better books than the ones currently being written for them. Too many children's books today are activist books, not really written to kids (and certainly not for them) but to and for grown-ups who want to be the kind of parents who would give this kind of book to their kids. I must admit, however, that I recently received an "activist" kid book that I really like, and so does my son. It's age appropriate, written to kids, and designed to help them think well about something that they, sadly, need to understand. Pro-Life Kids is authored by Bethany Bomberger. She and her husband Ryan, who recently spoke at the 2022 Wilberforce Weekend , are committed pro-lifers, creatives, and Christians. An experienced educator and mom, Bethany understands where kids are developmentally. Pro-Life Kids teaches them what's most true about themselves and others, that every person is made in the image and likeness of God, and introduces them to an issue that's really difficult to talk about—abortion—in an appropriate and engaging way. And, of course, it rhymes! Here's a sample: Sadly, there are those who don't understand … that life has purpose whether planned or unplanned. Throughout history many believed a lie. "You're not a person!" "No way!" they cried. Today many think that lie is still true— that babies in wombs aren't people too. Abortion is when some say it's okay to take that baby's precious life away.* The illustrations are instructive, but also appropriate. For example, the image on the page that introduces abortion is of an ambulance leaving an abortion clinic. And, my favorite page spread shows the value of every human life with a charming set of illustrations sharing the stages of development from baby to elderly, including people of multiple races, male and female, abled and disabled. Near the end is an elderly woman with gray hair and a walker. After the book's main text, there are tips on how kids can stand for life at any age, contained in 15 colorful text blocks. Suggestions include everything from loving their adoptive siblings, to praying outside abortion centers, to marching in D.C., to writing an essay about being pro-life, to showing their friends this book. Bethany Bomberger and her husband Ryan lead the Radiance Foundation , a non-profit dedicated to "create a culture that believes every human life has purpose." They've raised millions for pregnancy resource centers, and they have a special stake in their cause. Ryan was conceived through rape, but his mom was courageous enough to proceed with his pregnancy. He was adopted into a loving, diverse family of 15. Bethany was a single mom who chose to have her baby after seeing an ultrasound of her daughter and encountering Psalm 34:5 : "Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed." That verse has been the basis of the Radiance Foundation since its founding. Ryan and Bethany have also adopted two children. In fact, one of the most compelling illustrations in Pro-Life Kids is of their own diverse family. Bethany's story will be featured on the Colson Center's Strong Women podcast in August, and Ryan's message from our "Life Redeemed" Wilberforce Weekend can be heard online right now. In it, Ryan calls himself a "factivist," instead of an activist. According to Ryan, many people act without facts, but factivists act with facts. They know that truth is unchanging because God is eternal. His message includes how to identify the lies of secularism "when it comes to human value." Bethany has a baby book version coming out soon and is launching an initiative called Put It on the Shelf, aimed at getting her book on library shelves to counter the "massive influx of books with destructive ideologies." In fact, when you order a copy of Pro-Life Kids, pick up an extra copy to donate to the library. It's a way of living out something the book says quite clearly, "Like many before us who stood for what's right, we'll never give up as we fight for life." To hear Ryan's message, and also messages of others, such as Os Guinness, Nancy Guthrie, and Rachel Gilson, go to WilberforceWeekend.org . And check out Bethany's book Pro-Life Kids. I believe it's another way, paraphrasing Psalm 145:4 , for one generation to commend God's works to another. *Excerpt used with permission.
Jun 22, 2022
According to a recent WORLD magazine opinion piece , "a massive trove of documentary evidence" was released this month, detailing in concrete terms China's brutality towards minority groups. "The files include photographs of detainees (including children), flamboyant speeches by senior Communist Party officials, police and military reports, and training documents," Eric Patterson, the executive vice president of the Religious Freedom Institute, described. "They expose the precision of China's genocidal policies toward Muslim Uyghurs." Drawn from leaked police reports, this evidence leaves little room for China's leaders to deny their atrocities. Despite official claims, this is not a matter of Chinese national security, and China's leaders are not impartial observers. They are orchestrating the process. A quote attributed to Greek tragedian Aeschylus states that "in war, truth is the first casualty." Whether an actual war with China is in the cards, we are the middles of what Patterson calls "a war of ideas and a war on how international affairs will be conducted." In such war, truth is on the front lines, and it must be told.
Jun 22, 2022
Back in 2017, with a 7-2 majority vote, the Supreme Court ruled that denying a church "an otherwise available public benefit on account of its religious status" amounts to violating the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution. In that case, known as Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer , a Missouri church that operated a licensed pre-school and day-care facility applied for funding from a state program that offered "funds for qualifying organizations to purchase recycled tires to resurface playgrounds." Though Trinity Lutheran met all of the qualifications of the program, the state of Missouri informed them that a grant would violate a provision in the state constitution that "no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, section or denomination of religion." That provision was one of 36 so-called "Blaine Amendments" in state constitutions, amendments originally aimed at Catholic schools and born of the now-incredible belief that public schools were a principal instrument in safeguarding America's Protestant Christian character. Trinity Lutheran sued the state, claiming that because of the Free Exercise clause in the First Amendment, a government benefit available to some organizations cannot be withheld from others solely because of religion. Remember, the First Amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Trinity Lutheran argued the "prohibiting the free exercise thereof" part. The state emphasized the "establishment of religion" part. In his majority decision, Chief Justice Roberts came down squarely on the side of Trinity Lutheran, chiding Missouri for forcing the church to choose between whether to "participate in an otherwise available benefit program or remain a religious institution." The right to be a church, he said, should not come "at the cost of automatic and absolute exclusion from the benefits of a public program for which the Center is otherwise fully qualified." The Missouri law could only be justified if it served some compelling governmental interest in the least restrictive manner, a standard the state of Missouri failed to meet. So, Justice Roberts concluded, "the exclusion of Trinity Lutheran from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution all the same, and cannot stand." Then, in 2020, the Chief Justice authored another similarly blunt and straightforward opinion in Espinoza vs. Montana Department of Revenue . In that case, decided by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court held that a state tax credit, in which Montana awarded a dollar-for-dollar tax credit to individuals who donated to organizations that provide scholarships for private school students, could not "[discriminate] against religious schools and the families whose children attend or hope to attend them." After creating the program, the Montana Department of Revenue had ruled that such a tax credit, if used to fund to religious private schools, would violate that state's version of the "Blaine Amendment." Kendra Espinoza, a single mom who hoped to send her kids to a Christian school, challenged the Department of Revenue ruling in court. In late 2018, the Montana Supreme Court acknowledged that the Department's ruling ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution's Free Exercise Clause. Instead of overturning the ruling, however, it invalidated the entire program. In his opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts referenced his earlier Trinity Lutheran opinion , stating that Montana lacked a "compelling government interest" in discriminating against religious schools and that religion is not a secondary part of the First Amendment. Roberts continued, the attempt to invalidate the whole program did not change Montana's "error of federal law." Because of the Trinity Lutheran decision, the Montana Court knew the Department's ruling was unconstitutional. However, instead of applying the decision as it should have, it invalidated the whole program "to make absolutely sure that religious schools received no aid." That action in itself violated the Free Exercise Clause, said Roberts: "A State need not subsidize private education. But once a State decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious." In summary, the Court has been more than clear on the rights of religious institutions. That, however, did not stop the state of Maine from continuing to discriminate against religious schools in their state funding program. Once again, the Court in an opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts , said "no." Under a Maine program that provides tuition assistance for parents who live in school districts without a secondary school, parents "designate the secondary school they would like their child to attend, and the school district transmits payments." That includes private schools, as long as they are accredited, but, since 1981, not "sectarian" schools. If these facts of the Carson v. Makin case sound somewhat familiar, they also did to the Chief Justice. And so, in an opinion released yesterday announcing a 6-3 decision against the state of Maine, the Chief Justice stated bluntly, "The principles in Trinity Lutheran and Espinoza suffice to resolve this case," and that the state's "'nonsectarian' requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment." It's another win for religious liberty, at least the religious liberty of religious institutions. Once again, the Court and its Chief Justice John Roberts have been crystal clear: The state need not, and indeed must not, sacrifice the Free Exercise clause on the altar of the Establishment clause.
Jun 21, 2022
As University of Tennessee professor James Tucker writes , "The deterioration of reading achievement in the United States has been noted for decades, and the many attempts to correct this decay have been unsuccessful." He then quotes a sobering statistic: "At least "44 million adults [in the United States] are now unable to read a simple story to their children." The question is, why ? Obvious factors include poverty, technology and education, but so are our ideas about what literacy is for . We've largely rejected the great books of the past, preferring subjective and personal experiences to universal truths. So why study? Also, today's emphasis on race, politics, and sexuality in education has transformed literacy from a gift, into more of a weapon. Simply put, literacy cannot be ideologically neutral. It's not just about that we read or even what we read. It's also about why . Consider William Tyndale who rightly sensed all people should be able to read Scripture. He believed that "the boy that drives the plow" could be more knowledgeable of Scripture than the Latin-speaking elite. Words are powerful. And that's why literacy matters.
Jun 21, 2022
A once-popular song by the band Switchfoot declared, "We were meant to live for so much more but we lost ourselves . " In the closing line of his remake of the song "Hurt" (which, by the way, was way better than the original version), Johnny Cash lamented that the one thing he'd do differently, if he could live life over, was "keep himself—I would find a way." Most people, no matter their worldview, resonate with this kind of thinking about life. It points to something the Bible claims about how God made us, that we all have some innate knowledge of God. We think about life in ultimate categories and in terms of moral expectations, and we seek purpose. The problem, of course, is that because we are marred by sin, so is our pursuit of the truth about who we are and what life is all about. In Christ, our relationships are reconciled, not only with God but also with ourselves and, of course, others too. The freedom, joy, and beauty that result when relationships are re-ordered in Christ is something we are to proclaim to the wider world. Often, however, we struggle to communicate the truth about Christ and life across worldview and cultural lines. In fact, the further adrift a culture is from reality, the more that reality sounds like make-believe. Up seems like down, and down seems like up. It is easy to get the impression that all of our efforts to present truth to others goes nowhere. In his recent book, Mark Mittelberg tackles the challenge and our calling to communicate faith in this cultural moment. Contagious Faith teaches believers to communicate to a world looking for better answers to life's ultimate questions. According to Mittelberg, a big obstacle Christians must overcome is to first actually believe that our faith is worth sharing: I'm reminded of times in my life when I caught something that I couldn't resist and didn't really want to. Contagious isn't always a bad thing. … It describes something irresistible... What if instead of quietly clinging to our relationship with Christ and succumbing to the idea that faith should be private, we realized that faith is for sharing? That Jesus came not just for me and you, but to be the Savior of the world? While it's easy to feel intimidated by the thought of sharing Jesus with others, Mark's approach emphasizes the different gifts and skills present within the body of Christ. He describes five "contagious faith styles" we can learn to practice. Those with the Friendship-Building Style are more like Matthew, the former tax collector-turned-disciple, who held a party in his house to introduce Jesus to his former co-workers. Friends are more likely to listen to friends. Or perhaps you're more of the Selfless-Serving Style like Tabitha, who is described in Acts 9. She was a kind of first-century Mother Teresa, used by God to point people to Him. The selfless-serving approach is particularly powerful in reaching those who are sometimes jaded toward God and the Church. Most of us should be able to employ the Story-Sharing Style, to share our experience with Christ and point others to Him. Think of the blind man described in John 9, who simply talked about his own life. "Though I was blind, now I see," he said. Mittelberg's own approach is what he calls the Reason-Giving Style. Paul demonstrates this, as described in Acts 17 , when he describes God to a bunch of philosophers in Athens. Though we hear that people are no longer interested in reasons for the Christian faith, they are—not just why Christianity is true but why it matters , and why the Gospel is good. They want to know not only what Christians believe, but how Christianity makes sense of the world. A final approach is the Truth-Telling Style. We're all called to share the truth with others, but some have a God-given strength in doing that. Think of Peter, as described in Acts 2 , speaking to the crowd about who Jesus is and how He fulfills Old Testament promises. The Gospel is a message. The old adage, often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words," is kind of silly. As Ed Stetzer often says, that's kind of like saying "feed the hungry at all times and when necessary use food." Mark Mittelberg's book is a great tool for learning and planning to share the message of Christ with the world. The message is one that people need, and the mission field is right out the front door. Let's be the kind of Christians with Contagious Faith.
Jun 20, 2022
Babies are people, not things. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet with the Point. In a recent interview with Today , an actress revealed she had paid a surrogate to carry twin boys for her because to be pregnant herself would have jeopardized her career. Often, arguments for surrogacy paint pictures of childless couples yearning to be parents. Even that sad situation doesn't justify taking a baby from the body that bore him. But the real stories of surrogacy often look more like this one: the wealthy paying underprivileged women to bear their babies so as to not interfere with what they want. At least this actress was honest: She paid a surrogate because she was "terrified of putting my life on hold for two-plus years." Even aside from surrogacy's inherent exploitation of women and babies, this kind of story raises an important question, "What exactly does our culture think parenting is? Parenting involves laying down our lives for our children—for a whole lot of years. Children are full human beings, with their own inherent rights and dignity, including the right to their mom and dad.
Jun 20, 2022
Matt Walsh's new documentary, What is A Woman? is built on a very simple premise: Ask the academics, pediatricians, and politicians who promote trans ideology to define their terms.
Jun 17, 2022
John and Maria discuss the 50th anniversary of the break-in at Watergate. Although Watergate marks the decline of American trust in political institutions— something we're seeing in the January 6 hearings, John points out that Watergate's best legacy was the redemption of Chuck Colson. After Maria shares an inspirational story on Mary Slessor, a missionary in Nigeria, they continue their conversation from last week on why uncarefully parsing first-order and second-order doctrines can be risky. They end by talking about our God-shaped hole for meaning to the point that even an elephant recently had to be declared not a person.
Jun 17, 2022
Earlier this month, Women's March president Rachel Carmona declared that "For the women of this country, this will be a summer of rage. We will be ungovernable … until the right to an abortion is codified into law." Those aren't empty words. Shortly after the Roe v. Wade draft opinion was leaked, at least five crisis pregnancy resource centers were vandalized across the country. On May 8, a Molotov cocktail was thrown through a Wisconsin pro-life group's headquarters , and the words "If abortions aren't safe then you aren't either," scrawled on the side of the building. In response, Students for Life of America announced a different strategy: a "Summer of Service." "We will have a renewed and reenergized dedication to serving as sidewalk advocates, volunteers at crisis pregnancy centers, fundraisers for pro-life financial help efforts, babysitters for childcare centers that serve mothers in need, and more," the group writes. To learn more and to get involved, check out the Students for Life's website. Apparently, this summer will matter. I'm thankful for a pro-life organization committed to overcoming evil with good, and rage with service.
Jun 17, 2022
Fifty years ago today, on June 17, 1972, operatives from President Nixon's re-election campaign broke into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. Were it not for a night guard who noticed that a garage door was taped open not once but twice, the most notorious political scandal in American history may not have been. But he did notice. Before it was over, an American president was forced to resign, and the standard was set by which all other scandals would henceforth be compared. In "honor" of this dark anniversary, Starz TV has produced a miniseries recounting the events. There are many reasons I cannot recommend Gaslit, despite the fact that it has a first-rate cast, including Julia Roberts and Sean Penn and Martha and John Mitchell, and the unexpected choice of comedian Patton Oswalt as Chuck Colson. I must say Oswalt pulls off the look, especially the hair and glasses famously. What he doesn't pull off is the voice or the order of events, and Chuck's remarkable conversion is left completely left out. Because of Watergate, the suffix -gate is now added to every government scandal, but that's still the least of its legacies. The colorful cast of characters—the Mitchells, John Dean, G. Gordon Liddy (who is portrayed as an absolute crazy man in the Gaslit series), and others—were part of a story that marked the beginning of what is now a long history of growing institutional distrust in America. The timing and progression of the January 6 hearings are a case in point. Even so, Watergate's most important and enduring legacy, at least according to God's economy, was one of redemption, not corruption. As Emily Colson, Chuck's daughter and Colson Center board member, who experienced Watergate as a teenager forced to watch her father maligned, mocked, and sent to prison, recently wrote to me about the anniversary of Watergate: "People have been asking if this is difficult for me. But it isn't. The events 50 years ago feel more like a beginning than an end. It was the turning point that brought my dad to his knees. And in that, God has brought so much good." Chuck Colson certainly earned his early reputation as Nixon's "hatchet man," a tough, ruthless, and loyal operative. Even if you agreed with his politics, he wasn't exactly known as a nice guy. Everything, however—and I mean everything —changed in the wake of Watergate. As his career and reputation crashed around him, Colson came to his darkest hour. In August of 1973, friend and former client Tom Phillips led him to Christ. Though still today, some snidely suggest that Chuck's conversion was a ploy to get out of prison, he gave his life to Christ even before he was considered a suspect in the Watergate investigation. And, of course, the conversion stuck throughout and after prison, and for decades of his life and ministry beyond. The year after his release from prison, Chuck went back, and he kept going back, over and over and over, through the work of the ministry he founded to bring the Gospel to prisoners and their families. Today, Prison Fellowship operates in every state and many other nations besides, striving to rehabilitate the incarcerated, support their families, and bring about prison reform. Later, Chuck would turn his attention, focusing on the calling of the Church to engage and restore culture,by embracing the fullness of a Christian worldview and courageously stand for truth. He founded Breakpoint, this commentary , to help Christians make sense of cultural events, and a program called Centurions—which has been renamed Colson Fellows —in order to equip Christians to go into their communities, standing for Christ, and bring about restoration. Millions have been blessed in the wake of Chuck's conversion. His story is like that of C.S. Lewis, Harriett Tubman, and so many others. It's a story of what God can actually do through a "Life Redeemed, " a life fully and wholly redeemed. In fact, here's how Chuck described it, in his own words: "The truth that is uppermost in my mind today is that God isn't finished. As long as we're alive, He's at work in our lives. We can live lives of obedience in any field because God providentially arranges the circumstances of our lives to achieve His objectives. And that leads to the greatest joy I've found in life. As I look back on my life, it's not having been to Buckingham Palace to receive the Templeton Prize, or getting honorary degrees, or writing books. The greatest joy is to see how God has used my life to touch the lives of others, people hurting and in need. It's been a long time since the dark days of Watergate. I'm still astounded that God would take someone who was infamous in the Watergate scandal, soon to be a convicted felon, and take him into His family and then order his steps in the way He has with me." Fifty years after Watergate, headlines are still telling of government corruption and political abuse. Among the lessons we can learn from Watergate is that God is never stymied: He's never frustrated in His purpose. Who knows whether 50 years from now, we'll be thanking Him for another life, a different life, but one changed like Chuck's was, even in the midst of cultural chaos. May it be so.
Jun 16, 2022
Recently, Pizza Hut, as part of their "Book It!" reading program, highlighted books that promote LGBTQ ideology to children. For example, Big Wig is a book about cross- dressing aimed explicitly at a Pre-K through 3rd-grade audience. The "Book It!" website describes the book as a "wonderful read-aloud (that) celebrates the universal childhood experience of dressing up…. acknowledging that sometimes dressing differently from what might be expected is how we become our truest and best selves." There was a time when businesses found it wiser to remain largely worldview neutral. Now, given the pressure of outside watchdog groups, the tyranny of social media, and what may be called the "true believers" that dominate so many HR departments, Companies, businesses advance ideas about good and evil, the nature of human beings, and the right way to organize society. The rise in aggressive LGBTQ propaganda through business has been a key to the movement's dominance of culture. Pushing back will require two things. First, Christians called to corporate America who reject a privatized faith. Second, Christian consumers willing to connect their convictions with their wallets.
Jun 16, 2022
For much of history, people have marked deaths and marriages with religious ceremonies and sacraments. In a time of rapidly declining religiosity, some are now looking to alternative spiritual authorities to give meaning to their most important moments. Spiritual authorities like, say, Mickey Mouse. Recently, a Reddit post by a newlywed couple went viral after they asked whether it was impolite to spend their entire catering budget on an appearance by Mickey and Minnie Mouse. "My fiancée and I are huge Disney fans," wrote the 28-year-old bride, "…we travel to Disney World as much as we can throughout the year. Disney is such an important part not only to us, but also our marriage." The bride and groom chose to pay for a 30-minute appearance from performers dressed as the iconic characters rather than buy food for their wedding guests. Not surprisingly, some in attendance took umbrage, as did people online who read the post, calling the couple childish and selfish. A professor of religious studies at Lehigh University, however, defended the couple and urged her Twitter followers to "stop pathologizing Disney adults." She explained: "Many of the Disney fans I have observed in person and online find immense meaning in the parks. People don't just marry at Disney. They mourn lost relatives at Disney. They go to Disney to celebrate surviving cancer. They go there for one last trip before they die. Religion is a way of making meaning in the world through stories and rituals. It's about a network of relationships with the human and non-human…. It's about making homes and confronting suffering…. All of this happens at Disney." The professor is correct that some people view Disney and its theme parks in religious terms. Not long ago, reports emerged that Disney wa s secretly working to stop guests from scattering the ashes of their deceased loved ones at their parks . Apparently, urns of human remains are so often emptied, employees have code words to warn of that kind of cleanup. The fact that some now look to cartoon characters and amusement parks to bless and sanctify their lives signals how spiritually impoverished and hungry their lives have become. Of course, Disney is just one of many religious alternatives on offer in a culture like ours. We could easily question the amount of money spent on sports or travel or distractions of various kinds. People who look to the state or the screen or to sex for meaning and purpose are just as lost as those who look to Disney for it. There's also the matter of how religion is understood in a secular society. If, as the professor wrote, "Religion is a way of making meaning in the world through stories and rituals," then Disney fits the description. But this assumes that religious faith is subjective, based in fiction—not reality, a product of the imagination—not reason. If religion is merely a way of making meaning in an otherwise meaningless universe, then Mickey Mouse will work as well as Moses. This is how secularists define religion and, tragically, how some participants of traditional religions live out faith. However, a social club gathered around nice fables no one is really convinced of is a hobby, not a faith. Christians insist that worship is directed to the real God who stepped into real history, died on a real cross, and really left behind an empty tomb. As the Apostle Peter put it , "We did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." Faith isn't a way of inventing meaning where there is none. Nor is it built on any other patronizing definition that could include Cinderella as easily as Christ. The Gospel isn't a "cleverly devised story." It is the truth of all of reality, the truth that gives meaning to our lives, our marriages, and, yes, our deaths. The fact that people in an increasingly irreligious culture look to the Magic Kingdom as a replacement for God only reinforces the kind of creatures we really are: "incurably religious" ones, as John Calvin put it. We seek because we were made that way by the One we truly seek. And, what we seek is real, not make-believe. Building lives around cartoons is disturbing and sad. But the problem isn't people who love fantasy too much. It's people who have nothing better to love, and a culture that tells them they may just as well wish upon a star as call upon the Lord.
Jun 15, 2022
It's an interesting time for travel. The price of flights notwithstanding, many are opting for what social media has dubbed " revenge travel ": the chance to get out and make up for time lost during the pandemic. Which brings up the question: What is travel good for? A popular answer is that travel is necessary to experience la dolce vita , or "the sweet life." Writing to the Atlantic , one reader described his year overseas: "I went to Italy burned out from American corporate pressures and returned with better boundaries for work/life and an intentionally slower pace of doing things." But travel is no cure for all that ails us. Ralph Waldo Emerson famously called travel "a fool's paradise," the mistaken belief that internal restlessness can be escaped by a mere change of scenery. "Our first journeys," he wrote, "discover to us the indifference of places." Travel is a way to connect with people and expand our knowledge of the world. But, as the writer of Ecclesiastes warns, living for life's next high cannot eliminate life's unsettling questions, nor does can it take us to the deeper Source of life's passing joys.
Jun 15, 2022
Earlier this year, a very secular publication came to an unexpected conclusion. Vox ran a series of articles under the title " America's Struggle for Forgiveness,. " In it, they wrote, "Grace might be the holiest, most precious concept of all in this conversation about right and wrong, penance and reform—but it's the one that almost never gets discussed." Even in the most morally exhausted cultural moments, there are signs of life. Made in God's image, with eternity in our hearts, we're desperate for answers to our deepest questions and for purpose to help us make sense of our lives. We search elsewhere but, ultimately, only the Gospel can offer what we need. At the same time, at least when it comes to forgiveness, Christians are struggling as well. In any context, because it always involves fallen human beings, f orgiveness isn't easy. In this cultural moment, so deeply divided at such fundamental levels and with so much at stake in the issues, it can seem impossible. How can we reconcile the idea of forgiveness in a world overrun by evil? How can we be examples of forgiveness, both forgiving and seeking forgiveness, to a world that so desperately needs to see it? First, we need to be clear on what forgiveness is and isn't. The way Jesus' command to "love your enemies" is often used in order to silence Christians who hold unpopular views completely misses the point. Too often, we get the impression that we need to apologize not merely for failing to live out Christian ethics, but for holding Christian ethics, as if Christian witness is compromised by Christian morality. Second, Christians must embrace the idea of forgiveness . There's a fear in many corners of the church, particular those engaged in standing for righteousness in this cultural moment, that concepts like "forgiveness," "gentleness," or "compassion" are signs of weakness. Certainly, many Christians have been gutted of courage at the exact moment Christian courage is so badly needed. But asking for or offering forgiveness is not necessarily a sign of weakness. In fact, in a culture devoid of it, Christians have something essential to offer people, families, institutions, and cultures. Plus, we don't have a choice. A gracious posture is not an option for Christian. In Romans 12 , Paul instructs Christians to "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them." He also commands us to "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good." Holding to truth and righteousness and being gracious to others are not mutually exclusive options. Both are required for Christ followers. We must not pretend people are somehow "doing good" when they are not, or that evil ideologies that hurt the innocent are somehow anything less than evil. In Jesus' words, we will be "exclude[d]" and "revile[d]," and have our names "spurn[ed]" as "evil" for His sake, not because we've done anything wrong but because we've followed Him. As Jesus' teaching about church discipline and instructions to the disciples to " shake the dust of unbelieving towns off their feet" suggests, the goal of Christian witness can only be faithfulness. Whether or not are liked is of little importance. Which means, as Steve Cornell with The Gospel Coalition writes, forgiveness is different than "reconciliation." We can and must extend forgiveness, and we ought be agents of reconciliation. However, because reconciliation always involves someone else, it isn't merely up to us. When people actively pursue evil, boundaries are necessary. The real battlefield of forgiveness is not just external behavior. It involves the heart , which God sees with piercing clarity. It may involve asking for forgiveness, even from ideological opponents who are on the wrong side of a given issue. It will mean forgoing vengeance, even while seeking justice and extending love to those extending hate. In God's economy, this is not weakness. It is the a strength rooted in Christ who Himself proclaimed, "Father, forgive them." A wonderful example is Barronelle Stutzman , a co-recipient of this year's Wilberforce Award . For years, she's been the target of the state of Washington, misrepresented in the press, slandered and sued for refusing to custom design flowers for the same-sex wedding. Only last November, after nearly a decade, was her legal case finally settled . Through the whole, exhausting process, Barronelle extended nothing but kindness, even to the person behind her legal nightmare, longtime customer and friend Rob Ingersoll. "I did not turn down Rob," she wrote in 2016. "I turned down an event. And if Rob walked into my store today, I would hug him and I would serve him for another 10 years." That same gracious attitude only became more evident in the years since. Through it all, she steadfast refused to betray her faith while still showing gentle kindness toward those who oppose her. Anyone who knows Barronelle Stuzman would never confuse that posture with weakness. Rather, she's a living, breathing example that Christians can have both unrelenting conviction and a tender heart of forgiveness. We need not choose between them.
Jun 14, 2022
Quantum theory boggles the mind. As science journalist John Horgan writes , quantum theory is science's most precise, powerful theory of reality. It has predicted countless experiments, spawned countless applications. The trouble is physicists and philosophers disagree over what it means , that is, what it says about how the world works. At the core of the disagreement is what matter consists of at the quantum, or the smallest, level . At that size, matter's properties change when we try to observe it, even—amazingly— because we try to observe it. That's led to over a century of frustrated efforts to understand exactly what the fundamental "stuff" of reality is . It's not that these tiny things aren't real; it's that we can't figure out what they're like. At the same time, quantum theory has proven explanatory power. A theological parallel is the Trinity. We can't comprehend exactly how the Godhead functions, but that doesn't mean it's not real. As C.S. Lewis wrote back in 1952, if Christianity is true, it would be "at least as difficult as modern physics." And, we could add, just as rational.
Jun 14, 2022
How Christian must Christians be to still be Christian? For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. This is Breakpoint. A question every youth pastor should expect to answer at least once in their career is the "how far is too far?" question. Of course, the person asking—usually a guy—wants to know how close to the moral cliff he can get before getting married. It's a common question, albeit fundamentally wrong. The ones asking rarely stay pure for long since purity is better understood as a direction rather than a line. Instead of tip-toeing the edge, a much better approach is to focus on trying to honor God and the young woman as much as possible. This same kind of minimalist thinking affects Christians of all ages, in other areas of life and faith. This is especially true at a time of moral drift, like ours. If someone maintains a bare adherence to Christian form or most of the convictions in the ancient creeds, we hear, what they believe about controversial moral or cultural issues ought not matter (or even, in some cases, how they live). All that matters is that they are "sincere," because, after all, "not all Christians agree" and "Christians have been wrong before" and "we should love everyone," and so forth. An increasing amount of evidence suggests that this kind of superficial allegiance to God and truth does not long keep the one questioning within the fold. Many churches, even entire denominations, that once flirted with the near side of progressivism, long ago dropped nearly every doctrinal and ethical stand of historic Christianity, even while holding to certain external trappings of the faith they now deride in their teachings. Especially during this month, many ornate Gothic buildings that once served as centers of historic Christian worship are not only redecorated with rainbow flags but claimed for another kingdom. Vestments come sleeveless to highlight a pastor's (or pastrix's?) amply tattooed arms and edgy new ways of talking about things. Many in the pulpits and in the pews, it seems, maintain a deep longing to remain connected to God and some semblance of Christianity, but not to the claims of morality and truth that go along with them. More and more, historically Christian institutions are drifting too. In just the last few months, a once-Christian magazine published an article on sex written by a self-described "polyamorous Christian" and another that argued for the "reproductive rights" (abortion) of " women and pregnant people. " Many Christian colleges are likewise struggling with their identity and their past convictions, particularly in trying to find the line between loving those who struggle with same-sex attraction and functionally affirming such lifestyles. When Baylor University, a historically Baptist school, offered official status to a campus LGBTQ group, the reason was to "help students gain deeper understanding of their own and others [sic] complex and intersectional identities, including gender and sexuality and faith and spirituality." And then, two weeks ago, Eerdmans Publishing Company, publisher of some of the most important works of Christian theology for over 100 years, tweeted out a list of LGBTQ-affirming books they've published along with, "Wherever you stand or whatever you think you know, #PrideMonth is a time to take a step back, to listen to real stories, and seek to understand." After initially deleting the tweet, they doubled down on their support, insisting in a lengthy tweet thread that Christian ethics couldn't be reduced to "right" and "wrong" opinions. Jake Meador of Mere Orthodoxy rightly described the moral reasoning as "gibberish." The problem in these kinds of situations is not just reaching wrong conclusions about culturally significant issues. It's the approach taken. Throughout church history, Christians have attempted to keep issues of lesser importance from obstructing the overall work of the Church. This has required a sort of prioritization of doctrines and ethical reasoning. So, things like the deity of Christ and the reality of the Trinity are ranked higher than questions about the mode and meaning of baptism, the exact timeline to the Second Coming, or how long hymn lines should be. Often, this principle is summarized by the phrase, " In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity. " On the whole, this is a wise philosophy. It allows cooperation among Christians who disagree about certain things but share an allegiance to Christ. The non-negotiable doctrines are epitomized in the creeds of the Church, like the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. For centuries, these statements of faith have been guideposts for the Church, noting the boundaries of Christian truth and warning how far is too far. Even so, what the creeds state, especially about creation, sin, and salvation, further implies things that were once taken for granted. For example, no one claiming the term Christian would have questioned, until yesterday at least, that believing in the "maker of heaven and earth" did not also include believing that He also made humans in His image, male and female. Believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus implied believing that we need His death and resurrection to pay for our sin. Or at least it used to. When these kinds of weighty ethical questions are put into the category of secondary concerns and then dismissed as largely irrelevant, even primary concerns are cut from the roots which give them meaning and definition in the first place. In the end, what is left is a religion that looks like the liberal Christianity H. Richard Niebuhr described a century ago, "A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross." When Christ sent His apostles to convert the world, charging them with the Great Commission , He didn't tell them just to teach new Christians the basics of the faith; He told them to make disciples. They were to do this by teaching all that they had been commanded. A rootless faith, content only with bare minimums, or with seeking the edge of "how far is too far?", will never measure up to the riches both commanded and offered by Christ our Lord.
Jun 13, 2022
According to the U.K. Express , the Chinese government is afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid that there could be 300 million Chinese Christians by 2030, which would be a spectacular increase from the 75 to 100 million Christians in China today. Still, for perspective, there were only about 4 million Christians in China when the Communists took over in 1949. That number had barely changed by Mao's death in 1976. But since then, Christianity has grown like the Chinese economy: 7% or 8% a year, despite the fact that even going to church, much less evangelizing, can be difficult if not dangerous. Like the early Church, many Chinese Christians are living lives "that are not only in marked contrast to the lives of their neighbors but better than those practiced in the larger society." This kind of influence one church historian calls "patient ferment." It could transform China just like the early Church transformed the Roman Empire. No wonder the Communist government is scared.
Jun 13, 2022
Mary Slessor was born to a Scottish working-class family in 1848. At an early age, Mary joined her parents in the Dundee mills, working half a day while going to school the other half. By age 14, Mary was working 12 hour shifts. Ever an avid reader, she kept a book propped up on her loom so she could read while working. Mary's mother, a devout Presbyterian with an interest in missions, saw that her children were raised in the Faith. When a local mission to the poor opened in Dundee, Mary volunteered to be a teacher. Her sense of humor and sympathy made her popular among her pupils. At age 27, Mary learned of the death of famous missionary, David Livingstone. Inspired to join her church's mission in what is now southern Nigeria, Mary taught and worked in the dispensary. With her devotion to learn the local language, plus by cutting her hair and abandoning the traditional Victorian dress as impractical in the hot climate, Mary quickly set herself apart from the other missionaries. She began eating local foods as a cost-cutting measure. Finding the mission hierarchy frustrating, she welcomed opportunities to go upriver into inland areas. The need for workers in these regions with fewer missionaries was significant, so she asked to be stationed there. However, since male missionaries had been killed in those areas, her request as a single woman was turned down as too dangerous. After a medical furlough for malaria, Mary was stationed in a region where shamans dominated much of life. These men conducted trials in which guilt or innocence was determined by whether or not the accused died after taking poison. Slavery was also rampant among the powerful, and slaves were often sacrificed on their owner's death to be their servants in the afterlife. Women's rights were virtually nonexistent. Despite these challenges, Mary was able to integrate into the community and earn the trust of the local people. As a woman, she was not seen as the threat that male missionaries were. And, her ability to speak Efik and her embrace of local lifestyles in clothing, housing, and food endeared her to the native peoples. It was in Okoyong that Mary began the work for which she is now best known. The locals believed that when twins were born, one of them must be the child of a demon. The mothers were ostracized, and, since there was no way to tell which was cursed, both children would be abandoned to death by starvation or wild animals. Like the earliest Christians who rescued victims of attempted infanticide by exposure, Mary began rescuing twins. She saved hundreds of children and, against the advice of her mission agency, adopted nine as her own. Like the earliest Christians whose example she emulated, the actions of Mary Slessor not only saved lives but played a major role in changing the local culture. Her understanding of the language, history, and customs — plus her standing in the community –enabled her to work as a mediator and give judgments in local tribal courts. When the British attempted to set up a court system in the area, Mary warned them it would be a disaster. So, the British consul appointed Mary as vice-consul in Okoyong, making her the first female magistrate in the British Empire. In this position, Mary continued to mediate disputes, while acting as liaison with the colonial government, continuing to care for children and continuing her work as a missionary. At age 66, Mary finally lost a long fight with malaria. She was given a state funeral, which was attended by many people who travelled from the tribal regions in order to honor her. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Okoyong." Mary Slessor's story is a wonderful part of the larger, ongoing Story of restoration, accomplished by Christ through His people within the time and place they are called. Slessor offers yet another example for Christ-followers that taking the Gospel to pagan cultures will typically involve protecting children. Our calling is no different.
Jun 10, 2022
John and Maria discuss the way some Christians are handling PRIDE month. Notably, Maria asks John to explain the background of a known publisher of Christian-based books, Eerdmans, and a list of books they've published to "help" Christians think about PRIDE month. Maria then asks John to comment on a recent article by journalist and commentator Ezra Klein who discussed how climate change is impacting the decisions of some adults on whether to have kids. Maria offers some helpful thoughts for us on how we got to this place and why Klein's thinking and reporting isn't shedding light on the whole story. To close, Maria wants John to explain a new report from Harvard that purports scientists have reversed the aging in mice. An article on the report says that aging is a disease, and John critiques that phrasing and offers some ways the Christian perspective is wholly different, especially as it looks to redeem and restore life in a fallen world. -- Recommendations -- What is a Woman>> -- In Show References -- Segment 1: Eerdmans Publishers Promote "Books for PRIDE Month" "We find ourselves at a time again where we should be willing to listen and seek to understand those in the LGBTQ+ community who are simply fighting to be seen and heard, cared for and loved." https://eerdword.com/pride-month-books/ Eerdman's defending itself after posting on Twitter, removing it, and re-posting it: https://twitter.com/eerdmansbooks/status/1534269600736563200 State Farm drops its partnership with "GenderCool" program to distribute LGBT books to kids in publis schools after uproar "The mission of GenderCool , founded in 2018 in Chicago, is to "replace misinformed opinions with positive experiences meeting transgender and non-binary youth who are thriving," according to its website. The organization, which describes itself as "an inspiring disrupter," has partnered with some of the biggest companies in the world, including Bank of America, Dell, General Mills, NBCUniversal and Nike." WaPo>> {Pizza Hut features "Drag Kids" book for kids as young as kindergarteners} "Pizza Hut is featuring a book about "drag kids" as one of the books promoted by its "Book It!" reading incentive program aimed at children in pre-kindergarten through 6th grade." FoxNews>> Segment 2: Ezra Klein says "Your Kids Are Not Doomed" "Over the past few years, I've been asked one question more than any other. It comes up at speeches, at dinners, in conversation. It's the most popular query when I open my podcast to suggestions, time and again. It comes in two forms. The first: Should I have kids, given the climate crisis they will face? The second: Should I have kids, knowing they will contribute to the climate crisis the world faces?" "We will have caused incalculable damage to ecosystems. We will have worsened droughts, floods, famines, heat waves. We will have bleached coral reefs, acidified the ocean, driven countless animal species to extinction. Millions, maybe tens of millions , of people will die from increased heat, and more will be killed by the indirect consequences of climate change. Far more yet will be forced to flee their homes or live lives of deep poverty or suffering. We will have stolen the full possibility of their flourishing from them." NYT>> Pew Research in 2021 finds that a tiny percentage of childless adults cite "climate concerns" as their reason for not having kids>> Segment 3: Scientists Can Reverse Aging in Mice. The goal is to do the same for humans. " "It's a permanent reset, as far as we can tell, and we think it may be a universal process that could be applied across the body to reset our age," said Sinclair, who has spent the last 20 years studying ways to reverse the ravages of time." "His research shows you can change aging to make lives younger for longer. Now he wants to change the world and make aging a disease," said Whitney Casey, an investor who is partnering with Sinclair to create a do-it-yourself biological age test." CNN>>
Jun 10, 2022
Many Christians settle for a reductionistic view of salvation, in which eternity is secured but the rest of life left untouched. The Bible, however, presents a much more holistic vision of redemption. To explore salvation from a broader point of view, this year's Wilberforce Weekend looked at "Life Redeemed." The event was framed around three questions: What are we saved from, what are we saved to , and what are we saved for? Rachel Gilson is the author of a fascinating book entitled Born Again This Way: Coming Out, Coming to Faith, and What Comes Next . She spoke specifically on something the Bible describes that we are saved from: confusion . Here's a portion of Rachel's compelling message. As I started having romantic and sexual relationships with other young women, I thought, "Oh, this is where home is for me. " So, I got to Yale, and I was like, "Oh no!" The girl I was dating at the time, well, she left me for this guy that lived in a van. And I was, like, "That is bad news, no matter what." And also, I'm just sad, you know? So teenage breakups—very dramatic. I was basically dumped into the pit of an identity crisis, and never once did, I think, "Oh, I should turn to Jesus" because I didn't believe in Jesus. So, a little while after that, I happened to be in the room of—I could call her a friend; she was more like an acquaintance—a non-practicing Catholic. And I remember standing in her doorway, and she was further into her room getting something, putting it in a bag, whatever. We're going to walk somewhere. And she had a bookshelf next to her doorway, and one of my favorite hobbies is to look at people's bookshelves and judge them, you know? So, I'm checking it out, looking up and down. And there was a copy—there was a book on this shelf. The spine read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and so I thought, "Oh, I really want to read that book, " but I was too embarrassed to ask my friend for it. So, I just stole the book because, again, I had no moral code, right? My bag, it's not that big—you can just slip it right in. So, I was sitting in the library soon after that, reading Mere Christianity, and while I was reading it one day, I was just overwhelmed with the realization that God exists. I was trying to explain this to an atheist friend of mine recently. He's, like, "Tell me again." I'm, like, "I don't really want to say." I was sitting there, and it was clear to me suddenly—I don't remember where, what chapter I was in, what page, anything like that, but I was just overwhelmed with the reality of God. And not like a store brand, you know, like Zeus or something, but the God who made me and who made everything and who was perfect. It was like I could sense God's holiness even though I didn't know that vocabulary and the only thing I felt was fear. I'm arrogant. I'm cruel. I'm sexually immoral. I lie. I cheat. I'm reading a stolen book. It's clear all of the chips are in the guilty category, right? I had no confusion at that moment either, but really quickly with that I also understood that part of the reason Jesus had come was to place himself as a barrier between God's wrath and me. And that the only way to be safe was to run towards Him, not away from Him. It was lovely, but it also was really clear to me really soon in my walk with the Lord that my attraction to other women wasn't going anywhere. And it's been 18 years, and my attraction to women still hasn't gone anywhere. So, it was where the confusion actually entered in. I was, like, "How, how am I supposed to thrive in Christ when these attractions aren't gone?" And the Lord kept pushing on me at this time. Like, "Hey, if you're only willing to obey when you both understand and agree, maybe you're actually serving yourself as God and not me." Probably many of you experience other places where you feel confused because there's something the Lord says and it doesn't seem to line up with you intuitively. There's maybe some sin that you love, that you don't know how to—you don't know how to part with. And I would just say again and again, the only place of safety is found in Him and in His Word. And He promises by His Word, by His Spirit, by His people, to lead us out of confusion and to lead us into love and joy and peace and patience, into the obedience of faith that He's calling us to. That was Rachel Gilson, author of a book called Born Again This Way. To hear more of Rachel's message, and other speakers from this year's Wilberforce Weekend event, "Life Redeemed," including Os Guinness, Nancy Guthrie, Jim Daly, Monique Duson, and others, go to www.wilberforceweekend.org .
Jun 9, 2022
This summer the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wad e in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization . Part of what the justices will have to consider is a legal principle called stare decisis , which means respecting precedent. If the High Court wants to respect Roe , especially its deep ideological and legal flaws, it should take into account why Roe was decided the way it was. Since then, the pro-abortion movement has insisted that abortion is a "women's rights" issue. But in 1973, many Americans, especially elites, believed a now-debunked theory that the world was headed for catastrophe due to over-population. The Supreme Court justices themselves noted in the official majority opinion in Roe v. Wade that this concern, in part, motivated their decision to legalize abortion. In the Dobbs case, the justices should consider that this part of the legal precedent is a debunked and harmful theory, and therefore should see abortion for what it truly is: an unconstitutional evil.
Jun 9, 2022
During a prayer gathering on the National Mall a few years ago, Terry Beatley, a commissioned Colson Fellow and president of a pro-life organization called the Hosea Initiative , reminded the crowd of a story Chuck Colson told in a Breakpoint commentary over 25 years ago. The story, of how God changed the heart of one of our nation's most notorious abortionists, is about as dramatic a conversion as Chuck Colson's was. Yet, it came in the wake of one of the greatest defeats pro-lifers had suffered since the Roe v. Wade decision. Here's what Chuck wrote, in a commentary entitled "The Ultimate Victory." "I was [recently] invited to witness a baptism," Chuck said, "in the sacristy chapel of Saint Patrick's cathedral in New York City. About 80 of us sat in a semicircle waiting for John Cardinal O'Connor to arrive. "While waiting, I couldn't help but think back to last fall and the Senate's attempt to override President Clinton's veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act—an attempt that failed. I remember walking the Senate corridors that day, looking for senators and pleading with them to vote to override the veto. "One of my most dramatic memories," Chuck continued, "happened while I was sitting in the Senate gallery, listening to the debate over whether it should be legal to commit infanticide—to kill babies already three-quarters born. The senators fell silent for a moment, and just as they did, a baby's cry pierced the silence. A poignant reminder to both sides of what was at stake that day. "After the vote I walked down to the Senate reception room and saw the grinning, almost cheering, crowd of abortion supporters. There was Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion Rights Action League, surrounded by a crowd of people beaming and congratulating each other. They'd won; they'd scored a tremendous victory for the pro-abortionists. They'd stopped the bill." Chuck then continued: "Scenes of that day kept flashing through my mind as I sat in that dimly lit chapel at Saint Patrick's. Why? Because the candidate for baptism was none other than Bernard Nathanson, one of the abortion industry's greatest leaders, a man who personally presided over some 75,000 abortions, including the abortion of his own child. "I watched as Nathanson walked to the altar. What a moment. Just like the first century—a Jew coming forward in the catacombs to meet Christ. And his sponsor accompanying him to the altar was Joan Andrews. Ironies abound. Joan is one of the pro-life movement's most outspoken warriors, a woman who spent five years in prison for her pro-life activities. "… just above Cardinal O'Connor," Chuck continued, "was a cross. As I reflected on the day when infanticide could not be stopped by the United States Senate, I realized that I was witnessing, this day, the victory. I looked at that cross and realized again that what the Gospel teaches is true: In Christ is the victory. He has overcome the world, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against His Church. "We might have taken a beating in the Senate on partial-birth abortion, but only temporarily. Because there at the altar was a man, who spent three decades in the satanic world of abortion, joyfully accepting forgiveness in Christ. "And there were 80 people huddled in the catacombs of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, celebrating a victory Kate Michelman could do nothing about: the triumph of the Gospel over evil. "This," Chuck concluded, "is the way the abortion war will ultimately be won: through Jesus Christ changing hearts, one by one. No amount of political force, no government, no laws, no army of Planned Parenthood workers, can ever stop that. It is the one thing absolutely invincible. "That simple baptism, held without fanfare in the basement of a great cathedral, is a reminder that a holy Baby, born in a stable 20 centuries ago, defies the wisdom of man. He cannot be defeated."
Jun 8, 2022
John and Os Guinness discuss the privitization of faith, if Americans should support revolution or revival in this cultural moment, and what Christians should do with public school. They also answer a host of other questions from the audience at Wilberforce Weekend this year asked by Michael Craven, Vice President of Equipping and Mobilization at the Colson Center.
Jun 8, 2022
Kudos to these Tampa Bay Rays. On Saturday night, several players for the Tampa Bay Rays opted out of wearing rainbow logos for "Pride Night." Pitcher Jason Adam represented those players to reporters, saying, while players want all to feel "welcome and loved" at games, We don't want to encourage [an LGBTQ lifestyle] if we believe in Jesus, who's encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior. Just like (Jesus) encourages me as a heterosexual male to abstain from sex outside of the confines of marriage. Adam's clarity and his teammate's bravery despite the furnace of public outrage reminds me of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego facing Nebuchadnezzar's idol. They are following the example of U.S. women's soccer player Jaelene Daniels, formerly Hinkel , who refused to wear a pride jersey in 2017. She also was castigated for her stand. According to Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash,. instead of causing dissension, the opting out "has created … a lot of conversation and valuing the different perspectives inside the clubhouse but really appreciating the community that we're trying to support here." In other words, opting out creates real diversity and inclusion.
Jun 8, 2022
Since the pandemic, American adults are behaving badly. "Bad behavior of all kinds—everything from rudeness and carelessness to physical violence—has increased," Olga Khazan recently wrote at The Atlantic . "Americans are driving more recklessly, crashing their cars and killing pedestrians at higher rates. Early 2021 saw the highest number of 'unruly passenger' incidents ever, according to the FAA." Plenty of viral videos, especially but not exclusively of passengers on airplanes and in airports, affirm Khazan's description. Her question is a good one: Why are people acting so weird? An obvious answer is that the social isolation of the last few years has taken a real toll on our mental health and well-being. Studies do show that prolonged isolation often does lead to anti-social behavior . "When we become untethered," one Harvard sociologist told Khazan, "we tend to prioritize our own private interests over those of others or the public." It's also not a secret that, to deal with the increased stress and isolation, more Americans have turned to destructive coping mechanisms. Per capita, we're drinking more. Drug overdoses, despite a two-year decline pre-pandemic, have spiked by nearly 30% since 2019. Even crime—including break-ins, robberies and homicides—has increased, as the pandemic has eased . In the article, Khazan quoted a University of Missouri criminologist who thinks that we've developed "a generalized sense that the rules simply don't apply." Everything about the pandemic, of course, increased individual and collective anxiety, isolation, and economic uncertainty. However, the coarsening of the American public was already in place. You might call it a "pre-existing condition," made worse by COVID-19. In his book A Free People's Suicide , Os Guinness argues that America has become a "cut-flower" society. Though we still have the trappings of liberty and morality, he argues, we are cut off from its root. Just as with flowers, there's a lag time between when a civilization is cut from its roots and when it dies. Even so, by cutting ourselves off from a shared Judeo-Christian framework, we are starving ourselves. The pandemic didn't cause this, but it has worsened and exposed it. G.K. Chesterton described something similar in The Everlasting Man . Sometimes, he argued, it's the solutions we invent that unmake us, not the crises we are attempting to endure. Pessimism is not in being tired of evil but in being tired of good. Despair does not lie in being weary of suffering, but in being weary of joy. It is when for some reason or other the good things in a society no longer work that the society begins to decline; when its food does not feed, when its cures do not cure, when its blessings refuse to bless. The widespread cultural breakdown we see around us cannot by explained by a mere loosening of morals, or the wrong political party being in power, a pandemic, or our response to it. What we are seeing is the catastrophic emptiness when life is built on the wrong foundation. While our distractions keep us busy—Americans streamed a mind-blowing 15 million years' worth of digital content in 2021, according to analytics company Nielsen —but are failing to satisfy. The American dream has been written and re-written and altered completely but remains out of reach. It's not clear what can hold us together anymore. A critical question for Christians is whether there is anything we can do about it. A critical answer to that question is to remember that we aren't the first to find ourselves in a society unmoored from morality and meaning. If public behavior today is "weird," public behavior at the start of the 18th century was downright shocking. In London, it was not unusual to come across bear fighting and heads on pikes . Crime and prostitution were endemic, as was poverty, and churches sat empty. According to a Christianity Tod ay article about that time period, "only five or six members of Parliament even went to church," and those churches often peddled nothing more than state-sponsored religiosity. Yet, unknown to most, God was moving. The revivals led by John and Charles Wesley and their friend George Whitefield proved to be a match in a powder keg, sparking a massive return to Christian faithfulness and care in their own time. That revitalized Church set the table for William Wilberforce's "reformation of manners and morals," a movement for human rights that would change England and the world forever. The secret, according to John Wesley, was realizing what really is at the center of human flourishing. "How a sinner may be justified before God, the Lord and Judge of all, is a question of no common importance to every child of man," John Wesley argued . "It contains the foundations of all our hope, inasmuch as while we are at enmity with God, there can be no true peace, no solid joy, either in time or in eternity." Those words are no less true in our times. When public morality is unhinged, Christians ought not lose hope. Who knows whether God is poised to bring another Christian revival as during the time of the Wesleys and Whitefield? Either way, our part is to reject the spirit of the age, embrace what is good and true, treat everyone as if they are made in the image of God, and speak boldly when we can. Of course, that will make many think we are being weird. So be it. That's the kind of "weird" the world needs.
Jun 7, 2022
Why are pro-abortion activists so committed? Because of lies built upon centuries of bad ideas... If we wondered just how committed some Americans are to abortion, the last couple of weeks have been a helpful demonstration. After a leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court on the Dobbs cased suggested the court might overturn Roe v. Wade , pro-abortion activists erupted. Protests were organized outside the private homes of six Supreme Court justices, vile demonstrations were held on the steps of Catholic churches, and the offices of pro-life organizations in Oregon and Wisconsin were vandalized, threatened, and even set on fire. People are angry, and they're not faking it. Especially for Christians praying for an end to legal abortion in the United States, it should matter to us that people feel this strongly on the other side of the issue. If we want, ultimately, to make abortion not just illegal but unthinkable, we will have to reach the very people who are so dedicated to it that they'd debase themselves and threaten others just to protect it. But we will not be able to challenge the misconceptions they believe and spread if we don't understand what they are. In his 2020 book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Dr. Carl Trueman traced the philosophy behind abortion back several centuries, though these bad ideas date even earlier. When Charles Darwin suggested, in the mid-19th century, that human life resulted from mindless and purposeless processes, he wasn't just making a biological claim. He was making an ontological claim. Human life, if accidental, has no ultimate purpose. Instead, purpose had to be invented. Enter Sigmund Freud, who suggested that what we really live for is sex, even if we don't realize it. After Freud came the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, who agreed that sex is everything. He also believed that power was a global currency. To Marcuse, so-called "sexual morals" or norms aren't based in any objective reality but are merely inventions used by people to exert power. Radical feminist Simone de Beauvoir built on this theory in her famous work The Second Sex . She argued that if sex is a tool of oppression, then women can only truly be free and fully human by making themselves "eunuchs." A free woman must, she wrote, be "freed from nature" and "win control of her body." Abortion is a tool of this fantasy. The patron saint of every single one of these bad ideas lived centuries earlier. Jean-Jacques Rousseau suggested that human beings are inherently good in their inner nature but are corrupted by our outer interactions with other people. The solution to that corruption was to look inward . In other words, to be human is primarily a psychological, not a physical, reality. The ideas and lives of these people, long dead, have fundamentally shaped our world. The reason that abortion is so important to its supporters is the same reason it's so abhorrent to Christians. Nothing else reveals more about what we believe it means to be human that what we believe about abortion. To abortion supporters, the prerogative of women to violently hinder the gender-specific ability of their bodies to bear children is central to their humanity. If we believe the biological realities of our bodies oppress or even limit our feelings and desires, we must force our bodies to comply in order to be fully human . Anyone who wants to stop us may as well be killing us. Christians believe that to allow the killing of a vulnerable image bearer is to proclaim, among other things, that our bodies have nothing to do with being human, that God doesn't image himself in our bodies, that God didn't make us for a purpose, and consequently, that He is not good—which means He is not God. Even so, we should also remember that abortion is a real evil. Sociologist Philip Reiff believed cultures without a moral center produce what he called "deathworks," or cultural artifacts that don't build but only to tear down. Abortion is a deathwork of a culture captive to bad ideas. It is death for death; and if we don't put an end to it, it will kill not only babies but the women and men who embrace it. Our job as Christians is to build a culture that promotes life. When we do, we promote life not just for each individual child but for an entire culture that sits now on the brink.
Jun 6, 2022
Recently, The Economist wrote among those intrigued with "the idea of living forever" are "a motley crew of fringe scientists, cultish groups and tech billionaires." The article is a review of The Price of Immortality, a book by journalist Peter Ward. In it, he highlights a quirky, quasi-religious group called " The Church of Perpetual Life, " based out of Pompano Beach, Florida. Its adherents mainly talk food supplements and cryonics, while espousing the hope that science will one day grant eternal life. The quest for immortality will always be, to some degree, religious. Even for people with limitless resources, like billionaire tech moguls like Jeff Bezos, the lines between science, science fiction, and an existential crisis can be blurry. Part of the longing is that no matter how many toys we have, there's something more than our materialistic age can offer. As C.S. Lewis said, "If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world." This is part of what Ecclesiastes calls the eternity put in our hearts by God.
Jun 6, 2022
A couple weeks ago, a Title IX investigation was opened for three middle school boys from Wisconsin who used the pronoun she for a biologically female student who wished to go by they . Under the Biden administration , refusing to use misaligned pronouns is considered sex discrimination. Even style guides today encourage the use of they if it is the chosen pronoun of an individual. One rationale given is that someone really is , whatever gender they claim, and to not recognize that with pronouns is to contribute to that person's psychological distress. This is the case even if, as Abigail Shrier describes as being increasingly common, a person's gender dysphoria is socially conditioned. So, according to our own government, we are now in a zero-sum game: Either use individuals' chosen pronouns or be blamed for their suicides. Thankfully, many are beginning to recognize that even using the pronoun they for an individual is deeply problematic, much less fully imbibing all that the new transgender orthodoxy commands. Recently, the Manhattan Institute's Leor Sapir wrote an editorial entitled "Don't Say 'They.'" In it, Sapir argues that using they and them to refer to an individual is far from harmless, and amounts to buying into an ideology that "gender is an oppressive social system." In other words, using nonbinary plural pronouns and also opposite-sex pronouns says something that is not true about God's design, the created reality of men and women. So, what are we to do? Shall we use words that align with reality or shall we refuse to risk the psychological distress of a transgender person? Two guiding principles can help us here. First, as Aleksander Solzhenitsyn advised, we must "live not by lies." Second, as Paul advised , "so far as it depends on (us), live peaceably with all." Living like Christians today requires both, together. Words matter. Not only do our words reflect reality , and thus misusing words can distort reality, but Scripture is plain that God's words make up reality. To use words incorrectly is to not only embrace something not true, it is to mislead others away from God. This is not true, nor is it loving. Thus, God says that He hates a "lying tongue. " Honoring the second principle, to do our best to "live peaceably with all," is particularly difficult when the choice is to tell a lie or to be responsible for psychological distress. Philosophy professor Nick Meriwether had a creative response when he found himself between this rock and hard place. When a male student requested that Dr. Merriweather refer to him as a female, using feminine titles and pronouns, he offered to only "refer to this student by a first or last name." In response, Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, charged Dr. Merriweather with creating "a hostile environment," placed a warning in his employee file, and threatened future punitive action if he refused to comply. So, Dr. Meriwether filed suit, claiming his free speech had been violated. He won. Shawnee State was forced to award him $400,000 and remove the disciplinary statement. Dr. Merriweather's story demonstrates that people of conscience ought not prematurely surrender their convictions, or believe that cultural defeat in inevitable. Even more, it offers a way forward when it comes to pronouns, telling and truth and living at peace. In English, names do not indicate gender. Pronouns do. Offering to call an individual by their chosen names is a way of respecting a person without saying something that is not true about them. In a conversation with the individual, the pronoun you is acceptable, since in English it refers to both plural and singular, and to both male and female. In no way, does "you" deny that biological sex is binary. On the other hand, speaking in the third person— he, she , or they —when speaking about others is trickier. Some people point out that we use the word they all the time to refer to individuals. However, whenever we say something like, "Somebody left their book" when we don't know who it is. It's different if we do know who it is. For example, it would be inaccurate (and strange) to say, "Abigail left their book." In other words, there are ways to not say something that is not true. We can avoid using nonbinary or opposite-sex pronouns, and instead use names. And, we can use plural pronouns to talk about a group rather than an individual. Still, as Dr. Merriweather's situation illustrates, these alternatives will not satisfy everyone. And, when there is no choice but to use third person pronouns, the only way to tell the truth is to use the pronouns that align with biology, not ideology. To be clear, there is one situation where using someone's chosen name violates the first principle of telling the truth: If you've known a person all of their life, and if their name was given for specifical purposes. So, for example, to ask a mom to use a chosen name over a given name for the child they've raised and loved, is just cruel. Some argue that because language changes over time, accepting pronoun changes is just changing with language. This argument assumes that language doesn't actually refer to reality, but only to other words. But there is a real world, and sexual distinction is part of that real world. To change the language of pronouns severs a link to reality, denies that reality, and disconnects people from what is actually true about their created bodies. Pronouns may not seem like a fight worth having, but a s Chesterton said , "The Church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are the only thing worth fighting about."
Jun 3, 2022
John and Maria reflect on recent claims that Judaism supports a pro-abortion agenda. The pair reflect on a Breakpoint commentary with Glenn Sunshine that dispels this myth, and explains why the falsehood has picked up steam in culture. Then Maria asks John to explain more of the culture breakdown as we are seeing a rise in gun violence across the country. John helps explain that gun violence is one of many examples of how our culture is in a crisis of meaning. He explains how we've gotten here and what many philosophers are saying about this issue. Maria then asks John to comment on what is being celebrated as Pride Month during the month of June. John explores areas the church can engage this, referencing a piece written by Carl Trueman on social justice and pride month. To close, Maria asks John to comment on a recent Tweet showing public posters in support of reducing the stigma around drug addiction, encouraging recreational use of addictive narcotics. -- Recommendations -- See Life Event>> -- Show References -- Segment 1: Judaism and Abortion While Conservative and Reform Jews do support legal access to abortion, they have only done so recently and despite their moral and religious views, not because of them Breakpoint>> Segment 2: Iain McGilchrist And Uvalde "If you had set out to destroy the happiness and stability of a people, it would have been hard to improve on our current formula: remove yourself as far as possible from the natural world; repudiate the continuity of your culture; believe you are wise enough to do whatever you happen to want and not only get aways with it, but have a right to it — and a right to silence those who disagree; minimise the role played by a common body of belief; actively attack and dismantle every social structure as a potential source of oppression; and reject the idea of a transcendent set of values." It seems to me that she is making a point complementary to Dr. McGilchrist's: that we have created a culture and indeed a civilization that produces unhappy, unstable people, and provides them with the means to stay hidden from the rest of us, and to inflict mass murder. The American Conservative>> Segment 3: Social justice demands our opposition to its celebration and symbols The Christian cause of this month should be opposing Pride Month and its flag in as public and strident a way as many have opposed racism and its symbols. Let us have many blog posts and tweets on the topic. And may we even have pointed op-eds and major articles slamming Pride by those Christians privileged enough to have access to the pages of The Atlantic and The New York Times. Social justice surely demands it. And I, for one, am looking forward to reading them all. WNG>> Religious Liberty Is Good for Everyone for Many Reasons Often, the term religious liberty is cynically thrown around in cultural discourse by those critical of the legal or social arguments for religious liberty. Religious people are accused of being ignorant or selfish, of only caring about their own rights, or of "clinging to their guns and religion." At the same time, some Christians wrongly talk about religious liberty as if it's only for Christians, or as if religion should be kept personal, private, and out of the public square. Breakpoint>> Most People Don't Agree With Trans Ideology Most Americans do understand the categories of biological sex and feel uncomfortable foisting harmful ideology on children. Breakpoint>> Segment 4: Drug Addiction and Harm Reduction This normalizes injecting deadly life-changing drugs "avoid using alone" 🤔 "Start w small doses" 👀 "Using safely" 😳 This is twisted Twitter>>
Jun 3, 2022
The latest Dr. Strange movie is making waves, partly because of its dark, violent, and even occultist overtones. Heroes are brutally murdered, seances are had, and undead souls go shrieking in and out of books of demonic curses. As one critic put it, I worry that younger kids who are excited to see the typical Marvel movie may get frightened by the very, very dark tone …. but hey, everyone needs that movie from their childhood that gave them nightmares, right? Mine was Poltergeist ; maybe for some kids it will be The Multiverse of Madness . They don't need this one. The Marvel Cinematic Universe usually has plenty to appreciate: heroism, redemption, and a striving for that which is good. Even if it mostly paints with broad brushes to reach bigger audiences, that's why the movies have been a kind of cultural unifier. But Multiverse of Madness mixes the script, to the detriment of the audience. Christians don't have to agree with everything to engage with a movie—but we should never take off our glasses of discernment even for a series we once had reason to like.
Jun 3, 2022
During the "Preparing for a Post-Roe World" event at the annual Wilberforce Weekend conference, Stephanie Gray Connors responded to various slogans that are used in our cultural moment to promote abortion. Here's her response to the slogan, "Abortion is healthcare." Abortion is healthcare. Instead of using five minutes to reply, it's really tempting to just use five words. "What? That is ridiculous." To respond to that, what we want to do is ask a question, two in particular. We want to ask, "What is abortion, and what is healthcare?" In terms of answering the question, "What is abortion?" I'm reminded of something my dad would tell me growing up. My dad is originally from Scotland. He didn't immigrate to Canada, where I'm originally from, until he was in his thirties, which means my dad's got a fantastic Scottish accent, right? He's right from Glasgow, Barrhead. Anyway, so my dad would always say to me growing up, "Right, Stephanie, your old Scottish grandfather used to say use their own words against them." So, when it comes to answering the question, "What is abortion?" Don't quote a pro-lifer. Use the abortion supporter's words against them. Go to their textbooks. What do they say? And, so, I went to the National Abortion Federation's textbook on abortion. It's called the Clinician's Guide to Medical and Surgical Abortion . And in chapter 10, they specifically refer to feticidal techniques, feticidal techniques. So, the question we want to ask is this: "What is the meaning of the root word cide ?" Feticidal, cide . That means to kill . So, there's an admission there by using the term feticidal , that it's a technique that involves killing. Or take one of their chapters on D&E abortions after 12 weeks. That chapter in this textbook refers to the pregnancy elements by calling them "spinal cord" and "calvarium." Well, we want to ask, "The spinal cord and calvarium of who?" That textbook is not referring to the spinal cord of the pregnant woman, but rather of the preborn child. So, there's this admission that it's killing and that it involves parts not of the woman but of the baby and dismembering those particular parts. Then, there's Planned Parenthood itself. We just heard the reference to Margaret Sanger, their founder. And yet, would you know that back in 1952, long before Roe v. Wade , they had a brochure not on abortion but on birth control. And in answering questions about birth control, they answered the question, "Is birth control abortion?" And they said, quote, "Definitely not. An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun." End quote. Planned Parenthood, 1952. So, if we're asking the question, "What is abortion?" We get the answer from abortion supporters that abortion is killing. So, then we have to ask ourselves if we're trying to figure out whether killing is healthcare, "What is health care?" And we know healthcare involves the treatment and prevention of disease or maintaining and restoring health. So, the question is "What disease are we responding to when someone's pregnant?" And the answer is pregnancy isn't a disease. It's a sign the body is working right. If you have cancer of the eye, you might have to remove the eye. It could cause you to be blind, but you never take a healthy eye and maim it. So, with abortion, we actually have a healthy body, a healthy state—a pregnancy—which should occur because the body is fertile at that time. And then abortion is maiming that. It's like destroying an eye that's functioning well. It doesn't make sense. And it's certainly not healthcare. You know, some abortion supporters might say, "Well, abortion is healthcare because physicians do it." So, we want to ask a question: "Just because the doctor does something, does his action suddenly become morally acceptable by his involvement?" And then to answer that, we can use a little parable. Imagine you have someone working in the black-market underground organ-harvesting industry where they kidnap people or take political prisoners and have their organs removed—maybe their kidneys, maybe their liver, maybe their heart—and transplant them into someone who's paid good money to get access to those organs. We all agree that's unethical. But in order to remove the organs from one person and successfully implant them in another, you can't have just a random person on the street doing that, right? You need a physician to do it. Would we ever say because it's a surgeon working in the black underground human organ trafficking market—would we ever say that that type of organ harvesting is ethical and healthcare because a doctor does it? And obviously, we would say it is not ethical, and it's not healthcare because what a physician is doing in that case is destructive to a human person. And, so, since we know the preborn child is a human person, albeit younger, and because we know abortion kills that human person, and because we know healthcare is about maintaining health and restoring a sick body to a healthy state, and abortion does the opposite of that, an abortion is not healthcare. That was Stephanie Gray Connors, answering a common pro-abortion slogan that abortion is healthcare. Throughout our preparing-for-a-post- Roe -future event, Stephanie responded to a few more slogans just like that one. To receive access to her presentation as well as the other speakers at this very special event, go to wilberforceweekend.org .
Jun 2, 2022
John answers what Christians can do in the wake of a series of mass shootings that reveal we're not right as a culture. Before answering that question, John responds to a listener who asks if incrementalism is the best strategy for prolifers to honor God.
Jun 2, 2022
Technology is a gift, but there are real problems with certain forms of prenatal screening. When used to help parents prepare to care for an infant with anticipated genetic conditions, it's an amazing asset. Instead, it is too often used to decide whether or not a child should live. Recently Daniel Navon, in an article written for Scientific American, raised his own concerns . "Prenatal screening is big business," he writes. "The annual market for [noninvasive prenatal screening technology] is already around $4 billion dollars and is growing rapidly." The problem is that "including a condition on a prenatal genetic test implies that it may be incompatible with a 'life worth living.'" One result, he warns, could be that religious communities, and staunchly pro-life states, will see increasing populations of those with genetic disorders. So be it. That wouldn't be a crisis. We must always resist the temptation to build a perfect world, especially when it comes "not by eliminating defects, but eliminating people. " If Navon's predictions prove true, it would be a badge of honor.
Jun 2, 2022
A year ago, Biden administration officials standardized a radically new interpretation of the word gender . In a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services, officials mandated all employers must cover the cost of so-called "transgender medicine" in their health insurance plans. In response, the Christian Employers Alliance sued HHS on behalf of a coalition of Christian-owned businesses. A few weeks ago, a federal district court ruled for CEA and halted the Biden mandate. Many media outlets, in their coverage of this story, referred to the CEA as a "religious liberty group," identifying them not by what they do but by their legal argument. To be sure, forcing an employer to pay for harmful hormones and violent surgeries on healthy bodies, against their deeply held beliefs, is to violate their religious freedom. All citizens of the United States have an unambiguous right, thanks to the First Amendment, to not just worship inside a church or synagogue or mosque but to order their lives outside of those buildings according to their deeply held beliefs. Whether the belief comes from religion, conscience, or some mix of the two, the ideas that men and women are real and distinct things and that their bodies shouldn't be experimented upon is widely held across cultures, religions, scientific disciplines, and human history. Legally speaking, then, it was perfectly sound for the Christian Employers Alliance to argue that forcing employers to subsidize those experiments violates their religious freedom. And, by doing so, the CEA wasn't arguing to protect their own rights, only. They are fighting for the common good. Often, the term religious liberty is cynically thrown around in cultural discourse by those critical of the legal or social arguments for religious liberty. Religious people are accused of being ignorant or selfish, of only caring about their own rights, or of "clinging to their guns and religion." At the same time, some Christians wrongly talk about religious liberty as if it's only for Christians, or as if religion should be kept personal, private, and out of the public square. These views are somewhere between incomplete and flat-out wrong, misunderstanding what religious liberty is and why it matters. The lawsuit filed by the Christian Employers Alliance against the federal government offers helpful clarity. Christians care about the religious freedom of others, not only in the sense that protecting our religious freedom helps others maintain theirs, which in itself is a moral good. Christians care about religious freedom because we believe Christian claims about life and the world are true, true for everyone, and the world is better off when we are not denying those truths. If men and women are real things, made by God for a purpose and with a good design, to deny that goodness or mutilate that design is harmful, whether or not the person doing it believes in Jesus. Though being a Christian might determine whether or not someone accepts the truth, it doesn't make the truth more or less true. And, if loving our neighbors includes keeping them from harm whenever we can, we'll want to keep the freedom for truth to remain in the public square. The cultural tidal wave of "trans medicine" can rightly be characterized as medical malpractice, even abuse. Medical institutions are prescribing puberty-blocking hormones and, increasingly, sterilizing surgeries to adults and children at skyrocketing rates . Refusing to be co-opted in this kind of abuse is not some sort of "don't tread on me" self-defense. Recently, writing in WORLD Opinions , author Abigail Dodds pushed back against the caricature of the self-interested Christians taking some kind of perverse pleasure in "fighting the culture wars": It is surely true that the kingdom of God advances not through resentment but rather by those who bear witness to Jesus in sincerity and truth. Yet, I wonder where and to whom some think we are to bear witness? What is all this Good News for anyway? Do we not believe we are against the world for the world? Do we deny that God's ways are truly good for all? Christianity has been a unique force for good in the world , for both its adherents and non-believers. It is a great horror to lie about and/or to mutilate our bodies. Hopefully more Christians will, like the Christian Employers Alliance, refuse to live by lies. A world where living out Christian faith is suppressed or illegal is a worse world, more corrupt, more exploitative, and more dangerous for everyone. Fighting for religious liberty isn't selfish. It's a way to love God, and our neighbors.
Jun 1, 2022
A new poll, commissioned by Summit Ministries with national survey firm McLaughlin & Associates, suggests that there is a gap between what people believe and what they're willing to say. Some 64% of those polled believe that "transgenderism is not a healthy human condition." However, while 30% indicated they are willing to speak out on the issue, another 34% say they stay silent on the issue so as "to not offend others." Measuring public opinion is notoriously tricky. At the same time, it's important to know that despite headlines and popular perception, the triumph of trans ideology is not inevitable. In reality, most Americans do understand the categories of biological sex and feel uncomfortable foisting harmful ideology on children. This means that what we say and do on this issue matters. Os Guinness made this point on a recent episode of the Upstream podcast . Americans like to think of themselves as rugged individualists, but we're more susceptible to the whims of the most vocal popular opinion than we realize. The loudest voices often cow people into silence, but Christians, with courage and gentleness, must speak up. Along the way, we may just win some people over.
Jun 1, 2022
Recently, U.S. House Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez huffed on Twitter , "For people who say, 'I believe it's a life,' some people don't. Our Jewish brothers and sisters, they are able to have an abortion according to their faith!" The central point AOC is trying to make in the video is one that is on repeat these days, as America awaits the Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health case. Not all religions agree on when life begins, so therefore, the pro-life movement intends to impose Christian morality on everyone else. "When does life begin?" asked an NPR article a few weeks ago. "Religions don't agree." In the piece, author Sarah McCammon also pointed to Judaism as the obvious counter to Christianity. Of course, it's not all that surprising that various religions would hold differing views on matters of significance. After all, religions don't agree about whether God exists, who God is, how we would know, whether Jesus is God, and whether we are God. And that's just disagreements about God. Expand the discussion to morality, heaven, hell, sin, and salvation, and we'd be here all day. Even so, the constant reference to Judaism as the counter to "fundamentalist Christianity" (as AOC put it in the video) led me to wonder whether it is really the case that Judaism supports a woman's right to abort her child. Thankfully, the eminent historian, Dr. Glenn Sunshine, is part of the Colson Center editorial team. In summary, here's what he discovered. Though Jews today differ tremendously on abortion (unsurprisingly, since they also differ tremendously on all manner of theological, liturgical, moral, and political issues), historically, the position is much clearer. Except to save the life of the mother, Judaism has historically opposed abortion. The Jewish position goes back to Genesis 9:6. Because this is the record of God's instructions to Noah after the Flood, many Jewish scholars have understood this verse to be binding on all humanity. While modern Christian Bibles such as the ESV translate the verse as, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for man is made in the image of God," Jewish scholars who comment on this passage suggest that the text actually says, "Whoever sheds the blood of man within man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God He made man." Rabbis who understood the text to read "man within man" believe that this teaching refers to an unborn child. Thus, these scholars argue for a universal prohibition of abortion for all of Noah's descendants, Jews and Gentiles alike. In Jewish law, the unborn is recognized as nearly a full-fledged human being, but not quite. Consequently, it is a sin to deliberately harm a fetus, but doing so did not carry the full penalty associated with harming someone already born. In Exodus , a man who strikes a woman and causes her to give birth was not guilty of murder but had to pay a financial penalty. While this could refer simply to a premature but live birth, to the rabbis this referred to miscarriage or stillbirth. They treated this loss as more of a property crime than a murder, despite the unborn being made in the image of God. Similarly, if a woman's pregnancy threatens her life, the fetus was to be considered "one who is pursuing another" to kill her. Jewish law permits one to kill a pursuer to save the life of the one pursued, and hence abortion is permissible to save the mother's life if directly threatened by the pregnancy. If the baby's head had emerged, however, the baby was given the same moral status as the mother and thus could not be killed. Since Judaism refuses to assign differing values to life, all major Orthodox rabbis authorized to decide matters of Jewish law reject abortion for fetal abnormalities or deformities. Historically, then, Judaism has opposed abortion under normal circumstances but permitted it in a very limited number of situations, primarily the saving of the mother's life. For example, the great medieval rabbi Maimonides permitted abortion only if the pregnancy "definitely and without question" endangered the life of the mother. This was the nearly universal view within Judaism until less than a century ago. Some modern Orthodox Jewish scholars permit abortion to save the life of the mother even if the fetus is not the direct cause of the threat to the mother's life. Others extend permission further to protecting the mother's physical or mental health; some to pregnancies caused by forbidden sexual relations such as adultery, rape, or incest; and some, a minority, to severe and proven fetal abnormalities. These are not universal concessions, however, and most Orthodox Jewish scholars advocate making such decisions on a case-by-case basis rather than establishing general rules for handling these situations. The Conservative branch of Jews, unlike the Orthodox Jews, generally follows a somewhat looser interpretation of these guidelines. In 1983, leading rabbis issued a statement permitting abortion to prevent severe physical or psychological harm to the mother or in the case of extreme fetal abnormalities. These were essentially the same guidelines already adopted by Reform Judaism in 1958, which were then modified in 1985 to specify that psychological reasons included rape and incest. At the same time, however, the Reform rabbis also opposed abortion on demand, abortion for trivial reasons, or abortion because of family hardship. Using Judaism as a counterexample to the Christian position that life is sacred from the moment of conception is a red herring that ignores the real limitations placed on abortion within historic Judaism. While Conservative and Reform Jews support legal access to abortion, they have done so only recently and despite their moral and religious views, not because of them. Regardless, our policies regarding abortion are not to be rooted in various opinions of others, but in the reality of life seen in both God's Word and God's world. In these, we are to embrace the innate dignity of all human beings, no matter how small.
May 31, 2022
A trend that has troubled researchers for years is the rising "deaths of despair," particularly among blue-collar Americans. Opioids, for example, continue to ravage rural towns across America . According to data drawn from the U.S. Census , "The occupation with the highest suicide rate is Construction and Extraction … nearly 40% higher than the occupation with the second highest suicide rate." In addition to reflecting dangerous work conditions, tough economic prospects , and injury, a deeper problem impacts everyone from teens to seniors , those with degrees and those without: a culture-wide loss of meaning. As J.D. Vance put it in Hillbilly Elegy , "I knew even as a child that there were two separate sets of mores and social pressures. My grandparents embodied one type: old-fashioned, quietly faithful, self-reliant, hardworking." The other mindset Vance describes as "consumerist, isolated, angry, distrustful." The loss of a why leads to struggles with all kinds of whats . Without meaning, America is floundering. The answer is the One who never left us: the One who came that we " may have life, and have it to the full ."
May 31, 2022
The news has been relentless for a while now, but especially these past two weeks. After multiple mass shootings, the nation is grieving. People are angry that nothing seems to change. According to the FBI, there's been a 50% uptick in "active shooting incidents" since last year , and that's not counting the shooting that left 21 dead in Uvalde, Texas. "The two attacks (in Buffalo and Uvalde) are not outliers," announced National Public Radio. "Mass shootings happen in the U.S. with depressing regularity." According to their count, 213 so far this year. A variety of things and people are being blamed: access to guns , social isolation , politicians , talk show hosts , authorities , harmful ideas , and more. Behind any event this tragic will be a number of contributing factors. At the same time, we can no longer think of mass shootings as isolated incidents. They must be understood as indications of social breakdown , along with spiking rates of addiction , overdoses , violent crime , suicide , sexual confusion , and even airplane incidents . Last week, a friend reminded me of Chuck's words . One can easily imagine Chuck Colson extending that analysis to today's issues, "The problem is not gun control, poverty, talk-show hosts, or race. The problem is the breakdown of moral values in American life, and our culture simply cannot respond." In fact, Chuck Colson is not the only thinker to have pointed to the inevitabilities of cultural breakdown. "Great civilizations are not murdered," writes historian Arnold Toynbee . "They commit suicide." In other words, civilizations do not last forever, and there are rules that determine whether or not they have a future. At the recent Wilberforce Weekend, author and social critic Os Guinness stated that we are living in "a civilizational moment": "All the great civilizations reach a moment when they're out of touch with the inspiration that made them. And there's a critical transition moment when they either go towards renewal or down to decline. We are at such a moment, if not already past it. For example, a civilization cannot survive if it is not able to prepare for the future. The dual modern realities of debt, both individually and nationally, and demographics, especially the collapse of birth rates below replacement levels, indicate that as a people we live more for immediate gratification than a strong tomorrow. Of course, in an ultimately meaningless world, there is no sense of tomorrow. Increasingly, studies reveal that our culture suffers from a catastrophic loss of meaning. This only makes sense in a culture already detached from ultimate categories of truth and identity, but that doesn't make it any easier to live here. At the same time, life, even at a time of cultural collapse, does not come to an end. People are born and die. They gather and meet, buy and sell, create and invent. Civilizational collapse is never sudden, but almost always extends over decades and even centuries. What can we do when our civilization is disintegrating around us? First, we must remember that although the challenges of this cultural moment are real, they are never the whole story. The whole story is, instead, the story centered on the person and work of Christ, the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of the cosmos. The ending of that story is sure, despite the chaos of the moment. Second, rather than withdraw from the challenges around us, we give whatever good we can to the world. William Wilberforce, for example, not only lobbied against the slave trade but also fought to advance moral values in a corrupt nation . Our best efforts may not succeed, but that's not why we do it. We do it out of love for God and neighbor. Third, we must reject small compromises. Hannah Arendt wrote about the "banality of evil," how in certain cultural moments, evil advances in mundane and seemingly harmless ways. Solomon is an example of this. The last half of 1 Kings 10 reads like a ledger of his remarkable success: extravagant wealth, imported horses and chariots from Egypt, and 700 wives (with accompanying military alliances and treaties). However, Deuteronomy 17 records that, years before, Moses had instructed the Israelites about what their king should not do: He must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, "You shall never return that way again." And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. The author of the Book of Kings knows exactly what he is doing here... He is telling the exploits of Solomon in a way the Israelite readers would understand. Now, whether we're in a time of decline or a time of amazing success like Solomon, the same response is required from God's people. We must be faithful to what He asks us to do, to what He asks us to believe, and to how He instructs us to live. In all of these things, we take this moment as part of our calling. We are here because it is where He wanted us to be. And so we move forward, keeping our eyes on the One who perfects and finishes our faith, Who will bring history to its final culmination.
May 30, 2022
Os Guinness discusses the civilizational moment for America, where our nation is faced with a choice to turn to renewal or go down the path to decline. This presentation was a part of the Wilberforce Weekend even in May. To register for the digital recordings from this event, visit www.wilberforceweekend.org
May 30, 2022
"There's already a revolution in abortions happening," wrote Christina Cauterucci in Slate magazine recently, "and the Supreme Court can't touch it." She's referring to so-called "medical" abortions, when pills are used to terminate a child's life at home. As of 2020, this kind of abortion was already the most common, and with the Supreme Court preparing to dismantle Roe v. Wade , it will only become more common. One impact of this will be to drive abortion even farther into the shadows, away from even medical supervision. In fact, during COVID, the FDA allowed abortion pills to be prescribed without a doctor's visit. Now the pandemic is over, but the policy remains. The toll this will have on America's unborn children, their parents, and our national conscience will be significant. Hidden evil always flourishes. That's why we need pro-life legislation that extends to the abortion pill, but passing it won't be easy. The Church will need to be out there, making the case for the dignity of all life, making the path of forgiveness known, offering hope and healing in Christ. And, we'll need courageous lawmakers to take the next step in putting an end to abortion, including by mail.
May 30, 2022
Today, Memorial Day, I want to share a commentary on Memorial Day from Chuck Colson. Here's Chuck: This Memorial Day, reflect with me on how we should respond to the enormous sacrifices of our men and women in uniform. Memorial Day is when we honor the men and women of our armed services who have made "the supreme sacrifice," who gave their lives for their country. Especially these days, when Memorial Day seems nothing more than a time for cookouts and swim parties, we cannot be reminded often enough about how great a debt we owe our war dead. They gave up their hopes and dreams, families, and friends. They submitted themselves to rigorous discipline—something I understand as a former Marine—24-hour-a-day duty—and placed their lives in great peril. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Their sacrifice should inspire in us a profound sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy, bought with a price. And that gratitude should compel us to lives of service as well. Serving Christ, our neighbor, and yes, our nation. I can't help but recall the brilliant film Saving Private Ryan . James Ryan, now in his seventies, has returned with his family to the military cemetery in Normandy. He visits the grave of Capt. John Miller, the man who, a half a century before, led the mission to retrieve—to save—Pvt. Ryan. At the end of the mission, Miller was fatally wounded. As he lay dying, his final words to Pvt. Ryan were "James. Earn this ... earn it." We then see Ryan kneeling at Capt. Miller's grave, marked by a cross. Ryan, his voice trembling with emotion, says, Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. I tried to live my life the best that I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that, at least in your eyes, I've earned what all of you have done for me. Red-eyed, Ryan turns to his wife and says, "Tell me I've led a good life ... tell me I am a good man." With great dignity, she says, "You are." With that, James Ryan salutes the grave of Capt. Miller. I tell this story in greater detail in my book The Good Life , which you can purchase at colsoncenter.org. You see, Pvt. Ryan, out of gratitude for Capt. Miller's sacrifice, did all in his power to live a good life. And Memorial Day is a great time for each of us to look into the mirror ... to examine our own lives. Are we living good lives in gratitude for all those who have sacrificed for us—including our men and women in the military, our families, our friends, and most of all Christ? Are we, like Ryan, kneeling before the cross? Spielberg, a master cinematographer, had to realize the power of this imagery. Are we, out of gratitude, doing our duty for Christ, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, ministering to those in prison, in whatever harvest field to which the Lord has called us? Examine your life. And this Memorial Day, at the very least, thank those who have sacrificed for you and those you know who have served in our nation's armed forces. Maybe you'll do what I do when you see a guy or gal in uniform ... at the airport, at the store, wherever ... walk up to them and thank them for their service. And then go and remember Whom it is you serve.
May 27, 2022
John and Maria discuss the Uvalde shooting, working to understand the role of culture to respond to faltering character. Maria asks John about gun rights, and the pair discuss if freedoms become license and harm people what do we focus on: the conscience or the constable. Then Maria asks John to comment to the recent Southern Baptist Convention's independent investigation by Guidepost on abuse allegations. The report exposes horrible actions and responses in local churches and the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention. John offers some insight, noting a recent Breakpoint commentary. To close, John asks Maria to comment on a recent article she penned in Christianity Today. Maria explores if a common accusation regarding abortion is factually true. Many note that if abortion laws pass they will limit the types of services for mothers who have ectopic pregnancies and other pregnancies where a child dies ineutero. Maria dispels these myths and explores some of the underlying medical community thoughts and practices that undo this myth that is being retold in public circles.
May 27, 2022
Yesterday, when our writing team gathered to discuss the horrific events at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, we struggled to know how to even process what had happened, much less what to say: Yet, another evil attack on vulnerable children; evil so shocking, it's impossible to fathom; and, at the same time, a story horrifyingly familiar. On Tuesday morning, an 18-year-old young man, after shooting his own grandmother, drove to his former elementary school, rammed through the security gate with his car, and barricaded himself in a classroom . Before it was all over, 19 children and two teachers had been killed. As if that were not horrible enough, it came just days after two other mass shootings. On May 15, one man was killed and five more wounded at a California church, and the day before that, 10 were killed in a racially motivated assault in Buffalo, New York. Over 30 dead in less than a week. For what? This simply should not be. We're left with a lot of uncomfortable questions. How could anyone be capable of such evil? How long until something like this happens again? Why does this keep happening? Why so often here in America, but rarely elsewhere, in places like Britain or Australia? Why did it not happen here even a generation or two ago? What is plaguing young men in our culture, who are far more likely to commit acts of evil like this? Basic clarity seems elusive, much less progress. As a friend pointed out, it's alarming to think that younger generations are being conditioned to think that these events are normal occurrences, and that retreating to political corners and blaming others is the normal way to respond to them. That would be a tragedy upon a tragedy. Still, what hasn't changed is that God has called His people to a particular time and place, and He's called us to be part of His redemptive work in the world in this time and this place. While the temptation to " just do something " at times like this is strong, it also quite often misleading. Thank God for the vast resources He has given us in Scripture, and how they apply even to times as confusing as these. First, the psalms of lament and the imprecatory psalms offer godly direction for our rage and sorrow. Not just once or twice, but repeatedly, God invites His people to weep before Him for the sorrows of the world and to be angry at the injustices we experience. Second, the Apostle Paul gives us something to do at times like this: "Mourn with those who mourn." This instruction matches the incarnational way that God, in Christ Jesus, interacted with His fallen world. He was with us. May God give strength to His people in Uvalde, Texas, to be the Church there. At the same time, this is another symptom of culture-wide brokenness, so all of us have the same incarnational work to do. And we can do this work, because of what we learn from the shortest verse in the Bible. In one of the most poignant moments in Scripture, we read that "Jesus wept." In Bethany, Christ joins in with a dead man's sisters in their mourning for their loss. What makes this so astonishing is that Jesus knows that He will raise Lazarus to life again, and, by doing so, he is going to end the family's suffering, even turn it into a party. Yet, He is not aloof or dismissive of their grief. Instead, He weeps with them—for the pain of a fallen world, for the unnaturalness of death, for the hopelessness people feel in the face of tragedy. Because Christ—who had the power of life and death at His command—can weep with those who weep, we can do the same. And finally, we have the gift of knowing that one day, death itself will be cast into Hell . So, we do not grieve as though without hope. One day, everything sad " will become untrue ." And because we do not weep as the world weeps, the Church has so much to offer when the world does weep. Like now.
May 26, 2022
A couple of weeks ago, an article by National Public Radio's Sarah McCammon's made the rounds on various public media outlets with this headline: "When Does Life Begin? Religions Don't Agree." Clearly, it was an attempt to warn pro-lifers against stubborn certainty on abortion. The central claim of the article is that not every religion holds that human life begins at conception. Of course they don't, but why would they? Religions don't agree on all kinds of essential matters, such as if there's a God, who is God, whether Jesus was God, or whether we are God. And that's just about God. If disagreement among vastly different worldviews is somehow supposed to trivialize the convictions of pro-lifers, wouldn't the same reasoning trivialize any convictions of religious abortion supporters, too? So, what's the point? Interestingly enough, even though religions disagree on whether life begins at conception, science doesn't. Or at least, every embryology textbook is clear about when life begins . Honest abortion supporters, such as Peter Singer, acknowledge as much, that abortion takes a human life. So, should we follow the science, or not?
May 26, 2022
During the "Preparing for a Post-Roe World" event at the recent Wilberforce Weekend, Jim Daly described how the Focus on the Family team displayed the truth about preborn babies right in the middle of Times Square. The event not only made a powerful case against abortion, it showed how courage is contagious, and how Christians can be emboldened to speak the truth in love even in difficult situations. Here's Jim Daly, explaining what happened in Times Square before the pandemic: What the Lord put on my heart was "Show them the baby." Isn't that just like the Lord to make it real simple? Show the baby! So, we applied for the permits and everything. Six months, eight months out, they're not showing up. We got the permits at 7:30 the morning of our event. But the Catholic cops were awesome. Tip the hat to the Catholic cops in Times Square. They called and said, "Hey, we like you guys. We're going to do all we can do to help you out here in New York, OK?" That's a true story. We're like, "Awesome. We've got the cops on our side." But anyway, we get there, and there was a stage, we had 20,000 supporters that came in. 20,000. We were only permitted for 10,000, but they came in, and then we had all the bystanders. It was real simple. We had a couple of speakers, and then we showed them the ultrasound right in Times Square. Now, the big ABC and all the big jumbotrons when we were eight months out [we asked] "We want to buy inventory for those jumbotrons." "Sure, there's plenty of inventory. What do you want to show?" "A preborn baby." "You know what? We're all out of time." That is a true story as well. That's exactly what they said. The team came to me and said, "OK. Let's just bring in our own jumbotrons." So, we did, and we showed that baby…. Oh, whose baby was it? Abby, Abby Johnson's baby in the back of the mobile (ultrasound) unit that people were spitting on and cursing at. And Abby's in there, and her baby goes across Times Square and that baby's heartbeat. Bum, bump, bum, bump. And everybody stopped. It was like this amazing spiritual silence. I mean it just stopped everything. Everybody was looking. People were crying. I think one of the things that we need to do is show that emotional connection. These people know what they're doing. They absolutely know what they're doing. About two weeks ago I had a broadcast recording that we're going to air in a couple of weeks with Winsome Sears, Lieutenant Governor in Virginia. So, these are her words to me. I could never say this, but she did, and I'll repeat them. She said, "Planned Parenthood has been far more effective at killing black babies than the KKK ever was." She went on to say 6% of the population is African American women but 40% of the abortions. And we don't think Margaret Sanger, the eugenicist, succeeded? Oh, she succeeded. Planned Parenthood just doesn't admit it. I had a Planned Parenthood executive tell me that. I said, "I'm a business person. I came from international paper. I didn't go to seminary." And I just said, "What is it that drives you?" She said, "Cash flow." Cash flow. And I said, "That's a very honest answer." And one of the things we're looking at— pray for us—because I said to her, "If it's cash flow, what if I gave you—what's an average abortion?" She said $600. I said, "What if I could pay you 1,200 for an adoption placement?" She said some clinics might do that. So, I'm working behind the scenes right now—not so much now—to find some clinics that might be willing. Let's turn them into adoption clinics. Wouldn't that be amazing? I'll end with this. Again, I think for us in this century to look back to the first, second, third century: What did the Church do? That's the blueprint, and what it is is action : Telemachus going to the gladiator events on January 1, 404 A. D. He went down to see what this thing was all about. He saw men killing each other in the colosseum. He jumps onto the floor of the colosseum in his robe and says, "You shouldn't be doing this. You're destroying people made in God's image, each one of you." And they killed him. But that was the last day they had gladiator events because it made an impression on the empire. So, how do we make those impressions on the empire, that even hard hearts might crack open, and they might say, "Maybe it is life"? That was Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family at our " Preparing for a Post-Roe World " event from the Wilberforce Weekend. Focus on the Family will be hosting its annual SeeLife conference on June 14 at 7 p.m. Though this year's event won't be hosted in Time Square, it will be livestreamed and something you won't want to miss. For more information on the SeeLife conference, visit: focusonthefamily.com/seelife22/
May 25, 2022
John answers how a listener can respond and think well about the issue of replacement theory, something that has become a popular topic due to the recent shooting in Buffalo, New York. John also gives perspective to how abortion became not only illegal, but also unthinkable. He answers which came first and how the abortion movement can replicate the trajectory of slavery becoming unthinkable in society. To close, John answers a listener's question related to social movements inside the business community. He provides a path forward for Christians who find themselves in a changing landscape.
May 25, 2022
According to the BBC , the Chinese government has arrested Joseph Zen, a 90-year-old Roman Catholic cardinal and outspoken critic of the Beijing regime. He is now in chains for his role in the 2019 human rights protests . On the same day this arrest was reported, the Daily Mail announced that ISIS forces had slaughtered 20 Nigerian Christians, guilty only of being Christians, which was enough to seal their martyrdom. While the last few years have presented incredible challenges to the Western church—plagues, riots, scandals, even war—followers of Christ in places like China and Nigeria have consistently weathered incredible hardship, and for so long. Their stories remind us that there's a wider world out there—and a wider Church. Ours is not the only part being played in the grand drama of God's redemptive work in the world. Let's pray for our suffering brothers and sisters around the world, and take hope that their role in shaping Christ's kingdom doesn't rest in our success but in God's faithfulness.
May 25, 2022
This past Sunday, a devastating report was released about America's largest Protestant denomination. According to the Guidepost Solutions' Report of the Independent Investigation on the Southern Baptist Convention, not only has sexual abuse been a scourge within the denomination, but leading members actively obstructed efforts to expose the guilty, hindered attempts by victims to report the crimes, and worked to maintain the public image of the Convention at the expense of the truth. What the victims have been forced to endure for so long is sickening and heartbreaking. Lives will be forever marred by the corruption exposed in the report. Though it feels as if some new report is revealing sexual misconduct, abuse, or criminal behavior within the Church every few months, in God's economy, the day after evil is exposed is better than the day before. When evil is allowed to remain hidden, it flourishes. When it is exposed, both victims and perpetrators are in a better position to find grace, healing, and forgiveness. At the same time, we can expect the world to be wagging its fingers at Christian hypocrisy. In response, there's a strong pull in our hearts to point right back. After all, the infamous "casting couches" of Hollywood legend have raised such lechery to an abhorrent art form. And this has gone on for decades. Even Shirley Temple , the Golden Girl of classic cinema, was chased around an office by one of the top movie moguls of her day. Yet, he kept his post despite this and other crimes. More recently, after headlining everything from dramas, to comedies, to action flicks through the 90s and early 2000s, Brendan Fraser found himself cast from favor after refusing the very aggressive advances of a (male) movie executive . Five years ago, Oscar-winning Kevin Spacey was blacklisted as stories broke of his habitual abuse of young actors. Most notorious of all, Harvey Weinstein was one of the most powerful men in the film industry until the rising #MeToo movement gained enough momentum to bring him down for his abuse of young women and threats to any who spoke against him. And that's just Hollywood. We could also talk at length of public schools, congressional leaders, and corporate executives. Of course, why would we expect any better from a culture like ours, in which sexual activity is treated as the high point of human existence? When Hugh Hefner is treated as a virtual saint and praised as an advocate for women's dignity, who is the world to cast stones at the Church for its own failings? If they're not any better than we are, why do we get the third degree while they get a pass? It's almost as if followers of Christ are held to a higher standard or something! To this we can only say, we are. By God. One of the premiere accounts of worldly morality in the Scriptures is in the infamous story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 19 , the story is told of two angels coming to Sodom, meeting Lot in the town square, who takes them into his home. After the men of the city seek to sexually accost his guests, Lot instead offers his daughters to them as sexual sacrifices. This horrific tale is echoed later in Judges 19 . Visitors from out of town, a meeting near the city, an invitation to dinner, a rapacious mob, and finally, a young woman offered to the lust of the crowd which, in this case, turns murderous and leads to military revenge, mass executions, and human trafficking. In this story, however, it's not sinful pagans. It's the people of God who commit an evil that exceeds even that of Sodom. The reason the story is told how it is—other than to report what actually happened—is clear. The people of Israel had become indistinguishable from their pagan neighbors. And this, God could not abide. In Romans 2 , Paul writes, "You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, 'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.'" And, in 1 Corinthians 5 , the apostle is aghast that a member of a Church has done worse than "the pagans." Sexual abuse is just as horrible and evil within the Church as without, yet we are more guilty because we should know better. We know where the human propensity for sin, evil, and abuse comes from. We know the human capacity to deceive and deflect. We know our own vulnerability, and the sin nature shared by all after Eden. So, if our defense for the sins of the Church is that those among us are no more guilty than Harvey Weinstein and Hugh Hefner, it's fair to say that we've lost the plot of our own story. When the unbelieving world acts in an immoral manner, it is no less horrible to its victims, but this is tragically to act according to their worldview. When Christians do the same, it is an abomination. After all, God doesn't simply call us to be no worse than the world: He calls us to be set apart, faithful to His standards. As Peter Kreeft once observed, when you find yourself on the edge of the moral abyss, the only way forward is backward. Thank God, there is repentance. Let judgment begin in the House of the Lord, and may His good and true judgment bring us to our knees. The answer now is not to circle the wagons, it is to tend to the wounded, confess our sins, and seek His face.
May 24, 2022
On Friday, according to the Catholic News Agency, "San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone instructed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to present herself for Holy Communion until she publicly repudiates her support for abortion." On Monday, Whoopi Goldberg told the archbishop via her audience on The View , "This is not your job, dude. That is not up to you to make that decision." It is, of course, the archbishop's job to oversee the proper administration of the sacraments in that geographic region of the church. It is exactly his job, in fact. Other than playing a nun in the Sister Act movies, it's not clear what qualifies Goldberg to tell an archbishop what his job is. Years ago, Dr. Frank Beckwith taught a group of students how to respond to someone dismissive of their arguments: "If anyone ever says to you, 'Who are to say what's right?' just ask back 'Who are you to say, "Who are you to say?"'" This isn't about Whoopi, of course. Skeptics, secularists, and non-believers will often ask, "Who are you to speak for Jesus?" while speaking for Jesus. A good response is, "Well, who are you to ask?"
May 24, 2022
On the YouTube channel "Lutheran Satire," there's a video entitled, " A Christian and a Feminist Almost Agree on Stuff ." In it, two sock puppets discuss the cultural breakdown of sexuality and marriage and how pornography plagues both. "Pornography harms women," says the feminist sock puppet. "Totally agree," says the Christian puppet. "Pornography demeans women, and it also corrupts men by making them think of women as nothing but sexual objects." "Therefore," interrupts the feminist sock puppet, "women should empower themselves by taking control of the porn industry and producing their own sexually explicit material." To which the Christian puppet responds, "That is not the solution I had in mind." Pornography and sexually suggestive material of any kind objectifies women, training consumers that female bodies are things to be leered at, to be lusted after, rather than persons to be loved and valued. Those Lutheran sock puppets came to mind last week after Sports Illustrated announced the covers of its annual swimsuit issue. Of course, there's never been any point to the swimsuit edition other than to objectify women to the publication's largely male readership. It has nothing at all to do with sports. It has nothing at all to do with even marketing swimsuits. It has been, instead, for decades now, the most visible example of everything that Christians and feminists and other protectors of women have decried about our objectifying culture: selling skin, airbrushed and impossible beauty standards, sexual provocation, etc., etc., etc. This year's cover model does not represent the typical, unreachable standards of thinness that porn and photoshop have imposed on women. However, she is still posed provocatively in a barely there swimsuit, as objectified as any other cover model has ever been. There seems to be some confusion. The problem here is not that all women should be objectified for their bodies. It's that no one should be objectified at all. Valuing a human being made in God's image by changing standards of outward appearance is always wrong. But we don't atone for a sin by committing it against everyone. Now, I know it sounds a bit quaint in 2022 to object to swimsuit covers, but at the heart of even the mildly suggestive material in our culture is a lie that has long consumed our culture, the same one that is at the heart of the always accessible and ever darker online pornography world. That lie is that people are things to be used and therefore can be abstracted from their bodies for our gratification or titillation. This lie can never be made true, even when people consent to it. As Christine Emba pointed out recently in The Washington Post , it is possible for a woman to objectify herself, and therefore consent to things that are actually terrible for her. Consent, Emba concludes, is not a sufficient sexual ethic by itself. We need to talk about a much more important value: love, which she defines, taking a cue from St. Thomas Aquinas, as "willing the good of the other." There is no sense in which reducing a woman to her body and putting her on display for millions is willing her good. No person—man or woman—is merely a body. Christians have always insisted, and must continue to insist against things like prostitution, polygamy, slavery, and pornography. Because human beings are bearers of God's image, they must always be taken seriously, body and soul. If there is a problem with displaying scantily clad women as objects for the eager eyes of sports fans—and there is—if we recognize the connection this ritual has with far darker corners of our culture especially online—and it does—the answer is to stop. Certainly, the answer is not more of the same. We have to treat women as whole people.
May 23, 2022
Kristan Hawkins, founder and president of the Student for Life. Kirsten spoke at the recent "Preparing for a Post-Roe World" event at the recent Wilberforce Weekend.
May 23, 2022
The day after a mass shooting in a New York supermarket left 10 people dead, a 68-year-old opened fire on parishioners at a Taiwanese Presbyterian church in southern California. He killed one and injured five before parishioners subdued and tied him up. The man killed in the attack authorities are calling "hate-filled" was 52-year-old Dr. John Cheng, who charged the shooter in an attempt to save fellow church members. Orange County officials called Cheng's actions "heroism" and "a meeting of good versus evil." His quick thinking and courageous actions undoubtedly saved lives, including his recently widowed mother. Mr. Rogers always told kids, in times of calamity, to "look for the helpers." Dr. Cheng is now part of Christian history, a history full of those who ran toward the danger in self-sacrifice. Jesus called this love—when a man lays down his life for his friends—the greatest. It proves that evil will not have the last say, and that evil is overcome with good.
May 23, 2022
Last Saturday, the country was left grappling with another reminder of human depravity. An 18-year-old gunman entered a supermarket in Buffalo, New York , killing 10 and injuring three more. The victims , who were predominantly black, included Heyward Patterson, a local church deacon; Pearl Young, a retired school teacher; and Aaron Salter, a retired police officer. Mass shootings are too familiar, but no less overwhelming: friends and family in agony, communities left to pick up the pieces, collective rage over the brutal violence, a longing for justice, and a rush to explain why. For many news outlets, the narrative is a cut-and-dried example of right-wing extremism. The shooter's manifesto pointed to an embrace of " replacement theory, " the idea that white Americans are being systematically edged out of society by minorities. "That idea," claim Isaac Stanley-Becker and Drew Harwell of The Washington Post , once relegated to the fringe, has gained currency on popular right-wing television programs and in the halls of Congress. The apocalyptic vision has accumulated followers during the coronavirus pandemic, which has deepened political polarization and accelerated the online flow of racist ideology. The shooter's 180-page document confirms that he was indeed motivated by replacement ideology and outright racism. In it he described his plan to deliberately attack a black supermarket, as well as his support for antisemitic and neo-Nazi causes. "I will carry out an attack against the replacers," he wrote , "and will even livestream the attack." In a sort of guilt by association, blame was leveled at Republicans, especially those who hold conservative views on immigration, whether or not they harbor any ill will towards minority groups or immigrant neighbors. Ignored was the shooter's description of his own ideals, which includes outright rejections of conservatism as "corporatism in disguise." "Are you right wing?" he asks rhetorically . "Depending on the definition, sure. Are you left wing? Depending on the definition, sure. Are you a socialist? Depending on the definition." As Kyle Smith at the National Review summed up: The manifesto, while certainly political, is ideologically all over the map, as was the Unabomber's. Whoever your ideological boogeyman of today's discourse is, this person doesn't link up to him very easily. How do we make sense of this? Human beings are meaning-making creatures. The fact that we have an instinctive need to know why bad things happen says something about the kind of creatures we are and the moral kind of universe we inhabit. But we are also prone to misdiagnose the problem, and therefore mis-prescribe a solution, because of our allegiance to false ideologies that become a hammer looking for nails. People are more than many ideologies can explain. This is why Communist and Fascist dictatorships end up looking like each other over time. As my colleague Tim Padgett put it recently, "Sometimes worldviews simply give shape to the evil already within individuals." And that's what the Christian worldview says: That evil is already within individuals. The more the social bonds of a culture unravel, the more that people are pushed to their ideological extremes. This is especially the case in a world where digital technologies both radicalize and incentivize bad behaviors. In such a world, politicized theories dominating our discourse are proving to be inadequate to explain violence on this level. Racism, while not what it was a few decades ago, is far from extinct. In its most diabolical forms, entire groups of people are seen as the enemy, as evident by the shooter's manifesto. At the same time, the current analysis of nearly everything, including these incidents, is being dramatically hampered by what I call a " critical theory mood. " While most Americans, including the pundits, have not read the academic source material behind the various expressions of formal critical theory, there is a predisposed commitment, on both the right and the left, to divide the world by tribes, people groups, and political parties and, in doing so, to pre-determine who's right and wrong, good and evil, if by nothing else but association. The dramatically different ways that clearly racially motivated acts are treated and described—compare this event with the Waukesha tragedy a few months ago—based on these people groupings simply demonstrate that we have no clue how to distinguish between good and evil. Critical theory in its formal form or as a cultural mood is short-sighted and inadequate. The Christian vision of the cosmos, people, morality, and human history offers an adequate understanding of good and evil on every level: both societal and individual. As a young man, Tom Tarrants, was injured in a shootout with FBI agents and sent to prison. "If anyone deserved to die, it was certainly me," this former member of the Ku Klux Klan, once filled with racial hatred, wrote recently in Christianity Today . But God worked a miracle, even in solitary confinement: repentance and even reconciliation with some of those he tried to kill. Only the Gospel can do that. As we grieve, we pray for justice and for healing to God who reigns over everything, even Buffalo, New York, last Saturday. In Him, we have hope, understanding, and a way forward.
May 20, 2022
John and Maria unpack the web of the recent shootings in Buffalo, New York and California. Rather than rest on the narratives, John provides a helpful way to consider the landscape and the underlying ideas that many are glossing over. Then, Maria asks John for perspective on some social media traffic around the recent Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. Maria provides additional context to help us consider our culture's issue with objectifying women and how the church can provide a better way in this moment. To close, Maria asks John for insight into a few Breakpoint commentaries from the week. John discusses how Russian art is important in this cultural moment, despite the call from some to cancel it in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. John also explains the scenario of a lesser known phenomenon in charitable giving that could impact Christians looking to support biblically-based organizations.
May 20, 2022
Can we stand for truth without becoming jaded? G.K. Chesterton, in his 1908 book Orthodoxy , describes how when he was a boy, many told him that his ideals would eventually "break up like clouds" and that he'd be forced to put his real faith in simple, practical politics. He writes: What has really happened is exactly the opposite. … I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my old childlike faith in practical politics. Tongue in cheek as always, Chesterton isn't arguing that politics don't matter. They do. But far too many build their life on the weak foundation of an ever-changing political landscape. It's a recipe for burnout, anger, and disillusionment. Christian hope is secure and makes us better neighbors, parents, spouses, and citizens. The unchanging values and methods of Christ's kingdom give us the strength we need to go on even in the face of changing situations. We'll have to take unpopular stands in our lifetimes, but placing our hope in Christ is the opposite of being naive or impractical. It's the only sure foundation there is.
May 20, 2022
A recent opinion column made quite a splash. In it, the author observed: In every other situation common to the human experience—eating, drinking, exercise, even email—we have come to realize that limits produce healthier results. It's unlikely that sex and relationships are exceptions to the rule. An unrestrained sexual culture hasn't necessarily led to better sex for all or to better relationships. In many cases, it has inspired numbness, callousness, hurting others and being hurt. And rather than being titillating, sexual overload has become boring. She writes: "Getting rid of the old rules and replacing them with the norm of consent was supposed to make us happy. Instead, many people today feel a bit … lost." If you were to guess who published those words, what would you say? A Christian media outlet like Breakpoint or First Things? A conservative column by Ryan Anderson or Mary Eberstadt at The Heritage Foundation or Daily Wire? What if I told you this was published in The New York Times ? The author is Christine Emba, and the opinion column was based on her recent book: Rethinking Sex, a Provocation . Making a case quite controversial for modern ears, Emba argues for a recovery of ethical norms around sex, something "mere consent" is unable to provide. A Catholic , Emba is quick to clarify that she is not advocating for a return to "purity culture," or what many view as the outdated, repressive ethics of orthodox Christianity. She also carefully avoids talking about LGBTQ relationships, which some see as a desire to avoid permanently offending her progressive audience. Even so, the case she does make is profoundly countercultural, and she's making it to a culture that just might be ready to listen . Our culture is, after all, showing signs of sexual exhaustion in the midst of all of its confusion. As one news outlet reported on Valentine's day, "Americans [are] less likely to have sex, partner up and get married than ever." A Pew survey found that nearly half of single adults have given up looking for a partner entirely. Another Pew Research survey showed that 65% of single women have experienced some form of harassment on the dating scene. Porn-inspired violence is so mainstream, Emba writes, that even when women are surprised by inappropriate conduct, they often feel like they can't back out, once consent has been given. One young Twitter user put it this way : "I don't think older generations realize how terrifying dating is for the current generation." In other words, it's time to admit that the idea that consent could adequately govern human sexuality has failed. Consent may be the barest of moral necessities, but it cannot govern something as powerful as sex, especially when sex has been untethered from its purpose, design, and any other moral restraint. So, Emba concludes : [S]ome new understandings may be in order. Maybe even casual sex is significant, an act unlike any other. Maybe some porn-inspired practices—those that eroticize degradation, objectification, harm—shouldn't be mainstreamed. Maybe we do have a duty to others, not just to our own desire. We need norms more robust than "anything between two consenting adults goes." Her analysis is correct, though missing a necessary component. To say that we need to recover sexual norms leads to an obvious question: Whose norms? And why? What can make certain norms normative? The answer, of course, takes us beyond exploring various moral options. Any analysis of morality quickly becomes a question of teleology. Or, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, we must know what something is for , before we can know what to do with it. In its bid for unrestricted sexual freedom, late modernity lost any foundation of what sex is and is for . Now, even as the house crumbles, we're busy throwing away every tool needed to build back a foundation. Contrary to everything we're taught, sex is inherently about other people. Biologically, it's about creating children; sociologically, it's about making strong bonds between moms and dads for the sake of those children. Spiritually, it's a reflection of Christ and the Church; metaphysically, it's about the ways we are each embodied beings , created as men and women for, and in relationship with, each other. Of course, it's never popular to suggest any restrictions when it comes to sex, but the alternative is proving to be worse. Emba and others are realizing how sex without restrictions leads to personal and social chaos. She makes a great case. Our job is to take it one step deeper, and to point with our words and our lives to a better way.
May 19, 2022
" Religion, not gender," the Economist reports, "is the best predictor of views on abortion ." The editors continue: Shocked by a draft Supreme Court opinion that would allow states to ban abortion…. some [activists] hope that women enraged by the loss of Roe v Wade will vote en masse for Democrats in November. But, they argue, that hope is misplaced. Whereas the gap between men and women on abortion restrictions is just 6%, religion—combined with race—accounts for a 65% difference. Among both men and women, for example, 92% of atheists favor pro-abortion policies. Likewise, according to Gallup, 75% of those who attend religious services weekly identify as "pro-life." In other words, abortion is not an issue of women against men. It's an issue of worldview. Women are, of course, most affected by issues surrounding pregnancy, but not always the way that we are led to believe. The real question is what is the pre-born? Are they, abortion advocates suggest, just disposable tissue or "lives worth sacrificing?" Or are they, in the words of Scripture , " fearfully and wonderfully made " in the image of God?
May 19, 2022
After the invasion of Ukraine, what should be done with Russian art? According to Simon Morrison in a recent The Washington Post article, Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine has prompted a global push to disavow all things Russian: Music providers like Sony are suspending their Russian operations. … The Royal Opera House in London scrapped a summer season featuring the Bolshoi Ballet. … The Cardiff Philharmonic in Wales pulled the 19th-century . . . composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Some of these measures are warranted. For example, composer Valery Gergiev is an outspoken supporter of Putin, played victory concerts in Ossetia and Syria for Putin, and in 2014 publicly supported the occupation of Crimea. He was fired from his position as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. Other situations are less clear. As Morrison writes, The Montreal Symphony Orchestra just postponed three shows by 20-year-old pianist Alexander Malofeev, despite the fact that he has stated publicly, "Every Russian will feel guilty for decades because of the terrible and bloody decision that none of us could influence and predict." It's both true and unnerving that so many Russians support this rapacious war against their neighbor. Others have been taken in by Putin's relentless campaign of misinformation about Ukraine and its leaders. At the same time, there are those who have done nothing wrong, some who are even leading the internal resistance. Like with economic sanctions , everyday Russians are being punished for the sins of their government. Though war makes such extreme measures necessary, they should never be employed thoughtlessly. Canceling Russian artists is one thing. Canceling Russian art is another. Throughout its history, the country has produced some of the greatest composers, painters, and authors of all time—not to mention dissidents, prophets, and counter-revolutionaries. Leo Tolstoy is a perfect example. A seasoned military veteran who became a devout Christian and pacifist, his work Sevastopol Sketches vividly describes the horror of war in an age prone to glamorize it. Rather than elevate a character or cause, Tolstoy closes with one of his most famous lines: "The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the strength of my soul, whom I have tried to set forth in all his beauty … is the truth." In War and Peace, Tolstoy elaborates on the idea of "greatness." "When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical ratiocination any farther," he argues, when actions are clearly contrary to all that humanity calls right or even just, the historians produce a saving conception of greatness... "Greatness," it seems, excludes the standards of right and wrong. Deeply convicted by Christ's teachings, Tolstoy reflected, "There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness, and truth." The fact that Tolstoy's works even survived, despite decades of Soviet censorship, is itself an act of God. Tolstoy's Christian themes were overt, and his contributions both to and from Russian culture undeniable. "Russian school children are introduced to their country's literary canon as early as the fifth grade," writes journalist Tim Brinkhof . Even Putin has listed Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy among his favorite authors. Perhaps his hypocrisy is an open door. Russia's great artists have long served as a kind of national conscience, a reminder of the immutable, God-given truths stamped on the heart of every person. In the words of The Economist, Shunning the country's back catalogue means giving up a guide to the darkness, and out of it. Cancel Dostoyevsky … and you miss peerless insights into nihilism and violence. Blacklist Tchaikovsky—or Shostakovich—and you silence a beauty wrenched from the chokehold of repression. Turn away from Malevich's paintings, and you forgo his urgent vision of a world cracked open. Banishing Tolstoy means losing a timeless prophet of peace. Of course, the Soviet era also has had its share of propagandist art, none of which should be celebrated. The problem with this art is not that it is Russian in origin, but what it was for, what it communicated, and the corrupt motives of its creators. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in The Gulag Archipelago , The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. … and even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.
May 18, 2022
John and Shane consider how to support families who have children wrestling with gender identity. A listener writes in asking for ideas, as some in his own family are navigating gender dysphoria. Then, Shane asks John for a way to think well on manhood and womanhood, noting the natural gender breaks with speakers like Jordan Peterson.
May 18, 2022
Imagine if giving money in support of a group that protects religious liberty, crafts pro-life legislation, or teaches a biblical view of sexuality or marriage meant that your name and the amount of your contribution would be publicly available. Anyone, including anyone who hoped to intimidate, harass, or "out you" to your employer, would have access to that information. Would you still give if giving exacted a social cost as well as a financial one? That's the situation countless conservative and Christian donors could face. An upstart group called " Unmasking Fidelity " is trying to expose conservative donors to harassment by demanding the nation's largest grant-maker, Fidelity Charitable, publicly reveal contributions to ten key organizations. These include the Family Research Council, Turning Point USA, and Alliance Defending Freedom, which Unmasking Fidelity absurdly calls "white supremacist" and "fascist." The true agenda behind the name-calling is obvious. Some of these organizations have been thorns in the side of progressive policymakers and lawyers who wish to impose their views on all Americans. Alliance Defending Freedom, for example, has been responsible for several key religious freedom victories at the U.S. Supreme Court, including one last year that protected conservative donors in California from having their names and charitable contributions published. In Thomas More Law Center v. Bonta , lawyers with ADF successfully argued against a California law that effectively "doxxed" donors—exposing them to harassment and intimidation. Having failed in court, progressive activists hare now directing their efforts to attacking their opponents' funding, specifically any conservative and Christian donors who use Fidelity Financial to manage their nonprofit contributions. Unmasking Fidelity is demanding five years' worth of receipts for all donations that have gone to ten charities whose views they don't like. If Fidelity agrees to these demands, any major donor who gives to these organizations, or any like them, ought to immediately move their charitable dollars. Thankfully, there are trustworthy homes for this money, including Waterstone, National Christian Foundation, and Signatry. As ADF put it, Unmasking Fidelity "desires to punish [Fidelity] and their donors for supporting principles millions of Americans endorse—religious freedom, free speech, marriage and family, parental rights, and sanctity of life." If Fidelity caves to these demands, other financial institutions would likely follow, and an ideological litmus test would be imposed on account holders and institutions. Conservative and Christian groups would be effectively blacklisted by predominant financial players which is precisely what these activists want. From there, they can target other financial institutions and services, such as credit card processing and banking. As ADF concludes, this is an effort to "circumvent the First Amendment" right after the Supreme Court ruled that nonprofit donations are free speech. This is, of course, cancel culture at its worst. If it succeeds, our radioactive political landscape would only become more toxic, and ordinary Americans will be increasingly afraid to contribute to or show public support for causes that would invite harassment or cost them their jobs. Our nation is divided enough, without every citizen who wants to make a charitable donation being effectively put on trial in the court of public opinion. Fidelity Charitable needs to hear from its account holders and the public. As of this publication, more than 30,000 financial advisors, investment professionals, and nonprofit leaders have already signed a letter urging Fidelity Charitable's leadership to reject the demands of progressive activists. Contact Fidelity Charitable directly and urge them to fight for the privacy and freedom of account holders, as well as for the good of our civil society. The email address is fidelitycorporateaffairs@fmr.com. And, if you plan on donating to conservative or Christian nonprofits through a donor-advised fund, consider a Christian-based financial firm that is less vulnerable to pressure from activists. ADF has compiled a list of suggested organizations. The stakes are clear. Not only must we protect the future of charitable contribution and organizations doing great work, we must stop this financial squeezing strategy right now, before it gains any momentum.
May 18, 2022
A bizarre talking point circulating in the wake of the Supreme Court leak in the Dobbs case is that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, women who suffer miscarriages could be criminally charged in states that restrict abortion. The rumor apparently stems from a handful of stories involving women who've been charged for the death of their preborn babies after they used drugs or caused a car accident by driving under the influence. These stories have nothing morally or medically in common with miscarriages, which are natural, albeit tragic occurrences. Abortions are needless, deliberate, violent, and dangerous for babies and women. Removing the body of a baby who has died from his mother's womb is nothing like invading a healthy womb to dismember and kill a baby. Propagating the miscarriage myth is nothing less than a ruthless political strategy aimed at keeping women terrified and distracted from the real issues at stake in abortion law. Women deserve better than to be lied to. Christians need to tell the truth loud and clear.
May 17, 2022
Writing for The Atlantic , Quinta Jurecic argues the politics of rage are "seeping into every corner of life." The New York Times , for example, reported that over 500 health officials had quit their jobs since the pandemic, many citing threats and intimidation. According to an Education Week survey, 60% of school administrators say their employees were threatened with violence over the schools' handling of COVID. In 2021, the FAA logged over 6,000 reports of "unruly passengers," as opposed to just 150 in 2019. To be sure, Jurecic's political bias is obvious—but the problem she describes is real. During the cultural hostility of the first centuries, the Apostles said to let our words " be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person ." That's not advice, that's instruction. In today's world, we won't be able to avoid conflict, but these stands we take have to be the right ones and how we take them will reflect who we really serve. People, to paraphrase Paul, are not our adversaries. They are our objective.
May 17, 2022
Last week at our annual Wilberforce Weekend conference, we held a pre-event on Thursday evening to discuss what it means to prepare for a post- Roe future. The presentations were exceptional across the board. Today, I want you to hear from my friend Stephanie Gray Connors. She responded throughout the evening to various slogans used in our culture to promote abortion. Here's one of the short talks she gave in response to the slogan, "legal abortion saves women's lives." Here's Stephanie Gray Connors. Legal abortion saves women's lives. Why is that claim made? It's made to imply that if abortion becomes illegal, it will be unsafe. And the question we want to ask is this, "For who? Abortion will be unsafe for who?" Because abortion is always unsafe, whether legal or illegal for the pre-born child. Another point we want to make is to ask this question: "Even if abortion, when legal, is safer for women than illegal—even if we were to concede that—is it ethical to legalize homicide just to make it safer for those who participate in it?" We could come up with a little parable, and say, imagine you're a nurse in an emergency room and a man comes in with broken, bruised, swollen, bloodied knuckles. And so you begin bandaging his wounds, and you say, "Sir, what happened that caused this to you?" And he replies, "I was beating my wife tonight, and this resulted." Would it make sense for the nurse to say, "You know, we really need to legalize spousal abuse and give men boxing gloves so that when they beat their wives, they don't hurt themselves"? Now, we would never say that. Why? Because we recognize what brought on the infliction of harm to the man was infliction of harm to another. And so the question is "When an abortion occurs, does that abortion inflict harm on the most vulnerable of the human child or human beings—that of the pre-born child?" And if the answer is yes, then we may not legalize it. But when I hear that false claim from abortion supporters—legal abortion saves women's lives—what I'm hearing is a concern for women's lives and on that, I can agree. As a woman, most particularly, I too am concerned about my life and the lives of other women. But my concern is not just that women survive. I want women to thrive. So we have to ask the question, "What makes a woman thrive?" And I would suggest the answer is what makes a woman or anyone thrive is they live to the fullness of who they were created to be. And the ultimate fulfillment biologically, the greatest level of maturity for a woman, is maternity, is having offspring. A woman is called to motherhood. Whether that is lived out through the physical reality of biological mother or the spiritual reality of spiritual motherhood. But the point is all women at the heights of their maturity are called to motherhood. What is abortion? It is a rejection of that. I have worked full time in the pro-life movement for 20 years. I have seen a lot of people on both sides of the debate, and I can tell you the most bitter people I have met over the last two decades are people who have rejected their maternity, and the happiest, most thriving women I have met are those who have embraced their femininity in the form of maternity, whether that is biological mothers or spiritual mothers in the form of nuns I've met who are happier than most people I know. There are two paths ahead of our world today. One says, "This is my body given for you." And the other one says, "This is your body given for me." As we reflect on those two choices, I would suggest the great tragedy of abortion: It's not just that it destroys the body of a baby, but that it destroys the very nature of a woman. Thank you. That was Stephanie Gray Connors, answering a common pro-abortion slogan: Legal abortion saves women's lives. Throughout our preparing-for-a-post- Roe -future event, Stephanie answered a few more questions like that. To receive access to her presentation as well as the other speakers at this very special event, go to breakpoint.org.
May 16, 2022
Chuck Colson lived a redeemed life. This past weekend we celebrated the redeeming work of Christ in our lives and the lives of those who have come before us. One of the redemption stories we highlighted was Chuck Colson's, and today on the BreakPoint Podcast we share Chuck's story, as told by him, of how Christ saved him not only from something, but to and for many things for the glory of God.
May 16, 2022
Recently, Stanford Center on Longevity announced a project called the "New Map of Life." "In the United States," the authors write, "as many as half of today's 5-year-olds can expect to live to the age of 100, and this once unattainable milestone may become the norm for newborns by 2050." The problem, the authors admit, is that we don't know what to do with an extra 30 years: The "narrative of an 'aging society' seems to convey only a crisis." Reaching this 100-years-of-life milestone is, as one researcher put it , a "[breathtaking] package of human potential the world has never seen, unprecedented numbers of people with unprecedented capabilities, and significant desire to give back and leave the world better." Scripture agrees, calling old age "a crown of glory." But that's not because of how long it lasts or what is accomplished. It's because there's a "why" behind it all. As Stanford looks for technological and sociological benefits to longer lives, Christians can point to the Source of meaning for all of life, who faced and defeated death. The more time we have to do that, the better.
May 16, 2022
Recently, we held a public event on the evening before our annual Wilberforce Weekend to talk about how we can prepare to live in a post- Roe world. A very important aspect of that event was learning how we can respond to the common slogans, the common lines that people often throw around in support of abortion. We asked Stephanie Gray Connors, one of the great apologists for the sanctity of life in our present moment to address some of these slogans. One of those slogans was "embryos aren't really people." Here's Stephanie Gray Connors responding. Embryos aren't people. And when we want to respond to that, the first thing we want to do is ask the question, "What our embryos? And what are people?" Let's seek definitions of those two terms. If you look at the word embryo —you actually look it up in the dictionary—it says an animal in the early stages of growth. And I would like to point out as a pro-lifer, I do not believe in protecting all embryos. Dogs have embryos. Cats have embryos. Other species have embryos because the embryo is the animal in the early stage of development. The embryos that I'm interested in protecting are the human embryos that happened to be at the earliest stage of their development. The question is "Are pre-born children human embryos at the very beginning of pregnancy?" And to answer that we have to ask, "Is the pregnant woman human?" Yes. "Is her partner human?" Yes. Then, that means the embryo in the pregnant woman's body must be of the same species. The next question we want to put forward in such a conversation is "Is that embryo that we know is human because the parents are human—is the embryo alive?" And to answer that we ask ourselves, "Is the embryo growing?" And scientifically we know that one cell grows into 2, 4, 8, doubling every time. And so by virtue of the embryo's growth, the embryo must be alive. By virtue of having human parents, the embryo must be human. "What are people?" Well, if you ask an abortion supporter that, they'll say a person is someone who's rational, conscious, and self-aware, and an embryo at the beginning of pregnancy might be human but isn't those things. I have a nine-month-old baby. Yes, she interacts with me to a degree, but let me tell you she does not act rational, conscious, or self-aware very often. I even have to get boogers out of her nose for her. She is entirely incapable of doing many things. "Is she a person?" Yes, because she's human, because she's a member of the human family, and she has the inherent capacity to be rational, conscious, and self-aware like all of us. But due to her age, she can't yet act on that capacity. In the same way if someone is having surgery under anesthetic, in that moment they're not rational, conscious, and self-aware. If you have a conversation or try to with someone under anesthetic, they will not respond back. If you say, "May I kill you?" They will not object. It doesn't mean it's okay to kill them because they have the inherent capacity to be rational, conscious, and self-aware. But due to the circumstances of surgery, they can't act on it. In the same way with a born baby, like a nine-month-old, they have the inherent capacity for this higher brain function. But due to their age, they can't act on it. And the same is true for human embryos. They have the inherent capacities as all of us have. But due to their age, they can't yet act on those capacities. The question then is this: "Our human rights grounded in how old we are, how developed we are, or who we are as members of the human family?" Throughout history, humans have been denied personhood status based on features that don't matter. Women were denied personhood status at one point because of sex, blacks because of skin color, Jews because of ethnicity. And we reject the denial of personhood status of those humans. We reject the denial of personhood status when it comes to pre-born humans because the only difference between them and you and me is their age. And human rights are grounded in being a member of the human family, not how we currently function, how developed we are, or how old we are. Thank you. That was Stephanie Gray Connors, answering a common pro-abortion statement, "embryos aren't people." And at last week's pre-Wilberforce event, preparing for a post- Roe future, Stephanie answered three more slogans, just like that one. To receive access to the entire evening event, Preparing for a Post- Roe World, come to breakpoint.org.
May 13, 2022
John and Maria consider the ethics surrounding protests, looking specifically at the public outcry over the leaked draft opinion of the Supreme Court. The pair also considers how the war in Ukraine is sparking the consequences of the overpopulation myth many have believed. And then to close, John unpacks the reason the Colson Center has selected The Life Redeemed as the theme of this year's Wilberforce Weekend.
May 13, 2022
A month or so ago, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked to define "woman." She responded, "I'm not a biologist." That was just a week after a biological male won the NCAA women's swimming championship. Gender scholars were quick to support Jackson, pointing to biological anomalies such as people who are born "intersex." But intersex and other "disorders of sexual development" are exceptions. They don't erase the basic biological category of a woman. Ironically, many who remained silent on what a woman is during the NCAA championship have not been silent regarding the potential loss of the so-called "right" to abortion. For example, Vice President Kamala Harris proclaimed in a speech , "How dare they try to deny women their rights and their freedoms," assuming that we should all know perfectly well what a woman is, that the definition has to do with certain biological functions, and that you don't need to be a biologist to know that. Once again, God's design is revealed to be reality.
May 13, 2022
Today launches our annual Wilberforce Weekend. Ten years ago, Chuck Colson gave what would be his final message , at a Wilberforce Weekend event. His message that day was that the world needed the Church to be the Church. His call that day remains the central purpose of the Wilberforce Weekend. This weekend, we will be looking at salvation and redemption from every possible angle we can, in order to better live a life that is redeemed. Chuck's life was a wonderful redemption story. Today on Breakpoint, I wanted you to hear Chuck Colson, in his own voice and his own words, tell his own redemption story. I was the first person in my family to go to college, and when I got through there, it was time for me to go into the military because the Korean War was raging. So, I became a lieutenant in the Marines and rose very rapidly and won honors in school. I think everything I ever did in my life I was successful. I went to law school nights while I was working as an assistant to a United States senator. At one point, Newsweek wrote about me as the youngest administrative assistant to a United States senator. I think I was 28—ran campaigns, loved it, started a law firm—great success. I got to know Richard Nixon in 1968 when he was elected president and went into his administration as his special counsel. I arrived in his office when I was 38 years old, and my office was immediately next door to his. And you know, you go to the eight o'clock senior staff meetings. There would be 12 of us sitting around the table, and the 12 senior aides would come in with their big portfolios under their arms. Henry Kissinger would always be the last one to arrive. And he would sit down at the end of the table and say, "Mr. President, the decision we are going to make today is going to change the whole future course of human history." I mean every day of the week for five days. That gets pretty exhausting. And we thought we really were doing things that were of great significance. And in many respects, I suppose, looking back, they were. When the campaign was over—and I pretty well ran the campaign for President Nixon in 1972—I decided to go back to my law firm. But I was feeling—instead of jubilant over what was at that point the largest landslide victory in American politics—instead of being jubilant over it, I was feeling kind of down. At 41 years old, I'd been there, I'd done that. There wasn't much else left to do. And I kept thinking to myself, "My grandfather who was an immigrant to this country from Sweden would be so proud to see his grandson in a place like this, but what am I really doing here?" Took a couple of trips abroad, but I came back, and I still had that emptiness. And one day I was back in my law firm, and I went to visit a client whom I had not seen in the four years I'd been in the White House because I refused to see anyone I'd ever practiced law as their lawyer. I was so worried about a conflict of interest. Can you imagine that? But I went back to see one of these men, Tom Phillips, who was the president of the largest corporation in New England. I had been his general counsel. I walked in his office one day, still feeling kind of empty, and I looked at him, and he was a completely different guy. He's a guy like myself who had worked his way up the hard way, self-made man, the CEO of this corporation when he was barely 40 years old. And he was at peace, and he started asking me about my family, and finally, I said to him, "Tom, you've changed since I saw you four years ago." He said, "Yes, I have, Chuck," and then he looked up at the clock, and he didn't look me straight in the eye, but he said, "I have accepted Jesus Christ and committed my life to Him." He looked away as I later found out because he'd never done this with anyone before. I thought about that for the next three months, and I couldn't get it out of my mind. So, I went back to him one evening in August of 1973, and I said, "Tom, you've got to explain this to me," and he said, "Before I do, I want to read you a chapter from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity entitled the great vice, 'The Great Sin.'" I listened to this chapter, and I realized he's writing about me. And I sat there that night in pain listening to that chapter, and I was really moved. He wanted to pray with me, and I said, "No. I have never prayed except in the church." So, he prayed. I left his home that night, and here I was a former Marine captain. And yeah, I was known as the White House hatchet man, the tough guy. And I got into the automobile, and I tried to drive away, but I could not because the tough guy was crying too hard. I couldn't see the road in front of me. I pulled over and sat there. I have no idea for how long, thinking about my life, thinking about "Could there be a God, and if there were, could I know Him?" But that night for the first time in my life, I was sure there was a God, and I was sure He was hearing me. I woke up the next morning figuring I was going to be embarrassed, and instead I couldn't wait to get my hands on Mere Christianity and read it from cover to cover. Away from Watergate and before I was considered a target of the investigation, I simply quietly surrendered my life to Christ and asked Him to come into my life. I will tell you that's 35 years ago this past summer. Nothing about my life has been the same since. Nothing about my life can be the same again. I am convinced Christ is who He says. I'm more convinced as Malcolm Muggeridge once said of the reality of Jesus Christ than I am of my own reality. That was Chuck Colson describing the moment God got ahold of his life and changed it forever. Chuck's redemption story is a feature of this year's Wilberforce Weekend, this weekend in Orlando, Florida. To find out how you can gain access to all of the recordings and videos from this weekend's event, visit breakpoint.org .
May 12, 2022
For years, sociologist Arthur Brooks has been trying to understand the secret to human happiness. Recently i n The Atlantic, Brooks argued that at least part of the answer is wanting less, something taught by teachers as ideologically diverse as the Buddha and Thomas Aquinas. "As we age, we shouldn't accumulate more to represent ourselves," writes Brooks, "but rather strip things away to find our true selves—and thus, to find happiness and peace." This is good practical wisdom, but there's more to understand here. While the views of Aquinas and Buddha are superficially similar on this topic, they depart radically on what people are, and what people are for. The Buddha taught us to stop desiring, but Jesus said to " seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you ." In other words, it's not about not desiring , but about desiring the right things. The difference between Buddhist asceticism and Aquinas' idea of soul-building is knowing the One who created us with a capacity for happiness in the first place.
May 12, 2022
A friend of mine has, for decades now, suffered severe back pain. Finally, surgeons took a remarkable step, implanting a device that sends electrical signals to his spinal cord in order to disrupt pain signals traveling to his brain. For the most part, his pain has been dramatically lessened. This was an incredible help for my friend. After all, pain tells us that something is wrong. His condition was never going to change, so the pain served no purpose. The more our knowledge of the human brain increases, the more breakthrough treatments like this, for an increasing variety of mental and physical problems, are possible. Some, such as treating addiction with brain surgery, are more controversial than others. As WORLD News recently reported , a new study at West Virginia University's Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute is utilizing deep brain stimulation in an attempt to counteract addictive cravings. Surgeons insert a tiny, thin wire into the brain's tissue. This allows them to read the parts of the brain that light up when the patient craves a high. It also stimulates other parts of the brain in an attempt to affect, over a time, a " dopamine reset. " Combined with additional medication, counseling and lifestyle changes, the treatment seems to have been successful in early trials. More trials are needed before widespread adoption. Even so, as with all technological innovations, any optimism should come with a healthy side dose of caution. Unlike back pain, addiction involves more than just a person's neurology. It involves relationships, lifestyle choices, sense of self-worth, spirituality, and identity. To be clear, addiction is not about less than our brain chemistry, but it is about more. That's one reason certain addictions, such as opioids, are so difficult to fight or overcome. The chemical forces at work can easily outmatch the human brain. Synthetically produced opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil , for example, pack roughly 100 to 10,000 times the potency of morphine. This partially explains why drug overdoses have skyrocketed in recent years, and why, according to some estimates, more than 90% of those addicted to opioids will relapse. Illegal opiates kill, on average, over 100 thousand Americans per year. The societal and personal damage is incalculable. Finally, certain players in the pharmaceutical industry are facing a cultural reckoning, both on screen and in court, for the damage they caused. Given the powerful chemical forces stacked in favor of addiction, it makes sense to enlist science on the side of the human brain. After all, if we can zap our brains out of addictive behavior, why wouldn't we? The answer is that any theory of treatment that treats the physical and medical side of a person, at the expense of the moral, interpersonal, or spiritual side misunderstands the human person. Of course, an increasingly dominant form of materialism does exactly that. Faced with complicated problems of human nature, such as poverty, crime, or addiction, it is tempting to grasp for explanations that rob people of moral agency. Poverty, in this view, is the result of generational difficulties, class discrimination, or racial inequities, but never the choices of the people involved. Crime is caused by poverty, or the lack of access to basic social institutions like education. Addiction is genetic, a result of chemical dependence in the brain, and nothing more. To be clear, empathy, compassion, and care for those in poverty, prison, or addiction are not optional. Christians should know themselves well enough to say, "there but for the grace of God ..." Also, the biblical description of people and sin includes room for both personal and structural factors, both physical and spiritual sides, of each of these issues. What we cannot do is reduce people down, as a naturalistic worldview tends to do, to only their brains. When we treat them as if they aren't moral creatures, with the freedom to act, we don't merely dehumanize them ... we fail to adequately help them. The problem with poverty, especially in the first world, is rarely just a lack of money. This is why a significant percentage of lottery winners end up filing bankruptcy after winning fortunes. People are not reducible to their material selves: their brains, their traits, even their circumstances. Real treatment requires moral commitment and a strong network of spiritual and relational support. Gerod Buckhalter, an early recipient of deep brain stimulation to overcome addiction, understands this better than most. After his surgery over two years ago, Buckhalter committed to counseling, accountability, and other support systems. He told reporters back in February, "When it comes to staying sober, it's just as important as the surgery." If neurostimulation does prove helpful, and I hope it does, it cannot replace a worldview change so that people see themselves as image bearers and moral agents. Neither people nor their addictions are reducible to just one thing.
May 11, 2022
John and Shane devote this episode of the Breakpoint podcast to the challenges society will face if Roe v. Wade and a federal protection on abortion is overturned and removed.
May 11, 2022
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been immensely expensive, and not only because of global sanctions and lost military equipment. In fact, the highest price Russia is paying in this war has to do with an increasingly scarce resource: lives. Estimates of Russian casualties in just the first week of the war ranged from 2,000 to 6,000, with thousands more lost since then. Every life lost is tragic, but a s British journalist Ed West points out , this is a loss modern Russia simply cannot afford. Russians, like in so many other European nations, simply aren't having enough babies . The country's population is shrinking by more than a hundred thousand people a year, with no clear end in sight. Some parts of the country are simply becoming devoid of people. According to West, about 20,000 Russian villages have been abandoned in recent years, with tens of thousands closely following. This is a factor that could ultimately affect the outcome of the war, West thinks: If Russians turn out to have no stomach for this fight, it will probably be for the simple fact that the country does not have enough men to spare. The majority of those poor young men killed for Russia's honor will be their mother's only son, in many cases their only child…. As it turns out, Russia's problem is not unique. This country, so rich in land but poor in young people, is just one of dozens of nations across an "infertile crescent" from Spain to Singapore, consisting of populations aging so rapidly that their long-term existence is in doubt. West cites a few examples that bring the stats into perspective: "In 2000 Thailand had 7 workers for every retiree; by 2050 that figure will be just 1.7. In Greece, 1,700 schools closed between 2009–2014." In Stoke-on-Trent in England, "40% of bars and clubs have shut in the past twenty years, as the ratio of infants to retirees has gone from 4:1 to 1:2 in a century." And in Paris, "15 schools merged or closed between 2015–2018." According to the United Nations map of world fertility, every continent except Africa is below or nearing the replacement birth rate. This widespread population crash is so steep that West compares it with P.D. James' novel, The Children of Men , a tale about a world devoid of babies. One reason it is difficult to imagine a world threatened by aging and depopulation is that, for decades now, we've been fed a steady diet of alarm about overpopulation. Ever since Paul Ehrlich published his book The Population Bomb in 1968, the idea that the Earth is too crowded has been the zombie myth that just won't die. "The battle to feed humanity is over," Ehrich famously declared. "In the 1970s the world will undergo famines—hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death." He was wrong, of course, largely because human beings aren't mere eating machines. We have the capacity to innovate and improve methods of food production and living, and that's exactly what happened. To the extent that famines do still occur, they are usually the result of political corruption and war. In fact, we now grow enough food to feed three billion more people than actually exist! So why does the idea of overpopulation and the solution that we must have fewer children persist? How can this belief still hold sway over millions of people in the developed world despite the growing evidence to the contrary? The partial answer is that people in places of influence in governments, academia, and the press have committed themselves to an anti-natal mindset, and struggle to admit that the real problem is too few new humans. The myth of an overpopulated planet sticks despite all evidence because it was long ago accepted as dogma, and almost no one has bothered to challenge it since. The demographic trends at work in Russia and around the world—including in the United States—aren't going to be easy to reverse. One author compared increasing a nation's fertility with pushing water uphill. And in many ways, the gray, shrinking world of our not-so-distant future is an experiment never before tried. The most important strategies to address it—beyond building cultures where children and families are valued again—have probably not been thought of yet. What we can say at this point is that Russia's dwindling supply of young men is just another example of how far popular wisdom can be from the facts. On overpopulation, those facts are in. We're seeing the results before our eyes. And the long-feared future where there are too many mouths to feed has not materialized. Instead, we have a banquet set for billions. But some countries may not be joining us.
May 11, 2022
The status of modern friendship isn't good. "It's precisely because of the atomized, customized nature of our lives that we rely on our friends so very much," Jennifer Senior recently wrote in The Atlantic . "We are recruiting them into the roles of people who once simply coexisted with us—parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, fellow parishioners, fellow union members, fellow Rotarians." Friendships, however, are in short supply. According to one survey , nearly half of Americans have three or fewer close friends: 12% say they have none. Senior writes, "One could argue that modern life conspires against friendship, even as it requires the bonds of friendship all the more." Complicating this problem is that friendship was never meant to be our only social relationship. People need churches, families, and neighbors, all relationships in steep decline in a culture that prioritizes autonomy over responsibility. The unique beauty of friendship is, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis , that it's about something bigger than itself. In fact, all human relationships are. And, Christians who know that have much to offer a world that doesn't.
May 10, 2022
Last week's leak of a draft opinion in the Dobbs case reignited comparisons of abortion restrictions with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale . This isn't new , of course, but it is silly and misguided. Atwood's dystopian novel is about a fictional theocratic successor to the United States, the "Republic of Gilead." In Gilead, select women are forced to become concubines for the sole purpose of breeding. Of course, not killing a child is not the same thing as forcing a woman to bear a child, especially in a culture like ours bent on rejecting sexual morality. In fact, the closest thing to Gilead in our world is commercial surrogacy, particularly those nations where women are kept in surrogacy "farms" and barely paid to remain pregnant in order to bear children for wealthy Westerners , especially same-sex couples. Advocates of so-called "universal parentage" laws are bringing that to America, not pro-lifers. Despite the promises, abortion doesn't bring freedom to women, only a false promise. As Frederica Mathewes-Green and others have observed, abortion untethers men from their responsibilities, and women are on the receiving end of that bad deal. Abortion promises women freedom, but instead delivers abandonment. Let's pray abortion becomes as unthinkable today as those handmade outfits are.
May 10, 2022
In 2015, Canada's Supreme Court struck down a 22-year ban on assisted suicide. The next year, its parliament passed legislation allowing " MAID ," or Medical Assistance in Dying for those who suffer from terminal illness and whose death was "reasonably foreseeable." Five years later, the "reasonably foreseeable" language was dropped, as was the requirement of terminal illness. Today, ending one's life with "medical assistance" simply requires a physician and a witness to agree that physical or mental suffering is such as "cannot be relieved under conditions that you (the patient) consider acceptable." Next year, that will expand to include anyone with a mental illness, like PTSD or depression. There's also talk about expanding the practice to include minors. Soon, u nder Canadian law, someone accused of a crime "must possess the capacity to understand that his or her behaviour was wrong in order to be found guilty." However, someone will not need the mental capacity to understand the implications of "medical assistance in dying" in order to choose death. None of which, we are told, should alarm us. Proponents of assisted death always point to "safeguards," such as physician approval, the uncoerced consent of the patient, or humane conditions. Certain stories are elevated, such as Betty Sanguin, an ALS patient who chose to end her life in a Manitoba church , surrounded by friends, family, and clergy, who secured permission for a MAID team to kill her in their sanctuary. Other stories are ignored. Even in the so-called "safe" cases, a grave evil has been done. Life is sacred, a gift of God, and should never be thrown away. To intentionally end life in a church is not a blessing. It's a distortion and a blasphemy. For the most part, the realities of doctor-assisted death look nothing like the beatific best-case scenarios described in the sales pitch. In particular, there are culture-wide implications for human dignity and value, something that euthanasia advocates seem unable or unwilling to predict. Many begin to believe that their lives are unworthy of life, their volition stolen, their dignity degraded. Last month in The Spectator , Yuan Yi Zhu described some of these stories in an article provocatively titled , "Why is Canada Euthanising the Poor?" In it, he described the real human cost of euthanasia laws and how the practice blurs the limits of consent: Now, as long as someone is suffering from an illness or disability which 'cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable ', they can take advantage of what is now known euphemistically as 'medical assistance in dying' (MAID for short) for free. ... Soon enough, Canadians from across the country discovered that although they would otherwise prefer to live, they were too poor to improve their conditions to a degree which was acceptable. His examples included an Ontario woman , who opted for assisted death because her disability benefits weren't enough to cover smoke and chemical-free housing, and she was forced to live with crippling allergies. In Vancouver , another woman sought "medical aid in dying" when her debt kept her from affording the medication that would have alleviated chronic pain. The family of another 35-year-old disabled man discovered how appalling his living conditions were, only after he decided to end his own life. Tragically, by the time the government investigated the care facility and revoked its license, it was too late. As Zhu put it, "One may wonder how much autonomy a disabled man lying in his own filth had in weighing death over life." Individuals are supposedly "free" to choose, but it is unclear just how often this decision is impacted by financial concerns. "Healthcare, particular for those suffering from chronic conditions, is expensive," wrote Zhu, "but assisted suicide only costs the taxpayer $2,327 per 'case'." He concluded: Canadian law, in all its majesty, has allowed both the rich as well as the poor to kill themselves if they are too poor to continue living with dignity. In fact, the ever-generous Canadian state will even pay for their deaths. What it will not do is spend money to allow them to live instead of killing themselves. For at least some of Canada's poorest citizens, coercion in death is not some distant fear, promoted by scared conspiracy groups. The pressure is a daily reality. Euthanasia in any form is a misguided answer to a real, human problem. Some, face a life of unimaginable pain. The only acceptable and loving response is to provide the best compassion, care, and pain management possible. Anytime a country, such as Canada, embraces "death with dignity" or "medical aid in dying" or some other euphemistically disguised lack of compassion, a price tag is placed on people. And, whenever a price tag is placed on something that is inherently priceless, it is cheapened. In Canada's case, the money is going to the so-called "autonomy" of vulnerable people, instead of fighting for their lives.
May 10, 2022
Last week's leak of a draft opinion in the Dobbs case , reignited the comparisons of abortion restrictions with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale . This isn't new , of course, but it is still silly and misguided. Atwood's dystopian novel is about a fictional theocratic successor to the United States, the "Republic of Gilead." In it, select women are forced to become concubines for the sole purposes of breeding. Of course, not killing a child is not the same thing as forcing a woman to bear a child. The closest thing to Gilead in our world is commercial surrogacy, particularly in those nations where women are kept in surrogacy "farms" and barely paid to remain pregnant in order to bear children for wealthy Westerners, especially same-sex couples. Advocates of so-called "parentage rights laws" are bringing that to America, not pro-lifers. Despite the promises, abortion doesn't bring freedom to women, only a false promise. As Frederica Mathewes-Green and others have observed, abortion untethers men from their responsibilities, and women are on the receiving end of that bad deal. Abortion promises women freedom, but instead delivers abandonment. Let's pray abortion becomes as unthinkable today as those outfits are.
May 9, 2022
Today we revisit a speech by Chuck Colson on his renowned work The Faith. Chuck's main idea is that the church is at its best when we propose rather than impose the message of the Gospel. To order a copy of The Faith, visit www.colsoncenter.org
May 9, 2022
Responding to the leaked draft of Justice Alito's opinion in the Dobbs case, President Biden said, "The idea that we're gonna make a judgment that is going to say that no one can make the judgment to choose to abort a child ... goes way overboard." His statement is hard to follow but here's the point: The president said abortion kills a child —not a clump of cells, not a fetus, not a potential human. A child . This is more than a Biden gaffe. He is acknowledging what even honest pro-abortion folks have been forced to admit: The preborn is a human being and a child. Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer has long held this position while not only arguing for abortion rights but also for infanticide. Most others don't go that far, but still argue that the good of the mother outweighs the child's right to life. And yet, many still claim a preborn child is only a clump of cells. We can show them differently. Babies in the womb develop fingerprints, suck their thumbs, have food preferences, recognize their mom's voice, and feel pain. The fact that abortion kills a child is something we can no longer not know. Heck, just quote the president.
May 9, 2022
Something long considered reliable evidence for Darwinian evolution, the chemical similarity of living things, is now in question. In 1973, l eading Neo-Darwinist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote that "nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution." He specifically pointed to "biochemical universals," or shared features in the chemistry of life , as evidence that all creatures "arose from inanimate matter only once" and that everything alive today descended from an universal common ancestor. Today, however, discoveries in molecular biology have complicated that conclusion. In fact, a new paper poses one of the strongest challenges yet to the idea that all life shares common chemistry . Though the title, "Scaling Laws in Enzyme Function Reveal a New Kind of Biochemical Universality," may be one that could excite only a scientist, what the authors describe should make everyone sit up and take notice. In fact, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson, in a piece at Evolution News , called the paper "the most interesting biology paper of 2022 so far." Its findings are precisely the opposite of what we'd expect if life evolved from a common ancestor. The authors, including theoretician Sara Walker and Dylan Gagler from Arizona State University, looked at enzyme functions across all the major groupings of life. They tallied the different functions, then plotted these against the total number of classified enzymes. They found that "as the enzyme space grows … so do the number of functions." In other words, there are very few "specific molecules and reactions" common to all living things. If your head just exploded, Nelson offers a helpful analogy borrowed from one of the paper's coauthors, Chris Kempes. The English language contains many words, or synonyms, that can mean approximately the same thing. If the sky is darkened, we could just say it was "darkened." Or, we could say that it became "murky," "shaded," "shadowed," dimmed," or "obscured." All these words mean, more or less, the same thing but with very different spellings and histories. According to Nelson, "a strikingly similar pattern" occurs among the chemicals that make life possible. The authors of the paper agree, writing that "[biochemical] universality cannot simply be explained due to phylogenetic relatedness." Or, stated more simply, living things don't look like they evolved from a common ancestor using the same basic components on a molecular level. Instead, many different enzymes are used to accomplish similar purposes. This is precisely the opposite of what Darwinism predicts. An editor of this paper, Eugene Koonin of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, has long argued that life lacks the "universal genetic core" that Darwinian evolution predicts. Instead, he says, living things show a pervasive pattern of what scientists have termed "non-orthologous gene displacement." That's a technical way of saying that the functions necessary to sustain life are carried out by different molecules coded by different genes in different species. Or, as original paper's coauthor Chris Kempes puts it , "there are a lot of 'synonyms'" at work in biology. This is just the latest instance of scientific evidence complicating the Darwinian picture, which has long been portrayed as tidy, straightforward, and conclusive. In fact, this is an instance where evolutionary assumptions hinder rather than help us understand how life works and where it came from. Nelson simply points out the obvious conclusion: Functional requirements fulfilled by a different molecular tool doesn't appear to be the product of a universal common ancestry. Instead, it looks more like what we see in computers, cars, language, etc. Function and purpose seem to take priority over hardware in the world of biochemistry. And if there is a mind behind life, we can conclude from these findings that He took great care to equip every living thing with exactly what it needed to thrive, instead of giving them all identical tools. Theodore Dobzhansky may have truly believed that nothing in biology makes sense without evolution, but it's not clear how he would have dealt with these findings. The more and more we learn in biology, the less and less it makes sense when thinking from evolutionary assumptions. The more we follow the evidence, the more it leads elsewhere.
May 6, 2022
John and Maria explore the incredible emotion in the nation following a leak of a draft opinion from the Supreme Court. Then, Maria asks John about the ethics and the way Christians should respond to moves by the government to eliminate student student. They plan to do this by forgiving student loans, but is this a concept Christians should get behind? John and Maria explain the trapings of student debt forgiveness and why the move challenges society. To close, Maria asks John to go deeper into some of the ideas he presented this week in a number of commentaries. Notably, John explains society's problem with forgiveness, touching on a question from Maria on whether forgiveness is a sign of strength of weakness. Then, Maria asks John for some further commentary on the state of books for children, noting that many challenge children's developmental stages and interest in social movements around politics, race, and gender.
May 6, 2022
Pro-lifers aren't the only ones strategizing for a post- Roe America. By 2020, chemical abortions—abortions accomplished with oral medications— became the most common form of abortion in America. With the FDA recently permitting doctors to prescribe this poison without even an in-person visit , chemical abortions are only going to become more common. This is why it's critical to know that medical abortions can be reversible . The process starts with one drug that starves the baby. A few days later, the mother takes a second drug to induce labor. But women who take the first pill and do not take the second can and have gone on to have healthy pregnancies . Medical abortions will become more common in a post- Roe world for the same reason that they are so dangerous: It pushes a violent, dangerous act behind closed doors. As Christians we know that in God's light, we see light —pray for the light to shine in these dark places.
May 6, 2022
Many say they want a world without Christianity, but many secular thinkers are discovering they should be careful what they wish for. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of a public high school football coach who was fired for praying on the field after games. Though the firing should never have happened, this now years-long controversy has provided a window into how many in our culture feel about Christian prayer. Hint: they're not positive feelings. Still, one specific prayer, known as the Serenity Prayer, remains a part of our shared cultural language and a staple of addiction recovery meetings: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Of course, Alcoholics Anonymous' official position is that the "God" of the Serenity Prayer can be any sort of Higher Power you wish, but it is profound that most addiction recovery programs continue to stubbornly insist that faith is critical for addiction recovery . That insistence is backed by a constantly growing mountain of data, which has become un-ignorable. Even the government quietly admits that faith-based recovery programs are the most effective. A re-discovery of Christianity's practical benefits isn't just happening in addiction recovery. The more that various aspects of our culture struggle under the weight of bad ideas and their consequences, the more and more people are discovering "new" solutions in the old Scriptures. Canadian clinical psychologist and self-described nonbeliever Jordan Peterson has become famous in part for his bold claims that Christianity has a unique positive impact on individuals and culture. Contemporary historian Tom Holland, a self-described atheist, literally wrote the book on the responsibility Christianity bears for just about every good thing about modern culture. According to Holland: [Christianity] is the principal reason why, by and large, most of us… still take for granted that it is nobler to suffer than to inflict suffering. It is why we generally assume that every human life is of equal value. And just last week, in former New York Times ' reporter Bari Weiss's new independent Substack, non-believing author Tim DeRoche put forth what he called " The Secular Case for Christianity ": The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the most successful meme in the history of the world. And the spread of that meme over the last 2,000 years has largely been correlated with decreasing levels of slavery, war, crime, poverty, and general suffering. Modern culture, the same modern culture so scandalized by football field prayers and so put off by Christian sexual ethics, must reckon with what Christianity has given the world, DeRoche argued. We should, of course, welcome this kind of cultural self-discovery, though it is a bit like the angsty teenager who rejects the ways of his parents in order to find a more "enlightened" way to do life. But, after all his experimentation, that teen is forced to admit his open-mindedness only led to suffering and maybe his parents were right after all. Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck wrote that "an independent creature is a contradiction in terms." In other words, whether we acknowledge He's there or not, all creatures were made and are sustained by God. He knows best, and He knows us best. That He chose to reveal Himself to us in the creation, the Bible and ultimately in Christ is a tremendous mercy. A Christian life isn't without suffering, of course, but it is the only life in which suffering has meaning, can be redeemed, and will ultimately be defeated. Christians who claim that publicly promoting Christian ethics is somehow intrusive or unloving miss this point, as well as the related point that sharing the best way to live is a way of loving our neighbors. Years ago, comedian Penn Jillette of the comedy duo Penn and Teller famously said that he did not respect Christians who did not proselytize. "How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?" he asked. How much do you have to hate somebody to not tell them the best way to live life? To be clear, neither Christian faith nor Christian public witness is utilitarian. Christianity isn't true because it "works," but it does work because it's true . If God did not take the form of a man, if He had not died and then resurrected, if He were not on the throne of the universe, then Christianity's cultural "benefits" would not matter all that much. But He did, so they do. The Church's great opportunity is not to say, "I told you so," but rather "come and see." The world is better because Christianity is true. Now, come and meet the One behind it all.
May 5, 2022
I don't love BuzzFeed 's clickbaity and crowdsourced approach to content, but a recent article caught my eye: Reddit users revealing what their childhood was like after their parents divorced. "When we were little, mom worked full-time and dad stayed home with us," wrote one user. "When I was six, they separated, and we only saw him once, maybe twice a year. I have never recovered from this sudden and unexplained abandonment." Others described having to become the unintentional middle man between their parents, or trying to keep up with both of them as adults. "Little things like that that take a really big toll on you," wrote one: "I always got physically ill before having to switch houses because of the stress." These anecdotes line up with the research. Divorce is awful, even if tragically necessary. And, more often than not, our culture trips all over itself to obscure its real impact. In order to protect adult feelings, we tell ourselves "the kids will be fine." They aren't. In fact, they deserve better. Sometimes, even BuzzFeed gets it right. I hope people pay attention.
May 5, 2022
A few years ago, a kids' book was published titled A is for Activist . On the book jacket is a tiny fist, raised, apparently, in solidarity. A quick stroll through any metropolitan library children's section will find more books like this one. There's Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi, The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish and, of course, Heather Has Two Mommies . There's Let the Children March and Woke Baby . There's even complete series, such as the "Little Feminists" and the "Citizen Baby" series, which include the titles Citizen Baby: My Vote and Citizen Baby: My Supreme Court . Anyone with actual children or who has been around actual children or who was once an actual child knows that "baby activism" is a misnomer. Little fists are used for temper tantrums and for fighting with dad, not for "solidarity." Chuck Colson advocated for classical education because of its understanding of and respect for the natural development of kids. Postmodern thinking in education was disrupting what he called the "order of learning" instead of recognizing that the right foundations, known as "grammar" and "rhetoric" in a classical vision, must first be established before children can move on to, for example, making coherent political arguments. Today, however, we've got it exactly backwards. Instead of teaching third graders their multiplication tables, we're teaching them to "express themselves." Instead of teaching high schoolers logic, we encourage them to share their opinion on every subject, as long as it aligns with our opinion, and that anyone who challenges them is a "threat." This approach is, in part, a downstream effect of postmodernism. If there's no absolute Truth, then anyone who believes they know something fixed about the world shouldn't be trusted. It's also a downstream effect of the sexual revolution, which prioritizes the needs and desires of adults over the needs, desires, and the design of kids. A is for Activist isn't really written for children. It's written for the adults that will buy it. Adults that buy it aren't really buying it for their children. They're buying it in order to be the kind of person who buys a book titled A is for Activist. The voting booth to dinosaur ratio in kids' books today is way off . Too many kids' books are being written by adults talking to other adults. This is an amazing opportunity for Christian creatives. However, there are plenty of bad "Christian" books for kids, too. Slapping a pastel-colored Noah's Ark on a book cover or a Bible verse on every page does not good literature make. C.S. Lewis, himself a master of children's literature, wrote that "the world does not need more Christian literature. What it needs is more Christians writing good literature." Elsewhere he implored Christians to write books on every subject: What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects—with their Christianity latent. You can see this most easily if you look at it the other way around. Our faith is not very likely to be shaken by any book on Hinduism. But if whenever we read an elementary book on Geology, Botany, Politics, or Astronomy, we found that its implications were Hindu, that would shake us. It is not the books written in direct defense of Materialism that make the modern man a materialist; it is the materialistic assumptions in all the other books. In the same way, it is not books on Christianity that will really trouble him. But he would be troubled if, whenever he wanted a cheap popular introduction to some science, the best work on the market was always by a Christian. Good art paraphrases reality, describing the world as it truly is. Good art also respects the audience. Good literature for children will respect children. Jesus explicitly respected children as full human beings, with their own dignity and value. Kids should not be used as political pawns. They ought not be asked to shoulder the burden of advocating for our modern innovations, like proclaiming that Heather's "two mommies" replace a mom and a dad or that their bodies may be wrong or that they may be racist because of the color of their skin. They especially shouldn't be asked before they've learned the alphabet. Thankfully, a growing number of good books for kids is on offer. The Good Book Company produces a series of incredibly well-made picture books called " Tales that Tell the Truth. " NavPress publishes a series called " God's Design for Sex ," with a different book for each age that carefully and slowly teaches kids about their bodies. And there are fantastic children's authors whose books are not explicitly "Christian" but who tell good, true, and beautiful stories for kids in their own language. After all, if kids are full members of God's kingdom, they, too, deserve good books.
May 4, 2022
An early draft of Justice Alito's opinion was leaked from the Supreme Court. That's a big deal. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court confirmed the authenticity of a draft opinion from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito regarding the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health case. Justice Alito's opinion is important and is briefly explained in our Breakpoint podcast by Erin Morrow Hawley. Here's a sample: The opinion sort of has a couple of parts. It looks first at, "is there any historical right to abortion?" Is it deeply rooted at our nation's tradition and history? That answer is clearly "no." Then the opinion talks about stare decisis . The idea is basically, even if Roe is wrong, even if Casey is wrong, should we still uphold them anyway? Justice Alito says clearly, "no." There's not the sort of alliance interest that would justify that. One thing Justice Alito's opinion focuses on is damage the so-called "right to abortion" and the Court's finding of it in Roe and Casey have done to this country. So, it's been damaging to our democracy, it's damaging to our institutions, and to the Court, so there's no reason to stick to it. Listen to the full conversation with Erin at www.breakpoint.org .
May 4, 2022
On Monday night, an initial draft of the Supreme Court majority opinion on the Dobbs case was leaked to news site Politico. As SCOTUS Blog tweeted: "It's impossible to overstate the earthquake this will cause inside the Court, in terms of the destruction of trust among the Justices and staff." Tuesday morning, Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the draft, and called the leak a "betrayal of confidences of the Court intended to undermine the integrity of our operations." Most likely, the leak was intended to pressure the Court's conservative justices to moderate their opinion before a final decision is published. That would be especially inappropriate if the source of the leak is a clerk of one of the Justices. One response would be for the Court, as National Review 's Ed Whelan suggested, to announce the majority decision as soon as possible, allowing dissenting views to be published later. It's happened before in extenuating circumstances. What's not clear is how the leaked draft of the majority opinion will compare to the final draft. Unless it is somehow significantly gutted, Justice Samuel Alito has thoroughly and thoughtfully dismantled, at least in legal terms, the 50-year hold that Roe v. Wade has held on America. Here are three observations from the leaked draft. First, Alito thoroughly dismantles the claim that the right to an abortion is found anywhere in the Constitution. He states : "The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision." Thus, Alito concludes, the 1992 follow-up case to Roe v. Wade , known as Planned Parenthood v. Casey would also be overruled. Quoting other cases , Alito insists that Casey's basis on Roe's precedent "is not an exorable command" and that it's time for the issue to "be settled right." Second, Alito dismantles what he calls Roe's "most important rule": "that states cannot protect fetal life prior to 'viability.'" When Roe was established, viability was considered to be at around 28 weeks of gestation. Today, it's at 24 weeks or younger. Viability, Alito further notes, is also based on the health of the mother and the hospital facilities where she lives. Given these multiple factors, Alito argues , "the viability line makes no sense, and it is telling that other countries almost uniformly eschew such a line." In a footnote, Alito notes that the U.S and the Netherlands are the only nations to rely on viability. He doesn't mention what others have recognized, that the U.S. is most in line with the authoritarian regimes of China and North Korea in its abortion policy. Third, if this decision holds, the Court would not be outlawing abortion but returning the decisions about abortion to the states. "In the years prior to [Roe v. Wade]," writes Alito , "about a third of the States had liberalized their laws, but Roe abruptly ended that political process." Roe was, writes Alito , quoting the late Justice Ginsberg, an "exercise of raw judicial power." He then surmises that some states will expand abortion rights and other will limit them, but this is how states are supposed to work. State legislators will work out state regulations for abortion instead of a court, and voters will therefore have a voice in the process. Limiting abortion rights in any way, including moving the decision to the states, is intolerable for abortion advocates. In a tweeted response to the leak, Sen. Elizabeth Warren pressed for the elimination of the filibuster in Congress in order for the Women's Health Protection Act to pass. This extreme measure, which could be called the Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act, is not supported by a majority of Americans. According to a recent poll , 71% of Americans, including 49% of Democrats, want abortion limited to the first trimester. Warren also claimed that dismantling of Roe v. Wade would be an act of racism. In the same tweet about eliminating the filibuster, she alleged, If an extremist Supreme Court overturns Roe, wealthy women will still get safe abortions—by traveling to another state or country. But women of color, those with lower-incomes, and victims of abuse will suffer the most. And of course, the leaked draft of Alito's opinion also led to numerous Handmaid's Tale references and the tired old canard that pro-lifers care about babies only until they are born. None of these claims, of course is true. In fact, 4,000 pregnancy resource centers exist to help parents who may be in crisis. If this leaked opinion is indeed reflective of what the final decision will be, then we must do two things. First, we must thank God that this decades-long legal nightmare is over. Our efforts to protect babies and care for vulnerable women will no longer be pre-empted by an evil masquerading as an invented "right." Second, the Court has done its job. It cannot do our job. State legislatures now have very important jobs to do, but they cannot do the jobs that we are called to: to speak the truth in love and to create a culture of life and care. Next week we have a free event in Orlando, Florida, called Preparing for a Post-Roe World. If you're in the area or nearby, register for an evening with speakers such as Tim Tebow, Erin Morrow Hawley of Alliance Defending Freedom, Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, and Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life. Stephanie Gray Connors of Love Unleashes Life will be spending time in particular unpacking the slogans for abortion. Register now for this event preparing you for the cultural moment. https://wilberforceweekend.org/regional-bonus-event/ And while you're doing that, pray for the safety of our Supreme Court Justices from intimidation and unlawful acts. Pray that the intentions of whoever caused this leak will backfire, and God's true justice will reign.
May 3, 2022
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court confirmed the authenticity of a draft opinion from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito regarding the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health case. John Stonestreet visits with Erin Morrow Hawley, senior counsel to the appellate team at Alliance Defending Freedom. Erin explains the significance of the leaked draft opinion and helps us understand the circumstances surrounding the court. She also provides important insight on what this means for the pro-life community moving forward. John also interviews Dr. Ryan T. Anderson, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and the Founding Editor of Public Discourse . Dr. Anderson paints a picture of the pro-life movement in the wake of this leaked report and the possible decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood . This conversation happens on the heels of the Colson Center's upcoming event, "Preparing for a Post-Roe World." On Thursday, May 12th at 7:00pm at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando Florida the Colson Center is hosting a gathering looking at the future of advocating for the pre-born that is featuring Tim Tebow, Stephanie Gray Connors, Jim Daly, Erin Hawley, and Kristan Hawkins. This bonus session occurs in conjunction with our premier conference on Christian worldview, the Wilberforce Weekend. For more information on this special event visit wilberforceweekend.org .
May 3, 2022
In March, online magazine Vox ran a series of stories under the title "America's Struggle for Forgiveness." That's not a typical topic for a thoroughly secular outlet like Vox, but, then again, Christians should be talking about forgiveness more than they are too. "The state of modern outrage is a cycle," writes contributor Aja Romano : We wake up mad, we go to bed mad, and in between, the only thing that might change is what's making us angry. The one gesture that could offer substantive change, or at least provide a way forward—forgiveness—seems perpetually beyond our reach. Each contributor to the Vox series was a committed progressive, and it showed when they discussed who they considered most in need of forgiveness. Romano, for example, questioned how to forgive J.K. Rowling, for her repeated defenses of biological women against erasure. In even suggesting that what Rowling has done was so egregious, Vox only proved that the fantasy writer has a firmer grasp on reality than they do. Still, Vox asked a question that is on point. What is the place of forgiveness in modern society? Consider, for example, how quickly celebrities are cancelled, for reasons ranging from the trivial to the serious. Ellen DeGeneres created a toxic workplace environment. Aaron Rodgers didn't get vaccinated. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard engaged in domestic abuse. And, the jury is still out on Will Smith's future. The point here isn't to equivocate every public fall from grace since, obviously, some are more deserved than others. What is missing in contemporary debate is any way forward. What's missing in our culture is forgiveness. After all, forgiveness doesn't ask whether condemnation is deserved. It assumes it is. Forgiveness isn't about the virtue of the other person's actions. It's about our response to that action. In the Vox article, Romano quotes Elizabeth Bruenig, a writer at The Atlantic, who put it this way : As a society we have absolutely no coherent story—none whatsoever—about how a person who's done wrong can atone, make amends, and retain some continuity between their life/identity before and after the mistake. She's right, but clearly, we need something . Romano concludes her essay with a suggestion: Grace, the act of allowing people room to be human and make mistakes while still loving them and valuing them, might be the holiest, most precious concept of all in this conversation about right and wrong, penance and reform—but it's the one that almost never gets discussed. Powerful words. It's always fascinating when a culture has exhausted all the resources a secular worldview can offer, only to discover that Christianity always had the best option on the market. Christianity offers the perspective on forgiveness that so many are desperate for. Because we've been forgiven, we can forgive others. Because we've been loved, even when unlovable, we can love even the unlovable. But let's be clear. There is no grace without God. Nobody likes thinking of the ways they have failed, and we avoid it at all costs. With God comes a moral law that we are responsible to. It may be that our world is short on forgiveness precisely because it has rejected God and His moral law. That also will make it more difficult to extend forgiveness to others. In the words of C.S. Lewis , "Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive." In a fallen world, we are quick to forgive people we like … for things we don't see as particularly serious. But what if the wrong was serious? What if the person isn't on my team? In those moments, only a transcendent perspective makes forgiveness a live option. Like Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." That's every one of us. That's why He later said so strongly, as recorded in Matthew's Gospel : "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." All of which makes me think, again, about Chuck Colson, whose unexpected redemption during Watergate led to an amazing amount of forgiveness between him and his political enemies. He was forgiven much by God, and by those who had been forgiven much by God, so he also extended forgiveness to others. In the end, that perspective grounded his whole understanding of criminal justice reform. If the world indeed is looking for forgiveness, then once again, only Christians have what the world is looking for.
May 2, 2022
The Colson Center is offering a special short course featuring Dr. Carl Trueman and Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. In the BreakPoint Podcast today we are featuring the first session in a four-part series the Colson Center is offering this month. During this month, for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, you'll receive a wealth of resources that will be explored in a special short-course offering. For more information visit www.colsoncenter.org/april
May 2, 2022
This April, scientists confirmed the dimensions of the Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet, the single largest comet ever recorded. Its core appears to be about 85 miles across. "It's 100 times bigger than the typical comets we've been studying for all these years," says astronomer David Jewitt: Finding this thing is a reminder of how little we know about the outer solar system. There's a vast quantity of objects out there that we haven't seen, and a huge number of things we haven't even imagined. Awe is powerful and humbling. As John Piper once observed, no one stands at the edge of the Grand Canyon and says, "I am awesome." Awe points us outside of ourselves, and the whole drive to know the universe is, in reality, a drive to know God. Seventeenth century astronomer Johannes Kepler, whose precise mathematics led to his groundbreaking laws of planetary motion once wrote, "I wanted to become a theologian, and for a long time I was unhappy. Now, behold, God is praised by my work even in astronomy." For the God who created everything, good science is more than good work. It's worship.
May 2, 2022
Recently, a colleague noted how a growing number of conservative-minded people he encountered on social media, some of them Christians, were refusing to believe stories about Russian atrocities in Ukraine. Some even reject that the invasion was an unjustified war of aggression by Russia. When he asked the reason for their doubt, it was simply because those stories were reported in the "mainstream media," which has done nothing but lie to us for years. I share suspicion for certain sources. Most reporters for the major networks and news outlets have forgotten the difference between journalism and opinion writing. And, of course, their biases tend to lean in the same direction. Christian conservatives rarely get a fair shake on self-described neutral outlets, such as CNN or The Washington Post , let alone overtly progressive outlets such as Vox or MSNBC . However, when our suspicion about truth-telling becomes suspicion that there isn't truth, we've become postmodernists. Christian writer Samuel James calls this bad habit "negative epistemology." This is the idea that we don't need to figure out what's true, we only need to believe the opposite of whatever our political enemies say. Of course, this is only part of the overall and pervasive collapse of trust throughout American society, specifically trust in institutions . We are rightly concerned about misinformation, the frequently shifting landscape of rationale for dealing with COVID-19 and claims about election fraud. But beneath all of these specific examples is a cultural landscape that treats truth and truth claims as nothing more than power plays. This isn't a new idea. During the confirmation hearings for current Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, concern was raised over a speech she had given at UC Berkeley. In it, she stated that "to judge is an exercise in power." The same idea leads activists to dismiss opponents by pointing out the color of their skin instead of addressing their argument. We see it every time cancel culture comes for a speaker or author on a college campus who says something that doesn't support their team. In other words, behind the collapse of trust in American society is a collapse of truth , the very possibility of truth. For more than a century now, academics have been preaching this kind of extreme skepticism, suggesting that all truth claims are really impositions of power. This belief was at the heart of a worldview known as "postmodernism," initially conceived by mid-20th century French philosophers and most fully expressed in late-20th century pop culture. Today, Eminem and Nirvana are considered "classics," but the fact that so much of our culture is reduced to political power plays and so many people decide what's true by asking who believes the opposite only proves that, to some extent, we are all postmodernists, now. For people whose faith teaches that truth is knowable and that it doesn't depend on the source but a reality external to ourselves, this is a road we simply cannot continue down. Once we embrace the idea that all claims are mere power plays, there's no room for reason, for revelation, for persuasion, for thinking, or for looking at God's world to know something about it and Him. Instead, we employ a version of a tactic promoted by postmodern English professors called "the hermeneutics of suspicion." We become suspicious of everything and, in the process, destroy the possibility of knowing anything. I'm not the first to make this connection, but we'd do well to learn from the Dwarfs from C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle . Having been deceived once by their enemies, these sadly memorable characters decided they would never believe a non-Dwarf again. Terrified of being "taken in," they retreated into a tribalistic huddle, and ultimately became blind to the world around them. Their suspicion of everyone and everything became their prison, and in the end, it deprived them of Lewis' equivalent of Heaven. If we come to believe that truth is only a matter of who's talking, that Vladimir Putin must be a good man because CNN says he's not, or that an unjust war must be just if a president from the other party condemns it, we have retreated into that same, fatal huddle. We have lost our ability to talk meaningfully about right and wrong, and even to persuade others of these moral realities. We have traded a Christian worldview for a postmodern one. In our fear of being "taken in" by a lie, we have blinded ourselves to truth. Let's not make that mistake.
Apr 30, 2022
John and Maria discuss society's reaction to Elon Musk buying Twitter. Maria questions why many reacted the way they did, and John explains how and why words matter in culture. Then Maria asks John about an upcoming Colson Center event at the Wilberforce Weekend, where John will guide attendees to imagine a post-Roe world. A number of guest speakers will inspire us to consider the individual responsibility, as many states enact "trigger" laws in preparation for a dismantling of Casey and a weakening of Roe when the Supreme Court decides the Dobbs case, likely in June. To close, John highlights a number of Breakpoint commentaries from the week, specifically pointing out the human rights challenges in China, lately expressed in China's "no-Covid" policies.
Apr 29, 2022
A recent viral video shows thousands of people in Shanghai screaming in unison into the night to protest the Chinese government's brutal "zero-COVID" policy. Entire high-rises of people are confined to their rooms, locked in with green fencing that appeared overnight. Children, including babies, are separated from their parents in massive government quarantine centers, some of which lack basic medical equipment or even beds. Other videos show hundreds of pets being collected and euthanized as supposed carriers of the disease. In the meantime, many of the city's 25 million people find themselves on the brink of starvation, with government food deliveries unable to keep up with demand. If we're looking for a culprit, it's not just the lockdown. It's not even COVID-19. It's the ideology of China's ruling elites, which rejects the sacred value of the individual in the name of the "common good." Human dignity is a deeply Christian idea, one that China's communist leaders have been at war with for decades. We must pray that the voices of Shanghai's suffering people will wake them up to what is true and good.
Apr 29, 2022
Many of our favorite stories culminate with a conversion experience. C.S. Lewis' autobiography, Surprised by Joy is like this, with Lewis fighting God every step of the way until he finally recognizes that Christ is the source of true joy. Another example is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol , with Ebenezer Scrooge realizing the error of his ways and becoming a new man. It's a Wonderful Life also features personal redemption, when George Bailey realizes his life has incredible value. In other tales, however, personal redemption is not the end of the story but only the middle, a turning point that sets up all that comes afterward. Think of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , in which Edmund was redeemed, but Narnia still needed saving. Or Pilgrim's Progress , in which Christian is released from the burden of his sin, but still must complete a journey to the Celestial City. Or consider real-life examples, such as the Apostle Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus or St. Augustine's conversion, as described in his Confessions . In both cases, an incredible amount of life and influence came after and because of personal conversion. Chuck Colson's personal transformation, in the midst of the Watergate scandal, was just the beginning of a life far more accomplished, influential, and significant after than before . These kind of stories, in which personal redemption creates a wake of redemption that impacts families, churches, communities, and even entire cultures, are the ones that better reflect the biblical story. Often, Christians tell a truncated version of this story. It's not a false Gospel, just incomplete, a "two chapter" story of sin and salvation. However, Scripture has four chapters. It begins before sin and the fall, with a very good world that God created and designed with a purpose. It ends with His creation restored, a New Heavens and New Earth. Sin and salvation are crucial parts of the story to understand and embrace, but not the whole story. Something incredible happens when we realize that our salvation is about more than getting to Heaven. We aren't merely saved from sin and death and to eternal life that begins when we die. We are saved for an abundant life in which, to borrow Jesus' own words, all things are being made new. In just a couple weeks, at the Wilberforce Weekend in Orlando, Florida, we'll be looking at "Life Redeemed" from as many angles as we can. Together with dozens of speakers, discussions, film sessions, and panels, we will explore the full scope of Christ's redemption. Along the way, we will celebrate amazing stories of personal redemption, such as Lewis and Chuck Colson and Harriett Tubman and others, before looking at how their personal redemptions led to the world being changed around them. This year's speakers include Os Guinness, Monique Duson, Max McLean, Jim Daly, Jennifer Patterson, and many more. We'll also be honoring the faith and courage of cake artist Jack Phillips and florist Barronelle Stutzman , two people whose redeemed lives meant taking a stand, paying a steep price, and inspiring thousands. I hope you'll join us May 13 through 15 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando for the Wilberforce Weekend. And, if you are coming or live in the Florida area, please join us Thursday night, May 12, for a special training session to prepare for "A Post-Roe Future." That event will better equip us to stand for life and against abortion, and features Stephanie Grey Connors, Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life, Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, and the one and only Tim Tebow. Space is limited, and there are just a few days left to register. Visit wilberforceweekend.org to get tickets.
Apr 28, 2022
Recently, The New York Times asked six teens to describe what cancel culture "is really like." Their responses show just how normal the term has become. For many, it's "basically a joke," a word thrown around about anything and everything. That's not surprising for a generation so plugged in and coming of age just as the term has reached critical mass. For others, "it's a way to take away someone's power and call [them] out for being problematic in a situation," as one girl put it. But that power element makes cancel culture dangerous. Canceling someone is less about holding convictions with integrity, than it is convincing a mob of peers to forever isolate someone else. And, who decides what's canceled if not the powerful, which itself is subject to the changing whims of a moment's majority? This isn't about enduring truths or standing for what's right. These students have inherited a world with troubling public figures, celebrities, causes, and past sins, but no example of what to do. This is an opportunity for Christians to show a better way forward.
Apr 28, 2022
Is there hope for Hong Kong? That's the question the city's citizens, including nearly 1 million Protestant and Catholic Christians , are being forced to ask daily. Under more than 150 years of British rule, Hong Kong established itself as a bridge from East to West, and an economic powerhouse that protected the basic freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly. In 1997, when the British government relinquished control to Beijing, a 50-year transitional period was established under a principle known as " one country, two systems ." The idea that China would respect the agreement and Hong Kong's liberties might have been tenuous, but it wasn't completely irrational. In terms of economic prosperity and a tolerance for democratic norms, some even hoped Beijing's own system would evolve to mirror Hong Kong's. That hasn't happened. In fact, as The Atlantic's Timothy McLaughlin wrote in April, "[T]hese hopes have now all but been extinguished." In 2014, China announced that, though Hong Kong voters could choose their chief executive, candidates first had to be screened by a Beijing committee. The response in Hong Kong was explosive. Over 1.2 million people took to the streets in peaceful protest, occupying the central commercial district and famously using yellow umbrellas to deflect tear gas. In 2019, protests were renewed over a proposed extradition bill that would grant authorities the ability to transport anyone accused of a crime, including political dissidents, to mainland China. Again, the backlash was massive. In a city of 7.5 million people, an estimated 2 million took to the streets , many pushing children in strollers or elderly in wheelchairs. Even when Chief Executive Carrie Lam eventually scrapped the extradition bill, it did little to stop the momentum. But COVID-19 did. And, like all authoritarian regimes, China did not let a good crisis go to waste. As the city locked down, key protesters were arrested and momentum stalled. China bypassed Hong Kong's government and implemented a draconian national security bill of its own . Now, the city's future seems especially dire. While some embers of protest still smolder , two of Hong Kong's last British judges resigned this April. By some estimates, nearly 50% of European firms are planning to leave the city. Though an economic blow like that should make Beijing think twice about Hong Kong's fate, economics has never been the primary driver behind the actions of the Chinese Communist Party or Xi Jinping. Christian concern goes beyond our commitment to human rights, or the tragedy of watching such a vibrant, beautiful place fall under oppression. Our brothers and sisters in Christ have long played a dramatic part in Hong Kong's non-violent resistance . From the beginning, in fact, Hong Kong's Christians have formed the backbone of its pro-democracy movement. A powerful example is retired pastor Chu Yiu-Ming who, along with eight others, was sentenced to prison for his role in the 2014 and 2019 protests. While his sentence was lightened due to his age, Pastor Chu was fully ready to bear the cost of following Christ and articulate why. Chu's speech, in which he described why he was compelled to act, should be required reading for all of us: I am a Christian minister committed to the service of God, and yet, at this very moment, my heart tells me that with this defendant's dock, I have found the most honorable pulpit of my ministerial career. The valley of the shadow of death leads to spiritual heights. … To those who are naked or hungry, the Christian minister has no business responding with greetings of Peace, Peace. I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs. What good are such greetings? [A]sk the Bible. … This is our conviction based on the faith we hold: Every person is created according to God's image. As such, every person should be respected and safeguarded. We strive for democracy, because democracy strives for freedom, equality and universal love. Human rights [are] a God-given gift, never to be arbitrarily taken away by any political regime. … We have opted for a peaceful, non-violent way. Although the power of injustice before us is immense and those holding power capricious, we are not afraid, nor will we run away. … We have no regrets, We hold no grudges, No anger, No grievances. We do not give up. In the words of Jesus, "Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; The Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!" (Matthew 5:10) Please pray for Hong Kong, for Pastor Chu, and for the other courageous Christians .
Apr 27, 2022
John and Shane are asked how a student should respond to his college requesting him to identify his preferred pronouns. John explains how using one's name is unique from a person's preferred pronoun. He also shares how choosing a pronoun says something distinct about what male and female are. Along with emphasizing the importance of understanding the issue, John emphasizes the way in which a person engages the issue of pronouns. He encourages the listener to respond with light, not heat. For another listener's question on the topic of "white fragility," John explains what white fragility is, where it originated, and how it's become a theory of everything. He notes that it isn't helpful to be reactive whenever a conversation on race presents itself, giving some helpful tips to guide conversation to a constructive end. To close, John and Shane respond to a listener about what young people can do now to prepare for the future. John encourages them to read books, find a mentor, and critique habits. Resources' Dr. Meriweather Stand on Pronouns John Stonestreet and Maria Baer | Breakpoint This Week | 2022 A Rebel's Manifesto: Choosing Truth, Real Justice, and Love amid the Noise of Today's World Sean McDowell | Tyndale | 2022 Same-Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God's Design for Marriage John Stonestreet and Sean McDowell | Baker | 2014 -- White Fragility Robin DiAngelo | Beacon Press | 2018 -- Cultivate Jeff Myers | Summit Miracles C.S. Lewis | Harperone | 2001 The Four Loves C.S. Lewis | Harperone | 2017 Perelandra C.S. Lewis | Scribner | 2011 Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis | Harperone | 2001 The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis | Harperone | 2001 Knowing God J.I. Packer | Intervarsity | 1993 The Holiness of God R.C. Sproul | Tyndale | 1998 Dancing with Max Emily and Charles Colson | Zondervan | 2012 Through the Gates of Splendor Elisabeth Elliot | Living Books | 1981 The Journals of Jim Elliot, repackaged ed.: Missionary, Martyr, Man of God Jim and Elisabeth Elliot | Revell | 2020 Confessions Augustine | Moody | 2007 The Way of the Modern World Craig Gay | Wm. Eerdmans | 1998
Apr 27, 2022
In one of the most annoying tech moves since Microsoft's "Clippy ," Google Docs now offers unsolicited advice about how to avoid using non-inclusive language . Terms like "landlord" or "motherboard" trigger a pop-up warning that reads "these words may not be inclusive to all readers." The folks at TechRadar were overly generous when they said that this was "a good idea, poorly executed." In reality, it's a bad idea, poorly executed. It's more than annoying for Google to thought police our words in this way. It simply doesn't correspond with reality. Sure, not all "police officers" are "policemen," but connecting "landlord" with slavery or class warfare misses the full history of the word. And questioning the word "motherboard"? That's just silly. Google has never been a neutral facilitator of communication, but this move demonstrates a misunderstanding of language itself. Words are more than social constructs. They reflect reality. Denying that certain realities exist with language doesn't change reality. As a friend used to say, "sloppy words make sloppy thought possible." Misusing language damages our ability to think.
Apr 27, 2022
According to Theodoret of Cyrrhus, on January 1, A.D. 404, an ascetic monk named Telemachus jumped to the floor of the arena during a gladiatorial match, and begged the competitors to stop. The crowd was so angry at the interruption that they stoned him to death. When Christian Emperor Honorius heard about Telemachus' act of bravery, he ordered an end to gladiatorial combat. Telemachus' stand led to martyrdom, but it changed a culture. Throughout history, similar stands made in Jesus' name yielded similar results. Though they often came at great cost, and transformation was not instantaneous, in the end, a culture was left better. Telemachus' brave act occurred 91 years after Christianity was legalized by Constantine, and 24 years after it was made the state religion of Rome by Emperor Theodosius I. Earlier Christians denounced other evils, such as abusive sexual mores. They insisted that sex be limited to marriage and, following the Jews, rejected abortion and infanticide. They treated women and slaves as the spiritual equals of men. As a result, woman and slaves became leaders in the church. Pliny the Younger, in a letter dated about 111, mentions deaconesses, and a slave was made a bishop of Ephesus in the early second century. Christians didn't kill baby girls, a practice common among the pagans. Nor did they pressure girls into early marriage, or Christian widows into remarriage. As a result, Christian churches had a higher percentage of women than did society at large. In fact, Christianity was held in contempt by the Romans as "a religion of women and slaves." The Church's response to slavery is more complex. Though the early Church did not outright oppose slavery, they opposed the abusive conduct normal to the slave trade, and often purchased slaves in order to free them. Eventually, as the implications of the Gospel's insistence on the spiritual and moral equality of all people sank in, medieval theologians such as Thomas Aquinas declared slavery a sin. Nonetheless, many Christians continued the horrible practice, particularly with the discovery of the Americas. Other Christians, most notably William Wilberforce and the Clapham Circle, actively sought the abolition of the slave trade. After decades of persistent effort in the face of opposition from cultural elites and an apathetic public, slavery was brought to an end in the British Empire. Similar examples can be found in other cultures. Christian missionaries led the fight against sati , the practice of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands, against the opposition of the Hindu elites in India. Native Chinese Christians fought against foot binding, the breaking of bones to compress the feet of girls, a trait considered desirable among the Chinese people. Christian diplomats saved Jews from the Holocaust, often bucking instructions from their home government and direct superiors. Many leaders and activists in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement faced beatings, dogs, lynchings, and fire hoses. Though these courageous actions led to the renewal of various aspects of those cultures, change was not immediate. Christians had to oppose cultures before change took place. Of course, they had no way of knowing whether or not their actions would bring change. Telemachus did not live to see the redemptive consequences of his courage. They acted because they had to, not because they knew their actions would work. As T.S. Eliot said, "For us there is only the trying. The rest is none of our business." Christians today must oppose cultural evils, such as the taking of preborn life, the buying and selling of preborn lives, the ideological sexual abuse of children, and the persecution of religious minorities. Though the rapid changes in our society are confusing and distressing, we must understand them if we are to know when, where, and how we must take a stand. So that we can join in the long history of Christian redemptive influence, the Colson Center is offering an in-depth study of our culture , particularly recent shifts in sex, gender, and identity, with the help of Dr. Carl Trueman's new book, Strange New World. For a donation of any amount to the Colson Center, we'll send you a copy of Dr. Trueman's book, an accompanying study guide, access to a four-week course with Dr. Trueman and Colson Center theologian-in-residence Dr. Tim Padgett, and access to Dr. Trueman's powerful presentation at last year's Wilberforce Weekend. To sign-up for this offer, simply make a donation of any amount to the Colson Center at www.breakpoint.org/april.
Apr 26, 2022
Big marijuana promised not to market to children. They are. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet with The Point . Legal recreational marijuana sales officially began this week in New Jersey. That's the same state where, on Christmas Day in 2020, a 3-year-old was admitted to a hospital ICU after he ate a dangerous amount of cannabis edibles. They were in a bag that looked like a package of Nerds candy. According to CNN , knockoff candy bags that actually contain THC edibles are a big problem. The New Jersey Poison Control Center reported that the number of kids poisoned with cannabis was six times higher in 2020 than just two years earlier. There are similar reports across the country. Marijuana lobbyists promise they don't market to kids, and that it's just a few bad apples selling edibles in kid-friendly packages. But making THC edible at all is a step towards marketing to kids, a genie that can't be out back into the bottle. As the nationwide march toward legalizing marijuana continues, the consequences of our culture's worst ideas will be paid by the most common victim: the kids.
Apr 26, 2022
Teens are not all right, and there's an underlying cause—the loss of meaning. At a recent gathering, Dr. Ryan M. Burkhart, Associate Dean of the Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Colorado Christian University, noted that he and other counselors are seeing "treatment-resistant depression and anxiety." These counselors are seeing more young clients but are not seeing typical therapies bring the same results as in the past. One mark of this kind of despair is suicide. In the U.S., suicide increased by 30% between 2000 and 2018 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . That's pre-COVID-19. By 2020, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, suicide was the runner-up cause of death for ages 10-14 . As I stated yesterday , teens who claim they have "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness" have increased from 26% percent to 44%. It's such a concern that last fall the American Academy of Pediatrics deemed the mental health of youth a "national emergency." In his " The Parable of the Madman ," Friedrich Nietzsche famously declared, "God is dead." He was not making an ontological claim, in the sense that God once lived but was now dead. Rather, the parable is full of observations of the consequences of a culture losing its divine reference point. We have killed him —you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Nietzsche's remarkable description of meaninglessness echoes James 1:6: "The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind." In Nietzsche's parable, when those secular intellectuals who were gathered about the madman are shocked at his words, the madman proclaims, "I have come too early... my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars—and yet they have done it themselves. Nietzsche penned "The Parable of the Madman" in 1882. Almost a decade earlier, in his " On Truth and Lies in a Non-Moral Sense ," he pointed out that humans, deceived by pride, are limited by language in their ability to know. Decades later, postmodern theorists embraced these ideas and cast a deeper doubt on the ability to know at all. Their ideas first infected higher education, and then most of our society. Without God, there is no external reference point outside of ourselves. Nietzsche's description of a world untethered is now a picture of youth untethered. In his words, they've been "unchained from the sun," desperate for meaning, truth, identity, and ultimately, God. Of course, devout Christians can also struggle with despair, experiencing what John of the Cross described, in the 16th century, as a Dark Night of the Soul. Still, even when God feels distant, it matters that He is there. Where can young people turn in a society that treats God as, at best, an inward feeling and, at worst, not there at all? Apologists and Christian philosophers have discussed the cosmic and personal ramifications of a world without God. They warned that such a world affords no source for meaning. Now, for many, those predictions have become an existential reality. Behavior modification can treat symptoms, but not the underlying despair. In a Pew Research Center study released last November, only 15% of Americans mentioned faith as a "source of meaning"; outside of the U.S., the percentage drops to 5%. Members of the mental health community are recognizing the connection between meaningful faith and effective therapy. Last June in Scientific American , David Rosemarin wrote an opinion piece provocatively entitled " Psychiatry Needs to Get Right with God ." In it, he argued that psychiatrists, the least religious of medical doctors, need to integrate spirituality into their treatment. As he put it, "The only group to see improvements in mental health during the past year were those who attended religious services at least weekly (virtually or in-person): 46 percent report 'excellent' mental health today versus 42 percent one year ago." According to the protocols of the mental health community, secular counselors are not to point clients to a particular faith. Still, they must begin to point clients to meaning . Dr. Ryan Burkhart and his student apply Victor Frankl's approach to psychology—a theory that encourages clients to search for meaning. Frankl, after surviving a Nazi concentration camp, went on to write Man's Search for Meaning. In it, he explained that the heart hungers for meaning more than for pleasure. Although Burkhart and his students' assessment is anecdotal, they are seeing results: clients are responding to Frankl's approach. Our culture is reflecting many consequences of the "death of God." A Christian worldview has something powerful to offer in such a time and place, a God who is not only very much alive but Who beat death. Because He did, there is meaning. Dr. Burkhart will speak at the September Lighthouse Voices Series about how we can speak meaning into lives suffering from meaninglessness.
Apr 25, 2022
Maria Baer visits with Ryan Bomberger about his upcoming presentation at the Wilberforce Weekend , May 10-13. Ryan has a rather unique perspective of the innate nature of Purpose. His biological mother was raped yet courageously gave him a chance to live and the beautiful gift of adoption. He was adopted at 6 weeks of age and grew up in a loving, multi-"racial" Christian family of 15. With siblings of varying ethnicities, he grew up with a great appreciation for diversity. Ten of the thirteen children were adopted in this remarkable family. His life defies the myth of the "unwanted" child as he was adopted, loved and has flourished. Today, he is an Emmy® Award-winning Creative Professional who founded The Radiance Foundation (TRF), a life-affirming 501c3, along with his wife, Bethany. He is a fact ivist , international public speaker, columnist, educator, broadcast media designer, producer and author of the powerful book, Not Equal: Civil Rights Gone Wrong . For more on the Wilberforce Weekend visit www.wilberforceweekend.org
Apr 25, 2022
In the warp-speed cycle of digital news, caring for our souls requires time in God's Word, time away from our devices, and a reminder that we're called to faithfulness, not success . In his book Every Moment Holy , Douglas Kaine McKelvey offers " A Liturgy For Those Flooded by Too Much Information ." "We are daily aware of more grief, O Lord," he writes, "than we can rightly consider, of more suffering and scandal than we can respond to, of more hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice than we can engage with compassion. ".... remind us that we are but small and finite creatures, never designed to carry the vast abstractions of great burdens, for our arms are too short and our strength is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and redemption, are your great labors. "…. Give us discernment, to know when to pray, when to speak out, when to act, and when to simply shut off our screens and our devices, and to sit quietly in your presence, casting the burdens of this world upon the strong shoulders of the one who alone is able to bear them up. Amen."
Apr 25, 2022
America's teens are not all right. As Derek Thomas recently wrote in an Atlantic article entitled "Why American Teens are So Sad," From 2009-2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness" rose from 26 percent to 44 percent. [This] is the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded. [Almost] every measure of mental health is getting worse, for every teenage demographic, and it's happening all across the country. What Thomas is describing goes far beyond typical adolescent angst. In fact, according to the National Institute of Health , other risky behaviors traditionally chalked up to adolescence—such as drinking and driving, fighting at school, and even underage sex—are significantly down . Nor can these declines in mental health be blamed on the pandemic or lockdowns. Rather, these were "pre-existing conditions" that, though certainly aggravated, were not caused by the social chaos of the last two years. Thomas suggests four converging cultural realities that are contributing to this crisis: social media, social isolation, the extra-stressful global situation, and today's parenting styles. Over a decade ago, psychologist Jean Twenge warned about the effect of smartphones on teenage brains. Since then, the prevalence of social media has unleashed new levels of comparison, exposure, and image problems on a demographic already wired to care too much about what their peers think. Instagram's own research found that while a third of teenage girls say the app "makes them feel worse," they cannot keep from logging on. Even so, writes Thomas, the biggest problem with social media might be not social media itself, but rather the activities that it replaces. [Compared] with their counterparts in the 2000s, today's teens are less likely to go out with their friends , get their driver's license , or play youth sports . And, of course, it also matters what teens are encountering on the screens that are such a big part of their lives. Even more than TV or print media, phones bombard teens with 24/7 coverage of the world's problems, creating a near-constant sense of fear and foreboding. These days, teens deal with more than just the stress of preparing for college. Alone in their rooms, they are worrying about the pandemic , the war in Ukraine , climate change , and whether they have been sufficiently "woke" on various issues. In response to all of the social chaos, many parents are choosing what Thomas calls an "accommodative" parenting style. It is very tempting for parents, instead of letting teens experience life's normal bumps and bruises, to insulate them. "If a girl is afraid of dogs, an 'accommodation' would be keeping her away from every friend's house with a dog, or if a boy won't eat vegetables, feeding him nothing but turkey loaf for four years" (which, he points out, is a true story) . That strategy, sometimes called "lawnmower parenting," ultimately backfires. When every challenge on the path is mowed down, a child struggles to develop the resiliency necessary to confront the inevitable obstacles ahead. In the end, a world cannot be prepared for a child. A child needs to be prepared for the world. Every factor that Thomas identifies certainly contributes to the current mental health crisis among teens. However, there is more to consider. In his book, The Content Trap , Bharat Anand tells the story of the 1988 Yellowstone fire, infamously started by a single unextinguished cigarette. But Anand asks a critical question: Why that cigarette? After all, hundreds of cigarettes are dropped in Yellowstone every year. What was different this time? The answer, he argues, is not found by focusing on the spark—but the environmental factors that turned Yellowstone into a tinderbox. The extremely dry summer of 1988, the driest on record, combined with the park's controlled burn policy meant, as one former park superintendent put it , "We were a perfect setup to burn." Social media, parenting strategies, and world events are definite sparks for a mental health crisis (as are others such as the breakdown of the family and increased availability of substances to abuse), but it's the prevalent cultural worldview that makes devastating cultural wildfires inevitable. Our real cultural crisis is a catastrophic, culture-wide loss of meaning. Philosophers warned it was coming , as did social scientists , and now we are living with the existential results of a culture untethered from God, and therefore untethered from any fixed reference point for truth, morality, identity, and meaning . It is a tinderbox in which any spark, whether social media or addiction or lockdowns or something else, is destined to explode. It is also a tinderbox primed for a different kind of spark, one which can point people again to the God Who infused His world with meaning. This spark is Christ-changed people, shaped by redemption , indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and armed with the truth and love about life, the world, and what it all means.
Apr 23, 2022
Maria opens BreakPoint This Week asking John for some insight into who Chuck Colson was. It's been 10 years since Chuck Colson's passing following a final message at a Wilberforce Weekend in 2012. Highlighting attributes he remembers about Chuck, John explains the legacy he gave to the Colson Center. Then, John and Maria explore how Florida is quickly becoming ground zero for the culture wars. John explains that a series of actions from the Florida Legislature and Governor DeSantis are causing sparks in the Sunshine State. To close, Maria asks John about the significance of a college professor's day in court after the professor refused to call on a student using the student's preferred pronouns. -- Recommendations -- These Precious Days By Ann Patchett The Secular Case for Christianity Common Sense - Bari Weiss Substack | By Tim DeRoche -- References -- Wilberforce Weekend>> Carl Trueman - Colson Center Offering in April>> Segment 1: Chuck Colson's Leadership One of the first projects after I joined the Colson Center team was a curriculum project called Doing the Right Thing. This film series reflected how Chuck understood those issues that plagued prison and the rest of our society. Upstream from the brokenness and evil was a lack of moral formation, an abandonment of right and wrong, and a neglect of virtue. In this film series, Chuck issued a clarion call for Christians to influence our communities with the Christian worldview. Christianity was, after all, a better way of being human BreakPoint>> Chuck Colson's Last Address At the 2012 Wilberforce Weekend, Chuck collapsed on stage. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital where, on April 21, he died. His final words may have been delivered with less energy than some of us were used to hearing from Chuck, but with no less lucidity or passion. BreakPoint>> Segment 2: Florida Rejects Math Texts For 'Indoctrinating' Kids? Florida called for textbook submissions from publishers in 2021 in accordance with a 2019 executive order from DeSantis aimed at eliminating Common Core standards in the state. The textbooks rejected "were impermissible with either Florida's new standards or contained prohibited topics." The 41% rejection rate was the highest in Florida's history. FoxNews Florida Senate passes bill to strip Disney's special self-governing status The Florida House still has to vote on the measure, which would dissolve the special taxing district that allows Disney to operate much like a local government. NBC>> Ron DeSantis takes his culture war to the next level (Gov. Ron DeSantis) has been outspoken in opposition to mitigation measures to slow the spread of Covid-19. (Florida was one of the last states to close down in the midst of the original outbreak in spring of 2020 and one of the first states to re-open after the initial wave.) He's championed civic literacy efforts aimed at teaching students the dangers posed by socialism and communism. "You have orthodoxies that are promoted, and other viewpoints are shunned or even suppressed," DeSantis has said of the moves. "We don't want that in Florida, you need to have a true contest of ideas, students should not be shielded from ideas and we want robust First Amendment speech on our college and university campuses." CNN>> Segment 3: Shawnee State: Professors must speak contrary to their beliefs or be punished In January, during a political philosophy class he was teaching, Meriwether responded to a male student's question by saying, "Yes, sir." Meriwether responded in this fashion because he refers to all his students as "sir" or "ma'am" or by a title (Mr. or Miss, for example) followed by their last name to foster an atmosphere of seriousness and mutual respect. After the class, the student approached Meriwether, stated that he was transgender, and demanded that the professor refer to him as a woman, with feminine titles and pronouns. When Meriwether did not instantly agree, the student became belligerent, circling around Meriwether and getting in his face in a threatening fashion while telling him, "Then I guess this means I can call you a c**t." Before walking away, the student promised to get Meriwether fired if he did not agree to the student's demands. The student then filed a complaint with the university, which launched a formal investigation. Meriwether offered to call the student by his first or last name only, but university officials rejected this and anything else that would allow him to speak according to his conscience and sincerely held religious beliefs. Instead, they formally charged him, saying "he effectively created a hostile environment" for the student. Later, they placed a written warning in his personnel file and threatened "further corrective actions" unless he articulates the university's ideological message. ADF>> Professor disciplined for refusing to use transgender student's pronouns to receive $400K in settlement In a statement, Shawnee State said the settlement was an "economic decision" and that it continues to stand behind a student's right to a discrimination-free learning environment while also allowing its faculty and staff to freely express their beliefs. The Hill>>
Apr 22, 2022
According to The New York Times , some teens are choosing to keep their masks on, even after pandemic mandates end . The reason isn't because they fear Covid. It's due to anxiety. "The mask has offered teens a way to hide some of their anxiety symptoms and emotions from others, and wearing it has also made many of them feel 'normal' and 'like everybody else,'" writes Emily Sohn. The last two plus years have been tough on teenagers. Rates of Anxiety and suicidal thinking are both high post-pandemic, as is social media use. One psychologist described the "imaginary audience" with which many teens constantly deal: an invisible jury of peers scrutinizing their every decision. Only, in the age of social media, the audience isn't so "imaginary." Masks, by contrast, provide a degree of relief via anonymity. Even if teens feel the need to hide their faces, they were made for face-to-face interaction. The lack of it—whether from isolation or screens—is no way forward. We have to help students steward technology and their anxieties. A big part of that will mean investing in relationships that are out of the spotlight.
Apr 22, 2022
This week, the Colson Center has remembered our founder, Chuck Colson, on the 10th anniversary of his death. Though the Colson Center is part of Chuck's outsized legacy, we are not a memorial organization. We've often joked that if the Colson Center were only about playing a tape recorder of Chuck's commentaries, he would come back and haunt us from the grave. Chuck had a vision for the Church: that it would be the Church. And, he had a vision for the Colson Center: that it would serve and equip the Church to fulfill her calling. We're still as committed to that vision as we were when Chuck was with us. I'm constantly amazed at how prescient Chuck was. He foresaw many things that have, since his death, become realities. Today, I want you to hear from Chuck Colson about the necessity of courage in this cultural moment: The critical question in the West today is, "Can freedom survive where virtue isn't able to flourish?" A friend of mine who is a member of a good, strong evangelical church, met with his pastor to urge him to get more involved in some of today's worldview and cultural battles. The pastor drew back in his chair and said, "You know, I have one great regret about my ministry: that I got involved in the gay marriage debate. We lost several members over there." My friend was speechless as I would have been. What do you say to somebody who denies the clear teaching of Scripture or who in this case stands up for it, but then regrets it? Where was this man's courage? I wish I could say this was an isolated instance. It isn't, friends. We're navigating through rough waters in the culture today, and we're woefully unprepared. Oh, sure we have all kinds of information at our fingertips. Amazing technology, vast resources our forebearers could only dream of, but we're lacking something far more important: character. That's why on this morning, and for the next few weeks I want to talk about the building blocks of character: the four classic Greek virtues and the three Christian virtues. Today, we'll look at the first and I believe most important virtue, courage. Now courage is not a lack of fear. It's the willingness to do what you have to do in the face of your fear. Courage, Jerry Root and Stan Guthrie note in their book T he Sacrament of Evangelism is the habit of saying yes to the right action, even at the risk of pain or loss. Courage never gives up. Courage sticks with the task until it's done. Courage faces one's fears and does the right thing in spite of them. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, of course, would be near the top of anybody's list of courageous Christians. He had the courage to defy the Nazis at the cost of his life. On his last day, Bonhoeffer held a brief service for his fellow prisoners. A contemporary who was there describes the scene. It's described in Eric Metaxas' wonderful book Bonhoeffer , which I strongly recommend. Bonhoeffer hardly finished his last prayer when the door opened and two evil-looking men in civilian clothes came in and said, "Prisoner Bonhoeffer, get ready to come with us." "Bonhoeffer came over to me," the man writes, "drew me aside, and he said, 'This is the end, but for me the beginning of life.'" Bonhoeffer and countless martyrs like him through the ages had the courage to stand up to evil in the name of Christ and pay the ultimate price. Do we have the courage to lay it all on the line? Do we have the courage to speak out for traditional marriage when we know we'll be called bigots and worse? Or would you have the courage to stand up at a school board meeting and speak against a curriculum that indoctrinates kids and sexual license? You have to prepare to be shouted down. Believe me, it takes courage to take an unpopular stand and risk our popularity, our reputations, and maybe even lose a few church members. Now I could be wrong. But the continuing assault on religious liberty is a test. If we lack the courage to defend our religious freedom, then we will lose all other freedoms as well. Remember this. However, it's easier to summon up courage when you know someone has your back. I learned this well. When I was a lieutenant in the Marines, I knew my men had my back and I had theirs—that they would have laid down their life for me. That inspired courage in me. I have to say, too, that when we act for goodness for truth, Jesus Christ has our back. He is the source of our courage, He who laid down his life for us. Ten years ago yesterday, Chuck Colson went to be with the Lord. We are grateful for his life, for the work of Christ to make Chuck a new creation, for his remarkable life of passion and leadership, and for the privilege of being part of his ongoing work and legacy.
Apr 21, 2022
Christian legal experts are bracing for the Biden administration to issue a reversal of a 2019 "conscience rule," which protected faith-based groups from being forced to violate their beliefs. To quote one Christian attorney, reversing the protection would create " an existential threat to religious-based employers, " who would be forced to provide services, such as abortifacients or gender assignment surgery, or face fines, lawsuits and legal challenges that would drive them out of business. If they are to respond in a helpful way, Christians first need to remember the basics of religious liberty: It's for all individuals, it's the cornerstone of a free and democratic society, and it's the first freedom from which every other freedom springs. Respecting the right to conscience provides a setting in which both people and society can thrive. Remove it, and there's nothing to stop some future administration or regime from imposing its worldview on millions of people. Religious liberty might be the direct result of a Judeo-Christian worldview, but it's the birthright of every American—and it's worth fighting for.
Apr 21, 2022
Ten years ago today, Chuck Colson met Jesus Christ face-to-face in eternity. As many would note later, Chuck Colson died in a way fitting for a marine, with "his boots on." I was sitting on the stage behind Chuck as he delivered what would be his final speech. At the 2012 Wilberforce Weekend, Chuck collapsed on stage. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital where, on April 21, he died. His final words may have been delivered with less energy than some of us were used to hearing from Chuck, but with no less lucidity or passion. Here's Chuck Colson: My topic is the cultural environment today. Culture and a crossroads, which indeed it is, and what you've just witnessed with the Department of Health and Human Services attempting to impose a mandate on the Church, that the Church and Christian groups and religious organizations would have to provide insurance for things which violate our conscience and that we wouldn't be allowed conscience for exemptions. What's extraordinary is that there haven't been battles of religious liberty ever since the nation was founded and most of them have ended up in court decisions. Sometimes legislative. This is the first time in history, which is why Cardinal Wuerl here in Washington said, "This is the most serious invasion of the Church by government ever." This is the first time it's been done by a bureaucrat in a government agency simply writing it and then putting it out as law. Normally in a court case, you get a chance to argue both sides, but there wasn't a chance for two sides to be argued this time. It was done by executive fiat. This is a moment in which the Church has to learn how to defend itself against this sort of thing and do it in a way that is constructive with what we're witnessing in our culture today. The HHS mandate is but the tip of the iceberg. It's about the latest visible manifestation of a growing hostility towards Christianity mainly because—this has always been the case— government officials feel threatened by the power of the Church because we all worship a king higher than the kings of this Earth. And that's seen as a threat, and we're also seen as wanting to impose our views on people. Don't let them tell you that we don't propose to impose anything. We propose an invitation to the wedding feast to come to a better way of living, a better way of life. And it is the great proposal. We couldn't impose if we wanted to impose, and we don't want to impose in a democracy. You can't. So, we need to be very clear about who we are and what we do and why we do it. What we're seeing now is the full fruits that have come from 30 years of relativism, death of truth in the academy particularly and in public discourse, and the coarsening of public-discourse question of politics. Everybody looks at the elections and thinks the elections are going to settle this problem. Elections are important for who it is who serves in office. It makes a difference what kind of person that is and what that person believes. But elections can't solve the problem. We've got the problem that our culture has been decaying from the inside for 30 or 40 years, and politics is nothing but an expression of culture. So how do you fix the culture? Culture is actually formed by the belief system of the people, by the cult, which was what the Church has been historically. So if things are bad, I don't think it's going to be solved by election: It's going to be solved by us. You have a healthy cult, you have a healthy culture, have a healthy culture of healthy politics. So it comes right back to us. Look in the mirror: That's where the problem is. And if we can through the Church renew the Church too, really bring healthy cultural influence, then there's some hope that we can be changed. I think Eric is right that this is a moment. This is a moment when the time is right for a movement of God's people under the power of the holy spirit to begin to impact the culture we live in. It's desperately needed. This is why I've been spending so much time in recent years teaching biblical worldview because I think that's at the root of our problems. Once we can get that understood by the Church: that it is a worldview and we have to live it and express it and contend for it. Otherwise, it's not going to be. You'll see that continued deterioration of the culture and all that goes with it. So, I think the responsibility has to be taken by the Church for a movement that will bring back the authority and strength and winsomeness of the Church, which then in turn affects the culture. Chuck's final passion was to see the Church embrace the fullness of the Lordship of Christ and be the Church in this cultural moment. Many of us took these final words, delivered at the 2012 Wilberforce Weekend, as a calling. The Colson Center exists to carry this mission forward.
Apr 20, 2022
John and Shane reflect on who Chuck Colson was and the legacy he left in the Colson Center. A listener writes in asking for some context to the organization, noting that this is the 10th anniversary of Chuck's passing. John and Shane then provide some answers to how a public school parent can work to impact their community. A single-parent writes in asking how a parent can guide a student in the public arena noting the challenges in curriculum and ideology taught in public schools that oppose a Christian worldview.
Apr 20, 2022
As pressure continues to mount on institutions to accommodate the sexual revolution, it's no longer possible to avoid the issues or craft a "third way." Yet, colleges keep trying. Recently, Calvin University spun off a department to accommodate a lesbian staffer who wished to marry her same-sex partner, and the assistant professor who presided over the ceremony. The staffer quit after Calvin asked her to keep her "marriage" quiet. Writing at WORLD Opinions , Bart Gingerich points out that attempts by Christian colleges to thread this moral needle makes nobody happy and everyone upset, including donors and board members committed to Christian truth, and the LGBTQ students and staff committed to full affirmation. Over the last few years, other colleges have attempted similar flip-flops, for example, deciding to allow LGBTQ "romance" among students but not sex, then reversing the decision, then reversing the reversal …none of the attempts have gone well. It's time for Christian institutions that want to remain meaningfully Christian to make decisions, and when they do, we should remember what Jesus said about serving two masters.
Apr 20, 2022
Ten years ago this week, Chuck Colson went to be with the Lord. After his time in the White House and then in prison and then in leading the largest ministry to prisoners and their families in the world, the great passion of the last few years of Chuck's life was advancing a Christian worldview. He worked and prayed so that, as he often put it, the Church would be the church. One of the first projects after I joined the Colson Center team was a curriculum project called Doing the Right Thing . This film series reflected how Chuck understood those issues that plagued prison and the rest of our society. Upstream from the brokenness and evil was a lack of moral formation, an abandonment of right and wrong, and a neglect of virtue. In this film series, Chuck issued a clarion call for Christians to influence our communities with the Christian worldview. Christianity was, after all, a better way of being human: I have a peculiar habit in my life. I read the Bible every morning, but I also read The New York Times through clenched teeth. I have to. I do it because I write BreakPoint radio broadcasts every day, and I usually get half my BreakPoint s out of The New York Times , out of some of the silly things they say. It's wonderful. I mean for a guy like me who's writing biblical commentary on public events The Times is indispensable. I should be paying twice as much for my subscription. But one morning I picked it up and—let me tell you what—I read the extraordinary Thomas Friedman, a great writer of The World Is Flat , a great thinker, very liberal, secular Jew. Thomas Friedman wrote a column about why America was number one in the world by all ratings and all polls and all standards and all measurements for years and years and years and all of a sudden it appears number 11 on the list. What happened? Everybody's talking about Newsweek 's cover list of the most important and influential nations in the world, the best nations in the world. America's number 11. So, Friedman writes a column in which he restates the whole thesis of all of his books, which is that the world is flat. Everybody's got access to all the same resources and tools, and therefore we're all equal now. But here's what he says at the end about why America is number 11. This is the conclusion of his column: China and India have been catching up to America not only via cheap labor and currencies; they're catching up with us because they now have free markets like we do, education like we do, access to capital and technology. They alike in what we do. But most importantly—listen. Most importantly, they have values like our greatest generation: They have a willingness to postpone gratification questions. That's a Christian virtue, deferred gratification, paying your bills, providing for your kids in the future. In a flat world where everyone has access to everything, values matter more than ever. And listen to this coming from a secular Jew. Right now, the Hindus and Confucianists have more Protestant ethics than we do. And as long as that is the case, we will be number 11. All of you know that I spent my life, the last 35 years going into prisons. I love it. I have a passion for it: to bring the Gospel to prisoners who are absolutely loved. But I discovered early on that the reason the prisons were being filled wasn't all the sociological theories about crime that we hear generally. It was the fact studied at Harvard in 1986 by two great social scientists: the lack of moral training during the morally formative years. It hit me that we are raising a generation that lacks male role models. The family has broken down. These kids aren't learning character. Where does character come from? It comes from habits that you learn in the family first. That's the first basic structure that Aristotle once said is the first school of human instruction. It comes from associations that you become part of, where you find your identity—you find role models and other people. That's how character forms. You cannot teach character. All these courses going in public schools today about teaching character. It's a joke because you can't teach character. You learn character. You learn character by living with people who create an environment which is righteous where people live righteously in that environment. That's how you do it. So, I thought to myself, "This is really a problem." And I had had this experience at Harvard, and then I'd spoken at schools all across the country. I ended up speaking at the 2nd Marine Division where I started out as a platoon commander in the 1950s. The commanding general invited me back to give a speech on ethics. Grizzled-up old master sergeant stood up to me, and he said, "Mr. Colson, which is more important, loyalty or integrity?" Ah, got it! I wish I had thought about that when I was in the Oval Office. Whoa! They really got it. But the result of this, when I was realizing what was happening in the prisons, was I thought, "I've got to do something about ethics." When I said, "Wouldn't it be something if five million Americans started to do the right thing?" one of my friends said to me, "You'd turn the country upside down." It can happen. I want to see that. That's my goal. That's why I'm standing here today. I want to see five million people, 2% of the population of this country start doing the right thing, start practicing virtue. That was Chuck Colson describing the potential influence that he believed Christians could have on our society . Join us tomorrow to hear a clip from Chuck Colson's very last public speech, delivered at the 2012 Wilberforce Weekend.
Apr 19, 2022
One company is proposing an innovative digital solution for loneliness. "Replika" is an AI chat-bot created "for anyone who wants a friend with no judgment, drama, or social anxiety involved." The company makes audacious claims. "Feeling down, anxious, having trouble getting to sleep, or managing negative emotions?" the website asks. "Replika can help." Presumably, this is by filling a relational void: a virtual "friend," "mentor," "boyfriend," or "girlfriend" … whatever the user wants. If you think that's both weird and problematic, you're right. Replika promises the loneliest generation on record a technological answer that only people can deliver. It's a gimmick now, but what happens when the technology is perfected? What pornography is to lust, Replika could easily become to loneliness. Like pornography, it can never solve the underlying problem. Young people are hurting and longing for a better answer. There is one. Real friendship always exposes us to the risk of social anxiety, drama, or judgment … but it's worth it. The Church has a chance to model the real thing, so they'll never be fooled by a replica.
Apr 19, 2022
Evidence is mounting of possible war crimes by Russia and, on a vastly smaller scale , by Ukraine . We can be sure, given that every act of warring nations is documented on social media today, that the truth will come out. But where did the idea come from that some ways of fighting wars crossed some sort of civilized line? Who decided where that line should be drawn? Where did the very notion of "war crimes" come from? Union Major General Sherman, the general behind the infamous Sherman's March during the Civil War, famously said that "War is hell." International laws on war crimes are a historically recent innovation intended to mitigate how terrible and devastating war becomes. They are attempts to prevent war from descending entirely into hell, especially for non-combatants. In the West, the primary sources for laws governing how war should be waged are found in Just War Theory. The earliest idea that war should be governed and moderated, however, dates long before any formal formulation of Just War Theory. In Deuteronomy 20, Moses instructed the Israelites not to kill the women and children of their enemies. Much later, the Roman Republic would embrace three criteria for waging war: first, that it had to be waged for a legally sound reason, such as in response to aggression; second, that it had to be declared by someone legally authorized to do so; and third, that it had to be waged justly. As ethically innovative as that may sound, the Romans still had no problem using horrific tactics, such as rape, torture, enslavement, and terrorism, in their warfare. It was Christian thinkers, especially Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, who most fully developed the ideas governing if and how war was to be waged. This Judeo-Christian approach eventually influenced the formation of the code of chivalry in Medieval Europe. Like the injunctions in Deuteronomy 20 , the code was eventually expanded to include the protection of women and non-combatants, with the ideal of the knight being a protector of the weak. Though in the throes of war, these ideals were rarely followed, the code held among the nobles. For example, if a knight unnecessarily killed another knight in combat, he could be charged with murder. This was not considered a war crime, however. In the wake of the brutality of the Spanish conquests in the Americas, thinkers such as 16th century Spanish theologian and jurist Francisco de Vitoria began to argue that war was never part of God's plan and could only be justified on the grounds of the common good. Thus, consideration of war and warfare shifted from a topic within theology to the emerging realm of international law. At the same time, the emergence of gunpowder armies and other military technologies made war increasingly destructive. As weapons became more powerful, the ability of armies to target civilians grew as well. This led to legal attempts in the 19th century to restrict warfare. The first international treaty on warfare was the 1864 Geneva Convention , which covered the treatment of sick and wounded prisoners of war. This was followed by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 , which also banned weapons such as poison gas, the killing of surrendering prisoners, looting, and the bombardment of undefended towns. The 1925 Geneva Protocol supplemented the ban on chemical weapons with a ban on biological weapons. Protections afforded to civilians were expanded in the 1949 Geneva Conventions . In 2008, the U.N. Security Council added rape and sexual violence to the list of war crimes. Although a few Germans were tried for war crimes after the first World War I, it was the Nuremberg Trials and the lesser known International Military Tribunal for the Far East after World War II that most fully established the idea of war crimes and holding violators accountable. Since 2002, such trials have been handled by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In the U.S., war crimes can be prosecuted using the 1996 War Crimes Act and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Despite all the conventions, treaties, and laws, war crimes continue to be a part of every military conflict and are often perpetrated by all sides. Heads of state and others have been prosecuted, from a range of countries, while others have escaped accountability altogether. It is important to remember that the U.S. has been guilty of war crimes, such as the violations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The very concept of war crimes is rooted in the Judeo-Christian understanding that in a deeply flawed world, war is at times a horrible necessity. However, the desired ends of nations, even if noble, do not justify the means. The waging of war, even if just, must not violate the inherent dignity of human beings. In other words, all is not fair in love and war, and to whatever extent we can control, war should not be hell.
Apr 18, 2022
In the midst of brutality, the war in Ukraine is revealing stories of courage, beauty, and human decency in the face of evil. The Polish city of Przemyśl is situated on Ukraine's western border. According to t he BBC, over 4 million Ukrainians, about 10% of the population , have fled their country since the war's beginning. Poland has received more than half of them. What makes their kindness ever more incredible and significant is that during World War II, Ukrainian nationalist groups killed over 100,000 Poles in the region of East Galicia. This led to Polish reprisals and an ongoing cycle of violence, ethnic tensions which remained until quite recently. Today, this Polish city has been transformed into a refugee hub: locals giving their own time and resources to house and resettle those fleeing the war. As one veterinarian put it, "We have to help. It's our destiny." It's a beautiful reminder that there's something deeper than borders, political gridlock, or even ethnic tension: when other image bearers of God are seen and treated as neighbors.
Apr 18, 2022
-- www.wilberforceweekend.org -- Virginia Prodan grew up in Communist Romania. Unaware of the truth about her own family — including why her family never showed the slightest hint of love toward her — she discovered God's Truth and Love as a teenager. Virginia accepted the divine call to defend fellow followers of Christ against unjust persecution in an otherwise ungodly land as a human rights attorney. For this act of treason, she came within seconds of being executed under the orders of Ceausescu himself. How Virginia not only managed to defeat her enemies time and again, but helped expose the appalling secret that would lead to the demise of Ceausescu's evil empire is one of the most extraordinary stories ever told. BreakPoint This Week Co-Host and Wilberforce Weekend Emcee Maria Baer sat down with Virginia to discuss Virginia's session on forgiveness at the upcoming Wilberforce Weekend.
Apr 18, 2022
I'm Kathy Koch of Celebrate Kids here in Fort Worth, and I want to talk with you about how God made us good. I think God is good and God is a good Creator. And if children, teens, or adults don't know that, then it doesn't matter to them that they're created in His image. That's how my friend, Dr. Kathy Koch began her presentation at last year's Wilberforce Weekend event. In a remarkable talk, which many attendees identified as the highlight of the conference, Koch talked about something incredibly elusive in this cultural moment: a settled identity. In Psalm 139, verses 13 and 14 declare that we have been formed by God in our inward parts. It says in Psalm 139:13 that Father God knitted us together in our mother's womb. Knitting is a precise skill; the knitter knows before starting what he is making, or he'd better not start. Otherwise he'd have a mittens-scarf-hat-afghan sweater thing. The size of the stitch and the needle, the color of the yarn, and the design of the creation is known before the knitter begins. For years, Dr. Kathy Koch has taught the truth about God's design of human beings, especially how to help children grasp who they are. Tomorrow, she joins the Lighthouse Voices Series to speak about how parents, educators, and mentors can secure the hearts of children for God. The Lighthouse Voices Series is sponsored by Focus on the Family and the Colson Center. If you live in the Holland, Michigan area, please join us in person. If not, please join us online for the live stream. Childhood matters. In our culture, children are too often the victims of adults pursuing their own happiness. If children are to experience their full potential, they must learn to see themselves as the image bearers they are. How can we point children to God? How can we help them understand who they are when there are so many competing voices? How can we help them emerge as adults, stewarding their gifts and talents for the glory of God? How can they grow up to be who God created them to be? Tomorrow night, Dr. Kathy will share three essential beliefs and t hree communication approaches that can help us secure our children's hearts for God. You'll appreciate her upbeat instruction, her practical and realistic ideas, and her tremendous speaking ability. The verse that revolutionized my understanding of God's creative intent is the end of Psalm 139:14 where David writes on behalf of God: My soul knows very well that I am a wonderful work of the creative intent of God. A fearfully and wonderfully creation made in His image. Dr. Kathy Koch is founder and president of Celebrate Kids, and is one of the best speakers I have ever heard. She is practical, relevant, and gives a results-oriented approach that's grounded in a Christian worldview. She helps parents, grandparents, teachers, and anyone caring for kids do so in a way that's engaging and honoring of the image bearers that children are. Dr. Kathy's presentation in our Lighthouse Voices series will guide us to secure children's hearts. Her talk will be practical, powerful, and impactful. I hope you'll register to attend, either in person or through the live stream, tomorrow, Tuesday April 19, at 5:45pm for those in the Holland Michigan area, and at 7pm for the livestream. To register visit www.colsoncenter.org/events
Apr 16, 2022
Today on the BreakPoint Podcast, John Stonestreet introduces a sermon given by Chuck Colson from a Prison in Michigan in 2010. Nearly every Easter, Chuck visited a prison to give the Gospel. In this presentation we hear why, and the significance of Easter to Chuck Colson.
Apr 15, 2022
John and Maria discuss new findings in teen sadness and what it means for culture. They also discuss a recent podcast by Jen Hatmaker and what it means to misunderstand what church is and what church is for. To close, John explains the landscape of a recent BreakPoint commentary on the roots of Easter. He shares how Easter is a pivotal moment in history that changed the course of humanity. -- In-Show Mentions -- Segment 1: New York City subway shooting attack timeline Frank R. James, the 62-year-old man accused of popping a smoke canister in a crowded New York City subway car before opening fire during the Tuesday morning rush hour, is in police custody after a good Samaritan spotted him walking down a Manhattan sidewalk in broad daylight Wednesday. In 30 hours between the attack and his arrest, investigators obtained and distributed images of the suspect in the hope that the public could help catch him. They searched a storage unit and apartment linked to him in Philadelphia, which he had spoken of in numerous videos posted to a now-disabled YouTube channel. And he may have taunted investigators by calling in the tip line to report himself, according to law enforcement sources, even as a security camera technician spotted him in the East Village and turned him in. FoxNews>> Why American Teens Are So Sad The United States is experiencing an extreme teenage mental-health crisis. From 2009 to 2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness" rose from 26 percent to 44 percent, according to a new CDC study. This is the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded. The government survey of almost 8,000 high-school students, which was conducted in the first six months of 2021, found a great deal of variation in mental health among different groups. More than one in four girls reported that they had seriously contemplated attempting suicide during the pandemic, which was twice the rate of boys. Nearly half of LGBTQ teens said they had contemplated suicide during the pandemic, compared with 14 percent of their heterosexual peers. Sadness among white teens seems to be rising faster than among other groups. The Atlantic>> Derek Thompson on This Week in Startups>> Segment 2: What is Church? With Jen Hatmaker 1999: 70% of US adults said they belonged to a religious institution. 2020: It fell to 47%. Why are people leaving & where are they going? Is the church experience still relevant & what is its future? Jen Hatmaker Youtube>> Is Easter a Pagan Holiday? Most Christians consider Easter to be a sacred and joyous celebration of Christ's resurrection. But what about the claim that Easter and its accompanying traditions originated from a pagan spring celebration? BreakPoint>>
Apr 15, 2022
One of my all-time favorite B.C. comic strips has two guys talking. "I hate the term Good Friday," says one. "Why?" says the other guy. "My Lord was hanged on a tree that day," the first guy replies. "But if you were going to be hanged on that day," his friend says, "and He volunteered to take your place, how would you feel?" "Good," the first guy replies. And there it is. Today marks the greatest act of love in the history of the universe: "he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). Today on very a special BreakPoint podcast, we air four of Chuck Colson's classic BreakPoint commentaries reflecting on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the day that, as he said, tells "the truth about everything."
Apr 15, 2022
Today, on Good Friday, we remember, honor, and reflect on the God who entered the world of human suffering on our behalf. "I thirst." Only John's Gospel records these words. They were uttered by Jesus, we're told, not as a guttural physical response, but with intention: "Knowing that all was now finished," Jesus said, "I thirst" in order to fulfill the Scriptures ( John 19:28 ). And yet, we ought not think these words are manufactured or insincere either. Earlier in His ministry, Jesus had, on the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, "stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'" ( John 7:37 ). "The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" ( John 4:13–14 ). And now, on the cross, He who said these words was Himself thirsty. Why are we told this? Why is the fact that Jesus thirsted important? The world changed on All Saints Day in 1755. In Lisbon, Portugal, a 10-minute earthquake, followed by a tsunami and fires, killed an estimated 60,000 people, many crushed by collapsing churches where they had gathered to celebrate that Christian holy day. According to moral philosopher Susan Neiman, for many Western intellectuals this incident of natural evil proved that God could no longer be trusted. The French philosopher Voltaire offered scathing words in a poem: "Are you then sure," he wrote, "the power which would create The universe and fix the laws of fate, Could not have found for man a proper place, But earthquakes must destroy the human race?" And so in the modern era, trust moved from God to man. And it seemed to work: The next few centuries were marked by technological advances, scientific progress, and scholarly criticism of the Bible. However, the peak of modernism was the 20th century, which revealed that trust in man was badly misplaced: the mechanized slaughter of millions in two world wars, Communism, Auschwitz, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. So where do we turn now if we can't trust God or man? The cross directly addresses this world of moral and natural evil: As the prophet Isaiah foretold, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed ( Isaiah 53:5 ). The cross proves that God is not aloof from human suffering as Voltaire had imagined, nor will human evil have the final say. Our God once thirsted, like we do. He bled, as we do, in this existence of fallen people and a fallen world. In Christ, God entered the world of human suffering, suffered Himself, defeated suffering and now has the scars to prove it. Nearly two centuries after Voltaire, theologian Edward Shillito, offered a poem with a very different take on the suffering we experience. Here are two stanzas of that poem: "If we have never sought, we seek Thee now; Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars; We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow; We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars. . . "The other gods were strong, but Thou wast weak; They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone." Today on Good Friday, we remember, we worship and proclaim this God, Jesus of the scars. To Him be all glory and praise forever and ever. Amen. And before I leave you today, I want to invite you to come to BreakPoint.org for a free pdf that the Colson Center team has prepared on the seven last sayings of Christ from the cross. It's a beautiful booklet, with reflections from our team and sacred art to help you reflect this Easter season on what Jesus suffered and said for our benefit. Again, it's at BreakPoint.org.
Apr 14, 2022
In the church calendar, the Thursday before Easter is called Maundy Thursday. It's set aside to remember the last supper Jesus shared with his disciples. The word "maundy" comes from the Latin word for command. At this supper. Jesus commanded His disciples to love and serve one another. And then he demonstrated what he meant by washing their feet. And let's not forget: This was the supper remembering Passover, when the Jews remember God rescuing His people from Egypt, as described in Exodus. At this supper, Jesus revealed himself as the fulfillment of that event. It's His broken body and shed blood we are to remember. So is Christianity service or salvation? This divided the church in the 20th century and still does today. The answer is, it's both . On the same night, Jesus commands us to remember that we need rescue by His broken body and spilled blood, and to show we have been rescued by loving and serving each other.
Apr 14, 2022
"Jesus would've baked the cake." "Christians hate LGBTQ people." "You're on the wrong side of history" "Why can't you let them be 'their true selves'?" "That's just your truth, not mine." And, perhaps most painful, especially when it comes from a friend or family member: "If you love me, you'd accept me for who I am." All of the slogans that leave Christians silent or shamed today are, at root, different ways of saying the same thing – that truth and love are incompatible. For people to tell the truth, especially when it comes to issues of sexuality and gender, is to be unloving and intolerant. And, to love someone is to affirm their choices. There's a uniquely "Christian" version of these slogans, too. Taking a moral stand, we are told, especially on questions so culturally controversial, is to distract from the Gospel. Instead, the Church must become more welcoming and avoid anything that makes people feel excluded from the Church. After all, we are told, isn't the Gospel really about inclusivity? Today, of all the days of Holy Week, directly confronts this mentality. Maundy Thursday is set aside on the Church calendar to remember the Last Supper. The word "maundy" comes from the Latin word for "mandate," or "command." At this first celebration of Communion, Jesus gave His disciples "a new command," that they should love and serve each other. To demonstrate what He meant, He picked up a basin of water and a towel and washed their feet. To fully understand His words and actions, recall that at this "Last Supper" and first Communion, Jesus and His disciples were obeying God's original command, given to all Jews, to remember the Passover. God's people were to never forget how they were rescued from slavery in Egypt. For Jesus to issue a "new" command was an audacious thing to do, especially given how significantly God's original command stood in Israel's history and identity as a people. Jesus, however, went even further than merely adding instructions to an old celebration. Now, rather than remembering how the angel of death "passed over" those homes with lamb's blood on their doorposts, they were to remember His broken body and His shed blood. Ultimately, the new command was to remember a new rescue, and how, through Christ's death, death is not merely avoided but finally defeated. Since at least the mid-20th century, the American Church has been divided over whether it should be primarily about proclaiming truth or about serving others. More recently, the volume in this debate has significantly increased. The Lord's Supper and Jesus' "new" command remind us that this is a false dichotomy, an unnecessary choice to make. Truth and love need never be separated and should never be separated. On the same night Jesus when commanded us to remember how His broken body and shed blood rescues us from sin (that's the truth), He commanded us to demonstrate our new life by serving others (that's love). We need not choose between truth and love. In fact, we must not choose. They always go together, because they are both grounded in the same Source, or specifically, the same Person. Jesus embodied truth and love, not only in the event we commemorate this day, but every event we remember this Holy Week. He is truth. He is love. And, He has risen. Indeed.
Apr 13, 2022
John and Shane discuss what a worldview is and if it can shelter racist sentiments. John gives a full explanation of worldview, and explains how the concept is both helpful and challenged in this cultural moment. Then Shane asks John to explain how we know Adam is a historical figure. A listener writes in because a pastor he knows presents Adam as an idea inside Scripture. To close, John explains an interesting trend in the United States where in some cases we're outpacing Europe in progressive actions. A listener asks for some explanation on the culture trends that are creating fertile soil for secular ideas.
Apr 13, 2022
Quantum theory boggles the mind. As science journalist John Horgan writes , quantum theory is "science's most precise, powerful theory of reality. It has predicted countless experiments, spawned countless applications. The trouble is physicists and philosophers disagree over what it means , that is, what it says about how the world works." At the core of the disagreement is what matter consists of at the quantum, or the smallest, level . At that size, matter's properties change when we try to observe it, even—amazingly— because we try to observe it. That's led to over a century of frustrated efforts to understand exactly what the fundamental "stuff" of reality is . It's not that these tiny things aren't real; it's that we can't figure out what they're like. At the same time, quantum theory has proven explanatory power. A theological parallel is the Trinity. We can't comprehend exactly how the Godhead functions, but that doesn't mean it's not real. As C.S. Lewis wrote back in 1952, if Christianity is true, it would be "at least as difficult as modern physics." And, we could add, just as rational.
Apr 13, 2022
Most Christians consider Easter to be a sacred and joyous celebration of Christ's resurrection. But what about the claim that Easter and its accompanying traditions originated from a pagan spring celebration? In his treatise On the Reckoning of Time , eighth-century English monk The Venerable Bede proposed that the word Easter comes from the name of a pagan goddess: "Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated 'Paschal month', and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month." Modern pagans latched onto this idea, and further associated Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility, with Ostara, a Germanic goddess of spring. There are multiple problems with this theory, however, the Venerable Bede notwithstanding. For centuries, the Church fought to turn people from paganism. Therefore, it is unlikely that one of the most important Christian holidays would be named after a pagan goddess. More importantly, there is no evidence, aside from Bede, of a goddess named Eostre , nor is there evidence for a Germanic goddess named Ostara . The name Easter is only used in English, and its cognate Ostern in German. Everywhere else, even in Germanic languages such as Dutch, Norwegian, or Swedish, the word is derived from Pascha or Passover. And, since Resurrection Day was celebrated for hundreds of years before the Anglo-Saxons or Germans were converted, it is unconvincing that its name points to a pagan origin of the holiday. More likely, Bede was mistaken, either following a folk etymology or simply guessing. In fact, where the day's name does originate is a bit more complicated. New converts, after receiving intensive instruction, were baptized on Easter. Easter Sunday was known as Dominica in albis , or "the Sunday in white," after the white robes worn by the catechumens. It may be that albis was misunderstood to be the plural of alba , or dawn , which was then translated into Old High German as eostarum . The words Easter and Ostern most likely are derived from that. Another common argument is that Easter traditions such as rabbits and decorating eggs were pagan fertility symbols. Some modern pagans even claim, without evidence, that the worship of Ostara involved these very things. However, the connection of these items to Easter is much less elaborate and far more recent than any mythical pagan past. During the Holy Week fast preceding Easter, Christians were prohibited from eating eggs. The chickens kept laying, however. Eggs laid during Holy Week were considered Holy Eggs. The practice of decorating them began in the thirteenth century, many centuries after Europe turned from paganism. The egg was seen as a symbol of the resurrection, with Christ bursting from the tomb in the same way the chick broke free from the egg. As for rabbits, the timing of their association with Easter also eliminates the possibility that they are a holdover from pagan ideas. During the Middle Ages, rabbits were seen as innocent, good, and harmless, and as such were sometimes used as a symbol of Christ. However, they were not associated with Easter until the 17th century. Another version of the "Easter has roots in paganism" idea associates the celebration of the resurrection with the ancient Sumerian myth of Tammuz and Ishtar. This myth, which is an explanation of the annual cycle of death in winter, tells of Tammuz and Ishtar spending half a year in the underworld, before a new birth when they are released for six months each spring. The myth bears little resemblance to resurrection story, especially the three days Jesus spent in the tomb and his once-and-for-all resurrection from the dead. Even so, this pagan story and others like it may, in fact, be connected to Christianity, just not in the way we normally think. In fact, we may have it the wrong way around. As C. S. Lewis described in Mere Christianity : And what did God do? …. He sent the human race what I call good dreams: I mean those queer stories scattered all through the heathen religions about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men. Lewis believed that these myths were hints that God gave to the pagan world of the person and work of Christ. In other words, the argument that myths are the source of the story of the Resurrection has it exactly backwards. The Resurrection actually happened, and is the Reality to which these myths have always pointed. And because the Resurrection actually happened, it is certainly worthy of celebrationg... with Hallelujahs, raised glasses, and lots of joy.
Apr 12, 2022
Dr. Christopher Yuan led our Time of Guided Prayer last week. He shared how the prayers of his parents, and hundreds of other believers, were used to lead him to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. For more information on our Time of Guided Prayer please visit: www.breakpoint.org/praywithme
Apr 12, 2022
Recently, Twitter banned Christian satire site The Babylon Bee from their platform. Their offending tweet "awarded" Admiral Rachel Levine, the nation's first transgender four-star admiral, with their satirical "Man of the Year Award." Clearly, big tech censorship is a problem. What should Christians do? Christians, even in comedy, will have to continue to speak truths that people will not always want to hear … It's too easy to look away, ignore controversy, and just focus on what are often called primary issues. But truths about identity and sexuality are primary issues because they deal with the deepest questions of worldview: Who are we? And where does our design come from? Is humanity's fundamental problem society's lack of acceptance, or the wrongdoing we are each guilty of? Is the solution self-expression or self-surrender? Wherever and however we can, Christians should do things differently, especially in the digital world. But we should never give in to the culture's biggest demand: to stay silent on matters that matter the most.
Apr 12, 2022
Just a small sampling of recent headlines reveals what a disorienting cultural moment this is: Man wins a women's swimming championship , Supreme Court nominee refuses to define the word woman , Biden administration endorses gender reassignment surgery for minors . Back in 2020, theologian and historian Dr. Carl Trueman provided a full account of how something that was unthinkable a generation ago became unquestionable today. The dramatic shifts in how we think about gender and sexuality are among the fruits (not roots) of a much deeper shift in how we think about the human person. Trueman's book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self described the origin story of what has been called "the cultural identity crisis." Centuries ago, thinkers, writers, and activists began to rethink, redefine, and over-sexualize the concept of self . By describing this process, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self felt like a long-overdue answer key for our cultural moment. Weighing in at over 400 pages, it is the definitive account of the thinkers, ideas, expressions, and consequences of the sexual revolution. Thankfully, Dr. Trueman also heard the many pleas for a less academic approach to these essential concepts, one that works out the same essential analysis but for those Christians dealing with the everyday chaos of the culture he so aptly describes. The new and much slimmer version is called Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution. In it, Trueman tells the story of the development and propagation of ideas that sparked a revolution in how Western people think about themselves and others. Eventually, these ideas transformed how we think about sex and the human body, about social institutions like the family and the role of the state, and about meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. Along the way, Trueman introduces the thinkers whose ideas sparked this revolution: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Simone de Beauvoir, Wilhelm Reich, Germaine Greer, and others. Trueman connects how these thinkers built on one another's ideas, and ultimately shaped the assumptions that now influence most Western people, even those who have never read these authors. No assumption has been more influential than the idea that discovering and expressing our authentic, inner selves is the goal of life. Though it is as widely held today as any other belief in our modern world, it is not an assumption that most humans for most of history could have shared. A whole collection of forces has made this idea, which Trueman identifies as "expressive individualism," thinkable. Now, it is the ideological foundation for so much of modern Western culture. Another assumption that emerges in Trueman's account is the idea that there is no such thing as a fixed human nature. According to this assumption, our faculties as a species, our moral ideals, and even our gendered bodies are like "playdough," raw material to be molded according to our shifting desires and the whims of activists. Again, it is not hard to see where this leads. Strange New World is more than a Reader's Digest version of Rise and Triumph . It is a book to be carefully studied, especially by Christians committed to engaging this cultural moment with the truth and love of Christ. Increasingly, the battles over gender, sexuality, and selfhood are being fought in more areas of our lives: not just across political aisles or in courtrooms, but across dinner tables, classrooms, and social media feeds. Sometimes, those closest to us have radically different views of what human flourishing looks like, and these relationships can quickly become vulnerable, even volatile. This month, the Colson Center is offering an opportunity for you to join us in studying the essential ideas in Carl Trueman's new book Strange New World . For a gift of any amount, we will send you a copy of the book, a study guide Dr. Trueman has prepared to go along with the book, and a four-lesson digital course with Dr. Trueman and Colson Center theologian-in-residence Dr. Tim Padgett. Come to BreakPoint.org and click on this commentary to give, and to be better equipped to understand the increasingly strange headlines and issues of our moment.
Apr 11, 2022
The White House issued a series of documents for the "International Transgender Day of Visibility." Even more than revealing a new progressive "baseline" when it comes to politics and gender, these documents foreshadow new and real threats to religious freedom. For example, a statement from the Office of Population Affairs claimed that so-called gender-affirming treatment "improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender-diverse children and adolescents." In this case, however, gender "affirming" means to encourage grade-school children to question their gender and, once they do, provide them with puberty blockers and hormone therapy to help them reject their bodies. In some cases, the document says, adolescents should even have access to so-called "gender-affirming surgery," a procedure which removes or destroys perfectly healthy body parts and is irreversible. In recent months, states such as Texas and Florida have taken legislative steps to prevent children from being subjected to such mental and physical harm. However, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), an entity of the Department of Health and Human Services, issued a release proclaiming that "gender-affirming care" is neither "child maltreatment nor malpractice." Around the same time, the Department of Justice sent a letter to all state attorneys general , saying that opposing HHS guidance is discrimination, is essentially an attack against "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, nonbinary, or otherwise gender-nonconforming" people, and that such actions "may be unconstitutional." The Department of Justice! To top it all off, President Joe Biden issued a video in which he spoke specifically to parents, insisting that "affirming [their] child's identity is one of the most powerful things [they] can do to keep them safe and healthy." In it, he not only jumped way past the line of state authority into parental authority, but he appealed to biblical language, misguidedly conflating the image of God with the confusion of gender dysphoria. It's not just that the government's claims fail to match reality , or that their talking points are crafted from data with flawed research methodology , or even that their appeals to "settled science" are clearly premature. Transgender ideology falsely promises hope and instead brings harm to people who bear God's image . When government forces and federal departments are co-opted to advance this ideology, religious freedom is placed in a precarious and fragile position. Years ago, during the Obama administration , Chuck Colson began to notice how then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials began to use the language of "freedom to worship" instead of "freedom of religion." As he said at the time , freedom to worship is a narrowing of religious freedom, away from public expression toward only private conviction. It is a major loss if religious freedom no longer includes the right to order one's life around deeply held religious beliefs, but only protects the right to believe in one's own heart, head, home, and house of worship . These recent proclamations from the Biden administration assume that flawed understanding of religious conviction, while also establishing a new baseline for political enforcement of the sexual revolution. The statements and letters issued frame all opposition to the state's view of sexual orientation and gender identity as intent, not only to discriminate, but to harm . Procedurally, this is how federal departments like Health and Human Services now operate. Each new administration will spend a year and half dismantling the rules and regulations of the previous one, while planning ways to implement their new rules in ways that make them difficult to dismantle. The Obama administration did this, the Trump administration did this, and now the Biden administration is doing it. These recent documents, proclamations, and videos indicate that the rules coming out of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and others will be the most extreme yet. Christians in this culture moment cannot abandon truths about the human person, sexuality, and religious freedom whenever a new administration roars. With clarity and courage, we must teach our kids, build our institutions, and take all necessary stands based on what is true about men and women, sex, marriage, and freedom. Connecting what is eternally true to the challenges of the cultural moment is what the Colson Fellows program is all about. In May, over 700 leaders—of churches, homes, institutions, businesses, and communities—will be commissioned, having studied worldview and theology, having wrestled with the challenges of the cultural moment, and having planned how to implement what they've learned as Christians of influence. There are cohorts in over 60 cities and 28 churches across America, as well as online cohorts for others. Visit www.colsonfellows.org for more information.
Apr 10, 2022
This summer the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wad e in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization . Part of what the justices will have to consider is a legal principle called stare decisis , which means respecting precedent. If the High Court wants to respect Roe , especially its deep ideological and legal flaws, it should take into account why Roe was decided the way it was. Since then, the pro-abortion movement has insisted that abortion is a "women's rights" issue. But in 1973, many Americans, especially elites, believed a now-debunked theory that the world was headed for catastrophe due to over-population. The Supreme Court justices themselves noted in the official majority opinion in Roe v. Wade that this concern, in part, motivated their decision to legalize abortion. In the Dobbs case, the justices should consider that this part of the legal precedent is a debunked and harmful theory, and therefore should see abortion for what it truly is: an unconstitutional evil.
Apr 8, 2022
John and Maria visit on a number of laws that are anticipating a gutting of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey from Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health that is before the Supreme Court. Maria then explains a new law in Washington State to shroud abuses in transgender prisons from the public. To close, John explains how unique it is that archeological findings continue to support the historical occurrences in the Bible. John points out that no other worldview that highlights a spiritual explanation for the world and humanity has as much archeological findings that support the guiding texts of the faith systems.
Apr 8, 2022
Recently Kristen Waggoner, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom , was invited to join a panel at Yale Law School. Ironically, during her talk about free speech, a mob of Yale students—future lawyers, mind you—tried to shut down the conversation, yelling obscenities and pounding on the classroom walls, all because ADF defends the reality of sexual difference. Kristen wrote about the volatile situation at WORLD Opinions . An anonymous student gave her a note before the event with the words "keep the faith." She did. The best argument for free speech is speaking freely and truthfully, with respect for those who disagree. Shouting down opponents is the opposite. Kristen showed how important free speech really is by her boldness and calm in the face of a group temper tantrum. Her demeanor sent the message even louder than her words, and also represented Jesus before the Sanhedrin who also offered a quiet and confident disposition that spoke louder than words.
Apr 8, 2022
Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of high school football coach Joe Kennedy , who was fired from a Washington state public school for praying on the football field after games. He never forced anyone to join him, though many students and others often did, and he even agreed to pray silently by himself after the school raised concerns. That wasn't enough for school officials who demanded that if he insisted on closing his eyes in silent prayer, he had to do it somewhere out of sight . Coach Kennedy recognized their demands as a violation of his right to free religious expression. He is represented by First Liberty Institute . Coach Kennedy didn't set out to be a culture warrior or religiusreligious freedom icon. Like Jack Phillips and fellow Washingtonian Barronelle Stutzman , Kennedy has been objectified and caricatured. Political movements do this to people whose stories are valuable for political purposes. But these are more than faces on T-shirts. They are real people who have made real sacrifices. Barronelle Stutzman lost her flower shop. Jack Phillips has been harassed for going on ten years now. Coach Kennedy just wanted to coach football. How the rest of us should respond is by taking any opportunity we can to pray for him and his family. His story is one of many verifications that serious violations of religious freedom are actually happening . Some of these violations are clearly motivated by religious animus. For example, in Finland, a former parliamentarian was charged with criminally inciting hatred against gay people for quoting the Book of Romans to explain her views on sexuality. Thankfully, last week a Finnish Court ruled strongly in favor of both logic and free expression, protecting this official's speech. Other times, religious liberty violations are more symptoms of bureaucratic inertia or ignorance than of animus. The first few letters that Coach Kennedy's school sent asking him to stop praying aren't the rantings of radical atheists. In fact, the officials said they knew Coach Kennedy was "well-intentioned," and that he had never forced any students to participate in his prayer. Still, they asked him to stop, citing their fear that they'd be sued for a First Amendment violation. They didn't hate Coach Kennedy. They just didn't understand the First Amendment. They really didn't understand the First Amendment, in fact, which led to increasingly strange demands. In fact, religious organizations such as First Liberty Institute, say that's not uncommon. The majority of religious freedom violations are resolved quickly and quietly by sending a letter to an offending school or company, simply informing them of the law and its protections. But whenever ignorance of the law mixes with human stubbornness or, even worse, an animus toward Christianity and traditional Christian morality, institutions become increasingly intolerant of an individual's religious freedom. Even if it's still illegal , which it is, it becomes socially and politically easier. The state of Washington seems to be case-in-point. Coach Kennedy's clarity and courage gives the Supreme Court the opportunity to provide the clarity on religious freedom desperately needed in public schools and other institutions. All Christians need that kind of clarity. Too many have believed a sort of "inevitability" narrative, about the restriction of religious freedom advanced by bureaucratic demands. In fact, religious freedom is affirmed by the Supreme Court more often than not. And offending institutions back down more often than you think. Christians absolutely can stand on a football field and close our eyes in prayer, even if other people can see us. Christian educators can cite the Bible as a historical record or a masterclass in philosophy. Christian office workers can place a Bible on their desks. Christian school kids can host Bible studies after school . That's why I'm grateful for organizations that defend these rights and for organizations like Gateways to Better Education who teach Christian educators that they have those rights . The cartoon version of what's going on is that Christians like Coach Kennedy throw a temper tantrum in order to force religion on others. The real story is that religious freedom advances both Gospel witness and the public good, is a first freedom among many others, and is defensible, even as public sentiment against Christianity grows more hostile. We must not believe that unchecked and increased religious censorship is inevitable. It isn't, and it never should be.
Apr 7, 2022
Writing in Vox news, Luke Winkie describes a new and growing trend for health-conscious Americans: "microdosing." It consists of introducing small amounts of marijuana, magic mushrooms, ketamine, or other formerly illicit substances into a daily routine. The goal is to stay on top of mental health issues. "What the government once considered contraband is being claimed by wellness culture, one tiny dose at a time," Winkie writes; "After all, the chaos of the last few years has left so many Americans with a singular priority: to be calmer and happier, by any means possible." While the health benefits of microdosing are inconclusive at best , what is becoming clear is how we've confused coping with curing. That should be a warning sign. A world that treats every problem as a medical one misses the point. A population that increasingly needs dubious chemicals just to feel "okay" is one that's not OK. One early adopter put it this way: "I felt a disconnect from my logical, ever-critical brain to my soul." That feeling is real, even God-given. The answer she needs is one the Church is tasked with providing.
Apr 6, 2022
John and Shane field a question on Matthew Sleeth's book Hope Always. They also discuss a question about working in a public school, and John helps a dad who is challenged by the world of online dating.
Apr 6, 2022
Reality TV has earned a reputation of being crazy … and Netflix's dating show Love Is Blind is no exception. Over the course of 10 days, contestants on Love Is Blind talk, mingle, and then decide whether or not to get engaged— all without seeing each other first. When Season 2 wrapped up in March, a common question was whether the "love is blind" angle delivered more substance than other shows, like The Bachelor. The consensus was don't get your hopes up . As Vox news' Alex Abad-Santos put it, "This season had it all: gaslighting, lying, cutting, sarcasm. … [The producers] seemingly pulled no punches." Reality TV has long made a consumer product of romance, but the fact that people tried to make a show with this angle says something. Most people want more than just sexual chemistry or even infatuation. Real love isn't blind—it sees truly both glories and flaws, and still seeks the other's well-being regardless. That reality hasn't changed—even if we try to use the worst possible medium to show it.
Apr 6, 2022
New gruesome photos of babies aborted late-term in Washington, D.C, are a reminder of what abortion really is. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. This is BreakPoint . Last week, D.C. police collected the bodies of five babies that were reportedly aborted late-term. A pro-life activist claims the bodies were given to her by a "whistleblower" from an abortion clinic . The clinic conducts abortions until week 27, but experts contacted by Live Action News believe that one of the babies looks to be between 28 and 32 weeks. I've seen the photos. They are absolutely horrific. The older baby is simply indistinguishable from a newborn. With the Supreme Court soon to announce a decision in the Dobbs case, the abortion industry continues to dig in its heels. Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization is about the constitutionality of a Mississippi law that limits abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The fact that such a law would be fought, especially at the highest legal levels, is evidence that America's abortion laws are not where people, science, and the rest of the world are when it comes to abortion. Of course, Christians have additional, sacred reasons for opposing abortion at any age in any circumstance. Even so, despite the alarmism presented in the media and from abortion advocates about any abortion restriction, Americans don't want late-term abortions. A Wall Street Journal poll published last week found that a majority, although slim by 5%, were against abortion after 15 weeks. Another poll conducted last year by Associated Press and the NORC Center at the University of Chicago found that 65% of Americans don't want abortion after the first trimester, ending after week 12 or 13. Additional research shows that millennials lean more pro-life than Gen X. A major reason public opinion continues to trend toward more abortion restrictions instead of less is due to what we have learned from both natural and social science. Abortion is not the elimination of unformed masses but the killing of babies who, at 15 weeks, are developing eyebrows and eyelashes and can thumb suck and yawn . A survey conducted by pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony List found that when people know the science they are more uncomfortable with abortions past 15 weeks. For example, 55% of survey takers informed that at 15 weeks a pre-born baby feels pain were "more likely" in support of a 15-week limit. And 53% indicated "more likely" support for a 15-week limit when informed that "by 15 weeks an unborn child has a beating heart, can move around in the womb, can close his or her fingers, can start to make sucking motions and hiccup, and senses stimulation from outside the womb." Also, 52% responded in "more likely" favor of a 15-week restriction when they learned that "abortion carries signific physical and psychological risks to the mother, and these risks increase with late abortions." This science appears to be convincing much of the rest of the world to restrict abortions closer to the first trimester. Even Chief Justice John Roberts in his exchange with abortion industry counsel during discussion on the Dobbs case noted that, except for China and North Korea, the U.S. seems to be out of step globally regarding the "viability standard." Viability outside of the womb is often thought now to begin at 24 weeks, and some high-tech NICUs' have made is as potentially low as 22 weeks of gestation. Sharing a standard with two of the nations known least for respecting life is not commendable. In fact, a report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute finds that the U.S. is only 1 of 7 nations that allow voluntary abortion past 20 weeks. As Patrick Kelly of the Knights of Columbus wrote in the Wall Street Journal a few months ago, up to 4,000 pregnancy resource centers are available for expectant mothers in the United States. Despite the criticisms of the abortion industry, Charlotte Lozier Institute in its research of 2,700 centers found that 25% of their paid staff were medically trained. The institute has shared that "consistently high client satisfaction rates reported to pregnancy centers reflect that women, men, and youth who visit centers feel respected, valued, and well cared for." When we advocate for life, we are not advocating for just the life of the baby but also for the life of the parents. They and the baby are both made in the image of God. If you are interested in "Preparing for a Post-Roe Future," consider attending a special evening event on Thursday, May 12, in Orlando, Florida, before our annual Wilberforce Weekend. This event features Tim Tebow, Stephanie Gray Connors of Love Unleashes Life, Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, Erin Hawley of Alliance Defending Freedom, and Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life. Join us to learn more about advocating for the pre-born, and continuing the struggle to abortion unthinkable.
Apr 6, 2022
At the end of March, the Associates for Biblical Research published a curse. While that may seem a strange thing to do, it wasn't their curse. The curse was written in Hebrew, inscribed on a small leaden amulet (or tablet). It was found in 2019 among materials previously excavated on Israel's Mt. Ebal. It's a short curse, just 40 letters in Hebrew and only 23 words when translated to English: "Cursed, cursed, cursed—cursed by the God YHW. You will die cursed. Cursed you will surely die. Cursed by YHW—cursed, cursed, cursed." As recorded near the end of Deuteronomy , God called the newly freed Israelites to assemble on Mt. Ebal and to declare there, to God and to one another, the promises of obedience and disobedience. Put another way, they were to announce the blessings and curses that came with their role as God's people. So, what we have in the discovery of this amulet is either a remarkable coincidence—a written curse left at the very location the Bible associates with curses—or yet another confirmation of something the Bible says happened. Even better, either of these options is the least important aspect of what makes this discovery interesting. The more important aspect is potentially earth-shattering for biblical studies. According to a professor at the University of Haifa, this discovery is "the earliest Hebrew inscription found so far." Scholars investigating the find place the date of the inscription to around 3,200 years ago. That puts it, biblically speaking, in the time of the Judges. The common perception among biblical scholars, however, has been that the bulk of the Bible wasn't written when it says it was. It's long been assumed that the early, and supposedly primitive, Israelites simply lacked the skill to come up with the written grandeur of books like Genesis and Deuteronomy. This tiny curse reveals that the right people at the right time in the right place were writing about God just as the Bible describes. Despite the confidence of the scholarly consensus, this provides proof of the Israelites' literary ability, hundreds of years before skeptics thought it possible. And this kind of thing keeps happening. Four years ago, a then-recent discovery of an exploding meteor wiping out a series of cities at the south end of the Dead Sea corresponded to about the time the Bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah met their fiery fate. Three years ago, an unearthed signet-seal affirmed the identity of someone mentioned in the biblical text. Two years ago, new DNA studies confirmed aspects of the biblical description of the Philistines' origin. How many times will the Bible have to be proved right before we accept it as true? There's a scene in the 1990 Shakespeare spoof Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead where Gary Oldman's character starts flipping a coin. Again and again and again, it comes up heads, over 70 times in a row! At first, he finds it strange, even amusing. As heads keep coming up, his partner in crime, played by Tim Roth, starts contriving explanations as to why the laws of probability have been suspended. They must, he concludes, be encountering a moment where the ordinary rules just don't apply. The repeated pattern of extraordinary events meant that something special was going on. This is what the Bible claims for itself. The Bible doesn't claim to be true in some watered-down "spiritual" sense. It claims to be the true record of God's intervention into human affairs. It does not describe a faraway fairy world built on wishes and dreams, but this world, the real one. It is here that Lazarus and Jesus were truly dead but raised to life again. It is in this world that actual Israelites escaped from actual slavery in Egypt. If what Scripture claims to have happened didn't, then we may as well " eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die ." Its reality confirms its truth. As the Apostle Peter claimed, Christianity is not rooted in "cleverly devised myths," but in the real account of actions in the real world. Bits of lead and clay in the dirt will never ultimately prove the Bible's claims to the satisfaction of all skeptics, but day after day, more evidence emerges that its claims should be taken seriously by not only archeologists and historians, but all of us. In Holy Scripture, something special is indeed going on.
Apr 5, 2022
A quote attributed to Greek tragedian Aeschylus says that, "In war, truth is the first casualty." This is a particular relevant point when it comes to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. As Jon Greenberg with PolitiFact reports , in Russia "it is now a crime—punishable by up to 15 years in prison—to publish 'fake' information about the all-out attack on Ukraine. The government has blocked Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and news websites aimed at Russians, such as Latvia-based Meduza. It is a crime for the average citizen to publicly post information that contradicts the government line." The government line is that Russian forces are liberators not aggressors. According to Greenberg , Russians who want the truth have to be adaptable, and take big risks in order to join small internet groups or use virtual private networks, called VPNs. They are only being lied to otherwise. Truth matters for everyone. Everyday Russians, like the Ukrainians, are also victims of an autocratic regime, though in a less direct way. They deserve our prayers—every bit as much as this war deserves our opposition.
Apr 5, 2022
If a preborn baby isn't a human person with rights, when does it become one? Some abortion advocates have drawn that line at the second trimester, while very few others point to fetal heartbeat or detectable brain activity. Harder-line activists reject any abortion restrictions and insist it's okay to kill a baby at any point right up until or even during birth. Planned Parenthood's official stance is still to the point of viability, when the baby's experience of pain during abortion is excruciating. What has never been clear is why abortion supporters would draw the line at birth . At least in medical, scientific, and philosophical terms, passing through the birth canal doesn't change anything about a child. If a tiny human is considered a disposable inconvenience inside its mother, why would six inches and twenty minutes turn them into a person with rights? This is why some, like Princeton ethicist Peter Singer , propose that parents should be allowed to kill children well after birth, especially if they are born with a disability such as Down Syndrome. Until now, this horrifying consistency of pro-abortion logic hasn't made it into law. But as a Supreme Court decision looms in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization , legislatures in progressive states are feverishly taking steps to safeguard so-called abortion "rights" in a potential post-Roe world. In at least one case, lawmakers finally followed the logic of abortion to its awful conclusion, and left room for post-birth infanticide. Maryland Senate Bill 669 would amend the state's fetal murder-manslaughter statute to prevent "any form of investigation or penalty" for a person "experiencing a miscarriage, perinatal death related to a failure to act, or stillbirth." Notice that this is not in the context of a botched abortion. Abortionists have already been caught more than a few times in the past allowing babies born alive after abortions to die. This law would prohibit investigations in any case where a baby died after birth as a result of neglect. Making matters worse, the term "perinatal" (which just means "newborn") is not clearly defined. Typically, as Wesley J. Smith points out at National Review, perinatal refers to baby's first month after birth, so this bill "effectively decriminalizes death by neglect for the first 28 days of life." "In other words," explained the American Center for Law and Justice , "a baby born alive and well could be abandoned and left to starve or freeze to death, and nothing could be done to punish those who participated in that cruel death." Even worse, the Maryland bill authorizes those who are investigated for fatally neglecting an infant to sue law enforcement for civil damages. And, since even investigations are not allowed, if this bill became law, any Maryland residents could allow any newborn child to die without facing questions or consequences. Such deadly logic won't stop at passive infanticide, either. "Based on the current advocacy trajectory," writes Wesley J. Smith, "such proposals will eventually extend to permitting active infanticide, which is already promoted as legitimate morally by many in mainstream bioethics, and which currently is permitted in the Netherlands upon terminally ill babies and those born with serious disabilities." If this bill passes, and other states attempting to sure up abortion rights follow, Americans would be openly participating in a practice that has been widely condemned in the West since the Christianization of the Roman Empire. We should all pray this measure doesn't pass, and every citizen in Maryland of should make sure state lawmakers know what you think about it. The rest of us should take this as a wake-up call, the first skirmish in the post-Roe fight for the sanctity of life. The Supreme Court will not end abortion. Instead, a new battle, fought state by state and life by life, will be before us. This Maryland bill is just a taste of how high the stakes in that fight will be.
Apr 5, 2022
John Stonestreet explains the design of religious freedom, highlighting how it is the first freedom. John explains how this freedom is under attack in this cultural moment, and how Christians can respond to the increasing pressure to relinquish this right.
Apr 4, 2022
Thirteen years ago, satire news site The Onion aired a fake sports talk show announcing that March Madness would now allow four- thousand college basketball teams to compete. "All schools deserve to compete," said the fake announcers: "This will take March Madness all the way into June!" During this year's March Madness tournament, the NCAA, the governing body of collegiate athletics, has been running not -fake commercials openly patting themselves on the back for all the opportunities created for women. One ad celebrated the NCAA's embrace of Title IX, which gave female athletes the opportunity to compete in female-only sports leagues, along with greater access to scholarships and education. The self-congratulations rings a bit hollow since, just two weeks ago, the NCAA awarded a women's swimming championship to a man. The NCAA faces a real choice: Either acknowledge the real, consequential differences between men and women and why they are inherently relevant to physical competition, or become the organizing body that takes opportunities from women. If they choose the latter, and become a satire of themselves, the women will be the ones who suffer.
Apr 4, 2022
Fifty years ago last week, a government report lived up to the old adage that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. On March 27, 1972, a document known to history as the " Rockefeller Commission on Population Growth and the American Future ," called for zero population growth in America as a means to save the world. While we have no reason to doubt that those behind the document had "good intentions," history has proven this paper a high mark of state-sponsored hubris. Not only did its proposed solutions make things worse instead of better, but it set a dark precedent for terrible crimes against humanity. To "stabilize" America's population, the paper called for increased regulation of immigration and, most notably given the Roe v. Wade decision just 10 months later, the legalization of and even encouraging of abortion. Still, as terrible as the consequences of the Rockefeller Commission report have been, they were the result of a fundamental misunderstanding of the value and nature of human beings. It assumed, as many do today, that human beings are a net loss to the global future, that, on the whole, we take more than we give to the world. In the mid- to late 20th century, many elites grew concerned about the growing world population. Though it had remained in the hundreds of millions for thousands of years , the human population, with the rise of new technologies and social structures, topped a billion for the first time around 1800. Another billion was added by the early 1900s. By the time this report was written, the human population was approaching 4 billion. Because the commission assumed that every new person meant another mouth to feed from a limited supply of global food, they also assumed that more people posed a problem that must be mitigated. The Rockefeller Commission didn't so much find a solution to a real problem, as it created a solution to an already-assumed problem. To the chagrin of its devoted supporters even today , the Commission's recommendations were not as widely implemented as many would have liked. What does remain from the report, however, is a mindset that validated both abortion and the assumption of overpopulation, even after the predictions of global disaster turned out to be as fictional as a summer blockbuster. In fact, since the report's catastrophic predictions, the world population has more than doubled, from 3.8 billion people in 1972 to an estimated 7.9 billion today. Yet, instead of mass starvations and increased conflicts over resources, crop yields have increased dramatically, more than keeping pace with the mouths to feed. Humans simply didn't prove to be the virus so many thought they were. Rather, they were proved to be creators of new resources and innovative solutions, which makes sense if they really were made to be co-creators by the One who created all things. Created to tend the Garden of this world, humans are not merely consumers. We are producers, tasked with cultivating what was made into more than it presently is. It'd be nice if we could simply look back and chuckle at the folly of the ivory tower crowd and their bad ideas. But, as we often say, ideas have consequences; bad ideas have victims. The sort of thinking expressed in the Rockefeller Report had very real victims— tens of millions, in fact. In the last 50 years, over 60 million Americans have been killed through abortion. In China, where the myth of the population bomb led to the horrific one child policy , some 300 million babies were slaughtered, many against the will of their mothers. Instead of saving the planet, these vain ideas of population control have left the nations of the world with a birth dearth. Russia, China, and Japan are notably struggling to maintain their numbers even as their older population phases out of the workforce. We are fast approaching another 50th anniversary, which I hope and pray will be an empty one. Next January is the 50-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade , the miscarriage of justice that usurped state laws across the country and legally grounded abortion's malign presence in America. With the Dobbs case being decided in a matter of weeks in the U.S. Supreme Court, next January's anniversary could arrive with Roe a dead letter. To prepare for the next phase of fighting this evil mindset and practice that plagues our nation , the Colson Center is hosting an event on Thursday evening, May 12, in Orlando , Florida. "Preparing for a Post-Roe Future" will be held the evening before our annual Wilberforce Weekend Conference and will feature Tim Tebow, Stephanie Gray Connors of Love Unleashes Life, Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, Erin Hawley of Alliance Defending Freedom, and Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life. Please join us as we work to bring better ideas to the world around us.
Apr 1, 2022
John and Maria discuss the challenge in culture to toxic masculinity. This week the nation reacted to displays by Will Smith and Volodymyr Zelensky. John and Maria consider a recent commentary by comedian Bill Maher who challenges the view we have of masculinity and how we value it. In this vein, Maria asks John to comment on a recent HHS announcement to push so-called "gender affirming" surgeries on minors. John references a commentary by Maria on BreakPoint that discusses the role of women, and how the church has a unique place to affirm God's design. Maria then asks John to comment on a recent BreakPoint where John discussed "The Declaration on a New American Future." The declaration opposes a movement in the 1970s under the banner of the Rockefeller Commission on Population Growth that looked at abortion as population management. -- Recommendations -- 30 Days of Prayer>> Yuval Levin on Honestly with Bari Weiss>> -- In-Show Mentions -- Segment 1: Will Smith apologizes for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, calling it "unacceptable and inexcusable" Will Smith has apologized for slapping comedian Chris Rock in the face during the Oscars on Sunday. Smith said his "behavior at last night's Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable" in a Monday night Instagram post. CBS News>> ZELENSKY PROVES A LITTLE MASCULINITY IS GOOD & SEXY - ACCORDING TO BILL MAHER Bill Maher laced into liberals who attack men for having supposed "toxic masculinity." The "Real Time with Bill Maher" host used Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and men taking up arms to defend Ukraine from the Russian invasion as examples of how masculinity can be anything but toxic. The Blaze>> NCAA Kicks-off March Madness Highlighting Title IX at 50th Finals The NCAA began its Title IX at 50 celebration during the 2022 NCAA Convention in Indianapolis. The celebration commemorates the anniversary of the landmark federal law signed in 1972 that prohibits gender discrimination in educational programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. NCAA>> What are Women For? Our culture has long struggled with the realities of sexual difference, or "gender." While first- and second-wave feminism generally asserted that women were equal in value to men, transgenderism now asserts that women are interchangeable with men. Notice the underlying assumption: in order for men and women to have equal value, they have to be the same thing. BreakPoint>> Segment 2: The "Declaration on a New American Future" Challenges Abortion as a "Population Solution" The Rockefeller Commission report "reflected the temper of the times," especially the kind of catastrophic alarmism of Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, a book full of predictions and arguments that have since been proven wrong. And, in the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that factors such as "population growth, pollution, poverty, and racial overtones" were considerations in the decision that imposed legalized abortion on America. BreakPoint>> Segment 3: Biden administration endorses transgender youth sex-change operations, 'top surgery,' hormone therapy President Biden's administration has released a series of documents encouraging gender-reassignment surgery and hormone treatments for minors. The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Population Affairs released a document Thursday titled "Gender Affirming Care and Young People." The same day, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Child Traumatic Stress Network – another subset of the HHS – released a parallel document titled, "Gender-Affirming Care Is Trauma-Informed Care." Fox News>> Gender-Affirming Care Is Trauma-Informed Care Major medical associations recognize gender-affirming care as the standard of care for transgender,gender diverse, and intersex (TGI) youth. Gender-affirming care broadly refers to creating an environment that facilitates youth to move through the world safely as the gender they know themselves to be. This includes developmentally appropriate, evidence-based care provided by medical and mental health experts in partnership with youth, parents, and caregivers. It may include evidence-based interventions such as puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones. Gender-affirming care also includes access to opportunities that all children should have, such as playing team sports, safely using bathrooms in their schools and other public places, and positive relationships with supportive adults. National Child Trauma Stress Network Gender-Affirming Care and Young People Research demonstrates that gender-affirming care improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse children and adolescents.1 Because gender-affirming care encompasses many facets of healthcare needs and support, it has been shown to increase positive outcomes for transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents. Gender-affirming care is patient-centered and treats individuals holistically, aligning their outward, physical traits with their gender Identity. Gender diverse adolescents, in particular, face significant health disparities compared to their cisgender peers. Transgender and gender nonbinary adolescents are at increased risk for mental health issues, substance use, and suicide OASH>>
Apr 1, 2022
Tomorrow is the start of Ramadan, a month of prayer and fasting for Muslims worldwide. It's also a good month for Christians to pray for Muslims to find Christ. During this intense time for Muslims, not only are they are seeking atonement for their sins, they are actively seeking to know God. Christianity Today cites five reasons Muslims are attracted to Christ: "the lifestyle of Christians," "the power of God in answered prayers and healing," "dissatisfaction with the type of Islam they [have] experienced," "the spiritual truth in the Bible," and "biblical teachings about the love of God." In recent years, scores of reports from the Muslim world testify how God has actively used dreams, visions, missionaries, and others to draw Muslims to Himself. We can pray for open hearts and additional opportunities. For 29 years now, the 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World has guided Christians in their prayers for Muslims around the world. It's also a great way to learn about Islam and teach kids how Jesus is what Muslims are really looking for.
Apr 1, 2022
In 1996, American political scientist Samuel Huntington wrote a book called The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order . In it, he proposed a remarkable thesis, that while in the past, especially in the 20th century, global conflicts had been primarily between nations, countries, and kingdoms, in the future, especially in the 21st century, global conflicts would increasingly be not between nation-states but between cultures, between civilizations. These cultural fault lines, as he called them, sometimes existed within a country or existed across regions. It didn't take very long into the 21st century to prove his theory correct. In fact, in The Clash of Civilizations , Huntington went on to predict that the hottest of these conflicts would be between religious and non-religious cultures, specifically, that what you might call the hottest of the hot would be between Islam and the West. In the time since 9/11, his predictions have largely played out. But there has been another story dealing with Islam that has played out at almost the same time. In fact, just over the last three decades or so, we have seen a remarkable number of Muslims coming to Christ. Individuals from the Islamic world are reporting conversions—sometimes through dreams, sometimes through missions, sometimes through other means. Regardless of the manner, it has been what one missiologist called a remarkable movement of the Holy Spirit. The reports are so numerous, in fact, that a foundation recruited a friend of mine, a scholar named Dr. David Garrison, to investigate. They sent him for several months to visit various corners of the Muslim world and to figure out where these stories were coming from. They wanted to know how legitimate these reports were. Garrison put together his findings in a book called A Wind in the House of Islam . You see, in the whole history of the Islamic faith, there have been few reports of large movements of Muslims becoming Christians—very few in fact. About 80 percent of all such movements in history have taken place in just the last three decades . There's something else that's taken place over the last three decades: Each and every year for the last 29 years, during the season of Ramadan, the most holy period for the Islamic calendar, a group of Christians led by a prayer guide have together prayed for Christ to draw Muslims to Himself. Ramadan is a very good time to keep our Muslim neighbors and Muslims around the world in prayer. Since 1993 to be precise, the 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World prayer guide has been equipping Christians to pray for Muslims during this season of Ramadan. It is an international movement that calls on "the church to make a deliberate but respectful effort to learn about, to pray for, and to reach out to our Muslim neighbors." There is even a 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World prayer guide for kids which I have used with my own family. The 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World is available both in a print booklet and as a digital download. You can find it by going to 30DaysPrayer.com, or come to BreakPoint.org, and we'll tell you how to pick up a copy. The Book of James tells us that "the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." This has been a movement of prayer of hundreds of thousands of Christians for decades. Let's be a part of it.
Mar 31, 2022
According to National Geographic , "More than 80 percent of the ocean has never been mapped, explored, or even seen by humans." That's pretty incredible, given how much the ocean matters to our lives. And new research is showing us a much smaller frontier with just as much mystery: the cell. As Yasemin Saplakoglu recently described in Quanta Magazine , scientists at the University of Illinois have embarked on an ambitious project to map, using computers, a complete simulation of a "minimal cell." At 493 genes, the lab-made cell they're mapping contains far fewer genes than even the simplest natural organism. But the challenge is still proving to be steep. "For example," writes Saplakoglu, "no one knows what 94 of those genes do except that the cell dies without them." One of the researchers suggests there may be "living tasks or functions essential for life that science is oblivious to." That's an understatement. The more we learn, the more we should be filled with awe. After all, as Casey Luskin with Evolution News recently argued , high information structures like these have only one known source: intelligence with a Designer behind it.
Mar 31, 2022
Every once in a while, someone who doesn't profess Christianity will stumble upon some sort of natural or moral law that Christians have professed for centuries. To avoid agreeing with the Bible, or maybe because they legitimately think they've discovered something new, they'll often give the old idea a cool new re-brand. Case in point is a new piece at the edgy news-and-culture outfit Vice. The author reports on a brand-new type of progressive relationship structure: "radical monogamy." Not to be confused with the "boring, old, religious, traditional" kind of monogamy, "radical monogamy" is an exclusive relationship commitment that's chosen , not blindly accepted. And, this is crucial to the distinction: Monogamy that is "radical" is chosen from among the many equally valid relationship options, including polyamory. On one hand, it's not surprising that even those who wish to remain "sexually open minded," but still want to enjoy the best relationships possible, would land on monogamy. After all, as my old Tennessee friend would say, "it ain't rocket science." Research routinely shows that exclusive relationships, especially marriage, yield higher rates of general satisfaction , sexual satisfaction, and healthier kids . Still, according to this Vice essay, proponents of radical monogamy stress that the decision to remain in an exclusive relationship was made by themselves , and for themselves. Of course, no one wants to be bamboozled, especially by someone else's morality or long-standing tradition. It's wise not to blindly accept social pronouncements or even moral and ostensibly religious arguments. Jesus often authenticated His pronouncements by alluding to or directly referencing the Old Testament. At the same time, it's quite foolish to rely only on our own minds or desires. And, to suggest that everyone who chose monogamy before now, including generations of stable couples who'd profess having wonderful lives together, either did it blindly or for the wrong reasons, is a profound act of what C.S. Lewis called "chronological snobbery." The worst part of "radical monogamy" is to suggest it's only valid if it's what I want, rather than because it is morally superior. What if your relationship partner also wants and deserves your exclusive commitment? What if it is the best context in order for kids to be safe and healthy? Is monogamy only "radical" if the well-being of others is not considered? An irony in all of this is that selfishness is about as mundane as it gets. "Me first" has been the same tired refrain of the sexual revolution for almost 50 years now. And it's a shame. After all, self-interested monogamy won't keep couples together any longer or make anyone any happier than any other sexually disordered relationship. Monogamy works precisely because it's a commitment to another because it says "I'll stay here even when " without knowing what is coming next. In that sense, no one enters into committed monogamy—or any commitment—with eyes wide open. So-called "radical monogamy" reflects a culture that tends to think of freedom only as freedom from any and all restraint. If free people are to choose monogamy, they have to consider, or maybe even try, every possible alternative. But life doesn't work like that. Christianity accepts that our lives are limited in both physical and non-physical ways: by things like the immovable reality of our bodies, by geography, and by moral laws. Human limits, including the moral limits of monogamy, narrow our relationship choices in ways that are more gifts than locked doors. Our limitations enable the freedom for something: the freedom to be truly human. A few years ago, a spokesmen for the media platform Second Life told journalist Leslie Jamison that users on their virtual reality platform would often become paralyzed by what was called the "white space problem." Apparently, the ability to build an entire virtual life from scratch, with limitless possibilities stretching in all directions, was too overwhelming. Too much white space isn't freeing; it's painful. Committed monogamy may limit our relational "white space," but when marked by real commitment and self-sacrifice, it's still the most fulfilling relationship option on offer, whether we call it "radical" or not.
Mar 30, 2022
John and Shane explain what happened at the Supreme Court nomination hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Many are talking about the fact that she failed to define a woman when asked. John explains that what we saw in the hearing explains a lot about where political parties are. Shane goes on to ask John about a listener's question related to J.I. Packer's book Knowing God. Shane explores the question, asking John to unpack how Jesus death and resurrection fulfilled the justice of God. To close, John is asked why he opposes the use of the word "balance." A listener asks how they should approach balance, when it has been a good tactic to build relationships with friends to explain the wholeness of the Christian worldview. John clarifies a definition of balance, and explains how true balance seeking is problematic and can cause troubled compromises.
Mar 30, 2022
As the Economist reports , the number of homeless Californians has surged by "more than a third in the past five years, compared with a rise of less than 6% nationally." By some estimates, half of America's unsheltered homeless population live in the Golden State. We ought never reduce people to mere statistics on this or any issue, or worse, to inconveniences. Proverbs 21 warns: "Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered." In fact, reducing the homeless population to their homelessness has been a big part of this problem. Historically, t he U.S. has historically focused on a "housing-first" approach to homelessness: expensive programs putting people under roofs, but not much more. California's two most recent budget plans, for example, dedicate $26 b illion to this approach. More money won't work if we don't address the heart of the issue. People must be seen as the connected image bearers and moral agents they are: in need of spiritual, relational, and physical redemption. Local governments do have a role to play, but this restoration requires the wider community, including the Church.
Mar 30, 2022
In 2014, physicist Michio Kaku wrote, "We are now entering the golden age of neuroscience. We have learned more about the thinking brain in the last 10–15 years than in all of previous human history." One particularly fruitful area of this science has to do with, of all things, gratitude . In a culture that values authenticity and prioritizes feelings, telling someone to "be grateful" can sound a lot like cheap pop psychology, or even worse, a tone-deaf lack of empathy. However, plenty of studies suggest that being grateful is far more significant to our mental health and well-being that we may realize. "Time and again," writes British psychologist Christian Jarrett: "Studies have shown that performing simple gratitude exercises, like keeping a gratitude diary or writing letters of thanks, can bring a range of benefits." A large and growing body of studies show s that exercising gratitude leads to better sleep, improved interpersonal relationships, better stress and hormonal regulation, and even reduced physical pain s. One notable study followed over 40 participants seeking treatment for depression and anxiety. Half were asked to write letters expressing gratitude before the first few counseling sessions, while the rest formed a control group who attended "therapy-as-usual." Three months later, both groups were asked to perform a generosity task while being measured by MRI. According to Jarrett : "The participants who'd completed the gratitude task months earlier not only reported feeling more gratefulness two weeks after the task than members of the control group, but also, months later, showed more gratitude-related brain activity in the scanner. The researchers described these 'profound' and 'long-lasting' neural effects as 'particularly noteworthy' …. [This suggests] that the more practice you give your brain at feeling and expressing gratitude, the more it adapts to this mind-set…. a sort of gratitude 'muscle' that can be exercised and strengthened." Best of all, writes Jarrett , the positive effects of gratitude can spiral outwardly, creating a culture where gratitude becomes easier for others as well. Of course, gratitude is not a magic cure for all that ails us. It is, however, for mental health what vegetables are for physical health: vital, underrated, and sometimes difficult to swallow. That difficulty, in fact, is one of gratitude's enigmas. After all, it's one thing to say gratitude is beneficial; it's another to find an existential, compelling, or transcendent basis for gratitude. After all, the idea of gratitude is nothing new. It's no innovation of brain science. Even so, it doesn't always come easily for most people, even those who most know they need it. It seems especially difficult today, even despite the incredible scale of modern prosperity we enjoy. One reason could be that a central belief of the modern world is expressive individualism , a philosophy which tells us to be true to ourselves over and above anything else. Though that might sound liberating, if our lives and success are ultimately self-created, who have we to thank? And for those who, as many people do, feel a real desire to thank "the universe" or "god, whoever he or she is" for some success or well-being, an illusion of gratefulness cannot be long maintained if aimed at no one in particular. Many Christians, on the other hand, worry that if we allow ourselves to enjoy too much the good things from God's hand, we will forget to be grateful, or perhaps even forget about others who are suffering around the world. The Psalms speak powerfully to this tension. In many of the Psalms, God's people are encouraged toward more expression, not less. God invites the full weight of our grief and the full force of our hardest questions, and yet, at the same time, expects our gratitude, too. Throughout the Psalms, in fact, God's people openly share their sorrows and even despair. The way forward lies not in ignoring evil done to them by their enemies but in remembering the good and faithful work God has done on their behalf. Ultimately, gratitude "works," as more and more research suggests because it is a true response of a creature to Creator. As G. K. Chesterton has been somewhat paraphrased, "When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?" Gratitude helps us see life clearly, and allows us to live it as God intended, to its fullest.
Mar 29, 2022
Few are standing for the inherent dignity and rights of children against the innovations of our age. But in this cultural moment, defending children against gender ideology and misguided interpretations of parenting is our version of "running into the plague and caring for victims" while everyone else is running away. John Stonestreet introduces author Katy Faust, the founder and director of the children's rights organization Them Before Us and author of the new book " Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children's Rights Movement ." She is married and the mother of four children, the youngest of whom is adopted from China.
Mar 29, 2022
According to Pew Research , a growing number of Americans are realizing the importance of the nuclear family. Just three years ago, 40% of Americans agreed with the statement "single women raising children on their own is bad for society." That number has now jumped to 47%. The same is true of cohabitation, which nearly a quarter of U.S. adults say is "generally bad for society." That's up 5% from three years ago. It's an encouraging swing for public opinion, especially with both trends still on the rise . Kids do best with both a mom and a dad in the picture. They do better still when mom and dad stay married to each other. Of course, there are a plenty of heroic single parents raising kids on their own, who will do everything they can to help their kids succeed. Data isn't destiny for all individuals, but it is destiny for a society. The loss of marriage is unsustainable. As the world leader in single-parent households, Americans will either have to reckon with that basic truth, or the next generations will continue to pay the price.
Mar 29, 2022
In 1969, President Richard Nixon formally requested the formation of a commission to study the effects of population growth on the United States: "One of the most serious challenges to human destiny in the last third of this century will be the growth of the population. Whether man's response to that challenge will be a cause for pride or for despair in the year 2000 will depend very much on what we do today." Revealed in President's Nixon words are a number of controlling assumptions: that humans are a problem to be solved, that the world continues to exist by razor-thin margins for error, that too many humans would certainly push the earth past its breaking point, and that some combination of science and state could secure the human future. On March 27, 1972, the Rockefeller Commission on Population Growth and the American Future issued its report. Named for its chairman, John D. Rockefeller, and made up of an august group of Republican and Democrat lawmakers, policy wonks, scientists, sociologists, economists, and foundation heads, the commission's recommendations left "scarcely any topic touching on family relations and the human right to life… unaffected." A new document, entitled " Declaration on a New American Future ," describes in detail the 50- year legacy of the Rockefeller Commission report: "…the Commission called for the legalization of abortion through the second trimester of pregnancy, public funding of abortion and abortion-providing organizations, universal private insurance coverage of abortion, and distribution of anti-population propaganda to teenagers." Even more important, was the report's "long-term impact": "…the Rockefeller Commission report posed, and continues to pose, a profound shift in the relationship between government and people. … the report relies on decidedly bleak conclusions about human prospects, the opportunities for economic growth and technological invention. It establishes as normative a relationship in which government is not merely an expression of the choices of a free people, but an overseer dedicated to its own designs for and limits on the populace, an overseer unbound by any duty to respect the sanctity of human life or the sanctuary of the family and other private institutions." The Rockefeller Commission report "reflected the temper of the times," especially the kind of catastrophic alarmism of Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, a book full of predictions and arguments that have since been proven wrong. And, in the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade , Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that factors such as "population growth, pollution, poverty, and racial overtones" were considerations in the decision that imposed legalized abortion on America. The "Declaration on a New American Future" is a call to rethink the wrongheaded and destructive ideas of the Rockefeller Commission report, ideas with terrible consequences and countless victims. I am honored to join Chuck Donovan of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, former Ambassador Sam Brownback, pro-life leaders Jeanne Mancini, Kristan Hawkins, Catherine Glenn Foster, and brilliant scholars Robert George and Ryan Anderson and others, as a signatory, because as this important statement clarifies: "In the half century since the Rockefeller Commission report was released, the lives of 63.5 million unborn children have been taken in abortion facilities erected in the United States in the wake of the errors of Roe . Parental rights over their children, and their health and safety, have been eroded to the point that in a number of states abortions can be procured by or foisted on minor children without parental knowledge or consent. These policies and practices have been abetted by a series of public health alarms, beginning with population and environmental concerns and proceeding now through diverse panics induced by pandemics and climate change. In each of these declared emergencies, legitimate matters of the common good and public concern have been translated into government policies and mandates designed to truncate parents' rights and subject them to the will of the state. … "…it is time for a new direction. We equally reject the core policies on respect for human life promoted by the Rockefeller Commission and the apocalyptic tone and content of its warnings about a bleak and heartless human future. We hold that the history of humanity, though troubled by conflict, poverty, war and disease, demonstrates that progress is possible in every area of human endeavor. We likewise hold that it is essential that public policy reject extreme notions that put every group and individual in society in endless competition with each other for limited goods, and that inevitably lead to declining standards of living. We embrace the worth of every human life and call for positive policies that put supreme value on the sanctity of life and the preservation of institutions that safeguard it." The Declaration on a New American Future offers five specific proposals: "The reversal of the unconstitutional abortion decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that have wreaked so much havoc on America and deprived our nation of the blessings of millions of young people of both sexes and all religions, ethnicities and races. The end of domestic funding at all levels of government to organizations that have embraced abortion, eugenics and population control as legitimate aims of health care programming, as these aims subvert respect for the equality of every human being under the law. The United States to readopt similar policies in its programs of international aid to exclude abortion provision and advocacy. Recognition that embracing abortion in response to population growth has contributed to sharply declining birth rates worldwide. We note with particular concern that the decline in births is correlated to American women having fewer children than they and their spouses would prefer. Since the release of the Rockefeller Commission report, the U.S. fertility rate has often dropped below replacement, reaching record lows in recent years. A renewal of American understanding that, as the founders and our leaders have long proclaimed, God is the source of both our rights and our blessings, and that just government depends on recognition of and Thanksgiving for what a good and generous God has entrusted to us." As the Declaration concludes, it is time "to change course, to celebrate life, and to honor the principle that each and every member of the human family is endowed by the Creator with unalienable rights, including the right to life."
Mar 28, 2022
For over four decades, William Wilberforce fought against the inhumane practice of slavery. He also worked for what he called the "reformation of manners." In the words of one biographer, he "made goodness, compassion and integrity fashionable." Wilberforce's work highlights the challenging reality Christians face in every cultural moment: the deep brokenness of this fallen world. Wilberforce engaged the culture of his time by highlighting the inherent dignity of humanity, most notably by fighting against slavery. His work in the "reformation of manners" was a major contributor to not only making slavery illegal, but also, eventually, unthinkable. The Colson Center's annual conference is named in Wilberforce's honor. At this year's Wilberforce Weekend, we'll explore the effects of Christ's redemptive work across every area of life from a variety of angles. The conference will be held at the stunning Rose and Shingle Creek in Orlando, May 13-15, and will feature Jim Daly, Os Guinness, Ryan Bomberger, Nancy Guthrie, Monique Duson, and many more. The weekend features compelling talks, panel discussions, live podcast recordings, and a screening of The Most Reluctant Convert , a film about the redemption of C.S. Lewis. For more information, visit www.wilberforceweekend.org
Mar 28, 2022
Our culture has long struggled with the realities of sexual difference, or "gender." While first- and second-wave feminism generally asserted that women were equal in value to men, transgenderism now asserts that women are interchangeable with men. Notice the underlying assumption: in order for men and women to have equal value, they have to be the same thing . Yielding to this fallacy has been a disaster, not just for the concept of gender, but also for the concept of human dignity. It's as if many think there's not enough of it to go around. The Church should be able offer clarity. Christians must insist that men and women are real. We must also insist that fact doesn't compel a competition . There is no hierarchy of human dignity . Unfortunately, Christians over the centuries have made some big mistakes in this area. At times, roles that men and women fill have been prioritized over the goodness of their God-given design . More often, roles have been conflated with design. For example, Christians have generally understood that the Bible does not permit women to pastor churches. Some have taken that further to suggest that women must lack the intellectual capacity or curiosity to study the Bible and learn theology. That's demonstrably false. Because of the real physical differences between men and women, and the different things children need from mothers and fathers, men have historically performed the breadwinning work for their families. Some Christians have wrongly assumed that this means women lack the ability, talent or calling to pursue any kind of work unrelated to motherhood. Yet the Bible is full of stories of women who contributed to their families, communities, and the kingdom of God in ways other than through motherhood or marriage. Another mistake some Christians make, which may be in response to modern feminism or critical theory, is to suggest that when women contribute something positive to society—a scientific breakthrough, or an impressive career—it's because of their inherent superiority to men. Conversely, when women contribute something negative—they commit a crime or mistreat others—the fault is the patriarchal systems that oppresses them. That way of thinking robs women of moral agency. In response, some Christians talk about the moral imperative for women to bear responsibility for what is wrongly considered exclusively female sins—such as immodesty or even abortion. Often, these Christians are unwilling to expect positive contributions from women outside the roles of wife and mother. In other words, Christians ought not react to the rejection, erasing, or confusing of gender, by merely retreating to roles. We must begin where the Bible does, with design . Both men and women were made by God in His image. How we live out our calling to fill and cultivate the creation will be marked, in both physical and non-physical ways, by our maleness or femaleness. At the same time, women who serve as wives and mothers are neither contributing more nor less than women who aren't in those roles. In other words, the primary calling of both men and women is to glorify God . How we do that in particular times and places, and in particular seasons of our life, will differ. Too often, while Church's ministry to men is about cultivating admirable Christian virtues such as bravery and courage, too much of the Church's ministry to women is only about how to be feminine. To think about Christian women only in relation to men is to paint an incomplete picture. In other words, we ought not leave the impression that Christian women are not also called to be brave and courageous, or well-studied and theologically grounded. And, Christian men are also called to be gentle, meek, and slow to speak. If, as Jesus told the Sadducees, we will "neither marry nor be given in marriage" in the New Heavens and New Earth, how we will serve and glorify God in the age to come will not be as fathers and husbands or mothers and wives. When Jesus said that in order to be His disciples, we must take up our crosses and follow Him, He was speaking to both men and women. Therefore, we should expect women to take responsibility for their sins, just as we should with men. And, we should expect profound contributions to the kingdom of God from women, as women , as much as we do from men. This has been the defining vision and approach of the Strong Women podcast. In a culture so lost on gender, one which now suggests that women don't really exist, Christians must stubbornly ground ourselves in God's good, created design of His imago dei . If we can get this right, we'll have much to offer our confused age.
Mar 25, 2022
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson sat before the Senate this week and boldly stated that she does not know what a woman is because she's not a biologist. Her statement says a lot, not necessarily about the judge, as John points out, but more about how we view the judiciary in this cultural moment. John and Maria also explain that the so-called trend of "radical monogamy" and society's need for more than consent are actually best housed inside Christianity. As John describes, these moments are a revisiting of history. He reveals how the power of sexuality is a physical reality, similar to gravity. Society highlights cultural moments like these as turning points when in reality these principles have been grounded inside God's design. Maria then shares the story of a high school football coach, Joe Kennedy, who simply prayed for his players privately on the field after football games. His school fired him, and his subsequent religious freedom court case is set to see the Supreme Court next month. John and Maria discuss the court case and project how the case will be received and why we can have encouragement and hope as we consider this situation. To close, John revisits a few BreakPoint commentaries from the week. Specifically, John reviews a BreakPoint on how we should pray for the people in Russia, praying through all of the Psalms including the imprecatory Psalms that call for justice on specific people in a specific moment.
Mar 25, 2022
When we think of Christ's call to love our enemies, we often think of work rivals or political opponents. Loving these "enemies" isn't easy, but not impossible. What if, however, our enemies are evildoers, responsible for acts of evil and violence? We can respect the brave protestors that have been arrested for standing up to Putin. We pity teenagers conscripted into a fight they neither sought nor understand. But are we really called to love Putin and his cronies or the Russian troops rejoicing in their conquest or the talking heads in Moscow calling to expand the war into Eastern Europe? Jesus' words about loving our enemies remain as true and trying as ever. But the radical love to which Christ calls us shouldn't be confused with squishy emotion or moral vacuity. We love our enemies by praying for God's mercy on their victims, and for His justice to overwhelm and overcome their wicked intents, and for His will to be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
Mar 25, 2022
In the historical dockyards at Chatham in England is the largest collection of Royal National lifeboats in the U.K.. On many of the lifeboats, printed numbers show how many times the boat has launched, and how many lives it saved. It's a haunting presentation of how life can sometimes hang on a precipice, and what it takes to rescue souls lost at sea. The dockyard is also an interesting analogy for the Church in this cultural moment. Sometimes churches seem more like a museum of saints, a place where salvation is remembered. Here, redemption is often described in the past tense, focused on what God has saved us from. Or, like the dockyard at Chatham, we mark our success by souls saved, with little reference to what happens next for those whose life is in Christ, much less their families, communities, or societies. This presentation of the Church isn't inaccurate, but it is inadequate. Our salvation isn't only about being saved from sin and hell, but also about being saved to eternal and abundant life and for a redemptive purpose. Once Christians experience the life-changing impact of the Gospel, God's restorative work alters every aspect of their lives. This is more than being saved from Hell, and it's even more than being saved to eternal life. The famous pastor John Newton embodied this. When he famously wrote, " I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see ," he revealed that he was not only redeemed from the incredible evil he perpetuated as a slave trader but that he was now given new vision, new direction, and new life. Newton inspired William Wilberforce , the great abolitionist, in the same way. For over four decades, Wilberforce fought against the horrible and inhumane practice of slavery, and also for what he called the "reformation of manners." He didn't see success immediately, especially on slavery. In fact, he was three days from dying when he heard that the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. But, in embracing the scope of God's redemptive work in Christ for the world, his personal redemption didn't stay private, he became a public force for good . Each year, the Colson Center gathers with Christians from across the country for an event named in Wilberforce's honor. The Wilberforce Weekend will be held in Orlando, Florida, May 13-15. This year's conference will explore, from a variety of angles, the scale and scope of God's redemptive work in Jesus Christ. Our goal will be to see all of life as redeemed by Christ. Together, we'll explore how Christ is best understood, not just as our personal Savior (though He is), but also as the center of reality. This means recognizing the essential links between who Christ is and creation, redemption, the kingdom of God, and all of history. We'll also dive deeply into the fullness of the redemptive vision Christ gives His people, as individuals, families, churches, and nations. We'll look closely at what we're saved from , not just Hell but death and fear of death, from bitterness and anger, and from confusion about who we are, all of which are incredibly relevant for the challenges of this cultural moment. We'll also look at what we're saved to ...truth, identity and meaning and life, and also the vital needs of this cultural moment. And, we'll look closely at what we are saved for: wisdom, mission, reconciliation, and purpose. Along the way, we'll talk about what happens when redemption shapes a distinctly Christian approach to life, society, education, sport, hardship and conflict, film, and other aspects of culture. We'll hear from Jim Daly, Os Guinness, Ryan Bomberger, Nancy Guthrie, Max McLean, Rachel Gilson, Larry Taylor, Monique Duson, Morris Michalski—and many more! The Wilberforce Weekend features compelling talks, panel discussions, and live podcast recordings, and a special screening of The Most Reluctant Convert , a remarkable film about the redemption of C.S. Lewis. And, we're especially excited to announce an added pre-event, which will look closely at "Life After Roe," and the responsibility the redeemed have to continue their defense of the preborn until abortion is unthinkable. This even will feature Tim Tebow, Stephanie Grey Connors, Jim Daly and others. For more information, visit www.wilberforceweekend.org
Mar 24, 2022
The big problem isn't climate change ... for the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet with The Point. In a recent interview, former Secretary of State John Kerry lamented that the war in Ukraine would cost human lives and disrupt the principles of international law. But then the President's special envoy on climate expressed another concern: carbon emissions. You're going to "lose people's focus," on climate change, he told reporters: "Their attention will be diverted." To highlight the greenhouse emissions of a war which is actively claiming thousands of lives is backwards logic, at best. That's not to say people shouldn't care about the climate: We should. That's not to say war doesn't have a horrible impact on the environment: It does. But this is a worldview incapable of dealing with human evil, its human cost, or its real motivations. The former Secretary of State later expressed hope that melting ice will make Vladimir Putin rethink his war and help the world "stay on track with what we need to do for the climate." If only it were that easy. The people digging themselves out of the rubble in Kyiv or Mariupol might beg to differ.
Mar 24, 2022
In a recent interview, Mark Zuckerberg was asked to fill out a captcha test to prove once and for all that he's not a robot. In case you were wondering, he passed. It's all a bit funny, given (as John Mulaney observed a couple years ago), just how much time we spend these days proving to robots that we're not robots. Only human brains, apparently—can recognize every square with a stop sign or a boat. It's also a bit ironic, given the most exciting trend in computing technology is building computers using design principles based on the human brain. "Today's most successful artificial intelligence algorithms [are] loosely based on the intricate webs of real neural networks," writes Allison Whitten in Quanta Magazine. She's referring to something called " deep learning, " advanced artificial intelligence that can compute huge amounts of data, while correcting mistakes or even anticipating future problems. From mapping traffic patterns to predicting storm fronts to understanding the stock market, the possibilities of deep learning are endless. For years, though, there's been a major holdup: how to keep it running. Deep learning requires so-called " simulated neural networks " or multiple layers of computers all crunching out the same problem. "Unlike our highly efficient brains," Whitten explains, "running these algorithms on computers guzzles shocking amounts of energy: The biggest models consume nearly as much power as five cars over their lifetimes." And now, after years of puzzling out how to make a system capable of running advanced AI, researchers are finding a breakthrough source of inspiration: the human brain. The secret lies in how the brain processes electronic data. Whereas digital communication is binary, using 1's and 0's, the brain's communication is analog: using one continuous data stream. Likewise, while digital tech relies on one central processing unit, the brain arranges millions of computing units next to memory units in the forms of synapses and neurons. The science is definitely chewy for us non-engineering types, but the results are incredible. Digital technology has transformed the modern world, opening vistas that previous generations would have thought impossible. Yet to fully master artificial intelligence, our brightest scientists are forced to direct their attention back to God's original design specs. This is part of a bigger phenomenon in engineering called " biomimetics. " It's a word coined from the Greek bios , which means life, and mīmēsis which means imitation. Neurocomputing is just one of the more dramatic examples of what some have called the biomimetics' "goldrush ," a race to understand and apply systems and design features of the natural world, which in many cases are far beyond even our most advanced engineering. This is not to say God somehow always prefers "natural" systems to "artificial" ones. Humans are designed to create and innovate and design in ways that have advanced us past our Garden of Eden beginnings. At the same time, there's no escaping the basic truth that natural systems are nothing short of stunning. People didn't design themselves, yet we possess self-repairing, massively complex biological systems. We experience life through five senses, our brains seamlessly integrating terabytes of data at all times. And to do it, we require only assorted organic materials we find around us. The brain can sustain itself on a cheeseburger. In 2013, a collaboration between Japanese and German scientists created one of the most realistic brain simulations ever attempted. They used what was, at that time, the world's fourth-largest computer, containing over 700,000 processor cores and producing an eye-popping 1.4 million gigabytes of RAM. The machine worked at top speed, crunching numbers for over 40 minutes. In the end, it produced just one second of simulated brain activity. Technology has advanced since then, but it still raises a fundamental question: How do we explain the complexity of the natural world? Darwinian naturalists are forced to punt to random, genetic mutations—or in the words of Bertrand Russell " accidental collocations of atoms "—and a limitless supply of time and chance. But they still can't escape the haunting questions. How did the universe itself come into existence? How do the laws of physics perfectly align for our survival here? How can we account for the incredible amount of complex and specified information in biological systems, including the human brain? How can we explain abiogenesis , or the origin of the first life from non-life? Christians don't have to agree on every scientific detail to point to what is obvious. There's a designer behind all of this design. In other words, as Casey Luskin with Evolution News summarizes: "Where, in our experience, do language-based digital code, computer-like programming, machines, and other high [information] structures come from? They have only one known source: intelligence."
Mar 23, 2022
John and Shane review healthy technology use. A listener asks for insight on what practices and habits a mindful parent has in their home as they lead their family in the digital age. Another listener writes in to ask how Christians should respond to the presence of oppression. The listener asks for perspective on what a Christian should do when they don't feel oppression, but are told it is present. John also helps a listener have a whole perspective of critiques of the modern church. The listener asks why church practices aren't reflected in the Bible.
Mar 23, 2022
Happy Lent. That's an odd-sounding phrase. One of the chief purposes of Lent, after all, is to confront our mortality. For the last two years, our focus has been on avoiding our mortality, dodging death, and largely hedging life against our fears of death. In this cultural moment, confronting our mortality during Lent is incredibly important. As New Testament scholar Mary Healy said , "We instinctively resist and recoil from everything that reminds us of our mortality—pain, deprivation, weakness, criticism, failure. This paralyzing fear ... leads to various forms of escapism and addiction, induces us to grasp the false security nets proffered by Satan, and keeps us from pursuing the will of God with freedom, peace, and confidence." Whether or not you typically participate in traditional Lenten activities—like the marking of ashes, fasting, or giving up something—I hope you'll still use these 40 days to face and ponder your mortality, with an eye to Jesus' resurrection, and the resurrection that awaits all of us who belong to Him.
Mar 23, 2022
A central claim of the gay rights movement—a claim that won the movement acceptance with the majority of Americans—was that being gay is part of who a person is, and not a choice. "Born this way," declared the title of a popular song. Another song insisted, "I can't change even if I tried." This idea of immutable sexual identity was further extended to other orientations and self-expressions. So, trying to suppress or change orientation or even behavior was labeled "conversion therapy." And, now that sexual orientation is considered identity, anything labeled "conversion therapy" is increasingly being outlawed. Recently, A new law just passed in Canada bans conversion therapy and defines it as any "practice, treatment or service designed to change a person's sexual orientation" or "repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behavior." Completing this rapid worldview revolution, all kinds of identities, also based on desires and feelings, are being treated as if they are unchangeable. And, if a desire is unchangeable, the reasoning goes, a person has a right to act on it. This logic has been applied to most desires imaginable—until now. In January, USA Today ran an article by Alia Dastagir titled, "The Complicated Research Behind Pedophilia." The article summarizes a growing consensus among psychologists that pedophiles, too, are "born this way," and that attraction to children is unchangeable. Understandably, Dastagir doesn't call pedophilia a sexual orientation, but rather, "attraction." Still, it isn't hard to imagine a slippery slope here. Slippery slopes are considered logical fallacies because they don't have to happen. However, it isn't hard to see how often they do happen. If our society maintains the logic that desires determine identity and therefore justify behaviors, then more deviant behaviors will eventually become acceptable. Dastagir argues that even if pedophilia is an unchangeable attraction caused by genetic or environmental factors, pedophiles can and must "control [their] impulses." The experts she quotes agree that people who are sexually attracted to kids have a choice whether to "act on the urge to abuse." One psychologist and author even said that acting on pedophilia is the same as the choice to act on any other "inappropriate sexual thought." As she puts it: "Pedophiles may not have control over the fact that they are attracted to kids, but they are responsible for whether they do or don't act on it." That psychologist continues: "Offending is devastating. It damages the lives of victims…You can learn to control yourself. You have the capacity to do better." The language sounds an awful lot like the kind that's been labeled "conversion therapy," or as the Canadian law puts it, an attempt to "repress or reduce a non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behavior." Don't misunderstand me: Pedophilia and homosexuality are not the same. As much as we critique consent as the only moral stand our culture will take, it applies here. A minor isn't developed enough to give consent. I'm only pointing out that the logic could be argued the same in both cases. It should also be noted that, at the same time pedophilia is being reconsidered an orientation, minors have been given control of their sexual identities. If they can determine their sexual identification at younger and younger ages, how long will we prevent them from determining their sexual activities? Even so, the fact that social scientists and the press can avoid the logical conclusion of "born this way" for this instance shows how flawed that logic always was. Desires don't determine behavior or identity. They never did because, as human beings, we are moral agents responsible for controlling our appetites. This slope is just really, really slippery. I'm grateful that there are still those in our culture willing to distinguish between desires and behavior, in at least one case. We should press them on why this is a unique case because if the sexual revolution doesn't stop here, the consequences are quite simply unthinkable.
Mar 22, 2022
It's one of Russian painter Nikolai Yaroshenko's most iconic works . Out of the window of a prison car, a small child feeds a group of pigeons. We're not told who the child, his mother, or their fellow captives are. Yaroshenko's title is our only clue: Life Is Everywhere. As the world watches the situation unfold in Ukraine, we are forced to deal with the world's fundamental brokenness and the stark reality of human evil. But at the same time, there's something even more pervasive than evil and death: life. Today, even in Ukraine, there will be babies born , marriages officiated , and neighbors gathering to pray. On a deeper level, redeemed life is everywhere. Jesus came that we may "have life and have it abundantly." That life is not about material wealth. Neither is it about simply waiting for heaven. It's a renewed commitment to the values of God's Kingdom, right now . That can be simple as feeding pigeons or giving a cup of cold water to those in need. The joy Christians take in life points to our ultimate hope: a hope that can't be shaken.
Mar 22, 2022
If there's a term our culture has little appreciation for, it's "limitations." But that's exactly what makes Kelly Kapic's newest book You're Only Human worth reading. Intentionally or implicitly these days, people are told to ignore their physical, interpersonal, and spiritual limits. Even in Christian circles, it's common to constantly feel exhausted or guilty, as if we haven't done enough for God and His Kingdom. Dr. Kelly Kapic, a professor of theology at Covenant College , provides a compelling counter-thesis: "Many of us fail to understand that our limitations are a gift from God, and therefore good.This produces in us the burden of trying to be something we are not and cannot be." Human limitation is different from the idea of "sin" or even "fallenness." As a feature of time and space, "limitations" are nbuilt-in aspect of God's design. We need things like food and rest. We were not created to do everything by ourselves, even something as simple as finding our own individual identities. Ultimately, we are dependent, and our dependency is meant to draw us closer to the God who created us. Recently, Dr. Kapic joinedmy colleague Kasey Leander for a special episode of on the BreakPoint podcast, . Their conversation is an especially relevant counter to dangerous assumptions that are shaping our world. One of these assumptions has to do with physicality. Seized by what some have called a "gnostic impulse," much of modern life downplays physical limitations. Digital technology tells us we don't need to "go" anywhere to "be" with people. We sexualize everything, and in the process destroy the possibility of normal, everyday physical touch. The most extreme example of this gnostic impulse is transgender ideology, which tells people they can only and finally feel fulfilled outside the physical reality of biology. In God's original design, the physical world was created "good." We flourish best, not when we "transcend" our God-given physical limitations, but when we live in accordance with them. This doesn't mean everything is perfect: Some of our limitations, of course, actually are caused by the fall. However, even in a world infected by evil, Christians have hope in a renewed, physical creation . If God loves our bodies, we should too. Kapic also highlights the idea of faithfulness in the Christian life. Too often, we're driven by a desire to do everything, ignoring our limited resources of time and energy. "It was Ben Franklin who said time is money," he tells us, "and as Christians we have baptized that." It makes me wonder what Jesus would make of modern busyness. The Son of God never shied away from challenges or difficulty … yet he spent an inordinate amount of time simply praying and resting. As the Agent of creation and the second Adam, Christ set the standard for a life well lived. A third takeaway from You're Only Human . has to do with the Church, the Bride of Christ: "God extends his love, provision, and values through the people who make up his church. His offer to be a refuge and strength frequently comes through his church. When he wants to bring a word of grace, a safe hug, a warm meal, it often comes through his church. Even when the church cannot do everything itself, it keeps seeking to promote the common good." The Christian walk demands community,and our collective limitations also point at something significant about our human limitations. Kapic continues: "The central mission of the church is to point people continually to the Messiah: he alone fully reveals the love of the Father and pours out his Spirit on us. The goal of all our good efforts is to draw people to the embrace of the triune God, not to serve as a replacement for him. All the gifts we exercise must ultimately point back to the true Giver." This is why Christians can read the news without losing hope. We cannot heal or restore our broken world, but Christ can and will. In that respect, our limitation isn't weakness. It makes us rely on the only true Source of strength.
Mar 21, 2022
Dr. Anthony Bradley of the King's College addresses the very important issue of how we are failing young men. The tyranny of low expectations, soft relationships, absent fathers… ours is a culture failing to transition boys to men. Dr. Bradley explains the current landscape and emboldens listeners to take action to love and support young men. This presentation is part of our Lighthouse Voices Series, done in partnership with Focus on the Family. Click here for more on the Lighthouse Voices Series>>
Mar 21, 2022
With the " Stop WOKE Act " and unfairly labeled " Don't Say Gay " bill, the Florida legislature is ordering state-run schools to adjust their curriculum, and respond to the will of parents. The U.S. Secretary of Education, in a strong response , threatened the state to follow federal interpretations of Title IX and civil rights laws or risk federal funding. It's not the first time the White House has used federal funds as leverage to get what it wants from Florida. The fundamental question here is whose job is it to educate? Increasingly, the state has not only claimed that task, it's also sought to actively keep parents out of it, especially when it comes to controversial social issues like race or sexuality. That state does have a place and purpose that was ordained by God. So does the church and so does the family. But the family isn't designed to be the church, the church isn't designed to be the state, and the state shouldn't be teaching its worldview to our kids.
Mar 21, 2022
Right in the heart of the Bible are some passages that are uncomfortable. The imprecatory psalms are among the hymns sung by the people of God but are far removed from current cultural conceptions of Christian "niceness" or a gentle Jesus as you can imagine. These are not the psalms of praise and thanksgiving to God for His goodness and mercy, but rather psalms that call for God's mercy to be withheld and His wrath to be unleashed against our enemies. For example, Psalm 69 says: "Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents." Psalm 83 declares: "O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, so may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane!" Then there's Psalm 109 : "May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow! May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!" Most disturbing of all is Psalm 137 . Written after the people of Judah had been conquered and enslaved by the Babylonians, the psalmist cries out: "O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!" We don't know what to do with these words. We wonder why these psalms are in the Bible, and if the author was an awful person. We ask ourselves how they fit with the self-sacrificing God we've known and loved. Not everything contained in the Bible is, of course, prescriptive. Many of the passages we struggle with are descriptive , describing evils or wrongs that took place. These passages, however, are hymns, even prayers of God's people. So, in the case of imprecatory psalms, the confusion remains. At times when world events, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, shake us out of moral lethargy, these cries for justice and wrath make more sense. We, too, become enraged. In the last few weeks, the world has looked on with horror as Russian forces violated the peace with those they claimed were their brothers. Millions have been displaced and thousands are now dead. As Moscow's become increasingly frustrated at its lack of success, its leaders have resorted to indiscriminate shelling and intentional targeting of noncombatants. It is right at these times to want justice, and to want it now! It is right to weep at the horrors of human existence, as Billie Holiday did with her mournful song about lynchings in the Jim Crow South, " Strange Fruit ." Passages like Psalm 88 describe the struggle to find hope in God, and to lament the injustice in the world. Sometimes, the only possible moral response is to appeal for God's judgment on evildoers. Anger is a proper response to real evil in this world, a world that was created good. At the same time, we should pray that evildoers will see their sin and approach the throne of grace for forgiveness and salvation. After all, Paul was a persecutor of the Church , yet he was saved and used by God to take the Gospel across the Roman world. At the same time, just three chapters after Paul's salvation, another persecutor, Herod Agrippa, is struck down by God , and, as the text colorfully notes, was eaten by worms. The same Jesus who came gently riding a donkey into Jerusalem will one day come to establish the New Jerusalem riding a warhorse. Imprecatory psalms affirm our sense that there's real wrong with the world, that we are right to be angry about it. They speak of the psalmist's pain in their realness and rawness. They remind us that God is not afraid of our anger. In fact, He, too, is grieved and angry at evil borne of the sin we have committed against one another. These psalms, these imprecatory words, remind us that we can come to God in our anger and ask that He do something about it. The rest of the Psalms, and the rest of the Bible, remind us that He is trustworthy. As Abraham said of God, " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" He will, and we can count on it.
Mar 19, 2022
John and Maria discuss the rise of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. They ponder why the world seems to admire his leadership and what the significance is when the wider culture largely rejects many displays of masculinity. Then, Maria asks John to explain a recent commentary that highlights beauty in the face of the conflict in Ukraine. Sharing about the weight of redemption, John notes that redemption grounds many issues in the world and expounds on the Wilberforce Weekend theme "Life Redeemed." To close, John describes a recent commentary at BreakPoint on assisted reproduction. Maria shares some of the feedback often received on commentaries about this topic, identifying some challenges to questions for BreakPoint .
Mar 18, 2022
During World War II, Jewish teenager Fania Rosenfield lost nearly her entire family to the Nazis. She somehow managed to escape the slaughter happening in her town and find refuge for two years with a Ukrainian family before settling in Israel to begin a new life. Fania repeatedly told the story of the brave Ukrainian family who saved her to her children and grandchildren. And, a few weeks ago when the Russian invasion of Ukraine was imminent, Fania's granddaughter made a choice to reach out to the family who had saved her grandmother. Now, two young cousins from that Ukrainian family have fled to Israel and are safe with Fania's family. In the utter darkness of wartime, such as we're now witnessing in Ukraine, we wonder why a good God would allow such evil. Stories like this, of families transcending national, political, ethnic, and generational lines to sacrificially love others, remind us to thank God for allowing such beauty in the world.
Mar 18, 2022
In his book Life With a Capital L , author Matt Heard (also a speakers at this year's Wilberforce Weekend) describes a famous oil painting by Russian artist Nikolai Yaroshenko. "Five diverse prisoners—a soldier, a worker, a peasant, a mother and a child—are huddled together, peering through the barred window of a halted prison railcar. The child reaches through the steel bars, feeding pigeons on the railway platform. Even in the midst of an awful predicament, the five prisoners were making a choice to engage with something. With what?" "Yaroshenko's title gave me the clue, There Is Life Everywhere ." Given the devastation mounting in Ukraine, that's a profound meditation. As I write this, casualties are mounting, and the Russian military is increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure, including a maternity ward in Mariupol . The resulting images—pregnant mothers and newborn infants being pulled out of the wreckage, shell-shocked faces covered in blood, thousands crammed into bus stations and bomb shelters and fleeing across Poland's border—remind us that life after Eden can be brutal, evil, and full of horror. Ironically, thousands of refugees are now streaming towards Nikolai Yaroshekno's own hometown of Poltava, once a city of the Russian Empire but now part of central Ukraine. When the scale of a crisis is this large, the dominant feeling for those watching is helplessness . If the actions of entire nations haven't been enough to stop Putin, what can ordinary people do? Like Yaroshenko's prisoners, we are trapped here in this broken world, forced to deal with life's fundamental brokenness and the stark reality of human evil. Yaroshenko's answer takes the form of a kid's grubby hand holding crumbs out for pigeons, a mom pointing her child to a simple wonder, and others taking it all in while facing a grim future. Evil may be everywhere … but so is life. So is goodness. So is beauty. Everything might be broken, but the goodness of our Creator's handwork shines through the darkness. In fact, in a very real sense, that we recognize the darkness as darkness, and evil as evil, presupposes the existence of light and goodness. And even in the midst of the darkness and evil in Ukraine right now, there is light. There is goodness. There is beauty. Take brand new baby Mia , born in a Kyiv bomb shelter as explosions rocked the surrounding neighborhoods. Or the nearly 4,000 marriages, some officiated in a mixture of bridal wear and fatigues, performed as Russian troops bore down on the city. For Christians, the context for the existence of evil is not just the good creation which precedes it. It is the redemption that will overcome evil. Anchored in His victory over death, Jesus offers abundant, overflowing life, not just in the distant future, but now . "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy," Jesus announced : "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." This is no prosperity gospel. Nor is it some detached, pietistic hope of heaven. In Christ, there is life which both secures our eternal destiny and endows our earthly existence with meaning, love, and identity. C.S. Lewis articulated this brilliantly in his 1948 essay On Living in An Atomic Age . As the world first faced the possibility of nuclear destruction, Lewis offered an eternal context: "Those who care for something else more than civilization are the only people by whom civilization is at all likely to be preserved. Those who want Heaven most have served Earth best. Those who love man less than God do most for man." So, Lewis argued, should the atomic bomb ever drop, it ought to find us doing "sensible and human" things: praying, working, listening to music, laughing, and talking with friends. This is no naive or lighthearted invitation to shirk responsibility. It's an invitation to celebrate good things, even when by every worldly standard, the only realistic response is despair. Even now, there are Christians in Ukraine living this out: packing churches and singing hymns in a metro station. Volunteers who hosted "Night to Shine" events with the Tim Tebow foundation are now evacuating special needs families with their own trucks and gas. Indeed, there is life everywhere. In Christ, there is Life, abundant life, even in the darkest moments. "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial," James wrote, "for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." These words describe the joy and courage Christians have embodied for millennia, from the earliest martyrs to the Chibok schoolgirls . At the end of the day, there is Life everywhere.
Mar 17, 2022
Today we revisit a conversation from Shane Morris to commemorate St. Patrick's Day. Getting beyond the shamrocks, green beer, and parades, who was the historical St. Patrick? Today on the BreakPoint Podcast, we welcome back our former Colson Center colleague and expert on St. Patrick, T. M. Moore. Moore describes the events of Patrick's life and gives us an inspiring glimpse into the spiritual life of this giant of the faith, a man whom God used to ignite a revival among the Irish–a revival that would, in the end, save Western Civilization. Moore is the founder and principal of the Fellowship of Ailbe and author of Celtic Flame: The Burden of Patrick , which is available at our online bookstore.
Mar 17, 2022
According to the Barna Group , millennials who stayed in church were "twice as likely to have a close personal friendship with an adult inside the church." That was true for me. Around Christmas in December of 1990, I met Ms. Buckner, who lived down a windy, rural Virginia road. She was an 89-year-old widow. There was, shall we say, a pretty significant generation gap between us. We didn't know what to talk about, so she prayed for me. That prayer time led me to visit Ms. Buckner again two years later. I was even less interested in spiritual things by then and didn't think she'd remember me. When Ms. Buckner came to the door, I said, "You probably don't remember, but I was here two years ago." "John," she smiled. "I prayed for you this morning." Her friendship and prayers impacted me in ways I cannot measure. Prayer not only unites the church, it inspires faith. That's why we're hosting a time of guided prayer during Lent. These times will inspire you to pray for people in your church especially those in other generations. To sign up for the weekly reminders, visit breakpoint.org/praywithme.
Mar 17, 2022
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has disrupted the global economy, sparked fears of world war, and pumped gas prices to record highs. There are personal costs, too. Aside from the lives already lost in the fighting, the conflict in Ukraine has revealed a conflict of interest at the heart of an increasingly common practice. In an article at The Atlantic , Alison Motluk described how, in recent years, Ukraine has become "an international surrogacy hub." Prospective parents from the U.S., China, Germany, Australia, and other countries have rushed to take advantage of Ukraine's lax surrogacy laws, hiring less-wealthy women there to gestate their children. By some estimates, around 2,500 such arrangements are made each year in Ukraine. One large fertility clinic in Kyiv reported that they expect 200 surrogate babies to be born in the next three months. None of the "intended parents" involved foresaw a Russian invasion. Like COVID-19 did in early 2020 , the war has "disrupted the supply chain," something you say until you realize the product is human beings. the war has "disrupted the supply chain," something you say until you realize the product is human beings. In the last few weeks, surrogate mothers across Ukraine have been forced to choose between doing what's right for themselves and their families, and following the contractual demands of paying "parents" thousands of miles away. Many of these women have refused to move since that would separate them from loved ones in harm's way. Others fled after the clinics in charge of their pregnancies were forced to shut down . Still others are debating whether to seek refuge in other countries, knowing their babies' legal status and ultimate fates will be uncertain. As Motluk writes, "Some people in wartime can turn all of their attention to family and the war effort, but surrogates cannot. Even if they defy pleas to go to places of safety, they carry their work with them, inside their body. … The reality is that the interests of the surrogate and the interests of the parents don't always align. War just makes it that much more stark." Of course, there's a third party whose interests often aren't considered, particularly in the media coverage: the unborn babies. Where are their rights? What say do they have in all of this? Who will they call "mommy" and "daddy"? If they make it to their intended buyers, what will they think of being the result of a risky commercial transaction? And if they don't make it "home," what fate awaits them? Maybe something similar to the dozens of surrogate babies who were stranded in Ukraine in 2020 after COVID-19 hit. All of this reveals one of the central problems with our limited ethical deliberations over artificial reproductive technologies, such as surrogacy (especially surrogacy across national borders and between people from such disparate socioeconomic backgrounds): we tend to assume best-case scenarios . Moral dilemmas, however, rarely happen in a best-case scenario. That's not how the world works. The hardest decisions we make in life are during times of chaos and conflict—when illness, financial hardship, or family trouble make it incredibly hard to do the right thing, or even know what that is. We've approached surrogacy as if the women contracted to carry the children are always informed, never under financial pressure, protected by contracts that can handle extenuating circumstances such as war or pandemics, that the wishes of the intended "parents" never conflict with their best interests, that no lasting emotional bonds to the baby will be formed, that no coerced abortions will ever happen—and of course, that no one's country is invaded. When any of these assumptions prove wrong, a terrible human cost is exacted. Recently, my colleague Shane Morris interviewed pro-life author and speaker Stephanie Gray Connors on the Upstream podcast about her new book Conceived by Science. The book and the conversation detail the ethical problems with both in-vitro fertilization and surrogacy. One of the principles Stephanie emphasizes is that good desires don't justify immoral actions. It's natural for couples to want children of their own and tragic when they can't conceive or carry them. Still, that is no license to bring children into the world through any means, including technologies that treat children as a commercial product and another human as a supplier or that abandon children or "excess" embryos. The unfolding crisis for surrogate mothers in Ukraine is a sad reminder of what happens when people are treated as instruments rather than image bearers, as means instead of ends. But ultimately, it's the children who pay for our failed transactions.
Mar 16, 2022
John and Shane discuss structural racism, how should Christians respond. They also explore the wide landscape of Disney movies, especially noting recent films that are problematic for a Christian worldview. To close, they field a challenging dilemma from a listener who is weighed down by an in vitro fertilization situation.
Mar 16, 2022
In his 1979 book The Culture of Narcissism , sociologist Christopher Lasch argued that as the bonds of religious identity and family erode, Americans were increasingly looking inward for security and meaning. In such a culture, feelings and subjective experiences aren't just considered the most important thing in the world: They're considered the most accurate view of the world. We see that played out today, where special social status is awarded to people perceived as victims. In a secular culture increasingly hostile to Christianity, one a person's negative experience at Church or disdain for Christianity is elevated, and quickly believed,, even if that perception is false, or at least uncommon. As Lasch described, "the contemporary climate is therapeutic, not religious. People today hunger not for personal salvation, but for the feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health, and psychic security." In such a climate, Christians must be quick to repent and quick to invite others into the abundant life Christ offers. If Christians have found peace, it's by God's grace, and our task is to invite the lost to come and find it, too.
Mar 16, 2022
Sir Isaac Newton, in a letter written in 1675 to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, wrote, " If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants ." Chuck Colson was one of those giants for many of us, and it is our privilege to steward his legacy at the Colson Center. In fact, Chuck believed that his most important legacy, more than any organization or his many books, would be people. That's why he started what he called the Centurions Program, something that continues today under a different name, the Colson Fellows program. Here's Chuck Colson, in his own words, on the important vision he had for this program, which continues today: I have a burning passion—it's the first item on my prayer list every day— and that's to see a movement of Christians raised up from the churches to defend truth in the marketplace of ideas and to live out the Gospel. Nothing less than this kind of an awakening can possibly save our quickly deteriorating culture. That's why I'm now spending all of my time working at BreakPoint and the Colson Center. One of my major projects is developing Christian leaders who can understand and defend a biblical view of all of life. We call this the Centurions Program. For the past six years we have brought 100 of the best and brightest into this year-long teaching effort, to study under some of the best minds in the Christian world. It's demanding: We read books together, view movies, and critique them; do a lot of teaching online; and have three residencies during the year in Lansdowne, Virginia, near our offices. Our Centurion graduates are like the Marines or the Navy Seals who are on the front lines of the next wave of leaders. Can this work? Just two weeks ago I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a rally on behalf of the Manhattan Declaration. It was organized by the Catholic Archbishop of New Mexico, Michael Sheehan, and a former congressman named Bill Redmond, who is a Centurion graduate. You can imagine my thrill when I walked into the convention center to see 1,600 participants. And they were on fire! They were there to learn biblical worldview, to learn how to defend the sanctity of human life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty, to learn how to become activists! There were representatives from across the denominational spectrum: Southern Baptists, Nazarenes, Assemblies of God, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics. The Church had come together. And all of this was organized by one gutsy archbishop and one Centurion graduate. They in fact have built a powerful network across the state of New Mexico. So yes, it can be done. And our Centurions are doing a whole variety of important tasks across the spectrum. Like Jon Blankmeyer, who founded a safe home for girls rescued from forced prostitution. Josue Delgado, a hospital chaplain who teaches Emergency Medical Technicians on how to build stronger marriages. Kathy Peele, who founded a group to help mothers under distress, and so many more. By the time they are certified, Centurions know how to write, discuss, and teach Christian worldview in all sorts of settings. They know how to create God-honoring culture through the arts, media, literature, and business. They're able to debate ethical challenges with medical professionals, advocate human rights, and develop tomorrow's leaders by raising children grounded in biblical values. In short, they learn to defend Truth in an age in which many believe such a thing does not exist. Look, folks, the reason the Church today is having so little impact is too many Christians view their faith only in terms of a personal relationship with Jesus. But Christianity does not stop with salvation; that's only the beginning. We've got to learn how to present our worldview in a winsome way. And if we don't do this, it simply dooms our churches to isolation and irrelevance—just when our culture desperately needs the hope of the Gospel more than ever. After Chuck's death in 2012, the program he started as the Centurions Program was renamed as the Colson Fellows Program. I think Chuck would be ecstatic that, this year, over 750 Christians from across the country, and even around the world, have been studying worldview, theology, and culture in the Colson Fellows Program, and are currently planning to apply what they've learned in the time and place God has called them. If you desire to make a similar impact in your community for Christ, consider studying with the Colson Fellows program next year. With over 60 regional cohorts around the country, there is likely a cohort in your region. If not, there are online cohorts offered as well. Either way, you'll find a deeper understanding of truth and be better equipped to live out your faith in this cultural moment in whatever calling and vocation God has put before you. For more information, visit www.colsonfellows.org.
Mar 15, 2022
According to Pew Research , roughly 79% of Americans agree that there are major differences in the viewpoints held by different generations. The gaps are significant, but there's reason for hope. According to a report outlined in Christianity Today , younger generations are eager for more from church. Evangelicals under 40 are twice as likely as others to say they want more substance from the pulpit. That's one reason why the Colson Center is offering a special tool to help you connect with the generations in your church. The Pray for Me Campaign , headed by my friend Tony Souder, is a simple idea: Connect every student with three or more "prayer champions" across multiple generations. These mentors regularly pray for students, encouraging them in their spiritual walk. Already active in over 700 churches, 42 states, and more than 17 denominations, the Pray for Me Campaign is a practical tool for bridging a generational divide. We want to give you this resource in exchange for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center. To receive this resource simply visit colsoncenter.org/february.
Mar 15, 2022
It's not easy or comfortable to talk about the ethics of assisted reproduction. But too much is at stake not to. Artificial reproductive technologies are fraught with moral, ethical, and practical dilemmas. This includes technologies already widely accepted and practiced in our culture (and even our churches), technologies such as surrogacy , in vitro fertilization , and sperm donation . How these technologies are increasingly employed also goes largely unquestioned. For example, much of the demand for both international commercial surrogacy and for legalizing commercial surrogacy in the United States is now coming from same-sex couples who, having chosen a sterile relationship, demand the right to have children. There's also been a number of social adjustments made in order to reimagine reproduction and family life, such as changing the legal definition of the word "parent. " All of this demonstrates just how much our technological abilities have outpaced our ethics. For the most part, the extent of our ethical deliberation has been reduced to two questions: Can we do this? And, do we want to do this? If the answers to these questions are "yes," the ethical case is closed, and the conclusion is that we should do this. In fact, the editorial team of the Colson Center recently recognized a trend in the significant amount of feedback we receive anytime we broach these difficult topics in a commentary, podcast, or short course. With rare exception, nearly every comment or question (especially the critical ones) has to do with the will and desires of the adults involved, not the rights and well-being of the children involved. For example, we are assured that couples who pursue assisted reproduction have good intentions, and anyone who suffers with infertility should be able to consider any and all available options, without judgment. Others wonder why, since we claim to be pro-life, we are critical of certain technologies that make it possible for couples to have children. Most ask if we have considered how painful it is to desire children but struggle to conceive. We have. The pain of infertility is real and deep, and the desire for children is natural, inherent, and good. It's a tragedy whenever someone who embraces this desire is unable to experience it. At the same time, we question the use of certain artificial reproductive technologies. Ours is a culture in which adult happiness is prioritized over the rights of children, both in the taking and the making of preborn life. It's as if the well-being of the children who may result from such technologies aren't even a consideration. It's as if they are the desired ends that justify any means. It's as if any innovations or experiments having to do with family structure, or the procreative process, are justified as long as the adults involved get what they want. To be clear, infertility is so personal and painful that the only reason to address the ethical and theological problems inherent to some forms of assisted reproduction is if much is at stake. After all, it is more than a little uncomfortable to discuss the ethics of a technology with someone, especially a friend or family member, who believes it could deliver what they want most in the world. Though some people do employ assisted reproduction after parsing out what is ethically acceptable from what is ethically problematic, too many operate from only good intentions and broken hearts. Good intentions, however, are not enough. Refusing to talk about these technologies to protect the feelings of adults won't end what is a growing human rights crisis, especially when so many people—Christians included—are unaware there's a crisis at all. Many people don't realize, for example, that the sperm donation industry is outrageously unregulated. In some areas, it's not only legal but common for donors to father dozens and dozens of children who, in the end, may be legally prevented from learning about their father or their half-siblings. Many don't realize the trauma inflicted on surrogate mothers and babies who have bonded physically and emotionally for nine months before being separated shortly after birth, robbing that child of the right to his or her birth mother. Many don't know that surrogate moms lose custodial rights to their babies or that their names aren't listed on their babies' birth certificates. Many don't realize that commercial surrogacy is banned in much of the Western world and many developing nations because of how it enables the exploitation of women. Many don't know that where commercial surrogacy is legal, it is a booming i ndustry, primarily because wealthy Western couples keep impoverished women pregnant, underpaid, and away from their own families. Many also don't know how common it is for companies in the U.S. to lure college women into the incredibly dangerous process of freezing their eggs by promising an enormous fee. Many don't realize that an estimated one million embryos —tiny human beings that are referred to as "excess" embryos—are currently kept in freezers across the United States, or that only 7% of all embryos created by IVF will be born alive . Many pastors avoid addressing these issues with their congregations, either because they think them too irrelevant or too risky to address publicly. But the moral stakes are too high to remain silent: Embryos are abandoned in freezers right now with more added every day. Couples are hiring surrogates to carry their babies today. Some Christian women even think of it as their mission field . States are passing legislation to turn the practice into a full-blown industry. Christians are in church pews today, tempted, and even pursued by segments of assisted reproduction industries at risk of making uninformed but serious moral mistakes. It must be said that any and every child God brings into the world is made in His image and shares in the dignity inherent to any human being. After all, no child is born whom God did not intend. No moral concern with assisted reproduction, nor any corruption or spin employed by the assisted reproductive industries, should ever reduce our enthusiastic love, respect, and care for children conceived by its technology. In fact, it is the inherent rights and dignity of these children that demand we speak out on their behalf. My friend Katy Faust has been doing that for years through her nonprofit Them Before Us . I'll be joining her in person tonight for another live event in the Lighthouse Voices Speakers Series, at the new Focus on the Family bookstore in Holland, Michigan . The event starts at 7 p.m., Eastern Time, and if you can't make it in person, it will be live streamed for free. For more information, please visit colsoncenter.org/events .
Mar 14, 2022
Covenant College Professor of Theology Kelly Kapic has written a new book called You're Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God's Design and Why That's Good News. Nobody likes the idea of "limitations." And that's for obvious reasons. A core piece of the American dream is to always fly higher, do more, and never let up off the gas pedal. As Kelly argues though, we sometimes internalize that idea even as Christians. As a result, too many of us go to bed exhausted and distracted. It's easy to have this underlying feeling that, at the end of the day we just didn't do enough for God. The good news is that there's a solution: we need to recover the God-given idea of human limitations .
Mar 14, 2022
According to the Pew Research Center , the U.S. has the world's highest rate of children living in single-parent households. Almost a quarter of U.S. children under 18 live with one parent. Of course, there are many heroic single parents courageously committed to raising their children. Still, decades of research show how costly it is for so many. Children of unmarried parents, on average, do worse in school, have poorer emotional and physical health, are more likely to commit crimes, and are more likely to have children out of wedlock themselves. The sexual revolution decoupled sex from marriage while insisting "the kids will be fine." Well, they're not. Christians must speak into this issue with truth and love, especially in a society that fosters adults to seek happiness at the expense of kids. Redefining and reinventing family structures, parenting, and marriage are having horrible consequences. On Tuesday, March 15, we are partnering with Focus on the Family to address this topic. Katy Faust of Them Before Us will teach how Christians can stand for the rights of children. Register for the live stream at Colsoncenter.org/events.
Mar 14, 2022
Earlier this year, Kelsey Ichikawa of Nautilus magazine raised an important question: Is virtual reality harming the cognitive development of children? As they grow, kids rely on years of practice to develop basic levels of coordination. The process of "sensory integration," where sight, balance, orientation, and touch are integrated into a seamless neurological experience is a "long and elaborate process of development," writes Ichikawa, "that begins before birth and extends into early adulthood." One of the reasons young kids perform terribly in the virtual world is that they have yet to master those basic skills in the real world. This has led some experts to question if hours spent playing as an avatar could shortchange the process, leading to developmental issues later in life. So far, the jury is still out. "When you enter the virtual world, the rules of sensory experience change, which could impact kids' development," says Swiss neuroscientist Jenifer Miehlbradt ; "Maybe it's totally safe, or maybe it's not. Either way we need to know a lot more about what happens to them when they slip into avatar." Researchers won't have to wait long for data. According to Bloomberg, more than two-thirds of all U.S. kids between the ages of 9 and 12 play "Roblox," a massive, multiplayer online game that lends itself to VR. Immediately after going public, the game was valued at $41 billion , making it an overnight competitor with juggernauts like Nintendo and Electronic Arts. While you don't have to use VR to play Roblox, millions do. Their experience could give researchers a baseline to test their theories, but with a painfully obvious catch. Any harm will have already been done. As it develops at a breakneck pace, VR is already creating other ethical dilemmas. For example, despite developers' best efforts, games like Roblox can fall victim to lewd or predatory content , as the BBC covered in February. As users upload content, a "small subset" find creative ways around built-in parental safety controls. It's a problem as common as the internet, but with dramatically higher stakes. VR is a powerful technology. University of Texas at Austin researcher Jakki Bailey found that immersive virtual reality far outpaces other digital media like TV or standard computers when it comes to creating a sense of "presence." That's exactly the purpose it was designed for. "It's why even most adults have trouble stepping off a gangplank in immersive VR despite knowing that in reality, an office carpet lies just below," writes Kelsey Ichikawa. But like any technology, that immersive power should raise questions. Some are Class 1 questions or questions that come up when technology doesn't work perfectly. What happens, for example, if VR safety protocols can't filter out disturbing content? But the more powerful dilemmas are Class 2 questions or "What happens if this technology does work perfectly?" What if we create such a seamless virtual experience that it's indistinguishable from real life? What if we spend more time there than in real life? What if kids can instantly connect with anyone on the internet in a way that to them seems completely real? For questions like these, simple answers aren't enough. Christians need to think critically here because, like all technology, VR needs to be carefully stewarded. On one hand, it has the potential for great good: medical applications, seamless business meetings, and just the fun of trying new things in virtual space. As God's image bearers, we were designed to build, innovate, create, and explore. As we've said before on BreakPoint , "God is no Luddite." But we should also exercise caution. Our bodies aren't an accidental part of who we are. In an age that increasingly downplays physical aspects of reality, elevating our quasi-spiritual projects of self-creation, God's view of our bodies is critical. We live in the most interconnected age in human history, yet people are lonely . We've forgotten that sharing simple things such as food, hugs, eye contact, fellowship, and physical proximity are essential aspects of living life together as humans made in God's image. This especially matters for children, who are at risk of losing the normal interactions of life. Some have never experienced them in the first place. As early adopters, they may gain the most from our new technologies, but they also have the most to lose.
Mar 11, 2022
Is the invasion of Ukraine a sign of the end times? What are the end times and how are Christians called to respond? John and Maria unpack the Ukraine crisis and how both Christians and the secular world are interpreting the events as an omen of the end of the age. Maria then asks John for clarity on the new Florida bill that protects young children from being exposed to sexual ideology in grade school. John explains the landscape of the culture and how and why many are responding the way they are. To close, John and Maria discuss a pair of recent commentaries and how Christians are called to this cultural moment.
Mar 11, 2022
Is your worldview big enough? Everything at the Colson Center, from the Point and BreakPoint commentaries to podcasts to Wilberforce Weekend brings clarity on culture from a Christian worldview. But the goal isn't just to think clearly. It's also to live in an intentionally redemptive way. And nothing gets in the way of that more than a truncated view of the Gospel. You might call it a "two-chapter" worldview, one focused only on sin and salvation but doesn't take seriously the biblical realities of creation and restoration. Creation helps us see God's intent; restoration puts our personal salvation in larger context of Christ's work in history. A two-chapter Gospel simply isn't big enough for this cultural moment. What if you could spend nine months building the worldview "muscles" needed to make sense of the culture and, working and studying with others, develop a plan to live a life of Christian influence grounded in the story of Scripture? The Colson Fellows program is a regionally based (or online) deep dive into a robust Christian worldview. There are cohorts in over 60 cities and online. Colson Fellows can be found in state legislatures, board rooms, schools, medical research, prisons, pulpits, dinner tables, racial reconciliation efforts...in other words, in every area of life. And that's the vision: everyday Christian leaders, all across culture, with a clear vision for how God can use them in this cultural moment. Learn more at colsonfellows.org.
Mar 11, 2022
Babies aren't popular, right now. In fact, on average, Americans have never had fewer children as we did in 2020. Of course, that was also the year the pandemic began, something that historically, like war and recession, tends to empty maternity wards. The decline in our nation's birth rate, however, didn't begin with COVID-19, and there's little reason to believe it has turned around in the last year and a half. The current decline goes back a while now, and didn't reverse when the economy boomed in the second half of the 2010s. In fact, the dwindling U.S. birth rate seems strangely indifferent to what's happening in the stock market or the headlines. It's almost as if, no matter our financial or political situation, Americans are simply choosing to have fewer and fewer children year by year. And, it's not because they can't afford them. It's because they don't want them. That's the conclusion of a new study published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives , which found that economic factors such as rising cost of living or student debt, factors which historically played outsized roles in fertility rates, are not when it comes to declining birth rates today. To isolate what is causing today's decline, the authors estimated the impact of policy and economic shifts—things such as Medicaid coverage, abortion access, childcare cost, and sex education. "Perhaps the key explanation for the post-2007 sustained decline in US birth rates," the authors conclude, "is not…some changing policy or cost factor, but rather shifting priorities across cohorts of young adults ." Or as Patrick Brown at the Institute for Family Studies summarized: "It's not the economy, stupid, but the culture." In fact, American incomes have reached record highs, and standards of living are better than they were in decades past. Americans, on average, have the resources to bear and raise more children than they are, something like 5.8 million more, according to the Institute for Family Studies' Lyman Stone One factor that did stand out as firmly predicting fertility was marriage rates. Birth rates among married women haven't changed much since the mid-1990s. What has changed is the percentage of women getting married. That number has fallen by nearly half since 1990 . According to Brown, "It doesn't seem to be the case that women who might have had multiple children are stopping at one, but rather delayed marriage and childbirth are preventing more women from having any children at all." The authors of the study cite cultural preferences about adult life as the cause of both falling marriage and fertility. This shouldn't really surprise us. As a 2018 poll publicized by The New York Times found, the most frequently cited reason for young adults' decision not to have children was a desire for more leisure time. Patrick Brown at the Institute for Family Studies is appropriately cautious about what we can learn from this research. For example, it doesn't mean policies designed to make parenting easier for young couples aren't important or that we don't need to address the student debt crisis. What it does mean is that it's time to rethink the conventional wisdom about why people decide to have children. We are not purely economic creatures. Cultural attitudes, norms, and preferences about what makes for a meaningful life have a far bigger impact on fertility than previously thought. Young adults today are having fewer children than ever before, not because they can't keep food on the family table, but because for so many there is no family table. Christians should have different priorities. Throughout Scripture, God prioritizes marriage and children. In the creation account, in the history of Israel, in the Wisdom literature, and in the New Testament Epistles, family is seen as a blessing, the cradle of faith, the place where culture begins, a center of worship. and the setting for some of the greatest joys human beings can experience. That doesn't mean that single life is any less of a calling, or that every young person should focus all their energy on finding a life partner. Just that it wouldn't hurt for more churches and Christian families to play matchmaker, helping young adults reimagine what life should be. We ought not imitate a society that, in its zeal to get the most out of life, is forgetting to pass it on.
Mar 10, 2022
There's a religious element to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In 2019 the Orthodox Church of Ukraine officially split from the Russian Orthodox Church. Obviously, the political and religious history of this part of the world goes back far beyond that, but it should be noted that one of the ways Vladimir Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine is by claiming that he was fighting for " the religious soul of Ukraine ." And prior to the invasion, one strong indicator of his ultimate intentions is that Jews, Muslims, and Protestants were reporting religious oppression in the parts of Ukraine under Moscow's control. In other words, restrictions on religious freedom came first . Unprovoked invasions, genocide, and totalitarian tendencies are often the things that draw the world's attention that something is wrong in some part of the world. A better "canary in the coal mine" of geo-political conflict is religious persecution. That's because religious freedom is the first freedom . When it falls, so do the others.
Mar 10, 2022
When the University of Northampton added a trigger warning to George Orwell's 1984 last year, a fresh round of conversations about speech and censorship followed. What do people in a free society owe each other when it comes to our words? What is the nature and purpose of education? Is it possible to have accountability if there's no real debate? Many educational institutions are taking extreme measures to eradicate language they think is problematic. Students at Brandeis University, for example, compiled a suggested word list to help students and faculty avoid terms with any conceivable sexist, racist, or ableist undertones. Phrases like "killing it," for example, made the list because of their supposedly violent connotations. Others, like "rule of thumb," "you guys," or "that's crazy" were included for even less convincing rationale. In one of the strangest ironies, Brandeis students placed the term "trigger warning" on the list. The students put it this way : Their reason, and I quote, was that "'Warning' can signify that something is imminent or guaranteed to happen, which may cause additional stress about the content to be covered." Ah, but there's a plot twist here: Recent studies are now questioning the effectiveness of trigger warnings for this exact reason. It turns out, the students were on to something. For example, a study published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry found that, on average, trigger warnings increased peoples' perceived emotional vulnerability to trauma. For example, reading written material identified as harmful led to an increase in anxiety. Crucially, these findings only held if the reader actually "believed that words can cause harm" in the first place. In other words, teach a generation that reading certain words can cause irreparable harm, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The same logic applies to other "trigger warnings," like the Brandeis word list: They may create the exact anxiety they're intended to prevent. As Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt write in their book, The Coddling of the American Mind , "A culture that allows the concept of 'safety' to creep so far that it equates emotional discomfort with physical danger is a culture that encourages people to systematically protect one another from the very experiences embedded in daily life that they need in order to become strong and healthy." This is not to say any limits or changes in language amount to censorship. Derogatory terms for people of a different race or with a disability such as Down Syndrome once passed as normal in even "respectable" parts of society. Ridding our language of those terms was an improvement. And, on a personal level, we all need to filter the content we take in daily. That's the idea behind the rating system on movies, which has proven to be more than a bit problematic. Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom initially received a PG rating despite a cultic ritual where a man's still-beating heart is pulled out of his chest. The outroar by parents is what led to the PG-13 rating. On the other hand, Facing the Giants , the Christian movie, received a PG rating instead of G because critics feared it was too religious and would offend viewers. The whole thing is a mess. Even so, we should be able to see that there's a world of difference between old-fashioned parental guidance—really, what we would call wisdom —and immediately removing anything controversial under the guise of it being "triggering." The former acknowledges the moral agency that needs cultivation and shaping. The latter treats us as passive victims in need of coddling. And to be clear, there is always a moral framework behind anything that is labeled as "triggering" speech. Even when it's not clear who is making the rules, they reflect some worldview. And once they are set in stone, violating them is anathema … the equivalent of a physical act of violence. That's an impossible system to uphold and leads to a culture void of real moral discourse and the possibility of forgiveness This is our context, and it is quite a challenge for Christian parents. The answer is not to create our own version of intellectual isolation, hiding from any and all offensive content, shying away from tough topics like sexuality or CRT, or arguing as if our own feelings of being offended are legitimate moral reasoning. In the words of Lukianoff and Haidt , "Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child." All Christians, but especially students, will have to be able to think critically and articulate why things like free speech matter. The best antidote for fragility is the confidence that comes from real preparation. It's the only way to avoid resorting to outrage as a strategy and how we can follow the example of Jesus, Who is truth and love together. Intellectual fragility, on the other hand, is neither.
Mar 9, 2022
Listeners write in asking for a framework to teach young people to view the world with a Christian perspective. John talks about credibility, plausibility, and discernment. Then, Shane asks John for a Biblical grounding for Lent and how Christians should approach the season. Another listener writes in to ask for clarity on how BreakPoint recently explained Jesus' humanity and if his body was fallen or perfect. To close, John helps a listener think well on where we find our identity and how to think well of cultures and race in the spheres of society.
Mar 9, 2022
America has a real trust problem. We've lost trust in our institutions and each other, and the ramifications for society are immense. Recently a senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers wrote in the Harvard Business Review about how businesses should focus on building trust with their customers. A recent survey showed that Americans are wary of trusting companies on issues such as cyber security, employee relations, and transparency. A crutch for many businesses, the author wrote, is not having a dedicated employee or department charged with building trust. Much of his advice was helpful, but the piece could have been distilled into a much more effective message: Anyone who wants to be trusted must be trustworthy . This goes for individuals, businesses, and the state. Because all are comprised of fallen people, there's always the temptation to hide missteps and protect our image. This goes back to the Garden of Eden. It shouldn't take a dedicated employee in the C-suite or a checklist from the Harvard Business Review to act virtuously, but in the end, that's the only true "secret sauce" to building real trust.
Mar 9, 2022
Richard John Neuhaus , founder of the journal on religion and public life First Things, once wrote, "When I meet God, I expect to meet him as an American." The line got him in a good bit of trouble back then, but today he'd almost certainly be accused of being a "Christian nationalist." Nationalism of any stripe has gotten a bad name recently, but especially so-called Christian nationalism . How should Christians think about nations and national loyalty? The first use of the Hebrew word for nation comes appears in Genesis 10, in a listing of nations that descended from Noah's sons. It's notable that this comes before the Tower of Babel, recorded in Genesis 11 , where God created more nations by confusing the languages and scattering people across the Earth. Nations, it seems, were part of God's plan for humanity before the rebellion at Babel. And, even in that story, the dividing into tongues and scattering of the people is described more as an act of mercy than of judgment, to prevent humans from doing all that was possible as one people. Then in Genesis 12 , God tells Abram that his descendants would become a great nation, and that, through them, all the nations of the world would be blessed. The Old Testament frequently refers to the Jewish people as a nation, while also using the same word to describe the other kingdoms and empires around them. In the New Testament ethne , the Greek word for "nation" most famously appears in Jesus' instructions to make disciples "of all nations," which is a fulfillment of God's original promise to Abraham. Also interesting is that in the New Testament, language about nations seems to exclude "empire." Though ethne can be translated either as "people group" or "nation," the two are related. Historically, the word "nation" referred to a relatively homogenous group, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically. The kingdoms of the ancient world mostly consisted of people of a single nation. Thus, ethne can refer to a people group within an empire, but not to empires themselves because they contain multiple nations. Nations also seem to be present after the Second Coming of Christ, according to biblical descriptions. For example, Micah 4:2 says: "Many nations shall come, and say: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." And in Revelation 21:24 , we are told that "by the light [of God and of the Lamb] will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it [the New Jerusalem]." So, it seems that something of the nations will survive into eternity. Of course, because human beings are fallen, everything humans build are susceptible to sin, including nations. Just as sins characterize our lives as individuals, so also can certain sins dominate nations, corrupting their cultures. And, just as we must be cleansed of sin to enter the Kingdom, so must nations be cleansed from sins if they have any place in the New Heavens and New Earth. A fascinating illustration of this is found in the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Their high views of ancient northern European culture show up in their stories of Narnia and Middle Earth. However, though they believed virtue could be found, they also recognized the evils of Norse paganism. Thus, they argued for a recovery of "northernness," cleansed of its paganism and Christianized by the Gospel. Exactly what the cleansing of nations entails isn't clear, but the result is beautifully described in Revelation 7 , where "a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages" will join together in worshipping the Lamb. This passage confirms that, at least to some degree, our nationality will accompany us into eternity. Rather than homogenizing us, God's Kingdom will be a glorious mosaic of people of different races, ethnicities, and nations. This makes sense given that God delighted in the diversity of His creation. In other words, according to these texts, when Father Neuhaus died in 2009, he did, in fact, meet God as an American. Of course, all good loves, including love of spouse, child, family, community, or culture, can be disordered and even idolatrous. Nationalism becomes idolatry whenever love of nation devolves into an excessive or uncritical devotion, is confused with the Kingdom of God, justifies evil, or engages in a partiality that treats citizens of other nations as less worthy of love or justice or charity. However, the idea that nations should be defined, self-governing, and the immediate object of Christian stewardship is not idolatry. Another way to say this is that Christians are called to be good stewards of the nations they are in. Our nations are, after all, the most obvious aspect of the time and place in which God has placed us. At the same time, great harm is done whenever Christians attempt to build empires . The reason is simple: Jesus is the only one who rules over all nations, and no one on earth has the right to usurp His authority.
Mar 8, 2022
In 2020, America reached a grim milestone . According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, 2020 was the first year that more than half of all abortions performed in the U.S.—54%—were done with drugs instead of instruments. That's up from 39% in 2017. Abortion pills are only approved for use before a baby reaches 10 weeks' gestation. Due to COVID-19, prescriptions became available via "telehealth." But how can a doctor verify gestational age without seeing a woman in person? In fact, how is a doctor supposed to monitor women for life-threatening complications after they take the drugs— which do happen —if they never even come into the office? Privatizing abortion for hurting women will increase profits for drug companies and doctors, who can collect their dues without seeing patients, let alone treating them. However, sending abortion home also increases the danger, shame, and isolation of women in need of care. And, of course, adding this bad idea to an already bad idea makes more babies the victims. A grim milestone, indeed.
Mar 8, 2022
Many Christians, rightly concerned about protecting the Church's witness in front of the wider world , have embraced claims about the church that simply are not true. Last week, Pastor Josh Howerton of Lakepointe Church in Dallas shared a fascinating Twitter thread demonstrating that when it comes to the Church's reputation, perception is not always reality. Citing research from the Barna Group and others, Pastor Howerton debunked the popular m yth of the pro-life evangelical who cares only about babies until they are born but not once they are outside the womb. For example, practicing American Christians are more than twice as likely as non-Christians to adopt .. Then there's the accusation that conservative Christians are sexually repressed, obsessed with "purity culture" and the sexual oppression of women. The research actually shows that couples who identify as "highly religious" report having the most satisfied sexual lives. Those numbers are even higher for women than for men. A more recent accusation is that American churches are rampant with abuses of power, gaslighting, or narcissistic leaders. To be sure, those problems exist, as illustrated not long ago by Christianity Today 's podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill . But the data show clearly that regularly attending church, on the whole, dramatically improves people's mental and emotional health , accounting for a 33% decreased risk in deaths from despair, a 50% reduced risk of divorce, and a 29% decreased risk of depression. The Church, of course, has plenty of problems. But how has the gap between reality and perception grown so wide? Part of the problem is myopia. It is human nature to think that our perception of the world is true, and to downplay or even ignore evidence to the contrary. This is especially true when we are trying to stand with victims and work for wrongs to be righted. Even so, ours is a culture that rewards self-preoccupation. In 1979, sociologist Christopher Lasch wrote The Culture of Narcissism , arguing that as the bonds of religious identity and family erode, Americans were increasingly looking inward for security and meaning. In such a culture, feelings and subjective experiences aren't just considered the most important thing in the world: They're considered the most accurate view of the world. In such a world, special social status is awarded to people perceived as victims. Thus, testimonies of victimization—both inside the Church and out—get louder play. Stories of everyday faithfulness, sacrifice, and ministry seem boring. And, in a secular culture increasingly hostile to Christianity, one person's negative experience at church or disdain for Christianity in general will be much better received and more readily believed than the opposite testimony, even if that one person's perception is false, or at least uncommon. Simply put, a lot of people just don't want to like the Church. In some cases, they have good reason. Whenever that is the case, we should grieve and take appropriate steps to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. But we should also not be surprised when a secular culture skeptical of the existence of moral realities flinches at the moral certainty offered in Scripture. As atheist Thomas Nagel honestly admitted, "It isn't just that I don't believe in God…. I don't want there to be a God. I don't want the universe to be like that." Describing The Culture of Narcissism , Christopher Lasch wrote, "the contemporary climate is therapeutic, not religious. People today hunger not for personal salvation, but for the feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health, and psychic security." Even though the Christian life offers the best path for human flourishing, there is no promise of personal comfort. Jesus promised that the difficult grind of sanctification—the self-sacrifice, the commitment, the generosity that we're called to—wouldn't always come across well, not to others or even to us. He said the world would hate Him because darkness hates the light. As Christians, our response should be invitation, not self-flagellation. The reason data shows Christians are living more satisfied lives isn't because Christians are better people. If we've succeeded in anything, it's only because of God working through us. Without Him, Jesus said, we can do nothing. The advantage to being a Christian is seeing reality as it really is. It makes perfect sense that the people willing to accept the Bible as the true account of the world would be the people most able to live at peace in the world. If we've found that peace, it's by God's grace, and our task is to invite the lost to come and find it, too. The data doesn't lie. Neither does the Bible.
Mar 7, 2022
Tony Souder is the founder of the Pray for Me campaign, something being used in over 700 churches to connect generations. BreakPoint writer sat down with Tony Souder this week to hear how his ministry is uniting the church. Kasey also shares how BreakPoint listeners can receive the resources from The Pray For Me Campaign, and bridge generational breaks in their own communities. For more information visit www.breakpoint.org/february .
Mar 7, 2022
"From Neolithic constructions to atomic clocks, how humans measure time reveals what we value most," writes Clara Moskowitz in Scientific American . She's reviewing physicist Chad Orzel's new book A Brief History of Timekeeping , and her comment is an insightful one. We may not think measuring time is an extension of worldview, but it is. Os Guinness puts it this way: "Accelerated time is one of the primary shapers of our modern world and far more influential than any individual modern thinker." Our tools have made us incredibly productive, but they also encourage us to ignore the contextual clues from the world around us. Under the glare of LED lights, for example, we can stay up and work when even our hardest-working forbears would have chosen rest. One of the best gifts Christians can give the world is a re-contextualization of time. Like professor Kelly Kapic writes in his book You're Only Human , "What we want most is to live in harmony with time, instead of being driven by it." We may have gained productivity with our calculated time, but we lost some things as well.
Mar 7, 2022
In his letter to the church at Philippi, St. Paul exhorted the believers there to live lives "worthy of the gospel of Christ.." How Paul goes on to describe that kind of life lived is a bit unnerving, especially in a letter supposedly about finding a life of joy. Such a life, wrote Paul , involves, "striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, not frightened in anything by your opponents…. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake." Most of us cannot imagine living out those words, but the Nigerian schoolgirls, kidnapped almost eight years ago by Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram, can. Now in their early 20's, their stories are documented in a new book, Bring Back Our Girls: The Untold Story of the Global Search for Nigeria's Missing Schoolgirls by Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw The nightmare began the night of April 14, 2014 , when armed members of the terrorist group descended on the majority Christian town of Chibok, firing their weapons and looking for food supplies and a new brickmaker. After forcing the 276 teenage girls out of their beds and into the courtyard, they eventually decided to them as captives as well. They burned the school to the ground and disappeared into Nigeria's rugged northern scrubland. The multinational search and rescue attempt that followed was accompanied by the viral social media campaign known as #BringBackOurGirls. Unfortunately, it had limited immediate effect. The girls, most of whom were Christian, were at the mercy of their captors. While the Muslim classmates were forced to marry Boko Haram fighters, the Christian schoolgirls faced a choice. They could convert to Islam and likewise be forced into marriage, or they could refuse and endure every imaginable form of forced labor, assault, and deprivation. For the girls, the answer was clear. They would not submit. "Anything that happens, happens," they told each other. Kept at near-starvation levels and forced into back-breaking labor over the next three years, Parkinson and Hinshaw describe how the girls' faith remained strong. Parkinson and Hinshaw tell the story: "At the risk of beatings and torture, they whispered prayers together at night, or into cups of water, and memorized the Book of Job from a smuggled Bible. Into secret diaries, they copied Luke 2, because they saw themselves in Mary's ordeal of giving birth to Jesus. They transcribed paraphrases of psalms in loopy, teenage handwriting: 'Oh my God I keep calling by day and You do not answer. And by night. and there is no silence on my part' (22:2)." "As we interviewed some 20 of the young women," Parkinson and Hinshaw continue, "We discovered [something] that much of the foreign coverage had missed. We saw clearly how the teenagers' will to survive was inseparable from their religious convictions." Those same convictions are being tested in other parts of Nigeria, as well. To this day, the regular murder, abduction, and violence meted out towards Christians—combined with the sometimes complicity of the government and relative silence of the international community—has led some to call it " Nigeria's silent slaughter. " To date, the Red Cross estimates that more than 24,000 people are registered as missing, the most of any country. In the case of the Chibok girls, 163 either escaped or were eventually released. At least 13 died in captivity. Nearly 100 girls remain unaccounted for. According to Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw, their story holds a surprising but important lesson for Africa's most populous nation: "At times it could be easy [to] adopt the facile hope that Nigeria's problems might be resolved by gradually secularizing its more than 210 million people," they write: "Yet we found a different perspective in a group of young women who had faced unimaginable hardship and survived. Their faith provided twin anchors of identity and hope during a period when their captors were trying to erase both.… [it] became the language of their resistance." In the tradition of so many who went before them, who were granted "not only to believe in Christ but to suffer for His sake, the Chibok schoolgirls held on to faith, and in so doing, found life and hope where there was seemingly none. Pray for Nigeria, and the thousands of Christians suffering for Christ there.
Mar 5, 2022
What exactly did President Joe Biden say at the State of the Union? John and Maria identify the worldview foundation that President Biden spoke from and how the topics in his speech, ranging from Ukraine to education, reveal important realities about his worldview. To close the show, Maria shares a haunting reality in the Ukraine conflict: Surrogate children conceived for commercial purposes are stuck in a Ukrainian bomb shelter because their paying parents aren't able to reach them. John explains the challenge of commercial surrogacy and how it differs from adoption and other forms of surrogacy. -- Recommendations -- Watch Mike Kryzyzewski's Final Game at Cameron Indoor Stadium>> Read Through the Gospels with Maria>> Katy Faust - Lighthouse Voices Series>> -- Show References -- Ukraine's Surrogacy Industry Has Put Women in Impossible Positions Ukraine is an international surrogacy hub, one of only a handful of countries in the world that allows foreigners to enter into surrogacy arrangements. That means people from the United States or China or Germany or Australia can go there and hire a local woman to gestate their child. There are conditions—the parents have to be straight and married and have a medical reason for needing a surrogate—but surrogates are plentiful, paying them is legal, and establishing legal parenthood for the intended parents is uncomplicated. The Atlantic Protecting the Victims of Bad Ideas Standing for the inherent dignity and rights of children against the innovations of our age is our version of "running into the plague and caring for victims" while everyone else is running away. BreakPoint>>
Mar 4, 2022
As the world watches Russia attack its neighbor, it's worth remembering that threats to freedom can come from within, too. Scotland's newest Hate Crime Act is aimed at squashing any speech that critiques transgender ideology. Offenders face jail time, for up to seven years , for what's being called "stirring up hatred." Exactly what "stirring up hatred" means , of course, is the problem. Incredibly, the law not only applies to public spaces but to conversations held in one's own home. Many in Scotland are rightly worried about the chilling effect this law would have on free speech, let alone how it would enable more of a police state. This is in stark contrast to a classical liberal view of liberty. As John Stuart Mill famously argued , free speech is the only defense against the "tyranny of the majority." Christians have an additional reason to care about free speech. Loving our neighbor means defending their ability to speak without coercion… e specially when those opinions are unpopular.
Mar 4, 2022
Earlier this week, Christians were reminded , by a smudged cross on foreheads and with words first spoken to Adam and Eve, of our mortality : "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." These words, delivered by clergy on Ash Wednesday, are God's words about us, recorded in Genesis 3:19 . Though it's not pleasant to be reminded that we are dust, it is good. Ash Wednesday tells the truth about who we are. The Season that follows, Lent, helps us order our lives around that truth. And yet, dust is not merely our status after the fall, or because of sin. We were created from the dust of the earth. That meager beginning is what God intended for those who would bear His image before the rest of creation. Recently, an article was published critiquing how Christians often talk about identity. Under the provocative title, " Stop Finding Your Identity in Christ ," Caleb Morell rightly notes that throughout most of Church history, the theological emphasis was on union with Christ, not identity in Christ. He also rightly notes that how we talk about finding identity in Christ is, too often, a re-hashed postmodernism, more about self-discovery or, even worse, self-determination, than anything theological. While I agree with much of it, I don't think that "finding your identity in Christ" is unbiblical. It is, however, incomplete if disconnected from our identity in creation. Any talk of who we are disconnected from who God originally created us to be misses essential truths of what it ultimately means to be in Christ. And, it leaves our thinking about a fundamental question of human existence, who are we as human beings, vulnerable to modern and postmodern ways of thinking. Is the self a "construct" of culture and bias? Do our feelings determine what is true about who we are? Are our bodies pliable and changeable according to our internal whims? Or are we created? What is given about who we are that we need to know, accept, and embrace? In the creation story, the answers to these questions are not up for grabs. When God reminded Adam he had been formed from dust scooped from the Earth, He's taking Adam back to the creation narrative. Adam and Eve were the only members of God's creation not merely spoken into existence. The difference in language is dramatic. Rather, than "let there be... and it was so," God said : "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Humans were given authority over the rest of creation. They were to care for and cultivate the creation according to God's purposes for it. In this way, they were created distinct from the rest of creation. They were to glorify God by stewarding His world. Our ability to fulfill that purpose was crippled by sin, but that purpose was not removed. God sent Jesus, in the flesh of fallen humanity, to restore and reconcile humanity to God, and therefore, also to our created purpose. In Eden, the first promise of redemption is given. The Seed of Adam and Eve would crush the serpent's head. In Christ, the culmination of this and all of the promises of God is realized. Jesus Christ is, as Paul said, the person in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." As such, in Christ, we are restored to Who we really are. Paul, writing to the Colossians , directly connects Christ with Creation: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him." Paul uses that phrase "in Him," meaning "in Christ," multiple times. The image of God is restored in Christ. Through His birth, life, obedience, death, resurrection, and ascent, human purpose is restored, renewed again in the Holy Spirit. Another way to say all of this is that Christ did not come to save us from being human, He came so that we could be fully human. It's not unbiblical to talk about identity in Christ. But, disconnected from the larger Biblical Story of Creation to New Creation, it's woefully, and consequentially, incomplete. Our identity was established by God from the very beginning of the story. We're made in the image of God, and that image is restored and perfected in Christ. The implications of this are immense. Our purpose to steward and rule the created order is restored in Christ. Our God-given relationships—with Him and others and the created order—are reconciled by Christ. Our sense of self is not constructed, but it is only realized in Christ. At last year's Wilberforce Weekend , we looked at our identity as imago dei from various angles, and each of the different chapters of the Story: creation, fall, redemption, restoration. At this year's Wilberforce Weekend , we look at the implications of our salvation, what it means to see and live all of Life Redeemed. Because that's how big redemption is: as big as life itself. As Thomas Howard wrote about the incarnation, "He did not come to thin out human life; He came to set it free. All the dancing and feasting and processing and singing and building and sculpting and baking and merrymaking that belong to us, and that were stolen away into the service of false gods, are returned to us in the gospel." What if that is actually true? Well, it is . I hope you'll join us at this year's Wilberforce Weekend to explore the implications of our identity as human beings redeemed by Christ to be truly and fully human. To learn more, go to wilberforceweekend.org .
Mar 3, 2022
Are we overusing the word trauma ? In a recent article, Lexi Pandell of Vox news notes : "Current cultural references to the word (trauma) have become a mess of tongue-in-cheek and casual mentions, mixed with serious confessions and interrogations of the past." Of course, trauma is a reality, which is why overusing it is so problematic. The undiagnosed shell shock among World War I veterans is a tragic example. Unaddressed, emotional wounds caused by injury, violence, or sexual assault can have terrible consequences. But for a culture lacking moral consensus, it's so tempting to overuse the word. "Its current usage has created a tidy framework within which to understand our lives and roles," writes Pandell: "An event happens to us, an aggressor attacks us, we are born into generations of suffering. In this telling, we are powerless—it's beyond our control." Another expert put it more cynically, "(The word) has currency, so people broker in it." The only way forward is to recover two truths: That people have agency and that definitions matter.
Mar 3, 2022
In Tuesday night's State of the Union address, President Joe Biden told young people with gender dysphoria that he will "always have (their) back." Though he didn't specify what exactly that means, presumably it had something to do with extending Title IX protections to include allowing men full access to women's facilities and sports ; extending mandatory insurance coverage for " gender reassignment" surgeries ; and restricting any counseling, treatments, or public advocacy that does anything less than fully affirm one's gender dysphoria. What makes it likely that the President's late-speech shoutout referred to these sorts of extreme positions on the issue is that it was quickly followed by a call to pass the so-called " Equality Act ," something that remains (at least for now) dead in the Senate. The Equality Act would be a kind of legislative nuclear option, rendering about 250 so-called "anti-LGBTQ" bills under consideration across America pointless, leading to serious restrictions on religious liberty, especially for religious schools. Over the last few years, following a strategy that proved effective for pro-life protections, states like Texas have been laying creative groundwork to hold adults accountable for experimenting on young people struggling with gender identity. Having these laws in place is incredibly important, given the astronomical rise in the number of young people identifying as transgender, and how quickly transgender ideology went from being unthinkable to unquestionable in so many aspects of society . For instance, the field of so-called gender-affirming "medicine" is the only example of medical treatment that attempts to orient the body to the mind, as opposed to correcting the mind to align with biological reality. That was a $316 million industry in 2018. By 2026, it is projected to be a $1.5 billion industry. Children, in particular, are the subjects of this social experimentation, which is only one example of how reality has been reimagined along the lines of sexual autonomy. If the early days of the sexual revolution were about being free from the confines of sexual morality , these latter days are about being free from the confines of sexual reality. That these created realities were part of a biological, social, and religious package deal went largely unquestioned until recently. However, technological innovations such as the pill, IVF, and surrogacy; legal innovations such as no-fault divorce; and cultural innovations such as ubiquitous pornography and "hook-up" apps, have all made it increasingly easy to reimagine the world along the line of advancing our sexual happiness. Children are forced to go along. Pursuing social and legal equality without reference to reality has proven even more disastrous. It's one thing to say that men and women are equal before God and the law; it's quite another to say that they are the same or, like we are saying today, that any and all differences are either an illusion or unjust. So now, we talk without a hint of parody that men can bear children and that "not all women menstruate" and that love can make a second mom into a dad. None of this is true, but young people are expected to play along, to adapt and adopt these lies, pretending all is well, even if they're not. Of all of the lies of the sexual revolution, that's the most devastating. It was repeated at each new stage of the sexual revolution, in some form or another, in order to justify whatever way we were going to reimagine life in the world: "the kids will be fine," But, of course, the kids haven't been fine. Not even close. In her book, Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children's Rights Movement , Katy Faust documents all the ways the kids aren't fine, and all the ways their wellbeing is sacrificed on the altar of adult happiness. On Tuesday, March 15, I will be talking with Katy Faust about all the ways that the kids aren't fine. We'll talk about how Christians can and must defend children from the myths, misnomers, and lies of the sexual revolution. This isn't a theoretical topic. In fact, I'm absolutely convinced that standing for the inherent dignity and rights of children against the innovations of our age is our version of "running into the plague and caring for victims" while everyone else is running away. It's what we're called to at this cultural moment. Katy's presentation will be part of the new Lighthouse Voices Speaker Series, a partnership between the Colson Center and Focus on the Family. We aim to help Christians think clearly and biblically, especially about the most critical, confusing, and important issues at the intersection of family and culture. If you're in the Holland, Michigan, area, you can join the conversation in person. If not, you can sign up for the livestream of this important discussion at www.colsoncenter.org/events
Mar 3, 2022
Earlier this week, Christians were reminded , by a smudged cross on the foreheads and with words spoken first to Adam and Eve, of mortality : "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." These words, delivered to us by clergy on Ash Wednesday, are God's words about us, recorded in Genesis 3:19 . Though it's not pleasant to be reminded that we are dust, it is good. Ash Wednesday tells the truth about who we are. The Season that follows, Lent, helps us order our lives around that truth. And yet, dust is not merely our status after the fall, or because of sin. We were created from the dust of the earth. That meager beginning is what God intended for those who would bear His image before the rest of creation. Recently, an article was published critiquing how Christians often talk about identity. Under the provocative title, " Stop Finding Your Identity in Christ ," Caleb Morell rightly notes that throughout most of Church history, the theological emphasis was on union with Christ, not identity in Christ. He also rightly notes that how we often talk about finding identity in Christ is re-hashed postmodernism, more about self-discovery or, even worse, self-determination, than anything theological. While I agree with much of it, I don't think that "finding your identity in Christ" is unbiblical. It is, however, incomplete if disconnected from our identity in creation. Any talk of who we are disconnected from who God originally created us to be misses essential truths of what it ultimately means to be in Christ. And it leaves our thinking about a fundamental question of human existence, who are we as human beings, vulnerable to modern and postmodern ways of thinking. Is the self a "construct" of culture and bias? Do our feelings determine what is true about who we are? Are our bodies pliable and changeable according to our internal whims? Or are we created? What is given about who we are that we need to know, accept, and embrace? In the creation story, the answers to these questions are not up for grabs. When God reminded Adam he had been formed from dust scooped from the Earth, He's taking Adam back to the creation narrative. Adam and Eve were the only members of God's creation not merely spoken into existence. The difference in language is dramatic. Rather, than "let there be... and it was so," God said : "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Humans were given authority over the rest of creation. They were to care for and cultivate the creation according to God's purposes for it. In this way, they were created distinct from the rest of creation. They were to glorify God by stewarding His world. Our ability to fulfill that purpose was crippled by sin, but that purpose was not removed. God sent Jesus, in the flesh of fallen humanity, to restore and reconcile humanity both to God, and therefore, to our created purpose. In Eden, the first promise of redemption is given. The Seed of Adam and Eve would crush the serpent's head. In Christ, the culmination of this and all of the promises of God is realized. Jesus Christ is, as Paul said the person in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." As such, in Christ, we are restored to Who we really are. Paul, writing to the Colossians , directly connects Christ with Creation: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him." Paul uses that phrase "in Him," meaning "in Christ," multiple times. The image of God is restored in Christ. Through His birth, life, obedience, death, resurrection, and ascent, human purpose is restored, renewed again in the Holy Spirit. Another way to say all of this is that Christ did not come to save us from being human, He came so that we could be fully human. It's not unbiblical to talk about identity in Christ. But, disconnected from the whole Biblical Story of Creation to New Creation, it's woefully, and consequentially, incomplete. Our identity was established by God from the very beginning of the story. We're made in the image of God, and that image is restored and perfected in Christ. The implications of this are immense. Our purpose to steward and rule the created order is restored in Christ. Our God-given relationships—with Him and others and the created order—are reconciled by Christ. Our sense of self is not constructed, but it is realized in Christ. At last year's Wilberforce Weekend, we looked at our identity as image bearers of Christ from various angles, and each of the different chapters of the Story: creation, fall, redemption, restoration. At this year's Wilberforce Weekend, we look at the implications of our salvation, what it means to see and live all of Life Redeemed. Because that's how big redemption is: as big as life itself. As Thomas Howard wrote about the incarnation, "He did not come to thin out human life; He came to set it free. All the dancing and feasting and processing and singing and building and sculpting and baking and merrymaking that belong to us, and that were stolen away into the service of false gods, are returned to us in the gospel." What if that is actually true? Well, it is. I hope you'll join us at this year's Wilberforce Weekend to explore the implications of our identity as human beings redeemed by Christ to be truly and fully human. To learn more, go to wilberforceweekend.org .
Mar 2, 2022
John clarifies the role of technology in worldview, specifically how it impacts the Church. He is asked how the Metaverse is problematic for Christianity when people from around the world are able to enter deep conversations inside the faith. Then, Shane asks a listener's question who is wondering if we're missing relevance in the Russian motivation for invading Ukraine. Later in the show, John explains the role of religion in the conflict.
Mar 2, 2022
Free speech is very much at risk on college campuses. According to one study , some 66% of students say that "it is acceptable to shout down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus." And, over 80% of students report self-censoring their own viewpoints out of fear of saying the wrong thing. But as the Atlantic's Jennifer Miller reports, a new, grassroots movement of civil-dialogue clubs is offering a strong response in support of free speech. One such organization is Bridge USA . As one of their student leaders put it , "Not being able to speak openly [is] I think, one of the main problems. I just wanted to create this community where anyone could feel like they could express their ideas and actually be heard." This is a particularly worthy aim for a student, and for Christians, who should never be afraid to bring their best ideas to the table. Christianity, after all, is the best explanation for reality there is. Thus, we don't need other people to "self-censor" their opinions around us. We extend an invitation to all to join us in exploring truth in love, an invite God extends to us. And, when we do, it can be a tremendous witness in an age of stifled public discourse.
Mar 2, 2022
Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the season of Lent. Its message is more needed today than ever. Lent is a 40-day period of time (Sundays aren't included in the count), set aside in the Church calendar to reflect and to prepare. In a sense, the Season of Lent is for Easter what the Season of Advent is for Christmas, but even more counter-cultural in its assessment of the human condition. Plus, as a holiday, Easter is not nearly as popular as Christmas, and can come and go before we know it. Even so, for most Christians, all that's left of this season is the idea of "giving up something for Lent." The original idea of disciplining the body, repenting of sins, and preparing to remember Jesus' passion and death in order to celebrate His resurrection has been whittled down to an annual Christian weight-loss plan. It's a loss far greater than mere tradition. Implied in the disciplines of Lent, whether fasting from some indulgence or embracing some new habit of life and godliness, is the inherent connection between body and soul. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, when ashes are imposed by the clergy on the forehead in the shape of a cross, we are reminded of who we are with these words, "Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return." The ashes remind us that we are not less than physical beings, made from the dust of the earth, and therefore mortal. We will one day die. All of the above is easily forgotten in a society like ours, which suffers from a split personality. On one hand, tremendous emphasis is placed on physical appearance and meeting physical desire. We idolize sex, obsess over diet and how our bodies look, and rearrange the entire world in order to guard our physical health. On the other hand, we deny that our bodies have any say about who we are, instead demanding biological workarounds that will accommodate whatever it is we want. This is just the latest incarnation of an ancient heresy that will not die. Gnosticism arose at roughly the same time as Christianity. The name comes from the Greek word gnosis , which means knowledge. Gnostics believed that through the acquisition of secret knowledge, one could escape the confines of the physical world. According to Gnostic cosmology, the invisible and immaterial are superior to the physical. Thus, the soul or spirit is superior to the body. At best, the body is irrelevant. At worst, the body is an evil, an hindrance to the spirit and thus to salvation. So, some Gnostics gave themselves over to hedonistic expressions of drinking, gluttony, and sexual abandonment since the body could not affect the spirit. Others turned to strict asceticism, rejecting sex, wine, meat, and other foods, denying the body to strengthen the spirit. Some even went so far as to starve themselves to death. Gnosticism as a formal religion largely died out by the end of the third-century A.D. Gnostic ideas, however, continue to show up in both conservative and progressive Christianity. Some Christians confuse the Bible's condemnations of the world and the flesh as a rejection of the physical world and the significance of our bodies. This shows up in forms of false asceticism, which in the words of Paul's letter to the Colossians " are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh ." Alternately, many progressive Christians embrace new cultural orthodoxies and deny that our bodies have meaning. Rejecting the natural purposes of God's good design, they deny sexual difference and that our reproductive systems are designed for procreation; they deny the inherent good and rights of children, the permanence of marriage, the morality that best protects sexual relationships, and other ordered goods of the human body. In particular, transgenderism is an explicit neo-gnostic rejection of human bodies, treating them as largely irrelevant to our identities. Instead, who we really are is determined by some non-observable, non-objective, non-empirical secret knowledge known only to ourselves, but to which everyone else and reality itself must adapt. Ash Wednesday and Lent directly challenge this way of thinking, reminding us that our bodies and souls are inextricably linked, that we are more but not less than physical beings, and that God's creation was, indeed, good . We will die, one day, a fact of life that so many in our culture perpetually try to distract themselves from. And, corrupted by our own sin, we are in need of God's mercy and forgiveness. Whether or not you receive the imposition of ashes today or participate in a Lenten fast, don't let Easter sneak up on you just yet. Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Embrace the significance of the body and its inseparable union with our spirits. This knowledge is revealed by God, and not kept in secret. Use it to draw near to God, who took on a human body, lived, died, and rose again so that we might rise with Him.
Mar 2, 2022
In Tuesday night's State of the Union address, President Joe Biden told young people with gender dysphoria that he will "always have (their) back." Though he didn't specify what exactly that means, presumably it had something to do with extending Title IX protections to include allowing men full access to women's facilities and sports ; extending mandatory insurance coverage for " gender reassignment" surgeries ; and restricting any counseling, treatments, or public advocacy that does anything less than fully affirm one's gender dysphoria. What makes it likely that the President's late-speech shoutout referred to these sorts of extreme positions on the issue is that it was quickly followed by a call to pass the so-called " Equality Act ," something that remains (at least for now) dead in the Senate. The Equality Act would be a kind of legislative nuclear option, rendering about 250 so-called "anti-LGBTQ" bills under consideration across America pointless, leading to serious restrictions on religious liberty, especially for religious schools. Over the last few years, following a strategy that proved effective for pro-life protections, states like Texas have been laying creative groundwork to hold adults accountable for experimenting on young people struggling with gender identity. Having these laws in place is incredibly important, given the astronomical rise in the number of young people identifying as transgender, and how quickly transgender ideology went from being unthinkable to unquestionable in so many aspects of society . For instance, the field of so-called gender-affirming "medicine" is the only example of medical treatment that attempts to orient the body to the mind, as opposed to correcting the mind to align with biological reality. That was a $316 million industry in 2018. By 2026, it is projected to be a $1.5 billion industry. Children, in particular, are the subjects of this social experimentation, which is only one example of how reality has been reimagined along the lines of sexual autonomy. If the early days of the sexual revolution were about being free from the confines of sexual morality , these latter days are about being free from the confines of sexual reality. That these created realities were part of a biological, social, and religious package deal went largely unquestioned until recently. However, technological innovations such as the pill, IVF, and surrogacy; legal innovations such as no-fault divorce; and cultural innovations such as ubiquitous pornography and "hook-up" apps, have all made it increasingly easy to reimagine the world along the line of advancing our sexual happiness. Children are forced to go along. Pursuing social and legal equality without reference to reality has proven even more disastrous. It's one thing to say that men and women are equal before God and the law; it's quite another to say that they are the same or, like we are saying today, that any and all differences are either an illusion or unjust. So now, we talk without a hint of parody that men can bear children and that "not all women menstruate" and that love can make a second mom into a dad. None of this is true, but young people are expected to play along, to adapt and adopt these lies, pretending all is well, even if they're not. Of all of the lies of the sexual revolution, that's the most devastating. It was repeated at each new stage of the sexual revolution, in some form or another, in order to justify whatever way we were going to reimagine life in the world: "the kids will be fine," But, of course, the kids haven't been fine. Not even close. In her book, Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children's Rights Movement , Katy Faust documents all the ways the kids aren't fine, and all the ways their wellbeing is sacrificed on the altar of adult happiness. On Tuesday, March 15, I will be talking with Katy Faust about all the ways that the kids aren't fine. We'll talk about how Christians can and must defend children from the myths, misnomers, and lies of the sexual revolution. This isn't a theoretical topic. In fact, I'm absolutely convinced that standing for the inherent dignity and rights of children against the innovations of our age is our version of "running into the plague and caring for victims" while everyone else is running away. It's what we're called to at this cultural moment. Katy's presentation will be part of the new Lighthouse Voices Speaker Series, a partnership between the Colson Center and Focus on the Family. We aim to help Christians think clearly and biblically, especially about the most critical, confusing, and important issues at the intersection of family and culture. If you're in the Holland, Michigan, area, you can join the conversation in person. If not, you can sign up for the livestream of this important discussion at www.colsoncenter.org/events
Mar 1, 2022
This past Wednesday morning, a man named Tedd Mathis announced that his father had died a champion. "Forty-eight hours before he died," Tedd wrote, "dad was wheeled to the nursing home chapel to preach his final sermon. Christ was worthy, even with a cracked hip, failing kidneys, and a 95-year-old body bruised and stitched together from numerous falls of late." There's something unusual and inspiring about a life lived faithfully to the very end. It's what we want for ourselves but see so rarely. Of course, really the only way to end well is to live well… What can be called "a long obedience." At funerals, we hear how someone "is in a better place." They are, but it's also true that God has called us here to make this a better place. So, like this godly man, let's live our lives in such a way that our end is the capstone of a life lived in restoring all things to God's will.
Mar 1, 2022
In ninth grade, I was a knucklehead. Even worse, I was a Christian school knucklehead. Those are the worst kind... Six days a week from as early as I could remember, between Bible classes and Sunday school, I was in the same building, often the same classrooms, hearing Bible lessons, often from the same people. I spent my time on basketball and girls (in that order) but didn't have much of a faith I could call my own. Around Christmas in December of 1990, I met someone who would change my life. Instead of a much-anticipated Christmas party, the boys senior high Bible class was sent out in twos to visit the elderly "shut-ins" of our church. I'm sure the intention was to bring Christmas cheer to folks not physically able to get out anymore, but as you might imagine, the only thing we wanted to do less than schoolwork on the last day of classes before Christmas break was to visit two old people we'd never met. I was paired with my friend Brian, who shared my disdain for the assignment. But he had an idea: "We'll go visit one person and say we couldn't find the other person's house. That way, we'll be done early and can go to the mall." That's how I met Ms. Buckner, who lived down a windy, rural Virginia road in a little apartment attached to her grandson's farmhouse. Ms. Buckner, an 89-year-old widow, came to the door and invited us inside. There was, shall we say, a pretty significant generation gap in that room. We didn't know what to talk about, and she didn't really know what to talk about. Just when we thought it couldn't get more awkward, Ms. Buckner said, "Let's sing Christmas carols together." After we stumbled our way through "Silent Night," she decided one carol was enough. "Well, Ms. Buckner," Brian said, "we'd best be on our way." "Yes," I lied, "we still have one more person to visit before heading back to school." And then she asked, "Well, before you go, let's pray together." So I prayed, and Brian prayed. That took about 45 seconds. And then, Ms. Buckner prayed. At that point in my life, I'd probably heard thousands of prayers. But there was something about this one. Ms. Buckner spoke to God as if she knew Him, with a confidence and humility that only comes when you're certain that Someone is listening. We left Ms. Buckner's house and headed to the mall, hoping to meet some girls. But Brian and I agreed that Ms. Buckner was a pretty cool old woman. Two years later, (and to this day, I have no idea why) I woke up thinking about Ms. Buckner. I was even less interested in spiritual things by then, but I ended up going back down the windy road to her house. When Ms. Buckner came to the door, I said, "you probably don't remember me, but two years ago I came here with my friend Brian." "John," she smiled. "I prayed for you this morning." Ms. Buckner became a close friend. She prayed for me every day for the rest of her life. I have no idea what she has prayed me into or out of. In so many ways, the gap between generations today is more pronounced than ever. And one way to bridge that gap is prayer. My friend Tony Souder has developed a set of prayer guides that will help Christians bridge that generation gap through prayer, just as Ms. Buckner did for me. According to the Barna Group , millennials who stayed in church were "twice as likely to have a close personal friendship with an adult inside the church." Tony's Pray for Me Campaign is a way to facilitate those relationships between generations through prayer. The Pray for Me Campaign offers simple, practical guides that equip adult believers to pray for children and students. There are guides aimed to jumpstart intergenerational prayer relationships between parents and their children, grandparents and their grandchildren, and adults and the students in their church. This month, for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, we will send you the prayer guide of your choice that best fits the relationship needs that you have with the next generation. Just go to breakpoint.org/February
Feb 28, 2022
INC.com's Jeff Steen has a new technique for anxiety management: schedule time to worry. Setting aside time to consider what worries us, he writes, clarifies our fears. It reminds us of what's important, what we can do about it, and (most importantly) what we can't. It's something he's encouraged business leaders to do for years, and it's seen results. There's a biblical term for Steen's technique: prayer. If that sounds cliché, it might be because we've lost one of the main things prayer is meant to be. "Cast all your anxiety on him," writes the Apostle Peter , "because he cares for you." The Psalmist also puts it beautifully : For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. We aren't meant to muscle through our anxieties, but to bring them to God. That's important – because as good as Steen's advice is, it's still only self-help, a speaking into the void. Christians have something just as good and even better. We have Someone listening on the other end.
Feb 28, 2022
With the Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization expected this summer, panic is rising in pro-abortion ranks. There is real possibility that the Court could overturn or at least severely gut Roe v. Wade, curtail abortion rights, and throw the issue back to the states. Because abortion advocates see this as denial of basic women's rights, their arguments are increasingly shifting from legal ground to moral ground. Instead of claiming that abortion is a constitutional right, some are even arguing that it is a "theological right"—in other words, sacred. In 1939, Margaret Sanger recruited ministers for her "Negro Project," which sought to promote birth control and sanitized eugenics ideas to African Americans. Today, in an attempt to sanctify another cause rooted in eugenics, the killing of the unborn, progressive clergy are recruited to promote abortion. This has been going on for years, for instance, when mainline Protestant pastors hold "prayer services" outside of abortion clinics in order to bless the "work" going on inside. Earlier this month, The Washington Post intensified the effort to baptize abortion with a thinly veiled advocacy piece entitled, " The Threat to Roe v. Wade Is Driving a Religious Movement for Reproductive Choice ." In it, Michelle Boorstein profiled a young pastor of a mainline church in Maryland who calls the practice "holy." The Reverend Kaeley McEvoy says she has "never felt more known and heard and loved by God than when [she] entered the doors of a Planned Parenthood." Two of those times, she entered for her own abortion. According to Boorstein, this pro-abortion minister is part of "an increasingly bold and more visible religious movement for reproductive choice, a hard shove back to the decades-old American narrative that a devout person sees abortion only as murder." And this really is her argument: that Christianity is not necessarily opposed to abortion, and that any perception otherwise is just a "narrative." As proof, she points to a gathering of "clergy and other advocates" back in January who met virtually for an event called SACRED. For these 450 pro-abortion advocates—again, mostly mainline Protestants and liberal Jews—abortion is "a theological right of women to bodily autonomy and health." To take away that "right," these clergy believe, is "theologically wrong," since it means choosing "a fetus over a woman." For Boorstein, the very existence of such gatherings, even if dramatically smaller than the many pro-life gatherings held across the United States each year, proves that pro-lifers have hijacked Christianity and that an honest look across Christian traditions yields "more nuanced and varied perspectives about abortion." She even (rightly) points to the sad history of some evangelical denominations, who signed on to pro-abortion statements in the days before Roe only to reverse course and join Roman Catholic ethicists later in opposing the practice. Boorstein's analysis, however, hinges on whether Christian history began in the 20th century. Of course, it didn't. A casual investigation shows that it is religious abortion supporters, not pro-lifers, who have radically departed from historical Christian morality. As early as the beginning of the second century, Christian documents condemned abortion. The Didache or "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" admonished readers, " you shall not kill a child by abortion nor kill it after it is born ." The first- or second-century Epistle of Barnabas says, " Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born ." The fifth-century Church Father John Chrysostom called abortion " worse than murder ," asking, "Why then do you abuse the gift of God…and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given childbearing unto slaughter?" And Tertullian, who lived in the second century, even described an abortion using a copper instrument strikingly similar to what one might find at a Planned Parenthood—and he condemned such killing in the strongest terms. Throughout Christian history, far before modern, liberal theology came along, Church teaching was anything but nuanced on abortion. And it's little wonder, given Scripture's own testimony about the unborn: that they are "knit together" and "known" by God in the womb—that they sometimes "leap for joy," and that God, Himself, once came to dwell with us as an unborn Baby. It's true that Christians haven't always been faithful in upholding the value of unborn image-bearers of God. But such failures have been in spite of millennia of clear teaching, not because of them. Liberal clergy may call the sacrilege of abortion "sacred," but the evidence from Church history that Christianity was pro-life from the beginning is as clear as the evidence today that babies in the womb are human beings.
Feb 26, 2022
John and Maria consider the images and harsh reality of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There's a call for Christians to pray, but is prayer really doing something? John responds. Then, Maria asks John to clarify a new religious liberty case before the Supreme Court out of Colorado. The case has a lot to say about free speech, but John pulls back and explains how religious liberty is really a primary liberty for all of humanity.
Feb 25, 2022
Two days ago, we talked about the possibility of war, the fear that maybe the long peace the West had enjoyed for nearly a century could be broken. Well, now that fear has been realized. As an American official told ABC News , "You are likely in the last few hours of peace on the European continent for a long time to come." After weeks of saber rattling out of Moscow, along with vain promises that they had no designs on Ukraine, the Russian army has invaded its neighbor. In retrospect, this isn't much of a surprise. After all, you don't roll 200,000 men up to the border just for kicks. And, of course, there have been theatrically executed meetings at the Kremlin where Vladimir Putin walked his advisers through a script of dubious historical grievances, justifying his nation's recognition of the independence of territory inside Ukraine that Russia already controlled. At the same time, especially this time in history where we actually see the effects of war up close and personal, and in real time, what we're seeing is really hard to believe. Up to the very end, pundits and politicians claimed that there was no way the Russians would take such a risk, with the Russians themselves calling warning of an invasion just American propaganda. It just didn't seem possible. There's an old military saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy, and Putin had to know that invading his neighbor would make his nation a pariah in the world community. So, surely, he wouldn't do it, would he? He would and he did. After an alleged call by the newly "independent" regions for aid against the "terrorist" actions of the Ukrainians, Putin ordered Russian forces into Ukraine. He claimed that this was to prevent a humanitarian crisis from the supposedly Nazi-inspired government in Kyiv, even though that government had a Jewish president. While pre-war estimates guessed that he'd go with a smaller attack, aimed to seize just part of Ukraine and to place a pro-Moscow puppet in charge, the Russian attack hit all across the nation. As of this writing, Russian forces are said to be in control of the Kyiv airport, to have seized the infamous Chernobyl nuclear plant, and to be making progress out of Crimea in the South and toward Kharkiv in the East. Our news feeds are showing this in real time. There's the low-flying Russian plane, flinging missiles into resident neighborhoods with a child crying in the background. The fathers saying goodbye to their children as they head back to the front. The massed helicopter attack, looking like something out of the 1980s movie Red Dawn . This is as chaotic as it gets, and we have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Maybe, somehow, Western sanctions will force the Russians to back down. Maybe the Ukrainians will show such a hardened resistance that they will outlast their foe. Maybe the Russian people will finally sicken of Putin's despotism and demand a new regime. Maybe it will all spiral out of control to the point that Europe and America will have to get involved. We do know that before it's all said and done, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people will be dead for the sake of Putin's vanity. Where can hope be found in such dark days? It's in the same place it's been since the beginning. When Christ was on Earth, He offered hope to people whose situation was more defined by fear than the affluence we're all used to. He also knew that their world was about to be further rocked by turmoil, the likes of which they'd never seen. And He knew He would not be with them, at least not in person. In fact, He issued a somewhat vague warning about how bad it could get. Wondering what His words meant, His disciples asked for direction, clarification, and hope. In Matthew 24, you can read his reply: "See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains." This is one of those places where Jesus doesn't pull any punches. He issues no false promises of world peace. He assures them that there would be wars, troubles, and calamities, and when they come, they'll just be the beginning. Despite the chaos, Jesus said that it's possible for us not to lose our way. Or, as He put it in John 16:33, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." As we face these days ahead, I've been reminded of something about prayer. We often wonder at times like this, "Other than pray, what can I do?" Let's never forget that praying is doing something. In fact, it's doing the most important thing. The Anglican Church in Dublin, Ireland, has crafted a prayer quite fitting for this moment: O Lord our Governor, whose glory is in all the world: We commend to your merciful care the people and government of Ukraine that, being guided by your providence, they may dwell secure in your peace. Grant to their leaders and all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do your will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness, and make them ever mindful of their calling to serve their people; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart in the nations of the world, that working and witnessing together, we may live in justice and peace and change the hearts of those who would make for conflict and war; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Feb 24, 2022
America's corporate cooption in China's oppressive activities is shameful. Political philosopher Charles de Montesquieu said that "The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy." With China, , we're seeing this play out in real-time. China's control and censoring of its own citizens is disturbing, but predictable. But the number of American corporations and media willing to censor themselves is what's really stunning With access to 1.4 billion consumers at stake, corporations like Nike and the NBA, and most Hollywood studios have bowed to China's demands, apologizin profusely for any perceived offense. Ahead of the Olympics, house speaker Nancy Pelosi warned athletes not to speak up against human rights abuses while in China. Clearly, those with the most money to lose are wiling to stay silent on human rights abuses. human dignity Which makes China's evils not just a "them" problem. It's an "us" problem, too. Freedom of speech is only as good as what it is used for. Let's hope we start using it for something better: speaking the truth.
Feb 24, 2022
So-called "No-Fault Divorce" has always been a bad idea, and children have always been its tragic victims. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. This is BreakPoint. A couple of weeks ago, Dominic Raab, the Deputy Prime Minister for the United Kingdom, praised what he called an "important" debate in Parliament. He was referring to a law effective April 6, under which married couples no longer have to name any faults before seeking a divorce. Ironically for a member of Britain's Conservative Party, this idea flies in the face of what "conservative" means. It certainly cuts against conservative foundations articulated by the likes of Edmund Burke and T.S. Eliot. According to these thinkers, family and tradition are the only real bulwarks against the chaos of our atomistic age. As we noted recently , "If we lose our belief in marriage and the family as the foundation of a healthy and flourishing society, there will soon be very little left for 'conservatives' to conserve." But Mr. Raab's comments got worse. He went so far as to claim that this new law was a positive good, not just for parents seeking divorce, but for children. As he put it, "This vital reform will remove unnecessary conflict from the process by ending the blame game—helping [to] spare children from the harmful effects this can have." This, "the kids will be fine" line, is not just nonsense: it's dangerous nonsense. It flies in the face of everything we know about the impact of divorce on the most vulnerable among us. Over 20 years ago, Chuck Colson said , "People who divorce are more likely to die from stroke, heart disease, cancer, and hypertension. Kids from broken homes are more likely to fail in school, abuse drugs and alcohol, commit crimes, and have children out of wedlock." What Mr. Raab and our friends across the Pond should do is look before they leap. A look at the American experience reveals how this so-called "freedom" has played out here, and the enduring scars it's left upon children. In the early 1970s, an incredible (and incredibly sad) study was launch, which was later published in book form under the title The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce. It told some of the tragic stories of these children. Drs. Judith Wallerstein and Julia Lewis interviewed over a hundred children of divorce in California, hoping to get at the real-world impact of divorce on the increasing number of children growing up in broken homes. They didn't only interview these individuals as children, but also followed them over the next 25 years. What this study found was devastating. As one reviewer described their findings: [O]nly seven of the 131 children from the original sample experienced a post-divorce home in which they had a good relationship with a step-parent. At this 25-year mark, only 60 percent had contracted for marriage. Two-thirds of the sample decided not to have children. Only 30 percent of the sample received financial support for college, as contrasted with 90 percent of children whose parents were not divorced, an indication of the nature and quality of their troubled relationships with their parents. This story is about far more than stats. It's about the heartbreaking impact divorce had on these kids' lives. There's the woman who almost 30 years later could still see in her mind the details of "the sun striking the patterns on the living room carpet" the day her father left when she was only 4. There's the boy who refused to take off his heavy coat at school despite the day's heat in case he'd have to leave at a moment's notice. There's the little girl who kept telling her teacher about her new baby brother, except there was no baby, only her little heart's plea to imagine her parents were still together. Then, there was the 5-year-old who said she needed a new mommy because hers had been "a tense, cranky, unavailable stranger." There are times when divorce is necessary, but it is always tragic in the same sense as when catastrophic cures like amputation or chemotherapy are necessary. To pretend otherwise is a dangerous fantasy. The Bible sees marriage as a lifelong bond between a man and a woman, but, recognizing the frailty of human nature after the Fall, it allows for divorce in extreme cases, such as abandonment, adultery, or abuse. Highlighting the "wholesome" effects of no-fault divorce is even more reckless than praising the upside of amputation. Divorce is a messy, sometimes necessary, side effect of living in a world full of sin and folly. But while we may have to deal with our human weakness in this way, it's never something we should excuse by saying that it is for the kids' good. The cost to children is too high. Its effects on children are too long-lasting for society to allow, let alone encourage. To do so is to ignore the data, the stories, and reality itself.
Feb 23, 2022
- References - The Quarrel Movie>> Moral Therapeutic Deism - Christian Smith>> Making Sense of it All - Thomas Morris Pensees - Blaise Pascal The Mad Man - Nietzsche A Free People's Suicide - Os Guinness
Feb 23, 2022
"What happens to fascist architecture after fascism?" asks a recent BBC Culture headline . It's a good question. Because buildings are made by people and cultures, they are never just "functional." They tell stories. A tax office in Bolzano, Italy, for example, features a mural of Benito Mussolini on horseback , giving the infamous straight-arm salute. "It's a remarkable piece of fascist [propaganda-inspired] architecture," writes the BBC's Alex Sakalis : "Awe-inspiring, odious and perplexing all at once." For decades, the building sparked conflict, until yearly neo-fascist rallies and bombing attempts forced leaders to seek a compromise in 2017. The tax office was left standing, its mural still visible, but over the top, the words of Hannah Arendt were written in LED lights: " Nobody has the right to obey ." In other words, the duty of conscience triumphs over the demands of totalitarian regimes. Incredibly, the compromise seems to have eased the tension . We need not choose between romanticizing or demolishing history. Sometimes it's enough to let the truth be put in context, and learn from it.
Feb 23, 2022
The top headline of the past few weeks has been the saber rattling out of Moscow. This week, Russian leader Vladimir Putin stepped even closer to war. On Monday, Russian troops entered Ukraine, and Moscow formally recognized the pro-Russian breakaway parts of Ukraine as independent states (independent of Ukraine, that is). There will likely be further developments by the time this is posted. In addition to a build-up of forces, Russia has ratcheted up the rhetoric against America, NATO, and Ukraine. In his speech Monday, Putin declared that Ukraine has no real right to exist, and only lives as a colony of the West. Cross-border cannon fire has increased, along with accusations of Ukrainian terrorist activity. Russian authorities have forced ethnic Russians living in separatist regions of Ukraine to leave their homes, supposedly for their own safety, but also to provide an excuse to fight a war of "liberation." Many in the West are being reminded that we've actually not evolved beyond this kind of thing. Wars are not only fought in other, less-enlightened parts of the world, and not only instigated by rogue agents of unstable nations. The truth is that in our small part of the world, the last several decades have been remarkably peaceable. Recent conflicts have been fought on the periphery of the world order. The wars we've seen have been, for the most part, across the sea, away from our shores and our lives. Of course, not everyone has been as fortunate as we have been. Full-scale war in Ukraine could cost tens of thousands of lives in a matter of days , might lead to an ongoing blood fest in the agricultural heart of eastern Europe, and may result in an even greater remilitarization of the world. In fact, it's possible that this could be the start of something the world has not seen in 80 years: a great power war. If the industrial might and technological prowess of the world's biggest nations are brought against, not ill-equipped insurgents in deserts or jungles, but against those equally capable of hitting back, millions could die. All of our illusions of being invulnerable to destruction would end. That's certainly a worst-case scenario, but not out of the realm of possibility. Such dark tidings lead to a fear, not just for our lives but that nearly everything we consider sure in this world could come crashing down around us. What if the "personal peace and affluence" we think of as our birthright is relegated to the history books? When Christ was on Earth, He offered hope to people whose situation was more defined by fear than affluence. He also knew that their world was about to be further rocked by turmoil, the likes of which they'd never seen. And, He knew He would not be with them in person. In fact, He issued a somewhat vague warning about what was to come. Wondering what His words meant, His disciples asked for direction, clarification, and hope. In Matthew 24 , He replied: "See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains." Jesus doesn't pull any punches, does He? He issues no false promises of world peace. He assures them that there would be wars, troubles, and calamities, and that would just be the beginning. Despite the chaos, He said, it's possible to not lose our way. Or, as He puts it in John 16:33 , "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." It's been 20 centuries since He said these words, and there have been wars and rumors of wars. There have been revolutions and famines and earthquakes and plagues. Yet, through it all, it's still true: Christ has overcome the world. Christ remains on the throne of the universe. This is no Pollyannish "hope of heaven." The fear is real because the danger is real, and the Bible never treats our pain as imaginary. Like the Hebrew children proclaimed, God does not promise to keep us from the fire, but He does promise to be with us in there as well as out here. It may be tomorrow that this global threat fizzles out, and we sigh collectively at what a close call it was. Or, it may flame up into a conflagration the likes of which few alive today have seen. It's not trite to say we don't know what the future holds, any more than it is to say but we know Who holds the future. Because we do, and whatever our moment entails, He has called us to it, to play our role in His greater story.
Feb 22, 2022
Dancing with Max by Emily Colson, , is an intimate look at what it means to raise a child with autism, alone. Emily's dance partner, Max, is Chuck Colson's grandson. He's now 31 and spreads love through art. The pandemic was incredibly difficult for people like Emily and Max, who lost their support structures. But Max took to painting colorful hearts on posters and hanging them around town. Pretty soon, Max's hearts were put on notecards, which have sold by the tens of thousands, with the proceeds going to charity. Writing at WorldOPINION , Jennifer Marshall Patterson described this mother-and-son dancing duo'ss latest project: infant onesies featuring one of Max's hearts and the word "Loved." Printed by a company that hires only employees with autism, For each onesie sold, Emily and Max donate another to a life-affirming charity. It's more than a way to pass the time until things return to normal. As Patterson observes, Emily and Max have shown that hope and encouragement "can be contagious in their own right."
Feb 22, 2022
Last year, the U.K. and German ministries of defense released a joint statement titled " Human Augmentation: the Dawn of a New Paradigm ." The statement explored the future of technology in seeking to "enhance" people beyond the limits of biology, for military purposes. In this case, it's not a question of "whether" human enhancement is in our future. It's "when." CRISPR and other gene-editing tools, promise the ability to genetically alter human beings, turning off harmful genetic factors and turning on helpful ones. Pharmaceuticals promise, in addition to groundbreaking cures for mental illness, increased cognitive abilities. And, so-called "brain interfaces," promise the ability to "establish high-bandwidth data connections between brain and computer." "Six million years of evolution to where we are today," the authors claim, "and now we have the tools in our hands to decide how our continued evolution should be shaped." It's as if they don't even realize that there's at least half a dozen bad guys I can think of who used almost that exact line in some movie before nearly destroying the world. This time, it's not a sci-fi character making the promise he cannot keep. It's defense ministers from two major Western nations. While the authors do manage to mention ethics from time to time, it's a secondary concern at best . "The need to use human augmentation may ultimately be dictated by national interest," they write Countries may need to develop and use human augmentation or risk surrendering influence, prosperity, and security to those who will." In other words, like it or not, the cat is out of the bag. In response, bioethicist Robert Malone warned: "The arrogance and hubris in this point of view is enormous. That in one or two generations, the military industrial complex will pivot to controlling human evolution via genetic engineering and human augmentation is not only naive [and] ethically corrupt, but fundamentally dangerous." A helpful framework for thinking about what this future may entail is the difference between "Class 1" and "Class 2" problems, something articulated by Wired magazine's Kevin Kelly . Class 1 problems are when technology fails. An example would be iff someone botched an attempt at genetic editing and infected the human gene pool. Class 2 problems are worse. It's when technology works perfectly . As Gandalf put it, even the most wise cannot foresee all ends. It's possible that technology used exactly as it was intended could bring an outcome we failed to expect. To say, "it's going to happen anyway" is not an adequate ethical framework. Any ethical consideration, especially one with such consequential potential for humanity, should begin instead with the question, What does it mean to be human? Human innovation is possible because of how God made us. IFor that reason, we must distinguish between augmentation and restoration . Restoration is an amputee gets neural implants and can control a prosthetic limb with thoughts, Augmentation is an army or Olympic team outfitted with exoskeletons to make them stronger and faster. Our bodies are given to us, from our genders to our hands, feet, faces, and minds— As one moral theologian said: There are God-given limits, and if the limits are transgressed, people don't flourish. And one of those limits is respect for our bodily nature, which implies at very least that we shouldn't metamorphose that nature into some grandiose more-than-human reality. They [Christian scientists] hear in the transhumanist imperative a whisper of original sin, which is pride: "Do it and you'll be like God." The body is sacred, given purpose by God. Secularism lacks that grounding principle entirely. If everything is random, purposeless chance, then the physical "stuff" of our bodies can be shaped, molded, changed, prodded, and rearranged at our leisure or for our benefit. Other than individual desires, there are no limits on what we should do. In fact, if we can do it, we should. According to the authors of this report on human augmentation, all is justified under the guise of "national interest." It's as if they never heard of the Second World War... But good intentions cannot prevent bad ideas from having consequences and victims. Not in sci-fi films or in real life.
Feb 21, 2022
According to new census data , the number of parents living with their own children dropped to 40% in 2021 from 44% in 2011 and 48% in 2001. At the same time, as Brad Wilcox, Director of the National Marriage Project tweeted, "elite colleges are disproportionately made up of students from intact families." According to the Institute of Family Studies, 75% of graduates from selective schools have married birth parents. This counters the "divorce-is-better-for-the-kids" narrative, repeated in op-eds, that prioritizes adult happiness over children's rights. In a recent piece in The New York Times , entitled "Divorce Can Be an Act of Radical Self-Love," the author claimed that "Children benefit because happier mothers are better parents." The "children need happy parents not married parents" argument was widely used to advance no-fault divorce, at a time when we didn't know better, statistically speaking. Now we do. Even as the number of children not living with married parents increases, the data continues to show that's where kids are mostly likely to thrive. There are exceptions, of course, but they only prove the rule: family is God's idea.
Feb 21, 2022
In the historical dockyards at Chatham in England is the largest collection of Royal National lifeboats in the U.K.. On many of the lifeboats, printed numbers show how many times the boat has launched, and how many lives it saved. It's a haunting presentation of how life can sometimes hang on a precipice, and what it takes to rescue souls lost at sea. The dockyard is also an interesting analogy for the Church in this cultural moment. Sometimes churches seem more like a museum of saints, a place where salvation is remembered. Here, redemption is often described in the past tense, focused on what God has saved us from. Or, like the dockyard at Chatham, we mark our success by souls saved, with little reference to what happens next for those whose life is in Christ, much less their families, communities, or societies. This presentation of the Church isn't inaccurate, but it is inadequate. Our salvation isn't only about being saved from sin and hell, but also about but also about being saved to eternal and abundant life and for a redemptive purpose. Once Christians experience the life-changing impact of the Gospel, God's restorative work alters every aspect of their lives. This is more than being saved from Hell, and it's even more than being saved to eternal life. The famous pastor John Newton embodied this. When he famously wrote, " I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see ," he revealed that he was not only redeemed from the incredible evil he perpetuated as a slave trader but that he was now given new vision, new direction, and new life. Newton inspired William Wilberforce , the great abolitionist, in the same way. For over four decades, Wilberforce fought against the horrible and inhumane practice of slavery, and also for what he called the "reformation of manners." He didn't see success immediately, especially on slavery. In fact, he was three days from dying when he heard that the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. But, in embracing the scope of God's redemptive work in Christ for the world, his personal redemption didn't stay private, he became a public force for good . Each year, the Colson Center gathers with Christians from across the country for an event named in Wilberforce's honor. The Wilberforce Weekend will be held in Orlando, Florida, May 13-15. This year's conference will explore, from a variety of angles, the scale and scope of God's redemptive work in Jesus Christ. Our goal will be to see all of life as redeemed by Christ. Together, we'll explore how Christ is best understood, not just as our personal Savior (though He is), but also as the center of reality. This means recognizing the essential links between who Christ is and creation, redemption, the kingdom of God, and all of history. We'll also dive deeply into the fullness of the redemptive vision Christ gives His people, as individuals, families, churches, and nations. We'll look closely at what we're saved from , not just Hell but death and fear of death, from bitterness and anger, and from confusion about who we are, all of which are incredibly relevant for the challenges of this cultural moment. We'll also look at what we're saved to ...truth, identity and meaning and life, and also the vital needs of this cultural moment. And, we'll look closely at what we are saved for: wisdom, mission, reconciliation, and purpose. Along the way, we'll talk about what happens when redemption shapes a distinctly Christian approach to life, society, education, sport, hardship and conflict, film, and other aspects of culture. We'll hear from Jim Daly, Os Guinness, Ryan Bomberger, Nancy Guthrie, Max McLean, Rachel Gilson, Larry Taylor, Monique Duson, Morris Michalski—and many more! The Wilberforce Weekend features compelling talks, panel discussions, and live podcast recordings, and a special screening of The Most Reluctant Convert , a remarkable film about the redemption of C.S. Lewis. For more information, visit www.wilberforceweekend.org
Feb 19, 2022
John and Maria discuss recent events in the world, connecting how Christians find grounding and purpose in God's redemptive story. They consider the Church's role and influence in driving a culture of relationships in the wake of Valentine's Day. After a short break, the conversation shifts when they reflect on how the conflict in Ukraine is mirrored by a conflict inside the Orthodox Church. In this moment of virtual online church, Maria prods John to explain the important role technology plays in our lives, shaping our understanding of humanity and how we interact with each other.
Feb 18, 2022
A rural Ohio high school superintendent made a questionable decision last month by allowing an "After-School Satan Club" to meet on school grounds while refusing a group of protestors from even meeting outside. The Ohio attorney general sent a letter, reminding the superintendent that the protestors had as much right to gather on public property as the club. That this required a letter from the state attorney general is telling. Cultural tastes shift quickly and unpredictably. Not so long ago, it would have been the "Satan Club," not the protestors, who were considered "subversive." Today, apparently, it's the other way around. This is why it's so important to advocate for free speech based on principle, not on the content of the speech. Still, it could be argued that every news story about this dust-up in Ohio buried the real lede: The After-School Satan Club, it turns out, had 7 attendees at its first meeting. Two were students. The rest were adults. It's always the grown-ups.
Feb 18, 2022
Many Christian parents worry about how to best pass on the faith to their children. Sadly, statistics suggest they should. In 2020, the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University found that just 2% of millennials , a generation now well into adulthood, have a biblical worldview. That's the lowest of any generation since surveys began. Lifeway Research reports that two-thirds of those who attend a youth group as teenagers will drop out of church as adults.
Feb 17, 2022
No matter how noble its intentions, every idea is ultimately tested by how well it handles reality. By most measures, the "Defund the Police" movement has failed dramatically. Since 2020, when calls for policing reform escalated, the nation has seen a 30% spike in homicides , combined with a rise in other violent crime. Now, cities that slashed police budgets like Portland, Los Angeles, and Oakland are increasing them again —some by up to 12%. The President has been inconsistent on the issue but, in January, he argued against "cutting funding for police," but also for supplementing their work with community and mental health services. The Economist sums up why: "No evidence suggests a relationship between the size of a police force and the number of people its officers kill," yet "ample evidence suggests that bigger and better-funded forces tend to reduce violent crime." A Biblical position is that people aren't just mental health cases to be cured. They're also moral agents who sometimes do wrong things. Even a healthy society will need more than just police, but will never need less.
Feb 17, 2022
Futurists and tech industry gurus have long promised a utopia where humans aren't dependent on pesky biological or geographical realities. Behind yesterday's cyberspace and today's "Metaverse" is the same idea: In a brave new world of digital existence, humans can be freed from bodies, specific locations, and other physical limitations. The rise of online technology made it possible for churches to continue in the early, uncertain days of the pandemic. Many congregations have chosen to keep their live-streaming option on offer, in order to accommodate their older, more vulnerable, or physically distant constituents. Other churches have taken it a step or two further. Some have opted for an online-only congregation, abandoning a physical building altogether. Somewhat more spectacularly, other churches are starting "churches" in Facebook's new Metaverse , where people, or their avatars, can "come" to church from anywhere in the world with other people who join from anywhere in the world. D.J. Soto, a pastor at what is called VR Church in the Metaverse, recently claimed, " The future of the church is the metaverse… in the church of 2030, the main focus is going to be your metaverse campus ." On one hand, such innovation is just a recent chapter of a long history. Churches have long employed new technologies and methods to reach the sick or infirmed, particularly in times of crisis, and keep them connected with the wider Church. Evangelicals, in particular, have a long tradition of using new technologies in the service of evangelism, including the printing press 500 years ago, the newspaper 300 years ago, the radio in the early 1900s, and the TV in the late 1900s. This commentary, BreakPoint, got its start on the radio. But new technology and communication methods must be evaluated on more than whether or not something "works." This is also about what Church is . Decades ago, Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan said, "The medium is the message." Put another way, the means used to tell a story will shape what is said. When it comes to Church, it can change the nature of what we kind of people we are . People aren't just inviting the world into the Church through new technology, they're moving the Church into the new realm of that technology. Such a move can have unexpected consequences. While there's certainly cause for attempts to "reach people where they are at," what we reach them with is what we reach them to. We must make sure any effort to communicate the Gospel doesn't reduce the Gospel down to anything less than It is. Remember, Christ spoke of those who, in the Parable of the Sower , initially received the Gospel with joy, but, lacking root, turned aside when growing stopped being as convenient. But there's also something else to consider. A disembodied Church assumes that a disembodied faith is possible. A Christianity lived only online encourages America's already existing "choose your own adventure" understanding of religion. Christianity is about more than content. Rather, its content cannot truly be lived outside of the context of real people in the real world. As Tish Harrison Warren put it recently in the New York Times , "[B]odies, with all the risk, danger, limits, mortality and vulnerability that they bring, are part of our deepest humanity, not obstacles to be transcended through digitization." In contrast, a cyberspace "church" is something akin to 2013's " Her ," where an imaginary relationship with an online persona becomes preferable to the often painful and inconvenient nature of tangible reality. As someone from that movie puts it, "You always wanted to have a wife without the challenges of dealing with anything real," a line that could be said of what too many seek from the Bride of Christ. The faith of our fathers is not simply attending a performance, or even embracing a set of ideas about God or Jesus. A church without doctrine is a mere social club or an arbitrary special interest group, but a "church" that remains doctrinally correct but only connects online is a mere chat room. A disembodied online existence makes it too easy to hide who and what we really are from those God has called to love and be loved by. The Christian life cannot be fully lived online. God has called us to this time and this place, to times and crises that are uncomfortable and to people whose issues and ailments are unpleasant. The world in which God is making all things new is filled with real people and real problems, and these won't be mended in the illusive world of an online existence.
Feb 16, 2022
John and Shane field a question from someone in the medical community who asks what physician-assisted suicide does to our view of medical practitioners. The listener also asks for a worldview breakdown on how physician-assisted suicide came to be. Next, Shane asks John what makes a church "woke", after a listener asks John and Shane to explain what woke is and what it does to a church body. A listener also writes in asking for clarity on what the mindful movement is and what worldview category it fits inside before John answers a listener's question on the four chapter Gospel that John has talked about in other shows. To close, John responds to a listener who asks for clarity on how Christians should respectfully disagree, noting a video from Matthew Vines and a response from Sean McDowell. The listener asks what Christians are to do when there is conflict inside Christian thought
Feb 16, 2022
Instead of having a doctor or nurse on hand, Nova Scotia's new "oral protocol" puts the ability to take lethal medicine in the hands of "patients" themselves. Incredibly, that could decrease the total number of assisted deaths in Canada. When using the oral method, up to 40% of California residents chose not to go through with the procedure. By contrast, asks ethicist Daryl Pullmann, why do only 2% of Canadians choose the same? Perhaps the presence of medical personnel creates a kind of "unintentional coercion," a troubling thought, given that over 7,000 Canadians died from assisted suicide in 2020. But the bigger problem, like the law taking effect in 2023 in Canada which allows for death on the basis of "mental health" issues alone, is that " We seem to be rushing headlong for a precipice here ," as Pullman said in an interview. "We're medicalizing suicide effectively so that people who, for whatever reason, judge their life to be unacceptable [can] get medical assistance in ending their life." Human dignity is too important a thing to squander in our haste.
Feb 16, 2022
New data is poking holes in what's become a prominent cultural myth. "When it comes to divorce," write Brad Wilcox and Lyman Stone in The Wall Street Journal , "the research has generally backed up the belief that it's best to wait until around 30 to tie the knot." This is because the divorce rate is generally lower for those who wait to wed. However, according to the National Survey of Family Growth , there's an interesting exception to this modern-day rule of thumb. Couples in their 20s who don't cohabitate first have some of the lowest divorce rates of any group. Though it's not exactly clear, from the research anyway, as to why this is the case. This particular cohort is disproportionately religious , something that is linked to lower divorce rates across the board. Even so, the data sheds further light on the relationship between cohabitation and marriage in American society. Decades of studies have led sociologists to broadly conclude that cohabitation leads to higher rates of divorce . In general, living with a partner, even one that eventually becomes a spouse, is associated with a 15% higher chance of splitting up. One Stanford study indicates that the rate is twice as high for those who cohabitate with someone other than their future spouse. "We generally think that having more experience is better…." says University of Denver psychologist Galena Rhoades, "but what we find for relationships is just the opposite. " More partners mean more comparison, she argues, which can make it harder to achieve long-term contentment. Cohabitation also teaches couples that one can always head for the exit when problems seem too daunting, instead of to press in and stick it out. As a result, while marriages in general are more stable at 30, marriage to one partner is better, even if at a younger age. Still, despite a significant amount of data that says otherwise, society pushes a very different story about living together. People in their 20s, says convention, should avoid commitment, establish themselves professionally, and certainly try living together before tying the knot. For a generation raised in divorced homes , skepticism toward marriage is understandable … as is the desire to "try it before you buy it." After all, this is the same generation who never has to pick a restaurant before checking its rating on Yelp. And so here we are, in a culture where both delayed marriage and cohabitation are "normal," but relational satisfaction is rare. Married couples report more satisfaction across the board than cohabiting couples , in all kinds of areas, and report more trust by double digits. Even couples who've had to persevere in marriage through difficult seasons report higher levels of satisfaction. Marriage is also broadly connected with better health and wellbeing , not to mention the wellbeing of children, 40% of whom today are born out of wedlock . Though the data about marriage is overwhelming, fewer and fewer are choosing it. Compared to only 9% of Americans in 1970, more than a third of adults today (35%) will never tie the knot. That's not to say they won't have romantic relationships and create children. They will simply opt out of marriage. Given the relevant data, the idea that one should not get married "too early" emphasizes the wrong factors. Wisdom should always be exercised with commitments this big, but at the same time, age matters far less than the commitment itself . Limitless sexual experience, self-actualization, and the freedom to leave don't actually produce relational happiness in the long term. In fact, they damage it. In short, as a project of self-fulfillment, marriage might be worthless. As a way to reap the rewards of self-sacrifice, its value is incalculable. Christians know why. Marriage is a part of the created order. Though some marriages will tragically end for various reasons and others may want marriage but struggle to find it, the Church can provide vital community for all of its members, while still promoting marriage for the God-given good that it is. And when marriages hit rocky ground, resources like Focus on the Family's Hope Restored conferences, are available for those willing to fight for reconciliation … with incredible stories of success. Ultimately, though, a successful marriage requires the same thing as Christianity, a commitment to something bigger than ourselves.
Feb 15, 2022
Winston Churchill famously said that "we shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us." A recent example is Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue. After the deadly 2018 shooting , synagogue leaders consulted security expert Juliette Kayyem on how to prevent the same thing from ever happening again. "In security, we view vulnerabilities as inherently bad," she explained . "We solve the problem with layered defenses: more locks, more surveillance. Deprive strangers of access to your temple (and) have congregants carry ID." Her basic suggestions were good. But to Kayyem's surprise, when it came to keeping strangers out of the synagogue, "they would have none of it." Inviting in outsiders, the leaders explained, was central to the building's purpose. The Jewish concept of tikkun olam means the "repair of the world." Changing the building to prevent what would be antithetical to its design. Churches should also welcome outsiders, but according to Paul, it's primary task is to gather Christians for worship in order for them to be sent out. It's supposed to be a "go and tell" model, not a "come and see" model. Something to ponder…
Feb 15, 2022
Our information-saturated world runs on news headlines, one after another, all calling us to shock or outrage. It's tempting to simply want to turn off the noise. It's almost like the world is constantly coming into our clean rooms and dumping a new pile of dirty laundry for us to deal with. So, we just shut the door in order to stop the madness. For Christians, simply closing our eyes and plugging our ears is not an option. We may choose silence or a sort of media fast for a while, but God has not called us to this time and place in history to disconnect from it. At the same time, we need to discern between what is noisy and what ultimately matters. All of the breathless headlines and news stories can distract us from the most critical issues we face. Christians believe that the specific stories of our culture don't ultimately reveal "what" we should care about, but they are the "when" and "where," the context where God has called us to live out our faith. Another way to put this is that this cultural moment is the stage of the play, not the plot. It's the moment, but not the story. The news is where we see ideas and their consequences expressed, both good and bad. It's where the philosophies that were born in ivory towers meet the reality of people's lives, dreams, and decisions. Confusing the noise and chaos of the headlines with the Story of the world is the most common way Christians stray. As Christians in this part of the story, it's essential to trust the Divine Script Writer. God hasn't called us to success as we see it in this moment, but he has called us to faithfully play out our part of the story. Like any great play, the actors can forget their role or lose their place in the storyline and miss their entrance or line. Thank God, our Director is as good as it gets. This year, the Colson Center is partnering with Focus on the Family to produce a series of events to offer Christians a deeper level of understanding about the issues that matter most in this time and place. This special speaker series will focus on some of the most confusing and controversial parts of our story right now, specifically at the intersection of family and culture. The series will be presented in three parts this spring and three parts this fall and will feature a who's who of thought leaders addressing areas where we need to refocus our attention on the roles and responsibilities we have as Christians in our community contexts. The series starts tonight, with Dr. Anthony Bradley of the King's College. He will address the very important issue of how we are failing young men. The tyranny of low expectations, soft relationships, absent fathers… ours is a culture failing to transition boys to men. In March, Katy Faust of Them Before Us will address the various ways that children's rights are being sacrificed for adult desire. I hope you'll join the Colson Center and Focus on the Family for this special series called "Lighthouse Voices." To register for the livestream, visit www.colsoncenter.org/events.
Feb 14, 2022
During an online school board call last month , Ontario teacher Carolyn Burjoski raised concerns over the literature given to K-6th graders. One particular novel, she argued, made it seem "simple and cool" to have a gender transition surgery. Mid-call, the Regional School Board chair Scott Piatkowski interrupted, and the board voted 5-4 to discontinue her presentation. "This person was speaking about transgender people in a way that was disrespectful, that would cause them to be attacked and I really needed to ensure it did not continue," Piatkowski later claimed. Under Canada's human rights code , gender expression is a protected status in housing, employment, unions, and trade or professional associations. Burjoski was given a "stay at home order," and told to refrain from speaking to staff or students. This kind of story is why Christians need to think through a theology of getting fired. In the short run, speaking the truth might cost us. But if we really love our neighbor, we'll find a way to do it—gently and graciously—but with courage.
Feb 14, 2022
What if the church became the new go-to source for singles to find a date, instead of an app? For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. This is BreakPoint. Years ago, would-be couples met at a dance, at church potlucks, or around a friend's dinner table. Even further back, due to the gender imbalance in Roman society because of selective infanticide, many young men found their spouses at church. Today, many singles (including Christian singles) search for a relationship online, scouring profiles in dating apps, debating whether to swipe right , swipe left, or just give up. Dating apps have re-conditioned how singles think about dating and relationships . Long gone are the times when a single young man walked into a community, noticed a young lady, and was forced to overcome his nerves to take a risk. On one hand, many dating apps have taken the first impression beyond appearances to other important relational factors such as interests, hobbies, and shared views on essential issues. On the other hand, apps enable relationships to be even further isolated from real community. That's often not healthy. It may also be that apps are another way our lives are being disembodied. Recent studies reveal that many young people are " explori-dating ," interacting with someone from a different country, background, or faith, ditching these leading indicators of long-term relational stability in order to just explore. Some are now " hesidating ," a term coined by the online dating site Plenty of Fish to describe mostly single females who struggle to choose whether to date seriously or casually because of how uncertain life feels. Tonight, in fact, many young people will choose to celebrate " Gal-entine's " or "Pal-entine's" Day instead of Valentine's Day, an indication of how difficult it is for so many to date and commit. And of course, there's the uglier side of dating apps: a world of sexting, secret connections, ghosting, and targeting. Online anonymity can lead singles to go farther than they wanted to, stay longer than they intended, and pay more than they were hoping. To be clear, dating apps have diversified and improved. Many young people find love online , and enter long-term committed relationships culminating in marriage. In one sense, apps now fill the significant relational gaps in our changing culture. Some suggest that given how difficult it is to date these days, apps have changed things in " positive way s." Helen Fischer, an anthropologist who's studied dating trends for over forty years, and is a scientific adviser to one of the largest dating apps, believes these opportunities create " historic turnarounds with singles. They are looking for committed relationships ." What if the church has a role to play in creating contexts for relational connections, even romantic ones? What if the current relationship dearth being filled by apps could be filled by Christian matchmaking communities instead? Since it is Valentine's Day, it's worth reflecting on the day's namesake. Valentinus of Rome was a 3rd-century martyr, and though the specifics around his life are somewhat cloudy, the most widely accepted version of his martyrdom is that he ran afoul of emperor Claudius II for encouraging romantic love and marriage in his community. Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families. So, he banned it. But Valentinus believed marriage was an essential part of human life, or like we say around the Colson Center, like gravity . So, he reportedly married couples in secret despite the edict from Rome and was caught and executed for his deeds. Today, to follow Valentinus' example by creating contexts for singles to meet, within a larger healthy community, is to offer the world something it needs but doesn't have. To celebrate marriage not just in word but indeed is to declare that committed romantic relationships are possible and good. To place these relationships, as the Christian worldview does, in the larger context of our God-given identity and purpose is to point young people to love for the good of others, as opposed to love as mere self-expression. As C.S. Lewis outlined in The Four Loves , a Christian view of passionate love, "eros," differs from mere sentimentality or sexual desire. Eros, when rightly ordered, causes us to toss "personal happiness aside as a triviality and [plant] the interests of another in the center of our being. " Where else will young adults hear that definition of love? The Church has much to offer a lonely world on Valentine's Day and the rest of the year. The Church, of course, is to be a people that cultivate a community together. It may be that we should become a bit more intentional about cultivating marriages too.
Feb 12, 2022
Given the mounting tension at the Russian-Ukrainian border, Maria and John discuss insights on how Christians should think through Russia's preparation for conflict. A recent New York Times highlighted a phenomenon known as "Birds Aren't Real," leading to Maria and John commenting on the state of young adults in America. To close, John recommends the new series the Colson Center is conducting with Focus on the Family: Lighthouse Voices. -- Resources -- From Peter the Great to Putin the Bully — A Briefing on the Ukraine Crisis and the Russian Threat: History, Empire, Kiev, Moscow, Religion and Worldview The Briefing>> A Movement to Fight Misinformation…With Misinformation Birds Aren't Real, a conspiracy theory with an apparently absurd premise, has become surprisingly popular in the past few years. But its followers were in on the joke: The movement's aim was to poke fun at misinformation … by creating misinformation. Has it been successful? NY Times>> Our Christian Witness Since the contentious 2016 election, many have publicly questioned whether evangelical support for Donald Trump "hurts the Church's witness." Others assert that to vote for anyone but Donald Trump warrants excommunication. Over the last two years of the pandemic and all its associated controversies, some have confidently proclaimed that if Christians choose to not wear a mask or not be fully vaccinated they've harmed the cause of Christ. Others announced that to wear a mask or be vaccinated is to compromise the cause of Christ. BreakPoint>> -- Recommendations -- Lighthouse Voices Series - Colson Center and Focus on the Family>> Pandemic Board Game>>
Feb 11, 2022
An Atlantic reporter who visited last month's March for Life in Washington, D.C., painted an encouraging picture: This year's march was full of teenagers. "Liberals might not know just how young the March for Life crowd tends to be," the reporter wrote , describing groups of high schoolers and college students who'd come from several states away to march in the freezing cold. Statistics routinely show that younger people are the most pro-abortion demographic in the country. If that's true, the youthful March for Life crowd is especially encouraging: Young pro-lifers might be the minority, but they're more mobilized, more willing to face the cold and the criticism, and they're less quiet. In fact, the Atlantic reporter wasn't surprised only by the age of the marchers; she also called the atmosphere hopeful . Kids are good at hope. It's good to know there's a generation coming up with the energy to take on the cultural challenge of a post-Roe United States.
Feb 11, 2022
Before the Glasgow climate summit in November, British ecologist and futurist James Lovelock wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian , entitled "Beware: Gaia may destroy humans before we destroy the Earth." "Gaia" is the ancient Greek goddess who personified Earth , and the theory behind it is one Lovelock pioneered in the 1970s. The idea is that Earth is a single complex organism with its vast amounts of life striving to balance and correct its ecology, sort of like a huge immune system. From that worldview foundation, Lovelock offers this extreme conclusion: "Covid-19 may well have been one attempt by the Earth to protect itself." He means, of course, that the earth was attempting to protect itself from humans. If people continue to egg on the planet he warns, "Gaia will try harder next time with something even nastier." It's not clear whether Lovelock means for his theory to be taken literally or metaphorically. On one hand, this could be the musings of a materialist, talking in a colorful way about "natural systems." On the other hand, Gaia theory is the kind of belief a generation of spiritually hungry climate activists are tempted to latch onto. Gaia theory taps is one expression of an emerging spiritual trend among Americans. In recent years, number of people claiming to practice witchcraft in the U.S. has increased dramatically, as have the number of young Americans interested in astrology. The line between secular materialism and new age panpsychism is surprisingly thin these days. Just take "New Atheist" Sam Harris , who despite being an avowed materialist, advocates strongly for meditation to achieve "transcendence" and push past what he calls the "illusion of self." Beliefs like Gaia attempt to explain the improbability, complexity, and intentionality of our universe, something old-school Darwinism has always struggled with. They provide an avenue for spiritual feelings without demanding any significant responsibility or change in return. They can also serve—as Gaia theory clearly has for James Lovelock—as a sort of ideological battering ram, to help convince those who would otherwise oppose a certain ecological agenda. But beliefs within the Gaia ecosystem (pun intended) all have something in common: They're user-generated. Unlike organized religion, Gaianism (the name for the spiritual version of Gaia Theory) can essentially conform to any number of beliefs of the person holding it. It's not subject to any kind of empirical test or source of divine revelation. It doesn't require a lot of specificity as to what exactly believing it entails. For that reason, it not only buckles under close scrutiny, it evades scrutiny altogether. That's a red flag. First, because, short of just claiming it, there's no way to verify whether or not a belief like Gaianism is true or real. No tree, rock, or koala bear has ever said a word to me about Mother Earth's existence. In fact, outside of people attributing personality to nature, there's absolutely no way to prove that Covid-19 is the Earth's angry way of punishing us. But therein lies the huge conundrum for Gaianism: It doesn't know what to do with humanity. Are we a part of nature, a plague of nature, or something else entirely? If people are just another part of the system, then who's to say constructing massive cities, designing virtual worlds, dumping chemicals and sewage into rivers, or chopping down trees is anything other than natural selection working towards its logical end? If everything is Gaia, aren't we Gaia too? Of course, we all agree that people shouldn't do things like dump chemicals in rivers. But that's only true if we are qualitatively different from—and responsible for—the natural world. Otherwise, it's just nature conquering nature, which nature always does. There needs to be a true and distinguishable "we" in this scenario, something Gaia theory can't account for. Christianity can. In fact, Christianity gives us a grounding for every belief Gaia theory proposes but doesn't have grounding for. For one thing, the Christian story bases its entire existence on a potentially falsifiable event: the resurrection of Jesus. That gives an evidence test that New Age philosophies can't match. If Jesus rose from the dead, the whole thing is true. If Jesus didn't, as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, then the whole thing is nonsense. Secondly, Christianity can explain the mind behind the cosmos: the infinitely wise, infinitely just Creator who made this world and cares what happens to it. It's not just blind forces of nature telling us to check ourselves, or illusions of physicality based on some kind of divine spirit. We have a Heavenly Father, the divine source of personhood. Third, Christianity tells us who we are, how we fit into the full story. We are special stewards of creation, capable of massive amounts of good and evil. We're made in the image of God with a divinely ordained job to do: Cultivate the created world. The thing Christianity doesn't do is subject people to is a constant dread of Mother Earth viewing us as parasites. One could easily ask a believer in Gaia theory: How many humans are too much? Would Gaia be satisfied with pre-industrial levels or only with the eradication of every last person? Is somewhere in the middle okay? Who's to say? Of course, we'll never know. But we get the sense Gaia is a capricious master, at least as brutal as what Tennyson famously labeled "nature, red in tooth and claw." My advice for would-be panpsychists is this: Ditch Gaia. Look at Jesus: Earth's creator, gardener, redeemer.
Feb 10, 2022
John and Shane answer a question on whether or not abortion rates are impacted by who is President. They also give context for how spending money on gambling is different from other forms of entertainment. Shane asks John for some worldview structures for a listener starting a worldview group in his church. To close, Shane asks John why it seems society doesn't recognize the LGBTQ movement as a religion or worldview? -- Resources -- Snopes: Abortion Rates Fall During Democratic Administrations and Rise During Republican Ones Politico: A graphic on U.S. abortion rates shows larger declines during recent Democratic presidential administrations, and says its due to the party's approach of making abortions unnecessary, rather than the Republican Party's approach of making the procedure illegal. - BreakPoint: Sports Gambling Is a Bad Bet BreakPoint: Gambling: A Plague We Can Do Without BreakPoint: Don't Bet on the Gambling Industry BreakPoint: The Cost of Digital Addictions? Josef Pieper: Leisure the Basis of Culture Neil Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death - Subscribe to BreakPoint: https://breakpoint.org/subscribe/ AXIS - Connecting Parents, Teens, and Jesus in a Disconnected World: https://axis.org Os Guinness - Why The Cultural Moment is a Crucial Aspect of Our Calling As Christians: BreakPoint Podcast
Feb 10, 2022
According to The Washington Post , undergraduate enrollment nationwide dropped by over 3% last year—some 465,000 students. Maybe the pandemic led more students to stick closer to home, or maybe a job-friendly labor market tempted more to work instead. Either way, it's forcing the question of what college is actually for ? In too many universities, true critical inquiry has been replaced by ideological conformity. For example, Republicans comprise just 4% of historians, 3% of sociologists, and 2% of literature professors. But the problem isn't just that there are more Dems than GOPers, but that there are more admins and "Diversity Equity and Inclusion" officers than students. It's that schools are indoctrinating instead of educating. Christians have a new challenge—and opportunity: to preserve the best of classical liberalism. After transferring to Hillsdale College, one surprised former Ivy Leaguer atheist liberal put it this way : "I was confronted with the fact that these religious institutions were, in practice, far more aligned with my values like individual liberty, critical inquiry, and diversity of thought than the place that explicitly claimed [those] things." That's a great report card—and an even better goal.
Feb 10, 2022
Since the contentious 2016 election, many have publicly questioned whether evangelical support for Donald Trump "hurts the Church's witness." Others assert that to vote for anyone but Donald Trump warrants excommunication. Over the last two years of the pandemic and all its associated controversies, some have confidently proclaimed that if Christians choose to not wear a mask or not be fully vaccinated they've harmed the cause of Christ. Others announced that to wear a mask or be vaccinated is to compromise the cause of Christ. Whenever cultural flashpoints are used to judge the faith of others, the same script tends to be followed. An appeal is made to the Church's witness and reputation in the wider world. Of course, the Bible is clear that Christians indeed bear some responsibility for how our faith is both perceived and received by those inside and outside the Church. After He washed His disciples' feet, Jesus told them that by loving each other in that way, " all people will know you are my disciples ." When He prayed in the garden on the night before His crucifixion, Jesus asked God to unify His followers so that " the world may believe that you have sent me ." When people see our good works, Jesus said, they may "glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). In other words, Jesus clearly tied together the love among fellow Christians with the plausibility of the Gospel message to the wider world. What's clear from these verses, and throughout the Bible, is that we bear responsibility for our reputation both inside and outside the Church, and that stewarding the Gospel message means protecting both the integrity of the message and demonstrating its impact on our lives and the world around us. The Gospel is both plausible and compelling, and we ought never do anything to make it seem less so. However, what the Church is not (and cannot be) responsible for, is the reaction a world will have, particularly a world that is unbelieving and even hostile to either Christian morality or Christian truth claims. "Loving our neighbor," for example, will mean very different things to someone depending on their definition of love. According to our constantly shifting, culturally dependent definition, an act of love can seem like intolerance or even hate. In the same way, we are not responsible if someone perceives the good news of the Gospel message as bad news. We are not necessarily at fault when it is rejected or hated, or when it offends as Jesus predicted it would offend. The good news, though, is that when the Gospel is believed, embraced, or heeded , the success belongs to God, not our clever methodology or presentation. According to Scripture, what "hurts our witness" the most is disunity. And this doesn't mean that unity comes at the expense of church. But what we're told "hurts our witness" the most in this cultural moment is violating the new moral consensus about sex, politics, or controversial public figures. So, in an effort to "protect the witness," we spend an inordinate about of time policing each other's behavior, often publicly, about matters prioritized within a wrong set of values. I've no doubt that much of the concern over the Church's witness is genuine and well-intentioned. We are responsible to live as if what we say we believe is real. At the same time, Jesus didn't rebuke the Pharisees for being "mean," but for being hypocrites . Whenever our well-intentioned concern for the Church's witness becomes a dressed-up purity test, what we're really saying is "You can't be a Christian and do that thing ." And that misunderstands the Christian faith altogether. True belief always leads to regeneration, and sanctification takes time. Salvation is not forfeited every time a mistake is made or a theological error is committed. The patience and grace we extend to each other, even when a fellow believer makes a decision we disagree with, is a way of loving one another and advancing the witness of Christ to a watching world. In fact, imagine how compelling the Church's witness would be today if we prioritized forgiveness . Our wider culture has absolutely no time for it, and many of those most "concerned for the Church's witness" have little time for it either. To forgive, is considered complicity in evil. To accept any apology as sincere, or to extend grace, or even the benefit of the doubt is completely unacceptable. Christians should be different. We shouldn't just take different sides of an issue: We should take our sides differently. We might find out that forgiving easily and assuming the best of one another will compel a watching world to ask us for the reason for that kind of hope. We might find that forgiveness, not a purity test, is the best thing for the Church's witness these days.
Feb 9, 2022
Weighing just 11 ounces, newborn Hannah Stibbles is considered the smallest baby born in the U.K. —certainly in the last 20 years. Glasgow doctors told Hannah's parents she had "next to no" chance of survival, but delivered her by C-section anyway. For Hannah's mother, 17-year-old Ellie Patton and her partner Brandon, Hannah became a living miracle. "She came out fighting for her life and proved everyone wrong," says Ellie . "She is a wee smasher." Hannah's survival—and the natural joy so many feel at her fight for life—are just another moral paradox for those who maintain that the unborn aren't fully human. It's a fiction that is getting harder to maintain. Though the Roe v. Wade decision considered birth at 25 weeks "unviable," science is continually reassessing that criterion —and reaffirming what we should have known all along: It's a fantasy that the unborn aren't alive and human Hannah, and every child born or unborn, are worth fighting for.
Feb 9, 2022
Writing in The Washington Post last week, prominent columnist George Will described the heart-wrenching account of 29-year-old California man dying a slow and agonizing death from cancer. The man's wife has documented his painful decline in photos. In his column, the writer argues that it would have been better if this man had obtained a medical suicide and praises states like Oregon that make this option available. In Will's ideal world, medical aid in dying would be available for all terminally ill patients, "not for truncating an unhappy life," but for "preventing a hideous death." He hopes to distinguish between a world in which doctors hand out suicides like candy, and one in which people already in their final days can obtain a swift and peaceful end. This modest-sounding proposal is obviously motivated by compassion. However, compassionate motives don't make something morally right, nor can they prevent horrifying abuses of human dignity. If the ideas are bad, there will be victims. Doctors killing their patients—even when those patients request death—fundamentally alters medicine. Everywhere this has been tried, the weak and vulnerable have been endangered , the medical profession corrupted, and family relationships poisoned. In places like Oregon, in which doctor-assisted death was legalized on arguments from stories of unbearable physical pain (like the one told by Will in his column), a significant number of patients choose death for psychological factors. Will, however, dismisses these concerns. "Life is lived on a slippery slope," he wrote. Just because we can imagine ways medical aid in dying could be abused doesn't mean it will be. But doctors killing patients isn't so much a slippery slope as it is a radical altering of the medical landscape. It's a sheer drop off a moral cliff. And it's not guesswork if we have the trial runs to prove it. In countries like the Netherlands and Belgium, where physician-assisted suicide has been legal for decades, the acceptance of doctor assisted death has led to euthanasia, the killing of patients who don't request death. Ryan Anderson, now with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, thoroughly documents this in an in-depth report from 2015 for the Heritage Foundation. Government surveys in the Netherlands uncovered "thousands of cases" in which doctors "intentionally administered lethal injections to patients without a request.…" This includes "children, the demented," and "the mentally ill." The progression from death-on-demand to death-at-doctors'-discretion makes a grim kind of sense once the original premise is accepted. As Justice Neil Gorsuch noted before he was on the Supreme Court, physician-assisted suicide always relies on the physician to make the fatal decision . The patient may request to die, but the doctor is still the one who determines whether the patient is competent and eligible. Small wonder that wherever medical aid in dying has been legalized, doctors and lawmakers have quickly begun asking why they need patient's permission before exercising "compassion." The arguments for medical aid in dying lead so quickly to euthanasia that one legal scholar quoted by Anderson chides his fellow advocates for a "certain lack of courage" in not admitting their ultimate aims. Once death is a treatment option, patients can no longer trust their doctors, their insurance companies, or even their families to have their best interests at heart. "Terminal illness" quickly broadens to include "intolerable suffering" which soon broadens to include "mental suffering." And as medical bills pile up and family members whisper in the halls, patients themselves begin to feel that their "right to die" has become a "duty to die." Yet as Anderson points out, there are alternatives to the corrupting practice of medical suicide, such as renewed investment in hospice and palliative care, that affirm human dignity and mortality while not asking doctors to become executioners. While none of these alternatives make death easy, they do respect the sanctity of life and the precious relationships that make life worth living to its natural end. If compassion is our goal, we should think long and hard about these values, and we should consider the consequences for societies that have leapt into medical suicide with nothing but good intentions.
Feb 8, 2022
As NBC News reported via Twitter, the Chinese Communist Party chose a member of the Uyghur minority to complete the torch relay and deliver the Olympic flame to the opening ceremonies of the winter Olympics. The Uyghurs are a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in China's western regions that have been targeted in Chairman Xi Jinping's nationalistic and totalitarian agenda . Uyghur are being sent to concentration camps, subjected to systematic rape, forced abortions, and sterilization . By every measure, it's genocide. Going into the games, the world already knew that the Uyghurs were being subjected to the same sort of atrocities that defined evil in the last century. The Chinese Communist Party also employs the same sort of propaganda. As CNN's Jake Tapper put it , it's "hard to imagine a more cynical move." We can't keep tyrants from being tyrannical, but we can refuse to pretend that what they're doing is normal. And, we can call on our leaders to do the same. Anything less would be, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it, to live by lies. Something we must never do.
Feb 8, 2022
"Trust is to capitalism what alcohol is to wedding receptions," suggests Jerry Useem in an article in The Atlantic last November, "a social lubricant... 'If trust is sufficiently low,'" he continues, quoting economists Paul Zak and Stephen Knack, "'economic growth is unachievable.'" Public trust, specifically of the federal government , began to erode in the 1960s. The series of unfortunate events in the decades that followed—wars, Watergate, economic struggles, impeachments, ever-deepening political divisions—only contributed to what has become a steady decline of public confidence in the federal government. The only notable exception came with the brief spike in national unity in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. During the last two years, like so many other social conditions that pre-existed the COVID pandemic, the numbers hit an all-time low. Our national distrust is not only aimed at Washington D.C.. According to a 2019 Pew Study , almost two-thirds of Americans believe trust in each other is falling. The inherent connection between interpersonal trust and social stability , has an impact on the economy, among other things. In their report, titled Trust and Growth , Paul Zak and Stephen Knack describe that "low trust environments reduce the rate of investment and thus the economy's growth rate…very low trust societies can be caught in a poverty trap." On the other hand, when social trust improves, so does interpersonal trust..This can actually lead to economic growth. Americans' trust in each other, however, dropped from 45% in 1973 to just 30% in 2014. Useem thinks that had trust among Americans been stronger during that time frame, more like New Zealand for example, "(our annual GDP per capita would) be $16,000 higher." In addition to our pocketbooks, the loss of trust is affecting work. According to one study , 42% of employees think that their employers do not understand their pandemic experiences. Conversely, employers are showing a decline in trusting their employees. Since the pandemic started, the employee monitoring software industry has grown by 50%. According to one study , 74% of remote workers are concerned their employer is monitoring when and how much they work. As one Forbes article that predates the pandemic put it, a lack of trust in the workplace "demotivates employees and is costing businesses dearly." Trust is a significant ingredient of what can be called "social capital." Just as an individual needs financial, relational, and labor resources to start and grow a business, so a society needs financial, relational, and labor resources in order to grow and flourish. It only makes sense that a collective loss of trust, particularly at the scale we are now experiencing, would be felt in economic terms. As opposed to more short-term factors like monthly job creation or a particularly volatile stock price, social trust points to more consequential concerns about longer-term stability and sustainability. Christians, of course, care about social trust for far more important reasons than the economy. The economy, in fact, is just one of many indicators of human flourishing, but there are others, such as family stability, mental health, upward mobility, education, and creativity. Trust is critical in each of these aspects of social capital. Starting tonight, and continuing for the next four weeks, a new Colson Center short course will tackle this crisis of trust. Taught by Dr. Bruce Ashford and Dr. Yuval Levin, the course will begin with Dr. Ashford exploring where authority is grounded in a Christian worldview, namely the character of God. Next Tuesday night, Dr. Ashford will explore some of the social factors and historical shifts that have led to the current crisis of trust and authority. In the third session, Dr. Ashford will teach on how Christians can cultivate discernment, an essential ingredient if we are to rebuild trust in the context of our fallen world and broken cultural moment. Finally, to close the course, Dr. Yuval Levin will talk about the crisis of trust in social institutions and how we can work to rebuild them. As Useem wrote in the Atlantic article, "A trust spiral, once begun, is hard to reverse." But what choice do we have but to confront it? If we are to be faithful to Christ in this cultural moment, Christians must embrace the call to be agents of reconciliation in their own spheres of influence. That's why this short course is so important right now . " The Crisis of Authority and Loss of Trust: A Christian Response " course begins tonight, at 8 p.m. Eastern, and will continue for the next four weeks. Each session is live online, and recordings are made available for anyone enrolled in the course not able to make the live session. To register, please visit www.colsoncenter.org/events.
Feb 7, 2022
Several Nordic countries that, for decades, have had among the world's lowest birthrates, experienced a baby boom during the pandemic. In the second half of 2021, Iceland saw an incredible 16.5% more births than usual, and Finland and Norway experienced 7 and 5% more births, respectively. Typically, a global crisis results in lower fertility rates. In the U.S., for example, the birthrate dropped by 4% . In China, it was a staggering 15% . For years, Nordic countries have offered generous incentives to increase child births, to little effect, as have other European nations that did not see a similar boom during the pandemic. So, money can't explain it. Perhaps for some, the pandemic highlighted what really matters. One Icelandic mom of teenagers said: "We would just have conversations about everything and nothing and have fun and laugh. … I think that was the tipping point for me. I realized I wasn't ready to be done with the mom thing." The mom thing—and the dad thing—is a good thing.
Feb 7, 2022
It should go without saying that, in 21st century America, most of the assumptions at work in contemporary culture are not Christian assumptions. And whatever new "normal" is, it's constantly changing, it's anything but worldview neutral. As my friend and author Natasha Crain puts it in her new book Faithfully Different , "We are in a culture where feelings are the ultimate guide, happiness is the ultimate goal, judging is the ultimate sin, and God is the ultimate guess." That means that Christians today are called to a daunting task: believing, thinking, and living contrary to widely accepted beliefs and practices. We must be a "worldview minority," even, at times, among those who call themselves Christians. In her punchy and accessible new book, Natasha Crain helps Christians embrace this calling while resisting the false assumptions that surround us. Faithfully Different: Regaining Biblical Clarity in a Secular Culture is a terrific guide for those who wish to maintain Christian identity and confidence in the face of pervasive secularism. Of course, the first step to faithfully living as a worldview minority is to establish that we are, in fact, a minority. After all, Pew Research's Religious Landscape Study still shows that around 65 percent of Americans identify as Christians . However, surveys that look at actual beliefs give a clearer picture of what's going on. In her interview with my colleague Shane Morris on the Upstream podcast, Natasha pointed to the recent results of the American Worldview Inventory, conducted by George Barna and Arizona Christian University. According to that survey , just 6% of Americans hold a "functional biblical worldview," meaning they gave recognizably Christian answers to questions like, Who is God? and What are human beings? and Is there absolute truth? Among respondents between the ages of 18 and 29, only 2% had a functional biblical worldview. This kind of extreme minority status means there is constant pressure on Christians to live in a secular way and to hide beliefs that our neighbors find unbelievable. Even worse, there is strong temptation to join in the cultural scorn on historic Christian faith, following the example of the many authors, entertainers, and pastors who have publicly "deconstructed" their former faith. Faithfully Different is a clarion call for Christians to intentionally push back on this pressure. In twelve rich but readable chapters, she identifies and challenges the primary assumptions held in our secular culture and reasserts the Christian alternative as a better way to understand the world. In full disclosure, Natasha asked me to write the foreword for Faithfully Different, and I did so gladly after reading it. Here's a portion of what I wrote: All humans are, in many important ways, shaped by cultures. Our fashions, tastes, beliefs, and so many other things about us reflect the social environments into which we are born and live. In fact, a culture is most powerful in shaping us by what it makes seem normal. If you've ever traveled to another country, you've likely experienced the feeling of, seemingly, being in a different world. You're not, of course. You're in a different culture, a place imagined and built differently by a different group of people. This is what humans do. We build worlds within the world. In recent decades, the Western world (which include the United States) has shifted in dramatic ways. Things once unthinkable are now unquestionable. Beliefs and behaviors once unimaginable now seem so, well, normal. Christians who aren't discerning will quickly find themselves embracing things that are wrong. That's why this book, Faithfully Different, is so important and, if you read it carefully, will be so helpful. Natasha is a clear thinker and a captivating writer, with this knack of explaining things most essential, such as worldview and culture. Not only does she help her readers understand what they need to know , she helps them act in ways faithful to truth. As parents of four kids, my wife and I are big fans of Natasha's previous books. As someone who has spent the last two decades studying worldviews and culture, trying to convince Christians to take both seriously, I'm a big fan of this one, too. Faithfully Different covers an incredible amount of crucial ground without cutting any corners. It's one of those rare books that is both faithful to biblical truth and honest about our cultural situation, a work of sound cultural analysis from a solid, and distinctly Christian worldview. It's just so very helpful . I hope you'll pick up Natasha Crain's timely new book, Faithfully Different: Regaining Biblical Clarity in a Secular Culture , and listen to her interview with Shane on the Upstream podcast.
Feb 4, 2022
John and Maria discuss a recent situation where Neil Young pressured Spotify to remove Joe Rogan from their lineup due to what is being discussed on his show about the coronavirus. John explains how this situation is a sample of our society's loss of trust in many institutions. He shares why institutions are important for a flourishing culture and offers a short course from the Colson Center. The course explains how institutions are important and how we can rebuild trust that is informed and has significance for culture shaping. Maria then asks John to explain a recent commentary on technology that paints a picture to how and why Christians should be involved with technology as it guides and impacts society. Maria also asks John to further explain a commentary on how the word "parent" is being redefined and what that does to those closest to the redefinition, children. -- In Show Mentions -- The Loss of Trust and Our Crisis of Authority: A Christian Response>> Psaki cheers Spotify warning on COVID podcasts, says 'more' should be done White House press secretary Jen Psaki applauded Spotify Tuesday for adding disclaimers to podcast episodes that discuss COVID-19 — before adding "there's more that can be done." The New York Post>> The new moral majority comes for Joe Rogan. Last week, Canadian-American rock god Neil Young made a clarion call against free speech. Displeased by The Joe Rogan Experience's Covidian contents, Young demanded that Spotify remove Rogan's podcast—or remove him. Days later, Young's music was off the platform, though you can still stream his songs on Apple (ignore their forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang) and on Amazon (but don't read about the company's infamous working conditions in James Bloodworth's book "Hired.") Common Sense>> God is no Luddite, and We Need Not Be Either In the broadest sense, God created humanity with the capacity to structure and organize life, and steward the world He created. The tools we create to do this are good, as they serve these ends. A strong clue lies in the book of Revelation, where history, which began in a Garden, is culminated in one of humanity's own sociological innovations: the city. BreakPoint>> Redefining 'Parent' is Bad for Kids As Christians, we accept that the One in charge of the definition of "parent" is the One who created the process by which we become one. However, whether or not we are Christians, biology requires a man and a woman to create a child, even if some find these mechanics of reality discriminatory or unjust. Despite our best attempts to separate sex from procreation, which Obergefell codified into law, it simply cannot be done. Same-sex relationships cannot produce children. Children need both a mother and a father. These things remain true even if the God who created the world this way is rejected. At the same time, the Bible acknowledges that the desire for children is both natural and good. God repeatedly honors that desire throughout Scripture, sometimes despite biological challenges like age or infertility. And, at other times, God does not give the gift of children, even to those who desperately desire them. BreakPoint>>
Feb 4, 2022
So many indications reveal just how much young men are struggling in our culture… mentally, spiritually, and relationally. And new research reveals how much women are struggling, too. A recent survey from The Roots of Loneliness Project found that middle-aged women reported the sharpest rise in loneliness when the pandemic lockdowns began in 2020. According to The Wall Street Journal, women in this group, particularly moms, spend a lot of time on social media but feel increasingly stressed and isolated. At best, social media "connections" can only supplement embodied community, but they cannot be a replacement for it. Because women aren't as likely as men to act out in violent or destructive ways, their struggles can go unnoticed. Moms are in a uniquely challenging spot. Though rarely alone , they are also rarely around other adults. This survey is a good reminder that moms should make time for adult community without feeling guilty for it. And, it's a good reminder for dads and the larger Church body: Don't forget about the moms.
Feb 4, 2022
Twenty-six years ago, Wired magazine co-founder Kevin Kelly made a $1,000 dollar bet with author Kirkpatrick Sale. The wager was about whether or not, by the year 2020, society as we know it would have collapsed entirely. Back in 1995, Sale was known for his critique of the internet, which was just starting to overhaul daily life. His book Rebels Against the Future praised the Luddites , a group of English textile workers who opposed industrialization by aggressively destroying the technology that made it possible. Sale's premise was similar . "If the edifice of industrial civilization does not eventually crumble as a result of a determined resistance within its very walls, it seems certain to crumble of its own accumulated excesses and instabilities within not more than a few decades, perhaps sooner." That was just too much for Kelly, a dedicated tech-optimist who had spent most of a decade living in remote parts of Asia before becoming the founding executive editor of Wired in 1993. That experience had given him new appreciation for both human culture and technological progress. It ultimately led him to oppose Sale's pessimism . "I saw completely vehicle-less cities—people throwing garbage in the streets, no toilets. So when people were talking [about] getting rid of technology, I was like … no no no, you have no idea." In 1995, Kelly interviewed Sale and sprung his trap. Pulling out a check for $1,000, he wagered that in 25 years the world wouldn't even be close to the kind of disaster Sale predicted: total economic collapse, war between rich and poor nations, and environmental catastrophe. Their mutual publisher would decide the winner. In January of last year, the bet was settled . Even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was no real debate about who had won. The challenges of the modern era aren't trivial, but even Sale had to reluctantly agree that society had not collapsed. Kelly's interview with Sale not only makes for a fascinating read , it's a helpful springboard for Christians to think about the role of technology in shaping worldview. First, while Sale's claims seem far-fetched in hindsight, there's a voice like his in every generation. In the 1960s, it was Paul Ehrlich's infamous book The Population Bomb , which predicted that hundreds of millions of people would starve due to overpopulation. Ehrlich wasn't just wrong about that prediction: His ideas were disastrous fodder for totalitarian regimes worldwide, justifying forced sterilization in places like Mexico, Bolivia, and Indonesia or the one child policy in China. The same fear persists even today, whether from an all-consuming " climate-anxiety " or the misguided belief that simply making fewer babies will solve the world's problems. But Christians should know better. While actively and responsibly caring for the planet, it's our duty to resist philosophies that come at the expense of infinitely valuable human lives. This is based in Christian confidence: We know how the story ends. Second, a Neo-Luddite outlook assumes that technology, not human nature, is responsible for the world's evils. This, too, is on the rise in our day by a romanticization of life in the distant past, based on the idea that humanity's ancestors lived in a state of harmonious bliss with the Earth and each other. This doesn't just miss the point: It encourages a quixotic fight against humanity's tools , while ignoring their souls. It's here that we need clarity. Innovation hasn't ruined humanity's idyllic past, but it cannot give us an idyllic future, either. As Neil Postman wrote in his excellent book Technopoly , "Every technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this-and-that." For evidence, we need only look at digital communication. The same technology that allows us to make video calls to friends on the other side of the world can keep us from looking our own children in the eye. One survey reported more than 1 in 3 Americans reported feeling lonely , either "all the time, or almost all the time." Better methods of communication can help people stay in touch, but it can't make that communication meaningful. It can even make us too busy or too distracted to see the real needs of those around us. In the broadest sense, God created humanity with the capacity to structure and organize life, and steward the world He created. The tools we create to do this are good, as they serve these ends. A strong clue lies in the book of Revelation, where history, which began in a Garden, is culminated in one of humanity's own sociological innovations: the city. In other words, God is no Luddite. We need not be one either. A truly Christian worldview celebrates the beauty of innovation, while maintaining healthy skepticism about any and all utopian promises.
Feb 3, 2022
As Kate Shellnut with Christianity Today writes, "Evangelicals under 40 are twice as likely as their seniors to want more substance from the pulpit." She's referring to a new survey on church satisfaction from Grey Matter research group . Not only do 3 in 10 evangelicals want more in-depth teaching, but the strong majority are happy with how their church handles even tougher topics like giving or politics. It correlates with a 2017 Gallup poll , which showed that 83% of Protestants consider learning about Scripture as the main reason they attend church. That outpaces other worthy things like kids' programming, musical worship, or social opportunities. Of course, making churchgoers happy isn't the ultimate metric of the Christian faithfulness … but that might be exactly the point. Strategies to make church relevant and interesting have to be grounded in the main thing: the truth of God's word. Watering it down isn't just unfruitful or unwise: It's a bad retention strategy.
Feb 3, 2022
In case you haven't heard, Major League Baseball is in the middle of a lockout. Later this week, the players' union will meet with team owners to negotiate on new contracts, hopefully in time for spring training. Imagine, if all of this haggling over salaries and contracts and terms happened with out the players being at the table? What if MLB team owners were negotiating with sportscasters or concession stand workers or third-base umpires over the terms and million-dollar conditions of the baseball players' contracts, but the players were not welcome? It's an absurd notion. Negotiations cannot work unless all of the key stakeholders are in the room. And that's the exact scenario right now at a very different negotiating table. In 1973, states began considering, with many eventually passing, something called the Uniform Parentage Act. The legislation codified a legal definition of the word "parent," which more or less aligned with reality: "Parent" meant the biological parents of a child, regardless of whether they were married. (This solved prior legal questions over the rights of so-called "illegitimate children" when it came to their fathers.) The 1973 version of the act also declared that the term "parent" could apply to an adult who'd gone through the legal adoption process.more or less aligned with reality: "Parent" meant the biological parents of a child, regardless of whether they were married. (This solved prior legal questions over the rights of so-called "illegitimate children" when it came to their fathers.) The 1973 version of the act also declared that the term "parent" could apply to an adult who'd gone through the legal adoption process. In 2002, as assisted reproductive technologies were becoming more popular and sophisticated, several states started to update their Uniform Parentage Act . The definition of "parent" was stretched to include adults with no biological relation to a child or legal adoption papers, but who had obtained the child through sperm donation , egg donation, surrogacy or some combination thereof. The negotiations didn't stop there. Despite promises by activists, lobbyists, and judges that gay marriage had everything to do with consenting adults and nothing to do with bearing children, the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges renewed calls to revise the Uniform Parentage Act again. As Katy Faust, Founder and Director of the children's rights organization Them Before Us predicted , "When you make husbands and wives optional in marriage, mothers and fathers become optional in parenthood." That's the way many legislators saw it, too. After Obergefell , multiple states revised the legal definition of "parent" under their Uniform Parentage Act again. In these states, unmarried same-sex partners of people with a child can be legally recognized as that child's parent, even without going through the adoption process. Many of these states also allow something called "pre-birth orders" in surrogacy, which allows the couple paying a surrogate mother to apply for legal custody of that mother's baby up to three months before the birth. It's not just that the stakeholder with everything to lose in these negotiations—the children —aren't at the negotiating table, their rights aren't even considered. If the Church is to continue its long history of defending and protecting children, especially in eras of extreme sexual exploitation, we'll need to pay attention to this issue, show up for them, and demand their rights are considered. As Christians, we accept that the One in charge of the definition of "parent" is the One who created the process by which we become one. Whether or not we are Christians, biology requires a man and a woman to create a child, even if some find these mechanics discriminatory or unjust. Despite our best attempts to separate sex from procreation, which Obergefell codified into law, it simply cannot be done. Same-sex relationships cannot produce children. Children need both a mother and a father. These things remain true even if you reject the God who created the world this way. At the same time, the Bible acknowledges that the desire for children is both natural and good. God repeatedly honors that desire throughout Scripture, sometimes despite biological challenges like age or infertility . And, at other times, God does not give the gift of children, even to those who desperately desire them. This tells us that despite the real pain of childlessness, children are not a right . They are, as the Bible calls them, a blessing . They come when God wills;. When we venture outside His created design for children, whether through assisted reproduction or redefining the word "parent" to reflect adult desire, we intentionally sever a child's relationship to either their mother, their father, or both. By treating children as our "right," we violate theirs. If our culture persists in negotiating the rights and terms of children's' lives, children deserve a seat at the table. That's exactly what Katy Faust at Them Before Us is providing. I hope you'll check out her work and get involved at thembeforeus.com .
Feb 2, 2022
John explains the reason the Colson Center is involved in the group Evangelicals and Catholics Together. A listener asks what the group does and what recent developments have come out of the organization. Shane pushes John to answer a question from a listener he knows about praying for one's enemies. And to start the show John outlines the challenges present in China's worldview after a listener asks for clarity on a video he shows to his students. -- Resources -- Making Sense of Your World: a Biblical Worldview John Stonestreet, Bill Brown, & Gary Phillips | Sheffield Publishing Shelby Houston Speech at Father's Funeral Emanuel Mother Emanuel Documentary The Ring Makes all the Difference Glenn Stanton
Feb 2, 2022
"If liberty means anything at all," wrote George Orwell in the original preface to Animal Farm, "it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." Recently, the University of Northampton demonstrated where they stand on that matter, adding a trigger warning to another iconic Orwell book 1984. Students are now warned that Orwell's seminal critique of totalitarianism, censorship, and thought control might contain material some find "offensive and upsetting." You just can't make this up. For the record, strong evidence indicates that trigger warnings do not prevent feelings of trauma and can even have the opposite effect of heightening emotional vulnerability to potentially scary or offensive content. On a much deeper level, we're simply walking in the way Orwell warned against. It's the dark side of an expressive individualism devoid of any deeper truth. Eventually, embracing an ideology that tells us to create our own realities will only lead us to cancel anyone who threatens them.
Feb 2, 2022
There's a new genre of literature that most people have never heard of: " hopepunk . " Coined in 2017 by fantasy author Alexandra Rowland, "hopepunk" was a reaction to a different kind of writing dominating the market that year, a genre that Rowland and others refer to as "grimdark." Grimdark emphasizes the cruelty that so often defines human interaction. Think, for example, of HBO's hit series Game of Thrones , a show which hit its highwater mark in 2017 and capitalized on a trifecta of gore, nudity, and nihilism. AMC's The Walking Dead and the more recent Netflix global hit Squid Game are also examples of shows that attempt to portray the very worst of human nature as graphically as possible. In contrast, "Hopepunk," wrote Rowland in a line that captured the attention of the internet, "is the opposite of Grimdark." And then she added, "Pass it on." After that post went viral, she elaborated further: "Hopepunk says that genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength. It's about demanding a better, kinder world, and truly believing that we can get there if we care about each other as hard as we possibly can." Since she invented the label, bloggers have retroactively applied it to works like Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In a sense, the term applies to works that attempt to answer a vital existential question of the human condition: Is there really any hope? This question is especially relevant in a culture experiencing record levels of depression and purposelessness . One source for ascertaining the hopefulness of a culture is its stories. Consider the Greek myth of Pandora's Box , penned by Hesiod in 700 B.C. In it, the gods place all of the world's evils in a box and give them to Pandora, the first woman. When she cracks the lid, they escape into the world and the jar is emptied, except for one thing: hope , which is captured before it can escape. The story raises a haunting question: Was the hope left in Pandora's box a good, or an evil? Is hope legitimate, or is it merely a trick of the gods designed to induce more suffering? The Stoics believed that hope was foolish. Anticipating future joy leaves humanity vulnerable to all kinds of disappointment and miscalculation. As Seneca wrote , quoting his friend Hecato, "Cease to hope, and you will cease to fear." This makes sense in a worldview where neither nature nor the gods are particularly benevolent. All that remains for humanity is hedonism, the ancient ideal of a heroic death, or a joyless, gritty stoicism. Within a secular worldview, the challenge remains. How can there be any real hope if there's no God, or any basis for ultimate things such as purpose, right, wrong, good, evil, reward, or justice? Indeed, if we do live in such a world where, as Bertrand Russell famously put it, "…Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a universe in ruins…" If Russell is correct about the world, it's hard to argue with his conclusion that "only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built." In fact, two years after writing her viral post advocating "hopepunk," Rowland's idea of hope seemed to have slipped toward cynicism. "Those are the words of a person cloaked in a story that hasn't yet been worn threadbare and ragged," she admits . One gets the sense that although she wants to hope, she just cannot find a reason to hope. Of course, the stories that originally inspired her to hope are grounded in a much better worldview. Unlike armchair nihilists like George R.R. Martin (whose books were the basis for Game of Thrones ), J.R.R. Tolkien actually experienced the brutality of war. In the trenches of World War I , he lost all but one of his childhood friends, even while Western Europe was reduced to a muddy, hellish burial ground. That may have been, in fact, the inspiration for his fictional realm of Mordor . Yet, even in his grief, Tolkien believed in something deeper, a way things should be. Sam and Frodo stuck to their grueling quest to destroy the ring not from an existentialist "hope in hope itself," but from a full awareness that good and evil are real, nothing is accidental, and some things are worth fighting for. Years later, Tolkien would sum up his basis for hope in a poem. "The heart of Man is not compound of lies, but draws some wisdom from the only Wise, and still recalls him. Though now long estranged, Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed. Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned, and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned." In other words, hope stems from what is true and because of what is true, what is possible. That's why, ultimately, hope is so powerful. There is life and light. There is a way out of chaos into a new day. All that is sad can be made untrue. Only that level of truth can carry us when the world is darkest and we are weakest.
Feb 1, 2022
In a recent essay , Oxford Professor Roger Crisp toyed with the idea that human extinction may not be a bad thing after all. With so much suffering on Earth, he argues, if NASA were to locate a massive asteroid hurtling towards our planet, we would be justified in letting it obliterate us. "I am not claiming that extinction would be good;" Crisp clarified, "only that, since it might be, we should devote a lot more attention to thinking about the value of extinction than we have to date." This is an Oxford philosopher of ethics, but he's wrestling with an idea that long ago left the ivory tower. Wesley Smith of the Discovery Institute put it this way: "With our supposedly best minds suggesting that human extinction could be desirable, is it any wonder that so many of our young people seem to be despairing?" When God is taken out of the moral picture, reason evaporate, as does the rest of our moral logic. Someone tell Bruce Willis and the rest of his team from Armageddon , the mission is off.
Feb 1, 2022
In his book The Last Word , atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel talked about "the fear of religion": "… I don't mean to refer to the entirely reasonable hostility toward certain established religions and religious institutions, in virtue of their objectionable moral doctrines, social policies, and political influence. Nor am I referring to the association of many religious beliefs with superstition and the acceptance of evident empirical falsehoods. I am talking about something much deeper–namely, the fear of religion itself. I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that." This "cosmic authority problem," Nagel thought, was at the root of modern attempts to explain everything by science. Today, 45 years, and more than a few other factors later, has evolved into what might be called a "cultural authority problem." Its roots lie not only in the philosophical denials of God and His authority that Nagel wrote about but also in what Pope Benedict once referred to as "the dictatorship of relativism … which recognizes nothing as absolute and which only leaves the 'I' and its whims as the ultimate measure…" And, of course, upon these ideological foundations, we've all had the experience of living in the Information Age , being forced to navigate a dizzying amount of information daily and the many voices constantly vying for our pocketbooks and attention (often by any means necessary). Even before the chaos of the last 24 months, there has been more than enough to spur on our collective distrust . Still, on top of all that, what social institution in American life hasn't failed us in recent years? The state , churches , education , corporations , big tech , news , even medicine … we don't trust any of them anymore. To some degree, skepticism of authority is understandable, even commendable. And, when healthy, it's a necessary ingredient of discernment , a skill required of anyone who wishes not to be brainwashed today. Increasingly, however, skepticism has been replaced by cynicism and is expressed in an immediate distrust anytime anyone tells us anything to think or do. This is not healthy or sustainable, nor is it a biblical way of thinking about authority. If we begin from a Biblical Story instead of the chaos of our cultural moment, we must grant that authority is a God-given feature of life in this world. Beginning with God, the ultimate authority, the Bible describes how God also ordained other authorities, especially His image-bearers. Of course, unlike God, all of these ordained authorities have been twisted and compromised by the Fall. At the same time, the fact that the Bible continues to recognize (even after the fall) both God's authority and the, should chasten us whenever our discernment is replaced by cynicism. And there's an awful lot of cynicism these days. Is it possible for Christians to be discerning without being cynical? If so, how? Are there ways to respect authority without being duped? Can we recognize the collapse of our institutions without wholly abandoning them, and perhaps seek to restore them? Christians must answer these questions as part of our cultural witness. Certain existential questions rise to the surface in specific cultural contexts. For example, at a time of tragedy, the question on the top of the cultural surface tends to be, where was God ? At this moment, in a culture with a cosmic authority problem, the question is, who can we trust? To help us think through the cultural crisis of authority and the loss of trust , the Colson Center will be hosting a special virtual short course beginning next Tuesday night, February 8. Each of the sessions will feature a presentation and a time for live Q&A. The first three weeks will be led by Dr. Bruce Ashford and will cover the topics of "God's Authority and the Authorities He Has Ordained," "Where Did the Crisis of Authority and Trust Come From?" and "How to Cultivate Discernment in an Untrustworthy World." The fourth week will be led by Dr. Yuval Levin, a scholar from the American Enterprise Institute, who will help us think about the collapse of our cultural institutions and what it would look like to rebuild them. He's an example of a scholar who can inform Christians on how to think about life in this cultural moment. Each of the four sessions will be recorded and distributed to all who sign up for the course. To register for this course, "The Loss of Trust and the Crisis of Authority," please visit colsoncenter.org/events .
Jan 31, 2022
Os Guinness shared an important message at a recent Colson Center event in Phoenix, Arizona. He spoke to the situation of the church in this cultural moment, where institutions are failing and people are losing trust. Os offered a way forward, for Christians to ground themselves in truth, repentance, and forgiveness. Out of this event, the Colson Center is launching a short course on the loss of trust and our crisis of authority. Society needs a Christian response to the breakdown we are witnessing in nearly every societal institution. The church has an answer and to help encourage Christians with clarity, confidence, and courage in this moment, we are offering a special short course in February. For more information visit www.colsoncenter.org/events The Loss of Trust and Our Crisis of Authority
Jan 31, 2022
Recently, online magazine Fatherly sent out this prompt to their readers: "What would you tell your younger self about being a dad?" The answers are worth sharing. "It only gets better." wrote one 39-year-old from Vancouver. "I wasn't ready for my prior life to end until I held my baby on the first day…. There's a place for having fun while you're young, but don't think that's meant to be it. Life really starts to get good when you feel your children enjoying your presence and loving every minute, they spend with you." Another dad agreed. "Once you're knee-deep in the reality of raising a baby all the seemingly 'boring' milestones feel incredible." Of the nation's 73 million children, "1 in 4 live without a biological, step or adoptive father in the home," the National Fatherhood Initiative tells us. That absence is felt in every measurable category of child well-being. And it's a tragedy for men too. Our culture tells us that caring for others is a burden on our true happiness, but Scripture - and the wisdom of experience - tell a different story. Just ask the dads.
Jan 31, 2022
Anabaptist theologian Stanley Hauerwas once said that in 100 years, if Christians are known as those who do not kill their children or their elderly, we would have been doing something right. May we, in fact, be known for nothing less than these things, but I hope we'll be known for far more. Specifically, Christians must be known as those who acknowledge created reality, in particular the goodness of the human body. This won't be easy. Unthinkable a couple decades ago, it's now normal to deny the purpose, the meaning, and the goodness of the human body. Increasingly the body is seen, not as a given of reality, but as a fully morphable canvas of self-expression. Not only do we celebrate unnatural ways of using it, we see it as something to be reinvented and remodeled, even mutilated if that allows us to "be ourselves." Because Christians believe in a world created by God, including the human body, we must not allow what is considered normal to seem normal to us. We might be shocked and grieved, but we should always point to the truth of who we are, and oppose these ideas which destroy and degrade, rather than liberate, human beings. Any culture that denies what our bodies reveal about who we are must work hard to suppress the overwhelming evidence of reality. At times, like beach balls pushed below the water, this evidence re-emerges. For example, just before Christmas, New York M a gazine released an issue with a cover photo of a person with a beard and body hair, wearing nothing but briefs, staring at readers. A massive scar dominates one leg. The headline reads: "My Penis, Myself: I didn't need a penis to be a man. But I needed one to be me." The person in the photo is a woman. The organ in question was surgically constructed using flesh taken from her leg. The author and subject describe her "transmasculine" surgery, performed in a San Francisco hospital, in full detail. The procedure was potentially life-threatening and involved physicians doing things that, in any other surgical context, would be considered harm, not help. The result of the surgery was not a male body, but a wounded and disfigured female body. The author is now in near constant pain, and in constant danger of infection or rejection. Even so, this dysphoric woman viewed the process as a liberation from her own body. By portraying this procedure as a surgery rather than an act of harm, and by portraying the choice to undergo the procedure as heroic rather than heartbreaking, New York Magazine bypasses any real discussion about a host of related ideas, ideas about sex, gender, humanity, morality, medicine, and more. At the same time, the cover photo, of a largely exposed woman with horrific scarring, points to truths that, in the end, cannot be suppressed. This movement is, in reality, an assault on humanity. The bad ideas behind the movement leave victims in their wake. In a sort of gnostic remix, these ideas reject the most basic of created realities. Christians, who believe that God called our bodies "good," must continue to point to what is true. First, we must point out that there are very real scars left when people deny reality. And second, we must point those with these scars to Christ, the One whose scars can make them whole again. Back in June, an episode of "Blue's Clues and You" earned applause for featuring a pride parade of LGBT-identifying animals . Only later did viewers notice that one cartoon beaver, waving a trans pride flag, had scars like those of women who've had what's called "top surgery." A Nickelodeon spokesperson confirmed that the producers' intent was to teach young children that this "surgery" is normal, and if women wish to have healthy breasts removed in order to mimic men, they should. To point out that this sort of message, aimed at children, is body shaming and abusive will inevitably mean being called "transphobic," "bigoted," and "hateful." We may be cancelled. But to be silent is not to be loving. Rather, it is to be complicit in harm. In this cultural moment, faithfulness to Christ involves not just declaring salvation but defending creation; not just preaching how men and women can be saved but that men and women exist. Churches will need to include extensive and thorough education on what it means to be made in God's image, why He made us male and female, and the difference that makes in modern culture. All of which will mean proclaiming obvious, now unfashionable truths. But, given the damage being done by denying those truths, it's the only loving thing to do.
Jan 28, 2022
Maria asks John to revisit a few commentaries from the week, specifically our piece recognizing Holocaust Remembrance Day and a new report on the state of Christians passing on the faith to younger believers. Then John explains the significance of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement and what him stepping down does to the court. He also explains how President Biden will likely respond, based on campaign promises. To close, Maria asks John about a recent comment from author Jordan Peterson who made a startlingly insightful observation about the Bible. John shares why Jordan Peterson is a person Maria should recognize and care about and why this comment is important to consider. -- Show Stories -- Holocaust Remembrance Day Christians, in fact, should always be quick to counter any hatred or desecration poured out on any of our fellow image bearers, including those through whom God revealed His Word and brought His Son into His world. Having met on the 80th anniversary of Wanassee Conference, the European Coalition for Israel, issued a Declaration entitled: "Fight Antisemitism, Protect Jewish Life." It's worth a read, especially at a time when so much of the world seems at risk of forgetting. BreakPoint>> Passing On the Faith: Good News and Bad News "Human beings look separate because you see them walking about separately," wrote C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity. But, "if you could see humanity spread out in time, as God sees it, it would look like one single growing thing-rather like a very complicated tree. Every individual would appear connected with every other." BreakPoint>> A Conservatism Without Marriage & Family Is No Conservatism At All Any political vision that treats marriage and family as optional or fungible, even if it goes by the label "conservative," is destined to fail. This isn't a matter of updating our definitions. If we lose our belief in marriage and the family as the foundation of a healthy and flourishing society, there will soon be very little left for "conservatives" to conserve. BreakPoint>> Stephen Breyer, pragmatic liberal, will retire at end of term As a justice, Breyer's demeanor and questions during oral arguments often conjured up comparisons to an absent-minded professor. One legendary hypothetical, in 2003, posited that a sign barring "all animals" from a park would not include a "pet oyster." A year later, in a case involving federal efforts to ban medical marijuana, Breyer raised the specter of "tomato children that will eventually affect Boston." But if Breyer – who majored in philosophy as an undergraduate at Stanford University – sometimes came across as an academic on the bench, he was at the same time both a member of the court's liberal wing and, as his former law clerk Kevin Russell told USA Today, "unapologetically pragmatic in thinking that it's the court's job to help make government work for real people." SCOTUS Blog>> How Biden will choose the next Supreme Court nominee With today's reporting that Justice Stephen Breyer intends to retire, we now kick off our analysis of potential nominees to replace him. President Joe Biden previously promised to nominate a Black woman, and we assume he will keep that commitment. Two potential nominees therefore stand apart from all others: Leondra Kruger, a justice on the California Supreme Court, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Both are well known to the White House team that will lead the nomination process. Kruger is a former Department of Justice attorney. Biden recently appointed Jackson to the court of appeals. SCOTUS Blog>> Jordan Peterson's Realization About the Bible "The meaning of the words is coded in the relationship of the words to one another. And, Postmodernists make that case, that all meaning is derived from the relationship between words. That's wrong, because what about "rage?" That's not words. What about moving your hand, that's not words. It's wrong, but part of it's right because the meaning we derive from the verbal domain is encoded in the relationship between words. So, now you think, "let's think about the relationship between words." Some words are dependent on other words and some ideas are dependent on other ideas. The more ideas are dependent on a given idea the more fundamental that idea is, that's a definition of fundamental. So now, imagine you have an aggregation of texts in civilization, and you say, "which are the fundamental texts?" and the answer is the texts upon which most other texts depend. So, you put Shakespeare's way in there because so many texts are dependent on Shakespeare's literary revelations. Milton would be in that category, and Dante would be in that category - at least in translation. (They're) fundamental authors, part of the western canon, not because of the arbitrary dictates of power, but because those texts influenced more other texts. Then, you think about that as a hierarchy, with the Bible at its base, which is certainly the case. Imagine that's the entire corpus of linguistic production, all things considered. Now, how do you understand that? Literally, how do you understand that? You sample that by reading and listening to stories and hearing how people talk. You sample that whole domain and you build a low-resolution reputation of that inside you and then you listen and see through that. And so it isn't that the Bible is true, it's that the Bible is the precondition for the manifestation of truth. Which makes it way more true than just truth. It'a a whole different kind of truth. Joe Rogan Experience Podcast> > -- InShow Mentions -- Fight Antisemitism Defend Jewish Life Summit Ministries Impact 360 Worldview Academy -- Recommendations -- Too Prevalent to Track Maria Baer | The World and Everything in It | January 27, 2022 Women of the Movement ABC Series | January, 2022
Jan 28, 2022
Last week, an Oklahoma state representative who describes himself as a "pragmatic progressive" announced on Twitter , "This week I filed HB3129, which codifies that a father's financial responsibility to his baby and their mom begins at conception. If Oklahoma is going to restrict a woman's right to choose, we sure better make sure the man involved can't just walk away from his responsibility." What he intended as a gotcha instead went viral with pro-lifers. They loved the proposal, and filled his feed with memes saying " your terms are acceptable ." The only resistance to the law came from pro-abortion allies. Quickly and furiously, the lawmaker backpedaled with a follow-up tweet : "I understand how the language in my message and bill both hurt the cause instead of helping it, and I apologize for not being more thoughtful…." It's just amazing that so many still claim and so many still buy the whole "pro-lifers only care about babies before birth" nonsense, but they do. Which means, we must continue to refute this silly narrative, in both word and deed.
Jan 28, 2022
There's a new ad playing on radio stations in Ohio as part of a PR push called the Stop the Stigma campaign . The ad is a game show skit, where contestants must guess the biggest risk factor for substance addiction. One guesses "making bad choices" and gets the buzzer; another guesses "hanging out with the wrong people" and is also wrong. The right answer, we're told, is family history. Ohio officials said the ads are meant to encourage people to "practice empathy, not judgment" for people suffering from addiction. That's wise advice. And research does show there is a strong genetic component to addiction. But research also shows that making unwise choices and spending time with others who are making unwise choices also unequivocally contribute to addiction. In a similar vein, USA Today recently ran a story about the latest research on pedophilia, quoting scientists who say the sexual disorder is "determined in the womb" and therefore "misunderstood" by our culture. The implication is that when something evil is "inherent," it carries a different — or no —moral weight. The first mistake here is the suggestion that we can have empathy for or compassion on people who do something wrong only when they "couldn't help it." That's both naive and wrong. None of us is immune from sinful desires; that's the fall. But none of us is helpless against our sinful desires, either; despite genetic components or elevated risk factors — that's the redemption of Jesus. That's why the Bible tells us to "flee" from sin ; even when sin "feels" natural. Paul tells the Galatians the desires of the flesh are in conflict with the Spirit. He doesn't say "therefore you are helpless." or "do good things to cancel out the bad." He says we must " crucify the flesh ." Still, even when we lose that battle, God offers grace and forgiveness and commands us to do the same. People who do bad things deserve appropriate compassion and help not because they supposedly "can't help it;" but simply because they are human beings, made in the image of God. But we also deserve the dignity of facing the consequences of our action s. The second mistake in efforts to "stop the stigma" of bad behavior is the suggestion that those consequences, as well as healthy guilt and even shame, can't play a motivating role in our moral formation. The Bible testifies that it does. Friends of mine who have recovered from addiction or who are active in addiction ministry all say that the cliche is true: the first step to recovery really is admitting you have a problem. We block that important step if we try to convince those suffering that they bear no responsibility for their behavior. My friend Dr. Matthew Sleeth, and emergency room physician who wrote a book about the Christian response to suicide, spoke to our Wilberforce Weekend audience last year about his research. He said the common denominator that he found in testimonies from those who survived a suicide attempt or ultimately chose not to go through with it was that they believed, to one degree or another, that suicide would be wrong . But that assertion that something could be wrong requires a consistent moral standard against which we can measure our inclinations and behavior. Christianity - not cultural tastes - is the only worldview that offers a fully formed and consistent moral standard; built on God's design for the world. I want to be clear here that the chemical components, including genetic predispositions, and even outside factors like predatory pharmaceutical companies are very real contributors to things like suicide and addiction. But removing stigma by suggesting people aren't still responsible for their moral choices forfeits that very real and apparently motivating sense that we don't want to do something wrong . This is a casualty of a culture that continues to distance itself from its Christian moral foundation. Some theologians suggest the loss of "cultural Christianity" is good, in that it will reveal those truly committed to Jesus, as opposed to those only claiming Christianity for its social advantages. But the loss of cultural Christianity will still leave much to mourn, including the healthy social norms and stigmas, based on the Biblical moral standard, that protect us from our inherent sinfulness. Christians should always practice empathy. And we should be ready to help when and where it's appropriate. That kind of love holds room for healthy stigma, and it doesn't require pretending there are no consequences to our choices. That's the deep, consistent love of the gospel.
Jan 27, 2022
Most of the time, Twitter's a wasteland, a dark world of rancor, recriminations, and moral posturing. But every once in a while, to quote the classic movie Dumb and Dumber, it goes and redeems itself… Anthony Bradley, professor at The King's College in New York, recently noted on Twitter that most father/son photos on social media are of younger sons. It's like they stop once the boy hits teenage years, the time when a father's influence becomes most crucial in a young man's development. So he challenged dads to celebrate their teenage sons by posting photos with the hashtag #ThisIsMyBelovedTeenageSon. And proud dads, from all walks of life, did, proudly posing with their sons for all the world to see. Good for them. Popular culture portrays fathers in such diminished, negative ways, but studies consistently show not only that dads matter, but that they're essentially for flourishing. The full family of mom and dad is part of God's blessing to people everywhere.
Jan 27, 2022
Two weeks ago, in Colleyville, TX, a monster reappeared. Malik Faisal Akram walked into Congregation Beth Israel and demanded that the United States release a scientist connected to Al Qaeda. At first, news outlets and even the FBI seemed hesitant to ascribe any motive to the attack or even to name him. Yet, the assailant himself said, " I want to kill Jews ." This sort of thing is far too common. As Social commentator Abigail Shrier described on Twitter: "10 years ago, my synagogue and my kids' Jewish school had no armed guards. Now, both have a near platoon of special forces guys. In the last 5 years, my kids' Jewish camp & my kosher grocer have hired armed guards b/c of threats. This is how Jews live now. Americans should know." Antisemitism has been a scourge of the human race since the ancient world. Too often throughout history, Christians have not only turned a blind eye but even took part themselves. That this still happens in America, even after the long shadow of the 20th century's greatest horrors, is incomprehensible. Each year, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, the world takes stock of one its darkest moments. The Holocaust is among those historical markers that force us to face the reality of evil. Especially in a culture like ours, that too often thinks in "Dr. Evil" comedic caricatures, we must never forget the true potential of humanity. The Holocaust that was perpetrated by the Nazi regime is the most well-known horror of a horror-filled twentieth century. In many ways, it is now shorthand for the reality of evil in this world: eleven million dead, six million of these specifically targeted Jews. No discussion of the problem of evil or of the Second World War is complete without an extensive commentary on the realities of Auschwitz , Buchenwald , and Bergen-Belsen . Whatever it takes, we must never forget. Many in our generation first came to know the terror of this part of our history through films such as Schindler's List , Life is Beautiful, or The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. For others, it was a book assigned in school, such as The Diary of Anne Frank, Man's Search for Meaning, or Eyewitness to Auschwitz, where a narrator describes three years working in the crematorium . The Holocaust Museums in Washington D.C. and Jerusalem are also invaluable tools of our cultural memories. Even as we learn this history, we must also remind ourselves that this "enlightened age" is no less capable of great evil than our supposedly more primitive ancestors. The lie of moral evolution is a particularly pernicious and dangerous one. Future generations must know of the limits of the human condition, lest they too get lost in illusions of technological grandeur. After all, the Holocaust was not the work of some oppressed people, seeking to redress sins inflicted in the past. Neither was it done by backwoods, uneducated folks, so ill-informed about life that they lashed out against any and all who were different. This was done by citizens of what was arguably the most scientifically advanced and best-educated nation in the world at that time. As portrayed in an excellently unnerving HBO movie , Conspiracy , the leaders of German society, military, legal, and political, came together at what was called the Wannsee Conference, on January 20, 1942 . They thought the matter through, planned, and then did it. Recently, on the 80th anniversary of that horrible gathering, religious and political leaders, both Christian and Jewish from across Europe and North America gathered to clarify why we must continue to oppose anti-Semitism in all forms, and to address the antisemitic ideas, laws, and spirit that is still alive and well today. As one German participant put it, "It is the duty of Christians to make the concerns of their Jewish compatriots their common concern." Christians, in fact, should be the first to condemn and counter any hatred or desecration poured out on any fellow image-bearer, including those through whom God revealed His Word and brought His Son into His world. At their meeting, on the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, the European Coalition for Israel issued a Declaration entitled: "Fight Antisemitism, Protect Jewish Life." It's worth a close read and our full consideration, especially at a time when so much of the world seems at risk of forgetting.
Jan 26, 2022
John and Shane field a question about where Christians find grounding for freedom. Then they discuss a few questions related to a recent commentary on death and dying before helping a listener process the rise in books that are challenging Christian history and tradition that are impacting the church. To close, John answers a question from a listener who asks for advice in raising a strong-willed child.
Jan 26, 2022
John and Shane field a question about where Christians find grounding for freedom. Then they discuss a few questions related to a recent commentary on death and dying before helping a listener process the rise in books that are challenging Christian history and tradition that are impacting the church. To close, John answers a question from a listener who asks for advice in raising a strong-willed child.
Jan 26, 2022
John and Shane field a question about where Christians find grounding for freedom. Then they discuss a few questions related to a recent commentary on death and dying before helping a listener process the rise in books that are challenging Christian history and tradition that are impacting the church. To close, John answers a question from a listener who asks for advice in raising a strong-willed child.
Jan 26, 2022
An eight-year court battle over a bakery cake in the United Kingdom is finally over . Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights declined to hear the case brought by Gareth Lee, a gay activist who sued a Christian-owned bakery in 2014 after the shop declined to decorate a cake with the words "Support Gay Marriage." This leaves in place Britain's Supreme Court's 2018 ruling, which said the bakery didn't discriminate against the customer by refusing to print a message . This is good news. When Lee first sued the bakery he said publicly that their refusal to print the message made him feel like a, quote, "lesser person." This points to how vapid modern notions of identity have become. There are real consequences of disconnecting people from their Creator, and leaving them with no real reference point than their own self-expression. The Biblical idea of the image of God is so much better than anything else on offer in the marketplace of ideas.
Jan 26, 2022
"Love and marriage, love and marriage," crooned Frank Sinatra , "go together like a horse and carriage." Today, however, an ever-growing majority of Americans seem to think marriage is just as outdated as a social institution as a horse and carriage are as a transportation technology. And this includes those who have historically championed marriage as essential to a healthy and flourishing society. Overall, belief in the importance of marriage is at an all-time low. According to Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs poll , just 29% of Americans say it is "very important" for a couple who have children together to be legally married. That's down from 49% in 2006. Given that, during those intervening sixteen years, marriage was both legally redefined and constantly assaulted by advocates of so-called "alternative" family models, these numbers aren't that surprising. Nor is it surprising that a strong majority of respondents now believe sex outside marriage and having a baby outside of marriage is morally acceptable. What is surprising is the dramatic shift in beliefs about marriage among those groups that have historically defended and championed the institution . Just 36% of self-identified Republicans now say marriage is "very important" for couples who have children together, compared with 62% in 2006. And, incredibly, only 41% of self-identified "conservatives" now agree with that statement, which is down 21 points since 2006. How did party demographics shift so dramatically over the last sixteen years? Did the "populist turn" of the party contribute to these discouraging numbers? Is this shift the cause or the effect of other policy shifts? Related research suggests that America has a growing "marriage divide." In other words, more and more working-class couples are choosing cohabitation over marriage, and seeing marriage increasingly as a kind of status symbol of the elite. And there's another divide too, the one between fiscal and social conservatives. That one has been growing for some time. On one side, there are those who merely want a smaller, less intrusive, and more efficient government. On the other hand, there are those who champion the ideals of life, marriage, and religious liberty. The label "conservative" is used to refer to those who hold one, the other, or both positions. What these Gallup numbers now indicate is that those who hold socially conservative positions, much less prioritize them, are getting rarer and rarer, especially among the young. This is not only a loss for those who care deeply about these social values, but also futile for those who think that a smaller government is possible without strong social institutions, especially marriage. Decades of research show that children raised by married parents not only enjoy better outcomes in almost every area of life, they tend to be more productive and able to self-govern. According to the Brookings Institute , children of married parents "do better in school, develop stronger cognitive and non-cognitive skills, are more likely to go to college, earn more, and are more likely to go on to form stable marriages themselves." This is not to say, of course, that every child from a married home succeeds. They don't. And there are, of course, many heroic single parents who successfully raise children in less-than-ideal situations and many heroic children who overcome incredible hardship as they grow into adulthood. Statistics are not destiny for individuals, but they are destiny for societies . Marriage is simply the best means of keeping both parents—especially fathers—involved in a child's life. And, the science is settled : moms and dads are irreplaceable, in different ways and for different reasons. In other words, marriage and the family help produce the kinds of citizens that make small government even possible. When marriages and families fail or decline, governments must provide all kinds of additional (and expensive) aspects to their social safety nets to make up for the terrible loss of this most basic institution. For a society to flourish, there is simply no substitute for the family. That's why it is an oxymoron to claim to be a conservative while downplaying the importance of marriage and the family. The reason is simple: marriage is a non-negotiable part of reality . It isn't something arbitrary or socially constructed, like a speed limit, which can be changed or expanded with little consequence. It's real, like gravity, built into the world, whether we recognize it or not. To ignore it is dangerous and, ultimately, futile. Any political vision that treats marriage and family as optional or fungible, even if it goes by the label "conservative," is destined to fail. This isn't a matter of updating our definitions. If we lose our belief in marriage and the family as the foundation of a healthy and flourishing society, there will soon be very little left for "conservatives" to conserve.
Jan 25, 2022
"The U.S. is facing an aging population, a shortage of caregivers, a dearth of affordable housing, and an increase in social isolation that threatens wellbeing," wrote Clare Ansberry in The Wall Street Journal earlier this year . It's true. Covid-19 only deepened an existing crisis for seniors , who were the most susceptible to both the virus and prolonged social isolation. A solution is desperately needed, but in the words of Ansberry , "some think what we really need is Magic." She's referring to an acronym, coined by geriatrician William Thomas , that stands for "Multi-Ability, multi-Generational, Inclusive Co-living." The idea is to build neighborhoods where "young and old, families and singles, live side-by-side, supported by inclusive design, technology, and neighbors." If that sounds like a good idea, it's because people were designed to live in intergenerational communities. It's a model that reflects a much older, much deeper design: the institution of the family . Not just parents and kids, but extended families are part of God's original design to protect and care for one another , especially as we age. With the breakdown of the family , that's something we've lost sight of. It's worth getting back.
Jan 25, 2022
"Human beings look separate because you see them walking about separately," wrote CS Lewis in Mere Christianity. But, "if you could see humanity spread out in time, as God sees it, it would look like one single growing thing-rather like a very complicated tree. Every individual would appear connected with every other." This punchy analysis is apt for, among other things, assessing the spiritual health of American Christianity. How people within a cultural setting think about and practice spirituality is interrelated. Statistically, the most significant relationship by far between spiritual belief and commitment is that of parents to children. That's always been true. However, especially in light of new data from the Institute for Family Studies , the struggle to pass faith from one generation to the next is more difficult than ever. Overall, the "tree" is not looking very healthy. "…the challenges of passing on the faith remain considerable," writes study author Jesse Smith . That's an understatement, but there is a silver lining: "…religious conservative parents are managing that challenge somewhat better than others." Accounting for other important factors - like the relative importance of religion to the parents and whether they "practice what they preach"- Smith looked at the role the substance of the religious beliefs played in transmitting them: things like a high view of the Bible, belief in objective morality, traditional sexual ethics, and a sense of tension with the larger society. In contrast to parents with more "liberal" or "moderate" beliefs, "children of religious conservatives are more likely to match the religiosity of their parents, and when they stray, they tend not to stray as far." Smith concluded that the primary reason for this success is that parents with more conservative spiritual beliefs took them more seriously and took a much more active role in their children's religious socialization. Therefore, they more frequently talked about God, prayed with their children, and engaged with a church community. "To pass on religion," wrote Smith, "parents need to make it a part of daily family interactions." Good advice. However, this study is no cause for celebration. Conservative parents may have an edge in passing faith down to their children, but they're still only "winning" at a game everyone is losing. For example, while Smith reports that only 15% of children from moderate or liberal families attend worship services weekly, the percentage of conservative families was just four percentile points higher, 19%. In the last year, 52% of children from moderate and liberal families did not attend a single church service entirely. Conservative kids fared only slightly better - 43%. The fact that 43% of religiously conservative kids failed to darken the door of a church even once last year should cool our celebration. More and more of this population are among those joining the religious "nones," or those who refuse to claim any religious identification. The overall number of "nones" has roughly doubled since 2007 and now represent 3 out of every 10 Americans . Of course, none of this is new news. Culture watchers have seen a religious decline in America for decades now . It's something we cover on Breakpoint frequently. Still, it's worth studying, again and again, especially by any Christian parent hoping to pass on healthy faith to their kids. One clear lesson is how seriously parents must take their role as disciple-makers 's a common instinct to lean away from spiritual conversations, especially with teenagers who seem uninterested or annoyed. Not to mention, almost every voice in culture says students must be free to determine their truth and identity. All of which makes talking to teens intimidating, especially in a culture increasingly hostile toward Christian beliefs and ethics. But from this data, Smith strongly cautions against thinking that a "light touch" on religious matters is enough to keep kids in the fold. His conclusion is blunt. "If kids do not receive a clear and consistent message from their parents that religion is important, they are likely to simply conclude that it is not important." (emphasis mine) At the same time, what a parent does also plays an essential role in their child's spiritual outcomes. By living out Biblical convictions, frequently talking about spiritual issues, and being willing to live in counter-cultural ways, parents convey that faith matters. As much time and effort goes into making church relevant and attractive to young people, a better strategy would be for churches to invest heavily into parents and family, equipping parents to disciple their kids. The best place to start is in our own homes.
Jan 24, 2022
If you've spent any time at all on the Internet talking about controversial political subjects, chances are someone has told you to "do your own research." In theory, reading up on a topic before giving an opinion is a good idea. But as James Ballantine and David Dunning write at the New York Times , it's not always so easy to get good information online. A little bit of reading, especially reading purposely selected to reinforce our biases, can convince us we know a lot more about a subject than we do. Dunning is one of two social scientists who named the Dunning-Kreuger effect, or the "beginner's bubble." It's the illusion someone has after reading an article or watching a video that they have mastered a subject. And it's become an Internet-wide problem. Echo chambers are not somehow superior to ivory towers. The same ease of access to information online that allows us to "challenge the status quo" also enables us to find the answers we want to see, whether or not they are really true. So beware the bubble, and remember the wisdom of humility.
Jan 24, 2022
One quote in Steve Garber's excellent book on education, The Fabric of Faithfulness , has always stood out to me. It comes from a Duke University graduate and offers an important observation, an indictment really, about higher education. "We've got no idea of what it is that we want by the time somebody graduates. This so-called curriculum is a set of hoops that someone says students ought to jump through before graduation. No one seems to have asked, 'how do people become good people?'" In other words, simply amassing a large collection of classes, buildings, resources, books, and other so-called "hoops" does not an education make. What's missing in the whole enterprise is an idea of what an educated person would look like if the process worked. This "thinking with the end in mind" is just as necessary for any church, Christian school, or other Christian organization committed to discipleship. On most of our websites, we use language to communicate our commitment to discipleship, but how clear are we on what a disciple is? Do we have a clear enough vision of what a disciple looks like in order to contextualize and guide all of our programs, books, sermons, teaching series, small groups, and other discipleship tools that we so often employ? Imagine launching a new computer company but not having an answer to questions such as, "What kind of computers will you make? What will they look like? What will be unique about your computers compared to others? What kind of functionality will they have?" To respond to these questions with, "Well, I have no idea, but I bought a bunch of computer parts, and I'm going to put them together" would be absurd. (And, there's a Johnny Cash song that comes to mind…) This is why a Christian worldview is so important. The Biblical vision for discipleship only makes sense within the larger Biblical vision of reality. In other words, discipleship is far more than having a sense of spirituality, or a sense of meaning and purpose, or a set of Christian habits, or even "feeling close to God." Discipleship is living life under the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is sovereign not only over how we ought to behave but over the entire cosmos. In The Faith , Chuck Colson wrote, "Orthodox Christianity, alone among worldviews, provides a stop to the inertia of time through the renewal of the soul and the regeneration of people that transforms cultures." Chuck understood that disciples are those who have been transformed by the renewing of their minds so that they actively engage the world around them with the heart and mind of Christ. They see others as Christ does. They seek to obey Christ in every area in which He has authority, which is every square inch of His creation. Twenty years ago, Chuck Colson created a program to replicate this vision of discipleship within Christian communities everywhere. Through the Colson Fellows program , Christians would think deeply about life and the world through a Christian worldview, and seek to follow the Lord in every aspect of life and culture. Rather than a Christian faith turned exclusively inward, the Colson Fellows program turns faith outward. Underlying the Colson Fellows program is a framework that begins with understanding reality in light of the full scope of the Biblical account of reality. This account can be understood in four chapters—creation, fall, redemption, and restoration—and it stands in stark contrast to other worldviews. So, Colson Fellows dig deeply at the Christian worldview, and they study the alternatives. This is an essential step if we are to, like the men of Issachar, " understand the times and know what to do ." Another critical part of the Colson Fellows framework is understanding the Biblical doctrine of the imago Dei as the fundamental identity of human beings. This is particularly critical to understand in light of the crucial issues that confront followers of Christ in this cultural moment. A deep dive into this idea enables the kind of response we need to have as Christians, one that goes beyond mere reactionism and outrage. Finally, every Colson Fellow, after spending a year in a committed learning community, articulates a plan for living out what they've learned. Each of these plans is built along the lines of intentional Gospel-shaped questions that connect the reality of the Kingdom with the calling we have to our cultural moment. This year, nearly 750 people have been studying with us in 60 different learning communities across the United States and beyond. Lord willing, they'll be commissioned as Colson Fellows at the Wilberforce Weekend in May . And when they are, by God's grace, they will be committed to their Lord, to His truth, to loving their neighbors, and to His church. Applications for next year's Colson Fellows class, which begins this summer, are currently being accepted. For more information, visit www.colsonfellows.org .
Jan 21, 2022
John unpacks a number of recent commentaries from BreakPoint, specifically highlighting the march for life and a hero we profiled, Dr. Mildred Jefferson. John also discusses a new report from the New York Times which suggests that many prenatal tests give false positives more often than they produce an accurate diagnosis. John then discusses death and dying and how we as a society struggle to think carefully about such matters. He highlights two recent commentaries the outline how the Christian worldview offers great hope and framework to deal with mortality. To close, John shares the latest report from The World Watchlist on the state of Christianity and religious freedom worldwide. He highlights the stress on faith around the world and challenges Christians in America to pay attention to the plight of brothers and sisters in the faith worldwide. He also explains the importance of practicing and defending faith in our culture where we may not feel the stress of traditional persecution.
Jan 21, 2022
Many churches have shut their doors in the face of Covid, but one large church in Denver hasn't just shut their doors; they've sold them. According to Christianity Today , "The Potter's House Denver will sell its property in Arapahoe County and continue to worship exclusively online." We often hear that because the Church isn't a building, it doesn't matter whether it meets in one. But trading in-person worship for an online experience misses what the Church actually is. It isn't just a place for individual contemplation on "spiritual things." That's not the Christianity of the Bible but the pietism of Gnosticism. Embodied worship is an essential part of a Christian worldview. If our faith is the sort of thing we can live it out alone, never needing the presence of others, then are we truly still the Church? The Church is the ecclesia , the called ones, the gathered ones, the community of the saints of God. If we aren't a "we," we are not the Church.
Jan 21, 2022
Today, as tens of thousands March for Life in Washington D.C., we remember one of the movement's most important pioneers. Dr. Mildred Jefferson emerged from the segregated South during an era of intense racism. She was the first black female doctor from Harvard University, the first woman to intern at Boston City Hospital, the first female surgeon at the Boston University Medical Center, the first woman admitted to the Boston Surgical Society and a renowned professor of surgery at Boston University Medical School. Over her career, she was awarded 28 honorary degrees. Her accomplishments to advance female and racial diversity in the medical field are cause enough to celebrate her incredible life, but she should also be remembered for her tireless work opposing abortion, both as a physician in the Hippocratic tradition and as a Christian. Her work for the pro-life cause began in earnest in 1970, in response to a decision by the American Medical Association to declare abortion ethical for doctors as long wherever it was legal. Jefferson, incensed by the decision, co-founded the Massachusetts Citizens for Life and was appointed to the board of the National Right to Life in 1971. In 1972, a public television station in Boston featured Dr. Jefferson in an episode of a series called "The Advocates." The program aired nationwide and showcased Dr. Jefferson's credentials as a physician, as well as her skills as a powerful and winsome speaker who used impeccable logic to argue against abortion. After the broadcast, Dr. Jefferson received a number of letters, including one written by a rising west coast politician. It read: "Yours was the most clear-cut exposition on this problem (abortion) that I have ever heard. . . . Several years ago I was faced with the issue of whether to sign a California abortion bill. . . . I must confess to never having given the matter of abortion any serious thought until that time. No other issue since I have been in office has caused me to do so much study and soul-searching. . . . I wish I could have heard your views before our legislation was passed. You made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is the taking of a human life. I'm grateful to you. The author of the letter was Ronald Reagan. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court struck down all restrictions on abortion nationwide. The infamous Roe v. Wade decision only led Dr. Jefferson to redouble her efforts in the defense of life. A few months later, she became vice-chair of the board of National Right to Life. The following year, she became the board's chair and, the year after that, president of the organization. Dr. Jefferson held that post from 1975 to 1978 and soon became the most prominent pro-life spokesperson in the country. Even after leaving her position at National Right to Life, Dr. Jefferson continued to be a powerful advocate for the movement. Representative Henry Hyde, himself an eloquent pro-life champion, once said that the best thing the pro-life community could do would be to raise enough money to pay Dr. Jefferson to travel the country advocating for the unborn full-time. Dr. Jefferson understood that the fight against abortion was a moral imperative: I'm opposed to abortion as a doctor and also because I know it is morally wrong. An individual never has the private right to choose to kill for whatever reasons, be they whim, convenience or compulsion. Because I know abortion is wrong, I will use every means available for free people in a free country to see that it is not perpetuated. The doctor who willingly accepts destroying life will have no grounds on which to object if the state should compel that doctor to destroy life. Abortion on demand, Jefferson realized, would turn into a demand for doctors to perform abortions. As a result, conscience rights for medical professionals would disappear. They would be forced to obey the state rather than their faith or their conscience. And, if the state could demand this of doctors, it could demand it of anyone. Abortion, Jefferson realized, was a step toward totalitarianism. In other words, Dr. Jefferson foresaw the coming attacks against conscience rights for medical professionals such as nurses and pharmacists, and if allowed to stand, similar demands would be extended to other, non-medical professions. Dr. Jefferson died in 2010, but the movement she helped lead continues, stronger than ever. Today, as tens of thousands are in Washington D.C. for the March for Life, consider honoring Dr. Jefferson's legacy by donating to your local pregnancy resource center. Those who provide care, assistance, and support for families facing unexpected or crisis pregnancies, are on the front lines of fighting our nation's greatest evil. Their work, birthed in the wake of Roe v. Wade, is more important than ever. Though we may soon see the end of this legal travesty, the pro-life movement, built by people like Dr. Mildred Jefferson, is nowhere near its end. The best way to honor those who've gone before us in this cause is to join them.
Jan 20, 2022
We're used to hearing that free speech is being squashed in places like Iran or China. But Finland? According to Christianity Today , several Lutherans in that country are now on trial for "criminal incitement against a minority group—hate speech." All for affirming the same beliefs about human sexuality Christians have held for thousands of years. On the one hand, this is surprising. Finland is a Western country that prizes human rights and diversity of thought. On the other hand, this kind of thing is inevitable once it is assumed that any opposition to LGBT ideology "must" be born of hate and fear, and that hate speech isn't protected speech. Then it becomes inevitable that society will seek to squash tenets of Christianity. Those who challenge the current sexual status quo do so out of love for neighbors, and it's precisely ideas that the wider society finds distasteful that free speech is supposed to protect. What's happening in Finland is a reminder that political decisions flow downstream from deeper cultural assumptions.
Jan 20, 2022
Grappling with death is as old as the Fall, but a new generation of smartphone apps provides a modern twist. By combining predictive factors such as age, smoking habits, and body mass index, these apps predict when a user will give up the ghost. To be fair, some of the "death" apps do more reminding than predicting. WeCroak , for example, is inspired by a Bhutanese saying that "to be a happy person, one must contemplate death five times daily." Users receive "five daily invitations" with quotes that remind them that their death is inevitable. On one hand, these apps attempt to fix a cultural wrong. The idea for WeCroak, for example, came to co-founder Hansa Bergwall through an addiction to the popular mobile game Candy Crush. Sick of wasting time, he hoped that being confronted with his own mortality would help him use his time more wisely. Apps like WeCroak are sometimes called " anti-app s" or attempt to undo what technology does best to us… distract us. Distraction, of course, is the primary way that Westerners cope with the prospect of death and takes many forms. A five-hundred-billion dollar beauty industry glamorizes youth and promises immortality. A thriving commercial economy allows us to pursue our dreams to the extent that was impossible for most people throughout human history. We may have a God-shaped hole in our hearts, but the sheer variety of stuff available keeps us occupied in trying to fill it. And, when death finally comes, we can outsource it to the professionals: care homes, hospice workers, and morticians. By contrast, some Eastern traditions go the opposite way and try to embrace death completely. Some Buddhist monks, for example, practice " maranasati ," or death contemplation. In some traditions, this takes extreme forms, such as spending weeks in cemeteries observing corpses in various states of decay. Awareness is a central pillar in Buddhist teaching, which promises an escape from the suffering of our unmet desires. Given how evasive real answers about death are outside of Christ, it's no surprise that the continued search would eventually lead to an app like WeCroak. But is simply contemplating death enough to produce the life-giving answers we're looking for? Recently, WIRED magazine's spiritual advice columnist, Meghan O'Gieblyn, received this question: "Lately I've been feeling like life is passing me by, so I downloaded an app that reminds me [that] I'm going to die. I thought it would help me accept my mortality and focus on what really matters, but it just makes me anxious. Is there something wrong with me? Is being anxious the point? Do you think these apps can be helpful?" O'Gieblyn's responded, "Death apps are less a wake-up call than another false comfort, one that reflexively defers to the favored religion of our age—information… [I] suspect your anxiety stems in part from your awareness that the app, on its own, is not really addressing the heart of your fear." That's well said but far from an answer . In fact, O'Gieblyn goes on to recommend a coping strategy almost as powerless as WeCroak: more "life experiences," political activism or a fuzzy sense of "religion," The Bible, on the other hand, describes the reality of death seriously, because of its accurate view of life. Death is not a healthy or normal part of life. As one author put it, it's not the way it's supposed to be. In death's shadow, says the Teacher of Ecclesiastes , "everything is meaningless." Fools and wise people alike end up in the grave. Even our best endeavors come to nothing. But the Bible doesn't leave us there. Jesus' mission to Earth wasn't merely to spread wisdom or help us face death with a stiff upper lip. He came to destroy death. "I am the Living One:" he says in the book of Revelation . "I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." That means that knowing Him is the beginning of life, the starting point for real joy, the only way to overcome death, and the only foundation for real hope. Like the founders of WeCroak, early Christians in Rome were fond of the phrase memento mori : remember that you will die. In light of the Gospel, this reminder is also an invitation. Know Christ… and live.
Jan 19, 2022
John and Shane answer a listener's question about training men to embrace manhood. They also field a question from a listener who has seen a conversation open up with a daughter who has closed the listener off. The question is, how should the listener should proceed? John then revisits a commentary on sperm donation and provides greater context to a challenging topic before answering a listener's inquiry in whether Adam and Eve were primates. ** Resources ** How to have a Conversation: Difficult Circumstances Greg Koukl | What Would You Say? |
Jan 19, 2022
Recently Cambridge University established Europe's first center devoted to studying and promoting animal rights law. The academics in charge say they'll focus on questions such as whether animals should be farmed for food, used for testing, caught and killed, or kept in zoos. According to the Los Angeles Times , it's part of a growing push to designate some animals as "non-human persons," with legal rights to life, liberty, and even property. This would be bad for both humans and animals. The very concept of "human rights" comes from Christianity's doctrine that people are made in the image of God. Likewise, animal welfare—which is different from "animal rights"—was pioneered by Christians like William Wilberforce , who saw humans as stewards of the rest of creation. If we're just animals, as the concept "non-human persons" implies, there's no reason we should be kind to or respect other animals. Human rights and animal welfare become nonsense, and things get a lot hairier for all of us.
Jan 19, 2022
Imagine a pregnant mother, recently informed that her baby may have a rare genetic condition . She now faces a future caring for someone with an intellectual or physical disability, perhaps financial stress, and even a shortened life. Certain dreams and hopes she has harbored for her preborn child have been dramatically altered. To make matters worse, many women in this challenging situation face intense pressure from medical professionals and family members to have an abortio n. Some have even described having to defend the decision to not have an abortion to medical professionals who assume that a disabled child should not be allowed to live . But what if the prenatal test that sparked this whole series of events was a false positive? What if this test returns false positives 85 percent of the time ? According to a shocking new expose in the New York Times , a new investigation of companies manufacturing and promoting prenatal tests for rare and serious conditions concluded that certain prenatal tests, tests which lead countless women to get abortions, are "usually wrong." Up to a third of expectant mothers in the United States will face this scenario, claims the article, telling stories of mothers who received positive test results for debilitating chromosomal conditions. Many of these mothers considered abortion until they discovered through more invasive follow-up tests that the screening results were false, and their babies were fine. Of course, even if accurate, test results do not in any way alter the inherent value of every human being. Still, many women do not bother with follow-up testing, trusting the results of these prenatal screenings, which manufacturers advertise as "reliable" and "highly accurate." These tests are neither "reliable" nor "highly accurate." According to an analysis conducted by The Times , screenings for several rare conditions yielded false positives 85 percent of the time . A few screenings, such as the test for Prader-Willi syndrome, were wrong 90 percent of the time. Millions of women, conclude the authors, have "been misled by a wondrous promise that Silicon Valley technology has made…that a few vials of their blood, drawn in the first trimester, can allow companies to detect serious developmental problems…" The false promises are made via incredibly dishonest advertising. Medical giants like Quest Diagnostics and Myriad Genetics use phrases like "total confidence," "clear answers," and "information you can trust." However, they fail to publish data on how well their tests perform, and even cherry-pick numbers to make them appear more accurate than they are. However, in one case, The New York Times appears to join in on the deception. The authors repeatedly assure readers that prenatal tests for Down syndrome are reliable. Yet, a 2014 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that around half of the positive Down syndrome screenings for low-risk pregnancies turned out to be false. For trisomy 18, a similar condition, up to 60 percent of screenings yielded false positives. The tragedy of this many false positives comes into focus in light of another number: Nearly 70 percent of babies in the US who test positive for Down syndrome in the womb are aborted . It's terrible that many of these children didn't even have the condition their parents so greatly feared. It's even more terrible that this culture has decided that people with disabilities are better off dead. The real name for this way of thinking is eugenics, something that didn't end with Nazi death camps in Europe and forced sterilization in the United States. The deadly logic that follows the idea that some humans are "defective" and "not worthy of life" is still with us, only gussied up, sanitized, and medically justified for the 21st century. Ours is the real-life version of the movie, GATTACA , in which a "perfect" society free is built, not by eliminating defects, but by eliminating people. While The New York Times deserves credit for exposing the eugenics underbelly of the prenatal testing industry, the authors of this article ultimately buy the same basic premise. The problem, they suggest, is bad testing, not deciding some are "defective" and eliminating them. But both history and good science fiction warn where this kind of thinking leads. The issue is not the bad science behind modern eugenics but the bad idea behind all eugenics. It's an idea that's claimed victims throughout history and must be rejected no matter how accurate our tests are. Christians have faced down dehumanizing cultures like ours before, since its earliest days when the persecuted church rescued abandoned Roman babies. They were inspired and animated by a better idea: that every human being is intrinsically valuable because they bear the image of God.
Jan 18, 2022
Recently, Medium 's Tom Whitwell reported, "a study of 14,000 Australians over 14 years found that neither being promoted nor being fired has any impact on either emotional well-being or life satisfaction." The fascinating study compares the emotional impact of a variety of life events, from retiring to going to jail, being robbed, getting married, or having a baby. Some of the results are what you'd expect. For example, major health issues hurt both emotional wellbeing and life satisfaction; and though getting married can be stressful leading up to the event, it brings distinct positives afterward. But surprisingly, neither getting fired nor getting promoted have long-term effects. That certainly challenges the idea that climbing the corporate ladder is the secret to happiness. Of course, other studies show the high value of work in general: as the Harvard Business Review summarizes, "being unemployed is miserable." All of which points a generation struggling with the meaning of work to the truth of how God made us. Work is a worthy endeavor … but not our ultimate identity .
Jan 18, 2022
We live at a rather unusual time in history when it comes to death. Not because there was ever an age when death was escapable, but because, until fairly recently, death was a much more present reality in people's lives. Infant mortality was high; women died in childbirth at much higher rates; different kinds of accidents claimed the lives of men, women, and children, not to mention infections, parasites, diseases. A major difference is that, in the past, people tended to die in their own beds. In-home Funerals were common. In fact, many homes were built with a coffin door to facilitate moving bodies in and out of the house. Much of this changed with the advent of antibiotics, which extended lifespans. The professionalization and institutionalization of medicine and the funeral industry changed the landscape. When people became gravely ill, they now went to hospitals. When they died, they were taken to funeral homes. Death was hidden from immediate experience, allowing us to ignore it and its inevitability. Though in many ways, the pre-modern world had a far more realistic understanding of life and death than we do today, that doesn't mean they better grasped the hereafter. Although ancient cultures possessed various views about what happens after death, there are only a few basic options to choose from. Some cultures believed that, after death, humans became spirits, either as a ghost or an ancestral spirit to be worshipped. There is evidence that this belief may go back as far as the paleolithic period. Other cultures believed in a more substantive afterlife, particularly those with more elaborate mythological systems. It was a dreary and desolate existence for some, even those not actively being punished for their sins. Others saw the afterlife in more favorable terms. This was especially true if one belonged to the elite or ruling class, though many visions of an afterlife included the prospect of judgment. Asian cultures were among those who held to some form of reincarnation in which, generally, the quality of someone's next life was determined by how well they lived this one. The meaning of life, within these systems, was to grow spiritually to a point where one could escape the cycle of reincarnation and lose individual existence. The only other real option, one typically held by philosophers and intellectual elites, was that death meant the end of personal existence altogether. This essentially materialistic view was held by diverse groups like the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers and the Sadducees of Second Temple Judaism. These alternatives offered little hope for people facing the inevitability of death. Even those with a relatively positive vision of the afterlife sought to delay or prevent death. For example, Shi Huangdi, China's first emperor, built a magnificent tomb for himself, full of goods set aside for his use in the afterlife. But, he also sought to find an elixir that would allow him to live forever. (Ironically, the elixir contained mercury, which may have hastened his death.) Overall, when it comes to death and the afterlife, the author's assessment in Hebrews sums up the ancients well: people were held in slavery by their fear of death (Heb. 2:15). Christianity changed all this. The Gospel is about God becoming man to take upon himself the punishment due to us, to die on our behalf, and to be raised from the dead as its Conqueror. By faith, we are united to Him. His death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, and glorification are made ours. Death is a defeated enemy, no longer feared by those who follow the one who already faced it and was victorious. We follow the one who can lead us through the valley of the shadow of death without fear. For the early Christians, these were not platitudes. Thus, many faced martyrdom with joy rather than renounce their allegiance to the One who died for them and rose again. Therefore, many tended the sick during terrifying epidemics, in complete disregard for their own lives, seeing death from sickness as simply another form of martyrdom and a doorway to a better life. Thus, they lived with a hope that stunned their pagan neighbors. This is why second-century church father Tertullian would observe that "the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church." The pagan world had never seen anything like this. Even the philosophers, who viewed death with such indifference, struggled to grasp how Christians faced death when simply burning a bit of incense to the emperor could avoid it. In the modern world, the Christian tradition of the ars moriendi , the art of dying well, has been replaced with the art of ignoring death. Our technologies make this possible in all kinds of ways but, as was made obvious in our global responses to COVID-19, do nothing to help us face the fear of death. The world needs what only Christianity offers: the promise of resurrection, a guide who can lead us past the gates of death, a world beyond this one in which all that is sad is made untrue, and a hope that cannot be shaken by any of the circumstances of this world.
Jan 17, 2022
Last week John Stonestreet joined the Colson Fellows in Training in a special teaching webinar. These live presentations with a Q&A to follow are a staple for the Colson Fellows program. Last week, Dr. Bill Brown asked John for an explanation on the speed and direction of culture change and how it is impacting mediating institutions and why it matters. For more on the Colson Fellows program visit www.colsonfellows.org
Jan 17, 2022
According to Fiona McDonald with Science Alert , " There's Evidence Humans Didn't Actually See Blue Until Modern Times " Apparently, people tend to group or separate colors in different ways depending on their language. In a lot of languages, blue wasn't considered a separate color. it was thought of as a kind of green. So many ancient writers compared the sky to copper and the sea to wine. Even today, Namibia's Himba tribe has several words for green, they lack any specific word for "blue," and have trouble even seeing it. At the same time, they could clearly see shades of green that are invisible to Western eyes. Language is not just a passive tool humans use to describe the world. It's a proactive means through which we understand the world. It's not that blue didn't exist or even that ancient people couldn't see it. It's the role of language in shaping how we see and think. In other words, when James talked about how important the tongue is , he meant it.
Jan 17, 2022
Though President Ronald Reagan signed into law a national holiday to honor Civil Rights Movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1983, it was not fully observed by all 50 states until the year 2000. This, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is an example of a law being upstream from culture rather than the other way around. Today, the day is recognized across the country and even by cities and nations worldwide. In more recent years, King's legacy as a leader, minister, and powerful orator has been complicated by allegations of sexual misconduct. He also held certain theological views, specifically about the Divinity of Christ , the resurrection, and the Virgin birth, that were not orthodox. What Dr. King was clear about was the doctrine of the image of God . The way that this exclusively Christian idea shaped his leadership and activism demonstrates what a world-changing doctrine it is. Specifically, it was King's outworking of the Imago Dei in legal theory, forged in the context of persecution and mistreatment, that led to what many think is the greatest legal work of the 20th century. Chuck Colson thought so. So, to commemorate Martin Luther King Day, here's Chuck Colson on Dr. King and his "Letter from Birmingham Jail:" "A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is out of harmony with the moral law." It was with these very words, in his memorable "Letter from Birmingham Jail," that Martin Luther King, Jr., threw down the gauntlet in his great Civil Rights crusade. King refused to obey what he regarded as an immoral law that did not square with the law of God. All across America today, millions of people are celebrating the birthday of this courageous man, and deservedly so. He was a fearless battler for truth, and all of us are in his debt because he remedied past wrongs and brought millions of Americans into the full riches of citizenship. In schools and on courthouse steps, people will be quoting his "I Have a Dream" speech today. It is an elegant and powerful classic. But I would suggest that one of Dr. King's greatest accomplishments, one which will be little mentioned today because it has suddenly become "politically incorrect," is his advocacy of the true moral foundations of law. King defended the transcendent source of the law's authority. In doing so he took a conservative Christian view of law. In fact, he was perhaps the most eloquent advocate of this viewpoint in his time, as, interestingly, Justice Clarence Thomas may be today. Writing from a jail cell, King declared that the code of justice is not man's law: It is God's law. Imagine a politician making such a comment today. We all remember the controversy that erupted weeks ago when George W. Bush made reference to his Christian faith in a televised national debate. But King built his whole case on the argument, set forth by St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, that "An unjust law is no law at all." To be just, King argued, our laws must always reflect God's Law. This is the great issue today in the public square: Is the law rooted in truth? Is it transcendent, immutable, and morally binding? Or is it, as liberal interpreters have suggested, simply what courts say it is? Do we discover the law, or do we create it? Ever since Dr. King's day, the United States Supreme Court has been moving us step-by-step away from the positions of this great Civil Rights leader. To continue in this direction, as I have written, can only lead to disastrous consequences—indeed, the loss of self-governing democracy. So I would challenge each of us today to use this occasion to reflect not just on his great crusade for Civil Rights but also on Martin Luther King's wisdom in bringing law back to its moral foundations. Many think of King as some kind of liberal firebrand, but when it comes to the law he was a great conservative who stood on the shoulders of Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine, striving without apology to restore our heritage of justice. This is a story I tell in my book, How Now Shall We Live? : a great moment in history when a courageous man applied the law of God to the unjust laws of our time, and made a difference. And that is the lesson we should teach our kids on this holiday. It is not just another day off from school or a day to go to the mall. That was Chuck Colson describing the important insights in Dr. King's " Letter from Birmingham Jail ". Take a minute today to read through it, and to talk through it with your kids. Its central question is an especially important question today: "What makes a law just?"
Jan 14, 2022
John and Maria discuss a new report on the division in the American church. John outlines how it is helpful to have these kinds of reports, but Maria points out that statistics shouldn't be a determining factor on living out one's faith. Maria then asks John a few questions that embody some of the feedback we've received from our January commentaries. John explains the approach BreakPoint has inside these tense politically-charged moments and thanks and welcomes feedback from listeners as we navigate societal issues together. To close, Maria asks John for insight how to respond to church issues. John gives a perspective to help keep the story and the moment straight, while being the church. ** Story References ** THE THREE WORLDS OF EVANGELICALISM American evangelicalism is deeply divided. Some evangelicals have embraced the secular turn toward social justice activism, particularly around race and immigration, accusing others of failing to reckon with the church's racist past. Others charge evangelical elites with going "woke" and having failed their flocks. First Things>> Why Are Religious Conservative Parents More Successful at Passing on the Faith? Children of religious conservatives have a 19% chance of attending worship services at least weekly. This may sound low, but it's higher than the 15% chance we see in people from moderate or liberal families. At the other extreme, an estimated 43% of the children of religious conservatives report no worship attendance at all in young adulthood, compared to 52% for everyone else. Religious conservative parents are more effective at transmitting their faith to their children. We shouldn't overstate the effect here, though. Children from all groups are, on average, less religious than their parents. Religious conservative parents still face an uphill battle in passing on the faith. But they do fare somewhat better than their moderate or liberal counterparts, even those who are just as religiously committed themselves, belong to the same religious tradition, and are similar in other respects. IFStudies>> Remembering January 6 by Missing the Point Neither our faith nor our despair belongs placed in the idols of political parties or candidates. God has called us to this time and this place. Therefore, we cannot abandon our political moment no matter how messy it gets. Conversely, we should never treat our politics as if it's greater than the One who calls us. BreakPoint>> God (Still) Loves His World Bavinck lived and wrote amid a rapidly shifting cultural landscape. So, in many ways, his time resembled our own. Through his work, he sought to help Christians develop a robust "world-and-life view," one not only big enough to handle the vast changes of the emerging modern world but which would enable God's people to join His work in restoring all that's marred and misdirected by sin. BreakPoint>> ** Recommendations ** The Lost Daughter The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism
Jan 14, 2022
Activists in the mid-2000s coined the term "Latinx" as a gender-inclusive, non-binary way to describe anyone with Hispanic heritage. But According to one study , only 2% of Hispanic voters actually use the term, and almost 40% say it offends them. That might only be surprising to the academics, Hollywood stars, and policymakers who, for some reason, keep using it. Like other Romance languages , gendered language is woven into the fabric of Spanish. That's why the Royal Spanish Academy so fiercely resisted attempts to incorporate the term into its lexicon. Citing the swing of Hispanic voters away from the Democratic party in 2020 , columnist Jamelle Bouie puts it this way, "No message, no matter how strong on the surface, will land if it isn't attentive to those forces and the other forces that structure the lives of ordinary people." Terms like Latinx assume a view of the world people don't actually live in: where "race" is all-consuming, and the daily reality of gender is ignored.
Jan 14, 2022
An old Chinese proverb says that if you want to know what water is, don't ask the fish. Why shouldn't we ask the fish about water? I asked that question to a group of high schoolers years ago, and they replied, "because fish can't talk?" No, you don't ask fish about water because fish don't even know they're wet. Fish don't know anything other than the water. Culture is to humans what water is to fish. It is the air we breathe, the environment we think is normal. Because of this, we often forget that culture could be different than it is, unless we travel to another culture or take note of a cultural change. That means we tend to accept culture as it is, rather than asking whether culture is good or bad. That's why it's so important that Christians find ways to step out of culture from time to time, to intentionally look at and evaluate our cultural moment. Often, we get distracted by the noisier stuff in our culture, and lose sight of what's important. But, as Brett Kunkle and I discuss in our book A Practical Guide to Culture, the louder parts of our culture are rarely the most important parts of our culture. In recent years, our cultural moment has become more and more relentless. We are pounded by issue after issue, such as addiction, the rise in suicidal ideation, the ever-growing list of identities and acronyms, and the onslaught of social media dominating every moment of every day. The issues are like pounding waves. They seem endless, and we feel them. However, there are also aspects of culture that we don't feel. Like the ocean, in addition to the waves we see and feel, there are undercurrents we barely notice until they sweep us out to see. These currents lurk beneath the surface, dramatically altering the landscape of our culture. One of the most significant cultural undercurrents is what historians and scholars call "the age of information." We live in a noisy world that is saturated with content. Today, you will likely encounter more information than someone who lived hundreds of years ago would have seen in their entire lifetime. The sheer amount of information available to us is stunning and historically unprecedented. Information is not neutral. Information carries and communicates ideas. These ideas may be true or false, but they are not neutral. Ideas matter. Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have victims. In other words, the age of information is also the age of ideas. Ideas have a source. This means we also live in an age of competing authorities. Certain existential questions become more important in certain cultural moments. One of the most significant questions that has emerged in our moment is, "who can I trust?" This is no small question. How can we glean the good when there are so many bad ideas floating around? The obvious reaction to the age of information is to think that what we need is truth. And, of course we need truth. But, if true information is added to a sea of information, it can easily get lost, part of the white noise we experience on a daily basis. The Apostle Paul's prayer for the church at Philippi is one we need to claim as our own in this cultural moment. Paul prayed for this church that "their love would abound more and more in truth and in all discernment." We need truth, and we need the skills to navigate all of the ideas, the competing authorities, and the information of this moment. The word for that is discernment, that ability to tell the difference between what is true and false, what is genuine and counterfeit, what is good and what is evil. This is one reason I encourage families to have World Magazine in their homes. WORLD has proven to be, in my home, a reliable source of discernment in this age of information. In addition to the print magazine, their digital resources and podcasts are committed to analyzing the events of our world through the lens of Biblical truth. WORLD is one of our closest Colson Center partners. For a gift of at least $20 this month to the Colson Center, we will provide a year's subscription to World Magazine, as well as access to their digital resources, podcasts, and the brand new World Opinions. If you're already a subscriber to World (and I hope you are), the subscription can be given to a friend, family member, or neighbor. I contribute weekly to the WORLD podcast, The World and Everything in It. I'm grateful for our long partnership and grateful that they've made it possible for the Colson Center to extend this incredible offer to you.
Jan 13, 2022
By contrast, Dixit explains, an important half of our brain lights up and makes new connections when we're actually at rest, which helps foster innovation and creativity. Because so many distractions preoccupy the modern world, we have to be intentional to have what previous generations did . Perhaps it's because God knew this quirk of human psychology that He gave the world the Sabbath and a command to rest. He knows what we need because He made us.
Jan 13, 2022
Several years ago, Cheryl Strayed hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Southern California into Washington State by herself. In her memoir , Strayed described the trek as a search for self-fulfillment after several family tragedies, including her own divorce. In 2014, Strayed's story was made into a movie. In 2010, Julia Roberts starred in Eat Pray Love , a movie adaptation of another memoir about a post-divorce self-fulfillment trip, this one across Europe. Last year, The New York Times published the essay "Divorce Can Be an Act of Radical Self-Love. ," and last month, The Atlantic published a nearly identical piece claiming divorce was an exercise of "self-improvement." Everything was fine at home, the author claimed, but she just wanted 'something else.' Though it may not qualify as a trend just yet, a surprising number of Christian social media influencers , writers, and even pastors are announcing their own divorces using similar language. They describe the end of their marriages as a positive step in their own self-discovery, a matter of self-expression or, even, just another normal part of life. Last month, one pastor tweeted that his divorce was "the next best chapter in the evolution of our love." Of course, every marriage story is unique and, in a fallen world, marriages end for all kinds of reasons. However, the recent volume of stories publicly framed in similar ways using similar reasoning is worth noting. Not only are we struggling to do marriage well these days, we've also lost sight of what marriage actually is . Announcing divorce on social media is odd in and of itself, but most people sharing these sorts of testimonies will claim that, despite the pain and disruption of divorce, it is the right decision for them . It's not unusual for someone to refer to their decision to leave a marriage as being "brave," even if there was no infidelity or abuse. In light of the Bible's description of marriage as permanent and the dramatic harm , divorce inflicts on children; there's clearly a way of thinking about marriage at work here. In many of these stories, a sense of dissatisfaction, the pressure of family responsibilities, or even just boredom constitutes a marital crisis . What marriage actually is and what it is for, is irrelevant. Rather, marriage must accommodate our own self-expression. The highest good is found in minimizing personal pain and maximizing personal pleasure. Therefore, we must be true to ourselves over and above anything else. The sense that discontentment or anxiety is an emergency is both radically new and exclusively Western . Dr. Carl Trueman, in his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self , sees this as a symptom of the modern philosophy of expressive individualism. This way of thinking imagines marriage as a speed limit instead of gravity. A speed limit is a social construct, something relatively arbitrary that was invented to order our lives together. Suppose something changes, such as an improvement in braking technology or additional houses built in the neighborhood. In that case, a speed limit can be altered or changed with relatively minor effort. Gravity, however, is not a social construct. It's built into the fabric of reality. It cannot be changed or altered. A speed limit might be broken without consequence (as long as you don't get caught), but gravity won't. In so many ways, from "no-fault divorce" to the trope of the "brave" divorce to calling same-sex relationships "marriage," we treat marriage like a speed limit. But it's not. Marriage is like gravity. A society constantly reimagining marriage in law will catechize its citizens to do the same. Up becomes down. Leaving becomes brave. What I want becomes right, even if it's not. In The Atlantic article mentioned earlier, the writer admits to leaving her husband and kids to focus her time on her career as a public defender. Because that's what she wants to do and likes the most, she theorizes she'll do more good in that role than by staying in her marriage. The logic breaks down. People suspected of crimes need good public defenders. Children who grow up in broken homes are vastly more likely to commit crimes than kids with married moms and dads. We may not like that it is this way, but gravity is still gravity. Marriage is still marriage, even if we want it to be different. Marriage is a real thing. God created it to last, by love and in mutual submission, until death. God created it to protect children and the good of the world. Christians should define and approach marriage as the Maker of marriage intended it to be, not as a speed limit that changes from one cultural moment to the next.
Jan 12, 2022
John and Shane respond to listener feedback that critiques John's commentary on the Woke Rebuilding of Notre Dame. John and Shane walk through why they believe the rebuild has problems, while also offering that it might not be as bad as it seems. Then Shane asks what resources are beneficial in pre-marital counseling, as a mom is asking how to come alongside her children in that area, and also in the area of race relations. Another listener wrote in to ask how she should talk with her daughter who is adopted from China about her birth country. The mother is trying to celebrate the culture her daughter comes from, while also being honest about the problems coming out of China right now. To close, a listener asks John and Shane to comment on the best process for mentorship in the church. John outlines the Colson Center approach, with an encouragement for listeners to consider joining the Colson Fellows program this year. For more information on Colson Fellows, visit www.colsonfellows.org
Jan 12, 2022
Last week, The Wall Street Journal published the heartbreaking story of a 27-year-old man who died from a drug overdose back in 2020. Steven Gunner was conceived through the use of a sperm donor. He also struggled with schizophrenia. After his death, his mom and adoptive dad reached out to other children who were also fathered by Steven's donor, in order to let them know that their son's mental illness may have been genetically inherited. Their research confirmed that the sperm donor — known to them as just a number — had also suffered from schizophrenia, had also died by a drug overdose, and had not disclosed his mental health issues on health history forms - which American sperm clinics are not required to verify. The Gunners' research also revealed that Steven's father has at least 18 other children. It's unknown whether they also inherited schizophrenia from the father, but the Gunners' tragedy is yet another chapter in the larger story of assisted reproduction: when we rip apart God's design for families, there is pain in every direction.
Jan 12, 2022
BreakPoint with John Stonestreet Tags Length 1 Of 1 Title God Loves His World: Leavening Grace in Herman Bavinck Author Shane Morris Rcvd Recorded Air Date So, does God love the world or not? Does He plan to overcome it or restore it? Christians have long struggled to understand the various ways the Bible, especially the New Testament, talks about "the world." In John 16:33 , for example, Jesus tells His disciples that "in this world (they) will have trouble," but to "be of good cheer" because He has "overcome the world." The Greek word here for "world" is " kosmos ," often used by New Testament writers to present the world as an enemy of God and God's people, alongside the flesh and the Devil. However, in His famous conversation with Nicodemus (recorded a few chapters earlier), Jesus says that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" to save it. The same word is used here, " kosmos. " Understanding God's posture to His created world was a central part of the thought and work of a 20th-century theologian whom every Christian should know. Herman Bavinck , who died a century ago, was a Dutch Reformed theologian and statesman who served alongside the more famous Abraham Kuyper. Theologian and Colson Center board member Jennifer Marshall Patterson recently wrote about Bavinck's work in a WORLD Opinion column. As she explained, God's love for His creation and His plans in Christ to restore it, rather than replace it, was central to Bavinck's theology. It also makes a world of difference within a Christian worldview. Bavinck lived and wrote amid a rapidly shifting cultural landscape. So, in many ways, his time resembled our own. Through his work, he sought to help Christians develop a robust " world-and-life view, " one not only big enough to handle the vast changes of the emerging modern world but which would enable God's people to join His work in restoring all that's marred and misdirected by sin. Bavinck was especially fond of the oft-used biblical metaphor of leaven. According to Patterson, he saw the Christian worldview as an "activating agent that enables everything to expand to the fullness of its created potential." Jesus likened the Kingdom of God to leaven , which works through the dough, turning it into bread. In other words, leaven works according to the nature of the dough, not against it. In the same way, Christ works to redeem God's creation, a creation He declared to be "very good," though now marred by the Fall of humanity. Simply put, the Gospel does not work against creation but according to God's intent for it. At the same time, Bavinck never downplays the damage of the Fall. He describes it as a brokenness manifested in our four most fundamental relationships, relationships we were created with by God: our relationship with God, our relationship with self, our relationship with others, and our relationship with the created order. As Patterson put it, "Sin fractured each of these relationships. God's grace operates to restore them. In our context today, the challenges that individuals and communities face—from divorce to opioid addiction to suicide—have to do with brokenness in one or more of these relationships." Among Bavinck's most import and powerful insights is that instead of seeing the full scope of these relationships as largely irrelevant, as many Christians do, we are called to announce Christ's redemptive work for each of them. Even further, we are to advance this redemptive work in any way we can. This is what real "human flourishing" looks like. Our culture presents very different, competing ideas of human flourishing: material possessions, self-expression, sexual fulfillment, etc. A Christianity that only addresses the so-called "spiritual" stuff, with no understanding of God's original design for His world, cannot compete with or critique these false worldviews. As Bavinck's fellow Dutchman Abraham Kuyper famously said, Christ claims lordship over "every square inch" of life. Thus, a fully-formed Christian worldview will see no relationship, calling, or sphere as outside of the jurisdiction or redemptive power of Jesus. The Bible sometimes uses the term "world" to refer to a realm broken and corrupted by sin, which threatens to take captive the hearts and minds of humanity. Other times, it refers to the realm God created as good. However, as Bavinck taught, Scripture is clear that God loves the world He created, and He intends to make it new, redeeming and glorifying it and His image-bearers. Or, as one commenter on Bavinck put it, echoing the carol "Joy to the World," God's intent to restore His creation reaches "as far as the curse is found." The work of Herman Bavinck should be better known and studied. Patterson's WORLD Opinion piece is a great place to start. A recently compiled and translated version of his work is available by the title The Wonderful Works of God . This approach to God's world is the kind of leaven this cultural moment needs.
Jan 11, 2022
Canada has just adopted a new ban on so-called "conversion therapy " that criminalizes any "practice, treatment, or service" designed to change, repress, or reduce a person's same-sex attraction or transgender identity. According to WORLD , the ban covers even the mildest forms of "talk therapy," including counseling for adults who want to de-transition. So, in effect, Canada is denying that people even exist who detransition or who may legitimately want help reconciling themselves with their biological sex. And offering that service is punishable by up to five years in prison. The lack of science behind this law is staggering. As Canadian clinical psychologist James Cantor points out there's not a single study showing harm from so-called "transgender conversion therapy." It could, in fact, be desperately needed, since up to 80 percent of minors with gender dysphoria will desist at puberty . This Canadian law isn't designed to protect patients. Rather, it is designed to protect the convenient fiction that transgender feelings are unchangeable. We know this narrative is false. Though Canadian lawmakers may want to pretend de-transitioners don't exist, that's as much a denial of reality as believing someone can change their biological sex in the first place.
Jan 11, 2022
"What people once expected from the Almighty, they now expect from the almighty bureaucracy. That's a bad trade for anyone, but for the Christian, it's rank idolatry." This observation, made by Chuck Colson in his book, God and Government , is as true today as when he wrote it. In fact, all the evidence needed to prove that America has made the "bad trade" Chuck described, was on full display last week. Most of the commentary reflecting on the anniversary of the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol was basically as expected. Voices on the left, most notably the Vice-President , attempted to place the day within the pantheon of America's darkest hours alongside 9/11 and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Of course, this was more rhetoric than reality, less about "never forgetting" and more about advancing progressive agenda items and attempting to preemptively salvage the midterms. Though many on the right denounced the violence from January 6, others repeated the widely discredited theory that it was a " false-flag " event. Others went as far as to describe it as something to celebrate. Senator Ted Cruz applied the term "terrorism," before backpedaling furiously on Tucker Carlson's show. In other words, a discouraging number of voices, pundits, and leaders chose to reduce the day to a pre-determined set of political talking points, and therefore largely missed the point. At a moment where we so desperately need better thinking about our national experiment, we were served breathless partisan outrage instead. The irony, of course, is that breathless outrage may be the only bipartisan activity remaining in this deeply divided age. Two-thirds of Americans now doubt the integrity of our elections, which means that cynics come from either side of the aisle depending on who wins. And, according to these same voices, each and every news story, whether political or not, must be understood as a referendum on our very democracy, which is at stake. Of course, democracies are put at risk by bad policies and politicians and, in many ways, ours is up for grabs at the moment. Still, whenever that happens, much bigger problems, that are upstream from whatever election, policy, candidate, or riot of the moment, are revealed. Politics is an unavoidable part of life, but it's never good when politics becomes life… not for an individual nor for a society. A few decades ago, the slogan "the personal is political" was coined as a way of calling the state to enlarge personal freedoms. Today, our slogan may as well be the reverse. "The political is personal," especially when the state and the political process is expected to determine morality, humanity, or reality. Politics, however, cannot carry that kind of weight. Only what is transcendent can determine what is good, what is just, and what is true. As Christianity fades in our nation's collective memory, we increasingly look to politics as its substitute. It's a poor one because the pragmatic can never replace the transcendent. Put differently, politics makes for a lousy worldview. Like lenses through which we see reality, worldviews either enable or prevent us from seeing the world clearly. Any worldview built on the political alone will be the wrong prescription and will leave us with blind spots. For example, we'll imagine individual leaders as either demi-gods or devils. In reality, they simply lack the power to bring either the glory they promise or the ruin we fear. "To think of everything as political," wrote Jacques Ellul in The Political Illusion, "to conceal everything by using this word…, to place everything in the hands of the state, to appeal to the state in all circumstances, to subordinate the problems of the individual to those of the group, to believe that political affairs are on everybody's level and that everybody is qualified to deal with them—these factors characterize the politicization of modern man and, as such, comprise a myth. The myth then reveals itself in beliefs and, as a result, easily elicits almost religious fervor." In our case, it's no longer "almost." In many ways, politics is all that's left. The state is increasingly inseparable and often indistinguishable from the rest of culture. The vast variety of pre-and non-governmental life, from family to neighborhoods to worship to what Edmund Burke called "the little platoons" of society, have all become quite thin. That's neither healthy nor sustainable. In response, some have called Christians away from politics altogether, and even away from the love of country. However, we must not trade one error for another. We are not called to a pietistic, disembodied love of the human race. God calls His people to love particular neighbors in particular communities of particular nations within a particular cultural moment. To love our neighbors, to seek the welfare of the city, and to live faithfully to God in the time and place to which He has called us, will require more of us than just political engagement, but certainly not less. As Brian Mattson recently put it in a helpful essay, "it's 'walk-and-chew-gum-at-the-same-time' time again." Neither our faith nor our despair belongs placed in the idols of political parties or candidates. God has called us to this time and this place. Therefore, we cannot abandon our political moment no matter how messy it gets. Conversely, we should never treat our politics as if it's greater than the One who calls us.
Jan 10, 2022
According to the British news outlet The Guardian , it wasn't a happy holiday for many Christians in India. Radical Hindu activists raided Christian churches - smashing statues, burning Bibles, and threatening believers. This capped off an already bad year for Christians in India , a year that averaged 100 attacks on Christians in each of its first three months. It's vitally important that we remember our brothers and sisters around the world face great trials and tribulations. In totalitarian regimes like China , in hostile Islamic states like Iran , and even in ostensibly democratic nations like India , a public profession of faith in Christ is an invitation to harassment, persecution, and even death. Thinking of our brothers and sisters around the world also reminds us that we need to maintain a bigger perspective about life. There's much more to the world than what happens on social media. As important as controversies might seem, and sometimes are, the strength and suffering of Christ's church is more important our Twitter feed. Let's pray for the church around the world.
Jan 10, 2022
"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter," writes the author of Proverbs, "(and) to search out a matter is the glory of kings." The Biblical account of reality—that God created a world that was knowable and His image-beares to be knowers—powerfully explains the human drive to learn and investigate the world around us. It also justifies the utilization of general revelation as we pursue knowledge of the created order through various branches of science. To put it bluntly, the Bible is not anti-science. Rather, the Bible explains why science works. And, every once in a while, the Bible offers an insight that shed further light on an unsolved question of science. That seems to be the case with the Assyrian destruction of Lachish, an event recorded in the book of Kings. The accurate Biblical accounting of this event has provided scientists with a reliable anchor from which to better answer two tricky dilemmas: one having to do with geophysics and the other with archeology. A recurring question of geophysics is how to measure changes in the Earth's magnetic field over time. The Earth's magnetic field acts like a massive cosmic shield, protecting us solar winds that could disrupt navigational equipment, introduce harmful radiation into the atmosphere, or perhaps even blow our atmosphere away completely. The earth's magnetosphere is not a perfect shield, however. For years, scientists have known of gaps in the magnetosphere over certain regions, which drift over time. However, since measurements have only been collected since the 1850s, there is also a significant gap in our knowledge of how the magnetosphere has changed in the distant past. Though it's possible to take sizeable measurements from the magnetic record in rocks, localized measurements are much harder to obtain. Or, at least, they were harder to obtain until research found a way to use burned-out ruins from ancient archeology. Tel Aviv University's Yoav Vaknin recently led a team to Tel Lachish to measure magnetism. When the Assyrian King Sennacherib burned Lachish in 701 BC, he unknowingly reset the magnetic charges in the minerals found in floors, tools, and pottery pieces. As they cooled, these artifacts re-attuned to the Earth's magnetic field, forming a snapshot of the Earth's magnetic field in that particular location at that specific moment. With enough snapshots like this one, scientists could much better piece together how the magnetic field has changed over time. If, of course, the Biblical dating of this event is accurate. The consensus from historians is that it is. "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign," 2 Kings 18:13 tells us, "Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah." By providing accurate dating of Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian conquests of the region, the Bible gives scientists the kind of helpful "data footholds" they can reliably use. And this is connected to a second advance enabled by the Bible in archeology. For reasons not fully understood, radiocarbon dating isn't accurate around the years 800-400 BC, an historical period known as the "The Hallstatt Plateau." The curve of carbon-generated dates around this time is distorted, flattening out where it seemingly shouldn't. As a result, scientists cannot reliably carbon-date objects within a sizeable and important stretch of history. Breakthroughs like the one at Lachish give us a new way to find those dates through archaeomagnetism, a process that uses the magnetic readings from archeological sites to help determine their age. As with the advance in geophysics, archaeomagnetism is dependent on reliable, independently established dates from ancient history. That's the kind of thing Scripture offers over and over again This isn't the first time the Bible's accuracy has been vindicated, of course. The Old Testament predicted the existence of ancient groups like the Hittites long before anyone discovered evidence of their culture. Its description of the assassination of the same Assyrian king Sennacherib matches the one his son, Esarhaddon, provides in his records. At the ruins of Jericho, many archeologists believe there is evidence of a sudden structural collapse, which would align with how the book of Joshua describes the city's destruction. Of course, many mysteries remain about how the many pieces of the archeological record fits with the Biblical one. But in the words of archeologist and Jewish scholar Nelson Gluek, "[It] may be clearly stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a single Biblical reference." Yet, "scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible." This is what we should expect from a religion grounded in history. The Bible describes real things that happened to real people. We should expect it to provide accurate data about the events it reports, even events from the ancient past. And if true, the data it presents could help us solve puzzles about the world around us
Jan 7, 2022
John and Maria reflect on the commemorations of January 6th. They outline how that event marked who we are, highlighting the summer riots and breakdown in cities that led up to the incident in Washington D.C. Then Maria asks John for further explanation of a BreakPoint commentary on the Woke influence in the renovations of the Notre Dame cathedral in France. To close, John explains to Maria how marriage is a reality, like gravity, in our world as Maria reflects on recent high profile divorces and the way marriage is being explained in their wake. -- Story References -- SEGMENT 1: President Biden and Vice President Harris Speak on Capitol Incident Anniversary President Joe Biden on Thursday addressed the nation on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection. ABC NEWS TRANSCRIPT>> SEGMENT 2: The Woke Plans to Rebuild Notre Dame The 2019 fire in Notre Dame reminded the world of the importance, the history, and the beauty of this magnificent structure. As we mourned the damage, many hoped the building would be repaired to remind the world of its original purpose. Recently, the cathedral's reconstruction plans were announced and, unfortunately, the news isn't good. BreakPoint>> SEGMENT 3: Honor Jones chronicles "How I demolished by Life," celebrating her feminist divorce The Atlantic
Jan 7, 2022
Much environmentalism today assumes that humans are always the problem, and our activity is always harmful. But the more we study, the more we realize how resilient living things are. Recently, USA Today and the BBC reported that the infamous Pacific Ocean garbage patch —an area of more than 610,000 square miles littered with manmade trash—has become a thriving habitat for small marine animals. Scientists have found arthropods, crabs, and mollusks on more than 90% of debris—some of the species that would never live so far out to sea. This story is similar to a report a few years ago that peregrine falcons are now more common in some major cities than they are in the wild, primarily due to the abundance of tasty pigeons. Of course, litter is very bad for the ocean and the environment, but these reports remind us how resilient life is… it's almost as if it wasn't an accident that shouldn't be here, but a carefully designed part of how God made the world.
Jan 7, 2022
God has a long history of working inside prisons. The very first book of the Bible describes how God granted Joseph favor with a prison warden , something that eventually led to the saving of his family, the saving of Egypt, and the preservation of God's promises to establish the nation of Israel . The book of Acts gives several accounts of God working in prisons. For example, after Paul and Silas were miraculously released from jail in Philippi, the jailor and his whole household converted . And, Jesus Himself said that those who visit and care for prisoners are actually visiting and caring for Him . Of course, the founder of the Colson Center knew firsthand how God worked behind bars . Chuck Colson devoted much of his life to working with inmates, wardens, and justice systems, as well as with policymakers and family members of those incarcerated. Today, Prison Fellowship is the largest and among the most effective and well-respected prison ministries in the world. God is still working in prisons, as a recent news story from Religion News Service demonstrates. What Rodrigo Abd and German De Los Santos describe as taking place in an Argentinian prison, most of us would identify as a revival: evangelical Christians taking over entire cell blocks in one of that country's most crime-ridden cities. Rosario in Santa Fe Province is the birthplace of Communist revolutionary Che Guevara. Drug dealing and murder are common career choices there. Many young men end up as assassins, serving drug lords who, according to one prosecutor, often run their networks from within overcrowded prisons. These drug kingpins now face competition from, believe it or not, evangelical preachers. In addition to witnessing and making converts, these preachers are effectively starting their own prison units run by the inmates. Unsurprisingly, their units tend to be safer and calmer, with their own rules against fighting, smoking, alcohol, and drugs. Offenders are dismissed. Reportedly, there's not been a single riot in units where the evangelicals are in charge, and residents block the frequent attempts by prison gangs to infiltrate them. "We bring peace to the prisons," said one minister who helped establish these units. "And that is better for the authorities." (Not to mention, it's better for the inmates, too!). Another pastor explained, "We don't use knives, but the Bible, to take over a cell block." And, since prisons are often prime recruiting grounds for gangs, a revival behind bars will likely bring positive, long-term change to the broader community. Incredibly, 40% of Santa Fe Province's inmates now live in these Christian communities that exist "behind bars." Not only are residents finding greater peace, many are also granted greater freedom. One former hitman and convicted murderer, Jorge Anguilante, is allowed to leave prison every Saturday for 24 hours to minister back home at a church that he started. No one seems afraid he will escape. As he told reporters, his life as a contract killer is "buried," and Jesus has made him "a new man." In the late 18th century, American founding father Benjamin Rush started the world's first prison reform organization . He saw it as a noble and enlightened experiment that would improve both the lives of inmates and society as a whole. Chuck Colson was clearly motivated by the thousands and thousands of individual lives that the Gospel changed through the work of Prison Fellowship, as well as his conviction that " the church being the church " could be a redeeming force across society. For Chuck, that included the church behind bars. At the heart of a Christian worldview is Christ's work of redemption and renewal, an invitation not only to the respectable and law-abiding but to the outcast and criminal, and to those Paul called the "weak" and "foolish." It's available to anyone who, like the thief on the cross, will look to the Lord Jesus and say, " Lord, remember me. " Clearly, Christ is remembering those calling on Him from a prison in the Santa Fe province in Argentina.
Jan 6, 2022
Kevin Kelly , co-founder of WIRED magazine recently argued that there are two problems emerging in technology . Class 1 problems are when tech doesn't work perfectly. Think of code glitches, the wheels are falling off, expensive repairs, and the like. Market forces typically solve these kinds of problems over the course of a few years. Class 2 problems, however, are more insidious. They arise when technology works too well. A good example is facial recognition software. "What if the system was infallible in recognizing a person from just their face?" Kelly asks. "There would be no escaping it, no way to duck out in public. You could be perfectly tracked …. not only by the public but by advertisers and governments. 'Being in public' would come to have a different meaning than it does now." To be clear, Kelly is no Luddite. But he does realize how limited our will and our abilities are to think through the implications of technology. Christians who understand the fall, not to mention human history, should join Kelly in this realization. Our only real grounding for ethics, which grounds our ability to determine the implications of technology, is if God made the world, and us in His Image.
Jan 6, 2022
Today could be the most significant Christian holiday that most Americans know about the least. Epiphany is set aside in the church calendar to remember the visitation of the Magi to the infant Jesus. The day's name comes from a Greek word that means "manifestation." Through these strange visitors, God's gift of Himself to the world was first made manifest to the wider world. Until recently, in much of the Christian world, gifts were exchanged on Epiphany, not Christmas day. A former BreakPoint colleague, who grew up in Puerto Rico, recalls neighborhood children leaving straw out for the Magi's camels on the night before Epiphany. Though most Christmas-time gift-giving today has largely shifted to December 25, what Epiphany commemorates is central to the Christian faith. Thus, it remains worthy of the Church's attention. Among those who understood this was Lew Wallace, who lived about as eventful a life as possible. Civil War buffs will tell you that he may have saved the Union at the Battle of Monocacy in 1864, when his forces delayed Confederate General Jubal Early long enough to prevent the possible capture of Washington, D.C. Later, as territorial governor of New Mexico, Wallace dealt with the likes of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Still, it was a reunion of Civil War veterans that led to that for which Wallace is best known today. A few years ago, this story was told on the FoxNews website by John Murray , head of Brookstone Schools in Charlotte and a commissioned Colson Fellow . On the train ride to an 1876 reunion in Indianapolis, Wallace was reunited with Colonel Robert Ingersoll, a man known as the "great agnostic." Ingersoll traveled across the country deriding and challenging people of faith. This time, he aimed his fire at his old comrade-in-arms, even though Wallace was mostly indifferent to his own Christian faith. Wallace would later describe their conversation this way, "To lift me out of my indifference, one would think only strong affirmations of things regarded holiest would do. Yet here was I now moved as never before, and by what? The most outright denials of all human knowledge of God, Christ, Heaven, and the Hereafter which figures so in the hope and faith of the believing everywhere. Was the Colonel right?" Determined to prove Ingersoll wrong, Wallace returned to a short story that he had written during the Civil War about the Magi, " who had captured his attention as a young boy — taking a 'lasting hold on his imagination ." The conversation prompted Wallace to wonder again, "Who were they? Whence did they come?" Above all, "what led them to Jerusalem asking of all they met the strange question, 'Where is he that is born King of the Jews?" Starting with this meditation on the Epiphany, Wallace expanded his story, adding more meditations on the life of Christ. Eventually, in 1880, he published the finished work, about a fictitious Jewish prince named Judah Ben-Hur who discovered "the necessity of a Savior." You probably know it as Ben Hur: The Tale of the Christ . Ben Hur remained the best-selling American novel until Gone with the Wind , published in 1936. And, of course, it was the basis of the 1959 film starring Charlton Heston, which won eleven Academy Awards. When Wallace died in 1905, he believed he had met Ingersoll's challenge. Millions of Americans agreed. And, like the Magi before him and John Murray after him, Wallace's reflection took the light of Christ to the world around him. The rhythm of our society largely distracts us from " the true light, which gives light to everyone, (who had come) into the world ." It's hard enough to see the Light in such a culture, even harder to fulfill our calling to take the light to others. A great way to start is by celebrating Epiphany. We've compiled a number of resources at BreakPoint.org to help you do just that. God has called the Colson Center to help Christians take the light of Christ into the world, specifically this one. So, take a minute to learn more about our podcast , the Colson Fellows program , and the upcoming Wilberforce Weekend .
Jan 5, 2022
Shane welcomes Michael Craven to answer listener questions. Michael and Shane respond to how a young listener can encourage the seniors in his church who seem worried by this cultural moment. They also answer if beauty is objective and what makes Critical Race Theory a worldview.
Jan 5, 2022
A horrifying new survey found the number of pre-adolescent children in the U.S. who admit to sharing nude images of themselves more than doubled last year. Fourteen percent of kids aged 9-12 say they have shared inappropriate pictures of themselves. This is up from just six percent in 2019. Of that number, over a third said they shared those images with someone they believed to be 18 or older. As WORLD notes, this spike in dangerous behavior coincides with the pandemic, which meant increased screen time for many folks. An obvious takeaway is that preteens are not mature enough to handle all that comes with unsupervised smartphone use. The more time they spend alone with their devices, the more opportunity for pornography and predators. At the very least, we must take active roles in our kids' tech use. Quarantining with screens is more dangerous for kids than COVID ever was. It may keep the virus at bay, but for children especially, it lets in things far worse
Jan 5, 2022
The 2019 fire in Notre Dame reminded the world of the importance, the history, and the beauty of this magnificent structure. As we mourned the damage, many hoped the building would be repaired to remind the world of its original purpose. Recently, the cathedral's reconstruction plans were announced and, unfortunately, the news isn't good. Notre Dame is rightly considered one of the most fantastic examples of French Gothic architecture. It took nearly 100 years to build, from 1153 to 1260, and incorporated several architectural innovations. For example, rib vaults and flying buttresses enabled the walls to be opened up for stained glass windows, including three beautiful, enormous rose windows. The only way to fully understand Gothic architecture is by experiencing it. Despite its dark-sounding name, Gothic cathedrals were built for light. This was to symbolize divine illumination. Vertical lines and soaring ceilings were intended to point thoughts and imaginations upward to God. In fact, as Dr. Glenn Sunshine has pointed out , nearly every aspect of Gothic cathedrals symbolically point to the truths of the Christian faith. And, in the case of Notre Dame, the result is simply jaw-dropping . For over 500 years, until the French Revolution, Notre Dame stood at the center of French Catholicism. The revolutionaries desecrated the church and destroyed much of the religious art. They beheaded the statues of biblical kings in the mistaken belief that they represented the kings of France. After a brief period in which Notre Dame was reconsecrated as the Temple of Reason, it was used as a storehouse for grain. Napoleon Bonaparte had the cathedral rededicated and redecorated in the then-popular Neo-Classical style as part of his efforts to restore the Church in France. After the Napoleonic Wars, the cathedral fell into such a state of disrepair, the French considered demolishing it. It was Victor Hugo's book Notre Dame de Paris (better known by its English title, The Hunchback of Notre Dame ), which, more than anything else, spurred the French to renovate and restore it. Sculptors, glassmakers, and other craftsmen worked to reconstruct the cathedral using illustrations of it from before the Revolution. Whenever critical information was missing, the work was completed after the spirit and style of the thirteenth century. A taller and more ornate spire replaced the original, which had been removed in 1786. Historically, the French have demonstrated a commitment to preserve and, when necessary, restore the cathedral in its original spirit and style, with the desecration of the French Revolution and Napoleon's neo-classical decorative style as the most notable exceptions. (There was also the incident when, after being damaged by gunfire during World War II, some of the medieval glass was replaced by abstract art in the colors of the French flag.) The spire, the roof, and a considerable part of the interior were destroyed by the fire of 2019. Even before the structure had been stabilized, proposals for restoring the cathedral began pouring in, with many of them offering a modernist vision utterly incompatible with the medieval building. Many breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that the roof and spire would be rebuilt as they had been. More recently, however, plans for the interior were released to the public. One Paris architect referred to what was planned as " a politically correct Disneyland ." Mood lighting at head level would obscure the impact of the stained glass. Added light and sound effects would create "emotional spaces," and "themed chapels" as part of a "discovery trail" that would feature Africa and Asia and end in a chapel entitled "reconciled creation." An environmental focus, merged with Bible verses in various languages, would be projected on the walls. Modern art murals would be added, the confessionals would be removed, and the altars rearranged so that visitors could more easily experience the newly imagined cathedral. To say this is a travesty is an understatement. After all, nothing goes out of date faster than the latest taste and fashion. The previously timeless beauty of the cathedral would soon go the way of parachute pants and brutalist architecture. Even worse, the new design would undermine the message of the cathedral itself, which has long proclaimed an integrated set of eternal truths in a way that demonstrated how " the faith given once and for all " remains true and vibrant. Of course, it remains to be seen whether or not a culture like ours could make much progress in fully restoring a structure like that, given how different the dominant worldviews of the eras are. It would be a real shame if the eternal truths long attested to by and in this 13th-century cathedral were obliterated, especially if replaced by modern tastes and political correctness. Even more than a real shame, it would be a real loss.
Jan 4, 2022
A vlogger recently asked 100 different people to say their age on camera, starting with 1-year-old babies and ending with 98, 99, and 100-year-olds. It's kind of like watching 100 years pass in the course of 3 minutes. The common phrase used in ancient times was momento mori : remember that you will die. Respect for the elderly came not just from their wisdom, but because they had lived long enough to earn it. In our modern world, our relationship with age is complicated. Today, we tend to focus on youth. Americans spend billions annually to try and keep it. Scripture helps us live with both the certainty of death and the value of life by bringing in an additional dynamic. This is how the Psalmist put it : The godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. For they are transplanted to the Lord's own house. They flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age, they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green.
Jan 4, 2022
In his new book, A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles: Instruction and Inspiration for Living Supernaturally in Christ , renowned Christian philosopher J.P. Moreland makes a provocative claim. Ninety-five percent of what the average evangelical church accomplishes in a given year, suggests Moreland, could be explained even if God didn't exist. In other words, too much of our sermons, programs, and worship could be explained away (and perhaps dismissed by outsiders) as due to skillful leadership, public speaking, and production quality. No work of God required. While I would suggest that Christians should strive to see God at work anywhere, including in the mundane and ordinary, Moreland's claim is provocative. His book, as we've come to expect from the professor at Biola's Talbot School of Theology, is carefully reasoned and worthy of consideration. In it, Moreland explores what miracles are, investigates whether they are still happening today, and offers guidance to Christians for identifying and experiencing them. True to his profession, Dr. Moreland begins by defining his terms. A miracle is a "supernatural intervention" into the course of natural events, either by God or an angelic being. Included in Moreland's definition would be those answers to prayer that come through what theologians often call "providence," in which God works events together toward specific ends. In fact, Moreland provides over forty accounts of supernatural intervention: from miraculous healings, to stunning answers to prayer, to near-death experiences, to spiritual warfare. He even includes stories in which God provided what we might consider being small requests: a pool table, a hot water bottle, even a parakeet. Dr. Moreland not only stands by the accounts included in his book, he stakes his reputation on the reliability of the eyewitnesses he interviewed. And, he includes accounts of miracles he personally witnessed and received. In making his case, Moreland does more than simply rely on stories. He offers a biblical case for why Christians should believe that miracles still happen today, perhaps more regularly than we recognize. Recently, Dr. Moreland discussed his book with Shane Morris for the Upstream Podcast. It's an inspiring and important conversation, especially in a "disenchanted" culture like ours that tends to dismiss the supernatural without due consideration. As Shane points out in the Upstream discussion, not every theologian shares this expectant attitude toward modern miracles. Some critics, such as 19th-century Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield, argued that miracles were "part of the credentials of the Apostles as the authoritative agents of God in founding the church." Because that main purpose has already been fulfilled, Warfield believed that miracle-working as a gift "passed away" with the Apostles. Moreland disagrees with this view, even though his academic training makes him cautious about supernatural claims. Still, he believes that Christians ought to expect miracles as a regular part of the Church's life. He goes so far as to urge readers to "err on the side of belief." Perhaps the most unique contribution of this book is Moreland's step-by-step guide on how to recognize a miracle and distinguish it from mere coincidence. Borrowing from the sciences, he employs what he calls the "Intelligent Agency Principle." A true miracle must meet two criteria: First, it must be very improbable—in other words, not something that typically happens by accident. And second, it must be independently meaningful, or have "specificity." It must answer a prayer or fulfill a need that clearly shows God at work. By applying these two principles, Moreland believes it's possible to distinguish miracles from coincidences with almost perfect accuracy and give God the glory He deserves as a result. There's much more to the book, as well, like the discussion on angels and demons and an exploration of why God doesn't always miraculously answer prayers. It's a must-read for anyone curious about how God works in the world today and how we can experience it. Also, Dr. Moreland's discussion with Shane Morris on Upstream touches on nearly all of these subjects. Come to BreakPoint.org , click on this commentary, and we'll link you to the discussion, as well as how you can get a copy of J. P. Moreland's A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles .
Jan 3, 2022
Os Guinness joins John Stonestreet to discuss the cultural landscape in America. The two visit how it is desperately important for Christians to consider their calling in society as a calling to represent Christ in this cultural moment. Register for the event with John and Os Guinness in Phoenix at www.colsoncenter.org/phoenix
Jan 3, 2022
Parents, educators, the church, and the state all play essential roles within a society, but when the state goes bad, it can take down every other sphere with it. For example, according to a recent article in The Economist , "A struggle is underway for the hearts and minds of Hong Kong's children." In August, the city's pro-democracy teacher's union disbanded, following a government crackdown that had called it "a malignant tumor." Since then, the curriculum now "educates" children solely on the virtues of the Chinese Communist Party. Speaking out against these changes could lead to life in prison . As a result, some parents have stopped talking about politics at home, fearing their young children will say the wrong thing at school. Others continue to teach their kids democratic ideas, at risk of government retaliation to themselves or relatives. As a result, tens of thousands of residents are leaving the city altogether. It's good that parents are aware enough to be concerned. Unfortunately, too many parents here fail to take seriously the ideas that threaten the hearts and minds in our schools.
Jan 3, 2022
In his best-selling book The Call , social critic and author Os Guinness observes that one reason Christians struggle to discern and follow God's will for their lives is that they haven't fully wrestled with the gravity and challenges of this cultural moment. The fact that we should see the challenges of this time and place as an essential and defining aspect of our calling, rather than an accidental context in which we live out our calling, is implied throughout Scripture. God reveals Himself to us as a God Who is concerned with and Who works through particular times and places. Even as He does so, He is providentially orchestrating a cosmic-sized plan of redemption and renewal. Nowhere in Scripture is this made more clear than in Acts 17 , which describes Paul's sermon to Epicurean and Stoic philosophers on Mars Hill. In it, Paul says that God determines the times in which we live and the boundaries of our dwelling place . If what Paul says is truly the case, our moment in history is not an accident. We are called to it, especially those who follow Christ. Thus, we must seek to understand our cultural moment, and what it means to live out of the true Story of the world in this time and place to which we have been called. Os Guinness recently joined me on the BreakPoint Podcast to talk about exactly this and clarify the most important aspects of our cultural moment. Here's a sample of what Os had to say: Second to Alexis De Tocqueville is Lord James Bryce , who is an Englishman, around 1900. He warned about what he called "the completest revolution of all." He said, If you look at Europe, Europe always has tradition, of a sort, and social cohesion. He said, in 1900, that America has no tradition and no social cohesion. America is the freest and mobile civilization in history. He said that nothing holds America together, except one thing: religion. He said that if the day comes that America loses religion, too, then you'd have the 'completest revolution.' Put it another, one of the key elements of discipleship is responding to the times. People like to quote David's men, who were skilled at reading the signs of the times . The Lord rebukes his generation; they can read the weather, he says, but not the signs of the times . I think what's missing in the American church is a living awareness of the nature of the times we're in. Now, of course, you add to that, what's calling? Well, a Biblical view of leadership is not someone at the top. It's the person who takes the initiative and takes responsibility for either the opportunity or the crisis right in front of them. In other words, it's every one of us, in our spheres of calling; some are teachers, some are doctors, some are factory workers, some are politicians, people who take responsibility for the opportunities and the crisis right in front of their noses, at their level and in their sphere. And that's what we have to recapture today in the present crisis. You can take, say, the famous quote from Martin Niemoller , they came for the unionists, and I wasn't one, so I didn't speak up. They came for the Jews, and I wasn't one, so I didn't speak up. They came for the Catholics, and I was a Protestant, so I didn't speak up. And then you remember he says, and then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up. This is a time when every American, certainly every follower of Jesus, has got to stand up and speak out exactly where they are. That was my friend Os Guinness, and a part of our conversation from the BreakPoint Podcast. Os and I will be continuing this conversation during a special event at Redeemer Bible Church in the Phoenix area, on January 14th at 7pm. We'll attempt to answer the question: "What kind of people will we be? The Church and culture at a crossroads." If you are in the Phoenix area on January 14th, you can register to attend this event at no charge. If you're not in the area, please come to BreakPoint.org to sign-up for the Livestream.
Dec 31, 2021
John and Maria recount prominent people who passed in 2021, the top inventions of the past year, and important trends to consider as we close out the year. Then, John and Maria look ahead at current movements in culture. They consider the move of parents to be more involved in their school districts, the influence of China worldwide, and the pro-life movement. John closes the discussion by sharing how the Church is in an important position as we enter 2022, equipped to answer the big questions the culture is asking.
Dec 31, 2021
**The following is a review of one of the top stories of 2021** Like every other student in America, Mississippi third-grader Lydia Booth has to wear a face mask to school. But when Lydia donned her favorite mask, with the words "Jesus loves me" on it, school officials forced her to remove the mask and threatened her with suspension if she wore it again. As the Alliance Defending Freedom points out , students in Lydia's school were wearing masks with all kinds of messages, from Black Lives Matter to sport-team logos to images and brands. Yet school officials singled out Lydia, and then created a policy banning masks with religious, political, or "offensive" messages. The policy that clearly violates a students' right to free speech, so ADF has now filed a federal suit on Lydia's behalf. To stand with Lydia, you can request a "Jesus Loves Me" mask produced by Revelation Media. Proceeds will be used to help ADF protect Lydia's rights and all of ours.
Dec 31, 2021
**The following is a review of one of the top stories of 2021** Faithful watchers of the Olympics experience a letdown after the games are over. This year, with viewership in a freefall, there was likely not enough enthusiasm for there even to be a letdown on Monday morning. Many have tired of the politicization of this year's games , which started before the opening ceremonies. Patriotism, courage, and even "historic performance" were redefined in Tokyo, and for the worse. However, there is one protest, a quiet one, that demands our respect from the 2021 Olympics. Female athletes who are mothers earned well-deserved attention . Not merely with social media statements or corporate endorsements, but for winning medals and advocating for life. This Olympic narrative is not only heroic but counter-cultural in women's sports. In 2008, gold medal favorite Sanya Richards-Ross boarded a plane for the Beijing Olympics games after visiting an abortion clinic. Her husband, Aaron Ross, was in practice with the New York Giants, so Richards-Ross terminated her pregnancy alone. She came home with a bronze medal, writing later, "I made a decision that broke me." Richards-Ross went on to say that every female athlete she knows has had an abortion . This year, the U.S. Women's Olympic Track & Field team replaced a star runner in the 200 meters hurdles after she was slapped with a five-year ban on competition. The runner failed to follow anti-doping procedures because she was "traumatized after having an abortion" . Her trauma lingers now even as she is facing repercussions for responding as she did to the anti-doping process. McNeal now speaks out against the pressure female athletes face in choosing career over motherhood. Now a truly historic performance in the 2021 Olympics games may change this narrative in profound ways. Allyson Felix is the most decorated track star in U.S. history. Tokyo was her fifth and final Olympics games, and she has left with two more Olympic medals. Perhaps she will display them beside a picture of her two-year-old daughter whom she carried and gave birth to despite pressures to abort her. The decision to carry her child nearly cost Felix her life. Felix had already won six gold medals and three silver medals before becoming pregnant in 2018. She chose to carry her child, even when her pregnancy was found to be high risk . At 32 weeks Felix underwent an emergency C-section. Throughout the pregnancy, Felix faced intense pressure from her sponsor. After she opted to keep her baby, Nike, her corporate sponsor, pushed a new deal that included a 70 percent pay cut to her previous contract, with no maternity exceptions. The sports brand wagered that Felix's performance would falter as she bounced back and forth from competing to pregnancy to juggling motherhood. Felix spoke out , challenging the double-standard that exists in women's athletics for moms. Nike has since restructured how it works with mothers after Felix challenged the double standard. Following her Olympic successes, Felix is refocusing her attention on a new endeavor called "The Power of She Fund." The new organization is designed to support mom athletes in practical ways. The Power of She Fund will provide childcare for mothers who compete at high levels, offering them the support and encouragement they need. At least nine athletes who competed in Tokyo participated in Felix's program this year. These athletes received childcare grants that opened opportunities for greater training. Felix's work is also inspiring women's athletic brands to get behind mom athletes. Athleta and the Women's Sports Foundation are both corporate sponsors for The Power of She Fund. Felix's story is a tremendous example of what it takes to change culture. The ideas that are evil must be challenged; the imagination of what is possible must be expanded; new and better ideas must be offered . Also, very importantly, the direction of corporate pressure must be changed. In this case, it was from pro-abortion to pro-child. Hopefully, the important work of Allyson Felix will undo the abortion-minded atmosphere that currently surrounds women's athletics.
Dec 30, 2021
**The following is a review of one of the top stories of 2021** G.K. Chesterton said that gratitude was "nearly the greatest of all human duties, (and) nearly the most difficult." It is the greatest of human duties because, as Paul wrote the Corinthians, "what do we have that we did not receive?" Truth, tradition, technologies, medicine, democracy, relative peace, are all things that were given to us by those who've gone before. And yet, to paraphrase Jesus, even pagans can give thanks when things are going well. Expressing gratitude in a year like this, is much more difficult. Things could have gone better. We mourn for our friends and neighbors who've faced sickness, financial struggles, and relational fractures throughout this year. Gratitude in difficult times is what Jonathan Edwards called "gracious gratitude." We give thanks, not just for what God has done for us and not for what we've received, but for who He is. This gratitude is relational, not conditional. Though our world may shatter, we are secure in the One who made us and who saved us, and we can never be separated from His love.
Dec 30, 2021
**The following is a review of one of the top stories of 2021** Francis Schaeffer described how ideas escape the ivory towers of universities and think tanks eventually to shape how ordinary people think, speak, and view their world. In 2020, one idea made that journey in record time. Not that long ago, conversations involving Critical Race Theory were largely relegated to academic papers, classroom discussions, and scholarly journal articles. Today, dialogues about CRT can be found across social media, in corporate boardrooms, and even in the Church. As a theory, CRT descends from European and North American philosophical traditions, particularly Marxism and Postmodernism . Like these worldviews of its intellectual ancestry, CRT sees the world in terms of power dynamics. In this way of thinking, social evils such as poverty, crime, or oppression result not from universal human frailties but from Euro-Americans intent on securing and increasing their economic and social power . Based on this metanarrative, equality and justice demand privileging the stories of those kept out of power . CRT sees members of the oppressed group as morally right, and members of the oppressor group as morally wrong. CRT, like any worldview framework, should be evaluated. That, however, is easier said than done, even in the Church. Advocates often point to common ground between Critical Race Theory and the Christian worldview (for example, the commitment to justice and human dignity), and label any critiques of CRT as convenient ways to avoid confronting injustice and racism (which may not be true, but often is). Many Christian critics, myself included, are specifically concerned with how CRT conflicts with a Christian worldview, particularly in areas of identity and morality. Not everyone agrees. Recently on Twitter, a defender of CRT boldly tweeted , "Whoever told you CRT is a worldview was either lying to you or didn't know what they were talking about." Of course, assuming malice or greed is a way of dodging the question rather than making an argument. Another Twitterer offered a different response, "If CRT is bad because it's a 'secular worldview' and we must only derive our worldviews 'biblically' then I better not see a TRACE of Aristotle or Plato in your worldview either, brother." This one is a slightly more clever way of missing the point or, specifically misunderstanding what it means for a worldview to be "biblical." To have a Christian worldview is to hold views that are consistent with the Bible, not to only have views that are in the Bible. The problem with Critical Race Theory is not that it isn't found in the Bible; it's that it offers a very different explanation of humanity, sin, and redemption than the Bible does. Like the postmodernism that birthed it, Critical Race Theory can be considered a worldview. It does more than just offer a handful of specific ideas about race and society; CRT offers a complete framework of beliefs, a universalizing story of the world . CRT describes who we are, what's wrong with the world, and prescribes how to fix it and what "better" would be. In other words, like Christianity, CRT answers the basic questions any worldview does. Except, the answers CRT provides are very different than those Christianity offers, even if both worldviews recognize the world is broken by evils such as racism and injustice. Critical Race Theory has critical errors . By simplistically reducing evil to power dynamics and external social realities, CRT denies moral agency and the redemptive potential of entire groups of people because of their racial identity. At the same time, those who oppose Critical Theory must do more than simply write off all its concerns. Like Marxism, Critical Theory is something of a Christian heresy, taking the Christian themes of human dignity and justice and a world remade, and re-orienting these causes under new management. Most pertinently, CRT is slipping into the space where the Church belongs but is too often absent. If we don't want unbiblical explanations of life and justice sweeping through the Church or culture, we'd better make sure we communicate and embrace the full ramifications of Christian truth for society, and then act justly and love mercy. If we rob our Faith of its social implications, we are no longer talking about Christianity. Such a personalized, privatized moral system may make us feel better, but it will never stand up to the rival worldviews of our day. Over the next four Tuesday nights, The Colson Center is hosting an online course taught by Dr. Thaddeus Williams , on his book, Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth. This is the book I've been waiting for, the book that carefully and biblically walks through a Christian view of justice. Dr. Williams carefully explains not only why theories like CRT aren't true, but what the Bible asks of Christ's followers when it comes to justice. Space is limited. Register today at breakpoint.org/Williams. Because, the best antidote for the failings of Critical Theory and its inadequate worldview is for the Church to understand and live consistently with the Bible.
Dec 29, 2021
Shane invites historian and BreakPoint writer Dr. Glenn Sunshine to explain why we celebrate Christmas even though the first century Christians likely didn't. Then, Shane brings a question from a listener who recently ready Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letters from a Birmingham Jail and wonders if they still apply in the current culture climate that focuses so much on race. To close, Dr. Sunshine helps a reader seeking resources to better understand Irish history and how it impacted Western civilization
Dec 29, 2021
Several months ago, Amazon began banning books deemed "dangerous" to LGBTQ people. Some of these books were hateful, demeaning, and unhelpful. Others simply questioned the dominant narratives about homosexuality or gender dysphoria. Now Amazon has banned one of the most thoroughly researched books on transgenderism : When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment by Ryan Anderson. In the book, Anderson shares stories of people who aren't supposed to exist: de-transitioners, those who desperately regret undergoing gender transition. He also argues convincingly from the best biology, psychology, and philosophy that sex is a bodily reality, not a social construct. Anderson's case is powerful. So powerful, apparently, that supporters of transgender ideology have resorted to coercion and name-calling, enlisting companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter. You can still pick up a copy of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment at our online bookstore. Amazon may not want you to read it, but to understand this issue, you should.
Dec 29, 2021
As the world watches the disaster unfold in Afghanistan, there's another chapter of the story we're not hearing nearly as much about. The Afghan church, a body of believers that's experienced incredible growth, now faces life under the Taliban. Early indications are not encouraging. Almost as quickly as the Islamic fundamentalists are taking control of cities, Christians are being notified that they are being watched. Yesterday, I spoke at length with World Magazine Senior Editor Mindy Belz, who explained what is happening in Afghanistan. As part of the interview, she described what the Taliban takeover means for the Christian church in Afghanistan. Here is an excerpt from our interview. Here is a transcript of a portion of my conversation with Mindy Belz: -- [The Afghan church] is a unique community, mostly aged 40 and younger. They are all Muslim converts. It's one of the fastest growing churches in the world. Since they are a tiny church, now doubled in size, they are considered very fast-growing. There are perhaps only 2,000 people. But they are an important force in Afghanistan, simply because of the force that the Gospel is. Because of the love of Jesus, the reach they have is a real thing in a dark, Taliban-shadowed country. About two years ago, a number of these church community leaders did something amazing and brave: they decided to change their identity, their religious affiliation in particular, on their national identification cards. All Afghan citizens have a national ID card. They are used all the time for many reasons. They often show religious affiliation. That affiliation tends to be handed down by the father of the family. The new Christian church elders wanted to change their identification for the sake of their future generations. Not all Christians agreed that this was a good idea, but several dozens of them have changed their official identification to Christian. Now the government records show Christian affiliation. These are the Christians that have been targeted over the past few days. At least one Christian that I know of has received a letter from the Taliban stating: "We know where you are, and we know what you're doing." This implies that the Taliban has access to this government record. The Taliban then showed up to this Christian's house the day before the full city takeover. They have also visited other Christian homes. You might argue these are small, isolated incidents, but they play against the backdrop of nearby atrocities: Afghan military who have been hauled out of their homes and shot, and in one case beheaded. Afghan Christians are totally vulnerable with no political power. They have no-one to appeal to. They don't even generally qualify for special immigrant visas to the United States or other Western countries because they have avoided working for American organizations or working for the Afghan military. To do so potentially exposes them to attention and danger. -- Belz is the most experienced, trustworthy source I know of when it comes to the Middle East, especially on Christians and the Christian movement there. In yesterday's interview, she covered in detail not only the history of Afghanistan and how the past 20 years is understood differently by Islamic fundamentalists, but the failure of U.S. policy under various presidents. This is a disaster of America's own making. Visit breakpoint.org to listen to the entire conversation. And please pray for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. Image Sourced from: Twitter>>
Dec 28, 2021
This deconversion story, I can get into. With so many stories of "exvangelicals" and why they left the faith, and celebrity Christians "deconstructing" their faith, including some formerly strong voices for Christianity and the Church, it's important to note that it's not just Christians walking away from their faiths. Last week, the Atheists in Kenya Society issued a regretful announcement that the secretary of their organization, Seth Mahiga, had resigned because "he has found Jesus Christ and is no longer interested in promoting atheism in Kenya." Praise God! This is a reminder that Christ is building His Church in places beyond the United States and North America. While we talk of the growth of non-belief in the West, the Holy Spirit is working in places often ignored, drawing men and women and children to Christ. I pray that Mr. Mahiga will follow the footsteps of Justin Martyr, Augustine of Hippo, and C.S. Lewis, who came to faith later in life, converting from other belief systems, and were used by God to build His Church.
Dec 28, 2021
In 416 BC, during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, Athens decided to attack the neutral island of Melos. When the Melians protested they had done Athens no wrong, the Athenians replied, "The strong do what they can; the weak suffer what they must." The Melians were starved into surrender, their men were killed, and their women and children were sold into slavery. None of this was unusual in the ancient world. The strong, it was supposed, had every right to dominate the weak. Cruelty, rape, torture, and slaughter were ordinary means of enforcing power. Neither the gods nor the moral codes opposed dominations. Atheist historian Tom Holland, describes his feelings about the Greco-Roman world this way: "It was not just the extremes of callousness that unsettled me, but the complete lack of any sense that the poor or the weak might have the slightest intrinsic value." So what changed? As Holland notes, the difference was Christianity. Christians and Jews believed that all persons were made in the image of God. Thus, every person had intrinsic worth and dignity, no matter their race, ethnicity, gender, or strength. On this basis, oppression of the poor and weak was condemned. Neither might nor wealth made right. Christianity further emphasized the spiritual and moral equality of all people. Not only do we all share the same humanity, but we all suffer from the same problem (sin) and are in need of the same solution (salvation through Jesus). Because of these ideas, Christianity is the sole historical source of concepts now taken for granted: human dignity, human equality, and universal human rights. As not only Tom Holland but other prominent atheists such as Jürgen Habermas and Luc Ferry admit, these ideas are at the root of our modern concern for the poor and oppressed. And this is why it's accurate to call "wokeness" a Christian heresy. "Heresy" comes from the Greek verb hairein , which means to choose. The idea is, heresy is the result of choosing one thing that is true and then running with it until it distorts everything else. "Wokeness," a way of seeing the world built on critical theory, fastens onto the Christian idea that oppression is evil , but makes it the sole significant fact about humanity and society, while rejecting so much else that Christianity teaches — original sin, forgiveness, and salvation. It should not be difficult to see why various expressions of critical theory and "woke" rhetoric resonates with so many Christians. The appeal is rooted in legitimate biblical concerns about the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, and the potential misuse of power. However, it fails on many other levels. First, the anthropology of critical theory misunderstands who we are by assuming that the only relevant fact about us is where we fit within the various categories of oppression. We are the group we belong to, which serves a social role as either oppressor or oppressed. As such, this theory rejects any universals that unite humanity, including the image of God. Second, the understanding of sin, or what's wrong with the human condition , is limited to oppression. In this view, oppressors are guilty and the oppressed are innocent. The universality of human guilt before God, that we all are broken and sinful, that we are all in need of forgiveness and redemption is replaced by a moral reckoning that is dependent on which group we belong to. Human identity, human nature, and human problems are all flattened onto a single spectrum of oppression. Given its failure to diagnose sin, it's not surprising that critical theories lack an adequate understanding of salvation. At best, a semblance of acceptance is offered to those who accept its worldview, but even then, the guilt of certain groups and the moral superiority of other groups is fixed and perpetual. This also means that forgiveness and reconciliation are effectively ruled out a priori . Even for the oppressed, there is no path for healing; no bearing one another's burdens; no easing the burden of pain by forgiving another. In the end, wokeness is built on a worldview without salvation and offers an eschatology with no real hope. Though the proclaimed goal is to end oppression, it's what the late sociologist Philip Rieff called a "deathwork," dedicated to tearing down things but unable to build, or offer, anything better. Advocates of critical race theory, for example, argue that although race is a cultural construct, racism is an inevitable and irredeemable trait of certain groups and society. They cannot offer a vision of the world in which this sin is defeated or redeemed, much less one in which the guilty are forgiven and restored. The best that can be hoped for is to replace one set of powers with another. Playing off of legitimate concerns about power and corruption, concerns first introduced to the world by a Christian vision of life and the world, critical theories push these ideas to the point of reframing the Gospel. The real problems with race and injustice in America need to be addressed. However, any expression of critical theory fails even as an analytical tool for Christians because it is built on a flawed and contrary worldview.
Dec 27, 2021
Normally when an Olympian wins the gold, we see happy tears. We see families back home cheering. We see the pride in carrying the national flag around the field. It's such a pure moment. It never gets old. So, when the Fiji men's rugby team recently won the gold over New Zealand, there was something about this that was even more pure and enjoyable. This was the second Olympic gold for the Fijians. They got on their knees, they prayed to God in thanksgiving, and sang a hymn of praise . It was so beautiful. It's a traditional tune that contains these words, "We have overcome, by the blood of the lamb, and the word of the Lord, we have overcome." It was a wonderful moment, and a wonderful reminder, that whether we win in rugby, or anything else, the most certain thing in the world is what Jesus Christ has done for us, not what we will ever do.
Dec 27, 2021
The following post is a highlight from 2021 -- In the introduction to his book The Content Trap , author Bharat Anand asks readers to consider what caused The Yellowstone Fires of 1988 , which lasted for months and destroyed over 1.3 million acres of the world's oldest, and one of our nation's most treasured, national parks. The traditional story places the blame on a worker who dropped a single, still-lit cigarette. Anand disagrees. The cigarette certainly triggered this fire, but a million cigarettes are dropped every single day. That year (likely even that day ), other cigarettes and, for that matter, lightning strikes, fell in Yellowstone. Why did this one spark so much damage? Anand's point has to do with the pre-existing conditions, which made something that is benign in most other circumstances, a trigger for incredible destruction. Yesterday, as protestors stormed the Capitol, Illinois Representative Kinzinger, a Republican, said, "We (Americans) are not what we are seeing today…" Others remarked how shocking it was to see the sort of political unrest common to other countries, here in America . And, of course, it was shocking. But we'd better be clear on why. It's not because somehow Americans, even those who love freedom and wish to protect the remarkable gift that is our nation, are somehow exempt from the Fall. It's not because America has some sort of Divine pass to last forever. It's not because the rules that govern nations and civilizations, which have been proven over and over again throughout history, somehow do not apply to us. In what now seems like an ominous prediction, my friend Trevin Wax tweeted out a quote from Chuck Colson Wednesday morning: "People who cannot restrain their own baser instincts, who cannot treat one another with civility, are not capable of self-government ... without virtue, a society can be ruled only by fear, a truth that tyrants understand all too well." Colson was right. Another way of saying what he did is, "Character is destiny." It's tempting to apply this undeniable truism rather selectively, but it is as true for individuals on "our side" as it is for those on "their side." It is true for presidents and for peasants. It's as true about a President "not as bad as she would have been," who delivers strong policy wins for our side as it is about anyone else. It is true for the narcissist and for the abortionist, for the one who rejects religious faith and the one who uses it for his own ends. But, and this is the much more important point that many miss, character is destiny for a people as well as for a person. Yesterday, when President-elect Biden said that the actions of the mob did not reflect America, I wish he were correct. But he wasn't. We are not a moral nation. We are lawless. We are not a nation that cultivates the kinds of families able to produce good citizens. Our institutions cannot be trusted to tell us the truth or advance the good. Our leaders think and live as if wrong means are justified by preferred ends. Our churches tickle ears and indulge narcissism. Our schools build frameworks of thinking that are not only wrong, but foster confusion and division. Yesterday's riot was not the first in our nation's recent history, nor will it be the last. There are certainly immediate causes for what we witnessed, including the words of a President who appeared to care more about the attention the riots gave him than the rule of law that they violated. Still, there are ultimate causes, ones that predate his administration and that have created what is clearly a spark-ready environment. Yesterday's events cannot be understood, much less addressed outside this larger context. And the moment we excuse ourselves from being part of the problem, we have lost our saltiness. Often throughout history, moments like this have been embraced by the Church as an opportunity by God's people. When a people reach this level of vulnerability, either as individuals, as families, or as nations, it is clear that they are out of ideas. There is no sustainable way forward when the ideological divide reaches this level, not only about how best to reach commonly held aims but when there is no consensus on the aims themselves. To be clear, civilizations usually die with a whimper, not a bang. America will go on, but we aren't ok. Even more, the resources once found in various places within our culture to build new things or fix what's broken are largely depleted. The only way out of the long decline of decadence, punctuated as it is by noisy, scary moments like yesterday, is either, as Ross Douthat wrote, revolution or religious revival. The story of Yellowstone Park is that now, decades later, it has been largely revived and reborn. Let's pray that's also the story of the Church, and even our country. Image sourced from C-SPAN
Dec 24, 2021
John and Maria revisit a recent BreakPoint commentary that highlighted the theology in Christmas Carols. John highlights how many carols highlight the Incarnation as an act of war against evil, discussing how this imagery has fallen out of favor in pop-Christianity but holds significance inside church history and tradition. Maria shares the recent story of the escape by a number of missionaries in Haiti from their captors. She tells how this is a miracle, recounting a few details surrounding the escape. John responds to a question from Maria about understanding calling in the wake of this event, as Maria is challenged by the missionaries resolve and passion to engage dangerous situations. To close, John and Maria revisit a number of troubling things coming out of China. They wrap up their conversation discussing some new technology that assigns gender to individuals in pictures using facial recognition software. The software is said to be transphobic, because it fails to assign the correct gender two-thirds of the time. John and Maria discuss the worldview significance of this and other realities surrounding this new technology. -- Recommendations -- The Magnificat with Wexford Carol Keith and Kristyn Getty Noble Warriors>> -- In Show Story Mentions -- -- Breakpoint Recap Share Christ with Christmas Carols the Bible presents the Incarnation as an act of War...That's something missing from the 24-hour holiday music stations, most Christmas plays and pageants, and many Christmas Eve sermons…[Christmas Carols] confront our culture with the whole story, with some of the finest Christian teaching ever produced by redeemed Image Bearers. BreakPoint>> Erasing Women Just because a man or a woman can do something without risking his or her identity doesn't mean he or she should do that thing. As Christians, we should always wrestle with how best to live out our God-given design as men and women, by asking questions like: "is this an honorable thing to do? Does this respect the body God gave me, or fight against it? Does it glorify God and His design? BreakPoint>> -- Hostage Missionaries Escape in Haiti 12 missionary hostages in Haiti made escape after receiving sign from God The 17 Christian missionaries were kidnapped by the 400 Mawozo gang after visiting a local orphanage in Port-au-Prince on October 16. The group, which was made up of Amish, Mennonite and other conservative Anabaptist communities, included 16 US citizens and one Canadian. Five of those kidnapped were children. Their Canadian driver was also kidnapped. On two occasions, he said the group received divine signs to stay put, but after receiving a sign to flee, they snuck out under the cover of nightfall following a sign on Dec. 15. "At times they felt God prepared a path before them," Showalter said. "God was leading them." NY Post>> Press Conference for Missionaries After the news conference, a group of CAM employees stood and sang, "Nearer My God to Thee" in the robust, four-part acapella harmony that is a signature of conservative Anabaptist worship Watch Press Conference>> -- China Issues Pile Up Chinese tennis star Peng denies she made accusation of sexual assault | Reuters Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai said on Sunday that she had never accused anyone of sexually assaulting her, and that a social media post she had made early last month had been misunderstood. Reuters>> Amazon agreed to allow only five-star reviews for Xi's book in China Amazon quietly removed criticism of President Xi's books by scrubbing bad reviews, ratings and comments from its Chinese site, it has emerged. The US retail giant agreed to Beijing's demand to have anything below a five-star review of Xi Jinping's book The Governance of China removed from Amazon.cn about two years ago, Reuters reported, citing two unidentified sources The London Times>> -- Transphobic Technology Is facial recognition software transphobic? Controversial tech 'has a gender problem' The controversial tech is now so accurate that it can figure out the gender of men or women with little more than a brief glance. But if that face belongs to a trans person, the systems get it wrong more than a third of the time, new research suggested. Study lead author Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, a PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US, said: 'We found that facial analysis services performed consistently worse on transgender individuals, and were universally unable to classify non-binary genders. Metro UK>> David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College "Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centredness because it's so socially repulsive. But it's pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute centre of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real." FS Blog>>
Dec 24, 2021
Last week we received a note from a listener concerned with the pagan roots of the Christmas holiday. It's something you hear a lot this time of year, that Christians "borrowed lumber" from pagans to build the traditions of Christmas. Often, critics point to things like the Christmas tree, the alignment of Jesus' birth with the Egyptian God Horus, and the Christian culture war against the practice of Saturnalia. A lot of these arguments gained traction in a documentary called Religulous by liberal critic Bill Maher. To address this and many questions, Shane Morris invited Dr. Glenn Sunshine to the Upstream podcast . The two unpack the historical roots of the church embracing December 25th for the Christmas holiday. They talk about what it means to "spoil the Egyptians," as St. Augustine put it. They also lay a Christian worldview foundation for the celebration of Christmas. Listen to this deep dive into the Christmas holiday on Shane's Podcast, Upstream , or you can watch our What Would You Say? Video, " Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday ."
Dec 24, 2021
Christians have so many wonderful resources that can help us celebrate Christ's birth and prepare our hearts for His second coming, and one of them is sacred music. The abundant supply of truly majestic Christmas music points to a long line of theological artists, individuals who took seriously both what truth needed to be said in music and how it could be said so as to be both memorable and beautiful. Perhaps the greatest offering of all is Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio. For much of his life, Bach was in charge of music at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Leipzig, Germany. However, his many other responsibilities, such as raising 20 children, might explain why he indulged in a few shortcuts. For example, Bach often recycled old material for new musical pieces. Of course, true creativity does not always require an artist to work from scratch. We are made in the image of the God, who created ex nihilo , out of nothing, but human creativity always, to some degree, involves cultivating what God has given us and developing it to its highest form. In the Christmas Oratorio, Bach took virtually every solo from sacred music he had composed earlier and combined them with other choruses and instrumentals that were both new and old. The opening chorus, "Celebrate, rejoice, rise up and… glorify what the Highest has done today," was completely original. Later in the oratorio, Bach invites us to contemplate the paradox of the Incarnation: that the King of heaven saw fit to become a tiny baby born in a stable. By means of a powerful bass, Bach marvels that, "Great Lord, O powerful King, dearest Savior. . . He who sustains the entire world, who created its magnificence and beauty, must sleep in a harsh manger." Bach's original lyrics are in German. Come to BreakPoint.org, for a link to the entire English translation . Bach's notion of creativity has been largely lost today. As children of 19th century Romanticism, many contemporary artists focus on the self as the creator and see the role of the artist to spin out something completely novel and unique. Most artists today equate creativity with novelty, some even think that the role of art is to be subversive to any and all norms. It's a form of what C. S. Lewis called "chronological snobbery." Bach's music is as a powerful reproach to that vision of what art is. He saw creativity as a means of highlighting and enhancing traditional Christian belief. He saw that scriptural texts and musical forms were compatible, serving each other in order to supply rich liturgy. Bach signed all his work "SDG," shorthand for Soli Dei Gloria , which means "to God alone the Glory." Bach knew the One true source of human creativity and that He must work through the composer if the art is to be what it should. This Christmas, let one of history's greatest artists, remind you that all of our work should be done to the glory of God. Like Bach, our creativity is intended to serve the Creator, who is the source of our lives and our abilities.
Dec 23, 2021
Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into two big pharmaceutical companies profiting from pushing off-label hormone treatment for gender dysphoric kids. In a public statement, Paxton accused these companies of failing to warn about the devastating side effects of the medications, including sterility. The fact is, the hormone suppressing medications being prescribed by so-called "gender clinics" are not approved by the FDA to treat gender dysphoria. They are only FDA-approved for diagnosable physical medical conditions like premature puberty and prostate cancer. Paxton is right: these companies should be held accountable, as should medical professionals who cave to social pressure and prescribe medications for the wrong use. And, if nothing else, Paxton is sending a critical message: that gender dysphoria is a mental condition , not a physical one like malaria or the flu. If more public officials and medical professionals would emulate Paxton's courage, many hearts, minds, and lives could be saved.
Dec 23, 2021
At the risk of falling into the current debate over whether Christians should tone down the violent language and imagery when it comes to their faith, the Bible presents the Incarnation as an act of War. In fact, the Bible presents the Incarnation as the central chapter in the larger story of the conflict between good and evil; one never fully lost by God but captured in Christ Jesus. That's something missing from the 24-hour holiday music stations, most Christmas plays and pageants, and many Christmas Eve sermons. Still, there is a source that continues to confront our culture with the whole story, with some of the finest Christian teaching ever produced by redeemed Image Bearers. Christmas offers us the amazing opportunity to not only immerse ourselves with deep Christian truth, but also present it to others. Of course I'm talking about Christmas carols. Carols provide us a level of incredible clarity and depth, that is so rare. As an example, consider the "Wexford Carol." Good people all, this Christmas time, Consider well and bear in mind What our good God for us has done In sending his beloved son With Mary holy we should pray, To God with love this Christmas Day In Bethlehem upon that morn, There was a blessed Messiah born You get a sense of the rescue mission that was the Incarnation in the traditional English carol, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." God rest ye merry gentlemen Let nothing you dismay Remember Christ our Savior Was born on Christmas Day To save us all from Satan's pow'r When we were gone astray Oh tidings of comfort and joy Comfort and joy Oh tidings of comfort and joy And in the haunting beauty of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," the coming of Christ is presented in the context of God's Old Testament promises. O come, O come, Thou Lord of Might, Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height, In ancient times didst give the law, In cloud, and majesty, and awe. O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan's tyranny; From depths of hell Thy people save And give them victory o'er the grave. And few hymns offer a Christology as rich as "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," which, if Wikipedia is to be believed, is the brainchild not only of the great hymn-writer Charles Wesley but also, in part, the great revivalist, George Whitefield. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel Hail the heaven born Prince of Peace, hail the sun of Righteousness Light life to all he brings, ris'n healing in his wings Christ the highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord Come desire of nations come, fix in us thy humble home Come desire of nations come, fix in us thy humble home We could go on, but finally in "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," we are offered hope in how this cosmic battle will eventually turn out. And in despair I bowed my head: "There is no peace on earth," I said, "For hate is strong and mocks the song Of Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep, The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men"peace on earth, good will to men" Till, ringing singing, on its way, The world revolved from night to day, A voice, a chime, a chant sublime, Of peace on earth, good will to men! In these songs, sung by my friend Josh Bales, we have the fullness of the Christian story: a world that belongs to God, our lost plight due to sin, our captivity to Satan's schemes, the working of God through the ages, His promises revealed in the long path of redemption that God worked through the Patriarchs, through prophets and kings, and through promises given so long ago; the wonders of the Incarnation, the fear and hope of Mary and Joseph, and the realization and glory of angelic hosts proclaiming their king, and ours. Each year in these hymns, and others, we are reminded that God did not leave us in our sins but came down and lived among us that He might die for us. We have in these songs the whole gospel of God. As comforting and instructive as they are to our own hearts, at what other time of the year do our disinterested friends, neighbors, and family members find themselves humming along with theology? What greater opportunity will we have to share the Faith than when our listeners are already hearing its truths every day? As a colleague once observed to me, this is our moment to echo the work of Philip with the Ethiopian. The world around us knows their need. They hide it well, under vain pleasures and false narratives, but they also know that things are not quite right. What they need is someone to explain to them how things might be made right in Christ Jesus. Let's take this opportunity, singing our way through Christmas, to share the joy that has been given to us that this joy may spread to others.
Dec 22, 2021
John and Shane are asked if there should be a Christian approach to boycotting. They are then asked about the unity Evangelicals and Catholics can have while still being true to their convictions. Another listener writes in to ask how to think well of a liberalizing in her field of psychology. To close, John and Shane discuss a commentary on the rise in opioid deaths in America and how the church can and should respond.
Dec 22, 2021
Two months ago, Apple quietly removed a Quran app and a Bible App from its app store in China at the request of the Chinese Communist Party. Apple claimed in a statement they had to do it because they have to, quote, "obey local laws." This is the same 2.8-trillion-dollar company with an "Inclusion and Diversity" initiative that claims, without a sense of irony, to hold a, quote, "long-standing commitment to making… the world more just." According to its American website, that means hiring a more racially diverse group of employees. That's great. It's unclear how that helps the 1.4 billion people living under increasing religious oppression in China. This is a good reminder. When companies like Apple throw around the word "inclusive," it's because they see a profit opportunity. When companies like Apple are happily complicit in outright oppression, it's because they won't risk a profit opportunity. If the day comes when American culture gives Apple an ultimatum: either nix the Bible here or lose your profit, we need only look to China to discover what they'd do.
Dec 22, 2021
As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Americans continue to leave religion behind in large numbers, even during the pandemic. According to Pew Research, the percentage of American Christians has fallen about 12% over the last ten years, from 75% in 2011 to around 63% today. The number who pray every day is even lower, at 45%. The demographic rising in its place are the so-called "nones," those who identify religiously as "nothing in particular." This group grew to about 20% of the US population in 2021, up from 16% in 2017. The surprising thing here isn't that Americans are leaving organized religion behind. That's been happening at about the same rate for a while now. However, it is newsworthy that this trend continued unabated in the face of a global pandemic. Historically, catastrophic events that bring uncertainty, stress, or political chaos tend to draw people to reconsider faith. In this sense, ours is in sharp contrast with other historic moments, such as World War II , the assassination of JFKL , and the Gulf War . More recently, 9/11 brought a flood of Americans back to church and, although the trend wasn't permanent , those who lived through it remember a renewed sense of unity and commitment to spiritual activities such as prayer. Of course, other moments were deeply divided along religious lines. America's war in Vietnam is a good example. While overall church attendance remained steady, Vietnam represented what some have called "a ripping of the nation's religious fabric." Mainline churches, in particular, posted significant losses about this time. As the Washington Post reported in 1982, the United Presbyterian, Episcopal, and United Church of Christ lost 21%, 15%, and 11% of their membership respectively in the previous decade. The fact that certain crises inspire unity, and others division, likely says more about the state of the culture affected than the crisis affecting it. The Covid pandemic has only further ignited the rift created by America's massive political and ideological differences, and further shaken religious loyalties. In the 1970s, people reacted to the cultural upheaval by changing religious affiliations. Today, people are dropping their religious identities altogether. Of course, one reason that Americans didn't flock to churches was many were closed. Still, even after Churches adapted, attendance took a hit. In June 2020, even though 96% of pastors said they offered live streaming services, Barna reported that just 48% of otherwise regular attendees were tuning in. Today, even with Sunday morning services available nearly everywhere, in-person attendance is still between 30-50% lower than before the pandemic. In contrast, Netflix added an incredible 10 million subscribers to its ranks in just three months in 2020. While an encouraging number of Americans reported that the pandemic strengthened their faith , they were the minority. When given the choice of where to find meaning, Americans chose streaming platforms over church pulpits. On a purely pragmatic level, this is bad news. Recently Tyler Vanderweele and Brendan Case argued over at Christianity Today that "Empty Pews Are an American Public Health Crisis." They have a point. Study after study suggests that church attendance corresponds with lower rates of substance abuse, divorce, incarceration, and depression…. not to mention higher levels of meaning and satisfaction, volunteering, longevity, and civic engagement. Given that we are in one of the loneliest eras in recent memory, why aren't Americans back in church? Perhaps a better first question would be, why aren't American Christians back in church? They may be catechized too well in an entertainment-driven, performance-oriented kind of service. It may be because of the moralistic and therapeutic ways they were taught to think about faith in our hyper-individualistic age, and they found better fulfillment elsewhere. We may be more steeply formed by the liturgies of our age rather than the liturgies of Christian worship. For Christians, church attendance simply is not optional. Scripture commands it and, for all its imperfections, the Church is the body and bride of Christ. It's how Christians are equipped and sent to proclaim and live the Gospel. It's the means by which Christians grow the kinds of deep roots needed to survive a chaotic and hostile culture. As Scripture says, a cord of three strands is not easily broken, but " pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. " To be clear, the Church will go on. In particular, outside of the western world, the Church is growing at incredible rates. It will survive COVID, militant secularism, and rampant individualism. In other words, the Church can take up the strands of life together again. The question is whether we will put down our idols.
Dec 21, 2021
Last year, the FDA lifted an important restriction on the " abortion pill ," a drug that induces abortion in early pregnancy by starving the preborn child. Prior to the pandemic, doctors were required to meet face-to-face with patients before prescribing the drug, but that requirement was lifted during the pandemic. Last week, the FDA made the policy change permanent. This comes just as our culture, from psychological literature to the arts , has begun to understand miscarriage as real trauma, even if it is a loss not readily seen. Part of the trauma is how hidden a miscarriage can feel. The abortion pill causes this trauma on purpose . Not only do many women report physical trauma after so-called "medical" abortion, but without a face-to-face visit, the mother is isolated from one less source of support and accountability. This is not healthcare . This is, however, the reality of what it will mean to advocate for the preborn in the days ahead. Hidden evil is allowed to flourish, we must work to change hearts and minds, no matter what the Supreme Court decides.
Dec 21, 2021
More than a few folks, from theologian John Calvin to philosopher William James to French theologian and historian Louis Auguste Sabatier, have noted that humans are "incurably religious" creatures. In other words, religion is native to the human heart. In the history of the world, the wholesale rejections of the supernatural is a quirk of Western secularism. At the same time, it will not ultimately survive the human longing for transcendence and communion with the supernatural, no matter how far technology advances. Evidence for this analysis is currently on display in Dortmund, Germany. An art exhibition, entitled "Technoshamanism," was recently highlighted in the New York Times article "Space Pagans and Smart Phone Witches: Where Tech Meets Mysticism." Josie Thaddeus-Jones describes the exhibition, which features the work of twelve artists and collectives, as an exploration of the "connections between technology and esoteric, ancestral belief systems." Visitors are welcomed by quotations from French artist Lucile Olympe Haut's "Cyberwitches Manifesto," which urges readers to, among other things, "use smartphones and tarot cards to connect to spirits" and "manufacture D.I.Y. devices to listen to invisible worlds." According to the Times, the exhibition is an example of the rising interest in pagan and occult practices among "spiritual but not religious" Westerners. The new development, reports Thaddeus-Jones, is how frequently these practices are being combined with technology: "Spirituality is all over our feeds: The self-help guru Deepak Chopra has co-founded his own [Non-Fungible Token] platform , witches are reading tarot on TikTok , and the A.I.-driven astrology app Co-Star has been downloaded more than 20 million times." One Brazilian artist at the Technoshamanism exhibition organizes festivals where participants use robots to "connect with ancestral belief systems and the natural world." Other artists imagine a pagan future for humanity in space, where "rituals and visions play as much of a role as solar power and artificial intelligence." For others, animistic customs and psychedelic drugs meet virtual reality and black lights for an experience that looks part séance and part science fiction. So, why are digital technologies and social media bringing about a resurgence of pagan spirituality? The Times cites an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University, who says that because of the Internet, "people have access to belief traditions that were not easily accessible to them before." This allows them to "discover, select and combine the spiritual traditions that most [appeal] to them." Still, availability is only part of the story. Materialists of all stripes have long predicted that the human thirst for superstition would soon vanish with the rise of science and more enlightened societies. Karl Marx famously prophesied that communism would bring the end of religion. Yet, this renaissance of paganism continues to happen precisely in countries where science and technology have most influenced life. If the Times is right, smart devices and the Internet have only fueled the spread of pagan spirituality. What this reveals is not only that the draw of the numinous is more enduring than 19th-century atheists ever imagined, but also that secularism isn't satisfying as a worldview. As it turns out, it's not so easy to disenchant the world or the human heart. We are incurably religious creatures. At the same time, celebrations of "technoshamanism" should remind us that pagan mysticism also fails to fill the "God-shaped vacuum" in every human heart. With VR headsets and tarot apps, would-be witches may try to reimagine what pre-Christian beliefs were like, but real paganism died out in Europe over a thousand years ago. The reason was the advance of Christianity, something historian Rodney Stark has called " The Victory of Reason ." Christianity's triumph led to expanded human rights and freedom, capitalism, and the science that made the "tech" in technoshamanism possible in the first place. Fundamentally, Christ supplanted paganism because His gospel was better news, and the worldview centered on His rule and reign brings rest to the restless human heart. The more secular forces and ideologies in the modern West attempt to replace Christ with belief in nothing, the more paganism rushes back to fill the vacuum. But it has already been tried and found wanting before, and it will fail again. True hope, joy, and dignity come only from Christ, no matter how tech-savvy the world becomes.
Dec 20, 2021
Historian and long-time friend of the Colson Center, Dr. Glenn Sunshine joined Shane Morris to discuss if Christmas is a pagan holiday. During his conversation with Shane, Dr. Sunshine answered some of the core questions about Christmas. For instance, Sunshine argued that December 25th was not chosen as the date for Christmas in order to co-opt a pagan solstice festival. More likely, it was based on an ancient Jewish belief that people are conceived on the date of their deaths. Since Christ died on or around March 25th, some Church Fathers believed that Christ must have been conceived on that day and born nine months later… December 25th. For more on this topic, visit www.whatwouldyousay.org to find a special video to help guide conversation with your family.
Dec 20, 2021
Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, believes social media platforms should be held accountable for the damage they cause teenage girls. He offers many reasons why. In one study, young women were told to use Instagram, Facebook, or play a simple video game. After just seven minutes of scrolling, the Instagram users, in particular, showed decreased body satisfaction and a negative emotional state. This isn't because of the amount of time on the site, but because of its design. Focusing on body image creates a trap that young people can't escape. "Instagram," he writes, "can loom in a girl's mind even when the app is not open, driving hours of obsessive thought, worry, and shame." What's worse, Haidt argues, big tech executives have known about this effect for years but have done little to stop it. They should be held accountable, but that accountability starts with parents. We shouldn't just look to the state to do what God has tasked parents with first, to fight for the hearts and minds of our kids.
Dec 20, 2021
A few years ago, my friend and former Breakpoint co-host Eric Metaxas wrote a book called Seven Women . While researching for the book, Metaxas made a strategic decision: he would not write about women who were merely the first women to do something men had already done — even though these were the sorts of women people kept recommending he write about. Instead, Metaxas wrote about women who improved the world because they were women, not in spite of that fact. Since Seven Women was published in 2016, the rise of the transgender movement has further degraded our culture's respect for femaleness. A few weeks ago, Twitter users began sharing stories of notable women in history and claiming, under the hashtag "TransAwarenessWeek2021," that these women weren't women at all. "Queen Kristina of Sweden was born female, but wore male clothing," one user wrote . "She did not marry and inherited the Swedish crown." Thus, we are to believe, Kristina of Sweden was transgender. The contrast between Metaxas' celebration of women as women and the transgender movement's aggressive decree that any woman who does something stereotypically male must therefore be a man is profound . Until yesterday, culturally speaking, it was our bodies , not our minds or feelings — let alone what kind of clothes we wear — that determined a person's sex. This should especially hold true for Christians, who know that God created His world good, and His image-bearers, very good. Transgender ideology tells lies, not only about the human body, but about the inherent goodness of sexual difference itself . That's what was happening with this Twitter trend , too. In the name of inclusivity, transgender ideology says there is a box inside which exists all the potential actions, attitudes, and appearances of a woman. Any woman, whether centuries ago or today, who does not fit neatly inside that box must be a man. This isn't inclusivity. This is, in fact, the most exclusive possible vision of gender and sex. Even more, this backward view isn't unlike the unrealistic standards of female beauty often propagated by advertisers or the entertainment industry. For years, movies, advertisements, and fashion designers featured tall, incredibly thin, and often photoshopped women in their productions. These unrealistic depictions of femininity are harmful to women, especially young women. So, over the past two decades, the "body positivity" movement has pushed back, for a more accurate representation of women in mass media; including women of many shapes and sizes. That's a good thing not just because it could mitigate actual harm; it's a good thing because it better portrays reality . Transgender ideology promotes the same damaging error of improbable beauty standards, but further. Now, we're told, there's not just one right way to look like a woman. There's only one narrowly-defined way to be a woman. A Christian worldview, in contrast, offers a much more expansive, inclusive view of women (and men, for that matter). Asking the question, "Is this something a woman would do" about something a woman just did, is perfectly redundant. Would a woman really ride a horse or assume the Swedish crown? Well, a woman did…so, yes! This is the beautifully diverse way God created humans in His image. Of course, just because a man or a woman can do something without risking his or her identity doesn't mean he or she should do that thing. As Christians, we should always wrestle with how best to live out our God-given design as men and women, by asking questions like: "is this an honorable thing to do? Does this respect the body God gave me, or fight against it? Does it glorify God and His design?" Christians find answers for these questions in Scripture, common sense, observable realities, and history with guidance from the Holy Spirit, wise counsel from other believers, and in the (ironically) most ignored source of all, the general revelation of our own bodies. We will not find those answers in a culture like ours, one that increasingly and obstinately refuses to see the inherent goodness in our sexual differences. A few years ago comedian Tina Fey produced a charmingly strange comedy show for Netflix called "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." The script was characterized by somewhat stupid jokes that often followed a format of a premise with a predictable punchline, but then the joke would swerve. In one scene, a woman put on a pair of high heels and complained about how much they hurt her feet. "You know how I know men invented high heels?" She began. "Because women never invented anything." Her joke is not just an analogy or a metaphor for what's done to women when we look at their clothes, their bravery, or their intelligence and then claim, by virtue of those things, they must be men. It's the exact same thing . And it's wrong.
Dec 17, 2021
John and Maria discuss the destruction from a series of Tornados that swept the Midwest this week. The explore the worldview significance of the devastation in light of our culture's loss of the inherent value and dignity of life. To close, Maria asks John to expound on how society is experiencing a rise in acts of desperation, through crime and violence, and the avoidance of the deaths from despair. References: God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas Deitrich Bonhoeffer | Westminster John Knox Press | 2012 Every Moment Holy Douglas McKelvey | Rabbit Room | 2017 -- References -- Segment 1: Rare tornadoes strike America's heartland, destroying homes and knocking out power At least 21 tornadoes were reported across three U.S. states -- Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota -- between Wednesday and Thursday this week. This happened five days after tornados tore through Kentucky that have killed 74 as of Tuesday morning. ABC News>> Fox News on Kentucky>> Opioid Deaths Pass A Grim Milestone So how can the church help in this opioid crisis? Before we talk about how, we need to discuss why we must. It's not clear that any other institution, particularly those that lost so much public trust in the last 25 years, has anything much to offer. They are largely exhausted as social resources. The Gospel is never exhausted. It offers a clear sense of who we are, a source for meaning and purpose that goes beyond our age's radical individualism, and a potential source of the kind of social support everyone, especially men, desperately need. It also offers a clear call: to run into the brokenness, not away from it. To go where people are, into broken communities and families, often to those beyond our comfort zones, and be part of the solution. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost; can we, who claim Him as Lord, do less in the face of this challenge? BreakPoint>> Kids Are Dying. How Are These Sites Still Allowed A few years ago, a website about suicide appeared. On it, not only do people talk about wanting to die, but they share, at great length, how they are going to do it. Through public forums, live chats and private messaging, users can get advice as they make their plans. Times reporters were able to identify 45 people who killed themselves after spending time on the site, several of whom were minors. The true number is likely to be higher. NY Times>> Assisted suicide pod approved for use in Switzerland "The person will get into the capsule and lie down. It's very comfortable. They will be asked a number of questions and when they have answered, they may press the button inside the capsule activating the mechanism in their own time." The Hill>> Segment 2: Our Nation's Crime Spike and the Need for Shalom Communities must develop around virtuous citizens and mutual responsibility. The more shalom is cultivated within a community, the less "the stick" of coercion is needed. An essential ingredient is what Edmund Burke called the "little platoons" of society, the flourishing of non-governmental, local networks and institutions, an often intangible infrastructure of education, creativity, care, and problem-solving. BreakPoint>> Chicago Mayor Invests $400 million in social plan to curb violence "We may not call all of these (aspects in the "Our City, Our Safey" plan that highlights violence prevention, street outreach, affordable housing, job training, health and wellness, and community development) things part of the tools of public safety, but they absolutely fundamentally are. Because when people are healthy, when communities are vibrant, when folks feel like they have ownership of the geography under their feet, communities thrive." ~Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on $400 million safety plan targeting 15 communities in Chicago Chicago Sun Times>>
Dec 17, 2021
Every generation, it seems, complains about the next generation's music, sometimes for moral reasons and other times from taste. When Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring debuted in Paris , it sparked outrage from conservative opera-goers, leading to a full-scale riot. While musical styles often differ, the emerging consensus of researches suggests that music leaves its mark, especially when it delivers lewd or violent content . Multiple studies published in the American Association of Pediatrics, for example, have found a strong correlation between listening to sexualized lyrics and risky sexual behavior in teens. "Let me write the songs of a nation," says a quote sometimes attributed to Homer and sometimes to Scottish statesman Andrew Fletcher, "and I care not who writes its laws." Music is a powerful medium, shaping how we think and what we love. Recently Emily Ratajkowski publicly regretted her role in Robin Thicke's 2013 song Blurred Lines. Far from empowering, she now mourns the ways it commodified her body - and taught younger girls to do the same. When Solomon wrote, "Above all else, guard your heart," that includes music… "for everything you do flows from it."
Dec 17, 2021
In his article " A Photo History of Male Affection ," Brett McKay catalogs the dramatic ways male friendship has changed over time. One hundred years ago, men were far more comfortable showing each other everyday physical affection: draping arms over shoulders, sitting close to each other, even holding hands. To modern eyes, McKay's examples look, well, odd. It seems impossible for us not to see some kind of homosexual subtext to these photos. But challenging that assumption is precisely why McKay wrote this article in the first place. "[You] cannot view these photographs through the prism of our modern culture and current conception of homosexuality," he writes. "What you see in the photographs was common, not rare; the photos are not about sexuality, but intimacy." In other words, as crazy as it sounds, we're the weird ones. The typical ways men have shown each other affection for all of human history are so foreign to us that, when we see them, we don't recognize them. That's the exact phenomenon C.S. Lewis wrote about in The Four Loves , when he said that "those who cannot conceive friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise or elaboration of Eros betray the fact that they have never had a friend." [emphasis added] Lewis was right in more ways than he knew. Americans are lonely. According to research from Harvard Graduate School of Education , 36% of Americans report feeling "serious loneliness," as do an incredible 61% of young adults. According to a Cigna health survey , nearly 54% of American adults agree with the statement, "nobody knows me well." Isolated and glued to our screens, it's a crisis that's only getting worse. The most significant decline in friendship is among men. According to a May 2021 poll , the percentage of men who say they have "no close friends" has quintupled since 1990, affecting nearly one out of every six American males. There are obvious reasons why ours is a lonely culture, and most of them predate the global pandemic: a high rate of geographical mobility , time spent traveling for work, and time on screens all play significant roles. And yet, behind those factors is one few people are willing to talk about: the power of ideas, namely ideas about sex. We've created a culture so obsessed with disordered erotic love that we've all but thrown away the concept of friendship as a vital component of life. This is especially true for men. There's evidence that the over-sexualized experience of American men is dramatically harming their ability to foster their other relationships. A good example is the effects of pornography. Porn addiction fuels cycles of loneliness , draining motivation and hijacking the brain's reward centers. Men addicted to pornography have less capacity to form life-giving relationships with real people. And increasingly, pornography is contributing to the sexualization of men , in a widening trend across culture. As the visual matrix of our collective brains are trained to see both men and women as sexual objects, what will the impact on male friendship be? Like McKay observes, the increase in - and corresponding fears of - homosexuality are exactly what led to the cooling effect in male friendship in the first place. One NYU researcher put it this way : "Children have remarkable social and emotional skills — to listen to each other, to read each other's emotions, empathy, all sorts of lovely things." But when they hit adolescence, "[You get the] 'No homo' [response], as if I've been asking a question about their sexuality rather than about their friendships." The tragic irony is that, these days, we are asking, or more accurately forcing questions about their sexuality. We tell girls who like to climb trees that they're actually boys. We tell boys who share emotions with their friends that they might be gay. Caught between what they are told is sexual behavior toward other men, and the type of cold, isolated masculinity demonstrated for them everywhere else, it's no wonder so many boys grow into lonely men. In the 1993 film Tombstone , Doc Holliday is asked why he's going to such lengths to bring a band of outlaws to justice. "Because Wyatt Earp is my friend," he says, referring to the legendary gunslinger. "I got lots of friends," comes the reply. Doc pauses for a second, then says simply, "I don't." Male friendship has always been a precious thing. It's worth fighting for. The first and best way to do this is to teach young boys what it means to be a friend. Sharing emotions and normal physical affection are not inherently sexual acts. But on a societal level, restoring friendship to its proper palace means keeping sexuality in its proper place. If we don't, it will keep ruining the relationships men - and all people - need the most.
Dec 16, 2021
According to Lifeway Research , over 90 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, but only 22 percent feel confident they could retell the story of the Jesus' birth from memory. 17 percent said they couldn't remember any of it! It's tempting to cry out with Charlie Brown, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!?!" Maybe it's time to whip out the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, and watch Charlie go through the motions of the holiday season without knowing why. Right when he is at his wit's end , Linus steps into the spotlight, literally, and recites the Nativity story from Luke's Gospel. The more our world detaches from the Bible, the more it detaches from truth. What the world needs are more Linus-es. Only the Church has the words of life , the message that explains, not only the reason for the season, but the real story of the world, why it is the way it is, and how God took on flesh to make all things new
Dec 16, 2021
Yesterday on BreakPoint , we talked about the rise in addictions and overdose deaths due to our nation's opioid crisis. Through a constellation of unemployment rates, cultural darkness, and opioid availability, thousands in America's "Rust Belt" are falling to what are being called "deaths of despair." All of which was worsened by the greed and deception of pharmaceutical companies and the FDA. And now, thanks to a new report, we know that the largely rural pain of opioid deaths is being matched by a predominantly urban crime scourge. In the last year, there's been an increase in crimes of all kinds, from shoplifting flash mobs to property crimes to outright murder . Just as with the opioid crisis, a network of causes is behind the uptick in lawlessness, and the consequences are particularly devastating for the poor living in many of our nation's urban centers. Though violent crime per capita isn't as bad as it was in the early 90s , at least twelve major U.S. cities broke annual homicide records this year, before the first week of December . This includes Portland, Oregon, Tuscon, Arizona, and St. Paul, Minnesota. Philadelphia, a city of nearly 1.5 million people, had more homicides this year than New York and Los Angeles, a 13% rise from 2020 and breaking the homicide record set in 1990. Overall, major American cities have seen a 33% rise in homicides since the "new normal" of Covid began. 63 of the 66 largest police jurisdictions saw a rise in at least one violent crime category in 2020 , those being homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. An obvious factor is that, in many cities, deterrents to crime have been removed. Facing accusations of police brutality, activists and municipal leaders called for defunding the police, diminishing the presence of law enforcement, and scaling back arrests and prosecution for certain crimes. The results have not been good. Target, Walgreens, and CVS have largely pulled out of the Bay Area after stores were targeted for "smash and grab" looting. Criminals were slapped with only misdemeanors if they lifted less than $950 worth of merchandise . Cities like Chicago have seen crime waves that began downtown nut now have hit the suburbs as well. Many cities which advocated for defunding the police last year are now looking to beef up police departments as crime continues to rise. But for too many, this is too late. As one study put it, "marginalized communities endure endemically high levels of violence. The events of 2020 exacerbated disparities in several forms of violence." Communities already suffering from economic hardship and crime are now stripped of the legal and police protection their more affluent neighbors take for granted. Many corporations and shop-owners who experience not only a rise in crime, but a corresponding drop in profits conclude it's best to take their business elsewhere. This can leave already doubly-afflicted communities without food stores and jobs. Still, it would be mistake to place all the blame for this crime surge only on fewer police officers and reduced law enforcement. After all, in 19th century Victorian London, the police force shrank without precipitating more crime. The difference is, in that case, they were no longer needed. A people able to govern themselves by the conscience is not in need of the constables. In our moment, those pushing to reduce law enforcement got the math exactly backward. As our culture is showing an inability to govern itself, evidenced by dual epidemics of " deaths from despair " and what could be called " acts of desperation ," is not the time to lose the constable. A word used often in Scripture is Shalom , often translated peace. So much more than the mere absence of conflict, shalom means wholeness, rightness, the state of being when things are ordered as they ought to be. It is right to insist that those who "protect and serve" do just that. Security is a non-negotiable prerequisite to shalom in civic life. Without it, outside investors will stay away from poverty-stricken areas and residents seek a better life elsewhere, taking their talent and resources with them. Even so, security is only a first step. Communities must develop around virtuous citizens and mutual responsibility. The more shalom is cultivated within a community, the less "the stick" of coercion is needed. An essential ingredient is what Edmund Burke called the "little platoons" of s ociety, the flourishing of non-governmental, local networks and institutions, an often intangible infrastructure of education, creativity, care, and problem-solving. Without it, communities only experience a peace born of force. This, of course, is precisely where the Church can thrive, doing what it's always done, caring for those in need through things like charity and education and care, as well as by proactively encouraging the other spheres of society to live out their roles as God intended.
Dec 15, 2021
John and Shane discuss the role of subsidiarity in the life of Christians before they answer a question for resources on caring for the elderly and those with disabilities. Then, Shane asks John how Christians should prepare for a post-Roe world before John answers a question for resources on building a four-chapter Gospel framework.
Dec 15, 2021
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization . The case is about a Mississippi law that effectively bans abortion after 15 weeks. Abortion advocates claim this law and others like it assault the fundamental rights of women and "force them to have babies." Last week, the French National Assembly adopted a bill extending the abortion limit from 12 to 14 weeks in that country. Most European countries restrict abortion to the first trimester, but we keep hearing that a 15-week ban would effectively keep women from full participation in society? The fact is, the US has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the world—laws that place us alongside countries like China and North Korea. Eight states allow abortion up to the moment of birth!. When the hysterics start, it's important to know the truth. America's current abortion laws are what's extreme, not the restrictions being proposed.
Dec 15, 2021
The United States just passed a grim milestone: over 100,000 deaths from opioid overdoses in the past year. Most of these deaths were due to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. Though sometimes prescribed as a painkiller, fentanyl is also a street drug that is often combined with heroin, cocaine, or methamphetamines. America's battle with opioids is now 25 years old. Dopesick, a new streaming series on HULU based on a book by the same name , tells how Purdue pharma sold opioids to the public as non-addictive miracle cures for pain. The series also describes the Federal Drug Administration's complicity in creating what's been called "the worst drug overdose epidemic in (US) history," Statistically, fentanyl or other opioids are prescribed for pain for women at a higher rate than for men. Therefore, women are far more likely to become addicted after a prescription, while men are much more likely to become addicted to recreational drugs. In fact, over twice as many men die of opioid overdoses than women. Non-Hispanic whites die at a rate five times that of Blacks and seven times that of Hispanics. The states that have seen the most significant increase in opioid death rates are "rust belt" states, specifically Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. These states have experienced a 300% to 500% increase in deaths over the last ten years. Though abuse of prescription medications or addictions originating in prescriptions may not be the most significant factor of the opioid crisis, they are still a major concern, especially for women. This is partly due to an inordinate faith in medical experts. In 2014, properly prescribed medicines were the third leading cause of death in the US and Europe, according to the National Institutes of Health . This raises important questions about the role that pharmaceutical marketing practices and incentives for doctors play in prescribing these drugs, as well as the responsibility of major pharmaceutical corporations for practices that lead to addictions. There are also questions about the pharmacies that distribute the drugs. Recently, a federal jury in Ohio found that CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart had contributed to the overdoses and deaths in two counties by overselling benefits and downplaying the negatives of opioid drugs. Though this does not absolve individuals from responsibility for choices that led to their addiction, medical, pharmaceutical, and regulatory entities failed in their roles as so-called "trusted experts." That failure also contributed to the other side of the opioid epidemic, addiction from "recreational" use. So much so that addiction has become an aspect, perhaps the darkest aspect, of the crisis of meaning among young men in America. Factor opioid addiction into what's been aptly called "the war on boys" and our culture's consistent portrayal of men as dolts and masculinity as toxic, and we've got a systemic problem of epic proportions on our hands. This is particularly acute in the rust belt, where a sharp and years-long decline in both marriage and employment upend men's sense of purpose and direction. This all is a complicating factor in the increasing social isolation men face in American culture, something documented many years ago by Robert Putnam in his book Bowling Alone . Many men have few, if any, close friends has significant implications for the opioid crisis. Soldiers who used heroin and other drugs in Vietnam sometimes came home as addicts, but a surprising number were able to drop their drug use on their return. The difference was often made by whether the veteran returned to a rich social network, a job, and a family. What was true then is only more pronounced today. The lack of jobs and a clear sense of purpose, along with diminished or vanishing friendships and social networks create a vacuum that too many fill with drugs. Covid lockdowns only made the situation worse, leading to the spike in what are being called "deaths of despair." The 100k plus opioid deaths are a dark chapter in this larger story. So how can the church help in this crisis? Before we talk about how, we need to discuss why we must. It's not clear that any other institution, particularly those that lost so much public trust in the last 25 years, has anything much to offer. They are largely exhausted. The Gospel is not. It offers a clear sense of who we are, a source for meaning and purpose that goes beyond our age's radical individualism, and a potential source of the kind of social support men need. It also offers a call: to run into the brokenness, not away from it. To go where people are, into broken communities and families, often to those beyond our comfort zones, and be part of the solution. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost; can we, who claim him as Lord, do less in the face of this challenge?
Dec 14, 2021
Washington State now allows convicted male felons who identify as female to move to women's prisons . No surprise but tragic nonetheless, reports are already emerging of biological males abusing and sexually exploiting female inmates. One convicted child molester was transferred to a Seattle women's prison after claiming to be a woman and changing his name. He's now accused of raping a developmentally disabled female inmate . A former guard told National Review that this predator was one of six men transferred there during his tenure . Another was also a convicted child molester. And all inmates must do to make the switch is convince an administrative panel they're transgender. California passed a similar measure, and already nearly 300 inmates have requested transfers ... all men, no women. Now, prisons are reportedly handing out birth control . Ideas have consequences, bad ideas have victims—in this case, victims who can't escape
Dec 14, 2021
Le Petit Robert , a popular dictionary of the French language, recently created a gender-neutral pronoun . The word is "iel," a merging of the masculine pronoun "il" with the feminine pronoun "elle." But, it isn't sitting well with many French folks. Some see the move as an export of American wokeism into French culture , while others hail it as a travesty, an abuse of the French language. After all, French, like other Romance languages, is very gendered . Most nouns are either masculine, such as "book" or "hat," or feminine, such as "table" or "coronavirus." This isn't the first attempt to degender French or the other Romantic languages. These endeavors tend to go nowhere, except for those proposing the changes. For everyday speakers or official language guardians, there's simply too much to change or too much at stake. This is especially true for the French. As one article put it years ago, attempts to de-gender the language of love "make (French) look like algebra." The defense of gender in the Romance languages isn't just a clinging to tradition or living in the past. Many believe the gendered reality of French isvan essential part of its beauty. For example, Birgitte Macron, wife to French President Emmanuel Macron, said, " Our language is beautiful. And two pronouns are appropriate ." Every noun, from professions to household objects, is either masculine or feminine in French, as are the articles preceding them. In the case of things that actually come in both male and female, like people and animals, gender-specific articles and endings clear up any possible confusion. Thus a male political candidate is "le candidat," while a female one is "la candidate." In defense of its new pronoun, La Petit Robert , claims their suggested change is a way of reflecting the world as it now is. Since language is evolving and changing, the country of France needs to adapt as well. But is it really? Are we really moving away from male and female? Or are some just trying to, but failing? Is this about language reflecting reality, or is this change more an example of using language to force a new understanding of reality? According to Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French Minister of Education, the answer is the latter. He tweeted last month that " inclusive writing is not the future of the French language ." Others, like French Parliamentarian Francois Jolivet, see the move as nothing less than an attack on France itself, accusing the authors of the dictionary of being " militants of a cause that has nothing French about it: le wokisme ." And, many in France are looking to the L'Academie Francaise, a 400-year-old gatekeeper of the French language, to undo what Jolivet called a "solitary campaign" - an obvious ideological intrusion to undermine France's common language and influence. It's hard not to be impressed by these French officials committed to defending their language. Those who push for gendered pronouns aren't concerned about linguistic sense, nor do they care how now-dead folks like Victor Hugo once thought about life and the world. They're concerned with advancing a way of seeing the world… one rid of gender differentiation. Attempts to degender language in the United States certainly aren't met with this same level of passion, not to mention this same level of thought. Here, inventing gender-neutral pronouns was so 2016 . In fact, we've now moved on from inventing gender-neutral pronouns to determining God's pronouns , and replacing terms like mothers and pregnant women with " birthing people ." We're teaching first graders to declare their pronouns , and telling teens to replace boyfriend or girlfriend with "partner." Most Americans, out of a desire not to offend (or maybe because they're scared out of their wits about their employment prospects) comply, failing to realize just how much is at stake. They've overlooked, or are unaware, of just how much of a culture's collective thinking is shaped by language. French officials, on the other hand, seem clear about what's at stake, and how a seemingly silly thing like gender-neutral pronouns indicates a serious worldview shift. Christians should be clear as well. As G.K. Chesterton once said, "The Church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are the only things worth fighting about." Scripture describes God's words as creating the universe ex nihilo , out of nothing. As His image-bearers, our words also have incredible power. We cannot create ex nihilo, but our words either properly describe reality, or they distort it. In that sense, our words have the power to create impressions, beliefs, and even consequences. In a sense, our words are an essential aspect of the human ability to create entire worlds out of the world that God made. Defending language, like these French officials, is a move to recognize the structure of Creation, as God has designed and organized it, and our roles within it. Any worldview that denies that the world is a creation of God inevitably sees reality as more pliable than it actually is. In the Biblical account, this world is a place we inhabit and steward for the glory of God. Today, reality is increasingly seen as a place we construct and control. In that view of the world, there are no words higher than our own, not even God's. Because so much is at stake, we ought choose our words wisely.
Dec 13, 2021
In the heart of the 1980s, there was a spate of "Aid" music projects. We had " We Are the World ," " Farm Aid ," and, for the holiday junkies, a song to raise money for starving Africans which contained the lines, " There won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime . . . Do they know it's Christmastime at all? " This is sweet, but it's also silly. From Christianity's earliest days, some of the most important Christian thinkers and leaders hailed from Africa: Tertullian , Origen , Athanasius , and Augustine of Hippo , to name just a few. African cities like Alexandria and Carthage incubated core Christian theology still held around the world, and Egyptian and Ethiopian churches have a longer history than English or Russian ones. Not only this, but there is good reason to believe that there are more Christians in Africa today than on any other continent. This is so much the case that, in the face of doctrinal drift in their home countries, many Western churches now look to Africa for leadership. So, just in case you were still worried about this, yes, they know it's Christmastime in Africa - probably better than we do.
Dec 13, 2021
Recently, the Economist reported that "in any given year one person in six is afflicted by a mental illness… [yet] two-thirds of people with a mental health problem do not receive any treatment for it. In poor countries, hardly any do. And almost everywhere, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists are scarce." After painting this bleak picture, the same authors propose a solution with promising results: Non-experts, trained in the basics of "talk therapy." After a year of training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (or CBT), lay practitioners in England and Zimbabwe reported significant improvement in their clients' mental health, sometimes after only a few sessions. It's a trend that many healthcare experts are taking seriously. That's great news that, in light of a Christian worldview, has even bigger implications. And, it points to the irreplaceable value of community in a culture trapped in individualism and plagued by isolation. The skyrocketing rates of loneliness in our world correspond with high rates of mental health issues. People were created to live in relationship. Humanity's interdependence is a feature of how we were intentionally designed by God to both create and live in community. One of the cruel ironies of the modern world is that, having achieved previously unbelievable levels of wealth and convenience, we've lost so much of that vital sense of interdependence. In ways that Covid-19 only made worse, our work and friendship networks—which include churches, civil societies, and volunteer organizations—have grown increasingly thin. As a result, we now outsource to professionals a role previously delegated to these irreplaceable institutions. To be clear, many mental health problems require professional diagnosis and treatment. By and large, de-stigmatizing counseling and mental health care have been a positive development, and the lay practitioners mentioned by the Economist had some level of training. Even so, the success of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) suggests that mental health support can be far more accessible than many think. In his book The Coddling of the American Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt breaks down why CBT is one of the best-studied and most effective forms of psychotherapy. In stark contrast to the worldviews and our culture's dominant mood which tells people their feelings are always right, CBT encourages people to think critically about their feelings and evaluate whether they are true. In other words, CBT affirms that ideas, including those we believe about ourselves, have consequences. The Biblical admonition to "be transformed by the renewing of your minds," is both practical and vital. Even better, God never asks us to ignore our problems, but encourages us to bring them to Him and to each other, and so "fulfill the law of Christ." Active, compassionate listening is in concert with another Biblical admonition, to speak the truth in love. This kind of Christian fellowship has produced results for centuries. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about this in his classic work Life Together. "Secular education today is aware [that] a person can be helped merely by having someone who will listen to him seriously, but Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God, that we may speak the Word of God." The Apostle Paul encourages older Christians to mentor younger ones, and for Christians to "not forsake assembling together." Proverbs 20:5 puts it succinctly: "The purposes of a person's heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out." Listeners like this are too rare these days. The damnable lie of expressive individualism is that we each have our own truth inside. This leaves many of us ready to do all the talking (or social media posting) but not the listening. Instead of seeking truth outside of ourselves, in the time-tested wisdom of Scripture and the counsel of others, we keep looking inside and are surprised when nothing seems to change. Within a truly Christian worldview, we recognize the legitimate role of mental health experts, but that should never stop the rest of us from acting. We should never expect the professionals to replace what family, friends, and Churches are meant to do: love our neighbors enough to listen.
Dec 10, 2021
John and Maria outline the worldview angles behind President Biden's "Build Back Better Plan." Notably, John points to the inherent issue with the Department of Health and Human Services directing relief money sent to families to be used specifically in professional child-care services. Then, John explains the current issues with the Olympics and China. Maria asks John a series of important questions on how the United States should respond to the human rights abuses China is committing against faith-based groups in China. John outlines two important options before the State Department, considering how the United States can bring attention to the abuses and seek protection for those impacted. To close, Maria asks John a question related to how important it is to continually question worldview and faith-growth for Christians. She shares that it can be distracting for believers to continually be concerned about how we're thinking, failing to consider Christ in an effort to think Biblically. John shares important insights and encouragement.
Dec 10, 2021
To hear the NCAA tell the story , an average swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania became a nationally ranked superstar overnight. Check the receipts, and we learn Will Thomas only started breaking records and winning meets by comically huge margins when he began going by " Lia" Thomas this past year. Similar incidents are increasingly happening in various sports at all levels, but swimming offers an especially clear picture of what it means when we allow men to compete against women. Success in swimming is heavily dependent on physiology. The length of the body, the body's center of gravity, and even the placement of a person's belly button can mean the difference between an average swimmer and a major competitor. A man can identify however he wants, and can even take dangerous hormone supplements, but his belly button isn't going anywhere. This sort of let's-all-pretend-we-don't-know-what's-happening groupthink isn't good for college sports or for women's rights. It's not good for Lia Thomas, his teammates , or his competitors. No matter how fast he swims, no man really breaks a women's record.
Dec 10, 2021
One of the features of the sexual revolution, especially in these latter days, is a steady stream of new words that were invented to justify increasingly incoherent ideas. For example, the word " cisgender ," coined by sociologists in the 90s, refers to "those who continue to identify with the sex they were assigned at birth." The definition itself is loaded with ideas, such as sex being assigned at birth, but it basically means boys who identify as boys and girls who identify as girls. Only a culture committed to normalizing dysphoria and de-normalizing biology needs a word like that. More recently, but in the same spirit of social engineering through nomenclature, some activists have suggested a new take on infertility, one not based on biology or health but on lifestyle choices. The suggested term is "social infertility," and refers to the state of those who intentionally choose sterile relationship arrangements, such as same-sex relationships, but still want children. Proponents Lisa Campo-Engelstein and Weei Lo describe it this way : "Expanding the current definition of infertility to include social infertility will elevate it to a treatable medical condition, justifying the use of ART [assisted reproductive technologies] for such individuals… States with infertility insurance mandates should provide the same infertility coverage to socially infertile individuals as physiologically infertile heterosexual couples." [emphasis added] Assumed here is that everyone has a right to babies. So, if you want one but are in a relationship unable to procreate, technology and the government should be employed to force employers, hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies to help you have one. To be clear, this is not yet law, but this same "universal parentage" line of thinking was used to legalize commercial surrogacy in the state of Washington a few years ago, and the Department of Health and Human Services has indicated this kind of language may find its way into new mandates. The irony is that the very concept of "social infertility" undermines the "love is love" slogan that has so effectively advanced the social innovations of the sexual revolution, such as same-sex marriage. Clearly, same-sex love – even when committed, sincere and monogamous – isn't the same as heterosexual love in terms of what intercourse means and its procreative potential. Therefore, some words need to be invented, and others redefined. Redefining "infertility" in this way involves redefining a slew of other important words, too, such as "medical condition." If an otherwise healthy man and woman fail to conceive a child, it's reasonable to suspect a deeper medical condition, but two men (or two women) will never be able to conceive a child. And, when they can't, nothing has gone wrong. No one suspects their inability to conceive is due to a disability or sickness. All that's left is to create a new category of discrimination. Advocates of so-called "social infertility" suggest it is unjust when two men or two women cannot conceive, and therefore the government should step in. This assumes, of course, that conceiving a child is a "right" even when biologically impossible, an idea only plausible in a culture in which the value of children is tied wholly to whether or not they are wanted. If terminating preborn life is justified when a child is not wanted, then all it takes to justify conceiving a life is that it is wanted. This leaves words like "rights," "discrimination," "equality" (not to mention "men" and "women") up for grabs. Imagine if I demanded insurance coverage for leg augmentations in order to sprint as fast as Usain Bolt. Is not being able to sprint as fast as Bolt a medical condition? Do I have a right to claim discrimination because I want to sprint like Bolt but can't? Do I have a right to force others - like religious hospitals and employers - to cover the cost to give me what I want? Using the logic of "social infertility," the answer to each of these nonsensical questions would have to be yes . What comes under the guise of social fertility is just as nonsensical but far worse, for two reasons. First, for most of us, not being as fast as Usain Bolt is not directly related to a life choice we've made. That dream has never even been a remote possibility for me. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of those who claim "social infertility" have intentionally chosen naturally infertile relationships . Had they chosen a different relationship, conceiving a child would be possible. Second, most artificial reproductive technologies today are justified by adult desires, while children's rights are forgotten in our ethical reasoning. So increasingly, we behave and pass laws as if children are something we have a "right" to have or, even worse, as if they are products to be obtained . This whole conversation reveals our society to be at odds with nature and itself. The inherent connection between sex and procreation has been thoroughly severed. Abortion enables us to have sex without babies by killing the natural result of human sexuality. So-called "universal parentage" acts leverage artificial reproductive technologies to have babies without sex. To be clear, the invention of "social infertility" as a concept is just the latest fruit of this thinking, the inevitable result of denying moral and biological realities. The church will not be in a place to respond unless we get our own thinking and our own decisions in line with reality.
Dec 9, 2021
In Scientific American, physician Carolyn Barber describes a new condition: "texting thumb." "The patient's right thumb knuckle is inflamed, swollen, and often painful," she writes, "especially toward the end of the day… Her middle finger intermittently has a new 'catch' to it when bent. The patient she's describing? Herself . An emergency room physician, Barber took to working more on her phone. At the same time, she started seeing an increased toll on people's musculoskeletal systems from phone usage. "Let's face it," Barber concludes. "Our hands weren't really made for all of this." Digital technology is a necessary part of life, but it also plays into what some have called the " gnostic impulse :" the ancient temptation to ignore our bodies in favor of our incorporeal selves. It's an impulse that is alive and well today. But, of course, we're not just spirits. God created our bodies, they matter, and He cares for them. That makes Barber's recommendation a good one: "Take a walk," she says. "Pocket your phone. And give your tweeting digits the break they deserve."
Dec 9, 2021
A young woman recently commented to a friend, "I feel like once you have kids, your life is just done." So, despite pressure from her mom, she was in no rush to settle down. "I've got too much living to do. I want to wait a while before I'm finished." It's not uncommon to hear people suggest that things like marriage and family and parenting are, at best, distractions from what life is really about (like a career or amusement or travel), or at worst, a sort of death sentence that marks the end of all of our fun. Despite the research showing otherwise, there's a clear message in sitcoms and romcoms that the quickest way to become miserable and end a good sex life is to get married. Single means free and unencumbered, the story goes, especially for women. Similarly, in our recent conversation about the Dobbs case currently before the Supreme Court, Dr. Ryan Anderson described how the pro-abortion movement advances the claim that women "need" abortion in order to fully participate in society. As he put it, "If that statement is true, that is a condemnation of our society." If we're only fully human when we're "free" from loving and caring for those closest to us, then we have a puny vision of humanity. But how much of the American dream centers on pleasures and possessions, career paths and vacations, seeing the dirty work of diapers, tending to a sick spouse, or making a meal for a neighbor as something between a necessary and avoidable evil? Even Christians are tempted to imagine that in "real" Christian life and ministry, a big platform is preferable over caring for actual people. Or that those involved in "full-time Christian ministry," serving the "people," are doing the real work of God, while those of us caught up in ordinary life comprise the B-Team? If anything, this way of seeing things has it all backward . Christians in the "ministry" do play a vital and important role in God's plan, but that role is to support those faithfully living everyday life in obedience to Christ. Marriage and family and children, or loving our neighbors and caring for our elders, really is "the end of life," just not in the sense those two young women thought. Those things are among the ends - the intended purposes - for which God created and called us. Families and communities are the real work, and through them, God works on us, and in us, and through us. What if the ordinary tasks of life were the front lines of the kingdom of God? What if it's in the relationships that seem to be mundane that we are most fully serving God? Many in the Church are ready to die for the Faith, but are far less willing to live for it. It's important to remember that in Genesis, God didn't say that it is not good for man to be lonely. Rather, He said it's not good for man to be alone . Our chief end is to glorify God , but most of our time and effort in glorifying God is spent loving and caring for others, and that's what he intended, particularly to members of the human race who make up our families and communities. To love, marry, raise children, and live the lives God intended for us; it's in these endeavors that the true radical lives, and it's by them that true change will come to the world. In 1955, C. S. Lewis wrote to a woman struggling to find meaning in her work as "just" a housewife. The great writer challenged her to turn the entire perspective around. Instead of being a nonessential worker in the economy of God's work on Earth, hers was the center. Here's how Lewis said it: "We wage war in order to have peace, we work in order to have leisure, we produce food in order to eat it. So your job is the one for which all others exist." Now, he was talking specifically to what we call "stay-at-home-moms," but the principle applies across areas of life that the world and the Church are too quick to pass over as being insignificant or getting in the way of our true selves. Caring for one another, particularly when few see what we are doing, isn't God's back-up or second-best plan for human life; it's what He designed for us to do from the beginning. This is the end of life.
Dec 8, 2021
John and Shane are asked how to respond to church leadership who feels speaking about culture topics will cause ripples in the church. Later, the two are asked how they can speak with love to those who are confused about where their true sense of identity comes from? To close, John and Shane provide an understanding of how worldviews shape perspectives of the end times, and how Christians should handle those perspectives in living this cultural moment.
Dec 8, 2021
Christian history is full of incredible stories: Origen, Augustine, Wilberforce, Joni Eareckson Tada, Hudson Taylor… In fact, any life lived for Christ, is historic, significant, and inspiring. Success is never guaranteed, but we can be faithful. Each week, I hear from followers of Christ committed to living for Christ in this cultural moment, also an important time in history. In fact, a recent email just blew me away: "I found your podcast about one year ago, and it has been quite influential in my role as husband, as an elder in our church, in my role as parents of adult children, like grandparents, and owner of a small business. Having a correct worldview and then communicating it in love to the world around us and interpreting events biblically, helps me to live out my faith as I occupy this time and this place, (Acts 17) for God's Kingdom." The Colson Center exists to help Christians live out their faith in this time and this place. Join us in this work by making a year-end gift. You can do this by visiting www.colsoncenter.org/givehope
Dec 8, 2021
President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act, which passed in the U.S. House last month, is expected to be passed by the Senate before Christmas. Adding this big-ticket "social spending and climate" bill to the trillions already passed in the name of COVID relief certainly won't thrill fiscal conservatives. Depending on which version passes, about $360 billion dollars would be added to the federal deficit. The plan is being hailed as good for families, since it extends the enhanced child tax credit by a year and provides assistance for childcare. However, as the saying goes, we need to read the fine print, especially the parts about childcare. As Tim Carney writes at The Washington Examiner , the bill will likely include a large new daycare entitlement and universal pre-k program, but neither apply to family members or homeschooling parents. In other words, the administration only wants it to be easier for families to get childcare if it's from the "professionals." Moms and dads, grandmas, aunts, and neighborhood co-ops need not apply. And as Carney points out, many parents (particularly those in households where both have to work) would prefer "an opportunity for one parent to stop working or work less." A long-term tax credit could help many achieve that, but not a one-size-fits-all daycare subsidy which, as he put it, seems designed "to change [parents'] minds about who should raise their children." Of course, there's a debate to be had about whether or not the government should be spending taxpayer money to incentivize families at all. But, in this case, how it is proposing to spend the money says far more. Again, here's Carney: "The question is this: If you wanted to spend money to help parents and children, and you were already willing to just hand cash to parents in the form of "tax credits" or a child allowance, then why would you specifically subsidize daycare instead of giving parents money and let them decide how to use it?" Carney's reading of the bill is not unfair, especially if you consider the President's own words. Last month, the President tweeted , "Nearly 2 million women in our country have been locked out of the workforce because they have to care for a child or an elderly relative at home. [The Build Back Better Act] will make caregiving accessible and affordable and help [women] get back to work." Of course, plenty of women do feel stuck at home and would prefer to return to work, but plenty of others would rather stay at home with their kids if they can afford it. In fact, a 2019 survey by Pew Research found that almost 20 percent of women think "not working for pay at all" is the ideal situation for mothers, and about half overall would prefer not to work full-time. These women are not "locked out of the workforce," as the administration put it. Rather, they'll be "locked-in" by a plan that subsidizes only "professional" childcare and not family care. This kind of state paternalism not only suggests that, ultimately, life is about building a satisfying career, participating in the economy, and making more money. It suggests that to prefer a family life that is reliant on a spouse's income is, to quote one progressive New York Times writer , "retrograde" thinking. And it serves a more insidious agenda item of cultural progressivism, that "government knows better than a parent" about what's best for children. This spending bill must be considered in light of other actions by the administration. Recently, we learned that Xavier Becerra, who heads up the Department of Health and Human Services under the Biden Administration, is looking for ways to keep faith-based children's service programs out of foster care. That's despite the fact that, as U.S. Senator from Oklahoma James Lankford tweeted , this move almost certainly runs afoul of the Supreme Court's decision in Fulton v. Philadelphia , in which justices ruled unanimously that the city could not discriminate against a Catholic adoption agency in placing children. Each case, childcare subsidies and foster care, reflects the belief that the state is the most important and competent sphere of society, and the one that should decide how all the others run. That's not how things were designed to work. God first and foremost entrusted the family, not the state, with raising the next generation. Our nation's long history of working with religious organizations to care for kids has resulted in services the state could never have provided without help. Any plan that's designed to "build back better" should recognize that parents and religious organizations are are solutions, not problems to be solved.
Dec 7, 2021
John and Shane respond to feedback and a question on why culture blames the church for a myriad of social, cultural, environmental, and many other ills. They then explain a few resources to help listeners think well on the topic of sexual immorality after fielding a question in response to a recent commentary. To close, John explains the idea of Sphere sovereignty.
Dec 7, 2021
On Black Friday, a surrogacy agency in Ukraine called BioTexCom offered a fun new deal : three percent off your next baby. The discount, according to the ad, applied to hiring Ukrainian women to be surrogate mothers, to IVF, or whatever mixture thereof. If the name BioTexCom sounds familiar, it's because this is the agency saddled with nearly 100 stranded babies in a Kiev hotel, to be cared for by a handful of nurses, at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. That happened because the babies legally belonged to the wealthy Western couples who bought them but couldn't pick them up due to travel restrictions. The babies' Ukrainian mothers weren't allowed to care for the babies after the birth - they weren't their "property" anymore. That situation, and this tacky Black Friday discount, illustrate something crucial. Whatever feels icky about "three percent off a new baby" is still there when it's full price . Industrialized assisted reproduction turns both women's bodies and babies into commodities on Black Friday and every other day. God made us for so much more .
Dec 7, 2021
Women in Afghanistan have been barred from participation in civil society. There are families hunted for their involvement with the U.S. military, and brothers and sisters in Christ have been tortured and killed for their courageous faith. Any faith in early signs of Taliban moderation was misplaced; all skepticism was well-founded. We have the testimony of many who've endured similar oppressions in the past. This can point us to what is true and good amid evil. For example, Hunayn ibn Ishaq was born in al-Hira, Iraq, in 809, the year of Caliph Harun al-Rashid's death, the same Caliph whose story birthed the Arabian Nights and Aladdin . A Nestorian Christian, Hunayn grew up speaking Syriac and Arabic. As a young man, he went to Baghdad to study medicine under the famous physician and fellow Christian Yuhanna ibn Masawayh. Hunayn's insatiable curiosity exasperated his instructors, to the point that Yuhanna kicked Hunayn out of school. Hunayn promised himself he would return to Baghdad, but he went abroad to learn Greek in the meantime. When he returned, he was able to recite Homer and the famous physician Galen in their original languages. His new knowledge impressed Yuhanna, and the two reconciled and started working together when Hunayn returned. Hunayn's new language skills enabled him to translate Greek works into Syriac and Arabic. This skill earned him a position at Bayt al Hikmah (the House of Wisdom), an institution dedicated to translating Greek texts and making them available to Arab scholars. Hunayn was sent into the Byzantine Empire to obtain works by Aristotle and other authors unavailable in the Caliphate. His work was so highly valued that he was paid the weight of the books he translated in gold. Hunayn is credited with translating the works of Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Galen, Plato's Republic , several works by Aristotle, the Old Testament from the Septuagint, along with works on agriculture, chemistry, stones, and religion. Hunayn's son Ishaq was a primary aide and became the principal translator of Aristotle into Arabic. Hunayn developed a close relationship with the Caliph al-Mutawakkil. Recognizing Hunayn's skills as a scholar and translator, the caliph appointed him as his personal secretary. However, a rift developed between al-Mutawakkil and Hunayn when the caliph asked Hunayn to make poison to kill one of his enemies, and Hunayn refused. The caliph grew angry and had Hunayn thrown in prison for a year. After serving his sentence, Hunayn was brought before the caliph and replied, "I have skill only in what is beneficial, and have studied nothing else." The caliph, claiming that he was only testing Hunayn's personal integrity, asked him what kept him from complying with the order and facing certain death. Hunayn responded, "Two things: my religion and my profession. My religion decrees that we should do good even to our enemies, how much more to our friends. And my profession is instituted for the benefit of humanity and limited to their relief and cure. Besides, every physician is under oath never to give anyone a deadly medicine." Hunayn was released. Despite his support for translation, al-Mutawakkil was concerned about foreign ideas influencing Islam and about Muslim scholars who advocated a less literal interpretation of the Quran. As a result, he enforced a rigid Sunni orthodoxy on the state and began persecuting more liberal Muslim thinkers as well as increasing the pressure on Christians in the caliphate. This would be a harbinger of things to come both in the Muslim world and for the Christians in the Middle East. In the first dynasties of the caliphate, Christians played important roles in government and scholarship in the Muslim world. However, that is not to say that they were generally treated well. There were periodic outbreaks of violent persecution, including widespread destruction of churches, and they were clearly second-class citizens subject to ever-increasing oppression as the decades moved forward. These Christians played a far more central role in developing the medieval Muslim intellectual and medical tradition. Western Europe would eventually benefit from this, as works of Aristotle translated by Hunayn and his son would pass to scholars from the Latin world via Islamic Spain. Hunayn himself played the role of a Daniel in many ways, serving in the court of non-Christian rulers who were at times openly hostile to his faith. His scholarship, medical skills, and personal integrity born of his faith enabled him to survive and serve there, leaving an enormous and wide-ranging legacy in his own era and beyond. All of this reminds us that God has His people everywhere, even in the most hostile nations. We should pray that he grant those in hostile places the character and courage of Hunayn and Daniel to be motivated by their love and submission to Jesus Christ. And may the same be said of us, as we serve the Lord in an increasingly hostile culture.
Dec 6, 2021
Recently, a Switzerland-based euthanasia clinic posted that , going forward, anyone seeking so-called "death with dignity" must be fully vaccinated first. It isn't quite as crazy as it sounds. They aren't saying you have to be healthy before they kill you. Instead, they're taking precautions for the sake of the people who provide "assistance in dying." They don't want patients infecting the medical professionals tasked with killing them. Even so, there's plenty of tragic ironies here. For two years now, we've been talking about "doing what it takes" to save lives in the face of Covid. "If it saves just one life" then, we were told, that the masks, the mandates, and the lockdowns were all worth it. At the same time, proponents of doctor-assisted dying tell us that people should have full autonomy over death. Inconsistencies like these remind us that as much as we suppress eternity in our hearts, it's still there. Even when our worldviews deny it, life is a wonderful gift of God, and dignity is intrinsic to who He has made us to be.
Dec 6, 2021
William Blake said, "A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees." Recently, David Books of the New York Times quoted Blake as he described the importance of imagination. Advances in neuroscience, he argues, have highlighted the ways our imaginations are tied up with our perceptions of reality. This includes the moral imagination as well, both personally and collectively. Our imagination also affects our ability to empathize with others. When we are able to imagine the lived experience of others, we tend to be more compassionate, gracious and open to wonder. Brooks laments that our society is bad at cultivating a healthy imagination, "the faculty that we may need the most." The problem here isn't a wholesale rejection of the imagination, of course. We talk about it all the time. The issue is that we think of the imagination the same way we think about others aspects of our lives, identity, and morality. Namely, as Carl Truemann described so well in his masterful book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, we see ourselves as isolated individuals: self-determining, autonomous, and only responsible for self-expression. Thus, like so much of the rest of our lives, our imaginations have no external reference point. An obvious reason for this are the many addictive technologies in our world that so easily dominate our hearts and mind. Screens are designed to be captivating. Thus, moments and experiences that may have shaped our imaginations are instead mediated, either narrated for us by someone else or forced into some social media paradigm to prove that we are happy or influential. By teaching people that we are primarily self-constructed beings, imposing meaning into a purposeless universe, our culture unwittingly robs us of imagination's most fertile soil. There is no true wonder or real compassion for others unless there is a purpose to our lives bigger than our own selfish desires. The tragic irony is that humans have more avenues for self-expression than any generation before them. Shouldn't creativity and imagination be thriving right now? Anyone can be an artist, musician, or storyteller. Anyone can produce and express, and even garner an audience. But what's the point? The primary limit in a culture of limitless self-expression is meaninglessness. That's why we continue to see the epidemics of narcissism, loneliness, addictions, and depression and self-harms. We're like a room of kids who each brought their own show-and-tell project, but can't stop talking long enough to appreciate what anyone else has to offer. Dallas Willard once quipped that no one stands on the edge of the Grand Canyon and shouts "I am awesome." Today, plenty of people stand on the edge of something wonderful (i.e. wonder full), but cannot look outside of themselves long enough to figure out it's really not about us. In a world of constructed selves, imaginary gods and without purpose, the true roots of imagination wither and die. C.S. Lewis understood what is required to shape the imagination. "In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself," he wrote. By contrast, "The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison." In the works of Spenser, Milton and George MacDonald, Lewis sensed a true grappling with what he called "the roughness and density of life." Those authors could account for things like personhood, good, evil, purpose and meaning. By contrast, atheists like Shaw, Wells and Mills, felt surprisingly thin. Faced with "a desire nothing on Earth could satisfy," Lews concluded he was made for another, better world. That's why he said that his imagination was baptized before his conversion. A revival of Christian imagination is desperately needed today. Not only because who knows whether the next C.S. Lewis is out there, waiting for the kind of beauty and artistry that may baptize his or her own imagination. But also because imagination points to a vital aspect of what it means to be human. Only humans mirror the Creator in this way, with the ability to see what is not there and make it so. God, of course, created the world ex nihilo, out of nothing. We don't have that power, but we can create and our words are profoundly powerful. Jesus, the second Adam, appealed to the imagination in truth, compassion, and in story. He is the perfect expression of one of God's richest gifts to humanity. It's a gift that can help us make sense of life, move us to compassion, and bring what is not but ought to be into reality.
Dec 4, 2021
This week, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) canceled all tournaments in China. The move was a protest against the Chinese Communist Party's censorship of missing tennis star Peng Shuai. The unprecedented move will likely cost the organization hundreds of millions in revenue. But, it's also the right move. Peng Shuai went missing after publicly claiming that she was sexually assaulted by a high-ranking government official. After a flood of international alarm, China finally produced rudimentary evidence of Peng Shuai's safety. But, it wasn't enough. "While we now know where Peng is, I have serious doubts that she is free, safe, and not subject to censorship, coercion, and intimidation," said WTA chief executive Steve Simon. The WTA's courageous response is tragically rare. Former U.S. Ambassador at large Kelly Eckels Currie put it best: "If you had told me a week-and-a-half ago that the Women's Tennis Association was going to be the most effective and bravest human rights organization in the world, I would have thought you were bananas… but here we are." Now, will the rest of the world join in?
Dec 3, 2021
John and Maria revisit the oral arguments for the Dobbs v. Jackson from the Supreme Court earlier this week. John shares insight from Ryan Anderson, who recently explained the impact of this case on the BreakPoint Podcast. Maria then reports on the school shooting in Oxford, Michigan. She briefly tells a story being reported of a father whose son was killed in the shooting. The father reportedly told a friend when the two couldn't locate his son that, Tate, the son, is the kind of person who would run towards the shooter. John and Maria discuss manhood and the importance of fathering in this cultural moment. -- Story References -- Segment 1: The Changing Landscape of Being Pro-Choice Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that could upend Roe v. Wade. At the very least, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization is the most significant challenge to legalized abortion to date. In question in a Mississippi law known as the Gestational Age Act. If the court decides the law should stand, the power to determine and limit abortion rights would effectively be returned to the states. The long battle over abortion in America has had many chapters. For years, most advocates of legalized abortion argued they were not really pro-abortion. Abortion, they claimed, was not a good thing, but women should have the right to decide whether or not to carry a baby to term. The painful decision to have an abortion, continued the rhetoric, is always tragic, but a woman must retain autonomy over her own body and health. BreakPoint> Oral Arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Point to a Post-Roe Future Today, on a very special edition of the BreakPoint podcast, I talk with Dr. Ryan Anderson, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) located in Washington, D.C. about the case, the oral arguments, and what the future could hold. BreakPoint>> Segment 2: Michigan Suspect's Parents Met With School Hours Before Shooting Prosecutors said the 15-year-old boy accused of killing four classmates at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit on Tuesday had planned the attack "well before the incident." The suspect, a 15-year-old boy who was charged with murder in the deaths of four students, had no previous juvenile record. But school officials had concerns about his behavior in the classroom. NY Times>> Anthony Bradley on Michigan Shooting Suburban 15-year-old boys have been shooting up their high schools since 1999. There is a clear profile that explains why this 20+year pattern repeats. Girls don't do this. Yet, when we say "There's a boy crisis" no one believes us. Why don't we want to focus on helping boys? Twitter>>
Dec 3, 2021
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments from Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health , the most significant challenge to Roe v. Wade to date. The anticipation surrounding Dobbs , on both sides of the abortion issue, has been palpable. And, what happened at the Supreme Court on Wednesday did not disappoint. Today, on a very special edition of the BreakPoint podcast, John talks with Dr. Ryan Anderson, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) located in Washington, D.C. about the case, the oral arguments, and what the future could hold. Anderson is a legal scholar and public intellectual. In our conversation, Ryan described the highlights from Wednesday and clarified why this case is so significant.
Dec 3, 2021
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments from Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health , the most significant challenge to Roe v. Wade to date. The anticipation surrounding Dobbs , on both sides of the abortion issue, has been palpable. Wednesday's performance did not disappoint. Today, on a very special edition of the BreakPoint podcast, I talk with Dr. Ryan Anderson, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) located in Washington, D.C.. Anderson is a legal scholar and public intellectual. In our conversation, Ryan described the highlights from Wednesday and clarified why why this case is so significant: It was very telling that both of the two liberal justices who spoke, Sonia Sotomayor and [Stephen] Breyer, and the two pro choice advocates in the courtroom, they never really tried to defend "Roe" or "Casey" on the merits. The only things they appealed to are Stare Decisis; respect for precedent, the respectability of the court. "What would happen, the backlash, if we admit that we were wrong?" "We would look political…" The most important response there is that if the previous ruling was wrong, the way that something like "Plessy v. Ferguson" was wrong, it only does further damage to the court to say. "But we're going to uphold it anyway." That's where you're looking political; that's where you're not doing law anymore. And, so, there was several really good exchanges where Justice Alito was really, "Wait, so we couldn't have pushed back on that?" Brett Kavanaugh was also very good on this. He cited a whole string of cases where he said "[there were] dozens of major Supreme Court cases where the court overturned a bad ruling and actually, finally, got the constitution correct. And that's how we show our independence. That's how we show that we're lawyers practicing law and we're not politicians, were not doing public opinion. We're not doing public policy." And, so I just think the response there is "Roe" and "Casey" were wrongly decided the day that they were decided. They've done grave harm to the constitution, but more importantly, they allowed grave injustices to unborn human beings. And any moment that we wait is a moment too long to finally get rid of them. Perhaps the most important point Dr. Anderson made in our conversation is that if Roe v Wade is overturned, it's not the finish line for the pro-life movement. In reality, it's a new starting point, which will necessitate new efforts both in public policy and civil society. A post- Roe future demands more humane politics, and extra efforts on a local level to support both pre-born children and the women who find themselves in unexpected pregnancies. Again, here's Dr. Anderson: I think we're going to need to have a good kind of public policy. You know, child tax credits, paid family leave, things like that. That make it easier for families to form and for mothers to choose life. We need the public policy part of this. We also need the civil society part of this. I'm a both-and type of guy, and I think the pro-life movement at its best has been both-and on this. We want good public policy. I can't remember now who the sponsor is in the house, [but] he said we should extend, expand the child tax credit to include the nine months in the womb so that, rather than at birth, it kicks-in at conception. There are simple tweaks like that, that could make a difference in a family's life. We need to be thinking creatively on the policy side and on the civil society side. One particular pro-abortion argument presented during Wednesday's oral arguments is one that is commonly repeated on social media, or in conversation with friends and neighbors who support abortion: that abortion is necessary if women are going to fully participate in society as equal citizens. During our conversation, Dr. Ryan Anderson addressed this argument thoroughly: A world in which women rely on abortion, or women need abortion, is a sign that we have failed women. That's not a sign of women empowerment. That's not a sign of female equality. That is a sign that we have structured our society in which the male body is normative, in which women are somehow defective males and we've structured our economy, our education system, around my body as if it's the norm and that my wife's body is somehow flawed. The scholar who's doing the best work on this is actually one of my colleagues at the EPPC (Ethics and Public Policy Center), Erika Bachiochi . I kind of want to cite my sources on this. She published an excellent book earlier this year, titled " The Rights of Women " where she more or less traces the lost history of feminism. There was an early strand of feminism that emphasized that men and women are equal in dignity, but they're not the same; that there are two equal ways of imaging God, two equal ways of being human. Our law, our policies, our culture need to respect both of these ways of being human, and we need to craft law, policy, and cultural practices that support that. That's not the way that the modern feminist movement went. They went the route of "equality means sameness," which meansvwomen need to succeed on the same terms as men. And that means we need to more or less sterilize ourselves. This is where someone like Mary Eberstadt is really good, on how contraception and abortion are kind of like the sacraments of the modern feminist movement. Another response to that is Mississippi's law , the 15-week law. The vast majority of European countries have 12-week prohibitions on abortion. Are women, there suffering? Are they failing to flourish? Are they failing to have equality and dignity, and all the other buzzwords? So, it's just very interesting to to hear the abortion advocates making it seem like Mississippi's law would be so terrible for female equality and for female dignity. The Mississippi law is actually more progressive than the average European law, and they [pro-choice advocates] don't think Europe is a bunch of backwards, Bible-thumping, blah, blah, blah. So, I think this is both a huge opportunity, but more importantly, it's a huge obligation for the pro-life movement, to serve these women, to serve these mothers, to show that if you need abortion then we have failed you. And that, in actual reality, you don't need abortion. And we can have duties such that you won't need abortion, and we have to fulfill those duties. To listen to the full conversation, with a full analysis by Dr. Ryan Anderson of the oral arguments in what could be the most significant Supreme Court case of our lifetime, come to breakpoint.org or find the BreakPoint podcast on whatever podcast service you use.
Dec 2, 2021
Not that long ago, what we ate was considered a matter of personal preference. Our sexual behavior, on the other hand, was considered a matter of morality that required regulating. Times have changed. In every society throughout history, sex has been seen as a moral matter of public concern. A primary reason for that is sex can result in children. So, it has implications for the community. With the advent of contraception and the popularizing of abortion, sex is no longer seen as a public moral issue, but only a matter of personal choice and consent. On the other hand, food is now increasingly seen as a moral issue, because of the ecological implications of food production and the promotion of personal health as an ultimate good. Scripture tells us that while we should steward our bodies, all foods are acceptable if received with thanksgiving, and that God designs our sexuality with purpose and with guardrails to keep it from becoming toxic. In other words, when we worship the creation instead of the creator, everything gets turned back to the front.
Dec 2, 2021
Every single person, including those who struggle with who they are, are made in the image and likeness of God. However much someone can be mistaken in their self-understanding, whatever they've done to add to their own confusion, they're still infinitely valuable and worthy of the fullest expressions of our love and care. This includes every person, within the growing population of people who identify as transgender. Because of this, it is important to say, definitively, that radical transgender ideology is destructive, harmful, and disconnected from reality. We are told, of course, that anything less than fully embracing radical transgender ideology is actually what is harmful. We frequently hear, for example, that people who identify as transgender are the most vulnerable group in the world, and that critiquing transgender ideology is committing violent discrimination. But how true are these claims? In October, Madison Smith, with the UK Critic , wrote about the claim that those who identify as transgender are the most "marginalized, abused and vulnerable group in the world." After reviewing the data, Smith concluded "...even though we've seen a sharp rise in the number of people who identify as transgender in the last few years, a trans person hasn't been murdered in the UK for nearly three years." Furthermore, "there are no reports ever of a trans person in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland being murdered." Journalist Anna Slatz elaborates further , "According to Human Rights Campaign's running list of trans deaths [in the U.S.], only two [are] being investigated as potential hate crimes." Despite this, the group categorizes all 44 of the deaths as hate crimes, "even when they had nothing to do with being transgender at all." Any death is tragic because every human has inherent value. Any act of violence against transgender people, including any act perpetuated for being transgender, is unacceptable. But that's precisely the point Smith and Slatz are making: the reports of widespread trans-phobic violence don't add up. Instead, they're being used as a bludgeon to silence anyone who criticizes trans ideology. According to this view, it's the inner self that matters, so people must change their bodies to accommodate their dysphoria. It's assumed that unless society encourages people with gender confusion in their confusion to undergo such surgery, we are guilty of violence against them. The awful truth and irony here are that the current practices of transgender treatment in medicine cause physical harm. In his book When Harry Became Sally , Ryan T. Anderson argues that anywhere between 80-95 percent of children who say they are transgender eventually abandon those feelings by late adolescence. For many today, waiting until after adolescence will be too late. They will have been encouraged by the adults around them to do real, irreversible damage to their minds and bodies. This is why Christians need to remember that love for our neighbors, especially the most vulnerable ones, must include telling the truth. As more and more stories of de-transitioners emerge, we hear from people who regret the invasive procedures of gender transition. They report long-term side effects of testosterone injections and surgical mutilations. Many of them are affected by anxiety, depression, and suicidal intention . We have to tell their stories. Even if many in the larger culture wish these people did not exist, their inherent dignity and value demand that they be heard. For the love of God and neighbor, Christians must have the courage to speak the truth, even about this very difficult and socially risky issue for the love of God and neighbor. We do so not because we want to be right but because the Gospel is a message of hope . It's a message that says we need not be victims of the power of bad ideas, and our minds need not be captive to destructive ideologies which tell us our bodies are secondary, malleable, or irrelevant. The Gospel offers what we need, forgiveness and holiness, a new identity, and a clean start. The swelling numbers of young people identifying as LGBTQ should tell us that captivity to great confusion is a culture-wide phenomenon today. At the same time, we must never lose sight that the victims of the bad ideas are individuals, especially children. They must know what Christ has to offer them. Consider the late Sy Rogers , who, after beginning what was at that time avant-garde, hormone therapy through Johns Hopkins medicine, detransitioned and found new life in Christ. He died two years ago now, a married father and grandfather, faithfully walking out the Christian ethic of sexuality, even as he called LGBTQ people to a new encounter with the God who made them - and loves them. That message of the possibilities of grace, grounded in steadfast truth and Christ's love, is needed now more than ever, especially as people deal with the fallout of destructive trans-narratives around us. For the sake of God and neighbor, we, of all people, must not " live by lies. "
Dec 1, 2021
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is crafting a new rule that could force religious employers, insurers, and healthcare providers to pay for and provide, among other things, gender transitions. The National Catholic Register broke the story. According to court filings, progressive activist groups demanded HHS expand its definition of discrimination "based on sex" to include gender identity. This would reverse the narrower Trump Administration rule, which provided religious exemptions. It turns out these groups, which included Planned Parenthood and the Southern Poverty Law Center, were part of a "task force" advising the HHS on its new rule. According to The Catholic Benefits Association, if HHS follows these groups' recommendations, "it would effectively remove all religious considerations from issues around life, family, marriage, the very nature of men and women," forcing religious healthcare providers to choose between their convictions and their existence. This would be disastrous, and as far as religious freedom goes, it's an all-hands-on-deck moment. If Americans' first liberty is to have a meaningful future, this cannot be allowed to happen.
Dec 1, 2021
Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that could upend Roe v. Wade . At the very least, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization is the most significant challenge to legalized abortion to date. In question is a Mississippi law known as the Gestational Age Act . If the court decides the law should stand, the power to determine and limit abortion rights would effectively be returned to the states. The long battle over abortion in America has had many chapters. For years, most advocates of legalized abortion argued they were not really pro-abortion . Abortion, they claimed, was not a good thing, but women should have the right to decide whether or not to carry a baby to term. The painful decision to have an abortion, continued the rhetoric, is always tragic, but a woman must retain autonomy over her own body and health. The preferred label for these abortion advocates, "Pro-Choice," has always been problematic. For starters, a pre-born baby has distinct DNA and a separate body . So, abortion involves a body other than just the mother's, and her choice is made for someone else. The baby is not given a choice. Remarkable advances in science and technology over the years eventually dismantled claims made by early abortion advocates that the preborn are not yet human . So, the assertion shifted: preborn humans are not persons . This raised the immediate and historically fraught question of who gets to decide which human beings are persons and which are not ? What non-arbitrary criteria can be used to determine personhood? And how can such criteria be applied consistently in a world where one woman mourns a miscarriage, and another deliberately causes a miscarriage?
Nov 30, 2021
A few weeks ago, I talked about a claim that we should call God "they" since "He" isn't inclusive enough. A tweet by the Religious News Service recently doubled down on this idea, asserting that Christian churches "lack consensus" about God's pronouns. Lacks consensus? That's a strange statement. That only makes sense if 99.99% of all Christian churches, in all times and places throughout history, don't count as a consensus. If you go around the world and ask Christians from all cultures and all denominations, you'll encounter a lot of different ideas about a lot of other things. Roman Catholics disagree with Presbyterians about church structure, and Anglicans argue with Baptists about baptism. Not only that, but you'll find a delightful degree of diversity when it comes to the way they sing God's praises. But, for all the glorious variety of Christ's Church down through the ages, pretty much the only place you'll get "God is they" theology is in the culturally narrow confines of the wealthy West. For all the disputes Christians have had, the core of the Gospel teaching, including God's pronouns, has remained unchanged since the Apostles.
Nov 30, 2021
We cover plenty of news at BreakPoint. Most of our commentaries, in fact, address a breaking story or headline in some way. And, several times a week or more, someone in our audience will ask if we plan to address this or that news story. Sometimes they are asking for our take on a high-profile headline. Other times, they are asking about a story that's been buried in the never-ending news cycle. While we take every request seriously, we aren't always able to follow through on every one of them. In our current news-saturated day, there are always more stories that pop up in newsfeeds than we could possibly cover. The constraints of time and space mean there's only so much we can talk about. And, to be clear, we're not a news organization. That's not what we do. Other organizations are set up to keep us informed about what's going on in the world. Strictly speaking, our mission at BreakPoint is not even to tell people what to think about news stories. If the only outcome of BreakPoint is a group of people repeating what we've said, then we've failed. Our goal is to help guide people in how to think about the world and their place in it. In other words, the headlines and news stories aren't the "what" of BreakPoint; they are the "when" and "where." This cultural moment is the stage of the play, not the plot. The news is where we see ideas and their consequences expressed, both good and bad. It's where the philosophies that were born in ivory towers meet the reality of people's lives, dreams, and decisions. Confusing the noise and chaos of the headlines as the Story of the world is the most common way Christians are lost in them. The latest addition to the LGBT acronym is more than an individual ethical concern; it says something about what it means to be an embodied human being. A Twitterstorm calling for a minor celebrity to be cancelled for something considered innocuous last year but unforgivable this year points to the innate and constant desire for justice within society and the human heart (and reveals how inadequate our basis for that justice is at the moment). Political disputes about abortion, racism, and liberty of conscience only make sense in the greater context of the divine imprint on each and every human being. In the news, timebound stories connect to broader issues of truth, meaning, morality, and justice. Headlines point to where our lives intersect with God's timeless work in the world. The challenges of our moment can only be placed and understood in light of the larger Story. We hope that in hearing us dissect these news events on BreakPoint, our place within God's larger story becomes more obvious. Christians believe that every moment is linked to eternity, each single frame an interrelated part of a bigger picture. By pointing out the connections between significant cultural moments and the larger story, we pray that God would empower His people to live out a Christian worldview in the time and place He has determined for them. After all, living a Christian worldview is about more than knowing a factoid or crafting the most clever response to an opponent of the faith. It's about seeing the world from God's point of view. When so much of life is captivated by the 24-hour news cycle, we are tempted to think of the world as a series of isolated events, or as Henry Ford put it, "one (darn) thing after another." Christians are tempted to reduce our cultural witness to a running and never-ending tally of wins and losses. God calls us to more than being tossed to and fro by every other headline. God has called us to a life of reconciliation in this time and this place (see 2 Corinthians 5). If you are in Christ, you have been called to this cultural moment. With God's help, the Colson Center and BreakPoint will be here to help you live out this calling with cultural clarity, Gospel confidence, and Christ's courage. If BreakPoint has been a helpful resource for you, please consider a gift of support today, Giving Tuesday. You can give at colsoncenter.org/givingtuesday 21.
Nov 29, 2021
Shane Morris visits with Dr. Thomas Price about Athanasius' On The Incarnation . The pair discuss the significance of Jesus being man and how Advent is an important time for the Christian, and not only to celebrate the birth of Christ. This is a portion of an extended conversation Shane has with Dr. Price on the Upstream podcast. To receive the full conversation register for the Advent resources organized by BreakPoint at www.breakpoint.org/advent.
Nov 29, 2021
Last week the LA Times reported that , facing soaring rates of D's and F's, more schools are simply doing away with grades entirely. Instead, teachers are encouraged to give students little to no homework, move deadlines, and have fewer outcome-driven measurements of achievement. What's the rationale behind the move? "By continuing to use century-old grading practices," wrote L.A. Unified's chief academic administrator, "we inadvertently perpetuate achievement and opportunity gaps, rewarding our most privileged students and punishing those who are not." In other words, standardized grades are racist. But isn't suggesting that poor or minority kids can't get good grades itself a racist belief? A major reason for merit-based grading is that if we don't evaluate students based on their achievements, we'll evaluate them on something else; in this case, an administrator's preconceived ideas about their ability to succeed, based entirely on ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Even more, by doing away with grades, educators keep students from the potential to succeed, no matter how hard they work. It's a different kind of tyranny, but no less destructive: the tyranny of low expectations.
Nov 29, 2021
Recently in the Atlantic, Peter Wehner argued that the evangelical church is breaking apart . He references the politicization of Covid, the challenge of two contentious elections, and the fact that America is in a bitter partisan divide. Additionally, in June, Mere Orthodoxy columnist Michael Graham suggested that evangelicalism in America is undergoing a " Six-way fracturing ." Graham doesn't express the same pessimism about the future as Wehner; Graham is descriptive , while Wehner's is predictive . All the same, evangelicals predicting their own demise is a pretty consistent feature of that branch of the Christian church. The most commonly blamed culprit is politics. Of course, things inside the evangelical camp are divisive. According to one study, 29% of pastors considered quitting in the last year, and Wehner suggests why: "the aggressive, disruptive, and unforgiving mindset that characterizes so much of our politics has found a home in many American churches." At the same time, there are reasons to doubt predictions of evangelicalism's impending demise. For one thing, evangelicals have long divided over politics; articles similar to Wehner's date back to at least the Reagan administration. It's essentially the same analysis blaming the same culprits. Part of the challenge in any analysis is defining "evangelicalism." After all, the identity of most denominations, even those historically formed over theological, geographical, or ethnic distinctions, seem up for grabs these days. Evangelicals are a cross -denominational bunch without a clear hierarchy. The best attempt to define evangelicalism, in theory, is what's known as David Bebbington's "quadrilateral ." This four-part definition includes a commitment to conversion , Biblical authority, the centrality of the cross, and social activism. However, the label of evangelical is now claimed by many who define Bebbington's four parts in ways foreign to the Christian movements from the 19th century in England and America. Today, the term "evangelical" is claimed and applied to pastors, politicos, activists, bloggers, artists, commentators, congregations, and conferences with widely (and, at times, wildly) different views about Scripture, conversion, Jesus, and social issues. Each side of the label accuses the other of abandoning or compromising evangelical identity. The long-standing and dominant media narrative, for example, insists that conservative Christians are guilty of "politicized the faith." However, sociologists George Yancey and Ashlee Quosigk offer a different take in their new book One Faith No Longer . Their surprising conclusions , wrote Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition, "upends conventional wisdom that conservative Christians are uniquely prone to falling captive to unbiblical political ideologies, or that conservative Christians are filled with rage toward their theological opponents." Countering the dominant narrative, writes Wax, "progressive Christians are more likely to establish their identity in politics, while conservative Christians find their identity in theology." Second, conservative Christians are more likely than their progressive counterparts to defy their side's "political orthodoxy." Third, progressive Christians tend to think that conservative Christians are the ones in need of conversion, not non-Christians. To be clear, as we've argued repeatedly on Breakpoint, many conservative Christians are guilty of doing politics poorly. Often, in fact. Many on the Christian right suffer just as deeply from the "political illusion," looking for political messiahs or for political solutions to problems that are not political. Politics, in and of itself, makes for a lousy worldview . The real crisis simmering beneath evangelical division is a theological one. A recent survey conducted by George Barna found that 62% of American Christians don't believe that the Holy Spirit is a real person. 61% say all religious faiths are of equal value. The survey concluded, noting core beliefs, like the inerrancy of Scripture, that just 6% of American Christians consistently hold recognizably Christian beliefs. One might say evangelicals have forgotten the Evangel . That doesn't mean a vacuum is left where the Gospel should be, however. As Alan Jacobs with Baylor University's honors program observed , "Culture catechizes." In the absence of biblical teaching, Christians will learn "not from the churches, but from the media they consume, or rather the media that consume them." Wholly avoiding politics, as some suggest, is not an option for Christians, especially in a world where abortions are legal, radical ideology is hoisted on elementary-age children, and China is committing genocide against the Uygurs . We should vote and advocate, to paraphrase Abraham Kuyper , in every square inch of human existence as if it belongs to Christ, who is Sovereign over all. Because it does. Christ calls His people to love our neighbors and our enemies. Sometimes, we must love them by opposing them, but never by dehumanizing them. We can and must engage political issues, but never make them ultimate. As Paul wrote in his letter to the church leader Titus : "be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone." A much-needed revival of Christian truth and love along those lines will be the work of the Holy Spirit, not politics.
Nov 26, 2021
John and Maria discuss the recent convictions of Travis, and Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan, in the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. They discuss how this case pairs with the Kyle Rittenhouse case and how worldview guides society to have strength to withstand horrendous acts as a civilization and to hold a worldview big enough for the brokenness in the world to protect image bearers. Additionally, John and Maria revisit the Thanksgiving commentary from Chuck Colson where he explains the story behind Thanksgiving. They also discuss a commentary that dealt with the blurred lines in the sexual revolution, considering a recent book my Emily Ratajkowski who explains the sexual exploitation in the music and film industry, as she looked back at a scenario on the set of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" music video. Maria then brings up a new Biden administration move to use the Health and Human Services (HHS) to accomplish progressive ideals. To close, John and Maria discuss a situation playing out in China involving Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who recently revealed how she was abused by a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official. Peng Shuai then disappeared and the World Tennis Association (WTA) called the CCP to reveal where Shuai was. In response, an outspoken NBA player, Enes Kanter, called on American-based sports organizations to stand with the WTA, going so far as to call for the boycotting of the winter olympics. --Recommendations-- BreakPoint Advent Resources>> GI Joe on Youtube>> Peter Leithart on Gratitude | BreakPoint Podcast>> Melanie Fitzpatrick on Thanksgiving | Strong Women Podcast -- Stories Mentioned in Show -- Segment 1: All 3 men charged in Arbery's death convicted of murder All three white men charged in the death of Ahmaud Arbery were convicted of murder Wednesday in the fatal shooting that became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice. The convictions for Greg McMichael, son Travis McMichael and neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan came after jurors deliberated for about 10 hours. The men face minimum sentences of life in prison. It is up to the judge to decide whether that comes with or without the possibility of parole. AP News>> Segment 2: Chuck on Thanksgiving Most of us know the story of the first Thanksgiving; at least we know the Pilgrim version. But how many of us know the Indian viewpoint? BreakPoint>> The Blurred Lines of the Sexual Revolution As our culture questions the consequences of the sexual revolution, it's also time to question the premise that as long as everyone consents, nobody gets hurt, and everybody has fun. It's clearly not true. As women continue to wrestle with the blurred lines of the sexual revolution and the industry that has long profited from them, Christianity has a lot to offer. BreakPoint>> Segment 3: An Even Worse HHS Mandate It turns out these groups, including Planned Parenthood and the Southern Poverty Law Center, were part of a "task force" advising HHS on its new rule. According to The Catholic Benefits Association, if HHS follows these groups' recommendations, "it would effectively remove all religious considerations from issues around life, family, marriage, the very nature of men and women," forcing religious healthcare providers to choose between their convictions and their existence. BreakPoint>> HHS Power in Government Biden's HHS Secretary is again using the power of his office to attack people of faith who disagree with him. Yesterday he revoked waivers for faith-based children's service programs—this is outrageous. His policy will reduce options for kids in foster care. James Lankford Tweet>> Segment 4: World Tennis Association Opposes China Seeking Tennis Great Peng Shuai "It's an unusual response and really to the credit of the WTA to be this vocal," said Sarah Cook, the research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at D.C.-based think tank Freedom House. "We do know from different people who have been detained in the past, international attention can really make a difference. These are not legal decisions; they are political decisions. Even if it doesn't get someone released, it can physically protect them. It's really important for her well-being that there is this type of international conversation...It could be a tipping point in how these kinds of organizations speak out," Cook said. ESPN>> Enes Kanter Calls Out 'Fake' NBA, Says League Silent on Things that Could Affect Its Business "Two years ago, when we were in the bubble, you know, NBA was standing with Black Lives Matter, and it gave me so much hope and motivation. I was like, 'Finally, an organization standing up for something bigger than basketball,' right? But to me, it was very fake when it comes to things like what's happening in China because NBA and also Adam Silver is the one telling us to speak out against all the injustices happening, not just in America, but all over the world," Kanter advised. "So, to me, it was very important." Breitbart>>
Nov 26, 2021
Black Friday is less a day this year and more of a couple weeks, so we might not see the normal chaos from WalMart and Best Buy. Folks not trampling each other over smartphones and flat screen televisions is an improvement, of course, but the idol of stuff still claims socially distanced hearts and minds too. One way is through the artificial perfections of Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. Pictures of perfectly decorated homes and Instagram-worthy holiday celebration videos with perfectly behaved children doing a lip-synch has become another distraction within a season meant for holy reflection. Sunday begins the season of Advent, a time set aside in the history of the church for prayer, charity, and even fasting, to prepare us to celebrate the birth of Jesus and to point our hearts toward His return. Over the years, we've compiled resources for Advent, to prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate Christmas. Come to breakpoint.org.
Nov 26, 2021
Black Friday has been different the last few years. Shelves aren't as stocked as we're used to, especially after the supply chain debacle. Instead of a single day of sleep-deprived consumers trampling security guards for flatscreen TVs, we endure weeks and weeks of online over-marketing. While the presumed decrease in physical violence in stores certainly is an improvement from what we're used to on Black Friday, the lack of material goods available to attempt to fill the voids in hearts and minds is another. Historically, Christianity offers something better to occupy our hearts, minds, and conversations, over and above the experience of getting all of our shopping together before December 25. This Sunday begins the season of Advent, a time set aside in the Christian calendar to reflect on the coming of Jesus into the world. The Latin word adventus, from which the word "Advent" is derived, literally means "coming." Advent places Christ's first coming into the world, in a manger in Bethlehem, within the larger historical context of redemptive history. It highlights the long promises of God to send His Messiah. At the same time, Adventus is the Latin translation of the Greek word parousia, which is used repeatedly in the New Testament to describe Jesus' second coming, when He will return in glory at the end of the age. Before this usage by Paul and other New Testament authors, parousia referred to the emperor's arrival in a city or a province. When notified of his coming , citizens would scramble to properly greet this very important person, preparing great feasts and dressing in their finest clothes. The original readers of the New Testament not only would have understood parousia in this context, but they would also have seen it as an explicit rejection of Caesar's claim to lordship. While Christians today think and talk of the lordship of Jesus Christ in personalized terms, such as "Have you made Jesus Lord of your life?" the earliest Christians understood it as a public, definitive, and risky proclamation. In other words, to say "Jesus is Lord" is to say "Caesar is not ." By using parousia to refer to someone other than the emperor, Christians were saying something about who was really in charge. This backdrop is essential to understand why so many early Christians became martyrs. Rome would tolerate various and eccentric religious beliefs and practices. At times, they'd even incorporate alternative religious celebrations and beliefs into their own. What would not be tolerated, however, were rival allegiances. Nearly two millennia later, Christians must still clarify their allegiances. We, too, are tempted to give ourselves to would-be Caesars. Our false gods may be more subtle, but they exert power over our thoughts, imaginations, and loyalties. Unless we are intentional, we will worship them. While our would-be lords rarely demand, at least in overt terms, that we deny the lordship of Jesus, they are most effective in distracting us from thinking about what the lordship of Christ means and requires. That's why honoring this season of Advent can be incredibly helpful. It invites us to prepare to greet the One who is " the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation ," through whom " all things were created. " We, too, are asked to prepare through prayer and generosity. We, too, are invited to array ourselves in our "finest," not garments but in our most refined expressions of truth, love, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. To prepare our hearts and minds this way, not only to remember Christ's first coming but to anticipate in hope His second coming, is every bit as culturally subversive today as it was two-thousand years ago. It's a way of living as if Jesus is Lord. Because He is. Join me in marking Advent this year. As a guide through this season, our writing team has created reflections on the various worldview themes created by Advent. To get a copy of these reflections in a beautifully orchestrated e-book, as well as other resources, visit www.breakpoint.org/advent .
Nov 25, 2021
Gratitude is on our minds as we celebrate Thanksgiving. Practicing thankfulness, we are looking back to an interview John conducted with Peter Leithart, president of the Theopolis Institute and author of "Gratitude: An Intellectual History." How did Christianity change the West's understanding of gratitude? And how can we Christians in this age of profound ingratitude and entitlement reinvigorate the virtues of gratitude and thanksgiving in our own lives and in the culture around us?
Nov 25, 2021
We've all seen "A Charlie Brown Christmas," in which Charlie Brown messes up the Christmas play and Linus reminds everyone what Christmas is all about. Another of my favorites is "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." Poor Chuck's friends show up expecting a feast, but he and Snoopy serve them jelly beans and popcorn. Thankfully, Linus is there again to tell the true story of Thanksgiving. But it's Marcie who reminds Charlie Brown that the Pilgrims at Plymouth didn't come to dinner expecting to receive something. They were there to commemorate what they'd already received—life, provision, and friendship with the Wampanoags. We're better off today than they were, yet many of us will sit around the Thanksgiving table grumbling and fighting about politics. If Linus and Marcie were thankful for Charlie Brown's leftover Halloween candy, can't we take one day to thank God for our blessings? Hopefully you won't have jelly beans and popcorn for dinner, but I do hope you enjoy some Peanuts this Thanksgiving.
Nov 25, 2021
A Christian worldview not only points us to what is true, but it also places us, historically, in the redemptive history of God's creation. In fact, there is no such thing as "secular" history. The history of the world is God's redemptive history - that is, history can only be understood within the larger creative and redemptive work of God in Christ. That's a long way to introduce today, Thanksgiving, but it's an important framework for understanding how God has moved and worked in human history. Years ago, on Thanksgiving, Chuck Colson told one such story in a BreakPoint commentary. Here's Chuck Colson: Most of us know the story of the first Thanksgiving; at least we know the Pilgrim version. But how many of us know the Indian viewpoint? No, I'm not talking about some revisionist, politically correct version of history. I'm talking about the amazing story of how God used an Indian named Squanto as a special instrument of His providence. Historical accounts of Squanto's life vary, but historians believe that around 1608, more than a decade before the Pilgrims arrived, a group of English traders sailed to what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts. When the trusting Wampanoag Indians came out to trade, the traders took them, prisoner, transported them to Spain, and sold them into slavery. It was an unimaginable horror. But God had an amazing plan for one of the captured Indians, a boy named Squanto. Squanto was bought by a well-meaning Spanish monk, who treated him well and taught him the Christian faith. Squanto eventually made his way to England and worked in the stables of a man named John Slaney. Slaney sympathized with Squanto's desire to return home, and he promised to put the Indian on the first vessel bound for America. It wasn't until 1619, ten years after Squanto was first kidnapped, that a ship was found. Finally, after a decade of exile and heartbreak, Squanto was on his way home. But when he arrived in Massachusetts, more heartbreak awaited him. An epidemic had wiped out Squanto's entire village. We can only imagine what must have gone through Squanto's mind. Why had God allowed him to return home, against all odds, only to find his loved ones dead? A year later, the answer came. A shipload of English families arrived and settled on the very land once occupied by Squanto's people. Squanto went to meet them, greeting the startled Pilgrims in English. According to the diary of Pilgrim Governor William Bradford, Squanto "became a special instrument sent of God for [our] good . . . He showed [us] how to plant [our] corn, where to take fish and to procure other commodities . . . and was also [our] pilot to bring [us] to unknown places for [our] profit, and never left [us] till he died." When Squanto lay dying of fever, Bradford wrote that their Indian friend "desir[ed] the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen's God in heaven." Squanto bequeathed his possessions to the Pilgrims "as remembrances of his love." Who but God could so miraculously convert a lonely Indian and then use him to save a struggling band of Englishmen? It is reminiscent of the biblical story of Joseph, who was also sold into slavery, and whom God likewise used as a special instrument for good. Squanto's life story is remarkable, and we ought to make sure our children learn about it. Sadly, most books about Squanto omit references to his Christian faith. But I'm delighted to say that my friend Eric Metaxas has written a wonderful children's book called "Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving." I highly recommend it because it will teach your kids about the "special instrument sent of God," who changed the course of American history. Of course, the story of Chuck Colson is also a story of "a special instrument sent of God." One of the things that I and all of my colleagues at BreakPoint and the Colson Center are thankful for, is how God redeemed Chuck's heart and mind, re-aiming him to a life of humble service for prisoners and their families and teaching us to think and live like Christians. And we are thankful for the encouragement and support, so many of you offer through prayer, notes, emails, social media comments, and gifts of support. Thank you for listening to BreakPoint. And from all of us at the Colson Center, have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Nov 24, 2021
INC.com's Jeff Steen has a new technique for anxiety management : schedule time to worry. Setting aside time to consider what worries us, he writes, clarifies our fears. It reminds us of what's important, what we can do about it, and (most importantly) what we can't. It's something he's encouraged business leaders to do for years, and it's seen results. There's a biblical term for Steen's technique: prayer. If that sounds cliché, it might be because we've lost one of the main things prayer is meant to be. "Cast all your anxiety on him," writes the Apostle Peter, "because he cares for you." The Psalmist also puts it beautifully : For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. We aren't meant to muscle through our anxieties, but to bring them to God. That's important - because as good as Steen's advice is, it's still only self-help, a speaking into the void. Christians have something just as good and even better. We have Someone listening on the other end.
Nov 24, 2021
Z-ers Identify as LGBT ." That was a significantly higher number than reported in previous years. Then, last month, a new survey released by Arizona Christian University reported that about 39 percent of 18-24-year-olds claim the label. Even granting that polling data should always be taken with a grain of salt, that's a shockingly high number. And, in addition to challenging Christians about how much the culture around them has changed, these numbers also challenge the way people have been taught to think about sexuality and, specifically, cultural assumptions about sexuality. For years, a main idea driving activism around sexual orientation was that gay and lesbian people were "born this way." Since, went the argument, no one is attracted to someone of the same gender through any fault of their own, we must let them be who they truly are and love who they want to love. And we must, the argument continued, erase any notion that heterosexuality is "normal" and homosexuality is not. The idea proved persuasive, especially the more it was portrayed in song, film, and television. Millions went to research looking for the genetic causes of same-sex attraction. Though it was never found , professional activists did successfully conflate sexual decisions with the already protected classes of race, sex, and disability. Even as it has become increasingly common to claim that sexual orientation is fluid, the old idea that it was an innate, unchangeable component of identity already served its purpose, shifting the moral norms of society. So, today, most Americans either believe that sexual orientation is something none of us get to choose or is something nobody should question . However, polls like this one should make us question what many in our culture now take for granted about sexual orientation. Otherwise, how can anyone account for the explosion in self-identified LGBTQ youth? The obvious answer is: we can't. We either have to keep foolishly pretending that nearly 40 percent of young people have always been gay, lesbian, bisexual, or (especially now) transgender, or we must admit that our ideas about sexuality have consequences for others. After all, it didn't take long for the other letters in the ever-growing acronym to jump on board this remarkably successful strategy. So today, anyone who defies traditional "sexual norms" is given elevated moral status, considered to be "experts" on all kinds of things, and given a free pass. Is it any wonder young people want to join those ranks, at least on a subconscious level? As one of my colleagues pointed out the other day, a teen who identifies as "bisexual" doesn't have to do anything different to gain a status boost. They can keep dating people of the opposite sex or not date at all. They can be sexually active or not. It's the label that does the magic. It's no accident that the B and the T in the acronym have seen the most growth. Even if the social costs of these ideas are lower than ever, the consequences for young people who adopt them are severe. For one thing, young people are constantly being taught to see every relationship they have as potentially sexual. This robs them of platonic friendships, especially with members of the same sex. CS Lewis famously wrote that "few value (friendship) because few experience it." This has become even more true today, with the loneliest generation on record . To be clear, people's sexual desires almost never feel "chosen." The research has not fully eliminated all biological or genetic factors in same-sex attraction, though there's no justification for treating it as immutable, much less treating gender dysphoria that way. However, given all of the cultural pressure to assume such, it's foolish to think that simply believing the right things about sexuality could eliminate someone's same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria. To put it differently, this generation has been thoroughly catechized into anthropological confusion, literally changing the definitions of normal and abnormal, of moral and immoral, of who we are and what we do. In turn, the choices young people make create, reinforce, and amplify their sexual feelings. It's a vicious cycle that mirrors the Apostle Paul's words , "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." Though the Gospel doesn't promise instantly repaired sexual desires, it does tell us to "be transformed by the renewing of [our] minds." In a culture obsessed with sex, drowning in loneliness, and careening towards self-harm, it's good news that renewing our minds is even possible. We must point a generation of confused youth toward the compassion and clarity of this much better story as if their lives depend on it. Because they do.
Nov 23, 2021
I received an email from Oklahoma Wesleyan University entitled "Five Questions You Should Ask on Your Next College Visit." The suggestions are good, but given the dismal state of higher education , here are five more. First, why am I going? Too many 18-year-olds are signing up to pay $20,000 a year without knowing why they're there - something the nation-wide 40% dropout rate confirms. Second, what ideas are assumed here? Given today's world, students expecting an education (practical skills, critical thinking, and knowledge) can end up receiving an indoctrination: a barrage of subliminal messaging and social pressure designed to make them conform. Third, can I defend my beliefs? Recognizing bad ideas takes work: defending good ones can be even harder. Christian students need to know the reason for the hope they have. Fourth, how will I live like a Christian here? - because the Kingdom of God is not a matter of mere talk but applied power. Fifth, are there others like me? - because Christians shouldn't be isolated and a strand of three cords is not easily broken. For Christians, college is worth asking questions about. What are yours?
Nov 23, 2021
This Sunday marks the beginning of Advent. It's the season historically "set aside by the Church to help believers prepare to receive the fullness of Jesus' coming." The word "coming" refers both to Jesus' Incarnation and " His return as the 'Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory ," who will " send his angels to gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens ." On BreakPoint a few years ago, I said that "walking through this season of Advent in prayer, scripture, and devotional readings have been a huge blessing to my family, to my church, and to me personally. " That's definitely still the case. Today I want to explore the relationship between the observance of Advent and our worldview. When most Christians think about worldview (if they think about it at all), what comes to mind are ideas. Worldview isn't less than ideas, of course, but it is more. Bill Brown, Gary Phillips, and I define worldview as the framework of fundamental beliefs that give us a view of and for the world. That framework includes ideas, our imagination, habits, and the fundamental stories—both cultural and personal—that shape our lives. We live out of these stories—they give us, as N. T. Wright puts it, a " way-of-being-in-the-world ." The historian Robert Louis Wilken wrote in First Things that "The Church is a culture in its own right. Christ does not simply infiltrate a culture; Christ creates culture by forming another city, another sovereignty with its own social and political life." What distinguishes this culture from the non-Christian world is not some kind of physical separation, or even a spiritual withdrawal, but, to borrow Wright's phrase, a "way-of-being-in-the-world" that's different. According to Wilken, three hallmarks of this "way" were the distinctive Christian uses of space, time, and language. First, Wilken writes, "We should not underestimate the cultural significance of the calendar and its indispensability for a mature spiritual life. Religious rituals carry a resonance of human feeling accumulated over the centuries." He continues, "The season of Advent . . . is a predictable reminder that the Church lives by another time, marked in the home by a simple ritual, the lighting of a violet Advent candle set in an evergreen wreath on a dark evening in early December." Sacred seasons like Advent, "run at right angles to the conventional calendar [and] they offer a regular and fixed cessation of activity." They become "times of reflection and contemplation that open us to mystery and transcendence." What's more, these special days on the calendar provide the "gift of leisure," a much-needed respite from "the world of work and money and minding our p's and q's," as Wright puts it. Only if we truly understand those cultural forces that shape our worldview can we intentionally open ourselves to the possibility that there is a way of being in the world that is both countercultural and transformative. That's why this season can be so helpful. To prepare our hearts and minds, join me in marking Advent this year. Our writing team has created a series of reflections to guide the various worldview themes that are present during advent. To receive these resources, simply visit www.breakpoint.org/advent .
Nov 22, 2021
The top baby names for 2021 are now posted. You've got the "Let's be different" parents spelling "Jaxon" with an X or every vowel with a Y, and Disney fans naming their kid "Raya." Of course, there's the gender-neutral fad with nature words like "River" and "Willow." Some are claiming "Ezra" is also gender-neutral, but I doubt the Old Testament prophet would agree. Still, it is interesting how many Biblical names keep cropping up. According to one list , seven of the top ten boy names this year come from the Bible – Noah, Elijah, Lucas, Levi, Asher, James, and Ethan. If you think back about these Apostles in their day, they were nobodies… no power, no wealth, no future, some were even put to death. But we all know people named Matthew, Esther, John, James, Paul, Peter, Mary, Thomas, Elizabeth, Joshua… people who, by the world's standards were failures, but who are still remembered to this day.
Nov 22, 2021
There's been a transformation in how our culture talks about sex. Since the 1960s, under the banner of so-called "sexual liberation," the dominant message in movies, television, politics, and even advertising was that sex needed to be set free from traditional and repressive rules. The symbols of this liberated sexuality were naked or nearly naked bodies—usually female bodies. More recently, some of the women who were reduced to mere bodies under the guise of liberation have come forward to reveal how they were degraded and dehumanized. The latest is 30-year-old model and actress, Emily Ratajkowski. In her new book My Body, Ratajkowski claims that she was sexually assaulted while filming the music video for Robin Thicke's 2013 song "Blurred Lines." In the uncensored version of that music video, a 21-year-old Ratajkowski appears topless along with several other young women. Thicke and his co-star rapper, Pharrell, leer at the young women, wrapping their arms around them while singing lyrics that critics have rightly slammed as suggestive of rape . At the time, Ratajkowski called her appearance in the video empowering. Not anymore. Earlier this month, in an interview with The Times of London , Ratajkowski admits that her success as a model and actress was largely the result of this video. However, she now wonders if it was worth it. "I had succeeded by commodifying my body," she says. "So why was I so unhappy?" As a cultural artifact, "Blurred Lines" was revealing in more than one way. The very title suggests just how difficult it is to draw the line between the "liberation" sexual revolutionaries promised, and the sexual exploitation or even assault it often delivered. The only answer offered today is "consent," but stories like Ratajkowski's raise the question of whether young women barely out of high school and at the beginning of their careers can meaningfully "consent" when a rich and famous singer asks them to take off their clothes. The same could be said of actresses. Jennifer Lawrence famously revealed that she got "super drunk" on the set of 2016's Passengers before shooting a sex scene. Emilia Clarke became known for her role in HBO's Game of Thrones , a show that featured near-constant nudity and sex. Clarke later confessed that she felt scared and pressured to do those scenes, believing that her career depended on it. Dozens of similar stories have emerged from stars who say they were cajoled and bullied into showing more skin. And, lest we are tempted to place all the blame on directors and producers, it's clear who's buying what they're selling. A 2018 analysis found that popular movies feature 250 percent more female than male nudity. The pressure young women feel to disrobe for the camera comes ultimately from a public eager to watch. Still, it's tragically fascinating how sexual liberation is now forcing us to grapple with this question. Besides sending predatory entertainment moguls like Harvey Weinstein to prison, the #MeToo movement exposed how blurry the line is between sexual freedom and sexual exploitation. In the words of NPR, Hollywood is facing a "reckoning" when it comes to nude and sexually-charged scenes, even hiring so-called "intimacy coordinators" to navigate these tricky waters. But is it enough? I don't recall who first said it, but it's one of the best analogies I know. Sex is like fire. When kept in the fireplace, fire brings warmth and light and life. Once it jumps out of the fireplace onto the curtains, it brings death and destruction and is nearly impossible to contain. As our culture questions the consequences of the sexual revolution, it's also time to question the premise that as long as everyone consents, nobody gets hurt, and everybody has fun. It's clearly not true. As women continue to wrestle with the blurred lines of the sexual revolution and the industry that has long profited from them, Christianity has a lot to offer. As the Wall Street Journal notes , quoting historian Tom Holland, "What's happening with #MeToo is essentially an attempt to reimpose…Christian sexual morality." Having witnessed the destruction of unrestrained sexual impulses, many are now more open to the idea that sex belongs within boundaries. The boundaries Christianity proposes, such as lifelong marriage and chastity, will seem quaint, traditional, and unrealistic. But short of these crisp, solid lines are bad idea bound to have victims—victims who will be asking, like Ratajkowski, "Why am I so unhappy?"
Nov 19, 2021
John and Maria consider the long legal battle endured by Barronelle Stutzman. They highlight her faith convictions and discuss how this offers encouragement for Christians to live their faith in culture, following her example. Maria then asks John to explain why he highlighted the story of Ernie Johnson this week, after the passing of Ernie's son, Michael. John explains how Ernie's faith commitment is an inspiring lesson for Christians to simply and confidently trust the Lord. John also explains the ideas behind what he and Shane Morris wrote this week on "Luxury Beliefs," first defining what luxury beliefs are before revealing how they challenge culture. To close, Maria asks John to comment on a new university organized by both liberal and conservative thinkers as a referendum on bloated and ideologically driven university systems. John goes through the reasoning to develop what is being called The University of Austin, pointing to a recent story where Yale revealed they have as many administrators as students as a sample that we've lost the mission of education in our culture. -- Resources -- BreakPoint Advent Resources>> -- Story References -- Segment 1: The End of Barronelle's Battle For almost ten years now, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the State of Washington have targeted an elderly, small-town florist named Barronelle Stutzman. The case began when Barronelle declined to serve a long-time customer's gay wedding. A few months ago, Barronelle, now 77, filed a request for a final rehearing of her religious liberty case with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of her business, Arlene's Flowers. This week, the ACLU offered, and Barronelle accepted, a five-thousand-dollar settlement. It's a surprisingly small amount, given how long Barronelle has lived under the threat of losing her business, assets, and life savings due to exorbitant legal fees and penalties. BreakPoint>> Segment 2: Ernie and Michael Johnson In 2015, because of a special edition of the ESPN Documentary series E:60, the world began to learn that Johnson was even more impressive as a dad than he was in the studio. Eric described it this way: Johnson and his wife, Cheryl, have four adopted children: Michael, who was born in Romania; Carmen, born in Paraguay; and Ashley and Allison, whom they adopted out of foster care. This commitment to adoption sets the Johnsons apart all by itself, but the story doesn't end there. Michael, 25, was born with a "progressive form of muscular dystrophy" and has been dependent on a ventilator for the past five years. BreakPoint>> "Luxury Beliefs" According to one Cambridge academic, permissive attitudes about sex, marriage, drugs, and religion are "luxury beliefs; more status symbols for cultural elites than blueprints for the way they live. Rob Henderson first floated the idea of "luxury beliefs" in an essay in the New York Post, later at Quillette, and most recently in a podcast. He argues that beliefs that tend to be disastrous for poor and middle-class communities have become the modern equivalent of buying expensive clothes or hiring servants. It's a way of showing off your wealth and signaling your status to fellow members of the upper class. BreakPoint>> Segment 3: We Can't Wait for Universities to Fix Themselves. So We're Starting a New One. Our project began with a small gathering of those concerned about the state of higher education—Niall Ferguson, Bari Weiss, Heather Heying, Joe Lonsdale, Arthur Brooks, and I—and we have since been joined by many others, including the brave professors mentioned above, Kathleen Stock, Dorian Abbot and Peter Boghossian. We count among our numbers university presidents: Robert Zimmer, Larry Summers, John Nunes, and Gordon Gee, and leading academics, such as Steven Pinker, Deirdre McCloskey, Leon Kass, Jonathan Haidt, Glenn Loury, Joshua Katz, Vickie Sullivan, Geoffrey Stone, Bill McClay, and Tyler Cowen. We are also joined by journalists, artists, philanthropists, researchers, and public intellectuals, including Lex Fridman, Andrew Sullivan, Rob Henderson, Caitlin Flanagan, David Mamet, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sohrab Ahmari, Stacy Hock, Jonathan Rauch, and Nadine Strossen. We are a dedicated crew that grows by the day. Our backgrounds and experiences are diverse; our political views differ. What unites us is a common dismay at the state of modern academia and a recognition that we can no longer wait for the cavalry. And so we must be the cavalry. Bari Weiss Substack>> A "proliferation of administrators": faculty reflect on two decades of rapid expansion Over the last two decades, the number of managerial and professional staff that Yale employs has risen three times faster than the undergraduate student body, according to University financial reports. The group's 44.7 percent expansion since 2003 has had detrimental effects on faculty, students and tuition, according to eight faculty members. Yale Daily News>>
Nov 19, 2021
Drug overdose was the eighth leading cause of death in the United States last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control . From May 2020 to April 2021, an estimated 100,300 Americans died from an overdose. That's a roughly 30 percent increase over the year before, and officials believe this year could be even worse. Experts point to a few things to explain the deadly spike, including the flooding of the drug market by the extremely potent and dangerous synthetic opioid Fentanyl. But the pandemic lockdowns share the blame. Not only was the social isolation harmful to the mental health of many, but the lockdowns and the often illogical restrictions on medical care hindered addiction treatment . The drug epidemic isn't fun to debate on Twitter. It's not just another political football. It is an emergency . The Church has to step in here, and quickly - not just to help our neighbors who might be struggling, but to advocate on their behalf to our leaders. This is the pandemic that's not waning. We have to pay attention.
Nov 19, 2021
For almost ten years now, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the State of Washington have targeted an elderly, small-town florist named Barronelle Stutzman. The case began when Barronelle declined to serve a long-time customer's gay wedding. A few months ago, Barronelle, now 77, filed a request for a final rehearing of her religious liberty case with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of her business, Arlene's Flowers. This week, the ACLU offered, and Barronelle accepted, a five-thousand-dollar settlement. It's a surprisingly small amount, given how long Barronelle has lived under the threat of losing her business, assets, and life savings due to exorbitant legal fees and penalties. Maybe the ACLU has finally seen their case for what it is: petty bullying. Or, maybe they think the optics of bullying a grandmother are just bad. Either way, Barronelle has wisely, I believe, accepted the settlement. Here's a review of the important facts of the case. In 2014, Barronelle told a long-time customer and friend that she couldn't create a floral arrangement for his wedding to another man. Throughout their many years of friendship, Barronelle had served this customer with her creative talents. However, due to her Christian beliefs about marriage , she couldn't, in good conscience, create an arrangement for this occasion. The friend said he understood the decision and asked for referrals for other florists. She recommended three. The two embraced, and then said goodbye. All was quiet until the Attorney General for the state of Washington saw a social media post about the incident and decided to sue Barronelle for discrimination. In 2015, a trial court found her guilty of violating Washington's anti-discrimination law . The Court also ordered her to pay a $1,000 fine and the ACLU's legal fees, and to no longer accept wedding business unless she agreed to also serve gay weddings. Her appeal to the state Supreme Court drew so much interest that oral arguments were held in a local college auditorium. The state Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Stutzman , citing Justice Anthony Kennedy's Obergefell language and even claiming that to not service a same-sex wedding is to "disrespect and subordinate" gays and lesbians. The court also ruled that floral arrangements weren't "speech" but instead "conduct," and that even if the state had violated Barronelle's right to free exercise, it was fair and legal to do so because they'd do it to everyone. In other words, they weren't just singling out Barronelle. From the beginning, Barronelle has been represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). In 2018, ADF appealed the Washington state court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. After finding the State of Colorado guilty of animus toward the religious beliefs of baker Jack Phillips in a similar case, the Supreme Court vacated the Washington State Court decision and ordered them to re-examine Barronelle's case. Not about to admit it had done anything wrong, the Washington State Court upheld their ruling against Barronelle. Last year, ADF appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a baffling move, the Court declined to hear her case. ADF asked the Court to reconsider, something that rarely happens after denial. Earlier this week, Barronelle accepted the ACLU's settlement offer. This means she can retire in peace, having more than earned the right to step off the legal treadmill and out of the media spotlight, which she never sought. And, to be clear, not once did she compromise or violate her conscience throughout this whole ordeal. Instead, her courage, kindness, and long obedience have laid the groundwork for the kind of legal resistance against coercion that will certainly have to continue. Barronelle now passes the baton in this important battle to protect religious freedom to the rest of us, especially to web designer Lorie Smith whose case could go before the U.S. Supreme Court soon. The 10th Circuit ruled last summer that the state of Colorado could compel Lorie's business, 303 Creative, to create websites with speech that violates her religious beliefs. It's impossible to know how many business owners, artists, and others have found the courage of their own convictions by watching Barronelle. Her saga has made it clear to the rest of us that this kind of thing can really happen in the United States, and to say that religious liberty is under threat in this country cannot be dismissed as hyperbolic fear-mongering. It's also important to note that Barronelle made her original decision not only out of her own beliefs, but out of her concern for her friend, Rob. Barronelle was not willing to aid and abet behavior that was damaging to her friend's soul. In other words, it is not only loving God, but also loving our neighbor, that will require courage in the days to come. For her faithfulness, obedience, and courage, the board of the Colson Center has unanimously selected Barronelle Stutzman as a co-honoree of the 2022 Wilberforce Award, along with Jack Phillips. Lord-willing, both will be honored together at the 2022 Wilberforce Weekend in Orlando next May. Because, in so many ways, their long journeys have been endured together and the stands they took have together shown us what faithfulness in the public square might require in the days ahead, I cannot think of more deserving recipients than Barronelle and Jack. Through it all, Barronelle has lived out her faith in an honorable and kind way. I'm proud to call her a sister in Christ and honored to consider her a friend. Thank you, Barronnelle, for your courage and faithful obedience.
Nov 18, 2021
Last year, the Loudoun County (VA) school board informed teachers they must refer to students by their preferred pronouns, and allow students to use restrooms that align with the gender they self-identify as. At a public school board meeting, gym teacher Tanner Cross publicly informed the board, out of love for his students, he could not comply . The board immediately retaliated by suspending him . Cross, with the assistance of the Alliance Defending Freedom, filed for a temporary injunction. He returned to the classroom to finish the school year with his students after a ruling by a lower court, which The Virginia Supreme Court later affirmed. Though the case against the damaging policy continues, on Monday, the State Supreme Court passed "a permanent injunction prohibiting it (the Loudoun County school board) from retaliating further against Cross." The board also agreed to "remove any reference to Cross' suspension from his personnel file and pay $20,000 toward his attorney fees." Cross refused to live by lies and has prevailed. But, as ADF Attorney Tyson Langhoffer said, "While we are pleased Tanner will be able to keep serving students…the concerns (about) the district's policy remain."
Nov 18, 2021
Back in 2016, my then BreakPoint colleague Eric Metaxas did something we don't typically do on this commentary. "We don't usually wish people a "Happy Birthday!" on the air, but I'm going to make an exception in this case. On August 7, one of the most inspiring and just downright likable people in American sports turned 60, Ernie Johnson of TNT. If you are unfamiliar with Johnson's work and his story, let me fill you in. Most people who have heard of Johnson know him through his work both as an announcer and a studio host. Between 1993 and 1996, Johnson, alongside his father, Ernie Johnson, Sr., was the TV announcer for the Atlanta Braves. In addition to his play-by-play work for the Braves, Johnson has also announced Major League playoff games, college and professional football, and PGA golf events, among many other things. But he's best known for his work in covering the NBA. He's the host of TNT's "Inside the NBA," which has won nine Emmy awards. Johnson and the show's regulars—Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley—good-natured trade insults and basketball insights. But what makes the show work is Johnson. His gentle management of hugely outsized personalities keeps the show from descending into chaos while keeping the fun quotient high. But it's more than astute people skills that make Johnson so special. As Charles Barkley said in a 2015 ESPN profile of Johnson, he has "uncommon courage and a pure heart." As a big basketball fan myself, I have long enjoyed the on-air chemistry and in-depth analysis of Inside the NBA. And, I agree that the show would not be what it is without Ernie Johnson. In 2015, because of a special edition of the ESPN Documentary series E:60 , the world began to learn that Johnson was even more impressive as a dad than he was in the studio. Eric described it this way: Johnson and his wife, Cheryl, have four adopted children: Michael, who was born in Romania; Carmen, born in Paraguay; and Ashley and Allison, whom they adopted out of foster care. This commitment to adoption sets the Johnsons apart all by itself, but the story doesn't end there. Michael, 25, was born with a "progressive form of muscular dystrophy" and has been dependent on a ventilator for the past five years. Earlier this fall, Ernie Johnson talked about his son Michael in an inspirational speech to the Alabama football team . "For Michael to move any part of his body takes maximal effort," said Johnson. That maximal effort was why the basketball coach at Michael's high school wanted him to be a part of the team as, he said, the "five-foot-tall impact player with no vertical leap." He also wanted Michael to teach his team what it means to have a heart for others. It worked. In fact, by the time Michael was a senior, he had the entire high school saying "I love you" in sign language and, by wiggling a finger, "love you too." The impact that Ernie Johnson and his son Michael have had on those around was evident recently when, on an episode of Inside the NBA , it was announced that Michael Johnson had passed away at age 33. Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith spoke, through tears, about the honor of sharing the broadcast platform with Ernie Johnson, and the honor of knowing his son, Michael. Back in 2006, Johnson announced on-air that he was battling non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma . After thanking his doctors, he described how he would get through it: "[my family continues], as we always have, in both good times and bad, to place our faith in Jesus Christ, and to trust God . . . period." Please join me in praying that this same faith will encourage and uplift Ernie Johnson, his wife, and their other children at this time; that they will know in time the peace only God gives, which surpasses our understanding. And that, in faith, they will rest in the confidence that they will see Michael again in the new heaven and new earth. And when they do see Michael in his new body, he will have a vertical.
Nov 17, 2021
Listeners write in this week asking how they can support students who are in public schools, what are the best C.S. Lewis books to introduce a new Lewis reader, and what resources are best for a small church youth group to teach worldview with. Additionally, John and Shane answer how to present worldview and apologetics in a personal way in a person's "voice", and how the image of God was marred after the Fall.
Nov 17, 2021
A California couple is suing a fertility clinic after discovering they gave birth to someone else's daughter. Apparently, there was a mix-up during their in vitro fertilization procedure in 2019. After a DNA test proved the mistake, the couple returned their baby girl to her genetic parents in return for their genetic daughter, whom they'd never met. It's a mind-boggling story about a tragedy made possible by a culture quick to accept technology based on if we can do something instead of whether we should do it. The focus of the news coverage so far has been on the parents, whom we're all meant to assume are the story's victims. While this was certainly heartbreaking for them, no one seems to be asking what this will do to the children . However we choose to engage assisted reproductive technologies, we will never do it well if our focus is on adult happiness over and above what is best for the children . Just because we can, doesn't mean we should.
Nov 17, 2021
Last week, the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced the "Pride Coalition." The coalition is a partnership with the " Log Cabin Republicans ," an organization that describes itself as "LGBT conservatives and straight allies who support fairness, freedom, and equality for all." Although many find the move disheartening, it will only shock those who haven't been paying attention. Al Mohler once described the relationship between Republicans and evangelicals as a "marriage of convenience," with marriage, in this case, being a particularly painful and ironic metaphor. To be clear, the convenience in this marriage goes both ways. For many within the RNC, evangelicals are just one of several voting blocs, albeit an important one. For many evangelicals, the Grand Old Party (GOP) is simply a better fit than the alternative, given their stance on social issues like abortion, gender, and religious freedom. Then there are those from both sides taken in by what quirky French theologian Jacques Ellul called "the political illusion." When all problems and all solutions are reduced to politics, all hope rests in gaining political power. The challenge for Christians is always to keep straight what are the means and what are the ends. A decision to partner with an LGBTQ group only makes sense if the "end" is to regain political power. The same decision makes no sense if power is understood as the means, and something else, like limited government, is the end. The problem with this coalition isn't that some in the LGBTQ camp support a political party of limited government. That's been true for a long time. In contemporary politics' pragmatic exercise, it never hurts to have unexpected allies vote for your candidate. However, welcoming voters to a political party is different than creating an alliance with a group that wishes to advance its goals within a political platform. This particular coalition signals a change in the GOP's platform and party positions, as well as broader changes in what it means to be "conservative." A core element of the GOP platform has long been "family values." That's sardonic shorthand for an inconsistently expressed and lived-out set of political beliefs built around a traditional moral framework, especially the idea of the nuclear family being core and significant. The belief that marriage is between one man and one woman who get married and stay married is not a mere social construct but is actually essential for a healthy society and the wellbeing of the next generation. Therefore, it is the government's role to protect the family, not redefine it. The more the government protects the family, the more non-governmental entities can secure our future. Any moral consensus around the nuclear family is only possible if it rests on grounds other than government. That requires grounding for truth outside the government. Today, however, our culture is what Os Guinness calls a "cut flower society." We still have the trappings of so-called "family values," seen in Hallmark movies, Veterans Day parades, and Little Leagues, but there is no real moral foundation for the family. The quest for freedom is devolving into the pursuit of radical autonomy, especially in sexual matters. And now we're back to the RNC's decision. The GOP is mistaken to think that it is possible to be fiscally or politically conservative for long without being, on some level, culturally conservative first. You can't have limited government by embracing a redefinition of marriage and family, because the family is the only institution able to produce the kind of citizens able to govern themselves. Whenever family fails, it compels the state to step in. The Founders, for all their flaws, understood that. John Adams said, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net." Chuck Colson was fond of saying: "The Kingdom of God will never arrive on Air Force One." Meaning, in many ways, that Christians cannot be politically expedient. We vote how we must, and do what we can, to love our neighbors in political ways, but we must not put our hope in candidates or parties as if they're the ends and our support is the means. In a Christian view, political ends simply aren't ultimate ends. Christians must maintain a clear-headed vision of the importance of social issues in the public arena. That means determining what is true theologically, first, and then letting political chips fall where they may. As my friend, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly put it , "We must, lovingly and winsomely, never stop contending for the things that matter to God." Family and marriage matter to God.
Nov 16, 2021
Young pro-choice writer Kathleen Walsh recently published a conversation about abortion she had with her mom. The exchange, which ran at "The Cut," is both fascinating and frustrating. Walsh's mom gets right to the point—the fact that the unborn are babies: "Whether you want it or not," she says, "doesn't change what it is." Walsh insists that "because it's in my body, it's still a part of me…it's not a person. It's a theoretical person." Her mom points to her daughter's own time in the womb: "Before I decided you existed," she says, "you still existed." "But it wasn't me," says Walsh. "I exist because you chose for me to exist." She doesn't seem to appreciate that she's only around to make this absurd argument because her mom rejected it. It's sad to hear someone so committed to abortion that she denies her own existence in the womb. But "theoretical persons" are the logical outcome of a worldview that says humans only have value if they're wanted. May this mother-daughter conversation have the opposite effect its author intended.
Nov 16, 2021
November marks a pair of important anniversaries, bookends to one of the darkest periods in human history. In the first week of November ( often dated as October by the older Julian calendar ) 1917, Russian revolutionaries under Vladimir Lenin overthrew the moderate socialist government of Alexander Kerensky and established the first Marxist regime. Almost precisely 72 years later, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down , symbolically taking with it a diabolical worldview that had trapped and enslaved a third of humanity. You would think that, considering its extensive and deadly track record, the demise of communism would be celebrated by everyone: conservatives could rejoice in the casting down of a belief system intent on desecrating the wisdom from the past, and liberals could cherish the freedom from tyranny that the fall of the Wall represented. However, far too many people, particularly in academia, continue to see the legacy of Communism through rose-colored glasses. A few weeks ago, I mentioned the high school AP Government teacher in Sacramento who was suspended for encouraging his students to take up far Left activities. Hanging in his classroom was a poster of Mao Zedong who, if you recall, was responsible for over 50 million deaths in the 20th century. That's more than anyone else, including Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. While this may be an extreme case, it's unsettling how history's greatest killers are so often remembered. We've all seen the Che Guevara posters and t-shirts, a great irony itself given his views on race and sexuality , as well as, pun intended, the capitalization of his image . The selective memory goes beyond pop culture. According to the Acton Institute , about 30 percent of the rising generation has a favorable view of Marxism. How can an ideology that animated oppressive control over billions, inspired Soviet Gulags and East European secret police , and instigated mass starvations in Europe and Asia seem positive to anyone? Some blame can be placed on our lack of historical memory. It's been 32 years since the massacre in Tiananmen Square and the fall of the Berlin Wall. An entire generation of adults lacks a personal connection to Communism's horrifying history. Often, what little history we hear about the Cold War is filtered through pop culture, or delivered in a volatile mix of paranoia, nationalism, and ignorance. We'd do better to listen to voices such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , or Ukrainian protes tors, or Chinese dissidents like Bob Fu , who actually experienced the terrors of a worker's paradise. Another reason Marx and his ideals get a pass is that it's easy to romanticize a reality we can't see. When Nazism, Communism's evil twin, collapsed in the wake of war, its beliefs were repudiated before the entire world. Hitler's name and movement became shorthand for evil . His dreams died in the rubble of Anglo-American bombs and Russian tanks , and his crimes were exposed in court . Not so with Marx nor his disciples. Historians may comment on their crimes and their statues may be toppled after the fact, but Lenin, Stalin, and Mao died in their beds, secure in their power, without ever having to face defeat or the wrath of their victims. Without this, it's all too easy for those in the comfortable, capitalist West to imagine that they weren't as bad as they truly were. Finally, Marx slides in a culture that judges ideas on whether they sound nice. The Nazis literally had skulls on their caps . The Marxists, on the other hand, sold utopian dreams of bread and land and unity and equality and progress. They might have been sending millions to die in the Gulag for the crime of having a wealthy ancestor, but that's not what the Che Guevara fans of today think about. They're thinking about slogans that look great on a bumper sticker or a tweet, but those same slogans mean death and tyranny when put into practice. Perhaps the most important lesson we can take from this cultural folly is that when it comes to the ideas that populate our worldviews, it's not enough that they sound nice and feel right. Ideas wouldn't matter if they stayed in slogans and manifestos. But they don't. They grow feet and hands, drive armies and policy, and have consequences for real people in the real world. Too much is at stake to root our worldview in the latest recurring ideological fad. Ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. We must not ignore the horror or the victims of bad ideas just because we found them on the road of good intentions. Intentions and worldviews are good only insofar as they are true .
Nov 15, 2021
According to a recent article in The Economist , the digital revolution is poised to "up-end the practice of macroeconomics." With so much life lived online, it's now possible to know nearly everything about an average person's consumer behavior - from the amount of produce they buy to what they are watching on Netflix. The technical term for this is " econometrics ." In the extreme, it treats people like predictable robots. With enough data, the theory goes, we can reliably predict consumer behavior in any given scenario. It's one thing to predict purchases, but people should never be reduced to mere statistics. Maybe that's why The Economist warns that "The biggest danger (with this approach) is hubris." Like in Mao's China, reducing people to numbers dehumanizes them. The Christian worldview is bigger. People are not programmable cogs in a global marketing machine. We're not units of the state. We're more than just our material appetites, too. Humans are capable of glorious heights and catastrophic falls, made in God's image and in need of redemption.
Nov 15, 2021
Certain lifestyle choices strongly correspond to long-term success: staying in school; avoiding pregnancy outside of marriage; regularly attending church ; and abstaining from drug abuse, heavy drinking, and risky sex. Decades of research show these choices correlate with physical health, economic prosperity, and personal happiness. They also correlate more with the traditional and religious sides of the values aisle. Tech billionaires, Hollywood celebrities, and CEOs of megacorporations like Disney and the NFL tend to hold far more progressive views about sex, marriage, drugs, and religion. Along with media elites and progressive politicos, they often loudly reject those values that lead to health, wealth, and happiness. Why then do they not suffer the consequences of their views? According to one Cambridge academic, permissive attitudes about sex, marriage, drugs, and religion are "luxury beliefs, more status symbols for cultural elites than they are blueprints for the way they live. Rob Henderson first floated the idea of "luxury beliefs" in an essay in the New York Post , later at Quillette , and most recently in a podcast . He argues that holding beliefs that tend to be disastrous for poor and middle-class communities has become the modern equivalent of buying expensive clothes or hiring servants. It's a way of showing off your wealth and signaling your status to fellow members of the upper class. Having grown up in multiple foster homes before enlisting in the Air Force and later attending Yale, Henderson has personally experienced much of the socio-economic spectrum. He knows first-hand how destructive the progressive behaviors held in reverence by many elites are to ordinary people. In his attempt to reconcile these facts, Henderson turned to 19th-century economist Thorstein Veblen's theory of the "leisure class." According to Veblen, rich and connected people once advertised their status mainly through luxury goods—things that were expensive and served no practical purpose. Today, they've switched to expensive ideas, or notions about how to live which, if adopted by everyone, would wreck society. Henderson cites some of the luxury beliefs he has encountered among his Yale and Cambridge peers: "…when an affluent person advocates for drug legalization, or anti-vaccination policies, or open borders, or loose sexual norms, or uses the term 'white privilege,' they are engaging in a status display. They are trying to tell you, 'I am a member of the upper class.'" These beliefs and others work as signals, he says, because if anyone but a privileged elite were to act on them, it would be disastrous. For example, polyamory is a lifestyle in vogue among wealthy liberals whose financial resources can bail them out of defaulted leases, surprise pregnancies, and therapy bills. When such behaviors are adopted by the less privileged, however, the results include spiraling poverty, disease, an epidemic of single motherhood, and suicide. The costs incurred by luxury beliefs, writes Henderson, are borne by ordinary people. Richard Weaver famously said "ideas have consequences," to which we add, "and bad ideas have victims." If God's design for sex, marriage, society, and the human soul are in fact built into the fabric of the universe, we can no more ignore them without consequences than someone can walk off a ten-story roof and ignore the consequences of gravity. Those who adopt "luxury beliefs" often have a parachute of trust funds, good lawyers, and social connections. Even so, as Nicholas Kristoff wrote a few years ago in the New York Times , many upper-class progressives don't actually preach what they practice, instead choosing to live fairly traditional, monogamous, drug-free, generally moral lifestyles… which makes their "luxury beliefs" even more like fashion accessories. In the end, however, the bill for luxury beliefs comes due. If Henderson and plenty of social scientists are correct in their analysis, it's usually charged to those who can least afford it.
Nov 15, 2021
Certain lifestyle choices strongly correspond to long-term success: staying in school; avoiding pregnancy outside of marriage; regularly attending church ; and abstaining from drug abuse, heavy drinking, and risky sex. Decades of research show these choices correlate with physical health, economic prosperity, and personal happiness. They also correlate more with the traditional and religious sides of the values aisle. Tech billionaires, Hollywood celebrities, and CEOs of megacorporations like Disney and the NFL tend to hold far more progressive views about sex, marriage, drugs, and religion. Along with media elites and progressive politicos, they often loudly reject those values that lead to health, wealth, and happiness. Why then do they not suffer the consequences of their views? According to one Cambridge academic, permissive attitudes about sex, marriage, drugs, and religion are "luxury beliefs, more status symbols for cultural elites than they are blueprints for the way they live. Rob Henderson first floated the idea of "luxury beliefs" in an essay in the New York Post , later at Quillette , and most recently in a podcast . He argues that holding beliefs that tend to be disastrous for poor and middle-class communities has become the modern equivalent of buying expensive clothes or hiring servants. It's a way of showing off your wealth and signaling your status to fellow members of the upper class. Having grown up in multiple foster homes before enlisting in the Air Force and later attending Yale, Henderson has personally experienced much of the socio-economic spectrum. He knows first-hand how destructive the progressive behaviors held in reverence by many elites are to ordinary people. In his attempt to reconcile these facts, Henderson turned to 19th-century economist Thorstein Veblen's theory of the "leisure class." According to Veblen, rich and connected people once advertised their status mainly through luxury goods—things that were expensive and served no practical purpose. Today, they've switched to expensive ideas, or notions about how to live which, if adopted by everyone, would wreck society. Henderson cites some of the luxury beliefs he has encountered among his Yale and Cambridge peers: "…when an affluent person advocates for drug legalization, or anti-vaccination policies, or open borders, or loose sexual norms, or uses the term 'white privilege,' they are engaging in a status display. They are trying to tell you, 'I am a member of the upper class.'" These beliefs and others work as signals, he says, because if anyone but a privileged elite were to act on them, it would be disastrous. For example, polyamory is a lifestyle in vogue among wealthy liberals whose financial resources can bail them out of defaulted leases, surprise pregnancies, and therapy bills. When such behaviors are adopted by the less privileged, however, the results include spiraling poverty, disease, an epidemic of single motherhood, and suicide. The costs incurred by luxury beliefs, writes Henderson, are borne by ordinary people. Richard Weaver famously said "ideas have consequences," to which we add, "and bad ideas have victims." If God's design for sex, marriage, society, and the human soul are in fact built into the fabric of the universe, we can no more ignore them without consequences than someone can walk off a ten-story roof and ignore the consequences of gravity. Those who adopt "luxury beliefs" often have a parachute of trust funds, good lawyers, and social connections. Even so, as Nicholas Kristoff wrote a few years ago in the New York Times , many upper-class progressives don't actually preach what they practice, instead choosing to live fairly traditional, monogamous, drug-free, generally moral lifestyles… which makes their "luxury beliefs" even more like fashion accessories. In the end, however, the bill for luxury beliefs comes due. If Henderson and plenty of social scientists are correct in their analysis, it's usually charged to those who can least afford it.
Nov 12, 2021
John and Maria discuss a recent commentary on Haiti before exploring an article by Trevin Wax on the lean toward politics by progressive Christians. That discussion leads into a new development from the Republican National Commitee to create a "Pride Coalition". John shares the challenges this brings to the Christian worldview of politics.
Nov 12, 2021
I recently watched a video of Pakistani tribesmen trying cheesecake for the first time . I know that might sound random, but it was kind of awesome. Though "diversity" has morphed into an ideologically loaded buzzword, it was God's idea first. But His idea wasn't moral or cultural relativism. It was the beauty of difference, anchored in eternal, created truths about how He made us. In Amos 9:7, God asks the Israelites, "Are not you the same to me as the Cushites? [Did] I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?" All people are made in God's image and all will one day answer to Him. Christ's Kingdom is composed of humans, redeemed and united under His authority. The image we glimpse in Revelation is beautiful because it is one of unity and diversity, where people of every " tongue, tribe, nation, and language " are gathered before the throne of God, all dressed in white for the wedding feast of the Lamb. And who knows, maybe we will all enjoy some cheesecake together there, too.
Nov 12, 2021
Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru, in 1579 - the illegitimate son of Don Juan de Porres, a Spanish nobleman. His mother, Ana Velázquez, was a freed African slave from Panama. When Martin was born with his mother's dark skin and features, Don Juan denied he was the baby's father. Don Juan abandoned Martin, his sister, and his mother while Martin was still a boy. Martin grew up in poverty and, because he was of mixed race, suffered social stigma. He attended school for two years until the age of 12, before apprenticing as a barber-surgeon. He learned to cut hair, bleed patients (in keeping with current medical practice), and to prepare and administer medicines. As a boy, Martin developed an active prayer life. He spent many nights praying to devote himself more completely to God. At 15, Martin committed his life to serve the church. Because Peru banned descendants of Africans and Indians from joining religious orders, Martin approached the Dominicans of the Convent of the Holy Rosary in Lima, asking to simply be a servant at the Convent. Initially, Martin worked menial jobs, helping in the kitchen and performing manual labor at the monastery. He cleaned the rooms of the Friars, earning the nickname "saint of the broom." He continued developing his prayer life and spiritual practices, receiving recognition for his humility, which enabled him to ignore insults he received for his mixed-race ancestry. Martin's diligence and spiritual growth attracted the attention of his superiors in the convent, earning him greater responsibility. When the leadership disregarded the law and invited him to become a lay brother in the convent, he refused the offer several times, thinking himself unworthy of the honor. Eventually, when ordered to accept the position, Martin reluctantly agreed. As a lay brother, many offices within the convent opened to Martin. He continued to work in the kitchen, but with his background in medicine, he also became the convent's barber and began serving in the infirmary. Martin was skilled as a healer and, unlike many in his profession, treated everyone with dignity, whether rich or poor, Spanish or native, free or slave. At one point, Martin took in a beggar covered with ulcers, putting the man in his own bed to care for him. When one of the brothers in the convent rebuked Martin for this, he replied, "Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness." When an epidemic broke out in Lima, Martin focused his care on the Holy Rosary's sick but also had great compassion for the broader community. Fearing the epidemic would spread to the brothers, the head of the Dominicans in Lima forbade Martin from taking in more people. Martin sent the sick to his sister's house in the countryside and cared for them there. Martin's godly character, humility, and work in the infirmary birthed various stories of miracles. Whatever we make of these reports, there is no doubt of his compassion and skill as a healer. Martin also cared deeply for animals. He refused to eat meat and set up a shelter for stray cats and dogs at his sister's house. Because of his remarkable rapport with animals, images of Martin often depict him holding a broom, with a dog, cat, and mouse eating out of a shared dish at his feet. Martin's humility and frugality led him to wear his habits until they were completely threadbare, except for one fresh habit in his trunk, for his burial. During his lifetime, Martin was considered a living saint. After his death, many miraculous healings were attributed to him. Through discipline in prayer and faithful service, and by avoiding distractions, he strove for faithfulness, not success. Throughout his life, Martin exemplified Paul's words to the church in Corinth: "Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
Nov 11, 2021
On Saturday Night Live last week, in a sketch featuring "Goober the Clown," Cecily Strong ridiculed Texas' heartbeat law. Strong told her abortion story using "fun clown stuff" like balloon animals, a squirting flower, and a clown costume. The intent, I think, was to portray abortion as no big deal, not as dark and scary as it's made out to be, and to suggest that women shouldn't be forced to talk about it. But the sketch came across awkward and sad. Perhaps Strong's parody was actually rooted in her own deep pain. But if it's really no big deal, why wouldn't people be more excited about the freedom abortion supposedly brings? Perhaps the pain so many women feel after abortion isn't just from social stigma or new laws, but because of what abortion is: an act of violence perpetrated on both mother and child... which is why abortion is no laughing matter.
Nov 11, 2021
In 1974, philosopher Robert Nozick proposed a thought experiment he called "the experience machine." He hoped to challenge hedonism, the belief that the highest good in life is finding the most pleasure. Imagine a machine, Nozick said, that would simulate in our brains all the best experiences we could imagine. Nozick took for granted that, ultimately, people would choose the real experience over the machine-generated one. He believed people want to do things, not just have a fake experience of doing things. He also believed people were still hungry for a reality bigger than any man-made experience machine could provide. "We learn that something matters to us in addition to experienc e by imagining an experience machine and then realizing we would not use it," Nozick wrote. Apparently, Nozick never met Mark Zuckerberg. A few weeks ago, the billionaire founder of Facebook announced the company's new venture , "Meta." The idea is to create a world of simulations in which people can, broadly, live their lives. Zuckerberg imagines that, using VR technology, people would be able to "go to the office" or "visit family and friends" or do almost anything in simulated or half-simulated places. We could make digital offices, and buy digital art to "hang" on our digital office walls. We could buy digital clothes to wear to these digital offices, and once everyone else is using the "meta," we can meet them in some digital place without ever leaving home. According to the team at Facebook, it will be at least a decade before technology enables the launch of their metaverse, but Zuckerberg seems pretty confident that, all things considered equal, people will prefer it to the real thing. And, if anyone has the resources (not to mention a built-in base of ready-and-willing customers) to pull something like this off, it's Facebook. Of course, technological advancement is not inherently bad. In fact, this sort of technology is only compelling because of the technological habits we've already embraced, some good and some not-so-good. For example, the same technology that allowed us to work from home during the pandemic also tempts us to replace in-person relationships with online ones. One glaring problem with the metaverse idea is that it encourages us, at least implicitly, to forget our bodies. This is something made possible by a pre-existing condition. One irony of the sexual revolution is that by making bodily pleasure a central object of our worship, we treat the body as if it can be remade and molded into whatever our minds choose. In such a world, it's essential to remind each other that we are not just minds or feelings. Our bodies are much more than mere tools that serve or get in the way of our experience of the world. We worship as bodies and with our bodies. We serve others as bodies and with our bodies. And we make new people who are, in no small part, bodies - with our bodies. God secured our salvation by becoming flesh . Discernment on this front is crucial because culture often changes subtly. The metaverse isn't going to be theoretical one day and then a full reality the next. If it happens, it will be by degrees, and the process of acceptance is already in place: Technology makes something more convenient. We embrace it. Before long, what was convenient becomes unavoidable, and then necessary. Even if we personally opt out of the thing, it can still become an essential part of the cultural waters in which we swim. You may not have a Facebook account today, but Facebook is an integral part of how the worlds of commerce, politics, education, and, to a degree, even personal relationships, now work . If we're closer to plugging into Nozick's "experience machine" today than we were in 1974, it's not because we're somehow dumber. It's because the machine is being built a component at a time, and we find each part enticing and helpful. The tragedy is waiting to question each component of the machine until the day we wake up and find we're already plugged into it. Through this process, Christians need to stay consciously embodied. That doesn't mean we eschew every new technology. The key is to use technology in service to our flourishing as embodied souls, and to make sure we don't let that technology redefine what it means to flourish.
Nov 10, 2021
John and Shane discuss a recent article in The Atlantic by Peter Whener about the abandonment of Jesus' teachings by evangelicals. The listener asks how Christians should respond to these claims. John also answers a question about the Christian perspective with climate change and how Christians can respond to claims that they are responsible for deterioration in the environment. Shane then asks John why the term "virtue signaling" is cringe-worthy before John is asked to explain the relationships with the words worldview, epistemology, and theology.
Nov 10, 2021
In 2017, Yale researcher Michael Kraus discovered that the best medium for communication was voice-only. Scientists have a couple of theories as to why. First, voice-only is just less distracting. Especially in the age of Zoom, virtual communication means bombardment by images, web problems, and front-facing cameras. All of these make it harder to focus on people - and therefore empathize with them. But second, whereas visual clues can be misleading, it's harder for speakers to disguise how they're feeling in the tone of their voices. This suggests it's the tone we use, not our facial expressions, which are our biggest non-verbal giveaways. That lines up with how Scripture tells us to advance the Gospel, sharing the good news "with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." The beauty of the Gospel is that it doesn't just train our minds how to think, but our hearts how to feel. Christ's love lets us love others, in what we say as well as in how we say it.
Nov 10, 2021
Last week, at 34-years-old, baseball great Buster Posey retired. Drafted by the San Francisco Giants, he went on to help win three World Series. Retiring means leaving a $22 million paycheck on the table , and likely a multi-million-dollar extension to keep him in the Bay area for the rest of his career. Instead, the future Hall of Famer has exchanged his cleats and catcher's mitt for bibs, highchairs, two sets of twins, and family life. Many have noted Posey's healthy perspective on the game, which Posey credits to, among other things, Bible studies and chapel services . Because his identity is found in things bigger than his sport, he's been able to battle through hitting slumps, poor play, and injury. For example, in the press conference announcing his retirement , Posey talked about how his love of baseball came from his family. In his experience, the game united generations. When the Atlanta Braves won the Pennant a few decades ago, he shared the experience with his grandfather. At the same time, the reason the game had that kind of impact on his family because of the kind of family it was. Posey has described how much he admires his grandmother, appreciates his uncle, a pastor in Georgia, and finds inspiration from a relative who was a chaplain at Duke University. The faith formation he received as a young boy formed how he approached the game of baseball. This identity was further galvanized in 2011, when he broke his leg in a collision at home plate. Though the injury ended Posey's season on the diamond, it ushered in a new season at home. In August of that year, he and his wife Kristen welcomed twins to their home. Because of the injury, Posey was present for their birth . In the following season, Posey won a second World Series ring, this time with National League MVP honors. He earned another ring in 2014. Then, at the start of the 2020 season, shortened by the pandemic, Posey opted out of playing. Instead, he and his wife adopted a second set of twins, making them a family of six . Posey described that time at home during Covid using two interesting and "churchy" words: patience and forgiveness . How many guys have the patience or forgiveness required to choose daily life with a family of six over playing in the major leagues? What Posey experienced at home in 2020 must have done something to him. Something having to do with his choice to leave a career of fame, riches, and admiration in the Bay area for a life requiring more patience and more forgiveness in rural Georgia with a family of six. In the third century, Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, wrote that Christians don't " speak great things, but we live them ." This kind of transformed life, shaped by the work of Christ, is, according to Cyprian, enabled by cultivating habits in patience and repentance. For Cyprian, these habits included avoiding idolatry, learning Holy Scripture, studying and accepting the teachings of Jesus, memorizing Bible passages, fostering a culture of peace, learning faith by doing, imitating role models, and addressing practical issues from a Christian perspective. In his book, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church , Alan Kreider describes how this kind of Christian patience, cultivated in habits of living and empowered by Christ, fermented into the kind of transformative energy that changed the world around them. Perhaps something similar has happened for this thirty-four-year-old former Giants catcher. More than merely deciding to focus on his family, avoid injury, and live his best life now, we're seeing the trajectory that results from a life in which the calling to be a father is taken seriously, faithfulness is chosen over success, and character is shaped by the patient forces of family life. This kind of decision is never made in a vacuum; it results from the kind of discipleship that leads to what has been called " long obedience in the same direction ." Buster Posey has chosen a life of forgiveness and patience over a career in major league baseball. His kids, his community, and his soul will be better because of it.
Nov 9, 2021
I heard recently of a retired nurse with a great tagline: "Everyone should have a job they truly hate, so that when they get a job they love they can actually appreciate it." America is going through what's being called the " Great Resignation ," which is partly due to a bad understanding of work . On one hand are workaholics, enslaved to jobs as a source of meaning and identity. On the other hand are the perpetual adolescents, unwilling to commit to serious labor, and hoping the perfect job will just fall in their laps. Ironically, both attitudes come from the same wrong idea: treating work as our ultimate source of identity. A Christian view of work is better. Work isn't something to worship; it is one way we can worship our Creator. It's a way we give to the world, not just take from it. Seeing work as worship redeems even the most menial, thankless or toilsome jobs. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters."
Nov 9, 2021
Last month, the Washington Post editorial board called for the U.S. government to intervene in Haiti. What this nation has endured in the last year alone is hard to fathom. High profile kidnapping s, political violence including the assassination of its president , devastation from natural disasters , gang violence, new allegations of horrific abuse by U.N. troops … the list seems unending. Some nations achieve a level of stability that allows them to navigate crises like these. Haiti hasn't. In fact, its in stability seems to make it a breeding ground for more calamity. The overall lack of long-term, measurable results from the now billions in foreign aid that have been poured into Haiti suggests that the problem isn't merely a lack of funding. Haiti occupies the western half of the island of Hispaniola. Claimed by France in 1665, the island's natural productivity helped make it one of the wealthiest colonies in the French Empire. By the 1780s, Haiti exported 60 percent of the coffee and 40 percent of the sugar consumed in all of Europe . Haiti's colonial masters were able to achieve such growth through slavery. The approximately 40,000 slaves that arrived on the island of Hispaniola each year made up more than one-third of the total Atlantic trade. Slave treatment was so brutal on the island that most slaves didn't live to see their 21st birthday. In 1791, Haiti became the site of " the largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western hemisphere ." Famously, the revolt kicked off with Vodou ceremonies , in which the inhabitants pledged themselves to the animistic religion. Thus, the Vodou belief system became part of Haiti's national identity. The Haitian Revolution was a long, bloody affair. Though successful in overthrowing the heavy hand of France, by the time it was over, much of the country's infrastructure and plantations had been destroyed. Haiti officially declared independence on January 1, 1804, becoming the second republic in the Western hemisphere after the United States and the first black republic in the world. However, the country faltered in the years that followed. Crippled by an assassination, the young republic descended into a political rollercoaster, fracturing and reuniting from the 1820s until today. Often, Haiti was exploited by foreign powers, who sought to pillage the nation through "Independence" payments or occupation. Today, Haiti's chaos seems perpetual, and our news cycle does little to humanize what's happening on the ground. Over $13 billion in aid has been poured into the island nation since 2010, and yet the need for disaster relief not only remains, it seems endless. After the recent kidnappings of 17 missionaries there, some Christians are even questioning the wisdom of engaging in dangerous missions in such an impoverished and volatile country. Before a question like that should be asked or answered, the reasons for Haiti's plights need to be understood. It is precisely here that Westerners have to set aside sentimentality and cultural relativism and accept that Haiti's problem isn't a lack of money or natural resources. Haiti's cycle of political corruption and dependence, together with animistic beliefs that date back to the country's founding, are. Back in 2010, my friend Darrow Miller of The Disciple Nations Alliance argued compellingly that Haiti, at root, has a worldview problem , both in the brutality Haitians suffered as slaves and the Vodou beliefs that marked its successful revolt. This week, Darrow joined Shane Morris on the Colson Center's Upstream podcast to further explain how Haiti's traditional worldview sees the universe as capricious rather than orderly and filled with unloving gods who need to be placated, showing the difference a worldview makes. These beliefs lead to "a culture of bribery and corruption," and "feed an attitude of hopelessness and despair." When fatalism reigns, from a worldview reinforced by a seemingly unpreventable string of national bad luck, people seek merely to survive the whims of droughts, earthquakes, and floods, rather than prepare for them. The reason that billions of dollars of aid, food, and well-meaning infrastructure work and missions have made little difference in the long run in Haiti is that the problem isn't, at root, a financial one. Too many of her citizens do not think of the world as a place that could improve, or their nation as one that could ever heal. But that does not imply, on any level, that we should give up; or that Christian missions there should stop. It simply means that we must do the work with our hearts as well as our heads. Worldview matters. Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have victims. Haiti is proof that these phrases aren't merely slogans. They are true for people and communities, for individuals and entire nations. We can only help nations like Haiti by considering the power of worldview, not just our wallets. International intervention and foreign aid are often required to lift nations out of such deep despair. Long-term stability, however, requires a change of heart and mind, and a different way of seeing the world and our mission to it.
Nov 8, 2021
A recent study in Scientific American highlighted how and why people jump to conclusions . One experiment involved participants watching fish being pulled from two ponds and asked to make determinations accordingly. Some participants made snap judgments after seeing only one or two fish, while others watched more patiently . It turned out that those who drew the quickest conclusions with the least data were also the most likely to believe baseless things in other parts of life. In other words, their habits of thinking kept them from the truth. As Proverbs 18 says , "To answer before listening— that is folly and shame." Jumping to conclusions is a universal cultural trait; we all do it. But Christians who love the truth and know its importance must think differently. This is especially true online, where algorithms are designed to feed our biases and our outrage. Proverbs is right: we should listen first, always ask questions and think critically, and only answer when we know .
Nov 8, 2021
One of the most common reasons that people give for rejecting Christianity, organized religion, or the church is hypocrisy. "Too many people," we hear, "say one thing and live another." This is the concern tackled in the latest What Would You Say? video, hosted by my wife, Sarah Stonestreet, also of the Strong Women podcast. Here's part of the transcript of the video: Have you ever met someone who claims to be a Christian but doesn't act like it? Maybe they are even outspoken about what the Bible says or why a particular point of Christianity is true, but their lives contradict the way Christians are called to live. This sort of religious hypocrisy is damaging to the church and hurts people. So, the next time someone says, "I don't go to church, because the church is full of hypocrites." Here are three things to remember: Number one, a concept like hypocrisy requires a standard of morality or moral conduct with which a person generally agrees, but fails to act accordingly. Every person has some kind of standard by which they make moral judgments. We use these moral standards, even if they are inconsistent or not fully thought out, to guide our everyday actions and thoughts when our actions contradict the moral standard to which we profess we act hypocritically. Christians have a clearly defined moral standard which is found in the very nature of God and revealed in his word. Our standard is God's own perfect goodness. This brings us to point number two. Jesus condemned religious hypocrisy. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye," said Jesus, "and pay no attention to the plank in your own? You hypocrite! First, take the plank out of your own." Jesus also warned that hypocrisy defiles a person, and is utterly detestable to God. Point number three: whether or not Christianity is objectively true does not rise and fall on the subjective experiences of human beings. Paul, the apostle, said that if we have knowledge, but don't speak it in love, we come across as an annoyance to the world, and Jesus actually prayed for us that we would reflect the profound reality of God's sacrificial love for humankind. When we fail to fulfill those teachings, it prompts skepticism about our message of unconditional love. However, through this objection, we have a unique opportunity to say "Yes, the church is full of hypocrites." That's actually one of the reasons why Christ offers forgiveness and salvation because none of us are thoroughly good. Rather we all live in the tension of the goodness of God's redemption and the destructiveness of our own sin nature. So, the next time someone says, "I don't go to church because the church is full of hypocrites," Remember these three things. Number one: hypocrisy requires a moral standard. Number two: Jesus condemned religious hypocrisy. Number three: the behaviors of the believers are not the litmus test for Christianity. That's just a snippet of our latest video in the What Would You Say? series, powered by the Colson Center. If you're not already subscribed, sign up at www.whatwouldyousay.org .
Nov 5, 2021
John and Maria discuss how the Governor race highlights more than how one political party can win future elections. John shares how worldview is underneath the movement in Virginia politics and how looking to the future we shouldn't look through a political lens but one that understands the human person. Maria asks John to provide a more in-depth understanding of school and what the role of education is in society. To close, Maria and John revisit a handful of commentaries for the week. First, they revisit a commentary from Shane Morris on how some in science are grasping to explain the apparent reality that the universe had to have a creator. Then they revisit The Most Reluctant Convert, the new movie by Max McLean and the Center for the Performing Arts. John shares that the movie did incredibly well in theatres, and many theatres are extending the premiere for two weeks. -- Recommendations -- The Most Reluctant Convert The Movie>> The Limits of Pleasure Paul Bloom & Sam Herris | Making Sense | November 3, 2021 Surprised by Joy C.S. Lewis | Harper One | 2017 CRT and Woke Christianity Owen Strachan vs Jermaine Marshall with Justin Brierly | Unbelievable Podcast | October 15, 2021 -- Story References -- Parents Find Support from Schools Kuyper believed that societal breakdown was inevitable whenever a God-ordained authority either abandoned or exerted authority outside of its ordained sphere. That's an ominous analysis today when so many, including gubernatorial candidates, see the state as society rather than as a mere element of society. BreakPoint>> How this suburban school board became the hottest issue in the Virginia governor's race Amid school board chaos across the country, Loudoun has become particularly prickly, as Youngkin and McAuliffe argue about so-called critical race theory, the potential banning of books like Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and how to navigate COVID-19 protocols in schools. USA Today>> The Most Reluctant Convert's Journey to Faith and to the Big Screen Today, too, we need a revival of the Christian imagination. One of my favorite scenes in The Most Reluctant Convert is when Lewis reads George MacDonald's Phantastes for the first time. MacDonald's gripping imagery and deep love of goodness did something incredible for Jack, long before his conversion: it taught him to long for holiness. "That night," he would write years later, "my imagination [was] baptized." BreakPoint>> Intelligent Design without God? This is Ockham's Razor on a cosmic scale. As Meyer concludes in his book, the "God hypothesis" is still the most scientifically reasonable explanation for the universe, one that does not "unnecessarily multiply explanatory entities." While it's an improvement that some modern astronomers and physicists are willing to consider intelligent design, given a choice between a transcendent God and an infinite number of immanent alien designers (or turtles?), the answer is obvious. BreakPoint>>
Nov 5, 2021
On Tuesday, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated incumbent Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor race. The issue that gave Youngkin the edge was education, something that Republicans in Virginia typically do not perform as well on. Things have apparently changed in the Commonwealth, however, after a year and a half of school shutdowns, heated disagreements over masking policies, debates over whether Critical Theory should be taught in the classroom on issues of race and LGBTQ, a horrific cover-up by the Loudon County school board, and, especially, Governor McAuliffe's comment during a September debate that parents 'shouldn't be telling schools what to teach.' As shocked as Virginians were by the statement, the view of education it reflects has a storied history. The late sociologist Christopher Lasch described it in his 1979 bestseller, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations . Lasch believed that when industrialization took labor outside of the home, it led many Americans to question whether other responsibilities should leave home, too. Lasch quotes two national education officials who, in 1918 , said, "Once the school had mainly to teach the elements of knowledge; now it is charged with the physical, mental and social training of the child as well." Around the same time, Sigmund Freud was psychoanalyzing parenthood, often casting parents in the role of villain. This was also the era in which the modern concept of social work was born, and when America launched the juvenile justice system. Entire industries were built upon the premise that parents were largely unqualified to raise their kids, or at least needed a lot of help from the state. In the late 1800s, Ellen Richards, the founder of modern social work, suggested that "in a social republic, the child as a future citizen is an asset of the state, not the property of its parents." A few decades earlier, Dutch theologian, statesman, and philosopher Abraham Kuyper outlined a very different theory of the relationship between the family, the state, and other aspects of society. With his view of "sphere sovereignty," Kuyper suggested that government was only one of the God-ordained governing institutions, each created with their own purview and scope of authority. Though they have a vested interest in the education of citizens, governments don't bear the responsibility or the right to usurp parents' authority. Kuyper believed that societal breakdown was inevitable whenever a God-ordained authority either abandoned or exerted authority outside of its ordained sphere. That's an ominous analysis today when so many, including gubernatorial candidates, see the state as society rather than as a mere element of society. Scripture describes the birth of a child as a gift from God . God gave Isaac to Abraham and Sarah , Samuel to Hannah , and so on. " The Lord has given me many sons ," said King David. Of course, God's gifts come with responsibilities. Parenthood intrinsically commits Christians to follow Jesus, to be thoughtful and self-sacrificing, to live virtuously and teach kids to do the same, to bring them up in " the nurture and admonition of the Lord ." Any authority we have over our children is God-given, and must ultimately and eventually be surrendered to God. Sometimes carrying out parental duties requires help. Modern parents are incredibly fortunate to have access to pediatricians, child psychologists, family counselors, pastors, educators, and even whole institutions that assist them in their roles as moms and dads. At the same time, both the parents and the experts have to keep straight who is the authority and who is the helper. We take our children to the doctor when they're sick, but we don't expect them to bathe, feed and clothe them. Having more "technical knowledge" of a child's body neither alters the line of authority nor implies that they know our child. Thomas Jefferson believed the purpose of public education was to foster citizens who were knowledgeable of history and virtuous enough to peacefully self-govern. That, however, requires an accurate view of what it means to be human, what it means to be human together in families and societies, what it means to be fallen humans, and how fallen humans can become self-governable people. When a culture loses its grip on those foundations, the "experts" (or, as C.S. Lewis called them "conditioners") step in. They loudly suggest that a college degree in education and a place on the government's payroll gives someone the vocational and moral authority over kids. Don't buy it. That authority belongs to God, Who assigns it to parents, along with the responsibility to educate children. If we believe that, we should also trust Him to equip us to rise to the occasion of raising our children.
Nov 5, 2021
According to a new report from the China Tribunal , the Chinese government is harvesting organs, essentially running a "kill to order" business of conscience dissidents from inside the Fulan Gong sect and Uyghur prison camps. They then remove organs from the dead. The scale is stunning. Last year, China reported 20,000 organ transplants to the World Health Organization. Critics think the number is closer to 100,000. The numbers are staggering, but this is something that's been widely reported since 2006, with government documents from China outlining parts of the practice since the early 2000s. Forced organ harvesting from minorities is barbaric. It's a consequence of the Chinese Communist Party's dehumanizing view of its citizens and its totalitarian methods, which are further reflected in its draconian birth policies. The continuation of this practice is enabled by an international community still pretending it isn't happening. The test of a society, and the worldview driving it, isn't just what it promotes , but also what evil it confronts. Right now, the silence is telling .
Nov 4, 2021
Shane Morris invites Colson Center Director of Equipping and Mobilization, Michael Craven to answer a host of questions about the church. A number of listeners have written in to ask how the church can engage this cultural moment. One listener asks what things we can celebrate inside the church, rather than simply critiquing what is happening in the church.
Nov 4, 2021
Atheist comedian, Stephen Fry, once said (quite ironically) that you are who you are when nobody's watching. When social restraints are removed, when the cameras aren't rolling, what sort of person are you? What sort of choices do you make? All of us—especially men—need to ask these questions of ourselves in the wake of the daily flurry of scandals from Hollywood and Washington. This isn't a problem "out there" in someone else's sound studio, office, or home. It's a problem "in here," at the depths of the sinful human heart. Is the person we portray to others the same person we are when we're by ourselves—or more importantly—when we believe there'll be no consequences for our actions? This is sometimes called "living on your face," in other words, making sure that what you present in public is the character you demonstrate in private. Only as Christians, we know that there's nowhere we can flee from the presence of God, who sees all, and who's always with us, and who promises that "our sins will find us out."
Nov 4, 2021
One of the most beloved and quotable scenes in The Chronicles of Narnia is from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when the children learn that Aslan is a lion, "the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." Though we love the idea that God is not "safe," we often live as if our safety or comfort marks the boundaries of our relationship with Him. Catechized by bad theology, captivated by our culture's enablement of self-centeredness, or weary of an angry and fractious age, many Christians cannot conceive that God's will for our lives could involve anything unpleasant or uncomfortable. When it does and our expectations collapse, we wonder if God cares, having conflated God's faithfulness with a painless, placid life of blessing and provision. We are quick to assume that pain or discomfort means that God's will has been thwarted, or that His love and protection have been withdrawn. It's difficult to accept that, rather than a sign of God's absence, the presence of pain could be a sign of His sovereign care. Throughout The Horse and His Boy, Aslan continually allows fear, hardship, and even physical pain for the main characters. When Shasta, one of the two main humans in the story, is fleeing from his abusive, adoptive father on the Narnian horse Bree, a lion chases them through the darkness. Fleeing from the danger, he encounters another rider fleeing from, it seems, another lion. Aravis is also escaping her home on a talking Narnian horse. Their shared fear and confusion bring them together for a journey neither of them could have made without the other. Later, in the story, they're riding as fast as they can to head off a threat to Narnia. Just as Bree claims he can go no faster, a "new" lion closes in on them. Lewis writes, "His eyes gleamed red and his ears lay back on his skull. And Bree now discovered that he had not really been going as fast – not quite as fast – as he could. Shasta felt the change at once. Now they were going all out. The lion then badly wounds Aravis, before retreating unexpectedly. Later, Shasta learns the full story. There was only one lion, not many. Aslan was "swift of foot." Without the fears and the pain, Shasta and Aravis, Bree and Hwin, would have never met; their quest would have failed; the enemy would have been victorious; and Shasta would never have learned who he truly was. The pain wasn't an afterthought on Aslan's part, but a key element in his plan. None of this implies that pain should be sought out. Pain is never the point of God's plans, any more than it is the purpose of physical exercise. Never pushing ourselves to the point that it hurts means never improving our health. On the other hand, seeking pain is more likely to do harm than to aid our well-being. In and of itself, pain is not good, but it is meaningful. Pain indicates that something is wrong and needs to be addressed. Without pain, we'd never know. In the same way, breaking bad habits of the past requires pushing beyond our comfort levels, through the pain, and onward on the path to full restoration. Pain is sometimes required to reorient us. What else can turn one away from a debilitating addiction or insatiable sexual impulse? Without discomfort, would we ever give up on our preferred source of "safety" for the faithful and sometimes painful love of God? Whether through sickness or sacrifice, in ending a dream or enduring hostility, we must remember that God's faithfulness is not determined by how well our lives are going. In fact, it is often known only in the hardest things of life. To deny that God could or would use discomfort for our good is to deny that He is present in our pain. He is. Just as, in His quest to restore the glory of His creation, He did not shrink back from inflicting pain on His dear Son, His love for His people often includes a level of discomfort and pain. In the end, it is part of His work to restore His image-bearers to their intended dignity. As Lewis wrote elsewhere, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
Nov 3, 2021
"There's some order in this chaotic universe." Those are the words of Noam Libeskind a postdoctoral researcher at Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam. He was referring to recent breakthrough findings in astrophysics . Scientists have long thought that the entire universe is interconnected by a "cosmic web" of dark matter and gas structures. What Libeskind and his team found was that these colossal filaments are rotating, which makes them "the largest objects known to have angular momentum." In Libeskind's words, "they're not just swarming randomly. There's actually an ordered motion to them."
Nov 3, 2021
Max McLean is bringing Lewis to life for a generation of theatergoers. His Fellowship for the Performing Arts has toured the country bringing C.S. Lewis from the page to the stage. During Covid, McLean pivoted their in-person presentations to transform one of their most popular presentations into a feature film. The Most Reluctant Convert chronicles the faith journey of C.S. Lewis. Drawing from the canon of Lewis, McLean presents how Lewis realized the need for God in the world, realized his need for a God who so loved the world, and how Lewis stepped from writing his own story to join the Great Narrator in His story. The Most Reluctant Convert is playing in select theatres around the country today. For details on showtimes, and to see if theatres near you are extending the performance, visit www.cslewismovie.com
Nov 3, 2021
For years now, my friend Max McLean has brought incredible stories to life on stage through his organization, Fellowship for Performing Arts . He's doing this in the heart of the arts world, in New York City. I've appreciated his work bringing the life and work of C.S. Lewis to life on stage. Just a few weeks ago, my wife and I were able to see Lewis's The Great Divorce brought to life on stage in a compelling presentation and one of the first performances Max led after the Covid lockdowns. However, during Covid, Max and the Fellowship for Performing Arts took one of their most popular performances, The Most Reluctant Convert , and turned it into a movie. It hits theaters across the country today. My colleague Shane Morris recently interviewed Max McLean about Lewis's redemption story on the Upstream podcast. Listen to how Max McLean describes the remarkable conversion of one of Christianity's most ardent and talented defenders, C.S. Lewis. We, as Christians, particularly on the evangelical side, we're pretty impatient about things. Lewis's journey as a hard-boiled atheist to the pursuit of God is very dramatic. His journey didn't start until after the War, probably when he met Owen Barfield and they had those arguments. These were had at some point during The Great War, and Lewis called it a "war with Barfield," I think. Those conversations probably didn't start until Lewis was 21 years old. So, there's a ten-year journey of moving towards Christianity for Lewis. Lewis said what he found was horrifying; it was just abysmal. He really recognized his utter sinfulness, and then ultimately he could understand that he believed in God. His conversion was not this sort of "god of the philosophers" moment. It was "the God who demands." Lewis lived in that world for a while. He couldn't understand the importance of Jesus. So, when he finally comes to Christ (and I think the film does a nice job with Lewis's walk and his conversation with Tolkien, which is key to the film and key to Lewis's story) and then from there, we have this extraordinary church scene, which he talks about in his letters, that he took a short walk to church. He says that walk marked the end of one journey, and the beginning of another. You know, I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but I understand the word Israel means "struggle with God." When Jacob wrestles with God, I think that's the norm of the real Christian life. We have to wrestle with our desires, our sin nature, because the last thing we really want to do is follow God. We want to follow ourselves; God wouldn't let him off the hook. And I anticipate that this film is going to awaken a lot of that struggle in many, many people. That story, the story of C.S. Lewis's struggle-leading-to-reliance in Jesus, is now in theatres across America. It releases today. Go to cslewismovie.com for theatres and showtimes.
Nov 2, 2021
As Inc.com's Bill Saporito reports , a new innovation called "controlled environment agriculture" is poised to shake up how we grow food. By stacking greenhouses vertically in abandoned buildings, entrepreneurs are growing food in less time with higher yields, using up to 95 percent less water, no pesticides and a dramatically shorter supply chain. As a result, vertical farms can be up to 400 times more productive than traditional farms. This approach may help mitigate environmental problems like pesticides and water usage, and could reduce the number of " food deserts ," miles of urban sprawl with no affordable fruit and vegetables. It could even bridge the divide between farms and cities. Farms are currently operating in South Karney, New Jersey, in warehouses that stood empty for years. In Scripture, God demonstrates an affinity for both gardens and cities , and innovations like this reflect how God made people to think. What's more, it undermines climate anxiety like the kind made popular by Paul Ehrlich , which treats people as problems to be solved. He predicted millions would starve; instead, people are once again innovating and solving problems.
Nov 2, 2021
Why is there something instead of nothing ? This is a question that has long haunted scientists, beyond the what to the why . For a long time, the widely accepted answer from astrophysicists, astronomers, and others was that the universe always existed. This so-called "steady-state theory" was a favorite of materialists because it sidestepped any need for a Creator. However, in the 20th century, the collective evidence became overwhelming, forcing scientists to accept that space, matter, energy, and even time had a beginning. Ergo, the cosmos is not eternal. The "Big Bang" theory, which replaced the steady-state theory, wasn't as much an explanation for how the universe came to be as it was a description of the immediate aftermath of its beginning. The initial first cause, i.e. whatever it was that set off the Big Bang and provided the fine-tuning necessary to produce a life-friendly universe, remained a mystery. At least, it was a mystery for those unwilling to accept God as the first cause. That's not to say there were no suggestions. For example, among the attempts to explain the Big Bang and account for our shockingly life-friendly cosmos were complicated ideas with fancy names such as vacuum fluctuation, cyclic contraction and expansion, the anthropic principle, string theory, and the multiverse. However, as philosopher of science Stephen Meyer argues, each of these explanations comes with significant baggage. In his book, The Return of the God Hypothesis , Meyer shows how these theories either require prior mathematical fine-tuning , or involve serious category errors , or else undermine the reliability of science. In other words, these "solutions" tend to complicate the initial problem they attempt to address. Perhaps this is why, in lieu of these choices, some are now offering another explanation. Writing in Scientific American this month , former Harvard astronomy chair Avi Loeb proposed that our universe may have been created by an intelligent designer… just not God. What if, as the Harvard scientist (not a late-night radio host) suggests, our universe was "created in a laboratory of an advanced technological civilization… Since our universe has a flat geometry with a zero net energy, an advanced civilization could have developed a technology that created a baby universe out of nothing through quantum tunneling." Such an idea, he concludes, "unifies the religious notion of a creator with the secular notion of quantum gravity." Loeb doesn't speculate on the identity of our universe's engineer(s), or the location of the "laboratory" where it came to be. But if his proposal sounds familiar, it's because it is . Specifically, he's proposing a form of intelligent design, only one with an infinite number of extra steps . A question children and atheists often ask is, "If God made the universe, who made God?" The answer, given by classical theists, is "nobody." God is, by definition, self-existent and eternal, the very Ground of being. He who caused the universe to exist requires no cause. He is, as Thomas Aquinas put it, the "unmoved Mover." The very existence of something implies the existence of an unmoved Mover, an uncaused first cause. Because, as Freuline Maria sang in The Sound of Music: "Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could." Loeb's version of intelligent design fails to offer an answer to this fundamental question. If the universe were cooked up through quantum tunneling in a cosmic laboratory by alien scientists, who made the alien scientists who created the universe? Loeb certainly tries to answer that question by suggesting that there may be countless baby universes, all engineered by "advanced civilizations," which in turn create more life-sustaining universes, but which are not self-existing or eternal. The process, he writes, may proceed along Darwinian lines, ensuring a selection advantage for life-sustaining universes since they can, in a manner of speaking, "reproduce." He's envisioning an infinite regress of universes and designers, creating one another back into eternity. It's like the old story about the tribe that believed the Earth rested on the back of a giant turtle. When asked what the turtle rested on, the tribesmen replied, "It's turtles all the way down." According to this Scientific American article, it's alien designers all the way down. This is Ockham's Razor on a cosmic scale. As Meyer concludes in his book, the "God hypothesis" is still the most scientifically reasonable explanation for the universe, one that does not "unnecessarily multiply explanatory entities." While it's an improvement that some modern astronomers and physicists are willing to consider intelligent design, given a choice between a transcendent God and an infinite number of immanent alien designers (or turtles?), the answer is obvious.
Nov 1, 2021
Media theorist Marshall McLuhan famously said: "We shape our tools, and thereafter, our tools shape us." That's certainly true of books, one of humanity's oldest tools. New research confirms –yet again—just how good it is for us to read books. Reading doesn't simply teach new facts, it wires various functions of the brain. A recent study out of the University of Rochester confirms that reading fiction measurably boosts emotional intelligence. Stories about playing tennis, for example, light up the same part of the brain used in actually playing tennis. Extended reading sessions also sharpen the ability to focus and grasp complex ideas. The same studies also suggest a related effect, that the less one reads, the more those skills dissipate. And, to be clear, scrolling on smartphones doesn't count as reading. Of course, Christians should read books, not only because of how God made our brains but because God chose to reveal Himself in Word. Apparently, He really wants us to know who He is.
Nov 1, 2021
One line from C.S. Lewis's autobiography Surprised by Joy is both simple and profound: "That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." My friend Max McLean is bringing the story behind this line to life in his new film The Most Reluctant Convert . It premieres in select theaters across the country this Wednesday, November 3. One of my favorite parts of the movie is the tour of Oxford at the start of the film. There's something magical about seeing Lewis in the rooms, pubs, and streets where he roamed for most of his adult life. The city shaped him: it was his spiritual greenhouse, social club, and intellectual playground. In the film, we take tea with Lewis at "The Kilns," his home of more than 30 years , share a pint with him in his favorite pub, and see him take communion in his tiny parish church. Simply put, Max McLean's portrayal of C.S. Lewis is incredible. For years now, McLean has been bringing Lewis's life and work to the stage through The Fellowship for Performing Arts , based in New York. His love for the beloved author is obvious. He recently said , "Lewis is a hero of mine. I think he's not just one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, but one of the greatest writers of all time." I agree. C.S. Lewis is a life worthy of appreciation, and The Most Reluctant Convert is a story especially appropriate for this cultural moment. Early in his life, Lewis experienced much of the joy and pain he would later write about, especially in the life and death of his mother. These memories were part of what drove Lewis to become an exceptional children's author. He took the minds and hearts of kids seriously, famously saying that, "a children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story." The lesson for us is that Lewis never talked down to kids, and we shouldn't either. He wrote stories that dignified them as the image-bearers they are. Lewis called them to goodness over evil, and challenged their hearts and minds. As a result, his books continue to resonate today with children and their parents. Another central theme in Lewis's writing is friendship and, in The Most Reluctant Convert , we see why. Far from coming to faith in a vacuum, Lewis was guided to Christ through conversations with Owen Barfield, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Hugo Dyson. Each of these friends showed "Jack" (as they called him) the love of Christ, while steadfastly challenging his materialist ideas. In fact, it was one particularly fateful afternoon walk, with his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, when a deeper aspect of Christianity driven home in Lewis's heart and mind. The Gospels have all the qualities of the pagan myths he loved, with one essential difference: the Gospels are true. In the words of Tolkien, they are God's "myth made fact." In matching Lewis's deep love for classic mythology with the wonder of Scripture, Tolkien found a bridge to his friend's heart. It's tempting to think that these kinds of conversations are out of reach in an ideologically divided time like ours, but nothing could be further from the truth. Christians still have opportunities to choose friendship with the people God puts in our path, and to reach them through the common ground of imagination. We never know when we might be talking to the next C.S. Lewis. Today, too, we need a revival of the Christian imagination. One of my favorite scenes in The Most Reluctant Convert is when Lewis reads George MacDonald's Phantastes for the first time. MacDonald's gripping imagery and deep love of goodness did something incredible for Jack, long before his conversion: it taught him to long for holiness. "That night," he would write years later, "my imagination [was] baptized." That imagination was quickly linked to Lewis's concept of joy: the longing for something deeper and better, and his desire for truth. In his words , it is "the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited." In The Most Reluctant Convert, we see a young Lewis, an atheist, slowly drawn to the truth and beauty of the Gospel through his longing for joy. One of the best outcomes of this film would be Christians inspired to tell stories in the exact same tradition. C.S. Lewis might have been "the most reluctant convert," but that only makes what God did in and through him all the more incredible. His is a story worth telling and watching. Don't miss your chance to see The Most Reluctant Convert this week. Its limited release in theaters starting November 3rd. You can get your tickets now at cslewismovie.com .
Oct 29, 2021
Facebook announced a "rebrand" this week. In the announcement, CEO Mark Zuckerberg presented a vision for social media in the future. Reacting to this news, Maria asks John is this is something we should withdraw from in fear, or whether there is a silver lining to the dystopian vision Mark Zuckerberg offers. Recently, a boy (who identifies as female) was convicted for having molested two teenage girls in two different schools. According to John, this real-world, and painful, situation is a consequence of ideological shifts about sex. These shifts embody the sexual revolution and is encapsulated in a White House statement on gender equity. To close, John recommends a new film coming out this week to theatres across the nation. The Most Reluctant Convert is a dynamic look at the coming to faith of C.S. Lewis. -- Recommendations -- The Most Reluctant Convert Max McLean | Fellowship for the Performing Arts
Oct 29, 2021
Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood became a feminist icon for her dystopian novel in which women are enslaved for the purpose of childbearing. Her writing is both the basis for a hit Hulu series and the unofficial mascot of the #MeToo movement. Recently, Atwood retweeted an op-ed criticizing the use of phrases like "pregnant person" instead of "woman." "Why can't we say 'woman' anymore?" the article's author asked. And the backlash to Atwood's retweet was swift and vicious. Opinion pieces in USA Today and the Independent called her everything from "misguided" to "transphobic." She was compared with Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, who has consistently rejected the trans narrative, and each of these onetime progressive heroines are now labeled a "TERF," or "trans-exclusionary radical feminist." This conflict between the "F" and the "T" in the acronym is real. The feminism of Rowling and Atwood assumes that women are real and are oppressed by men. But those in the camp of T claim that "woman" is a self-identifying construct, which men can fairly appropriate. So what's coming in this narrative? Will feminism eventually be edited to exclude women?
Oct 29, 2021
In Mere Christianity , C.S. Lewis described faith as "the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods." His is a crucial observation for a world that often pits reason against faith. Lewis understood that faith must always be guarded against the assaults of changing emotion. Lewis powerfully illustrated this point in The Silver Chair, the fourth book of The Chronicles of Narnia series. The story opens with Jill Pole, a typical English schoolgirl, being called suddenly (and even more strangely than anyone before her) into Narnia. Aslan, the Great Lion, gives her the task of rescuing Prince Rilian, son of Caspian, who had been missing for ten years. To help her, Aslan gives Jill signs to recite and remember, along with this dire warning: "Here on the mountain, the air is clear … as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind." Jill learns quickly just how true his warning is. Eventually, having left the surface of Narnia and descended to the depths of the underworld, she, Eustace Scrubb, and Puddleglum the Marshwiggle find Narnia's lost prince. He's so deeply enchanted by the Witch's dark magic that he can no longer tell madness from reality, truth from lies. It's only in the full grasp of his "madness," which actually turns out to be his moments of lucidity, that the prince unknowingly invokes the final sign given to Jill: he calls on the name of Aslan. In that moment, Lewis masterfully portrays the fog of doubt and deception. Under the Witch's enchantment, it's not clear who is a friend and who is an enemy. In fact, the three adventurers feel sure that the prince will attack them the moment he is free, but as Puddleglum reminds them in a moment of powerful courage, they've sworn to obey the words of Aslan. Only that better commitment, which might be called the right ordering of their loves, sees them through. They cut Rilian loose and break the Silver Chair, destroying the power of the Witch's curse. Lewis, of course, knew what it was to struggle with doubt. "Now that I am a Christian," he wrote , 'I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist, I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable." That's why faith mattered to Lewis: it grounds us in reality, even in the face of danger or uncertainty. Today, a generation of young people are debilitated by feelings of meaninglessness, doubt, and depression . They consistently hear that their feelings are their best and highest guide; they're encouraged to look inside and follow their hearts. Aslan's advice is better: "Remember the signs." In other words, only by looking to fixed, sure reference points outside of ourselves, can we orient and know the way forward. When the Witch returns to the cave, attempting to deceive Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum again, she offers us a dialogue that could substitute for modern textbooks on epistemology. "What is the sun?" the Witch asks the children, who have been underground for so long, all they have is a vague memory of things like Aslan, the sun, and the overworld. "It's like a lamp," one offers. But the Witch laughs this off. "Your sun is a dream, and there is nothing in that dream that was not copied from the lamp." In other words, "the lamp is the real thing; the sun is [just] a children's story." Materialism offers the same argument. Because the idea of God helped us survive, goes the argument, people came to believe in him as real. But all we're doing is taking concrete things around us and inventing fairy stories about their origins. Just as the sun can be forgotten in a subterranean kingdom, Christians can sometimes feel as if there is no immediate proof of God's existence. GK Chesterton addressed this default appeal to materialism. "As an explanation of the world, [it] has a sort of insane simplicity… we have at once the sense of it covering everything and the sense of it leaving everything out." Materialism's explanation for love, goodness, evil, and personhood is comprehensive, but ultimately guts these things of any real substance. Likewise, in The Silver Chair , the sun, Narnia, and Aslan are real : in fact, they're the most real things of all. It's the Witch's kingdom that is the shallow copy. In the end, only Puddleglum the Marshwiggle can hold on to the truth, which leads him to stomp out the fire and break the Witch's spell for good. The solution to doubt is, then, according to Lewis, faith . Not blind belief, but a commitment informed by reason, goodness, and imagination. What God has told us in the light of day and which we then know to be true, we should not doubt in the middle of our darkest night. The only way forward is to, in the words of Aslan, "Remember the signs!"
Oct 28, 2021
Last week, Guatemala became the latest nation to sign the Geneva Consensus Declaration , the 35th nation to proclaim that human rights extend to unborn children. The declaration rebuffs today's Western imperialism: exporting abortion in the name of so-called "women's rights." When nations like Guatemala sign the Geneva Consensus Declaration, they're committing to fight pressure from the U.S. and other wealthy Western nations pushing them to legalize and publicly fund abortion. The Geneva Consensus Declaration was created by U.S. officials in the Trump administration. It came with little media fanfare and the day President Biden took office, his administration disavowed it and scrubbed it from the Health & Human Services website. Weeks later, the Biden administration announced it would launch new initiatives pressuring the global community to call abortion a "human right." The Geneva Consensus Declaration is worth celebrating, not only because it will protect women and babies, but because it poses a real threat to the ideological colonialism attempted by Western nations like the U.S. If it didn't threaten this ideology, the President wouldn't be nearly so concerned.
Oct 28, 2021
" The Big Quit. " is not just a shift in the employment of millions, it's an expression of our culture-wide search for purpose. According to The Washington Post, "a record 4.3 million people — about 2.9 percent of the nation's workforce — quit [their jobs] in August." And, Gallup polling suggests that nearly half of working Americans are actively considering finding a new job. What's driving this trend away from work? It seems to be a perfect storm with many factors. Clearly, the pandemic has reshuffled priorities across society. Back in April, Forbes magazine's Keir Weimer suggested ,"How we work has changed forever." A bit of hyperbole perhaps, but he's touching on something obvious and important. More than half of respondents from one survey said they would trade compensation for workplace flexibility. Having worked from home throughout the last year, they are hesitant to give up the time with friends and family, the luxury of not commuting, and a more home-centered vocational life. At the same time, working in certain industries is more difficult. For example, in the food industry , there are a "staggering 1.2 million jobs unfilled… right when customers are crushing through the doors, ready to eat, drink and finally socialize." Many point to the increased hours required, the unemployment benefits which exceed even increased compensation, and the stress of maintaining COVID-related policies in the workplace. And as more employees leave this industry, remaining workers with their hands even more full. Even so, the biggest reason for workers leaving work could be because they can. Between government stimulus policies, rising home values, and money saved during COVID, many Americans are simply, to borrow words from David Leonhart of the New York Times , " flush with cash. " This is exactly the opportunity they've been waiting for to make a change. Still, as important as the economic factors are, they do not tell the whole story. As more than a few observers have pointed out, " the Great Resignation " isn't just a search for a better job. What we are witnessing is part of our culture's search for deeper meaning. Studies suggest that rising rates of "burnout," such as exhaustion, stress, and overall dissatisfaction across workplace sectors, are leading workers to quit. Columnist Whizy Kim of Refinery29 puts it this way: "[We] want to believe that our jobs can not only provide financial stability, but also emotional and spiritual nourishment... In a time of increasing secularism, work remains our steadfast religion. Burnout hits when our work fails to live up to expectations of it." Surveys show that Americans work more hours than any other industrialized nation. That becomes an incredibly important factor when work is not seen as meaningful, i.e., not part of something bigger than ourselves. In certain extreme cases, work takes the place of God. We look to it as the source to fill our emotional, vocational, and relational needs. That's unsustainable. To the extent that the so-called "Great Resignation" is a cultural reset, it can be a good thing. On the other hand, it will not be unless it is a reset of more than work hours, policies, and minimum wage. It has to be a reset of our understanding of what work is for, something that would require rethinking what humans are for. Any search for a perfect, all-fulfilling job will be fruitless. Rather than rethink their search, some are opting out of work altogether . This is a mistake, not just because savings eventually run out and bills inevitably pile up, but because we were created, in part, for work . Work existed before the fall , and is therefore inherently connected with our worship and dignity as image-bearers. To be clear, work is not our full identity, but it is inseparable from who we were created to be. Even knowing this can help eliminate the stress of where to work; it's easier to make rational choices when one's entire sense of self doesn't hang in the balance. And yet, because our work is one way that we worship God, it's meaningful even when mundane. It's worthy of our highest efforts when, in mirroring our Creator, we bring order out of chaos, provide for our fellow creatures, and cultivate His creation. Especially in this cultural moment, how Christians work is part of our witness . Christians can demonstrate God's goodness by the joy and vibrancy we bring to our vocation. We can show His love, concern, and provision for people by how we manage people in love and service. We can dignify God's design for human beings in how we work and in how we rest . All told, it could be that "The Big Quit" is, for Christians, an even bigger opportunity to begin.
Oct 27, 2021
John and Shane answer a listener who asks how we get past the erroneous "new" definition of racism (prejudice + power), and address old racism (prejudice based on pigmentation), when anti-racism and CRT doesn't allow "whites" to participate to the discussion? The pair also discusses how the unity and differences in the definitions of a Christian and biblical worldview before answering a challenge to population control in impoverished or resource-scarce countries.
Oct 27, 2021
In 2019, Templeton Prize winner Marco Gleiser made waves when he said that "atheism is inconsistent with the scientific method." In his view, atheism is a "categorical statement of belief," and doesn't depend on evidence as much as assumptions. This, of course, clashes with claims of the so-called " New Atheism, " that science has officially debunked God as an explanation for the universe. Gleiser is an agnostic, and thinks scientists shouldn't close off the possibility of God. This accomplished scientist is saying something very important: atheism is not science's default position. On the other hand, it's important to note that science is not completely silent on the God question either, which is why generations of scientists have been drawn to a belief in the Creator precisely because of what they noticed in the universe they were observing. To put it another way, atheism isn't inconsistent with the scientific method just because it's a "categorial belief," but because it denies the order, complexity, and intentionality that point to God-centered conclusions.
Oct 27, 2021
As the "Big Quit" happens across America, the Christian vision of work could be more relevant and impactful than ever. Which, as history attests, is saying quite a lot. Physical labor was devalued in the ancient world. The exception, in classical Greece and the early days of the Roman Republic, was farming, which was considered the proper pursuit of citizens. All other labor was viewed as demeaning. In the later days of the Republic, as plantation agriculture replaced small farms, the work of farming was also seen as demeaning and relegated to slaves. By the time of the Roman Empire, all physical labor was only thought proper for slaves and lower classes. Though the foundation of the empire's wealth, the upper classes believed that production was beneath them. Their attention, or so they thought, belonged in the more "refined" areas of life, such as the arts and philosophy. Of course, the biblical view of work is completely different. Scripture frames work as a good thing, an essential part of what it means to be human. Because God created us to work, at least in part, it's inherently connected to our worship and dignity. Put differently, work is not the result of the fall. It was, however, tainted by Adam's sin. God's created purposes for humanity, to fill and form His world through work, would now feature pain and frustration. Aspects of human work were twisted from dignity to drudgery. Human efforts to cultivate the earth, designed by God to be part of the joy of imaging Him, became sources of frustration, pain, sweat, and sorrow . Because of the uniqueness of the Biblical framework, even the early Christians approached work with a very different view than their pagan neighbors did. They thought of work as good but marred by sin. So, for example, in monastic communities, monks were expected to do physical labor, if for no other reason than to grow their food. In his Rule for Monastic Life, St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547) insisted that monks should work both to fulfill the biblical mandate that God gave Adam, and to encourage humility in a world that thought of work as demeaning. Within a full understanding of the Biblical story, from Creation to New Creation, Christians came to understand the Gospel as Christ redeeming us of sin as well as all of its effects. In addition to forgiveness of sin and security of eternity, salvation also included the redemption of anything infected by sin. This included work, which led Christians to attempt to restore work away from "toil" and back to the kind of meaningful labor God intended. So, in the middle ages, many monasteries became centers of technological innovation, focused on making work more significant. A prime example is the waterwheel. Although the Romans knew about waterwheels, they rarely made use of them. After all, why invest in an expensive machine when you have unlimited slave labor? The monks had a different view of human value and the value of work which inspired them to develop ways of using the waterwheel to mechanize production. Initially, waterwheels were likely used for grinding grain. This required converting the vertical rotation of the wheel into horizontal rotation for the millstones, which the monks accomplished through a system of wooden gears and wheels. Later, the waterwheel was adapted for a wide range of other applications including powering bellows in forges, operating trip hammers in smithies, sawing lumber, and fulling cloth. Soon, even secular communities began to invest in building mills. While some might say secular communities adopted water wheels for economic impact, the economy in Rome was very specialized. Therefore, the Romans did not deploy waterwheels. What made communities adopt these and other technologies was likely the influence of the Christian idea of work, as it moved out from the monasteries to penetrate and shape the culture. Many more inventions were developed during the Roman and Middle Ages, stimulating economic activity and making work more efficient and meaningful. These developments were inspired by the idea that Jesus' work in redemption meant restoration was possible in all areas of life, including reversing the curse of the Garden. Though other countries had innovative technologies, some far more advanced than the West, the West's use and employment of technology was unique. According to Indian philosopher Vishal Mangalwadi, the West used technologies to make the work of the common person easier and to aid in production, rather than to cater to the elites. In our current cultural moment, many see work as frustrating, unrewarding, an dnot worth it (that is, as toil). So, in our cultural moment, Christians have an incredible, better vision of work to offer the larger world. We've also got a history to tell, of how a vision of human dignity and innovation became a blessing across economic and class lines. Just as in the past, the Christian view can move our imaginations about work beyond drudgery, to a renewed and redeemed way of thinking and living. This vision shaped the work of men like Johann Gutenberg, whose motive for inventing printing with movable metal type was to produce Bibles that were "no longer written at great expense by hands easily palsied, but multiplied like the wind by an untiring machine." The same vision can find traction today, in a culture that doesn't know what work is for and needs an example of redeemed human labor, production and meaning.
Oct 26, 2021
Security guards and local police were at a loss about how to deal with the gang violence that was rampant in a Shreveport school, where detention and even arrests weren't enough to curb the violence. So a group of dads stepped up, committing to being present at the school every day. Now there hasn't been a fight in over a month, andow kids say they love going to school. They call themselves "Dads on Duty," replete with sweatpants, gas station coffee, and dad jokes worth rolling your eyes at. They fist bump students in hallways, providing a fathering gauntlet that is deterring fights and decreasing gang activity . "Not everybody has a father figure at home – or a male, period, in their life," one of the dads told CBS News . Clearly, this crisis in Shreveport required more than good intentions. It required fathers , because God created dads to do just this kind of thing. I love how these dads took stock of the cultural moment and acted on four simple questions: What good can we celebrate, what is missing that we can offer, what is broken that we can fix, and what evil needs to be opposed?
Oct 26, 2021
Among the prominent buzzwords in Christian social media are variations of the word "deconstruction." The word has been used to describe the deconversions of Kevin Max (from DC Talk ) and Joshua Harris (of I Kissed Dating Goodbye fame), the soul searching of Derek Webb , and the theological revisionings of Jen Hatmaker and Rob Bell . When used descriptively , it helpfully describes something that has become a common feature of evangelical celebrity-ism. Increasingly, however, the term "deconstruction" is being used prescriptively : recommended to believers, especially those questioning what they've grown up with, as the courageous thing to do. This recommendation lands somewhere between unhelpful and dangerous. It's one thing to describe doubting, questioning and, ultimately, shifting faith commitments as "deconstruction." It's another to prescribe it as the means of coming to terms with the unpopular truth claims of Christianity or the baggage of a Christian upbringing. Simply put, the word "deconstruction" itself carries too much worldview baggage to be helpful. To be clear, Scripture (especially the Psalms) not only creates plenty of space for doubting and questioning, but makes it clear that God meets us in our questions and doubts. If all that is meant by deconstruction is asking tough questions about God or faith, that's a normal part of the Christian life and need not mean deconversion . Or, if it is used to refer to untangling politics or other elements of American culture that have been corruptively bundled with Christian identity, deconstruction may simply mean discernment. At the same time, deconstruction is not the best term for either of these contexts, especially given the much better words available. Conversion , reform, and renewal are words provided in Scripture and church history to keep God's people squarely within a Christian vision of truth: that truth is revealed, not constructed, and objective, not subjective. More importantly, because God takes on Himself the burden of making truth known (and does not author confusion), real knowledge about God and self is possible. At the risk of committing an etymological fallacy , "deconstruction" carries too much of the philosophical baggage of postmodernism , particularly the denial that truth can truly be known . It carries the assumption of permanent doubt, and the culture-wide skepticism of authority. That's why, when applied to Christian faith, so much deconstruction has to do with severing the links between the Church and Jesus, Christianity and Jesus, moral teaching and Jesus, and (especially) the Bible and Jesus… as if the Church isn't His Bride, Christianity isn't His worldview, morality isn't His teaching, and the Bible isn't His Word. That's why, when applied to Christian faith, so often deconstruction means taking apart the faith and keeping only the palatable (like Jesus' love and compassion), while discarding the difficult (like sin and penal substitutionary atonement ). Deconstructing faith rarely ends at rejecting corruption or jettisoning historical baggage, and instead culminates in the integration of what is culturally acceptable into an entirely new faith. Dropped along the way are essential doctrines of Christianity (like the deity and exclusivity of Christ or the authority of His Word), or ethics (especially those having to do with sexuality and abortion). Shaped as it is by a commitment to skepticism, "deconstruction" presumes that truth is an illusion and knowledge is impossible. On the other hand, words like "reform" and "renewal" point us back to things once held but now lost. We re member what our memory lost, re take what we once held, re visit places we've been before. Reform and renewal assume that faith and knowledge are rooted in something outside of ourselves. The New Testament is full of appeals by the Apostles to re cover the truth once believed and the faith once loved. The Old Testament prophets continually called for people to re store the right worship and ethics they'd received at Sinai. "De-" words, on the other hand, are very different from "re-" words. Deconstruction is about tearing down, never building up; it's about rejecting, not returning; moving away from, not towards anything or Anyone. Francis Schaeffer, among others, offered and embodied a better way in his own life and ministry. He took seriously the questions of those disillusioned and skeptical, and wrestled deeply with the challenges to Christian faith that were contemporary to his time and place. Along the way, he found that it was possible to give good and sufficient reasons for the Christian worldview. He offered "honest answers to honest questions," guiding those with doubts and wounds toward Christ: the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The question of whether or not we live in a world in which it is possible to truly know Truth and its Author makes all the difference for those struggling through existential crises. Describing deconstruction is, tragically, sometimes necessary in our skeptical age. Prescribing it is not, because Truth does exist. In fact, I know Him.
Oct 25, 2021
There's something poetic about sending the famous Captain Kirk from Star Trek to space, for real, and his emotional response after touching back down was priceless. As he told Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, "I hope I never recover from this. I hope I can maintain what I feel now… I don't want to lose it." Here's a 90-year-old in childlike wonder, experiencing that almost spiritual part of space travel reflected by many astronauts throughout history. Often called the " overview effect ," space tends to raise deep longings for significance. Pioneers of travel by plane probably thought that it could never bore anyone. But, it does, like anything that becomes normal. Maybe it's because the only thing that can permanently ground our sense of wonder is God Himself, who put eternity in human hearts and placed us in an incredibly created universe that ultimately points us to Himself. The only thing BIG enough to sustain our wonder.
Oct 25, 2021
Whenever I struggle to understand C.S. Lewis's nonfiction work, I find it helpful to go to Narnia. For example, so many of the concepts Lewis introduced in Mere Christianity are found in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . Throughout each of the Narnia books, Aslan, the Pevensie children, and other characters embody many of the ideas he explored in his nonfiction. Another example is The Abolition of Man , a book critically important for our cultural moment. In the book's opening essay, "Men without Chests," Lewis thoroughly critiques modern education which, Lewis says, fills students' heads with knowledge and their bellies with passion, but does nothing to cultivate the chest. This idea from Lewis is based on something Aristotle taught , that the head is the seat of human reason and the belly is the seat of passion. Good citizens, Aristotle believed, are those whose heads govern their bellies. When someone is ruled by their passions, they are unstable. Aristotle thought that humans could govern their bellies through the formation of good habits. There's certainly a lot of truth to that. But anyone who has ever been in a real conflict between head and gut knows that, typically, the gut wins. Even more, our reason becomes merely instrumental to justify whatever it is we want. My friend Michael Miller, a senior fellow at the Acton Institute , once described the belly as an 800-pound gorilla constantly demanding, "Feed me, feed me, I want. I want, feed me, feed me." The head, on the other hand, is more like an 80-pound professor with a bowtie. Who's going to win the conflict between a massive gorilla and a tiny professor? The gorilla…every time. This is what C.S. Lewis was critiquing in his essay "Men Without Chests." A person will only function well if they are bolstered by a strong "chest," or virtue . Only a well-formed moral will, which cares for virtuous things, can overrule and ultimately govern the belly. For a story version of this opening essay of The Abolition of Man , see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader . This book has one of the best opening lines: " There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. " Eustace is the boy without a chest, as readers soon discover. He's a spoiled brat; as Lewis goes on to describe, he attended schools that filled his head with knowledge and his belly with passion, but did nothing to cultivate his chest. A thematic undercurrent in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is how Eustace developed a chest. Spoiler alert: it had a lot to do with his relationship with Reepicheep, one of Narnia's smallest characters. The mouse, a perennial favorite character in all of Narnia, had much moral courage. He had, to borrow Lewis' phrase, a chest. "Men Without Chests" is just one reason that The Abolition of Man is such an important book for understanding our current cultural moment. Lewis's analysis of culture in this book is more relevant now than ever. It is a must-read for any and every Christian. Recently, Dr. Michael Ward, one of the foremost C.S. Lewis scholars on the planet, a researcher from the University of Oxford, and a visiting professor at Houston Baptist University, has written a companion guide to the Abolition of Man . The guide is called After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man. In this book, Dr. Ward takes readers on a chapter by chapter, essay by essay journey through the most important ideas in The Abolition of Man . Because the analysis in this book is so critical to understanding our cultural moment, the Colson Center will send a copy of both The Abolition of Man and After Humanity: A Guide to the Abolition of Man as our thank you for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month. In fact, anyone who gives this month will also be able to join an exclusive set of video introductions from Dr. Ward and a live webinar to discuss the key concepts in the book. This special opportunity to study one of Lewis's most important books, guided by one of the world's top Lewis scholars, is only for friends of the Colson Center. Visit www.breakpoint.org/october to give a gift to the Colson Center and get your copies , along with access to the live webinar and prerecorded introductory videos.
Oct 23, 2021
Maria is joined on BreakPoint This Week by Edward Whelan, a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and holds EPPC's Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies . The two discuss the oral arguments that started in the Supreme Court this month. Ed provides an overview of the court, why Christians should care, and explains some of the finer points of the inner-workings on the Court. He also discusses the most direct challenge to Roe v. Wade that we've seen reach the court, while also sharing some structure to how the court may handle a second amendment case, potential vaccine mandates, and other cases that are being presented.
Oct 22, 2021
Is it Narnia? Of course it isn't. But it's good. C. S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man has been called his most difficult work. It's a short but dense argument about how modern education and culture are removing our capacity for virtue and destroying what makes us human. "Abolition" is a must-read—especially in our cultural moment. And a new companion volume by Michael Ward called After Humanity can help you understand Lewis' message and its background. For instance, did you know that Lewis almost died in the trenches of World War I when he got hit with shrapnel? Ward notes how this near-death experience forever shaped the way Lewis thought about morality. And it left him with a haunting question: "Is it noble to die for your country?" Many in his day claimed moral judgments were just feelings. But Lewis knew that without morality, human beings act less than human. Now more than ever, it's a message we need to hear. Visit breakpoint.org and we'll tell you how you can get a copy of Michael Ward's outstanding new book, After Humanity .
Oct 22, 2021
After more than 35 years of various versions of what has come to be called "the one-child policy," which experts estimate cost the country between 200 and 400 million lives , China is attempting an about-face. In 2015 , the government officially ended the one-child policy and allowed couples to have up to two children in some circumstances. In May of this year, that number was increased to three. Now, as of September, Chinese leaders have officially started discouraging "non-medical" abortions. Make no mistake: abortion is wrong. Preborn lives are human lives - and they're always worth protecting. However, that's not why China cares or is changing its policy. Instead, this seems to be about China's looming demographic crisis . The 2020 census revealed that China's fertility rate is the lowest since they started recording it in the 1950s. An aging population means fewer workers and more retirees. Decades o f sex-selective abortions mean China is facing a disproportionate shortage of young women. The question is whether the country has entered an irreversible population decline. It's a serious crisis - but it's also one that the Chinese Communist Party created. In the late 1970s, reacting to fears of overpopulation and its impact on the state-planned economy, China went to extreme - often Orwellian - lengths to limit the number of children each woman could have. Now Chinese officials need to increase the fertility rate by any means necessary, or face the real possibility of economic disaster. This kind of policy whiplash creates its own cruel ironies. One is that a state which has forced hundreds of millions of abortions is now advising women about its negative health impacts. Chinese state media describes abortion as " very harmful " and argues it could cause " serious psychological disorders " for unmarried women. Given how recently the state was forcing Chinese women into abortions, it's hard to feel like the state's concern is genuine. After all, there's a human cost to these policies. One Chinese mother told the story of having to choose between aborting her second child or paying a 200,000 yuan fine - $31,250 in US dollars. She and her husband couldn't raise the money, and their preborn child was aborted. Two months later, Beijing rescinded the 0ne- child Policy. Their baby would have been born the following Spring. The ironies extend to China's Uyghur Muslims. A core element of China's genocide of this ethnic group is the practices of forced abortion and sterilization. Even as China seeks to boost fertility in some regions, there is little hope that forced abortions among Uyghur Muslim women will be stopped. The Chinese vision of a disposable population runs deep. In 1957, Chinese dictator Mao Zedong was asked whether he feared a nuclear attack on his country. "What if they killed 300 million of us?" he replied. "We would still have many people left." Chairman Mao's answer to that question may be different today, but the worldview underlying his answer wouldn't be. One commentator on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, put it this way: "The female body has become a tool. When (the state) wants you to bear a child, you must do it at all cost. When (the state) doesn't want it, you're not allowed to give birth even at the risk of death." It's not just the female body that's become a tool in China, it's every single person who's reduced to a tool of the state. Within such a system, there is neither respect for human life nor for the autonomy of Chinese women. In June, my colleague Roberto Rivera and I wondered if forced procreation might be China's logical next step. That doesn't seem nearly as far-fetched now as it did then. The bottom line is that no matter what the Chinese Communist Party does, whatever policies they enact, people are people . They aren't a means to an end that is the state; they are the end, and the state should be thought of as the means. That goes for unborn children, that goes for mothers, that goes for everyone. Human lives should not be contingent on the whims of the state, either to end them or to "spare" them. It is the purpose of a truly just government to protect people's God-given rights. America's founders, for all their flaws, enshrined this principle into law. They believed that people weren't products of the state but were endowed with "inalienable rights" by their Creator , rights that pre-existed the state. Of course, that should make Westerners ask whether we're living up to that belief. China might be sacrificing - or saving - preborn children for the good of the state, but we often do the same thing on the altar of individual preference. Nevertheless, China's attempt to restrict abortion does save lives, even if for all the wrong reasons. A worldview that elevates the state's role at all costs will inevitably bulldoze sound economic principles, the sanctity of life, and the fundamental rights of people again and again. The pendulum may swing, but the abuses will continue.
Oct 21, 2021
Admiral Rachel Levine, a man who identifies as a transgender woman, was commissioned into the U.S. Public Health Service's Commissioned Corps. Officials called Levine's promotion "historic" because, they assured everyone, Levine was the first female four-star admiral in the Commissioned Corps. When something like this is announced the way it was - surrounded by fanfare and reporters constantly reminding us that this is a woman - it's not cynical to wonder whether the job was earned by qualification or just a PR campaign. But it is unsettling to consider that the administration might promote someone more for the photo op than their abilities. And it's frankly condescending to the Admiral, though he didn't seem to see it that way. This feels a lot less like a culture that's soberly "following the science" and a lot more like a culture heading "through the looking glass."
Oct 21, 2021
Today is what some call "the professional sports equinox," the one night of the year where the NBA, NHL, MLB, and the NFL all have games. For sports fans, it's like Christmas, Easter, Labor Day, and the Fourth of July all rolled into one. And, because of the new culture-wide push for sports gambling, Friday morning may bring quite the hangover. Between the non-stop commercials for DraftKings and FanDuel, and news segments on ESPN like Scott Van Pelt's "Winners" (where the SportsCenter host not only discusses who he thinks will win but also what's known as " the points spread "), we've clearly entered a new era in athletics. Sports gambling is now a national pastime that rivals the games themselves. Betting on sports is, of course, nothing new, but the story of its growth and acceptance is a perfect example of how culture changes. More than two dozen states have legalized sports betting in recent years, and more are lining up. What once was relegated to physical establishments in seedier parts of town is now available, via technology, on everyone's personal screens. No one has to place a bet, but the more it's normalized, the more people will. The growth of sports betting has already changed how we talk about sports. Just a few years ago, ESPN prohibited any mention of gambling on any of its shows. Now, entire segments are devoted to it, and no one is mad at Pete Rose anymore. It's changing the way we watch sports, too. A survey in 2018 found that 43 percent of all men ages 25 to 34 who watch sports on TV place at least one bet every week. That number is probably higher now since 2020 was a record-breaking year for sports betting. And online, gamblers can quickly bet on almost any aspect of the game, from final scores to individual plays to how long the National Anthem will last at the Super Bowl. Even before it was made digitally omnipresent, sports gambling proved damaging to the integrity of sports . A few years ago, 15 percent of professional tennis players reported knowledge of tennis matches being fixed. Earlier this month, an investigation into the 2016 summer Olympics found that nearly a dozen boxing matches had been fixed during the games. In 2007, a now-infamous NBA referee went to prison after the FBI found him deliberately influencing the outcomes of games on which he, a compulsive gambler, had placed bets. Now that so much of our culture is saturated by sports gambling, it's not difficult to imagine more players, more coaches, and more referees altering their performance to change outcomes, if only ever-so-slightly. To be clear, though sports betting will likely ruin plenty of bank accounts, lives, and locker rooms, it isn't significant enough to ruin America. It is, however, an expression of cultural undercurrents that can and will -- in particular, our growing inability to delay gratification in order to live for the future. Sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, among others, distinguished between those societies that were sensate, or living for the immediate gratification of the senses, and those that were ideational , those that lived for higher ideals. Ideational societies had a future. Sensate societies would eventually exhaust themselves in the constant pursuit of immediate gratification. Sports betting companies entice with the constant promise of a low-quality dopamine rush, whether from taking a financial risk or securing an elusive financial win. The possibility of the rush is available on every play. You don't have to wait three hours to see which team wins, because you can be invested in every individual play . And, all of this is happening within a culture largely devoid of big ideas about the meaning or purpose of life. What truths are there anymore that we collectively find to be "self-evident," other than our living from impulse and desire? What is there to point us to a narrative bigger than the immediate moment? Instead, the lie implied and perpetuated as sports gambling expands is that those who bet on sports could win big. But, of course, gambling empires aren't built on winners. You know the old adage: "The house always wins"? The internet hasn't changed that. Ubiquitous sports betting only complicates already dangerous dilemmas of modern society like smartphone addictions and rampant consumerism. Together, they all reflect that we are a culture trapped in the moment, unwilling and unable to delay gratification. This isn't just a recipe for more gambling addiction, it's a recipe for normalizing prolonged adolescence and self-indulgence, and that's not a recipe for a sustainable future.
Oct 20, 2021
John and Shane answer a concerned mother's question on how to engage her children who are questioning their faith. She notes that they have all sought counseling, specifically asking John for clarity on the practice of Cognitive Behavior Therapy. John and Shane then field two questions regarding Christians in the public square. Specifically, one listener asks if Christian men should pull back from their church involvement to be more involved in local politics. Another listener asks how Christians should respond to mandates being issued from the government.
Oct 20, 2021
John and Shane answer a concerned mother's question on how to engage her children who are questioning their faith. She notes that they have all sought counseling, specifically asking John for clarity on the practice of Cognitive Behavior Therapy. John and Shane then field two questions regarding Christians in the public square. Specifically, one listener asks if Christian men should pull back from their church involvement to be more involved in local politics. Another listener asks how Christians should respond to mandates being issued from the government.
Oct 20, 2021
Last Sunday, kidnappers abducted 17 Christian missionaries , including five children, in Haiti. The American missionaries are part of a Mennonite group called Christian Aid Ministries , which has been working in Haiti for years. This time, they were building an orphanage in a town east of Port-au-Prince. Haiti has been ensnared in near-total political and social chaos for decades, as the country's people suffer under inept and corrupt governments, crushing poverty, natural disasters , and increasingly brazen and violent gangs. When news breaks of a shocking abduction like this, it prompts an honest question: why would a group of Mennonite missionaries from rural Ohio - why would anyone - keep going back to a place like Haiti? There's only one answer compelling enough to make sense: because Jesus rose from the dead, the Gospel is real, and Christ has called us to be His hands and feet to even the most vulnerable. Please join us in praying for the safe return of these courageous brothers and sisters, and for the suffering people of Haiti.
Oct 20, 2021
Over the next five years, the seven installments of C.S. Lewis's "The Chronicles of Narnia" will turn seventy. Generations of children have found delight in stepping through the wardrobe door to this mythical world, filled with magic, meaning, and a whole cast of fantastic characters. Still, in the end, the appeal of the Chronicles comes back to a single character. Aslan, the Great Lion, who calls the children into Narnia, plays the central role in each adventure. It's not exactly correct to call Aslan an "allegory" of Jesus, since Lewis disliked allegory. He thought it was poor writing, in fact. Lewis might prefer that we instead think of Aslan as Christ transposed into a Narnian key, a Creator and Lord fit for a world primarily inhabited by talking animals. Throughout The Chronicles, Aslan often emphasizes that he really is a lion and not an illusion or symbol. "Touch me," he tells one character in The Horse and His Boy. "Smell me. Here are my paws, here is my tail, these are my whiskers. I am a true Beast." True to Lewis' genius and his love of myth, Aslan's purpose in calling children from our world into Narnia is the same as Lewis' purpose in writing the Chronicles. Through the Great Lion, Lewis gives us a glimpse of the character of the Savior and King he called "myth become fact," and whom Scripture calls "the Lion of Judah." Two moments in the Narnia series are particular favorites of my colleague Shane Morris, and illustrate Aslan's mission with particular clarity. One takes place during the third Chronicle (the fifth in publication order), The Horse and His Boy. Shasta, the main character, has ridden through the night and is lost in the mountains. Having grown up in a foreign country and just returned to Narnia, he doesn't realize he is royalty. After running and riding for his life for so long, he's tired and discouraged, and concludes that he must be the unluckiest boy alive. Suddenly, a great Voice confronts him out of the darkness, and asks to know his sorrows. A very frightened Shasta, not knowing what else to do, relays how he and his companions fled from their captors across the desert, how fear and danger have stalked them at every turn, and how he's been threatened by at least four lions. "There was only one lion," replies the Voice. "But he was swift of foot." Aslan reveals that he was the lion, and that his intervention at these crucial moments saved the boy's life, as well as the lives of his fellow travelers and his native kingdom. What Shasta saw as bad luck was Aslan's providential paw guiding him through danger toward his rightful throne, and even introducing him to his future wife. The second scene takes place at the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace have just come to the edge of the world after months at sea. The rest of the characters have gone home or paddled into Aslan's Country, and the three children are left alone. They encounter Aslan on a grassy shore, who's taken the form of a lamb and invites them to breakfast. There, he tells the children that it's time for them to go home and, for Edmund and Lucy, there will be no returning to Narnia. They don't take the news well. "It isn't Narnia, you know," cries Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how are we to live, never meeting you?" "But you shall meet me, dear one," Aslan replies. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there." Like Jesus revealing Himself to His disciples at the breaking of bread, here Lewis has Aslan shed the disguise to allow readers to fully recognize him. When Aslan reveals his role in Shasta's story, it brings to mind how Jesus, on the road to Emmaus, revealed to His disciples everything concerning Himself in the Law and Prophets. It's no wonder that, like those disciples, many who have met Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia have also felt their hearts burning within them. Seventy years on, C.S. Lewis's stories deserve every bit of their status as classics, filled as they are with spiritual treasures for young and old alike. But the lion's share of the credit goes to Aslan. In him we meet a character too good to be just a story. And, like Lucy, we long to know his true name—not in spite of the mane and tail, but because of them.
Oct 19, 2021
"Remember the signs." In C. S. Lewis' Narnian chronicle "The Silver Chair," Aslan tasks Eustace and Jill with finding a lost prince. To guide them he gives them a list of instructions—or signs—for them to commit to memory. Their success depends on it. Lewis made all of his tales from Narnia, including this quest, an allegory about the Christian life. Christ-followers are to seek the lost as part of joining God's great story to restore all things. But we're useless in this task if we don't remember the guidance God gives us in His Word. This story from "The Silver Chair" should encourage us all to encourage our kids to memorize Scripture. But how about you? Colossians 3:16 talks about the Word of Christ dwelling in us richly. Well, is it? Is it more and more? As we learn from Jill Pole, it's not too late to remember the signs, and to obey them.
Oct 19, 2021
A few weeks ago, Gabriel Gipe, a high school AP Government teacher in Sacramento, was suspended for encouraging his students to take up far Left activism. When students complained about the Antifa flag he'd hung up in his classroom, he dismissed their concerns and suggested that only fascists would be bothered by it. He also offered extra credit to students who attended radical political rallies. And, in an ironic and a-historical twist, this avowed anti-fascist also posted a photo online of himself with a Communist "hammer and sickle" emblem tattooed across his chest. According to one report, he often used " stamps with images of Josef Stalin, Fidel Castro and Kim Jung Un " to grade papers, and a poster of Mao Zedong was hung on his classroom wall. Apparently, this wasn't just his way of being edgy or provocative. In a video published by Project Veritas, Mr. Gipe was recorded saying, "I have 180 days to turn them into revolutionaries." Local parents were understandably enraged that their child's teacher praised history's worst villains, but while calling out his flawed thinking, some of his critics missed something essential about education. One mother said,: "I'm all for freedom of speech. I'm not going to deny that, but when you are a teacher, your job is academics. You are not here for morals, values, political views—anything like that is not welcome in the school unless it's a private school." Of course, no parent should tolerate such a historically devastating worldview being foisted on students, but it is a mistake to think that education without "morals, values, (and) political views" is possible. Or, for that matter, even desirable . It's not. Stripping morals from education—or, more accurately, attempting to strip morals from education—is a dangerous idea with dangerous consequences. Chuck Colson repeatedly highlighted this, especially in light of the financial scandals of the late 1980s and early 2000s. He spoke often of " a crisis of character " and the " inescapable consequence of neglecting moral training. " This is also the central focus of the essay " Men Without Chests," the opening essay in one of C.S. Lewis's most important books, The Abolition of Man . Lewis clearly saw that years of attempts to de -moralize education would not give us a world without vice, but a world without virtue. And, he closed, we would wonder how it could ever have happened in our enlightened age: In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful. Fast forward a few decades and here we are. When communism-loving and Critical-Race-Theory-advancing teachers work to indoctrinate children (even while denying it), they are simply stepping into a vacuum left long ago by those trying to make education a moral. They may be wrong to promote those particular values and moral framework, but they're right that education as inescapably an act of moral formation. S. Elliot reflected on this years ago in an essay about the purpose of education: If we see a new and mysterious machine, I think that the first question we ask is, 'What is that machine for ?' … If we define education, we are led to ask, 'What is Man?' and if we define the purpose of education, we are committed to the question, 'What is Man for?' Every definition of the purpose of education, therefore, implies some concealed, or rather implicit philosophy or theology. Assuming that kids go to school only to acquire data is to assume that kids are mere computers made of flesh. With all due respect to this very concerned mother and Winnie the Pooh , education is about more than how to make "Twy-stymes" and "ABCs," or knowing where Brazil is. Here's how Neil Postman put it: Modern secular education is failing not because it doesn't teach who Ginger Rogers, Norman Mailer and a thousand other people are but because it has no moral, social, or intellectual center. The curriculum is not, in fact, a "course of study" at all but a meaningless hodgepodge of subjects. It does not even put forward a clear vision of what constitutes an educated person, unless it is a person who possesses "skills." In other words, a person with no commitment and no point of view but with plenty of marketable skills. So, to summarize: Elliot taught us that a values-free education is impossible. Lewis predicted that the attempt at a values-free education would produce people not able to make moral decisions. Postman pointed out that education needs a moral center, or it's not an education at all. Educating for "skill acquisition" doesn't actually prepare students for life. And now, into the morals void, sundried progressive causes are promoting the ideologies that gave fascism to the world, in the name of being anti-fascists. We should've seen it coming. But, we didn't, and here we are, facing incredible challenges but also an incredible opportunity to show a better way for education and moral formation. You can start by studying The Abolition of Man with the Colson Center and Dr. Michael Ward this month. For a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month, we will send you two books and access to special online content.
Oct 18, 2021
You may have heard that Eastern story about the six blind men who encounter an elephant. The first touches its side and says, "An elephant is like a wall." Another one touches the trunk and says, "No, an elephant is like a snake." The third touches its tusk and says, "An elephant is like a spear." Another one touches the leg and says, "An elephant is like a tree." Another one touches an ear. "No, an elephant," he says, "is like a fan." And then touching the tail, the sixth one says, "You're all wrong. An elephant is like a rope." And who was right? Everyone, we're told. Just like everyone is right in their own view about God. But in reality, none of the men were right about the elephant. And as Trevin Wax at the Gospel Coalition points out, the parable contradicts the very point it's trying to make, by assuming that the one telling the parable sees the whole elephant. This story is just another claim to be right and everyone else being wrong.
Oct 18, 2021
If you've followed Breakpoint over the last month you've heard me say more than once that I think The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis could be the most important book for our cultural moment. It's one of those remarkably prophetic works that is increasingly applicable to the cultural moment in which we live. When The Abolition of Man was written, Lewis was uncovering the ways the modern world was logically inconsistent: ideas planted were not bearing the fruit that many moderns hoped they would. I believe the same is true in this generation, as well. For that reason, I think it's important to understand the observations Lewis was making when he wrote The Abolition of Man . We are so excited to provide an opportunity to study Lewis' book in-depth. This month we want to send you a copy of The Abolition of Man , as well as a copy of the brand new book After Humanity: A Guide to C. S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man , written by one of the world's top C. S. Lewis scholars, Dr. Michael Ward. Dr. Ward is a senior research fellow at Blackfriars Hall at the University of Oxford, and also a professor of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University, in Texas. He's authored several books on C. S. Lewis, but this is his first in-depth study guide. For a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month, we'll send you a copy of both The Abolition of Man and Ward's guide, After Humanity . Earlier this week, Dr. Ward spoke with my colleague, Shane Morris, about the inconsistencies of modern culture and the similar realities Lewis observed. They talked about the sorts of ideas the world is planting in the cultural soil and what the harvest now looks like. Here's a segment of that conversation: However much we may wish to be surgeons, chopping up nature to suit our own desires, we must stop at some point. That is to say, we must stop before we chop ourselves up. And that's why, you know, you reach this position of logical incoherence. He (C.S. Lewis) talks about the famous case of the Irishman who discovered that a certain kind of stove would heat his house with only half the amount of fuel. And he concluded that if he got two stoves of the same kind, he could heat his house with no fuel at all. It's that kind of logical incoherence: ...because we have such a linear imagination, we think that if we keep taking the same series of steps over and onwards, into the broad, sunlit uplands of the future, that we can go on indefinitely. But there is one step which is incommensurate with all the previous steps. We begin to treat ourselves as raw material, mere nature to be chopped up to suit our own desires. Science is a good thing, but science pushed to dehumanizing extremes is obviously not a good thing; and likewise, seeing through things, penetrating the veil of falsity, seeing through propaganda, understanding false peace, false consciousness, all that kind of penetration is good. But you see through things in order to see something through them . You see through the window in order to see the garden. But if the garden was transparent, like the window, what would you see through the garden? The world will become invisible. But a world in which everything is invisible is a world where effectively you are all blind. That's why he [C.S. Lewis] finishes with that famously negative statement, "To see through all things is the same as not to see." In other words, humility is really the answer. We mustn't think that we can master ourselves in the same way that we might rightly choose to master almost everything else. To get a copy of Dr. Ward's After Humanity: A Guide to C. S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man , as well as a copy of C.S. Lewis's classic book, The Abolition of Man, visit www.breakpoint.org/october . Also, Dr. Ward has graciously provided exclusive video introductions of each chapter of The Abolition of Man as well as a live webinar in November, which will be accessible to every person who gives to the Colson Center during the month of October. Join us in this study by making a donation of any amount to the Colson Center at www.breakpoint.org/october .
Oct 15, 2021
John and Maria reflect on Chuck Colson's legacy that endures at the Colson Center, and is also powerfully visible in Prison Fellowship and the Angel Tree ministry. Maria then asks John for clarity on the situation unfolding in Loudon County. There are allegations that the school board in Loudon County failed to act in responding to abuse by a student identifying as a transgender girl. To close, John unpacks the inner workings of the euthanasia movement through the story of a woman in Columbia who is battling ALS. Columbia recently provided provision for terminally ill people to receive euthanasia, but this woman's disease doesn't qualify her for the procedure. John also discusses the faithfulness of her grandmother and how aging and dying with dignity is more whole in a Christian worldview.
Oct 15, 2021
A little over forty years ago, Soviet dissident and literary giant Aleksander Solzhenitsyn delivered a thunderbolt of a commencement address at Harvard University. Survivor of the Soviet GULAG, a fierce opponent of communism, Solzhenitsyn stunned his elite audience as he took aim at the disastrous social and worldview trends happening in the West. He bemoaned that Western societies had given "destructive and irresponsible freedom . . . boundless space." By which he meant license, what Chuck Colson called freedom without virtue. Then he went after the Western appetite for "decadent art." Finally, he argued, no healthy society or culture lacks great statesmen. Solzhenitsyn was prophetic. But sad to say, the West has largely ignored his voice. Irresponsible freedom? Check. Decadence? Check. Now go through your mental checklist and see how many great statesmen or stateswomen you can name these days. Come to BreakPoint.org for more on Solzhenitsyn's stunning address, including a BreakPoint commentary.
Oct 15, 2021
The world is a better place because of what Jesus did in the life of Chuck Colson, the founder and namesake of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Though many in younger generations aren't as familiar with Chuck's Born Again story, his legacy is one we are proud of and committed to stewarding for the glory of God. Tomorrow, October 16, would have been Chuck Colson's 90th birthday. His legacy continues, not only in the ongoing work of the Colson Center, but also the continuation of Prison Fellowship, especially the Angel Tree ministry. Here's why that ministry is so important, direct from our founder, Chuck Colson: There are few things that thrill me more at Christmas time than Angel Tree! When I went to prison [in 1974], my greatest concern was not for myself, but for my family. I and other inmates anguished over ways to show our families we still loved them. That's why, when Prison Fellowship staffer and ex-bank-robber Mary Kay Beard began Angel Tree [in 1982], I knew immediately that we could reach those families who suffer so much at Christmas. Since that beginning, Angel Tree has brought the message of Christ's love to millions of prisoners' children through volunteers who deliver gifts to them on behalf of their incarcerated parents. Every year, Patty and I bring gifts to one or two of these children. For me, it just wouldn't seem like Christmas without Angel Tree. The same is true for a young man named Robert. At 10, Robert watched his dad handcuffed and driven away to prison. To keep the family afloat, Robert's mom packed up and moved them from their comfortable home in the country to a gang-ridden urban neighborhood. As she struggled to put bread on the table, she warned her children that Christmas might not look like much that first year without their dad. On Christmas morning, Robert woke up to find a bare room and his mother crying on the couch. He went over to her and wrapped his arms around her. He told her that he did not mind that they didn't have any gifts; that they were not all that important. But her tears were tears of joy. She told Robert to go look out on their front porch. There he saw gifts piled high, some with labels with his dad's name on them. They were Angel Tree gifts, given by volunteers from a local church. But Robert did not know that at the time. All he knew was that his dad loved him and remembered him. Robert and his family began attending the church that had been so generous. And when Robert's father was released from prison, he began attending the church as well. Over the next few years, Robert dabbled in gang activity and even dropped out of high school, but through it all, the church was there supporting his family and reminding him of Christ's love. Robert became a committed believer and eventually signed on as the youth pastor of that same church. And every year, he and his wife sign up to purchase gifts for Angel Tree children. Doesn't that give you a marvelous picture of what the Advent season is really all about? God entered into our darkness with light in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ. And that light, the Light of the world, changes us and enables us to spread the light to others. That was Chuck Colson, sharing about Angel Tree, a ministry dear to his heart. In remembrance of Chuck's 90th birthday tomorrow, would you consider participating in the ministry of Angel Tree? To learn more, please visit www.angeltree.org.
Oct 14, 2021
Last week, Olympic silver medalist Elinor Barker revealed she's expecting a baby and was, in fact, pregnant while cycling on the British women's team in Tokyo. Barker's happy announcement comes in the wake of an amicus brief signed by 500 female athletes , asking the Supreme Court to keep abortion legal because without it, they argue, women athletes wouldn't be able to reach their full potential. Barker joins a growing group of women with winning records who make the claims in the amicus brief seem, well, false. In announcing her pregnancy on social media, Barker thanked other athletes who are also moms. "Because of these women and many others," she wrote, "I didn't doubt the future of my career for one second." Whose testimony seems more compelling: 500 women claiming it can't be done, or a woman who's not only tried, but succeeded? The deeper question is what takes more courage: earning a silver medal in cycling while pregnant, or signing an amicus brief?
Oct 14, 2021
Remember the three weeks of lockdown in order to "flatten the curve?" A year-and-a-half later, after life put on hold— delayed graduations, conferences, wedding celebrations, and even funerals—coming out of this society-wide limbo has many feeling downright giddy. Writing recently in the New York Times , Soumya Karlamangla described how, when the pandemic rules began to loosen, she experienced "a small burst of joy." Every return to some old, familiar activity, from hugging people to getting haircuts to wandering the aisles of grocery stores, became "almost wondrous" to her. At least for a while... But then, she admits, the feelings began to fade. Now, Karlamangla has some advice for people looking to preserve that "post-lockdown feeling": practicing the lost art of gratitude . "Once a day, stop and appreciate what you're able to do now that you weren't last year. You can make a mental note, tell your partner, text your friend or write it down in a journal. The method doesn't matter, as long as you're making a deliberate effort to acknowledge that things have improved." She cites scientific evidence of the physical and mental health benefits of cultivating gratitude, including better sleep and higher levels of happiness. "Feeling thankful for the little pleasures in our lives," she concludes, "can add up to make us happier people overall." Precisely because the pandemic was so disruptive to normal life, our emergence from it provides incredible opportunities for embracing this kind of gratitude. Reading this helpful and encouraging piece reminded me of a particular phase in the history of business books when authors were telling employers and employees they could find meaning in their work by thinking of it as a calling , rather than mere employment. The problem with that advice was if we truly are called to work (and I think we are) who is calling us? Many of these books failed to address that important detail. In the same way, if we are to be grateful (and we are), to whom should we be grateful, exactly? Karlamangla never specifies, but with Thanksgiving on the horizon, along with all of the seasonal talk of counting blessings and being thankful for friends, family, and good health, it's worth thinking about. After all, we are years into the trend of spending the day after "giving thanks," trampling security guards for iPhones, toys, and flat-screen TVs. Maybe thanking no one in particular isn't really gratitude. Scripture is clear about who deserves our gratitude. In the first chapter of his epistle, James writes , "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." God deserves our final gratitude... not the universe or the government or our "inner light." Even the good gifts of other people's time and help and love point, ultimately, to God. And, of course, God doesn't owe us any of these good gifts, nor could we ever deserve them. As Paul told the men of Athens at the Areopagus, God "is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else." Paul's statement might have come as a surprise to Greek ears. In his book, Gratitude: An Intellectual History , Peter Leithart describes how, in the ancient mind, gratitude was like a circle. If you received a gift, you had an obligation to return the favor. For much of the Greek world, this was how politics worked—a system of favors and repayments we today might describe as "bribery." By introducing the idea of gratitude to a Giver so generous that no one could ever repay their debt, argues Leithart, Christianity radically altered this cycle. Gratitude, it turns out, really can change the world. Yes, practicing gratitude is extremely good for humans, even those who don't believe in God. For that reason alone, we can hope that Times readers take Karlamangla's advice seriously. But for Christians, gratitude is no mere mental health strategy. It's a profound way of telling the truth: to ourselves, to others, and to the whole world.
Oct 13, 2021
A mother writes in saying, "to my daughter, (Ed Oxford's ideas) is a perfect example of how to have it both ways," looking at the modern issue of homosexuality for Christians. Oxford's idea is that homosexuality was translated as "child-abuser" and other things prior to the 1980s. After the 1980s the translation changed because the issue became more prevalent in culture. A mother writes in to have an understanding of how to respond. Following that, another listener asks if we should use plural pronouns to define God. John and Shane expound on a recent BreakPoint commentary, providing a foundation to not only refer to God but to also speak confidently in our current cultural moment. To close, a writer shares an experience she had in a Bible study. The leader mentioned a "mixed-orientation" marriage. The Listener knew the term was problematic, but struggled to identify what it was about the term that made it untrue. John and Shane explore the definition and explain the worldview underpinnings that highlight the image of God and the details surrounding gender and identity terminology that shouldn't be compromised. -- Resources -- The Moral Vision of the New Testament Richard B. Hayes | Harperone | 1996 The Bible and Homosexual Practice Robert A.J. Gagnon | Abingdon Press | 2002 Does the Bible Say Gays are an "Abomination"? Sean McDowell | Youtube | September 27, 2021 God's not "They": Divine Pronouns Matter John Stonestreet & Tim Padgett | BreakPoint | October 4, 2021
Oct 13, 2021
According to the Associated Press , African scientists have developed the first malaria vaccine, and the World Health Organization has approved it. This is huge. Malaria is one of the deadliest scourges of tropical environments; it still takes the lives of more than 400,000 people each year , many of whom are children living in Africa's poorest regions. Our very ability to achieve medical breakthroughs like this points to our God-given design and role in the created world. God didn't place Adam in the Garden of Eden to lounge about, but to work. Human beings were to "tend the Garden." Since the fall, our calling has included using our God-given abilities to push back against death and disease, frustration and toil. In an atheistic worldview, a disease like malaria isn't something wrong, just something that is. And if humans are mere animals, not image-bearers, we are basically victims of the natural world, not stewards. It turns out atheism just isn't big enough to explain all that humans can do.
Oct 13, 2021
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature," wrote Karl Marx , "...the opium of the people." Decades of often painful historical experience has proven his observation both right and wrong. Believing in God does ease pain and suffering of faithful followers, but he was wrong in thinking that religion, especially Christianity, leaves them with nowhere else to go from there. A recent article in The Economist put it this way: " Religious belief really does seem to draw the sting of poverty ." Although there is a correlation between poverty and decreased mental health, the article highlighted German sociologist Dr. Jana Berkessel's recent findings that religion significantly mitigates this effect. A variety of similar studies confirm this. Regular attendance at religious services consistently correlates with longer life spans, stronger immune systems, and lower blood pressure, as well as decreased anxiety, depression, and suicide. Kids raised in religious households have a lower incidence of drug addiction, delinquency, and incarceration. They're more likely to graduate high school. In short, the nearly unanimous scientific consensus is that religious belief is good for you. Of course, Marx's point was that these benefits only serve to keep people content in their chains, and to keep them distracted so much by the next world that they do nothing to change this one. Many critics today take the critique even further. Religion, especially Christianity, has not only been used to pacify people in their oppression, but is the very source of it. Of course, the charge that Christianity has been co-opted, corrupted, and weaponized to justify all kinds of abuse, conquest, and enslavement, is undeniable. At the same time, it's also undeniable that Christianity has been a global force for the kinds of goods now so pervasive, it's hard to even imagine the world without them. Many of the rights and principles we consider to be naturally occurring features of the world only came to be by the influence of Christianity. In the ancient pagan world, violence, rape, infant exposure, and prostitution were rules, not exceptions. Almost immediately, Christianity began to revolutionize pagan ethics, particularly in its view of the poor and the outcast. Roman Emperor Julian famously wrote that when the "impious Galileans support not only their poor, but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us." To a world with no reason to believe in the equality of all people, Christianity taught that "there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." This belief was grounded in the Christian view of the human person, which had no parallel in the ancient world and which created an explosion of literacy, social mobility, and human rights that we now take for granted in the modern world. Christianity's unique contributions in humanizing the modern world is yet another reason to not simply lump all "religious beliefs" into the one blanket category. All religions are simply not the same, not in substance nor impact. Economist Robin Grier, for example, conducted a cross-national survey of 63 formerly European colonies. She found that, across the board, Protestant Christianity, in particular, was "positively and significantly correlated with real GDP growth," and that "the level of Protestantism is significantly related to real per capita income levels." A National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) paper found that only certain religious beliefs—notably beliefs about heaven, hell, and an afterlife—are linked with economic growth. In other words, it's not just about having a "religion," but about what your religion teaches . Consider Africa. A recent paper from NBER analyzed educational outcomes among religious children. Though Africa is becoming increasingly religious across the board, the paper found that in many countries, "primary school completion for Christians was more than double that of Muslims or Africans adhering to local religions." Christian communities far outpace others when it comes to intergenerational educational growth. Writing in 1843 , Karl Marx couldn't have anticipated how thoroughly science would analyze his claims about religion. He'd likely have been among the modern theorists surprised that the world is becoming more religious, not less . As one writer with The Brookings Institute put it, "While weak state structures collapse and aid agencies switch priorities, one group of actors persist against all odds: religious institutions." Of course, this isn't why anyone should believe the truth claims of Christianity. They should be believed if they are true. At the same time, the fact that Christian belief has been an educational, social, and economic ladder for millions suggests these beliefs ought to be taken seriously.
Oct 12, 2021
Last month, 26-year-old Heidi Crowter lost a legal case against the British government , in which she claimed that UK abortion laws unjustly discriminate against people with Down syndrome. Most abortions are legal in the UK only before 24 weeks, with an exception in cases of "physical or mental abnormalities" that would leave the baby "seriously handicapped." This includes children with Down Syndrome, who can be terminated right up to the moment of birth. Heidi and 40,000 other UK citizens with Down syndrome , object. And they should. In some European nations, as many as 96 percent of children with the condition are aborted. Last week, an article in the UK Telegraph asked, " Could this be the last generation of Down's syndrome children? " As Heidi put it after the court's decision, "We face discrimination every day at schools, in the workplace, and in society. Thanks to the verdict, the judges have upheld discrimination in the womb, too." For all the talk of equality these days, entire classes of people are being eliminated. Followers of Christ need to defend these image-bearers.
Oct 12, 2021
In a recent article in The Atlantic , Emma Green writes that "a third or more of Americans younger than 45 either don't have children or expect to have fewer [children]." This is, of course, not really new news. Birth rates have been falling for years, for various reasons. What's notable in Green's article is the somewhat new reason younger Americans claim they are choosing childlessness: because they are "worried about climate change." Well-known figures including politician Alexandria Ocasio Cortez , entertainer Miley Cyrus , and royal family member turned Hollywood celebrity Prince Harry have all publicly expressed their so-called "climate anxiety" and concluded that fewer kids is better. In Britain, a new movement of women has launched a "birth strike," refusing to have children until the climate crisis ends. "Climate anxiety" assumes three things. First, it assumes that climate change is happening, which seems to be clear enough. Second, it assumes that the way the climate is changing is not only remarkable, but also catastrophic. This is far less certain, given the limits of what we know about the history of past climate changes. Third, and even less clear, is the assumption that climate change in our time is human-caused. Even if each of these assumptions is granted, refusing to have children in response raises the obvious question of whether fewer kids would actually solve the problem. Many experts say, " Don't buy it ." While it's true that each new human being brings a certain amount of carbon emissions into the world, even some scientists concerned about catastrophic climate change think that "reducing population is not the way that we're going to solve the climate crisis." On the contrary, dramatic social and economic consequences result once the fertility rate drops below replacement levels, as has happened across most of the Western world. Far from having too many kids, most Western nations have been in a population decline for so long , they've reached crisis levels where, among other things, there won't be enough working adults to support an aging population. Many of our wrong-headed reactions to "climate anxiety" are rooted, it seems, in Paul Ehrlich's infamous and disastrous predictions in The Population Bomb . Back in 1968, Ehrlich declared that , due to overpopulation, ""the battle to feed all of humanity is over," and humanity lost. Hundreds of millions of people, he wrongly predicted, would starve to death in the next few decades. Ehrilch was not only wrong, he was dead wrong. In the words of Smithsonian Magazine's Charles C. Mann , the book created "an anti-population-growth crusade that led to human rights abuses around the world," including China's one-child policy and forced sterilizations in countries like Mexico, Bolivia, and Indonesia. Like all bad ideas, Ehrlich's had victims. Ehrlich's worst idea is that people were the problem to be solved. Instead, since his predictions were made, even as the population continued to grow, rates of starvation-level poverty around the world plummeted. As it turned out, people were the solution. Scientists, farmers, and policymakers did what people do: they innovated, created, imagined, and solved problems. So, instead of an apocalypse, the late 20th century saw a revolution in agriculture and the most significant decline in world hunger in human history. Perhaps, we should apply that historical knowledge to today's crises. What if the kids and their carbon outputs aren't the problem to be solved, but instead the very ones to solve whatever climate change problems we face? This is already happening in some ways. Though far less than in 1600, there are billions more trees today than 100 years ago. The North American Forest Commission reports that annual tree forest growth in 2020 was 380 percent greater than in 1920, with no signs of slowing down. Imagine if the generation of 1920 had simply stopped having children! This is not to say that trees are the answer to climate change, or that humanity can solve every problem. Among the effects of sin is the human ability to harm the world, even on a dramatic scale. At the same time, God created humans with an incredible capacity to steward the world, and adapt as necessary to survive and thrive. Christianity offers something climate-anxious secularism doesn't and, in fact, can't. The Christian worldview tells us what human beings are, and what they are for. We're not random products of a cosmic lottery with margins so thin that we put our own future existence at risk simply by existing. We have purpose and capacity that a secularist framework cannot explain. Any philosophy that treats children like consumer goods must be rejected. Children are not just something we order when we feel like it, and cancel if we don't. Every child is a brand new portrait of the God Who created and continues to oversee this world. God hasn't given up on the world, and neither should we. In fact, especially in uncertain times, Christians should follow His lead and continue to create, innovate, and even have babies.
Oct 11, 2021
A new treatment for depression is undergoing clinical trials at Johns Hopkins . Early results suggest that the two doses of the active ingredient psilocybin, a main ingredient of the hallucinogenic drug known as "magic mushrooms," significantly reduced symptoms of major depression in adults. Some of our most effective treatments come from unorthodox sources. The heart drug Wayfarin , for example, was originally derived from rat poison. Aspirin is taken from willow trees. So, we shouldn't rule out psilocybin's valid medical uses too quickly. On the other hand, covering up symptoms of depression isn't really treating it, much less curing it. Mental illness can have chemical, psychological , physiological, relational, and spiritual causes, or even all of the above. Manipulating brain chemistry is a shortcut that can miss the bigger picture of who we are and what healing looks like. We cannot medicate away our need for purpose, belonging, love, or forgiveness. The best treatments will always see people in the fullness of who they are, made in the image and likeness of God.
Oct 11, 2021
Increasingly, when confronted with a person who experiences gender dysphoria, doctors and psychologists are allowed to offer only one diagnosis: the patient is transgender . As recently as a few years ago, this was a mental disorder diagnosis, and steps would be taken to align the mind with the body. Today, it's just the opposite . Gender dysphoria means being born in the wrong body, and treatment is to align the body with the mind. This is the expected diagnosis and path of treatment even when the patient is a child . All voices, even the most qualified voices, that dare to be critical of this way of treating gender dysphoria are silenced. No dissent is allowed. Dr. Allan Josephson is the former head of child and adolescent psychology at the University of Louisville. In 2019, he was effectively fired for participating on a Heritage Foundation panel where he questioned gender transition for minors . With the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom, Dr. Josephson is suing the university , but his situation highlights the experience of other scientists who reject current transgender medicine as premature and irresponsible. One critic, who served as an expert witness in Josephson's case is Dr. James Cantor, a Canadian clinical psychologist with a history of taking unpopular stands . Following a new "policy statement" by the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding gender transition in minors, Dr. Cantor published a "fact check" calling out what he saw as the Academy's "systematic misrepresentation" of the medical literature. "Not only did AAP fail to provide compelling evidence" for claiming that gender-dysphoric minors should be immediately and unquestioningly transitioned, Dr. Cantor argued, but "AAP's recommendations are despite the existing evidence." To be clear, Dr. Cantor is no religious fundamentalist. He describes himself as a gay atheist who isn't afraid "to barbecue sacred cows." Like Josephson, he too has faced backlash for challenging the dominant transgender narrative, specifically from a scientific perspective. Last year, Cantor was booted from an online forum of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality for questioning the case for gender transition of minors. He resigned in protest, concluding that the Society had "ceased to be a scientific organization." Dr. Cantor is reacting to what he thinks is a breakdown of the scientific process and a substitution of ideology for evidence. He described this breakdown recently in an interview on the Upstream podcast with my colleague Shane Morris : "We're no longer allowed to discuss the issue itself. And in this case, [it is] the solid science that over and over again is getting silenced because it's not matching up with what makes people feel good." Cantor understands that, after puberty, around 80 percent of gender dysphoric children spontaneously revert to identifying with their biological sex . He also notes that despite all of the false certainty proclaimed about the condition, transgender identity itself is still poorly understood. In many cases, Cantor believes, it is almost certainly the result of other mental health issues not being treated, like borderline personality disorder. Because of this, he especially opposes the common practice of threatening parents of gender dysphoric children with the possibility of suicide, calling it "essentially emotional manipulation." In the conversation with Shane, Dr. Cantor compared the way gender dysphoria is dominating the mental health conversation, particularly when it comes to children, with the 1980s and 90s, when a craze over repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse swept the field. It was eventually rejected as pseudoscience, but not before it wrecked countless lives and families. In fact, Cantor thinks that the demographics of people who thought they had been abused as children are "very similar" to patients now being held up in support of childhood gender transition. "That era," warns Cantor, "did not end well…And here we go again. We didn't learn a thing." Because science advances based on self-correction, criticism, and dissent are vital for fixing bad theories and identifying mistaken assumptions. On the transgender issue, more than any other right now, dissenting voices are silenced . Though such scientific malpractice is reversible, for those whose identities, lives, and very bodies are now being experimented on, much of the damage will be permanent.
Oct 8, 2021
John and Maria begin their discussion reflecting on Facebook. They share their experience and the heightened fear around the Facebook outage of 2021. Maria then asks John to reflect on two BreakPoints that he offered this week. The first BreakPoint John revisits was on Jeff Bezos's work to manipulate cells in an effort to live longer, and potentially forever. Maria and John then revisit a piece on Grandparents, both sharing special stories of their relationships with their grandparents. John highlights the special role grandparents have in culture, and offers a unique opportunity for inspiration and training through The Legacy Coalition. Maria then asks John's insight on the federal government's budget deliberations. John provides a worldview framework for why we struggle to understand the rise in national debt and the conflict surrounding the budget. Then Maria asks John to offer a Christian perspective on the issues the federal government is engaging in local school boards and why our mitigating institutions seem dull and fragile right now. -- Stories Referenced in the Show -- Everyone Wants to Live Forever Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is among a group of billionaires looking for the secret to immortality. Bezos funds Altos Labs, a startup pursuing breakthroughs in biological reprogramming technology. The ambitious new field has already seen some promising, not to mention terrifying, results in animal testing. Biological reprogramming technology attempts to revert cells to an embryonic state. If successful, this could unlock the potential to "rejuvenate" organs, perhaps entire bodies." BreakPoint>> The Unique and Crucial Calling to Grandparents Grandparents are among the most recent group of people to be labeled "toxic" in our culture. Even before the pandemic, more and more parents of adult children are victims of what has been called "relational minimalism." It's a brutal reality for many. BreakPoint>> Congress passed a bill to fund the government into December. But questions remain over the debt ceiling and Biden's agenda The US government went into Thursday embroiled in a game of three-dimensional chess with time running out and trillions of dollars at stake. The first dimension was a must-do: fund the government by midnight to avoid it shutting down. In a typical shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees stop getting paid and many stop working; some services are suspended and numerous national attractions and national parks temporarily close. The second dimension is an even bigger must-do: raise the national debt ceiling, an artificially imposed borrowing limit, before an estimated deadline of 18 October. Failure to pay its bills would see the US default for the first time in history. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has warned that the effects would be "cataclysmic" and cost 6m jobs. The third dimension is not quite a must but it feels that way to Joe Biden and Democrats: pass a $1tn bipartisan infrastructure bill and a $3.5tn partisan package that expands social services and tackles the climate crisis. Both are stalled by divisions between Democratic centrists and progressives, along with Republican eagerness to deny Biden a win The Guardian>> Plan would give every Ohio K-12 student a voucher to attend private school It's called the backpack scholarship program, and it would direct the state treasurer to create "education savings accounts" for any student who wanted one starting in the summer of 2023. The accounts would be filled with either $5,500 (K-8 grade) or $7,500 (9-12 grade) in state dollars annually and could be used to pay for things like private school tuition, homeschool supplies, after-school care, advanced placement testing fees or educational therapies. MSN>> FBI and Justice Department will help protect school employees amid uptick in violence over COVID-19 policies and critical race theory' The Justice Department and FBI were ordered Monday to help protect school employees across the U.S. following an uptick in violence against them. Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI and other agencies "to discuss strategies for addressing this disturbing trend." The order comes after the National School Boards Association sent a letter to President Joe Biden about the "immediate threat" local schools and boards are facing. CBS>> -- Recommendations -- Lancaster, PA The Legacy Coalition - Grandparent Summit My Reading Life - Ann Bogel The Culture of Narcissism - Christopher Lasch
Oct 8, 2021
Oct 8, 2021
In the 19th century, India was coming to grips with the modern world. While British companies, like the East India Company, helped modernize India through trade, British missionaries, like William Carey, helped modernize India through culture formation. One of the more creative interactions with the west happened in Bengal through the work of Christian missionaries. For example, when Krishna Mohan Bannerjee was a child, he attended the School Society Institution started by David Hare, a watchmaker from Scotland. Though Hare's faith commitments are unknown, he was concerned about social welfare in Bengal and started several noteworthy schools in the area. Hare recognized Bannerjee's potential and pushed him to continue his education, first in Pataldanga, and eventually at the newly founded Hindu College (now Presidency University) in Kolkata. Bannerjee thrived at Hindu College, where the atheist headmaster, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, advocated for free discussion and debate on any and every issue and profoundly influenced Bannerjee. When his father died of cholera in 1828, Bannerjee was forced to support himself through manual labor, and yet, still excelled in his studies. After graduating from Hindu College in 1829, Bannerjee got a job teaching at David Hare's school. In 1829, Scottish missionary Dr. Alexander Duff noticed that Christian missions in India had only reached the lower castes. Duff proposed a new mission strategy of offering education in English in the sciences and biblical studies, in order to help upper-caste Hindu students see the contradictions in their own beliefs and move toward Christianity. Like so many others, Duff connected Western learning and success with Christianity. He believed that making Western learning and the Bible available would inevitably lead to conversions. Bannerjee began to attend Duff's lectures and even visited Duff's house for serious discussions about religion and philosophy. In 1832, Bannerjee converted to Christianity. His conversion came at great cost: Hare fired Bannerjee from the school, Bannerjee's wife was forced to return to her father's home, and a firestorm erupted in the local press about Hindu College. Ironically, Bannerjee's conversion was blamed on the atheist, Derozio, and the popular headmaster was forced out. Bannerjee moved to the Church Missionary Society School, where he served as headmaster. He studied theology at Bishop's College and became the first Indian to be ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in Bengal. Before long, Bannerjee became the foremost Indian apologist of his day. Prior to 1865, Bannerjee followed the lead of Duff and other missionaries in seeing Hinduism as nothing but superstition and idolatry that needed to be destroyed. However, his entire approach to apologetics eventually changed, and he began to argue that Christianity was actually the fulfillment of Hinduism. He noted how sacrifice was the most important ritual in the earliest forms of Hinduism. Further, he showed from the Vedas, the Upanishads, and other Hindu writings that Prajapati, the Lord and Supporter of Creation, sacrificed himself to save humanity, and did so by taking on a mortal body. This, Bannerjee argued, prefigured Jesus' incarnation and sacrifice on the cross. Bannerjee's efforts to find a doorway from Hinduism to Christianity grew out of his love for his country and his culture. He wanted to reconcile Christianity and modern education with Indian culture. In keeping with this goal, he became heavily involved in a wide range of social organizations in Bengal and worked for social reform. He opposed the caste system, polygamy, idolatry, the sale of girls into marriage, and sati, the practice of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. He also supported the education of women, seeing it as a yardstick for measuring the social progress of a country. Beyond his work as an evangelist and apologist, Bannerjee was a critically important figure in the Bengal Renaissance, bringing modern ideas of scholarship and social justice to India and developing an approach to Christianity that honored Indian culture while remaining firmly anchored in the British evangelical tradition. He was a remarkable example of contextualizing the Gospel to India, and applying the biblical worldview to all areas of life. For Bannerjee, this started in school, inspired by a teacher who taught students to desire wisdom, seek truth, and follow honest inquiry. Eventually, this pointed Krishna Mohan Bannerjee to love God with all his mind, and to love his neighbors as himself.
Oct 6, 2021
John and Shane field a question from one listener for resources to support a Biblical practice of marriage. Another listener asks for resources for a child who enjoys art, but is trying to understand artistic expression from a Christian worldview. In the latter part of the show, a listener asks if secular is a term Christians should use if "every square inch" belongs to God? To close, John and Shane discuss if "agree to disagree" is a good tactic to have in worldview conversations, if it is loving or actually harmful.
Oct 6, 2021
Business experts are noticing an increase in Gen Z-ers' need to know they're doing things well. "Sixty-six percent of Gen Z say they need feedback from their supervisor at least every few weeks in order to stay at their job," writes Ryan Jennings, a generation expert, "Considering Gen Z grew up in digital environments full of real-time feedback (likes, comments, shares, etc.), it's not surprising [they have] an elevated appetite for feedback at work." On the other hand, many believe Gen Z is the most narcissistic generation. It's not hard to see why, when young people are constantly taught to live "their" truth and cut out "toxic people" - which is mostly anyone who makes them feel bad. Incredibly, the latest peer-reviewed data shows that Gen Z-ers know they have this tendency, and don't really like that about themselves. So, there's hope after all. Growth of any kind requires being willing to listen to others, even when they tell us things we don't want to hear.
Oct 6, 2021
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is among a group of billionaires looking for the secret to immortality. Bezos funds Altos Labs , a startup pursuing breakthroughs in biological reprogramming technology. The ambitious new field has already seen some promising, not to mention terrifying, results in animal testing . Biological reprogramming technology attempts to revert cells to an embryonic state. If successful, this could unlock the potential to "rejuvenate" organs , perhaps entire bodies. On the one hand, there's nothing unusual or controversial about the human desire to go on living. Christianity affirms that death is not a natural part of life in the strictest sense. It's a result of the fall. Death is, to borrow a phrase from theologian Neil Plantinga, " not the way it's supposed to be. " Scripture calls death " an enemy ." When Jesus arrived at the tomb of Lazarus, He wept at the death of his friend and the pain it caused , even though He clearly planned on turning that funeral into a party. At the same time, the desperate race for immortality is not an attempt to reverse the effects of sin. Rather, it reflects how desperate man without God is to exert complete control over the cosmos, and to have life on our own terms. Jeff Bezos is certainly not the first person in history willing to go to such extreme lengths to stave off the inevitable, only the latest and most resourced. Some speculate that this is nothing more than a mid-life crisis for the 56-year-old tech mogul. After all, Bezos's 25-year marriage ended in 2019, and, in July, he stepped down as CEO of one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the history of the world. Perhaps he's just looking for ways to spend his $200 billion. It would take a lot of trips to outer space to spend that fortune . Perhaps he's reacting to the age-old truth, that even all the wealth in the world cannot ultimately satisfy a hole in the heart that is God-shaped. Another, more ancient billionaire once lamented , "When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind." Of course, if life truly is meaningless in the first place, more of it won't fix the problem. The Bible teaches that we can never be satisfied until we are reconciled with the God who made us. Until then, we remain enemies, selfish rebels at war with life itself. Living forever in this state wouldn't be an accomplishment. It would be a nightmare. Genesis tells us that, after the fall, God kept Adam and Eve from the Garden in order to prevent them from eating of the Tree of Life : Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—" therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. God's actions were as much of mercy here as of judgment. Later, King Solomon would describe how God "set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what [He] has done from beginning to end." We are created beings created for eternity. C.S. Lewis famously put it this way , "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." The desire for immortality ultimately points us to, and can only be satisfied by, God Himself. He made us to live forever. He is life itself. The eternal life we seek, both the why and the how, is only found in Him.
Oct 5, 2021
In 2020, Chinese box office revenue officially surpassed that of North America. Shirli Li writes in the Atlantic , "Filmmakers and actors have always been subject to bosses who decide which movies get to soar at the box office….Now, more than ever before, that boss is Beijing." Fast and Furious star John Cena demonstrated this deference in May when he posted a back-bending apology to China, in Mandarin, for calling Taiwan a country. Another example is the potential ban facing Marvel's The Eternals because its director, Chloé Zhao, criticized the Chinese Communist Party … eight years ago. Repeatedly, U.S. film companies posture as courageous defenders of human rights when they vocally oppose laws in states like Georgia , North Carolina , and Texas . But then they're deafeningly silent about doing business in China, a country actively imprisoning more than one million Uyghur Muslims , hiding the presence of massive slave labor camps and no freedom of any kind when it comes to journalism . Hollywood, it seems, mostly just listens to the money. The hope has always been that Western values would somehow infiltrate China and change it from the inside. But the opposite is happening. There's nothing like the allure of massive profit to drown out our collective conscience.
Oct 5, 2021
Whenever I struggle to understand C.S. Lewis's nonfiction work, I find it helpful to go to Narnia. For example, so many of the concepts Lewis introduced in Mere Christianity are found in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . Throughout each of the Narnia books, Aslan, the Pevensie children, and other characters embody many of the ideas he explored in his nonfiction. Another example is The Abolition of Man , a book critically important for our cultural moment. In the book's opening essay, "Men without Chests," Lewis thoroughly critiques modern education which, Lewis says, fills students' heads with knowledge and their bellies with passion, but does nothing to cultivate the chest. This idea from Lewis is based on something Aristotle taught , that the head is the seat of human reason and the belly is the seat of passion. Good citizens, Aristotle believed, are those whose heads govern their bellies. When someone is ruled by their passions, they are unstable. Aristotle thought that humans could govern their bellies through the formation of good habits. There's certainly a lot of truth to that. But anyone who has ever been in a real conflict between head and gut knows that, typically, the gut wins. Even more, our reason becomes merely instrumental to justify whatever it is we want. My friend Michael Miller, a senior fellow at the Acton Institute , once described the belly as an 800-pound gorilla constantly demanding, "Feed me, feed me, I want. I want, feed me, feed me." The head, on the other hand, is more like an 80-pound professor with a bowtie. Who's going to win the conflict between a massive gorilla and a tiny professor? The gorilla…every time. This is what C.S. Lewis was critiquing in his essay "Men Without Chests." A person will only function well if they are bolstered by a strong "chest," or virtue . Only a well-formed moral will, which cares for virtuous things, can overrule and ultimately govern the belly. For a story version of this opening essay of The Abolition of Man , see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader . This book has one of the best opening lines: " There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. " Eustace is the boy without a chest, as readers soon discover. He's a spoiled brat; as Lewis goes on to describe, he attended schools that filled his head with knowledge and his belly with passion, but did nothing to cultivate his chest. A thematic undercurrent in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is how Eustace developed a chest. Spoiler alert: it had a lot to do with his relationship with Reepicheep, one of Narnia's smallest characters. The mouse, a perennial favorite character in all of Narnia, had much moral courage. He had, to borrow Lewis' phrase, a chest. "Men Without Chests" is just one reason that The Abolition of Man is such an important book for understanding our current cultural moment. Lewis's analysis of culture in this book is more relevant now than ever. It is a must-read for any and every Christian. Recently, Dr. Michael Ward, one of the foremost C.S. Lewis scholars on the planet, a researcher from the University of Oxford, and a visiting professor at Houston Baptist University, has written a companion guide to the Abolition of Man . The guide is called After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man. In this book, Dr. Ward takes readers on a chapter by chapter, essay by essay journey through the most important ideas in The Abolition of Man . Because the analysis in this book is so critical to understanding our cultural moment, the Colson Center will send a copy of both The Abolition of Man and After Humanity: A Guide to the Abolition of Man as our thank you for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month. In fact, anyone who gives this month will also be able to join an exclusive set of video introductions from Dr. Ward and a live webinar to discuss the key concepts in the book. This special opportunity to study one of Lewis's most important books, guided by one of the world's top Lewis scholars, is only for friends of the Colson Center. Visit us at BreakPoint to give a gift to the Colson Center and get your copies , along with access to the live webinar and prerecorded introductory videos.
Oct 4, 2021
Recently, the US Census bureau reported, somewhat diplomatically, "It's clear that in an unprecedented environment, families are seeking solutions that will reliably meet [the needs] of their children." That's an understatement. The New York Times reports that just last year, more than 1 million children did not enroll in kindergarten. The impact of learning loss from missed school time has parents worried across every grade. After years of the nationwide percentage of homeschool families hovering around 3.3 percent, that number jumped to 11.1 percent in the fall of 2020. If all of this means a renewed emphasis on parental involvement, that's a good thing. Whether homeschooled or otherwise, involved parents consistently predict far better educational outcomes for kids. Which makes sense, because parents are the primary, God-given guardians of their children's future. Education begins in the home. Or, as Tina Windebank put it over at Citizenlink , "Relax! Your kids are already homeschooled."
Oct 4, 2021
Last week, professor of religion Mark Silk suggested that we should use the pronoun "they" when referring to God, instead of "He." Writing over at Religion News Service , Silk offered a couple of "textual" arguments to support his admonition, but his primary aim was to update our God-talk with what he called "the imperative of gender-inclusive language." Silk isn't the first to suggest something like this . And, it's not strictly accurate to say his ideas promote gender inclusivity. Calling God "she" or "her" or "Mother" was a way to dismantle the patriarchy not so long ago, but, in this cultural moment, the call is to de-gender God altogether, along with everything else, including us. Silk's best theological argument is that Elohim , a common Old Testament word for God, is plural. However, while Elohim is technically plural, so are the Hebrew words for face , panim , and Egypt , Mizraim . No one suggests that plural pronouns are required for these words. This grammatical quirk of Hebrew isn't as significant as Silk makes it. The more significant problem with Silk's idea is that by abandoning biblically gendered language, we abandon the words God chose to describe Himself, and this alters our understanding of God. While God doesn't reveal himself as "male" in an embodied gendered sense (like humans), God does uniformly use masculine terms to reveal Who He is. He acts like a mother , according to a few passages in Holy Scripture, but He reveals Himself as the Father throughout Holy Scripture . This may not seem like a big deal. Some will argue that God is a big boy and can handle being called "her" or " zhe " or "they." Plus, others add, God is infinite, beyond our comprehension. He can't be bothered by pronouns. To that, I reply, No way. Call your spouse by the wrong name, and see if it matters. Describe your wife as you want her to be, not the way she is... what will she say? Tell her you love her for characteristics that she does not have, and see how that goes over. Our experience tells us that language matters, especially descriptive language that someone uses to define oneself. As a person, who God reveals Himself to be matters… a lot. Things that do not matter to objects do matter to persons. Rocks and trees and books don't care how they're addressed - they don't care about anything! Animals will get used to whatever you call them most often, especially if you have food. But persons care how they're addressed. This isn't a weakness; this is the glory of being a person. What's more, without the personness of God as the foundation of our own personness, the things we most value about being human would be lost to the cold calculus of cause and effect. God isn't a force or an energy with no opinion of what we think about Him. God is a person, with specific characteristics. God is not a nebulous blob to be molded according to our wishes. God is infinite, but He is not indefinite. He makes Himself known as a God of justice, holiness, compassion, and love. These are defined realities of his character. It is not for us to decide which parts of His self-revelation are passé . We call God "Him," because God calls Himself "Him." We can wrestle with why, but the reality is that He calls Himself "Him" in a language in which He could've easily called Himself "it" or "her" or "they." Our perceptions of God should be shaped by what God has revealed about Himself, not by our cultural "imperative of gender-inclusivity." Ironically, when we say things like "let's not limit God with our categories," especially when dealing with categories He Himself introduced to the world, we do what we claim we are trying to avoid: we limit God with our own culturally constructed limits. When we take away the boundaries He has revealed, we bind Him within our limited imaginations. As a result, we are left with a god created in our own image, who always agrees with us, and never challenges the idols of our hearts. Christianity is fundamentally a revealed religion. If God exists, our knowledge of Him is wholly dependent on the knowledge provided by Him. To refrain from calling Him "Him" because of some kind of culturally conditioned mood we're in is to speak of Him in a way other than what He has revealed. The Bible's gendered language is no accident of history. Rather, it tells us significant things about God and His attitude toward His Bride, the Church. It is not coincidental that our lives are given to us as gendered beings; rather, it reveals aspects of the greatest love story in human history. God is the Father, Christ is the Groom, and the Church is His beloved Bride, for whom He conquered death itself.
Oct 1, 2021
John and Maria discuss a popular movement that's gaining momentum in how young people build community. Relational minimalism cuts out people who are viewed as toxic, and it's problematic for our sense of unity. Maria shares her thoughts on the media and culture frenzy surrounding Britney Spears. She shares some insight from Neil Postman regarding how we worship pop-culture and lose our bearings in the process. John then introduces a false report that the world is being cured of Down Syndrome. New reports mask the fact that the world's way of resolving it is through abortion, which is misleading about what is actually happening. -- Story Mentions in Show -- Relationship Minimalism? Why Downsizing Other People Won't Make You Happy In the article, Logan documents a growing group of young people practicing "relationship minimalism." Inspired by home organizing coaches like Marie Kondo, these mostly urban, single adults are not only clearing their lives of excess stuff; they're tossing out excess people. For example, 20-something YouTube star Ronald Banks says that living a minimalist lifestyle with only a few sets of clothes, simple furniture, and bare minimum electronics prompted him to go the next step and ditch meaningless relationships, too. Or, as he called them, "emotional clutter." BreakPoint>> Crowd Gathers Ahead of Britney Spears Conservatorship Hearing A group of Britney Spears supporters gathers near the courthouse where her conservatorship hearing is scheduled. Patrick Healy reports for the NBC4 News at 11 a.m. on Wednesday Sept. 29, 2021. NBC LA>> Britney Spears' conservatorship judge is facing death threats; Los Angeles Sheriff says they are 'monitoring' Britney Spears' conservatorship judge has been hit with a wave of death threats on social media as the singer's battle to remove her father from the 13-year-long order rages on in court. Fox News>> Could this be the last generation of Down's syndrome children? 'I had this vision of someone with a pudding-basin haircut following me round the supermarket. I thought I'd never go on holiday or have any sort of life ever again.' So says 42-year-old actor Rebecca Hulbert of her initial reaction when her angelic-looking two-year-old The Telegraph>>
Oct 1, 2021
Arizona Christian University created a stir last week when it released its annual American Worldview Inventory, conducted by George Barna. The results were disappointing. Out of 176 million Americans who identify as Christians, just six percent hold a recognizably Christian worldview. The most troubling finding was that a majority of self-identified born-again Christians don't believe in the Holy Spirit as a "real, living being." Instead, they identify Him as "a symbol of God's power, presence or purity." This, of course, directly contradicts the fundamental creeds of the faith, which identify the Holy Spirit as a Person - "the Lord and giver of life," Who "with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified." Scripture, too, is clear that the Holy Spirit is a "Who," not a "What," the "helper" and "comforter" promised by Christ before His ascension. The fact that so many Christians don't understand this shows how much work we have ahead of us. We're going to need some help from the very God too many of us have forgotten.
Oct 1, 2021
In the 19th century, India was coming to grips with the modern world. British companies, like the East India Company, aided in modernizing India through trade, and British missionaries like William Carey helped modernize India through culture formation. Arguably the most creative interaction with the west happened in Bengal through the work of Christian missionaries. For example, when Krishna Mohan Bannerjee was a child, he attended the School Society Institution started by David Hare, a watchmaker from Scotland. Though Hare's faith commitments are unknown, he was concerned about social welfare in Bengal and started several noteworthy schools in the area. Hare recognized Bannerjee's potential and pushed him to continue his education, first in Pataldanga, and eventually at the newly founded Hindu College (now Presidency University) in Kolkata. Bannerjee thrived at Hindu College, where the atheist headmaster, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, advocated for free discussion and debate on any and every issue and profoundly influenced Bannerjee. When his father died of cholera in 1828, Bannerjee was forced to support himself through manual labor, and yet, still excelled in his studies. After graduating from Hindu College in 1829, Bannerjee got a job teaching at David Hare's school. In 1829, Scottish missionary Dr. Alexander Duff noticed that Christian missions in India had only reached the lower castes. Duff proposed a new mission strategy of offering education in English in the sciences and biblical studies to help upper-caste Hindu students see the contradictions in their own beliefs and move toward Christianity. Like so many others, Duff connected Western learning and success with Christianity. He believed that making Western learning and the Bible available would inevitably lead to conversions. Bannerjee not only began to attend Duff's lectures, he even visited Duff's house for serious discussions about religion and philosophy. In 1832, Bannerjee converted to Christianity. The conversion came at great cost: Hare fired Bannerjee from the school, Bannerjee's wife was forced to return to her father's home, and a firestorm erupted in the local press about Hindu College. Ironically, Bannerjee's conversion was blamed on the atheist, Derozio, and the popular headmaster was forced out. Bannerjee moved to the Church Missionary Society School, where he served as headmaster. He studied theology at Bishop's College and became the first Indian ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in Bengal. Before long, Bannerjee became the foremost Indian apologist of his day. Prior to 1865, Bannerjee followed the lead of Duff and other missionaries in seeing Hinduism as nothing but superstition and idolatry that needed to be destroyed. However, his entire approach to apologetics eventually changed, and he began to argue that Christianity was actually the fulfillment of Hinduism. He noted how sacrifice was the most important ritual in the earliest forms of Hinduism. Further, he showed from the Vedas, the Upanishads, and other Hindu writings that Prajapati, the Lord and Supporter of Creation, sacrificed himself to save humanity, and did so by taking on a mortal body. This, Bannerjee argued, prefigured Jesus' incarnation and sacrifice on the cross. Bannerjee's efforts to find a doorway from Hinduism to Christianity grew out of his love for his country and his culture. He wanted to reconcile Christianity and modern education with Indian culture. In keeping with this goal, he became heavily involved in a wide range of social organizations in Bengal and worked for social reform. He opposed the caste system, polygamy, idolatry, the sale of girls into marriage, and sati , the practice of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. He also supported the education of women, seeing it as a yardstick for measuring the social progress of a country. Beyond his work as an evangelist and apologist, Bannerjee was a critically important figure in the Bengal Renaissance, bringing modern ideas of scholarship and social justice to India, and developing an approach to Christianity that honored Indian culture while remaining firmly anchored in the British evangelical tradition. He was a remarkable example of contextualizing the Gospel to India, and applying the biblical worldview to all areas of life. For Bannerjee, this started in school, inspired by a teacher who taught students to desire wisdom, seek truth, and follow honest inquiry. Eventually, this pointed Krishna Mohan Bannerjee to love God with all his mind, and to love his neighbors as himself.
Sep 30, 2021
A Minneapolis ballot initiative would replace one of the city's largest police departments with a new "Department of Public Safety." While not doing away with police officers entirely, the initiative would reduce the number on patrol and outsource many police duties to unarmed community safety officials. Not everyone is on board. Minnesota Public Radio reports that , while the majority of voters are in favor of some reforms, few want fewer police officers. This is especially true for African-American voters, "75 percent [of whom] said the city should not cut the police force compared to 51 percent of white voters." The average Minneapolis resident sees the obvious: violent crime is spiking. The number of homicides in Minneapolis doubled from 2019 to 2020, and 2021 is on track for another record-breaking year. James Madison said that "if men were angels, no government would be necessary." Justice and respect of citizens require an accurate understanding of human nature. Without it, we either swing toward severity or fall toward foolishness.
Sep 30, 2021
The Christian commitment to advancing education is part of the historical record. While not wholly consistent in every time and place, the Christian view of life and the world (especially its view of a created, ordered reality and the divine imprint on every human person) has been history's most fertile ground for advancing learning and knowledge. In a Christian worldview, the value of education isn't merely utilitarian. Instead, it grows from the rich soil of Christian beliefs: in a God who wants to be known, Who created an ordered and knowable universe to be stewarded by humans, to whom He gave the ability to learn and the capacity to use knowledge in His service. That worldview framework has been uniquely fruitful for advancing education, even (and perhaps especially) at times of civilizational crisis. For example, during the decline of the Roman Empire's authority in Western Europe, education went into sharp decline. Centuries worth of accumulated knowledge and learning were at risk of being lost forever, except In Ireland, where monks preserved learning that they'd later reintroduce to Europe. Irish monks viewed the preservation of literature and knowledge as part of their task as Christian scholars and clergy. More than merely preserving learning, they innovated in the methodology of education. Up to this point, the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew languages were written in an unbroken stream of letters with no capitalization, punctuation, or word spacing. The Irish changed that and, in doing so, made writing a primary method of learning. The Irish also had a hand in the recovery of education on the European continent in the late 8th and early 9th centuries. Having built an empire, Charlemagne realized that he desperately needed educated officials to govern it. So, he searched for the best scholar in all of Europe to head his educational reform program and found the Irish-trained Alcuin of York. Alcuin reintroduced liberal arts as the foundation for education in Europe. He started schools in monasteries, cathedrals, and even the palace itself. Alcuin also oversaw the systematic copying and preservation of any and all ancient texts that he could find. In fact, many of the oldest copies of classical works still in existence today date from copies produced under his direction. Within a generation or two after Charlemagne, however, all but the monastic schools had collapsed. Then, around the year 1000, Europe experienced a significant turnaround. As the population grew, cities were founded, and government became more centralized, there was a greater demand for education. Because rural monasteries were more concerned with the training of monks than educational needs in the cities, urban cathedral schools were reestablished. This led to a tremendous expansion of education, and a great deal of new, creative scholarship. The result is what medieval historians call the Renaissance of the 12th Century. As cities grew and bishops took on more administrative duties, they could not devote the resources necessary to continue the cathedral schools, so these schools spun off into universities. The first was the University of Bologna, founded around 1150 and focused primarily on law. The University of Paris was founded around 1200, with other universities following. The liberal arts continued to be the foundation of the curriculum, with advanced study available in theology, law, and medicine. Because logic was the foundation of the scholastic methodology used in these schools, the works of Aristotle, translated from Arabic texts in Muslim Spain, were particularly important during this period. Along with great scholastic theologians like Thomas Aquinas, medieval thinkers like Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon helped lay the intellectual foundations for the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Christian advancement of education also happened elsewhere. In the late 14th through 16th centuries, the Brethren of the Common Life provided basic education for students in the Low Countries and most of Germany. Their goal was to equip the population to read the sources of the Christian faith. By training students such as Erasmus, Gutenberg, and Luther, the Brethren of the Common Life helped lay the foundation for the Protestant Reformation. History is replete with these stories of the impact Christianity had in advancing education. The question for us in our civilizational crisis is, will we follow suit? There's never been a greater opportunity for Christians to take the lead in education than in our current cultural moment. We've seen a dramatic shift in public confidence in the existing systems over the last several years. Parents are looking for new educational solutions for their children. The Colson Center is heavily invested in training educators, especially in this current cultural crisis, by equipping homeschool parents as well as Christian school leaders and other leaders in educational innovation. If you would like to join us, every gift given to the Colson Center this month will go to support the Colson Center's work in supporting educators with a Christian worldview. To learn more, visit us at BreakPoint.org.
Sep 29, 2021
This week John and Shane discuss adoption, ranging from embryo adoption to same-sex adoption. A listener asks how adoption supports God's family structure and what the role of it is in God's redemption. Another listener writes in noticing a movement to single-parenthood in their region. The listener asks how to move forward with friends, when those friends are offended by Scripture. Later, John and Shane consider how and when to use modern quotes in BreakPoint and when to use Scripture. John gives a listener perspective on why we use quotes so often, and how we consider using Scripture in specific situations. To close, John and Shane explore a question asking for clarity on marijuana. John provides good context into the difference in medical marijuana and recreational marijuana.
Sep 29, 2021
In mid-September, an organization called "TwoDadsUK" held an exhibition called The Modern Family Show in London. It was a trade show to sell fertility services for LGBTQ people. One vendor's floor-to-ceiling banner announced,, "The New Face of Surrogacy!" next to a photo of two men embracing. No woman. This is an example of marketing being more about the audience than the product. . The audience are those who've intentionally chosen a sterile union, but who now demand the product, which is a child . The development and birth of a child requires a woman's womb, hired out as a means. Because no one wants to think about that side of this industry, all we see is the happy audience, as if the woman doesn't exist. She does. Women aren't machines, babies aren't products, and no one is entitled to a child at the expense of a woman whose physical labor and emotional pain are left out of the glossy photographs used for the sales pitch.
Sep 29, 2021
Sep 28, 2021
According to the U.S. Department of Education, since the start of the pandemic, more than 1.5 million students have left traditional public schooling. Many parents are realizing, some for the first time, that students aren't learning what their parents thought they were learning. As one former college professor noted, if you haven't been in education in the past three years, it's almost unrecognizable to what you experienced growing up. This has led to incredible growth in the number of home schooling families and record enrollments for nearly every Christian school that I know of. Part of the Colson Center's calling as a worldview-equipping institution is to serve Christian educators by equipping them to think and teach from a Christian worldview. We invite you to partner with us as we serve Christian education in this strategic moment by training Christian educators. To learn more about our work in Christian education, and to support it, visit www.breakpoint.org/september .
Sep 28, 2021
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were chosen to grace the cover of the 2021 edition of " Time100: The Most Influential People of 2021 ." After publicly cutting ties with the British royal family several months ago and moving to America, the couple described the whole ordeal in a televised interview and, as a result, made this year's list. Many people have strong opinions about Harry and Meghan's decision to leave Buckingham Palace; I don't. My knowledge of British royalty is limited to the few seasons of "The Crown" I watched with Sarah before we canceled our Netflix subscription. What does interest me, however, is how their decision, which has been widely hailed as "brave" and "authentic," mirrors something increasingly popular among modern young adults : cutting so-called "toxic people" out of their lives. It's also notable how quickly friends, relatives, and neighbors can be labeled "toxic" simply by holding different political, moral, or religious beliefs. Recently, a psychologist specializing in family therapy told the Atlantic that his practice is flooded with older parents mourning estrangement from their grown children, and with grown children angry and hurt by conflicts with their parents. Apparently, when it comes to family fractures, the royal family is far from exceptional. In fact, according to a recent piece by Sarah Logan in The Guardian, you don't even have to be "toxic" to find yourself cut out of a loved one's life. It's enough that you don't "spark joy." In the article, Logan documents a growing group of young people practicing "relationship minimalism." Inspired by home organizing coaches like Marie Kondo , these mostly urban, single adults are not only clearing their lives of excess stuff; they're tossing out excess people . For example, 20-something YouTube star Ronald Banks says that living a minimalist lifestyle with only a few sets of clothes, simple furniture, and bare minimum electronics prompted him to go the next step and ditch meaningless relationships, too. Or, as he called them, "emotional clutter." Young adults like Banks are all about cutting ties. As Logan put it: "If the city they live in no longer sparks joy, they move." Some keep apartments so sparsely furnished that guests can't even sit down or have tea. One YouTube minimalist quoted in the article refuses to have a mirror in her apartment because, in her words, "Why would I try to impress people that I don't even like?...I'd rather be alone than with people who make me feel alone." Not to be too "judgy," but that doesn't sound much like joy. This kind of utilitarian attitude toward other human beings is not only sad, it's also darkly ironic given our culture's epidemics of loneliness and suicides . Behind these cultural crises are a growing group of young people who think of relationships as dispensable and people as furniture. As the Director of Research and Public Education at the Council on Contemporary Families put it, "Never before have family relationships been seen so interwoven with the search for personal growth, the pursuit of happiness, and the need to confront and overcome psychological obstacles." Anyone willing to walk away from parents, friends, or even an entire city, just because they don't "spark joy," fundamentally misunderstands the purpose and functioning of relationships. People are not consumer goods to be rummaged through, tried on, and returned if they no longer fit. If anything, we need to be around people who rub us the wrong way or who demand something from us instead of serving our therapeutic goals. That's part of what the Church is for! It's a redeemed community united not by hobbies, career goals, or personality traits, but by allegiance to a Lord whose love transcends all of this. In the context of such relationships, the Bible says that "iron sharpens iron." Anyone who's ever banged two pieces of metal together knows that sparks will fly—and not always sparks of joy! But in God's eyes, and in the eyes of the author of Proverbs, the results are worth the friction. No, we're not called to put up with just anything, without limit. Sometimes there are situations in which cutting people out of our lives is necessary and wise. Contrary to what these relationship minimalists believe, our personal happiness is bound to our relationships but is not bound by them. In an age marked by historic loneliness, "relationship minimalism" sounds like a poor way to love both our neighbors and ourselves.
Sep 27, 2021
More than 500 female athletes signed an Amicus brief last week asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against a Mississippi law that bans abortions after about 15 weeks of pregnancy. Signed by female Olympians, soccer and basketball and swimming stars, the brief failed address the critical questions of the humanity and moral status of children in the womb. Instead, the athletes focused on how abortion restrictions "harm" them. Their approach is typical of the kind of arguments being made against the Texas law, and abortion restrictions in general. These arguments depend upon a number of faulty assumptions which, like the humanity of babies in the womb, are left unsaid. First, the brief claims that without abortion, female athletes would be "compelled" by the state to "carry pregnancies to term and to give birth." Implied here is that abstinence is too preposterous a proposition to even be considered as an option. Even if ideological and moral considerations are left aside, that's simply illogical. The U.S. government doesn't force anyone to make children, or to engage in the kinds of sexual activity that leads to pregnancy. Also, according to the attorney who filed the brief on behalf of the athletes, the right to kill unborn babies is absolutely necessary in order for women to be able to "realize their full athletic potential." Even if we set aside the degrading tyranny of low expectations assumed in that statement, implied here is that it's impossible for women who become mothers to also be successful athletes. That's simply not true. Allyson Felix is the most decorated American track star in history. In 2018, she was effectively dropped by her sponsor , Nike, after refusing to terminate her pregnancy. She was picked up by another sponsor and, despite a challenging pregnancy, went on to win both gold and bronze medals in Tokyo , while her two-year-old watched from home. Pregnancy and parenting does, of course, disrupt life in many profound ways. Still, scores of women have been successful as athletes and, for that matter, in business, education, science, finance, politics, and countless other areas, while also being mothers. Even so, abortion advocates often pit a woman's body as an obstacle to her success as a woman . This makes it all the more strange that so many of the athletes who signed this brief, claiming to support women's sports, publicly advocate for allowing men to participate in women's sports. A few months before signing this brief, U.S. soccer player Megan Rapinoe wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post in which she opposed restrictions on males competing against females. Unlike abortion restrictions, allowing men in women's sports is unfair and unsafe for women. In fact, it eliminates any logical ground for gendered sports leagues in the first place. Perhaps the most problematic part of this brief is its subtext that competing in sports is as important for human flourishing as creating and bearing children. For athletes to assert that they must have the right to kill their unborn children in order to compete is to suggest that competing in a sport is of greater value than the life of another human being . While courageous and talented athletes like Allyson Felix disprove this point practically, Scripture counters it ontologically. Men and women were made to image God and, as the Westminster Catechism puts it, to glorify and enjoy Him forever . Competing in sports is one way humans can enjoy and glorify God, but that's only because enjoying and glorifying God is what humans are for . Watching Michael Jordan play basketball in the 90s, Serena Williams serve a tennis ball in the 2000s, or Simone Biles tumble across a balance beam today unfailingly elicits awe and wonder. These various physical talents reflect and portray the deep value that humans have, but they are not the source of that value. Human value is God-given and therefore intrinsic to who we are. This brief implies that something we do, competing in sports, carries more value than who we are, valuable image bearers of God. If that is true, what of the rest of us with more, shall we say, limited athletic abilities? Simply put, this Amicus brief gets everything exactly wrong. It's wrong to suggest that the ability to bear children is somehow a bug, not a feature, of the female body. It's wrong to suggest that children are a hindrance to athletic success, as if they were a sprained ankle or broken hockey stick. And it's wrong about who women's sports are for, what they are for, and what they portray about human value. When a sports league pressures women to violently inhibit their body's natural functioning, it ceases to be a women's league at all. Instead it becomes a pretend-men's sports league which encourages women to compete as long as they aren't too much like women. It disregards those women who do compete - and win - while being and becoming mothers. And it belittles the beauty and design of women's bodies, which are strong enough to do more than one thing, like jump a two-meter high bar or run 400 meters in 53 seconds and also carry, bear, and raise children.
Sep 25, 2021
John and Maria visit on changes in the education landscape. They discuss the power of technology to not only inform our understanding of the world, especially in education, but how technology forms us. They consider the addictive nature of technology and how it can be associated with increasing numbers in things ranging from facial tics to gender dysphoria. Maria then asks John's perspective on China's crackdown on technology, especially for adolescents. China is limiting video game access for young people, and Maria asks if this is right, knowing the impact of technology on teens, or if this is an infringement on the family sphere. To close, Maria shares an amicus brief filed by hundreds of women who are opposing the Mississippi abortion law. The brief states that limiting access to abortion will infringe on the rights and progress of women in society. Maria pulls the veil back on the brief, showing the way the arguments fail to recognize the strength and opportunity women have. -- Stories Mentioned In-Show -- The Cost of Digital Addictions? In a recent Wall Street Journal article, psychiatrist Anna Lembke offered a stark warning: our favorite technologies are "drowning us in dopamine." Dopamine is the brain's natural feel-good chemical. It rewards us when we do enjoyable things like connect with friends, laugh at a joke, or eat a taco. Today, that powerful reward cycle is being hijacked by digital technology. BreakPoint>> You Are What You Binge Pediatricians are growing increasingly concerned about an explosion in facial and vocal tics in teenagers, especially teenage girls. According to the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society, case numbers in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Australia have skyrocketed over the last year. They've even called it a "parallel pandemic" alongside COVID-19. A UK journal has reported similar findings. BreakPoint>> College and the Decline of American Men In yet another indicator that they are not ok, men in America are abandoning higher education in record numbers. According to the Wall Street Journal, at the end of the 2020 academic year, the percentage of male college students dropped to just over 40 percent. Soon, if current trend lines continue, one expert predicts, for every man who earns a college degree, two women will earn a degree. BreakPoint>> Leaving Church The pandemic policies, social unrest, and political division that's left so much of our culture on edge have created quite a bit of tumult for churches, too. A few weeks ago, in a blog at Mere Orthodoxy, Pastor Michael Graham offered a new way to categorize how Christians are reorganizing amidst the chaos. The Point>> Learning Loss From Covid-19 Like most of the damage from this pandemic, the key factors for education were pre-existing conditions. Students already accustomed to facing challenges can grow more resilient in adversity. Students whose education was already more than information transfer were able to build curiosity in new ways. Parents who accepted that their kids' education was primarily their responsibility made necessary pivots. BreakPoint>> China's New Video Game Restrictions Are About Far More Than Kids' Habits China has twice as many gamers as the U.S. has people—some 700 million of them. That ubiquity, especially among young people, has worried China's central government. So at the start of this month, it banned people under 18 from playing video games for more than three hours a week. They could only play from 8 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. But it's not just video games. The government has gone after tutoring companies and big tech players in this "season of crackdowns," in an attempt to bring these sectors more in line with what they perceive as socialist values and to strengthen control over Chinese society and the Chinese economy. Slate>> More than 500 female athletes file amicus brief against Mississippi abortion law More than 500 of the U.S.'s most prominent professional female athletes filed an amicus brief on Monday that voices their opposition to a Mississippi law that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Hill>> -- Recommendations -- Louise Penny>> The Third Education Revolution with Vishal Mangalwadi Most recently, Vishal has written The Third Education Revolution, in which he traces both the history of the Christian promotion of education around the world and the opportunity we have in front of us right now. Here's a segment of that interview with Vishal Magalwhaldi BreakPoint Podcast Special>>
Sep 24, 2021
Most likely, Tsuda Umkea's father regarded her as expendable. He was so angry when his second child was a second daughter, he stormed out of the house. Still, during Japan's rapid modernization campaign in the late 19th century, he had become interested in the education of girls, and especially the possibility of girls studying in Western countries as exchange students. So, when that opportunity arose for his six-year-old daughter, he volunteered Umkea, known as Ume, to go. Ume ended up in Washington, DC, in the family of Charles Lanham, the secretary of the Japanese legation to the United States. Lanham and his wife had no children of their own, but treated Ume as if she were their own child. After about a year in their home, she asked to be baptized. When she returned to Japan in 1882, she had nearly forgotten the language and was shocked by the inferior status of women in Japanese culture. At the time, Japan was experiencing a backlash against Western influence, and a resurgence of very traditional Neo-Confucian ideals. Seeing this, she decided that she would never enter a traditional Japanese marriage, but only one built on mutual love and respect like she'd seen in America. Ume was soon hired as a tutor to the children of Itō Hirobumi, soon to be prime minister of Japan. In 1885, she began teaching at a school established by the Imperial Household to educate its daughters in traditional manners and customs, to prepare them to be wives and mothers. Troubled, Ume began to think that her own "unique destiny" was to improve educational opportunities for Japanese women. In order to do that, she needed more education. And so, she returned to the United States. Ume attended Bryn Mawr College from 1889-1892. There, she studied English literature, German, philosophy, and biology. She also attended St. Hilda's College, Oxford University. She did so well that Bryn Mawr offered her a fellowship to pursue an advanced degree. She refused, intent on returning to the royal family and Japan in order to improve women's education. The only school at that time that provided higher education for women in Japan was the Tokyo Women's Normal School. Ume decided that others needed the same opportunity she'd had abroad. She began giving public speeches about the subject and, with the help of some Quaker friends, raised $8,000 to provide scholarships for Japanese women. In Japan, Ume resumed teaching, while writing and lecturing about the status of women. In 1900, realizing that girls would never be given the same opportunities as boys in existing schools, she resigned from her post and established Joshi Eigaku Juku, or The Women's Institute for English Studies. Following the example of Bryn Mawr, which insisted that students meet the same standards demanded by Harvard, she determined that her school would follow the standards of the very rigorous and prestigious Tokyo University. The school focused on liberal arts and discussion of contemporary topics, with the goal of developing students' personalities and encouraging creativity. Ume had to work very hard to support herself and fund the new school. In addition to teaching at her own school, she took jobs at other schools, tutored daughters of friends, and engaged in fundraising. Her efforts paid off when, in 1903, the school was approved as a vocational school by the Ministry of Education. Under Ume's leadership, the school's standards were so rigorous that, in 1905, it became the first school in Japan whose graduates did not need to take government examinations in order to obtain a teaching license. Ume's unrelenting efforts to support her school and promote women's education took its toll on her health. She suffered a stroke in 1919, and retired to a cottage in Kamakura. She died in 1929. After her death, the Women's Institute for English Studies was renamed in her honor, eventually becoming Tsuda College in 1948. It is the oldest and most prestigious private women's college in Japan, with over 27,500 graduates now active in all walks of life. Like other educational reformers of the period, Tsuda Umeka recognized the central connection between Western learning and Christianity. Her concern for women's education was born from her childhood experience in America, and the influence of the Quakers. Her sense of personal calling was born out of a recognition of the inherent connection between Christianity, education, and the value and potential of women, a potential that the dominant worldview of her native culture lacked. Hers is one more example of how the Christian view of life, the world, and the human person has inspired, informed, and energized education across the globe.
Sep 23, 2021
Pediatricians are growing increasingly concerned about an explosion in facial and vocal tics in teenagers, especially teenage girls. According to the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society, case numbers in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Australia have skyrocketed over the last year. They've even called it a "parallel pandemic" alongside COVID-19. A UK journal has reported similar findings. A significant majority of these young patients report spending a lot of time on social media; particularly a corner of TikTok where influencers with, who themselves have tics, share their stories and show their tics on the platform. According to researchers in the UK, the TikTok videos bearing the hashtagchannel #tourettes boastedhad 2.5 -billion views as of last February. Doctors say that neurological scans of teenage girls with what they called "functional tic-like behaviors" don't show the same signs common withas Tourette's Syndrome. While Tthe tics are real and uncontrollable, they are but not neurological, but . Rrather, they are learned over a screen. These types of phenomenaon, known as "social contagions" or "mass socio-genic illnesses," have baffled psychologists for decades. A few years ago, jJournalist Lee Daniel Kravetz published a book called Strange Contagion. Inin this book,which he told the story of a phenomenon atdescribed a Palo Alto high school where, inover the span of just six months, five students committed suicide, all on separate occasions, all by jumping in front of a train. School shootings can follow a similar pattern: the first is widely reported, and within weeks there's another, and then another. Wall Street Journal reporter Abigail Shrier described a similar phenomenon in her book, Irreversible Damage, about teenage girls with "sudden-onset gender dysphoria." One girl identifies as trans, and suddenly, severalmany others have joined hertoo. Like the "functional tic-like behaviors" currently alarming researchers now, social media has playedplays a big role in each of these examples. Whether it manifests as gender dysphoria, violent behaviors, or facial tics, there's something about us - especially our younger selves - that is so vulnerable to suggestion and pressure, even to the point of causing hurting ourselves harm. The reality of social contagions reveals something about how God made us. To put it as simply as possible, we're impressionable people. Proverbs, especially Cchapter 4, repeatedly alludes to this. Chapter 4 We are warnsed against following "the path of the wicked." We are told, "Above all else, (to) guard your heart" because everything about us "flows from it." Though we like to think of ourselves as primarily rational creatures, making decisions by carefully and objectively considering all sides, we are far more driven by what we desire than by what we think. angle of an issue. God gave us hearts that are often shaped in ways and by forces beyond our awareness.of which we aren't always aware of. Marketers know this. We want to wear what others are wearing, and economic considerations go right out the window. Influencers know this. Popular cultural idioms become part of our vocabulary because of them. The fact that there even is a category of people in our culture called "influencers" pretty much says about all we need to know. Before the Fall, Scripture describes how God "walked" with Adam and Eve in the Garden. The idea of "walking" emerges again in Proverbs. Out of the Garden, we are warned against "walking" with the wicked. Apparently the problem is not that we are impressionable. The problem is not that our hearts were made to be formed and shaped by others. We were, in fact, made to become like God, by walking with Him. We were to be formed by Him. In a fallen world, that very good way God made us can instead allow us to be twisted us into the image of something corrupt, foolish, or sinful. Anxiety-induced behaviors like the tics inflicting teen girls aren't sinful, but they do illustrate the power of suggestion and the way we were made. The most obvious strategy in light of that would be to dramatically limit social media exposure. In healthy communities, there is support and sharing ofabout struggles, but social media doesn't come with any safeguards, especially for teens. Digital community is not real; . Iit's more of a performance art in front of strangers. Physical community is real, or at least should be, especially in the context of families and churches. If we are potentially impressionable to the point of harm, then we're also impressionable to the point of health. Opposite of the wicked man, Psalm 1 says, is the one who "meditates on the law of the Lord day and night." This is because the Word of God is living and active. And it's also because our hearts are shaped by what we binge.
Sep 22, 2021
John visits with Vishal Magalwhaldi, author of several books, including The Book That Changed Your World , and most recently The Third Education Revolution , in which he traces both the history of the Christian promotion of education around the world and the opportunity we have in front of us right now.
Sep 22, 2021
Some people think that Christian interest in education is only instrumental. In other words, we start schools so that we can tell our kids about Jesus Christ and how to become Christians. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, but the Christian understanding of education goes much deeper. Throughout human history, wherever the Church has gone, education has followed. This is because of how Christianity understands life and the world, particularly the nature of reality itself and the human person. Education doesn't make sense in a worldview that is only about survival. In a worldview that is only about survival, education is only utilitarian. But with a worldview that says that the world itself came from a first cause that is intelligent, reasonable, knowable, and - this is important - wants to be known , there is solid grounding for actual knowledge, and therefore education. Christianity says that God has made us in his own image. In other words, not only is God knowable, but humans are knowers. So, the act of learning is nothing less than, as Johannes Kepler put it, thinking God's thoughts after him. Knowing God's world leads to knowing God, and knowing God is what life is all about. This week, on a very special edition of the Breakpoint Podcast, I spoke with one of the most outstanding leaders in education in the Christian world, Vishal Magalwhaldi. He's the author of several books, including The Book That Changed Your World , and most recently The Third Education Revolution , in which he traces both the history of the Christian promotion of education around the world and the opportunity we have in front of us right now. Here's a segment of that interview with Vishal Magalwhaldi In a biblical worldview, Satan is out to deceive the nations, that's Revelation 20. The church is out to disciple the nations. God says to Abraham, "if you follow me, I will bless you. I will make you a great nation." But how would Abraham become a great nation? God says in Genesis 18: 18-19 that Abraham would become a great nation because he would instruct, he would teach, he would command, he would disciple his children. And his household is a blessing and is non-ethnic. So, it was by teaching them to walk in God's ways that Israel would become a great nation and Israel would become a light to the nations. Nations would flock to the love of God to learn to bring peace. So from the very beginning of the calling of Abraham to follow Him is a teaching of education. In India, 100 years ago, a carpenter, or a fisherman, or a shepherd did not go to school. But what you find in the New Testament is a tentmaker writing, a shepherd writing, a fisherman writing. Where did they learn to read and write? They'd entered the synagogue. The priest, on the sabbath, was the teacher. He was a master educating others during the five days of the week, or whatever. Every child has to be educated. God has given his law, and is saying, "You make copies of them." They complained, "We don't have pen and paper." God says, "Don't complain, don't make excuses. You write it on your doorpost, you write it on your walls. You teach your women to learn to write as they're stitching their clothes. They must write them in your clothes." The objective is, if you're meditating upon the law of God, day and night, you're not just memorizing, but meditating. It is written on your heart. You can't reform a nation if there is no objective written text with which you can critique your teachers. Martin Luther critiqued universities, he critiqued the church, and said this is what God says: the church needs to reform. So, the written Word is people becoming people of the book. And this was key to the opening of the Western mind. That was a portion of my conversation with Vishal Magalwhaldi, one of the great education leaders of our day. To hear the entire conversation, go to www.breakpoint.org and click on the Breakpoint Podcast, or search for the Breakpoint Podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts from the Colson Center.
Sep 21, 2021
The pandemic policies, social unrest, and political division that's left so much of our culture on edge have created quite a bit of tumult for churches, too. A few weeks ago, in a blog at Mere Orthodoxy , Pastor Michael Graham offered a new way to categorize how Christians are reorganizing amidst the chaos. Long gone are the days when believers automatically joined the church down the street. Even denominational loyalties, theological convictions, and worship styles are not as important as they used to be. More and more often, suggests Graham, church shoppers are prioritizing political and social convictions. And the shopping process itself involves a kind of spy-craft, with phrases like "social justice" or "the sanctity of marriage" seen as stealth signs of belonging to one side of the aisle or the other. Of course, the risk of judging an entire congregation or denomination wrongly via this process is dangerously high. Not only does the "aisle" metaphor fail to acknowledge that a spectrum of views exists on many issues, especially the most controversial, but the so-called "aisle" itself is too often being drawn with only political concerns in mind. Not to mention most buzzwords are left undefined, and therefore unhelpful. In short, the "fracturing of evangelicalism" currently happening is mostly not good. As the wider culture fractures in a million ways, the Church should look different. When it doesn't, our witness suffers. Leaving churches over politically charged disagreements , without taking the time to explore the motive, practices, and beliefs behind them is just not biblically permissible. Leaving a church should be a last resort, like the choice to break up a family, not a knee-jerk response, as if we're disgruntled shoppers. Of course, even a quick look at the motives, practices, and beliefs of some church leaders, congregations, and denominations will reveal problems that must be addressed. If Samuel John Stone were writing his great hymn today, there's more than enough consumerism, celebrity-ism, Christian Nationalism , and cultural Marxism afflicting the church to inspire these same mournful words: Tho' with a scornful wonder,men see her sore oppressed,by schisms rent asunder,by heresies distressed,yet saints their watch are keeping,their cry goes up, "How long?"And soon the night of weepingshall be the morn of song. Driving past six churches, some big and shiny, to find one faithful to the Gospel is a tragic reality for many. Christians will find help in the various metaphors Christ gives for His Church: the " Household of God ," a husband and his bride , a "body" with many members and functions, a flock of sheep guarded and shepherded by Christ, and even brothers and sisters. Though living into these Biblical metaphors is incredibly difficult, especially at a time when political and ideological divisions are breaking even the bonds of family, it's not difficult to see that a different metaphor is dominating our approach to church. In short, Christians today approach churches primarily as consumers. We're too picky when it comes to where we worship and why. We want the songs we like, and the preacher that "speaks to us." However, consumerism is a problem for church- goers , because it is first a problem for churches . Pastors face enormous pressure to fill pews and minimize conflict. Often, they are hired for their fidelity to the Scriptures and tasked with discipling a congregation, but are evaluated by completely different metrics. If you "give the people what they want," it will rarely be the hard truth of the Gospel. In this, "evangelical fracturing" is not new, but it is saddening. In the past, God has used "fracturing" to accomplish a "pruning." It is His church. He will protect it, even from itself. May it be so today, too. For as much time and effort we spend evaluating a church we plan to leave or join, we should spend at least that much on evaluating the motives and the criteria we employ in leaving or joining a church. Churches that misuse or rewrite the Bible, that choose the approval of men over God, or that serve temporal power more than the Kingdom of God should be left. At the same time, the biblical metaphors matter. We are family , not isolated gatherings of consumers. Issues matter because truth matters and morality matters, not because they are political hot buttons. We are employed by Christ for His Kingdom, not for protests, extra-biblical theories, or deconstruction. More important than finding a church we like is that we are the Church He leads, seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness. With that in place, we can trust that anything else will be added, as God is willing.
Sep 20, 2021
In a recent Wall Street Journal article , psychiatrist Anna Lembke offered a stark warning about our favorite technologies. Dopamine is the brain's natural feel-good chemical. It rewards us when we do enjoyable things: connect with friends, laugh at a joke, eat a taco. Today, that powerful reward cycle is being hijacked by digital technology. Technology is designed to be addictive. With every tap, click, and like, our brain chemistry, which is supposed to spur us on to action, is instead keeping us on our phones. As Lembke writes, "The quantity, variety, and potency of [these highly addicting] behaviors has never been greater." We've been warned, but it's not clear that a society in which the average adult spends around eight hours a day interacting with a screen of some kind will actually listen. I'm as guilty as the next guy, but the consequences aren't just personal. As Lembke reports, the self-reported happiness of nations in which these digital technologies are most widespread is declining . A few years ago, an article in The Economist described the rising numbers of young men who were opting out of the workforce in order to play video games. While there's something sad about young men choosing to invest so heavily in a fantasy world while ignoring the real one, the question is why? At least part of the answer is that their hearts and minds had been cultivated to pursue immediate gratification. Though such short-sighted decisions will inevitably reduce their long-term happiness, if Dr. Lembke is correct, they're not capable of thinking that way. Not only has a generation of young men not been cultivated toward long-term, cause-and-effect thinking, they've actually been cultivated for short-term dopamine fixes. In Brave New World , one of the most haunting books of the last 100 years, Aldous Huxley describes a dystopian world where pleasure, rather than pain, has finally enslaved humanity. Drugged into perpetual bliss, most people live lives of cheap hedonism. In the process, they lose those things that make life meaningful, like real connection, perspective on suffering and purpose that is bigger than physical desires. Years later, in the Introduction to Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman summarized what Huxley got right. People, he said, would "love their oppression, (and) adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think." Contrasting Huxley with George Orwell's dystopian vision of state oppression, Postman wrote : "Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture… In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us." How can it be that in a society with more income, resources, and leisure time than ever, people are less happy? How is it that the most connected generation in human history is ravaged by loneliness? Why can't a generation that (Covid aside) has seen the greatest medical advances and reduction of diseases of any era ever stop the pandemic of so-called "deaths of despair." Secularism offers very little that can counter the consequences of unchecked hedonism. After all, if we're not hurting anyone, why shouldn't we spend our time in digital fantasies? If there's no bigger purpose to life, why shouldn't young men pursue video games instead of jobs, a wife and a family? If there's nothing more to God than what He can do for me, what purpose is greater than our own immediate fulfillment? A secular culture lacks any incentive to break out of our digital cages and into the real world. The real world is more vibrant, more painful, and more meaningful than any digital counterfeit. It's filled with image-bearers, not mere images. Our actions have consequences, without an easy restart button. We are able to love and serve a God who is actually there, in a world that actually exists, by following the beautiful, paradoxical call of discipleship: "Come, take up your cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it." This way of the kingdom, this joy of the real world, is far better than a dopamine fix.
Sep 17, 2021
John and Maria revisit a piece from this week that highlights the beauty of God in the Cosmos. John provides a reflection that we are not simply our bodies or simply a spirit. He gives a worldview lesson, reflecting on another piece that highlights how the Greeks viewed the unborn. Maria then asks John for insight on a recent court case in North Carolina. She focuses her question on the point that the ruling judge ruled against the Catholic school because the school didn't have a strong enough presentation of their Catholic convictions in their hiring practices. John shares how the Colson Center is coming alongside Christian schools to support the Christian worldview and its influence in every academic discipline and the overall mission and vision of Christian education. To close, Maria revisits a piece she wrote for BreakPoint that highlights the importance of words in language. John explains the necessity of a Christian worldview in understanding the role and function of definitions. — Stories Mentioned In Show — What the Greeks Knew About the Unborn Hippocrates, the Greek physician whose followers gave us the Hippocratic oath, recognized six-week-old pre-born babies as… babies. Through studying miscarriages, he concluded that a baby's limbs and organs are complete by 40 days after conception. That's part of why the Hippocratic oath states: "I will give no sort of medicine to any pregnant woman, with a view to destroy the child." The Point>> For God So Loved the Cosmos We've been sending people past Earth's atmosphere for just over 60 years now. Every single time, the reaction has been awe. Astronauts call this sensation the "overview effect." Something within the human heart reacts to the beauty, size, and overall scope of Creation with a sense of awe. The fact that God made us to respond that way ought to tell us something profound. The Point>> Christian Schools Should Be Thoroughly Christian (and not just for legal reasons) Last week, a U.S. District judge ruled against a Catholic school that had fired a male teacher for announcing that he planned to marry his male partner. Coming from a judge notably progressive on sex and marriage issues, who cited last year's consequential Bostock decision, this wasn't much of a surprise. However, a significant part of his reasoning was: the Catholic school was not Catholic enough. BreakPoint>> Gay and trans teachers in Christian schools will keep jobs under new law "Unless a person's religion is actually relevant to their role or their needs, faith-based organisations should treat all their employees and the people who rely on their services fairly and without discrimination", Ms Brown said." The Age>> Our Way with Words In a recent and unintentionally poignant episode of National Public Radio's "On the Media" podcast, an entire conversation debating free speech hinged on the definition of a word that was never established. "Free speech absolutism," reporters claimed, is an old-fashioned concept because some speech causes harm. Never defined in the conversation (and rarely defined in decades of debate about free speech and first amendment rights) was the word "harm. Surrendering words and their meanings to cultural whims will only lead us, as writer David Foster Wallace once put it, to the tower of Babel. Surrendering reality to these whims leads to death. BreakPoint>> — Recommendations — The Gospel According to Norm Erick Sorensen | 1517 | September 15, 2021 Amusing Ourselves to Death Neil Postman | Penquin Books | 2005
Sep 17, 2021
In yet another indicator that they are not ok, men in America are abandoning higher education in record numbers. According to the Wall Street Journal , at the end of the 2020 academic year, the percentage of male college students dropped to just over 40 percent. Soon, if current trend lines continue, one expert predicts , for every man who earns a college degree, two women will earn a degree. On one hand, this says as much about the state of higher education as it does young men. Simply put, the ROI of higher education is just not what it used to be. Not only are students bombarded by narrow, progressive ideologies with little real-world application, they often graduate with no marketable skill set, high levels of debt, and no compelling vision for how to spend their lives. It shouldn't surprise anyone that there are 1.5 million fewer college students today than there were five years ago. Still, for men, who represent 71% of those abandoning higher education , return on investment is extra low. Not only are they overpaying for college, but at many schools they can expect to be consistently berated for things they have no control over, like for their ethnicity, or for simply being men. "No college wants to tackle the issue under the glare of gender politics," says enrollment expert Jennifer Delahunty . "The conventional view on campuses is that men make more money [and] hold higher positions. Why should we give them a little shove from high school to college?" In other words, it's politically incorrect to help men succeed. All of this is set against an even larger backdrop: " perpetual adolescence. " While at other times and in other places, teenaged young men would be fighting battles or managing farms or embarking on grand adventures, today we punish them with low expectations. Teenagers, especially young men, are expected to care for nothing, have no job, and spend most of their time playing video games . Even worse, adolescence now extends to young people, especially young men, in their 20s and 30s. Young men in their 20s and 30s are aimless: refusing to grow up, addicted to pornography, and spending their time and money in digital fantasy worlds. By excusing their so-called "Peter Pan Syndrome," we've subjected them to a tyranny of low expectations. Unsurprisingly, these low expectations don't stop the worst elements of fallen masculinity; rather, they fuel them. As one fraternity president at the University of Vermont put it , "… a lot of guys are here for four years to drink beer, smoke weed, hang out and get a degree." Despite millions spent on training and awareness, college campuses are still haunted by the specter of sexual assault. Tragically, that makes sense in a world where all that's left to sexual morality is a blurry line of consent. That will never be enough to temper the bad behavior of young men trapped in extended adolescence. All of this points to a central problem. Having abandoned moral and creational norms, we've no idea what to do with human beings, especially men. Fallen masculinity has always been a dangerous thing. Men account for the vast majority of domestic abuse, rape and violent crime, not to mention historically aggressive behavior in war. When men give in to aggression and violence, they leave a trail of cultural devastation in their wake, particularly for women and children. Margaret Mead observed that a central question any society has to answer is how to make a proper place for men. Of course, she thought their proper place was somewhere on the moon, but her basic observation is correct. Missing in our current cultural equation for men is purpose. Low expectations, combined with a dearth of purpose, make for a dangerous concoction. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, before we know what to do with something, we need to know what that something is for. We'll never know what to do with men, especially young men, if we don't know what men are for. The answer is not to reject masculinity as inherently evil, as many tend to do, including Christians. Instead, the answer is to define masculinity from a Christian worldview. Embedded in the Creation story is a unique grounding for the dignity of both men and women. We also find definitions for their purpose as male and female. In fact, Jesus pointed to God's creational intent for creating humans as male and female when asked about male responsibility in marriage. In that answer and throughout His ministry, Jesus confronted men, even young men, with higher expectations: action instead of passivity, protection instead of abuse, faithfulness instead of abandonment. Many men today get each of these exactly wrong, and culture enables it. Without a corrective, we can expect it to only get worse. Fortunately, we have just such a corrective. A Christian worldview gives us this corrective, and in Scripture, we have the portrayal of a man perfect in gentleness, humility, and strength: Jesus Christ.
Sep 16, 2021
In a recent and unintentionally poignant episode of National Public Radio's "On the Media" podcast, an entire conversation debating free speech hinged on the definition of a word that was never really established. "Free speech absolutism," reporters claimed, is an old-fashioned concept because some speech causes harm . Never defined in the conversation (and rarely defined in decades of debate about free speech and first amendment rights) was the word "harm." Most English language dictionaries are updated every quarter. The latest update to the Oxford English Dictionary, released in June , contained 700 new words added since the previous March. One thousand existing definitions were revised. The process is neither straightforward nor worldview-neutral . In the ongoing debate in academic circles about the process, two sides have emerged. The descriptivists argue language has no "rules." If enough people use a certain word in a certain way, that is its definition. The prescriptivists argue that certain immovable rules are necessary for language to work. For example, "book" has to mean a collection of pages bound between two covers. It will never mean a four-legged animal with fur. Communication, prescriptivists argue, requires these kinds of rules. This debate has consequences for areas like law and public policy and medicine, and also for the way we organize our lives together. If the meaning of the word "harm" evolves from 'something that causes or demonstrates real pain or damage,' to mere discomfort such as, "I must not hear a perspective I don't like," then the role and purpose of law fundamentally changes. And the meaning of the doctor's oath to "do no harm" changes as well. The whole thing brings to mind the conversation between Humpty Dumpty and Alice in Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking Glass. "'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.' 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'" That fanciful conversation, set by Lewis Carroll in a bizarre and absurd upside-down world, is taking place in our own world. At the time the book was published, Humpty Dumpty's descriptivism would have been understood as illogical and unsustainable. But around the same time there were some, most notably Friedrich Nietzsche , who began to suggest, in different words, that maybe Humpty was right and language is malleable. From there it was a very short step for others, such as Jacques Derrida and Ludwig Wittgenstein , to suggest that not just language, but reality itself , is malleable. If everything is a text, as Derrida suggested, then nothing is left but interpretation. This shift in our understanding of language and meaning can also be traced through art. When Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, he was portraying reality. Assumed in the style and delivered in the final image was the idea that there was, indeed, a real-world and that the real world could be, in fact, communicated. Later, impressionists such as Vincent Van Gogh reflected a different view. Starry nights existed in reality,, but Van Gogh's abstract piece offered only his interpretation of it. In contrast, much of postmodern art looks nothing like reality at all. In fact, rather than even attempt communication, many postmodern artists see their task as creating endlessly interpretive experiences for viewers, as if access to the objective world were impossible. Without God, there is no meaning. This is true in language, art, worldview, and reality itself. Christians, because our worldview begins not only with God but with a God who communicates, are far more in the prescriptivist camp when it comes to words. While words obviously change over time as custom and culture ebb and flow, words point beyond other words and random interpretation to true realities. The basis of the world itself is words… God's words, to be precise. The Apostle John not only introduces this God as "the Word," but tells us that He took on flesh and invaded this world. And He has given us His Word which, Jesus said, "cannot be broken." Surrendering words and their meaning to cultural whims will only lead us, as writer David Foster Wallace once put it, to the tower of Babel. Surrendering reality to these whims leads to death.
Sep 15, 2021
John and Shane are asked a host of questions surrounding recent BreakPoint commentaries. To start off, John fields a question asking if the church completely missed the lessons we should've learned from 9/11. Additionally, another listener asks if the shift in worldview attention from Islam after 9/11 to critical theory today is one that is honest or if we're missing something in culture. Later in the show a listener asks for definition on where the American idea of inalienable rights is housed, especially as the church finds itself with less of a voice in society.
Sep 15, 2021
According to the U.S. Department of Education, since the start of the pandemic, more than 1.5 million students have left traditional public schooling . Parents and students, it seems, are looking for something different. Many parents and students are looking elsewhere because students struggled to learn online, and some have even fallen behind . Others feel helpless to respond to how school districts and states have handled, and sometimes mishandled, the pandemic . Others are worried about their students learning bad habits with technology , or suffering from loneliness and despair . Other parents have finally seen what their students are being taught. During the pandemic, various forms of anti-Americanism, sexual indoctrinations, and critical theory that pass in the name of education have streamed into homes through online Zoom classrooms. Many parents realized, some for the first time, that their students weren't learning what the parents thought they were learning. As one former college professor noted, if you haven't been in education in the past three years, it's almost unrecognizable to what you experienced growing up. All of which has led to incredible growth in the number of homeschooling families, and record enrollments for virtually every Christian school I know. I've talked to dozens of leaders of schools who didn't have waiting lists before, but have them now. One Christian school administrator told me that, even early on in the pandemic, his teachers were begging him to do what they could to reopen their school. "They need us," the teachers would say, even while the public school teachers unions in that state were asking officials to keep schools closed. Their attitude was unique in their community, but not among Christian schools around the nation. And, apparently, parents noticed. At the same time, Christian schools face incredible challenges, especially internally . Too often, for example, Christian education takes the form of regular education with Bible verses added on as illustrations, or as the same school only with chapel, a "spiritual formation" week, more rules, longer skirts, and shorter hair. In reality, truly Christian education is a fundamentally different enterprise. Christian education rests on the assumption that every person is made in the image of God, created by God for a purpose, called by God to live in the world He created, and specifically called to live for Christ in this cultural moment. Christian education equips and prepares people to understand reality and to live with the clarity, confidence, and courage they need to face the challenges of this cultural moment. To paraphrase T.S. Elliot, Christian education is not just teaching Christian students to behave or how to be safe in a dangerous world. It's about training them to think and live as Christians for such a time as this. This means that in this particular moment of incredible opportunity, we can do Christian education right or we can do it wrong. Done right, Christian education begins with Christian assumptions about life, truth, and humans. It aims at Christian goals. It's measured by Christian outcomes. It's guided by Christian methodology. Christian education also relies heavily on the home and the church to provide essential support. Part of the Colson Center's calling as a worldview-equipping institution is to serve Christian educators by equipping them to think and teach from a Christian worldview. Hundreds of Christian educators have been commissioned in our Colson Fellows program. Tens of thousands have been trained in worldview and cultural issues through our online courses. Many now serve as Christian worldview experts in their homes, schools, and churches. Each and every day, in classrooms and around dinner tables, BreakPoint commentaries are used to teach Christian worldview to the next generation. Together with our What Would You Say? videos, educators have the resources they need to connect Christian worldview to the most important and challenging issues of our culture. And, we invite you to partner with us, as we serve Christian education in this strategic moment by training Christian educators. To learn more about our work in Christian education, and to support it, visit www.breakpoint.org/september .
Sep 14, 2021
Last week, a U.S. District judge ruled against a Catholic school that fired a male teacher who had announced he was marrying his male partner. Coming from a judge notably progressive on sex and marriage issues who cited last year's consequential Bostock decision , the decision wasn't much of a surprise. However, a significant part of his reasoning was: the Catholic School was not Catholic enough . Here's the story. In 2014, a male substitute drama teacher at Charlotte Catholic School announced on Facebook that he planned to marry his male partner. The school argued that his post showed open disregard for the teachings of the Catholic Church and amounted to activism, which the school prohibits. So, they fired him. At roughly the same time, a female teacher announced on Facebook that she was engaged to her male partner. She was not fired, because her post did not violate the teachings of the Catholic Church. This is where the 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock vs. Clayton County comes in. In a bit of rhetorical jiu-jitsu, Justice Neil Gorsuch determined that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 protects sexual orientation and gender identity along with biological sex. Though, wrote Gorsuch, "homosexuality and transgender status are distinct concepts from sex… discrimination based on homosexuality or transgender status necessarily entails discrimination based on sex." In other words, rather than saying that the word sex in Title VII includes sexual orientation and gender identity, Gorsuch argued it's impossible to make employment decisions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity except on the basis if sex. So, if a man wouldn't have been fired for sleeping with a woman, a woman shouldn't be fired for sleeping with a woman. If a woman is allowed to dress like a woman, a man shouldn't be fired for dressing like a woman. Effectively, any employment decision made in which sex is a factor amounts to sex discrimination. Though it was clear that Gorsuch's sleight-of-hand was bad news, it wasn't exactly clear how bad. Now, we have a better idea after U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn applied Gorsuch's principle from Bostock in his decision in the Charlotte Catholic case. According to the judge, because the school objected to the drama teacher's announcement that he was marrying a man but did not object to the female teacher who announced she was marrying a man, the school therefore discriminated on the basis of sex. With this kind of legal precedent in place, employers that believe biological sex is a distinct category, but sexual orientation or gender identity are not, have only one protection: a religious exemption. So, why wasn't Charlotte Catholic protected in this case by a religious exemption? This is where this decision gets very interesting. According to Judge Cogburn, With a slightly different set of facts, the Court may have been compelled to protect the church's employment decision...Importantly, Charlotte Catholic discourages teachers of secular subjects from instructing students on any sort of religious subject. [emphasis added] The school asks that teachers who teach secular subjects refrain from instructing students on Catholic Doctrine. (Doc. No. 28-5 at 28). Secular teachers do not have to undergo religious training, do not have to be Catholic, and do not have to be Christian. (Doc. No. 28-3 at 58). The administration at Charlotte Catholic does not know the percentage of teachers at the school who are Catholic and does not ask if candidates are Catholic during job interviews. In other words, Charlotte Catholic failed to be Catholic enough . By dividing subject areas into "secular" and "religious" categories, the school effectively divided educators into "secular" and "religious" categories. This was, especially in the wake of Bostock , a serious tactical mistake. Even worse, to divide subject areas and educators into "religious" and "secular" is a serious worldview mistake. Father Richard John Neuhaus once said, "If what Christians say about Good Friday is true, then it is, quite simply, the truth about everything." For any institution committed to forming students in a Christian worldview, there is simply no such thing as a "secular subject." Every subject—from science to geometry, dance to drama, religious studies to social studies—is part of God's Creation, informed by God's revelation, and within the scope of Christ's work of redemption. This also means, there's no such thing as a "secular" educator in a Christian school, either. Simply put, any school wishing to be Christian must be thoroughly Christian: in purpose, content, curriculum, aim, and personnel. This is no easy task. In fact, to be a Christian educator is, to paraphrase Dr. John Stackhouse , "more than twice as hard." After all, A Christian educator must be Christian. And they must be educators. And they must be Christian educators. That's always been a theological imperative for those God's called to educate. It just so happens, it's now a legal imperative too.
Sep 13, 2021
September 11, 2001. For those who were alive and old enough to remember, it is a day indelibly seared into our memories. Puzzlement at the first plane, shock at the second, and terror at the third and fourth. Throughout, there was a slowly emerging realization that this was no accident, that America was at war, and that our world had dramatically, irreversibly, changed. That night, America went to sleep thinking that 10,000 people could be lying crushed in the burning rubble of New York City, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania. When that number was eventually reduced to just under 3,000, the day felt no less evil. At the same time, we gave thanks for everyone that made it home and marveled at miraculous stories of survival and heroism. We feared that more attacks were inevitable. Over the coming days and weeks, a new spirit was in the air. America found its moral clarity, national unity, and a deeper respect for the firemen, police officers, and first responders who had courageously run into the danger. We were more gracious to strangers and flew more American flags. In the days after 9/11, the lines between "us" and "them" were shifted, though not always in good ways. Even in Congress, at least for a short time, national divisions seemed far less important than our shared national identity. There was something deeper to all of this than a shared experience of pain. In the end, for a time, our national conversations were reframed by a shared witness of evil. Destroyed with the Twin Towers were postmodern pretensions about the malleability of truth and ethics. Gone, for a time, was any talk of "your truth" vs. "my truth." We had witnessed it with our own eyes: Good was good and evil was not. There were heroes, and there were villains. There were New York's Finest rushing into the danger, and there were the vile assassins that brought destruction. It was as if we'd been awakened from an ideologically-formed dreamworld to the real one. For a while, long-suppressed truths about the human condition and the reality of evil were undeniable, having breached the surface of our hearts, minds, and culture. Pain, wrote C.S. Lewis, is God's megaphone. And, for a moment, our collective pain allowed us to see more clearly than we had without it. Sadly, it was only for a moment. In the months after 9/11, a well-known Christian apologist confidently announced that postmodernism was dead. After witnessing the evil of that day, no one, he suggested, would embrace a worldview that denied absolute truth or morality. He was wrong. Eventually, a postmodern culture made sense of the day by retreating to its postmodernism. Rather than conclude that the evil of 9/11 required that moral absolutes must exist, the narrative became that the evil of 9/11 was because of those who embraced moral absolutes. Once the obvious contradiction is set aside, it's a short step to a different kind of absolutism, in which evil is called good and good is called evil. Of course, any of the collective spirit and national identity from those pain-filled days is long gone as well. To be clear, reality is not gone. Our ability to see it is. God willing, we'll never see another day like 9/11. God willing, we'll find ways to recapture the awareness of what is true and good without another day like that. The very least we can do is to remember, not just what happened that day and what it meant to us, and not even just the pain we felt. We must remember what the pain taught us. We must remember that categories of good and evil are far more than culturally conditioned preferences. We must remember that virtue consists of more than silly slogans of tolerance or plays for power. We must remember how the trendy philosophies about reality and morality that were so popular on September 10 simply weren't big enough for September 11, that our ideas about God and truth and morality have consequences, and that our bad ideas have consequences. We must remember that God is real, truth is real, morality is real, and human dignity is worth fighting for.
Sep 11, 2021
John and Maria discuss the impact of 9/11 on our current cultural moment. They revisit the historical significance of the timeframe surrounding the terrorist attacks, also explaining the worldview and ideological challenges we've faced following the 9/11 attacks. -- Bonus Episode | BreakPoint Podcast Special -- Reflecting on 9/11: Timeless Wisdom from Chuck Colson John Stonestreet & Chuck Colson | BreakPoint Podcast | September 10, 2021 -- In Show Mentions -- Teaching 9/11 to the Emerging Generation Instead, for them, it's distant history. Of course, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, the assassination of JFK, and the moon landing are all history for my generation as well. But they weren't nearly as distant. These events were essential parts of our cultural memories. We were still among those citizens who actually had a shared national memory. That's something that many in the emerging generation simply do not have. BreakPoint>> Remembering 9/11 from a Christian Worldview In the days after 9-11, Chuck Colson offered an incredible gift to God's people: A Christian worldview framework for understanding what had happened and a roadmap for Christians to both speak truth and love to their neighbors. Colson warned against out-of-control anger and against seeking revenge instead of justice, in both our personal and national responses. BreakPoint>> Chuck Colson Commentary from September 13 Many neighbors lost friends or loved ones in airplanes and buildings beyond that most americans spent all of Tuesday and the bulk of yesterday glued to the television, as did most of our Children in schools, people are traumatized, confused. They need to talk and we can listen and give a reason for our hope. We can listen and we can be an influence on those around us. BreakPoint>> For example, we can love our muslim and Middle Eastern neighbors. Our instinct for self preservation will cause us to see someone in traditional muslim dress or with Arabic features and wonder if he or she represents a threat. At the same time, we know that most Arabs living in America are christians, christians who have fled from the kind of militant Islamic leaders, fanatical extremists who are suspected of Tuesday's terror. Beyond that. The vast majority of Muslims living in the United States are peaceful law abiding people. Christians should be the first to recognize this and befriend those who will find themselves shunned by many. BreakPoint>> Chuck Commentary September 14 - Overcoming Evil with Good One of the reasons I believe the Christian gospel couldn't be a made up religion, as some people think, is that it tells us to do those things which are contrary to our human nature when evil is done to us. The human instinct is to respond with evil. The result is that evil triumphs in this case, if we respond to the terrorist attacks with evil, the terrorists win. But the Gospel tells us to act exactly contrary to our own nature, to respond to evil with good. BreakPoint>> Chuck Commentary September 17 - Responding to Terror Of course, as christians, we are the community of scatological hope. We live in the constant expectation of jesus return. That will be the most glorious day in all of human history, but it's our hope, and though we may talk about it among ourselves, this is not the time to inject it into secular discourse. BreakPoint>> Chuck Commentary September 18 - Where was God? If we would be prophetic, we need to speak out for the right reasons not to find scapegoats or condemn or denounced, but out of our love for our neighbors, rather than demonizing others. We offer an alternative to destructive worldviews that have left many victims, including the victims of last Tuesday in their wake, comments that sound self righteous and point the finger at others, make it hard for ordinary people to see how the christian message differs from the condemning message of the hijackers. BreakPoint>> -- In Show Recommendations -- The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order Samuel P. Huntington | Simon & Schuster | August 2, 2011 (Orig. Pub. 1996) 20 years on, 'The Falling Man' is still you and me Richard Drew | The Associated Press | September 9, 2021 -- Recommendations -- I Was There When Maria Baer | I Was There When Podcast Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer | Mariner Books | April 1, 2006 The Rising Bruce Springsteen | Sony Legacy | July 27, 2006 The Only Plan in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Garrett M. Graff | Simon & Schuster | September 8, 2020 September 11 | Drive Thru History Special Dave Stotts | Coldwater Media | September 9, 2021
Sep 10, 2021
Welcome to a special edition of the BreakPoint podcast. In view of the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attack on the United States, our team went back and revisited commentaries from our founder Chuck Colson. I was blown away by the gracious and truthful framing that Chuck offered to the events of that day. In a series of BreakPoint commentaries, Chuck Colson offered a Christian worldview that was, as we often say at the Colson Center, "big enough." I was also struck by how relevant this wisdom still is. So, over the course of the next hour or so, as a way of recounting the events of September 11th, we'd like for you to hear directly from Chuck Colson. I'm John Stonestreet, President of The Colson Center and the voice of BreakPoint. Thank you for joining us. Like most Americans that were old enough on that day, I remember exactly where I was on September 11th, 2001. At 7:59am American Airlines Flight 11 left Boston, bound for Los Angeles. At 8:14am the plane was hijacked. At 8:46am Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center between the 93rd and 99th floors. At the same time, United Airlines flight 175 took off from Boston, also bound for Los Angeles. Flight 175 was hijacked between 8:42 and 8:46am. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03am, Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, between the 77th and 85th floors. As New York City was sent into disbelief, American Airlines Flight 77, which took off from Washington Dulles International enroute for Los Angeles, was hijacked, between 8:50 and 8:54am. Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37am. At 8:42 am, before any of the hijackings or terrorist activity was realized, United Airlines Flight 93 left Newark International Airport bound for San Francisco. Flight 93 was hijacked at 9:28am, and because of the heroic action of the passengers on the flight, at 10:03am, the plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania rather than the destination intended by the terrorists, the White House. At 9:59am the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, and twenty-nine minutes later, at 10:28am the North Tower collapsed. The world long remembers the lives lost in that fateful attack on our country. The day after the attack, Sept 12, 2001, Chuck Colson delivered the following commentary. I cannot describe how I felt when I heard the news of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. We are partly and appropriately struck silent with the enormous loss of life in the collapse of Twin towers. The explosion at the pentagon and the hijacked airliners that were crashed. If your loved ones perished yesterday as a result of these acts, Please know you have my deepest sympathy and our heartfelt prayers go out to all involved as the bible says when one suffers, we all suffer as I listened to the reports, I felt the same way I did when President Kennedy was assassinated when President Reagan was shot or Pearl Harbor for that matter, which I'm old enough to remember. Such acts caused grief not just for the loss of life, but for the assault. They are upon our deepest beliefs. They assault the very soul of America terrorism. The warfare of the new century is engaged in for the specific purpose of destabilizing free societies. The terrorists succeed if free people cower in fear and begin to restrict their treasured freedoms and liberties. We should never succumb to terrorist inspired fear. We can never allow such people to win. Instead, we must renew our commitment to the most fundamental liberties and the rule of law and we must support our government in its response, God established government to preserve order by punishing evil and seeking justice without this restraint on human sinfulness. The strong will prey on the weak and seek to impose their will on others. What is true in relations between individuals is also true in relations between nations As ST Augustine wrote 1600 years ago. Loving God and our neighbor will require using force against aggression. And this brings me back to yesterday's events. For the Christian, we believe government has a special duty to punish those who in effect invaded our soil and committed these dastardly X. But we must do so in a just manner. As Augustine's just war theory teaches any military action must have a reasonable chance of success in our context. That means being fairly certain as to the identity of the perpetrators. We can't simply strike out for the sake of doing something or in a blind rage. We need to also make sure that our targets are military ones, civilians, even those who applaud the terrorist actions should never be targeted. Finally, our response should be proportionate after an event like yesterday's. We are understandably tempted to lash out with every weapon in our arsenal. But we must be careful and not let our response to the harm we have suffered. Lead us to commit even greater harm, something that our technological superiority makes possible. But respond we must and quickly less the world and more importantly would be terrorists view us as a paper tiger. We are the respond appropriately with a sword or invite more of the same. I am sure President Bush is weighing right now, all of the intelligence available to him to find out who's responsible. If any governments are involved and how quickly the U. S. Can retaliate. I have confidence in the President and secretaries Rumsfeld and Powell. They and those who serve with them are competent leaders who find themselves in a time of tremendous crisis. I urge you to pray with me not only for those who grieve and not only for our enemies, but especially for our leaders as they fulfill the awesome responsibility in this dark hour. May God help us for break point. This is chuck colson in Washington. -- That was Chuck Colson's BreakPoint commentary for September 12th, 2001. The day after the attacks, the world watched as survivors were pulled from the rubble. Miraculous stories of survival and heroism began to emerge. Other stories, of postponed meetings, traffic problems, and other providential ways in which plans were changed, therefore saving the lives of those who would've otherwise been in harm's way, also began to emerge. The final survivor pulled from the rubble was Genelle Gusman McMillan, she was rescued out of the debris of the North Tower 12:30pm. Chuck Colson believed that Christians should always be prepared to think, to speak, and to act – even in the midst of calamity and devastation. And he called Christians to all of these things, in his BreakPoint commentary for September 13th. Let's listen: The terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center in new york and damage the pentagon were not just about buildings and airplanes. They are about people, people who survived and people who died. The country grieves. In the midst of this christians are called as Augustine put it to be the best of citizens. But what should we be doing? Well, let me begin with some practical suggestions. Hospitals in new york and Washington desperately need blood and whether you're in new york or California, if you give blood, it will get to the victims who need it. Christians ought to be the first ones in line. Second, we can volunteer yesterday has exhausted emotionally spent office workers walked across the Williamsburg bridge to Brooklyn. They were met by workers handing out cups of water. They had hauled five gallon water bottles from all over to offer the proverbial cup of cold water to those suffering. I don't know about the workers motivation. But what a touching example of community spirit and love. Third we can listen. The magnitude of this terrorist attack cuts to the heart and soul of many american communities. Many neighbors lost friends or loved ones in airplanes and buildings beyond that most americans spent all of Tuesday and the bulk of yesterday glued to the television, as did most of our Children in schools, people are traumatized, confused. They need to talk and we can listen and give a reason for our hope. We can listen and we can be an influence on those around us. For example, we can love our muslim and Middle Eastern neighbors. Our instinct for self preservation will cause us to see someone in traditional muslim dress or with Arabic features and wonder if he or she represents a threat. At the same time, we know that most Arabs living in America are christians, christians who have fled from the kind of militant Islamic leaders, fanatical extremists who are suspected of Tuesday's terror. Beyond that. The vast majority of Muslims living in the United States are peaceful law abiding people. Christians should be the first to recognize this and befriend those who will find themselves shunned by many. Finally, and most important, we need to pray. Pray fervently for our leaders. President George Bush is a devout evangelical faith in Christ. I know from our conversations national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice and speechwriter Michael Gerson and others in the administration are strong believers as well. These brothers and sisters need God's wisdom and our prayers. Tim Russert pointed out what a difficult decision the president faces. If his responses to week, he invites more terrorism. If he orders an all out assault on the terrorists and those who harbor them, it could provoke extreme elements in moderate muslim countries to topple those governments. This would have the net result of turning our allies into rogue nations who are willing to aid and export terrorism. Enormous wisdom. Nothing less than God's wisdom is required. We can also pray that the quiet, unyielding anger of the American people of which Bush spoke, an anger that is both natural and appropriate does not spill over into rash demands. The president knows he must act swiftly. But for the rest of us this is a time when our anger must be tempered with patience and restraint. God have mercy on us. For break point. This is chuck colson in Washington. -- A theme that Chuck Colson kept returning to in the days after 9-11, was how we must respond as a nation and, specifically, how Christians should respond by speaking truth and loving neighbor. He consistently warned against responding from out-of-control anger, merely seeking revenge instead of justice. So, three days after the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil, he directly addressed the many stories, that were emerging at the time, of Muslims, Sikh and others being attacked on American streets. I was particulary struck by this line: "Evil in this world begets more evil." Even in addressing the incredible evil of 9-11, Chuck Colson taught that after the fall, the world doesn't divide easily into "good guys and bad guys." And that only by grouding our thoughts and actions in the truth of the Gospel, can we actually avoid the temptations of rage, revenge, and and a response without appropriate restraint. Here's Chuck: Sher Singh was born in India and has lived in the United States for two years. On Wednesday when his train from boston to Washington D. C stopped in providence Rhode island. He was arrested, suspected of involvement in the terrorism that rocked the country. On Tuesday, alerted by television reports, a crowd gathered outside the train station as police led Mr Singh from the station. The crowd whooped and jeered, "kill him" yelled one man, "you killed my brother," shrieked another. Mr Singh who had absolutely no connection with the terrorism is a seek and wears a turban, a long beard and a ceremonial dagger strapped to his shoulder. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. In Chicago, A crowd marched on a local mosque shouting Usa usa, someone threw a firebomb at an Arab american community center in texas. Arab Americans have been assaulted and harassed across the country. A 19 year old Chicago commented, "I'm proud to be an american and I hate Arabs and I always have." Evil in this world begets more evil. It's self perpetuating and we're already seeing that in the rage against Mr Singh and people like him. By sharp contrast, Paul wrote to the Romans, overcome evil with good. One of the reasons I believe the Christian gospel couldn't be a made up religion, as some people think, is that it tells us to do those things which are contrary to our human nature when evil is done to us. The human instinct is to respond with evil. The result is that evil triumphs in this case, if we respond to the terrorist attacks with evil, the terrorists win. But the Gospel tells us to act exactly contrary to our own nature, to respond to evil with good. The most powerful example of this principle I know is farther Yourpam Holosko catholic priest in Poland. In the early 1980s, the pale gaunt priest had a twofold message, defend the truth and overcome evil with good. People responded and overflowed his church. The secret police followed him everywhere. He began to receive threats. And finally, one night after celebrating mass and preaching, the Father disappeared. About 10 days later as 50,000 people came to mass to listen to a tape of his last sermon, they heard that his body had been found in the Vistula River badly mutilated by torture. The secret police braced for an uprising. But on the day of the Father's funeral, the huge crowd that walked past their headquarters bore a banner and shouted, what it said. "We forgive, we forgive" He taught them well. Only Christians, men and women who are touched by and understand the present reality of the cross can possibly overcome evil with good and if we don't, rage and anger will carry the day and the terrorists will have won. This doesn't obviate the government's use of the sword or a military force to swiftly and proportionately respond to those terrorist attacks. We must do that. Our government will. But as the nation's anger rises, there is a great test for American christians. Can we live by the gospel? Will we love our neighbors, even those who look or sound or seem like those who so ruthlessly attacked us? for break point. This is chuck colson in Washington -- As Chuck notes, it is only the Christian worldview that allows the proper pursuit of justice at a national level while instructing all of us to "overcome evil with good." Later, on the morning of September 14th, a memorial service for the victims of 9-11 was held at the National Cathedral, It was led by Billy Graham, President Bush and others addressed the grief of the nation. Later that afternoon, President Bush delivered his famous "Bullhorn Address" from the rubble of the Twin Towers. The following Monday, Chuck Colson addressed another aspect of 9-11 from a Christian worldview. He warned Christians against the dangerous and fruitless end-times speculation that was popping up, contrasting that with the true eschatological hope only found in Christ. This hope, Chuck said, is not an invitation to disengage while waiting for the Lord's return. True Christian hope is, instead, an invitation to engage. An example of this at a national level is Just War Theory – a way that theologians have addressed the rights and responsibilities of governments to serve and protect citizens. With this historic resource, Chuck Colson called Christians to provide accountability and a conscience to America's response. This weekend, my wife was in the drugstore. The pharmacist was the first to confront her. "This is obviously the end times" he intoned, "things are going to get much worse, and then the Lord will come. Tell Mr Colson to keep an eye on the king of Spain, Juan Carlos." Well, I don't know what Juan Carlos has to do with it. The only thing I know about him is that he read Born Again and loved it, but I guess he's a candidate for the Antichrist. I might dismiss the pharmacist's response except that in one hour of shopping for groceries, Patty was confronted by two other Christians who told her the end is near. It's finally come, this is it, get ready for the Lord's return. If this is how Christians are thinking about the terrorist attacks on NewYork and Washington, it confirms my worst fears. During the gulf war, the world was concerned about the proper use of military power. Christians have been vitally concerned with this issue and have advanced the just war doctrine which has shaped the understanding of Western society. Christians in America. However, during the gulf war said nothing choosing instead to speculate about the end Times one book about prophecy on the gulf war shot to the top of the bestseller list only to be forgotten weeks later when it's dramatic speculations proved utterly false. Meanwhile, we left questions of power, justice and international relations to secular thinkers and in the process gave the impression that we don't know and we don't care. It was a bad witness and must not happen again. Now make no mistake, Jesus is going to return obviously, I believe that, but like C. S. Lewis, I refuse to speculate as to when. Rather than speculate, I want to concentrate on the great and unique contribution christians can make. In this hour, christians need to focus attention on the issues surrounding just war. The president must respond to the terrorist attacks forcefully and quickly. The bible teaches that the government has the power of the sword to preserve order and do justice. At the same time, the power of the sword has to be tempered by the restraints of the Just war doctrine, beginning with St. Augustine some 1600 years ago. Christians have thought and written about the appropriate use of military force today. We need to be the ones who insist that the response to the terrorist attacks be proportionate, that they do not create a greater evil and that civilians are not targeted. I've been watching the television and I have yet to hear the question of just war raised. If we don't bring these issues into public discourse, no one will now don't get me wrong. Of course, as christians, we are the community of scatological hope. We live in the constant expectation of jesus return. That will be the most glorious day in all of human history, but it's our hope, and though we may talk about it among ourselves, this is not the time to inject it into secular discourse. People will simply dismiss us as a fringe group. The fact is, this country is hurting and grieving, perplexed, frustrated, confused about what needs to be done next. This is the time for us to come alongside. Offer compassion, mercy, understanding good instead of evil and we can contribute to the public debate that will inform our nation's actions in a way that reflects God's standard of justice for break point. This is chuck colson in Washington -- On September 18, a week after 9/11, Chuck Colson addressed one of the great obstacles Christian faith, a perennial challenge Christians have had to answer in most cultural moments, but which always is a front and central question in the wake of calamity, evil, or disaster. It's known as the problem of evil. This weekend, I received a frantic call from a christian friend, deeply troubled the husband of the woman to whom she had been witnessing had been killed in the World Trade Center attack. The woman called my friend and demanded bitterly. Where was your God that you've been telling me about this week everywhere, people are raising the same question, How could a good God have allowed such massive evil and no question poses the greatest stumbling block to the christian faith? No question more difficult for christians to answer. Yet the biblical worldview does give us a good answer. The simple answer to why bad things happen to so called good people is that God loved us so much that he made us free moral agents in his image. He designed creatures with the ability to make choices to choose either good or evil. The original humans Adam and Eve exercised that choice and chose to disobey God in doing so. They rejected God's good, thus creating sin and opening the door to death and evil. What happened last week was raw naked evil committed by men who had made evil choices. But it was something else as well. It was merely a consequence of the fact that there is sin in the world. God could erase the consequences of sin immediately. But then we'd no longer be free moral agents. We'd be robots without consequences. There is no real choice. God cannot simultaneously offer us free choice and then compel one choice over another. Which is what would happen if he stopped all evil, Jesus himself was asked why bad things happen to good people. In Luke 13, we read that people asked him if the galleons who were killed while worshipping at the older were worse sinners than anyone else know, Jesus answered, and then he added, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Jesus then reinforced his point recently, a tower in the nearby city had fallen, 18 people have been crushed to death, Jesus said, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. This is one of the hard sayings of Jesus, but there's great truth in it. We are in no position to ask God why terrible things happen. We're only to seek forgiveness ourselves. What happened last week was one of the worst tragedies in American history. But God can bring good out of evil. And he often works through adversity. Since the terrorist attacks, we have seen the nation come together with greater unity that I've witnessed since Pearl Harbor and this sunday my church was filled to capacity for all services, very unusual in Florida at this time of year. Churches all over the country were packed out as they were in England as well. People may be angry at God, but they're also asking questions about the meaning of life and God's role in it. You and I need to be prepared to answer the questions of people in pain. Where was God last week? He was with us just as he always is, He gave us everything we need to cope with this or any other evil. He gave us himself at the cross at calvary for break point. This is chuck colson in Washington. -- There was one more aspect of 9-11 that Chuck Colson would address, the week after 9-11. A couple of evangelical leaders, attempting to offer a prophetic response to the attack, famously blamed the terrorist attacks on, as Chuck diplomatically put it, "people and groups who have had a secularizing effect on American society." Of course, Chuck spoke about these groups, their bad ideas, and the consequences of those ideas, all the time. What he refused to do was to use this national tragedy inappropriately. He refused to abandon a Biblical understanding of sin and the fall, and what we offered was a brilliant, Biblical understanding of judgment. Since the terrorist attacks in new york and Washington last week, breakpoint commentaries have focused on the christian worldview response and we've ignored are scheduled commentaries correctly. So the attacks were of such magnitude that no one could think of anything else. But barring additional developments, we will resume our regular breakpoint scheduled tomorrow with a three part commentary on the program evolution that will be presented next week on PBS you need to know what PBS is up to but before we leave the topic of the terrorist attacks. I want to comment on the meaning of a prophetic response to this national disaster. Christians are called to speak prophetically to the world calling for repentance. The reaction of some evangelicals, however, was unfortunately to put the blame for the attacks on people and groups who have had a secularizing effect on American society. I don't associate myself with those comments, nor do I believe most American christians do. These remarks were ill timed and inappropriate as those who made them to their credit have acknowledged and they've apologized for them. While I obviously believe that the forces of secularism have done a miserable harm, it's unfair to associate this tragedy with those groups. Nor can we lay the blame at the feet of Arabs or Muslims in general as some want to do. The hijackers who crashed airplanes into the World trade center and the pentagon were muslim in name only, several of them were involved in drunk driving and visiting strip bars, things no religious muslim would ever do. In reality, they were anarchists seeking to destroy, destabilize and make us slaves to fear, but you ask, aren't christians supposed to be prophetic within the culture and point out sin of course, but there are Biblical guidelines first remember the words of the Apostle Peter, it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God, the sins of christians and of the church. Our our first order of business is materialism. Pride, disunity, gossip and lack of love are as much a cause for judgment as anyone else's behavior to single out the transgressions of others while ignoring our own is to turn biblical teaching on its head. Second, the biblical prophets who pronounced God's judgment upon the people were careful to count themselves among those being judged, and when judgment came, they shared in the suffering of the people. Jeremiah wept and wrote laments. When Jerusalem fell, Ezekiel went into exile moses through his light in with the people. When God told him of his intention to wipe out Israel and begin again with him, we always speak as fellow sinners, and are the first to repent. Third. If we would be prophetic, we need to speak out for the right reasons not to find scapegoats or condemn or denounced, but out of our love for our neighbors, rather than demonizing others. We offer an alternative to destructive worldviews that have left many victims, including the victims of last Tuesday in their wake, comments that sound self righteous and point the finger at others, make it hard for ordinary people to see how the christian message differs from the condemning message of the hijackers. Christians should be measured and balanced in all. We say a word of caution for all of us for break point, this is chuck Colson in Washington. -- Here's one last commentary from Chuck Colson, from a year after the attacks, in which he reflects on national memory. Why is it important to remember, not only to honor those who served well in the past but in order to motivate our own ongoing, faithful service. September 11 is and will remain a day of solemn mourning and remembrance that much is clear. But why should we memorialize the event. Find out next on break point No one who is old enough to take it in will ever forget september 11th 2001. We see passenger jets flying out of a clear September morning. The flashes of flame, the destruction, the death and the valiant acts of heroism. It's well to remember and to mourn the victims on this day. But let me raise the question of why we memorialize those who have sacrificed for us. What's our object in doing so, the answer is gratitude as we mourn and remember the sacrifices of those who went before us. We ourselves out of gratitude for what they did, commit ourselves to defend those values for which they died. Principles we hold so dear, freedom, human dignity, and gratitude. John Calvin said gratitude was at the center of the christian life and G. K. Chesterton called it the mother of all virtues. It was gratitude for living in a free country that caused me to put on the uniform of the United States Marine officer during the korean war. We do our duty to our country out of gratitude for those who went before us to defend the liberties we hold so precious. I love the scene at the end of the movie Saving Private Ryan. Ryan, who is now 70 years old returns to Normandy and he's looking at the grave marker of Captain Miller, the man who died to save him during World war two. Ryan's on his knees. The grave marker is a stark white cross. He addresses Miller now Long dead. I've tried every day to live up to what you did for me. I hope I've lived a life worthy of your sacrifice. On this anniversary of the attacks. We ought to be looking at the sacrifices people made for us and asking ourselves whether we are living lives worthy of their sacrifice is in addition to gratitude and duty, we remember because good can come out of those vicious terrorist attacks. It's of course a biblical principle that God works through human suffering tragedies and defeats sometimes to do his greatest work. These acts of war served as a wake up call. There was a lot of utopian discussion going on in the nineties about how western liberal democracy had won the great ideological contest of the 20th century. We forget that this is a dangerous world, that evil is real now we know better and even the postmodernist has to agree there is evil. And just as the great World War two generation saved the world from Hitler's evil. So this generation must become great for this moment. It's our calling to be great in defense of liberty and freedom and human rights to defend good against evil. Today, the war on terrorism is by its nature slow and treacherous. We must not allow ourselves to become discouraged or fatigued On this September 11 after looking back with gratitude, we need to look ahead. Our hope lies in our resolve to do our duty, that our gratitude inspires. Our hope lies in the lessons we've learned for the future and our hope lies in our confidence in a sovereign God. That in the end right will prevail, that civilization can be preserved and that America and her allies in defense of freedom and an opposition to evil will triumph. And just like that scene in saving private Ryan. Let us also this day, look at the cross as Ryan did may we live lives worthy of the supreme sacrifice christ made for us for break point. This is chuck colson in Washington.
Sep 10, 2021
Tomorrow, as we mark the 20th anniversary of arguably the most devastating day in America's history, we should also remember how Christians are to confront evil. In the days after 9/11, Chuck Colson offered an incredibly good gift: a Christian worldview framework for understanding what had happened, and a roadmap for Christians to both speak truth and love their neighbor. He warned against out-of-control anger and against seeking revenge instead of justice, in both our personal responses and the national response. In fact, three days after 9/11, Chuck directly addressed the many stories emerging of Muslims, Sikhs, and others being attacked on American streets. He offered a prophetic warning that "evil in this world begets more evil." The commentary is a model of applying Christian truth to a most chaotic moment. It's just as helpful today as it was 20 years ago. Here's Chuck: Sher Singh was born in India and has lived in the United States for two years. On Wednesday, when his train from Boston to Washington, D.C., stopped in Providence, RI, he was arrested, suspected of involvement in the terrorism that rocked the country on Tuesday. Alerted by television reports, a crowd gathered outside the train station as police led Mr. Singh from the station. The crowd whooped and jeered. "Kill him!" yelled one man. "You killed my brother!" shrieked another. Mr. Singh, who had absolutely no connection with terrorism, is a Sikh and wears a turban, a long beard, and a ceremonial dagger strapped to his shoulder. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. In Chicago, a crowd marched on a local mosque shouting, "USA! USA!" Someone threw a firebomb at an Arab American community center in Texas. Arab Americans have been assaulted and harassed across the country. A 19-year-old from Chicago commented, "I'm proud to be an American and I hate Arabs and I always have." Evil in this world begets more evil. It's self-perpetuating and we're already seeing that in the rage against Mr. Singh and people like him. By sharp contrast, Paul wrote to the Romans, "Overcome evil with good." One of the reasons I believe the Christian Gospel couldn't be a made-up religion, as some people think, is that it tells us to do those things which are contrary to our human nature when evil is done to us. The human instinct is to respond with evil. The result is that evil triumphs. In this case, if we respond to the terrorist attacks with evil, the terrorists win. But the Gospel tells us to act exactly contrary to our own nature: to respond to evil with good. The most powerful example of this principle I know is Father Popieluszko, a Catholic priest in Poland. In the early 1980s, the pale, gaunt priest had a twofold message: defend the truth and overcome evil with good. People responded and overflowed his church. The secret police followed him everywhere. He began to receive threats. And finally, one night after celebrating mass and preaching, the Father disappeared. About 10 days later, as 50,000 people came to mass to listen to a tape of his last sermon, they heard that his body had been found in the Vistula River, badly mutilated by torture. The secret police braced for an uprising. But on the day of the Father's funeral, the huge crowd that walked past their headquarters bore a banner and shouted what it said: "We forgive, we forgive!" He taught them well. Only Christians, men, and women who are touched by and understand the present reality of the Cross, can possibly overcome evil with good. And if we don't, rage and anger will carry the day and the terrorists will have won. This doesn't obviate the government's use of the sword or a military force to swiftly and proportionately respond to those terrorist attacks. We must do that. Our government will. But as the nation's anger rises, there is a great test for American Christians. Can we live by the Gospel? Will we love our neighbors, even those who look or sound or seem like those who so ruthlessly attacked us? That was Chuck Colson from September 14, 2001. It's an example of the sort of Christian worldview wisdom that God used Chuck Colson to provide to His people in the days after 9/11. Tomorrow, we are releasing a very special program on the BreakPoint podcast. We've put together all of the BreakPoint commentaries from September 12 to September 19, 2001. Together, they provide an incredible retelling of 9/11, within a Christian worldview framework. Come to breakpoint.org to listen, or look for the BreakPoint podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.
Sep 9, 2021
Like many of you, I remember exactly where I was on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. I was preparing to teach a class of college freshmen on the topic of Christian worldview. Obviously, my teaching plans for that day changed, but I also had a very real example of how significant worldview is to understanding the world around us. I remember the chaos, I remember the confusion, I remember thinking this had changed our world forever, and it did. Those of us who were alive and old enough realized that this was an event of national significance - as serious as the attack on Pearl Harbor or the assassination of JFK. Yet I've talked to so many parents and grandparents over the last several months who have realized that 9/11 is not a part of the story of this emerging generation. It's a distant memory. It's distant history now. Of course, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, the assassination of JFK, and the moon landing are all distant history for my generation as well. But we were a different type of citizenry. We were citizens who had a shared national memory. That's something that many in the emerging generation simply do not have. I've been looking for resources to help teach the younger generation about 9/11. That's why I'm so excited for my friends at Drive Thru History. This week they will be releasing their special called 9/11: A Drive Thru History Special . You can watch it today at 9 p.m. Eastern time on the Drive Thru History YouTube channel, or you can see it Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern on the Breakpoint Facebook page. Many of you are familiar with Drive Thru History and the tremendous job that they do making history come to life. The 9/11 special is also hosted by Dave Stotts and provides a historical overview of that eventful day. Through incredible video footage and narration, you'll walk through the events of 9/11 with highlights on the stories of terrorism and the face of such great evil. The team over at Drive Thru History was kind enough to give us a sample of the premiere special that they will be airing for the public later today and this weekend. Here's a transcript of a segment of the video. -- The September 11 strikes against America, often referred to as 9/11, were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic group al-Qaeda. Four passenger airliners that had departed from airports in the northeastern United States were hijacked by 19 Islamic terrorists. Two of the planes were crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. A third plane was crashed into the US Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane, heading towards Washington D. C., crashed into a Pennsylvania field after the passengers fought back against their hijackers. According to scholars, 9/11 ended up being the single deadliest terrorist attack in human history. There were 2,977 killed, over 25,000 injured, and more than $10 billion dollars in property damage. It was also the single deadliest incident for U.S. emergency personnel, with 343 firefighters and 72 police officers killed that day in the tragic aftermath of 9/11. It took 99 days for the New York City Fire Department to finally extinguish the smoldering fires at the World Trade Center complex. Then, it took another 160 days to finally declare the cleanup and recovery operation over. In the end, about two million tons of tangled steel and rubble were removed from the site. Next came the process of healing and restoration through designing and building an appropriate structure to memorialize the event while functioning as meaningful office space for economic renewal in lower Manhattan. The iconic replacement was finally approved and constructed on the 16-acre site. One World Trade Center. In the months after 9/11, we came together as Americans like I've never seen in my lifetime. First responders were applauded. Churches were packed. Radio stations played patriotic music. Sports stadiums honored the fallen. The military was revered. American flags flew on homes, schools, and businesses everywhere. Indeed, 9/11 was tragic, but I've never seen such American patriotism, unity, and resolve. While the country processed its grief, it also came together across religious, political, and ethnic divides. We were all just Americans. Yeah, September 11 is a day to remember an attack on our homeland, an attack on our freedom, an attack on our very worldview. It's also a day to remember our fallen Americans and our selfless heroes. It's a day to remind the new generation to stay vigilant in defending our country, our liberty, and our way of life. Once a year on the anniversary of 9/11, a special tribute in light fills the Manhattan skyline. Two massive beams of light stretch toward the heavens symbolizing the fallen twin towers. It's a profound way to remember the day we will never forget. -- That was just a small taste of 9/11: A Drive Thru History Special . It's being released today at 9 p.m. Eastern on the Drive Thru History YouTube channel. It will also premiere on the Breakpoint Facebook page this Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern. Just come to www.breakpoint.org where you can find a link to view the video.
Sep 9, 2021
John and Shane talk through the challenges in reasoning through the pro-choice stance in the face of Texas' new heartbeat bill. John also answers a question on a recent commentary dealing with Millennials. The listeners asks how to communicate the goodness of the Gospel to those who might have a taste for it. To close, John and Shane go point-by-point through a series of statements a Christian school administrator is fielding in Australia. The listener's school is considering how to process sexual orientation and gender identity at their non-denominational school. The listener notes that many teachers haven't been able to process all of the points before the conversation rose. John and Shane provide resources and a step-by-step response to the points listed below: The Bible's authors only wrote to their particular context and knew nothing of what us contemporaries now understand about human sexuality, The word 'homosexuality' is a recent, Victorian-era invention inserted into scripture to condemn all same-sex sexual activity when that was not the original intent, The word/s used in scripture to denote homosexuality actually only condemn exploitative sexual practices, not same-sex sexuality between consenting adults, The story of Sodom and Gomorrah denotes God's judgment on the people of those cities due to their lack of hospitality rather than the practice of homosexuality, and Jesus said very little about sexuality anyway. -- Resources -- Same-Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God's Design for Marriage Sean McDowell & John Stonestreet | Baker Books | 2014 The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation, A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics Richard Hayes | Harper | August, 1996 Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God's Grand Story Christopher Yuan | Multnomah | 2018 The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics Robert Gagnon | Abingdon Press | 2002
Sep 8, 2021
How did things in Afghanistan change so dramatically, seemingly overnight? How did a decades-long, frustrating stalemate become the greatest American foreign policy debacle in 50 years ? A nation is left asking, "What went wrong?" The most immediate explanation is the way the withdrawal was handled, from pulling out troops before evacuating citizens and allies, to abandoning the Bagram Air Base. These details and others are hard to explain. A common, longer-view explanation is that the War in Afghanistan ultimately failed because the United States shifted focus from fighting terrorism to nation-building. Nation-building can be formally defined as " the process through which the boundaries of the modern state and those of the national community become congruent. " In practice, nation-building is far more complicated. Attempting to rebuild essential cultural and institutional elements of another country rarely goes well. America's view of nation-building tends to change. In defending his recent decisions, President Biden has spoken derisively of nation-building, even saying that it "never made sense" to him. Yet, that claim was fact-checked by the Washington Post : apparently, he was for it until he was against it. Many condemn nation-building, not so much because it's wrong as because it's impossible. Cultures run too deep, they say, to change from the outside. No weapon or army is stronger than a people's will to resist. Just consider Afghanistan (twice), Vietnam, or the collapse of European empires. On the other hand, it's also true that national borders can change , languages do shift, religions reform, and whole civilizations rise and fall. In recent years, powerhouses like Germany and Japan each went from global menace to responsible neighbor. India, Korea, Taiwan, Dubai, and Singapore have changed dramatically in just a few generations. Cultures do change. Not always and not easily, but they can and do change. Others see nation-building as necessary and good policy. A century ago, energized by victory in the first World War, President Wilson predicted a new dawn, made possible by good ol' American can-do spirit, in which democracy would break out over the globe and the world would be transformed into our own image. Instead, the world descended into totalitarianisms, Left and Right . Despite these historical realities, the temptation to engage in nation-building has proved hard to resist. In the wake of the Cold War, the first President Bush talked of a New World Order . President Clinton intervened everywhere from Haiti to Somalia to the Balkans . And, most famously, moved by the horrors of 9/11 from quasi-isolationist to interventionist , the second President Bush worked to remake the Middle East along Western, democratic lines. None of these actions, to put it mildly, went as planned. The historic, tribal, ethnic, sectarian, and religious realities of Middle Eastern life held far more power than Western notions of human rights and economic progress. If non-interventionists see cultural traits as immovable, always-interventionists see them as merely cosmetic, about as enduring as a new coat of paint. Every society, however, is built on and around ideas, many of which are so deeply ingrained, either by history or religion or both, that they go unspoken. Changing them is not impossible, but it is also not easy. In fact, the faltering state of freedom in the Middle East is as much a failure to know our own history and ideas as it is a failure to know theirs. The blessings we enjoy, like free elections and free markets and free speech, didn't come from nowhere. They came from a thousand years or more of cultural development , from kings and battles, revolutions and rebellions, ideas and new ideas, power struggles and false starts. In other words, politics alone cannot nation-build. In western culture, certain ideas about human nature, derived from Christianity, have played an essential role. Biblical concepts about the image of God and original sin enabled thinkers (who were also influenced by the Enlightenment) to craft a style of government that saw both citizens and the state as dignified and liable to corruption. Though Voltaire and even Jefferson may have ignored the source of these principles, and though, in practice, the inconsistent application of these principles led to grave evils and injustice, neither the Declaration of Independence or Declaration of the Rights of Man would have come to pass without Christianity and the Bible. Without them, in fact, the democratic project simply cannot endure, as demonstrated by our failed attempts at nation-building around the world.
Sep 7, 2021
There is a pandemic that has lasted far longer than COVID. It's also been more deadly. It's more difficult to treat, and there's no vaccine for it. Masks are ineffective in stopping it and may actually make it worse. America's pandemic of despair shows up most obviously in the mounting number of suicide and suicide attempts. According to the Centers for Disease Control , suicide rates are higher today than at any other time since the Great Depression. Unless one takes into account just how different our world is today, it's impossible to grasp what that data point really means. Today, we have emergency rooms, a much better knowledge of poison and poison control, better technologies, and emergency medications like NARCAN. These incredible, life-saving medical interventions mean that a large percentage of patients who attempt suicide survive. But adjusting for these medical advances, we are likely living through the worst suicide crisis in our nation's history. This is a crisis that is, at its root, fueled by despair. Hopelessness afflicts individuals and entire communities. Deeper than economic hardship or access to firearms and opioids, we have created, to borrow words from my friend Matthew Sleeth, "an unlivable society." Loneliness and isolation are the norm, and they pre-existed this Coronavirus. Matthew's latest book is the most direct, helpful, and clarifying book for Christians on this topic of suicide. It's called Hope Always: How to Be a Force for Life in a Culture of Suicide . In it, he combines his first-hand knowledge of America's suicide crisis as an emergency room doctor with statistical insights, a biblical overview of the topic, and an incredible amount of wisdom. His conclusion is nothing less than a calling. When it comes to addressing this culture-wide pandemic, if not the church stepping up, who will? Scripture, as Dr. Sleeth points out, says a great deal about suicide, and therefore has a huge role to play in preventing it. From the beginning, Satan tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden to, in effect, kill themselves. Ever since, demons, both literal and figurative, have been whispering lies and words of despair into human ears. Throughout the book, Sleeth threads an important needle. On the one hand, he argues against a materialistic view of suicide. Humans are, he argues, the only creatures that knowingly take our own lives. Thus, this terrible decision has an irreducible spiritual component. On the other hand, Sleeth warns Christians not to ignore the very real medical and mental health factors that drive people to self-harm. By holding together the material and moral sides of suicide, Sleeth addresses the issue from the best foundation available: who humans are as image-bearers of God. Thus, Sleeth makes clear why Christianity has proved to be the most powerful and effective response to those whispering demons that call us into the darkness. Near the beginning of Hope Always , Sleeth tells an especially touching story of two patients from his time as an emergency room physician. The first was an able-bodied young man, full of promise, who chose to shoot himself in the temple. The other was a joyful, wheelchair-bound man, slightly older with a permanent neurological injury, who had come in for a minor infection. A nurse asked Dr. Sleeth if he recognized the patient. "It's the man you saw last spring who shot himself." The two patients, as it turns out, were the same person. As the young man's parents later told Dr. Sleeth, after surviving his suicide attempt, their son had found a reason to live. In their words, "He got his faith back," and his faith had given him fresh hope. (This kind of powerful storytelling, born in his wealth of experience, is just one example of Matthew Sleeth's compelling writing style.) To be clear, having a Christian faith is no guarantee that, ultimately, the demonic voices will go away, or won't steal, kill, and destroy a life. Still, especially in this area, only the Church is properly grounded in both Scripture and science. Only the biblical vision of the imago Dei, of our creation and fall, can address the fullness of the human condition. In light of this, I say with Matthew Sleeth, if not the church on this issue, then who? Come to BreakPoint.org and we'll tell you how you can get a copy of "Hope Always." And be sure to check out Matthew Sleeth's outstanding interview with Shane Morris on our Upstream podcast , and his incredible talk at the 2021 Wilberforce Weekend .
Sep 6, 2021
One of Christianity's greatest strengths is its explanatory power. Christianity can explain the human experience and the human condition far better than any other worldview. This is true when it comes to humanity's created goodness, as made in the image of God. It's also true of its explanation of what's wrong with the world and the human heart. It's especially true when it comes to explaining human activity and ability, such as artistry, athleticism, and work. Today, on a special Labor Day edition of BreakPoint, I was reminded of how Chuck Colson described Christianity's unique perspective on the human reality of work. -- Fashion magazines are aghast over the latest fashion craze: work clothes. Carharrt hunting jackets are the rage on the streets of London and New York. Blundstone boots, until recently worn only by sheep farmers and miners, are now counted as hip footwear. The workwear craze actually has a long tradition in America. Back in 1946, a magazine called The American Weekly celebrated Labor Day with a cover photo of a worker standing astride the world in overalls and boots. That's actually not a bad image to take with us from Labor Day—a tribute to the fundamental dignity of the worker. Christians have a special reason to celebrate Labor Day. We worship a God who labored to make the world—and who created human beings in His image to be workers. When God made Adam and Eve, He gave them work to do: cultivating and caring for the earth. In the ancient world, the Greeks and Romans looked upon manual work as a curse, something for lower classes and slaves. But Christianity changed all that. Christians viewed work as a high calling—a calling to be co-workers with God in unfolding the rich potential of His creation. This high view of work can be traced throughout the history of the church. In the middle ages, the guild movement grew out of the church. They set standards for good workmanship and encouraged members to take satisfaction in the results of their labor. The guilds became the forerunners of the modern labor movement. Later, during the Reformation, Martin Luther preached that all work can be done to the glory of God. Whether ministering the Gospel or scrubbing floors, any honest work is pleasing to the Lord. Out of this conviction grew the Protestant work ethic. Christians were also active on behalf of workers in the early days of the industrial revolution, when the factories were "dark satanic mills," to borrow a phrase from Sir William Blake. Work in factories and coal mines in those days was hard and dangerous. Children were practically slaves and were sometimes even chained to the machines. Then John Wesley came preaching and teaching the Gospel throughout England. He came not to the upper classes but to the laboring classes—to men whose faces were black with coal dust, women whose dresses were patched and faded. John Wesley preached to them—and in the process, he pierced the conscience of the whole nation. Two of Wesley's disciples, William Wilberforce and Lord Shaftesbury, were inspired to work for legislation that would clean up abuses in the workplace. The British parliament passed child labor laws, safety laws, and minimum-wage laws. Here in America, we've lost the Christian connection with the labor movement. But in many countries—from Canada to Poland—that tradition still remains. So go ahead, let your kids wear hunting jackets and Blundstone boots, as long as workwear is the fashion. But this Labor Day, remember that labor derives its true dignity as a reflection of the Creator. And that whatever we do, in word or deed, we should do all to the glory of God. -- That was Chuck Colson talking about the Christian vision of work. It is an appropriate topic, especially today. For all of us at the Colson Center, as you gather with friends and family, and maybe and fire up the grill for the last time this summer, happy Labor Day.
Sep 4, 2021
John and Maria start the show discussing the disillusionment of millennial evangelicals. They ask if the way we've done church has led to the rise in Evangelical evacuation in young people. John asks if this is because we have a bigotry in low expectations. Maria then asks John for further explanation in his recent commentary on Isaiah 6. The commentary was sparked from President Biden's speech last week where he took Isaiah 6 out of context. John then offers an explanation on the new heartbeat bill in Texas that significantly restricts abortion. The law faced last minute challenges from pro-choice advocates, but the courts didn't vote to pause the law. Maria asks John for further context on what this specific law means and if its framework is extrapolated how that could impact religious freedom with other laws. To close, Maria asks John to comment on litigation many states have taken up against the Biden administration. The concern is how LGBTQ and sex discrimination protections that are expanding and having an impact into schools. Maria then brings up a recent piece done by ESPN that highlights gradeschool and junior high athletes who identify as transgender in states that have restricted policies to protect sports from blurring lines in who an can compete based on gender identity. -- Story References -- BreakPoint Recap The Disillusion of Millennial Evangelicals Though Gen Z-ers have all but replaced Millennials as the dazzling object of scrutiny and cultural analysis, it's not because Millennials are no longer struggling. Rates of addiction, depression, burnout, and loneliness are all disproportionately high among the demographic born between 1981 and 1996. Since 2013, in fact, Millennials have seen a 47 percent increase in major depression diagnoses. BreakPoint>> President Biden and Isaiah 6: It's Not Really About 'Here Am I, Send Me' President Biden certainly isn't the first President to misquote Scripture for political ends, only the most recent. Last week, in a speech responding to the terrorist attack on the airport in Kabul, Biden quoted from Isaiah 6:8, when the prophet answered the Lord's call by saying, 'Here am I send me!" It was odd. It was out of place. And, it was inappropriate. Even worse than blurring the line between America and the Kingdom of God, the President used Holy Scripture to deflect from his own responsibility for this disaster. BreakPoint>> Supreme Court Hears Texas Heartbeat Bill Case and Let's it Stand Supreme Court Upholds New Texas Abortion Law, For Now The U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday night refused to block a Texas law that amounts to a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The vote was 5-4, with three Trump-appointed justices joining two other conservative justices. Dissenting were conservative Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's three liberal justices. NPR>> Media fear the worst after Texas abortion law: 'Who is gonna invade Texas to liberate women and girls' The media meltdown over a Texas law banning abortions after six weeks stretched into its second day with no end in sight Thursday, with analysts comparing the measure to slavery, terrorism, and the end times. FoxNews>> Psaki shuts down male reporter's abortion questions: 'You've never faced those choices' White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday responded to a male reporter who pressed her on President Biden's support for abortion by saying the reporter has "never faced those choices." The Hill>> Transgender Athletes Debate Hits New Level 20 states, including Tennessee, sue over Biden administration school, work LGBTQ protections. Attorneys general from 20 states sued President Joe Biden's administration Monday seeking to halt directives that extend federal sex discrimination protections to LGBTQ people, ranging from transgender girls participating in school sports to the use of school and workplace bathrooms that align with a person's gender identity. The Tennessean> ESPN Makes Claim That Young transgender athletes are caught in middle of states' debates Julie has been to legislators' offices. She sat across from elected officials, arguing on behalf of her daughter. Stephanie usually wants to come, but Julie thinks she's too young. In one official's office, Julie noticed a photo on his wall of his kids playing soccer at a park where she has often watched Stephanie play. "You know, there's a good chance your daughter has played against my daughter in soccer," she said to him. "You would have no idea. She's just like any other little girl." ESPN>> -- In Show Recommendations -- The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Podcast Christianity Today | 2021 Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and What Justice Gorsuch Hath Wrought John Stonestreet & Shane Morris | BreakPoint This Week | June 19, 2020 Why Asking Kids to Announce Their Pronouns is a Big Deal John Stonestreet & Maria Baer | The Point | August 30, 2021 Rescuing the Victims of the Sexual Revolution John Stonestreet | BreakPoint | March 8, 2021 -- Recommendations -- Adventures in Odyssey>>
Sep 3, 2021
From the beginning, proponents of the sexual revolution have wrapped themselves in the mantle of science, especially social science. For example, in the 1950s, the "Kinsey Reports" helped normalize a range of sexual behaviors. They were also the source of the still-often-quoted "statistic" that 10 percent of people are same-sex oriented. Both that figure and the methodology behind Kinsey's "research" has long ago been discredited. Still, that 10 percent number has stuck in many people's heads. A new wave of studies in recent years paints a rosy picture about the benefits of medical transitions for people with gender dysphoria. So much so that, as Paul Dirks recently wrote at Public Discourse, "lifelong experimental medicalization, sterilization, and complete removal of healthy body parts . . . is no longer a rarity. It is the recommended treatment for gender dysphoria." But what if these studies are like the Kinsey Reports? What if they reflect the bias and agendas of the authors rather than reality? Given what is at stake, this a vitally important question, especially since social science itself is in the midst of what's called a " replication crisis ." In other words, when other researchers try to replicate the findings of studies in the social sciences, they often cannot. This failure of replication even includes studies that are regarded as canonical in some fields . So how can we distinguish between solid research and what won't withstand further scrutiny when it comes to the so-called "settled science" of gender transitioning? Paul Dirks' Public Discourse article, "Transition as Treatment: The Best Studies Show the Worst Outcomes," sums up the results of his deep-dive into the research. Dirks defines "best studies" as those that have followed people who underwent medical transition for the longest period of time. "It is well recognized in the literature," Dirks states, "that the year after medical [gender] transition is a 'honeymoon period, which 'does not represent a realistic picture of long-term sexual and psychological status.'" Yet most of the popular gender transition studies are limited to just a few years following medical transitioning. Other studies that support medical transitions fail to follow up with as much as half of the original participants. That's well beyond the threshold of reliability. Many of the studies, Dirks states, are "fraught with . . . design problems," such as "small sample sizes, short study lengths, and enormously high drop-out rates," to name just three. The problem is so bad that one systematic review of the literature, "rated only two out of twenty-nine studies as high-quality." In contrast, the best-designed and most rigorous studies, whose results are most likely to stand up over time, found that medical transition was not the solution to the patients' problems, especially in the case of male-to-female transitions. They reveal much higher mortality rates due to increased rates of suicide, AIDS, drug abuse, and even cardiovascular disease. Another high-quality study found a 7-fold increase in suicide attempts and a nineteen-fold increase in completed suicides after transitions. Even when the findings are adjusted for pre-existing psychiatric problems, which are often treated as unrelated to the gender dysphoria, there was still a three-fold increase in psychiatric hospital admissions. In other words, when it comes to medical gender transitioning, "the best studies show the worst outcomes," and the current use of shoddy social science to support medical transitioning is not only misleading but dangerous. In this case, as is common in the social sciences, especially throughout the history of the sexual revolution, ideology is overwhelming truth-finding. Too many researchers think they know what the data should tell us, so they, at times unconsciously and at times consciously, design their studies to make sure that it does. Sadly, the consequences of their failure are far worse than professional embarrassment or tarnished reputations. In this case, the consequences can be permanent and even deadly.
Sep 2, 2021
Though Gen Z-ers have all but replaced Millennials as the dazzling object of scrutiny and cultural analysis, it's not because Millennials are no longer struggling. Rates of addiction, depression, burnout, and loneliness are all disproportionately high among the demographic born between 1981 and 1996. Since 2013, in fact, Millennials have seen a 47 percent increase in major depression diagnoses. For their part, evangelical Millennials are in a season of deconstruction and deconversion, or reeling from the many influential and high profile leaders that have recently either left the faith or fallen from grace. Disillusionment is now a dominant feature of this group that was once convinced it could change the world. In his influential book The Righteous Mind , Jonathan Haidt uses a rider and an elephant to illustrate moral psychology. The rider represents intellectual reasoning. The elephant represents immediate perceptions, intuitions and instincts. Most modern people, Haidt argues, think that their own moral frameworks are derived from objective, rational reasoning. In other words, it's the rider who tells the elephant where to go and what to eat. In reality, however, moral decisions primarily come from our gut instincts, and we use intellectual reasoning to justify those decisions. Or, back to our metaphor, the elephant wants bananas, and the rider explains why bananas are good after the decision to get bananas has already been made. If Haidt is right, we can better understand the beauty and power of Christianity. To borrow his metaphor, Christ speaks to both the rider and the elephant. "Like newborn babies," the Apostle Peter tells us, "crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." Christianity is not only ultimately true, it is also ultimately satisfying. It is satisfying, in fact, because it is true. This provides a helpful lens by which to understand Millennial deconstruction, deconversion, and disillusionment. What if a generation of Christians have been taught to crave the wrong thing? Recently, my friend Sean McDowell described a conversation he had with a deconverted evangelical. He was surprised to learn that this skeptic first started to doubt his faith at a Coldplay concert. Though there are plenty of anti-Christian bands, Coldplay isn't one of them. The lead singer didn't challenge anyone's faith or any particular truth claims from the stage. However, the concert produced in the skeptic so many of the feelings he had always associated with worship. The stadium of people singing in unison, the strong emotion elicited by lyrics and melody, and the unifying cultural grandeur of it all felt a lot like, well, church . But then, what had this former believer been experiencing all those years? It suddenly seemed possible that Christianity was just another man-made phenomenon, enjoyable and moving but not really true. You know, like a Coldplay concert. What if we are seeing the fruit of a generation that was sold endless attempts to make Christ cool and likable, worship relevant and hyper-emotional, and Christian morality more about politics and cultural influence than obedience to God? And what if this generation has now found those experiences elsewhere? What if all of the trendy marketing, political capital, and massive concert experiences inadvertently taught a generation to love the glamour and the feelings, but not Christ? If there's any truth to this analysis, there is also consolation. Many Millennials are discovering that there are no better answers "out there," either. Yet, like all human beings, they still crave the truth, depth, and beauty found only in the Gospel. Chuck Colson kept a plaque on his desk that read: "Faithfulness, not success." Having climbed the heights of worldly success, he knew that nothing in this life could ultimately satisfy. Forced to reckon with how empty it all was, he encountered Jesus. As he wrote in Loving God , God doesn't want our success; He wants us. He doesn't demand our achievements; He demands our obedience. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of paradox, where through the ugly defeat of a cross, a holy God is utterly glorified. Victory comes through defeat; healing through brokenness; finding self through losing self. Culture - even Christian culture - comes and goes. The eternal truths of Christ are forever. And they are enough to satisfy a drifting generation.
Sep 1, 2021
John and Shane answer questions from listeners ranging from how Christians should define persecution in a desire to fulfill a Biblical call to encourage the saints to how a public counselor can represent Jesus while honoring her call as healthcare provider. Shane also asks John to comment on the history of the United States of America and how it bodes for those who have been mistreated during it's history.
Sep 1, 2021
President Biden isn't the first president to misquote Scripture, only the most recent. He did it by quoting Isaiah 6:8 , when the prophet answered the Lord's call with, "Here am I. Send me!" This reference was made in a speech responding to last week's terrorist attack at the Kabul airport. It was odd. It was out of place. It was inappropriate. In doing so, the President not only blurred the line between America and the Kingdom of God, he deflected his own responsibility for this disaster onto "God's will." Of course, the service and self-sacrifice of our military should always be recognized and honored. And it's completely appropriate, as many members of our armed forces surely do, to see military service as one's service to the Lord. For believers, every calling, if legitimate and done as to the Lord, is sacred. But how we carry out those callings - or as in this case how we order others to carry out theirs - is on us, not God. Still, in his misuse of Scripture, President Biden joined not only a long line of presidents (especially the previous two), but plenty of pastors and other Christians, as well. I've lost count of the number of mission conferences I've attended in which the words, "Here am I, send me," were plucked from the middle of Isaiah 6, printed on banners, and hung around the church. The intent of encouraging people to respond to God's call on their lives is noble. However, to miss the full context of the story is not only to miss the significance of Isaiah's famous words, but to miss details that are particularly relevant for our cultural moment. First, the recent death of King Uzziah puts it in the context of a national crisis. Not only had Uzziah reigned over the kingdom of Judah for 52 years, but he had been, at least for the most part, one of the few good kings. When God allows Isaiah (who may have been a cousin of Uzziah) to see Him, He is showing Isaiah that even though the earthly king is dead, the True King of the universe is not. God's status remains unchanged. Even the most chaotic cultural moment does not alter the rule and reign of Christ Jesus. We would do well to remember that, too. Second, Isaiah's answer was not so much courageous or heroic as it was grateful. The key point of this passage is not what Isaiah said at all. It's what God did. Immediately after Isaiah saw the Lord, he said, "Woe is me!" This could be very roughly translated as, "uh-oh… I'm dead meat." After all, the central feature of God's presence described here is God's holiness. Isaiah is not special. He's a sinner like the rest of us and, as such, cannot survive in the presence of God's perfection. The whole scene is reminiscent of C.S. Lewis's, The Last Battle , where the soldier who had spent his life serving the false god Tash sees Aslan and, sure of his impending death, thinks to himself, "Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him." Isaiah has something of the same response. But when Isaiah predicts his ruin owing to his unclean lips, God spares him: He orders coals from the altar to touch his lips, cleansing him from his impurity. I suppose even a prophet can have a dirty mouth, but only mercy from God Himself can make any of us presentable to Him. Having thought that his life was over only to have it spared by God, what else will Isaiah say when the question is asked, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" What's too often missed, especially when we fail to read beyond Isaiah's response to the rest of the passage, is what God is calling Isaiah to do. "Go, and say to this people: 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' 10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." In a word, God is sending Isaiah to fail. Isaiah the prophet , whose job it was to speak for God, is told that the more he speaks for God, the less the people will listen. The more he speaks, the more their hearts would grow harder and harder. To which Isaiah asks a question of his own (a good one, in fact): "How long, O Lord?" I think it's safe to assume Isaiah may have been asking for some degree of assurance that, eventually, they would listen. Like any committed communicator, he wants to know he is being heard. God's reply? "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, 12 and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land." In other words, Isaiah, you're going to speak, and they aren't going to listen. And this is going to go on and on until it's all over. The next chapter isn't repentance for Judah. It's captivity. "For us there is only the trying," said T.S. Eliot. "The rest is none of our business." Any result of our work, when done for the Lord, is up to God. In a Biblical framework, success is defined by faithfulness. Nothing more, nothing less. In Hebrews 11, the "hall of faith" passage, Isaiah makes a cameo appearance. It's near the end, when the author admits to running out of time. In his list that starts with miracles and victories and, without breaking stride, shifts to sufferings and defeats, the author includes "they [who] were sawn in two." According to Jewish tradition, Isaiah spoke as commanded. The people, as predicted, eventually became so enraged with him, so tired of what he was saying, that they stuffed him into a hollow log and sawed him in half. But, the author of Hebrews continues, he was one "of whom the world was not worthy." I can't imagine any more important truths to sustain Christians in this cultural moment, than to know that the King of the universe is still on His throne, and that God in his mercy forgives our guilt that is before him. And any results or successes we might achieve come from His strength, not our own. This is why the context of Isaiah's words is absolutely essential, whether quoted by pastors or by presidents.
Aug 31, 2021
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small village in south-central France. Back in 1940, the total population of this area, including the surrounding villages, was only about 5,000. Still, under the leadership of their Protestant pastor André Trocmé and his wife, Magda, the residents of these villages were responsible for saving up to 5,000 Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps during World War II. In late January, Holocaust survivor Eric Schwam passed away at age 90. According to a BBC article, Schwam, a native of Vienna, arrived in Le Chambon in 1943, a refugee along with his mother, father, and grandfather. After the war, Schwam eventually returned to Austria to live a quiet life. However, he never forgot the people of Le Chambon for saving his life. In fact, he left the town more than $2 million in a bequest. As Dr. Glenn Sunshine described in a BreakPoint article from a few years ago , in the winter of 1940, after the defeat of France, a Jewish woman fleeing the Nazis knocked at the Trocmé's door, seeking help. Magda attempted to secure false papers for her, but the mayor refused to help. He feared that if the Germans found out anyone in Le Chambon was helping Jews, the entire village would suffer. This did not dissuade Magda and André. In fact, according to Sunshine, "Pastor Trocmé began to exhort his congregation to shelter any 'People of the Book' that were fleeing Nazi persecution, telling them, 'We shall resist whenever our adversaries demand of us obedience contrary to the orders of the gospel.'" The members of his church responded, volunteering to hide Jews. When more Jews arrived in Le Chambon, André would announce the arrival of "Old Testaments" and ask if any in his congregation would be willing to take them. There was never a lack of volunteers. Eventually, the townspeople created an underground network to help Jews travel safely across the Swiss border. Local officials caught on and tipped off the Germans. They searched Le Chambon but found nothing. Finally, the officials demanded that Trocmé stop any and all activities that provided help for the Jews. His response was blunt. "These people came here for help and shelter. I am their shepherd. A shepherd does not forsake his flock. I do not know what a Jew is. I only know human beings." Eventually, André was arrested and sent to a detention camp. He was released after ten days and spent the rest of the war underground. Le Chambon's rescue operation continued, even without him. What the people of Le Chambon did was, as Dr. Sunshine called it, "a conspiracy of goodness." An untold number of lives were saved by their courageous actions. In fact, not a single Jew was caught in Le Chambon during the entire war. Why did these French Christians risk so much? In a post-war documentary, one villager said, "We didn't protect the Jews because we were a moral or heroic people. We helped them because it was the human thing to do." But of course, we have to ask ourselves, why did so many others refuse to help? André Trocmé died in 1971. His wife Magda died in 1996. Both were named as Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Memorial Authority in Jerusalem. A final, fascinating element of this story is that the residents of Le Chambon were descendants of French Protestants known as Huguenots, who were themselves victims of savage persecution at the hands of the French Catholic monarchy during the 16th and 17th centuries. A method of survival used back then played a major role in the 20th century work to protect Jews. Dr. Sunshine describes it this way: "In the area around Le Chambon, the Huguenots made secret rooms similar to the priest holes in England, and secret paths through the mountains to Switzerland to smuggle pastors and Bibles into France. Even after Protestantism was legalized, the people of the area kept the locations of these rooms and paths secret since they never knew when they would need them again. Providentially still available, the rooms and paths were put back into service to save the Jews from the Nazis."
Aug 30, 2021
The theory of intelligent design is often dismissed as religion pretending to be science. Critics argue that the theory doesn't make any predictions or contribute to our knowledge of the natural world, and plus, it's not taken seriously in any peer-reviewed scientific journals. However, a new paper published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Theoretical Biology makes a strong case for the need for intelligent design. The paper is called "On the waiting time until coordinated mutations get fixed in regulatory sequences." If that title is all Greek to you, don't worry; you're in good company. This technical, math-intensive paper was written by intelligent design researchers Ola Hössjer, Günter Bechly, and Ann Gauger. As Casey Luskin explains at Evolution News, the project came out of the Discovery Institute's ID 3.0 research initiative, which aims, in part, to test how plausible Darwinian evolution is on a mathematical level. And though it's just a beginning, this paper's conclusions should make die-hard Darwinists nervous. Here's the background. The fossil record has been a perpetual problem for Darwin's theory ever since it was first published in 1859. Put simply, the fossil record doesn't look like the theory predicts it should. If, as Darwin proposed, all the diversity of life on earth developed through natural selection, sorting random variations over untold eons, living things should change very gradually. This means the record of evolution we find in rocks should look gradual, too. Invertebrates should turn slowly into fish, which should turn slowly into amphibians, which should turn slowly into reptiles and mammals, and so on. What we actually find is the basis of what philosopher of science Stephen Meyer calls "Darwin's doubt" : the fossil record consists of numerous "bursts" of biological diversity, such as the famous "Cambrian explosion," in which new body plans and animal phyla appear in the fossil record seemingly without ancestors. Evolutionary biologists have come up with several ways to explain away these sudden leaps in the history of life to reassure us of evolution's power. The problem is that it's difficult to test these explanations to determine whether evolution is up to the job of generating new life forms suddenly, rather than gradually. How fast is too fast for evolution? This is the so-called "waiting time" problem. Traits like gills, wings, functional legs, and eyes don't just appear as the result of one mutation. They require many mutations, often in regulatory regions of DNA before an organism gets any fitter. But as the necessary mutations pile up, the time required for evolution to occur increases, and does so exponentially. Summarizing the paper, Luskin uses an example of marbles. Imagine you have a bag of red and blue marbles. You want only blue marbles, but you need to select at random. Let's say it will take two seconds on average to pull out a blue marble. However, because the search is random, it will take four seconds to pull out two blue marbles. For three, it's eight seconds. And so on. The time required with each additional marble increases exponentially. Now imagine those marbles are random mutations—the alleged raw material of evolution. As the authors of the paper note, many traits that confer a survival advantage—such as those activated by regulatory regions in DNA—involve sequences hundreds or thousands of nucleotides long. And when you realize that "blue marble" mutations may each take centuries to happen, and that none of them give a survival advantage until they change the expression of actual genes—well, the problem for evolution becomes a simple matter of math. Okay, maybe "simple" is the wrong word. This paper's model is dense, and these authors merely develop that method and suggest how it could possibly be applied to the fossil record. They haven't yet taken that next step. What they have done is offer a plausible way to calculate just how much time evolution requires, and show whether the theory can make good on its promises and actually explain the fossil record that caused Darwin so much doubt. Maybe more importantly, this is the latest in a series of papers by intelligent design (ID) researchers to sustain peer review. It demonstrates, once again, that despite the protests of die-hard Darwinists, ID theory is capable of scientific predictions and insights, and may in fact be better at explaining the wonders of the living world than Neo-Darwinism. Perhaps it's even a theory that could eventually replace Darwin's. As this paper hints, the answer may only be a matter of time.
Aug 27, 2021
-- Story Resources -- Suicide Bomber Attacks Citizens at Kabul Airport At least two explosions took place near the Kabul airport on Thursday as the US and other countries try to evacuate their citizens and Afghans at risk from the Taliban. Three US officials and a source familiar with the situation said that, according to initial reports, there were some US personnel among the casualties. CNN>> The Crisis in Afghanistan And Humanity's Capacity for Evil The desperate scenes at the Kabul airport are hard to take in. To describe America's exit strategy as "negligence" is charitable. More accurately, it's somewhere between folly and abandonment. It's the latest chapter in a war with, as Mindy Belz put it, "a history of political ambivalence." Even back in 2006, one frustrated soldier described it this way: "We're at war; America's at the mall." It may have been our culture of self-absorption that sowed such a catastrophic exit, but it's the Afghan people who are reaping the whirlwind BreakPoint>> Prayer is Doing Something I saw a tweet recently from a mom that described this well. "Sometimes," she said, "I'm mad at God that all he lets me do is pray about a situation that is out of my hands. I suppose that says more about me, and my frustration with prayer, than it says about God." BreakPoint>> Chuck Colson on "Radical Gratitude" A friend reminded me of a commentary by Chuck Colson from all the way back in 2005. It's safe to say that it has aged well. Despite how much has changed and how much more chaotic the headlines might be today, the core truth underlying his commentary is the same. A posture of gratitude is one that recognizes Whose world this actually is, and how we fit in God's overarching plan to make all things new. BreakPoint>> The Myth of Family-Friendly Abortion Planned Parenthood's website says that "Deciding to have an abortion doesn't mean you don't want or love children. In fact, 6 out of 10 people who get abortions already have kids—and many of them decide to end their pregnancies so they can focus on the children they already have." Less than six percent of Medicaid-enrolled women had both births and abortions. As study lead, Dr. James Studnicki remarked: "…abortion is in no way typical of motherhood…the overwhelming number of children are born to mothers who never have an abortion. The Point>> The Pronoun Revolution Chicago public school teacher sent forms to Abigail Shrier that show teachers are explicitly required to keep kids' newly declared gender identities from parents. Twitter>> Spike in Transgender Surgeries Show Medical Priorities It's so strange that despite all the rationing we've been hearing about, there was a notable rise in so-called "gender confirmation surgeries" for women. These are procedures in which otherwise healthy body parts are removed from female patients suffering with gender dysphoria. BreakPoint>> -- In-show Mentions -- How Does the Women's March Define What a Woman Is? Joseph Backholm | What Would You Say? | January 22, 2020 Transgenderism Depends on Stereotypes Joseph Backholm | What Would You Say? | January 15, 2020 The Last Christian on Earth Os Guinness | Baker Books | 2010 The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self Carl Trueman | Crossway | 2020 -- Recommendations -- GI Joe on Youtube The Fellowship of the Performing Arts Bethany Bernard - All My Questions
Aug 27, 2021
Yesterday a suicide bomber from an ISIS-related group attacked crowds outside the Kabul airport. How will the U.S. respond? Given how poorly President Biden has handled the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan up to this point, it's impossible to predict just how the U.S. will respond to an attack by an ISIS-related suicide bomber. The tragedy resulted in the killing of at least 12 U.S. service members and more than 60 others hoping to flee the country. If yesterday's press conference by the President was meant to inspire confidence or provide clarity, it failed. Carl von Clausewitz, the famous German student of war, once argued that war is just politics by other means. That, if it's true to any degree, puts us in an absolutely terrifying position. Now, the question: how should the U.S. respond to a horrific attack like this one? That's another matter. Thankfully, there's a long history of theological reflection that's known as Just War Theory. It's helpful, especially at times like these, when anger, hurt, and desire for retaliation overwhelm our senses. Acts of war should always be thought of only as extraordinary means, like surgery or chemo. War is only justified by a situation so bad that acts ordinarily unthinkable become morally obligated. Still, even justified violence will involve horrors that would never happen in a sinless world. Think of even the best possible situations, where all involved are adult males in uniform, under arms, with a clear objective: it's still image-bearers of God, using their God-given abilities to attack, to harm, to kill other image-bearers. And I'm not sure there's been a war that clean in all of human history. Because of the awful realities of life after the Fall, Christian thinkers throughout the ages - from Augustine, to Aquinas, to Luther, to others today - have struggled to articulate acts of war within a Christian moral framework, so that believers could figure out ways to actively oppose grave injustice while not becoming part of the injustice themselves. Some believers have, of course, held that this sort of thing is impossible, and they've embraced various degrees of pacifism. However, the majority of the church settled on a set of criteria that, if met, would justify acts of war. Though different groups have categorized these criteria in different ways, they can generally be grouped into whether or not to go to war and how war should be waged. The first set of criteria has to do with the right to war. It demands that leaders and nations never go to war without fully counting the cost. Not only must there be good reason, but all other options must have been exhausted. Extraordinary injustice has to be present or imminent acts of war must be waged by legitimate authorities, not just by vigilante individuals. There has to be a likely chance of success and the act of retaliation cannot exceed the evil that it opposes. Even a just cause is not sufficient justification in and of itself, if it's mixed with unjust goals, or an overly devastating response, or an unlikely chance of success. The second set of criteria has to do with governing right behavior once a war has been waged. Even when fighting and killing is justified, not all means of fighting and killing are justified. Whenever noncombatants are caught in crossfire, it's tragic. But noncombatants should never ever be targeted. Nor should military personnel be targeted if wounded, captured, or incapacitated in some way. Only the force necessary to accomplish a mission as quickly as possible is justified force. Now, of course, there's a vast difference between a nice and neat theory like this and how it's applied on the ground. Rarely will both sides, or even anyone on one side for that matter, agree that each and every criteria has been sufficiently met. Both sides tend to assume that they're the ones justified in taking action against their enemy. All of which brings us back to the very non-theoretical question of the moment: How should President Biden respond to the murderous bombing of innocent Afghans and American service members yesterday? First, it's essential to remember the larger context of this bombing. It's a decades-long war that has, especially recently, been badly bungled. The more immediate context is that nothing in the President's handling of Afghanistan, especially in the last two weeks, does anything to inspire confidence that he can do the right thing here and now. This is where applying Just War criteria to yesterday's attack becomes all the more complicated. On one hand, of course, American forces were attacked while not engaging in any sort of hostile action, even as they were trying to help innocent civilians. And this attack was maybe sponsored, but was at least allowed, by the ruling Taliban, the so-called government. Above and beyond our own losses, there were noncombatants killed. Going by all of these principles alone, there's ample justification for swift and serious retaliation, as well as proactive measures to prevent any further attacks. On the other hand, it's just not clear - given our dramatically reduced forces, our self-imposed, foolish limitations, and the overall foolish strategy in Afghanistan - that there's a reasonable chance of success in any retaliation. Our President does not seem willing to end this threat, and his seeming desperation to leave Afghanistan as quickly as possible, without thinking it through, just makes the situation worse. Clearly, the Taliban and other interested parties don't think that America will have the ability to follow through. The tragedy here is far beyond national embarrassment, and it's even in addition to yesterday's tragic loss of life. It's that the good that desperately needs to be done in Afghanistan right now, won't be done, and the evil that desperately needs to end there, won't end. This is one of those times that swift and strong action is required for peace and protection. Tragically, given the determination of the President to exit Afghanistan - no matter the cost to its people or our allies - and the foolish way that this withdrawal has been carried out, such an act of retaliation is unlikely to succeed. Even if it's possible with the troops we still have on the ground, any American retaliation has to be more than a symbolic act. Otherwise, it's not a step towards justice at all.
Aug 26, 2021
The next edition of Webster's Dictionary will probably include a new definition for "zoom." For most people, life during the pandemic included Zoom meetings, Zoom classes, Zoom calls, Zoom church services, etc. Nearly everything now consists of a virtual option. The shift has been culture-wide, especially in the area of work. Earlier this month, the Institute for Family Studies released findings from a new survey of 2500 American adults. More than 50 percent of working moms and dads said that the COVID-19 pandemic had changed their preferences. They'd now prefer to work from home than at the office at least part of the time. The pandemic has also changed other work preferences of parents. Though economic realities leave many parents without the choice of whether to work or not, the study found that working, college-educated moms, in particular, are now more likely to want to work only part-time. And the most significant percentage of both moms and dads of children under five described their ideal arrangement as sharing childcare duties with a spouse instead of hiring a nanny or using daycare. This study was only about preferences, and preferences don't always coincide with reality. Not every parent gets to choose whether or not to work or the job arrangement they prefer. And not every job can be done from home. However, because logistical realities so often shape our lives, whether we're aware of it or not, we should be aware of them and how they are changing us, and we should be intentional about them. Not everyone is aware of their worldview, though everyone has a set of assumptions about the world that informs everything they do. Likewise, not everyone is aware of how much a changing cultural landscape can shape their worldview. By understanding how modern life and outside forces, like a pandemic or new work arrangements, affect the ways we order our lives, we can better align our choices with a Christian worldview instead of being blown around by cultural winds. In the Psalms, David implored God to " teach him to number his days ." Elsewhere, he asked that God would " search him and know him ." It is a Biblical mandate to think about why we do what we do and align with how God calls us to live. It's one thing to know that in principle, it's far more complicated to practice it. Does God want us to work? Does he want us to work that job? Do we justify our work's type, intensity, or location merely by the lifestyle we prefer, or based on other factors: what's best for the family? What's best for mental health? What is most conducive to church life or Christian service? For the Christian, there are immovable Biblical principles that should mark and form the structures of our lives. These should not be moved, edited, or altered by cultural shifts. For example, the reality of marriage is a real thing , like gravity, ordained by God within the created order and reclaimed by Christ for the health and growth of His kingdom. Marriage is not made something else by changing cultural norms. In the same way, the obligations of parents to their children are fixed. Despite how they are so often treated in our cultural moment, they are image-bearers who belong to God, not ornaments to decorate our lives or pieces of clay to mold into our images. A song by Christian singer Sara Groves called "Scientist in Japan" questions the pride humans have in the technological advances we've made or wished we've made, such as artificial heart muscles and front-load washing machines. "We set machines in motion just to set machines in motion," she sings, but "Who's going to stay to think about it? Everybody's left the room… there's no one here to talk it through." Christians, of all people, should be the ones to stay and think about the ways our culture is changing and how these changes influence and dictate our decisions. God's truth is unchanging. How we live out of that truth in a changing culture must always be considered. No cultural wind should blow us around without us at least noticing. And no circumstantial change should stop us from living as God has called us.
Aug 25, 2021
John and Shane help a listener understand the difference between an evangelical, a protestant, and evangelical. They use the Bebbington quadrilateral to provide context and give a full explanation on the unique worldview understanding in evangelical, protestant, and evangelical approaches. -- Resources -- Religion and American Culture: A Brief History George Marsden | Eerdmans | September 6, 2018 God in the Wasteland David F. Wells | Eerdma ns | July 1, 1994
Aug 25, 2021
The American withdrawal from Afghanistan is forcing us to look, again, into the face of humanity's capacity for evil. President Biden's rationalizations aside, painful questions remain about Afghanistan: what will Taliban rule mean for Afghan women and children, for Christians, dissidents, and journalists? What will happen to those Afghan citizens who served and stood with the U.S. for the last two decades? Has this extremist regime really evolved as they claim and as many hope? The desperate scenes at the Kabul airport are hard to take in. To describe America's exit strategy as "negligence" is charitable. More accurately, it's somewhere between folly and abandonment. It's the latest chapter in a war with, as Mindy Belz put it, "a history of political ambivalence." Even back in 2006, one frustrated soldier described it this way: "We're at war; America's at the mall." It may have been our culture of self-absorption that sowed such a catastrophic exit, but it's the Afghan people who are reaping the whirlwind. In his book A Free People's Suicide, Os Guinness observed an historical reality being played out in Afghanistan. Winning freedom is not rare in history; maintaining freedom is. As James Monroe lamented, "How prone all human institutions have been to decay. How difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism." Again and again throughout history, human frailty, foolishness, and fallenness corrupt even our best endeavors. Israel thought it had a righteous king in David, but his sin wrought personal, familial, and national havoc. Emerging from Roman persecution, some Christian leaders persecuted their pagan neighbors. St. Augustine of Hippo finished City of God , then watched from his deathbed as Vandals destroyed what was left of the Roman world. Even U.S. President James Monroe was a painful contradiction: a President who advocated for abolition but stubbornly refused to free his own slaves. Every story of human failure reminds us, again, just how desperate our world is for re-creation. A quick paint job won't do. We are not capable of cleaning up our messes, or putting back together what we've broken. Even the best human rulers, institutions, and heroes of history cannot save us. Only the God of the Cosmos can. If He isn't on the throne, ruling and redeeming, all is lost. Jesus' mission to Earth must be properly understood. This is more than merely an inspiring story of sacrifice, service, and humility. It's even more than the story of how we can find forgiveness and avoid eternal punishment. Let me be clear: the story of Jesus certainly isn't about less than these things, but it is about so much more. It is, rather, the story of the Cosmos. The story that best describes reality, particularly in its brokenness. Os Guinness observed that "Christianity is the only religion whose God bears the scars of evil." In the context of the Fall, this is significant. By suffering within His creation and with His image bearers, being despised and abandoned, tasting the bitterness of human failure and corrupt institutions, feeling anger at injustice and sadness at human frailty, Jesus experienced evil in its fullness. In His death, He became the only fully innocent victim of evil. And, by resurrecting from the dead, Jesus became the only secure source of hope - hope that evil will indeed be overcome and ultimately defeated. Though all human institutions should fail, Christ will make all things new. Everything truly Christian flows from these bedrock truths: our ethics, any strength we have to continue to push back against evil and brokenness, any good that is within us. It's only because the Judge of the universe is perfect that our earthly justice has any meaning. It's only because of what Christ has done for us that we can truly love and care for our neighbors. America has some serious soul-searching to do in light of this failure in Afghanistan. Even more, we have some serious course-correcting to do. Specifically, we'll need to reckon with the humanitarian crisis we helped create, and we'll need to find ways to support the tiny, embattled Christian remnant there. At the same time, the only way to bear the overwhelming weight of human evil in this world is to embrace the long Christian view of history, and to fix our eyes on the Christ Who is at its center. All other ways lead to either judgmental cynicism or self-centered hedonism. Only the story of Christ is big enough to make sense of the evil in our world. Only His nail-scarred hands are strong enough to hold the course of humanity. As Edward Shillito wrote in his masterful poem Jesus of the Scars , "to our wounds only God's wounds can speak. And not a God has wounds but (Christ) alone."
Aug 24, 2021
Last week, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change panicked. Or, at least, they officially announced to the world they were panicking. In its new official Assessment Report , the panel concluded we won't be able to stop the earth from warming at least 1.5 degrees. That change, scientists said, will melt arctic ice, cause a rise in sea levels and an increase in dangerous weather, and send millions into poverty. And if industrialized nations don't dramatically cut their carbon emissions, they said, those consequences will be even more devastating. Sometimes Christians hear apocalyptic news about climate change and feel a distinct urge to change the channel. I empathize with that instinct - the people releasing these reports are not always unbiased or even trustworthy. But it's not controversial to say that Christians should care about the planet. The book of Genesis says that God "breathed life into the dust" of the earth to create us. The earth feeds, clothes and shelters humans, but the Bible also talks about the world as an intrinsic good in and of itself. Just considering the incredible variety, intricacy and beauty of the animals, plants and topography across the globe is a study in God's intentional creativity. God doesn't breathe on what he doesn't love. If the latest research seems to show the climate is changing in ways that could harm both humans and the planet, we should listen. However, there are worldview assumptions built into a report like the IPCC's that too often go unspoken. One such assumption is that the earth's climate is changing now in a way it was not supposed to . A sense of existential instability is warranted within a naturalistic worldview. If one believes human beings only came into existence on razor-thin margins - that is, that the chance we evolved from single-cell organisms into the unfathomably complex, billion-cell organisms we are today was astronomically astronomical - then our survival here dances on razor-thin margins, too. In that case, a report suggesting "it's getting dicey out there" would be the least shocking news we could get. Christians need not share that existential dread. The Bible tells us God both created and sustains His creation. "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together," Paul writes in Colossians. But the consequences of the fall can wreak havoc on God's creation. Things aren't perfect here; we are capable of harming ourselves and the earth. But that doesn't mean our climate is hopelessly out of control. Isaiah 40 sounds at first like a warning: "The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it." But there's great comfort here: nothing withers or fades without His breath . That comfort isn't available in a God-less worldview, and that's evident in many reports about climate change. For example, there's an emphasis in this IPCC report on what humans should do to prevent the globe from warming further. Notice the implication that we can control this problem. Certainly as humans we have agency, and a responsibility to make good decisions. But it's far easier on an emotional level to believe that the big, scary problems like climate change — or a pandemic — are humans' fault, and therefore can be fixed by humans, than to believe we can't control everything. Vulnerability is very uncomfortable. But to believe we can either make or break the climate is to view humans as blunt instruments - as if we're a problem that needs solving rather than potential agents of a solution. In fact, as the world has changed over centuries, including a warming period in the Middle Ages , humans have often displayed incredible adaptability. Even the things we blame now for harming the climate - like the industrialization that increases carbon emissions - have improved the lives of humans more than our ancestors could have imagined. - arguably, more than their side-effects have harmed humanity. We should beware reports about the changing climate that come as an alarm and not a calling. Christians are to "hold fast to the hope that we confess without wavering, because the One who has promised is faithful." We are like the servants in Jesus' parable about the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 25: God has put us in charge of His home while we wait for His return. With the power entrusted to us, we should solve the problems that arise, reminding each other all the while that He's coming back, and that the foundations of the house don't rest on our shoulders.
Aug 23, 2021
A friend wrote to me and reminded me of a commentary from Chuck Colson on Breakpoint from all the way back in 2005. It has aged well. That's because, despite how much things have changed, despite how much more chaotic the headlines might be today, the core truth is the same. A posture of gratitude is one that recognizes whose world it actually is, and where we fit in to God's overarching plan to make all things new. Here is the transcript from Chuck Colson's commentary from 2005, talking about gratitude: The notion of gratitude is hot these days. Search the Internet, and you'll find more than a million sites about thankfulness. For example, university psychologists recently conducted a research project on gratitude and thanksgiving. They divided participants into three groups. People in the first group practiced daily exercises like writing in a gratitude journal. They reported higher levels of alertness, determination, optimism, energy, and less depression and stress than the control group. Unsurprisingly, they were also a lot happier than the participants who were told to keep an account of all the bad things that happened each day. One of the psychologists concluded that though a practice of gratitude is a key to most religions, its benefits extend to the general population, regardless of faith or no faith. He suggested that anyone can increase his sense of well-being just from counting his blessings. As my colleague Ellen Vaughn writes in her new book, RADICAL GRATITUDE, no one is going to disagree that gratitude is a virtue. But, Ellen says, counting our blessings and conjuring an attitude of to-whom-it-may-concern gratitude, Pollyanna-style is not enough. What do we do when cancer strikes -- I have two children battling it right now-- or when loved ones die, when we find ourselves in the midst of brokenness and real suffering? That, she says, is where gratitude gets radical. While they often mingle together in the life of a follower of Christ, there are actually two types of thankfulness. One is secondary, the other primary. The secondary sort is thankfulness for blessings received. Life, health, home, family, freedom, a tall, cold lemonade on a summer day -- it's a mindset of active appreciation for all good gifts. The great preacher and once president of Princeton University, Jonathan Edwards, called thanks for such blessings "natural gratitude." It's a good thing, but this gratitude doesn't come naturally -- if at all -- when things go badly. It can't buoy us in difficult times. Nor, by itself, does it truly please God. And, to paraphrase Jesus, even pagans can give thanks when things are going well. Edwards calls the deeper, primary form of thankfulness "gracious gratitude." It gives thanks not for goods received, but for who God is: for His character -- His goodness, love, power, excellencies -- regardless of favors received. And it's real evidence of the Holy Spirit working in a person's life. This gracious gratitude for who God is also goes to the heart of who we are in Christ. It is relational, rather than conditional. Though our world may shatter, we are secure in Him. We can have peace in times of pain. The fount of our joy, the love of the God who made us and saved us, cannot be quenched by any power that exists (Romans 8:28-39). People who are filled with such radical gratitude are unstoppable, irrepressible, overflowing with wha C. s. Lewis called "the good infection" -- the supernatural, refreshing love of God that draws others to Him. That was Chuck Colson in a Breakpoint commentary from May 17th, 2005. It's aged well because it's a truth that transcends cultural moments and the challenges of one age to the next. That in and all were to be grateful to God for the fact that he is our creator, the fact that he has sent christ as our redeemer and he is overseeing the scope of history and allows us to be part of what he's doing in the world. It's always a good habit to take some time day by day to be grateful for the Colson Center.
Aug 20, 2021
John and Maria unpack the recent happenings surrounding Afghanistan. They discuss the history of the situation in Afghanistan and President Biden's responses to the U.S. force pull-out. They also discuss the worldview of the Taliban and the concerns for women and Christians. Maria then asks John for insight on responding to claims that actions around the vaccine show morality. She asks for clarity in how to respond to intentions whether a person does or doesn't vaccinate. To close, John gives Maria insight on a new report showing employees are preferring to work from home to have a better family life. Maria notes that the report shows how opinions and habits have changed in recent times due to Covid closures.
Aug 20, 2021
Today, historically horrific diseases like polio and leprosy have been all but eradicated. Most people consider past moral failures, such as slavery, despicable. Famines are increasingly few and far between, and abject poverty around the world has been dramatically reduced. Among the reasons that our normal is so different from much of history is the work of Christians who saw their lives as a means by which God could accomplish restoration. In living out a Christian worldview within their own time and place, they laid foundations for this current world, which is better in so many ways. Dr. Benjamin Rush is a prime example of someone who had this sense of vocation. Rush was born one of seven children in 1746 just outside of Philadelphia. He studied at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), completing his degree in 1760 at age 15 . He received his medical degree in Britain, and then practiced medicine there before returning to the colonies in 1769. At the age of 24, he opened a medical practice in Philadelphia. He was also a chemistry professor, writing the first chemistry textbook published in America. He also wrote treatises on medical education. A significant area of study for Rush was the treatment of mental illness. He argued that people with mental illness shouldn't be treated as criminals but brought into normal hospital settings. He also believed that giving them productive work could aid in their recovery. His ideas proved to be successful strategies in treating many of his patients. Rush was also active in social reform. He was a founding member of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (the Pennsylvania Prison Society today), and an ardent abolitionist, joining abolitionist societies and writing pamphlets against the institution of slavery. He specifically argued, on scientific grounds, that blacks were in no way inferior to whites. All of the activities on Rush's very impressive resume were informed by his faith. His stands on mental health, prisons, and slavery came from his understanding that each person is made in the image of God and is, therefore, worthy of dignity and respect. His observations on the importance of work for well-being reflected ideas contained within the biblical worldview. His stand on abolition had been the historical position of the Church and, in his day, was being advanced by evangelicals (among others) in Britain and America. His concern for the well-being of the black population led him to act as an advisor to Richard Allen in the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He lent the church and Allen his public support. His faith grounded his political beliefs as well. Rush's focus on inalienable rights can be traced through John Locke to medieval scholastic theologians. He wrote numerous patriotic essays. Thomas Paine even consulted with Rush as he wrote Common Sense . Not only was Rush appointed to the Continental Congress, he was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Rush also championed education on all levels. Along with his work in higher education, Rush is considered the father of American public education, and he was a major supporter of the American Sunday School Union. Rush believed Christianity to be essential for the proper functioning of society and, therefore, integral at the heart of education. "Without religion," Rush said, "I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind." This argument is key to Rush's views of the Bible and education. Rush believed education was vitally important to produce a virtuous society, but it needed to be grounded. Though he considered any religion better than none, he advocated for the superiority of Christianity and the specific importance of the Bible. For Rush, teaching the Bible was not just about personal salvation, but also about personal and societal well-being. Stories from history, like that of Benjamin Rush, demonstrate what it means to live as if the Christian worldview is, indeed, true . Thus, aligning with it is good, not only in the hereafter but for individuals and societies here and now. In other words, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer would say much later, Christianity is not an otherworldly religion. It describes the world as it actually is, which allows us to be part of God's work not just to prepare for Heaven, but to repair what is wrong.
Aug 19, 2021
The Supreme Court had declined to pick up the case of Barronelle Stutzman in the Arlene's Flowers lawsuit. As a result, she now faces the full consequences of the decisions of the lower court in the State of Washington. It has been an eight year legal battle for Barronelle since she took a stance against gay marriage as a business owner. She stood for what she believed about marriage and was not vindicated by the courts. The case, now in its latest development, has shown a significant nuance in legal culture in America. The court has shown a repeated willingness to defend Christian institutions, pastors, and religious organizations who hold to their deeply held beliefs. But Barronelle's case demonstrates that religious freedom is being lost, not by organizations and people in pastoral roles, but in the rights of parishioners and individuals to order their public lives according to their beliefs, especially in the world of commerce. It is clear we Christians owe Barronelle a debt of gratitude as she has demonstrated that it is possible to stand for truth and goodness, and how to do it. On this week's Strong Women podcast, Barronelle spoke with co-hosts Sarah Stonestreet and Erin Kunkle about her case. She offered her perspective not only on what it has meant for her to stand for truth, but to do it right: by loving her persecutors, and ultimately relinquishing all to God. Below is an excerpt of Barronelle Stutzman's interview on the Strong Women podcast: I absolutely love Rob and I would wait on him for another 10 years if he came in [to the store]. He has a great sense of humor and he loves artistic things, and he would come in and say, "This [arrangement] is for Kurt's birthday, and this is what I'm thinking ... Now just do your thing, just create." And I absolutely love that because I do a lot of "bread and butter" work, as they call it in the floral business. But he let me use my artistic ability to make something different and unique. And we had a great time. We got along awesome until the government stepped in. And I miss him. Rob came in to talk to me about getting married [to Kurt] and before he got too far, I told him that I could not serve his wedding because of my relationship with Jesus Christ. Weddings symbolize the relationship between Christ and his Church. And weddings are very involved. You spend months with the bride and groom; you get to know them, you get to know how they argue, how they met, and what their favorite color is. Those things are so personal, and for me, it is such a sacred ceremony. To create something for Rob and Kurt's wedding was just something I could not do. Our faith, our freedoms, and our constitution are slowly being taken away piece by piece. And because we're Christians, we want to be loving, we want to be kind. But no, Jesus was spit upon, He was kicked out of town, He was called names, He wasn't politically correct. Yet He still loved and He still stood, and He is our example to stand on. I just pray that God gives us the strength and the obedience to stand strong. Pray for our churches, and that our churches would begin to rise up and realize that we need to be obedient to Christ's word. Pray for Kurt and Rob through this also. Barronelle Stutzman's entire interview with Sarah Stonestreet and Erin Kunkle is on the Strong Women podcast . Visit breakpoint.org for a link to the Strong Women podcast interview with Barronelle. Consider subscribing to Strong Women, and never miss an episode.
Aug 18, 2021
John is joined by Colson Fellows Director Michael Craven in this week's BreakPoint Q&A. Michael asks John a question about vaccines, where a listener is likely facing a mandate for a vaccine by her employer. She asks John if there is a "theology of being vaccinated". She inquires about a possible habit being formed in going against a mandate for compliance.
Aug 18, 2021
After seeing the images out of Kabul in recent days, Maajid Nawaz , a former radical Muslim , said, "Barefoot Taliban conquered a palace. They believed in something and fought for nothing. I have lived with men like this in prison. It is difficult to describe just how seriously they take their cause. There is a lesson here for us in the West, if we are humble enough to see it." We hear the terror from Afghan women who now wonder what the lives of their daughters will be like, worried that 20 years of progress in women's rights have disappeared overnight. We see the desperation of citizens so afraid of what might come next that they're literally clinging to the wheels of American aircraft as they depart. Yet, we struggle to have a category for what they actually fear. Many Westerners don't have the categories to understand the realities of Islamic fundamentalism. Much of the world has long struggled to understand the worldview that is driving the Taliban conquerors today, or the ISIS fanatics from a few years ago, or the al Qaeda terrorists that struck on 9/11. These groups are driven by their own internal logic, their own worldview. I'm not going to try to explain the entirety of Radical Islam. However, there are a few key points about this worldview that can give us clarity in understanding what's happening in Afghanistan and what we might expect in the days ahead. First, for Radical Islam, this isn't about this particular American president or the last American president or any particular foreign policy decision. This is seen as part of a war that's been going on for over 1,000 years. In the wake of 9/11, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the second in command of Al Qaeda, and in many ways the strategic planner for Osama bin Laden, spoke about his group's goals for this war with the West. In repeated statements to the press, he referred to waging war until all Muslim lands were restored, connecting the conflict in Afghanistan and the battle for Palestine to a worldwide conflict that spans from Iraq to Spain . Yes, Spain. To American ears, it doesn't make any sense. Iraq, Israel, we can follow. Palestine, sure. Spain? You see, what he knew and what many Westerners have forgotten is that the mostly Catholic country of Spain was once the heartland of the Muslim world. Centuries before the Turks or Indonesians followed Islam, Spain was the base of operations for a potential invasion of Europe. It wasn't until 1492 that Spain was retaken for the Cross. For Radical Islam, once lands have come under the sway of Islam, it is vital that good Muslims do whatever it takes to return those regions to the House of Islam – places where Islamic law and teaching is practiced. Whether we're talking about Catholics in Spain or Israelis in Palestine, these people are merely occupying what's rightfully a Muslim land. This connects to another element of this worldview that we often miss. For Islamists, the West is not the primary enemy. We're merely in the way of where history's headed. What they seek is the overthrow of false Muslim rulers who have been corrupted by the wiles of Western influence. These are, as Al-Zawahiri put it, the near enemy and they must be cast down. Only then can true Muslims take control and implement the fullness of Sharia. In other words, what we've seen on the ground in Afghanistan and what we've seen in the Middle East for a long time is the working out of a worldview. None of the happenings of the last 20 years, or the last 20 days, can be understood without understanding the worldview. Now, every worldview answers questions. Among these questions are those that ask, what is wrong with the world, and what must be done to make it right? For Christians, the problem is sin and all of its myriad manifestations. The solution is conversion: the conversions of individuals, as well as the restoration of culture through the grace and work of Christ, and through His Church, the restoration of the goodness of His creation. For secularists and much of contemporary Western culture, the problem is ignorance. Through education and science, and by becoming aware of the perspectives of others, we can hope to improve the structural failings that have plagued our world. But the problem is seen differently in Radical Islam. The problem is seen as the internal corruption of the Islamic states and the unwillingness of the rest of the world to bow to what is ultimately true. Here's how Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis described it: "For Osama bin Laden and those who share in his views, and there are many of them, the object of the struggle is the elimination of the intrusive Western power and corrupting Western influence from all the lands of Islam, and the restoration of Islamic authority in these lands. When this has been accomplished, the stage will be set for the final struggle to bring God's message to all mankind in all the world." Now, I hope one of the things that you notice is that for a true Muslim, Islam is not a point of personal and private belief. Islam describes the actual condition of the world. It describes what's happening and where history is going. And for radicals, whatever needs to be done to accomplish that mission is justified. Whatever atrocities are committed along the way will find their purpose in this overriding goal. For this goal, they are willing to sacrifice themselves by the thousands. Radical Islamic leaders are willing to be incredibly patient to see this goal accomplished, because they are fully assured that one day their work will indeed bear fruit. The brutality, the absolutism, and the unyielding determination that we see in radical Islam are driven by a worldview. Without a true and accurate understanding of the world, they'll continue to pursue their ends by any means necessary. We are right to oppose these ideals because lives are at stake. Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas, like the bad ideas of radical Islam, have victims. How we push back on these forces will take many different forms, sometimes even force, but here's what's clear. We will never make headway if we fail to understand the worldview that animates the whole thing in the first place.
Aug 17, 2021
As the world watches the disaster unfold in Afghanistan, there's another chapter of the story we're not hearing nearly as much about. The Afghan church, a growing body of believers that's experienced incredible growth, now faces life under the Taliban. Early indications are not encouraging. Almost as quickly as the Islamic fundamentalists is taking control of cities, Christians are being notified that they are being watched. Yesterday, I spoke at length with World Magazine Senior Editor Mindy Belz, who explained what is happening in Afghanistan. As part of the interview, she described what the Taliban takeover means for the Christian church in Afghanistan. Here is an excerpt from our interview. Here is a transcript of a portion of my conversation with Mindy Belz: — [The Afghan church] is a unique community, mostly aged 40 and younger. They are all Muslim converts. It's one of the fastest growing churches in the world. Since they are a tiny church, now doubled in size, they are considered very fast-growing. There are perhaps only 2,000 people. But they are an important force in Afghanistan, simply because of the force that the Gospel is. Because of the love of Jesus, the reach they have is a real thing in a dark, Taliban-shadowed country. About two years ago, a number of these church community leaders did something amazing and brave: they decided to change their identity, their religious affiliation in particular, on their national identification cards. All Afghan citizens have a national ID card. They are used all the time for many reasons. They often show religious affiliation. That affiliation tends to be handed down by the father of the family. The new Christian church elders wanted to change their identification for the sake of their future generations. Not all Christians agreed that this was a good idea, but several dozens of them have changed their official identification to Christian. Now the government records show Christian affiliation. These are the Christians that have been targeted over the past few days. At least one Christian that I know of has received a letter from the Taliban stating: "We know where you are, and we know what you're doing." This implies that the Taliban has access to this government record. The Taliban then showed up to this Christian's house the day before the full city takeover. They have also visited other Christian homes. You might argue these are small, isolated incidents, but they play against the backdrop of nearby atrocities: Afghan military who have been hauled out of their homes and shot, and in one case beheaded. Afghan Christians are totally vulnerable with no political power. They have no-one to appeal to. They don't even generally qualify for special immigrant visas to the United States or other Western countries because they have avoided working for American organizations or working for the Afghan military. To do so potentially exposes them to attention and danger. — Belz is the most experienced, trustworthy source I know of when it comes to the Middle East, especially on Christians and the Christian movement there. In yesterday's interview, she covered in detail not only the history of Afghanistan and how the past 20 years is understood differently by Islamic fundamentalists, but the failure of U.S. policy under various presidents. This is a disaster of America's own making. Visit breakpoint.org to listen to the entire conversation. And please pray for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan.
Aug 16, 2021
Mindy Belz provides some insight and perspective on how we got to this place, what past administrations have done, and how the current administration is doing that isn't adding up. Mindy also gives perspective on the state of the Church in Afghanistan and what Christians were doing prior to the recent unrest. She bemoans the progress that was made in the country in a variety of rights and privileges that are now likely lost under Sharia law.
Aug 16, 2021
At the Colson Center we're always trying to point you to resources, not only from us but from our friends who offer a Christian worldview perspective and hope for living in our cultural moment. There's a reason that a lot of these resources are written by my friend Os Guinness. Os is a gift to the Christian community. He helps us think deeply about things that matter and presents them in a way that is understandable. Os's latest book, "The Magna Carta of Humanity: Sinai's Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom" is another must-read. Christians today are increasingly feeling the pressure of living in a cultural moment that champions freedom, but means something completely different by the word. It's always a freedom from any sort of restraint; not a freedom for who we are, who we were made to be, and what it means to live together. Os Guinness's book describes a choice that's in front of humanity right now. Below is an excerpt of a Os's presentation on his new book: For anyone who's thinking deeply, we're in an extraordinary civilizational moment. The West, which has dominated the world for 500 years, is in evident decline. The United States, which is the world's lead society, is suffering the greatest crisis in its history since the Civil War. The Christian church, which has been the single strongest influence in the West, is plagued with scandals and divisions and confusion and lack of confidence. There's no question that America is as deeply divided at any moment since the Civil War, but why? Some blame the social media. Some the former president. To some, it's the coastals against the heartlanders; some, the nationalists and populists over against the globalists. But what I'm arguing, and I think the deepest way of looking at it, is there's a difference between those who understand the republican freedom from the perspective of the American Revolution, and those who understand it from the perspective of the French Revolution and its heirs. Things like postmodernism, political correctness, tribal politics, identity politics, the sexual revolution, cancel culture, neo-Marxism, all of these have come down from the heirs of the French Revolution, and they are an entirely different revolution and a type of revolution that has never succeeded and that has always ended in oppression. So, my book shows the differences between, say, their sources: one, the Bible, the other, the French Enlightenment. Their views of humanity: The Bible's, very realistic with notions like checks and balances, and separation of powers; and the other's, utopian and very dangerous. And you can see the differences right down to those that are roiling America this year, like critical race theory and different notions of justice. Both sides agree there is injustice, sometimes terrible injustice, but the differences come in how we address them. As I said, the radical left only leads to oppression and failure and always has. Whereas the Gospel, in addressing these things, puts wrongs right, and after repentance and reconciliation and forgiveness, really leads to restoration so that enemies can be made friends again. What I've tried to write is the deepest analysis of what's gone wrong today. I have written this book to provide a constructive way forward. Because Sinai, the exodus roots of the American revolution, are what I argue is a magna carta for humanity. It's time for Christians to get off the back foot and stop being defensive. Our views of freedom, justice, human dignity, words, truth, and many other issues are not only good news, They are the best news ever. I want you to have this book. I think it's incredibly important. And so, for a donation of any amount this month to the Colson Center, I will send you a copy of "The Magna Carta of Humanity," Os Guinness's latest book. This book is important because it drives us towards a deeper understanding of how we got to this time and this place in human history. At the same time, it offers a hopeful way forward, showing us how the Christian worldview is not only true, but good. And it's good, not only for Christians, but it's good for the cultural moment. Go to breakpoint.org/august to make a donation of any amount to the Colson Center, and receive a copy of the book, "The Magna Carta of Humanity," by the brilliant Os Guinness.
Aug 13, 2021
John and Maria revisit a host of BreakPoint commentaries that highlight bright spots from the Olympics. They also explore how Christians can live well in a confusing world. The main story of the week is a new IPCC report on climate change that is raising the alarm. John provides a way to think well and live with responsibility in light of these types of reports.
Aug 13, 2021
We live in a confused and confusing age. Things once considered obviously true are now rejected. Things once considered unthinkable are now thought to be unquestionable. How should a Christian think? In the state of Oregon, high school graduates will now no longer have to demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing, or arithmetic . The logic behind the suspension of the state standards, according to the governor, has to do with equity. Somehow, she missed that "helping" racial minorities by not giving them even the most basic tools for life is a different kind of bigotry altogether, one which Andrew Sullivan has called a bigotry of low expectations. Then, there's the story of Michaela Kennedy Cuomo announcing to the world that she's moved beyond identifying as a homosexual and bisexual, and even beyond pan-sexual, to now demi-sexual, meaning that she's only attracted to those with whom she shares an emotional bond. The need to publicize each and every stop on a journey of identity tourism is an odd feature of our day. The idea that every feeling, attraction, or preference is in and of itself an identity, is a tragic feature of our day. And, in case anyone thinks we've reached the bottom of this slippery slope, a TikTok video has now resurfaced from last fall in which a young woman passionately explains what may be next. Instead of identifying as "he" or "she," many now claim the words "kitty-," "pup-," or "bunny-self" as pronouns. All this means that we may soon see chosen identities that transcend species, not just gender. As my friend Dr. Kathy Koch said at a recent event, "Our first response in all of this should be tears, not anger." It's true, of course, that many are the victims of self-inflicted bad ideas. But it's also true that we live in a cultural moment in which even medical schools deny the basics of biology . How sad for young people to feel so distant from their own bodies that they'd rather be called rabbits than humans. But to be clear, our crisis is not merely a moral one, it's a cosmological one and an epistemological one. We've not just lost the ability to know right from wrong, we've lost the ability to know what's real, what's true, and what's false. In the ancient world, it was much simpler. There were authorities, civic and religious, that would announce what was good and true. You were told these berries are good. The water from that spring will make you sick. Your people came from this place and therefore you worship these gods. People came to know the world primarily by trusting the accumulated wisdom of those who had lived before. A major shift emerged a few hundred years ago, first in the West and then elsewhere. People discovered that their ancestors weren't always right. As society began to question the knowledge it had been given, the growing distrust in revealed wisdom grew alongside a greater confidence in what could be learned through reason and science. Reason offered not only a critique of revelation and tradition, but a compelling replacement for it. However, along with material comforts, this human-centered approach to knowledge brought along new and oppressive ideologies. On a societal level, we saw state-sponsored evils unleashed under the banners of "progress" for "the common good." On a personal level, these coldly clinical beliefs of the Enlightenment made life easier, but they also left it emptier. Beauty and truth lost their meaning, and the arts and social sciences in particular took a hedonistic turn. Truth claims built on human reason alone proved inadequate for human needs and human nature. With the postmodern shift, in whose waters we now swim, suspicion and doubt are just the only things we can trust. There's now a skepticism, not only of authority but also the objectivity of human reason, and this underlies and permeates our relationships to ourselves, to one another, and to the outside world. This habitual doubt now dominates the search for knowledge. This leaves truth as subjective, found within, and created by and for each of us individually. We imagine ourselves to be free thinkers. We're "free" from the constraints of governing authorities, "free" from the tyranny of tradition, and "free" from anyone else's expectations. We're "free" to imagine that reality conforms to our imaginations and fantasies, even though it doesn't. Underlying this brief history of Western civilization is a very basic reality. Without God, true knowledge is impossible. Without God, certainty loses to skepticism. Truth claims devolve into power plays, and objectivity can never escape subjectivism. Philosopher Richard Rorty put it this way, saying, "I came to realize that the search of the philosophers for a grand scheme that would encompass everything was an illusion, because only atheism that combined a God with equal measures of truth, love and justice could do the trick." I know what you're thinking: I know that "Who" that God is. But Rorty had already dismissed the possibility of God. And so that made any real attempt at discovering truth a dead end. But 1,000 years ago, Anselm of Canterbury offered a way forward, suggesting that the pursuit of truth could best be understood as, fides quaerens intellectum, or "faith seeking understanding." The Christian worldview acknowledges the frailty of the human mind, but still grounds knowledge in the eternal, unchanging nature of a God outside of us. And, even better, a God who communicates to us. In this vision, our limitations are best understood not as dead ends, but as invitations to ask questions, and to seek answers from the One who has them. Christianity offers something far better than the fallible traditions of ancient days, better than the arrogant ideology of the modern era, and better than the socially constructed tales of our postmodern time. What it offers is the true description of the world — true as it really is, true as the self-revelation of an omniscient God who not only loves us, but He wants us to know Him.
Aug 12, 2021
The Olympics ended Sunday night, though many of us hardly noticed they were on. It's hard to cheer for athletes representing our country who don't seem to actually like our country. That, plus the insufferable push to sexualize these games have turned many of us off. This is a shame, because there were a number of inspiring athletes competing in Tokyo this year whose performances and stories are worth knowing and celebrating. Sydney McLaughlin is certainly one of them. After winning the gold medal in the 400m hurdles last week, she said , "What I have in Christ is far greater than what I have or don't have in life." She then went on to say, "I pray my journey may be a clear depiction of submission and obedience to God." Another female runner who shocked the world is only a teenager. Athing Mu won Olympic gold in the 800m as a 19-year-old. She's the first U.S. woman to win the event since 1968. In an interview in June Mu said , "As a follower of Christ, our main goal is to live in the image of Jesus in order to connect to God." And then there is Tamyra Mensah-Stock, the first African American to win gold for the U.S. in wrestling. Her interview after the Olympics will bring a smile to the face of any American, and her testimony of God's faithfulness put it all in perspective. Before the Olympics, she told Faithwire that "It's by the grace of God I'm even able to move my feet … I just leave it in His hands, and I pray that all the practice … my coaches put me through pays off and, every single time, it does." Mensah-Stock also noted that her dad would have been the loudest one cheering in the room. Tragically, he died in a car crash after one of Tamyra's wrestling meets in high school. He likely would have approved of the way his daughter responded after winning the gold , she said in an interview that has gone viral. In it she stated, "I love representing the U.S. … I love living here. I love it. And I'm so happy I get to represent the USA." Another U.S. Olympian who set a record despite incredible challenges is 400m sprinter Allyson Felix. In Tokyo, she earned the distinction of becoming the most decorated U.S. track star in history, with ten medals over five Olympics. However, she almost didn't live to see this one. She'd already won six gold medals and three silvers before becoming pregnant in 2018. Faced with a choice between her career and her child, Allyson endured a challenging pregnancy that nearly took her life and that of her unborn baby, who was delivered at 32 weeks by emergency C-section. Felix lost 70 percent of her endorsement pay with Nike after becoming pregnant. The sports brand wanted her to get an abortion to preserve her career. Instead, Felix chose life, and the stress of juggling motherhood and being an Olympic sprinter over an abortion. There are other stories, too, including those of athletes from other countries. After defeating New Zealand for the gold in men's rugby, the Fiji national team sang a hymn: " We have overcome, by the blood of the lamb, and the word of the Lord, we have overcome." It was a wonderful moment, and a wonderful reminder that whether we win in rugby or anything else, the most certain thing in the world is what Jesus Christ has done for us, not what we will ever do. U.S. wrestler Kyle Snyder faced his familiar Russian foe for the gold, but came up short. "I'm a competitor so I hate to lose," said Snyder, but winning doesn't define him . As he told an interviewer back in June, "God alone defines me. I'm always consistent with my Scripture study and prayer, and during the pandemic I was able to continue to grow and focus on God and hear what He wanted to teach me." These stories offer a more complete picture of the Olympics than what has been portrayed in so many media reports. These are athletes who have found in Christ that which is "more lovely than silver, and most costly than gold."
Aug 11, 2021
John and Shane discuss challenges to the faith and when a Christian should do battle with culture. They then discuss a critique on a recent BreakPoint that outlined demisexuality. Another listener says their friend's child now identifies as bisexual. The listener is looking for ways to support the family, knowing the suicide rates for gender dysphoria are high. To close, John fields a question from a listener considering the best way forward when culture calls her to apologize for sins in history.
Aug 10, 2021
Earlier this year, France's President Emmanuel Macron announced that his government would give 300 euros to every 18-year-old in the country to spend on "the arts." Officials call it the "Culture Pass" and said the purpose is to revive museums, the ballet, and other cultural institutions that struggled during the pandemic shutdowns. The other purpose of the pass is to expose more young people to the arts. Of course handing someone — particularly a teenager — a large sum of money doesn't guarantee they'll do what you'd prefer with it; and while the Culture Pass has a few stipulations, like prohibiting the purchase of violent video games, it turns out French teens aren't as "high-art" minded as their benefactors had hoped. As of last month, almost half of all the money spent with the Culture Pass has gone toward a Japanese genre of comic books called manga. The Culture Pass initiative raises questions, even beyond the challenge of trying to steer teens toward something more "high-brow" than graphic novels. It's not clear how the Culture Pass handles religious materials, for example. But it is hard to imagine that France, the birthplace of postmodernism, would approve of its teens buying the Bible with government money, despite that as the best-selling book of all time, the Bible has made a bigger impact on global culture than any other work in history. Maybe it is allowed; we are not sure. The biggest problem with the Culture Pass isn't the potential for censorship. Or that it's asking French citizens to subsidize their nation's teenagers' questionable taste in art. The pass has put France in an odd position. French officials keep telling the media that its purpose is to expose French youth to "the arts." These officials have defined "arts" as things like the ballet, the theater, and museum exhibits. But that narrow definition doesn't take into account the radical way technology has changed how culture is both made and consumed over the last century. Say what you will about the mind-numbing effect of video games on young minds, for example, which is real and troublesome, but there's more money in video games today than an award-winning Broadway play - and far more people have access to video games. As a result, you'll find some of the most advanced, meticulously designed and beautiful "art" (if you're willing to call it that) inside these games rather than on the stage. This begs the bigger unanswered question. Why put in the effort to "expose kids to the arts" at all? Is there such a paradigm as "good art" and "bad art"? To put a finer point on it, is there "useful art" and "regressive art"? Christianity says the answer is a clear yes . Sometimes Christians think of "culture" as all the "bad" stuff "out there." But culture is simply what humans do with the world. When God told Adam and Eve to fill the earth and subdue it, He was telling them to make good culture . The result is that there are stories, art, music, and technological inventions that glorify God and build His Kingdom. Christian believers' contributions to culture and the arts have been historically some of the most beautiful and influential in the world. But evil corrupts culture-making, too. That's why humanity also makes art that spreads bad ideas, lifts up false idols, and hurts people. People have committed great evil, exploited one another and degraded themselves all throughout human history in the name of "art." Is it "bad" that French teens want comic books more than a ticket to the Louvre? To answer that with logical consistency, France needs more than its dominant worldview of postmodernism, which offers no moral grounding to determine what kind of "art" is beneficial and which is not. Christians should agree the arts can do great good for humankind. A good government will incentivize good culture, but it must define "good" first. Even if the Culture Pass is not the most coherent strategy, it is still an opportunity for Christians in France, and a reminder for Christians everywhere, to continue carrying out Adam and Eve's mandate. If kids are struggling to get along in the world, which today's kids definitely are, then good, true and beautiful things like art and inventions and scientific discovery can build culture that sets their imaginations towards redemption. And especially if France is going to foot the bill for a while, Christian culture-makers might as well flood the market.
Aug 10, 2021
Faithful watchers of the Olympics experience a letdown after the games are over. This year, with viewership in a freefall, there was likely not enough enthusiasm for there even to be a letdown on Monday morning. Many have tired of the politicization of this year's games , which started before the opening ceremonies. Patriotism, courage, and even "historic performance" were redefined in Tokyo, and for the worse. However, there is one protest, a quiet one, that demands our respect from the 2021 Olympics. Female athletes who are mothers earned well-deserved attention . Not merely with social media statements or corporate endorsements, but for winning medals and advocating for life. This Olympic narrative is not only heroic but counter-cultural in women's sports. In 2008, gold medal favorite Sanya Richards-Ross boarded a plane for the Beijing Olympics games after visiting an abortion clinic. Her husband, Aaron Ross, was in practice with the New York Giants, so Richards-Ross terminated her pregnancy alone. She came home with a bronze medal, writing later, "I made a decision that broke me." Richards-Ross went on to say that every female athlete she knows has had an abortion . This year, the U.S. Women's Olympic Track & Field team replaced a star runner in the 200 meters hurdles after she was slapped with a five-year ban on competition. The runner failed to follow anti-doping procedures because she was "traumatized after having an abortion" . Her trauma lingers now even as she is facing repercussions for responding as she did to the anti-doping process. McNeal now speaks out against the pressure female athletes face in choosing career over motherhood. Now a truly historic performance in the 2021 Olympics games may change this narrative in profound ways. Allyson Felix is the most decorated track star in U.S. history. Tokyo was her fifth and final Olympics games, and she has left with two more Olympic medals. Perhaps she will display them beside a picture of her two-year-old daughter whom she carried and gave birth to despite pressures to abort her. The decision to carry her child nearly cost Felix her life. Felix had already won six gold medals and three silver medals before becoming pregnant in 2018. She chose to carry her child, even when her pregnancy was found to be high risk . At 32 weeks Felix underwent an emergency C-section. Throughout the pregnancy, faced intense pressure from her sponsor. After she opted to keep her baby, Nike, her corporate sponsor, pushed a new deal that included a 70 percent pay cut to her previous contract, with no maternity exceptions. The sports brand wagered that Felix's performance would falter as she bounced back and forth from competing to pregnancy to juggling motherhood. Felix spoke out , challenging the double-standard that exists in women's athletics for moms. Nike has since restructured how it works with mothers after Felix challenged the double standard. Following her Olympic successes, Felix is refocusing her attention on a new endeavor called "The Power of She Fund." The new organization is designed to support mom athletes in practical ways. The Power of She Fund will provide childcare for mothers who compete at high levels, offering them the support and encouragement they need. At least nine athletes who competed in Tokyo participated in Felix's program this year. These athletes received childcare grants that opened opportunities for greater training. Felix's work is also inspiring women's athletic brands to get behind mom athletes. Athleta and the Women's Sports Foundation are both corporate sponsors for The Power of She Fund. Felix's story is a tremendous example of what it takes to change culture. The ideas that are evil must be challenged; the imagination of what is possible must be expanded; new and better ideas must be offered . Also, very importantly, the direction of corporate pressure must be changed. In this case, it was from pro-abortion to pro-child. Hopefully, the important work of Allyson Felix will undo the abortion-minded atmosphere that currently surrounds women's athletics.
Aug 9, 2021
Dotting many U.S. main streets are the steeples and towers of beautiful and historic buildings, originally built as houses of worship. From its founding, mainline denominations gave America a kind of Protestant consensus, embracing much of our nation's charity, many of its most prestigious schools, and a significant number of congressional leaders and even presidents. Today, many of these buildings, especially those draped with rainbow flags, lie empty. On Sundays, only a small number of worshipers, mostly white and grey-haired, sit in the pews. Back in 2017, missiologist Ed Stetzer made a dramatic prediction in the Washington Post . "If it doesn't stem its decline," he wrote, "Mainline Protestantism has just 23 Easters left." Stetzer blamed the Mainline church's impending extinction on abysmally low birth rates, and the fact that many of them long ago "abandoned central doctrines that were deemed 'offensive' to the surrounding culture." However, last month a new survey from the Public Religion Institute challenged Stetzer's prediction. Called "The 2020 Census of American Religion, " the report claimed that Mainline churches in America have experienced a dramatic recovery. According to this survey of 50,000 Americans, Mainline Protestants grew from 13 percent of the population five years ago to over 16 percent in 2020. Meanwhile, evangelicals seem to have entered rapid decline, tumbling from 23 percent of the U.S. population in 2006 to just 14 percent in 2020. Over at The New Yorker, Bill McKibben celebrated the "unlikely rebound" of Mainline Protestantism, and made conclusions that a political shift had happened in American Christianity. Others joined the celebration. Progressive church historian Diana Bass Butler declared, "A really important moment is here. The story of an old religious tradition hasn't ended the way critics once thought." Paraphrasing Monty Python she joked, "We're 'not dead yet,' we've just been awaiting resurrection." However, as Lyman Stone of the American Enterprise Institute, pointed out, the methodology used by the PRRI survey suffers from serious flaws. For example, all self-identifying white Christians who did not use the labels "evangelical" or "born again" were categorized as "white mainline Protestants." Stone called this categorization "bonkers," a little like assuming that anyone who doesn't identify as a New York Yankees fan must prefer hockey. More importantly, the terms "evangelical" and "born again" are "generationally-coded" as Stone puts it, not reliable indicators of beliefs or denominational affiliation. In fact, Stone points out, around 40 percent of members in evangelical churches would not describe themselves as "born again," while 20 percent of those in Mainline bodies would. A conservative resurgence in a handful of the mainline denominations would also be a problem for PRRI's methodology. A better measure of evangelical affiliation, suggest Stone and Stetzer, is what's known as the Bebbington Quadrilateral . David Bebbington, a British historian, distinguished evangelical identity by four essential beliefs: Biblicism, crucicentrism (a focus on Christ's atoning work on the cross), conversionism (believing that human beings need to be saved), and activism. Any announcement of a resurgence of Mainline liberalism is premature and probably exaggerated. These aging, shrinking communions will probably become irrelevant within our lifetimes, but it's not because evangelical Christianity is "winning" in any real sense. Liberal churches are shrinking because they are impossible to distinguish from the larger culture. Why get up and go to church on the weekend when the same teaching is available on NPR every day of the week? At the same time, evangelicalism is suffering an identity crisis featuring high-profile deconversions, scandals, and theological anemia. How many evangelical churches today could be described by Bebbington's four essentials? In some ways evangelicalism may be repeating the mistakes of mainline liberalism. Recently, on the Colson Center's Upstream podcast, my colleague Shane Morris spoke with Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, about the so-called "rebound" of Mainline churches. As a longtime member and observer of United Methodism, Mark gave a spirited defense of the good Mainline Protestant churches did in American history, and explained why permanent cultural exile isn't something evangelicals should be celebrating.
Aug 7, 2021
This week on BreakPoint This Week John and Maria discuss a recent report that verified the sexual harassment claims surrounding New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Then, Maria shares a recent podcast by Bari Weiss regarding Central Park Karen and how we respond to media outrage. To close Maria asks John for a worldview perspective of the new calls for masking in public places as the Delta variant of Covid-19 continues to spread across America.
Aug 6, 2021
Two features of our modern society are distrust and fear. First, we distrust the institutions that have long been the pillars of our society, and we distrust them for a reason. Many of them are broken. Many of them have fallen into disrepute. Many of them are simply untrustworthy. We are also fearful. Who knows what the next cultural land mine will be. We hesitate to align ourselves with any person, any leader, any church, any business, anything that might prove to fall apart under our feet. The only way forward is to go back to the basics. The basics found in Scripture. To the basics of the grand story that God is writing in the creation, fall, redemption, and restoration of the cosmos and his image bears. Recently, my friend Os Guiness gave a tremendous talk called Woke or Awakened . It was the first of a three week short course the Colson Center is offering this month. Os provides an alternative vision for addressing society's ills. Here's a portion of that talk by Os Guinness: What's affecting America? It's called revolutionary liberation. It isn't classical Marxism, but cultural Marxism. It goes back to a gentleman named Antonio Gramsci, who's a Marxist. Gramsci sat in jail under Mussolini in the 1920s. In fact, he died there. He was trying to figure out why revolution, as Marx predicted, never happened, and probably wouldn't. He shifted the thinking from economic determinism to what he called cultural dominance, in Germany. You probably know their tactics. They look at what they call discourse. In other words, how we speak. They're looking for who's the majority and who is the minority, who's the oppressor and who's the victim. When they find the victim, whoever it is, they're not really interested in the individual, say George Floyd. Instead, they want to weaponize a group and use that weaponized victim group in a struggle to overthrow the status quo. The revolutions on the radical left are not just classical Marxism, but also cultural Marxism. The revolutions have never succeeded and the oppression has never ended. That's different than the Biblical way we know. The Biblical way addresses truth to power, calling for repentance that leads to confession, leading to forgiveness, which leads to reconciliation and restoration. It's an incredible difference from cultural marxism. This is a tailor made kairos moment for Christians, who with confidence, step out and show how the answers of the Gospel address freedom, justice, and much more. This is far deeper, more profound, and more rich than anything on the radical left, which as I said, always fails and always leads to oppression. That was Os Guinness, presenting the first of a three week short course at the Colston Center. This month you can hear the full presentation and be registered for two additional upcoming presentations with pastor Chris brooks and Dr. Angela Franks. Visit breakpoint.org/july2021 and make a gift of any amount to the Colson Center to register for this important course.
Aug 5, 2021
To a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and to a critical theorist everything looks like oppression. But what if that's not a big enough answer? I often paraphrase one of my favorite lines from G. K. Chesterton. He observed that there are a lot of ways to fall down but only one way to stand up straight. It's a lesson that many of us who want to better understand the world and to have a better world should learn. One of the commonest defenses of critical race theory (CRT) from its advocates is that people have misunderstood it. It's just not what people think it is; CRT is just a tool to understand the American legal system, they say. It's just an academic analysis of cultural trends. It's just an attempt to look at our nation's morally fraught racial history. But to say that CRT is just any of those things is like saying Disney is just a cartoon company. It certainly started that way. And it's kind of true. But today it's rather a meaningless way to describe this behemoth of a company. You can't travel anywhere in the world without encountering the power of the Mouse and his minions. In the same way, CRT has now extended beyond the academic realm into education, into corporate HR departments, into the Church, and, more influentially, into the cultural imagination . This framework of seeing all of life in terms of oppressor and oppressed is a deep part of the cultural mood. Racial identity and power dynamics — these are seen as the issues of the day. Whatever the formal source of CRT was, now functions practically as a theory of everything. It demands conformity in many areas of our life to the very specific political ends that it advocates. To many minds there is simply no way to ask questions about injustice, much less to offer answers unless they are aligned with critical race theory. And strangely enough, this seems to be the place where both critical theorists and their critics agree: that it's either all or nothing. The CRT crowd is quick to identify their favorite philosophy with any quest for racial justice. On the other hand, many of the foes of CRT write off any discussion of race at all, including that of America's history, as CRT nonsense. To be clear, racism is not the defining characteristic of American identity that CRT folks often make it out to be. At the same time, racism has been the defining wound of our past and its residue continues today. For 250 years in America, human beings were sold like cattle but with far less care. Sure, slavery was a feature in almost all cultures, but in American history, it took a more diabolical turn. Along with the sheer fact of enslavement, beatings, sexual abuse, and the intentional severing of families were all part of this American nightmare. For a century after slavery, Americans of African descent continued to be treated as inherently less than. Their political rights were denied, their businesses destroyed, their education hamstrung. On top of all this was the ever-present threat of lynchings. In fact, in the decades after the Civil War, over 3,000 African Americans were lynched for the so-called crime of refusing to act inferior. These are the well-known details. And then there were the Tulsa race riots, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, and the redlining of African Americans housing opportunities. Of course, today real improvements have been made. Yet at the same time, there are disparities in incarceration rates, in poverty rates, and in health and mortality rates. Something is clearly not right in our land. While racism is certainly not enough to explain all of those disparities, it's also not true that tens of millions of people are coincidentally of a particular people group, making the same choices that lead to these outcomes. That's one of the problems with critical race theory. The reasons for these enduring problems are complicated, more complicated than the simplistic solutions that CRT offers. All the same, that these theories are wrong about the sources of poverty and oppression doesn't mean that poverty and oppression don't exist. We should do what we can to deal with them. To put it another way, just because someone is asking good questions doesn't mean that they are providing good answers. And, just because they are offering bad answers doesn't mean that the questions themselves are bad. What we don't want to do, like Chesterton's quote suggests, is to fall down in another wrong direction. The only way for us not to fall in the wrong direction is to join in the story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. This is the grand narrative of Christ redeeming His creation, using His people throughout the ages to work for the well-being of others and to change society. Until Christ comes again, the hurting will always be with us. But that doesn't mean we should tolerate it. Until Christ comes again, we are called to work with Him to restore all things in whatever time and whatever place He has put us. Our job is to work with Him to restore all things and whatever times and whatever places He has put us, offering better answers to better questions than the world and other worldviews can never provide.
Aug 4, 2021
John and Shane field a question from a listener who is looking at the state of affairs in the world and wonders how she can give a tithe to the church when the world might need her money more. They also discuss a finer point on the idea of the theology of being fired.
Aug 4, 2021
Leaders of the early Church, the Apostles, and their disciples wrote letters to churches facing difficult challenges. It was to help them overcome internal conflicts, or to deal with heresies creeping in, or, most likely, to help handle the persecution the churches were facing or would face soon. The letters served to encourage, and to instruct. I thought of these letters a few weeks ago. I was actually thinking about my friends, Jack Phillips and Barronelle Stutzman, two private business leaders and people of faith who wanted to order their businesses according to their deeply held convictions. But they were challenged in those convictions. Since then, they have faced incredibly difficult situations. There's no way that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission should have treated Jack Phillips and his faith with such disdain. And there's certainly no way that a Denver lawyer should be allowed to continually harass him, as the courts have allowed that lawyer to do. And when it comes to Barronelle Stutzman , there's not a nicer person on the planet. She actually served the same client that she is accused of not serving. But in another real sense, their stories aren't that unusual, at least when they are seen in light of the larger account of Church history. To be a Christian and to hold to Christian conviction about what is true about the nature and person of Jesus Christ, and about the place of Christian conviction in the public square, is to be out of step with the larger culture. From the very beginning, Christians have faced these challenges. They have had to choose between their well-being and their convictions . What happened in the stories of Jack Phillips and Barronelle Stutzman is that God was raising them up. This is not merely an indicator of where our culture has gone, but is (more importantly) a lesson for how we must think, the courage we must have, the choices we'll have to make, and the faith we must have in God, who is writing our stories. Last month on our Strong Women podcast, a family story was featured which might go down as an epistle for us all to read. Their story is simple, their faith is humble, and their situation is similar to one many of us might find ourselves in if we haven't already. It involves something as silly as a mask. A mask that says "Jesus loves you." It was too much for an elementary school to handle. The little girl who wore the Jesus loves you mask now finds herself in court, defending her right to simply share the joy that's in her heart. She is an amazing young girl, and her parents are impressive, too. Below is an edited transcript of Lydia's mother's account of the story from the Strong Women podcast episode : The principal called to tell me that Lydia needed to change her mask. She told me the students couldn't wear political or religious masks. I was shocked. I had read the school handbook and there was no such rule. I contacted the assistant superintendent. Even he verified that at that point it was not in the handbook. He told me that it was in a school restart plan document. Then he emailed me a copy of it. I went on the district webpage, and although the district didn't realize it, the original document was still archived on their website. When I pulled it up, I found that I was looking at two versions of the restart plan: the one that he had emailed me, and the one that had been released by the district at the beginning of the school year. The only difference between those two versions was the verbiage about the types of masks that were to be worn. I pulled the metadata on the emailed document. It showed that the superintendent had modified the document thirty minutes before he called me. When something wrong like this occurs and you just allow it, it goes that little things like these add up over time. This year it's the mask. Next year it will be t-shirts. At some point we won't even be able to say Jesus's name in school. Eventually my grandkids and great-grandkids won't be able to do what they're called to do as Christians: to share the Gospel and say Jesus's name in public. That was a snippet of the larger interview on the Strong Women podcast with Lydia Booth and her mother. Lydia is a third-grader forced to choose between her well-being and her faith. She made the right choice . Please join us in praying for the courage and confidence that the Booth family will need in these coming days, and for their attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom. I pray that this story of simple, courageous faith will encourage all of us today, as a kind of living epistle. It tells us the sort of thing that the early Church Fathers knew that the early Church would need to know. We ourselves will need to make decisions like this in the days to come.
Aug 3, 2021
Earlier this year, a prestigious Manhattan prep school fired its longtime director of health and wellness, Justine Fonte for teaching at another institution. It wasn't that she taught somewhere else. It's what she taught: "porn literacy." To high schoolers. Even more revealing than the course itself has been the ensuing debate about how best to help teenagers navigate the adult content found everywhere in online life. In a sympathetic writeup , the New York Times defended Fonte's class for "teach(ing) students how to critically assess what they see on the screen…how to recognize what is realistic and what is not, how to deconstruct implicit gender roles, and how to identify what types of behavior could be a health or safety risk." In other words, Fonte's class could help students consume online pornography ethically . As strange as that may sound, it's an approach more common than you might think. Three years ago, Nadia Bolz-Weber, a popular progressive writer, endorsed the idea . Still, as Samuel James put it in his article at First Things , "It is rather surprising that anyone who knows the name Harvey Weinstein could believe that progressive gender politics can infuse pornography with virtue." This is especially true for the New York Times . After all, their own Nicholas Kristof, just last year, broke the story that one of the Internet's largest porn sites featured videos depicting the exploitation of minors, sex trafficking, and even rape. On that particular streaming platform, which received 115 million views per day in 2019, a significant portion of visitors consumed footage of actual violence and sexual abuse against children. The videos remained despite being openly advertised as such by the users who uploaded the videos. Since Kristof's article, dozens of women have sued the website's parent company for profiting from their exploitation. Millions of hours of content have now been deleted in an effort to purge illegal material. Anyone with a smartphone can easily access this content, including students. Educating them about how to avoid the content, why to avoid the content, and the direct connection between pornography and exploitation would makes sense. Thinking that students can be trained to wade through this hellscape of exploitation to find "ethical" and politically correct content does not. Writing at The Atlantic, Elizabeth Bruenig argues that "porn literacy" teachers have no idea how dark and exploitive modern pornography has become. The kids in Fonte's class who spoke to the New York Times recalled being "annoyed and bored" by her presentation, not shocked. They'd already seen it all, exposed to this material that is not just "dirty" but in Bruenig's words "brutal, cruel, vicious, and even genuinely criminal." In writing her article, Bruenig spoke with teenage girls who candidly told her that the boys they date expect them to participate in the violent, sadistic, and degrading acts they've seen online. "If anything," she concludes, porn literacy classes "aren't given nearly enough funding, time, or other resources to fully demonstrate just how onerous ethical porn use really is." But all the time and all the funding in the world couldn't achieve that. Bruenig, like most progressives, may hold out hope that pornography can be sanitized and subjected to politically correct sensibilities. But her own reporting shows the latest chapter of what's long been true. There is a deep relationship between pornography and crime that has only deepened and worsened as it has moved online. There is no such thing as "ethical porn use." Porn is premised on the notion that human beings can be abstracted from their personhood and consumed as collections of body parts. Porn assumes and trains consumers to believe that people are products to be bought and sold, and then discarded with the click of a mouse or the flick of a finger. To objectify fellow image-bearers in this way inevitably bears the fruit of objectifying them in other ways, often more extreme and degrading ways. The "progress" toward ever darker genres isn't a bug of pornography: it's a feature. Believing we can tame it is like believing we can invite a crocodile to dinner if only we teach it table manners. The answer to this ever-growing monster of Internet pornography isn't to housebreak it, but to rid our houses of it — culturally, personally, and legally. Education can't fix this problem. Smarter dehumanizers more tragically dehumanize. Until we're ready as a society to do what's necessary, the children on the screen and in our schools will continue to pay the price.
Aug 2, 2021
Recently, a denominational leader said to me that the best thing that the Church could do to handle the challenges of this cultural moment would be to "stay in its lane." That the so-called "culture wars" have been grueling, and the Church is primarily called to spread the Gospel. That when it comes to the most controversial issues, the best strategy is non-confrontation and to focus on what is most important. I think I know what he meant. There's certainly truth to the idea that Christians overemphasize politics. As I've said on more than one occasion, politics makes a lousy worldview . In a culture without better answers to life's biggest questions, politics too easily assumes the place of God, determining everything from our values to our sources of truth to who we're willing to associate with. When Christians embrace a political identity rather than a Kingdom identity, the riches of Christ are exchanged for the porridge of political gamesmanship. However, telling the Church to just "stay in our lane" and out of politics is an equally unhelpful answer. Typically, the "stay in your lane" mandate is only applied to unpopular issues, like abortion, marriage and family, or religious freedom. No one ever tells the Church to stop fighting against sex trafficking, or to no longer dig wells for communities without fresh water, or to cease sustainable economic development in impoverished nations. Christians should absolutely engage worthy causes because the Lordship of Christ and the implications of the Gospel demand it, not because they are deemed culturally uncontroversial. Historically, the Church's shining moments have often come in direct conflict with dominant cultural beliefs and practice. The Roman world needed Christians to take in abandoned children and oppose the gladiatorial games, precisely because the pressure was enormous to do exactly the opposite. When we engage with culturally acceptable causes but "stay in our lane" on unpopular ones, we fail the tests of courage and integrity. It also exposes a Church that loves the approval of our neighbors more than we love them , and wants to fill pews more than practice what is good and true. Also, every law and state action reflect a worldview and are based on consequential assumptions about human value, the nature and purpose of sex, what and how children should be raised, the scope of the state, and a million other things. The question is never whether politics will operate from worldview assumptions, but which worldview it will operate from. Systems that value work, protect human life, and allow for dissenting voices instead of silencing them will always be superior to systems that don't. Therefore, Christians should engage the political "lane" as a way to love God and to love our neighbors. However, the biggest issue with this "stay in your lane" approach to the Church is the question of what exactly the Christian lane is in the first place. Dutch statesman and theologian Abraham Kuyper put it best: "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!" In other words, because the head of the Church is Christ, who is Lord of everything, Christ's lane is the entire cosmos . The Scriptures are clear on this. Colossians 1 states that Christ is "before all things and in Him all things hold together." God was pleased through Christ "to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross." This means it all belongs to Him. Christian musicians should make music as if God is sitting next to them on the piano bench. Christian bakers should make sourdough as if God is going to have a slice. Christian citizens of a democratic republic should strive, with humility and wisdom, to influence and govern and live together as if Christ is over it all, because He is . We contend for the wellbeing of our neighbors, even when it's unpopular. The question isn't whether Christians should engage politically, but whether we will do it well. We don't live in a theocracy, and pastors aren't policy makers. But Christians are to apply God's truth about everything to everything. So, Christian, stay in your lane: do the good works which God has ordained for us to do from the foundations of the world. Just know that they encompass every conceivable aspect of human existence.
Jul 30, 2021
John and Shane discuss the place of the Olympics in framing our national identity and how we often objectify athletes as patriotic symbols akin to soldiers. This in the light of a recent situation where star gymnast Simone Biles took a mental health break from the Olympics, giving up her spot to other teammates to compete. Shane also asks John to expand upon recent BreakPoint commentaries, specifically one piece about a new sexual identity called "Demisexual." John then considers another that looked at a call to strip parental rights from moms and dads who challenge their children's desires regarding transgender chemical and surgical procedures.. To close, Shane asks John about recent court judgments that seem outlandish. In reply, John suggests that the religious freedom court cases are likely to land in the Supreme Court, and points out that many conservative lawyers and scholars are rallying with strong and surprising legal opinions against these threats to core freedoms. -- Story References -- Simone Biles Withdraws from Olympics Citing Mental Health When Simone Biles scratched most of the Olympic team final, she said it was not because of a physical injury, but her mental health. This doesn't mean she felt sad, or didn't have her heart in it to compete. It means that her psychological state put her at significant physical risk. If her brain wouldn't play along with what her body knows how to do, she could be seriously injured. CNN>> All I want to say about Simone Biles is this. She is a young woman. She is truly a remarkable young woman. Her achievements are extraordinary. What's more, she's endured some dreadful things. If she were my daughter, I would be extremely proud of her. Right now, I wouldn't be giving her a lecture or even advice. I'd be giving her a hug. She's a young woman--still a girl, really. And an amazing one. And what she needs right now is simply support and encouragement--not evaluation, or assessment, or disapproval, or (for that matter) even approval of choices or decisions she's made. Just support. Just a hug, really. ~ Dr. Robert George -- What Does "Demisexual" Say about Christian Hope? Earlier this month, Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo, daughter of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, announced that she now identifies as "demisexual." As she described in the interview, her journey has gone from identifying as straight to identifying as bisexual to identifying as pansexual to now, finally, demisexual. This latest identification refers to someone who is sexually attracted only to people with whom one has formed an emotional attachment. BreakPoint>> Journal of Medical Ethics Says Parents Should Lose Rights Over Children The Journal of Medical Ethics recently released a formal paper in which they argued that parents should lose their rights to care for their children. The paper referenced an article by Dr. Lauren Notini showing a supposed benefit in treating minors with so-called gender-affirming surgeries. BreakPoint>> -- Mississippi Challenges Roe at the Supreme Court Last Thursday, two months after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear what could be the most significant challenge to Roe v. Wade to date, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch submitted a brief clarifying how this case could impact the abortion debate. "Under the Constitution," she wrote, "may a State prohibit elective abortions before viability? Yes. Why? Because nothing in constitutional text, structure, history, or tradition supports a right to abortion." BreakPoint>> -- In Show Mentions -- When Will It Stop? 10th Circuit Rules Colorado Can Compel and Censor This Web Designer Alliance Defending Freedom 10th District Written Decision on 303 Creative Decision -- Recommendations -- Upstream Podcast>> 10 More Rules for Life - Jordan Peterson>>
Jul 30, 2021
We are inundated with stories proclaiming, and often celebrating, the decline of Christianity and Christian morality. Headlines announce the rise of the "nones," the redefinition (and reimagination) of marriage and family, the cultural triumph of the LGBTQ+ movement, and a million other ways Christianity is losing its cultural privilege and influence. On and on it goes. An important factor to remember is that although America has been the leader of the Christian world for much of the last century, Christianity does stand or fall with America. When we look at the wider global picture, Christianity is more than alive and well. In fact, it is growing at an unprecedented rate. Consider the continent of Africa, which is poised to become the leader of world Christianity. According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, the number of Christians in Africa is increasing at a rate of 2.81 percent per year. That may not sound like much, but the compounding effect is huge. In 1900, there were about 9.5 million Christians in Africa; by 1970, that had risen to over 140 million. Today, the number is nearly 685 million, over twice the population of the United States. In Asia, Christianity is growing at 1.5 percent per year, with over 100 million more Christians there than in North America. By 2030, it is estimated that there will be more Christians in China than in the United States, though with the current wave of persecutions, precise tracking of these numbers is impossible. We are also seeing disciple making movements throughout the Muslim world for the first time in history. As David Garrison has documented, we are seeing large scale movements to Christianity in all the major segments of the Islamic world. In fact, the fastest growing branch of the Church in the world is in Iran. One Iranian Christian described the situation in his country: What if I told you Islam is dead? What if I told you the mosques are empty inside Iran? What if I told you no one follows Islam inside of Iran? Would you believe me? This is exactly what is happening inside of Iran. God is moving powerfully inside of Iran. Of course, this growth in numbers comes with a corresponding increase in persecution. Where God is at work, Satan resists. The death toll is probably highest in Nigeria, with nearly 2,000 killed in 2021 alone. There's also heavy persecution in other African countries, along with North Korea, China, across the Muslim world, South Asia, and too many other places to name. The global Church also faces challenges that come from the rapid growth itself. Syncretism, the combining of Christianity with other beliefs, has been a problem in the Church from the first centuries, and has continued whenever and wherever the Gospel enters a new area. Bad theological ideas from the West like Word of Faith and the prosperity gospel often make inroads into Christian communities around the world, particularly poorer areas. Drawing the line between the prosperity gospel and a reliance on expectant prayer is a tricky task for leaders in these regions. This is where we can help. One strength of the Western church is its long history of theological and exegetical thought. Training Global South leaders in these areas can help new believers from going off the rails. At the same time, there is plenty that Western Christians should learn from our brothers and sisters around the world. As Glenn Sunshine and Jerry Trousdale outline in their book, The Kingdom Unleashed, we need to recover the kind of supernatural worldview that they have retained, but we have lost. Lacking other resources, they rely on God for their needs and the guidance of Scripture for their practices. Their prayer lives put ours to shame. They follow Jesus' model for making disciples rather than following the habits that have developed in American traditions. They understand evangelism as making disciples and discipleship in terms of loving Jesus enough to obey Him. Still, be encouraged. The True Aslan is on the move and amazing things are happening around the world as His Kingdom advances. And know this: God has the same power here as in Africa. Christ is as much on the throne here as He is anywhere else. He can do here what He is doing in so many other parts of the world.
Jul 29, 2021
Last week, A friend forwarded me a letter circulating in his community. It called for him to apologize for his race and placed on him the burden of hundreds of years of institutional racism and past injustices. There was no room for dissent, no room for disagreement. Agree in every way or stand condemned. That's not uncommon in this cultural moment. There's an incredible intensity, as my friend put it, an incredible absolutism for each and every issue, not just the race issue. It seems that the entire world is at stake and what we think and what we say, despite near constant calls to have dialogue and conversations. Too often tempers flare and the whole thing devolves into diatribe, echo chambers, reinforcing what each side has already thought. And for christians, these moments threaten to steal our understanding of where we fit in a greater story. God is writing a great story for the whole world, and Scripture reveals that story. It's the story of creation to new creation, from the heavens and earth to the new heavens and new earth. We're somewhere in that timeline, in this tale of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. It is important to ground ourselves in the truth that we have been created by a good God, and have been created good as part of a marvelous story of redemption and renewal. Even though in the fall of Adam, so much of God's good creation has been twisted and frustrated, in need of reorientation and healing. The story is clear, that God has worked in history, in Christ, to renew His creation and to make people new. To help them understand their role in the grand story of the renewal of all things. As we see this story correctly, as we become part of this story, as we learn to find our moment in the larger story, then suddenly we can have the clarity that we all need, particularly in this confusing cultural moment. Right now, one of the most confusing things in our cultural moment are all the bad ideas that we hear all the time about who we are, about what it means to be human. The deepest conflicts in this cultural moment aren't moral ones. It's not a disagreement about what's right and what's wrong, even though certainly our views on that as a culture have dramatically changed. The deeper confusion is about who we actually are. On one hand, you have that scientific view of what it means to be human, that one that has dominated academia and the cultural imagination in so many ways for about 100 years now. It says that we're basically the result of mindless, costless, purposeless processes. There's no supernatural being that had us in mind, and we're not headed to any sort of goal or purpose in history. On the other hand, you have this postmodern construct that says that you and I are whatever we choose to be. It says that the number one responsibility to be human is to express our true selves, and the number two responsibility is to accept other people's "true selves". But those true selves might be completely disconnected from reality, disconnected from biology, disconnected from bodies disconnected from families, disconnected from anything other than our own self determination. This has become a breaking point in our culture, but of course, we're not the first generation to face something nearly as challenging. The apostles, Peter and Paul experienced the decadent roman empire. St. Patrick faced a pre-Christian Ireland. Christians throughout history have found themselves in the rockiest of social soils, and at some level they have been able to survive, and even thrive, by remembering what is ultimately true, what is ultimately good, who they ultimately are in creation. These Christians have stayed the course through Christ, remembering that the Christian worldview is big enough for the challenges they faced. That reality is still true today. The Christian worldview is big enough for all the experiences in the world, both the problems and the glories. It is big enough for the groaning and the graces, the things that make us stand in awe and the things that make us weep in despair. In fact, if we have a correct view of Christian history, in a correct view of the sovereignty of God and the authority of Christ over all of creation, moments like these, as confusing and crazy as they are, can get us excited. We know that God is bigger than any cultural moment. We know that God is revealing himself to us in new and powerful ways. This commitment that Christ has made, to reveal himself in the world, it is what drives and grounds the Colson Center in almost everything we do. This is especially true in our rhythm of routine short courses. The newest series is coming out of the Wilberforce weekend, where we focused all of our attention on this idea of the image of God. We want to take that to an even deeper level. I'm so pleased that our next short course will be looking at additional aspects of the image of God. These aspects are housed in a brand new book, published by my colleagues Tim Padgett and Dr. Glenn Sunshine. The driving force of the book is to show that the image of God is more than a theological trivia point that we all know is true. It is fundamentally a grounding for our perspective and what it means to understand ourselves and everybody else that we encounter in this cultural moment. I invite you to join our latest short course, and get a copy of this book on the image of God, for a donation of any amount to the Colson Center this month. This is going to be an incredible short course. The course starts tonight, with Os Guinness, who will be talking about woke or awakened: how to provide an alternative vision for addressing society's ills. Then we'll offer a session one week later, with Chris Brooks, to provide a vision of the Imago Dei to someone else. We'll close this with a session by Angela franks, who will be joining us for a session called fluid or stable: why it's so hard in our culture to find identity. If you can't join us for the live sessions, you can always watch the recording of each and every session. This three week short course, and book on the image of God is our gift to you for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month.
Jul 28, 2021
John and Shane field a number of questions from listeners. One listener who struggles with same-sex attraction asks if Christians should stop using the LGBTQ acronym. Shane asks John a series of other questions from listeners. They include if Christians need to stop passing judgement on politicians who are out of step with moral principals and if Christians should offer reparations, noting the Canadian church arsons.
Jul 28, 2021
Last Thursday, two months after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear what could be the most significant challenge to Roe v. Wade to date, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch submitted a brief clarifying how this case could impact the abortion debate. "Under the Constitution," she wrote, "may a State prohibit elective abortions before viability? Yes. Why? Because nothing in constitutional text, structure, history, or tradition supports a right to abortion." This case goes back to 2018, when the Mississippi legislature passed the Gestational Age Act, which limited abortion after 15 weeks to only those pregnancies involving health emergencies or fetal abnormalities. In response, the state's lone abortion clinic, located in Jackson, sued and won in federal district court. When the state lost its appeal at the 5th Circuit, Attorney General Fitch brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court as a challenge to the constitutionality of abortion on demand and the definition of viability that's been in place since Roe v Wade was decided in 1973. Previous attempts of states to limit or ban abortion have been squelched at the Supreme Court. However, according to Fitch, Mississippi's case doesn't rest on legal technicalities. She had made it clear that Mississippi's appeal is calling into question the constitutionality of abortion as a whole. It is notable that the Supreme Court decided to take another abortion rights case, and the court is thought to have a pro-life majority. On the other hand, this is also a court that has proved allergic to overturning precedent, and that is precisely what the Mississippi attorney general is asking it to do: " Roe and (Planned Parenthood vs.) Casey are thus at odds with the straightforward, constitutionally grounded answer to the question presented. So the question becomes whether this Court should overrule those decisions. It should." In her brief, Fitch offered clear arguments as to why. After talking about the legal mess that Roe and Casey created, the attorney general explained just how out of touch U.S. abortion law is with the rest of the world. She then described what the legislature had considered in terms of fetal development, including that an unborn child's heart begins beating at 5-6 weeks gestation, begins moving at approximately 8 weeks gestation, and all basic physiological functions are present at about 9 weeks gestation. Mississippi lawmakers also have a legal interest in abortion restrictions, Fitch argued, because the state has interest in protecting the life of the unborn, the well-being of women, and the integrity of the medical profession. Specifically, she detailed how abortions after 15 weeks often utilize "barbaric" dilation-and-evacuation procedures, in which "surgical instruments crush and tear the unborn child apart before removing the pieces of the dead child from the womb." This procedure, Fitch declared, can only be called "barbaric" (and was called that by the Mississippi legislature and Attorney General Fitch!), and is dangerous for women, deadly for children, and "demeaning" to the medical profession. According to the Guttmacher Institute , 1,313 related laws have been signed since Roe was enacted in 1973, with over 500 just in the last decade. While many have been struck down in the courts, the pace and seriousness of abortion restrictions is picking up. The story of the abolition of slavery suggests this could be part of the shift in law and culture many have long prayed for and worked towards. In Great Britain, the work of Thomas Clarkson , Josiah Wedgewood , William Willberforce, Hannah Moore and others eventually bore fruit as the slave trade moved from being unquestionable in 1787 to largely unthinkable by 1833. This brief by Attorney General Lynn Fitch is the clearest takedown of abortion by a lawmaker to date. That's a win in and of itself. Her very words and approach to this case are a testament to years of work by pro-life academics, apologists, and activists. That's all good news. At the same time, it's far from clear what the Supreme Court will do. And, even if they do overturn precedent and strike down Roe, there's growing momentum for Congress to replace it. This would make the mid-term elections even more important, given the full-on embrace of the abortion-on-demand-for-any-reason platform of the Democratic party. At the very least, overturning Roe would return abortion law to individual states. That means our job, to make abortion not only illegal but unthinkable and to care for vulnerable women and children, only continues; in schools, in churches, in neighborhoods, from the state house to your house.
Jul 27, 2021
Earlier this month, Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo, daughter of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, announced that she now identifies as "demisexual." As she described in the interview, her journey has gone from identifying as straight to identifying as bisexual to identifying as pansexual to now, finally, demisexual. This latest identification refers to someone who is sexually attracted only to people with whom one has formed an emotional attachment. This kind of "I want it to be special" approach to sexual intimacy is nothing new, of course. (In fact, I think it was the plot of almost every teen coming-of age movie in the '80s and '90s.) On one hand, reattaching sexual behavior to emotional attachment is an improvement over the no-strings-attached hook-up approach, or the digital replacement of porn addiction. On the other hand, considering an emotional attachment as a way of expressing (and therefore identifying) oneself, rather than as a measure of relational maturity isn't an improvement at all. (Not to mention, the only way to be a "demisexual" in good standing, with all of the other identifications, requires that one not prefer male or female in one's emotional and sexual connections. So, it wouldn't be accurate to think of demisexual as the return of "Pretty in Pink".) It's difficult to keep up with these new identifications and all the rules governing them. As someone recently suggested, perhaps we should just change the acronym to "LGBTQ-TBA" and be done with it. After all, no sexual behavior was considered a category of identity until recently. Now all are; a move which ensures that none are considered wrong, unnatural, or immoral. The essential points to understand about this whole discussion are that, first, sexuality is no longer seen as behavior in our culture, but as identity. In other words, rather than something we do, sexuality is who we are. Second, who we are is considered fluid, not fixed. So, a journey through the acronym, like Michaela's, is self-discovery not a crisis. Increasingly, educational and social forces push the young on this journey, while the whole culture cheers them along. All of this may seem nonsensical, even observably wrong, but is widely assumed as true and normal. Christians must understand what's happening and be prepared to respond if we are to love God and our neighbors in this cultural moment. That will involve, at the very least, telling the truth. Anything less is not to love the victims of our culture's worst ideas. We must be prepared also to offer the far better vision of identity, love, sex, and friendship found in the Christian account of reality. To not offer the better way of the Gospel would be heartless and foolish. Not only do we have a better story to tell, but the timing is right. This late chapter of the sexual revolution is exhausting itself (and all of us) in its perpetual fight against reality. In other words, there is a grand opportunity in front of us. For example, the growing rift between the letters of the sexual orientation acronym, particularly the L's and the T's, will prove irreconcilable. While the T's attempt to silence all dissent from absolute gender fluidity, many of the L's still think that bodies and biology matters. The growing tension is leading some members of the LGBTQ+ community to cancel each other. This is the only way for those who have learned, even if subconsciously, their ideological rules of engagement from critical theory. The only way many have to advance their ideas is through power not argument. This is great if you are on the strong side of the issue, but not if you are on the other side. In the ensuing chaos, the church will have ample opportunity for victim care. And, we can be a voice of reason. My friend Kathy Koch often notes how ridiculous it is to ask grade school kids who are not sexually active what their sexual orientations are. While the culture treats sexual orientation like race, the Church has an opportunity to help children unlock who God has made them to be and how He has uniquely created them in His image. This can inject some stability into youth who are living in a culture that offers none. And it injects God into the conversation, a critical point in countering the rise in suicide among young people. As my friend Dr. Matthew Sleeth has argued, the greatest determining factor of suicide success, even among those who experience suicidal ideation, is whether the person believes that God exists or not. As C.S. Lewis outlines in The Four Loves , the biblical understandings of love are simply better than anything currently on offer , and are written into the very fabric of life. These loves point us to higher questions of meaning and purpose, and are beautiful when described and when embodied. I pray that Ms. Kennedy-Cuomo will find what she's looking for, but it will never be through identity tourism. Maybe a Christian can point her to a better way.
Jul 26, 2021
The Journal of Medical Ethics recently released a formal paper in which they argued that parents should lose their rights to care for their children. The paper referenced an article by Dr. Lauren Notini showing a supposed benefit in treating minors with so-called gender-affirming surgeries. To be clear, "gender-affirming surgeries" is a nomenclature for surgery that actually is gender-denying, in which a surgery performed changes the body in a mutilating and permanent way. To cut through the terminology, what's being said is that there is a benefit to allowing a thirteen-year-old the right to determine if she should have a mastectomy in order to affirm her inner self. Yes, you heard that right. Thirteen-year-old girls in the United States of America are actually going through surgeries to remove healthy breasts. The discussion is whether parents should have the right to interfere. The Journal of Medical Ethics argues that parents should not have the right to interfere. That they should not be able to guide their children in any way other than full affirmation. They shouldn't even be allowed into a conversation. Doctors should be free to treat minors without parental consent and parental influence. So, what is the actual role and right of parents in light of these developing so-called "rights of children"? My friend Katy Faust recently tackled this question in a What Would You Say? video: Do Children's Rights Override Parental Rights? Below is an edited transcript of Katy's talk: You're in a conversation and someone says, "We have to respect the rights of children. No-one, not even their parents should be allowed to interfere with their sexual autonomy." Children's rights are absolutely crucial. But does that mean parents shouldn't be able to direct their children's education and medical care? No. Many people have only heard the term "children's rights" misused. It's no wonder when top-tier U.N. agencies including UNICEF and the W.H.O. use the phrase to primarily promote the sexual rights of children. For example, some professionals argue that children have a right to harmful transgender treatments, even if their parents don't agree. But just because the term "children's rights" has been misused doesn't negate the reality that children have natural rights . Natural rights spring from our nature as human beings; what we need as a human person; and what we owe other humans, which can be called justice. Natural rights exist independent of custom or legal convention. When we apply that natural law framework, we see that indeed children have rights . It's helpful to apply the three rules that confirm a rights test to determine whether this "right" shares the three qualities to which all rights conform. First, a natural right is pre-government. Second, no-one has to provide a natural right. Third, a natural right is distributed equally. In natural law theory, rights correspond to duties and obligations. Parents have a natural moral duty or obligation to care for the children that they create. Because caring for children requires making decisions on their behalf, even at times when they disagree, parental authority flows from parental obligations. Parental rights protect that authority, enabling parents to fulfill their obligations in line with the dictates of their consciences. To see Katy Faust's full talk on children's rights and parents' rights on the recent What Would You Say? video, go to whatwouldyousay.org or visit breakpoint.org.
Jul 23, 2021
John and Maria discuss a new reality that over other the past 2 months at least 48 churches have been burned by arsonists in Canada. While some charge the fires are backlash from First Nations members, who have discovered that many in their culture were mistreated by the Catholic church, some are saying the facts don't add up. John and Maria question if there is a growing distrust and violence against the church in Canada. John and Maria also revisit a BreakPoint from James Ackerman, who told his story of finding a sense of redemption after going to an abortion clinic to talk to mothers. They also discuss Simulation Hypothesis, a growing idea in the scientific community that assigns spiritual language to unexplainable realities in Science.
Jul 23, 2021
The most common refrain in Genesis about God's creation of the world is that it was good . Down through the centuries, many people both inside and outside the Church have tried to say that the material world is less valuable or important than intangible inner truths. This has been one of the main talking points for the new sexual orthodoxy: telling hurting souls that their bodies are somehow wrong. Kathy Koch has worked for years to undermine this demeaning perception. In her talk at our recent Wilberforce Weekend, she reminded us about the wonderful intentionality in the way God "knitted" us together as male and female. For today's BreakPoint, here's a portion of Kathy's talk. I'm Kathy Koch of Celebrate Kids here in Fort Worth, and I want to talk with you about how God made us good. I think God is good and God is a good Creator. And if children, teens, or adults don't know that, then it doesn't matter to them that they're created in His image. In Psalm 139, verses 13 and 14 declare that we have been formed by God in our inward parts. It says in Psalm 139:13 that Father God knitted us together in our mother's womb. Knitting is a precise skill; the knitter knows before starting what he is making, or he'd better not start. Otherwise he'd have a mittens-scarf-hat-afghan sweater thing with no purpose at all. The size of the stitch and the needle, the color of the yarn, and the design of the creation is known before the knitter begins. Do we praise God? Because we're fearfully made? Do we stand in awe of ourselves now? We're not God. Fear in the Old Testament is fear of God. That we would have this awesome respect for the creation of who we are. The verse that revolutionized my understanding of God's creative intent is the end of Psalm 139:14 where David writes on behalf of God: My soul knows very well that I am a wonderful work of the creative intent of God. A fearfully and wonderfully creation made in His image. I have tremendous empathy for young people who live in confusion in a chaotic, messy culture. I believe that if I was young today being called "sir," I might wonder if I was supposed to be a boy. I have empathy for these kinds of teenagers and young adults. We are privileged at Celebrate Kids to talk with those who do not believe they were created good. They do not believe in a good Creator. They don't understand the image of God and it is not their fault. Generations of young people are trying to change what they should not try to change. And they're unwilling to work on the things they could work on because frankly, the adults around them are weak. God is good. Therefore he made me good because I'm in His image and He is fully good! So there's gotta be something here and I choose to not see it as wrong. I don't see it as a mistake. It is a challenge. I'm surrounded by great people and I'm loved well by God, and by people who love me deeply; without that I would question so much. So I'm not a too-tall-Kathy-with-a-low-voice-who-can't-spell-all-that-well mess of a person. I am who I am, created in the image of God, and He is good. What's your story? And what story are we helping young people who we love live? Kathy Koch is founder and president of Celebrate Kids, reminding the Church and the world of the goodness of our Creator and the enduring beauty of His creation. In her words, we see a path forward to loving—truly loving—our neighbors who struggle with gender dysphoria. As she argued, the new sexual orthodoxy encourages hurting young people to change what shouldn't be changed and discourages them from working on the things that they can work on. While giving lip service to the claim that people are perfect just as they are, our culture's fascination with expressive sexual identities leads proponents to argue that the only way we can be truly ourselves is through a radical rejection of our physicality.
Jul 23, 2021
John and Shane field a listener question who has left the faith and didn't consider how that would impact his parents. He writes into John to inquire about a middle ground, seeking to follow his thoughts and convictions in religion while also honoring his parents. After answering that question, a listener writes in asking how to honor her convictions while building a relationship with a new person attending her church. John gives reasoning to help the listener make strong steps in friendship and walk forward in conviction while also building relationship. Shane then asks a question from a listener whose school community is challenging the notion that critical theory is present in their school. The listener asks how they should lead their community knowing that ideologies and doctrines are present in the school system.
Jul 22, 2021
A heart is available, the clock is ticking, and doctors are forced to choose between three viable candidates for a transplant: A woman who could live for several more years with a new heart but doesn't want it; a beloved middle-aged father who's chronically overweight; and a young rich kid who might have just overdosed on cocaine but whose dad is dangling a $25 million donation to the hospital if his son gets the heart. All of this is in the plot of the new movie, "The God Committee." The team of doctors and nurses deciding who will live or die are given the nickname The God Committee. But this is a corrupt understanding of God, isn't it? God doesn't work from an algorithm. He doesn't give good gifts like new hearts to those people who will be missed the most, and withhold them from people with bad attitudes or harmful habits, or who are kind of annoying. Nor does he play dice with the universe (no reference to Albert Einstein). A Christian worldview of life and human value is not based on quantifiables such as how many people love a particular person, or how many years someone might go on to live. Every life is endowed by God with His image and likeness. Every life is equally valuable . Human value is not based on any extrinsic categories. It is intrinsic to each and every person, and God doesn't make what He doesn't mean to make. God created people to bear His image and likeness before the rest of the created order. In "The God Committee," doctors accuse each other of "playing God" and it is meant as an insult. But the Book of Genesis describes how within vitally important created and moral boundaries, God actually intended His people to play Him before the Creation. When Adam and Eve were commanded to be fruitful, to multiply, and to fill the earth and subdue it, they were told to do what God had just been doing . Throughout the first chapter of Genesis, God filled and formed an earth described in the second verse as being empty and void. Now, His image bearers are to carry on that work, ruling over the created order by filling it and subduing it. In fact, even after the Fall, that task continues, though now it is complicated by pain and by thorns. The key distinction here is whether we play God as if God actually exists , or whether we play God as if we are God . Whenever we think it's our authority that determines what's right and what's wrong, we're playing God in the wrong way. This was the Enemy's very first temptation for Adam and Eve. This was the temptation of the builders of Babel. This temptation continues today, especially as our technological abilities advance so far beyond our ethics. The irony of "The God Committee" is that doctors don't become gods by deciding who deserves someone else's heart. In fact, does anyone ever deserve another person's heart? Are patients who die before receiving a transplant somehow morally wronged before organ transplants were possible? Mere decades ago? Were the sick then somehow less deserving? No. God made His image bearers with a magnificent capacity to first imagine, and then make these kinds of technologies possible. But as God clearly states as He observed the Babel project, humans ought not do everything that comes into their minds. A culture like ours, drunk on the arrogance of our own technological innovations but without any sort of consensus about the true and the good, simply cannot deal with the moral dilemmas that we ourselves are creating. Our culture makes this mistake often when it comes to scientific discovery. First, we ask whether we can do something. Later we ask whether we should, and then we answer that second question with the first. That if we can do something that's all the reason we need to know that we should do it. That is playing God outside of the limits that He gave us. The confidence that we hold in our abilities is simply misplaced and we overlook the consequences of our decisions. For example, in a global medical community that doesn't even share consensus on the definition of death, not only has a black market for human organs developed, it specifically endangers the global poor. There's a great example of this in a poignant scene in "The God Committee" in which a main character informs his newly pregnant girlfriend that he cannot be a father to their baby because his important medical work is simply too time-consuming. By refusing to honor the people to whom his own actions have bound him, the character now refuses the opportunity to actually image God. To play God as humans (particularly men in this situation) were created to do. We miss this privilege and responsibility whenever we fail to recognize and submit to our created purpose and design.
Jul 21, 2021
Recently I talked to my friend James Ackerman who's the CEO of prison fellowship ministries. And he told me a story about when he was younger and how God used him in a special way. What follows is an edited transcript of a conversation I had with James Ackerman: When I was 18 years old, I got my girlfriend pregnant. She had an abortion. I was not in favor of it, but I didn't try to stop it either. Four years later, I gave my life to Jesus at an altar call at Calvary Baptist Church in New York City. Most of my new Christian friends were Upper East Side types who went to Bible studies at DeMoss House. A couple of my friends would regularly chain themselves to the entrance of abortion clinics, spending the rest of their weekends in jail. I was not up for joining them, but the Lord did call me to do something. I learned there was an abortion clinic in an office building on Lower Park Avenue, five blocks from my apartment. It opened at 6 a.m. on Saturday mornings. The Lord put on my heart the need to minister in front of the abortion clinic, not in protest but with a Bible in hand to share the love of Jesus. To let women know they had other options and to offer to pray with them, and to point them to the local crisis pregnancy center. I prayed, "Lord, if this is really from You, You have to wake me up at 5 a.m. every Saturday morning. I'm not going to set my alarm clock. It has to come from You." On Saturday morning at 5 a.m. I was wide awake. So, with a Bible in hand I make my way to Park Avenue South to the abortion clinic. It had a large plaza in front and as women made their way to the building, I would walk backwards from the sidewalk to the entrance saying, "Jesus loves you. There is a better way. Can we talk?" That's it. And every Saturday morning for a year at least one woman turned around. Some were just afraid, saying things like, "I can't afford to have another child." A few even told me they had prayed that God would put somebody in their path that morning, and I was the answer to that prayer. The last Saturday I went, a man became furious as I spoke to his girlfriend. After he got her inside, he came back out, walked to his car, and pulled out a baseball bat. After three or four blows to the head, I was on the ground. The security officers came running out to help me, asking if I wanted them to call the police. "No, it's fine," I said. "I'll be alright." Do you know what? Not once in that year did those security officers ever even talk to me. Not once had they told me to get off the property and stop what I was doing. That very night at a friend's birthday party I was in no mood to attend, bruised and beaten, I met my wife of 31 years, Martha. The next Saturday I woke up at 8 a.m ., looking forward to taking Martha out on our first date. Just before Wilberforce Weekend in Fort Worth this spring, I had lunch with a friend of mine who reminded me of that time. He said, "God was redeeming you." I had never thought of it that way. And then I realized something: there are at least 52 men and women alive today, all of them 32 years old because Jesus alarm-clocked me at 5 a.m. Every Saturday morning for a year He said, "Go there." That season in New York City reminds me of another time the Lord called me into His service. He called me in 2016 to take up leadership at Prison Fellowship. My job has been to lead the organization from the era of being founder-led and primarily known by its founder, to being mission-led and known first for the work we do. It's been a very important transition for Prison Fellowship. And it's been an honor for me to lead it during this time. It's even been an honor to lead Prison Fellowship through a pandemic . I was the CEO of four companies before I came to Prison Fellowship, and nothing has given me greater joy and taken me through greater spiritual growth than my season as president and CEO of Prison Fellowship. The Colson Center and Prison Fellowship were birthed under the same roof by the same visionary, the late, great Chuck Colson. I loved hearing James Ackerman's testimony of how God pointed him to do something, enabled him to do it, and then the results were left up to him. What a great testimony for the rest of us to emulate.
Jul 20, 2021
Movies such as "The Truman Show," "The Matrix," "Inception," are all based on the premise of humans who were, unwittingly, living in a computer simulation. More recently, quite a few influential and brilliant minds are proposing this so-called "simulation hypothesis" as more than fiction . In some cases, the bizarre theory is morphing into something that looks suspiciously like a materialist spirituality. Back in 2016, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and Space-X, speculated to a tech gathering in California that the development of computer simulations that were "indistinguishable from reality" was inevitable. In fact, Musk believes that it's more likely that we live in a simulation than in the real world. And he's not alone. Recently in The New Yorker , Joshua Rothman described the increasing popularity of the simulation hypothesis among thinkers as diverse as "philosophers, futurists, sci-fi writers and technologists." The notion that we are all self-aware software trapped inside computer-generated virtual reality first gained academic credibility in a 2003 paper published by Oxford philosopher and futurist Nick Bostrom . In it, he argued that if we were to extrapolate the progress of current virtual reality and brain mapping technology into the future, the most likely result would be simulations indistinguishable from real life and programs indistinguishable from people. And, if that were true, then it would be unlikely that we would be the first generation in history with the ability to produce such simulations. That line of thinking led Elon Musk to conclude that the chances that our world is "base reality" and that we are not living in a simulated reality, are "one in billions." And it gets even weirder. Rothman suggests that the original programmers of our simulated reality could "find it interesting to watch us fight the battles they have already lost or won." Others have suggested that perhaps thousands or even millions of simulations are running at the same time. Philosopher Eric Steinhart speculates in his book Your Digital Afterlives that simulations are nested within other simulations. Within this "great chain of being," some people could be "promoted" to a higher reality when they die, attaining a kind of immortality or "resurrection." On a darker note, if the "computational cost" on our creators' processors ever becomes too great, perhaps they'll simply pull the plug on all of us. If this all begins to sound a bit metaphysical, Rothman agrees. One of the appeals of simulation theory, he thinks, is that it "gives atheists a way to talk about spirituality," or something like it. It offers "a source of awe." It even brings up similar questions for our simulators that one might ask of God: "Why did they create us? Why did they allow evil in their simulation?" "Why are we here?" And perhaps even, "Do they love us?" Of course, science fiction speculation does little to answer the actual big questions of human existence, and it certainly cannot justify a particular moral code. If none of this is real, including me, why should I care? Why not live, as in HBO's hit show "Westworld" in which people pay to visit a kind of simulated reality, entirely for my own gratification no matter whom it hurts? Simulation theory also makes the massive assumption that consciousness can arise from and be transferred through matter. And yet, it never explains the origin of consciousness in the first place. Where did the programmers, the real beings made of flesh and blood who inhabited what Musk calls "base reality," get their sentience, moral code, and meaning? As a theory of human existence, it only pushes the ultimate questions of existence back a step or two, beyond our reach. The simulation hypothesis is, as Stephen Meyer writes in his book, The Return of the God Hypothesis , one of many complicated "auxiliary theories" proffered to prop up materialism. It's telling how often advocates of this hypothesis utilize religious and spiritual language. Having reduced themselves to computer programs, they still speak of transcendence, resurrection, morality, and eternal life. Sometimes they talk of our supposed programmers in a way that sounds an awful lot like worship. In the end, maybe the best evidence against this bizarre and complicated version of materialism is that those who use it cannot resist simulating spiritual reality, even while attempting to explain it away.
Jul 19, 2021
In recent days, thousands of protestors have taken to the streets of Havana, Cuba to protest Covid restrictions and demand both help from the government and more freedom. After initially attempting to crack down on protestors, the government changed course late last week and lifted certain of the restrictions that drove the protests, including those on travelers bringing medicine, food, and toiletries. As a nation, Cuba relies heavily on tourism. As individuals, Cubans rely heavily on friends and family members outside the country sending food, medicines, and hygiene products. The crippling taxes on goods coming into the country, the lengthy power outages, food shortages, and ongoing blocked-access to the Internet — all during a global pandemic — was just too much for many of the people, and this propelled them to attempt a revolution in the streets. Christians in Cuba have joined the throng calling for an end to the restrictions, even to the regime. For years, believers there have faced discrimination and oppression. The Cuban Revolution 60 years ago (in keeping with Communist ideology) established an atheist state in what was, at least traditionally, a largely Christian culture. At various points in the history of the regime, including recently, Christmas celebrations were banned , and Christians were not allowed to run for office. Even so, Castro never fully closed church doors. Overall, religious life in Cuba has mainly moved underground, and is constantly under threat. In the 1990s, in an effort to mend relations between the U.S. and Cuba and to establish a diplomatic relationship with the Vatican, Pope John Paul II visited the island nation. After the visit, Christians were allowed to apply for state jobs and participate more publicly in church life, albeit under the watchful eye and oversight of the government. The movement toward religious freedom in Cuba has been, to say the least, slow and inconsistent. Still, Christian leaders continue to see cracks in the foundation of Communism. As Alberto Pías, a Catholic priest from Cuban descent wrote on social media earlier this week , "Human beings are made for freedom, to the point that even their Creator doesn't violate it. Human beings can be repressed, intimidated, threatened ... and this can make, by a pure survival instinct, the person submit to slavery and even defend the one who is oppressing him, but freedom is inscribed in our genes. Years, even generations may pass, but there comes a time when the soul rebels and says: 'enough.'" And just a few days ago, in what may be the only Communist dictator in history to almost admit some degree of fault, President Díaz-Canel said , "We have to gain experience from the disturbances. We also have to carry out a critical analysis of our problems in order to act and overcome, and avoid their repetition." I wish that the president's critical analysis included the Communist vision of life, social forces, the progression of history, and human value. I doubt that it will. Given Communism's historical track record, it should have long ago been relegated to the dustbin of history. Instead, what is too often claimed, by Communist "presidents'' and Western academics alike, is that the problem lies not in Communism itself but in how it has been applied. We see the same kind of thing when it comes to new technologies, especially biotech. When things go wrong, we think that it's just some rogue, "bad apple" scientists who are to blame for what is, in reality, inherent immorality in certain practices. This "evil man" assumption insists that the real problem with gene-editing technology or Communism are just the "bad apples" employing them, rather than the universal temptation that comes with unlimited power, whether over a nation or over some aspect of nature. We'd like to think that the problem is one particular human, not the human condition itself . Tragically, the only thing that the "evil man" hypothesis accomplishes is ensuring that the evils of history repeat. While recent admissions from President Díaz-Canel are noteworthy, hard repression in Cuba is not over. So, we should continue to pray and advocate for the people of Cuba in any way we can. And, we should take seriously the advice offered by Cuban-American Mike Gonzalez, in a recent interview on a World News Group podcast , when asked how Americans can help. Gonzalez said, "Ultimately, what Americans can do is remain free. We must remain free ourselves. We cannot help anybody, we're not going to be the symbol of anything if we don't ourselves remain free... America must continue to be the beacon of freedom."
Jul 16, 2021
John and Maria discuss new data from both the Centers for Disease Control and a report from a number of universities in the UK that reveal problems post-pandemic. Rates of suicide, depression, and a likely increase in pornography addiction are a few problems they unpack from recent BreakPoint commentaries. Maria then provides insightful commentary on the crisis in Cuba. She makes the statement that many will look at the situation and claim the problem with communism is the way it was carried out, not the human heart. John then provides insight on a movie called The God Committee that Maria recently reviewed. John gives a worldview analysis that shows how Christianity is a worldview big enough to handle the important ethical questions of the world. To close, John and Maria discuss a commentary by Glenn Sunshine on why wokeness is a heresy that finds moral grounding and meaning in the Church.
Jul 16, 2021
As rescue workers still look for remains in the rubble of the condominium that collapsed in Surfside, Florida last month, the official death toll has topped 95 people, with more missing and presumed dead. While this tragedy will change the lives of those involved forever, it will, as all tragedies do, fade from the news headlines to be replaced by others. This is the awful paradox of life after Eden. For some people, this felt like the very end of the world. For others, this was hard but unremarkable news to hear. How can both be true? Many Christians look at our world of mass shootings, natural disasters, political unrest, terrorism, and moral degradation and conclude that it is worse than it has even been. Others say we're better off than ever, noting advances in medicine and technology, life expectancy, and our unprecedented abilities to prevent and respond to disasters. Global poverty and infant mortality have fallen dramatically in the last two centuries, and continue to plummet. Even so, as J.R.R. Tolkein wrote in The Lord of the Rings , evil "always after a defeat and respite, takes another shape and grows again." His friend shared a similar philosophy in That Hideous Strength , the final novel of his Space Trilogy . "Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse," wrote C.S. Lewis. "The whole thing is… coming to a point, getting sharper and harder." Because time moves only forward, and because Jesus hasn't returned to finally make all things new, we will continue to confront new and different shapes of evil. Trying to decipher which shapes are worse or better than others is as futile as trying to predict which are coming next. What we do know, because Scripture is crystal clear about this point, is that God the Father sits in what N.T. Wright might call the "control room" of heaven. His hand holds back more evil from befalling his creation. A colleague of mine used to note that the four scariest words in the Bible are "God gave them over." The worst evil we can imagine visits humans at our own request. Any moments or eras of apparent respite is either because we've not recognized a new shape evil has assumed, or because God has chosen to graciously withhold what human sinfulness has invited. In moments of great suffering or tragedy, Christians will often say something like, "Don't worry. Christ is still on the throne." This is true and often comforting, but it can be a kind of Romans 8:28 "bomb," aloofly and tritely lobbed over our protective walls with too little empathy; a sort of religious version of saying "well, it could be worse" to someone in pain. In an old episode of the TV medical drama, House , the cantankerous and religion-hating Dr. House confronts a nun suffering from a mysterious illness. "You can tell me you put your faith in God to get you through the day," he says to her, "but when it comes time to cross the road, I know you look both ways." It was meant as an accusation, but believing in a good God who rules the universe doesn't require that anyone deny cars hit people. Christ is on the throne and I might suffer tragedy. Both are true. It's the rest of the story that answers Dr. House (and us). As Pastor Tim Keller writes : Often we see how bad things 'work together for good.' The problem is that we can only glimpse this sometimes, in a limited number of cases. But why could it not be that God allowed evil because it will bring us all to a far greater glory and joy than we would have had otherwise? People are living longer, medicine is advancing, and, sometimes, buildings collapse with people in them. Things in this world are really bad. Other things are really good. Ruling over it all, still on His throne, Christ is renewing our hearts and minds to make His glory our greatest pleasure and somehow mysteriously making us better through our suffering here.
Jul 15, 2021
National Public Radio's This American Life aired Tina Dupuy's (doo-PWEE) story recently . Tina had a difficult home life and was prone to acting out as a kid. Her parents eventually sent her to a group home. At 13, she went to her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. What she heard resonated. People spoke about not being able to control their own bad behavior; about feeling rejected by family and repeatedly getting into legal trouble. By 13, Tina had tried alcohol a few times. But it was in the philosophy — the worldview — of AA that she really saw herself. And for two decades, she (to use AA's lingo) "hung in." For 20 years in AA, Tina learned how to stop pitying herself and to take responsibility. She attended meetings and shared her gritty story openly. But once she was firmly settled in her thirties, with a husband and a steady job, Tina started questioning whether she was actually an alcoholic. So she tried a drink and nothing happened. Now, she says, she's been drinking occasionally for years, with no addiction. So what was it about AA that held so much sway over Tina, and for so long? What does her story reveal about what humans need to get along in the world? Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by Christians in the 1930s . The modern-day organization has distanced itself from those religious roots, but traces remain. Everyone's familiar, for example, with AA's insistence that adherents surrender to a "Higher Power." The official line today is that this Higher Power can be whatever we want it to be. That the practice remains, especially in our cultural moment, is a sign that AA knows that belief in God has a uniquely powerful and motivating influence on our minds and behaviors. AA also requires each member to have a sponsor, someone else who is actively recovering from addiction. Apparently, humans benefit from a mentor who is able to "sympathize with our weaknesses." AA also teaches members that they need community and accountability, because bad habits thrive in isolation. Tina Dupuy told NPR that what first drew her in was everyone's nearly obsessive insistence that she "keep coming back." AA teaches that forgiveness and personal responsibility are paramount. That human beings are capable of terrible behavior even if we don't mean to be. In fact, AA has a name for the addict's real disease: "self-will run riot." Christians have a name for that too: sin. We also know it's an affliction not exclusive to those struggling with substance addiction. Alcoholics Anonymous may have stopped outwardly acknowledging the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but His natural laws are woven into every fiber of the organizations' success stories. That's fine — the Church is happy to share her playbook. Still, going through the motions without knowing the how and the what for , which are by God's grace and for His glory is a terrible waste and a tragic case of settling for less. And even if AA inches right up to the Truth without making the final leap, the group has strengths that many churches might count as weaknesses in their own communities. Tina Dupuy's experience with AA was of a group of people obsessively in each other's business. That culture of unconditional intimacy should exist in more churches. Church isn't a place to hang out with friends we've carefully chosen based on superficial similarities like cultural tastes, or even age. Church is a place of confession and forgiveness as much as it is for the mild, pleasant feelings we mean to evoke with the word "fellowship." Jesus doesn't call us to love the social outcast because social outcasts are all really wonderful people the world has judged wrongly, though that happens a lot. He calls us to love outcasts because He loves them and knows they need community and brotherly love in order to run the race with endurance. Just like we do. If that kind of intimacy isn't happening spontaneously in our churches, maybe we should force it. AA does. Unconditional intimacy is the natural outgrowth of groups whose members don't have to be convinced they're unlovable sometimes, or often. When people walk into an AA meeting, they know they have a problem. That's why they're free to be so patient with everyone else. Church can and should be like that, too.
Jul 14, 2021
John and Shane discuss listener questions from recent commentaries. Today they answer an important question from a listener after our commentary on how critical race theory is a Christian heresy. Another listener asks for an overview of the landscape of Christian hope. The person references a our recent commentary on the Pandemic of Despair. The listener asks if there is hope on the horizon, because they don't see it. The listener asks if he is looking at the wrong horizon line. John then responds to a listener who feels despair in being informed by the tv news. John provides a sense of hope and how to remain grounded in the hope of Christ in this cultural moment. To close, John provides an explanation on why we value the creeds and the challenge of knowing creeds in a time and place where we base our understanding of freedoms and rights on constitutions.
Jul 14, 2021
There are three reasons that every Christian should be able to understand, articulate, and widely share what it means to be human. And to live their life from this deep Christian conviction. The Christian answer to the question "What does it mean to be human?" is different from the answer you get from atheistic naturalism, or from Eastern pantheism, or from the postmodern philosophy currently characterizing life here in the West. The biblical answer to what it means to be human is revolutionary . It's the idea that God created everything and called everything good. Then He put Man and Woman on the earth to rule over it as His image bearers. To represent Him and His will to the rest of the created order. The significance of this cannot be overstated. Here are three important reasons why. First, the idea of the image of God has been among the most consequential in all of human history. This is not just a personal, private belief of some followers of Jesus. The idea has fundamentally changed the world. It changed what humanity thought about people who were oppressed. It changed what we thought about the other . It changed law, politics, the courts, and education. Chuck Colson used to say that the image of God, other than the message of personal salvation, is the most important gift that Christianity ever gave the world. Even atheists like Friedrich Nietzsche, Luc Ferry, and others have acknowledged that the very concepts we now take for granted (much of the Western world concepts like human dignity and human equality) were actually birthed in history from this Christian idea of the image of God. Second, the idea of the image of God is essential for Christians to understand because it is crucial to an understanding of the Christian worldview. The Christian story is given to us as a story . That's what the Bible is. It takes us from the account of creation all the way to the account of new creation . It takes us from the heavens and earth to the new heavens and the new earth . Central to this gigantic narrative, the True Story of all of reality, is the human character — the image bearer; and God Himself taking on flesh. This idea is critical to understanding the Christian worldview. What does it mean that God actually became man? That God actually took on the skin and the condition of humanity in order to redeem and to restore it? Finally, understanding the image of God helps us meet the biggest challenges that our culture faces. Recently in Fort Worth, Texas, 1,200 of us gathered at the Wilberforce Weekend and looked at the image of God from every angle we could think of. You now have access to this incredible event through Wilberforce Weekend Online at wilberforceweekend.org. The conference featured teaching on how to see the image of God in everyone, including your ideological opponents. We heard from Jason and David Benham, the Benham Brothers, about how they have been mistreated for their faith, and how they turn around and speak love and grace to others. Then we walked through the idea of the image of God through Creation, Fall and Redemption. What does it mean that God created us in His image and called us good? Matt Heard talked about the inherent connection between what it means to be alive (in the language of John's Gospel) and to be made in His image. Dr. Kathy Koch talked about what it means to believe that God is good, and therefore to believe how God made us is good. Jennifer Marshall Patterson took us deep into the pages of Proverbs and other wisdom literature in the Scriptures. She stated that wisdom in other religions might be esoteric stuff that we can barely make sense of, but in Christianity, the advice of wisdom and Scripture shows a way to be truly and fully human. With Dr. Carl Trueman, we looked at how the image of God has been impacted by the Fall. He spoke about the fundamental replacement, the counterfeit idea for the image of God in our culture, expressive individualism . Dr. Bill Brown talked about how to see the image of God in those who have failed us . It was a particularly powerful and poignant session in light of the scandals of some Christian leaders over the last year. Alisa Childers then spoke about how progressive Christianity misunderstands and misdefines what it means to be made in the image of God. There were many talks on the image of God restored . What would it look like to engage culture in areas of justice? In areas of imagination? Of race? In the approach to the unchanging truth that all humans are made in the image and likeness of God? Wilberforce Weekend Online offers you a bonus module called the Worldview Intensive that deals specifically with the image of God culturally misunderstood in terms of gender entitled: Male and female, He created them with Dr. Ryan Anderson and apologist Rebecca McLaughlin. To access all of the content at Wilberforce Weekend Online, go to wilberforceweekend.org. All of this is available for just $49 . We are hearing from people who are using it in Sunday School classes, small groups, in personal devotional times, and from people using the content to talk with their teenagers during the summertime. And from many who will use it in homeschool and Christian school environments. Visit wilberforceweekend.org.
Jul 13, 2021
A few years ago, a woman spotted her teenage son's laptop on the kitchen counter. She opened the lid and what she saw horrified her — a series of pornographic pictures. She clicked on an image and a sexually explicit video began playing. She checked her son's browser history which revealed this was not the first time her son had accessed pornography. This woman was shocked, but she should not have been. As Sean McDowell once told me, "The question is not if my kids will see pornography, but what will I do when it happens." In their new book titled Treading Boldly Through a Pornographic World , authors Daniel Weiss and Joshua Glaser note that today's parents are the first in history to bring up children in such a digitally connected, pornography-saturated world. It's not that we've ever had a world without sexual brokenness or pornography, but the access to it is unprecedented. Sexually explicit material is fully integrated into mainstream life, as they put it. And it's also become culturally accepted and is far worse, more violent, and more degrading than it was just a few years ago. A few years ago, I was on a panel with radio host Dennis Prager. I respect Dennis for so many reasons, but he didn't hold the same conviction as I did when it came to pornography. He mentioned growing up in a household where his dad had Playboy laying around. I had to tell him that Playboy of the 1950s and '60s is nothing like the Cosmopolitan magazines today, much less what's found on the internet and even on social media. Pornography is so prevalent that while parents should certainly do everything they can to protect their kids from these vile images, they should also accept the fact that sexual brokenness will confront their children's eyes — and their imaginations at some point. It's simply too widespread. The sexual brokenness we see front and center that is not considered pornography today was considered pornography just yesterday. Not to mention all the messaging that we get about the new norms of sexual behavior. It is too available. It's on every screen, including on the cell phones that so many of our children carry around in their book bags. If they don't have cell phones, their friends do. If they're not accessing it, it's likely that one of their friends will show it to them. Let's be clear about something. The point of the story is not that kids are looking for pornography. It's that pornography is actively looking for them . It's so pervasive that many children are first exposed to pornography at seven years of age. This exposure harms them in all kinds of ways. According to Weiss and Glaser, it perverts their understanding of sexuality, stunts their capacity to process emotions, and cripples their ability to form long-term relationships. Because they're so young, they think that what they see in pornographic images is normal. Parents must learn how to talk about the dangers of pornography with their sons and daughters before they see it, even though it's difficult. Parents must start by understanding and communicating God's plans and purposes for human sexuality to help their kids grasp what sexuality means as God intended, and to embrace the beauty and goodness of sexuality within the context of lifelong married love. Second, kids must understand just how easy it is to become addicted to porn. What starts as curiosity can become almost uncontrollable. If you've struggled with pornography yourself, say Weiss and Glaser, share it with your kids. It helps kids understand that our concerns about online sexual content are rooted in real personal experience, that we're not perfect . And that they don't have to pretend to be perfect either. Together we can help them navigate these very difficult waters. Third, set clear digital boundaries with your kids. There are all kinds of resources out there: internet filters, ad blockers, accountability software. Teach your kids what to do if they come across inappropriate material. Encourage them to come to you. Your goal is to guide them, to guard them. To help them grow in online responsibility. The ultimate goal is to help kids towards greater spiritual maturity — maturity that will help them resist temptation when they are no longer under your roof. When they don't have the same measures of accountability in place. Work on a plan for what to do if they stumble. If they stumble outside of your guidance, you want them to know that clear steps have to be taken. They won't have a magical ability to just wish away the attraction. Finally, if you discover that your child is addicted to illicit imagery right now, understand this is a long-term game. It's very difficult to break such a habit. Pornography literally reprograms the central nervous system. Parents should affirm their love for their child even though they will understandably be deeply upset and disappointed. Parents must talk with their kids to learn what led to this habit, how extensive the habit is, how long it's b.een going on, and what sort of openness the child has to deal with it. Weiss and Glaser report that many parents miss the fact that kids often pursue pornographic material to meet unmet needs; to heal wounds, to resolve shame, to feel connected, to ease anxiety, to alleviate stress. So, try to find out what's going on in your kids' lives that drive them to seek out pornography. Breaking this debilitating habit will take a long time. It involves developing new thought and behavior patterns. If you've ever overcome a very difficult addiction or a very difficult sin pattern, then you have a little bit of an idea of how difficult this can be — maybe even more. It's a process that should involve other people. The journey toward restoration, as Weiss and Glaser put, it is not a path away from pornography, it's a movement further into community, and I'd add to Christ Himself . We need to join our kids in this journey away from addiction. We must learn how to keep pornography from becoming a problem for our kids and how to help our kids if it has become a problem. Pick up a copy of Treading Boldly Through a Pornographic World and visit breakpoint.org for more information. This book is a guiding light for anyone, especially parents who wish to help the next generation thrive in this hyper-sexualized and predatory world.
Jul 12, 2021
Dr. Kathy Koch joined John Stonestreet for a special recording for the Wilberforce Weekend Online. Dr. Koch was a featured speaker at the Wilberforce Weekend in Fort Worth, TX, and joined John for an encore conversation for the online offering of the Wilberforce Weekend. You can hear the full conversation by registering for the Wilberforce Weekend Online at www.wilberforceweekend.org. Dr. Kathy Koch is the Founder and President of Celebrate Kids, Inc., based in Fort Worth, TX, and a cofounder of Ignite the Family, based in Alpharetta, GA. She has influenced thousands of parents, teachers, and children in 30 countries through keynote messages, seminars, chapels, and other events. She is proud to be represented by the Ambassador Speakers Bureau of Nashville, TN. She is a featured speaker for the Great Homeschool Conventions, on the faculty of Summit Ministries, and a frequent presenter for Care Net, Axis, and other organizations. She speaks regularly at schools, churches, and pregnancy resource centers.
Jul 12, 2021
In 416 BC, during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, Athens decided to attack the neutral island of Melos. When the Melians protested they had done Athens no wrong, the Athenians replied, "The strong do what they can; the weak suffer what they must." The Melians were starved into surrender, their men were killed, and their women and children were sold into slavery. None of this was unusual in the ancient world. The strong, it was supposed, had every right to dominate the weak. Cruelty, rape, torture, and slaughter were ordinary means of enforcing power. Neither the gods nor the moral codes opposed dominations. Atheist historian Tom Holland, describes his feelings about the Greco-Roman world this way: "It was not just the extremes of callousness that unsettled me, but the complete lack of any sense that the poor or the weak might have the slightest intrinsic value." So what changed? As Holland notes, the difference was Christianity. Christians and Jews believed that all persons were made in the image of God. Thus, every person had intrinsic worth and dignity, no matter their race, ethnicity, gender, or strength. On this basis, oppression of the poor and weak was condemned. Neither might nor wealth made right. Christianity further emphasized the spiritual and moral equality of all people. Not only do we all share the same humanity, but we all suffer from the same problem (sin) and are in need of the same solution (salvation through Jesus). Because of these ideas, Christianity is the sole historical source of concepts now taken for granted: human dignity, human equality, and universal human rights. As not only Tom Holland but other prominent atheists such as Jürgen Habermas and Luc Ferry admit, these ideas are at the root of our modern concern for the poor and oppressed. And this is why it's accurate to call "wokeness" a Christian heresy. "Heresy" comes from the Greek verb hairein , which means to choose. The idea is, heresy is the result of choosing one thing that is true and then running with it until it distorts everything else. "Wokeness," a way of seeing the world built on critical theory, fastens onto the Christian idea that oppression is evil , but makes it the sole significant fact about humanity and society, while rejecting so much else that Christianity teaches — original sin, forgiveness, and salvation. It should not be difficult to see why various expressions of critical theory and "woke" rhetoric resonates with so many Christians. The appeal is rooted in legitimate biblical concerns about the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, and the potential misuse of power. However, it fails on many other levels. First, the anthropology of critical theory misunderstands who we are by assuming that the only relevant fact about us is where we fit within the various categories of oppression. We are the group we belong to, which serves a social role as either oppressor or oppressed. As such, this theory rejects any universals that unite humanity, including the image of God. Second, the understanding of sin, or what's wrong with the human condition , is limited to oppression. In this view, oppressors are guilty and the oppressed are innocent. The universality of human guilt before God, that we all are broken and sinful, that we are all in need of forgiveness and redemption is replaced by a moral reckoning that is dependent on which group we belong to. Human identity, human nature, and human problems are all flattened onto a single spectrum of oppression. Given its failure to diagnose sin, it's not surprising that critical theories lack an adequate understanding of salvation. At best, a semblance of acceptance is offered to those who accept its worldview, but even then, the guilt of certain groups and the moral superiority of other groups is fixed and perpetual. This also means that forgiveness and reconciliation are effectively ruled out a priori . Even for the oppressed, there is no path for healing; no bearing one another's burdens; no easing the burden of pain by forgiving another. In the end, wokeness is built on a worldview without salvation and offers an eschatology with no real hope. Though the proclaimed goal is to end oppression, it's what the late sociologist Philip Rieff called a "deathwork," dedicated to tearing down things but unable to build, or offer, anything better. Advocates of critical race theory, for example, argue that although race is a cultural construct, racism is an inevitable and irredeemable trait of certain groups and society. They cannot offer a vision of the world in which this sin is defeated or redeemed, much less one in which the guilty are forgiven and restored. The best that can be hoped for is to replace one set of powers with another. Playing off of legitimate concerns about power and corruption, concerns first introduced to the world by a Christian vision of life and the world, critical theories push these ideas to the point of reframing the Gospel. The real problems with race and injustice in America need to be addressed. However, any expression of critical theory fails even as an analytical tool for Christians because it is built on a flawed and contrary worldview.
Jul 9, 2021
John and Maria start BreakPoint This Week by discussing a recent commentary related to forgiveness. Maria notes a special point in the article where John states that we are likely choosing to forget about forgiveness, creating a unique honor-shame culture. Then John and Maria visit briefly on a story they covered last week where the IRS sent a letter to a Christian group stating they didn't qualify for tax exempt status. Due to public backlash, the IRS granted the Christian group tax exempt status. Maria continues the line of conversation from the IRS to the Supreme court, who denied hearing an appeal by Baronnelle Stutzman who is facing financial ruin. Baronnelle has been bullied by Washington state and has an ominous road ahead due to the Supreme Court not hearing her case. John shares her story and why the church needs to come alongside her as she continues to faithfully follow the Lord. Maria then asks John to give clarity on the situation in Haiti, where the President of Haiti was killed and now the country faces political upheaval. To close, John and Maria visit on recent reports that public school enrollment has dropped significantly over the past year. This comes on the heals of debates to teach Critical Race Theory as an ultimate theory for the state of the world. - Story References - Why The Greatest Gift the Church Can Give Us Right Now Is Forgiveness Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Appeal by Baronnelle Stutzman Haiti Hunts Down President's Assassins as Crisis Deepens 3% school enrollment drop is largest decline in over two decades | CRT Stokes Fire - Resources - Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good Steve Garber | Book on Virtue Muscle Shoals Documentary | March, 2020
Jul 9, 2021
John and Maria start BreakPoint This Week by discussing a recent commentary related to forgiveness. Maria notes a special point in the article where John states that we are likely choosing to forget about forgiveness, creating a unique honor-shame culture. Then John and Maria visit briefly on a story they covered last week where the IRS sent a letter to a Christian group stating they didn't qualify for tax exempt status. Due to public backlash, the IRS granted the Christian group tax exempt status. Maria continues the line of conversation from the IRS to the Supreme court, who denied hearing an appeal by Baronnelle Stutzman who is facing financial ruin. Baronnelle has been bullied by Washington state and has an ominous road ahead due to the Supreme Court not hearing her case. John shares her story and why the church needs to come alongside her as she continues to faithfully follow the Lord. Maria then asks John to give clarity on the situation in Haiti, where the President of Haiti was killed and now the country faces political upheaval. To close, John and Maria visit on recent reports that public school enrollment has dropped significantly over the past year. This comes on the heals of debates to teach Critical Race Theory as an ultimate theory for the state of the world. - Story References - Why The Greatest Gift the Church Can Give Us Right Now Is Forgiveness Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Appeal by Baronnelle Stutzman Haiti Hunts Down President's Assassins as Crisis Deepens 3% school enrollment drop is largest decline in over two decades | CRT Stokes Fire - Resources - Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good Steve Garber | Book on Virtue Muscle Shoals Documentary | March, 2020
Jul 9, 2021
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , nearly 19 percent more Americans died in 2020 than in 2019. Adjusted for population age, that's the largest one-year increase in mortality since the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918. The CDC attributes approximately 375,000 American deaths in 2020 to COVID-19, but making that stat the headline of this story would be burying the lede. Unlike the Spanish flu, the COVID pandemic left young adults largely unscathed. Only about 3.5% of the pandemic's victims were in the 25-34 age bracket. Yet deaths in this age group are still on the rise. In fact, working-age adults are the only group whose age-adjusted mortality over the last few decades hasn't improved. Writing at Bloomberg, Justin Fox reports that while the rest of the population has experienced increased health and life expectancies, younger adults — who are historically among the healthiest citizens — are dying at about the same rate they did in 1953, a time when medicine and health care weren't nearly as advanced as today. Back in March, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued a lengthy report which attempted to explain this data . The culprits identified for the "high and rising mortality among working-age adults" were "external causes" like drugs, alcohol, and suicide. Likewise the CDC has identified a surge in drug overdoses as the main problem, especially the popularity of fentanyl and similar highly potent synthetic opioids. In 2015, economists Ann Case and Angus Denton gave this collective of killers a name: "deaths of despair." Deaths of despair have been on the rise for years and are disproportionately concentrated among white, rural Americans without college degrees. More immediately, these have served as "pre-existing conditions" of COVID or, more accurately, "comorbidities." Though numbers are still trickling in, rates of "deaths of despair" worsened sharply in 2020, when lockdowns and social distancing were at their peak, according to the CDC. One lesson here is that because human beings are more than bodies, public health is more than controlling infectious diseases. Hope is as essential for our wellbeing as health care. If we hope to prevent young adults from dying too soon, we'll first have to help them answer the question: "What is there to live for?" In a modern world filled with infinite choice and distraction, but void of meaning, the answer to that question just isn't clear for many, particularly young adults. They've lost hope, and I'm not referring to a feeling. To borrow from Thomas Aquinas, an increasingly secular culture has removed any real conviction that it's even possible to "share in the goodness of God." Too many of our public policies not only disregard the fullness of who we are as human beings, they fail to take into account that our culture is so thin on hope. For example, the impacts of lockdowns, social distancing, and extended isolation cannot be measured in mere economic terms. So, too, any evaluation of the drugs that are approved and made widely available should, at the very least, take into account the rise in overdose deaths. We can no longer avoid uncomfortable questions about human value and pharmaceutical profits. Most importantly, the rates of deaths from despair should lead us to rethink what hope is and where it comes from. I cannot imagine anyone would actually say that stuff is more important than people, or that our phones mean more than our children, or that we are better off alone and autonomous than with others, and mutually responsible. Or that mindlessly consuming entertainment designed only to provoke or distract is the true definition of "the good life." Without argument, however, and through the persistent, perpetual habituation of our souls, many people have become convinced of this. The evidence is found not in what we say , but in the hopeless ways we live. The real culprit here is a worldview described by the prophet Isaiah centuries ago , one which urges us to spend money on that which is not bread and to work for what cannot satisfy. Today, we are urged to spend our resources and seek fulfilment in stuff, sex, state, and self. The countless Americans turning to anesthetics to numb their disappointment is proof that these things cannot satisfy. Who else can address this culture-wide pandemic of despair but the Church? Who else, if not us fellow beggars who have found the Bread of Life. In a society literally dying of despair, to "always be ready to give an answer for the hope that you have to anyone who asks," is not a mere suggestion. It's a calling. It's a matter of life or death.
Jul 8, 2021
In various forms and in various expressions, the perpetual myth repeated in each chapter of the sexual revolution (as each new extreme becomes a norm in our culture) is this phrase: The kids will be fine . It all started with no-fault divorce. That first version of the kids will be fine went something like this: "Kids will be better off with happy parents that aren't married than with unhappy parents that stay married." Last week, my friend Katie Faust tweeted the following: "The safest place statistically on record for children is in the home of their married biological mother and father." She was responding to a tweet thread from a gentleman who experienced horrific abuse following the divorce of his parents. This week our What Would You Say? team addressed this question of whether a child is better off with parents who are unhappily married, or happily divorced. That language itself needs to be unpacked since the statistics are striking. Below is an edited transcript of Katy Faust speaking on children of divorce on the recent What Would You Say? video. In headlines about a celebrity divorce, or in conversations with friends in struggling marriages we often hear that it will be better for kids if their unhappy parents get a divorce. But is that really true? No. Here are three reasons why. Number one is that kids don't just "get over" divorce. We often talk about divorce like it's a cold. Bothersome, but the kids will get over it. Divorce affects children's bodies, minds, and hearts for a very long time. For many kids, divorce kicks off a lifetime of loss and transition. Instability is often a feature of a child's life after a divorce. One study found that nearly half of children with divorced parents had not seen their father in the past year. Number two: For kids, two homes are not better than one. According to one long-term study of children of parents who lived in two different homes, these children (on average) obtained less education, experienced more unemployment, were more likely to be divorced themselves, faced a greater occurrence of negative life events, and engaged in riskier behavior than their peers raised in intact homes. Researcher Elizabeth Marquardt discovered these kids were not just living in two different homes — nearly half developed two different personalities . Each home offered different versions of the truth, required keeping different secrets, and operated under two different sets of rules. Number three: If couples persevere, unhappy marriages often become happy marriages. In the past, marriage was considered a permanent union unless one party was deemed at fault because of something like adultery, abuse, or abandonment. Since the passage of no-fault divorce laws, spouses can divorce for any reason or no reason at all. Now the majority of divorces take place because parents are unhappy or have fallen out of love. These are often called irreconcilable differences . One study found that a third of unhappy couples with new babies divorced, but of the two-thirds who persisted, 93% reported happy marriages . A 2002 report found that two-thirds of unhappily married adults who chose to stick it out reported happier marriages five years later. What's more, unhappy couples who divorced were no happier on average than those who stayed together. Harry Benson, research director of The Marriage Foundation, noted that contrary to popular belief, staying in an unhappy marriage could be the best thing you ever do. In cases of abuse, safety must be a priority. And in cases of adultery, the marriage may be irreconcilable, but even if leaving an unsafe situation is the right thing to do, divorce still inflicts a heavy mental, emotional, and physical toll on children. There are scenarios in which the harm that divorce inflicts on children is justified, but adult happiness is not one of them . Our most recent What Would You Say? video featuring Katy Faust is entitled "Happily Divorced vs. Unhappily Married - Which is Better for Kids?" Watch the full video at whatwouldyousay.org .Or, go to YouTube and subscribe to the What Would You Say? channel. Please note, if you search for "what would you say" on YouTube, the first result will be a Dave Matthews video, and the second result will be our channel, What Would You Say? with a distinctive big blue question mark. You can subscribe right there.
Jul 7, 2021
John and Shane discuss important questions this week, ranging from how to discipline a follower of Christ while being evangelistic to teaching worldview to students who are Biblically Illiterate. John and Shane also give guidance to how schools can approach Critical Race Theory in secondary schools, is culture missing the point in celebrating someone exercising freedom instead of virtue, and how a Christian can affirm the image of God in a friend without affirming their friend's behavior.
Jul 7, 2021
On Friday, in an act of what can only be described as dereliction, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear the case of Arlene's Flowers, Inc vs. Washington . In refusing to hear this case, the Court has failed to bring clarity to a situation it ultimately created. Despite the utopian thinking of Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Obergefell vs. Hodges decision , legalizing same-sex marriage has led to a crisis of religious liberty. Barronelle Stutzman is the definitive answer to the question, "how will my gay marriage affect you?" In 2014, a long-time customer (whom Stutzman considered to be a friend) asked Barronelle to create a floral arrangement for his same-sex wedding. When Stutzman declined due to her Christian belief about marriage , the client said he understood and asked for referrals to other florists who would be willing to do the job. She recommended three other floral designers, they embraced and said goodbye. When the attorney general of the State of Washington saw a post about the incident on social media, they brought charges against Barronelle. In 2015, a trial court found her guilty of violating Washington's anti-discrimination law , ordered her to pay a $1,000 fine and the ACLU's legal fees, and to no longer accept wedding business unless she agreed to serve gay weddings. Her appeal to the state Supreme Court drew so much interest that arguments were held in a local college auditorium. The state Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Stutzman , citing Kennedy's Obergefell language and even claiming that to not service a same-sex wedding is to "disrespect and subordinate" gays and lesbians. The court also ruled that floral arrangements weren't "speech" but instead "conduct," and rejected her free exercise claim based on the Employment Division vs. Smith. In other words, the Court found that even if the state had violated Barronelle's First Amendment right to free exercise, it had done so in a generally applicable way that serves a compelling interest of the government. Barronelle, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, when the Court found the state of Colorado guilty of animus toward the religious beliefs of Jack Phillips, in the very similar Masterpiece Cakeshop case, it vacated the decision by the Washington court, effectively asking it to re-examine Barronelle's case and look for the kind of religious animus condemned by Kennedy in the Masterpiece decision. Unsurprisingly, the Washington Supreme Court, not about to admit it had decided anything wrongly, ruled again against Barronelle. So ADF, on behalf of Barronelle, appealed again to the Supreme Court. By refusing to hear Barronelle's case, the Supreme Court has left her, after seven years of fighting for her rights of conscience, without justice. It has left her without a significant part of her business. It has left her weary but amazingly hopeful after a seven-year battle to save it. It has left her with the potential of financial ruin, and largely at the mercy of the ACLU. And, the Supreme Court has left America in the lurch, unsettled as to what definition of religious freedom it will recognize and protect. By ruling in favor of Catholic Social Services a few weeks ago, the Court made it even more clear that religious organizations will be protected. However, by refusing to take up Barronelle's case, the status of religious freedom for individuals outside of religious organizations to live and order their public lives according to their deeply held convictions, is decidedly not clear . Even if the Supreme Court is not clear, we all should be. First, LGBT advocates should be clear about whether or not this is what they are fighting for? Is the goal really to destroy people like Barronell Stutzman and Jack Phillips, neighbors who have served you and the community so well for so many years? Churches, Christian organizations, and Christians everywhere need to be clear too. Where will we stand? Will we make the sort of hard, life-altering choices as Barronelle, even if it costs us everything? And, will we choose to stand, in prayer and financial support, to those forced to pay a high cost for their Christian convictions? I'm no prophet, but I suspect Barronelle is among the first of many who will be forced to choose between their convictions and their livelihoods. The least that the rest of us can do is to stand with them, pray for them, support them, carry whatever burdens we can, and take our place alongside them, if and when the time comes.
Jul 6, 2021
The term cancel culture evokes images of screaming undergrads, D-platform speakers, fired employees, and demanding protesters. However, the cancel culture ethic doesn't simply exist "out there" in the larger culture; it has infiltrated our homes. Our dinner tables have become personal social media platforms. Increasingly, this doesn't merely take the form of political ideology, it is quite simply a fading ability to forgive . In a recent essay at Comment magazine, Pastor Timothy Keller articulated this current feature of our hyper-politicized atmosphere. Not only is there a race for victimhood status and an inability to find any common ground with people across ideological lines, and not only does this make school board meetings and Thanksgiving dinners more awkward (to say the least), but it has turned us into a society without forgiveness. For example, Keller points to the dramatic shift in tone on issues of race relations since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, when leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasized forgiveness and reconciliation. This stands in stark contrast to the tone of the modern movement for racial justice that frequently erupts into destructive violence and open antipathy toward fellow Americans. Opinion pieces are released in major news outlets that increasingly urge black Americans to stop forgiving white Americans altogether. Think of how this advice contrasts with the behavior of the members of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina a few years ago. Activists now argue that not only has there been a history of white racism, but that all white people are racist; that even whiteness itself is akin to a plague. Women's rights advocates have also soured on forgiveness. Keller cites an opinion piece in the New York Times , in which Danielle Berrin argues against forgiving perpetrators of sexual assault. One commenter distilled her message well: Forgiveness is overrated. In fact forgiveness is not only overrated, the argument goes, but it perpetuates further evils such as sexism, abuse, and oppression. Keller writes, "…[T]he emphasis on guilt and justice is ever more on the rise and the concept of forgiveness seems, especially to the younger generations, increasingly problematic." In these observations, Keller joins authors like Gregory Jones, Bradley Campbell, and Jason Manning to conclude that what we're witnessing is nothing less than the birth of a new honor-shame society. Increasingly it is victimhood status, not God's mercy or Christ's imputation that is seen as the source of our righteousness. As a result, our culture values fragility over strength, and embellishes a constant good-versus-evil conflict, even over the smallest of issues. From elections to Facebook posts to hygiene practices — almost everything takes on the emotional temperature of a religion. It's especially true with anything that is or can be related to politics. Absolution for moral guilt was once secured in church. But today our moral status and our identity hang on our credentials as victims. Being oppressed or mistreated brings moral absolution. And the oppressor is left without even the possibility of forgiveness or restoration. "It's no wonder," writes Keller, "that this culture quickly becomes littered with enormous numbers of broken and now irreparable relationships." It's as if there is a race to hold the most grudges and grievances, to be the people most wronged, and therefore the people with the greatest moral authority. But as Christians who have been forgiven much, we should be among the first and especially the quickest to forgive. Instead, too many of us have absorbed the very worst habits of cancel culture — withholding forgiveness ourselves, refusing to extend any dignity or respect to someone who is a political or ideological opponent, and writing others off completely for infractions of any kind. This is not the Christian way of doing life together. This is not the way of life and birth in Christianity that brought about the best of the modern world. Cultivating habits of forgiveness will not only reorient our priorities to the core truths of the Gospel, but it will also awaken and re-awaken us to the common good . As figures like Hannah Arendt, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Desmond Tutu have attested, forgiveness of the gravest of evils can end the otherwise perpetual cycle of grievance and revenge. When we let go of wrongs, both perceived and real, we acknowledge the reality of Divine justice. When we surrender these matters into God's hands, we demonstrate that He is the One who will "square all accounts" in the end, as Keller puts it. Even more, extending forgiveness tacitly acknowledges that we, too, are in need of forgiveness. The Psalmist put it this way: "If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness." A world without forgiveness is simply an awful prospect. The only way forward in our increasingly vindictive age is for Christians to offer this very good gift that we've received from God as a gift to the larger world. If we don't, there's simply no other source for it. And guilt and grievance will consume our culture — and our family gatherings.
Jul 5, 2021
Freedom is not just a governmental endeavor; it is an image-of-God reality. One that we citizens have a responsibility to defend, retain, to advance, and support. Not only here in America but also around the world. Ambassador Sam Brownback is doing incredible work in this field. John discusses the issue of freedom worldwide, how governments around the world need to be called to account and held accountable for their work in recognizing and protecting Freedom. Samuel Brownback is an attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom from 2018 to 2021. He is now the leader for the International Religious Freedom Summit ( https://irfsummit.com/ )
Jul 5, 2021
The greatest enemy of freedom can be freedom . One of the most important observations that I gleaned from one of Os Guinness's books is that celebrating the acquisition of liberty and freedom (what we celebrate this weekend is our acquisition of freedom) is typical in the world's history. But what is really unusual is sustaining freedom. When freedom becomes not a freedom for good, truth, or justice but a freedom from — freedom from restraint, from consequences, from any rules or responsibilities — then freedom devolves into license, and license can actually put us in slavery to our own passions and desires. This misguided definition of freedom presents a challenge to one of the core freedoms of the American experience and one built into human beings by God as our Creator: the freedom of religion. Recently, I spoke with former Senator and former Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, about the issue of religious freedom. He has been at the forefront of advocating for religious freedom not only in the United States, but especially around the world. As Islamic radicals in Nigeria clamp down on Christians' freedom there, and so many scenarios like this around the world, here is Ambassador Sam Brownback in his own words about religious freedom. An edited audio transcription of our interview follows: Most of the world's population lives in a country of significant religious persecution. It actually gets worse than that. The Chinese government now is standing up and saying it has an ideology that should legitimately compete with U.S. democracy, Western democracy, and capitalism on the world stage. China says that theirs is an equally viable system that people can adopt. They put forward an authoritarian, mercantilist type of system yet they say it's equal to democracy and free market capitalism. There is now a competing globalized system that goes right at the heart of religious freedom. It says the State controls this space and we say no, God controls this space because it's a human right; it's the dignity of the individual. I think the Ambassador is dead right here. We don't oppose foreign governments like China because of their progress, or their economic power, or their rising military might. We oppose their system of governance because it is frankly dehumanizing . What's happening right now to the Uyghur population is nothing short of genocide. We are responsible to defend not only religious freedom in America, but to defend it around the world — anywhere that our influence stretches. In fact, we have a responsibility to defend religious freedom in America because America is one of the few nations in world history with both the core beliefs and the capacity to expand religious freedom around the world. We believe as Christians that religious freedom is an image-of-God issue. It's not a political one. In fact, Ambassador Brownback believes that, too: I see religious freedom as God's freedom to us. He gave us the right to do with our own soul whatever we choose. And He knew ahead of time that if we did do that, He would have to send His Son to clean up the mess. And He still did it. He did it knowing how much it would cost Him. So, there must be something extraordinarily precious about this particular liberty given to humanity, such that we should not allow any government to interfere with it, and everyone should be allowed to freely exercise it. It's about a common human right and one that I believe was given to us by God. The American founders in particular saw its preciousness, and the need for it, and went so far as to protect it at the first order. We must protect this right first. Freedom is not just a governmental endeavor; it is an image-of-God reality. One that we citizens have a responsibility to defend, retain, to advance, and support. Not only here in America but also around the world. Ambassador Brownback is doing incredible work in this field. Listen to my full conversation with Ambassador Brownback on the Breakpoint podcast. The conversation will also be posted on Breakpoint's Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram pages, as well as on breakpoint.org. Incidentally, on July 13th through 15th in Washington, D.C., Ambassador Brownback will join with 70 different organizations, including the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, to host the International Religious Freedom Summit 2021 (IRF). IRF is the most comprehensive event to date on the status of religious freedom around the world. For more information visit irfsummit.com.
Jul 2, 2021
John and Maria start by making sense of the tragedy in Miami. With the Champlain Towers collapse there are many questions. John discusses a few ways to consider tragedies, and how Christians can respond with a worldview large enough to hold the brokenness we're experiencing. Maria then shares a commentary she wrote related to Gwen Berry, an athlete who recently turned her back to the American flag while standing on the podium during Olympic trials. John highlighted the importance of protecting liberties to dissent, even when dissent seems egregious to unity and the purpose of the Olympics. John provides clarity on a recent letter sent from the IRS to a Christian organization that was seeking tax exempt status. The letter essentially told the organization they can't receive the status due to their practice of communicating a voting guideline that aligns with a religious perspective. Maria then shared new data that shows a striking rise in deaths to young people. The data highlighted that the rise in deaths was not related to the Coronavirus. John outlines a few key points to help Christians not only think well on the issue, but potentially stand in support of young people who are suffering in light of the pandemic. To close Maria shares how a recent beauty queen, Miss Nevada, is actually a biological male. The man identifies as transgender, competing in the beauty pageant and taking the next step in the competition to Miss America. -- Story References -- The Champlain Towers, a Condominium Highrise, Collapsed Last Friday The northeast portion of the building, facing the beach, fell to the ground, while other units were left standing. But after days of intensive searches, the scene appeared quiet on Thursday, with cranes frozen above the rubble. The silent scene froze heroes who are digging through rubble working to find the over 100 people still missing. New York Times>> Why You're Free to Hate America Last week at the U.S. Olympic Trials, an American hammer thrower turned away from the flag while the United States National Anthem played. Gwen Berry later told reporters that the national anthem "doesn't speak" for her. BreakPoint>> IRS Denies 501(c)3 status to Conservative Group in TX The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has denied tax-exempt status to a Christian group in Texas on the grounds that "the bible [sic] teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates." The Texan>> Young American Adults Are Dying — and Not Just From Covid Nearly 19% more Americans died in 2020 than in 2019, according to data that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is the biggest such increase since 1918, when deaths rose 30%. Bloomberg>> Transgender woman wins Miss Nevada USA pageant, "making history" A transgender woman has been crowned Miss Nevada USA — for the first time in the pageant's history. NY Post>> -- Cites and Recommendations -- Overwhelming Majority of Americans Support Religious Freedom, Oppose Key Provisions of Equality Act - Summit Ministries Survey - https://www.summit.org/about/press/new-poll-overwhelming-majority-of-americans-support-religious-freedom-oppose-key-provisions-of-equality-act/ Wilberforce Weekend Online Common Sense - Thomas Paine John Adams - HBO Series on Former President John Adams The Patriot - Roland Emmerich Directed Movie Liberty's Kids - Children's Series on America Hamilton - Broadway Musical
Jul 2, 2021
Chuck Colson would often say that the greatest gift Christianity gave the world other than the message of salvation is the idea of the image of God. It is important for Christians to know and understand the image of God for three distinct reasons. First, the image of God has been among the most consequential ideas in all of human history. Even atheists like Friedrich Nietzsche or the modern-day philosopher Luc Ferry, have acknowledged that our ideas about human dignity, human equality and human value were not present across cultures and civilizations, but were introduced to the world in Christianity. Why? Because of its core belief that humans were made in the image and likeness of God. Second, the image of God is central to a truly Christian worldview. Scripture has been given to us in a grand, sweeping narrative: the story of creation to new creation, from the heavens and earth to the new heavens and new earth. And one of the central characters in the Christian story is the image of God. We see this right away in Genesis 1, in which God creates the heavens and the earth; then He creates His image bearers to rule over them in His place and for His glory. Finally, the image of God is critical if we are going to understand the issues and challenges of our day. The most significant challenges we face in our culture are not fundamentally moral ones. We do face moral challenges but the ones we face are the fruit of the problems, not the root . It's the effect, not the cause. At the root of the issues of our culture has been a dramatic shift in how we think about the nature and value of the human person. At the recent Wilberforce Weekend, Rebecca McLaughlin talked about the significance of the image of God. This idea is in all of human history. She referenced the Declaration of Independence, went on to highlight how the image of God directs our hearts to freedom, and how the greatest freedom ever won is the freedom we find in Christ. Here is an edited excerpt of Rebecca's talk: John [Stonestreet] brought up that time when your country threw my country out. And I just want to say, I find that offensive, especially as I live in Boston, and I drink tea. I have it rubbed in my face day after day. So, if you guys could just leave it at that, I would appreciate it! In all seriousness though, I am going to bring us back again to the Declaration of Independence because I enjoy the pain. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. Now, people often talk about the New Testament as if it condones and justifies slavery, and I can understand why they do. Slaves are addressed in the New Testament because they were part of the early Church. In fact, from very early on, Christianity was mocked as being a religion of slaves and women and little children. Slaves are given instructions about how to live for Jesus in the condition that they find themselves. We look at Paul's letter to Philemon and think, okay, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter sending an enslaved person back to his master. Of course, that means the Bible condones slavery. Right? Not if you read the letter. Paul sends Onesimus back and tells Philemon to receive him as a brother. That's not all. Paul tells Philemon that Onesimus is his very heart . He loves him that much. He tells him to receive him back as he would receive Paul himself, his most respected mentor. In the New Testament there are ways that we are called to relate to each other as fellow image bearers of God, which is a radical undermining of the idea of there being masters and slaves. There were those whose lives were valueless and could be exploited by the more powerful. We see that in Jesus' own life as He takes on the slave role himself and dies a slave's death for us and for every enslaved person in history. As Christianity starts to work its way through the West, we see slavery being progressively abolished. One of the earliest explicit arguments against slavery comes from Gregory of Nyssa in the fourth century. He asks, how much does rationality cost? How many obols (currency at the time) did you pay for the image of God? How many staters did you get for selling the God-formed man? It's ridiculous. It is absurd for somebody to think that he can own another human being who has been made in the image of God. We're celebrating Wilberforce Weekend and it's right and good that we look back to folks like William Wilberforce, whose Christian faith drove him to fight tooth and nail against the evils of slavery. But we have to recognize as well that if Christians had truly believed that black people were made in the image of God, just as much as white people were, that Africans were made in the image of God, just as much as Europeans were, there wouldn't have been anything to abolish at that point. It's right for us to look back at the heroes of the faith, who fought for biblical values when it comes to human equality and who fought against slavery. But we must also reckon with the sins of our same sort of spiritual ancestors who didn't. Because the imago Dei had to kill slavery twice. And just as a disproportionate number of folks in the early Church were enslaved, people who are clinging on to Jesus — who died a slave's death for them — so Jesus has been calling enslaved people to himself through the centuries. To hear Rebecca's full talk, and gain access to the entire library of presentations about the image of God, visit wilberforceweekend.org.
Jul 1, 2021
From its earliest days, wherever Christianity has spread, hospitals have followed, particularly for the world's poor. Although most Christians who served the poor by healing the sick remain largely unknown, José Gregorio Hernández is an exception. He is a major figure in the history of Venezuela and is remembered today, both for his medical skills and his generosity to the poor. Yet, for all his ability and eventual fame, he almost missed out on serving God in this way, ironically because he wanted to serve God . José Gregorio Hernández was born in the town of Isnotú, Venezuela, in the foothills of the Andes Mountains. His parents owned a general store, and his father was an amateur physician. People would come to him for treatment, and he would diagnose their illnesses and prepare medicines for them. He was particularly skilled with herbal remedies. By all accounts, his skills were highly regarded in the area. Perhaps inspired by this example, his son decided to pursue a medical career. José received his degree in 1888 from the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas. Once he was licensed as a physician, the Venezuelan government helped him pursue advanced studies in Europe. He traveled to the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he studied bacteriology, microbiology, histology, and physiology. When he returned to Venezuela, he became one of the principal doctors at the Hospital José Maria Vargas. Despite this early professional success, however, Dr. Hernández was not entirely sure about his vocation as a physician. He believed that in dedicating his life to serving God, his only choice was to join the clergy as a monk or a priest. A calling could only be to the cloister. This idea led him twice to attempt to become a monk. In 1908, he spent ten months in the Monastery of Lucca in Italy before his frail health forced him to return home. Then in 1913, he returned to Italy to continue his preparations for the cloister in the Latin America Pio School in Rome. Once again, however, poor health forced him to return to Venezuela. Even as he took these trips to Italy, Hernández continued to practice medicine in Caracas. He became known as the "doctor of the poor." He responded to any call for help, whether the patient was rich or poor. He treated the poor for free and sometimes even bought medicine for them with his own money. Along with practicing medicine, Hernández taught advanced medicine through his hospital in Caracas. This led him to publish The Elements of Bacteriology in 1906. He also continued his medical research., making important discoveries about the effect of malaria. His publications were not limited to medical topics, however. In keeping with his theological and philosophical interests, he published The Elements of Philosophy . In 1919, after attending Mass one day, Hernández stopped at a pharmacy to buy medicine for one of his patients. Cars had only recently been introduced to Caracas, and there were still very few of them on the streets. Perhaps for this reason, Hernández did not look as he walked around a tram and stepped into the street. He was struck by a car, thrown to the ground, and hit his head on the stone curb on the street, killing him instantly. News of his death spread across the city. So many wanted to show their respects that newspaper accounts said that nearly every flower in the city was picked for funeral bouquets and wreaths. At the funeral, tens of thousands of people filled the square around the cathedral, and when his body was going to be placed in the hearse, a spontaneous cry rose from the crowd, "Dr. Hernández is ours!" The people took up the coffin and bore it on their shoulders to the cemetery, and his memory lives on among the people of Caracas to this day. This was a life worth celebrating. He was a wonderful example of a Christian who lived out his faith sacrificially, using his considerable gifts to help the poor and to advance medical knowledge and education. His dedication and desire to serve God informed his work as a physician and his service to the poor. Yet, we also need to remember the mistake he almost made. God gives each of us a unique calling and purpose for our life, a calling that is as true out "in the world" as much as it is for those in professional ministry. For most of us, serving God and following His call means not becoming part of the clergy but working in the "secular" realm where our gifts can do the most good for our neighbors. Changed this sentence's scope from let's not make his mistake to let's remember that he almost made a mistake. Changed sentence for logical coherence.
Jun 30, 2021
Michael Craven joins John on Ask the Colson Center to discuss a myriad of topics. They discuss how a professional can retain credibility in their field in the face of woke courts and cancel culture. They also answer a question on how the church can care for the culture without swinging the pendulum into Critical Race Theory. Michael goes on to ask John if Christians should retire and if Christians should preach the simplicity of the Gospel to the culture rather than engage in culture wars.
Jun 30, 2021
Like his democratic predecessor, President Biden has prioritized LGBTQ rights in both the domestic and foreign policies of the United States. The administration's priorities were made most obvious in early June when an enormous rainbow flag was hung outside the U.S. embassy to the Vatican . While "trolling" the Roman Catholic Church isn't usually a diplomatic priority, officials made their intentions clear by tweeting: "The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See celebrates #PrideMonth with the Pride flag on display during the month of June. The United States respects the dignity and equality of LGBTQI+ people." The number of letters in that acronym continues to grow, but that shouldn't be confused with a unified movement. These are movements, plural, all made possible by what sociologist Peter Berger has called "modern man's perpetual identity crisis." And these movements based on fluid categories of sexual and gender identity are themselves suffering identity crises. A week after the Embassy to the Vatican flew the flag of virtue signaling, the gay news site "Them" announced that the Pride flag was updated in order to be even more inclusive. The new design features a purple circle on a yellow triangle in order to include intersex people (the "i"), pink and blue chevrons to represent transgender people, brown and black chevrons for LGBTQI+ people of color, and white chevrons for asexual individuals. All of this is overlaid on the original rainbow to form the new tincture-violating "Progress Pride Flag," that is even more representative than was intended. The clashing of colors is appropriate for the inherent contradictions of the movements represented, such as including intersex individuals alongside of those who identify as transgender. "Intersex" refers to a physical ailment, a quantifiable medical condition that afflicts a small segment of the population. To represent that biological characteristic on the flag of a movement that rejects the relevance of any biological characteristics to gender is flat-out incoherent. And then there's the ever-escalating conflict between the T's with the L's. Given the history of lesbian activism and its connection with second wave feminism, many of the "L's" are having difficulty with the men who appropriate the experiences, the struggles, and the sports teams of women. Understandably so. Given all that is interfering with the unity of these movements, a booklet provided by the Leicester Fire Brigade (UK) may be the only way forward. The booklet was filled with flags, 20 pages worth, each representing a particular gender or sexual identity, most I'd never heard of. The booklet has since been deleted for not accurately representing the fire house's "ongoing commitment to the LGBT+ community." Exactly how the booklet failed or what it ever had to do with fighting fires isn't clear. The flag problem reflects an ever-growing jumble of contradictory claims about sex, gender, and psychology, all of which lacks any uniting principle other than an opposition to what came before . There's no end to be found, and I mean that in two ways: First, the "plus" sign at the end of the acronym is an open invitation to ever more identities, with no end in sight; second, a movement built on deconstructing what came before has no end — in the sense of no telos. There is no clear, unifying purpose or goal to these movements, or for people taken captive by it. This provides both a challenge and opportunity for Christians, who can offer a compelling vision of human value, human dignity, and even diversity. In fact, the Progress Pride flag and its acronym are, in many ways, a poor parody of the unity and diversity central to the biblical story. In the beginning, God separated day from night, heavens from the Earth, land from sea, animals from humans, and the woman from the man. The diversity in the created order was intentional, but not as an end in itself. All that He made served a unity of purpose: to honor and please God who is Himself a Unity in Diversity, Three in One. The New Testament also speaks of one body with many parts; diversity united under Christ. We are one house that God builds out of many stones, with Jesus as the Chief Cornerstone. In the Church, one people is formed from Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female. In the New Heaven and the New Earth (a beautiful reversal of Babel), people of every tongue, tribe, nation, and language are described as unified before the throne of God. All attempts at inclusion, without the larger context of a unifying shared humanity, lead to incoherence. But this incoherence is an opportunity for Christians to offer a better vision of our purpose, our value, our gendered bodies, and our sexuality. In a culture running out of colors and letters, it's a vision that is badly needed.
Jun 29, 2021
China's next great leap forward could be forced procreation, and it's animated by the same ideas that energize so much of the West. In 1957, Chinese dictator Mao Zedong told a Yugoslav official that his nation did not fear a nuclear attack : "What if they killed 300 million of us?" he said. "We would still have many people left." Recently, China announced a revision to its infamous one-child policy, instituted by Mao's successor. Married couples can now apply to have up to three children, an increase from the more recent limit of two. On the surface, the policy change might appear to be a significant improvement on Mao's 1957 statement — at least in terms of human dignity. In fact, it is not. Both these stories reflect what happens when a society rejects the core Christian idea of the image of God. Mao's callous suggestion that there were plenty more Chinese to replace the dead ones is the obvious one. That contempt for image bearers was central to Mao's worldview. By God's grace, his theory about China's ability to survive a nuclear war was never tested. But what of his willingness to sacrifice tens of millions of Chinese on the altar of his ideological ego? That's a matter of historical record. Mao's great leap forward, his attempt to transform Chinese society economically and politically, resulted in the slaughter of as many as 55 million people. Mostly through famine brought on by his reckless policies. His successors continued to treat the Chinese people as disposable ends to ideological means — from the one-child policy to the genocidal campaign against the Uyghur minority, to the crackdown against Christians. People there exist to serve the State, not the other way around. The second rejection of the image of God is in the recent announcement about the increased family size. It's not due to some newfound appreciation for family life or the dignity of children. Rather, as the New York Times reported , this new policy is a desperate attempt to avert a demographic crisis that jeopardizes China's economic future, as well as the Communist Party's increasingly precarious hold on power. As The Times ominously predicts, it's not clear that relaxing the policy further will pay off. After all, people responded coolly to the initial expansion of the policy back in 2016 that allowed couples to have two children. What happens if this new attempt at social engineering fails? Gordon Chang, author of The Coming Collapse of China , recently raised the horrifying specter of mandated procreation . Writing in Newsweek and quoting Reggie Littlejohn of Women's Rights Without Frontiers , Chang asked whether Beijing will turn to force pregnancy since coercion is at the core of its population control policy. That possibility cannot be dismissed. Chang stated that forced procreation has been on the mind of Chinese officials for years . China's fertility crisis and gender imbalance pose existential threats to a regime willing to respond in draconian ways. The monstrous behavior of the Chinese government is well known and well documented, but our increasingly secular Western world has also proved to miss the point from whence it comes. The same Western corporations that bow to China, particularly media and entertainment, breathlessly promulgate Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale thesis. But in the real world it's never pro-lifers that treat women as mere breeders or babies as mere commodities. It's unrestrained governments that see image bearers as economic units. And unrestrained consumers who see other image bearers as useful means to accomplish the ends of their sexual lifestyles. In fact, it is the same bad ideas that drive the behaviors of China's ruling elites and Western individualists. The same basic contempt for the sanctity of human persons. The same basic rejection of the image of God. In his book A Brief History of Thought , atheist philosopher Luc Ferry rightly noted that the only source for human dignity, universal human rights, and human history is the Christian vision of the imago Dei . "Christianity was to introduce the notion," wrote Ferry, "that men are equal in dignity, an unprecedented idea at the time, and one to which our world owes its entire democratic inheritance." This notion, he said, is the direct result of the unique vision of the human person that's only found in Christianity. Thankfully most people will never take it as far as Mao and his successors. But there are many regimes and many people operating out of a similar world view. At the very least these days, we live as if Christian ideas about human dignity are true. Jettisoning the only worldview that has ever made these ideas possible, how long can the charade last? That is anyone's guess. We do know how the world will look when the charade is up.
Jun 28, 2021
Chuck Colson often observed that politics is downstream from the larger culture. In other words, the way culture thinks eventually leads to the political outcomes that we see and trouble us today. So many of the recent policy decisions of the Biden administration reflect that in real time. Recently at Wilberforce Weekend, my friend Professor Carter Snead gave special insight into how culture is impacting law. Specifically when it comes to the laws that govern reproductive behavior in American culture. He gave a number of strong examples. Below is an edited transcript of a portion of his talk: One of my favorite novelists, Walker Percy, said that everyone has an anthropology; there is no not having one. If a man says he does not, all he's saying is that his anthropology is implicit. It's a set of assumptions he has not thought to call into question. Everyone has an operating definition of what a person is, and what constitutes human flourishing. And that's true of the law as well. Why is that? Because law at bottom is about, and for, the protection and flourishing of persons. And therefore, because it's about protecting and promoting the flourishing of persons, it has to rest on a usually undeclared vision of what and who a person is and what people need. The richest way to understand, critique, or support the law is to drill down and ask: Is it the case that the law gets the question of who we are and what our flourishing is correct or not? And if it doesn't, then the law is built on a false understanding of human nature. And the law is not true, just, good, or humane. The case of assisted reproduction is something that I grapple with in my book (What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics ). The first question is: What vision of the flourishing of the human person anchors American law and policy relating to assisted reproduction? The answer is that the primary feature of the law of assisted reproductive technology (ART) in the United States is the absence of law. ART is regulated as the practice of medicine, which moves through a path of licensure and certification to the front-end. But pretty much anything goes. There's basically no limit in law in the United States about how you can try to make a baby. What is the theoretical underpinning of this landscape? The architect of the American legal landscape of assisted reproduction was a University of Texas law professor named John Robertson. He was the chairman of the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. He defined his view in his 1994 book, Children of Choice, stating that the choice to pursue or avoid procreation is essential to self definition, pursuit of desires, and self expression. This became the ethical core of the legal landscape for its assisted reproductive technologies. And, if you look at the anthropological meaning of this landscape, you see that persons are conceived of as individuals pursuing an identity-defining plan. The goods at stake are: privacy, choice, rational mastery and bargain for exchange. What's missing is embodiment (especially involving procreation), vulnerability, dependence, finitude, relationships among the generations, reciprocal indebtedness, unchosen obligations to vulnerable others, tolerance of disability or imperfection, openness to the unbidden, and the very terms "children, parents and family." These are understood through the lens of will; a project to be freely chosen, constructed or rejected for our own purposes, sometimes with the aid of technology. And the child in this picture — to the extent that the child in the picture at all — is the object of the parents' will. The child is a product or a vessel to be accepted or rejected. I am not speaking of the ideas, feelings, or desires of people seeking fertility care. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about what the law assumes people to be and to need. The paradigm of parenthood — as we who are parents, and those of us who desire more than anything in the world to be parents understand it — is that a child is a gift. So, how do we embrace forms of procreation that embrace a child as a gift? That is how we should measure the law, policies, and practices of assisted reproduction or any form of science, medicine, or biotechnology that touch and concern human beings. Because as human beings, we are made for love and friendship. To hear Professor Snead's full talk, and all talks from the recent Wilberforce Weekend (all concerning the topic of the image of God), as well as special bonus content that's only available online, register for Wilberforce Weekend Online for only $49 at wilberforceweekend.org.
Jun 26, 2021
John and Maria discuss the Christian worldview response to the receding coral reefs around the world. They provide a strong framework for the Christian worldview when looking at issues dealing with the environment. They also talk about a new Netflix TV show called Sexy Beasts. After explaining the masked dating show, John provides context for the problems inside the show related to progress in the sexual revolution. Maria also shares the story of a Colson Fellow who stood in a pro-choice rally to oppose a supposedly compassionate view of abortion. Maria charts her story, highlighting how God is bringing the Colson Fellow to a worldview engagement that gives hope. -- Resources -- Story Links: A Colson Fellow Finds Worldview Foundation for Apologetic Ministry Kirsten's story about speaking up at a pro-choice rally is the stuff of movies. It's also the stuff of ordinary Christians everywhere who choose to join in God's story, in the time and place where He has put them. How Dads Change with Fatherhood Recent discoveries suggest that dedicated fathers, like dedicated mothers, undergo dramatic hormonal and neurological shifts upon the arrival of a baby. Some experts now even think that those shifts and the father-child bond that creates them begin even before birth. Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its corals since 1995 Australia's Great Barrier Reef has lost more than half of its corals since 1995 due to warmer seas driven by climate change, a study has found. Scientists found all types of corals had suffered a decline across the world's largest reef system. The steepest falls came after mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017. More mass bleaching occurred this year. Covid Treatment Stopped Dead Kory was referring to an FDA-approved medicine called ivermectin. A genuine wonder drug in other realms, ivermectin has all but eliminated parasitic diseases like river blindness and elephantiasis, helping discoverer Satoshi Ōmura win the Nobel Prize in 2015. As far as its uses in the pandemic went, however, research was still scant. Could it really be a magic Covid-19 bullet? 'Sexy Beasts' Is Coming To Netflix Sometimes, a trailer drops that instantly catches the attention of one's Twitter feed, and I started seeing discussions of Sexy Beasts as soon as Netflix put the spot out there. And that makes sense, since it opens with a scene where a woman wearing a panda head talks to a man made up to look like a bull with Carrot Top's hair. Resources Mentioned: Do Father's Matter Scott Raeburn Treatment of Transgender Students in Virgiinia Public Schools Honestly Podcast by Bari Weiss DONATE TO JACK PHILLIPS
Jun 25, 2021
Now, apartment therapy probably isn't the first place you look to find insight into God's design and His intent for Creation. But just a few weeks ago, a writer described going through her late grandmother's possessions and was surprised by how many candleholders her grandmother had owned. These were no ordinary candle holders. They were for Shabbat, Hebrew for "Sabbath." On a Friday afternoon, after looking at her grandmother's menorah and other Jewish art, the writer lit the candles, and for the first time in quite a while observed Shabbat. What followed for her was a rediscovery — actually a discovery of the wisdom and the blessings associated with keeping the Sabbath, or setting clear boundaries, as she put it, between work and non-work time. Not to mention the opportunities for rest and reflection that it brought. Thanks to her Jewish heritage this author discovered one of the most important things that we've lost as a society: the ordinances that God wrote into Creation, such as the Sabbath. Trying to live while ignoring these ordinances is trying to live while ignoring gravity. You might pull it off for a while, but eventually you'll come crashing back down to earth. Now, if you doubt the importance of Sabbath, just run a quick Google search for terms like "exhaustion" or "burnout" or the various mental disorders that accompany exhaustion and burnout in our society. This is what crashing back down to earth looks like for a society. It's a recurring blight on our culture. Now, you don't have to have a Jewish grandmother to gain an appreciation for God's gift of the Sabbath. All you need is a willingness to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, God has written down what we need for genuine human flourishing and built it into the actual fabric of the created order. In his book 24/6: A Prescription for a Happier, Healthier Life , physician Matthew Sleeth notes that the Third Commandment is the only one of the ten that begins with the word "remember." Sleeth adds, "It's almost as if God knew we would forget." And of course we have forgotten. As individuals, as families, and as a society, we keep forgetting the Sabbath. Not only do most of us work longer hours in the office than ever before, we take our work with us. Our phones are no longer primarily phones, they are computers keeping us tethered to our work. Even our watches keep us tethered to our phone, which keeps us tethered to the world of work. This rhythm, this pace, that we keep in our culture, is many, many steps away from what we read in Scripture. On the Seventh Day God finished the work He had done. And He rested on the seventh day from all the work that He had done. Six days you shall labor, He commanded, and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You shall not do any work, you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. Recovering the Sabbath and living, as Dr. Smith puts it, 24/6 instead of 24/7 is maybe the only way we have to escape the cultural rhythm. This rhythm seems to be just lift-off after lift-off, followed by painful crash after painful crash back to Earth. Just like gravity begins by acknowledging that gravity exists and that it's pointless to defy something as powerful as gravity, God's creational plan for human flourishing is like gravity. It's not just random instructions that He gave based on arbitrary thoughts; it's literally how He created the world. Now, recovering the Sabbath, setting loving boundaries and safeguards isn't easy. But both the article's author and Dr. Sleeth gives us a model. They begin with one step, one commitment at a time. These steps include following rules that we've been trained to find arbitrary (or we might call them l legalistic), like for the author in the case of Shabbat, lighting candles at precisely 18 minutes before sundown on Friday night. But that kind of precision, that kind of obedience, is kind of the point. These are God's ordinances for human flourishing. They come from Him, not from us. The Sabbath isn't a social construct. Left to our own devices, we'll crash and burn every single time. Only when we're willing to conform ourselves to God's ordinances and His intent, not expecting for Him to change His rules and His policies to ours, we will find ourselves happier, and healthier. Starting these new rhythms can be as simple as taking the time to intentionally light a candle or to turn off our phones on Saturday night, in full expectation that God's ordinances are true and good altogether.
Jun 24, 2021
The integrity of a Christian worldview becomes most evident whenever the timeless truths of Scripture collide and intersect with the issues of our contemporary moment. That happened for one of our recently commissioned Colson Fellows named Kirsten. Kirsten's story about speaking up at a pro-choice rally is the stuff of movies. It's also the stuff of ordinary Christians everywhere who choose to join in God's story, in the time and place where He has put them. The following is a transcript of Kirsten's story. Note how God brought her into His larger work in this particular cultural moment, and where she's now headed. Kirsten's story: I was homeless, living in Berlin, Germany. I had just checked myself into an orphanage. I came from a background of not having been planned. My mom had an unplanned pregnancy. I was not desired or planned. I had a difficult childhood and then ended up checking myself into an orphanage. And at that point I was invited to a pro-choice rally. Out of curiosity, I decided to go since I was a Christian already at the time. I arrived at the rally about 15 minutes late. It was in a big conference room with a huge oak door, and behind the door I could already hear that the rally had started. I was going to sneak in quietly and sit in the back, but as I opened the door, it slammed shut really loudly and everyone turned in my direction, including the speaker. And I just thought, well I've got everyone's attention. I might as well ask the question that's burning on my mind. So, I addressed the speaker and said, "What makes abortion a good thing in your mind?" And he was surprisingly gentle and calm as a person. He replied in a very kind tone, saying, "Imagine a child, a child that was not planned And that has a difficult childhood and ends up living in an orphanage. Wouldn't we be doing that child a favor by not exposing it to such a miserable existence?" I looked at him and I blurted out, "I am that child. I'm that child you are talking about right now. I was not planned. I had a really hard childhood and I'm living in an orphanage right now and I'm glad to be alive. I'm glad to be alive because God made me, and He has a plan for me and that's all that matters." There was complete silence in that room. Even though the meeting had just started, it was already over. All you could hear was chairs moving and people getting up and leaving the room. There was nothing left to be said. I realized how powerful the truth was, how powerful my own story was. Many years later, I moved to South Carolina, married, and had children. I decided to google: "Is there anything pro-life near me." There was a pregnancy center. I contacted them to ask if I could volunteer. They responded by saying, "Well, to be quite honest, we're not even able to pay the electricity bill. We are not known. Churches don't even know we're here. Girls don't know we're here. Things are just not going well." I ended up becoming the director of the crisis pregnancy center. One of the things I was asked to do was to equip people with pro-life apologetics. So, I contacted Scott Klusendorf (of Life Training Institute) and said, "Scott, can you give me a print-out of one of your speeches? I can learn it by heart and then I can start going to schools and teaching." He said, "No, definitely not. You will not be able to do that because as soon as someone asks a question, you won't be able to answer it. The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle. I've got a stack of 10 books. Read those and then get back to me." I got a group of friends together and we read and discussed the books for six months. Then I went through public speaking training for three months. And afterwards I felt well equipped to start speaking at churches, youth groups, and schools. And I felt more and more passionate that this was really what I wanted to do. I trained someone else to take over the director role of the crisis pregnancy center and started doing more of the speaking full time. Before I was trained in the Colson Fellows program, I was batting pro-choice arguments on a surface level. Then I realized that abortion is just a symptom of underlying worldviews. To address those root issues is so effective when talking to someone who says, "My body, my choice," or "It's just like mercy killing at an animal shelter" (something I heard the other day). You look at all the different arguments. Instead of just answering the arguments (it was like batting mole hills before), now I can understand that wow, these are the different worldviews that align against the biblical worldview. So now, I can go deeper and address those worldviews. That's what Colson Fellows program did for me. That's Kirsten and her testimony of the impact of the Colson Fellows program on her life, the impact that it's had on her, and is having on her right now. She is in the first few months of carrying out her three-year ministry plan, a significant part of the Colson Fellows program training. If you'd like to join a Colson Fellows cohort near you, be mentored to understand a Christian worldview, and like Kirsten, live it out in this cultural moment, visit colsonfellows.org.
Jun 23, 2021
John and Shane discuss two significant questions dealing with mankind discerning their role as subduing the earth and making it flourish. They first field a question related to contraception, discussing the impact of mankind remaking the purpose and design of sex. Then, John is asked to provide some resources on parenting and the role of moms and dads. John and Shane give a plethora of resources to equip the listener to understand the power and role of moms and dads instead of simply parents. -- Resources -- On the Family and Marriage BreakPoint on Psychedelics – Cashing in on Psychedelics The Economics of Sex and Power of the Pill – Mark Regnarus – The Economics of Sex on Youtube Humane Vitae – Encyclical Letter of Pope John Paul VI – Humane Vitae What is Marriage – Ryan Anderson – What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense The Problem with Surrogacy – Jake Meador – The Problem with Surrogacy: A Brief Sketch On the Body and Sex Our Bodies Tell God's Story – Christopher West – Our Bodies Tell God's Story: Discovering the Divine Plan for Love, Sex, and Gender Same Sex Marriage – Sean McDowell and John Stonestreet – Same Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God's Design for Marriage Chasing Love – Sean McDowell – Chasing Love: Sex, Love, and Relationships in a Confused Culture Theology of the Body for Teens – Ascension Press – Theology of the Body for Teens: Middle School Edition For the Body – Timothy Tennent – For the Body: Rediscovering a Theology of Gender, Sexuality, and the Human Body The Campaign to Discredit Mark Regnerus – Peter Wood – The Campaign to discredit Regnerus and the Assault on Peer Review On Being a Dad Bringing Up Boys – James Dobson – Bringing Up Boys: Shaping the Next Generation of Men Future Men – Doug Wilson – Future Men: Raising Boys to Fight Giants
Jun 23, 2021
In the 1987 flick starring Tom Selleck and a few other guys called Three Men and a Baby , a trio of bachelors share a New York apartment and they take turns bringing home one-night stands. All seems to be going according to this hedonistic plan until one of their one-night stands leaves a baby at their doorstep. Jack is the father, but he's out of town and hilarity ensues as his two roommates rearrange their lives to care for this little baby named Mary after bumbling their way through bottles and diapers and bedtime and babysitting. Something surprising happens: these clueless cads find themselves actually acting like dads. The bond they form with this little girl brings mom and dad together in the end for something that looks more like a family than just a casual fling. Now, I'm not recommending this movie or this lifestyle, but I do think that it illustrates the power of parenthood — especially the power of parenthood to transform both the attitudes and the priorities of men. Fathers are more than just sperm donors. They have a connection with their children beyond contributing DNA. In fact, that whole myth is losing credibility in the face of scientific and medical evidence. For instance, we know now that fathers bond physically and emotionally with their children in a way that complements a mother's bond. That's why skin-to-skin contact with dad is now a common practice in delivery rooms. And the connections don't end there. Recent discoveries suggest that dedicated fathers, like dedicated mothers, undergo dramatic hormonal and neurological shifts upon the arrival of a baby. Some experts now even think that those shifts and the father-child bond that creates them begin even before birth. Writing recently in T he Atlantic , Ariel Ramchandani describes a bizarre condition that sometimes afflicts expectant fathers. What's known as Couvade Syndrome is a poorly understood set of symptoms in which a man experiences physical changes that mirror those of his pregnant partner. Things like weight gain, vomiting, aches and pains, even cravings — understandably. Dads who go through such things are often embarrassed to talk about it. It sounds like one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's worst movies, Junior . Until recently, the go-to explanation was that Couvade Syndrome is psychosomatic. In other words, it's all in your head. But Ramchandani marshals evidence that something physical could be at work when men are experiencing so-called pregnancy symptoms. The key is probably hormones triggered by living with a pregnant partner, and caring for a child. "Becoming a dad is associated with declines in men's level of testosterone," she writes, "and those declines are linked with greater paternal investment. Hormonal changes could explain fathers' weight gain as well as their pre- and postnatal depression." According to one psychology professor at the University of Southern California, Couvade Syndrome is still a mystery, but less dramatic. Hormonal shifts among fathers are well documented and biologically important. We celebrate a vision of men as high-testosterone, aggressive and manly, said this professor. And that's inconsistent with the parenting role, and these few men who feel pregnant may simply be experiencing an extreme form of the natural shifts in body chemistry that prepares them to become good dads. Unlike mothers, however, fathers don't undergo these shifts automatically. It comes after investment. And time research at the University of Michigan points to a feedback loop in which fathers become better suited hormonally to nurture the more time they actually spend nurturing. According to one University of Notre Dame anthropologist quoted in The Atlantic ,, the degree to which fathers physically adapt to their new role can even depend on cultural norms of fatherhood. Now given all this, it's not surprising that Tom Selleck and company slipped into their paternal roles so easily. Men who behave like dads, science seems to suggest, become better dads. But this research also understates an enormous difference between mothers and fathers in that they each contribute to child-rearing in unique, distinct and important ways. Ironically, the fact that some men experience symptoms reminiscent of motherhood could be proof that mothers aren't the only thing that children need. Male bodies respond to the call to nurture in their own way. This supports the claim that Dr. Ryan T. Anderson often makes, that there's really no such thing as parenting; there's only mothering and fathering. The fact is that we have a day set aside to recognize Father's Day, and even a few movies that describe it, even bad ones. Hence that on some level, we knew this all along.
Jun 22, 2021
Imagine a software engineering class that doesn't make students learn computer code. That should give you some idea how ridiculous it is that Princeton University is no longer requiring classics majors to learn Greek or Latin. Not zoology students or English majors, but classics students. You know, the folks who study Greek and Latin culture. Why this departure from centuries of academic standards? The head of undergraduate studies in Princeton's classics department explains that this change will bring "new perspectives," and make for "a more vibrant intellectual community." Not every student of language agrees. Writing at The Atlantic , Columbia University linguistics professor John McWhorter argues that buzzwords like "new perspectives" and "vibrant community" are code for forced racial diversity. Of course, as a black academic, McWhorter values diversity in higher education. But he argues that the study of classics is under assault from a twisted and condescending view of diversity — one that sees minority students as incapable of learning and reading ancient languages, and which requires colleges to dumb down their curricula. If anything, he's understating the problem. Not just Greek and Latin, as languages, but the study of classics itself is under attack by those who see racism behind every rock and ionic pillar. In his Atlantic piece, McWhorter quotes one of Princeton's classics faculty, who said in 2019 that the whole discipline of classics is "explicitly aimed at disavowing the legitimate status of scholars of color…Far from being extrinsic to the study of Greco-Roman antiquity," he claims, "the production of whiteness" resides "in the very marrows of classics." In other words, requiring students who want to study the Greeks and Romans to learn their languages is racist . In fact, studying the classics at all may be racist. If this sounds just as absurd as a recent Washington Post editorial that argued the names of North American birds are racist, well, that's because it is. Writing in The New York Times Magazine , Rachel Poser observes that "Some classicists have come around to the idea that their discipline forms part of the scaffold of white supremacy…" At America's universities and schools, this kind of claim is becoming alarmingly common — and it's not just Homer and Virgil in the crosshairs. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported on proposed revisions to the framework for California's mathematics curriculum, which would make "dismantling racism in mathematics instruction" a top priority. Among their suggestions? Stop correcting students' mistakes in a direct way. Apparently, that's what passes for white supremacy. The point here is less about Greek, Latin, or algebra than it is about the way modern ideologies (like the always nebulous "anti-racism") are gobbling up everything else that's worth learning. At the heart of this feeding frenzy is an attitude Owen Barfield dubbed "chronological snobbery,"the notion that we're smarter and better than our ancestors simply because we're modern. Writing at the Circe Institute , Austin Hoffman notices the same attitude. He argues that by abandoning classical languages, "We have cut ourselves off from the past and the wisdom which it has to offer us." As this sheltered thinking stunts our minds, we come to believe that "[o]ur modern concerns are the only real problems and our own insular discourse is the only hope of rescue." That's why one of the duties of Christians in a culture like ours is to be people who live in — but are not trapped in — the moment. To do that, we need to be well educated. First and foremost, of course, in Scripture. But we should also become fluent in age-old wisdom, in the books, ideas, and art that have stood the test of time and nurtured civilization. Reading the classics is worth doing for its own sake, of course. But as C. S. Lewis points out in his essay, "On the Reading of Old Books," ancient ideas can be a powerful antidote to modern errors, like the obsessions currently consuming higher education. Only by keeping "the clean sea breeze of the centuries" blowing through our minds, he argues, can we learn to recognize where contemporary thinking has become stagnant. Subjecting every discipline to woke racial ideology will only stifle true diversity, and buzzwords like "vibrant" and "new perspectives" can't conceal that. Still, I guess students ought to study the new jargon well. It may be the only language they learn at Princeton.
Jun 21, 2021
On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a much-anticipated ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia . In 2018, the city of Philadelphia barred Catholic Social Services (CSS) from placing foster children, as it had been doing for over 200 years , unless it changed its policy on same-sex households. Rather than compromise Church teaching, CSS challenged the city's action in court. They lost at the Third Circuit, but in a 9-0 decision, CSS and religious freedom won the day at the Supreme Court. The win at the Supreme Court was expected, but many hoped the justices would use this case to overturn Employment Division v. Smith, a 1990 ruling which held that state and local law could restrict religious freedom, if it did so in a way that applies equally to everyone. It is because of Smith that so many religious freedom cases are argued on the grounds of either free speech or (as was the ruling of the Masterpiece Cakeshop case) that a law wasn't applied equally. Consistent with the aversion of the Roberts Court to issue sweeping rulings, the c ourt didn't use this case to overturn Employment Division . Instead, all nine justices agreed that Philadelphia didn't apply its ant-discrimination laws equally , thus rendering Employment Division inapplicable. Philadelphia's anti-discrimination provision "permits exceptions [its requirements] at the 'sole discretion' of the [Human Services] Commissioner." According to the court, a law that "invites the government to consider the particular reasons for a person's conduct by creating a mechanism for individualized exemptions," cannot, by definition, be called "generally applicable." What's more, once exceptions are permitted for other reasons, exceptions in cases of "religious hardship" cannot be dismissed "without a compelling reason" In the unanimous opinion of the Court, the city didn't "have a compelling interest in refusing to contract with CSS." Chief Justice Roberts, who wrote the court's opinion, put it like this:, "CSS seeks only an accommodation that will allow it to continue serving the children of Philadelphia in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs; it does not seek to impose those beliefs on anyone else." So, the court ruled that Philadelphia did not have a basis for its actions against CSS and, further, "violate[d] the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment." Immediately, media headlines attempted to spin the outcome as the court privileging religious freedom over LGBTQ rights. It wasn't. No LGBTQ "rights" were in any way diminished by this decision whatsoever. The media outlet Vox , chided the court for failing to settle the significant issues raised by the case (which is true), claiming that "an epic showdown between religion and LGBTQ rights ended with a whimper." That's only true if you consider a decisive victory for religious institutions over forces that would force them to choose between their beliefs and their mission to be a whimper. The Human Rights Campaign made it sound like the court's real objection to Philadelphia's law was that it was badly drafted and, had it been better-written, might have survived scrutiny. Perhaps. But as the National Review noted, a majority of the court sees Employment Division v. Smith as something that needs to be addressed. While it's not clear which standard they'd accept as a replacement, it is reasonable to assume they could make it harder for government entities to justify infringements on religious freedom. Chief Justice Roberts' words, that there was "no compelling reason" for the city to refuse to contract with Catholic Social Services, is true whether or not Employment Division is applicable. Despite its narrow scope, the Court's ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia is very good news. In addition to being a win for Catholic Social Services, it means the court is taking seriously Justice Kennedy's warning in his otherwise terrible Obergefell decision: Religious organizations need protection "as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths." As Micah J. Schwartzman of the University of Virginia told the Washington Post , the "court's signal for social service providers is clear enough: It will grant them religious exemptions, even when doing so entails allowing them to violate anti-discrimination laws." Two additional observations: First, the Supreme Court will eventually have to address the conflict between religious freedom and LGBTQ rights, including for business owners like Jack Phillips. Jack lost this week in a Colorado court , when a judge ruled that Phillips discriminated against a transgender lawyer who has been targeting his business. Second, the court now has an even stronger track record of protecting the freedoms of religious organizations. So, there's no need to compromise biblical morality, even on these most controversial of issues.
Jun 18, 2021
John and Maria explain the significance of to important court cases that were decided this week. One case involving Jack Phillips challenges religious freedom in the public life. The other is a protection of the freedom of non-profit organizations to conduct businesses guided by religious convictions. Maria introduced a segment on Juneteenth, a recently minted holiday by the Biden administration that helps us recognize the challenges Americans faced at the hands of slavery. John then gives commentary on a recent canceling of a Nigerian author who recently referred to a trans-woman as a trans-woman.
Jun 18, 2021
Since I wasn't even alive in 1968, I'll defer to Boomers and historians to tell us whether the country was more divided back then or today. In my lifetime, however, I can confidently say that the racial, political, economic, and ideological polarization has never been worse, nor has the violence and outrage. No matter the issue, from public policy to personal morality to global health, people seem to immediately run to their ideological and political corners: No discussion, little charity, less concern about the requirements of a common life together, but a lot of yelling. It's difficult to imagine a people less able to accomplish a life together than us, with no shared vision and no shared memory. Tomorrow, however, offers us an opportunity to come out of our ideological and political corners and agree to commemorate a significant day in American history. Every American, regardless of politics or background, should reflect on a day marked in many African American communities for over 150 years. Tomorrow, June 19th, is Juneteenth, the anniversary of the day in 1865 in which the particularly vicious evil of chattel slavery effectively came to an end in this country. Here's the history. In 1862, President Lincoln issued the most famous executive order in history, known as the Emancipation Proclamation. "…on the first day of January," read the order, "in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State … in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever free." With this order, Lincoln only declared the emancipation of slaves within the Confederacy. Pro-Union border states and even areas in the South controlled by Union troops were not "in rebellion against the United States." Practically speaking, the Emancipation Proclamation was more symbolic than effective. The surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox in April of 1865 signaled the end of the Confederacy and foresaw the final end of slavery. Even then, however, pockets of resistance persisted. Emancipation would have to be enforced. On June 19, 1865, "more than two thousand Federal soldiers of the 13th Army Corps arrived in Galveston [Texas] and with them Major General Gordon Granger . . . Granger's men marched through Galveston reading General Order, No. 3," which informed "the people of Texas… that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free." That is a moment worthy of commemorating. In fact, African-Americans in Texas began commemorating Juneteenth the very next year, 1866. As African-Americans migrated north and west, they took the commemoration with them. Even today, though officially recognized in hundreds of cities and in 47 out of 50 states, Juneteenth remains largely an African-American celebration. But it's a day all Americans should commemorate. Juneteenth was the culmination of the efforts of men and women across race and social standing to put an end to a particularly shameful practice on our shores. Last year, my Colson Center colleague Tim Padgett wrote an outstanding column on Juneteenth at BreakPoint.org, . In it, he described how American abolitionists "were driven by the understanding that the realities of American Slavery were irreconcilable to their Christian beliefs about the dignity of humanity and their American dreams about the centrality of liberty. They saw that the slave was as made in the image of God as anyone else and therefore as deserving of honor as themselves." Juneteenth 1865 is an important event in our national timeline, an attempt to live up to what Chuck Colson liked to call our American creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." We've not yet lived up to that creed. We still have a long way to go. Perhaps remembering Juneteenth together could remind us of the type of nation we say we are, and compel us to keep trying.
Jun 17, 2021
In a rather stunning op-ed at CNN a couple of weeks ago, a medical doctor offered an answer to one of the great worldview questions: "What is the highest good?" Bodily autonomy, wrote Dr. Alexis Drutchas, is the highest human right, and should trump all other considerations in medical decision making: "Adults with capacity should hold the ultimate authority over their own bodies and the medical decisions for their minor children." The obvious context of this op-ed, which should be especially obvious to anyone who's ever attempted to actually disagree with their doctors, is gender transition. Smartly, this doctor offered a philosophical take on the matter, since medical justifications for cross-sex hormones and body-mutilating surgeries are lacking. In his most recent book, What it Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics , bioethicist Dr. Carter Snead addresses the growing influence of expressive individualism over medicine. This vision of the human being "as an atomized and solitary will" which "equates human flourishing solely with the capacity to formulate and pursue future plans of one's own invention" is, according to Snead, causing " mission creep " in the medical community. Instead of treating sick bodies with a view to heal, bodies are seen as arbitrary physical matter that should bend like clay to our wills, and medical ethics and science should follow suit. If expressing our own wills is the first duty of expressive individualism, accepting everyone else's expression is the second. Even doctors should comply, even if a patients' desired "expression" requires killing a healthy baby, cutting off a healthy body part, or causing death upon request. This philosophical shift is leading to dramatic practical changes in how medicine is practiced, in many cases leading to literal opposite ideas of concepts like "treatment," "illness," and "healing." Medicine has long balanced "bodily autonomy" against other interests. We've just spent a year and a half wearing masks, socially distancing ourselves away from airplanes and crowded restaurants, and zooming church services in order to fight a virus. Doctors don't give narcotics to anyone who asks, or perform weight loss surgery on dangerously thin patients with eating disorders. They can be prosecuted if they do. To get around this problem, Dr. Drutchas adds the caveat that full autonomy should only belong to "adults with capacity ." What's not clear is what counts as "capacity," how to define it, and who gets to decide who has achieved it. In reality, the medical community is increasingly paying lip service to a philosophy it doesn't intend to keep to and can't actually live by. For starters, not all "expressions" are treated with the same degree of fanfare, as this doctor implies. Consider how "de-transitioners," those who've undergone gender transition but later regret it, are treated by both medical institutions and the media. They are treated as either non-existent or dishonest. How often do we hear of women in crisis pregnancies who heroically choose life rather than death for their preborn children? Or what of those who face suffering or disabilities and choose to live lives of courage, influence, and grace rather than accept what is being called "aid-in-dying?" Will these decisions also be applauded, or will they be used as an excuse to claim that these patients have "lost capacity"? The very concept of "bodily autonomy" was originally a Christian contribution to an often cruel and barbaric world. Far from suggesting that our bodies are mere heaps of matter for us to do with what we will, the Christian view was that to defile the body, either our own or another's, is to violate the image of God. Regardless of how old, how young, how healthy, or how sick, a Christian view is that our bodies are not our own. "You were bought with a price," Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, "therefore glorify God in your body." A fundamental difference between the kind of bodily autonomy Christianity gave the world and what is assumed today lies in whether or not the body is designed . A Christian view of bodily autonomy (or perhaps "integrity" would be a better word) is shaped by the larger telos , or purpose, for which we were made. Our bodies are created , not self-determined, for the larger purpose for which we were made: to glorify God, to love Him, and to love our neighbors. This is why medical ethics matters for the Church. If Christians suffer the "mission creep" of treating our own bodies as if they should bend to our own wills, whether by abusing assisted reproductive technologies or mutilating healthy body parts or treating medically assisted suicide as a tenable option, our witness to God's greater purpose for our bodies will be compromised. The world needs this witness — especially now. Without it, everyone will suffer.
Jun 17, 2021
John welcomes Michael Craven, Director of the Colson Fellows program, to facilitate the BreakPoint Q&A this week. John answers questions ranging from what parents should prioritize in fostering faith to how people who weren't mentors can mentor others. John also fields a question on a recent BreakPoint. A listener writes in to ask if being anti-surrogacy is like being anti-life.
Jun 16, 2021
Christianity has always been concerned about body and spirit, mind and matter, the spiritual and the physical. This was why wherever Christianity spread, believers established hospitals and schools alongside churches. In China, for example, Western medicine was an essential ingredient of the growth of Christianity. Many important Chinese Christians were first introduced to Christianity and Western learning via medicine. Shi Meiyu was born in Jiujiang, China. Her father was a Methodist pastor, and her mother was the principal of a school for girls in the city. They taught her the Chinese classics, as well as Christian literature. They also broke with Chinese tradition and refused to bind her feet . Meiyu's parents were especially impressed with the work of American missionary Dr. Katharine Bushnell . Although best remembered for her groundbreaking book God's Word to Women , Bushnell got her start as a medical missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Inspired by Dr. Bushnell's medical work, Meiyu's father decided that she should become a doctor. To prepare her for medical school, seven-year-old Meiyu was sent to Rulison-Fish School, the premier girls' school in China founded by iconoclastic Methodist missionary Gertrude Howe. Howe was a single woman who had scandalized the male missionaries in China by adopting four Chinese girls and raising them as their mother. Howe lived a very frugal life, saving money so that in 1892 she could take her five best students to her alma mater, the University of Michigan. These included Shi Meiyu and her adopted daughter Kang Cheng. Having tutored them in mathematics, chemistry, physics, and Latin, they passed the entrance exam with flying colors. Four years later, they graduated together as the first Chinese women to receive a medical degree from an American university. Meiyu and Cheng returned to Jiujiang and opened a one-room hospital. It was popular and always filled to capacity. In just the first ten months, the hospital had served 2,300 outpatients and made hundreds of house calls. A physician from Chicago, Isaac Newton Danforth, gave them money to establish the Elizabeth Skelton Danforth Hospital in Jiujiang. Shi Meiyu supervised this 95-bed, 15-room facility for the next 20 years. They treated up to 5,000 patients per month and oversaw the training of more than 500 Chinese nurses. Their work included translating textbooks and training manuals. Two years later, Kang Cheng left Jiujiang to set up a new hospital in Nanchang, the largest city in the province. She later returned to the United States and received a bachelor's degree in literature from Northwestern University and an honorary master's degree from Michigan. She then returned to China and was involved heavily in relief work and social causes until her death in 1930. In 1907, Shi Meiyu returned to the United States for surgery. Her sister Phoebe, also a physician, took over the Danforth Hospital in Meiyu's absence. While in America, Meiyu continued to fundraise for her hospital. A Rockefeller Foundation scholarship enabled her to do postgraduate work in 1918-19 at Johns Hopkins, where Phoebe had gotten her medical degree. With the Japanese attack on Shanghai in 1937, many of these believers moved inland and to Hong Kong, which only resulted in the spread of their organization and associated churches. For her part, Meiyu returned to the United States to raise funds for the mission and became one of the organizers of an evangelistic board. Shi Meiyu died in Pasadena, California, in 1954. Her work in medicine, public health, nursing education, ending abusive practices such as footbinding, and vices such as opium addictions, were an extension of her work of evangelism: They were all expressions of her understanding that the Gospel was meant for all of life, not just our eternal salvation. In all of these cases, she was acting out of love of God and neighbor, seeking to improve the lives of the people she served, both for this world and the next.
Jun 15, 2021
There are certain moments in history, such as the end of the Roman Empire or the Enlightenment, when it's obvious how much the cultural ground has shifted. Cultural norms that worked before to foster social cohesion no longer suffice. Certain ideas and shared ways of thinking can no longer be taken for granted. At these "hinge points," Christians are forced to remember who we are and to rethink our place in the overarching story of redemption. This is one of those hinge points. The cultural ground has shifted quickly, and it's disorienting. Many Christians struggle to know how to live in this strange cultural moment. Even committed Christians who study the Scriptures and attend church can struggle to make sense of it all. Even those with lots of answers to lots of questions, who've collected many pieces of truth from sermons, books, and wonderful teachers can struggle to know how those pieces fit together within the larger narrative of God's story. Our faith can feel fragmented and too far away, disconnected from day-to-day life in twenty-first century America. It's as if we have logical answers, but people are now asking different questions. It's as if too many Christians know the primary truth claims of Christianity, but not how they fit into our lives. It's as if we have this vast armory of truth, but we don't know how to wield the weapons effectively. Over the next year, the Colson Center will expand the ways in which we help Christians become more deeply grounded in the True Story of reality. This is so that they can better make sense of the world and connect more deeply with others who are committed to embodying what's true and good in this cultural moment. Specifically, the Colson Center will serve parents, grandparents, pastors, teachers, and other faithful Christians who are called to prepare the next generation for the challenges of this cultural moment. I'm humbled and driven by what God is choosing to do through the Colson Center. Last year, during the tumult of 2020, every single program of the Colson Center grew, including these BreakPoint commentaries , our newer podcasts , the quarterly short courses, the What Would You Say? video series, and especially the Wilberforce Weekend. In addition, the Colson Center partnered with the Association of Christian Schools International to train thousands of teachers through the innovative "Worldviews and Cultural Fluency" training program. This effort to "disciple the disciplers" continues to grow and expand, with homeschool parents and educators committed to passing on a Christian worldview to the young people in their care. Over 450 Colson Fellows were commissioned in May, having completed a year of in-depth reading, study, and planning in Christian worldview. By all indicators, the number of Colson Fellows will increase this coming year, with regional cohorts in even more cities, filled with Christians seeking to serve God in the time and place where He has put them. Increasingly, schools and churches are homes for Colson Fellows training, providing opportunities for their staff to shape the work and outreach in their institutions. We didn't choose this cultural moment. Our time and place in history is chosen by God. Because He has placed us here, our moment in history is not an accident, but a calling. We have been invited into His life, His kingdom, His story. Nothing in our lives is excluded from this reality, and He asks nothing less of us than full participation. The Colson Center seeks to serve you and your family, as well as churches and schools everywhere, to rise to the challenges of this moment, and find new ways to ground God's people into that True Story centered on Christ the King. Please prayerfully consider partnering with us with a fiscal year-end gift. Any gift given by June 30, 2021 will, by God's grace, help the Colson Center expand and more effectively obey His calling. Our success is when followers of Christ like you are equipped to be the embodiment and testimony of God's truth, God's goodness and God's story, and live with the clarity, confidence, and courage only a Christian worldview offers. To quote our founder, what the world so desperately needs right now is simply for the Church to be the Church . Thank you for your generosity. Go to breakpoint.org/give .
Jun 14, 2021
The scope and scale of the suicide epidemic is unbelievably scary, especially to parents. There's a growing number of suicide, suicidal thoughts, what's called deaths from despair that inflicts our culture. All we seem to be doing is treating the symptoms. Our culture says that the problem is lack of support; so that our government, schools, and even some churches, the social institutions that are supposed to weave the strong fabric of our communities are throwing caution to the wind to do anything to make students feel better. Some are even telling students to abandon their communities and even families to cope with their depression. We're just a culture grasping for answers. Dr. Matthew Sleeth has been researching the issue of suicide in our culture, as well as what the Scripture says about suicide from beginning to end. He presented a very important message for our audience at the Wilberforce Weekend this year. To watch Matthew's full presentation, and to catch more of the presentations from Wilberforce Weekend 2021, visit www.wilberforceweekend.org
Jun 14, 2021
A video that made the rounds on social media last week featured a group of Portland educators in a Zoom meeting. After introductions including the obligatory "preferred pronouns," the moderator said, "I'm gonna say something that's not nice and not sweet, but it's true. If you're not evolving into an anti-racist educator, you're making yourself obsolete." She didn't mean that these educators would fade away. As she went on to explain, anyone who disagreed with the new agenda would no longer find a home in Portland education. Plans were in place to ensure compliance. Either hop on the train of ever-shifting progressive orthodoxies or be driven out of work. Being opposed to evils like racism isn't enough. Teachers will have to conform to a very specific script. No dissent allowed. While it's not clear that this particular person wields the power to carry through with her threats, educators across the country face similar pressures. Recently via open letter , a New Jersey teacher explained that she was leaving a job she loved because her district had become "a hostile culture of conformity and fear." Students were expected "to see themselves not as individuals, but as representatives of a group, forcing them to adopt the status of privilege or victimhood." As in Portland, administrators overtly threatened termination for anyone who failed to comply. And, don't get me started on Loudoun County, Va. Increasingly, proponents of critical theory aren't merely looking for a place at the table, they're demanding control over " the menu, the venue, the seating ," and the guest list. In response, several local governments have proposed various forms of bans on Critical Race Theory. Despite the hysteria, these bans aren't nearly as confining or controversial as the headlines suggest . Rather, they attempt to protect students, especially the younger ones, from being labeled as racist based on either past evils or on being a member of a particular race. Still, even well-intentioned educational bans are a dangerous game. First, and specific to this case, CRT is merely the loudest version of critical theory at the moment. Given the track record of the LGBTQ movement hijacking civil rights history and successes, we can expect the emergence of CQT ("critical queer theory") any day now. Second, bans grant expanded authority to the state. When it comes to what is taught within public schools, it's "live by the ban, die by the ban." Education is too important to be built on shifting tides of political fortunes. But a more important consideration than these is to take seriously how ideas advance in a culture. Bans may be necessary but they rarely win arguments. The influence of particularly dangerous ideas may be curbed by political power, but ideas are never refuted or stopped by political power (remember prohibition?). Last week on Twitter, Professor Robert P. George offered a thoughtful take on these bans, especially in the context of higher education: "1/ I "teach," in the sense of assign and discuss, work by Marx, Gramsci, and Marcuse. That's not because I think what they say is true. I think they're wrong on all the important points. It's because students need to know about them and students learn from engaging their ideas. 2/ I also "teach," in the same sense, critics of Marxism and other forms of socialism--such as Hayek and Solzhenitsyn. It's important that I do that, not because I tend to agree with them, though I do, but so that students are presented with the best arguments on competing sides. 3/ Professors who expose students to the views and arguments of thinkers on one side and fail to expose them to the best to be said on other sides violate a sacred trust. Whatever our views, our job is not to indoctrinate our students. It's not our job to tell them what to think. 4/ Our job is to encourage students to think deeply, carefully, critically (including self-critically), and FOR THEMSELVES. That's why we must expose them to the best arguments for competing perspectives, including those we oppose, even loathe. AND WE NEED THE FREEDOM TO DO THAT. 5/ Where things really go haywire is when a particular view or ideology is given a monopoly--whether formally or informally--and no critical perspectives on it are seriously considered. When that happens, education has been replaced by the vilest of counterfeits: indoctrination. 6/ At the college and university level (we can discuss the circumstances of K-8 and 9-12 education separately), no perspective or school of thought--be it critical race theory, classical Marxism, Platonism, Thomism, feminism, utilitarianism, libertarianism--should be prohibited. 7/ By precisely the same token--and for precisely the same reasons--no perspective or school of thought should be given a monopoly (formally or informally) or be treated as beyond questioning and immunized from critical scrutiny. No prohibitions; no monopolies. Fair competition." Professor George understands something fundamental about ideas and about education. While threats and intimidation have no place and teachers need legal protection from legalized bullying, to simply counter-censor bad ideas is to fail students. Not only do we risk teaching them not to think for themselves, we undermine their confidence that truth can be known and defended. The root problem with critical theory is not how the American story is told, but in pre-empting any critique or debate. That sort of thinking cannot be successfully countered by emulating it. The only way to fight bad ideas is with better ones.
Jun 11, 2021
John and Maria discuss how politics makes a lousy worldview before dissecting stories on deconversion from Christianity and other stories of conversion to faith in Jesus. Maria then shares a recent story of a mother in Tanner Cross' school district to defends the elementary gym teacher with her story from Mao's China. John shares his disappointment that the mother's story isn't given more credence in the eyes of the media. John and Maria also visit on three important movements happening with China. They discuss new findings that some U.S. allies have been complicit in deporting Muslim Uyghur's to China where they joined labor camps. John then makes a prediction that China's new three child policy may turn into a baby-making mandate for Chinese citizens. He breaks down the worldview line, showing how economics is driving Chinese decisions. Then Maria shares a story that many U.S. politicians are likely boycotting the Olympics in Beijing over human rights concerns of the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur population. Finally, Maria and John discuss the removal of Queen Elizabeth's portrait at a British school. John breaks down the worldview analysis, showing how media coverage casts an implicit bias, while providing a structure for Christians to view the news with hope and purpose.
Jun 11, 2021
The most common refrain in Genesis about God's creation of the world is that it was good . Down through the centuries, many people both inside and outside the Church have tried to say that the material world is less valuable or important than intangible inner truths. This has been one of the main talking points for the new sexual orthodoxy: telling hurting souls that their bodies are somehow wrong. Kathy Koch has worked for years to undermine this demeaning perception. In her talk at our recent Wilberforce Weekend, she reminded us about the wonderful intentionality in the way God "knitted" us together as male and female. For today's BreakPoint, here's a portion of Kathy's talk. I'm Kathy Koch of Celebrate Kids here in Fort Worth, and I want to talk with you about how God made us good. I think God is good and God is a good Creator. And if children, teens, or adults don't know that, then it doesn't matter to them that they're created in His image. In Psalm 139, verses 13 and 14 declare that we have been formed by God in our inward parts. It says in Psalm 139:13 that Father God knitted us together in our mother's womb. Knitting is a precise skill; the knitter knows before starting what he is making, or he'd better not start. Otherwise he'd have a mittens-scarf-hat-afghan sweater thing with no purpose at all. The size of the stitch and the needle, the color of the yarn, and the design of the creation is known before the knitter begins. Do we praise God? Because we're fearfully made? Do we stand in awe of ourselves now? We're not God. Fear in the Old Testament is fear of God. That we would have this awesome respect for the creation of who we are. The verse that revolutionized my understanding of God's creative intent is the end of Psalm 139:14 where David writes on behalf of God: My soul knows very well that I am a wonderful work of the creative intent of God. A fearfully and wonderfully creation made in His image. I have tremendous empathy for young people who live in confusion in a chaotic, messy culture. I believe that if I was young today being called "sir," I might wonder if I was supposed to be a boy. I have empathy for these kinds of teenagers and young adults. We are privileged at Celebrate Kids to talk with those who do not believe they were created good. They do not believe in a good Creator. They don't understand the image of God and it is not their fault. Generations of young people are trying to change what they should not try to change. And they're unwilling to work on the things they could work on because frankly, the adults around them are weak. God is good. Therefore he made me good because I'm in His image and He is fully good! So there's gotta be something here and I choose to not see it as wrong. I don't see it as a mistake. It is a challenge. I'm surrounded by great people and I'm loved well by God, and by people who love me deeply; without that I would question so much. So I'm not a too-tall-Kathy-with-a-low-voice-who-can't-spell-all-that-well mess of a person. I am who I am, created in the image of God, and He is good. What's your story? And what story are we helping young people who we love live? Kathy Koch is founder and president of Celebrate Kids, reminding the Church and the world of the goodness of our Creator and the enduring beauty of His creation. In her words, we see a path forward to loving—truly loving—our neighbors who struggle with gender dysphoria. As she argued, the new sexual orthodoxy encourages hurting young people to change what shouldn't be changed and discourages them from working on the things that they can work on. While giving lip service to the claim that people are perfect just as they are, our culture's fascination with expressive sexual identities leads proponents to argue that the only way we can be truly ourselves is through a radical rejection of our physicality.
Jun 10, 2021
Politics makes a terrible substitute for a complete, thoughtful worldview. "God has filled his world full of pleasures," wrote C. S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters . There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least. Sleeping, walking, eating and drinking. It's only when these things are twisted, Lewis argues, that they become sinful. Now, there used to be many things we could do all day long without other people minding in the least: eating fast food chicken for example, flying an American flag from your porch, rooting for a particular professional sports team or athlete, watching a certain TV network, or watching the other certain TV network. Today all of these things are politically loaded, as is so much of life in a culture that pretends that we can't know any real answers absolutely. To the deep, ultimate questions of life, we're still a culture searching for the answers. Of course, we're a people in need of answers. Instead of finding them in the Church or in something transcendent, our culture looks largely elsewhere. More and more we choose to find our answers in politics. I define politics here as more than just the process by which we decide how to govern. The way we understand politics today is more like a game, complete with teams—good guys, bad guys, opponents, fandom, celebrities. All of this is a problem. Politics isn't big enough to answer the questions that we're expecting it to. For starters, politics certainly doesn't tell us the truth about real people. It's common now to think that based on who a person voted for we know everything we need to know about them. And making the problem even worse is what we do with the assumptions we make about people based on who they voted for. It's common now to treat another person's politics as grounds for our acceptance and love for them, or to excuse, or dismiss, or deny their personhood. Or even hate them. Just a few weeks ago, a New York Times opinion writer argued that violent anti-Semitic attacks in the U. S. and abroad were problematic, not because people were being attacked, but because those attacks made it more politically difficult to criticize Israel. In this view, the victims of those attacks were pawns, not people. Just a few days after that, I shared a commentary from my friend Gerald McDermott on BreakPoint about President Biden's speech impediment. We received many positive comments about the commentary, but we also received many many negative ones from listeners asserting that we shouldn't give any cover whatsoever for Biden in any form. That Biden's terrible politics somehow excuses us from having to treat him with dignity and compassion. In this, too, he became a pawn, not a person. We have to note that a person with the right politics doesn't have any more human dignity or deserve our love any more than someone with the wrong politics. Our politics don't determine who we are. It's that we're made in the image and likeness of God. Our politics aren't what makes us human. It's who we were created to be that does. And of course, our politics don't tell us the full truth about ideas. Right now our government and public health experts around the world are trying to decide whether COVID-19 first leaked from a lab in China. That theory has been proposed all along—as early as last spring. But it was categorically dismissed by most of the world's media. Not based on any information, not based on any investigation, not based on any facts, but simply because President Trump said that it might be true. Because of his politics that was treated as proof that it wasn't true. And if we're being fair, many others thought that because President Trump said it, that was proof that it was true. It is culturally and personally dangerous to either unquestioningly accept or dismiss ideas merely because of their political context. Politics doesn't determine reality. And of course, politics can't tell us the whole truth about the world either. This should be perfectly obvious. Politics are powerfully shaped by cultural taste. What was politically unthinkable 10 years ago, for example giving sterilizing cross-sex hormones to a pre-teen, is nearly politically unquestionable today. In other words, politics is just as trendy as fashion is. It's certainly not any rock on which we can build our worldview or our ethics. Politics first and foremost is merely a process. It's a way to do things. It cannot give us the purpose of life. Our political views don't make us human so they shouldn't be the basis of determining who we are willing to do life with or are willing to forgive, or willing to learn from, or are willing to love. Having the right politics isn't the fullness of our calling as followers of Jesus any more than having the wrong ones is eternal condemnation. Our politics today is merely a show, a reality show that doesn't give us the reality about us, or about the world. And let's be honest, the show is getting embarrassing. On the other hand, the way of Jesus is abundant life, and it's not single-pixel, one-dimensional, or fake.
Jun 9, 2021
John and Shane field questions ranging from whose to blame for racism in institutions to rises in suicidal thoughts in teenagers. They also wrestle with a question on how to build a theology of being fired and what soft totalitarianism really is.
Jun 9, 2021
To paraphrase the author of Ecclesiastes, of the writing of "de-conversion" testimonies, there seems to be no end. In a somewhat recent innovation, many have embraced a different term for deconversion. It's common to hear something like, "I haven't lost or abandoned my lifelong Christian faith," I'm merely "deconstructing it." John Williamson , the host of the "Deconstructionists Podcast," defines this kind of "deconstruction" as "examining your faith from the inside looking for potential weaknesses." He likens the process to prepping a ship before it sails to make sure "it doesn't sink once you get out to sea." In and of itself, to self-examine faith is a good thing. The eleventh century Christian philosopher Anselm of Canterbury spoke of "faith seeking understanding," which is "an active love of God seeking a deeper knowledge of God ." Throughout the history of the church, this "deeper knowledge of God" has included a healthy regard for apologetics, and a willingness to ask and seek answers to the hard questions. Unfortunately, this is not the kind of "faith seeking understanding" that's going on in much of the "deconstruction" stories. According to Williamson, the process of deconstruction is also "about taking ownership over what you believe and potentially letting go of some of the things that no longer work." That kind of talk should set off alarms. In place of Anselm's deeper knowledge of God, human autonomy and personal ideas about what is best for us has moved to the center of our faith journey. The primary, and maybe even the sole, judge of what work works is us . Even worse, the criteria that determines whether beliefs or religious practice "works" is determined by us. All of which fails to take into account just how often our actual motives are hidden from ourselves. We may tell ourselves that we struggle with a particular reading of Genesis, while our doubts really lie in our ability to live up to Christianity's moral demands. Or, more to the point within the context of our culture's reframing of the highest goods, we may simply not like that we don't get to pick and choose what to believe. The sort "deconstruction" Williamson describes is more of a demolition. What remains is often a hollow shell of a faith, one lacking any external and fixed points of truth by which we can find orientation in a chaotic world. Legitimate evaluation and questioning doesn't have to take this ultimately destructive form. Christian faith not only allows, but encourages honest doubt. Faith and understanding mature as life is lived, and as we learn more of how to connect God's Word with this world, in humility and repentance. In fact, the Greek word rendered "repentance," metanoia , literally means to change your mind or perspective. While we may point to a time and place in which we came to faith, conversion continues as an ongoing process of seeing, understanding, and trusting God's purposes in ways we had previously missed. Paul described the process to the Corinthians when he said that, "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways." Doubt is a constant companion for some of us, and take many forms. In many ways, intellectual doubts are the least difficult to deal with, in the face of doubts about God's goodness or the emotional struggles that accompany a particular difficult life situation. Throughout Scripture, God is revealed as One who meets people at the point of their confusion and doubt. Consider how he responded to Mary and Thomas. He silenced Zechariah's demanding spirit and rebuked Job's comforters' presumption. The Christian faith is big enough to honestly face the most difficult questions and the deepest despair. What's required of us, as Hebrews 11 says, is that we "believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek him." A wise mentor once pointed out how differently Proverbs describes seekers , those pursuing the truth and willing to reckon with it when they find it, and mockers , those cynical truth even exists and committed to their skepticism even if it hit them between the eyes. Get the approach right and ask all the questions you want. After all, God's big enough for the questions and the doubts. Get the approach wrong, and we won't be able to hear the answers that are there over the noise of the bulldozer we are taking to our faith.
Jun 8, 2021
One of the most important effects of embracing a deliberate, self-conscious Christian worldview, and losing the sacred-secular distinction so many Christians have absorbed from the world around us, is seeing the depth, the breadth, and the width of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every sphere of life. Once we see life this way, our understanding of serving Jesus is radically re-shaped in light of the unassailable, undefeatable, and advancing Kingdom of God. Once Chuck Colson embraced that vision of the Christian life, he poured it into every single BreakPoint commentary, each and every day, desperate to help Christians think clearly about cultural issues and trends from a Christian worldview. And, during the last decade of his life, Colson decided that the best way He could advance this vision would be replication. That's why he invited Christians to study with him through what is now called the Colson Fellows Program. Inviting Christians to take a deep dive into Christian worldview over a ten-month course of study, trained and mentored by top Christian authors and thinkers, he saw class after class of Christians become the kind of culture-shaping leaders that could look at the world around them, effectively analyze, critique, and discern what was happening, and become catalysts of cultural influence and change for Jesus Christ. What makes the Colson Fellows Program so different and so vital is that it's not just an exercise in learning new things, as important as that is. Commissioned Colson Fellows are, well, commissioned. Because the training includes a teaching project, a three-year planning process, and self-inventory on who God has made them to be, they are able to apply a Christian worldview in real-world, practical ways. Here's how the program works: Those who are accepted learn how to articulate and defend biblical truth in the marketplace of ideas through intensive instruction on worldview and cultural analysis. They read both Christian classics and the best contemporary writers, many of whom they interact with on frequent webinars. Colson Center faculty includes folks such as Os Guinness, Joni Eareckson Tada, Dr. Glenn Sunshine, J. Warner Wallace, Jennifer Marshall, and Scott Klusendorf. And, in what may be the best part, Colson Fellows study together, either in one of 45 Regional Cohorts around the country or, for those with no local cohort available, through one of our Online Cohorts. So we have doctors and business professionals learning alongside of academics and lawyers, who are also learning alongside of pastors and educators. The cross-pollination of applied faith is rich, indeed. Those who complete the program join a network of more than 1,500 commissioned Colson Fellows, who have studied with us and are living out a deeper faith in a broken world. This network includes people like Colson Fellow Kristin Waggoner, one of the leading religious freedom attorneys in the nation, who represented Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips before the Supreme Court. In fact, my interview with Kristin about religious freedom in this age of coronavirus airs today on the BreakPoint podcast . Colson Fellows Program Director S. Michael Craven likes to say that as people study with the Colson Fellows, many have this moment of conversion. Serious-minded Christians who have been walking with the Lord for many years discover more clearly, some for the first time, that they are a part a much larger story—one that certainly includes, but goes beyond our personal salvation in Jesus Christ. Christians often say, "I've invited Jesus into my life," but the reality is that Jesus invites us into His life. His purpose. His restoring work in the world He created. To this life, His Life, we are invited to join Him in the work of making all things new. If you are stirred in heart and mind around this kind of faith, this kind of life, come to ColsonFellows.org to learn more . We respond to all inquiries and are happy to answer any questions you may have. We're taking applications now for next year's class of Colson Fellows.
Jun 7, 2021
Increasingly threatened with a future of economic and cultural instability , the Chinese government has worked hard to guarantee public safety and deliver a kind of domestic tranquility that only comes by limiting freedoms. For example, several sources are reporting that yet again, Beijing has increased pressure on religious groups. Beginning this year, all "approved" religions must conform to its new Administrative Measures for Religious Institutions . As Cameron Hilditch put it in National Review : The Chinese Communists aren't trying to extirpate every last trace of theism … Instead, they're attempting to enervate religious opposition to the regime by taming and co-opting domestic religious belief, turning it into another thoroughfare for the regime's agenda of social control. Despite Beijing's formal claims that "[c] itizens of China may freely choose and express their religious beliefs," this isn't freedom. It isn't toleration. It cannot even be called benign neglect. This is an empty permission to only obey. Going forward, religious groups and individuals will be "free" to practice their faith only if that faith actively conforms to and works under state authority. Under these orders, not conspiring against the state or even passively complying with Beijing's orders will not be enough to avoid trouble. Proactive support of tyranny is required. In no way can the precepts of heaven be allowed to challenge the mandates of the state. Of course, Xi Jinping's regime, like most totalitarian powers, likes to style itself as the frontline of innovation . In reality, he's in a long line of tyrants who, through the ages, tried and failed to unseat God by compromising the loyalties of His people. Think of Daniel's friends refusing to bow before Nebuchadnezzar, to Daniel himself refusing to kowtow to a Persian emperor's vanity , to Christians facing down Roman Caesars. Like Xi, these tyrants didn't care to whom or to what God's people prayed, as long as that worship didn't spoil their worship of the tyrant. In Rome, Christians only had to accommodate the state with a little incense offered to the empire alongside their loyalty to Christ . This was a line they would not cross. They would not subject the claim Christ had on their lives and all of reality to the demands of Rome and the "gods" of their age. To be clear, it's not just in the ancient world or in Communist lands where Christians are called to conform. Recently, the French Minister of the Interior demanded the Church's submission , saying of evangelicals, "We cannot discuss with people who refuse to write on paper that the law of the Republic is superior to the law of God." In American history, pastors who refused to follow the pro-slavery or segregationist script often found themselves "cancelled," if not worse. Today, Christians who do not conform to the new progressive sexual orthodoxy are threatened with dismissal from polite society, and maybe even their jobs. Christians have faced cultural hostilities throughout history whenever there is a system or power that claims to be the absolute and final authority. It's not that certain kings and dictators throughout history were bad men, and therefore acted badly towards the Church and other dissidents. Any ruler and any ideology that presumes the omniscience and omnipotence that only belongs to God will inevitably see claims to transcendent truth as an existential and intolerable threat. As Francis Schaeffer put it, when describing the Roman-era persecution endured by the early Church, "No totalitarian authority nor authoritarian state can tolerate those who have an absolute by which to judge that state and its actions." This applied to the ancient world, it applies to Beijing, and it applies to Western ideologies that demand our absolute and total allegiance. The good news is that God always strengthens, preserves, and sustains His people. He did it for Daniel and his friends. He did it for the early church, including the persecuted and the martyrs. He's doing it for our brothers and sisters in China. And, we can be sure, He will do it for us. We must never bow our knee to false gods.
Jun 4, 2021
John and Maria discuss the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Tulsa Race massacre, and Memorial Day. They discuss the challenges associated with remembering difficult times in history. John shares important realities surrounding the Loudon county school district. John shares a story that is developing where a gym teacher was dismissed for his views on gender identity. Maria then introduces the landscape that surrounds the movement to ban Critical Theory from schools. John points out the impact boycotting and banning has on our view of truth and our confidence in the Christian worldview. -- Resources -- The Greatest Love - Chuck Colson on Memorial Day President Biden's Stutter and the Image of God Virginia teacher placed on leave after speech disputing 'biological boy can be a girl and vice versa' Robert George on Critical Race Theory Being Banned in States Challenges Role of History
Jun 4, 2021
Though it will be a while before we learn the full impact of this past year on children, The American Academy of Pediatrics recently warned that the mental health of younger Americans is suffering. Suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts are on the rise, as are childhood diagnoses of eating disorders and other obsessive-compulsive behaviors. While everyone was "flying blind" at the beginning of the pandemic, it is becoming more and more clear that, in the noble interest of protecting bodies, many public officials neglected to adequately consider the mental, emotional, and even spiritual aspects of our lives together. For kids, a full year without school and extracurricular activities has done terrible damage. The merits of school lockdowns as a public health strategy will certainly be hotly debated by policy makers and parents, but as American rhythms of life return to normal, we ought also to spend time evaluating just how we did at home, as families. And, like nearly every other issue that percolated to the top of our culture mid-pandemic, the health of our at-home habits pre-existed Covid. The rhythms of life shaping our families were more likely revealed by the lockdowns than created by them. Specifically, this is a question of three "L's": our loves, our loyalties, and our liturgies. If you were to ask me what I love more, my family or my phone, I wouldn't hesitate to reply, "My family." But how many times, while spending an afternoon with my kids, do I allow my buzzing phone to interrupt family time? The fact is, our loyalties aren't really tested by trivia questions or even with guns to our heads. We learn what we value most by looking at our everyday liturgies, those rhythms of life and relationships we embrace which, in turn, determine what gets our time and attention and what misses out. Of course, most people are unaware of just how much our loves, loyalties, and liturgies are shaped by unspoken cultural forces. Most Christians are shaped far more by cultural forces outside the Church than by anything inside. During the pandemic, most aspects of our lives were disrupted, in big and small ways. If some additional stress this year led to a little more screen time than usual, that is not necessarily a sign our houses are built on shifting sand. Still, we may have learned through the pandemic, just how much of our relative peace and safety comes from outside forces, rather than from inside our homes. We may have learned just how much our family liturgies rely on a busyness we love to prioritize. More and more, Christian parents will need to get used to saying "no" to things that are widely normal in American life, and not just because of the obvious moral shifting happening all around us. Counter-cultural priorities reconfigured around restored loves, renewed loyalties, and redeemed liturgies will earn us some strange looks, especially when it comes to money, to stuff, and to time. The forces that shape most American families today aren't centered around real needs, at least not spiritual needs. "Keeping up with the Joneses" and "perfecting leisure time" are much higher priorities for most of us than fostering and nurturing strong family bonds and bringing up kids who know and love Jesus. Covid caught all of us off guard, but unexpected challenges like it are wonderful opportunities to recalibrate. Now that the pandemic is subsiding, we may want to look carefully at whether or not "normal" is what we want to return to. Or if instead, we should rebuild the structures and habits that make a home a good place to land the next time the world throws us a curve.
Jun 4, 2021
Though it will be a while before we learn the full impact of this past year on children, The American Academy of Pediatrics recently warned that the mental health of younger Americans is suffering. Suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts are on the rise, as are childhood diagnoses of eating disorders and other obsessive-compulsive behaviors. While everyone was "flying blind" at the beginning of the pandemic, it is becoming more and more clear that, in the noble interest of protecting bodies, many public officials neglected to adequately consider the mental, emotional, and even spiritual aspects of our lives together. For kids, a full year without school and extracurricular activities has done terrible damage. The merits of school lockdowns as a public health strategy will certainly be hotly debated by policy makers and parents, but as American rhythms of life return to normal, we ought also to spend time evaluating just how we did at home, as families. And, like nearly every other issue that percolated to the top of our culture mid-pandemic, the health of our at-home habits pre-existed Covid. The rhythms of life shaping our families were more likely revealed by the lockdowns than created by them. Specifically, this is a question of three "L's": our loves, our loyalties, and our liturgies. If you were to ask me what I love more, my family or my phone, I wouldn't hesitate to reply, "My family." But how many times, while spending an afternoon with my kids, do I allow my buzzing phone to interrupt family time? The fact is, our loyalties aren't really tested by trivia questions or even with guns to our heads. We learn what we value most by looking at our everyday liturgies, those rhythms of life and relationships we embrace which, in turn, determine what gets our time and attention and what misses out. Of course, most people are unaware of just how much our loves, loyalties, and liturgies are shaped by unspoken cultural forces. Most Christians are shaped far more by cultural forces outside the Church than by anything inside. During the pandemic, most aspects of our lives were disrupted, in big and small ways. If some additional stress this year led to a little more screen time than usual, that is not necessarily a sign our houses are built on shifting sand. Still, we may have learned through the pandemic, just how much of our relative peace and safety comes from outside forces, rather than from inside our homes. We may have learned just how much our family liturgies rely on a busyness we love to prioritize. More and more, Christian parents will need to get used to saying "no" to things that are widely normal in American life, and not just because of the obvious moral shifting happening all around us. Counter-cultural priorities reconfigured around restored loves, renewed loyalties, and redeemed liturgies will earn us some strange looks, especially when it comes to money, to stuff, and to time. The forces that shape most American families today aren't centered around real needs, at least not spiritual needs. "Keeping up with the Joneses" and "perfecting leisure time" are much higher priorities for most of us than fostering and nurturing strong family bonds and bringing up kids who know and love Jesus. Covid caught all of us off guard, but unexpected challenges like it are wonderful opportunities to recalibrate. Now that the pandemic is subsiding, we may want to look carefully at whether or not "normal" is what we want to return to. Or if instead, we should rebuild the structures and habits that make a home a good place to land the next time the world throws us a curve.
Jun 3, 2021
Jane Goodall, the primatologist famous for living with chimpanzees and revealing their behaviors, has won the 2021 Templeton Prize. The prize honors those who "harness the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind's place and purpose within it." Goodall follows last year's winner, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, who led the Human Genome Project in mapping DNA. She also joins decades of laureates including Chuck Colson, who received the award in 1993 for progress in religion. At 87 years old, Goodall is a legend, and an obvious choice for the award, not just because of her work as a naturalist, but for rejecting naturalism as a worldview. In an interview with Religion News Service , she revealed that her time with the chimps in Tanzania gave her a "strong feeling of spiritual connection with the natural world." She went on to say: "…more scientists are saying there's an intelligence behind the universe, that's basically what the Templeton Foundation is about: We don't live in only a materialistic world. Francis Collins drove home that in every single cell in your body there's a code of several billion instructions. Could that be chance? No…[C]hance mutations couldn't possibly lead to the complexity of life on earth." She concluded: "…[S]cience and religion are coming together and more minds are seeing purpose behind the universe and intelligence." Intelligent design theorists who have spent decades trying to break the stranglehold of materialism on science can say "amen" to that. Yet Goodall's eye for purpose and intelligence when it comes to the natural world seems to fail her when she looks in the mirror. As Elizabeth Whately points out at Evolution News , Goodall has gone to great lengths to downplay the uniqueness of human beings. In the same interview, the primatologist scoffs: "I was actually taught in the early 1960s that the difference between us and animals was one of kind. We were elevated onto a pinnacle, separate from all the others. But my dog as a child had already taught me that wasn't true…we're not the only beings with personalities, minds and emotions." Goodall is also a longtime supporter of the Great Apes Personhood project, which seeks to confer human rights on primates. This blurring of the line between humans and animals is far from harmless. Fellow Great Apes Personhood supporters Richard Dawkins and Peter Singer have famously endorsed selective abortion and infanticide, and in Singer's case, have declared the worth of an adult pig to be greater than that of a person with mental disabilities. For all Goodall's talk of "intelligence," "purpose," and a "spark of divine energy" in living things, she misses the utterly unique place of human beings in creation. She's not alone. Recently, National Geographic released a documentary series by James Cameron entitled "Secrets of the Whales." The underwater photography is breathtaking, and some of the behaviors this team captured among orcas, belugas, humpbacks, and sperm whales have never before been filmed. Yet the narration by Sigourney Weaver is bogged down with anthropomorphic claims that whales have "culture," "language," and even self-awareness, making them "just like us." At no point does the series acknowledge the irony of making such a claim while only humans hold the cameras, breathe from SCUBA gear, engage in scientific reasoning, or sit in their living rooms reflecting on what all this natural wonder means. In spite of Cameron's childlike awe for living things, and in spite of Goodall's recognition that creation didn't create itself, both miss (or ignore) the most crucial fact: that one creature alone bears the image of its Creator. Indeed, the very curiosity that drove Goodall into the Tanzanian forest and the National Geographic crew into the briny depths leads us all to ask with the Psalmist: "What is man that you are mindful of him?" The answer is in the asking. No other creature reflects on its role and place in creation or its relationship with the Creator.
Jun 2, 2021
John and Shane provide encouragement for a listener whose community is hosting a gay pride weekend. A number of local businesses in this area are hosting adults-only fundraisers for the local teen LGBTQ+ organization. How can Christians correctly encourage the community in light of businesses that fail to think well about the LGBTQ+ lifestyle and the consequences of encouraging its ideology to young people? Shane then shares a question seeking clarity on God's design for marriage. The listener is concerned that the emphasis of procreation on marriage may insinuate some unions don't represent the image of God. In response, John speaks to a Christian worldview of marriage, encouraging believers to understand the expansive nature of God's design. To close, John replies to a pushback to a recent BreakPoint commentary critiquing the #LeaveLoud campaign. A listener argues that his majority white church doesn't understand the challenges of being a black man in their community and asks what kind of response he should give in such a situation. John and Shane offer important points on the purpose and role of Church, with John asking the man to engage his neighbors by providing feedback on important cultural realities for the church to understand.
Jun 2, 2021
In his important book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self , Dr. Carl Trueman argues that the key idea of our current cultural moment is expressive individualism. The only way to be "true to ourselves," we are told, is to define who we really are psychologically and sexually . This means that our identity is only truly known to ourselves, and others are morally responsible to embrace whoever or whatever we claim about ourselves even if, or especially if, what we reveal contradicts any observable realities. The Gnostics believed that there is a sharp distinction between the material and spiritual worlds, with the former being evil and the latter good. Since humans are both material and spiritual beings, our physical bodies are evil but our souls are good, possibly even fragments of God that yearn to return to Him. But they can't do this while trapped in our bodies. Salvation comes through secret knowledge, known as gnosis in Greek, hence Gnosticism. This knowledge differed from group to group. For one group, the secret knowledge was in passwords that would allow adherents to pass through crystal spheres until arriving at the highest heaven, the realm of pure Spirit. Gnosticism arose in parallel with Christianity. Some Gnostics considered themselves Christian, arguing that the God of the Old Testament was evil since He created the material world. The Father of Jesus, in contrast, was the true God and operated in the realm of spirit without mucking around with the material world. Some of these Gnostics even believed that Jesus was not a true physical being but only appeared to be one, an idea known as docetism. So, what does all this mean for how we live? Different Gnostic sects had different answers. For some, the body was a hindrance to spiritual development, and so they adopted an austere lifestyle. They might become vegetarians, drink only water rather than wine, and abstain from sexual activity. The last is particularly important since it could lead to babies, trapping another soul into a body. For others, the body was irrelevant to the spirit, and so they would adopt a hedonistic lifestyle, participating in orgies and the like, since these activities don't touch the soul. Although the details are different from ancient Gnosticism, our culture is awash with Gnostic concepts. It starts with the idea that we need to be true to ourselves, that if we follow the secret knowledge within us we will live a happy and authentic life. External rules about behavior shouldn't hold us back from the things we know in our soul will make us happy. As Woody Allen said to justify his affair with his girlfriend Mia Farrow's daughter, "The heart wants what the heart wants"—and following our heart, that secret knowledge within us, is the advice pop culture consistently drums into children and young adults. Thus, we follow both sides of ancient Gnosticism: We are sexually promiscuous but anti-natal, since children would hinder our pursuit of our happiness and truth. Looking within for our truth reaches its logical conclusion in transgenderism, the idea that our true self has nothing to do with our bodies. But, this Neo-Gnostic orthodoxy has nothing in common with God's Word or the reality of His world and the place of our bodies within it. The story of the Bible is that God created us good, both in body and soul, even if sin has marred both. Our own intuitions about ourselves, and about right and wrong are hopelessly distorted by sin, and so God in His mercy gave us His revelation to tell us about ourselves and to teach us what is good. Despite the reality of sin all around us, God doesn't make mistakes. Our bodies and souls are matched to each other, and any attempt to fight this will result in more brokenness in our lives. As Ryan T. Anderson put it recently at Wilberforce Weekend, "No one is born in the wrong body, because you are not 'in' a body. You are a body." God's directions for how to live are better for us than the advice of either our fallen desires or our fallen culture. We don't need secret, private truth. God has told us who we are, how we are to live, and united us with Christ who is the Truth to empower us to live in truth.
Jun 1, 2021
Because everyone is made in the image and likeness of God we have a responsibility to honor them as such. Even those we think are very, very wrong. In this cultural moment where everything from movies to sports to even the church is politicized, it's too easy to let our partisan team spirit shape whether or not we obey God and love our neighbors. But this part of the great commandment isn't optional. and we'll never be able to love others, especially those that are on the other side, those we think are very wrong, unless we settle the question of who they are. Image bearers who, like us, are corrupted by sin. Dr. Gerald McDermott is a friend and a brilliant scholar, and today on BreakPoint he shares an observation of seeing the Imago Dei in the life of one he's not inclined to view very favorably. Here's Dr. McDermott: It is hard for me to think of any Biden policies that I think are helpful to this country. Yet I must admit that I have deep sympathy for his struggle with stuttering. And I admire the grit he displays in soldiering on despite it. By now most of America has heard about the President's stutter, his honesty about it, and the perseverance he has shown trying to fight it . We have heard about the failure of his childhood speech therapy to cure it, his being bullied and mocked in school for it, the feeling of being betrayed by his own body, reciting Irish poetry rhythmically in front of a mirror to help control his tongue, and his vows to never give up fighting it. Keep pushing. Don't let it define you . Non-stutterers have little idea of the nightmares of the average stutterer. Unless they have seen the 2010 movie "The King's Speech," many who hear stutterers block on words think it might be trivial or a minor annoyance at most. But they don't know the times when occasional blocks mysteriously morph into paralysis, when even sounds that are normally effortless become mountains to climb. They have no idea of the apprehension when answering the phone, or the nervousness when, caught in conversation that goes quickly, we stutterers are afraid we won't be able to reply at the right pace, and all eyes will turn to us as the conversation suddenly stops. They don't know of the worry for weeks about upcoming speeches or presentations—not over what to say but whether we can get our tongue to cooperate. Other famous stutterers showed grit similar to Biden's. The ancient Athenian orator-statesman Demosthenes had a weak voice , and could not pronounce correctly words that started with "r." Yet Demosthenes became a great speaker by persistent determination. He practiced his speeches in a cave, repeated words with the "r" sound thousands of times, and ran up hills to strengthen his weak frame. Greater body strength helped him project his voice, which was essential in a world without microphones. The Yankee hero of the Battle of Gettysburg Joshua Chamberlain resolved when he was young that his stuttering was "intolerable." Rather than despair, he determined he would do whatever it took to find improvement. By strength of will and using a song-like rhythm, he eventually reached a state where he could get through nine of ten difficult words with no trouble. He was elected governor of Maine four times and after retirement went on the speakers' circuit. Winston Churchill practiced his speeches in the bathtub and spent hours rehearsing every speech. Repeated practice was his response to the terror he experienced early in his career when he lost his train of thought in a speech in Parliament. He had a complicated set of speech defects, one of which was stuttering. But disciplined practice helped him grow to become one of the world's greatest orators. Biden reminds me of John Updike, the great American novelist. He too stuttered, and like Biden he was a religious man of inner contradictions that were resolved by forging a faith that was captive to the spirit of the age. No one has ever described stuttering with such dead-on precision. Once Updike compared it to a traffic jam. "I have lots of words inside me: but at moments, like rush-hour traffic at the mouth of a tunnel, they jam." He painted a picture of facial tics that will make any relative of a stutterer groan with recognition. "Viewing myself on taped television, I see the repulsive symptoms of an approaching stammer take possession of my face—an electronically rapid flutter of the eyelids, a distortion of the mouth as of a leather purse being cinched, a terrified hardening of the upper lip, a fatal tensing and lifting of the voice." All stutterers will nod knowingly when they hear him refer to that "untrustworthy" part of himself that "can collapse at awkward or anxious moments into a stutter." They might smile at his philosophical conclusion that stuttering is a sign of the "duality of our existence, the ability of the body and soul to say no to one another." Or his reflection that a stammer is the acknowledgement of unacknowledged complexities surrounding even the simplest of verbal exchanges. They might laugh, as I did, when they read his depiction of stuttering as negotiating an obstacle course with an unhappy ending: "Sometimes, it is as if I have, hurrying to the end of my spoken sentence, carefully picked and plotted my way out of a room full of obstacles, and having almost attained (stealthily, cunningly) the door, I trip, calling painful attention to myself and spilling all the beans." Updike was a serial adulterer and public Christian at the same time. He resolved this contradiction by constructing a Christianity of comfort without commands, a gospel of love without holiness. Biden's own contradictions include his claim to be a serious Catholic while promoting a holocaust of the unborn. Or his declaration that he supports religious freedom while promoting the Equality Act that would make felons of orthodox believers. Biden would have approved Updike's declaration that religion includes "an acceptance and consecration of what is," as long as the "is" includes the dogmas of the sexual revolution. How can I love the man when I think he is presiding happily over the destruction of little human beings and the meltdown of our republic? Well, I can remember Jesus' command to love my (political and ideological) enemies. Recognizing Biden's struggle with the same demon that has afflicted me helps me understand how to follow the apostle Paul's admonition to "think of others as better than yourself" (Phil 2:3). My own speech therapy as an adult at a world-class facility gave me a breakthrough that Biden has apparently not been able to enjoy. Yet he has been willing to expose his affliction to the world in ways I might never have tolerated. I have to give him credit for that. Biden's infamous gaffes and public non -sequiturs might be as much from the stuttering demon as from alleged dementia. I know what it is like to block on words and search for substitutes, sometimes changing direction when the search comes up empty. So I have sympathy for his struggle and admire his determination to plough ahead. At the same time I hope his policies are frustrated. Gerald McDermott is the author of Famous Stutterers: Twelve inspiring people who achieved great things while struggling with an impediment .
May 31, 2021
John welcomes the Strong Women team to share a recent episode of the Strong Women podcast where Glenn Stanton dove into the theme of Strong Women. The episode reflects conversations John, Maria, and Shane have had on the BreakPoint Podcast recently.
May 31, 2021
Today on BreakPoint, we hear Chuck Colson's thoughts on Memorial Day and what he called, "The Greatest Love.": "It was February of 1945—three months before the end of World War II in Europe. Eighteen-year-old Sergeant Joseph George of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, was stationed in Lorient, France. It was evening, and George was preparing to go on patrol. The Americans were hoping to locate landmines buried by the Germans. Sergeant George had been on patrol duty the night before. As he told his friend Private James Caudill, he was tired—tired and scared. Private Caudill offered to take the patrol on his behalf. He pointed out that, at age 36, he was nearly two decades older than George. He told George—who had already been blown off a torpedoed ship in the English Channel—"You're young. Go home. Get married. Live a rich, full life." And then Private Caudill went out on patrol. A few hours later, he was killed by a German sniper. The actions of Private Caudill echo the values and valor of generations of military men and women we remember today. And they are an example of the sort of behavior we almost take for granted when it comes to our men and women in uniform who fight just wars. What is a just war? One that is defined as providing a proportionate response to evil, to protect non-combatants, among other considerations. Today, our military men and women around the world are fighting to resist evil. Ridding the world of Islamo-fascism—by just means—is a good and loving act. This willingness to sacrifice on behalf of our neighbors is why military service is considered such a high calling for Christians—and part of what makes just wars just. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica puts his discussion of just war in his chapter on charity—the love of God and neighbor. John Calvin agreed; he called soldiering justly a "God-like act," because "it imitates God's restraining evil out of love for His creatures." A world in which free nations refuse to fight just wars would be a world where evil is unchecked and where the strong would be free to prey on the weak—as we are now seeing in Darfur. Our soldiers' willingness to defend the defenseless around the world makes me proud to be an American. Their willingness to lay down their lives is a reflection of how the Christian worldview has influenced our society, which is why American soldiers, by the way, are welcomed all over the world, as historian Stephen Ambrose wrote, while soldiers from other cultures are feared. So what of Sgt. Joseph George? He returned safely home. He married, fathered five sons. One of them—Princeton Professor Robert George—is a good friend of mine. He's devoted much of his life to fighting the moral evils of our time: abortion, embryo-destructive research, and efforts to redefine marriage in a way that would destroy it. In John 15:13, Jesus said, "Greater love has no man than this, that [he] lay down his life for his friends." The story of Private Caudill and Sergeant George makes one realize more deeply what a tremendous gift this is. It's why the George family has remembered Private Caudill in prayers for sixty-one years. Today, Memorial Day, we ought to remember the sacrifices of all the Private Caudills in all the wars Americans have fought—and we should pray for those who are still in the field—laying down their lives for each other, for us, and for the freedom of strangers. That's a very Christian thing to do."
May 28, 2021
John and Maria discuss a perceived rise recently in acts of desperation and feelings of despair. There are growing reports of altercations at sporting events and in public settings pointing to a failing sense of trust in institutions. Maria looks to another trend in media where people are questioning the origin of the Coronavirus. John then highlights the challenge the public is having in trusting those who are in positions of authority. Before these two important topics, Maria and John discuss the impact Wilberforce weekend made on them, specifically the importance of understanding the image of God, a central theme throughout the entire presentation of BreakPoint This Week.
May 28, 2021
Recently, New York Times opinion writer Elizabeth Bruenig broke the internet for a bombshell confession that, wait for it, she likes being a mom . Her piece, " I Became a Mother at 25, and I'm Not Sorry I Didn't Wait " was a beautifully written essay about how motherhood grew and changed her. Nothing she said was controversial… unless you're on Twitter, of course. Responses on social media were swift and angry , and ranged from strange to cruel to violent. Many missed, given their expressed pro-choice commitments, the irony of being angry at a choice to have kids. Of course, it's simply no longer accurate for this movement to call itself "pro-choice" anymore. Modern feminism is definitively pro-abortion with extremes that have no interest in women making their own choices. There's only one particular choice that is always acceptable. The choice to have children is the one that must be justified and defended. The choice to prevent or kill a child is the one taken for granted. In an even greater twist of irony, one of the most powerful and exclusive aspects of womanhood, the ability to bear children, is seen to interfere with being a woman. In fact, "feminism" is certainly the wrong term for a movement that demands that women fight the thing that only a woman's body can do. And, it is the wrong term for a view that promises equality for women only if they promise to act more like men. In so many ways, this latest iteration of feminism is anti -feminism. The backlash to Bruenig's piece also reveals how children are viewed in so much of our world. Bruenig's joy in motherhood is wonderful, but it isn't unique or rare. Many parents would say something similar, in fact. Still, children are treated as an obstacle to personal happiness—too expensive, too much work, bad for the environment, irresponsible. Simply put, reproductive technologies like birth control, assisted reproduction, and abortion have changed our reproductive ideas. Specifically, we now have the illusion that the choice is ours, and we are in control primarily of our own happiness. Though certainly not every parent prior to the twentieth century felt ready or excited for a pregnancy, there was more to the equation than: "Will this make me happy?" Children are ends in and of themselves, not means. Our happiness is not, ultimately, what children are for . They are made in the image of God, made by God for the good and care of the world, made for the time and place in which they are conceived, made to love, live for, and to glorify God. Every parent knows that children bring intense joy, and can be the source of intense pain (not to mention anxiety ). This makes marriage a gift from God as the context for children. Marriage and children go together . When God blesses a marriage with children, He makes a choice that isn't really ours to make. Relinquishing our cultural grip on control, and the supposed need to always "explore all of our options," is a common grace of parenthood. A.W. Tozer tells a story about two fields: one uncultivated and one that's put to the plow: The fallow field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of the plow. But it is paying a terrible price for its tranquility; never does it feel the motions of mounting life… The cultivated field has yielded itself to the adventure of living … it has been upset, turned over, bruised and broken. But its rewards come hard upon its labors. Nature's wonders follow the plow. Though we don't have children in the self interest of our own joy, God in His kindness brings incredible joy through parenthood. It's a joy only accomplished by man and woman together, unrivaled in any other human experience. That's grace on grace.
May 27, 2021
A Gallup poll released earlier this month documented a massive 20-year drop in church attendance in America. So far, there have been two responses to it. One group mourns the decline of organized religion because religion is good for society, whether or not the religion is true. For example, Jewish commentator Matthew Yglesias wrote on Twitter, "[I] think I'm becoming a Straussian/Putnamist who instrumentally wants to get everyone to go to church." (He was referring to two socio-political theorists who emphasized the value of Christianity as a social institution.) As Mark Tooley of the Institute for Religion and Democracy noted in a tweet , churches have always been crucial to the project of self-government, teaching people to love their neighbors, and training them in the qualities "needed for wider society" such as "compromise, sacrifice, grace, mercy, patience, [and] humility." Even arch-atheist Richard Dawkins has, in his words, "mixed feelings about the decline of Christianity" since, he warned his fellow un believers , "it might be a bulwark against something worse." Others, especially many believers, have a different reaction to record-low church attendance. They see this as not as the demise of true faith, but of "cultural Christianity." And, they add, good riddance to it. The reasoning goes like this: False believers who went to church because it was the social thing to do are now leaving since faith is no longer advantageous. True believers remain, and are now easier to distinguish within the wider culture. Among this school of thought are well-known evangelical pastors and leaders. As one tweeted : "Cultural Christianity is worse than no Christianity at all … Let nominal religion fall. Let the gospel rise." Another wrote: "If cultural Christianity means identifying as a Christian without fruit or praxis then secularism may be God wiping this malaise away." Still another declared: "Cultural Christianity is dying. Either you are a Christian or not. No faking it anymore." So, which view is right? Is the exodus of worshipers from pews a bad sign of our thinning social fabric? Or is it a good sign that the dross is being skimmed, revealing a smaller but purer Church? The choice is a false one. While Christianity is certainly more than a set of theological beliefs and the custom of sincere worship practices, it can never be less . So, just getting people back in church is not merely an "instrumental" good. This, to quote C. S. Lewis' observation in The Screwtape Letters , treats Christianity as a means, rather than an end: "Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of Heaven as a short cut to the nearest chemist's shop." It is the devil's goal, to get people to embrace Christianity "not because it's true, but for some other reason." Christianity does show itself to the world, as the love of Christ reflects outwardly through His people. True Christianity will change how people think, behave, and relate to each other. As a result, Christianity often reforms a society, rescuing the oppressed, establishing justice, innovating goodness and beauty, and building cultural and political institutions. These good things result because Christianity is true, and because people really believe and live out of a framework of creation, incarnation, forgiveness, restoration, and resurrection. When the good things Christianity brings to the world decline, it reveals far more about the state of the church than the state of the world. So, the news that most Americans no longer attend church regularly is not good news for the church or for the world, and there will be huge cultural consequences for generations to come. The only way forward is, as ever, for Christ's followers to treat the faith as if it is true, and more than a means of self-improvement or social reform.
May 26, 2021
John and Shane field questions ranging from how an adult can love her family that is challenging her decision not to vaccinate. The adult's brothers and sisters are saying she doesn't love her parents well because of her decision. John and Shane discuss the ongoing false dichotomies our culture creates. John then responds to concern from parents regarding their adult son who is currently living with his girlfriend. The girlfriend isn't a follower of Jesus and said she wants to "test drive" living together before entering marriage. John and Shane provide encouragement for the parents as they navigate challenging waters. To close Shane asks John for some grade school Sunday school resources on behalf of a budding worldview teacher. John gives a pathway for the teacher to provide a good base of worldview training for the students.
May 26, 2021
Many of us recognize how important religious freedom is in the world, but some think advocating for religious liberty compromises our Christian witness. We're excited to partner with our friends at the Alliance Defending Freedom in a six part series on religious liberty. It's part of our What Would You Say? video project. Here's the audio from the most recent video that was released just this morning. You're in a conversation and someone says, "Standing up for religious liberty is bad for Christian witness. After all, aren't Christians supposed to turn the other cheek?" What would you say? Sometimes people think that Christians who advocate for religious liberty do so at the cost of their Christian witness. They assume that defending religious freedom is motivated by fear, and distracts from the gospel. Since Christians are supposed to be fearless and self-sacrificial, doesn't defending religious liberty compromise our Christian witness? No, and here are three reasons why. Number one, religious freedom is not a social construct. It reflects what is true about us as humans. Religious liberty isn't an invention of America's Founding Fathers. It's a pre-political God-given right. All people have the right given by God to peaceably live according to our convictions without fear of unjust punishment and restrictions from kings, presidents and city councils. To be sure, governments don't always recognize religious freedom, but their failure to do so only highlights that religious liberty is a natural right given by God, not a privilege given to the people by a benevolent ruler. This is part of what it means to be made in God's image and to have the law of God written on our hearts. We know intrinsically that to be free to worship God according to our own convictions, our neighbors need to be allowed to do the same. Even if we think they're wrong. Standing up for religious liberty is part of our Christian witness. Religious freedom is rooted in the truth about who we are as image bearers. Telling the truth about how we were made will never get in the way of the Gospel. Number two, religious freedom is an ancient and central part of Christian teaching, from the Apostle Paul to the Catholic catechism to the Westminster Confession, Christianity has long taught that everyone should be free to worship and share their beliefs. In fact, religious freedom shows up in the earliest teachings of the Christian church. A third century church father wrote, "It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion." The early fourth-century edict of Milan, issued by Christian Emperor Constantine, opened the door to statewide religious freedom by ensuring that the government could no longer demand religious conformity. These early Christian teachings are based in the words of Christ Himself, who insisted that all His followers must choose Him freely, from the bottom of their hearts. Sometimes Christian communities have failed to respect religious freedom, but that does not change the reality that religious freedom is interwoven with the basic teachings of the church. These early Christians understood that they had a sacred responsibility to uphold their neighbors' religious freedom, and that responsibility carries over to us today. Number three, standing up for religious liberty is a way to love our neighbor. Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor. If Christians truly love our neighbors, we should work to create the best society we can, where the government honors God-given rights and respects the God-ordained dignity of every person. Study after study has shown a direct correlation between societies that are healthy, prosperous and respect human rights, and societies that respect religious freedom. In 2018, Pew Research Center found that the nations with the most religious freedom also tend to protect free speech and freedom of conscience. Nations that restrict religious freedom like Iran and Chinarestrict other basic rights as well. Religious freedom leads to greater prosperity, too. A study found that in the U.S. alone, religious individuals and organizations contribute more than $1.2 trillion dollars to the economy. Economist Arthur Brooks found that religious people who practice their faith, that is people who say that their faith is a significant part of their lives, are 25% more likely to donate to charity than secularists or people who rarely attend church. And they are 23% more likely to volunteer their time serving others. Standing up for religious freedom is about upholding the common good according to God's word. It is quite simply a way for us to love our neighbor as Christ commanded us. So the next time someone says that standing up for religious liberty is bad for our Christian witness, remember these three things: Number one, religious freedom is not a social construct. It reflects what is true about us as humans. Number two, religious freedom is an ancient and central part of Christian teaching. Number three, standing up for religious liberty is a way to love our neighbor. Our What Would You Say? team continues to put out incredible content answering some of the most critical questions of our cultural moment from a Christian worldview. What you just read was part of a partnership with our friends at the Alliance Defending Freedom. To watch the whole video, and to share it, visit YouTube's What Would You Say? Colson Center video channel.
May 25, 2021
TikTok is a social media platform created in China, best known for dance videos. Its parent company, in fact, is called ByteDance. Still, like so much of social media, TikTok has grown far beyond what its creators intended or thought possible. For example, TikTok has become a home for Christian evangelism and discipleship. That's somewhat ironic, given China's intensifying war against Christianity and somewhat unexpected, given the lack of clarity about how much control Beijing asserts over the platform. Still, according to the "influencer marketing firm" Traackr, "Christian TikTok . . . drove more than 169 million engagements in 2020." About 1,800 Christian "influencers'' are active on the platform, Traackr estimates, and that number is growing. Christian TikTok is especially big in Mexico and Latin America, reports Vice , where millions of viewers have made the platform "the go-to place for a religious dose." Dose, by the way, is not a bad word for what TikTok offers. With few exceptions, videos on the platform cannot exceed 60 seconds. On average, that means Christian influencers have only about 150 words to give viewers "content, intimate prayers, and empathetic counseling." That's not a criticism of those who wish to use TikTok and other social media platforms like it to spread the Good News, but it should be a warning. Whether influencers realize it or not, there's a long and storied history of Christians, especially evangelicals, using new technologies to preach the Gospel and advance the Christian faith. The most obvious example is the printing press. The first book ever published with movable type was the Bible in 1455. By 1500, an estimated 8 million books had been printed in Europe, most of which were religious texts . Throughout the Reformation, which began less than 70 years after the invention of movable type, new communications technologies allowed reformers to make an "end run" around ecclesiastical authorities and directly appeal to the growing and increasingly literate middle class. Two hundred years later, the explosion of newspapers played a central role in spreading reports of conversions during what came to be called "The Great Awakening ." These reports not only tracked the travel of evangelist George Whitefield and the scope of the revival, they created interest and anticipation about where it might go next. And, of course, there are numerous twentieth century examples, from Charles Fuller to Billy Graham to Jerry Falwell, involving radio, television, satellite technology, and the internet. The fall of communism and the rise of televangelists can both be traced to the use of communication technology by evangelicals to spread the Gospel message. So, the use of a new platform like TikTok is right in line with a story that goes way back in church history. Yet, the same history reveals the limitations of certain technologies, especially in the areas of discipleship and catechesis. After all, as Marshall McLuhan taught us, the medium is the message. The message is not just the what , it's the how . And, the fullness of "abundant life in Christ" can't really be contained in a tweet. For example, social scientists use the term " parasocial relationship " to describe the illusion of friendship and intimacy that develops between viewers and personalities on social media or television. It's an illusion because reciprocity is impossible in these mediums. That's not to say anything insincere or sinister is necessarily going on ( although it may be ), only that virtual connections are not substitutes for friends and mentors. Jesus not only taught His disciples, He shared life with them: meals, hardships, joys, conflict, sorrows, jealousy, etc. His command to them to "love one another as I have loved you" is the ultimate call to reciprocity. Reciprocity required physical presence, something impossible in a parasocial relationship. The key lesson here is to allow new technologies to do what they can do, but not expect them to do what they cannot do. The internet can disperse sermons and teaching materials like no other platform the world has ever seen. It cannot, as we've learned through COVID, be the kind of gathering place required for church. TikTok is great for challenging people with truth. It isn't sufficient for the Christian tasks of fully giving the reason for the hope we have, or loving our neighbors as ourself, or bearing one another's burdens, or mourning with those who mourn, or becoming more like Christ. The really hard work of making disciples must be done, as they say online, "IRL," or in real life .
May 24, 2021
A Christian worldview offers dignity to women that's not found in any other worldview in human history. Author Rebecca McLaughlin spoke about this at Wilberforce Weekend and shared these thoughts at a special Strong Women podcast episode recorded at the conference. You can listen here . Here is an excerpt from Rebecca's talk: Sometimes marriage and motherhood are celebrated at the expense of all other things God calls women to do. Some say a woman's highest calling is to be a wife and a mother. But a woman's highest calling is really to follow Jesus. Some are called to do that as wives. Some are called to follow Him as a wife and mother, and some are called to follow Him as single people. The Bible gives us an elevated view of both modes. We Christians have tended to downplay or denigrate singleness in order to elevate marriage. But the negative contrast to marriage isn't singleness. It's having multiple partners in non-monogamous sexual relationships. An important piece of the puzzle, therefore, is actually those women who are called to follow Jesus as singles. I have always been a little surprised that I got married. Part of me feels single on the inside. I love my husband. It's just that the Lord could have pulled me in a different direction. The relational aspect is as true and important for men as it is for women. Part of how we are made in God's image and how we roll out His kingdom is in relating to each other in ways that flow out of the kind of love Jesus has for us. It's in relationships in which we recognize that the other person is made in God's image, and someone for whom Jesus died. How we relate to other people is so important. The creative piece applies in terms of creating new humans, which men and women do together. It applies in terms of all the other spheres in which we use our skills, gifts, experience, and hard work. To listen to the rest of Rebecca McLaughlin's talk on the Strong Women podcast , download the episode on your favorite podcast app. Rebecca's full talk at Wilberforce Weekend will be available as part of our online Wilberforce Weekend offering (included are all the video sessions plus some special online-only sessions). The online platform is available for only $49. To purchase it, please visit wilberforceweekend.org/online.
May 21, 2021
John and Maria discuss a recent retort by Harvard's Cornell West to Howard University's decision to dissolve their classics department. They also discuss how the federal government's actions to expand unemployment benefits is playing out in the marketplace. To close the first segment, Maria asks John to comment further on a recent action by Sweden to remove puberty blocking medications from the approved treatment of gender dysphoria. John and Maria then discuss the role of women in ministry, an issue that became a hot topic recently after Saddleback Church welcomed a few women to their staff as pastors. Reactions from within the Southern Baptist Convention have many wondering about the way culture shapes our understanding of Scripture. John provides clarity in presenting a Christian worldview response that reflects God's communicated design for the role of pastor in the church. John then speaks to a recent decision by the Supreme Court to hear a case involving abortion laws and state's rights, offering a picture of the role of government and the responsibility of Christians in understanding the purpose and design of government. To close, John responds to a recent Christianity Today article that challenged where religious freedom protections are found. John and Maria share critique on the article, calling listeners to understand the Christian view of freedom.
May 21, 2021
In a recent article in Christianity Today , Judd Birdsall of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University analyzed the differences between how the Biden Administration has handled religious liberty concerns so far, and how his predecessor did. The article provides a critical lesson in how religious freedom is so often misunderstood , both in terms of the relationship between church and state and in terms of conscience rights across the board. First, there's the seriousness of the issue. Birdsall, in arguing that the State Department under President Trump had exaggerated claims of global religious oppression, described the different ways that the data can be measured and reported. This seems a strange statement to make. As a friend said to me in response to the article, "Whether it's 80% of the world's population or it's 56 nations that are in trouble, it is still a huge problem." Birdsall also took issue with tone and tenor difference between Trump officials and Biden officials, claiming that the previous administration was too boastful about its commitment to religious liberty. Instead, wrote Birdsall, America should be known for "not only a higher level of respect for religious freedom but also more honesty about shortcomings and actively addressing them." There's nothing in this statement I'd disagree with. But the answer doesn't hinge solely on humility without international action. Nor humility without acknowledging national shortcomings when it comes to restricting the religious freedoms of our own citizens. In the wake of the nationalism, totalitarianism, and religious-based oppression of the last several decades, we should acknowledge and celebrate the fact that the U.S. government finally put the first freedom at the forefront of its international relationships. In contrast,the Biden administration so far has followed the Obama administration's second-term tack in placing LGBTQ and abortion access concerns front and center in international dealings. A more humble government would stop targeting and restricting the conscience rights of private business owners like Jack Phillips and Barronelle Stutzman, or religious institutions like Christian colleges and orders of nuns. Birdsall accurately traces the history of these two competing views of religious liberty. The first he calls "The First Freedom" view, based on the place of religious freedom within the Bill of Rights. The other he calls "the Article 18" view, based on the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights definition of religious freedom. In the former view, religious freedom is the first freedom. It's the basis for many other freedoms essential for human and social flourishing. In the latter view, spiritual things are protected as a matter of personal choice, and it might be necessary to defer religious freedom to other human rights. Birdsall admits that the Biden administration holds an "Article 18" view of freedom, seeing religious liberty as something to be worked out in light of other freedoms, especially sexual freedom. That view is opposed right in the very first issue of Christianity Today in an article written by its founding editor, Carl Henry. Henry pondered the fragile basis for freedom in the West, arguing that champions of liberty far too often argued for it on a secular, individualistic basis. For Henry, this was woefully insufficient. The only hope for maintaining liberty, he thought, was for us to reorient ourselves to "the proper foundations of freedom." Religious liberty is properly understood as the first freedom, not as a mere side effect of other freeedoms. It guarantees other proper rights of citizens, religious or not, because it is based upon a particular vision of the kind of creatures we citizens are. In particular, that we do not belong—either in mind or body—to the state or to a particular interest group. We belong, in our consciences, to God. Any other basis of freedom subjects all freedoms to death by a thousand qualifications. To borrow from St. Anselm , there is an ontological primacy to religious freedom because itrelativizes the consistent but vain attempts of the state to claim preeminence. Of course it's true that God really does reign above all earthly powers , but you don't even have to believe that to know that without robust protections for religious freedom, all of our other rights will have no higher court of appeal than whomever currently holds the keys of power.
May 20, 2021
The road to hell, paved with good intentions, leads to some unpleasant travelling companions. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. This is BreakPoint. According to a recent article in World magazine , several Australian states have initiated or expanded the practice of euthanasia "down under." Similar measures were expanded across the Tasman by New Zealand last year, and across the globe in Spain , but failed in Portugal . Canada 's death laws are being expanded through appeals to allow the mentally ill to die, while Holland and Belgium are still racing to see how far this road actually goes. Here at home, ten U.S. states have "death with dignity" laws. Every one of these laws advances by an appeal to compassion. It is merciful, we are told, to allow the ill to end their pain in death. Denying death to those who suffer robs human beings of their innate dignity and our future of " a happier world ." Death can be, the rhetoric goes, a gift of love . Couched in explicitly moral terms, euthanasia is offered as the only ethical choice, opposite of heartlessness and cruelty . The word games played in the euthanasia debate would be impressive if they weren't so evil. Words such as "illness," "pain," "compassion," "mercy," and "dignity," are moving targets. It's the same game played by some of the worst villains in history. The movie Ich Klage An (or "I Accuse" in English) was released in German in 1941. In the film, the accused is a society and legal system that refuses to let a young woman die. Hanna Heyt, who suffers greatly from MS, wishes to end her pain. Her doctor refuses but her scientist husband complies. He's brought to trial for murder, only to level his own accusation against society for its heartlessness in the face of needless agony. With a few stylistic edits and updated production, one could easily imagine this compassionate appeal for "death with dignity" hitting a theater or streaming service today. It's all there: a fresh young face full of promise shackled by an incurable disease, making an earnest plea for a merciful end to her suffering. A husband's compassionate struggle to aid his loved one in getting what she wants, offering wise and carefully nuanced counsel to the resisting authorities. The anguished husband's accusation hits not just the judges, but an entire culture's supposedly cold heart. Ich Klage An was produced at the behest of the infamous Joseph Goebbels and his Nazi Ministry of Propaganda, with the goal of selling his new euthanasia program for the chronically ill and disabled. It worked. The movie was so compelling, the Allies banned it in 1945 for its role in enabling the Holocaust. Our idea of Nazi propaganda is probably more the goose-stepping hyenas in The Lion King but, as one commentator put it: … Ich Klage An comes across as a well-made, balanced melodrama. Unlike other propaganda films made during the time, there is little Nazi imagery or rhetoric. Yet dig a little deeper, it soon becomes apparent just how slyly and insidiously it pushes active euthanasia. The film and regime's same utilitarian view of human dignity advances so-called "death with dignity" laws in our age. And, like the German extermination initiatives, these laws expand every time they are tried . The debate begins with those near death, and quickly expands to those who are terminal, then to those with incurable disease, then to those with permanent conditions, then to the disabled, and finally to the depressed and mentally ill. First, consent is required. Then, it is implied. Finally, it is unnecessary. Those who advance euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide laws should have to demonstrate how their arguments differ from Nazi propaganda. If they don't, it's time to ask hard questions about this movement expanding so quickly around the world.
May 19, 2021
John and Shane field a question from a listener who is wondering how to not only build a theology of being fired, but how he can evangelize his friends to build a theology of being fired. Shane then reads a question from a listener who responded to a BreakPoint podcast who was disappointed with how John approached dead naming. The piece was about Ellen Page, who now goes by Elliot Page. John provides and understanding for the listener, and shares his appreciation to handle relationships appropriately. Finally, John responds to a question from a listener who desires to wrestle with racial issues, specifically in his church, without succumbing to Critical Race Theory.
May 19, 2021
John and Shane field a question from a listener who is wondering how to not only build a theology of being fired, but how he can evangelize his friends to build a theology of being fired. Shane then reads a question from a listener who responded to a BreakPoint podcast who was disappointed with how John approached dead naming. The piece was about Ellen Page, who now goes by Elliot Page. John provides and understanding for the listener, and shares his appreciation to handle relationships appropriately. Finally, John responds to a question from a listener who desires to wrestle with racial issues, specifically in his church, without succumbing to Critical Race Theory.
May 19, 2021
In the book River Out of Eden , Oxford biologist and atheist superstar Richard Dawkins famously wrote: "The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference." Dawkins and other "new atheists" have long insisted that science has excluded the possibility of a creator or has, at least, rendered it unnecessary. Turns out this belief may be scientifically out of date. According to a new book, the biggest discoveries of the last century challenge a materialistic worldview and call science back to its theistic roots. Cambridge-educated philosopher of science Stephen Meyer wrote two books, Signature in the Cell and Darwin's Doubt , that both argue against materialist accounts of biology. His latest book, The Return of the God Hypothesis , makes an even more ambitious claim. Three key twentieth century discoveries, argue Meyer, challenge materialist assumptions and point, not just to an intelligent designer, but to a transcendent God. He recently joined my colleague Shane Morris on the Upstream podcast to talk about the book. Not only were most of the founders of modern science devout Christians, the scientific method itself emerged from assumptions found only in a Christian worldview, such as the intelligibility of nature and the need to constantly test our fallen intuitions against the facts. Tracing science from its theistic beginnings, Meyer shows how it gradually lost its way and became tethered to materialism. Famed scientists like Laplace, Hume, and Darwin came to believe that the "God hypothesis" was no longer necessary to explain the natural world, that the universe required no cause beyond itself. Given the opportunity and enough time, living things could arise and evolve on their own. Since the conditions for life were simple and the universe had existed from eternity, here we are. These assumptions went largely unchallenged until the twentieth century. However, breakthroughs in astronomy, physics, and biology began to undermine materialism. For example, telescopes began to challenge the proponents (Einstein being one) of a steady-state universe. More and more evidence mounted that the universe was, in fact, not eternal, as many scientists had long assumed. If instead the universe came into being at some point in time, it must have had a cause outside of itself, To be clear, there must be a cause outside of space, time, matter, and energy. Another discovery was how finely tuned the universe is. The very laws that govern the cosmos, such as gravity, electromagnetism, nuclear forces, and the cosmological constant, are precisely calibrated in such a way that makes life possible. There's not a compelling way to explain this "Goldilocks universe," one "just right" that could have been otherwise, within a naturalistic worldview. As English astronomer and former atheist Fred Hoyle put it, "A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics…" And then, there's the discovery Meyer has already devoted two other books to exploring: Materialists long thought that Darwin's theory was a silver bullet against design arguments. Darwin, however, knew nothing about DNA, the inner structure of the cell, or the crucial role information plays in the existence and propagation of life. The more we learn about them, the more outdated this "God is no longer necessary" hypothesis seems to be. Simply put, Dawkins got it wrong. The universe we live in has properties one would expect if it were, in fact, designed by a God who had us in mind when He made the place. As Myer's book shows, this assumption was an original conviction of many who launched and drove the scientific revolution. It's the conviction of a growing number of scientists today who are willing to challenge the powers that be and admit the design they see in the heavens, the laws of nature, and under the microscope. As Meyer puts it, "The evidence is crying out for a God hypothesis." Come to BreakPoint.org and we'll tell you how to get a copy of Stephen Meyer's The Return of the God Hypothesis . We'll also link you to his conversation with Shane Morris on the Upstream podcast.
May 18, 2021
Emilie Kao is the director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. She is presenting at the Wilberforce Weekend. She will share her passion for protecting and defending the rights of children and how her campaign reflects the image of God. Emilie has defended religious freedom for the last 14 years. Kao has worked on behalf of victims of religious freedom violations in East Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South Asia at the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom and Becket Law. Previously, she worked at the United Nations and Latham and Watkins. Kao also taught international human rights law at George Mason University Law School as an adjunct law professor. She earned an A.B. degree in Near Eastern Civilizations and Languages at Harvard-Radcliffe College and a J.D. at Harvard Law School. Kao is a member of the Supreme Court Bar and the bar associations of California and the District of Columbia.
May 18, 2021
Emilie Kao is the director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. She is presenting at the Wilberforce Weekend. She will share her passion for protecting and defending the rights of children and how her campaign reflects the image of God. Emilie has defended religious freedom for the last 14 years. Kao has worked on behalf of victims of religious freedom violations in East Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South Asia at the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom and Becket Law. Previously, she worked at the United Nations and Latham and Watkins. Kao also taught international human rights law at George Mason University Law School as an adjunct law professor. She earned an A.B. degree in Near Eastern Civilizations and Languages at Harvard-Radcliffe College and a J.D. at Harvard Law School. Kao is a member of the Supreme Court Bar and the bar associations of California and the District of Columbia.
May 18, 2021
In 2018, comedian John Mulaney closed out his opening monologue as host of Saturday Night Live with this quip about one of the strangest new normals today which didn't exist just a few years ago: "You spend a lot of your day telling a robot that you're not a robot." Artificial intelligence is one of the new normals of contemporary life. Every time we access data on the web, every customer service call we make, every ordering process we start involves not just using, but communicating with, a machine. Smart phones, smart cars, smart networks—artificial minds are now the gatekeepers of information, transportation, and commerce. In sci-fi, the story always ends with computers evolving past and outclassing human minds. Sometimes they're dangerous; sometimes they're helpful; and sometimes, most unsettlingly, they cannot be differentiated from humans. Lurking behind the fantasy is an important question: What happens if we create something that's smarter than us? Still, computer engineers and neuroscientists continue to push science fiction to science fact. The problem with these efforts, a recent article in the online magazine Salon notes, is that the quest for artificial intelligence tends to "treat intelligence computationally." Attempts to recreate and even surpass the computational abilities of the human brain have succeeded. Computers can now play games and analyze images faster and better than humans. At the same time, there's real doubt as to whether machines are anywhere near matching wits with their creators. According to a piece last year in The Guardian , "Despite the vast number of facts being accumulated, our understanding of the brain appears to be approaching an impasse." It's estimated that about 95 percent of brain activity involves what are called spontaneous fluctuations , or neural impulses, independent of both conscious thought and outside influence. That's a problem that shuts machines down. As the Salon piece puts it, "For computers, spontaneous fluctuations create errors that crash the system, while for our brains, it's a built-in feature." Uniquely human thought arises from this chaos, unpredictable and unreproducible. What we think of as intelligence—reason, logic, and processing—may instead be the end result of consciousness, not the means of achieving it. While Salon's analysis is helpful, it misses something essential. Their analysis assumes that the mind and the brain are identical, that there's nothing more to our minds than "meat." While this is a common assumption of a naturalistic worldview, it's a worldview that will never be big enough to explain human cognition, much less motivation and behavior. David Gelernter's analysis , given 20 years ago after the chess playing program Deep Blue beat the world's top player, says it better: How can an object that wants nothing, fears nothing, enjoys nothing, needs nothing and cares about nothing have a mind? … What are its apres-match plans if it beats Kasparov? Is it hoping to take Deep Pink out for a night on the town? It doesn't care about chess or anything else. It plays the game for the same reason a calculator adds or a toaster toasts: because it is a machine designed for that purpose. Or as philosopher Mortimer Adler noted over thirty years ago : "[T]he brain is not the organ of thought … an immaterial factor in the human mind is required." We've made great strides in understanding certain elements of our biology as well as our ability to imitate certain behaviors with machines. But, it's just that. Only an imitation. As Gelernter put it, "Computers do what we make them do, period. However sophisticated the computer's performance, it will always be a performance." The more we learn of the brain and of human consciousness, the more it affirms that humans are not just meaty machines.
May 17, 2021
This year marks the 150th anniversary of The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex . In this particular book, Charles Darwin addressed the questions he raised about human beings in his earlier book On the Origin of Species , specifically "whether man, like every other species, is descended from some pre-existing form . . ." Not surprisingly, Darwin's answer was "yes." At that time, in 1871, genetics as we understand it now was completely unknown. Even paleontology was still in its infancy as a field of science. So, Darwin's work was, essentially, speculation based on very limited physical evidence. Darwin's successors were to find the evidence needed to support his conclusion. That task, as it turns out, hasn't gone all that well. At least that's the conclusion of a recent study published in the journal Science . Researchers from The American Museum of Natural History conducted the study and summed up its findings with this devastating headline: "Most Human Origins Stories Are Not Compatible with Known Fossils." According to the study's lead author, "When you look at the narrative for hominin [bipedal apes including modern humans] it's just a big mess—there's no consensus whatsoever … People are working under completely different paradigms." In other words, multiple explanations for human origins are all held as true, but many are incompatible and contradictory. They simply can't all be true. The problem is not a shortage of fossils. It's that, as the article put it, "many of these fossils show … combinations of features that do not match expectations for ancient representatives of the modern ape and human lineages." In other words, the fossils are so different that they cannot be ancestors of modern primates, much less human beings. And, this isn't just the reality when it comes to human evolution. As my colleague Shane Morris noted, "The more you look at the tidy evolutionary stories linking one group of organisms to another, the more you see this same pattern unfold." To be clear, this sort of thing just shouldn't happen in any scientific field. It certainly doesn't happen in other fields, at least not to this degree. The real-world "mess" described in the article flatly contradicts the unshakeable confidence that often characterizes naturalistic evolutionary statements about human origins. Almost every pronouncement ends with some version of "The science is clear about this," a sort of materialist equivalent of "Thus saith the Lord!" When asked how we can know that the current evolutionary narrative is true, scientist explainers quickly point to the fossil record and our nearest animal relatives, the great apes. However, as this study in the journal Science points out, the actual physical evidence for what the late philosopher Michael Stove has called " fables of evolution " is in scant supply. Given the lack of actual physical evidence, a bit more humility is in order. Paleontology isn't like physics or chemistry where the proof is in the laboratory pudding. There is ample physical evidence that it's called the atomic bomb. The best paleontology has to offer is an inference to the best explanation, with "best" being a relative term and (should be) subject to change depending on the state of the evidence. Bluntly, the evidence simply does not warrant the level of confidence that often accompanies Darwinian explanations of human origins. It certainly doesn't warrant what Michael Stove called the "calumny" that reduces human beings to little more than lucky apes, or even less. To their credit, the authors of this study on the science of human origins, just in time for the 150th anniversary of Darwin's book on human origins, acknowledge the state of evidence and admit the "mess." Darwinian evangelists should do the same.
May 15, 2021
John and Maria discuss the rising tensions in the Middle East. They explain some of the finer points related to the conflict and why it requires sober thinking and a worldview big enough for the world. Maria then asks John for greater context on a number of stories from the week, and they discuss the sad state of many in the transgender community through the lens of a recent interview Ellen Page conducted with Oprah. John also provides additional commentary on a new movement calling some Christians to leave their churches. The movement is called the #LeaveLoud movement, and it urges people to leave churches they don't feel are encouraging them specifically related to race.
May 14, 2021
For the last several years, China has become more aggressive to both the outside world and to its own people, particularly the people of Hong Kong , the Muslim Uyghur population , and, of course, Christians . While other countries may rank higher on Open Doors' "World Watch List," the economic might, global clout, and sheer population size of China make its treatment of religious minorities a matter of enormous concern. The history behind this growing and troubling reality was one that forged the life, testimony, and word of Pastor Bob Fu. Next weekend, Pastor Fu will become the latest recipient of the William Wilberforce Award, a recognition established by Chuck Colson to honor modern day heroes committed to Christ and just causes as was the famous British abolitionist. Pastor Fu is founder and president of ChinaAid , a Christian "human rights organization committed to promoting religious freedom and the rule of law in China." ChinaAid works to expose systemic persecution, harassment, torture, and imprisonment of Chinese Christians and human rights lawyers in China. It offers financial support to Chinese Christians persecuted by the Chinese government, and training for Christians and church leaders in China to help them defend their rights. Pastor Fu was to be recognized a year ago at the Wilberforce Weekend. That event, like every other live event of 2020, was a casualty of Covid-19. I wish that somehow, through God's gracious working in that difficult nation, Pastor Fu's life and work would've become less relevant to the headlines. Instead, the work of ChinaAid is more important than ever. In fact, when you think of Pastor Fu, the biblical phrase, "for such a time as this," should come to mind. Still, Bob Fu never intended that this would be his life. Born in Shandong Province to a disabled father and beggar mother , Pastor Fu fully intended to join the Communist Party after graduation and become a government official. God, however, had other plans. An American professor gave Pastor Fu a biography of a Chinese intellectual convert to Christianity that, he told the Wall Street Journal, "changed my life." After graduation, Fu and his wife Heidi became active in the house church movement. They even established a Bible school, using chairs he borrowed from a Communist Party school where he taught. The Communist Party didn't quite share Fu's sense of irony. He and his wife were jailed. Then, about a year after their release from jail, Heidi became pregnant with their second child. Because the one-child policy was still being vigorously enforced in China, they emigrated to Hong Kong which, at the time, was still under British rule. Fu was granted political asylum by the Clinton Administration in 1997. Just as the persecution of the Church has, at times throughout history, led to the unintended spreading of the Gospel, Pastor Fu's forced emigration expanded his impact. From his base of operations in west Texas, Fu operates what the Wall Street Journal has called "the most influential network of human-rights activists, underground Christians and freedom fighters in China." In fact, some of what ChinaAid has accomplished is the stuff of movies, including smuggling human rights lawyers and their families out of the country to safety . Through it all, Pastor Fu has earned a fitting nickname: "the pastor of China's underground railroad." The Colson Center is pleased to recognize the life, the work, the courage, and the testimony of Pastor Bob Fu, and to present him as the William Wilberforce Award recipient at the Wilberforce Weekend next week. If you aren't able to join us in person, we invite you to attend our online offering which features all of the sessions from the weekend, plus some additional online-only content, all for only $49. For more information, visit www.wilberforceweekend.org/online
May 13, 2021
Last fall, the Black Lives Matter organization quietly deleted a section of its website in which it professed an intention to: "disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement." The statement was removed after public backlash, but the sentiment behind the statement seems to endure among some activists. Earlier this week, The National Council on Family Relations hosted a webinar entitled "Toward Dismantling Family Privilege and White Supremacy in Family Science." According to researchers, structures of public life in the United States—such as government support, healthcare, and education—that implicitly advantage nuclear families (two people committed to by marriage raising children) disadvantage other family arrangements. For these scholars, this is an example of privilege rooted in white supremacy. These scholars are correct in noting that families with a married mom and dad raising their children tend to fare better. In fact, kids with married parents are far less likely to experience poverty, social problems, emotional problems, and even incarceration . The problem is why these outcomes exist. A Christian worldview contends that these benefits are inherent to a nuclear family because it is God's design for the family. Stronger bonds, better social outcomes, better health, and higher rates of happiness are more common in the context of these relationships because that is how He created humans to do life together. Within a worldview that sees everything in terms of oppressor/oppression, these outcomes must be the results of a system that advantages some and disadvantages others. This increasingly influential worldview is derived from Marxist philosophy, which denies the idea of a given "human nature." Human behavior, Marx believed, is determined by the structures (particularly the economic structures) of a society. These structures tend to be oppressive. So, if the nuclear family tends to be the given arrangement of the bourgeoisie, it is bad by definition and oppresses other arrangements. What's not considered are the implications if there is such a design to human relationships, given by our Creator. For example, the nuclear family works for the good of women . No amount of webinars on "dismantling family privilege" can erase the fact that women exclusively bear children and women are disproportionately disadvantaged when families break down and they are left to care for children on their own. Why would these webinar scholars want to disadvantage women on purpose? Of course, those who wish to "dismantle" the nuclear family would agree that women raising children need support. If the most natural and obvious source of that support is old-fashioned, oppressive and dismantled, then this support must come from somewhere else. Obviously then, this becomes the state: a disastrously poor substitute for family. This reminds me of a progressive woman who tweeted: "If abortion is illegal then men abandoning their child should also be illegal. If this was a permanent decision for me then it is for you as a father also." To which someone replied : "Congratulations, you invented marriage." Eliminating families as antiquated or even (somehow) racist is not merely illogical for pragmatic reasons. It's cultural suicide. It's an idea that sociologist and philosopher Philip Rieff might call a "deathwork," one that exclusively tears down . It cannot build anything. It offers nothing in place of the family. Accordingly, we can and must distinguish between helping those in tragic family situations and incentivizing these situations as "alternative family arrangements." The answer is to recognize the truth about reality, truth that is available not only in Scripture but in everything we know about how families function and work. The goal is to do family better and to welcome more people into it, not to dismantle it. The Church should be the loudest voice celebrating and defending marriage and the family as God intended it. To do so is not to make an idol of it, as some claim, but to point to what is true and good. The church of today lives by lies when it pretends that God's design isn't important. We can celebrate this very good gift of God while also encouraging and supporting single parents and children in other situations. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Indeed, we must.
May 12, 2021
John and Shane field a listener response to a BreakPoint Shane authored last week. The BreakPoint discussed problematic points for Christians inside a new trend of casual sex in the Christian community. John and Shane go point-by-point to provide a strong Christian worldview foundation to the listener's concerns. Shane then presents a sobering topic from a listener who is looking for encouragement as her daughter is expressing gender dysphoria. John provides helpful resources for a growing community inside the church, and Shane closes their response in a time of prayer for the specific mother and daughter as well as those who are facing this challenging issue. To close, John invites Shane to revisit a piece on Christians and media consumption. A listener writes in to ask if there is a problem in the church when a pastor finds recreation in watching a Netflix series that celebrates infidelity and leads his church to abhor the practice. -- RESOURCES -- Alliance Defending Freedom Story From Mother Pulling Daughter Out of School Due to Transgender Ideologies Helena Kerschner - Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria at Q Ideas with Gabe Lyons
May 12, 2021
For the first time since the Gallup organization started to track the data, fewer than 50% of Americans now belong to a church, synagogue or mosque . Behind these numbers are, among other factors, the trendiness of not only leaving church, but announcing it on social media with a bit of shaming and blaming thrown in for good measure . And many are not only leaving a particular house of worship but joining a growing demographic known as the "nones," rejecting all religious affiliation. The Christian version of those who grew up in the church but have become "nones" often go by another label: "exvangelicals." Sometimes, these exodus narratives center around hurt committed by people inside the church. Other times, these narratives center on hurt that exvangelicals claim comes from the truth claims of the Christian faith. For example, many exvangelicals cite the Bible's teaching on sexuality as the primary reason for their exit. In reality, however, many of the folks in this camp have already rejected other cornerstones of orthodoxy, such as the authority of Scripture, the reality of sin, the necessity of Jesus' atonement, and the deity and exclusivity of Christ. Tragically, high profile figures who have for years publicly broadcast their deconstruction stories, now often have unravelling lives. Divorce, marital unfaithfulness, or newly professed homosexuality are disproportionately found (or at least revealed) in the wake of faith deconstruction. I share these details not to point fingers or to celebrate brokenness, but to surface the all important chicken-and-egg question for Christians committed to persevere in the faith. Namely, are those who leave church and lose their faith more susceptible to bad habits and decisions? Or does practicing bad habits and making bad decisions leave one more susceptible to losing one's faith? Biblically speaking, the answer is "both." In 1 Corinthians 10 , Paul issues a dire warning. "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall." Of course, every "leaving church" story is different. Sometimes, real harm has been done. Sometimes, there's been a failure of catechism and teaching. Sometimes doubt results from the impression that the Bible doesn't allow Christians to ask tough questions. Other times, however, bad behavior, bad habits, or even the neglect of good habits, can breed unbelief . Years ago, Pastor Tim Keller was widely criticized for reporting that whenever a student returned from college claiming no longer to be a Christian, he'd ask them who they were sleeping with. I've worked with enough students over the past two decades to know, it's a good question to ask. And not just to college-aged students. We may look at the trendy exvangelical stories and conclude that that could never happen to us. That would be foolish. To follow Jesus is to embrace the humility that we can surprise ourselves with our own sin, just as Peter was shocked to hear himself deny the Messiah mere hours after promising he never would . James challenged believers to "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." This is not a quid pro quo. It is a promise. God has given His people habits of faith, such as prayer, fasting, study, loving our neighbor, fleeing from sin, and struggling against bad habits and complacency. He will never leave us. He is never distant. These exercises strengthen our faith to better see Him. Another essential that Christ has given us is His church. Imagine someone heckling your bride as she walks down the aisle toward you. How would you respond to that person? The Church is not above our critique, of course, but too many who embrace the habit of criticizing her soon find themselves as no longer part of her. Make no mistake, the Church is Christ's bride. She will outlast the world. As her members, we work toward her sanctification, but we should be incredibly wary about shouting her imperfections from the pews, especially to those outside the building. We heckle this Bride at our eternal peril.
May 11, 2021
Given the global pandemic, this seems like a particularly bad time to run a survey on church membership. Nevertheless, Gallup recently released a poll suggesting that the number of Americans who belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque has fallen below 50 percent for the first time since 1937, when the organization began tracking those numbers. In fact, more than half the respondents to this poll didn't merely give up their church membership. They gave up their religion , and now identify as "none," as in "no religious preference." Or, as my colleague Shane Morris put it in a recent podcast conversation with writer Samuel James, these folks haven't just left the room of denominational preference, they've left the house of collective faith. A number of separate but related cultural trends are at work. For example, an organization called The Witness , an online community of African-American Christians, recently launched the hashtag "#LeaveLoud." Through podcast episodes and online articles, The Witness encourages black Christians to not only leave "predominantly white or multiethnic" churches if they've been dishonored, but to be vocal about it inside and especially outside the church. Of course there are such things as abuse or crooked doctrine that warrant leaving a congregation. Specifically, plenty of our African-American brothers and sisters have been neglected or hurt by fellow Christians, either directly or indirectly. And, depending on the context, church leaders should be made aware of things that justify a departure. Still, much of what we are seeing is part of an I'm-leaving-church-and-please-watch-me-leave movement. Being noisy about joining the "exvangelicalism" movement is not only a popular thing to do, it's a way to be popular. In fact, after a few years of watching people "leave loud," I see at least a few troubling themes emerge. Almost without fail, a person leaving a church loud will cite bad or hurtful behavior by the people or leadership at the church. And of course no one wants to stick around where they are mistreated. However, in a culture that has widely embraced moralistic therapeutic deism, many think that being morally challenged, or anything that falls short of all-out affirmation, counts as "personal harm." This Gallup poll also points to interpersonal strife as a significant reason for leaving church. However, the number of people leaving a particular church over interpersonal strife is lower than the number leaving an entire faith tradition over interpersonal strife. According to the poll, the primary driver of plummeting church memberships is people renouncing religion altogether . To reuse the metaphor, people are leaving the house while blaming folks in one particular room. To publicly denounce a particular congregation, not to mention a particular denomination (not to mention an entire faith tradition), because of how people behaved is to misunderstand what Christianity is. It is first and foremost a commitment to Jesus Christ which, second, involves a set of claims about reality. Who Jesus is and what Christianity teaches must be evaluated on their own merit. Many churches have failed to prepare young people to do this. Considering these two factors makes me wonder if leavers who blame people in the Church for their own leaving are in reality just upset with God. So many "exvangelicals" and progressive Christians who begin by lamenting the bad behavior of fellow church-goers end up rejecting the Bible's moral claims about sexuality, or God's judgment of sin, or the lordship of Jesus. The more that the wider culture finds Christian teaching outdated and outrageous, the harder it is to distinguish between the various motivations of those who leave the church, and/or the faith. What is clear is that it is essential, at least for anyone who intends to persevere in the faith, to know what "the faith" is. For example, Scripture is clear that followers of Christ should "live peaceably with everyone, as far as it depends on you." Anyone who takes that teaching seriously, not to mention the many others that directly apply to our lives within the body of Christ, will find it difficult to "leave loud," or to justify leaving over silly disputes, or to neglect praying for those who have left.
May 10, 2021
John Stonestreet visits with Ryan T. Anderson on the image of God presented in the physical make up of male and female. Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., is the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and the Founding Editor of Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute of Princeton, New Jersey. He is the author of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment and Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom. He is the co-author of What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense and Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination, and the co-editor of A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism? Perspectives from "The Review of Politics."
May 10, 2021
Mary Slessor was born to a Scottish working-class family in 1848. At an early age Mary joined her parents in the Dundee mills, working half a day while going to school the other half. By age 14, Mary was working 12 hour shifts. Ever an avid reader, Mary kept a book propped up on her loom so she could read while working. Mary's mother, a devout Presbyterian with an interest in missions, saw that her children were raised in the Faith. When a local mission to the poor opened in Dundee, Mary volunteered to be a teacher. Her sense of humor and sympathy made her popular. At age 27, Mary learned of the death of famous missionary, David Livingstone. Inspired to join her church's mission in what is now southern Nigeria, Mary taught and worked in the dispensary. With her devotion to learn the local language, plus by cutting her hair and abandoning the traditional Victorian dress as impractical in the hot climate, Mary quickly set herself apart from the other missionaries. She began eating local foods as a cost-cutting measure. Finding the mission hierarchy frustrating, she welcomed opportunities to go upriver into inland areas. The need for workers in these regions with fewer missionaries was significant, so she asked to be stationed there. However, since male missionaries had been killed in those areas, her request as a single woman was turned down as too dangerous. After a medical furlough for malaria, Mary was stationed in a region where shamans dominated much of life. These men conducted trials in which guilt or innocence was determined by whether or not the accused died after taking poison. Slavery was also rampant among the powerful, and slaves were often sacrificed on their owner's death to be their servants in the afterlife. Women's rights were virtually nonexistent. Despite these challenges, Mary was able to integrate into the community and earn the trust of the local people. As a woman, she was not seen as the threat that male missionaries were. And, her ability to speak Efik and her embrace of local lifestyles in clothing, housing, and food endeared her to the native peoples. It was in Okoyong that Mary began the work for which she is now best known. The locals believed that when twins were born, one of them must be the child of a demon. The mothers were ostracized and, since there was no way to tell which was cursed, both children would be abandoned to death by starvation or wild animals. Like the earliest Christians who rescued victims of attempted infanticide by exposure, Mary began rescuing twins. She saved hundreds of children and, against the advice of her mission agency, adopted nine as her own. Like the earliest Christians whose example she emulated, the actions of Mary Slessor not only saved lives but played a major role in changing the local culture. Her understanding of the language, history, and customs, plus her standing in the community, enabled her to work as a mediator and give judgments in local tribal courts. When the British attempted to set up a court system in the area, Mary warned them it would be a disaster. So, the British consul appointed Mary as vice-consul in Okoyong, making her the first female magistrate in the British Empire. In this position, Mary continued to mediate disputes, while acting as liaison with the colonial government, continuing to care for children and continuing her work as a missionary. At age 66, Mary finally lost a long fight with malaria. She was given a state funeral, which was attended by many people who travelled from the tribal regions in order to honor her. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Okoyong." Mary Slessor's story is a wonderful part of the larger, ongoing Story of restoration, accomplished by Christ through His people within the time and place they are called. Slessor offers yet another example for Christ-followers that taking the Gospel to pagan cultures will typically involve protecting children. Our calling is no different.
May 7, 2021
John and Maria breakdown some trends in the news during BreakPoint This Week. They discuss how our response to the pandemic can cause us to despair. They discuss the importance of keeping our eyes on Christ and building our hope around a Christian worldview. Maria turns from a segment of looking to Christ to a segment looking at the challenges in our thinking about childrearing. John highlights two recent podcasts where the hosts share concern in birthrates and how that is impacting our culture. All of these topics follow a quick tour through BreakPoint commentaries from this week where Maria asks John for greater insight on what he's seeing going on in the culture. // Resources // Is Christian Cohabitation the New Norm? - BreakPoint - President Biden Called a Good Catholic - The Point - Biden Scraps the 'Protect Life' Rule: We Need Cultural Change, Not Political Games - BreakPoint - The Liberals Who Can't Quit Lockdown>> Millions Are Saying No to the Vaccines. What Are They Thinking? - The Atlantic - A Shrinking Society in Japan A Population Slowdown in the U.S. - The Daily Podcast - >
May 7, 2021
More and more, we're hearing about the promises of gene editing. It's a scientific technology that literally allows us to rewrite our DNA. Still in the experimental stage, with technologies like CRISPR, we've seen how the technology can be used wrongly. It can put humanity at risk. Many Christians are not aware of the biological challenges until it's too late. In this week's What Would You Say? video, my colleague Brooke McIntire walks through how Christians can think about gene editing. Here's Brooke McIntire. You're in a conversation and someone says, "Gene editing can help us wipe out disease and will improve life for everyone." What would you say? In recent years, talk of gene editing has become extremely popular. Gene editing technologies like CRISPR promise not only to eradicate disease and disability, but also to provide human enhancement and designer babies. But this powerful technology comes with a host of major ethical issues that need to be carefully considered and addressed. You may wonder what ethics has to do with gene editing – after all, doesn't eradicating disease and disability sound like a no brainer? It's true that we can and have used technology to alleviate suffering in the world, and that is a good thing. But sometimes our well-intentioned actions can have devastating unforeseen consequences. The next time someone says, "gene editing can help us wipe out disease and will improve life for everyone," here are 3 things to remember: Number 1: Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should. When we hear about the exciting advances in technology and genetics, it's easy to believe the promise that it will make our lives better or healthier. But, as countless stories in science fiction have taught us, simply pursuing innovation for innovation's sake can have dangerous consequences. That's why it's important to ask not only "can we" do something, but "should we" do something. As technology continues to advance, the question of "should we" will get more and more weighty. For example, a group of researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London used CRISPR technology to edit 18 human embryos. But when they finished, they found that around half the embryos ended up with what they called "major unintended edits." These "major unintended edits" are more harmful than they sound. They can actually lead to birth defects or life-threatening medical problems like cancer. And, those issues could permanently enter the gene pool and affect future generations. Sometimes, our finite minds don't always foresee the potential dangers or ramifications of these innovations on human life. This is why it's dangerous to separate science from philosophy and ethics. These decisions shouldn't just be left up to scientists or experts who may be preoccupied with scientific advancement without a larger, ethical perspective and boundaries. Number 2: Treating human life as disposable doesn't make our society more humane. Humans aren't simply problems to be fixed or objects to be experimented on. Those 18 "edited" embryos are actual human lives that have been permanently altered in the pursuit of innovation and science. Many embryos will simply be discarded or destroyed because their usefulness has expired. But defining the value of a human life by their utility is not advancing society in a desirable or worthy direction. The sincere desire to eradicate genetic diseases is understandable, and the longing to heal reflects God's image in us. Ethically sound and medically safe treatments that don't dehumanize other human beings should be pursued. But we must proceed with an ethical framework, and an awareness of the human temptation to "become like God" with our own ideas about what is good and evil. Which leads to our third point. Number 3: Gene editing can't deliver on its promise of control. In the ethics of biotechnology, there's a fine line between healing and enhancement. Healing is fixing something that's broken. Enhancement is trying to improve something that isn't broken. It can be tempting to want to just "upgrade" healthy people or give our children a leg up in the world through various biotechnical enhancements. But this desire to "enhance" humanity misinterprets what it means to be human and exposes the urge to have complete control over our lives. We like to think that we have everything under control, that we can protect ourselves from any kind of pain, and decide what is moral on our own. But technology and human "enhancement" can't deliver on its promise to meet those deep desires for control. As we discussed earlier, this search for control often descends into a chaos of unintended consequences. As long as we keep looking to technology to solve our need for control or security or hope, we'll find ourselves disappointed. What we're missing can't be provided by technology. In reality, our craving for purpose, security, and the freedom to create and invent without hurting others is best met when we love our Creator, and love our neighbor more than we love ourselves. So the next time you're talking about technology and someone says "gene editing will help us wipe out disease and help create better lives for all," remember these 3 things: Number 1: Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should. Number 2: Treating human life as disposable doesn't make our society more humane. Number 3: Gene editing can't deliver on its promise of control. For What Would You Say, I'm Brooke McIntire That was my colleague Brooke McIntire with this week's What Would You Say? video. Each week, a new video on our What Would You Say? series, tackles a question of cultural significance, answering it in a way that you can understand and repeat and use in your conversation with others. To make sure you don't miss a single What Would You Say? video, go to www.whatwouldyousay.org.
May 6, 2021
The idea of a politically neutral Supreme Court is one of our nation's persistent and appealing myths. The Court's job, at least according to our founding documents, is to interpret existing legislation and arbitrate disputes about that legislation. In practice, especially over the past several decades, the Court hasn't always stayed in that lane. In a crucial chapter in his important book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self , Carl Trueman shatters the notion of political neutrality within the Court, as well as the notion that the Court is impervious to cultural pressure. For example, in the landmark 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs. Casey , which struck down abortion restrictions, the court famously offered this incredibly consequential line: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." The justices went on to say that for the Court to define those concepts (i.e. to define reality ) would be for the Court to deny freedom itself. Though this sort of thinking is largely taken for granted today, it would have been utterly unrecognizable to America's founders, not to mention much of the world throughout all of human history. As Trueman points out in the book, this script was first espoused by Romantic-era philosophers like Jean Jacques-Rousseau. Rousseau suggested that true reality is found not in something bigger-than or outside-of ourselves, but merely in what we feel. This radical notion is, of course, entirely incompatible with the idea of a Creator who had a purposeful design for what He made. Yet, when the Court issued their opinion in Planned Parenthood V. Casey , the idea of self-determining meaning, identity and reality itself had so deeply seeped into our collective imaginations that the supposedly neutral U.S. Supreme Court took it for granted. Even more, the Court appealed to the centrality of precedent in its reasoning. Roe V. Wade, after all, had already been decided, said the justices, as if to ignore other landmark cases in which precedent was rightly overturned. In 1954, the Court overturned the awful "separate-but-equal" Plessy vs. Ferguson decision from 1896 that legalized racial segregation. Precedent should be respected, of course, but an appeal to precedent is not an argument . Wrong decisions that do not align with reality should be overturned. On the other hand, Trueman points to the 2003 case Lawrence v. Texas , in which the Court struck down anti-sodomy laws in Texas. This decision overturned precedent set in 1986 . In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia specifically pointed to Planned Parenthood v. Casey , noting how the Court claimed precedent should be respected above reason. Scalia's concern is instructive for all of us today. The Court has a history of showing itself susceptible to cultural tastes. Justice transcends culture. It is not best served when based on the latest social fads. This history, especially in light of the major and more contemporary shifts in cultural tastes about selfhood and sexuality, reveal how vulnerable the Court is to cultural fashions. The 2013 decision in United States v. Windsor , which effectively struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, and the 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges , which imposed same-sex "marriage" on the nation, were clearly driven more by cultural winds than some " long arch of the universe that bends toward justice." The only real way forward is by finding an anchor for meaning, justice, purpose and dignity. In just a few weeks, at the Wilberforce Weekend in Fort Worth, Texas , we will spend a weekend looking at the only notion that's ever been big enough to ground any of these eternal concepts: the Image of God. This audacious idea is both crucial within a Christian worldview and central for our cultural witness. And the incredible lineup of speakers and thinkers includes Dr. Carl Trueman, author of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self . Get your tickets at wilberforceweekend.org .
May 5, 2021
John and Shane field a question on adoption. A listener wrote in to ask if adoption to a homosexual couple is better than a child being parentless. They then work through a question on if a Christian should marry if the marriage looks to be childless. John and Shane close the question and answer time looking at immigration. A listener asks for a worldview perspective on a topic that has become strongly politicized.
May 5, 2021
John and Shane field a question on adoption. A listener wrote in to ask if adoption to a homosexual couple is better than a child being parentless. They then work through a question on if a Christian should marry if the marriage looks to be childless. John and Shane close the question and answer time looking at immigration. A listener asks for a worldview perspective on a topic that has become strongly politicized.
May 5, 2021
John and Shane field a question on adoption. A listener wrote in to ask if adoption to a homosexual couple is better than a child being parentless. They then work through a question on if a Christian should marry if the marriage looks to be childless. John and Shane close the question and answer time looking at immigration. A listener asks for a worldview perspective on a topic that has become strongly politicized.
May 5, 2021
May 4, 2021
The term "political football" is a perfect descriptive for how the executive branch of the federal government handles abortion. There are two "teams," pro-life and pro-choice, who toss the issue back and forth from administration to administration. Neither decisively win, at least in the long run. While state level legislation and federal court decisions have moved the ball in real ways, executive orders and legislative rules are barely temporary, depending entirely on who is in the White House. After President Biden's first 100 days in office, it is clear that the football is in the hands of the pro-abortion team. Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new rule that would restore a major source of federal funding for abortion clinics. This rule would undo the Trump administration's "Protect Life" rule, which withheld money designated for low-income family planning from any clinics that "perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion…" The "Protect Life" rule also required clinics to keep their abortion and non-abortion services physically and financially separate. The rule made a difference. Planned Parenthood, which drew an estimated $60 million in annual federal funding just from Title X, dropped out of the program rather than attempt to meet the new requirements. Now, under the Biden Administration, Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers are back on the federal dole. Bizarrely, the Biden Administration claims that its new rule will not lead to federally funded abortions. When Owen Jensen, a Catholic reporter from Catholic network EWTN asked why the President would "insist that pro-life Americans pay for abortions and violate their conscience," White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied, "that's not an accurate depiction of what happened." She then quoted from the Public Health Service Act, which stipulates that no Title X funds "shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning." That isn't a real answer, of course, as Jensen pointed out. Money is easily moved around. In a fiscal shell game, Planned Parenthood can simply divert funding they don't have to spend on non-abortion services back to abortion,. Speaking for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, Archbishop Joseph Naumann agreed : "In spite of explicit prohibitions in federal law and clear congressional intent that abortion may not be a part of this program, it has repeatedly been coopted by abortion supporters as a funding stream for organizations, programs, and facilities that directly promote and provide abortions." What might we learn from all of this? First, though elections do have consequences, at least when it comes to who is President, they're short-lived. This means that putting the right person in the White House matters, but is not the highest or best goal of pro-lifers. For example, President Trump's most significant contribution to the pro-life "team" are not his executive orders, but a thoroughly remade judiciary. At the same time, many more millions of tax dollars are given to Planned Parenthood by Congress. The most effective legislation to limit abortion and fund alternative care has been at the state level. Those elections matter too. Second, the battle for unborn lives will be won or lost in the larger culture. It is encouraging that though Americans are very much divided on abortion itself, they strongly oppose government footing the bill. A Marist Poll earlier this year found that almost three-fifths of Americans oppose taxpayer funding for abortion. In other words, a lot of folks who want abortion to remain legal don't want to coerce their neighbors into paying for them. That's at least a start. The finish line, however, is when abortion is as unthinkable as other grave evils like slavery and child sacrifice. Until then, this political football will continue to change hands with each and every election.
May 3, 2021
Recently, researchers at State University of New York determined that descendants of immigrants to the United States from places such as Asia typically lost the ability to speak their mother tongue by the third generation. Something similar, but more serious, seems to be happening with Christians in an increasingly post-Christian culture. Each successive generation is losing the understanding of, not to mention the will to live by, Christian sexual morality. Two years ago, a Pew Research survey found that half of American Christians think casual sex is "sometimes or always" morally acceptable. The slight silver-lining in that survey was that evangelical Protestants were by far the least likely group to express acceptance of casual sex. Unfortunately, a new analysis calls into question just how committed the children of evangelicals are to Christian teaching in this area. These numbers reflect a larger trend among evangelicals: with each generation, American evangelicals increasingly adopt the attitudes of the wider culture toward sex and marriage. This time, the behavior in question wasn't casual sex, but cohabitation. In 2019, Pew Research reported that a majority – 58 percent – of white evangelicals said cohabitation is acceptable if a couple plans to marry. View on cohabitation become noticeably less Christian among younger respondents. As early as 2012, the General Social Survey found that over 40 percent of evangelicals in their 20s agreed that cohabitation is acceptable even if a couple has no express plans to marry. And, earlier this month, David Ayers at the Institute for Family Studies found that nearly half of evangelical Protestants aged 15-22 who were not currently cohabiting or married, said that they would probably or definitely cohabit in the future. Still, as dismaying as the attitudes of young evangelicals are toward sex, behavior is what most effectively erodes the Christian norm. Among those ages 23-44 who had already cohabited, a whopping 65 percent indicated they would likely or definitely do so again. An important caveat, as is typically the case with these kinds of surveys, is that religious commitment makes quite a difference. Young evangelicals who attended church at least twice a month before the pandemic were the least likely to approve of "shacking up." Yet, even they were a minority for their age group. Across all groups analyzed by Ayers, cohabitation had become, as he put in an article at Christianity Today, "a new norm." How can this cultural assimilation be slowed? How can the next generation be convinced of the sacredness of marriage, as a norm worth preserving and living? Again, the experience of immigrants offer an analogy. Research by one immigrant grad student at the University of Alberta found that "speaking the [native] language regularly at home" is the crucial first step in passing the mother-tongue from parent to child. That may sound simple, but it is. The word for passing on moral values and behavior through regular instruction in the faith by parents and pastors is catechesis. The kind of catechesis necessary for this cultural moment not only involves the "what" of biblical morality, but the "why" and the living out of the "how." According to Ayers the lack of a reason given for God's rules is a key factor behind young evangelicals drifting into behaviors common in the wider culture. Whenever I teach worldview to students, I like to draw a triangle with three levels. Worldview is at the foundation of the triangle, values is at the middle level, and behavior is at the top. The idea is that one should evaluate what is true and good, build their values from that, and allow that to shape behavior. Today, however, too many Christians live "upside down." The unthinkingly embrace behaviors common in our culture, those behaviors shape their values, and they land with an ultimately non-Christian worldview. We need to approach teaching the next-generation, especially when it comes to areas where the Christian vision is so different than the "new normal" in a "bottom-up" way. We must teach what is true about male and female, sex, and family, offering the what and the why. From there, we can work cultivate a strong set of values, by talking openly about what they are and living them out together. Only from there will countercultural behavior blossom. For any parents, grandparents, teachers, or pastors who want to see the next generation follow Christ in this culture, catechesis isn't optional. Today, the Christian view of sex and marriage is like a foreign language, and the wider culture is actively catechizing them.
Apr 30, 2021
John and Maria review President Joe Biden's speech to congress. They discuss the role of government and the stretch it has had into our lives. The two share how government expansion creates thin fabrics in society, trying to hold weight it was never intended to hold. Maria shares a story from Seattle, where staff and faculty at Seattle Pacific University vote no confidence in their board. The vote was made due to frustration with the school's hiring policies that uphold a traditional Biblical ethic in regards to sexuality. John and Maria begin their conversation revisiting some of the top stories from BreakPoint this week. They discuss the character of Trevor Lawrence and his opportunity to impact standards for player character. They also talk about an unknown trend in human trafficking involving young boys before revisiting a story from last week where President Biden appealed a court order that could cause doctors to perform genital mutilation surgeries.
Apr 30, 2021
When John McCain was running for President in 2008, Saturday Night Live ran a recurring skit about his running-mate, then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Tina Fey, playing Gov. Palin in her trademark red suit, delivered the memorable line, "I can see Russia from my house!" It was pretty funny. It also wasn't real. Sarah Palin never said she could see Russia from her house. Today, however, a surprising number of people believe she did. This is a testimony to the power of lies. A few weeks ago, Georgia state legislators passed a bill that added additional days for early voting, limit the number of ballot boxes that had (for the first time) been set up across the state during the pandemic, and changed the requirements for voting by mail. Rather than rely on matching signatures by eye, mail-in ballots will now be verified using a voter's ID. The partisan backlash over the bill, even though it expanded voting access in many way, wasn't surprising. The lies about the bill, how quickly they were spread, by whom, and the corporate reactions to them are worth noting. President Biden likened the bill to laws that oppressed African Americans, calling it "Jim Crow on steroids." Major League Baseball announced it was moving the 2021 All Star Game out of Atlanta in protest, and even Stacey Abrams caught heat for not calling for economic boycotts of Home Depot and Delta Airlines. Of course, people sometimes lie. But the stakes are higher when millions of people – including those with no interest in or loyalties to politics– believe those lies. Now, millions of people in Georgia and elsewhere are needlessly anxious, fearful, and angry. That's cruel. In James 3 the apostle calls the tongue a "fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body." The tongue can, James says, "corrupt the whole body, set the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." Among the reasons that Christians cannot sit out our culture-wide conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity is that it is based on a lie about the human person, a lie that has convinced many. To relinquish the belief in a reality that exists outside of ourselves is to give up more than we might realize. If men can be women, if laws which expand voting access in Georgia can be renamed as bringing back Jim Crow, then what is real? If Christians give in to lies, why would we be trusted to tell the truth about God? Jewish philosopher Abraham Heschel once said, "words create worlds." Words do not change created reality, but they do reshape culture and therefore what people think is reality. Among the sources of the deep fracture in American culture right now is the loss of trust in our institutions and information sources. No matter how normal as a practice or successful as a strategy of influence, Christians must never, at least intentionally, partake in misinformation. While we are just as susceptible as anyone to believe lies that reinforce our views and to disregard facts that challenge them, the very practice of not compromising on truth will be an increasingly important part of our cultural witness. Even if we have good intentions, for example "weeping with those who weep," we still can't afford to lie . We can't love our neighbors and lie to them. So, it's imperative, even if inefficient, to take the time and find out what is true before speaking , especially when it comes to complicated, often heated political matters. God's words made reality. As image bearers, our words can create worlds too, at least perceived worlds. As followers of Christ, let's commit to using our words to build the Kingdom of God, where lies have no place.
Apr 29, 2021
Most people (at least those paying attention) expect quarterback Trevor Lawrence to be the first player selected in this year's NFL Draft. Frankly, his draft stock has been a foregone conclusion since his heralded arrival at Clemson in 2018, and was only strengthened after he led the Tigers to the National Championship as only a freshman. He's a team leader who can read a defense and flat out throw the ball. In fact, the only doubts that exist about Lawrence's potential in the NFL have nothing to do with talent or poise, but only concern his character. Let me be clear. Some pundits worry Lawrence has too much character. In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated , Lawrence said, "I don't have this huge chip on my shoulder, that everyone's out to get me and I'm trying to prove everybody wrong." As if that were not troubling enough, he clarified, "[T]here's also more in life than playing football." As a committed Christian, who is very public about his faith and the way it shapes his life, one of the things Lawrence considers more important than football is Jesus. He also apparently has a thing for family. Recently, Lawrence skipped an NFL pre-draft event to marry his high-school sweetheart . This crazy behavior fed a narrative that Lawrence, like other Christian athletes, is probably too "soft" and lacks the kind of monomaniacal focus required to succeed in football. Given that there's never been a shortage of Christian players who possessed deep faith and achieved great on-field success, this narrative is baseless. No one who was the receiving end of a hit by Steelers' great Troy Polamalu thought his faith made him somehow "soft." Not to mention, Lawrence has proven his competitive zeal. In three seasons at Clemson, he lost only two games . Still, the presumption that the perspective and balance and priorities shaped by a sincere faith are somehow liabilities, and obstacles to athletic success, persists. So, when Lawrence tweeted , "I am secure in who I am, and what I believe. I don't need football to make me feel worthy as a person," the critics pounced . Their critiques, in reality, say nothing about Trevor Lawrence. They only expose how absurd discussions of character have become in our culture. Scarcely a week goes by without a story featuring an active or former NFL player in trouble with the law. In the weeks leading up to the draft, a former NFL player killed five people before killing himself. That same day, police arrested another former player on charges of first degree murder in connection with a shooting that injured one and killed another. A few days after that, a current player ended up behind bars on weapons charges. The local news report of that story began tellingly: "Another pro football player has been arrested in Northeast Ohio on a weapons charge." The NFL has learned about character the hard way. Whenever a player is selected in the draft later than their abilities suggest, the reason is nearly always a concern about character . Teams spend a lot of time and money up front assessing a prospect's character because they've learned how costly it can be. In 2013, after tight end Aaron Hernandez was charged with murder, the Patriots became the first NFL team to hire a "character coach ." All of which makes concerns that a player like Lawrence has too much character simply bizarre. If anything, what the Bible calls the "fruit" of faith and character would make him a safe choice. But, in a world of "expressive individualism," things like character and virtue and integrity seem old-fashioned. Still it's these old-fashioned ideas our ailing young men, and our ailing society, need the most.
Apr 28, 2021
John and Shane field a sobering question from a ministry-minded family. A daughter informed her mother that the daughter identifies as pansexual. John and Shane provide a host of resources and encouragement for the mother and her family as they walk a road of love, support, and guiding their family to hope in Jesus Christ in the midst of confusion. Another listener seeks insight on what they're seeing as an agenda play out in the business community. Specifically, the listener identifies shifts in power where agendas are guiding the business community to a socialistic and communistic ideal. The listener asks how Christians should respond to soft movements of coercion we see inside our economy. With graduation approaching, another listener asks for resources for a teen's parents unsure what their daughter should do next year. Rather than attend a university, where a level of maturity is essential, the listener suggests a link or gap year. She asks John and Shane for their recommendations.
Apr 28, 2021
Scripture says woe to those who say that good is evil and that evil is good. That's a culture-wide feature of our world. Each day, it seems, brings new and audacious ideas aimed at unravelling and mis ordering God's very good creation. Our first impulse might be to "blame the culture," but it should be, instead, to take a hard look in the mirror. If the Church exists to proclaim and bear witness to the rule and reign of Christ, we may find that our culture's woes aren't as much the result of a secular occupation as they are the result of a Christian evacuation. Francis Schaeffer noted how Christians think about life in terms of "bits and pieces" instead of "totals." For example, many Christians able to recite core beliefs of the Christian faith struggle to see all of life as it truly is, the Story of creation, fall, redemption and restoration. To see what we are missing, consider who the Book of Acts describes Apollos. A man "fervent in spirit," Apollos "spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus." And yet, he missed certain things related to the full life and work of Jesus. It's not that he had wrong ideas, but that he didn't understand where they fit within the larger Story of Jesus the Christ. This is similar to our situation today. What we often miss, as Christians today, can be thought of in three broad categories: the past, the present and the future. Or, to put it another way, what was , what is , and what is to come . To clarify what was , recall that first calling of God for His image bearers, a calling that has never been removed, is what might be called the "creation mandate." God didn't create His world in all of its glory to simply destroy it. He created the world to glorify Himself. He created His image bearers to glorify God by living out what He intended for us, where He intended us live. This created purpose, for humanity and the world, God called very good. God's created intent is restored, renewed in Christ. Another way to say this is that Christ has not come to save us from our God-given humanity, but to save us to it. To confess Christ as Savior from sin but to deny His relevance in society and culture is to miss, or perhaps even reject, His kingship over the entire world. Working to restore the world to its God-given order is itself gospel ministry. The what is of the present is nothing less than the most extraordinary event in all of history, the Incarnation. Jesus atones for the sins of the world by His obedience and death, and launches the new creation by His resurrection. Thus, His Gospel, the good news, is not less than how we can be saved from our sin and be in heaven when we die, but it is more . The good news of Christ is, in reality, the Gospel of the Kingdom . In Christ, the Kingdom of God has come and will one day be fully realized in the full and final defeat of the enemies of God. Finally, we must recover a biblical understanding of what is to come . Theologian N.T. Wright described what Christians should look forward to this way: "In the New Testament, we do not find a life after death in heaven , but a life after life after death. In other words, a newly embodied life in a newly reconstituted creation. And ... all the great Christian teachers for centuries after that, taught the same thing: that what God did for Jesus on Easter, he will do for all his people at the end, raising them to new bodily life to share in the life of the new world." Together, the Christian vision of what was , what is , and what is to come , offers a broad and rich understanding of God's Story. Unless Christians, especially in this time of cultural chaos, rediscover our place in that story, we'll be confused and often ineffective, our witness diminished. There is no greater task, then, in the church today than to re-catechize, to rethink what the Gospel is and what it means for us to, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to champion the rule and reign of Christ in this cultural moment. Hundreds of Christians will be joining us this year to dig deep into Christian worldview, cultural analysis and restorative leadership as Colson Fellows. If you'd like to join them, and rediscover your place in the Great Story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, consider joining the Colson Fellows program. To learn more, please visit www.colsonfellows.org
Apr 27, 2021
Last fall, California governor Gavin Newsom signed The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act , a bill which, among other things, would " allow incarcerated transgender, non-binary and intersex people to be housed and searched in a manner consistent with their gender identity ." Since this law went into effect back in January, in a new case of " rapid onset gender dysphoria ," over 200 prisoners have requested to be transferred from men's prisons into those detaining women. As of April 6th, not a single request has been denied . Imagine attempting to argue for this law 20 years ago. Imagine trying to convince anyone that biological males, specifically males who'd already demonstrated a willingness to break the law, should be incarcerated with women. Even if abuse of all sorts wasn't a real problem for America's prison population , this would be a bad idea. Until quite recently, California's law (not to mention the ideology upon which it is based) would have been unthinkable. Even more, all of the warnings (and there were plenty of warnings) that embracing certain ideas about sex and marriage and gender would make laws like this inevitable earned accusations of exaggerations and "slippery slopes." Yet here we are. And, if the Biden Administration succeeds in making the Equality Act federal law, an unlikely but no impossible prospect, California's idiosyncrasies would be national law. This whole thing is a case study in how the unthinkable becomes first inevitable and then unquestionable . In reality, of course, perceptions of or claims to gender identity do not change chromosomes, nor do they eliminate male desire or weaken male physical strength when compared to women. To ignore these realities of the physical world, is not only to our peril but to the peril of the women who will be trapped with biological males against their wills. This isn't sound or compassionate policy. This will be, for many women, the definition of cruel and unusual punishment. To ignore biological reality in the context of punishment and rehabilitation is not wholly different than a doctor or nurse treating a patient according to a perceived identity that conflicts with biological reality. Such medical care would not be helpful or loving. It would be malpractice. Two thousand years ago, the pagan worldview of Gnosticism proclaimed a denigration of physicality. Greco-Roman thinkers often thought that the material world was less valuable, or even contrary to the good of the spiritual realm. Gnosticism's condemnation of the physical even snuck into the Church, proclaiming that Jesus could not have been fully human or have a real body. The Church, in light of Scripture's robust view of creation, soundly and repeatedly condemned Gnosticism as heresy. Yet, elements of this hyper-spirituality clung to Western thought throughout the centuries and popped up again and again in the church, proclaiming that the fleshly concerns of the physical world did not matter or, even worse, should be fully rejected. Gnosticism in its latest form can be seen in this new California law and in these California prisons, not to mention across the country in so many other areas. The reality of the physical male body and the bodily danger posed to female inmates, not to mention the bare essentials of physical biology (one warden announced that this law would mean new maternity wards in female prisons), have been dismissed by the new Gnosticism. The Colson Center was founded as part of a ministry devoted to extending love and dignity to the men and women behind bars. Chuck founded Prison Fellowship to take seriously Christ's words in Matthew 25 . Placing female prisoners in physical danger isn't a way to love them or care for them. Enabling men to hate and even desecrate their own bodies through surgery and chemical restraints isn't treating them with dignity as image bearers. Truly loving any image bearer of God, including those who are incarcerated, must involve loving them as they truly are including the creational goodness of their physical bodies.
Apr 26, 2021
John Stonestreet visits with Monique Duson about the image of God and how it is challenged inside critical race theory. Monique spent 2 decades advocating for Critical Race Theory (CRT), but through a series of events began to see the contradictions of CRT with the historic Christian worldview. She is now convinced that CRT is not the best way to achieve racial unity and actively speaks out against the use of CRT within the church. Monique's vision is to promote a vision for racial healing based on the historic Christian worldview. We invite you to watch John's discussion with Monique as they talk about the Image of God, the theme of the 2021 Wilberforce Weekend. Monique has a special perspective to share and we are excited to have him in our lineup for the conference. www.wilberfoceweekend.org
Apr 26, 2021
On April 19th, the Biden administration filed an appeal in a case that could force "religious doctors and hospitals to perform potentially harmful gender-transition procedures against their conscience and professional medical judgment." The case involves an Obama administration rule interpreting the Affordable Care Act . The rule was issued in 2016, and prohibits insurance companies and health-care providers from discriminating against people on the basis of sex. The rule anticipated that discrimination on the basis of sex would soon legally include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Biden administration has repeatedly pointed to the 2020 Supreme Court decision in the Bostock case, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, as now legally requiring this new way of seeing categories of sex. If this new way of reading the rule stands, insurance companies and providers "may not deny access to medically necessary medications, surgeries, and other transition-related treatments for transgender people if similar services—a hysterectomy, for example—would be covered for non-transgender people." This would, of course, redefine the concept of "medically necessary," ignoring the obvious difference between removing perfectly healthy organs and removing organs riddled with cancer. Also, the rule contains no conscience protections for doctors or hospitals. Therefore, Catholic hospitals, which do not perform hysterectomies except to preserve the life or physical health of a woman, would be forced to violate Catholic teaching. Various legal challenges to the rule by faith-based groups, all of whom claim that the regulation violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, have been unsuccessful. Courts did, however, block Trump administration attempts to eliminate the mandate. So, the litigation over the rule continues. In January, a federal district court in North Dakota ruled in favor of the Sisters of Mercy, a group of nuns who believe "that every man and woman" including transgender individuals, "is created in the image and likeness of God, and that they reflect God's image in unique—and uniquely dignified—ways." They also believe that "performing gender-transition, abortion, and sterilization services . . . [violates] their religious beliefs regarding human sexuality and procreation," and object to "providing insurance coverage for abortions, sterilizations, and gender transitions." If this case sounds a lot like the Little Sisters of the Poor case, it does.In fact, the district court cited the Little Sisters case several times in ruling that the mandate violated RFRA. Like the Obama administration, who couldn't leave a group of nuns in peace to serve people in need, the Biden administration has decided that it can't leave this other group of nuns in peace, either. So, it appealed the district court ruling to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Sisters of Mercy, as Luke Goodrich of the Becket Fund put it, "joyfully serve all patients regardless of sex or gender identity," and "routinely provide top-notch care to transgender patients for everything from cancer to the common cold." They also provide "millions of dollars in free and low-cost care [provided] to the elderly, poor, and underserved." Still, the Biden administration is ready "to punish [the Sisters] with multi-million dollar penalties" even though, as a federal appeals court wrote, "There is no medical consensus that sex reassignment surgery is a necessary or even effective treatment for gender dysphoria." In fact, there is ample evidence that gender reassignment surgery makes matters worse, not better. Given both precedent and the makeup of the federal courts, it's difficult to imagine the Biden administration will prevail in this case, especially at the Supreme Court. However, that is not the primary concern. Upstream from the courts is the larger culture, one not only quick to embrace and advance observably wrong ideas about the human person, but to sacrifice religious freedom in order to do it.
Apr 23, 2021
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer recount the challenging aspects of what happened in America this week. After recalling the details of the events surrounding the Derek Chauvin verdict following the death of George Floyd, John and Maria discuss a recent shooting in Ohio. They close with the challenging situation Planned Parenthood finds itself in as the organization works to distance from racist roots and the current reality that their abortion services overwhelmingly impact people of color.
Apr 23, 2021
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer recount the challenging aspects of what happened in America this week. After recalling the details of the events surrounding the Derek Chauvin verdict following the death of George Floyd, John and Maria discuss a recent shooting in Ohio. They close with the challenging situation Planned Parenthood finds itself in as the organization works to distance from racist roots and the current reality that their abortion services overwhelmingly impact people of color.
Apr 23, 2021
Seven years ago, Bloomberg Businessweek's cover story told professional women, " Freeze Your Eggs, Free Your Career." The story told of a woman in her late 30s, single and successful in her career, who spent $19,000 to have her eggs frozen. She planned to focus on a career now and keep open the possibility of marriage and kids later. It didn't turn out that way. Still single on her 45th birthday, she decided to have a child with the help of a sperm donor. However, her eggs failed to produce a child. She was crushed. This experience isn't uncommon . Writing at Evie Magazine, Molly Farinholt reports that, "a woman who freezes 10 eggs at age 36 has only a 30-60% chance of having a baby with them." Whatever "freeze your eggs" might accomplish for a woman's career, it's just wrong to say that it enables a woman to "have it all." Ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. This unnamed woman was sold a bill of goods. She is not only the victim of bad ideas widely assumed in our culture about sex, about babies, and about parents. Countless other victims, in fact, have been left in their wake. These ideas have reshaped imaginations, redefining what many think to be possible. Based on these remade imaginations, people make decisions. Often, what they have been promised fails to materialize. The central idea that has reshaped the cultural imagination is that sex, marriage, and babies are fully separable from one another. The "pill," shorthand for artificial birth control, gave tangible form to this idea. Separating sex and procreation drove the sexual revolution which, in turn, culturally accomplished separating sex from marriage. Bereft of its God-ordained unitive and procreative purpose, sex became, at best, an expression of personal affection or, at worst, a form of exploitation. The rise in out-of-wedlock birthrates, which accelerated in the late 1960s, signaled the final dissolution of childbirth and marriage. Still, the link between sex and childbirth remained, for obvious reasons. That link was severed by artificial reproduction technologies, such as IVF, sperm donation, and egg-freezing. Now, people could produce a child without sex or, for that matter, even having met one other. So, first we wanted sex without marriage. The only way that was possible was to secure sex without babies. Artificial reproduction accomplished that. Then, along the way, we wanted to remove any stigma from wanting babies without marriage or wanting marriage without babies. Finally, with artificial reproductive technologies, we want babies without sex. The divorce is complete. Even worse, it's complete and uncontested in the cultural imagination. So many Christians, especially Christian young people, simply cannot imagine the idea that sex, marriage, and babies are a package deal, or that separating them is a recipe for cultural chaos. The false narrative of the sexual revolution about sex, marriage, and babies is now deeply embedded even in the Christian imagination. Another bad idea is also implicated in this story about the failed promises of our technology. Businessweek's insistence that technology enables woman to "have it all" on her terms assumes that true freedom is doing whatever we want, free from any and all consequences. Tragically, biology didn't get that memo. Our cultural narratives do nothing to change underlying biological realities. Whatever promises we make, age remains "the single biggest factor affecting a woman's chance to conceive and have a healthy baby." Believing otherwise, or expecting that technology will rescue us from the consequences of our decisions, changes nothing. It still remains true that all of us, men as well as women, must make difficult choices. The first one may be reimagining and embracing a radically different vision of the good life than the one our culture peddles, especially when it comes to sex, marriage, and children. In particular, those called to marriage, and not all are, may need to recalibrate. After all, our priorities and our timeline may not match God's.
Apr 22, 2021
For years, abortion rights activists have attempted to downplay or even deny that Margaret Sanger, the closest thing the movement has to a patron saint, was motivated by racism. Planned Parenthood, the organization Sanger founded, widely celebrated her (even naming an award after her), as if her troubling words and actions could be somehow separated from the causes she championed. To be clear, Sanger considered abortion to be barbaric, but the organization that carries on her vision has embraced it as their primary strategy and largest source of revenue. In the wake of the "racial reckoning" of the past year, denying what the historical record plainly reveals about Sanger is no longer tenable. After all, many others, including those with a far less damning paper trail, have been denounced as racists. Sanger's re-evaluation was long past due. In a recent New York Times' op-ed, Planned Parenthood president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson, acknowledged Sanger's sordid history of racism, white supremacy, and eugenics. She acknowledged that "Sanger spoke to the women's auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan at a rally in New Jersey to generate support for birth control." She admitted that Sanger supported the Supreme Court's decision in Buck v. Bell , which upheld mandatory sterilization for those deemed "unfit" and which infamously proclaimed that "three generations of imbeciles is enough." She told her readers about something a colleague of mine knows as family lore: "The first human trials of the birth control pill — a project that was Sanger's passion later in her life — were conducted with her backing in Puerto Rico, where as many as 1,500 women were not told that the drug was experimental or that they might experience dangerous side effects." It's past time, Johnson wrote, to "take responsibility for the harm that Sanger caused to generations of people with disabilities and Black, Latino, Asian-American, and Indigenous people." However, wouldn't "taking responsibility" necessarily include evaluating whether Sanger's racist disdain for people of color and the marginalized lives on in Planned Parenthood's work? It does. In fact, Planned Parenthood is the most obvious example there is of systemic racism, a concept many people reject out of hand but shouldn't. Certainly, the idea of "systemic" or "institutional racism" is controversial. Too often, the accusation is a convenient blanket condemnation for anything a pundit or politician doesn't like, a way to demand policy changes or to subvert debate. Theologically speaking, it shouldn't be controversial to suggest that sin can take systemic or structural forms. That much is obvious throughout the Scripture and human history. Systems and structures often operate, with either intention or inertia, in such a way that certain groups are harmed. This is possible even if no one associated with the "systems and structures" harbors any ill will towards these groups. In the same way, just because Ms. Johnson is an African American or workers at Planned Parenthood aren't personally racist doesn't mean the organization isn't systemically and structurally targeting people of color. The abortion rate for African American women is nearly three times as high as that of white women . The rate for Hispanic women is nearly two times as high. By one estimate , 79 percent of Planned Parenthood facilities are located within walking distance of African American or Hispanic neighborhoods. Whereas the average white woman might live her whole life without coming within 25 miles of one of these facilities, for many women of color, it's far easier to find an abortion clinic than a bank branch or a decent grocery store. Whether by design or not, it reveals a system or structure that disadvantages people of color in the most basic way possible, by depriving them of life. I can't say it any better than did former NFL star and human rights advocate Benjamin Watson: "Whether they personally identify with Sanger's ideology or not, they continue to carry out her mission, by serving as the leading executioner of our children. The same Sanger they claim to disavow would applaud their efforts and results, as a disproportionate percentage of Black children have been killed in Planned Parenthood's abortion clinics. Acknowledging a racist history does not absolve them of the blood on their hands, as they continue to take full advantage of victims of the racism they decry. Quite frankly, how much of a racist or eugenicist Sanger was or wasn't is of no real consequence right now as children die daily. The issue is that the profitability of abortion makes it a difficult cash cow to forgo. I urge Planned Parenthood to continue this 'reckoning,' not simply by calling out racism and combating white supremacy, but by using their wealth to meet the needs of mothers and their influence to halt, not perpetuate, the ultimate goal of a eugenic agenda, extermination of an undesirable's offspring." He's right. If Planned Parenthood is truly serious about eradicating Sanger's sordid legacy, it must abandon abortion. Otherwise, what Harpers called "The Racial Reckoning Within Planned Parenthood" is little more than posturing and public relations, which, I suspect, would please its founder.
Apr 21, 2021
John and Shane field a question from a listener whose workplace is hostile to the Christian faith. Hear how John encourages the committed Christian to live not by lies. Another listener writes-in to ask for resources for the elders of his church. He is looking to help his church respond with truth and love to culture issues, helping the church leadership understand immediate social challenges. To close, John fields a critique on a BreakPoint commentary related to Jack Phillips. The listener seeks to help frame the issue without falling into traps set inside legal structures. John provides a response to help Christians respond without compromising on Biblical truth.
Apr 21, 2021
Today, on the ninth anniversary of his death, I want you to hear from Chuck Colson about his birth. His new birth, that is. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. This is BreakPoint. Chuck Colson was one of the great evangelical leaders of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. He had an enormous influence on so many different organizations, so many different Christians leaders, and, of course, so many individual people. I can't tell you how many times I meet someone who tells me, "Chuck Colson was my mentor," even if they had never met him. They then go on to identify a book that Colson had written or a talk that he had given at some particular event. One of the striking things about it is that when someone names a book, it's almost inevitably a different book each time. Make no mistake: Colson's influence came about because of how Jesus Christ had changed his life. He was an incredibly gifted person. You have to be incredibly gifted to find your place just down the hall from the most important man on the planet some time in your thirties. Yet, this giftedness accompanied by what he would often admit was his pride, led Colson to an incredible fall, one that was public and in front of the entire world. But, he came to Christ, and that changed the trajectory of his entire life. He founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, and he also founded the Colson Center. So, today, on the ninth anniversary of his passing, I want you to hear Chuck Colson describe his own conversion, as he did on a BreakPoint that was on the thirtieth anniversary of that conversion. Here's Chuck Colson: Thirty years ago today, I visited Tom Phillips, president of the Raytheon Company, at his home outside of Boston. I had represented Raytheon before going to the White House, and I was about to start again. But I visited him for another reason as well. I knew Tom had become a Christian, and he seemed so different. I wanted to ask him what had happened. That night he read to me from Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, particularly a chapter about the great sin that is pride. A proud man is always walking through life looking down on other people and other things, said Lewis. As a result, he cannot see something above himself immeasurably superior — God. Tom, that night, told me about encountering Christ in his own life. He didn't realize it, but I was in the depths of deep despair over Watergate, watching the President I had helped for four years flounder in office. I had also heard that I might become a target of the investigation as well. In short, my world was collapsing. That night, as Tom was telling me about Jesus, I listened attentively, but didn't let on about my need. When he offered to pray, I thanked him but said, no, I would see him sometime after I had read C. S. Lewis's book. But when I got in the car that night, I couldn't drive it out of the driveway. Ex-Marine captain, White House tough guy, I was crying too hard, calling out to God. I didn't know what to say; I just knew I needed Jesus, and He came into my life. That was thirty years ago. I've been reflecting of late on the things God has done over that time. As I think about my life, the beginning of the prison ministry, our work in the justice area, our international ministry that reaches one hundred countries, and the work of the Wilberforce Forum and BreakPoint, I have come to appreciate the doctrine of providence. It's not the world's idea of fate or luck, but the reality of God's divine intervention. He orchestrates the lives of His children to accomplish His good purposes. God has certainly ordered my steps. I couldn't have imagined when I was in prison that I would someday go back to the White House with ex-offenders as I did on June 18 — or that we would be running prisons that have an 8 percent recidivism rate — or that BreakPoint would be heard daily on a thousand radio outlets across the United States and on the Internet. The truth that is uppermost in my mind today is that God isn't finished. As long as we're alive, He's at work in our lives. We can live lives of obedience in any field because God providentially arranges the circumstances of our lives to achieve His objectives. And that leads to the greatest joy I've found in life. As I look back on my life, it's not having been to Buckingham Palace to receive the Templeton Prize, or getting honorary degrees, or writing books. The greatest joy is to see how God has used my life to touch the lives of others, people hurting and in need. It has been a long time since the dark days of Watergate. I'm still astounded that God would take someone who was infamous in the Watergate scandal, and soon to be a convicted felon, and take him into His family and then order his steps in the way He has with me. God touched me at that moment in Tom Phillip's driveway, and thirty years later, His love and kindness touch and astound me still.
Apr 20, 2021
The practice of foot binding, tightly wrapping the feet of young girls in order to reshape them and prevent them from growing too large, began sometime during the ninth or tenth century in China. Small feet on women were considered attractive in Han Chinese culture and, over time, the practice grew increasingly extreme. In fact, by the sixteenth century, the foot binding process broke the bones in young girls' feet. The goal was to produce "lotus feet," with the ideal feet being no longer than 4 inches. Women with "lotus feet" were able to only manage small steps and would sway as they walked, something considered alluring by Chinese men. By the end of the nineteenth century, foot binding was deeply embedded as a cultural norm. Nearly half of all women in China and almost all upper-class Han women had their feet bound. Though a painful, debilitating, and abusive practice, having "lotus feet" was essential to securing a good marriage. In the space of one generation, foot binding disappeared. The successful campaign against foot binding was jointly led by Western missionaries and native Chinese Christians. In 1875, John Macgowan, a Belfast-born missionary with the London Missionary Society, was a key figure, and called a meeting of Chinese Christian women to oppose foot binding. Nine of these women agreed to not bind their daughters' feet, to not allow their sons to marry women with bound feet, and to undergo the painful process of unbinding their own. This was the beginning of the Quit-Foot-Binding Society, the first anti-foot binding society in China. Macgowan also convinced Chinese intellectuals, including the Buddhist reformer Kang Youwei, to oppose foot binding. In 1885, Kang founded the Foot Emancipation Society. In 1898, he wrote a memorandum to the Emperor urging him to abolish foot binding, arguing that it made China an object of international ridicule. Other anti-foot binding societies developed rapidly, some who were part of Kang's movement and others led by or inspired by foreign and Chinese Christians. In the end, Chinese Christian women took the lead to end foot binding. For example, Shi Meiyu was the daughter of a Methodist pastor who refused to allow her own feet to be bound. As the first Chinese woman to receive a medical degree from an American University, she founded two hospitals in China and labored tirelessly to abolish foot binding. The campaigns to end foot binding were remarkably successful. In 1902, the Empress Dowager Cixi banned foot binding, though her edict was rescinded. Then, in 1912, the newly founded Republic of China issued a ban. By 1949, at the start of the Communist revolution, the practice had stopped completely in all but a few rural areas. Social scientists have learned crucial lessons from the success of these campaigns. For example, the missionaries that began the fight against foot binding did not try to lead the movement. Instead, they recruited and helped organize indigenous Chinese to lead the movement. Though not all of these indigenous leaders and participants in the campaign were Christians, many were. The movement effectively drew in non-Christian intellectual leaders like Kang Youwei by using arguments grounded in the understandable Chinese desire for respect from other nations. In Shanghai, Alicia Little recognized the importance of basing her work against foot binding on ideas that made sense to non-Christians, instead of simply appealing to her Christian faith. Of course, Christianity is true and therefore aligns with reality. Thus, Little was able to find appropriate prudential arguments in order to make her case. Another important lesson from these anti-foot binding movements is how essential it is to form institutions that can preserve and promote core ideals. The success of these campaigns was largely due to the organizations Macgregor and others founded. In fact, establishing institutions may have been the critical factor in this campaign's success, compared to the failures of earlier attempts to end the practice. And, of course, these campaigns point to something seen repeatedly throughout history. Christians bringing the Gospel to pagan societies have always – always – found themselves defending children from bad ideas and abusive cultural norms. In our pagan times, stopping the assault on children about their God-given sex is a calling. We'd do well to learn from the Christians in China who worked to end foot binding. Start by making the Promise to America's Children , pledging to protect the minds, bodies, and the most important relationships of the children in your life. Come to BreakPoint.org to learn more and to sign your name to this important promise.
Apr 19, 2021
John Stonestreet visits with Dr. Carl Trueman, a Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College, Pa, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Faith and Freedom. Dr. Trueman's book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution, has been called the most important book of the past decade and is the featured resource for the Colson Center this month. Make any gift to the Colson Center during the month of April and we'll send you a copy of Dr. Trueman's book. We invite you to listen to John's discussion with Carl Trueman as they talk about the Image of God, the theme of the 2021 Wilberforce Weekend. Dr. Trueman has a special perspective to share and we are excited to have him in our lineup for the conference.
Apr 19, 2021
Stop and think about this statement, "I'm a woman trapped in a man's body." How did a sentence like this become not just common, and not even just plausible, but unquestionable? Even more, how did it happen so fast? In his new book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution, Grove City College professor Carl Trueman explains the answer as thoroughly and clearly as possible. According to Trueman, the transgender moment – along with its claims about sex, gender, and human identity – is just a symptom, or an expression , of a much deeper and older cultural revolution. If Christians are to have any hope of responding effectively and faithfully, it is essential to understand how that revolution took place. (Dr. Trueman is one of the featured speakers at next month's Wilberforce Weekend in Fort Worth, Texas. Recently, on a special Colson Center webinar, he offered a preview of what's in the book and what he'll be talking about in May.) Trueman's central point is crucial and unlocks virtually every one of our culture's most controversial and significant issues. The view of human identity that is now taken for granted is radically different from the view most people throughout history (not only Christians) have long held. In the Christian view of the human person, we are more than the stuff we're made of. We have a telos, a moral shape, a created purpose, a design. Just as a plane is made to fly, a book is made to be read, and a fish is made to swim, our purpose is to image and glorify God. If we hope to thrive as individuals and as a society, we must live in alignment with that design. Otherwise, we're fighting not just against God, but against our very natures. Sadly, that idea, which is fundamental to life itself – not to mention to a biblical worldview – would be considered "too deep" for many Christians and churches. In the book, Dr. Trueman describes how freshmen entering his classes usually know what the Bible teaches about sexual morality but have no idea why the Bible teaches it. So, when a gay friend asks why they shouldn't be able to marry someone of the same sex, or when a transgender relative claims a new name and demands new pronouns, these students are often at a loss to justify their convictions. For the record, my experience with students and, too often, their parents, educators, and even pastors is often identical. All contemporary Western people, to one degree or another, are unwitting disciples of an ideology that Trueman identifies as "expressive individualism." This view, which is as much caught as it is taught in our culture, declares human beings to be a kind of "living playdough." Not only can we mold and remake ourselves according to our feelings, but the highest purpose of our lives is to look within, determine an identity, and then express it to the world, while demanding that everyone comply. Of course, this also means that our highest duty to each other (after discovering and expressing our own identities) is to recognize and affirm their chosen identities, no matter how impossible or contrary to nature they may be. There is a reason that so many people, yours truly included, consider Dr. Trueman's book the essential explanation of our cultural moment. In astonishing detail, he traces the history of selfhood in Western culture up to the present moment and describes how the ideas of men like Rousseau, Freud, and others became the cultural water in which we all swim. Still, the best part of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is that it does more than describe what has gone wrong. Trueman helps prepare Christians to respond in grace and truth. You can get a copy of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self for a donation of any amount to the Colson Center this month. Just visit BreakPoint.org/April2021 , to request a copy. Again, that's BreakPoint.org/April2021. Also, please join me, Dr. Carl Trueman, and others at the Wilberforce Weekend conference next month in Fort Worth. The focus of the event is understanding and applying, from a variety of angles, who we are as made in the image and likeness of God. The imago Dei is an essential doctrine in the Scriptures, and central to our cultural witness. For more information, go to WilberforceWeekend.org.
Apr 16, 2021
John and Maria discuss the fatal shooting of Dante Wright in Minneapolis. Maria shares how a compassionate response is effective to step forward in love as a community. Maria then introduces a new take on the saga in transgender athletes in collegiate athletics. New actions by the NCAA are putting states in a challenging position to say what isn't true and redesign women's athletics. John and Maria close the program reflecting on the Supreme Court's decision regarding a case out California. Pastor Jeremy Wong and California resident Karen Busch sued the state after being barred from holding Bible studies and prayer meetings in their home. The court upheld lower court rulings, allowing the pair to continue prayer meetings, in a 5-4 decision by the High Court.
Apr 16, 2021
Who's your favorite poet? Do you even have a favorite poet? Even before COVID, when did you last attend a concert or visit an art museum? When did you last draw a picture, or photograph something beautiful, or write a song, or cook a fancy dinner, or just make something ? Enjoying, engaging in, reflecting on, and creating art is a profoundly divine activity. God is, as theologian T. M. Moore puts it, "the Great Artist." His universe was made with "such wonder, diversity, order, color, sound, dimension, scope and harmony that He could confidently pronounce Himself pleased with what He had made." Made in His image, humans are also creators. Artistic creativity is, in fact, an integral and distinguishing capability of being human. The works of our imaginations and of our hands have the potential to reflect the very nature, purpose, and character of God in the world. Not only that, but as the folks at Engage Art explain , art is one way that Christians can cultivate a culture of community: "All of the individual artworks being made by filmmakers, musicians, potters, and all the rest; all the museum collections and comic books; all the dance crazes, songs, poems, etc.—they all get mashed together to create the culture we all get to live in." For the last few years, Engage Art has sought to cultivate, celebrate, and reward artistic creativity by inviting artists of all ages and backgrounds to submit original music, short films, drawings, paintings, photographs, and more. Winners of the Engage Art contest in each category receive cash prizes and have their works displayed with the performing and visual arts at the EngageArt.org. (Submissions to the contest are made through the Engage Art app, which can be found on the website or at the Apple and Android app stores.) The contest is itself an artistic creation of longtime art appreciators and philanthropists Bill and Linda Bantz. They have structured this contest not only to encourage human creativity, but to increase engagement with Scripture. The whole approach reflects an important belief – that a new generation of artists can find inspiration in the Bible's rich and accurate description of reality, just as so many great artists have throughout history. The theme of this year's contest, open as of April 15th, is based on Ephesians 6:10-20, which is often called the "Spiritual Battle" passage. Thus, submissions are encouraged which "discuss the broad and evergreen theme of good vs. evil, as well as the idea that unseen forces have an impact on our world." As Paul explains in that passage, we battle "not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." All the information and requirements for submitting a work for the 2021 Engage Art contest can be found at the website EnageArt.org. There's also a gallery of past contest entries, including paintings, illustrations, sculptures, films, and music videos. Years ago, Chuck Colson said, "For the Christian, the arts are an important way to understand God and His creation. In a post-Christian culture, those who blend artistic gifts with Christian faith can help lead us back to a biblical worldview. That is why the Church should encourage them." I encourage you to share your own artistic talents with the world. Enter the Engage Art contest, and please, tell any Christian creative you know about this opportunity. Details can be found at EngageArt.org , or come to BreakPoint.org for a link.
Apr 15, 2021
One of the most important effects of embracing a deliberate, self-conscious Christian worldview, as well as losing the sacred-secular distinction too many Christians have absorbed from the world around us, is seeing the depth, the breadth, and the width of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every sphere of life. Once we see life this way, our vision of serving Jesus is radically re-shaped in light of the unassailable, undefeatable, and advancing Kingdom of God. Once Chuck Colson embraced this vision of the Christian life, he poured it into every single BreakPoint commentary. Each and every day, in every speech, in every book, and in every visit to every prison he ever took, he was eager to help Christians think clearly about cultural issues and trends from a Christian worldview. During the last decade of his life, Colson decided that the best way he could advance this vision would be replication. That is why he invited Christians to study with him through what is now called the Colson Fellows Program. Inviting Christians to take a deep dive into Christian worldview over a ten-month course of study, trained and mentored by top Christian authors and thinkers. He saw class after class of Christians become the kind of culture-shaping leaders who could look at the world around them, think clearly about it, effectively analyze, critique, and discern what was happening in the world and champion the Kingdom of God in whatever time and place God had called them to. What makes the Colson Fellows Program so different and so vital is that it is not just an exercise in learning new things, as important as that is. Commissioned Colson Fellows are, well, commissioned. Because the training includes a teaching project, a three-year planning process, and self-inventory on who God has made Fellows to be, they are able to apply a Christian worldview in real-world, practical ways. Here's how the program works: Colson Fellows-in-Training learn how to articulate and defend biblical truth in the marketplace of ideas through intensive instruction on worldview and cultural analysis. They read both Christian classics and the best contemporary writers, many of whom they interact with on twice-monthly webinars. Colson Center faculty includes folks such as Os Guinness, Joni Eareckson Tada, Dr. Glenn Sunshine, J. Warner Wallace, Jennifer Marshall, and Scott Klusendorf. What may be the best part is that Colson Fellows study together, in community, in one of our 55 Regional Cohorts around the country, a time-zone specific Online Cohort or one of five International Cohorts. So, we have doctors and business professionals learning alongside of academics and lawyers, who are also learning alongside homeschool moms and everyday Christians who are passionate about living faithfully in this cultural moment. The cross-pollination of applied faith is rich, indeed. Those who complete the program join a network of more than 2,000 commissioned Colson Fellows, who have studied with us and are living out a deeper faith in a broken world. This network includes people like pastors and religious freedom attorneys, educators, college presidents, entrepreneurs – you name it. Colson Fellows Program Director S. Michael Craven likes to say that as people study with the Colson Fellows, many have this moment of "conversion." Serious-minded Christians who have been walking with the Lord for many years discover more clearly, some for the first time, that they are a part of a much larger story—one that certainly includes but goes beyond our personal salvation in Jesus Christ. Christians often say, "I've invited Jesus into my life," but the reality is that Jesus is inviting us into His life. His purpose. His restoring work in the world He created. To this life, His Life, we are invited to join Him in the work of making all things new. If you are stirred in heart and mind for this kind of faith, this kind of life, come to ColsonFellows.org to learn more. We respond to all inquiries and are happy to answer any questions you may have. We're accepting applications now for next year's class of Colson Fellows.
Apr 14, 2021
John Stonestreet is joined by Dr. Bill Brown, Dean of the Colson Fellows program that equips attendees with Christian worldview and a ministry plan to reach their communities. Dr. Brown brings questions from the Colson Fellows class of 2021, along with a few questions we've received at the Colson Center related to neighborliness.
Apr 14, 2021
In the 1992 dystopian novel, The Children of Men , P. D. James tells the story of a world where no child has been born in 26 years. It's a world without hope or purpose. Mass suicide of the elderly is common, and the not-yet-elderly are urged to watch pornography in vain hopes of stimulating libidos and reproduction. Mind you, the story is set in, that's right, 2021. In the book, male sperm counts collapsed in 1994 — called "Year Omega" in the novel — with the last children being born in 1995. While James' story is fiction, in the real 2021, life may be imitating art – male sperm counts around the world are in decline and, by one estimate, a real "Year Omega" could arrive in 2045. According to a new book by Shanna Swan , an epidemiologist at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, between 1973 and 2011 sperm counts in Western males dropped by 59 percent. In the ten years since then, things have gotten worse. As Swan writes, "If you look at the curve on sperm count and project it forward — which is always risky — it reaches zero in 2045 . . . That's a little concerning, to say the least." The decline in male sperm counts coincides with a precipitous decline in fertility rates, not only in the West but increasingly in the developing world, too. Half of the world's countries have fertility rates below replacement level. By 2050 two-thirds of the world's countries are expected to have fertility rates below replacement level. The obvious questions are, one, what role do declining sperm counts are playing in this fertility drop? And two, what's behind the declining sperm counts? Swan acknowledges that nonbiological factors, such as "contraception, cultural shifts and the cost of having children are likely" to have contributed to declining birth rates. But she insists that there is ample evidence for biological reasons, as well. Besides the decline in birth rates, she points to things such as "increasing miscarriage rates, more genital abnormalities among boys and earlier puberty for girls." As for the cause in declining sperm counts, Swan and others single out "endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the environment, including phthalates and bisphenol-A" better known as BPA. These chemicals are found in "plastics, pesticides, cosmetics and even ATM receipts." In addition to the environmental factors, there are lifestyle factors, such as tobacco and marijuana use, and obesity that might also be affecting sperm counts. Regardless of what's causing lower sperm counts, the drop is real. Throw in cultural attitudes towards marriage and childrearing, and the trend is indeed "concerning." While it's difficult to imagine a Children of Men -like scenario, we are already seeing the effects of the decline in fertility around the world: aging populations, a shortage of working-age adults, and 70 million men in China and India without a reasonable prospect of getting married. Between our treatment of the environment and our cultural attitudes and practices, it is almost as if we are following the recommendations of an "extinction consultant." If we asked this consultant the best way to disregard and even rebel against God's command to "be fruitful and multiply," his answer would likely have resembled what we are currently doing. We can do something, of course, about the chemicals Swan and others point to as being factors in the declining sperm rate. That, at best, would only slow the trajectory of our demographic demise. There are cultural factors that are far more important and would remain untouched. Not to mention, for many people, especially in the West, the answer to every environmental and social problem from climate change to poverty is "fewer people." That makes the Guardian 's headline about Swan's book so ironic: "Falling sperm counts 'threaten human survival,' expert warns." Given the Guardian's track record, and that of similar publications, you would expect them be cheering for our possible extinction, or at the very least to look on the bright side: "At least the polar bears will be OK." The only way forward is somehow reversing the anti-human and anti-natalist worldview that is driving us towards a demographic crisis. In James' 1992 novel, hope takes the form of a miraculous birth and a baptism. That's a pretty good summary of what hope could look like or us in 2021. Certainly, it will require a lot more than banning chemicals from water bottles. It will require from us, including those of us in the Church, what the New Testament calls metanoia , a change of mind that results in a transformed way of life.
Apr 13, 2021
In 1996 American political scientist Samuel Huntington wrote a book called The Clash of Civilizations . In it, he proposed a remarkable thesis, that while in the past, especially in the 20th century, global conflicts had been primarily between nations, countries, and kingdoms, in the future, especially in the 21st century, global conflicts would increasingly be between not nation-states but between cultures, between civilizations. These cultural fault lines, as he called them, sometimes existed within a country or existed across regions. It didn't take very long within the 21st Century to prove his theory correct. In fact, in The Clash of Civilizations , Huntington went on to predict that the hottest of these conflicts would be between religious and non-religious cultures, specifically, that what you might call the hottest of the hot would be between Islam and the West. In the time since 9/11, his predictions have largely played out. But there has been another story dealing with Islam that has played out at almost the same time. In fact, just over the last three decades or so, we have seen a remarkable number of Muslims coming to Christ. Individuals from the Islamic world are reporting conversions – sometimes through dreams, sometimes through missions, sometimes through other means. Regardless of the means, it has been what one missiologist called a remarkable movement of the Holy Spirit. The reports are so numerous, in fact, that a foundation recruited a friend of mine, a scholar named Dr. David Garrison, to investigate. They sent him for several months to visit various corners of the Muslim world and to figure out where these stories were coming from. They wanted to know how legitimate these reports were. Garrison put together his findings in a book called A Wind in the House of Islam . You see in the whole history of the Islamic faith, there have been few reports of large movements of Muslims becoming Christians – very few in fact. But about 80 percent of all the movements recorded in history of large groups of Muslims becoming Christians have taken place in just the last three decades . There's something else that's taken place over the last three decades: Each and every year for the last 28 years, during the season of Ramadan, the most holy period in the Islamic calendar, a group of Christians led by a prayer guide, have together prayed for Christ to draw Muslims to Himself. Ramadan is a very good time to keep our Muslim neighbors and Muslims around the world and prayer. Since 1993 to be precise, the "30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World" prayer guide has been equipping Christians to pray for Muslims during this season of Ramadan. It is an international movement that calls on, "The church to make a deliberate but respectful effort to learn about, to pray for, and to reach out to our world's Muslim neighbors." There is even a "30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World Prayer Guide" for kids which I have used with my own family. The "30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World" is available both in a print booklet and as a digital download. You can find it by going to 30DaysPrayer.com. Or come to BreakPoint.org, and we'll tell you how to pick up a copy. James tells us that the effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much. This has been a movement of prayer of hundreds of thousands of Christians for decades. Let's be a part of it.
Apr 12, 2021
John Stonestreet visits with Alisa Childers, author of Another Gospel: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity. Alisa is a featured speaker at the upcoming Wilberforce Weekend, May 21-23 in Fort Worth, Tx. Alisa shares how progressive Christianity is working to steal the image of God, providing context for her upcoming presentation at the Wilberforce Weekend. For more information on the Wilberforce Weekend, including a drawing where you could win tickets, hotels, and flights to the conference, visit www.wilberforceweekend.com
Apr 12, 2021
Back in January, at meeting held at the Royal Society in London, a team of scientists and investors announced the largest prize ever offered to solve a scientific mystery. Organized by engineer and business consultant Perry Marshall, the whopping prize of $10 million (ten times the Nobel Prize payout) will be given to any person or team who can "arrange for a digital communication system to emerge or self-evolve without…explicitly designing the system." The point of the contest is to learn where genetic code came from, and how it became the basis for all life. The winning experiment, according to their website, "must generate an encoder that sends digital code to a decoder," and transmit at least five bits of information, or roughly half as much as a comparable segment of DNA. In other words, to claim the prize, you must bring into existence the functional equivalent of the first living cell, without intelligently designing the system. Judges include Oxford and Royal Society biologist Denis Noble, Harvard Geneticist George Church, and philosopher of science Michael Ruse. According to Noble, a scientist whose work led to the first pacemaker, the prize is so big, because evolution "leaves two things completely unexplained: How did life get going in the first place, and what is the origin of the genetic code." With surprising honesty, he continued: "I cannot see personally how DNA could have been there at the beginning. After all, it requires the cell to enable it and to reproduce, and it requires the cell also to correct errors in that reproduction and replication process." Perry Marshall explained why he organized the prize by recalling a debate about the origin of life he once had with his brother. Sons of a pastor, Marshall offered a standard argument from design, but his brother retorted that natural processes were sufficient to explain all of life's complexity. Marshall wasn't convinced. As he was writing what would later become his bestselling book on computer networks, he realized that "mathematically [DNA and ethernet] are identical. It's encoding and decoding. It is a communication system…Genetics is digital communication." Intelligent design theorists have been making this point for decades. From a variety of angles, authors such as Michael Behe, William Dembski, and Steven Meyer have argued that information, like what is stored and communicated in DNA, has only one known source – an intelligent agent. To produce a system like DNA through unguided processes would not only be to do something that's never been done; it would be to do something never before observed in the history of science. But, it gets even worse of those hoping to snag that $10 million. As Dr. Noble reminded press and colleagues, DNA requires a cell to function…and cells, as far as we know, require DNA. To get one, you need the other. In other words, to win the money, competitors must not only put together the equivalent of functioning genetic code "without cheating," they have to create the molecular machines that use, replicate, and edit that code. How difficult is it to produce a living cell from scratch? A while back, my colleague Shane Morris asked synthetic-organic chemist James Tour this very question on the BreakPoint Podcast . Dr. Tour replied that anyone who claims we're close to building a cell, even in the most ideal of circumstances, "has no idea what they're talking about." In fact, he said, "ask them for details, and you see them start to sweat." The bottom line? The origin of life and of the information that makes it possible remain the most significant challenge to a naturalistic worldview. The only plausible explanation for how these incredible systems came into being is intelligent design, precisely what those competing for this prize are forbidden from using. Don't get me wrong. $10 million is a lot of money. But, it's still not enough to make the impossible possible.
Apr 9, 2021
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the ramifications of Major League Baseball moving the All-Star Game from Atlanta as a result of Georgia's new voting law. How do Christians respond when corporate activism falls for a non-factual narrative? And how is it that politics has overtaken every sphere of public life? They also tackle Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison's surprising veto of legislation that would ban transgender surgery and hormone treatment for minors (the veto was immediately overridden)--and just how detached from reality our language over biology, sex, and gender has become. John and Maria wrap up this week's episode discussing how it is that Gallup has found that--for the first time--fewer than half of Americans are members of a church. Is this a failure of the Church? The result of what John calls "an anemic ecclesiology?" As for their recommendations of the week: "The Chosen" TV series and, for young people, the Impact 360 Institute and Summit Ministries.
Apr 9, 2021
It's easy to think that the story of the last several decades, at least as it comes to Christianity and society, is the story of moral shifting. In other words, things that were once considered wrong are now considered right, and things that were once considered right are now considered wrong. That certainly explains an awful lot, and certainly there have been moral shifts in Western society. However, that's not enough to explain everything. More accurately, maybe we should say that the moral shifts that we see, which are obvious and which have indeed happened, are the fruit of the issue, not the root. They are the effect, not the cause. The deepest and more fundamental shifts that have taken place in Western culture over the last several decades have not been in our definition of what's right and what's wrong. They've been in our definition of reality itself, specifically our understanding of what it means to be human. Starting with that framework, we can answer some questions that for many of us seemed to be nearly unanswerable. What's wrong? It's been in our definition of reality itself, specifically our understanding of what it means to be human. Maybe you find yourself in the same cultural boat as Carl Trueman: a little dizzy, like so many of us, about how quickly things went from unthinkable to unquestionable. It is one thing for someone to say something like, "I am a woman trapped in a man's body." Certainly, throughout history, there have been people that have thought that sort of thing, and maybe even said that sort of thing out loud. The difference, as Trueman puts it, between those times and today is that that statement has now come to be regarded as coherent and meaningful. There is an essential question for Christians to answer. If we are to frame our worldview without being pulled here-and-there by the various deceptions of our culture while also having a strong enough cultural witness that is big enough for the questions of the challenges of this time in human history, then answering this question must involve a deep dive into the issue of the image of God. In other words, the Christian view of what it means to be human. That is why we are going to be spending an entire conference in May on that question at the Wilberforce Weekend in Fort Worth. If we want to understand the degree to which our culture is lost, if we wish to see how far our society has strayed from the truth, and if we wish to understand where they are and go to them with the answers to the questions that they have, then we need to understand this shift. Where did it come from? How did we change our minds? Not just about what is right and wrong and not only even questions about whether there is a God or not. How did we change our minds on what it means to be human? That is what this remarkable book by Carl Trueman offers: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self . Consider the subtitle: "Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism and the Road to Sexual Revolution." The sexual revolution has gone so far – further than even its original progenitors could have ever imagined – and at the root of that is an idea that Trueman rightly defines and identifies as expressive individualism. In other words, when who we are as human persons is completely disconnected from any design and from any creator, then the only thing there is left to us is whatever I express about myself. With this framework, when anything – whether it's religious, moral, or social norms or even laws and public policies – gets in the way of me being whatever it is that I say or that I want to be, it is here that the greatest oppression, the greatest discrimination, comes. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is a must-read book. My friend Bruce Ashford, a remarkable scholar in Christian worldview and theology, calls this book the most significant analysis and evaluation of Western culture written by a Protestant during the last 50 years. That is some serious praise. Rod Dreher calls this without question one of the most important religious books of the decade, saying, "Carl Trueman explains modernity to the Church with depth, clarity, and force. The significance of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is hard to overestimate." I think this book is absolutely essential reading for any Christian who wants to make sense of this cultural moment and do it in such a way that they know better how to take their faith into the public square. As we have said so many times over the last couple weeks, our understanding of the image of God is central to a Christian worldview, and it is crucial for our cultural witness. More than that, it is the pivotal place where our faith collides with Western culture because of expressive individualism. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is the featured resource for the Colson Center this month. For a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, I will send you a copy of this book, and, trust me, you will not be sorry to get the depth of understanding that the book offers. To pick up your copy of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self , just visit BreakPoint.org/April2021.
Apr 8, 2021
The most recent incarnation of the Equality Act is also the most radical version we have yet seen. It's also worth noting that it's closer to becoming law than any version so far put forward. As a friend of mine would say, this isn't magic; it's math. This Congressional term, the Equality Act passed the House of Representatives. Though unlikely at this point, a 50-50 tie in the Senate broken by a Democratic White House is feasible, making the Equality Act a live option. Last year, it simply wasn't. Who knows what the next round of midterms will do to these numbers? In light of the very real threat posed by the Equality Act, a number of Christians have offered compromise solutions, most notably the Fairness for All Act. FFA would carves out exemptions for churches and certain religious organizations, though it's unclear which ones, but it would not protect the religious freedoms of private Christian citizens who are medical professionals, business owners, bakers, florists, photographers, and so on. These attempts to preserve legislatively whatever religious freedoms we can, while well-intentioned, are actually premature attempts at deal-making. Tactically unwise, compromise solutions will almost certainly make things more difficult in the future. Rather than carving out a place for Christians in an increasingly hostile culture, this appeasement shrinks the space available to believers, both now and in the future. Even so, political gamesmanship is only part of the problem with compromise solutions such as Fairness for All. In fact, there are at least three reasons not only to oppose just the Equality Act but all attempts to compromise in its direction. First, the Equality Act, even in a compromised form, says what is not true about the human person. Specifically, the Equality Act suggests that when it comes to human beings, questions of sexual and gender identity are equivalent to categories race and ethnicity. In other words, something largely determined by behavioral choice and personal expression is treated as an essential characteristic of a person. (Though in the past, LGB advocates may have used the "born this way" argument to explain sexual identity, that argument does not serve the new letter, T, in the acronym. Therefore, it has been largely abandoned). Attempts to compromise with the Equality Act not only affirm this same, false way of thinking about who we are for everyone else but "us," it relegates Christian belief in this area to subjective personal opinion. Second, by hijacking the history and categories of the Civil Rights movement, the Equality Act says things that are not true about the plight of those who are LGBT. The Civil Rights Act ensured that African Americans could participate in civil society, when at times they could not. Decades ago, for example, an African American family could not take a cross country trip since so many hotels, gas stations, and restaurants refused service. Effectively, an entire segment of the population was excluded from society. This is not the case for LGBT people. When Jack Philips refused to bake a cake celebrating a "same-sex marriage" (in a state that, at the time, didn't even recognize "same-sex marriage") dozens of bakeries nearby would have gladly taken the business. To compare the refusal to participate in a same-sex marriage or a "gender affirming" surgery with the Jim Crow South is obviously false, given the wide availability of services in any of these arenas. In fact, this reveals the Equality Act for what it is: an attempt to force citizens to comply with the government's point of view. Which brings up the third way in which attempts to compromise with the Equality Act fail. Compromise solutions wish to protect ministers and Christian institutions from being forced to comply with the government's point of view. Everyone else is left fully unprotected. While advocates of compromise might say we should secure whatever protections we can, we ought not stand for anything short of the full dignity and full rights every human possesses to continue holding and living from their deeply held convictions. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote decades ago, we don't have to join every protest or hold every sign. However, at the very least, we must not say what is not true. Thus, even for a good cause, we cannot lend voices in support of our culture's falsehoods about what it means to be human. And, we should tell our religious and political leaders not to, either.
Apr 7, 2021
John and Shane deal with a series of questions related to the image of God. John has referred to our inability to articulate the image of God as a debilitating oversight. The first question looks at the issue of immigration and what a Christian perspective of immigration should be. John and Shane then field a question seeking understanding in how we continue to bear God's image, even though we are sinners. To close, John and Shane work through a question on the presence of evil in God's good creation.
Apr 7, 2021
I have a hunch that if I went from one church to another, or one Christian school to another, or one Bible study to another, and I stood in front and challenged these followers of Christ, saying, "Fill in the blank. The Bible says that humans are made . . . ," my guess is that I'd get a pretty solid answer: "In the image of God!" However, if we followed up that question with another one, asking, "What is the image of God? What difference does the image of God make?" I think the response would be far more crickets than clarity. Our lack of understanding and our inability to articulate what the image of God means, and what difference this doctrine makes, is an incredibly debilitating oversight in the Church right now, and this for at least three reasons. First, the image of God is essential to understanding the story of Scripture. Today when we talk about identity in churches and especially youth group Bible studies and things like that, we use this phrase, "identity in Christ." But to fully understand what identity in Christ is, we need to understand our identity in creation. Many people have rightly summarized the biblical story in four chapters: Creation (how God made the world); Fall (what went wrong with the world); Redemption (the work of Christ to redeem what God made); and Restoration (when all things will be made new again). Before we were Christians, we were made in the image and likeness of God. The Fall impacted not only our behavior and what we do, but who we are. That's what Christ restores in His death and resurrection. In other words, we're not saved from being human, were saved to be human. The image of God is essential to understanding the notions of human equality, human dignity, and human value. We all know that the Declaration of Independence says that "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Well, if you look around a room full of people, the most evident thing is not that we're equal. The most evident thing is that we're actually quite different. If there's anything about our humanity that grounds equality and dignity and value, it can't be any quality that we share on the outside, because, well, there is no quality that we all share on the outside. Some of us are older. Some of us are taller. Some of us have higher IQ's. And so on. Even atheist thinkers have recognized that the only source in history that's grounded equality, dignity, and value and given us an understanding of a shared humanity is the image of God. Not only is the image of God essential to understanding the story of Scripture and essential to grounding notions of human equality, dignity, and value, but the image of God is essential to our cultural witness right now. That's why we're going to focus our attention at the upcoming Wilberforce Weekend Conference, May 21st through the 23rd in Fort Worth, Texas, on this one doctrine of the image of God. From a dizzying variety of angles, we will look at this cultural question and this biblical question, "What does it mean to be human?" And we will bring a level of clarity so that we can have confidence for this cultural moment. To learn more about the conference, go to WilberforceWeekend.org. I cannot think of a more important question for Christians to lock in on right now, than the idea that every single person is made in the image and likeness of God. Again, go to WilberforceWeekend.org to learn more about this incredible event in Fort Worth, May 21st through 23rd.
Apr 6, 2021
A pattern emerges whenever a culture tries to fix itself, with only the resources of its own unmoored virtues. A problem is identified, but misdiagnosed. Then, a solution is offered that accomplishes the exact opposite of the goal. Examples of this include trampling on the rights of women in the name of inclusion, firing ethnic minorities for racism , and the new brand of anti-Semitism prevalent on college campuses that are supposed to be (even because they are) "woke." These many examples reveal why worldview matters. Every worldview answers the questions "What's wrong with the world?" and "How can it be fixed?" Some worldviews get the answers to these questions very, very wrong. Hatred of the Jews, for example, is perhaps the oldest hatred in the world. Typically, anti-Semitism is perceived as coming from far-right, white supremacists or radical Muslim extremists. However, acording to a new student group called the New Zionist Congress, however , anti-Semitism is increasingly found on college campuses, notably among the far-left. Apparently, the progressive orthodoxies built around Critical Theory offers little space for Jewish people. In the name of "standing up for the oppressed," maybe the most oppressed group in world history is being excluded? Blake Flayton, a self-proclaimed progressive, gay, Jewish college student first explained the problem in a 2019 op-ed in The New York Times . "At many American universities," he wrote, "it is now normal for student organizations to freely call Israel an imperialist power and an outpost of white colonialism with little pushback or discussion — never mind that more than half of Israel's population consists of Israeli Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, and that the country boasts a 20-percent Arab minority." The problem, of course, is that Critical Theory is not big enough as a worldview to deal with a real world that constantly crosses racial, socio-economic and national lines. Critical theory relies on those lines to determine human worth, dignity, and moral standing. No room is allowed for actual progress. Once an oppressor, always an oppressor. And, if an oppressed group rises above their oppression, whether perceived or real, they risk falling on the wrong side of the measuring stick. Jewish history is long and winding. Even after the Germans attempted to exterminate them, and much of the world closed their borders to Jewish refugees, the Jewish people somehow managed to reclaim their homeland in Israel. Now that Israel has secured relative safety and freedom, all of a sudden, they're evil? This self-defeating and dehumanizing logic is a central flaw of this way of seeing the world. Any worldview that grounds human value in a perceived proximity to power or ethnicity robs individuals of their humanity. God's Image is what makes us human and therefore valuable, regardless of whether we have any power or belong to any group. The Bible not only provides a much better standard for determining human worth, but it also offers us a clue as to why anti-Semitism has persisted for so long. God formed the nation of Israel and chose the Jewish people through which to send the Messiah in order to bless all the peoples of the earth. A world animated by His Enemy will hate them. Years ago in a sermon , John Piper said that a church that fails to evangelize the Jewish people - to accept, value, learn from, and minister to them - cannot "long hold on to the gospel." He was drawing heavily from the writings of Paul, which explore the mystery of God's love for the Jewish people. The world's new or, more accurately, renewed hate for Jewish people is another opportunity for the Church to be profoundly counter-cultural. Psalm 122 instructs us to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." That peace remains a long way off. We should keep praying.
Apr 5, 2021
John Stonestreet serves as president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He wraps up our Time of Guided Prayer last week, reflecting on Proverbs as wisdom for the church and nation
Apr 5, 2021
Last week, the ACLU, an organization typically not friendly to Christian ideals, got one right (albeit unintentionally ) when the organization tweeted out, " Trans children are perfect exactly as they are ." Their attempt to affirm our culture's newest progressive doctrine actually communicated the opposite. After all, trans-activists insist that children, or anyone, who struggle with gender dysphoria are "trapped in the wrong bodies" and given the wrong names. The only way, in fact, for them to "be their true selves" is by altering their bodies, blocking their natural development through puberty, and sterilizing them with medication and surgery. In other words, what the ACLU really thinks is that trans children are not perfect the way they are. Then, just a few days after confusing the meaning of the word perfect, the ACLU issued another tweet with even more wrongly defined word s, "Trans Youth are Loved. Trans Youth are cherished. Trans Youth belong." How is telling a kid that their bodies are a mistake of God or nature a way of cherishing them? How is telling them that they're wrong as is, not just in their feelings but in their very being, helping them "to belong?" How is any of this love ? Still, it's one thing for the ACLU to get this issue so wrong; it's another thing altogether for the Church to get it wrong. Just as bad is the Church embracing one of the great lies of our culture, that telling the truth is unloving and that loving someone requires affirming their choices. Truth matters, ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims. This is why we cannot love someone without speaking the truth. It is not necessarily cruel to say what is true. It can be, of course, if the truth is said in the wrong way or for the wrong reasons. At the same time, affirming someone's choices can be not only not telling the truth, but it can be an incredibly cruel thing to do, even when done from good intentions. In fact, the cruelest thing you can tell someone who's not ok is that they are. Even raising the issue of truth, especially in certain contexts, can end a relationship. For example, over the past few years, I've heard from many, many parents and grandparents of grown children, struggling to make sense of a generational gap that seems insurmountable. Generation gaps are, of course, nothing new but, in our culture, certain issues are driving these relationships to a breaking point. A new, four-week, online course, beginning tomorrow April 6, will address this need. "How to Speak Truth and Love Both Inside and Outside the Church" takes place four consecutive Tuesday evenings, led by four outstanding and practical speakers who will help us hold together truth and love in our interactions with four different groups of people. Greg Stier from Dare2Share will get things started tomorrow night as he discusses how we can speak truth and love to unbelievers who need to know Jesus. The following Tuesday, Colson Fellows National Director Michael Craven will help us communicate with Christians who don't know what (or how) to think about the issues in our culture (or maybe who don't seem to care very much). The third session, led by apologist and author Sean McDowell, will focus on communicating truth in love to progressive Christians who have abandoned important Christian truths. And finally, Jonathan Morrow from the Impact 360 Institute, will help us understand members of Gen Z, and help communicate to these people who often struggle to know who to trust. Register for this course at BreakPoint.org. Each week features a 90-minute session that includes a time for question and answer with the instructor. Everyone who signs up also receives a link to the recording of every week's session, that way you can review the information or you can catch it in case of a scheduling conflict. Truth and love are inseparable. Jesus Christ is the source and the very embodiment of both Truth and Love. We need not choose between them. We must not choose between them. Again, come to BreakPoint.org to register for tomorrow night's Short Course, "How to Speak Truth and Love."
Apr 2, 2021
John and Maria discuss a new song and music video by Little Nas X. They also discuss a new development in New York related to marijuana despite recent findings of its link to young male suicide. Through this, John and Maria consider how and why young men aren't o.k.. John also spends time discussing a recent court battle that went in favor of a university professor who elected to live not by lies, referring to a student respectfully while also refusing to use preferred gender pronouns.
Apr 2, 2021
Each year, the most popular meme that I share on social media is a picture of Chuck Colson with a quote where he describes how his experience in the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration helped him believe in the resurrection. Years ago, he described on video how watching the lies of a group of powerful men fall apart made him realize the disciples were, indeed, telling the truth. Here's Chuck Colson: I want to wish you and your families and friends a holy, blessed Easter. We celebrate because we as Christians know that our Lord is risen from the dead—and in His resurrection is our hope of everlasting life with God. Indeed, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, the historical fact of Christ's resurrection is the only basis of our hope. Without the resurrection, our faith is futile. This is why critics of Christianity often try to explain away the empty tomb. They claim that the disciples lied--that they stole Jesus's body themselves and conspired together to pretend He had risen. The apostles then managed somehow to recruit more than 500 other people to lie for them as well, to say they saw Jesus after He rose from the dead. But just how plausible is this theory? To answer that question, fast forward nearly 2,000 years, to an event I happen to know a lot about: Watergate. You see, before all the facts about Watergate were known to the public--in March 1973--it was becoming clear to Nixon's closest aides that someone had tried to cover up the Watergate break-in. There were no more than a dozen of us. Could we maintain a cover-up--to save the president? Consider that we were political zealots. We enjoyed enormous political power and prestige. With all that at stake, you'd expect us to be capable of maintaining a lie to protect the president. But we couldn't do it. The first to crack was John Dean. First, he told the president everything, and then just two weeks later he went to the prosecutors and offered to testify against the President. His reason, as he candidly admits in his memoirs, was to "save his own skin." After that, everyone started scrambling to protect himself. What we know today as the great Watergate cover-up lasted only three weeks. Some of the most powerful politicians in the world--and we couldn't keep a lie for more than three weeks. So back to the question of historicity of Christ's resurrection. Can anyone believe that for fifty years that Jesus' disciples were willing to be ostracized, beaten, persecuted, and all but one of them suffer a martyr's death--without ever renouncing their conviction that they had seen Jesus bodily resurrected? Does anyone really think the disciples could have maintained a lie all that time under that kind of pressure? No, someone would have cracked, just as we did so easily in Watergate. Someone would have acted as John Dean did and turned state's evidence. There would have been some kind of smoking gun, or a deathbed confession. So why didn't they crack? Because they had come face to face with the living God. They could not deny what they had seen. The fact is that people will give their lives for what they believe is true, but they will never give their lives for what they know is a lie.The Watergate cover-up proves that 12 powerful men in modern America couldn't keep a lie--and that 12 powerless men 2,000 years ago couldn't have been telling anything but the truth. Again, may you and yours have a blessed Easter, firm in your faith that the Lord is risen. He is risen, indeed! Come to breakpoint.org, click on this commentary, and we'll share that meme of Chuck Colson talking about Watergate. Download it and share it with others by email and social media. From all of us at the Colson Center, Happy Resurrection Day. Christ is risen!
Apr 1, 2021
"Jesus would've baked the cake." "Christians hate LGBTQ people." "You're on the wrong side of history" "Why can't you let them be 'their true selves'?" "That's just your truth, not mine." Perhaps most painful, especially when it comes from a friend of family member: "If you love me, you'd accept me for who I am." All of the slogans that leave Christians silent or shamed today are, at root, different ways of saying the same thing – that truth and love are incompatible. For people to tell the truth, especially when it comes to issues of sexuality and gender, is to be unloving and intolerant. And, to love someone is to affirm their choices. There's a uniquely "Christian" version of these slogans, too. Taking a moral stand, we are told, especially on questions so culturally controversial, is to distract from the Gospel. Instead, apparently, the Church needs to be more welcoming and to avoid anything that makes people feel excluded from the Church. After all, we are told, isn't the Gospel really about inclusivity? Today, of all the days of Holy Week, directly confronts this mentality. Maundy Thursday is set aside on the Church calendar to remember the Last Supper. The word "maundy" comes from the Latin word for "mandate," or "command." At this first celebration of Communion, Jesus gave His disciples "a new command," that they should love and serve each other. To demonstrate what He meant, He picked up a basin of water and a towel and washed their feet. To fully understand His words and actions, recall that at this "Last Supper" and first Communion, Jesus and His disciples were obeying God's original command, given to all Jews, to remember the Passover. God's people were to never forget how they were rescued from slavery in Egypt. For Jesus to issue a "new" command was an audacious thing to do, especially given how significantly God's original command stood in Israel's history and identity as a people. Jesus, however, went even further than merely adding instructions to an old celebration. Now, rather than remembering how the angel of death "passed over" those homes with lamb's blood on their doorposts, they were to remember His broken body and His shed blood. Ultimately, the new command was to remember a new rescue, and how, through Christ's death, death is not merely avoided but finally defeated. Though the volume has increased in recent years, the American Church has been dividing over whether it should be primarily about proclaiming truth or about serving others since at least the mid-20th century. The Lord's Supper and Jesus' "new" command remind us that this is a false dichotomy. It's an unnecessary choice to make. These two things need never be separated and should never be separated. On the same night Jesus commanded us to remember how His broken body and shed blood rescues us from sin (that's the truth), He commanded us to demonstrate our new life by serving others (that's love). We need not choose between truth and love. In fact, we must not choose. They always go together, because they are both grounded in the same Source, or specifically, the same Person. "How to Speak Truth and Love Both Inside and Outside the Church" is a new short course that begins next Tuesday. The course will examine how, in practical terms, we can communicate truth to four groups of people: unbelievers who need to know Jesus, Christians who don't know what (or how) to think, Gen Z who don't know how (or whom) to trust, and progressive Christians who have abandoned truth. Instructors for the course are Greg Stier from Dare2Share, Michael Craven from the Colson Center, apologist and author Sean McDowell, and Jonathan Morrow from the Impact 360 Institute. Come to BreakPoint.org to register. The course runs four consecutive Tuesday nights, beginning next week, April 6. All sessions are recorded and made available to all registered guests. Jesus embodied truth and love, not only in the event we commemorate this day, but every event we remember this Holy Week. He is truth. He is love. And, He has risen. Indeed.
Mar 31, 2021
John and Shane field two important questions from parents today. The first looks for guidance on training young people to value marriage and pursue having children in a culture that seems to devalue both. The second parental question is from a grandmother looking to have a shaping influence with her grandchildren in spite of a strained relationship with the parents due to the grandmother's commitment to Biblical standards.
Mar 31, 2021
Next week, Christians worldwide will celebrate, like the entire cloud of witnesses has before them, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection is, of course, the central event in the Holy Scriptures, the pivotal moment of the story of Christ, and the foundational belief of a Christian worldview. Even more, if it happened, it is the pivotal event in all of human history. Still, it's not difficult to see why it's so hard to believe, especially today. Both science and experience tell us that corpses do not revive. The dead stay dead. Even more, some skeptics level the charge that the story of Jesus' resurrection was simply borrowed from pagan myths, who had their own "dying and rising" deity stories. So, was the resurrection story basically stolen from pagan religions? In the latest "What Would You Say?" video, my colleague Brooke McIntire tackles this issue. The next time someone says the idea that Jesus rose from the dead was borrowed from pagan myths, here are 3 things to remember: Number 1: Just because some stories are similar does not mean that one borrowed from another. A little more than a century ago, a story was first told about a passenger ship that was unsinkable. However, while steaming across the Atlantic Ocean on a clear April evening, it struck an iceberg and sank. And, more than half of its passengers died from a lack of lifeboats. The name of the ship was spelled "T-I-T-A-N . . ." Yes, "The Titan." Did you think I was talking about the "Titanic"? That tragedy occurred in 1912. However, I was referring to the fictional story in a novel titled Futility: The Wreck of the Titan, published in 1898, 14 years prior to the sinking of the Titanic. There are a striking number of similar details between the two stories, even in the ship's name! However, we would never claim that the similarities suggest the latter story was influenced by the former and that the Titanic did not actually sink. Similarities between stories do not prove that one necessarily borrowed from another. Number 2: It is utterly implausible that the early Christians would borrow major ideas from pagan myths. The earliest Christians were pious Jews who often debated over the minutia of the Jewish Law. For example, they debated over whether Jewish Christians were still required to maintain the temple purification rites, whether Christians could eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols, whether non-Jewish male Christians needed to be circumcised, and whether Jewish Christians could even eat in the same room with non-Jewish Christians. Jews believed that they had been chosen by God to be a people separated from paganism. Given this background, it would have been unthinkable for these early Christians with Jewish sensibilities to engage in wholesale borrowing from pagan religions for the foundational belief of their own new sect. Number 3: Stories of people surviving death are not unusual. Surviving death is a deep-seated longing in most humans. So, it should come as no surprise to find stories peppered throughout human history of people returning from the dead. Fictional stories of dying and rising gods in pagan myths do nothing to discredit the story of Jesus rising from the dead. We must decide whether or not Jesus actually was resurrected from the dead based on the evidence. And there's a lot of evidence. If you want to learn about it, check out Gary Habermas' book, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. To see the whole video addressing the question of whether the resurrection of Christ was based on pagan myths, go to whatwouldyousay.org. Or, you can go to YouTube and search for "Colson Center What Would You Say?" Subscribe and be notified each time a new "What Would You Say?" video is released.
Mar 30, 2021
A defining characteristic of pagan societies is the sacrificing the well-being of children on the altar of adult happiness and self-fulfillment. Our own pagan society is no different. In a single-minded pursuit of sexual pleasure, career, or lifestyle, we tell ourselves that "the kinds will be fine," even though they're clearly not . Throughout history, across cultures and time periods, Christians bringing the Gospel to pagan cultures found themselves defending and protecting abandoned and abused children as well. For example, 19th century India was not a welcoming place for girls. Considered inferior to men, women were not allowed to be educated or to work for a living. Child marriage was a fairly common practice. Though the practice of sati (burning widows on their husband's funeral pyres) had been abolished, the fate of widows in that culture was harsh. Considered to be cursed, they would often be subjected to terrible abuse at the hands of their husband's family. Pandita Ramabai's family was different. Pandita's father, a member of the priestly caste known as Brahmins, encouraged her to learn how to read the Hindu scriptures. Not only did she learn, her skills and mastery of the text earned her acclaim. Her study also fed her growing doubts about the truth of Hinduism. After she was married, Pandita found a copy of the Gospel of Luke in her husband's library. Drawn to Christianity, she invited a missionary to their home to explain the Gospel to her and her husband. Not long after, her husband passed away. And not long after his death, a child-widow came to her door looking for charity. Pandita took her in as if she were her own daughter. Moved by the young widow's situation, Pandita started an organization called Arya Mahila Samaj to educate girls and to advocate for the abolition of child-marriage. It was when she traveled to England that Pandita Ramabai formally converted to Christianity. Returning to India, she set up a school for girls and widows in what's now called Mumbai. At first, to avoid offending Hindus, she agreed not to promote Christianity and followed the rules of the Brahmin caste. Even these concessions weren't enough. Within a year the school was under attack, and her local financial support dried up. So, she moved the school to Pune, about 90 miles away. In 1897, after a famine and plague struck the area around Pune, Pandita Ramabai established a second school 30 miles away from there. Among the subjects taught to the girls in her school was literature (for moral teaching), physiology (to teach them about their bodies), and industrial arts such as printing, carpentry, tailoring, masonry, wood-cutting, weaving, needlework, farming, and gardening. At first, Pandita had only two assistants. So, she developed a system to help take care of and educate the girls. First, they would teach the older girls, who would then take care of and help teach the younger ones. In this way, they managed to care for the growing number of girls who made their way to the school and take care of. By 1900, 2000 girls were living there. In 1919, three years before her death, the British king awarded Pandita Ramabai the Kaiser-i-Hind award, the highest honor that an Indian could receive during the colonial period. Pandita's example is one of many that we must take seriously today. To live in a pagan society is to encounter victims of bad ideas. Often, especially in our culture, these victims are children. Whenever a Christian or a church decides that to speak up on controversial cultural issues is to "get too political," they leave these victims without protection and are out of step with Christian history. Whenever a Christian or a church claims that they avoid these issues because "it distracts from the Gospel," they are embracing an anemic, truncated Gospel. Christians today can join those who've gone before us, proclaiming the Gospel and caring for children. One way to do this is by signing the Promise to America's Children , pledging to protect the minds, bodies, and the most important relationships of children in our society. And learn all the ways children are being victimized and how the Church can help, by reading Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children's Rights Movement, a vital new book by Katy Faust. Them Before Us is the featured resource from the Colson Center this month.
Mar 29, 2021
**REGISTER TO RECEIVE A FREE TRIP TO WILBERFORCE WEEKEND 2021** > We're not crying wolf with the proposed and mis-named Equality Act. Instead we're standing on the shore watching the tsunami of redefinition and rewiring of hearts, minds, and souls grow closer and closer. This version of the Equality Act presents with more support and more potential to be enacted than at any point in history. John is sounding the alarm, sharing a discussion he had with a number of educators regarding the potential cultural impact of the proposed bill. We have discussed at length the legal aspects of the Equality Act. However, today we consider the cultural impact the Equality Act could have on our communities and families. God has placed us in a special time and specific location at this point in history. John discusses our responsibility to communicate the Gospel with the resources He has given us to address the brokenness of the world, specifically in the face of the Equality Act.
Mar 29, 2021
This month, Congress halted the rollout of the Army's new Combat Fitness Test. Unlike the old test, which dates back to before combat roles were open to female soldiers, the new test requires men and women to meet the same standards of physical fitness. That's a problem, critics and activists say, since, so far, 54 percent of women have failed this new gender-neutral test. Service Women's Action Network CEO Deshauna Barber complained , "A fitness test that is so clearly biased simply cannot move forward without further review…" A letter from her organization to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees called the gender-neutral test "hasty" and "rash," and insisted that "too many otherwise qualified soldiers are failing." The test wrongly assumes that "every soldier is a warrior first," and that "superior physical strength is singularly critical in battle." Sadly, the Army eventually agreed and revised the test to reflect these complaints. To be clear, we are talking about testing for combat infantry roles, literally for the "boots on the ground." Isn't the physical strength of these servicemembers critical in battle? At least one notable voice thinks so. Writing at West Point's Modern War Institute, Captain Kristen Griest, the Army's first female infantry officer, argues that lowering the physical bar for women could have deadly consequences on the battlefield: "While it may be difficult for a 120-pound woman to lift or drag 250 pounds, the Army cannot artificially absolve women of that responsibility; it may still exist on the battlefield…each job has objective physical standards to which all soldiers should be held, regardless of gender…To not require women to meet equal standards in combat arms will not only undermine their credibility, but also place those women, their teammates, and their mission at risk." She's right. The bad idea behind lowering standards for female soldiers is the same bad idea behind putting transgender male athletes in the ring to fight women. Men and women are physically different. Just ask Tamikka Brents , who, back in 2014, had her skull fractured in two minutes by Fallon Fox, the MMA's first openly transgender fighter. Physical jobs require physical strength. There is no job in the world more physically demanding than combat infantry. Giving an assault rifle and a pair of boots to men or women unable to meet those demands is worse than madness. For them and their fellow soldiers, it could be a death sentence. Though the sexes were created with the same dignity as bearers of God's image, they were not created to be identical. Our differences are, in fact, where are greatest strengths lie. This truth was lost somewhere in the middle of feminism's second wave, when the movement went from being about equality in rights to equality in roles. While the exclusion of women from certain roles in society needed to be corrected, other roles are grounded in the differences that do exist between men and women. Recently re-watching Avengers: Endgame with my son, Hunter, I couldn't overlook that famous scene where all the female superheroes team up on the battlefield to kick alien keester and save the day. Of course, there's a lot of imagination involved in the entire Avengers world (and, Iron Man does end up being the one who actually saves the day, through an act of sacrifice), but cheesy "girl power" moments like this miss a remarkable truth Eric Metaxas highlights in the opening section of his book Seven Women . So often, women are portrayed as great despite being women, or because they act like men. But the greatness of women is as women, in ways that men are not, in and as the way God made them. It is in the "very good" way God created women that they have true strength. I was talking about that line from Eric Metaxas' book with my wife Sarah when she first had the idea of the "Strong Women" podcast , which she co-hosts with Erin Kunkle. If you haven't subscribed or listened, it will reset the thin narrative on women that dominates our world. By the way, the Friday Intensive at the upcoming Wilberforce Weekend, will offer a deep dive on the image of God as male and female. Speakers include myself, Ryan Anderson, Emilie Kao, and Rebecca McLaughlin. Come to WilberforceWeekend.org for more information.
Mar 27, 2021
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss recent acts of desperation in two mass shootings in the past week. They discuss narratives coming from both secular and Christian sources. The two pull in some recent headlines having to do with Kristi Noem's veto of a bill that would protect female sports in South Dakota. They discuss the possible forces that pushed Noem, highlight the corporate pressure likely coming from the LGBT movement. -- Resources -- Win a Trip to the 2021 Wilberforce Weekend, including conference admission, travel, and hotel accommodations! "How Our Narratives Fail Us: Mass Shootings and a Culture without Conscience," by John Stonestreet, BreakPoint "The NCAA Tournament, Oral Roberts University, and Anti-Christian Bigotry," by John Stonestreet, The Point "Unexplained Light," by John Stonesteet and Maria Baer, BreakPoint "How churches talk about sexuality can mean life or death. We saw that in Robert Long," by Rachel Denhollander, Washington Post "Alone," Netflix "The Curious Case of Kristi Noem," by John Stonestreet and David Carlson, BreakPoint "What We Must Learn from Amy Carmichael, Missionary and Defender of Children," by John Stonestreet and Glenn Sunshine, BreakPoint Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story), by Daniel Nayeri, available at Amazon.com
Mar 26, 2021
A few weeks ago, South Dakota's Governor Kristi Noem Tweeted , "In South Dakota, we're celebrating International Women's Day by defending women's sports!" She was referring to the state's "Women's Fairness in Sports" bill, which would prohibit biological males from competing in female athletics. She then added, "I'm excited to sign the bill very soon!" As it turns out, she wasn't so excited after all. After the legislature passed the bill, the Republican governor vetoed it. More specifically, she issued what's known as a "style and form veto," asking the legislature to modify the bill. The changes she requested not only gut the bill, rendering it ineffective in its original intent of protecting girls and women, but does great damage to the legislative efforts in a number of other states. Portions of the bill, she claimed, "create a trial lawyer's dream and include lawsuit opportunities that don't need to be there . . . We could pass a law, get punished, and face litigation for nothing but a participation trophy." That claim is somewhere between dubious and disingenuous. The South Dakota bill is similar to laws already passed in Idaho and Mississippi and introduced in a number of other states. The Idaho legislation was also backed and defended by 14 states attorneys general by means of an amicus brief. Noem, however, is worried about the NCAA (the governing body for major college athletics). She told Tucker Carlson, "This bill would only allow the NCAA to bully South Dakota, and it would actually prevent women from being able to participate in collegiate sports." So, among the "style and form" changes she requested is that the bill would only prevent biological males from competing against girls in elementary and high school athletics, not at the college level. But the NCAA has no policy that the South Dakota bill would violate. While the NCAA allows men who have surgically or chemically transitioned to compete in women's sports (and offers regulations to ensure what they claim is "fair"), as Margot Cleveland points out at the Federalist , "nothing in … NCAA policy requires a college or university to treat a male student-athlete as female." If they did, they'd lose all the Christian colleges that are part of the NCAA. Also, the NCAA has no legal standing at the state level, nor do they prevent athletes from schools that do not allow males to compete as women from their events. When the Idaho and Mississippi laws passed last year, the NCAA offered a harshly worded denouncement, but nothing with legal bite. Further, as Alexandra Desanctis reports at the National Review , Gov. Noem "altered the bill's language to allow athletes to compete based on biological sex 'as reflected on the birth certificate' or an 'affidavit'…" In other words, all it would take for a male to compete against females is "appropriate paperwork changing his legal records to match his gender identity." Most pointedly, Noem removes a provision that gives female athletes a cause of action if they believe they have been "deprived of athletic opportunities as the result of having been displaced by a biological male." As a legal advisor told me yesterday, a right with no recourse is no right at all. Not to mention, the bill would also give South Dakota schools the ability to retaliate against female athletes who complain. The Alliance Defending Freedom's General Counsel Kristin Waggoner summed up the whole debacle this way: "Gov. Noem has offered a hollow substitute for the urgent protections for women's sports that the South Dakota Legislature sent to the governor's desk . . . By stalling her support, attempting to dodge the legal conflict, removing protections for collegiate athletes, and eliminating a female athlete's legal remedy when her rights are violated, Gov. Noem . . . has downplayed the injustices that girls and women are already facing when they are forced to compete against males." So, what's really behind this whole story? Time and again in states like North Carolina, Indiana, and elsewhere, we've seen the enormous corporate pressure brought to bear when it comes to LGBT issues, and we've seen state officials tempted to cave in face of that pressure. Now, the address on your credit card may very well be a South Dakota one. Since the 1980s, the banking industry has played a major role in South Dakota's economy. Many banks are committed virtue signalers on LGBT issues . Not to mention, South Dakota's tourism industry would be helped by regional and national NCAA tournaments. What's really at play here, most likely, is the same corporate pressure that other states have faced. But the pressure can be weathered. Governor Noem's about-face makes it that much harder for the governors in Arkansas and other states who are currently debating similar legislation. Even worse, it undermines several years of thoughtful, pointed effort to defend the rights of women in sports and elsewhere. If you are a South Dakota citizen, please, call the governor and ask her to do the right thing. If you're not a South Dakota citizen, be assured, this issue will be coming to a state near you, soon enough.
Mar 25, 2021
There have been two mass shootings in a little over a week, on opposites sides of the country by individuals who, from what we currently know, sit on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum. Though quickly trotted out narratives have proven either obviously flimsy or flat wrong, Americans remains deeply entrenched in their corners and are seeing these issues through those lenses. All the while, yet another set of events reveals a country in moral crisis, with very little helpful guidance from media or from government officials. Mass shootings continue to be, tragically, a regular feature of American life. Each new attack on innocent children, students, church members, employees, concertgoers, and shoppers hits before we've recovered from the last one. May we never become numb to the horror of these crimes. After each shooting, the fury and passion to "do something" reaches a new level of volume and intensity. Certainly, those who wish to restrict guns are louder than ever, and the current political situation makes those restrictions at least a legal possibility. Now, in full disclosure, I'm a Second Amendment guy. I own guns, and I support the right to bear arms, which is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Gun ownership has been a consistent feature of American life since its founding, a reflection of the country's DNA – self-government, self-protection, self-provision. But I'm also enough of a student of history and worldview to know that rights always come with responsibility. People incapable of enjoying freedoms will inevitably lose them. Those unable to govern themselves will have to be governed. To be clear, this is not a statement of what ought to happen; it's a statement of what always happens when a culture morally breaks down. The choice for any people, as Chuck Colson often said, is between the conscience and the constable. If a people will not be governed by conscience, they will be governed by the constable. The loss of conscience, which is always a failure of moral formation, will lead to the loss of freedom. John Adams, the second President of the United States, famously said that the Constitution was meant for a "moral and religious people" and "is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." His observation applies as much to the Second Amendment as to any other. The shocking lack of conscience on display in America is producing behaviors that can largely be grouped into one of two categories. First, historic levels of suicide, opioid use, and overdoses, as well as epidemic levels of loneliness and isolation (especially among the most vulnerable) are together known as "deaths from despair." Second, the various and consistent acts of mass violence, such as shootings and rioting, are among those things that could be labeled "acts of desperation." With both deaths of despair and acts of desperation at epidemic levels, we are clearly not a people moral or religious enough to sustain the freedoms we've been blessed with. After his visit to America, Alexis de Tocqueville famously described the role that religion and local community groups played in uniting and directing the nation. If de Tocqueville were writing today, almost 200 years later, he'd instead describe a become a society of isolated individuals, and thus a place where addicts, the suicidal, the lonely, and too many disturbed young men are slipping through the cracks. Political conservatives, hear me on this: Freedom is unsustainable without virtue. Demanding rights without acknowledging responsibilities is a failing strategy. Political liberals, hear me on this: The problem isn't guns. Ban them without addressing the real problems of our society, and the next killer will choose some other weapon of mass destruction. The rest of us will be unarmed and unable to defend ourselves. America has become, to borrow words from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 1978 speech at Harvard, a place with "little defense against the abyss of human decadence…such as the misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, such as motion pictures full of pornography, crime, and horror." Even stricter laws, Solzhenitsyn went on to say, would be powerless to defend a people against such moral corrosion. If the devolution of our collective conscience continues, the replacement of constitutional rights with constables might be inevitable. And even constables cannot truly govern, or protect, a people without a conscience.
Mar 24, 2021
A listener writes in to John and Shane following a recent BreakPoint commentary on restricting access to organ transplants for those with disabilities. The questioner expands the concept to talk about the challenges inside the organ transplant process. John also fields a question from a listener who wrote in to Arizona Senator Kirsten Sinema regarding the Equality Act. The Senator's office wrote to the listener claiming religious freedoms are protected inside the Equality Act. John responds, outlining the challenge in the Senator's interpretation of freedom. John and Shane also field a question from a listener who is challenged by a church plant that is targeting a racial profile for the congregation. John and Shane work through the foundational concepts of the church.
Mar 24, 2021
Each year as Easter approaches, pseudo-scholars, newspapers , and cable networks make headlines claiming to offer the real story about Jesus. Their accounts assume that much of the Jesus story contained in the Gospels, especially anything miraculous is largely a myth created and propagated by, first, His followers, and then, Church leaders seeking to expand their power. Despite the skepticism, few suggest that Jesus never existed. Online, of course, that is a different story. Though there are no serious scholars who question whether Jesus of Nazareth actually existed, it's still a claim you might encounter, either on the internet or from someone who believes their internet source. So, what if you find yourself in a conversation with someone who says: "No one really knows whether Jesus existed or not." The latest video in our "What Would You Say?" series tackles this question: Here's my colleague Shane Morris… The next time someone says they don't think we can be sure that Jesus ever existed, here are 3 things to remember: Number 1: Several non-Christian historians of that period mention Jesus. Josephus was a Jewish historian who had grown up in Jerusalem in the first century, the same city where Jesus was reported to have been crucified. Josephus' father was a Jewish priest who would have been a contemporary of Jesus, and almost certainly would have seen him if he had existed. Josephus mentions Jesus on two occasions in his History of the Jews: In one he reports his crucifixion at the demand of the Jewish leaders and in the other, he mentions the execution of James, the brother of Jesus who is called Messiah. Josephus would have known Jesus was a historical person and would have no reason to invent him if he didn't. Other non-Christian historians also mention Jesus, including the Roman historian Tacitus, the Greek satirist Lucian, and a prisoner named Mara bar Serapion. Number 2: The apostle Paul, someone who persecuted the Christian Church, would have been a contemporary of Jesus and claims to have known Jesus' brother James. It is very unlikely that Paul would have given his life to a movement he had once persecuted if it had been based on a fictitious man who had supposedly traveled and preached in the same area in which Paul himself lived. Jesus would have been publicly crucified at a time and location where and when Paul would have been present, in response to demands made by Jewish authorities whom Paul would have known. Paul claimed to personally know Jesus' brother James. Fictitious people tend not to have brothers who are personally known. Number 3: Most contemporary scholars think that at least some of the Gospels are closely rooted in the eyewitness testimony of Jesus' disciples. Although modern scholars differ in their opinions about the historical accuracy of the Gospels, most think the Gospels of Mark and John are closely based on eyewitness testimony of two of Jesus' disciples, who had traveled with him. It would have been easier to invent the existence of a mythical person that supposedly lived centuries prior to writing about them. It's much harder to invent a person that supposedly existed within the memory of living eyewitnesses. The accounts of Jesus are eyewitness accounts. Find the whole video of Shane answering the question "Did Jesus Really Exist?" at whatwouldyousay.org. Or, search for "What Would You Say?" on YouTube. The first result will be a music video from the Dave Matthews Band, but look for the icon with the blue question mark . That's the What Would You Say channel . Be sure to subscribe and be notified each time a new What Would You Say video is released. And look out for next week's video on "The Resurrection of Jesus and Pagan Myth," just in time for Easter.
Mar 23, 2021
March Madness, the NCAA Division 1 national basketball tournament is back, and better than ever. Two interesting developments so far are the incredible number of upsets in the first two rounds and, with the notable exceptions of Liberty University and BYU, the success of the religious schools. So far, the Catholics (Loyola-Chicago), the Disciples of Christ (Abilene Christian), the Baptists (Baylor), and the charismatics (Oral Roberts University) have all advanced. The sweet 16 is quite the ecumenical affair this year. Another notable change this year is the non-stop commercials for online sports betting. In fact, as anyone who watches and follows sports can attest, betting on games is an increasingly important part of what it means to be a sports fan. March Madness will be, as the American head of British bookmaker William Hill predicted , "very heavily bet." The American Gaming Association expects about $8.5 billion to be wagered on the tournament. In fact, William Hill is ESPN's official sports betting partner , which means ESPN has an official sports betting partner. And all this is having an effect. Though much of the sports world shut down during the pandemic, 2020 was still a record year for sports gambling . The main target of this advertising is young men. Though men and women of all ages bet on sports, 43 percent of 25-to-34-year-old men who watch sports place at least one bet a week . That percentage drops to 20 percent for men 35-44, and to only 4 percent over the age of 55. Much of this dramatic demographic difference can be attributed to increased availability and ease of participation. Researchers have long known that living within ten miles of a casino nearly doubles a person's chances of becoming a pathological gambler . Now, with the legalization of online services and apps, everyone lives within not ten miles but ten feet. There are also the differences in generational norms. Gambling is, of course, no longer as taboo as it once was. Still, there's more to it than that. The vision of life in which men strive to contribute, and in which hard work is both rewarded and considered its own reward, has diminished, particularly among the young who, we now know, struggle to find a sense of meaning , and are catechized by cultural forces to live for amusement and entertainment. In a remarkable essay titled "Men Without Chests," C. S. Lewis described what happens in a culture that fills the brain with facts and titillates the senses but does nothing to cultivate virtue: "In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." A defining feature of young men today is what some have called perpetual adolescence, or "Peter Pan Syndrome." Just a generation ago, young men were expected to be on a life trajectory that culminated with marriage and child-rearing. So, their decisions and actions, even as late teens and early twenties, were aimed at the future. As recently as 1986, most 25-year-old men were already married. Today, the median age for first marriage among American men is 30. Traits long associated with adolescence — self-entitlement, addiction to entertainment, lack of self-control, overall angst — are now features of young men well into their 30s and beyond. Fewer young men are reaching other marks of maturity, either, such as joining or remaining in the work force. With so much time on their hands, many turn to entertainment or video games or addictions or gambling to stave off the boredom. The legalization and growth of online gambling has coincided with the legalization of recreational marijuana. This is no coincidence. After all, laws are mostly downstream from the larger culture, and these laws do far more to expand personal license. Rather, they reflect and reinforce an unmistakable message, especially to young men, to aim low, to think short-term thoughts about life and the world, to pursue immediate gratification, and to not aspire to too much. In many cultures, this message would fall on deaf, more mature ears. Not in ours.
Mar 22, 2021
The gospel isn't just two chapters, but four – not just fall and redemption. Rather, the whole story begins with creation – then fall, redemption – and concludes with restoration (for His glory). Pastor Matt Heard shares the importance of guarding our heart, understanding that the gospel is restoring us to the original purpose for which we were made. The heart includes – but is way more than – our emotions. It's where we experience longing. It's where we discern and understand. It's where we ponder and think. It's where we remember significant events. It's where my interactions with others are birthed (all authentic relationships are heart connections). It's where we experience stress (i.e., "Do not let your heart be troubled"). It's where we cultivate our intensity. It's the center of our attitude. It's where we exhibit courage. Bottom line – our heart – including our walk with God (it's with our heart that we believe) Matt Heard is the Founder and Principal of THRIVE, a teaching, speaking, and coaching ministry that engages people to flourish as fully alive human beings to God's glory in every arena of their life, journey, and culture. The seeds for Matt's vision were planted when he studied at L'Abri in Huémoz, Switzerland with Francis Schaeffer, who introduced him to the writings of the late Hans Rookmaaker, an art historian known for proclaiming, "Jesus didn't come to make us Christian; Jesus came to make us fully human." A graduate of Wheaton College and Reformed Theological Seminary, Matt is the author of Life with a Capital L: Embracing Your God-Given Humanity . He and his wife, Arlene, are the grateful parents of three adult sons and two daughters-in-law and they divide their time between Colorado Springs and Orlando. He can be contacted through his website, mattheard.org.
Mar 22, 2021
According to a recent poll published in Reason magazine , trust in American political parties is at an historic low. For the first time, more than 50 percent of Americans now identify as Independent, as opposed to Republican or Democrat. And, of course, it's not just political parties that are targets of our growing skepticism. Trust in societal institutions across the board has been on the decline for years. For example, the American people have shrinking confidence in the media, in big tech , and in Congress. Even confidence the historically popular institutions, such as law enforcement and the military , is on the decline. Three years ago, civilian trust in the military stood at a whopping 70 percent. Today, that number has dropped to 56 percent. What's the story here? As one scholar put it, "This is not just the events of the past 12 months." It's a trend. At least part of the reason is an overall disorientation and fear in the general population. Any sort of traditional consensus has now receded in our collective memory. Such a shared consensus offers stability and consistency, but, now, no new governing paradigm or worldview has replaced what has been cast aside. Also, various offspring of postmodernism, such as critical theory, have slipped the surly bonds of academic culture to become defining features of popular culture. The portrayal of everything and everyone as only motivated by the acquisition and preservation of power erodes trust . And a growing number of Americans are now constantly looking over their shoulders for the cancel culture police. Perhaps the primary reason we have distrust for institutions is that so many institutions have earned it. Simply put, they've failed us – Politicians who change their principles at the drop of the hat; journalists who play fast and loose with the truth; Hollywood, sports, and political icons fallen to scandal; couples who said "till death do we part" finding various escape clauses; not to mention, pastors and ministry leaders indulging in corruption or turning a blind eye to those who do. This is a time for one of my favorite anecdotes. After a particularly embarrassing loss in the playoffs, the legend goes, Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi started the next season by holding up a pigskin and saying to his Green Bay Packers, "Gentlemen, this is a football." Maybe the best way for the Church to regain the trust of the world is to go back to basics. Christ's first words in the Gospels were straightforward, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. " Paul seemed to assume that caring for the poor was a given for the Christian life. James's definition of true religion was that it was a lived, not merely spoken, reality where Christians should "visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." To quote another of my favorite anecdotes, this one from an old friend from Tennessee, "It ain't rocket surgery, man." Chuck Colson called this the Church being the Church. In an age of failing institutions, the opportunities are incredible for those who reject both a privatized, pietistic faith and the temptation to be a rootless activist group. Now is the time to take seriously the tasks of living out the Gospel, being what Paul called "ministers of reconciliation." What that might look like could be different for different churches in different contexts. It may mean maximizing the use of church facilities , offering medical clinic s or food pantries . It will certainly mean defending the weak and vulnerable , especially the victims of our culture's bad ideas, and supporting those Christian organizations that do . A former colleague used to say, "The Church is God's Plan A and there is no Plan B." Taking that calling seriously will require, at the very least, a "this is a football" moment for Christians. The task of re-catechizing Christians in a Christian view of life and the world is essential. The Church certainly has things to offer the wider culture that no other social institution does. We'll need to be clear on what is different about the Church, beginning with the Christian understanding of the human person and human dignity. Who humans are, nothing less than an image bearers of God, is not only a fundamental distinction of a Christian worldview, but finding ways to communicate and apply it will be critical to our cultural witness. We'll spend this year's Wilberforce Weekend, May 21-23 in Fort Worth, looking at the idea image of God and fleshing out how it can shape our approach to the world around us. For a full schedule, with speakers and topics, including our Friday intensive on what it means to image God as male and female, visit wilberforceweekend.org.
Mar 20, 2021
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the top events impacting culture this week. They highlight the recent, horrible shootings in Atlanta and dig into the various narratives by people making sense of the situation, including those which blame evangelicals. Maria then comments on the border crisis, pointing to the humanitarian concerns specifically impacting young people. John and Maria offer a Christian perspective to support both children and parents as the crisis is likely to grow in the coming weeks. Finally, Maria shares her gratitude for a number of virtues that make the United States a blessed place to live, while John alludes to line from Chuck Colson to guide our attention as we understand the privilege of living in America. To close, Maria introduces a story on a new "Zionist Congress" being established by young Jews who are facing persecution. John and Maria both comment on the spiritual component of racism that is impacting our country. Finally, John highlights the inspirational story that led Dick Hoyt to run marathons over the course of four decades with his son. Dick passed away this week at eighty-years-old. Maria shares a family tradition of honoring Passover with a recommendation for audience members to participate in a Seder meal. -- Resources Join us at the 2021 Wilberforce Weekend, May 21-23! "Curating Beauty," the Strong Women Podcast with guest Ashley Marsh "Anti-Semitism: The Oldest Hatred," by John Stonestreet and Maria Baer, BreakPoint "A New Zionist Congress Is Born," by Blake Flayton, Tablet "Inspirational Boston Marathon dad Dick Hoyt dies at 80 after 4 decades of races with his son," ABC News "Strongest Dad in the World," by Rick Reilley, Sports Illustrated A Passover explainer and recipes: https://mjaa.org/passover/ A Messianich Haggadah: https://www.amazon.com/Messianic-Jewish-Passover-Haggadah-Celebrating/dp/0917842081/ref=sr_1_13?d child=1&keywords=messianic+haggadah&qid=1616167431&s=books&sr=1-13 Passover and it's NT connections: https://jewsforjesus.org/jewish-resources/jewish-holidays/passover/
Mar 19, 2021
Recently, especially as a response to the revelations of particularly egregious misconduct by Ravi Zacharias, and even abuse , we've been warned away from saying anything akin to "There, but for the grace of God, go I." What is, to some an admission that, as my colleague Shane Morris has put it, everyone is made of the same clay, is, to others, excuse-making cloaked in faux humility. To them, it suggests that sexual sin, even the most terrible kind, is inevitable for men, so we shouldn't expect any better. Or to put it differently, if only God's grace stands between us and horrific sin, we don't need to take responsibility for avoiding sinful behavior. In the end, it's up to God, and, in the end, the horror suffered by victims is downplayed. Though none of these things is, in our view, necessarily implied by saying "there but for the grace of God go I," the concerns are valid if for no other reason than an observation Chuck Colson often made. "There is no limit to the human capacity for self-rationalization." Even our admissions of guilt can be, he knew, attempts to rationalize our behavior. Still, there is an important truth about our propensity for sin no matter which slogan we use. In fact, the Bible repeats this in various ways. Proverbs 4 says, "The way of the wicked is deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble." In other words, we can surprise ourselves with our sin . After all, our "hearts are deceitful above all things," the prophet said, "and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" The Bible is full of this wisdom. At the same time, these verses are not excuses. It's precisely because our own sin can so surprise us, that we should be cautious and beg God for protective grace, even to the point of metaphorically cutting off our limbs and gouging out our eyes, should it come to that. In recent weeks, we've learned of abuse committed on a staggering scale, but it didn't come from nowhere. It came from a long-term trajectory of compromises made possible by a perfect storm of failures – of accountability, of honesty, of tolerating, hiding, and abetting temptation. It is a gift of God that so few of us are in such a position to commit evil on this scale. I doubt that anyone who says "there, but for the grace of God, go I" is suggesting they're mere inches away from doing the exact same thing as we've learned about Ravi Zacharias. That's because it's doubtful that anyone intends to sin on a grand scale. Back in the age of Saturday morning cartoons and "Just Say No!" public service commercials, there was one ad where, as the screen flashed images of a down-and-out drug addict, the announcer would proclaim, "No one dreams of becoming a junkie." In the same way, spouses who decide to cheat are often already unfaithful in their internal trajectory. Great sins are often the product of many little decisions and are driven by internal rebellions that are finally offered opportunity. King Solomon might be the best example of all (see 1 Kings 10-11). Acknowledging that our nature is fallen and susceptible to such compromise is a wise thing to do, especially when mixed with asking for God's grace. One of Jesus' last and most urgent commands to His disciples was for them to pray that they would not fall into temptation . The same request is a central part of how Christ taught all of His followers to pray in the Lord's Prayer. In other words, while not every sin may be expressly inevitable, each is possible . We are capable of it. To think otherwise is to sound an awfully lot like Peter, "Lord, I would never deny you." Every fallen human being is at least capable of many evils, even the unthinkable ones. If we are to accept our capacity to surprise even ourselves by the depth of our own depravity, we may need to deny ourselves things we'd like to have. Cutting off our limbs may mean some men or women shouldn't be in leadership, or shouldn't travel as much as they do, or shouldn't take that promotion, or accept that new job, or buy that new toy, or stay on Twitter. Where the rubber of "there, but for the grace of God, go I" meets the road is in understanding the depth of our sinful capabilities and in bearing the responsibility of making arrangements to avoid it . There but for the grace of God go any of us. It's true. We still have to grip that grace, from moment to moment, for dear life.
Mar 18, 2021
In his remarkable autobiography, Confessions, St. Augustine famously wrote, "Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee." Solomon talked of God "putting eternity in our hearts." In other words, as John Calvin observed, humans are "incurably religious creatures." Though millions of Americans have given up on organized religion and a growing number now declare themselves as "nones" (in other words, no spiritual affiliation), these observations by Solomon, John Calvin, and St. Augustine remain true. In fact, our religious impulse is so strong, even the New York Times has noticed some new places where it is showing up. The vast majority of those who have fled the church, argued millennial author Leigh Stein in an article last week , haven't become less-religious at all. Rather, many (especially women) have embraced new belief systems, often led by self-appointed social media gurus who preach self-care, left-wing activism, and New Age spirituality, maybe with a side of herbal supplements. Instagram "Influencers" such as Glennon Doyle and Gwyneth Paltrow have won millions of followers with their personal growth advice and positive thinking. Though the packaging is updated, Stein pointed out, they're using the same old formula as televangelists. These "Instavangelists" (her word, not mine) don't talk as much about God, but they employ the same me-centric business model. It was in 2017, Stein claims, that she "began noticing how many wellness products and programs were marketed to women in pain," and how the social media industry would stoke moral outrage but fail to offer a worldview big enough to handle it. This, in turn, became a business opportunity for the internet gurus. Some specialized in call-out culture and others in self-help cures, but all insisted that the answers to our problems lie within us if only, like little gods, we assert our desires and moral intuitions as absolute. Self-worship in any form, however, is a recipe for spiritual restlessness. After all, we make terrible gods, and we know it, especially in our more honest moments. The women that millions have chosen as moral leaders, Stein argues, "aren't challenging us to ask the fundamental questions that leaders of faith have been wrestling with for thousands of years: Why are we here? Why do we suffer? What should we believe in beyond the limits of our puny selfhood?" "We're looking," she continues, "for guidance in the wrong places, instead of helping us to engage with our most important questions, our screens might be distracting us from them. Maybe," she finishes, "we actually need to go to something like a church?" For those of us who do go to church, this may seem obvious. But, for a writer who admits to seldom praying to God, this is a remarkable realization. As St. Augustine himself would attest, no one is more vulnerable to the truth than when they've seen all that the world has to offer and ask, "Is this it?" At the same time, a very different self-help guru seems to have come to that realization, recently . In a podcast with Orthodox iconographer Jonathan Pageau , clinical psychologist and bestselling author Jordan Peterson all but admitted, in remarkable and tearful words describing the limits of his intellectual capacity to understand, that God is breaking down the door of his heart. As a disciple of Carl Jung , Peterson has long treated Christianity as a useful myth in which people can find meaning. Yet, through personal struggles and dialogue with Christians, he admits to wanting to believe (and maybe in some sense to actually believe) that this Jesus story is true. "I probably believe (in Christ)," Peterson said, "but I'm amazed at my own belief and I don't understand it." Both the trajectory (outward not inward) and posture (teachable not entitled) of Peterson's search stands in stark contrast to Instavangelism, and it raises tough questions for those leaving organized religion behind. With what will you replace it? What's big enough to fill the God-shaped hole in your heart? If Christianity isn't the true story of the world, is there an alternative? If Stein and Peterson and, for that matter, Augustine are right, these alternative religions will never satisfy the human impulse to worship. At least not for very long.
Mar 17, 2021
John answers listener questions related to using gender pronouns, responding to employer terminology in assisted suicide, and considering statistics for support in defending marriage and parenting structures.
Mar 17, 2021
During the pandemic, the world learned that some British doctors placed "Do Not Resuscitate" orders on COVID-19 patients with intellectual disabilities. These orders reflected a tendency across Western culture to commodify human life, valuing people based on extrinsic abilities and appearances rather than assuming inherent value for all who are part of the human family. As a result, the disabled are not deemed as valuable as the non-disabled. To be clear, the pandemic didn't cause this way of seeing those with disabilities, it only revealed it and worsened it. For example, a recent story at NBC News reported that denying organ transplants to people with Down syndrome and autism "is common in the United States, even though it is illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act." According to one study, 44 percent of organ transplant centers will not add people with developmental disorders to their transplant list. Eighty-five percent "consider the disability as a factor in deciding whether to list the child." That's against ADA policy. One reason given to defend this discrimination is that someone with Down syndrome "may not be able to comply with post-transplant requirements, such as taking immunosuppressive drugs." This "reason" doesn't pass the laugh test. The intellectually disabled are usually, as several of my colleagues will attest, perfectly capable of taking their meds on schedule without assistance. Those who are aren't have guardians and caretakers who can ensure they comply. Another reason given for leaving individuals with disability off transplant lists is far more sinister. These patients are, some clinics claim, "more likely to have co-occurring conditions that would make a transplant dangerous" and "the patient's quality of life would be unlikely to improve with a transplant." On one hand, as a report from the National Council on Disabilities found, these worries are unfounded. Though some disabled people do have co-occurring conditions that make transplant surgery dangerous, most don't. And patients with intellectual disabilities can benefit from transplants as much as any other patient. The real story behind this discrimination, in fact, can be summed up in the phrase "a patient's quality of life," a phrase that has been used throughout history, but especially recently, to promote various forms eugenics. After all, providing people with " less-worthy lives" with a transplant is to waste a perfectly good organ that could go to someone more "valuable." Already, as NBC noted , more than 100,000 people are on the waiting list for organs nationwide. The average wait times, even after a patient makes the list, can be three-to-five years. Hopefully, new technologies such as printable organs will soon be available, but until then, rationing is necessary. So, shouldn't the organs go to the "best of us?" Of course, no one puts it like this. To do so would expose the lethal logic at work behind leaving people with intellectual disabilities off the list. Instead, we hear things about disabled people not "benefitting" from a transplanted organ, which is absurd. A new heart beats and circulates blood. This is true regardless of the person's intellectual capacity. Today, 16 states ban this kind of discrimination , with similar measures pending in eight other states and in Congress. Still, these laws face an uphill battle, even if passed. As the head of the National Council on Disabilities admitted, the real goal of these laws is to inspire "a change of heart so people understand that they are discriminating." So, even as we support the legal efforts to prevent this discrimination, we remember that the best protection for people with disabilities is to recover the idea of the Imago Dei . When people cease seeing themselves and others as image-bearers, they see people as means and not ends, as units of utility to us and to society. This is why we have chosen "restoring the Imago Dei" as the theme of this year's Wilberforce Weekend . For three days, May 21-23, in Dallas/Fort Worth, we will be exploring how to apply this principle to our cultural moment. I hope you can join us. Come to WilberforceWeekend.org to learn more and to register.
Mar 16, 2021
In nearly every sector of society—media, education, medicine, public policy, even sports—children are now subjects of social experimentation. As fundamental realities of life such as sex, marriage, and parenting are reimagined, we say to ourselves, "Oh, the kids will be fine." Overwhelming evidence suggests they aren't. At the same time, too many churches and too many Christians, often jaded by Christian activism either poorly done or poorly received (or both), have moved to the sidelines. At times, this move has been away from the social implications of the Gospel, focusing instead on personal transformation and privatized faith. Other times, this move has been simple compromise on moral issues, out of a misplaced attempt to be nice and "welcoming." This indifference to our culture's widespread exploitation of children, places these churches and these Christians firmly outside Church history. Time and time again, across cultures and time periods, those who brought the Gospel to pagan cultures found themselves defending and protecting abandoned, abused, and victimized children. One of the great missionary heroes of Church history is a clear example. Amy Carmichael was born in 1867 to devout parents in Ireland. By 1895, after already serving as a missionary in Japan and Ceylon, Carmichael devoted herself to bringing the Gospel to South India. Immediately, Carmichael started wrestling through the idea of contextualization, how best to present the Gospel in that cultural setting. For example, unlike most missionaries at the time, Amy wore the same clothes as the local population. She travelled with a group of Indian women converts known as the Starry Cluster and would tell anyone, regardless of caste, (another cultural reality) about God's love. Many women fleeing slavery and prostitution in Indian temples came to Christ because of her teaching. One day, a young girl named Preena, who had been sold as a temple slave by her widowed mother and literally branded when she tried to run away, listened as Amy Carmichael told of God's love. Preena ran away again, this time to Amy's house. Amy knew that if she took Preena in, she could be charged with kidnapping. However, she also knew to send Preena back would mean further beatings or even death. Driven by the truth of the gospel, Amy welcomed Preena into her home. This led Amy to begin began studying the caste system in more detail. She learned that children were often dedicated to the gods and left at temples to be slaves and child prostitutes. Horrified, she dedicated the rest of her life to fighting these abuses. As word spread, children and teenagers who had run away from temples began to show up at her door. Soon, Amy was looking after almost 50 people. So, she moved all of them to the city of Dohnavor and established the Dohnavor Fellowship , a home for former child prostitutes. In 1901, Amy was taken to court by infuriated Hindu priests. Still, Amy continued to provide a home for any child who came to her for help, and the priests' lawsuit was ultimately dismissed. In 1918, she added a home for boys, many former temple prostitutes. Throughout her life, Amy Carmichael took in over 1,000 children, giving each one a new home, renewed hope, and even a new name. In 1931, Amy had a serious accident and broke both her leg and her ankle, and badly injured her hip and back. This, combined with neuralgia, effectively left Amy bedridden for the rest of her life. As a result, she led the Dohnavor Fellowship from her bedroom. In 1948, largely because of Amy's work, child prostitution was outlawed in India. Three years later, Amy died at the age of 83. At her request, no stone marked her burial place. Instead, the children she had saved erected a birdbath over her grave, engraved with the word Amma , which means "Mother." The parallels between what children faced in that pagan culture and what children face in our pagan culture is obvious. In both contexts, children are sacrificed to sexual ideologies, and forced to serve the desires of adults. In both contexts, anyone who resists faces significant social pressures, even political penalties. One difference is that Carmichael didn't think that standing for children would be an impediment to telling people about the love of God. On the contrary, she believed it was an essential part of serving Christ in that pagan culture. Today, you can join Carmichael and others from Christian history by making a Promise to America's Children , pledging to protect the minds, bodies, and the most important relationships of children. And then, learn all the ways children are being victimized and how the church can help, by reading Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children's Rights Movement, a vital new book by Katy Faust. Them Before Us is the featured resource from the Colson Center this month.
Mar 16, 2021
Cheryl Bachelder shared at the Time of Guided Prayer last week. She spoke on the importance of Proverbs 31, remembering a Proverbs 31 woman who made a significant impact on Cheryl's life. This is a special edition of the BreakPoint podcast. Cheryl is the former CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., a multibillion-dollar chain of more than 2,600 restaurants around the world. She has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, featured on Mad Money, and received top industry awards. She had prior leadership positions at Yum! Brands, Domino's Pizza, RJR Nabisco, the Gillette Company, and Procter & Gamble. Today, Cheryl serves on boards, mentors CEOs, and invests in philanthropy.
Mar 15, 2021
A recent four-day visit by Pope Francis to Iraq was bound to attract attention, given that he is the Pope and Iraq is, well, Iraq. Some of the media coverage, however, demonstrated just how little the press "gets religion." In one especially funny and now-deleted example, CNN referred to the Vatican as the "Holly Sea," instead of the "Holy See." Still, this visit was full of meetings that mattered, such as the Pope's meeting with the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the leader of the Shiites in Iraq. This meeting took place in Najaf in what is called the "Plain of Ur" ( yes that Ur, the one where Abraham came from ). In a statement issued after the meeting, the Ayatollah affirmed "his concern that Christian citizens [of Iraq] should live like all Iraqis in peace and security, and with their full constitutional rights." That would be a welcome development given the suffering Iraqi Christians have faced at the hands of their Muslim neighbors. About two-thirds of Iraqis identify as Shia Muslims so, if their leader can persuade them that Christians belong and deserve the same rights they have, it could make a significant difference. The Pope's visit also focused much-needed attention on the plight of one of the oldest and most-vulnerable Christian communities in the world. The antiquity of this Christian community is apparent in a name: "Chaldean Catholic Church" (yes, that "Chaldean," as in "Ur of the Chaldeans," from the book of Genesis. Around 70-80 percent of all Iraqi Christians belong to this particular group, which traces its origin to the Apostle Bartholomew. Its distinctive historical identity is well-attested all the way back to the early-to-mid third century, and its liturgy is conducted in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. These Christians begin their remembrance of Lent with what is called the " Fast of Nineveh ," which commemorates the repentance and fast of that ancient city as told in the Book of Jonah. For these Christians, the biblical account is more than familiar. It's something akin to family lore. Still, in addition to their close connections with ancient history, they model faithfulness and perseverance. Iraq, like so much of the Middle East, is mostly Islamic. Since the early 7th century, this Christian community has experienced oppression at the hands of Muslim rulers. The severity and nature of this oppression varied, converting to Islam would have made their lives much easier. But they didn't. Despite their oppression, these Christians have made significant contributions to their society. They were the ones who translated Greek texts on science, math, and philosophy into Arabic. Thus, in a way, Chaldean Christians made Islam's often-heralded contributions in these areas possible. Recent events in the region have nearly accomplished what 14 centuries of Islamic oppression couldn't. Iraq's Christians are, as the Archbishop of Irbil put it in 2019 , "perilously close to extinction." At the time, he was specifically referring to the threat of ISIS, but the dispersion of Iraqi and other Middle Eastern Christians had begun long before and with them went "the culture and wealth which flowed from" the Christian presence. Hopefully, the Grand Ayatollah's statement will make a difference. Meanwhile, the community's way of life is providing a compelling witness of the power of the Gospel. A mother who had lost her son to ISIS told Pope Francis, "Our strength undoubtedly comes from our faith in the Resurrection, a source of hope. My faith tells me that my children are in the arms of Jesus Christ our Lord. And we, the survivors, try to forgive the aggressor, because our Master Jesus has forgiven his executioners. By imitating him in our sufferings, we testify that love is stronger than everything." Her words left Pope Francis, as he put it, "speechless." Not only should we pray for our brothers and sisters in Iraq; we should watch them and learn what we can about faithful perseverance and reliance on the risen Christ. We may be put to the test ourselves, soon enough.
Mar 12, 2021
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the sex and gender issues dominating the news this week: President Biden's new Gender Policy Council designed to promotes women's rights, but actually advances the transgender agenda; Governor Andrew Cuomo's alleged harassment and even assault of female colleagues; to the treatment of women employees--even in Christian ministries. What does the Church have to say about what it means to be a man and a woman in today's culture? Also on today's episode: Millennials flock to the empty religion of Instagram; John and Maria's recommendations for the week: interviews with Jordan Peterson and psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist. -- RESOURCES -- Join us at the 2021 Wilberforce Weekend, May 21-23, in Fort Worth! "The President's New Gender Policy Council," by John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera, The Point "Two Marches, One Question: Can Anyone Be a Woman?" A What Would You Say? video 7 Women and the Secret of Their Greatness, by Eric Metaxas, available at the Colson Center online bookstore The Strong Women Podcast with Sarah Stonestreet and Erin Kunkle "The Empty Religions of Instagram," by Leigh Stein, New York Times "Prayer Isn't What We Think It Is," an Upstr eam Podcast episode with Shane Morris and Kyle Stroebel Jordan Peterson on Restoring the Faith, YouTube "The Divided Mind," Iaian McGilchrist on the Sam Harris Making Sense Podcast
Mar 12, 2021
According to a recent article in The Guardian , "Nearly every main voice of dissent in Hong Kong is now in jail or exile." The latest chapter of Beijing's grab for power saw "Hong Kong police charge 47 pro-democracy campaigners and politicians with conspiracy to commit subversion. All face life in prison if convicted." The protests, which began with hopes of a democratic rebuke to the autocratic regime of Xi Jinping, have seemingly come to an end, not with a bang but with a proverbial whimper. In the last year and a half, as the world's eyes turned to COVID-19 and other troubles, the Chinese government all but crushed any dissidents and all but ended democracy in Hong Kong. For a moment, it appeared as if 2019 might be a reboot of 1989, with the tide of freedom overwhelming attempts at dictatorship. News coverage told of hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people in Hong Kong rising up against a law, pushed through by the Beijing-controlled local government, that allowed Hong Kong citizens to be prosecuted under the mainland's jurisdiction. Protestors were backed and, in many cases led, by Hong Kong's Christian population. At one point, the praise chorus "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord" became an unofficial anthem of the protests. For months, the Communist leadership tried everything from coercion to concessions, to squash the protests, but the protests only intensified. By late summer 2019, the government withdrew the offending law, but the movement had, by then, become about much more than one law. It was now about preserving a free Hong Kong. Pro-democracy candidates all but swept Hong Kong's local elections in November of 2019, and protestors flew British and American flags in an extra show of defiance. But when the headlines from changed from protesters to a virus and the world economy ground to a halt, other nations and their governments turned inward. The country best positioned to apply pressure, the United States, was also dealing with its greatest domestic turmoil in generations and the most contentious Presidential election in recent memory. Meanwhile, on China's mainland, the overlords didn't let this crisis go to waste. COVID provided all the excuse they needed to clamp down on crowds, protests, and news stories. Under new stringent national security laws , virtually any dissent to the regime's dictates is now liable to draconian punishment. China's promise to maintain a "one country two system" arrangement with Hong Kong was a surprisingly easy thing to discard for something enshrined in an international agreement. Though we may be tempted to give up hope for the people of Hong Kong, many there haven't. Hundreds continue to defy Beijing by publicly protesting the recent convictions. Though the United States is wavering on what to do, Australian , British , Japanese , and European governments have decided that it can no longer be business as usual with the "People's Republic." Beijing knows that as long as the West remains divided and distracted, they're free to extinguish Uighur culture and deny Hong Kong its liberty, but not because China is as strong as its leaders suggest. China's economy is incredibly vulnerable and will only become more so as its population ages. Not to mention, the world is now fully aware of what it's doing the Uyghur population. Given that so much Christian activity in China flows through Hong Kong, we owe it to our brothers and sisters there to pray. In a real sense, an assault on Hong Kong is part of the larger war on Chinese Christianity. We should also insist that the fate of Hong Kong becomes a foreign policy priority. There can be no "business as usual" with this regime… not from the U.S. government and not from U.S. corporations. As we make our appeals, let's remember how Christians have fared throughout history when challenged by godless empires. The empires are long gone. Christians aren't. By the way, we will honor someone who continues to speak up for China's liberties, Pastor Bob Fu of China Aid, at the Wilberforce Weekend this May in Fort Worth, Texas. Come to wilberforceweekend.org to learn more.
Mar 11, 2021
At the start of the pandemic, many expected the lockdowns and quarantines to lead to a "baby boom." Well, the data is in. Instead of a "boom" it's been a "bust." As CBS recently reported , records from more than two dozen states show a "7% drop in births in December — nine months after the first lockdowns began." While 7% may sound like a small dip, it's not. As the New York Times puts it: "The pandemic's serious disruption of people's lives is likely to cause 'missing births' — potentially a lot of them. Add these missing births to the country's decade-long downward trend in annual births and we can expect consequential changes to our economy and society in the years to come." As the Times pointed out, this "baby bust" is, in reality, a pre-existing condition of COVID, not created by the virus but made worse. While some of us have talked about the ongoing birth dearth for years now, a major news outlet reporting on it is itself newsworthy. Until recently, most media outlets have insisted the problem is over population, that too many humans were literally destroying the planet. However, as USC demographer Dowell Myers told CBS, America's shrinking fertility rate and its economic impact is nothing less than a "crisis." Fewer babies means a smaller work force in the future, which means lower economic productivity and a smaller tax base. This, in turn, means additional stress to Social Security, and fewer people to take care of a rapidly aging population. If COVID isn't the cause, how did we get here? Ideas … bad ones with consequences and victims. At the top of the list is the "Population Bomb" myth. In 1970, Paul Ehrlich, the author of the book with that title, predicted that "Sometime in the next 15 years, the end will come . . . an utter breakdown of the capacity of the planet to support humanity." That didn't happen, but here's what did. Within 15 years of Ehrlich's prediction, nearly every developed nation, along with many developing ones, had embraced some version of his stark theory and declared war on human fertility. As a result, birth rates dropped below replacement rates. In addition to that ecological myth, there's an anthropological one, too. For decades, women were told that their bodies were in the way of their progress. If women wanted equality, they would need to be liberated from their own procreative potential. The tragic irony is that once women were, in fact, disconnected from their bodies, transgender men stepped in and appropriated all of the equality and all of the rights promised to women. And now, climate change has been added as the latest reason to forego child-rearing. The postponing and foregoing of childbirth has corresponded to the postponing and foregoing of marriage. Since 1980, the median age of first marriage has gone from 24.7 for men and 22 for women to 30 and 28 respectively . The additional six years for women correspond almost exactly with their peak fertility. It's impossible to over-emphasize the role of culture in all this. When was the last time marriage and childbearing, at least in their traditional forms, were celebrated on TV or in film? When was the last time they were celebrated in church? Israel is a notable exception to the global COVID-19 "baby bust " trend, with a birthrate twice that of the United States. Even non-religious Israelis are having children above replacement level. The cultural attitude toward marriage and family there is just as distinct as the results. As anyone who's been to Israel knows, Saturday dinner is a sacrosanct family event, for religious and non-religious Israelis alike, and children figure prominently in Israelis' definition of "life, liberty, and happiness." Christians, of course, should hold at least as high of a view of marriage and fertility. After all, God never revoked the command to be fruitful and multiply, and Jesus' command to let the little children come to Him implies there are children around in the first place. Scripture is clear that "children are a heritage from the Lord." Next to the Gospel itself, children are the greatest gift we can give future generations.
Mar 10, 2021
John and Shane field a follow-up question they answered last week from a single woman considering adoption. The question last week asked if the listener should move forward with an adoption knowing that the child would not receive a fatherly influence in the adoption. This week a listener wrote in to ask what the difference would be in a same-sex relationship where two parents of the same gender are unable to provide the mothering or fathering a child needs. Another listener reflected on work and worship, challenged to understand how to form menial tasks into worshipful acts. She pushes John and Shane for greater clarity in understanding what makes mundane tasks a spiritual expression. To open the Q&A time, Shane presents a question from a listener who is questioning if she is residing in a Christian echo chamber. She notes that she follows a number of Colson Center resources and finds herself deeply invested in understanding the world from a Christian perspective, but is slightly concerned that she might not be seeing the full picture in the world.
Mar 10, 2021
On March 8, International Women's Day, President Biden signed an executive order establishing a Gender Policy Council. According to USA Today , the Council will seek to "advance gender equality in domestic and foreign policy . . . [and] combat systemic bias and discrimination, including sexual harassment." Until recently, we could assume that by "gender equality," the president planned to deal with discrimination against women. But times have changed. The new council "will also focus on transgender rights," which means it's likely the council will find new ways to apply the Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock , a case that redefines "sex" to include "gender identity" in Title VII. So this new Council will likely ignore the lived experiences and needs of biological females in federal law, instead creating ways for biological males to claim the rights of being a woman. I cannot imagine this is what the organizers of International Women's Day had in mind.
Mar 10, 2021
The overall cost – room and board – to attend Smith College, an elite women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, is in the neighborhood of 78-thousand dollars per year. An allegation of racism, made by an African-American student against a school janitor in 2018, has prompted a complex cultural discussion there that is full of worldview implications. It also exposes the significant limitations of critical theory and intersectionality, the dominant lenses by which our culture discerns issues of race, privilege, poverty, and discrimination. The New York Times called the situation a collision of "race, class and power." A black female student was eating lunch in a dorm that was supposed to be closed for the summer. When a janitor called security, the student claimed that she was questioned for "eating while black." The janitor, whose entire annual salary would barely cover half a year's room and board at Smith, was placed on leave. Another janitor quit after the student posted his picture online, calling him a racist coward. Smith College responded by issuing a public apology… to the student . Months later, an independent law firm released its report on the entire incident. They concluded that there was no evidence that anyone acted with racial bias. One of the embedded myths of American culture is the good-hearted, perhaps unlucky, but ultimately victorious "little guy." Almost every sports movie or war movie features an unlikely hero with a big heart but little chance of success, yet who nevertheless comes out on top: the Cinderella team in March Madness, "Rudy," the nerd who gets the girl, the hockey team of misfits, the basketball team with the actual dog on it. Most of us cheer for the underdog. The problem lies in assigning virtue to underdogs simply because they're an underdog. The modern world, said G.K. Chesterton, has far too many virtues, that are "wandering wildly" and doing "terrible damage." In other words, our virtuous instincts can go awry when they're not anchored to the Truth. This at least partially explains why this situation at Smith College has thrown off so many people, including The New York Times . Who's the "Good Guy" in a story in which everyone is the underdog? Who should win when an ethnic minority student and a blue-collar worker fall at odds? Who should win if we're not allowed, or don't know how , to issue moral judgments on behavior because we're issuing them simply on social class, ethnicity, or race? Jesus chose the uneducated and unpopular as His disciples: fishermen, tax collectors, Zealots… Viewing this through the myth of the "perfect-hearted" Little Guy, it's tempting to conclude that though the disciples didn't seem important or wise, Jesus must have known the real story . Perhaps the Twelve were the first century equivalent of the lead character in a high school romantic comedy. Maybe the nerd who's ignored and bullied until he takes off his glasses and everyone realizes how good-looking and big hearted he really is. But that's not true. The disciples, at least according to the Gospels, were kind of pathetic. When they weren't angry, jealous, or power-hungry , they were confused and scared . Jesus had to say "I came from the Father" about 400 times before they even kind of grasped what He meant . When Paul says that God chose the "foolish things of this world to shame the wise," he wasn't saying that fools are secretly wise and just haven't enjoyed their deserved moment in the sun. He uses the foolish and the weak to display His glory . By choosing these 12 disciples, outcasts and underdogs, He gets to say, "See what I can do?" After all, how great is a God that can save the world and build a kingdom using any of us? The fatal flaw in our current cultural discussions on oppression and justice is a misunderstanding of our common humanity: our common dignity as created in God's image, our common frailty as fallen from His grace, our common foolishness after the fall, and our common reliance on His grace for wisdom and help. Without a doubt, the young woman at Smith College shouldn't be profiled because of her skin color. Neither should a janitor be falsely accused of racism. Virtue is action, not category. And no one is virtuous or guilty simply because they are an underdog.
Mar 9, 2021
The fundamental assumptions of a Christian worldview are straightforward. The universe is created, not eternal or random. Humans are made in God's image, not mere animals and not gods themselves. Right and wrong are grounded in eternal truths, not subject to the whims of a person or a culture. Christ's death and resurrection have cosmic implications, in direct contrast to both utopian and dystopian narratives. Applying the fundamental truth of a Christian worldview, particularly in this cultural moment, is not so straightforward. For example, this past week we heard from a woman wrestling with whether or not to go through with an international adoption. Adoption is so hopeful; why would anyone question it? Well, the women who wrote in is single and committed to the Biblical description of marriage and family. She knows that children fare best when raised by biological mom and dad. She understands that practices like sperm donation and surrogacy intentionally create a life in which that parent-child relationship is broken. She knows that even without a biological link, there's a difference between mothering and fathering and that kids tend to fare better with both. As a single woman, she wondered whether her desire to adopt may similarly deprive a child of a father. "My 'need' [her quotes] cannot be the deciding factor in this decision. I know raising a child in a single parent home will leave a hole in this child's heart. I know this child needs a father. I know that even my best intentions and hardest efforts will not compensate for this loss." At the same time, as she undoubtedly understands, the alternative for this child is grim. In much of the world, a high percentage of those who age-out of orphanages (including orphanages in Eastern Europe where she hopes to adopt), end up in jail. "I can't help but think that providing a loving home with one Christian parent would be better than a life in these group homes with no parents," she wrote. And, she's exactly right! In her honest and serious ethical reflections are all the right distinctions. Her desire to adopt a child in need is beautiful and not comparable with sperm donation or surrogacy, neither in intention nor in practice. Here's why. As Katy Faust, author of Them Before Us: Why We Need a Children's-Rights Movement points out, the child-manufacturing practices of our modern reproductive technologies are largely motivated by the emotional desires of adults. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing, in and of itself, but the child's needs have to be taken into consideration as well. While certain treatments of infertility attempt to fix or heal what is broken, others clearly cross the line and treat kids like commercial products. As a result, surrogacy and sperm donation create a place of brokenness that didn't exist before. Specifically, children are deprived of the right to know a biological parent. These technologies place "us" (the adults and their desires) before "them" (the children and their needs). To use stark terms, in a very real sense, these procedures create orphans. That is a very different scenario than meeting the needs of children already facing a life with no mother or father. Though this woman has a God-given desire to be a mom, her fundamental question is not, "How can I become a parent?" Rather, it's "How can I give a child a parent? " The difference is everything. Just as important is her recognition that fathers matter too, and, as a single mother, she won't be able to fill that need. While our larger society has embraced the idea that "all kids need is love," and while so many mothers have to play the heroic role of attempting to fill the need of both mom and dad, she realizes that a mother's love and a father's love aren't the same. Love is more than strong feelings and self-esteem. It's an embodied reality. This woman's desire to have children is not the problem, and it doesn't have to conflict with a child's needs. It actually can go to meet those needs. As Katy Faust says, when rightly understood, the rights of adults and children do not need to be in opposition. If this women does open her heart, life, and home to a child who's lost mom and dad, her story and example of clear thinking can inspire others to put "them before us," i.e. the needs and rights of children over and above the desires of adults. That's the title of Katy Faust's new book, which covers the full spectrum of issues in which our culture struggles to rightly honor and respect children. You can pick up a copy of Them Before Us with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month. Just visit breakpoint.org/broadcast. And, for a full answer to this woman's question, check out the most recent "Q&A segment" on the BreakPoint podcast . Visit breakpoint.org, or subscribe to the "BreakPoint podcast" or wherever you get your podcasts.
Mar 8, 2021
Our culture proclaims a narrative, that what kids need are parents not moms and dads. Movies, television shows, music, public policies, they all call us to a new way of organizing the family. This new organization prioritizes adult desires, wishes, and needs over kids. We hear, over and over, that the kids will be fine. But the kids aren't fine. Katy Faust has been on a campaign for years to tell the stories of children who are victims of the sexual revolution. These are often unheard voices in our culture. Children, conceived by invetro fertilization have stories. Katy is telling them. Kids adopted into loving families have a story our culture often doesn't hear. Katy is sharing it. Those raised in same-sex households have stories. Katy is sharing those stories. Katy's new book is titled Them Before Us . It calls the culture to place the needs and desires of children over those of adults.
Mar 8, 2021
Imagine a young man with every advantage. He's well-educated, goes to church, lives in a nice neighborhood, able to secure strong employment... But he grew up without ever having known his father. Even as he moves into adulthood, his desire to know his father, his sense of loss for what he missed, is somewhere between insistent and consuming. There used to be a time when fatherlessness was considered a tragedy. Now, raising a child without a father or, in some cases, without a mother is a perfectly acceptable intentional choice. The only thing that matters are the adults making the decision who have desires to meet. The adults are put first; the children, all too often, come in a distant second. This sweeping social change didn't happen overnight, or by accident. It's the logical outcome of the three fundamental lies of the sexual revolution. These lies are now so widely embedded in modern society that we don't give them a second thought. But it wasn't always this way. The first lie of the sexual revolution ( and I owe my friend Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse for the wording here ) is that sex, marriage, and babies are separable. That these created realities were part of a biological, social and religious package deal, went unquestioned until quite recently. Technological innovations, such as the pill, IVF, and surrogacy, legal innovations such as no-fault divorce, and cultural innovations such as ubiquitous pornography and "hook-up" apps, have all made it increasingly easy to imagine that sex is not inherently connected to childbearing, and that childbearing is not necessarily best placed in the context of marriage. The second lie of the sexual revolution (thanks again to Dr. Morse for this wording) is that men and women are interchangeable. What we mean by this has evolved to a much more fundamental level. Interchangeability in rights was a good thing. Interchangeability in roles was, at times, good and, at other times, blurred biological distinctions. Today, of course, we talk as if men and women are interchangeable in reality, as if men can bear children and "not all women menstruate," and as if love can make a second mom into a dad. None of this is true. The third lie of the sexual revolution is that human dignity derives from autonomy, that our ability to sexually self-determine, not only in our behavior but our identity, is the essence of human dignity. In that equation, those unable to sexually self-determine, or who stand in the way of someone's "true self" (typically defined by happiness) are excluded from the category of dignity. These three lies of the sexual revolution were largely justified by a myth, one repeated over and over in different ways, to assuage our collective consciences as we fundamentally violate the created and social order. That myth was "the kids will be fine." But, of course, they aren't fine. Not even close. In her new book, Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children's Rights Movement, Katy Faust documents all the ways the kids aren't fine, and all the ways their well-being is sacrificed on the altar of adult happiness. This is essential reading, not only so we can take our place in Christian history among those who stood for and defending children from hyper-sexualization, abandonment, abuse, and social experimentation, but also because too many Christians embrace cultural norms about reproductive technologies, sexuality, and marriage. In doing so, the Church is complicit in putting children at risk. In Them Before Us, Faust begins in a crucially different place than the sexual revolution: the rights of the child, not the happiness of adult. That's what "them before us" means. Simply put, adults must do those hard things that honor the fundamental right of children to be known and loved by both mother and father. The results of the sexual revolution are in: Children are the victims of our bad ideas. Christians are called to be agents of restoration in whatever time and place they find themselves. For us, now, that means advocating for children's rights. As Faust writes, "Our culture and our laws must incentivize and encourage adults to conform their behavior to the needs of their children if we are to have any hope of a healthy and thriving society." Get your copy of Them Before Us, this month, with any gift to the Colson Center. Come to breakpoint.org/broadcast to get your copy of Them Before Us today.
Mar 5, 2021
Bethany Christian Services, one of the nation's largest faith-based adoption and foster care agencies, has decided to begin placing children with same-sex couples: John Stonestreet and Maria Baer wonder why and discuss the implications not only for the children but for Christians organizations that seek to remain true to the biblical understanding of family and human sexuality. As John points out, this issue is certainly not about ensuring that same-sex couples have access to adoption, because there are plenty of organizations only too happy to help. Also on today's episode: What are deepfakes, and what potential dangers do they hold? Is Dr. Seuss being cancelled? Why we should care about "deadnaming."
Mar 5, 2021
If the last two Presidential elections, the last midterm elections, and every exit poll ever conducted can teach us anything, it's to not put too much faith in polling. Still, a new Gallup poll released last month deserves a serious look. In a remarkable jump from prior years, one in six adult members of Gen Z (that is, ages 18 to 24) self-identify as LGBT. The first thing to unpack is the definition of terms; specifically, what does it mean to identify as LGBT? The disconnection of biological reality from one's identity makes this question particularly complicated. Is merely conceiving of oneself as "LGBT" enough, or must on claim it, or advertise for it, or "outwardly present" in a way consistent with cultural stereotypes? Does identifying as an "L," "G," or "B" imply these 18 to 24-year-olds have engaged in homosexual behavior? Does being attracted to members of the same sex qualify as behavior? Or, does any sexual encounter with someone of the same sex mean they must identify as gay? The answers to these questions aren't clear. The fact is, in addition to those who experience same-sex attraction and struggle with gender dysphoria, calling oneself LGBT has become a sort of Cool Club for the disenfranchised. I've personally heard from high school guidance counselors, teachers, youth pastors, and others that many kids who struggle socially, or with depression, or with fitting in, now claim to be homosexual or transgender. In other words, it's entirely plausible, even likely, that more young adults identify as LGBT because the terms are not clear and because they're unhappy. Still, the ones who've made this acronym the new Cool Club are the adults, not the kids. To resurrect words from the early days of this issue, this is nurture, not nature. Now, to be clear, many of the most vocal advocates of the new sexual orthodoxy admitted years ago that the "born this way" narrative was useful, not really true. Now that the debate has largely been settled, at least culturally, there's no need to hold anyone to a fixed orientation or identity. Of course, Christians are typically accused of denying the "spectrum of sexuality," the idea that sexual urges may ebb and flow throughout a lifetime towards members of the same or the opposite sex. However, both Old and New Testament Scriptures take the idea that sexual attractions can change, both in intensity and direction, largely for granted. One way to describe the Biblical view, to quote G.K. Chesterton, is "there are a lot of ways to fall down, but only one way to stand up straight." Today, however, the various spectrums of sexuality (and there are at least four taught to elementary school age children) have nothing to do with moral or natural guidelines for our sexual impulses. Rather, those impulses are equated with identity, which is also seen as fluid. Though their impulses may change, children are taught that they have no power over their impulses and that to deny them is to deny themselves. They are, in fact, taught to be slaves to their desires, even if those desires lead them to misery or harm. In this context, Christianity's greatest news may be that humans actually have freedom to navigate our desires. We are not mere creatures of instinct and, in Christ, can be made free indeed . Another crucial component to make sense of this Gallup poll is a larger cultural observation: we don't know what love is . The adult Gen Z-ers highlighted in this survey have been raised in an environment offering only two bad understandings of love. For some, every time they've heard the word "love" used in their entire life , including within the Church, it's been in either a shallow and sentimental sense or in a sexual sense. Imagine never hearing that relationship between love and God's moral character, but only of a squishy, sentimental figure who has no strong feelings about anything except our happiness. Imagine never understanding Who God is or His created intent for His world, but then trying to make sense of relationships. In reality, one of the consequences of divorcing love from its only real Source is that sexual love has been disconnected from the physical bodies He gave His image bearers. In turn, sexual acts, sexual morality, and sexual impulses are left completely up in the air. Among the The Four Loves identified in his classic book ( storge, or affection; phileo, or friendship), eros, or sexual love, and agape, or sacrificial love), C.S. Lewis thought true friendship had become the rarest. Recent data backs him up . At least part of the crisis of absolutizing sexual deviancy, is that young adults lose the ability to even conceive of true friendship. In fact, the vast majority of people who claim to be LGBT in the Gallup poll identify as bisexual. How many simply lack categories for true, affectionate, loving, and yet non-erotic, relationships? At the same time, trying to disconnect from our design is like trying to disconnect from gravity. Reality eventually wins. This means that Christians have actual good news to offer a culture helplessly obsessed with but thoroughly confused about sex. We can offer a love that reorients and transforms sexual impulse ( eros) , a love that orders friendship and affection ( phileo and storge), and a love sacrificial and self-giving ( agape). In the process, image bearers can find their true identity as created, loved, and redeemed by God.
Mar 4, 2021
In just the last few weeks, two mass kidnappings took place, both at schools in northwestern Nigeria. In the first, "unidentified gunmen" attacked a boarding school in Niger state, killing one student and kidnapped 42 others -- 38 of the abducted were rescued a week later , presumably by government forces. The day before that rescue, "unknown gunmen" in neighboring Zamfara state kidnapped over 300 girls from a boarding school . On Tuesday, the AP reported the release of 270. It's not clear whether the kidnappings were driven by ideology or ransom money, though the motive doesn't make much of a difference to the girls and their families. Not to mention, in places like northwestern Nigeria, ideology and profit are not mutually exclusive motives. When hostages are released by Boko Haram or other extremists, it's almost always because some ransom has been paid. Regardless of motivation, the average Nigerian (especially the average Nigerian Christian) lives in constant threat for his personal safety. Nigeria's inability to guarantee the basic safety of its citizens has observers now asking whether it is on the verge of becoming a " failed state ," the official term for a state "where the government is no longer in control." The label is most often applied to countries such as Yemen or Somalia, where basic institutions are virtually non-existent. At least when it comes to protecting the Christian population and institutions, Nigeria's government hardly seems in control. Because groups like Boko Haram and Fulani militants operate with a de facto immunity in Nigera, their actions against Christians are given a de facto legitimacy. If the government's blind eye is not intentional, it's fair to ask whether its authority even extends beyond Abuja, Nigeria's capital city. German sociologist Max Weber famously defined a state as a "human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory." Using that most basic standard, Nigeria is failing. Groups like ICON have documented the violence in the northern part of the country, where Christians are killed, wounded, assaulted, and abducted with regularity by Boko Haram and Fulani militants. Nigeria is not the only country on the " World Watch List" for Christian persecution that is also characterized as a "fragile" or "failed" state. Seven of the top ten countries on the Open Doors list also rank high on the " Fragile States Index " list produced by the Fund for Peace. Nigeria ranks ninth on the World Watch List and ranks fourteenth on the Fragile States Index. This pattern makes both political and biblical sense. A state that cannot effectively restrain or punish perpetrators of violence is in no position to protect the religious freedom of its citizens. As the Apostle Paul told the Romans, government is "instituted by God" to "execute wrath on the wrongdoer." Thus, we are to obey the government, including paying our taxes, not because the government is morally praiseworthy (Rome certainly wasn't), but because of its God-ordained role in keeping the peace. Paul also urged Timothy to pray "for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectable in every way." Around the world, many of our brothers and sisters don't even have the option of living the kind of "quiet and peaceable" lives we take for granted. Still, so many manage to live in a godly and dignified way, which is a powerful testimony to the legitimacy and vitality of their faith. As we pray for persecuted Christians in Nigeria and elsewhere, we should also pray for the stability of their nations, and even for their government leaders. We should pray that they would have the courage and capacity to end insurgencies like Boko Haram, and, whenever possible, we should ask our nation and its leaders to intervene, or at least assist, in squelching the chaos. Without national stability, our brothers and sisters around the world are kind of like sitting ducks, at the mercy of those who would wish to do them harm, and they have no hope of living "quiet and peaceable" lives.
Mar 4, 2021
In just the last few weeks, two mass kidnappings took place, both at schools in northwestern Nigeria. In the first, "unidentified gunmen" attacked a boarding school in Niger state, killing one student and kidnapped 42 others -- 38 of the abducted were rescued a week later , presumably by government forces. The day before that rescue, "unknown gunmen" in neighboring Zamfara state kidnapped over 300 girls from a boarding school . On Tuesday, the AP reported the release of 270. It's not clear whether the kidnappings were driven by ideology or ransom money, though the motive doesn't make much of a difference to the girls and their families. Not to mention, in places like northwestern Nigeria, ideology and profit are not mutually exclusive motives. When hostages are released by Boko Haram or other extremists, it's almost always because some ransom has been paid. Regardless of motivation, the average Nigerian (especially the average Nigerian Christian) lives in constant threat for his personal safety. Nigeria's inability to guarantee the basic safety of its citizens has observers now asking whether it is on the verge of becoming a " failed state ," the official term for a state "where the government is no longer in control." The label is most often applied to countries such as Yemen or Somalia, where basic institutions are virtually non-existent. At least when it comes to protecting the Christian population and institutions, Nigeria's government hardly seems in control. Because groups like Boko Haram and Fulani militants operate with a de facto immunity in Nigera, their actions against Christians are given a de facto legitimacy. If the government's blind eye is not intentional, it's fair to ask whether its authority even extends beyond Abuja, Nigeria's capital city. German sociologist Max Weber famously defined a state as a "human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory." Using that most basic standard, Nigeria is failing. Groups like ICON have documented the violence in the northern part of the country, where Christians are killed, wounded, assaulted, and abducted with regularity by Boko Haram and Fulani militants. Nigeria is not the only country on the " World Watch List" for Christian persecution that is also characterized as a "fragile" or "failed" state. Seven of the top ten countries on the Open Doors list also rank high on the " Fragile States Index " list produced by the Fund for Peace. Nigeria ranks ninth on the World Watch List and ranks fourteenth on the Fragile States Index. This pattern makes both political and biblical sense. A state that cannot effectively restrain or punish perpetrators of violence is in no position to protect the religious freedom of its citizens. As the Apostle Paul told the Romans, government is "instituted by God" to "execute wrath on the wrongdoer." Thus, we are to obey the government, including paying our taxes, not because the government is morally praiseworthy (Rome certainly wasn't), but because of its God-ordained role in keeping the peace. Paul also urged Timothy to pray "for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectable in every way." Around the world, many of our brothers and sisters don't even have the option of living the kind of "quiet and peaceable" lives we take for granted. Still, so many manage to live in a godly and dignified way, which is a powerful testimony to the legitimacy and vitality of their faith. As we pray for persecuted Christians in Nigeria and elsewhere, we should also pray for the stability of their nations, and even for their government leaders. We should pray that they would have the courage and capacity to end insurgencies like Boko Haram, and, whenever possible, we should ask our nation and its leaders to intervene, or at least assist, in squelching the chaos. Without national stability, our brothers and sisters around the world are kind of like sitting ducks, at the mercy of those who would wish to do them harm, and they have no hope of living "quiet and peaceable" lives.
Mar 3, 2021
John and Shane field a question from a woman who is questioning her motivation to adopt as a single woman. She asks the two if her desire to adopt is to fill a "child-shaped hole" in her heart, or if she is really concerned with the betterment of their life. Additionally, she cites statistics related to children growing up without a father. She asks if it is best for her to pursue an adoption. John and Shane also field a question from a mother regarding best practices in addressing cancel culture. She references the move to take down monuments of flawed men. Her question is how to best equip her daughters to participate lovingly in the conversation. John and Shane begin the question and answer time working through a critique on their posture with young people leaving the church. A similar question asked for resources to equip young people to remain connected to the church.
Mar 3, 2021
On a cultural level, COVID-19 did not create as many problems and challenges as it revealed and escalated . Like the medical co-morbidities that made the virus more dangerous and more deadly for individuals, cultural pre-existing conditions only worsened during the pandemic. Social distancing and lockdowns, for example, made our pre-existing cultural problem of loneliness that much worse for many. In the same way, the general, widespread disregard for the those with intellectual disabilities in our culture made their mistreatment during the pandemic easier as well. For example, during the first wave of the pandemic in Great Britain, various facilities that care for people with intellectual disabilities, what the Brits call "learning disabilities" issued blanket "Do Not Resuscitate" orders. These orders came, according to one source , directly from doctors, without consulting the patients or their families. In December, following public outcry, Britain's Care Quality Commission investigated and found that the orders were, in their words, "inappropriate" and should be rescinded. That was not, however, the end of the problem. According to the Guardian newspaper , people with intellectual disabilities such as Down syndrome continue to be told that they will not be resuscitated if they become ill with COVID. This despite last year's public outcry and the Commission's report and instructions. Also, given that "people with [intellectual] disabilities aged 18 to 34 are 30 times more likely to die of COVID than others the same age," a Do Not Resuscitate Order is a practically a death sentence. This horrific practice has nothing to do with medicine. DNR's are usually reserved for people too frail to benefit from CPR, which is not the case here. As one advocacy group told the Guardian, "some [orders] seem to have been issued for people simply because they had [an intellectual] disability." Why single out people with intellectual disabilities? The immediate answer is obvious. The doctors issuing these orders are eugenicists, willing to eliminate patients who, they think, drain resources. The larger answer is also obvious. Embedded in Western culture is a tendency to commodify human life, valuing people based on extrinsic abilities and appearances. Thus, the disabled are not deemed as valuable as the non-disabled. In the U.K., this thinking is obvious in other ways, too. For example, a positive Down syndrome in utero test results in an abortion 90 percent of the time . Attempting to "explain away" this terrible number by noting that not all pregnant women are tested for trisomy 21 does not change the awful, inconvenient fact: when a British woman is told her unborn child has Down syndrome, she is nine times more likely to kill the child than to keep it. To be clear, in this respect, Britain is a typical Western nation. In countries like Iceland and Denmark, the percentage of abortions following positive test is nearly 100 percent . In addition, the Danish and Icelandic governments have made prenatal testing for Downs syndrome almost universal. In a now infamous 2017 tweet, CBS News announced that Iceland is "on pace to virtually eliminate Down syndrome ...." The language chosen by CBS News only revealed they shared Iceland's eugenic impulse. As actress Patricia Heaton replied, Iceland "was not, in fact, eliminating Down syndrome. They were just killing everyone who has it." It's hard to think of a clearer example of some lives being considered worth less than others, based on the criterion that what constitutes a "worthwhile life" is what the person can do. As medical ethicist Chris Kaposy has written , "Western cultures value independence, and consequently people with high levels of dependency are often stigmatized." A more-accurate word, at least under some circumstances, would be "loathed." Even "feel-good" stories about individuals with disability finishing a triathlon, or being a model, or scoring in a basketball game can betray sub-narratives of dehumanization. We end up "celebrating" these people for what they've done, not who they are, or how they mimic those things that earn value in our culture, rather than their intrinsic worth and dignity as Image-bearers. The stigma against these individuals remains. The British "Do Not Resuscitate" orders took place in the midst of the pandemic, but the ideas that led to them existed long before. COVID-19 gave cover for these ideas to be put in practice under the guise of some "greater good" or "necessity." Recently, a British joint committee on vaccinations announced that those with intellectual disabilities would be prioritized for the COVID-19 vaccine. That's good news, although it is likely merely a reaction to the scandal, but it doesn't address the eugenic impulse prevalent in so much of Western culture and medicine. Which means long after the COVID-19 emergency has passed, we'll still need to confront and displace the very bad idea that some lives are worth less than others, and we'll still need to stand up for and protect the victims of that very bad idea.
Mar 2, 2021
For the last few months at the Colson Center, we've been doing a Q&A feature on our podcast. Each Wednesday, Shane Morris and I field questions from our readers and listeners about all sorts of topics. But once in a while we get a question that deserves a full BreakPoint in response. Recently, a woman wrote in asking how she can know that she's really worshipping God. "For years," she explains, "attending church meant singing in the choir, playing bells, women's Bible study, organizing funeral dinners, cleaning the church, making banners…now I'm in my mid 70s and all those things are not on my list anymore and I'm wondering: have I really been worshipping God all these years or was it just busy work? And how do we know if we are worshipping when we are sitting in church? Sorry to bother you but I'm locked in my house and my resources are limited." First of all, what an outstanding question. To this listener: Your heart for the Lord and for His people is obvious, and it sounds like you have years of faithful, humble service behind you. Don't doubt for a moment that your work—whether in corporate worship, or feeding the congregation, or helping them grieve, celebrate, or just enjoy a beautiful space has been anything but precious in God's sight. Nor are you likely to know this side of eternity the kind of impact you had on the lives of your fellow worshippers. Our culture teaches us to admire dramatic, heroic acts—the kind that make headlines and exciting movies. But I think if there's anyone sure to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant," it's those like this listener, whose mundane, often unnoticed acts of love for the church span decades. "Busywork" has nothing to do with it. A life spent this way is more like, a "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God." Now, I understand there's more to this question. It sounds like this listener's time in church services has been put on hold because of COVID. How does someone who is no longer able to serve God's people in obvious ways continue to worship Him? The answer really gets to the heart of what serving and worshipping God means. We have this deeply ingrained instinct that a higher calling must be dramatic, marked by speeches, battles, cures for diseases or passing historic legislation. But I'm convinced that the bulk of really world-changing work is done by ordinary people who will never make headlines, living faithful lives where God had placed them. They're the ones who really shape cultures and ultimately, eternity. Most importantly, their worship is pleasing to God. Remember the story of the Widow's Mite? All of the rich dumped bags of gold into the temple coffer. The woman who had barely two copper coins to rub together? She dropped them both in. And Jesus said she out-gave them all. The point is clear: The God who owns everything and has all power doesn't need our resources, and He's not impressed by our resumes. He's mainly interested in our faithfulness and our sincerity. And that's good news, because it means we can truly worship and glorify Him wherever we are and no matter how humble our circumstances. Look, I get it. It's tough when your mission field shrinks. Every CEO who retires feels that letdown. Every mom whose child goes off to college wonders, "What now?" The point is that God doesn't need us to do "great things" for Him. He wants us to do the right thing no matter where we are. Sweep the floor, make the bed, do the dishes, put food on the table, meditate on Scripture—maybe invite that neighbor no one ever talks with to join you. In all of these circumstances, it isn't so much what you do, but the Person for whom you do it that matters. Our listener is right to see being in church as a priority. If at all possible and prudent, we should be with God's people and serve wherever we can. But though the worship we give Him on Sunday is central, Scripture is clear that everything done well to God's glory is also a spiritual act of worship. It's also clear that acts the world sees as having little value can be priceless in God's sight. So, to our questioner: Keep up the good work, to the glory of God, wherever you find yourself, and you'll truly be worshipping. To the rest of our listeners: find someone like this woman and start taking notes. And please join me and Shane every Wednesday on the BreakPoint Podcast, where we take and respond to readers' questions.
Mar 1, 2021
Ryan T. Anderson and Emilie Kao joined John to reveal the victims of the Equality Act. Ryan T. Anderson is an American political philosopher who is best known for his opposition to same-sex marriage. He is currently president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Emilie Kao is an attorney who has defended religious freedom for the last 14 years. She has worked on behalf of victims of religious freedom violations in East Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South Asia at the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom and Becket Law. Previously she worked at the United Nations and Latham and Watkins. Kao also taught international human rights law at George Mason University Law School as an adjunct law professor.
Mar 1, 2021
Thirty years ago, the idea of socially and medically experimenting on children to advance a controversial and unproven ideology was unthinkable. Today, it's considered by some to be unquestionable. There is a full-court press to fully and finally embed transgender ideology in public life, especially with school-aged children, starting with the Equality Act. In his promises and nominations , President Biden has made his priorities on this clear. In his first day in office, he signed an executive order forcing K-12 public schools that accept federal funds to adopt sexual orientation and gender identity policies. As Emilie Kao at The Heritage Foundation points out , this paves the way for ending girls'sports and violating the privacy of bathrooms and locker rooms. We can also expect curriculum that would expose elementary-age children to claims such as, "little girls might be little boys trapped in the wrong body." So-called "gender-affirming" treatments, including social reinforcement, puberty blockers, and even mutilating surgeries, will enforced as the only acceptable course of action for counselors, teachers, physicians, and parents. At the root of this all-out assault on our children is the dangerously bad idea that adult desires matter more than the wellbeing of children. Each chapter of the sexual revolution, but especially the most recent ones, have placed "us before them," repeating the same myth in various forms: "the kids will be fine." But they're not. As author and children's rights activist Katy Faust insists, "Our culture and our laws must incentivize and encourage adults to conform their behavior to the needs of their children." We need, she says, "a new global children's rights movement." Christians ask me all the time, but especially when it comes to the all-out cultural assault on children, what can we do? My first answer is we must not sit this one out. In fact, Christian history is full of stories of Christians who confronted a pagan culture by seeking to protect children who were being abused and victimized. Two examples that come to mind are Amy Carmichael, who won souls and freed temple prostitutes, and William Wilberforce, who freed slaves and instituted child labor reforms. This is our moment to live out our faith by looking after children. To do just that is why the Colson Center has joined an important new coalition, of over a dozen other organizations, thousands of parents, and dozens of lawmakers. The Promise to America's Children (which is headed up by the Heritage Foundation , the Family Policy Alliance , and the Alliance Defending Freedom ) has articulated a simple promise: that as adults, we will protect children in three areas: their minds, their bodies, and their most important relationships. I'm quoting here from the Promise: "I promise to nurture and protect your mind as you grow, doing everything in my power to keep you from harm, to instill values, and to give you the best opportunities for success." "I promise to honor and protect your body as you grow, affirming your dignity and worth in the body you have been fearfully and wonderfully given." "I promise to invest in, nurture, and protect our relationship because you are unconditionally loved by and of infinite worth to me." Within each promise are a set of principles that identify the key ways children need protection. Their minds need to be protected from graphic pornography and harmful curriculum. Their bodies need to be protected with privacy in vulnerable places like bathrooms and from experimental surgeries that create permanent damage. Their relationships with parents need to be protected from unnecessary government intervention and educators who think parents don't deserve to know what's going on with their kids. Read and sign this promise at promisetoamericaschildren.org . The statement can then be shared with your church leaders and legislators. In fact, the legislators that sign on receive model legislation that they can back and promote and that reflect the principles laid out in the full statement. Even better, you can share this statement and discuss the three areas to protect children and the ten principles of doing so, with your unbelieving friends and neighbors. I'm serious, this statement will help you discuss this difficult issue with others. To be even better equipped, check out today's BreakPoint podcast. Dr. Ryan Anderson joins me to discuss the Equality Act, followed by Emily Kao, who is spearheading this coalition effort, The Promise to America's Children. Also, for a gift of any amount this month, we will send you Katy Faust's new book, Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children's Rights Movement .
Feb 26, 2021
The Equality Act promises to impact nearly every aspect of life for men, women, and children. John Stonestreet, Shane Morris, and Maria Baer explore the impact the Equality Act will have on society. The trio also explores cancel culture and how it is causing big tech responses to ideas that aren't celebrated in progressive advances. Ryan T. Anderson's book When Harry Became Sally, presents strong evidence through research and stories to show the challenge in responding outside of physical reality for those challenged by gender dysphoria. They reference Rand Paul's recent interaction with Rachel Levine, formerly known as Richard Levine, over what is called gender mutilation around the world. Called gender transitioning in America, Levine responds saying, essentially, the science is complicated but firm and settled. John highlights how this issue impacts some of the most vulnerable in our society, namely children, and the culture is experimenting on the vulnerable with this issue. John calls Christians to respond in two ways. He calls Christians to research, build understanding, and discuss these issues in our circles. Christians cannot sit out on this issue. He also calls Christians to count the cost of participating in championing God's story on this matter. Maria highlights Solzhenitzyn's phrase Live Not By Lies, being made popular again by Rod Dreher.She notes that our call is simply to tell the truth, and helping others align their felt truth against physical reality. To close, Maria shares a story from Smith College where a student was eating lunch in a closed cafeteria. After being nicely engaged and escorted out, the young lady took to social media to claim racial bias. After an investigation the school found the claims were unfounded. The trio unpack this issue, highlighting the clashes that are happening inside intersectionality.
Feb 26, 2021
Last summer, outside a California courtroom, a group of protestors gathered, marched, chanted, took lots of selfies, and held signs that read, "Free Britney." Footage from that day now comprises the opening scene of a newly released New York Times documentary about Britney Spears, the pop music star who rose to fame as barely a teenager in the early 2000s. Spears is now in the middle of a legal battle over control of her financial estate. Her genuinely tragic story begins with her parents' insistence on making Britney a star at an extremely young age . Having achieved that goal, her innocent "bubble gum pop" persona turned into something far less innocent. After spending much of her career attempting to outdo her previous sexual explicitness, Britney Spears has spiraled into ongoing and severe mental health issues, worsened by broken relationships, and constantly being stalked by paparazzi. Objectifying others is not only a sin itself, it leads to other sins. Pride, contempt, jealousy, adultery, murder, sexual predation, even self-harming behaviors like drug abuse and sexual promiscuity are all rooted in seeing and using people, even ourselves, as objects instead of Image-bearers. Most Christians, and even non-Christians, would say that treating anyone in any of these ways is wrong. However, objectifying people has become so normal, we do it in ways we don't even realize. Some of those protestors who gathered outside the courthouse in California were probably genuinely concerned for her well-being. But what of the others, such as those telling reporters over and over how much they "love" this pop star they don't even know? Aren't they really using her, too? After all, they've turned her situation – her tragedy and pain – into something to consume. It's entertainment, or catharsis. They are using a person they cannot practically love, serve, sacrifice for, or even talk to, and making her fill a need they have. That's objectification, too. This behavior is different than admiring or honoring a well-known figure. There is a fundamental difference between, for example, the Americans who lined up along railroad tracks to honor the life of Abraham Lincoln as his body was taken to lie in state, and those who gathered for the "Free Britney" rally outside family court. Admiring virtue and being grateful for a life well-lived is different from looking to fill a need that should be met in real relationships. In a celebrity-driven culture like ours, it is tempting to think we have a celebrity -shaped hole in our hearts instead of a God-shaped one. For artists, this takes the form of seeking to be popular instead of seeking excellence. For consumers, this takes the form of elevating and worshiping celebrities in their prime and then ridiculing them and gawking at them afterwards. Celebrity-ism is as much a problem in the Church as out. We can be grateful for YouTube access to the teachings, articles, and sermons of our favorite pastors and for the inspiration from our favorite Christian authors or artists through Instagram. But are we idolizing? Are we angry if they say something we don't like, commenting as if they're not real people or as if their job is always to agree with us? Do we assume a level of intimacy that is not appropriate with someone we actually don't know? Do we use them to replace local churches or to provide spiritual authority in our lives, when that is not their place nor role? The dangerous mistake is confusing our ability to enjoy the consumable goods we get from Christians "celebrities" or social-media influencers with a right to access or intimacy with the people themselves to meet our needs. It is a mistake we make with people we don't agree with, too. Just look how Christians treat each other on Twitter, as if we are dealing with cartoon characters instead of real people. When it comes to the clarity we need on human value and boundaries with others, our culture is both out of ideas and off its foundation. Objectifying, idolizing, and "celebritizing" (I made that one up…) are all ways of treating image bearers as brands, not people, expecting them to fill our need, whether for diversion or community or meaning. In that context, mutual fandom and the hatred of a common enemy are two sides of the same coin. No matter how interesting, how talented, how fun to love or hate they are, people are not objects .
Feb 25, 2021
The Biden administration recently announced it will accelerate the process of replacing President Andrew Jackson image on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman, at least on the front. Jackson would still appear on the reverse side. This plan was first announced under the Obama Administration but was halted by President Trump's Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. As the excellent 2019 film portrayed, Harriet Tubman was a towering figure of courage and faith who risked her own life and freedom, time and time again, to rescue men and women from slavery. Tubman was born into slavery on a Maryland plantation in 1822. As a young girl, she was trained as a nursemaid and made to work driving oxen and trapping muskrats in the woods. Harriet's owners frequently whipped her. She also endured the pain of seeing three of her sisters sold, never to be seen again. Even as a child, Harriet demonstrated a strong rebellious streak, running away for days at a time. She may have learned this from her mother. When her owner attempted to sell one of her brothers, Harriet's mother dissuaded the would-be buyer by announcing, "The first man that comes into my house, I will split his head open." This may have been where Harriet learned that resistance to evil was not only right, but could even sometimes be successful. Harriet's deep and abiding faith also came from her mother, who would tell her stories from the Bible. At about 26 years old, when Harriett learned she might be sold away from her family, she made her escape along the Underground Railroad, traveling at night to avoid slave catchers and following the North Star until she reached Pennsylvania and freedom. Once there, she made a dangerous choice. She decided to risk her own freedom in order to give others theirs. For eight years, as America headed toward the cauldron of the Civil War, Tubman made many dangerous trips back to Maryland, leading scores of slaves north to freedom. During these trips she relied upon God to guide and protect her. She never once lost a runaway slave . As Tubman herself later put it, "I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger." Harriett never took credit for her remarkable success. Instead, she explained, "'Twant me, 'twas the Lord. I always told him, 'I trusts to you. I don't know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,' and he always did." In the process, she earned an appropriate nickname: Moses. Abolitionist Thomas Garrett put it, "I never met with any person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul." During the Civil War, Harriet worked for the Union Army as a scout, spy, cook, and nurse to wounded and sick soldiers. Amazingly, she even helped lead an armed assault on Southern plantations in coastal South Carolina, during which 750 slaves were rescued . Many, she then recruited to join the Army. In later years, Tubman became an advocate for women's suffrage. She also donated property to be turned into a home for former slaves, despite the fact she lived in or near poverty for much of her life, mostly because she constantly worked to help others. It took 30 years for Tubman's service to the Union Army to finally be recognized by the U. S. government. She was awarded a widow's pension of $8 per month in 1895, and an additional $12 a month in 1899 for her war-time service as a nurse. If you do the math, that's $20. Now, 100-plus years after her death, the United States is ready to bestow on this heroic woman of faith the honor of placing her portrait on the $20 bill. Both ironic and fitting.
Feb 24, 2021
John and Shane walk through a challenging question related to perceived impressions that the church is slipping into moral deism. A Colson Fellow asked about John's Bene-Kuyper option, blending the Benedict Option and Kuyper's view of culture engagement. Another Colson Fellow asked John and Shane to explain how to engage a pastor and encourage a church that doesn't see the need to participate in conversations in the culture. The Fellow mentioned there is a growing fear the church could "lose our witness to the lost". To close, John is asked how believers should respond in the wake of the Ravi Zacharias report. When pastors, priests, and teachers fall morally, how should bewildered Christians move forward?
Feb 24, 2021
Late last week, Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives introduced the Equality Act, a grave threat to religious liberty and conscience rights that would, in effect, erase all legal distinctions between male and female in public life. The Equality Act would make gender identity and sexual orientation protected classes under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forcing compliance in areas such as public accommodation and education. Until the GOP lost majority in the Senate, there wasn't much of a chance of the Equality Act becoming law. The outcome of the Senate runoff races in Georgia made it much more practical for President Biden to keep his promise of signing the Equality Act into law . Of course, its fate in the Democrat-controlled House was never really in doubt. To be clear, you should only care about the Equality Act if you are a Christian, or a person of faith, or a woman, or own a business, or run a non-profit, or go to school, or teach at a school, or are a medical or mental-health professional, or (especially) are a female athlete, or under the age of 18, or ever use a public restroom. That's not an exaggeration. In fact, here is the exact wording from the Equality Act: "An individual shall not be denied access to a shared facility, including a restroom, a locker room and a dressing room, that is in accordance with the individual's gender identity." This applies to… "any establishment that provides a good, service, or program, including a store, shopping center, online retailer or service provider, salon, bank, gas station, food bank, service or care center, shelter, travel agency or funeral parlor, or establishment that provides health care, accounting or legal services," along with any organization that receives any federal funding. So, for example, as Ryan Anderson of the Ethics and Public Policy Center described in an op ed this week: "Medical doctors, secular and religious, whose expert judgment is that sex-reassignment procedures are misguided would now run afoul of our civil-rights laws. If you perform a mastectomy in the case of breast cancer, you will have to perform one on the teenage girl identifying as a boy. All in the name of equality." Shelters for battered women would be forced to admit biological males. Prisons would not be able to protect female inmates from predatory males who claim to be females. Biological males will be given the opportunities, scholarships, and championships of female athletes. It's not clear that women's sports would survive. More religious adoption and foster-care agencies would be forced to compromise their convictions about marriage and the family or shut down. School bathrooms and locker rooms would be open to both sexes. In addition to these specifics, the Equality Act would bring with it three broad, sweeping changes. First, specific conscience protections of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which have long been legal priorities, would be circumvented in cases deemed discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. Effectively, conscience rights deemed religiously-based would be tossed aside. Second, anyone who affirms the biological reality of the sexes would be, in law, relegated to the same status as the racists whose oppression of African Americans made the 1964 Civil Rights Act necessary. Finally, The Equality Act would have a dramatic impact on education, public or private. According to a new coalition called "Promise to America's Children," a coalition I'm proud to be a part of, the Equality Act greases the skids for even more graphic curricula "about sex, abortion, and politicized ideas about sexual orientation and gender identity ideology . . ." Not only that, but as federal legislation, this would affect every state, not just progressive ones, "overriding efforts by concerned parents and community members at the local level." It's not over, however. The Equality Act still faces significant obstacles in the Senate. Here are three things you can do: Contact your Representative and your Senators and let them know to oppose the Equality Act. Share widely the resources and articles on the Equality Act found at BreakPoint.org. Go to promisetoamericaschildren.org and sign the statement committing to prioritize children's rights over adult happiness. That's PromiseToAmericasChildren.org, and share the resources found there with your pastor, church, and community.
Feb 23, 2021
Several months ago, Amazon began blocking the sale of books they deemed "dangerous" to LGBTQ people. Some of these books, to be frank, were hateful and demeaning. Others were deemed hateful for simply questioning the dominant narratives about homosexuality, gay marriage, or gender dysphoria. The most recent book banned by Amazon is among the most scholarly and thoroughly researched on the issue of transgenderis m. When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment was written by Ryan Anderson, recently named president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Anderson's book, along with Abigail Shrier's Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters (which surprisingly hasn't been blocked by Amazon…yet) are the two essential reads on the topic. You can still buy both from our online bookstore at BreakPoint.org , even if you can't on Amazon. What Anderson does so well in When Harry Became Sally is to articulate how transgender ideology is advanced by misstatements and contradictions. For example, there's a dramatic disparity between what we're told about those who identify as transgender and what the research actually shows. We're told that children know if they are "born in the wrong bodies," but anywhere from 80 to 95 percent of children who question their gender identity eventually outgrow those feelings. We are told that gender transition surgery is necessary because of high suicide rates, but rather that reducing the risk among those who identify as transgendered, transition surgery may dramatically increase it. In other words, the process of learning the best way to care for those with gender dysphoria has been pre-empted by ideology, not led by evidence. In When Harry Became Sally, Anderson shares stories of people who aren't supposed to exist. "De-transitioners" are those who chose to identify and live as the opposite gender, often undergoing therapies and surgeries, only to come to regret their decision desperately. When Harry Became Sally is one of the few places to learn that there are people who realized these decisions only harmed their bodies but didn't make them happy. Through science, philosophy, and clear reason, When Harry Became Sally refutes the popular ideas of our day – that gender is a social construct, that sex isn't biological but assigned at birth, and that the only way to help those who feel "trapped" in their bodies is by altering their bodies and not their feelings. "The best biology, psychology, and philosophy all support an understanding of sex as a bodily reality, and an understanding of gender as a social manifestation of bodily sex," writes Anderson . The case is so clear, in fact, supporters of transgender ideology have to rely on coercion, power (think the Equality Act), and name-calling to end the debate and advance their cause. Enlisting corporations like Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter has proven particularly effective. Even so, too many Christians still wonder why this issue matters. Here are three reasons: First, our bodies matter. This is no trivial point of Christian theology. The opening chapters of Scripture reveal that being made in God's image means being made male and female. Jesus is revealed as the Word who became flesh and was bodily resurrected from the dead. In the New Heavens and New Earth, we will know Him by His scars . To deny the body is to deny God's created order and His self-revelation as Redeemer. Second, transgender ideology specifically teaches children they were born wrong, and that rejecting their bodies (maybe even mutilating it) is the best way forward. If we love our neighbors, especially the children in our culture, we cannot remain silent on this one. Finally, allowing transgender ideology to go unchallenged, to hijack social justice movements, and to be legislatively forced on society through the Equality Act will roll back every achievement of women's protections and rights, especially in privacy, education, and competition. Men will simply claim the rights of women. This is why so many women who identify as feminists and lesbians despise the way the transgender movement is hijacking their cause. As my friend Glenn Stanton says, transgender ideology is the new patriarchy. Pick up a copy of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment at our online bookstore. Amazon may not want you to read it, but that tells you everything you need to know about why you should.
Feb 22, 2021
Recently, a New York Times article quoted a French government official: "There's a battle to wage against an intellectual matrix from American universities.'' As the article went on to explain, "prominent [French] intellectuals have banded together against what they regard as contamination by the out-of-control woke leftism of American campuses and its attendant cancel culture." It's tempting here to channel the faux outrage of the French policeman in the movie "Casablanca." I'm shocked, shocked to learn that postmodern ideas born and bred in the rich soil of the French intelligentsia have mutated into something unsavory. Who could have predicted that divorcing truth from reality would lead to even more divisive and destructive ideas? The path from Parisian literary theorists puzzling over the power of words to the not-so-friendly neighborhood activist outraged by pronouns is pretty clear. Reacting to the overconfidence and over-promises of Modernism and the Enlightenment, French intellectuals in the mid-20th Century like Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida proposed a way of thinking that was skeptical and largely cynical. Postmodernism took observable parts of human life, particularly cultural biases and the tendency of powerful people to oppress their neighbors and built an elaborate philosophical system around them. The end result was a worldview that denied that humans could have any real access to truth. Instead, all we have is words by which we attempt to describe reality and communicate. Our words, however, are hopelessly burdened with our culturally-determined biases shaped by the powerful. Our words so shape the way we see the world, postmodernism suggested, that we really have no access to reality at all. We are all trapped in our perspectives. The spectrum of postmodern thought vacillated between an uncertainty of knowledge to a focus on power. Describing this way of thinking, Angela Franks recently described in First Things , "we are not controlled by a puppet master. Rather, we live in a vast network of demands, commandments, inducements, sorting mechanisms, disciplines, and more. 'Power' has no center. It is the aggregate of multiple, shifting relationships." Other than much of the popular music of the 1990s (from Kurt Cobain to Eminem), postmodernism remained largely a scholar's game. Professors and students might tut-tut about there being nothing outside the text but, for ideas to escape the academy for the real world, humans need more than abstractions. It was the evolution of Critical Theory that gave the fundamental assumptions of postmodernism flesh. As Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay describe in their book, Cynical Theories , what began as a new way to interpret texts mutated into a quest "to reconstruct society in the image of an ideology." Proponents of Critical Theory are as adamantly against the powerful imposing their views on the oppressed as any postmodernist was. However, with a moralistic streak, they've added the demand that all views must be conformed to theirs, and they will use their newly acquired cultural power to punish anyone who fails to comply. What we're left with are directionless, insatiable demands to combat injustice and oppression but without any means to say one moral claim is better than another. Attempts to find or forge common ground between people or communities are cynically seen as a quest for power and oppression. In the end, as fun as it is to tease our friends in France about the ideas that were birthed on their shores, they are right about the dangers of Critical Theory, especially to those core French ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity and their hope in the universal rights of a universal humanity . Of course, like postmodernism and Critical Theory, Christianity also objects to failed promises of the Enlightenment and Modernism. Christianity, however, is hopeful, not cynical. Rather than reducing life to a constant battle for status and power, Christianity offers the only historically solid ground for unity or progress. In the imago Dei, Christianity tethers universal human dignity and justice. In the doctrine of the Fall, we make sense of power and oppression. Within the framework of redemption, we have hope for a life propelled by love, not universal, unending, unwinnable competition. This framework tasks Christ-followers to work for justice but to be driven by mercy. We are called to love our neighbor, not see them as the hated "other." In other words, the Christian ethic provides the passion and foundation for a better humanity and a more just world, which postmodernism and its offspring sought, but could never find.
Feb 19, 2021
For more than a decade, LGBTQ advocates have sought to force Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips to decorate cakes with messages that violate his Christian faith. This despite his victory at the Supreme Court, this despite the Colorado Civil Rights Commission being forced to end the persecution. Jack is back in court again, this time defending himself from a lawsuit initiated by transgender attorney, who, as John Stonestreet explains passionately, is waging a vendetta against Jack Phillips. Also in this episode: John and Shane Morris discuss the ramifications and lessons learned from the revelations regarding the late Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias; the remarkable legacy of Rush Limbaugh, who passed this week; South Carolina's new heartbeat bill to protect the lives of the unborn--and just how ridiculous abortion advocates look when they insist on stopping a beating heart. They wrap up the show with their recommendations: Miracles by C. S. Lewis, and . . . the next time you're in Florida . . . The Kennedy Space Center. ------Resources------ Register for our Short Course with Thaddeus Williams, author of Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth "Jack Philips's Legal Battle Continues," by John Stonestreet, BreakPoint Support Jack Phillips "The Infinite Human Capacity to Deceive Ourselves and Then Rationalize It," by John Stonestreet, BreakPoint Miracles , by C. S. Lewis, available in the Colson Center online bookstore Visit the Kennedy Space Center
Feb 19, 2021
For more than a decade, LGBTQ advocates have sought to force Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips to decorate cakes with messages that violate his Christian faith. This despite his victory at the Supreme Court, this despite the Colorado Civil Rights Commission being forced to end the persecution. Jack is back in court again, this time defending himself from a lawsuit initiated by transgender attorney, who, as John Stonestreet explains passionately, is waging a vendetta against Jack Phillips. Also in this episode: John and Shane Morris discuss the ramifications and lessons learned from the revelations regarding the late Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias; the remarkable legacy of Rush Limbaugh, who passed this week; South Carolina's new heartbeat bill to protect the lives of the unborn--and just how ridiculous abortion advocates look when they insist on stopping a beating heart. They wrap up the show with their recommendations: Miracles by C. S. Lewis, and . . . the next time you're in Florida . . . The Kennedy Space Center. ------Resources------ Register for our Short Course with Thaddeus Williams, author of Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth "Jack Philips's Legal Battle Continues," by John Stonestreet, BreakPoint Support Jack Phillips "The Infinite Human Capacity to Deceive Ourselves and Then Rationalize It," by John Stonestreet, BreakPoint Miracles , by C. S. Lewis, available in the Colson Center online bookstore Visit the Kennedy Space Center
Feb 19, 2021
In 2015, Drag Queen Story Hour launched in San Francisco. Exactly what it sounds like - men dressed as women (often provocatively) reading stories (often provocatively) to young kids in schools or public libraries - the organization now operates across the country. "Dressing in drag" almost always involves exaggerated makeup, exaggerated hair, and gaudy, sexually suggestive clothing. One goal of Drag Queen Story Hour, according to its website , is to celebrate "people who defy rigid gender restrictions." It's a strange claim for a group that relies so heavily on exaggerated stereotypes of femininity. Instead of "defying rigid gender restrictions," their "performances" portray their small, shriveled imagination of what it is to be a woman. The larger transgender movement also relies almost completely on this kind of stereotyping. The feminist movement spent decades trying to dismantle stereotypical tropes such as "girls like pink and play with dolls" and "boys like sports and red meat," and yet, here we are telling boys who like pink or girls who like baseball they were born in the wrong bodies, on no other evidence but those same stereotypes. Christianity offers a far better message about who we are as male and female. To share it effectively, we'll need a strategy that goes beyond merely protecting religious liberty, as important as that is. To be clear, we must do that hard work of preserving conscience protections for individuals and institutions who do not capitulate to the demands of the transgender movement. At the same time, as more and more young people ( especially middle school girls) suddenly claim to be the opposite gender, we have to do more than just say "no." We have to elevate God's good design. We have to articulate what it is to be a woman and not a man; or a man and not a woman. Unfortunately, with many exceptions, the Church hasn't always done a great job of this. In fact, the Church often resorts to stereotypes, too, though usually in a more positive direction and with better intentions. Still, in our zeal to resist harmful teachings on gender so prevalent in our culture for so long, we have often failed to understand why God would make men and women and make them so different. Instead, we have reduced the answers to these incredibly important questions to culturally contingent things such as "gender roles" or, even worse, gender-based restrictions, without careful theological reflection on God's design. It makes sense. After all, lists are easier to grasp a list than sacred mysteries, and the concept of "roles" isn't a bad one. Roles and lists are attempts to flesh out the implications of design within certain contexts. Some roles will never change. For example, only women will ever be mothers, and only men will ever be fathers. Other roles do change as cultural norms change. The biblical vision of male and female is beautiful. Men and women were made differently but point to the same dynamic God. When God created both Adam and Eve, He said they both were created in His Image and were "very good." It's notable that before the author of Genesis reveals Eve's name, he reveals she also was made in the image of God. According to theologian Dietrich von Hildebrand, the point of our gendered design is "to be transformed into Christ , to become holy and glorify God, and to reach eternal communion with God… [t]he specific tone of masculinity and femininity must appear by itself." The experience of living as men and women in the world will be varied, though there are certainly uncrossable boundaries. Our best expressions of our gender are demonstrated not by conforming to stereotypes, but by conforming to Christ in the unique ways men and women are each called. The men and women that appear throughout the Scriptures are not portrayed as epitomized versions of their gender. Rather, they reveal the glory and powe r of God, which is, Paul says, made perfect in our weakness. Women can't be men, and men can't be women. That may not sound like good news to someone suffering with gender dysphoria, but it is. Both men and women, in their differences, point in unique ways to Jesus. Across these differences, both men and women must carry crosses in order to follow Him. That maleness and femaleness are gifts, and not constraints, is very good news in an increasingly gender-hostile world.
Feb 18, 2021
On June 4, 2018, it looked like Jack Phillips's long legal nightmare was finally over. The Supreme Court had ruled in his favor in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, verbally smacking down the Colorado Civil Rights Commission for attempting to coerce him into using his artistic skills to endorse a message and slandering his religious views in the process. Finally, after several years of fighting, Jack could return to his business and his artistry without compromising his faith. Or so he thought. On the very day that the Supreme Court agreed to hear his case, June 26, 2017, local Denver attorney Autumn Scardina called Jack and asked him to create a pink and blue cake celebrating his "gender transition." Phillips's staff replied that his religious beliefs precluded him from creating a cake to express that message. That account was, by the way, Scardina's as well—at least at first. Scardina then filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission alleging discrimination on the basis of gender identity. The Commission, even after the Supreme Court decision, found probable cause to proceed with this new accusation. In response, Jack filed a federal lawsuit against the Commission, alleging that it was carrying out a vendetta against him. In March 2019, Colorado officials announced that Scardina's case before the Commission had been dismissed with prejudice. Finally, end of story, right? No. Scardina responded by filing a private lawsuit alleging Phillips had violated Colorado's anti-discrimination laws. Scardina's personal vendetta to get Jack faces two significant obstacles. First, his original complaint with the Commission was dismissed with prejudice. In other words, Scardina has had his day in court. Second, Scardina has told different versions of the events of June 2017. Initially, Scardina admitted that Jack had, because of his religious beliefs, declined the request to create a custom pink and blue cake in order to celebrate a gender transition. In the private suit, Scardina changed stories, suggesting that Jack turned down a request for a simple pink and blue cake only after learning that Scardina identified as transgender. And, with that changed story, Scardina also accused Jack of violating Colorado's consumer protection laws with false advertising. Though no one would consider news articles and a fundraising site for a Supreme Court case "advertising," Scardina pointed to them, and Jack's claim that he chooses to create cakes based on the message they convey, not the sexual orientation or gender identity of the customer. Even if Jack's statements are stretched and called "advertising," they still are not, as the Alliance Defending Freedom pointed out, a "promise to create every cake requested of him, no matter the cake's message." Scardina's claims are farcical, but the judge refused to completely dismiss the case. Instead, he permitted Scardina to file an amended complaint--twice. In the second amended complaint Scardina claims to have requested the cake out of pity for Jack, after hearing how much business Masterpiece Cakeshop had lost. Jack's lawyers at ADF are opposing this motion. At this point, Jack Phillip's latest trial is scheduled to begin in March. The stakes are enormous. If Scardina prevails on the consumer protection claim, Jack could potentially have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyer's fees, which would put him out of business for good. Jack's legal battles have gone on for nearly a decade. He lost his wedding cake business, and tens of thousands of dollars in time and lost revenue. The Alliance Defending Freedom has been with him every step of the way , but he needs our support as well. After all, he is fighting a battle for our freedom as well. Please pray for a successful outcome in this trial. Pray for Jack's strength and courage. Pray that Scardina will have a change of heart and will just leave Jack alone. Also consider supporting Jack financially. If you are able to purchase goods and services from him directly, I can assure you he hasn't lost his touch. There's also a page where you can donate to support him .
Feb 17, 2021
John and Shane field questions from listeners. Today they give an encompassing explanation to how we define inspiration in the Biblical canon. They identify cultural trends that steer the question and provide strong traditional explanation that provides structure in thinking well on the issue of authenticity and accuracy in the Biblical canon. Shane then engages a question on definitions for the Christian family. The questioner seeks to understand a line or border that defines a liberal or conservative way of thinking that might be outside the framework of Scripture and thus place a person or way of thinking in futility and outside the kingdom.
Feb 17, 2021
Sunday marked the 203rd birthday of a monumentally important figure in American history, a man who truly understood what it means that every human being is made in the image of God. Frederick Douglass was a former slave, abolitionist, supporter of women's suffrage, orator, writer, adviser to Presidents, and diplomat. All of this is well known, but one of the most misunderstood elements of his life story was his deep and abiding Christian faith. Born in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1818, Douglass' mother was a slave. His father may have been her owner. Douglass was sent to work in the Baltimore home of Hugh Auld. Auld's wife violated both the law and her husband's instructions by Douglass him to read. When Douglass was later hired out to a man named William Freeland, he began teaching other slaves to read. Specifically, he taught them to the New Testament at the weekly church service. Freeland himself didn't object, but other slave owners did and forcibly broke up the church. After two attempts to escape, Douglass finally succeeded with the help of Anna Murray, a free black woman from Baltimore. Disguised as a sailor, he made his way to New York. In 1838, he and Murray were married, and the couple settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where they adopted the name Douglass. Douglass attended the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and in 1839 became a licensed preacher. He was also a steward, sexton, and Sunday school superintendent. Douglass joined a number of anti-slavery societies and began subscribing to William Lloyd Garrison's journal "The Liberator." His eloquence and powerful personal story made him a popular speaker at abolition rallies. Not all of them ended well. In Pendleton, Indiana, his hand was broken when a mob attacked him. Rescued by a Quaker family, his hand was improperly set and bothered him for the rest of his life. In 1845, Douglass published his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave . The book was so eloquent that some wouldn't accept that it could have been written by a black man. It became an immediate bestseller and was published in America and in Europe. To avoid being arrested and sent back to the Aulds as a runaway, Douglass spent two years in Britain and Ireland, giving lectures to packed houses and meetings. There, he met Thomas Clarkson, one of the original British abolitionists. Although Douglass was a strong advocate for Irish Home Rule, the British were so impressed with Douglass that they raised the money to purchase his freedom from the Aulds, enabling him to return to America safely. Back in the U.S., he began publishing "The North Star," his first abolitionist paper. Its motto was "Right is of no Sex—Truth is of no Color—God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren." During the Civil War he advised President Lincoln on the treatment of black Union Soldiers and later discussed black suffrage with Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson. From 1889-1891, Douglas served as Minister-in-Residence and Consul General to Haiti. Douglass also sought to reconcile with the Auld family, meeting with Thomas Auld himself—an act in keeping with his Christian convictions. Frederick and Anna had five children. In February 1895, Douglass died of a massive stroke or heart attack. He was buried in Rochester, New York. Douglass was a deeply committed Christian, yet (or perhaps better put, so) he was highly critical of the shallow "Christianity" he saw in America, particularly in the South. Even though skeptics have used these criticisms to paint Douglass as an atheist, he set the record straight in the Appendix of the Narrative : "What I have said respecting and against religion," he wrote, "I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper…. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land." Frederick Douglass's life was a marvelous fusion of biblical teaching, conversion, personal piety, and social action. His life and work had a profound impact on the United States and beyond, and was shaped by his conviction that we are all made in the image of God. For a fuller account of Douglass's amazing life, come to BreakPoint.org to read Dr. Glenn Sunshine's article on him as part of his series "Christians Who Changed Their World."
Feb 16, 2021
Last month, after more than ten years in hiding, Lisa Miller surrendered herself to American authorities at the U. S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua. Miller, now in custody at the federal detention center in Miami, faces kidnapping and conspiracy charges. She'll likely be found guilty but, in reality, she's a victim of bad ideas. A mom, attempting to protect her daughter from her own bad choices and our society's attempt to redefine marriage, parenting, and the family. The legal case is as complicated as the story behind it. In 2000, Miller and her partner Janet Jenkins moved from Virginia to Vermont to take advantage of Vermont's civil union law . Two years later, Miller bore a child, Isabella, conceived through artificial insemination. A year later, in 2003, Miller and Jenkins separated. Miller then moved back to Virginia with her daughter, who was only 17-months old. In 2004, Miller and Jenkins asked the Vermont Family Court to legally dissolve their civil union. The court agreed and awarded Miller primary custody. However, in an unprecedented move, the court awarded visitation rights to Jenkins. To that point, though she had agreed to pay child support, Jenkins had no legally recognized parental relationship with Isabella. She had only lived with Isabella during the first year of the child's life, but the court treated Jenkins as if she were a biological or adoptive parent. It's difficult to image a court doing this, for example, in the case of an unrelated live-in boyfriend. Later that year, a Virginia court ruled that Miller was Isabella's sole legal parent. However, Jenkins appealed, arguing that the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act required Virginia to honor the Vermont court's ruling. Also at play was the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a federal statute designed to prevent states from being forced to recognize the civil unions of other states. Despite all this, in the end, the Virginia Supreme Court sided with Jenkins. By this time, Miller had become a Christian. Not wanting her daughter exposed to the lesbian lifestyle of her former partner, Miller defied the order of the Vermont court and denied Jenkins visitation. In response, Vermont awarded Jenkins primary custody of Isabella. In 2009, Miller fled the United States with Isabella who was, by then, seven years old. With the help of a Mennonite pastor, they first crossed the border into Canada and then made their way to Nicaragua, where they have lived since fleeing the U.S. Now that Isabella is 18 years old, the court's custody order no longer applies. The parental kidnapping charges, on the other hand, do still apply to Miller. Before turning herself in, her final appeal was to the Trump administration for a pardon, which the President did not grant. As she must have known in surrendering herself to the U.S. embassy, mercy from the state of Vermont is highly unlikely. In a very real sense, this is a story about consequences. Miller is still dealing with the consequences of entering a relationship that was by definition sterile and then demanding a child. She's also facing the cost of repenting and following Christ, something our Lord tells us to "count" before following Him. She's facing the consequences of her commitment to protect her daughter from the damage of her previous lifestyle. Out of legal options, she chose to disobey the state as long as necessary in order to protect her daughter, but she's also accepting the consequences of her disobedience. For Christians in the days ahead, Miller's story, especially her choices and their consequences, offer incredibly important lessons. At the same time, Miller is facing consequences of a culture, especially as it is reflected in decisions made by our courts and the legislature, legalizing same-sex unions and sacrifice the well-being of children on the altars of adult desires. No real thought was given to the impact these irregular unions would have on children, never mind what could happen to kids after these unions dissolve. Custody fights are always nasty, even when there is a biological connection! Only when same-sex unions are involved do we pretend as if a biological connection is irrelevant. As I often say, ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims. It's hard to think to think of a better example than the tragic case of Lisa and Isabella Miller. Please pray for the Millers.
Feb 15, 2021
Trevin Wax shared about Proverbs 16:16, encouraging those in the Time of Guided Prayer to get wisdom. Trevin K. Wax is the Bible and Reference Publisher for LifeWay Christian Resources. A former missionary to Romania, Trevin hosts a blog at The Gospel Coalition and regularly contributes to the Washington Post, Religion News Service, World and Christianity Today, which named him one of 33 millennials shaping the next generation of evangelicals. His books include Eschatological Discipleship, This Is Our Time, and Gospel-Centered Teaching among other published works. He and his wife, Corina, have three Children.
Feb 15, 2021
Two days before Christmas, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries confirmed that its founder had engaged in sexual misconduct over the course of many years and promised further information when the investigation into the matter was complete. Late Thursday afternoon, RZIM released the full report as they had received it, along with an extended, contrite statement of apology. Ravi was a significant personal influence and a great friend of the Colson Center. When Ravi died in May of last year, we honored him. At the time, both Ravi and RZIM leadership claimed that allegations of an inappropriate relationship had been dismissed and disproven after a thorough investigation. We trusted the information provided to us. We were wrong. I both believed and shared excuses that explained Ravi's behavior. By doing that, I was wrong and misled others. To be clear, no one at the Colson Center had any sense just how much would be revealed in this final report. But I wish I had not been so quick to trust what I wanted to be true. There is no sugar-coating, excusing, or explaining away Ravi's behavior. It was sinful. It was wicked. And, as this report made crystal clear, it was duplicitous. Reading through it, I couldn't shake the words I heard time and time again from Chuck Colson: "There is no limit to the human capacity for self-rationalization." That's why Proverbs uses the word "folly" to describe sin. As a mentor of mine used to say, sin makes us dumb. Buried in sin, we become fools, actually convincing ourselves that, for the first time in human history, we will be the ones to get away with it. As sin takes us deeper than we ever imagined possible, others are dragged along into our self-deception. Sin always leaves other victims, human beings made in the image of God and for whom Christ died. The number of women Ravi abused, and the degree to which he deceived them, is breath-taking. RZIM has committed to make restitution and care for these women. I hope and pray they will. And there are other victims to remember: family members, friends, and the many disillusioned others around the world. Recently, a BreakPoint listener emailed us asking how we should respond to cases like this, when a Christian leader or teacher is caught in sexual misconduct. Is it possible to separate the good that they've done and the truth they've taught, the person and their sin? And, what about in cases such as this, when the perpetrator is gone and has no further opportunity to acknowledge his sins, repent, and seek forgiveness? We need not deny that Ravi's teaching helped many Christians make sense of the Faith, deal with their doubts, and engage other people with the Gospel, in order to acknowledge the depth of his depraved behavior. As my colleague Shane Morris pointed out a few weeks ago, no one is "made of finer clay" than anyone else. As St. Paul wrote, "There is none righteous, no not one." It's also important to remember, to borrow a phrase popularized by Christian educator Arthur Holmes , "all truth is God's truth." In other words, if Ravi Zacharias ever said anything true in his life, and of course he did, he was not its source but only its medium. Any truth – all truth – comes ultimately from God, outside of time or place or context. Even if delivered by the most sinful voices, truth is as eternal and unchanging as God Himself. A postmodern worldview, in contrast, relativizes truth to cultural settings or individuals. In other words, truth is not absolute. But, if truth is dependent on the shifting sands of attitudes, beliefs, perceptions of a culture or an individual, anything we build on it must collapse when any of those things do. Of course, knowing that doesn't make what's happened any less painful, disorienting, or consequential, especially for all those women involved. Having talent, even amazing talent, to communicate does not give one a divine right or inherent privilege (and it is an incredible privilege) to have or to keep a public platform. Scripture is clear: teachers are stewards of the truth, and therefore held to a higher standard. This is not the same thing as cancel culture, which is so popular in our time. Cancel culture cancels people because of their different beliefs. This is about behavior; this is about reprehensible behavior that deeply harmed other people. Finally, let this be a reminder to not trust ourselves, but only God and His Spirit. Pray for your pastor, church leaders, spouse, and whomever else God has put in your life. We need His protection from the real and ever-present temptations, as well as from our own capacity to deceive ourselves and then rationalize our behavior.
Feb 12, 2021
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer note that the focus of the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump is centering on the power of words: What did then-President Trump say, and did his words incite violence? Also in this episode: Did cancel culture strike again in the case of now-former Mandalorian star Gina Carano? And for all you philosophy and worldview fans, John discusses the ironic alarm in France (the home of prominent post-modern philosophers) over the "threat" of American wokeness. They wrap up the show with their recommendations for Lent.
Feb 12, 2021
In Mere Christianity , C.S. Lewis warned about the high stakes of overindulging our sexual desires. If men indulged their sexual appetites every time they were inclined, he said, and if each act produced a baby, one man could easily populate a small village. Seventy years after Mere Christianity was published, one Dutch man is fulfilling that prophecy. In an investigative piece published last week, The New York Times uncovered that Jonathan Jacob Meijer has fathered hundreds of children through sperm donation. Most of his children were born in the Netherlands; but Meijer also donated in several other countries, including the U.S. Sometimes he donated at clinics; sometimes he met customers on private websites and handed over vials of his sperm in person. The Times ' take is obvious: Meijer is the bad guy of this story. The report tells the plight of a handful of his female "customers" who are now scrambling to find their children's half-siblings. The women are furious. "It's disgusting and I want it to stop," one woman told the Times . Her revulsion is easy to understand. But her moral outrage, frankly, isn't. She wanted sperm from a stranger with whom she had no intention of raising the child. She got the sperm, and she got the child she desired. Is she suggesting that she should be able to purchase part of that man's body but no one else should be able to? Of course, it's horrifying that one man has fathered this many children he has no relational connection to. And the genetic consequences alone could be catastrophic. But this man is simply taking advantage of a system that was set up precisely toward those ends . Sperm donation is notoriously unregulated. Here in the U.S., there are almost no laws governing the industry; only recommendations from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine . One of those is that clinics shouldn't allow one sperm donor to father more than 25 children . Setting aside that crazy number, clinics have no way to actually keep track. Women aren't required to report births, and clinics don't know whether sperm donors are also giving at other clinics. It's pure fantasy to think we know how many children are born of each donor. By the sperm donation industry's own measures, Jonathan Jacob Meijer is a success story . Here's a man whose sperm was popular, and therefore the whole process was lucrative. He said the right things. According to one customer, he claimed to just want to "help women make their biggest wish come true." The New York Times may try to portray Meijer's story like a freak show but make no mistake: this freak show is the industry's best-case scenario . When a system is built with no moral norms, when the lies that children and marriage have nothing to do with each other and children don't have a right to both their mom and their dad are baked into an industry , when men (and in the case of surrogacy) women are shopped like products; we can't turn around and play horrified when the results make us feel weird. In fact, it's disingenuous to portray these women, as The Times article did, as having no moral responsibility in this situation they helped create. In this culture, all morality having to do with sex and procreation has been stripped down to some flimsy notion of "consent." But, when something goes wrong, as it has here, we suddenly pretend women were the victims, with no agency whatsoever. One woman in the Times article said she only learned after her first child that Meijer had possibly fathered hundreds of other children. She still used his sperm a second time, because, she said, she wanted her kids to be full siblings. Sperm donation intentionally creates fatherless children, treating both men and children as products to serve adult happiness. That the women in this story are outraged in understandable, but they're outrage is actually a demand for something they deliberately forfeited when they turned to sperm donation: exclusivity. That's what marriage provides. Our felt desire for children is God-given and it is good . Believing we are entitled to children, especially outside of the God's brilliant and good designed, is a perversion. There are no "good guys" in a system built on a lie, despite what the Times article portrays, but there are victims. No amount of moral outrage or even regulation can fix an industry like this. Sperm donation should be categorically prohibited. Until then, it will, as always, be the children who suffer the most.
Feb 11, 2021
Francis Schaeffer described how ideas escape the ivory towers of universities and think tanks eventually to shape how ordinary people think, speak, and view their world. This past year, one idea made that journey in record time. Not that long ago, conversations involving Critical Race Theory were largely relegated to academic papers, classroom discussions, and scholarly journal articles. Today, dialogues about CRT can be found across social media, in corporate boardrooms, and even in the Church. As a theory, CRT descends from European and North American philosophical traditions, particularly Marxism and Postmodernism . Like these worldviews of its intellectual ancestry, CRT sees the world in terms of power dynamics. In this way of thinking, social evils such as poverty, crime, or oppression result not from universal human frailties but from Euro-Americans intent on securing and increasing their economic and social power . Based on this metanarrative, equality and justice demand privileging the stories of those kept out of power . CRT sees members of the oppressed group as morally right, and members of the oppressor group as morally wrong. CRT, like any worldview framework, should be evaluated. That, however, is easier said than done, even in the Church. Advocates often point to common ground between Critical Race Theory and the Christian worldview (for example, the commitment to justice and human dignity), and label any critiques of CRT as convenient ways to avoid confronting injustice and racism (which may not be true, but often is). Many Christian critics, myself included, are specifically concerned with how CRT conflicts with a Christian worldview, particularly in areas of identity and morality. Not everyone agrees. Recently on Twitter, a defender of CRT boldly tweeted , "Whoever told you CRT is a worldview was either lying to you or didn't know what they were talking about." Of course, assuming malice or greed is a way of dodging the question rather than making an argument. Another Twitt erer offered a different response, "If CRT is bad because it's a 'secular worldview' and we must only derive our worldviews 'biblically' then I better not see a TRACE of Aristotle or Plato in your worldview either, brother." This one is a slightly more clever way of missing the point or, specifically misunderstanding what it means for a worldview to be "biblical." To have a Christian worldview is to hold views that are consistent with the Bible, not only to have views that are in the Bible. The problem with Critical Race Theory is not that it isn't found in the Bible; it's that it offers a very different explanation of humanity, sin, and redemption than the Bible does. Simply speaking, like the postmodernism that birthed it, Critical Race Theory can be considered a worldview. It does more than just offer a handful of specific ideas about race and society; CRT offers a complete framework of beliefs, a universalizing story of the world . CRT describes who we are, what's wrong with the world, and prescribes how to fix it and what "better" would be. In other words, like Christianity, CRT answers the basic questions any worldview does. Except, the answers CRT provides are very different than those Christianity offers, even if both worldviews recognize the world is broken by evils such as racism and injustice. Critical Race Theory has critical errors . By simplistically reducing evil to power dynamics and external social realities, CRT denies moral agency and the redemptive potential of entire groups of people because of their racial identity. At the same time, those who oppose Critical Theory must do more than simply write off all its concerns. Like Marxism, Critical Theory is something of a Christian heresy, taking the Christian themes of human dignity and justice and a world remade, and re-orienting these causes under new management. Most pertinently, CRT is slipping into the space where the Church belongs but is too often absent. If we don't want unbiblical explanations of life and justice sweeping through the Church or culture, we'd better make sure we communicate and embrace the full ramifications of Christian truth for society, and then act justly and love mercy. If we rob our Faith of its social implications, we are no longer talking about Christianity, and such a personalized, privatized moral system may make me feel better, but it will never stand up to the rival worldviews of our day. Over the next four Tuesday nights, The Colson Center is hosting an online course taught by Dr. Thadeus Williams, on his book, Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth. This is the book I've been waiting for, the book that carefully and biblically walks through a Christian view of justice. Dr. Williams carefully explains not only why theories like CRT aren't true, but what the Bible asks of Christ's followers when it comes to justice. Space is limited. Register today at breakpoint.org/Williams. Because, the best antidote for the failings of Critical Theory and its inadequate worldview is for the Church to understand and live consistently with the Bible.
Feb 10, 2021
Michael Craven joins the BreakPoint Podcast to bring a few questions from the Colson Fellows. The Colson Fellows is a 10 month worldview training program that equips participants with analytical tools to understand and lead in culture. Today, John and Michael answer a heartfelt question where one listener seeks understanding on how she can know she's really worshipping God. John and Michael provide definition inside our current culture context to give footing for confidence in worship that rests in the finished work of Christ and invites followers to participate in praise-giving acts. A timely questions from a Colson Fellow asked how Christians should respond to conspiracy theories. John and Michael give perspective, highlighting that it is a challenge to understand which way is up in the current culture climate. In answering this and another question related to how we should spend our time as believers in Jesus, John points listeners to consider the practices of living a quiet and committed life.
Feb 10, 2021
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small village in south-central France. Back in 1940, the total population of this area, including the surrounding villages was only about 5,000. Sill, under the leadership of their Protestant pastor André Trocmé and his wife Magda, the residents of these villages were responsible for saving up to 5,000 Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps during World War II. In late January, Eric Schwam, a survivor, passed away at age 90. According to a BBC article, Schwam, a native of Vienna, arrived in Le Chambon in 1943, a refugee along with his mother, father, and grandfather. Schwam survived the war, and eventually returned to Austria to live a quiet life. However, he never forgot the people of Le Chambon. In fact, he left the town more than $2 million in a bequest. As Dr. Glenn Sunshine described in a BreakPoint article from a few years ago , in the winter of 1940, after the defeat of France, a Jewish woman fleeing the Nazis knocked at the Trocmé's door, seeking help. Magda attempted to secure false papers for her, but the mayor refused to help. He feared that if the Germans found out anyone in Le Chambon was helping Jews, the entire village would suffer. This did not dissuade Magda and André. In fact, according to Sunshine, "Pastor Trocmé began to exhort his congregation to shelter any 'People of the Book' that were fleeing Nazi persecution, telling them, 'We shall resist whenever our adversaries demand of us obedience contrary to the orders of the gospel.'" The members of his church responded, volunteering to hide Jews. When more Jews arrived in Le Chambon, André would announce the arrival of "Old Testaments" and ask if any in his congregation would be willing to take them. There was never a lack of volunteers. Eventually, the townspeople created an underground network to help Jews travel safely across the Swiss border. Local officials caught on and tipped off the Germans. They searched Le Chambon but found nothing. Finally, the officials demanded that Trocmé stop any and all activities that provided help for the Jews. His response was blunt. "These people came here for help and shelter. I am their shepherd. A shepherd does not forsake his flock. I do not know what a Jew is. I only know human beings." Eventually, André was arrested and sent to a detention camp. He was released after ten days and spent the rest of the war underground. Le Chambon's rescue operation continued, even without him. What the people of Le Chambon did was, as Dr. Sunshine called it, "a conspiracy of goodness." An untold number of lives were saved by their courageous actions. In fact, not a single Jew was caught in Le Chambon during the entire war. Why did these French Christians risk so much? In a post-war documentary, one villager said, "We didn't protect the Jews because we were a moral or heroic people. We helped them because it was the human thing to do." But of course, we have to ask ourselves, why did so many others refuse to help? André Trocmé died in 1971. His wife Magda died in 1996. Both were named as Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Memorial Authority in Jerusalem. A final, fascinating element of this story is that the residents of Le Chambon were descendants of French Protestants known as Huguenots, who were themselves victims of savage persecution at the hands of the French Catholic monarchy during the 16th and 17th centuries. A method of survival used back then played a major role in the 20th century work to protect Jews. Dr. Sunshine describes it this way: In the area around Le Chambon, the Huguenots made secret rooms similar to the priest holes in England, and secret paths through the mountains to Switzerland to smuggle pastors and Bibles into France. Even after Protestantism was legalized, the people of the area kept the locations of these rooms and paths secret since they never knew when they would need them again. Providentially still available, the rooms and paths were put back into service to save the Jews from the Nazis. Dr. Sunshine's entire article, part of his ongoing series "Christians Who Changed the World" is available at breakpoint.org.
Feb 9, 2021
A colleague of mine, while looking for Civil War artifacts near his home, once found a brass button from a Union Army uniform. What made his discovery even more amazing was the bright blue jacket thread still attached to the button, even after 150 years. That's pretty impressive. What about finding threads dating back 3,000 years? But imagine these are not connected with an event everyone believes happened, like the Civil War, but with events secular scholars often doubt. Even better! That's the latest chapter in the ever-growing saga of "Super Cool Discoveries from Israel." Recently, researchers in Israel's Timna Valley, while exploring a copper smelting camp site at a place known as "Slaves' Hill," unexpectedly found "three pristine fabric samples dyed true purple." The color is commonly called "royal purple" because it was worn almost exclusivity by royalty. The researchers were surprised, and not only because they were looking for metal and not fabric. Though, previous to this, no textiles predating the Romans had ever been found in the region, radiocarbon dating suggests that these fibers could be "tightly dated" to the late 11th and early 10th centuries before Christ, placing it during the reigns of David and Solomon. Making this story even more significant, is that further tests indicate that the dye from these textile samples were produced from a particular Mediterranean mollusk known as a murex. In the ancient world, dye made from this mollusk , because it came from "hundreds of miles away in the Mediterranean [around Italy] and was extremely valuable," was the kind used to produce royal purple. Just finding 3000-year-old purple-dyed textiles would be the discovery of a lifetime for most archeologists, or at least "very exciting and important," as Naama Sukenik of the Israel Antiquities Authority put it. But the date of this find and its "mollusk connection," point to the existence of the United Monarchy described in the Bible. These ancient fabrics are evidence that the sophisticated and hierarchical society described in the Old Testament actually existed, a society wealthy enough to import luxuries from the other side of the Mediterranean. Or, as the online magazine Inverse put it, the findings could be evidence that "the United Monarchy in Jerusalem is not necessarily just 'literary fiction.'" Keep in mind that, until recently, many scholars remained unconvinced that figures like David and Solomon even existed. However, archeological finds over the past three decades have all but rendered that position untenable . Even so, prominent scholars continue to insist that many of the Old Testament stories, from books such as Samuel or Kings, are embellished tales, similar to the nationalized propaganda found in Greek and Indian epics. Sure, there may have been a "David" and a "Solomon," these scholars concede, but they were more Iron Age tribal chieftains than rulers of the kind of expansive and elaborate state described in the Bible. However, neither the dye used in these fabrics unearthed in the Timna Valley, nor the ancient, sophisticated copper production operation where they were found, suggests just "local tribal chieftains." A few more discoveries like this one from the Timna Valley will render these skeptical views as untenable as doubting David's existence. In fact, other discoveries in the area, like a 3,000 year old house, also support the Biblical account of how advanced the United Monarchy was, as opposed to the impoverished imaginations of the skeptics. The pace at which archeological findings from Israel are now coming in and the picture they paint of that part of the ancient world is stunning but also familiar to anyone who has read the biblical text. On the other hand, those who insist that the biblical accounts are "literary fiction" are increasingly being forced to rethink their own stories.
Feb 8, 2021
Social Justice is making claims that are turning America's streets into war zones. Some of these claims refer to a "color blind upbringing", where an individual raised in a community predominantly homogenous in ethnicity is an example of "white privilege" and therefore a form of racism. Thaddeus Williams has written an important book, "Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth". Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor of Theology at Biola University. Dr. Williams loves enlarging students' understanding and enjoyment of God while teaching Theology 1 and 2 courses at Biola University. He also teaches History of Atheism, Introduction to Philosophy, and Biblical Literature in the secular college context. He has taught theology internationally, including seminaries in Nepal and Francis Schaeffer's L'Abri ministries in Switzerland and Holland. Dr. Williams is a frequent guest speaker at churches and conferences, in addition to serving as a teaching pastor at a local church. His academic works include Love, Freedom, and Evil (Rodopi, 2011), used in seminaries around the world and currently being translated to German, and his recent popular publication, The Exchange (AIMBooks, 2012). His research interests include the Trinity, divine and human agency, dialogue with atheists and theology of culture.
Feb 8, 2021
One of the more memorable lines written by C. S. Lewis has to do with whether or not a sense of morality is innate to human beings. "Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him, he will be complaining, 'It's not fair' before you can say Jack Robinson." Our culture in particular is full of demands for justice, of all kinds: social justice, economic justice, LGBTQ justice, environmental justice, racial justice, even "reproductive justice." At the same time, it's not always clear what is meant by justice. Too often, demands for justice are undergirded by radical views about right and wrong, about fairness, about the human person, and—thanks to the wide application of critical theory —about power dynamics. Demands for justice may be getting louder and louder, but that doesn't mean we are making progress as a society. The only worldview framework solid enough to ground human dignity and justice in human history is Christianity. True justice is a matter of honoring God and honoring the image of God inherent in every human person, and is grounded in God's love for humanity, our love of God, and our love of neighbor. Too many Christians, concerned by words like "justice" and "social justice" being wrongly used, have abandoned them altogether. I've heard from many of them, and, while I share the concern about the wrong worldviews being smuggled into the Church and culture through these words, we must not abandon ideas that belong to God. "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God," wrote the prophet Micah . In Matthew 7:12, Jesus said, "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. " Starting next Tuesday, I will be hosting a four-week short course, taught by Dr. Thaddeus Williams, assistant professor at the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University and the author of an outstanding new book, Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth. If you've struggled with what it means to follow our Lord Jesus as a champion of what is true and good, without embracing or advancing the bad ideas of "wokeness" and critical theory, join us for this short course. In his book, Williams writes, "The problem is not with the quest for social justice. The problem is what happens when that quest is undertaken from a framework that is not compatible with the Bible. Today many Christians accept conclusions that are generated from madness machines that are wired with very different presuppositions about reality than those we find in Scripture." This short course will run four consecutive Tuesday evenings starting February 16th through March 9th. Each session begins at 8PM and runs till9:30PM Eastern Time, and features a dedicated Q&A time, where you can interact with Dr. Williams. If you have to miss a live session, a recording of each session is provided to everyone registered for the course as well as handouts and other resources. In fact, the first session, which will take place on February 16th, is being offered at no charge. However, because space is limited, you have to register at BreakPoint.org/Williams . That's BreakPoint.org/Williams. Dr. Williams's topic for Week 1 is the connection between social justice and our view of God. The topic for Week 2 is how ideas of social justice impact the community. Week 3's topic is how our ideas of social justice are shaped by our views about sin and salvation, and the final week will take a deep dive look at the tribalism that is preventing true reconciliation and justice today. Please join us February 16th for our four-week short course, Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth with Dr. Thadeus Williams. Register atBreakPoint.org/Williams.
Feb 8, 2021
One of the more memorable lines written by C. S. Lewis has to do with whether or not a sense of morality is innate to human beings. "Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him, he will be complaining, 'It's not fair' before you can say Jack Robinson." Our culture in particular is full of demands for justice, of all kinds: social justice, economic justice, LGBTQ justice, environmental justice, racial justice, even "reproductive justice." At the same time, it's not always clear what is meant by justice. Too often, demands for justice are undergirded by radical views about right and wrong, about fairness, about the human person, and—thanks to the wide application of critical theory —about power dynamics. Demands for justice may be getting louder and louder, but that doesn't mean we are making progress as a society. The only worldview framework solid enough to ground human dignity and justice in human history is Christianity. True justice is a matter of honoring God and honoring the image of God inherent in every human person, and is grounded in God's love for humanity, our love of God, and our love of neighbor. Too many Christians, concerned by words like "justice" and "social justice" being wrongly used, have abandoned them altogether. I've heard from many of them, and, while I share the concern about the wrong worldviews being smuggled into the Church and culture through these words, we must not abandon ideas that belong to God. "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God," wrote the prophet Micah . In Matthew 7:12, Jesus said, "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. " Starting next Tuesday, I will be hosting a four-week short course, taught by Dr. Thaddeus Williams, assistant professor at the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University and the author of an outstanding new book, Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth. If you've struggled with what it means to follow our Lord Jesus as a champion of what is true and good, without embracing or advancing the bad ideas of "wokeness" and critical theory, join us for this short course. In his book, Williams writes, "The problem is not with the quest for social justice. The problem is what happens when that quest is undertaken from a framework that is not compatible with the Bible. Today many Christians accept conclusions that are generated from madness machines that are wired with very different presuppositions about reality than those we find in Scripture." This short course will run four consecutive Tuesday evenings starting February 16th through March 9th. Each session begins at 8PM and runs till9:30PM Eastern Time, and features a dedicated Q&A time, where you can interact with Dr. Williams. If you have to miss a live session, a recording of each session is provided to everyone registered for the course as well as handouts and other resources. In fact, the first session, which will take place on February 16th, is being offered at no charge. However, because space is limited, you have to register at BreakPoint.org/Williams . That's BreakPoint.org/Williams. Dr. Williams's topic for Week 1 is the connection between social justice and our view of God. The topic for Week 2 is how ideas of social justice impact the community. Week 3's topic is how our ideas of social justice are shaped by our views about sin and salvation, and the final week will take a deep dive look at the tribalism that is preventing true reconciliation and justice today. Please join us February 16th for our four-week short course, Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth with Dr. Thadeus Williams. Register atBreakPoint.org/Williams.
Feb 8, 2021
One of the more memorable lines written by C. S. Lewis has to do with whether or not a sense of morality is innate to human beings. "Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him, he will be complaining, 'It's not fair' before you can say Jack Robinson." Our culture in particular is full of demands for justice, of all kinds: social justice, economic justice, LGBTQ justice, environmental justice, racial justice, even "reproductive justice." At the same time, it's not always clear what is meant by justice. Too often, demands for justice are undergirded by radical views about right and wrong, about fairness, about the human person, and—thanks to the wide application of critical theory —about power dynamics. Demands for justice may be getting louder and louder, but that doesn't mean we are making progress as a society. The only worldview framework solid enough to ground human dignity and justice in human history is Christianity. True justice is a matter of honoring God and honoring the image of God inherent in every human person, and is grounded in God's love for humanity, our love of God, and our love of neighbor. Too many Christians, concerned by words like "justice" and "social justice" being wrongly used, have abandoned them altogether. I've heard from many of them, and, while I share the concern about the wrong worldviews being smuggled into the Church and culture through these words, we must not abandon ideas that belong to God. "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God," wrote the prophet Micah . In Matthew 7:12, Jesus said, "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. " Starting next Tuesday, I will be hosting a four-week short course, taught by Dr. Thaddeus Williams, assistant professor at the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University and the author of an outstanding new book, Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth. If you've struggled with what it means to follow our Lord Jesus as a champion of what is true and good, without embracing or advancing the bad ideas of "wokeness" and critical theory, join us for this short course. In his book, Williams writes, "The problem is not with the quest for social justice. The problem is what happens when that quest is undertaken from a framework that is not compatible with the Bible. Today many Christians accept conclusions that are generated from madness machines that are wired with very different presuppositions about reality than those we find in Scripture." This short course will run four consecutive Tuesday evenings starting February 16th through March 9th. Each session begins at 8PM and runs till9:30PM Eastern Time, and features a dedicated Q&A time, where you can interact with Dr. Williams. If you have to miss a live session, a recording of each session is provided to everyone registered for the course as well as handouts and other resources. In fact, the first session, which will take place on February 16th, is being offered at no charge. However, because space is limited, you have to register at BreakPoint.org/Williams . That's BreakPoint.org/Williams. Dr. Williams's topic for Week 1 is the connection between social justice and our view of God. The topic for Week 2 is how ideas of social justice impact the community. Week 3's topic is how our ideas of social justice are shaped by our views about sin and salvation, and the final week will take a deep dive look at the tribalism that is preventing true reconciliation and justice today. Please join us February 16th for our four-week short course, Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth with Dr. Thadeus Williams. Register atBreakPoint.org/Williams.
Feb 5, 2021
John Stonestreet and Shane Morris talk about the craziness surrounding the stock of Game Stop. Beyond the stock price and the short sells, what was motivating the mass of people to purchase the stock and send it through the roof? Anger? Greed? Revenge of the little guys against the hedge funds? Was it a generational conflict? And what does this say about the state of our culture and society in 2021? John and Shane share their thoughts from a Christian worldview perspective. Also in this episode: The Biden Administration's new Secretary of Education is firmly committed to allowing biological boys to compete against girls in scholastic athletics. How has the acceptance of anti-reality transgender ideology reached the highest levels of government? Are the President's executive orders a foretaste of the coming Equality Act, which would severely restrict religious freedom and bestow new rights on the LGBTQ movement? John and Shane finish the broadcast with their weekly recommendations: N. T. Wright's How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels , and the 2021 Wilberforce Weekend.
Feb 5, 2021
Nature documentaries like the BBC's "Planet Earth," "Blue Planet," and most recently, "A Perfect Planet," are amazing masterpieces of modern videography, displaying creation in detail and majesty. Every creature soaring through the sky, or streaking through the deep, or thundering over the savannah exhibits power, beauty, and unmistakable purpose. David Attenborough's grandfatherly narration and Hans Zimmer's moving musical scores only add to the childlike awe these films induce. All of which makes it even more odd when Attenborough declares that all of this glory lacks purpose, or that it arose by chance and natural selection, and that none of it bears witness to any meaning or Mind beyond itself. A recent article on atheism, also from across the pond, reminded me of this contradiction. In The Guardian , Harriet Sherwood described a new project from the University of Kent that seeks to discover whether disbelieving in God makes people less spiritual overall. According to the project's authors, atheism "doesn't necessarily entail unbelief in other supernatural phenomena." Nor do unbelievers lack for a sense of purpose, despite "lacking anything to ascribe ultimate meaning to [in] the universe," In the article, Sherwood profiled several unbelievers, from an agnostic to a "free thinker" to Positivist pastor and Satanic priest (who makes it clear he doesn't believe in a literal Satan). All of them insist that life can be deeply meaningful and even moral without God. "We can determine for ourselves what is meaningful," said one. "The meaning of life," suggested one woman, "is to make it the best experience you can, to spread love to those around you." "Beauty and tradition are at the core of my philosophy," said another. One self-identified atheistic Jew explained, "Being part of a religious community offers music, spirituality and relationships…it reminds me I'm on a journey to understand myself better and motivates me to help others." Hearing outspoken unbelievers proclaim that meaning and morality aren't accidents is about as jarring as hearing David Attenborough proclaim that the world's most amazing creatures are accidents . There is an inability of atheists to let go of the transcendent. In his book, "Miracles," C.S. Lewis wrote about the passionate moral activism of a famous atheist of his day, H.G. Wells. Moments after men like Wells admit that good and evil are illusions, Lewis said, "you will find them exhorting us to work for posterity, to educate, to revolutionise, liquidate, live and die for the good of the human race." But how do unbelievers, "naturalists" as Lewis calls them, account for such ideas? Certainly, nature is no help. If thoughts of meaning and morality find their origin in arrangements of atoms in our brains, then they can no more be called "true," Lewis observed, than can "a vomit or a yawn." Lewis concludes that when Wells and other unbelievers say we "ought to make a better world," they have simply forgotten about their atheism. "That is their glory," he concludes. "Holding a philosophy which excludes humanity, they yet remain human. At the sight of injustice, they throw all their Naturalism to the winds and speak like men and like men of genius. They know far better than they think they know." I'd love to ask the people behind masterpieces like "Planet Earth," or the unbelievers profiled in The Guardian , about this contradiction. Years ago, I had a similar conversation with a woman I was seated beside on an airplane. She had very strong moral opinions about all kinds of things, but scoffed at me, "How can you believe in God!" I gently asked her why she believed in right and wrong. It was a fun conversation, and it made me realize that it is possible to affirm the human gut-level intuition about beauty and wonder and morality, while questioning where all of those things come from. And if you haven't read Lewis' masterful book "Miracles," add it to the list. If it's been a while, it's worth revisiting. Fair warning: unbelievers should beware. As Lewis himself said, "A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading."
Feb 4, 2021
Three years ago, 110 Nigerian schoolgirls were abducted by terrorists from Boko Haram. After a month of negotiations with government authorities, 109 were returned to their families. The girl who was not returned was also the only Christian, 14-year-old Leah Sharibu. According to Boko Haram (or, as it calls itself, the Islamic State West African Province), Sharibu refused to convert to Islam, their precondition for her release. A few months later, Boko Haram announced that Sharibu and Alice Loksha Ngaddah, a Christian nurse kidnapped in March 2018, would be enslaved for life. The last time the world heard from Leah , she begged to be "treated with compassion" and asked "the government, particularly the president, to pity me and get me out of this serious situation." Three years later, Leah remains a prisoner, a " captive for Christ ." Leah's case is only one example of the kind of violence and oppression Nigerian Christians face every day, especially in the country's mostly Muslim north. For years, Boko Haram and Muslim Fulani militants have killed, raped, kidnapped, and sought to "cleanse" parts of northern Nigeria of its Christian population. The extent of violence has been vividly brought to life in an interactive calendar published by the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) , which tracks how many Nigerian Christians were killed, violated, injured, or abducted on any given day since Christmas of 2019. The scale is stunning. The extent of what's been dubbed the "Silent Slaughter" of Nigerian Christians has prompted observers both inside and outside of the country to call it "genocide." However, because the response of the Nigerian government ranges from indifference to possible complicity, the best chance for relief rests on the efforts of Christians and other concerned people will organize, agitate and, most of all, pray. Last year, the International Committee on Nigeria hosted a virtual summit to bring awareness to the crisis there. I was privileged to join former NFL star Benjamin Watson, former U.S. Representative Frank Wolf, and then-Representative Tulsi Gabbard on a panel for that event . In addition to the tremendous work of ICON, there is also the aptly named LEAH Foundation. Named for the young girl still held by Boko Haram, "LEAH" is an acronym that stands for "Leadership," "Advocacy," "Empowerment," and "Humanitarian." This advocacy for girls like Leah and others who have been attacked and/or kidnapped by groups like Boko Haram is incredibly important. As Open Door's most recent report highlighted , sexual violence, including abduction, is the chief threat faced by Christian women around the world. The LEAH Foundation is also working to establish places where girls like Leah can, when released, find a home, provisions, and an education. But first, Leah must be freed. To mark the upcoming third anniversary of her abduction, the LEAH Foundation is launching a seven-day campaign to draw international attention to her story, and to the plight of Nigerian Christians. The campaign will run from February 13th to 19th and is built around prayer and a livestream event . Each day's prayers will focus on specific issues. For instance, on the 13th, the prayers will be centered on Leah's family. The following day, we will pray for her to be encouraged. Other days, we will pray that world leaders will act, for the defeat of terrorism in Nigeria, and, of course, for other girls in captivity. The campaign will culminate on February 19th with a three-hour streaming event on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Or, if you come to BreakPoint.org, we'll link you to it. "Three years is too long." The indifference of much of the world to the abduction and enslavement of Leah and to the ongoing violence in Nigeria must stop. Come to BreakPoint.org, and I will link you to the LEAH Foundation's 7 Days of Prayer.
Feb 3, 2021
John and Shane are asked how Christians can remain faithful with culture pressuring for compliance. A doctor and a parent have similar questions related to recognizing gender transitions. John provides a structure to think and live in challenging times. Another listener writes in to ask how Christians should respond with censorship challenging opportunities to live life with a Christian perspective. Shane provides some hard truths that provide an understanding on how Christians can move forward in the face of opposition. To close John engages the recent developments with online trading and financial markets. He pulls back from the issue to identify the root causes of sin and how we're seeing brokenness on display in the tumult of the financial markets.
Feb 3, 2021
In 2010, a company called Hanson Robotics spent more than a hundred hours interviewing a woman named Bina. They collected memories of her childhood, noted her emotional reactions and mannerisms, uploaded the data into a mechanical bust that looked like the real Bina, and then programmed the robot to answer questions in real time. Robot Bina now resides in a research lab . Real-life Bina's partner said the venture was a shot at "immortality." Recently, Hanson Robotics announced plans to release thousands of what they're calling "Sophia" robots . Sophia is a "social robot" that can perform rudimentary medical tasks, like taking a person's temperature, but can also make facial expressions and utter a few phrases. According to company CEO David Hanson, "Sophia" is programmed to offer "human warmth" and is being released this year in order to help especially elderly people who are living in isolation due to the pandemic. Back in 1984, in her provocative book The Second Self , MIT professor Sherry Turkle made a prediction. It was a prediction that seems obvious today but was pretty bold at the time. She predicted that computers would become more than just tools of mathematical calculation and increasingly become places where we live our lives. A decade or so later, in a book entitled Life on the Screen , Turkle predicted that we'd soon move beyond merely living some of our lives on the internet to creating entirely new, different, and multiple lives on the internet. So far, Turkle is two for two. Turkle's third book, titled Alone Together , wasn't written until 2011. In it, she made another prediction. She believed that a culture so accustomed to digital life and so bad at human relationships would not be able to resist replacing those relationships with artificial intelligence. Again, Turkle got it right. The difference between this book and her previous two was that Turkle's optimism about where technology was taking us was gone. Sophia the Robot is Turkle's prediction plugged in and turned on, with an important clarification: Hanson Robotics didn't make Sophia just because they could. They're capitalizing on something in our culture that needs to be recognized. We're failing each other. In Alone Together, Turkle predicted that a culture obsessed with convenience would grow increasingly averse to the in convenience of love. The rise in family estrangement during 2020 is just one piece of supporting evidence. Why bear with people when a robot that looks like a person can give us everything we think we want without all the neediness? A booming market for human-like artificial intelligence isn't just a sign that we're expecting too much from robots. As Turkle says in her subtitle, we're also expecting too little from each other . Maybe that's because we're giving too little to each other. Also priming the global marketplace for companion robots are almost universally low birth rates. Japan's plummeting birth rate means an increasing number of citizens have no extended family or even siblings. Chuck Colson talked about this all the way back in 2005, when a Japanese company began selling lifelike baby dolls to the lonely elderly. A childless society, Colson said, learns too late that it's created a void no "toy" can fill. Neither can Sophia the robot. There's also a deeper moral problem with these "humanoid" robots. The sexual revolution separated body from soul, pretending to elevate the body but actually degrading bodies into mere objects to be used for pleasure. Christians also sometimes make a similar mistake when they treat the body as an "obstacle" to a truly "spiritual" life. An honest reading of the Bible, however, reveals Christianity to be what author Christopher West calls an "en-fleshed" faith. As he says in his book Our Bodies Tell God's Story , God created His image-bearers with bodies and souls. To try to separate the two is to reject His design. To replace a real human-to-human relationship with an artificially intelligent robot is to also separate body and soul. Except, instead of looking for bodies without souls, we're looking for souls without bodies. Of course, no collection of charming phrases, human-like movements, injected life memories, or empathetic facial expressions will be an image-bearer. Interactions with Sophia robots may be interesting or even impressive. Sophia 2.0 and 3.0 may be even more "life-like" in different ways. We might find a human facsimile that never ages, is never demanding, and always there when we need it quite convenient. However, more convenient isn't the same as better. The greatest commandments, to "Love God" and "love our neighbors as ourselves," are almost so familiar they're boring. But, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. In the land of humanoid robots, someone who knows how to actually love another can change everything.
Feb 2, 2021
The more 2021 resembles 2020, the more Christians should be grounded in those unchanging truths given us in Scripture. We must rest on the revelations that make sense of our cultural moment: that Christ is risen, that Christ is Lord, and that Christ is making all things new. God has placed each of us and this time and in this place. It is here and it is now that He wants us. He wants us to participate with Him as agents of reconciliation in His larger story of redemption. To do this well, especially in light of the chaos of 2020, we are going to have to recalibrate. And as Paul told Timothy, this exactly the point of Holy Scripture. "All Scripture is God breathed," he wrote, "and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting and for training in righteousness." Isn't that exactly the trajectory we need right now? To know what's right, to be confronted when we are wrong, and to be turned around to start again on the right path? That's why each Wednesday at 10:30 Eastern until Easter, the Colson Center is hosting a time of guided prayer online with a particular focus on the wisdom of the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs is straight-forward. That's one of the reasons I love it so much. It's not some kind of esoteric, hard to understand, "spiritual wisdom" that's offered in the holy books of many faiths. Proverbs gets right to the point and shoots you right between the eyes. Each week's prayer time begins with prayer, and then it ends with prayer. It's centered on how we can pray in light of the instruction of a particular proverb. For example, here's my good friend Sean McDowell, whose reflection on Proverbs 25:15 hit me right where I needed: One of the proverbs that has jumped out to me over the past year and a half, and one that I've been thinking about a lot as the temperature in our culture is increasing, is Proverbs 25:15. The ESV reads, "With patience, A ruler may be persuaded and a soft tongue will break a bone." I love that this is not an isolated proverb. There are themes throughout Scripture about kindness, about tenderness, and about patience. It seems to me that we've lost some of those lessons today in the Church. Rather than being patient, we are quick to anger, but in the letter to the Romans, it's God's loving kindness that draws us to repentance. Proverbs 15:1 tells us that a soft word turns away anger. Christianity is not only true, but what it offers to the world uniquely is truth and grace. I think Proverbs 25:15 represents a small step of showing grace to people in and outside the Church that, frankly, today people don't expect. It catches them off guard. Here are a couple insights about this proverb. First, this proverb reminds us that some change only takes place with patience. We should be thinking more about the long term than how do we fix this by tomorrow, or even next year, or maybe even five years. The second thing that it says patience is long-suffering, meaning that the process can be painful to see change take place. This is certainly true for athletes, but it's true spiritually. Now this proverb not only talks about patience but talks about "a ruler." I love this. Obviously, the writer was thinking more of a king or maybe the nobles of his day, but "ruler" today is really anybody with authority. Those in the government or those in the university system, or maybe those in Hollywood. These people, in a sense, rule our culture. The proverb says they may be persuaded. I don't know about you, but I look at certain leaders and I'm tempted to think they're beyond hope. They can't be saved; they're gone. But, then I started thinking, "This is such a human perspective." This passage says rulers can be persuaded. That's a good reminder. That was Sean McDowell leading a time of guided prayer with his reflections on Proverbs 25:15. To watch Sean's entire devotional, come to BreakPoint.org/Proverbs . While you're there, register to join us each and every Wednesday from now until Easter. All sessions are recorded, so if you can't join us during the live release, the video will be available to watch and share later. Tomorrow's session will be led by my friend Trevin Wax, followed next week Erin Kunkel and Sarah Stonestreet of the Colson Center's Strong Women Podcast .
Feb 1, 2021
Sean McDowell shares an important proverb in the Time of Guided Prayer led by the Colson Center. Dr. Sean McDowell is a gifted communicator with a passion for equipping the church, and in particular young people, to make the case for the Christian faith. In addition to his role as Associate Professor in the Christian Apologetics program at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, Sean travels throughout the United States and abroad, speaking at camps, churches, schools, universities, and conferences. Sean is the co-host for the Think Biblically podcast, which is one of the most popular podcasts on faith and cultural engagement. He has written, co-written, or edited more than twenty books and has a leading apologetics blogs at seanmcdowell.org. In April 2000, Sean married his high school sweetheart, Stephanie. They have three children and live in San Juan Capistrano, California.
Feb 1, 2021
Michael Agapito's recent book review at ChristianityToday.com vividly illustrates one of the challenges Christians face when trying to apply their faith to issues of injustice. After praising much about Thaddeus Williams' new book Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth , in particular his commitment to not diminish or dismiss Biblical mandates for Christians to work toward justice and to rightly prioritize social justice efforts in light of the salvation message, Agapito offers a lukewarm review. His concern, even after admitting Williams' book explicitly states otherwise, is that "some will use it as an excuse to remain overtly comfortable with the status quo." In other words, even raising (and much less) answering questions (as Williams' book brilliantly does) about the way social justice is defined and pursued today is to be guilty of enabling the detractors, even if you clearly and repeatedly state otherwise (as Williams' book brilliantly does). This kind of critique of those who want to be sure their efforts align with Scripture is unhelpful and far too common. Now, let me attempt to be as clear as Scripture is: God cares about justice . The prophet Amos proclaims, "let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." The prophet then cites very specific examples of injustice. He condemns Israel for its mistreatment of the poor. He cites corrupt practices such as false testimony, bribery, and favoritism in the courts. As is true throughout Scripture, "justice" is no abstract concept. Many of the prophets all but equate Israel's failure of justice with religious infidelity as reasons for the exile and other punishments they face. As Micah famously put it , "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." One of the great contributions of Christianity to human history is the very idea that all people should be treated justly. As the influence of Christianity spread across the world, God's instructions for how Israel should treat the poor and the disabled and the unborn and the foreigner spread as well. Today, both inside and outside of the church, demands to address injustices are ubiquitous. The problem is that radical, problematic views undergird so many calls for justice today. Too many social "causes" assume things about justice, God, morality, and who we are as human beings that simply aren't true. And, most of these ignore or deny the only idea that has ever been able to ground human dignity, that every human is made in the image of God. Today, because of the legacy of postmodern ideas about oppression and the wide application of critical theory , justice is largely understood only in terms of power dynamics. Because words like "social justice" and "oppression" are so often wrongly defined, many Christians have abandoned the biblical call to care about victims of injustice or work toward addressing social evils. Not only is that tragic, not only does this compromise the message of Christianity to the world, but it puts us out of touch with biblical teaching, and Christians throughout history (think of individuals such as William Wilberforce). That's the dilemma, and I've honestly been waiting for a resource would clearly and carefully walk through how we can work for justice from the solid foundation that every person is made in the image of God. I'm pleased to say that Thaddeus J. Williams's new book, Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth is that resource. As Williams writes, "The problem is not with the quest for social justice. The problem is what happens when that quest is undertaken from a framework that is not compatible with the Bible. Today many Christians accept conclusions that are generated from madness machines that are wired with very different presuppositions about reality than those we find in Scripture." Williams addresses on our culture's preoccupation with "wokeness," critical race theory, and emotivism, without letting us off the hook from our Christian responsibilities to love God and to love our neighbors (all of them). After all, Christians are always at their best when running into the brokenness not away from it, when we are caring for the victims of bad ideas while we walk humbly with our God. During the month of February, I would love to send you Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth by Thaddeus Williams for your next gift to BreakPoint and the Colson Center. Come to breakpoint.org/February2021 to request your copy today. Again, that's Breakpoint.org/February2021 to get your copy today.
Jan 29, 2021
It's likely that there will be 300 million Christians in China by 2030, up from 75-100 million Christians estimated in China in 2020. That is a three-fold increase. When the Communist Party in China took over in 1949 there were only 4 million Christians in China.During the reign of Mao, the total number of Christians didn't exceed 4million. Since the death of Mao in 1976, Christianity has grown at the same rate as the Chinese economy, 7-8% per year. The church grows from a mustard seed. Christian's don't only live lives that are different from their neighbors, but better. John and Shane discuss how Communism isn't big enough to handle the holy spirit, neighborliness, and even grace. John and Shane also discuss new Presidential executive actions and the state of persecution in the church.
Jan 29, 2021
Earlier this month, in a piece for The Atlantic, Joshua Coleman described an epidemic that's not COVID but that's also afflicting America: family estrangement. As a psychologist who specializes in family therapy, Coleman reports that his practice is flooded with older parents mourning the loss of contact with their grown children and with grown children angry and hurt by conflict with parents. "The rules of family life have changed," he said. The more recent changes in family structures and dynamics he described have only added to the pressure already felt by earlier stressors. For example, the Industrial Revolution , which moved work from inside the home to out, completely upended family life in all kinds of ways. The more recent forces of family estrangement, on the other hand, don't come so much from the outside as from the inside. Coleman quotes Stephanie Coontz, the Director of Research at the Council on Contemporary Families, to clarify this point: "Never before have family relationships been seen as so interwoven with the search for personal growth, the pursuit of happiness, and the need to confront and overcome psychological obstacles." This shift is bigger than we might suspect. Coontz continues, "For most of history family relationships were based on mutual obligations rather than on mutual understanding. Parents or children might reproach the other for failing to honor/acknowledge their duty, but the idea that a relative could be faulted for failing to honor/acknowledge one's 'identity' would have been incomprehensible " (emphasis added). In other words, we used to understand our families in light of our duties to them . Now we are increasingly understanding our families in light of their duty to us . What's more, we increasingly think that their primary duty is to make us happy. Haven't we seen this same sort of approach play out in other areas of our lives? "My spouse and my marriage should make me happy." If not, divorce is the only answer, no matter how it impacts the children. "My church should make me happy (and agree with all of my opinions)." If not, I'll find another one, maybe online. "My work should leave me fulfilled." If not, it's my work's fault. The same pop psychology, self-care, find-your-bliss platitudes are plastered all over social media: get rid of "toxic" people in your life who make you feel unhappy. Surround yourself only with "positivity." Don't let other people suck the "energy" out of you. Not only is it good to ditch the people you don't like, social media will give you the impression that it actually makes you brave and laudable and strong . All of this is, of course, a nearly perfect inverse of biblical counsel. From Paul in Ephesians 4: "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Paul assumes that living with others requires some "bearing with," which probably implies that we require some "bearing with," as well. Family members make mistakes, of course. In cases of abuse, severing a relationship may be necessary and justified. Sometimes, however, our family members are simply annoying. Maybe they merely point out where we've gone wrong, and there are times parents warn children off a dangerous path because of their own painful experiences. To automatically confuse tough love or even disagreement with being "toxic" is not only to serve our own pride, it's foolishly to sacrifice an essential relationship. We need the wisdom and care that only comes from those who know us best. We need what Proverbs calls "the faithful wounds of a friend" (Prov 27:6). In this fallen world, families will never be perfect, but God designed them to be the first and best safety net we should all have. Over the last several years, the generation gap has clearly widened, especially over three issues: sex, technology, and Trump. Over the last year, COVID and masks have been added to that list. All of these issues matter, of course, and there aren't "two sides" to all of them, but these relational splits in our families – not to mention our churches and friendships – are too often not born out of wisdom, and certainly not out of the biblical instructions for how we should treat our families, but out of a social media, YouTube comments-section sort of mentality. The family is a sacred design that was gifted to us by God. We ought not squander it. We have duty to serve it. If we do, it will be another way for Christians to be counter-cultural, another way for us to live for something bigger than ourselves and our own happiness.
Jan 28, 2021
The new Netflix film, " My Octopus Teacher ," is hard to categorize. It's not exactly a nature documentary, nor is it strictly narrative storytelling, and the title is strange enough by itself. Still, this movie by documentary filmmaker Craig Foster has garnered glowing reviews and has become extremely popular on social media. The movie follows Foster who, in the midst of a personal crisis, decides to snorkel in the kelp forest near his South African home every day for a year. I doubt I was the only one whose first thought was, "Wow, it must be nice to have a breathtaking coastal home where personal therapy takes the form of a year of snorkeling." And that's just the first thing that makes the show's popularity puzzling--especially in this culture, which analyzes all of our problems, every political issue, and even the identity and value of individual people in terms of who has privilege and who doesn't. Just last week, Kim Kardashian was widely panned for posting a picture of a beautiful beach with the caption "paradise," without duly noting how privileged she was to be there. Though it's difficult to see "My Octopus Teacher" without noting that cultural tension, it's also refreshing to see a person with clear privilege choosing not to dwell on it. Still, "My Octopus Teacher" isn't a movie about privilege. It's about, wait for it, an octopus! Foster first comes across the animal in the very early days of his year of snorkeling, and he's mesmerized. Thanks to the engaging narration and cinematography, it's hard not to be mesmerized along with him. Octopi are incredible. And strange . They have this ability to go from something solid to almost liquid in a matter of seconds. The thousands of suction cups on the outside of their bodies are like a second brain. In fact, two-thirds of their cognition happen there, according to scientists. Throughout the film, we see Foster's octopus friend swim like a fish, walk like a dog, and play games like a kid. She changes colors. When she loses an arm in a shark attack, we watch it grow back. In simpler terms, Craig Foster's true privilege is one that God uniquely endows on His image bearers: the opportunity to marvel at God's extravagant creativity and the fact that He lets us live in a world like this. The other lesson in "My Octopus Teacher" comes from Foster's attempts to explain his obsession. "I just wanted to know this octopus," he says. "I just wondered - what would happen if I went to the same spot, every day, for a year?" So, he does. He followed that octopus around every day, and each night, he went home to study more about her. His obsession seems strange, to be sure, but it's also a poignant picture of a person looking for something outside of himself in a culture where most voices tell us to look inside. Even more, what if we approached God in this way? What if we became so obsessed with knowing Him that we spent our time and energy essentially stalking Him every single day, through reading the Bible, prayer, and serving others? And, what if we came to God with the same sense of expectation Foster had underwater? He was painfully deliberate to not impose himself in the octopus's life. He wanted to know her, but he knew she had to decide whether to reveal herself to him. The good news is that God wants us to know Him. After all, consider the incredible lengths He has gone to in order to make Himself known, in His word, in His world, and especially in His Son. Still, it is a particular discipline to not approach God with what Jesus called "many words" (Mt 6:7), and instead to "be still and know" that He is God (Ps 46:10). Foster never really understood the octopus. Though God's ways are higher than ours, and our ability to understand Him will always be limited, God is knowable. We will never know Him exhaustively, but we can know Him truthfully. St. Augustine said, "You have formed us for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You." "My Octopus Teacher" is a strange movie, but Foster's film is a fascinating portrayal of the "God-shaped hole" in every human heart. To become obsessed with God, to follow him around like He's the answer to our troubles, to wait for Him to show Himself to us, is the only way for our hearts to be filled and at rest.
Jan 27, 2021
John and Shane field a series of thought-provoking questions this week. One listener wrote in asking why Christians are concerned with how people of faith in important positions hold and communicate their theology. Another listener asked an important question about end-of-life care and advanced directives, looking for a Christian worldview thinking structure to hang all of the new technologies and realities we have with life and end-of-life care. The first question John and Shane fielded was from a professional whose current career may come into a conscience conflict. John and Shane provide strong understanding to stand strong in the culture stream.
Jan 27, 2021
In his book Man's Search for Meaning , Viktor Frankl wrote, "Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how.' " Both the book and its most famous quote were products of an incredibly difficult experience. During World War II, Frankl and his family were deported from their native Vienna to various concentration camps, including Auschwitz. He was the only member of his family to survive. Frankl knew just how unbearable the "how" of life could be. And yet, as Frankl explained, humans are meaning-seeking creatures. We want to believe that there's more to life than meeting our basic survival needs of food, water, shelter, and safety. Even more, we need this to be true. Otherwise, ours becomes a purely animal existence. Despite all the zoo placards and biology textbooks assuring us that humans are just animals, we certainly don't act like survival and promulgating the species are all that matters. Without meaning, hope is difficult, if not impossible. At best, without meaning, we resort to a kind of detachment and resignation. At worst, we resort to self-harm, violence, or even suicide. On the other hand, the benefits of meaning extend well beyond psychological and spiritual health. As a recent article in the Washington Post reports, a sense of purpose and meaning brings physical benefits as well. Believing that one's "existence has meaning" is linked to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lower levels of heart inflammation. One study found that having a "clear purpose in life" can slow the impact of Alzheimer's in older patients. Another metanalysis of various studies even suggested that having a purpose in life can lower risk of death equally as well as following the "Mediterranean diet." Of course, finding this kind of life-changing and life-extending purpose isn't as straightforward as changing a diet or starting a new exercise routine. An essential place to begin is the opening sentence of Rick Warren's The Purpose Drive Life : "It's not about you." Purpose is not found by looking inward; it's found by looking outward and is manifested in what we do for others. Among the examples cited by the Post article were volunteering, donating to charity, and "joining a group of people who share your values." What all of these ideas have in common is that they remove us, for however long, from the center of our personal universe. Of course, nothing turns our perspective outward (and upward) like faith in Jesus Christ. I don't mean the consumerist, therapeutic kind of inward-looking religion that too often passes for Christianity these days. I mean something along the lines of what Paul told the Corinthians : "And [Christ] died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them" (2 Cor 5:15). Living for the One who died and rose again not only removes us from the center of our own universe, but aligns our hearts and minds with what is actually true about the universe: that it belongs to God and that our purpose is given by Him not determined by us. True faith locates our lives in this cultural moment within the larger story of God, and how He is fulfilling His purposes throughout each chapter of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. When we no longer see our lives and actions as isolated, we realize they are part of the story and even the means by which God is restoring all things. Knowing this doesn't make the "how" any easier, as my colleague Shane Morris recently testified on BreakPoint. Paul told the Corinthians that toil, hardship, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, and anxiety were his lot as an apostle of Jesus Christ. But he also knew that his suffering wasn't meaningless. Neither, for that matter, was his success. Despite and even through them, God's purposes were being fulfilled. This is the ultimate "why." This message is not only true; it's worth sharing, especially in a world where, for so many, meaning has been lost and the best efforts to manufacture meaning fall short.
Jan 26, 2021
The devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic is still being tallied, both in terms of lives and livelihoods lost. In addition to the millions of dead, the millions more who've been infected (including some who face long-term physical damage), there's the psychological and emotional harm of extended isolation and the millions who face financial ruin. In the midst of all of that, we are now learning of another, less obvious, but just as deadly fallout from the pandemic. Each January, Open Doors, an organization committed to "serving persecuted Christians worldwide," releases their World Watch List. The list documents the 50 countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian, highlights global trends in religious persecution and provides unique insights into the global persecuted church. In many ways, the 2021 report resembles those of previous years. North Korea is still at the top of the list, followed by Afghanistan. As in previous years, the list is dominated by either Communist governments or overwhelmingly Islamic countries. Christian persecution in these countries may take the form of discrimination, restrictions on religious practice, imprisonment, violence, or killings. The persecution may come at the hands of the state or at the hands of private actors with the state looking the other way. However, the 2021 World Watch List does differ from those in previous years in a very important way. The COVID-19 pandemic has, and I quote, "exposed the ugliness of Christian persecution in a new way." For example, in India, COVID-19 food relief has been used by some radical Hindu government officials to pressure Indian Christians to renounce their faith. In some regions of India, Christians are last in line to receive aid , including food. As a result, some Christians there are being forced to travel long distances in order to receive help. Some are forced to hide their Christian identity. Similar reports are emerging from other countries around the world, including Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, Malaysia, Yemen, and Sudan. In some parts of Pakistan, the combination of COVID-19 and anti-Christian discrimination have wiped out Christian-owned businesses . Christians already struggling to make ends meet have found their Muslim neighbors using the coronavirus as a pretext to shut them down altogether. In the Kaduna State of Nigeria, Christians who were already facing genocidal violence at the hands of Islamists and Fulani herdsmen are, according to Open Doors, receiving only one-sixth of the rations allocated to Muslim families. In addition to the health and economic pressures, authoritarian governments around the world have used COVID-19 to consolidate power and further restrict religious activities they deem to be a threat to their authority. In China, a series of "strange and anonymous" messages on social media blamed Christian religious activities for a rise in COVID-19 in Hebei province. It was fake news, but it still put Christians in the crosshairs of local authorities looking for an excuse to crack down on their activities. China's legendary surveillance capability was used to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Already well on the way to implementing a tyrannical "social credit system" to monitor the loyalty and compliance of its citizens, during COVID, China has used surveillance to further scrutinize Christians and other religious minorities. Similarly, India, which has been steadily moving up the World Watch List in recent years, had already created what's been called the most sophisticated ID program in the world, AADHAAR . Nearly 40 percent of the world's population live in these two countries, countries that are already hostile to Christians and are actively perfecting ways to surveil their populations. To call it ominous would be an understatement. Open Doors is right to warn us how COVID opportunism and the potential danger of "creeping surveillance" threatens religious freedom. Please, pray for persecuted Christians around the world. If you come to BreakPoint.org, I will link you to Open Doors 2021 World Watch List. It will help you pray in a more informed manner. And please, share it widely, especially with your pastor and elected officials.
Jan 25, 2021
A couple of weeks ago, the British left-leaning magazine The Guardian breathlessly proclaimed , "[E]xperts are warning the US is facing a wave of rightwing 'Christian nationalist' legislation in 2021, as the religious right aims to thrust Christianity into everyday American life." And what nefarious legislation will "thrust Christianity in everyday life"? Prolife laws designed to protect the unborn, religious liberty protections for Christian organizations, and other things advocated by Christians long before anyone had ever heard of Christian Nationalism. That this term, "Christian Nationalism," has become a one-size-fits-all label for whole swaths of the country, especially since the violence in the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, shouldn't surprise anyone. As images from that day reveal, there were plenty of Christians flags and symbols flying alongside Old Glory and pro-Trump banners. The "symbology" was heavy and indicative, as Andrew Walker told me on a recent BreakPoint Podcast , of a fusion of Christianity and the nation. For many on the right, the connection seems obvious, especially those who think of America as God's primary agent in the world. And, for many on the left, it seems just as obvious: Christianity is bigoted, dangerous, and outdated in modern society. In a sense, this kind of conflict isn't unusual. Throughout history, nations have tied their faith, secular or religious, to their flag. Ancient kings draped their wars in divine sanction, medieval monarchs cried "God wills it!" and 20th century dictators claimed that an overarching "History" or "Science" was on their side. America isn't even the only Western nation whose founding documents and hymns are full of Biblical references and appeals to God for protection. Even so, much of the American story makes our own experience distinctive. From the "City on a Hill" language of the first Puritan colonists (an idea often misunderstood by both Christians and antagonists), to the revolutionary fervor of 1776, to the religious revivals in both camps during the Civil War, to the world wars of the 20th century and our overtly atheistic foe of the Cold War, to American Christianity's focus on the End Times, to the strong sense of Divine destiny, America's history is very religious. All together, this history has left America with a civil religion, something profoundly helpful for social cohesion but not always good for theological orthodoxy. Whenever the truth of the gospel is watered down for the sake of political or national unity, it isn't long before politics and nationality are all that matters. Let's be clear: no nation, no party, and no politician is indispensable for the advance or well-being of Kingdom of God. God works through individuals and nations, but His plans endure regardless of the success of nations and worldly kingdoms. This leaves Christians with a two-fold problem. First is the often well-meaning but always-misguided tendency to conflate our nation and our faith. Any time the good of our country is the ends and the Kingdom of God is the means, we are guilty of idolatry. Especially in an age such as ours, Christians must check and recheck (and re -recheck) our hearts and words to make sure we only render to Caesar what belongs to him, and always reserve for God what is His. Our second problem is when the scare label "Christian Nationalism," is used to dismiss any policy or person more conservative than whoever is using the term. As seen in the The Guardian , we're all but guaranteed for the near future that anything vaguely traditional or moral, and any appeal to anything higher than the latest cultural fad, will be smeared with this label. It's silly. Even more, it's dangerous. Even so, Christians must not abandon the public square just because people say mean things about us. Our God-given call to be faithful to Him above our nation also means He's called us to be faithful to Him in our nation, at this time and in this place. Neither the excesses in the name of Christ or those who attempt to ban His people from public life remove this calling from us. Also, and this will be tougher, we mustn't let the animosity leave us embittered or in despair. As Richard John Neuhaus said, Christians "have not the right to despair, for despair is a sin. And we have not the reason to despair, quite simply because Christ is risen."
Jan 25, 2021
Klon Kitchen is Director of The Heritage Foundation's Center for Technology Policy. He explains the background surrounding recent censorship of Donald Trump, Parler, and Q-Anon, sharing a logical path that led to de-platforming of many conservatives and conservative organizations. Klon provides further understanding on the issues surrounding censorship in technology, providing a Christian apologetic to participating and engaging the challenges around recent decisions from powerful technology companies. Klon helps us understand the purpose of the government in the technology space, helping us understand roles, functions, and protections. To close, Klon gives listeners an understanding how Christians can and possibly should respond to the recent actions on social platforms. He provides perspective on suppression and oppression as Christians look to the future. Resources: Klon Kitchen Article Section 230: Mend It Don't End It
Jan 22, 2021
When President Biden quoted St. Augustine and Scripture in his inaugural address, he was doing what almost every President before him has done: drawing on America's Christian tradition. Today on "BreakPoint This week," John Stonestreet and Shane Morris discuss America's "civil religion," the shared values of liberty and the dignity of all--but firmly rooted in Christianity. Ironically enough, even those vehemently opposed to Christianity in the public square (or opposed to causes Christians feel passionately about, such as protecting the unborn) profess these values, even though they are nonsensical outside of a Christian understanding of God's created order. Also on today's episode: The rise in deaths from despair and acts of desperation; the plague of pornography; and the thinning of civil society, As for their recommendations of the week, Shane slips into a Southern twang as he sings the praises of the folk group The Arcadian Wild and their decidedly Christian themes. And John invites us all to join in with the Colson Center every Wednesday morning through March 31st for a time of guided prayer for our nation, informed by the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs .
Jan 22, 2021
When President Biden quoted St. Augustine and Scripture in his inaugural address, he was doing what almost every President before him has done: drawing on America's Christian tradition. Today on "BreakPoint This week," John Stonestreet and Shane Morris discuss America's "civil religion," the shared values of liberty and the dignity of all--but firmly rooted in Christianity. Ironically enough, even those vehemently opposed to Christianity in the public square (or opposed to causes Christians feel passionately about, such as protecting the unborn) profess these values, even though they are nonsensical outside of a Christian understanding of God's created order. Also on today's episode: The rise in deaths from despair and acts of desperation; the plague of pornography; and the thinning of civil society, As for their recommendations of the week, Shane slips into a Southern twang as he sings the praises of the folk group The Arcadian Wild and their decidedly Christian themes. And John invites us all to join in with the Colson Center every Wednesday morning through March 31st for a time of guided prayer for our nation, informed by the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs .
Jan 22, 2021
Recently, I've had occasion to ponder suffering in a deeper way than ever before. I say this not because the situation I'm in is worse than it has ever been, but because I've become more familiar with the true character of suffering. It isn't about circumstances. Not really. As pro-life author Stephanie Gray Connors explained in our recent conversation on the Upstream Podcast , suffering is the gulf between what we desperately want and what we actually have—between (for instance) the healing for which we pour out our hearts in prayer night after night and the apparent silence that answers from Heaven. My family's return to this familiar and dreaded gulf occasions suffering precisely because it is so familiar—We thought we'd learned the lessons God intended to teach us by this. How much more gold could He possibly refine out of us? No, I've realized that suffering isn't about circumstances. It's about the fear that your circumstances are meaningless—that God has abandoned you. I've always thought that anyone could suffer indefinitely if they clearly understood and believed in the purpose they were accomplishing. But what if there is no purpose? What if you've learned every conceivable lesson and undergone every imaginable sanctification and the drumbeat of sorrow continues, with no end in sight? What do you do when the spiritual shepherds who assured you God was preparing a weight of glory through your momentary affliction stammer and look away, no longer able to meet your questions? According to Connors, you stop asking "why?" and start asking "what?" That is, "What good can I bring out of this situation?" Two months ago, I might have dismissed this reframing as trite and Pollyannaish—as a clunky way of chirping, "Look for the silver lining!" But now I'm not so sure. We Christians may have done a great disservice to each other by framing the New Testament's words about suffering as behavior-modification. After all, if God is trying to sanctify us in the sense of weaning us off sin and self, then suffering ought to be more evenly distributed. I don't presume to know how much dross is left in anyone's soul, but surely it's time for God to go work the bellows on someone else. Again and again I asked these kinds of questions. "Why, why, why?" But I never asked "What?" As in, "What if this is the Kingdom work He called me to do?" Connors draws inspiration from Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who said that humans, by nature, have the capacity to draw meaning from any situation. "Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in," Connors paraphrases, "the last of the freedoms that can never be taken from us is the freedom to choose how we respond to the situation." Our response to suffering, she says, can "unleash beauty and creativity—things that are really affirming to what it means not only to be human, but to image God." The reason Christ crucified is the ultimate answer to both sin and sorrow isn't simply that His death absolves us of guilt, although it certainly does. Jesus triumphed in His agony by introducing into our fallen world something it could not possibly swallow: the infinite creative power of redemptive suffering. To lay down your life for a loved one—to keep on turning pages when the story seems to be over— to clutch your faith on that fourth 2 AM drive to the hospital—to look up from your wheelchair and sing like Joni Eareckson Tada—these responses to suffering shake our sin-wracked world and silence the demands for intellectual answers. They do this by following the pattern God established when He gave us His Son instead of a clever theodicy. Our Father is not preparing us for a future battle. We're in the thick of it right now. And our faithfulness and love for one another in the fray are, you know, kind of the point. But this raises a fearful possibility—one that C. S. Lewis explored in his essay, "On the Efficacy of Prayer": What if our kinship with Christ runs as deep as the ancient martyrs believed? What if the strongest Christians should expect the heaviest crosses? What if we are not just likely but certain to find ourselves crying along with Jesus, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" As Lewis concluded, "There is a mystery here which, even if I had the power, I might not have the courage to explore." Perhaps the path to meaning inevitably runs through suffering, and always has. In that case it's comforting to know Someone has blazed the trail.
Jan 21, 2021
Chuck Colson liked to say that the Kingdom of God will never arrive on Air Force One. It's still true. Any reprieve the last few years in the areas of religious liberty and the sanctity of life is coming to an end, and recent events should make the truth of Chuck's statement obvious. Whether politics are upstream or downstream from culture (and the right answer is that it's really both), it is not the vehicle for lasting cultural change. In fact, the history of Christianity shows that lasting cultural change rarely comes about in ways we are expecting. Christian influence requires that Christians cultivate virtue in both our private and public lives. One virtue that once changed the world is patience. In his book, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church , the late Mennonite historian Alan Kreider explained Christianity's extraordinary rise from a beleaguered sect to the movement that transformed the Roman Empire. As one reviewer of Kreider's book put it, "Christianity probably shouldn't exist." Not only did its Roman contemporaries hate the Church, but Christians didn't make it easy to join up. With a stringent moral code and an extended period of catechesis prior to baptism, which only happened one a year around Easter, the Early Church wasn't very "seeker friendly." Yet, it grew. Why? Surprisingly, it wasn't because of an emphasis on evangelism, public preaching, or other missionary activities. The Church Fathers seldom wrote about those subjects, perhaps because they didn't need to. But they did emphasize patience, which Kreider defined as "not controlling events, not anxious or in a hurry, and never using force to achieve [their] ends." If this sounds like a boring and timid church-growth strategy, it wasn't. In the ancient world, patience was a trait associated with subordinates, such as slaves and victims. People at the bottom of the social hierarchy were expected to exercise patience, not those at the top. By emphasizing patience, the Church Fathers mobilized early Christians to be profoundly counter-cultural, which, to borrow a line from the Book of Acts , turned the world upside-down. Patience, enacted in habits such as teaching and worship, produced the "ferment" of Kreider's title. People lived lives that were not only in marked contrast to the lives of their neighbors but were better than those practiced in the larger society. Christians ran towards the plague when others ran away from it. They didn't kill their children, and even adopted children left to die. They treated their spouses and children with love and respect while others treated their own families as little more than household slaves. At the Colson Center's Truth. Love. Together virtual event last year, Andy Crouch marvelously described the patient ferment of the Early Church. As he put it, people took notice and asked Christians "to give an account for the hope that was within them." As a result, the Church grew from being a persecuted sect numbering in the thousands at the end of the first century to half the empire by the start of the fourth. The "patient ferment" of the Early Church transformed the world. As Crouch put it, instead of "fermentation," we often prefer "carbonation," hoping a quick shot of power or a new clever church-growth method will do the trick. There might be some fizz, but the effects are short-lived. The Early Church understood that long-lasting change requires long-lasting effort. It requires understanding that the fruit of our labors may not be seen until after we are gone. It requires that we live for faithfulness, not success. Now none of this means that Christians should abandon the public square or the political process. No one is saying that this exempts us at all. This certainly doesn't exempt us at every level from speaking the truth, and it includes speaking, when necessary, those very hard truths our culture won't tolerate right now. A prime example of cultural fermentation was, of course, British Parliamentarian William Wilberforce. Wilberforce and his committed band of Christian co-laborers worked for decades to abolish the slave trade and restore virtue in the British Empire. Yet, neither he nor his children lived to see the full fruit of their labors. Why should we expect things to be different? Why should we be exempt from the need for patience? We shouldn't. And to think otherwise is to confuse carbonation for fermentation and Air Force One for the Second Coming.
Jan 20, 2021
John and Shane field concerns from listeners related to repairing and restoring relationships inside the church after the recent political season. John and Shane provide pathways of thought to recalibrate our approach to reconnecting with Biblical mandates without building kingdoms. A listener also asked how Christians should respond to the recent censorship from technology companies. There are real civil reasons some speech has been curbed, however what does that do to freedoms and are those freedoms that incite civil unrest worth protecting? John helps identify the contradictions inside the censorship practices impacting citizens and helps organize thinking inside a Biblical framework.
Jan 20, 2021
In July 1864, some 14,000 Confederate troops stood just six miles— within sight — from the Capitol Dome. For President Lincoln, it was a rude shock. After all, this was a year after the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Confederacy seemed near defeat. In the nick of time, 17,000 Union troops dispatched by Ulysses S. Grant arrived and pushed the Confederates back. Washington was saved. Today, as Joe Biden is sworn in as 46th President of the United States, 20,000 National Guardsmen will defend that same Capitol from enraged citizens. It's impossible to understand how we've reached this point, unless we look beyond the last few weeks, even beyond the election, to pre-existing conditions, such as the decades-long thinning of civil society . The most recent lawlessness at the Capitol reflects an escalating lawlessness that spans political parties, religious affiliations, age brackets, and social classes. Will a militarized America be the new normal? Will the armed troops protecting the Citadel of Democracy today be patrolling the streets of rioting cities tomorrow? Will the blatant failures of our institutions and our leaders continue to fester to an explosive level of distrust? Chuck Colson often said that unless a people are governed by the conscience, they will be governed by the constable. When people are unable to govern themselves, they face a choice between order and chaos. Most often, the people ultimate choose order, which inevitably means the loss of freedoms. The freedom to assemble peacefully is impossible to maintain when assemblies frequently turn into riots, looting, or sedition. The freedom of speech seems particularly vulnerable today, when Big Tech wields all the power and decides, like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram already have, to crack down on political speech they deem offensive or dangerous. Last week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke openly about forming a committee to "rein in our media environment," something that should alarm anyone who has ever read any dystopian novel, ever. Our Second Amendment freedoms are most vulnerable when used as cover by mass shooters or insurrectionists. Perhaps the most consistent refrain from America's Founders is that our national experiment would prove unsustainable without a virtuous citizenry. Our Constitution simply cannot govern those who refuse to govern themselves. John Adams, our second President, said it most clearly: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Yet, Americans are becoming increasingly immoral and irreligious, our shocking lack of conscience is on display in rising numbers of both "deaths from despair" (addictions, self-harm and suicide) and "acts of desperation" (violent acts, riots, self-mutilation in pursuit of identity or sexual pleasure). We pump poisonous ideas into our hearts and minds and call it entertainment. We pump lies into our children and call it education. In other words, America is in a dark, deeply divided place, a place Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn accurately described in his 1978 speech at Harvard. We have, he said, very "little defense against the abyss of human decadence…such as the misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, such as motion pictures full of pornography, crime, and horror." Even strict laws, said Solzhenitsyn (and, I might add, 20,000 National Guard troops), are powerless to defend a people against such moral corrosion. The situation is dire, but not without hope. As Chuck Colson often said, despair is a sin. Christ is risen from the dead. God, in his gracious goodness, has revealed to us what is true and what is good. He has given us His Word and, through prayer, He has made Himself available to us. Today, the Colson Center is launching a time of prayer, which will continue every week until Easter. Each week, often led by our ministry colleagues, we'll pray according to the profound instruction God has given us in the book of Proverbs. We launch this today , and you can learn all about it at breakpoint.org/proverbs. The devolution of our collective conscience may continue. The replacement of constitutional rights with constables might be inevitable. May it never be! But even if so, may God's people not be reduced to outrage or cowardice. May we be the reservoir of strength and renewal our nation so desperately needs.
Jan 19, 2021
Recently, police in Hong Kong arrested 53 pro-democracy activists for holding a primary election. The Communist Chinese government made the sweep of political opponents under cover of its new national security law . The same day as these arrests, China-based tech firm Alibaba's stock jumped 30 percent when word circulated that Jack Ma, Alibaba's eccentric founder, might actually be alive. Ma vanished two months ago after publicly criticizing China's banking system. Apparently, stockholders had assumed the Chinese Communist Party killed him. Juxtaposed to these stories was a New York Times article that ran the same week describing everyday life in China now that the Coronavirus is nearly nonexistent there. The headline of the article was, "In a Topsy-Turvy Pandemic World, China Offers Its Version of Freedom." Underneath the headline was this summary: "Surveillance and censorship bolster Beijing's uncompromising grip on power. But in the country's cities and streets, people have resumed normal lives." Hmmm. According to the veteran reporter, life in the Communist country now resembles "what 'normal' was like in the pre-pandemic world." "Restaurants are packed," she wrote. "Hotels are full. Long lines form outside luxury brands stores. Instead of Zoom calls, people are meeting face to face to talk business or celebrate the new year." Yes, the Times reporter admitted (via a few throwaway lines early in her report), "Chinese citizens don't have freedom of speech, freedom of worship, or even freedom from fear," but they do have the freedom to "lead a normal day-to-day life." In the book I co-authored with Brett Kunkle, A Practical Guide to Culture , we wrote that "the battle of ideas begins with the battle over definitions." How we define certain words is incredibly consequential. It's jarring to consider just how malleable definitions of words such as "freedom" have become. Pro-democracy activists are arrested by the dozens… a billionaire tech CEO is presumed missing after criticizing his government… but shopping at a designer store without a mask is freedom? For the record, even if we granted the Times the benefit of the doubt here, China still wouldn't live up to the Times's grotesquely skewed definition of freedom. An estimated one million (and counting) Muslim Uighurs are currently detained in concentration camps in Xinjiang province. Inmates are forced into physical labor and sometimes tortured. Women, according to reports, are often forcibly sterilized or forced to undergo abortions. Even according to the New York Times definition, the Uighurs are anything but free. The Chinese government is, of course, well-known for playing loose with language. In a now-removed tweet, the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. recently claimed that their holocaust-like treatment of Uighur women had, in fact, liberated them because, after all, they were now more open to abortion. Even Twitter thought that crossed a line. Even so, the way this New York Times piece defined freedom down commits another error. Any grammar nerd will blanche at a rhetorical redundancy, such as, for example, the phrase "completely destroyed." That's because there aren't degrees of destruction. Something is either destroyed or it isn't, no qualifier is necessary. Freedom is similar. The ability to shop at a mall while not being able to worship, speak, or assemble isn't freedom. This is not to say that freedom is without limits. No one is "free" to murder or yell "fire" in a crowded theater. In fact, the definition of freedom increasingly embraced across the West—that we are free from rules, from consequences, from restraint, or from truth itself—is actually license . As the apostle Paul says, license only enslaves us. True freedom isn't freedom from but freedom for… the freedom for living fully into our created design. Christians, of all people, should be able to clearly and accurately define freedom. Better yet, we must be able to show what freedom is . Our brothers and sisters in China are not free to worship together on Sundays without fear or oversight. American Christians who don't live Monday to Saturday as if Jesus is Lord aren't free, either, if freedom ends up being nothing more than enslavement to every passing fad. True freedom is only in Christ, in seeing and living all of life as if it belongs to Him. Even when new COVID-19 cases across the globe finally reach zero, we'll only be truly free if the Son has set us free. Then we are free indeed.
Jan 18, 2021
In an eloquent defense of life, marriage, and religious liberty known as The Manhattan Declaration, authors Chuck Colson, Professor Robert George, and Dr. Timothy George wrote, "There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail." Recently, new allegations from biographer and historian Dr. David Garrow have escalated concerns about Dr. King's moral failings, especially his sexual exploits and mistreatment of women. Many Christians are also rightly troubled by Dr. King's unorthodox theological views, especially his views about the resurrection of Christ and salvation that are outside of historic Christianity. At the same time, as a work of moral philosophy, Colson and the Georges are absolutely correct about their assessment of Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." It is unparalleled in its clarity about the nature of law, what constitutes an unjust law, and our responsibility to respond to unjust laws. Twenty years ago, Chuck Colson reflected on Dr. King's legacy, and the most important contributions from his Letter from a Birmingham Jail : Here is Chuck Colson: "A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is out of harmony with the moral law." It was with these very words, in his memorable "Letter from the Birmingham Jail," that Martin Luther King, Jr., threw down the gauntlet in his great Civil Rights crusade. King refused to obey what he regarded as an immoral law that did not square with the law of God. All across America today, millions of people are celebrating the birthday of this courageous man, and deservedly so. He was a fearless battler for truth, and all of us are in his debt because he remedied past wrongs and brought millions of Americans into the full riches of citizenship. In schools and on courthouse steps, people will be quoting his "I Have a Dream" speech today. It is an elegant and powerful classic. But I would suggest that one of Dr. King's greatest accomplishments, one which will be little mentioned today because it has suddenly become "politically incorrect," is his advocacy of the true moral foundations of law. King defended the transcendent source of the law's authority. In doing so he took a conservative Christian view of law. In fact, he was perhaps the most eloquent advocate of this viewpoint in his time, as, interestingly, Justice Clarence Thomas may be today. Writing from a jail cell, King declared that the code of justice is not man's law: It is God's law. Imagine a politician making such a comment today. We all remember the controversy that erupted weeks ago when George W. Bush made reference to his Christian faith in a televised national debate. But King built his whole case on the argument, set forth by St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, that "An unjust law is no law at all." To be just, King argued, our laws must always reflect God's Law. This is the great issue today in the public square: Is the law rooted in truth? Is it transcendent, immutable, and morally binding? Or is it, as liberal interpreters have suggested, simply what courts say it is? Do we discover the law, or do we create it? Ever since Dr. King's day, the United States Supreme Court has been moving us step-by-step away from the positions of this great Civil Rights leader. To continue in this direction, as I have written, can only lead to disastrous consequences—indeed, the loss of self-governing democracy. So, I would challenge each of us today to use this occasion to reflect not just on his great crusade for Civil Rights but also on Martin Luther King's wisdom in bringing law back to its moral foundations. Many think of King as some kind of liberal firebrand, but when it comes to the law he was a great conservative who stood on the shoulders of Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine, striving without apology to restore our heritage of justice. This is a story I tell in my book, How Now Shall We Live?: a great moment in history when a courageous man applied the law of God to the unjust laws of our time, and made a difference. And that is the lesson we should teach our kids on this holiday. It is not just another day off from school or a day to go to the mall." That was Chuck Colson. Read through King's letter today. Discuss it with your kids. I think you will find it to be an incredibly important civics lesson. This commentary by Chuck Colson's first aired February 18, 1998.
Jan 18, 2021
In the past, Civil religion united America. Not anymore. Following a recent exchange on Twitter, John Stonestreet called on Mark Tooley and Andrew Walker to discuss the current political movements, including Christian nationalism, and how they impact Christianity. Tooley and Walker discuss the future of America in a post-Christian, pseudo-Christian context. The pair believe there needs to be a resurgence in building institutional Christianity to counter the prevailing individualism of our age. Together they call for a greater unity in the Church to provide stronger discipleship in online relationships. They both believe there needs to be better thinking in political involvement, sharing that we're likely giving Washington way more of our attention than it deserves. Mark Tooley is the President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) – Editor of IRD's magazine Providence. Dr. Andrew Walker is the Associate professor of Christian Ethics and Apologetics, Associate Dean for the School of Theology, and the Director of the Carl F H Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Jan 15, 2021
There are deaths from despair and acts of desperation that mark this cultural moment. Some are lacking peace and many are struggling to find hope from our cultural institutions and leaders. John Stonestreet invites Maria Baer to discuss the challenges we and our loved ones face currently. The two also identify how the Christian worldview offers great perspective and encompassing hope to participate in our modern world. John and Maria also visit on the role of family and the challenges to thin society. Maria highlights that some might call a challenging person 'toxic'. In doing this many will avoid seeking restoration. John highlights how this thinking has flowed downstream and is greatly impacting how Christians live in church, culture, and even their own families. To close John spends significant time discussing the persecution of Christians around the world. He notes Open Doors' World Watch List, an orderly explanation and ranking of persecution across the globe.
Jan 15, 2021
A little more than a week after the storming of the Capitol, five Americans have died, the House of Representatives has impeached the President for a second time, Twitter and other social platforms have permanently banned the sitting President of the United States, Amazon Web Services shut down alternative social media site Parler, and National Guard forces are being deployed, with 15,000 troops scheduled to surround the Capitol because, according to the FBI, armed groups are planning to protest the Inauguration, not only in Washington, D.C., but in all fifty states. There are immediate causes, of course, for the chaos that unfolded last Wednesday. Over 70 million Americans are unhappy with and deeply worried about the implications of the presidential election and, no less important, the Georgia Senate runoffs. Among that number, a sizeable group believes the election was stolen , and just-as-deeply dis believe all media personalities, investigators, elected officials of either party, or judges who say otherwise. Among that group, agitators, after making their violent intentions clear on social media, successfully incited Trump supporters to mob the Capitol. Still, even the most-crafty agitator can only agitate a crowd that is agitate- able . One of the main headlines, not just of Wednesday but all of 2020, is just how dangerously on-edge Americans are. Only an analysis that looks beyond the rage of this day or that day, one that takes seriously the " pre-existing conditions " of our national tinderbox, will ultimately be helpful in pulling us back from the precipice. For decades, sociologists have warned just how thin American civil society has become, replaced by a growing individualism that isolates Americans from the relationships and loyalties that once nurtured a thick social fabric. This is an unsustainable path. The collapse of the family, declining church attendance, institutions losing their integrity and our trust, and the various technological vortices keeping us from our neighbors are all catalytic factors in what's been rightly called "deaths from despair" (increasing suicide rates , loneliness , addictions ) and could be called "acts of desperation" ( mass violence , rioting , and self-mutilation ). As civil society thins and as Americans become less connected to the pre -political aspects of life, the cultural weight lands on politics. To put it bluntly, our politics cannot handle the amount of weight we currently expect of it. As a result, we are experiencing two unsustainable consequences. First, a culture that lacks the necessary resources to produce good citizens and cultivate self-control. Family, Church, community life, and volunteer groups play many roles in a society, but none more important than in providing a vision of what it means to live together, advancing things like civility and the common good. Now this point should be obvious, but the state cannot function for long without good citizens. After all, it has no resources of its own, other than power. And yet, just as the state needs a moral citizenry to keep it from abusing its power, citizens need a properly functioning state to secure rights and liberty. The state, in and of itself, is wholly inadequate to produce the citizens it needs in order to function well. That must be done elsewhere, and herein lies an essential ingredient of our current crisis. Second, when too much weight of a culture is placed on politics, when people turn exclusively (or even primarily ) to politics to define and solve their problems or secure their hope, the stakes become too high. A zero-sum, winner-take-all, win-or-die kind of politics that places too much weight on the next election, the next bill, the next scandal, the next "breaking story from Washington. The anxiety level too much for people to bear . On the opposite extreme from those who want to remove Christians from politics, are those Christians who think political levers should be used as power plays. But that's merely Christianizing a secular methodology; it will never work. If we hope to be part of a solution and not add kindling to this explosive environment, we'll need clear and compelling teaching on what politics is ultimately for, what it's not for, and how it fits in the larger economy of pre-political realities and institutions. To be clear, difficult days lie ahead for anyone committed to the sanctity of human life, sexual restraint, or religious freedom. In our political and pre-political efforts, then, what the world needs most, as Chuck Colson said, is for the Church to be the Church. The thinning of civil society is our nation's greatest challenge. It is also among the Church's greatest opportunities. We've been appointed to this time and this place (Acts 17:26), but others have gone before us, and we must learn from them. We need not re-invent the wheel (or, as one of my colleagues likes to say, the flat tire). Like those whose remarkable faith is now sight, we must roll-up our sleeves and double down on loving God and neighbor, proclaiming what is true and elevating what is good, fighting for what matters but never placing our hope horses, chariots, or elections. Only in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who was and is and is to come.
Jan 15, 2021
A little more than a week after the storming of the Capitol, five Americans have died, the House of Representatives has impeached the President for a second time, Twitter and other social platforms have permanently banned the sitting President of the United States, Amazon Web Services shut down alternative social media site Parler, and National Guard forces are being deployed, with 15,000 troops scheduled to surround the Capitol because, according to the FBI, armed groups are planning to protest the Inauguration, not only in Washington, D.C., but in all fifty states. There are immediate causes, of course, for the chaos that unfolded last Wednesday. Over 70 million Americans are unhappy with and deeply worried about the implications of the presidential election and, no less important, the Georgia Senate runoffs. Among that number, a sizeable group believes the election was stolen , and just-as-deeply dis believe all media personalities, investigators, elected officials of either party, or judges who say otherwise. Among that group, agitators, after making their violent intentions clear on social media, successfully incited Trump supporters to mob the Capitol. Still, even the most-crafty agitator can only agitate a crowd that is agitate- able . One of the main headlines, not just of Wednesday but all of 2020, is just how dangerously on-edge Americans are. Only an analysis that looks beyond the rage of this day or that day, one that takes seriously the " pre-existing conditions " of our national tinderbox, will ultimately be helpful in pulling us back from the precipice. For decades, sociologists have warned just how thin American civil society has become, replaced by a growing individualism that isolates Americans from the relationships and loyalties that once nurtured a thick social fabric. This is an unsustainable path. The collapse of the family, declining church attendance, institutions losing their integrity and our trust, and the various technological vortices keeping us from our neighbors are all catalytic factors in what's been rightly called "deaths from despair" (increasing suicide rates , loneliness , addictions ) and could be called "acts of desperation" ( mass violence , rioting , and self-mutilation ). As civil society thins and as Americans become less connected to the pre -political aspects of life, the cultural weight lands on politics. To put it bluntly, our politics cannot handle the amount of weight we currently expect of it. As a result, we are experiencing two unsustainable consequences. First, a culture that lacks the necessary resources to produce good citizens and cultivate self-control. Family, Church, community life, and volunteer groups play many roles in a society, but none more important than in providing a vision of what it means to live together, advancing things like civility and the common good. Now this point should be obvious, but the state cannot function for long without good citizens. After all, it has no resources of its own, other than power. And yet, just as the state needs a moral citizenry to keep it from abusing its power, citizens need a properly functioning state to secure rights and liberty. The state, in and of itself, is wholly inadequate to produce the citizens it needs in order to function well. That must be done elsewhere, and herein lies an essential ingredient of our current crisis. Second, when too much weight of a culture is placed on politics, when people turn exclusively (or even primarily ) to politics to define and solve their problems or secure their hope, the stakes become too high. A zero-sum, winner-take-all, win-or-die kind of politics that places too much weight on the next election, the next bill, the next scandal, the next "breaking story from Washington. The anxiety level too much for people to bear . On the opposite extreme from those who want to remove Christians from politics, are those Christians who think political levers should be used as power plays. But that's merely Christianizing a secular methodology; it will never work. If we hope to be part of a solution and not add kindling to this explosive environment, we'll need clear and compelling teaching on what politics is ultimately for, what it's not for, and how it fits in the larger economy of pre-political realities and institutions. To be clear, difficult days lie ahead for anyone committed to the sanctity of human life, sexual restraint, or religious freedom. In our political and pre-political efforts, then, what the world needs most, as Chuck Colson said, is for the Church to be the Church. The thinning of civil society is our nation's greatest challenge. It is also among the Church's greatest opportunities. We've been appointed to this time and this place (Acts 17:26), but others have gone before us, and we must learn from them. We need not re-invent the wheel (or, as one of my colleagues likes to say, the flat tire). Like those whose remarkable faith is now sight, we must roll-up our sleeves and double down on loving God and neighbor, proclaiming what is true and elevating what is good, fighting for what matters but never placing our hope horses, chariots, or elections. Only in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who was and is and is to come.
Jan 14, 2021
A recent headline that isn't exactly news announced the findings of a recent Gallup study : "Americans Remain Distrustful of Mass Media." Six out of ten Americans trust the media either "not very much" or "not at all" when it comes to reporting the news fairly and accurately. Truth be told, I'm among those six. I'm tired of bias, of opinion pieces masquerading as reporting, of buried leads and hysterical fearmongering. Apparently, many Americans are tired of these things, too. Last year, a major news network flashed this caption , "Fiery but mostly peaceful protests after police shooting," as its reporter stood in front of buildings that were burning to the ground. Last week, America's paper of record ran a glowing piece on freedom in China , where people may not have freedom of religion, speech, or assembly but enjoy going to nightclubs thanks to their dictator's handling of COVID. And don't get even get me started on the news coverage of the events this week. Watching or reading different news sources today is like watching and reading about completely different worlds. If aliens landed in America tomorrow, they'd have no idea what the truth is about this country. They wouldn't even be able to report back to their leaders about whether or not actress Tanya Roberts had died or not! That last little anecdote brings up another challenge we all face: the sheer volume of noise we are forced to navigate. The Washington Post alone publishes an average of 500 news stories every single day . Add to that The New York Times, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, FoxNews, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, not to mention the ever-present and sometimes-tempting clickbait everywhere, and the noise is simply overwhelming. More and more, Americans have turned to social media and news aggregators out of sheer desperation. These tools do offer help navigating the volume, but they don't offer wisdom. Increasingly, these tools become echo chambers. Recently, Pew Research found that nearly half of Americans are unable to determine whether their news sources do their own original reporting. We must bear in mind what Paul said in his speech to the Athenians in Acts 17: God intentionally places us all in particular times and particular places in history. Engaged, thoughtful Christians must not only stay informed about those trends, issues, and stories that truly matter, they must discern between those that matter and those that don't. And that's not all. We also somehow have to navigate the constant worldview spins we are subjected to by media sources. Chuck Colson first founded BreakPoint to illustrate that this sort of worldview analysis of contemporary events was not only possible but necessary and incredibly helpful. Let me be clear: We cannot do this work, which we love , without the help of faithful partners. One of the most critical partners we have in this task is the WORLD News Group and WORLD magazine. WORLD is a critical source of news and thoughtful analysis. The BreakPoint team relies on it. WORLD does journalism from a Christian worldview without the click-bait and without the hype. Their print magazine, online articles, and daily podcast, "The World and Everything in It" (which I join weekly as a guest commentator) features clear reporting, news coverage of stories that matter, and a recognition of the central role of faith and religion in contemporary society. This month, any gift of $19 or more to BreakPoint and the Colson Center, provides a one-year subscription to WORLD magazine that you can keep for yourself or gift to a friend or family member. So, if you already subscribe to WORLD, and I hope you do, you can bless someone else with a resource you know they will enjoy and can rely on. Come to BreakPoint.org/January2021 to get a one-year subscription to WORLD with your next gift to BreakPoint and the Colson Center. This commentary originally aired on January 8, 2021
Jan 14, 2021
A recent headline that isn't exactly news announced the findings of a recent Gallup study : "Americans Remain Distrustful of Mass Media." Six out of ten Americans trust the media either "not very much" or "not at all" when it comes to reporting the news fairly and accurately. Truth be told, I'm among those six. I'm tired of bias, of opinion pieces masquerading as reporting, of buried leads and hysterical fearmongering. Apparently, many Americans are tired of these things, too. Last year, a major news network flashed this caption , "Fiery but mostly peaceful protests after police shooting," as its reporter stood in front of buildings that were burning to the ground. Last week, America's paper of record ran a glowing piece on freedom in China , where people may not have freedom of religion, speech, or assembly but enjoy going to nightclubs thanks to their dictator's handling of COVID. And don't get even get me started on the news coverage of the events this week. Watching or reading different news sources today is like watching and reading about completely different worlds. If aliens landed in America tomorrow, they'd have no idea what the truth is about this country. They wouldn't even be able to report back to their leaders about whether or not actress Tanya Roberts had died or not! That last little anecdote brings up another challenge we all face: the sheer volume of noise we are forced to navigate. The Washington Post alone publishes an average of 500 news stories every single day . Add to that The New York Times, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, FoxNews, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, not to mention the ever-present and sometimes-tempting clickbait everywhere, and the noise is simply overwhelming. More and more, Americans have turned to social media and news aggregators out of sheer desperation. These tools do offer help navigating the volume, but they don't offer wisdom. Increasingly, these tools become echo chambers. Recently, Pew Research found that nearly half of Americans are unable to determine whether their news sources do their own original reporting. We must bear in mind what Paul said in his speech to the Athenians in Acts 17: God intentionally places us all in particular times and particular places in history. Engaged, thoughtful Christians must not only stay informed about those trends, issues, and stories that truly matter, they must discern between those that matter and those that don't. And that's not all. We also somehow have to navigate the constant worldview spins we are subjected to by media sources. Chuck Colson first founded BreakPoint to illustrate that this sort of worldview analysis of contemporary events was not only possible but necessary and incredibly helpful. Let me be clear: We cannot do this work, which we love , without the help of faithful partners. One of the most critical partners we have in this task is the WORLD News Group and WORLD magazine. WORLD is a critical source of news and thoughtful analysis. The BreakPoint team relies on it. WORLD does journalism from a Christian worldview without the click-bait and without the hype. Their print magazine, online articles, and daily podcast, "The World and Everything in It" (which I join weekly as a guest commentator) features clear reporting, news coverage of stories that matter, and a recognition of the central role of faith and religion in contemporary society. This month, any gift of $19 or more to BreakPoint and the Colson Center, provides a one-year subscription to WORLD magazine that you can keep for yourself or gift to a friend or family member. So, if you already subscribe to WORLD, and I hope you do, you can bless someone else with a resource you know they will enjoy and can rely on. Come to BreakPoint.org/January2021 to get a one-year subscription to WORLD with your next gift to BreakPoint and the Colson Center. This commentary originally aired on January 8, 2021
Jan 13, 2021
John and Shane address a main question about whether or not the constitution is actually functioning? They identify how the Constitution reflects the design by God. John highlights that a consistent theme from the founding fathers and founding documents is that it is made for a type of person. John and Shane then spend time fielding a listener question on the design of men and women. The two spend time explaining what men and women are designed to do and then highlight how they are equipped to live according to their design. They address the brokenness of the world, noting that humanity was created before it was fallen, but fallen is the state we're living in and our cultural realities illuminate that reality. They end in hope in Christ, reflecting on other times in history that times were bleak and cultures wholly broken, but God made His name known, evident, and provides salvation for humanity.
Jan 13, 2021
Recently, a Wisconsin pharmacist was arrested for attempting to destroy hundreds of vials of the COVID-19 vaccine. He feared the vaccine could change the DNA of anyone who received it. Fears and rumors and worries about the safety and the ethics of the various COVID-19 vaccines are understandable. After all, no vaccine has ever moved into distribution this quickly, and much has been made about the new approach to vaccination take by the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. And, of course, elected officials aren't always trusted in our culture. Just before Christmas, I asked friend, former teacher, and trusted bioethicist Dr. C. Ben Mitchell to walk through the ethics of the COVID-19 vaccines on the BreakPoint Podcast . I've known Dr. Mitchell for years. I know him to be careful and measured, while also theologically faithful. I know him to seek out the best sources for his information while also being wary of what is the Achilles heel of modern medical technologies: unexpected consequences. Our conversation went for over an hour, but that's what I was hoping for: a careful, measured, informed and thorough look at the various ethical questions that have arisen because of the COVID-19 vaccines. For example, the unprecedented speed at which the various vaccines were developed, reducing a process that often takes years to mere months, is an extraordinary accomplishment. Still, it's perfectly reasonable to wonder if ethical and safety corners were cut to bring the vaccine to market so fast. That's one of the things we talked about that. At the top of the list for most Christians, me included, is whether or not cells from aborted fetuses were used in the development of the vaccines. Citing the extensive research on the issue by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute , Mitchell agrees that the vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna are "ethically uncontroversial," a position affirmed by the U.S. Catholic Bishops. In our interview, Dr. Mitchell not only walks through the data, but offers a mini-course in unraveling these sorts of ethical complexities. We also spent extended time discussing the new mRNA approach used by some of the vaccines. Until now, vaccines have worked by introducing a weakened or inactivated version of the virus to trigger an immune response, which then creates an immunity to the illness in our bodies. These COVID vaccines use messenger RNA (mRNA) to teach our cells how to make proteins that, in turn, trigger an immune response and subsequently create immunity. This approach, while new to vaccines, has been used for years in other treatments, including cancer treatments. The novelty of using this approach in vaccines has caused confusion and concern. Dr. Mitchell walks through it with in clear and understandable terms. Concern has also been raised about the possible effect the vaccines could have on pregnant women. According to the CDC, "only limited data are available on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines . . . administered during pregnancy." According to Dr. Mitchell, this is also because of the unprecedented speed at which the vaccine was developed and approved, not because of any known problems such as long-term infertility. And that is one of the outstanding questions about the COVID-19 vaccines. Whereas the safety protocols for short-term and mid-term results are pretty clear, the long-term results cannot be. A final topic we discussed is whether or not COVID vaccinations would be mandated, either directly by the state or in directly by schools, colleges, airlines, and corporations. This introduces yet another ethical issue surrounding the vaccine, one made more acute by the medical community's overall embrace of vaccines as a preventative strategy. In the end, concerns over the COVID vaccines are understandable. Ends do not justify immoral or unethical means, and ethical consideration is absolutely necessary, but it must be informed by truth rather than overtaken by fears or conspiracy theories. You may not agree with Dr. Mitchell's conclusion that Christians, unless doctors indicate otherwise, should get the vaccine, especially out of concern and love for their neighbor. Even so, I think anyone who takes the time to listen will find the ground covered by this interview very helpful in understanding the issues. Please come to BreakPoint.org to hear my entire conversation with bioethicist Dr. Ben Mitchell.
Jan 12, 2021
It remains to be seen which of the COVID-caused disruptions to our previous way of life will permanently change things. For example, while parents of small children don't miss the popcorn prices, it still feels a bit strange for a brand-new movie to go straight to the living room instead of the theatre. Still, Disney-Pixar's latest release, Soul, is easily worth breaking out the Orville Redenbacher. Pixar has a reputation (and a knack) for telling great stories. In fact, let's play name that film … a toy dealing with a midlife crisis? A fish with short-term memory loss? An unlikely pair on an unusual flight to South America in a house ? Or a rat who becomes an award-winning chef? Though these storylines may seem unlikely fits for children movies, Pixar consistently produces creative and touching animation. Some of the best in our culture, in fact. Their films are also, frequently, countercultural. A dominant theme running through Pixar's canon is the journey to find one's life purpose. The deafening message across most of pop culture, especially in films and music aimed at kids, is to "look inside," "follow your dreams" and "trust your heart." In contrast, Pixar's most memorable characters face disappointment, frustration, and even the death of their dreams. In fact, death is a recurring theme in Pixar features. I don't want to give away too much, but Soul is no exception. The main character in this urban jazz-scene-themed story dies almost out of the gate, just as he is on the cusp of his big break as a musician. Right when it seems like his life is about to start, it ends. The rest of this heartwarming and surprisingly hilarious movie is spent wrestling with the question, "Do our lives have meaning if we never achieve our 'purpose'?" Director and Pixar veteran Pete Docter's answers by giving a heavenly perspective on what a life well-lived means. Instead of Clarence earning his wings by showing George Bailey what life would look like without him, Soul shows a musician the wonder of his life by letting him see someone else live it. In the end, just like in Frank Capra's classic, meaning is not found by acquiring fame or financial success. Rather, meaning is found in learning to see life's inherent but overlooked wonders, and by learning to love the life he's actually been given (which, in his case, includes bad middle school music, New York Pizza, a dingy apartment, a loving and opinionated mother, among other things). To be clear, as a few Christian reviewers have pointed out, Soul's excellent lesson comes wrapped in New Age mysticism like "chakras" and "astral planes," and the idea of pre-existing souls in some vast "Great Before." Even though Soul presents these ideas with a good bit of goofiness, parents will want to talk through the movie's theological errors. As a point of reference, evangelicals have long quibbled with C.S. Lewis over The Great Divorce because of its portrayal of Purgatory. Yet those who get stuck in the setting and never take the rest of his story seriously means miss out on one of his best works, not to mention lessons as relevant for this life as for the next. In one scene in Soul , some so-called "lost souls" coated in their obsessions and insecurities wander through a spiritual dimension, oblivious to all around them. We get more than a hint that this is a kind of "hell," the fate of those who "follow their dreams" or succumb to their fears at the expense of everything and everyone else. The whole scene is a profound and subtle rebuke of one of our culture's central and mistaken assumptions, that meaning can be measured by paychecks and popularity. In the end, the film echoes one of Christianity's central insights: that all of life, when lived for a higher purpose, is sacred. As William Tyndale said, "… to wash dishes and to preach is all one, as touching the deed, to please God." After a year of disappointments, cancelled plans, and dashed hopes, this redemptive message is one many need to hear. The zany cartoon metaphysics of Disney-Pixar's latest film by seem a bit odd, but trust me, this one has a Christian soul.
Jan 11, 2021
In this cultural moment John called for a re-air of an interview with Ross Douthat. Douthat identifies that we live in a decadent society. But when you think of the word "decadent," you probably are thinking, lavish, immoral, wasteful, etc. But that's not exactly what Douthat means. What he means is a society that is prosperous, powerful, and stuck . Stuck in an economic rut, a creative rut, a political rut; a society that is running out of spiritual and intellectual energy. Today on the BreakPoint Podcast, John Stonestreet talks with Douthat about his new book, "The Decadent Society: How We Became Victims of Our Own Success."
Jan 11, 2021
In this cultural moment John called for a re-air of an interview with Ross Douthat. Douthat identifies that we live in a decadent society. But when you think of the word "decadent," you probably are thinking, lavish, immoral, wasteful, etc. But that's not exactly what Douthat means. What he means is a society that is prosperous, powerful, and stuck . Stuck in an economic rut, a creative rut, a political rut; a society that is running out of spiritual and intellectual energy. Today on the BreakPoint Podcast, John Stonestreet talks with Douthat about his new book, "The Decadent Society: How We Became Victims of Our Own Success."
Jan 11, 2021
Two days before Christmas, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries confirmed that its founder had engaged in sexual misconduct over the course of many years. Ravi, a highly regarded speaker, author, and apologist, died a few months ago. In its initial "interim" report RZIM leadership not only confirmed the allegations but promised a full and thorough final report. Like so many others, I'm devastated. Ravi was not only a significant personal influence for me, he was a great friend of this ministry for years. In fact, he was a guest on one of the last radio broadcasts I co-hosted with Chuck Colson. I remember beginning the interview apologizing for all the times I inadvertently plagiarized him over the years. When Ravi died, the Colson Center honored him in a number of ways. At the time, there were initial allegations that had been investigated and dismissed. We trusted the information provided to us. We were wrong. I believed and shared excuses for Robby's behavior, and in doing that, I misled others. There is no sugar-coating, excusing, or explaining away Ravi's behavior. It was sinful. It was wicked. And, it was folly, which is one of words Proverbs uses to describe sin. Simply put, our sin makes us foolish. Buried in sin, we actually think that, for the first time in human history, we will be the ones to get away with it. And, Ravi's sin left victims. The most harm was done directly to those women he abused, human beings made in the image of God and for whom Christ died. Other victims include family, friends, and the disillusioned around the world who benefitted from Ravi's teaching. Last week, a BreakPoint listener emailed us asking how we should respond to cases like this, when a Christian leader or teacher is caught in sexual misconduct. Is it possible to separate the good that they've done and the truth they've taught from the person and their sin? And, what about in cases such as this, when the perpetrator is gone and has no further opportunity to acknowledge his sins, repent, and seek forgiveness? Last week on the BreakPoint Podcast , Shane Morris and I attempted to offer an answer. You can listen at BreakPoint.org or wherever you get your podcasts. We need not deny that Ravi's teaching helped many Christians make sense of the faith, deal with their doubts, and engage other people with the Gospel, while we also acknowledge the truths revealed by this tragedy, including the truth about who we are as fallen human beings. Pastors and Christian leaders, as Shane pointed out, are not "made of finer clay" than anyone else. So, any sort of righteous indignation or superiority we're tempted to feel toward the fallen should be quickly overwhelmed by an important and humbling admission: There, but for the Grace of God, go any of us . Another point to consider, on a Christian worldview analysis level, is that, to borrow a phrase popularized by Christian educator Arthur Holmes , "all truth is God's truth." In other words, if Ravi Zacharias ever said anything true in his life, and of course he did, he was not its source but only its medium. Any truth, all truth comes ultimately from God, outside of time or place or context. A postmodern worldview, in contrast, relativizes truth to cultural settings or individuals. In other words, truth is not absolute. And, if truth is dependent on the shifting sands of attitudes, beliefs, perceptions of a culture or an individual, anything we build on it must collapse when any of those things do. The Christian view is that Truth, even when delivered by sinful creatures, is as eternal and unchanging as God Himself. Of course, that truth about truth doesn't make what has happened any less painful, disorienting, or consequential. Just because the truth that has been spoken remains true does not mean the privilege of speaking the truth as a ministry or church leader (and it is an incredible privilege) should continue for anyone. And speaking the truth is an enormous responsibility. Finally, let's be reminded again, especially those among us granted some degree of leadership, that we must be accountable to others. We must not trust ourselves, but only God and His Spirit. Pray for your pastor, church leaders, spouse, and whomever else God has placed in your life, that He would protect them from the real and ever-present temptations that could harm them, others, and their witness for Christ. And, please, pray for Ravi's victims, for his family, and RZIM.
Jan 8, 2021
This is not how we wanted to start 2021, with the Capitol of the United States of America being overrun by a violent mob. John Stonestreet and Shane Morris discuss the turbulent past few days and wonder whether Americans now have the moral and ethical wherewithal to govern ourselves. They also reflect on the truth that achieving freedom is not rare in history: Maintaining that freedom is. Also on today's episode: What Democratic control of the Senate means for Christians; China's brutal and perhaps final crackdown on freedom in Hong Kong; plus John's and Shane's recommendations for the week: The Book of Proverbs and Pixar's new animated film, Soul.
Jan 8, 2021
A recent headline that isn't exactly news announced the findings of a recent Gallup study : "Americans Remain Distrustful of Mass Media." Six out of ten Americans trust the media either "not very much" or "not at all" when it comes to reporting the news fairly and accurately. Truth be told, I'm among those six. I'm tired of bias, of opinion pieces masquerading as reporting, of buried leads and hysterical fearmongering. Apparently, many Americans are tired of these things, too. Last year, a major news network flashed this caption, "Fiery but mostly peaceful protests after police shooting," as its reporter stood in front of buildings that were burning to the ground. Last week, America's paper of record ran a glowing piece on freedom in China , where people may not have freedom of religion, speech, or assembly but enjoy going to nightclubs thanks to their dictators' handling of COVID. And don't get even get me started on the news coverage of the events this week. Watching or reading different news sources today is like watching and reading about completely different worlds. If aliens landed in America tomorrow, they'd have no idea what the truth is about this country. They wouldn't even be able to report back to their leaders about whether or not actress Tanya Roberts had died or not! That last little anecdote brings up another challenge we all face: the sheer volume of noise we are forced to navigate. The Washington Post alone publishes an average of 500 news stories every single day . Add to that The New York Times, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, FoxNews, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, not to mention the ever-present and sometimes-tempting clickbait everywhere, and the noise is simply overwhelming. More and more, Americans have turned to social media and news aggregators out of sheer desperation. These tools do offer help navigating the volume, but they don't offer wisdom. Increasingly, these tools become echo chambers. Recently, Pew Research found that nearly half of Americans are unable to determine whether their news sources do their own original reporting. Even so, we must bear in mind what Paul said in his speech to the Athenians in Acts 17: God intentionally places us all in particular times and particular places in history. Engaged, thoughtful Christians not only must stay informed about those trends, issues, and stories that truly matter, they must discern between those that matter and those that don't. And that's not all. We also somehow have to navigate the constant worldview spins we are subjected to by media sources. Chuck Colson first founded BreakPoint to illustrate that this sort of worldview analysis of contemporary events was not only possible but necessary and incredibly helpful. Let me be clear: We cannot do this work, which we love , without the help of faithful partners. One of the most critical partners we have in this task is the WORLD News Group and WORLD magazine. WORLD is a critical source of news and thoughtful analysis. The BreakPoint team relies on it. WORLD does journalism from a Christian worldview without the click-bait and without the hype. Their print magazine, online articles, and daily podcast, "The World and Everything in It" (which I join weekly as a guest commentator) features clear reporting, news coverage of stories that matter, and a recognition of the central role of faith and religion in contemporary society. This month, any gift of $19 or more to BreakPoint and the Colson Center, provides a one-year subscription to WORLD magazine that you can keep for yourself or gift to a friend or family member. So, if you already subscribe to WORLD, and I hope you do, you can bless someone else with a resource you know they will enjoy and can rely on. Come to BreakPoint.org/January2021 , that's BreakPoint.org/January2021, to get a one-year subscription to WORLD with your next gift to BreakPoint and the Colson Center.
Jan 7, 2021
In the introduction to his book The Content Trap , author Bharat Anand asks readers to consider what caused The Yellowstone Fires of 1988 , which lasted for months and destroyed over 1.3 million acres of the world's oldest, and one of our nation's most treasured, national parks. The traditional story places the blame on a worker who dropped a single, still-lit cigarette. Anand disagrees. The cigarette certainly triggered this fire, but a million cigarettes are dropped every single day. That year (likely even that day ), other cigarettes and, for that matter, lightning strikes, fell in Yellowstone. Why did this one spark so much damage? Anand's point has to do with the pre-existing conditions, which made something that is benign in most other circumstances, a trigger for incredible destruction. Yesterday, as protestors stormed the Capitol, Illinois Representative Kinzinger, a Republican, said, "We (Americans) are not what we are seeing today…" Others remarked how shocking it was to see the sort of political unrest common to other countries, here in America . And, of course, it was shocking. But we'd better be clear on why. It's not because somehow Americans, even those who love freedom and wish to protect the remarkable gift that is our nation, are somehow exempt from the Fall. It's not because America has some sort of Divine pass to last forever. It's not because the rules that govern nations and civilizations, which have been proven over and over again throughout history, somehow do not apply to us. In what now seems like an ominous prediction, my friend Trevin Wax tweeted out a quote from Chuck Colson Wednesday morning: "People who cannot restrain their own baser instincts, who cannot treat one another with civility, are not capable of self-government ... without virtue, a society can be ruled only by fear, a truth that tyrants understand all too well." Colson was right. Another way of saying what he did is, "Character is destiny." It's tempting to apply this undeniable truism rather selectively, but it is as true for individuals on "our side" as it is for those on "their side." It is true for presidents and for peasants. It's as true about a President "not as bad as she would have been," who delivers strong policy wins for our side as it is about anyone else. It is true for the narcissist and for the abortionist, for the one who rejects religious faith and the one who uses it for his own ends. But, and this is the much more important point that many miss, character is destiny for a people as well as for a person. Yesterday, when President-elect Biden said that the actions of the mob did not reflect America, I wish he were correct. But he wasn't. We are not a moral nation. We are lawless. We are not a nation that cultivates the kinds of families able to produce good citizens. Our institutions cannot be trusted to tell us the truth or advance the good. Our leaders think and live as if wrong means are justified by preferred ends. Our churches tickle ears and indulge narcissism. Our schools build frameworks of thinking that are not only wrong, but foster confusion and division. Yesterday's riot was not the first in our nation's recent history, nor will it be the last. There are certainly immediate causes for what we witnessed, including the words of a President who appeared to care more about the attention the riots gave him than the rule of law that they violated. Still, there are ultimate causes, ones that predate his administration and that have created what is clearly a spark-ready environment. Yesterday's events cannot be understood, much less addressed outside this larger context. And the moment we excuse ourselves from being part of the problem, we have lost our saltiness Often throughout history, moments like this have been embraced by the Church as an opportunity by God's people. When a people reach this level of vulnerability, either as individuals, as families, or as nations, it is clear that they are out of ideas. There is no sustainable way forward when the ideological divide reaches this level, not only about how best to reach commonly held aims but when there is no consensus on the aims themselves. To be clear, civilizations usually die with a whimper, not a bang. America will go on, but we aren't ok. Even more, the resources once found in various places within our culture to build new things or fix what's broken are largely depleted. The only way out of the long decline of decadence, punctuated as it is by noisy, scary moments like yesterday, is either, as Ross Douthat wrote, revolution or religious revival. The story of Yellowstone Park is that now, a decade letter, it has been largely revived and reborn. Let's pray that's also the story of the Church, and even our country.
Jan 6, 2021
John and Shane revisit a topic from the New Years Eve podcast to address moral failure in Christian leaders. They help expand our thinking to address the challenging world of sin and its impact on Christian leaders. Specifically, John and Shane address the revelations from the independent investigation into allegations of Ravi Zacharrias participating in sexual misconduct. Later, John and Shane address a critique to their response to invetro fertilization and embryo adoption. The two dig into the details of the science, ethical, and culture reasoning around the Christian worldview response they are positing. Lastly, Shane presents a question related to second marriages. The question comes in light of the presentation of marriage as a procreative endeavor. They address a Christian view of marriage that is expansive, including marriages that are infertile. They include various Christian thinking on marriage, explaining nuances in Biblical interpretations without falling into a secular view of marriage.
Jan 6, 2021
A recent article published in the scientific journal Cell announced the "successful" creation of a human-animal hybrid. Researchers at the Salk Institute took pig embryos and implanted human pluripotent stem cells, or cells that can produce any kind of body tissue. Believe it or not, attempts to genetically cross humans with animals, in various forms and to various degrees, date back at least twenty years. This team of 40 researchers worked for more than four years to create their human-pig chimera (the scientific term for an organism that contains cells from two different species). Previously, the same team created rat-mice chimeras by using the gene-editing technology CRISPR "to hack into mouse blastocysts." Having mastered the rat-mice cross, they applied the same technique to create human stem cells which they then introduced into pig embryos. As was the case with Dolly the cloned sheep (remember her?), calling the whole process a "success" requires a bit of winking and nodding. Years of trial and error, and plenty of failed embryos, preceded the chimeric embryos which actually survived long enough to be implanted into adult pigs for three-to-four weeks. They were then removed for analysis. What motivates the time, money, and energy to do such a thing? Well, remember, the road to Hades is paved with good intentions. In this case, the goal is to alleviate the shortage of human organs available for transplantation, a loaded phrase in and of itself. To say there is a "shortage" of organs available for transplant is to say, "not enough people have died to save others." Even so, the chimeras created contained so few human cells that any organs created by this method, at least at this point, would be rejected by our immune system. And, there is the potential of other technologies to produce transplantable organs render flights to "The Island of Dr. Moreau" unnecessary. For example, "bioprinting" is a technology very much like 3D printing, only the products fabricated can be used in the human body. This isn't science fiction. It's quite probable that within our children's lifetimes, if not sooner, transplant surgeons will "print" compatible livers and hearts on demand, no chimera necessary. In fact, bioprinting could render the human-animal hybrid enterprise moot long before the Salk Institute produces a single viable organ. All of which makes it possible that the whole organ transplantation rationale is just a smokescreen obscuring the real reason for creating human-ham hybrids … just to see if we can. Just last year, Japanese and German scientists (who obviously never saw "Planet of the Apes") spliced human genes into the brains of monkey fetuses. We'll never know if these monkeys would have taken over the Earth since they were aborted. Responsible scientists are sounding alarms over all this genetic tinkering, especially with gene-editing technologies like CRISPR. Others, to paraphrase a line from Jurassic Park, are so busy seeing if they can do something, they don't take time to ask whether they should . This leaves the rest of us in high-stakes, real-life game of "what if?" What if technology allows us to create and farm human-pig chimeras to harvest for human organ transplantation? What if our science continues to not only outpace, but far outpace, our ethics? What if we continue our technologies without the world's only stable ground for human dignity, that every person bears the image of God Himself? What if, following the logic of naturalism, we treat humans as an accidental product of chemicals and atoms colliding, no different from other living beings, like pigs or pandas? Twenty years ago, in remarkably written and prophetically entitled article, "The Pig-Man Cometh," Joseph Bottum walked through the what if scenario. "…we live at a moment in which British newspapers can report on 19 families who have created test-tube babies solely for the purpose of serving as tissue donors for their relatives -- some brought to birth, some merely harvested as embryos and fetuses. A moment in which Harper's Bazaar can advise women to keep their faces unwrinkled by having themselves injected with fat culled from human cadavers. A moment in which the Australian philosopher Peter Singer can receive a chair at Princeton University for advocating the destruction of infants after birth if their lives are likely to be a burden. A moment in which the brains of late-term aborted babies can be vacuumed out and gleaned for stem cells. In the midst of all this, the creation of a human-pig arrives like a thing expected. We have reached the logical end, at last. We have become the people that, once upon a time, our ancestors used fairy tales to warn their children against -- and we will reap exactly the consequences those tales foretold. Like the coming true of an old story -- the discovery of the philosopher's stone, the rubbing of a magic lantern –biotechnology is delivering the most astonishing medical advances anyone has ever imagined. You and I will live for many years in youthful health: Our cancers, our senilities, our coughs, and our infirmities all swept away on the triumphant, cresting wave of science. But our sons and our daughters will mate with the pig-men, if the pig-men will have them. And our swine-snouted grandchildren -- the fruit not of our loins, but of our arrogance and our bright test tubes -- will use the story of our generation to teach a moral to their frightened litters.
Jan 5, 2021
About a month before the great December conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, NASA researchers announced a separate, unexpected discovery : evidence of light in deep space without an explainable source. After studying photographs taken by the New Horizons space probe, which is now 4 billion miles away but still beaming footage to Earth, NASA came across an unexplained "glow." It was in areas particularly distant from the known sources of light, such as stars and galaxies, and from sources of reflected light, such as dust particles. In fact, one astronomer told NPR that the amount of unexplained light was about equal to the light coming from sources they could identify. The NPR article described the "problem" this creates for scientists: "… for 400 years, astronomers have been studying visible light and the sky in a serious way and yet somehow apparently 'missed half the light in the universe.'" The choice astronomers face is either to double-down on the known explanations for light or be open to new ones. I'm no astronomer, of course, and I certainly won't pretend to know more than those who've dedicated their lives to studying the heavens. However, it's worth mentioning that an additional explanation for light is found in Genesis. If the testimony of Scripture is, like science, considered an actual source of knowledge, rather than a book of religious metaphors and self-help, light was the first thing created by God, in order to form and fill an earth that was "formless and empty." Maybe knowing that light preceded existing physical objects points to a different explanation for those especially empty corners of the sky that seem to mysteriously "glow" A few years ago, journalist and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell told a story in his book " Blink " about how surprisingly accurate human intuitions can be. In the early 2000s, a decorated general who had fought in Vietnam was called to the Pentagon, along with other top military analysts, specialists, and software engineers, to help with a war simulation exercise. Worried about unstable conditions in the Middle East, a simulation was set up to play out strategy if, say, an unstable despot did something rash. For the simulation, Pentagon officials studied and made calculations and built algorithms to plan for every possible contingency. The Vietnam Veteran general was, on the other hand, assigned as the enemy. He was privy to none of the sophisticated strategizing, fancy equipment, software, or teams of mathematicians. Instead, he used intuition and the wisdom earned on the ground in Vietnam. Rather than calling meetings every time conditions changed, the General made decisions quickly. According to Gladwell, he trusted his gut. He won the battle in two days, humiliating the Pentagon. Gladwell's main point is that humans tend to overthink things. The amazing successes of our science and technologies have led us to idolize sophistication and, at times, complicate what's really simple. In Out of the Silent Planet, the first book of C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy , the main character is taken into space and is flabbergasted by what he sees. "Space," Lewis describes, "was the wrong name. Older thinkers had been wiser when they named it simply the heavens - the heavens which declared the glory." Many scientists and astronomers, of course, know and believe in the Creator. However, the better our technology and the more specialized our tools, the more we, as enlightened moderns, doubt older wisdom. Our algorithms and war game strategies and sophisticated techniques can, unintentionally become blinders that block the God-given intuition that comes from our created humanity. When light is discovered where there ought not be any, maybe we've stifled the most plausible explanation. Long ago, Someone said, "Let there be light," and there was light. That Someone, then, told us all about it. Perhaps, it would be easier to see God in "the heavens" He made, if we weren't so convinced of our ability to explain everything by purely naturalistic causes or even, as some do, to dismiss all supernatural causes. Maybe our gut instinct to look upward when we encounter the unexplained is the right one. If the heavens indeed "declare the glory of God," we'd do well to listen.
Jan 5, 2021
About a month before the great December conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, NASA researchers announced a separate, unexpected discovery : evidence of light in deep space without an explainable source. After studying photographs taken by the New Horizons space probe, which is now 4 billion miles away but still beaming footage to Earth, NASA came across an unexplained "glow." It was in areas particularly distant from the known sources of light, such as stars and galaxies, and from sources of reflected light, such as dust particles. In fact, one astronomer told NPR that the amount of unexplained light was about equal to the light coming from sources they could identify. The NPR article described the "problem" this creates for scientists: "… for 400 years, astronomers have been studying visible light and the sky in a serious way and yet somehow apparently 'missed half the light in the universe.'" The choice astronomers face is either to double-down on the known explanations for light or be open to new ones. I'm no astronomer, of course, and I certainly won't pretend to know more than those who've dedicated their lives to studying the heavens. However, it's worth mentioning that an additional explanation for light is found in Genesis. If the testimony of Scripture is, like science, considered an actual source of knowledge, rather than a book of religious metaphors and self-help, light was the first thing created by God, in order to form and fill an earth that was "formless and empty." Maybe knowing that light preceded existing physical objects points to a different explanation for those especially empty corners of the sky that seem to mysteriously "glow" A few years ago, journalist and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell told a story in his book " Blink " about how surprisingly accurate human intuitions can be. In the early 2000s, a decorated general who had fought in Vietnam was called to the Pentagon, along with other top military analysts, specialists, and software engineers, to help with a war simulation exercise. Worried about unstable conditions in the Middle East, a simulation was set up to play out strategy if, say, an unstable despot did something rash. For the simulation, Pentagon officials studied and made calculations and built algorithms to plan for every possible contingency. The Vietnam Veteran general was, on the other hand, assigned as the enemy. He was privy to none of the sophisticated strategizing, fancy equipment, software, or teams of mathematicians. Instead, he used intuition and the wisdom earned on the ground in Vietnam. Rather than calling meetings every time conditions changed, the General made decisions quickly. According to Gladwell, he trusted his gut. He won the battle in two days, humiliating the Pentagon. Gladwell's main point is that humans tend to overthink things. The amazing successes of our science and technologies have led us to idolize sophistication and, at times, complicate what's really simple. In Out of the Silent Planet, the first book of C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy , the main character is taken into space and is flabbergasted by what he sees. "Space," Lewis describes, "was the wrong name. Older thinkers had been wiser when they named it simply the heavens - the heavens which declared the glory." Many scientists and astronomers, of course, know and believe in the Creator. However, the better our technology and the more specialized our tools, the more we, as enlightened moderns, doubt older wisdom. Our algorithms and war game strategies and sophisticated techniques can, unintentionally become blinders that block the God-given intuition that comes from our created humanity. When light is discovered where there ought not be any, maybe we've stifled the most plausible explanation. Long ago, Someone said, "Let there be light," and there was light. That Someone, then, told us all about it. Perhaps, it would be easier to see God in "the heavens" He made, if we weren't so convinced of our ability to explain everything by purely naturalistic causes or even, as some do, to dismiss all supernatural causes. Maybe our gut instinct to look upward when we encounter the unexplained is the right one. If the heavens indeed "declare the glory of God," we'd do well to listen.
Jan 4, 2021
Dr. Mitchell is a Senior Fellow in the Academy of Fellows of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity and previously served as its Executive Director. He visits with John to discuss the ethics of the Coronavirus vaccine. They discuss the origins of the vaccine and possible side-effects from taking the newly produced immunization to fight COVID-19.
Jan 4, 2021
In a strange but memorable story told by both Mark and Matthew, Salome, the stepdaughter of King Herod, dances for his birthday. Delighted by her performance, Herod tells her, "Whatever you ask me for, I will give it to you, up to half my kingdom." Salome is advised by her mother to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter (Mark 6:22-24). Distressed but trapped by his publicly made promise, Herod gives Salome what she wants. The story takes up only about two paragraphs, but it tells us a great deal. Not only about the protagonists, but about the overall human condition. It's almost Dostoyevsky-ian . In fact, the story has inspired many works of art throughout the centuries, including paintings by Titian and Moreau , an opera by Richard Strauss , and a play by Oscar Wilde . Though the story clearly has had a grip on artistic and cultural imaginations through the years, it is not a product of the Gospel writers' imaginations. It is firmly rooted in history. And just recently, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the site of the story had been discovered. Located at Machaerus, Jordan, is a fortress on a cliff with a view of the Dead Sea. On clear days, Jerusalem can be seen from this perch. Inside is a 7,000-square-foot royal courtyard where "archaeologists have identified a semicircular niche where they believe [Herod's] throne was positioned." According to the article, the archeological team "re-erected two of the columns that had once held up the roof of the courtyard where the princess Salome is said to have danced." Obviously, stones can't confirm all the details of the story told in Matthew and Mark, but other extra-biblical sources confirm parts of the story. The best example is Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote around the same time as the Gospel writers. Herodias, Josephus writes, "took upon [herself] to confound the laws of our country and divorced herself from her husband while he was alive, and was married to Herod Antipas." This was the act that drew both the ire and the condemnation of John the Baptist. The royal couple was so displeased with the prophet's outspokenness, they threw him in prison. Apparently, Herodias never got over her grudge. Josephus also confirms that Herod gave the order to execute John. Josephus also described John as "a good man [who] commanded the Jews to exercise virtue." The historian even gives us a date and a place for the execution, about February in A.D. 32 at the fortress at Machaerus , ( Antiquities , XVIII. 5. 2). Josephus goes on to suggest that a subsequent military defeat was seen by his subjects as "a punishment… a mark of God's displeasure to him." To be clear, Josephus does not mention the role that Salome or Herodias played in John's death, but it doesn't mean that the biblical account is fiction. Josephus is clearly not a neutral historian. His ancient style does not obey the "rules" applied to modern histories. Still, modern historians rightly treat Josephus as an important historical source. However, the Gospels are not given the same consideration. Clearly, the Gospel writers were writing history, a history with basic details repeatedly confirmed by Josephus and others. Treating them differently, as many scholars do, says much more about the prejudices of modern historians than about the historical reliability of the narratives. For Christians, the fact that the biblical story takes place in actual human history, and not "Once upon a time," says a lot about the kind of faith we have. It's not merely a "way," a set of virtues to respect and follow. When Luke, for example, situates the ministries of John and Jesus by telling readers historically verifiable details like who the emperor and local rulers were, he's describing something that actually happened in human history. The Christian faith is open to scrutiny and skeptics. It's not afraid to be weighed and tested. And, in the end, the Bible is the best-attested book of antiquity, and nothing else comes close . The Bible is not a historical novel, a work of fiction written to inspire us. It's true. It describes the world as it actually is. And yet, it's also one of the most powerful sources for the great works created by the human imagination.
Jan 1, 2021
John, Shane, and Maria consider important movements likely to impact 2021. From political challenges and global issues to our own perspectives on identity, the team decipher shifts we need to prepare for in the new year.
Jan 1, 2021
This week we take a look back at the most-talked-about BreakPoint commentaries from 2020, covering the key issues of this turbulent year. A few years ago, a popular Christian singer ended her set by leading the audience in "O Come All Ye Faithful," even though it wasn't Christmastime. By the time the song was over, and the crowd's attention was pulled back to the stage, the singer was gone. While it was her concert and not a church service, she hoped to point to God and not herself. When it was time for her well-earned applause, the singer was out of sight. A few weeks ago, news broke that a young, popular pastor from Hillsong Church in New York City had been fired. Carl Lentz is known for hanging out with celebrities, throwing so-called " Church house parties ," and dressing in expensive, stylish, and even provocative ways. On Instagram , Lentz confessed that he had been unfaithful in his marriage. This remarkably sad story is certainly not the only one we've heard recently of a pastor or ministry leader found guilty of a moral failing. Both from our observation and from Jesus' teaching, it is clear that fame and wealth can both attract temptation and cultivate corruption. The main lesson for all of us is to stay accountable. Stay humble. There, but for the grace of God, go I. There's also a lesson here about the relentless pursuit of relevance. When pastors and ministry leaders flirt with celebrity, Christianity becomes a brand. When that happens, the surrounding noise of marketing and brand-building drowns out the central promise of a changed life. Suddenly, the metrics of a "successful" ministry shift from faithfulness to the number of likes, shares, and dollars. About the same time that I read the heartbreaking news about Carl Lentz, I learned of the passing of a man I'd known since I was young. Lee Stone spent decades as a volunteer girls' basketball coach at the little Christian school I attended and as the pastor of a small country Baptist church in Virginia. For 34 years he led the local rescue mission in town, helping men and women who were down and out with alcoholism, addiction, and homelessness–often the same men and women, over and over again. Lee Stone was a quiet man, and he walked with a limp. He was certainly no celebrity. I can't say for sure, but I would be willing to bet a lot of money that he never had an Instagram account. However, what's clear, both from his obituary and from the tributes that poured in on social media, is that Lee Stone was a man who loved others deeply and was deeply loved by many. He left his community better without ever building his "platform." "Lee's legacy," the local newspaper read, "is one of serving God with the compassion of Jesus Christ." That legacy and Lee's impact were quietly built on a lifetime of faithfulness. He is survived by his lovely wife, to whom he was married for 65 years, his 4 children, and his 23 grandchildren. The contrast between these two stories, one which made national headlines and one that made the local paper's obituary section, was stark. I am sure he wasn't perfect, but Mr. Stone chose a life largely insulated from the temptation to entitlement or self-worship or fame. But his impact was great. I want to be like Lee Stone. I don't think I'm old enough to offer much life or ministry advice, but I will confidently advise anyone called to serve the Lord as a pastor or speaker or ministry leader, if given the choice between the way of a celebrity pastor or the way of Lee Stone, choose the latter. Our talent and drive and even our charisma can often write checks that our character can't cash. Err instead on the side of a quiet, faithful life. Leave the stage before the applause starts. The applause of our Father, "who sees in secret," is the only praise we need anyway. This commentary first aired December 15, 2020
Dec 31, 2020
This week we take a look back at the most-talked-about BreakPoint commentaries from 2020, covering the key issues of this turbulent year. There are no highlights from Tuesday night's presidential debate . There are, however, plenty of "lowlights": name-calling, untruths, anger, vitriol, interruption. It was a debacle on every level. During the debate, my friend Trevin Wax tweeted , "Neil. Postman. He saw this coming forty years ago," referring to how the author of Amusing Ourselves to Death , who described what happens in societies when societies' entertainment replaces truth and celebrity-ism replaces virtue. In addition to Postman, a speech called "A World Split Apart," given at the Harvard University commencement on June 8, 1978, by Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn has proven to be the best decoder of our cultural moment. Today, we live downstream from, in the wake of, what Solzhenitsyn attempted to describe to his booing audience. For example, Solzhenitsyn described how the West had replaced the pursuit of happiness by virtue with a pursuit of happiness by stuff: "Every citizen has been granted the desired freedom and material goods in such quantity and of such quality as to guarantee in theory the achievement of happiness … however, one psychological detail has been overlooked: the constant desire to have still more things and a still better life and the struggle to obtain them imprint many Western faces with worry and even depression … The majority of people have been granted well-being to an extent their fathers and grandfathers could not even dream about; it has become possible to raise young people according to these ideals, leading them to physical splendor, happiness, possession of material goods, money and leisure, to an almost unlimited freedom of enjoyment. So who should now renounce all this, why and for what should one risk one's precious life in defense of common values?" When the pursuit of virtue is undone by materialism, words are redefined. Specifically, Solzhenitsyn suggested, freedom: "Destructive and irresponsible freedom has been granted boundless space. Society appears to have little defense against the … misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, such as motion pictures full of pornography, crime, and horror. It is considered to be part of freedom and theoretically counter-balanced by the young people's right not to look or not to accept … Such a tilt of freedom in the direction of evil … [was] born primarily out of a humanistic and benevolent concept according to which there is no evil inherent to human nature; the world belongs to mankind and all the defects of life are caused by wrong social systems which must be corrected." Solzhenitsyn then specifically points a finger at the press: "The press too, of course, enjoys the widest freedom. But what sort of use does it make of this freedom? … How many hasty, immature, superficial and misleading judgments are expressed every day, confusing readers, without any verification. The press can both simulate public opinion and miseducate it. Thus, we may see terrorists described as heroes, or secret matters pertaining to one's nation's defense publicly revealed, or we may witness shameless intrusion on the privacy of well-known people under the slogan: 'Everyone is entitled to know everything.' But this is a false slogan, characteristic of a false era. People also have the right not to know, and it is a much more valuable [right]. The right not to have their divine souls stuffed with gossip, nonsense, vain talk. A person who works and leads a meaningful life does not need this excessive burdening flow of information. … In spite of the abundance of information, or maybe because of it, the West has difficulties in understanding reality such as it is." At the root of all of this, Solzhenitsyn suggested, is what he called "spiritual exhaustion": "The human soul longs for things higher, warmer, and purer than those offered by today's mass living habits, introduced by the revolting invasion of publicity, by TV stupor, and by intolerable music … There are meaningful warnings that history gives a threatened or perishing society. Such are, for instance, the decadence of art, or a lack of great statesmen. There are open and evident warnings, too. The center of your democracy and of your culture is left without electric power for a few hours only, and all of a sudden, crowds of American citizens start looting and creating havoc. The smooth surface film must be very thin, and the social system quite unstable and unhealthy. There is only one solution with which Solzhenitsyn left his audience: "Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction … If the world has not come to its end, it has approached a major turn in history, equal in importance to the turn from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. It will exact from us a spiritual upsurge: We shall have to rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life where our physical nature will not be cursed as in the Middle Ages, but, even more importantly, our spiritual being will not be trampled upon as in the Modern era." And then he concludes: "No one on earth has any other way left but -- upward." God help us. This commentary first aired October 1, 2020
Dec 30, 2020
This week we take a look back at the most-talked-about BreakPoint commentaries from 2020, covering the key issues of this turbulent year. The question most central to defining a worldview, other than "Who is God?" and "What does it mean to be human?" is "What's really wrong with the world?" It's a tricky question, because there are a lot of things wrong with the world. The question is, what is the core problem that needs to be addressed in the world, the root cause of evil and human suffering, and what solution can be offered to fix it? For example, we should want to see justice flourish and racism of all kinds come to an end, especially in light of our nation's history and evidence that our African American neighbors are not treated equally before the law. But not everyone who talks about ending racism and creating justice means the same thing. For a growing number of people, including some Christians with good motives, these goals are shorthand for an ideology that divides instead of reconciles, that sees people as either oppressed or oppressor rather than as divine image bearers created from "one blood." The ideas of Critical Theory, especially since the horrific killing of George Floyd, have become a central part of our national conversation. Once largely limited to the academy, these ideas have trickled down the way ideas do, to the media, through popular culture, and into the cultural imagination. Even those not familiar with the term "critical theory" will likely recognize its central tenets. Critical Theory originated with a group of political philosophers who applied Karl Marx's ideas about economics to society as a whole, especially across additional categories of class distinction, such as race, sex, and gender identity. The result was an all-encompassing worldview that purported to reveal hidden power structures behind society's problems and institutions, by dividing people along the lines of oppressed and oppressor. As Colson Center Senior Fellow and historian Glenn Sunshine explained in a recent episode of The Theology Pugcast, Critical Theory, like the classical Marxism it borrows from, views human beings in purely materialist terms. So, according to Critical Theory our race, sexual orientation, gender identity aren't mere aspects of who we are, they are our defining characteristics. In each of these areas, we are either part of oppressed groups or we are oppressors. According to critical theory, the oppressed group automatically has moral authority, while the oppressor group does not. Someone who is a racial minority or a sexual minority of some kind is automatically a victim of oppression and has claims against oppressors and the unearned privilege that makes their life easier (and this part is critical) at the expense of their oppressed neighbors. Overlooked in this analysis are individual choices and life situations, which often has a far greater impact on a person's life. For example, whether or not a child grows up with a father is statistically more important than their ethnic identity. Other factors, such as religious commitment, education, sexual decisions, and family stability have profound power to shape the lives and futures as individuals, families, and whole communities. Critical theory, however, ignores every other factor or squashes it into the oppressor-oppressed dynamic. This view distorts reality, and often turns on itself. A recent article at Quillette described a Danish professor and critical theorist attacked by fellow critical theorists. They claimed his branch of Critical Theory was racist. This is no isolated case. Critical Theorists have produced scholarly articles and whole books claiming that everything from logic to math are tools of white, heteronormative oppression. The problem, as is explained in a recent "What Would You Say" video , is that Critical Theory's answer to the question "what's wrong with the world" is just wrong. Specifically, critical theory gets the human condition wrong and the human problem wrong. As a result, its solutions are simplistic and, at times, dangerous. They're not compatible with Christianity, and we should reject them. Now, to be clear, I believe racism still plagues our country, and is embedded in the hearts of individuals and in institutions and systems. We can reach this conclusion by care, by listening, and by statistical data, not to mention from how the Christian worldview describes the cause and condition of fallen humanity. Too often, any attempt to listen and to engage the race issue is dismissed as critical theory. It's not. At the same time, Critical Theory's analysis and answers to the problem of racism violate what we know to be true about the human condition. Only the Biblical story frames for us human value, human sin, and human hope, which both allows us and calls us to confront racism wherever it rears its ugly head, without embracing a theory that sees people as nothing but their race. This commentary first aired June 17, 2020
Dec 30, 2020
John and Shane highlight some of their most challenging and uplifting questions received in 2020.
Dec 29, 2020
This week we take a look back at the most-talked-about BreakPoint commentaries from 2020, covering the key issues of this turbulent year. The news this week about COVID-19, known as the coronavirus, has certainly, to understate it, escalated: New infections, grimmer projections, lots and lots of cancellations (including—can you believe it?—March Madness). The news changes so quickly day by day, even hour by hour, that it's hard to keep up, much less know, really, what to think about all of this. C.S. Lewis once said that we should read three old books for every new one. I think we should read three C.S. Lewis books for every new one. He never faced the coronavirus, of course, but in the late 1940s, the world was coming to grips with another threat: nuclear annihilation. The bomb was only a few years old, and in the hands of sworn national enemies. The uncertainty of what exactly could happen, not to mention what might happen, was palpable. In that context, C.S. Lewis wrote an essay entitled "On Living in an Atomic Age." I'm grateful to one of my BreakPoint colleagues, Ashlee Cowles, for reminding us of this essay along with some sage advice: Whenever you hear "atomic bomb" in this essay, think "coronavirus." "We think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb," Lewis begins. To those who wonder how it's possible to go on in the face of such a threat, Lewis recalls that theirs was not the first generation to live under a threatening shadow. In fact, if we're honest, we all live under a sentence of death, and for some of us, that death could even be "unpleasant." The important question, says Lewis, is not whether or how we will die but if in the meantime we will be doing "sensible" and "human" things like "praying, working . . . reading, listening to music, bathing the children." Lewis asks his readers to consider the important but unsettling truth that "Nature does not, in the long run, favor life." It's an ominous observation that points to an essential worldview truth: "If Nature is all that exists—in other words, if there is no God and no life of some quite different sort somewhere outside of Nature—then all stories "will end in the same way: in a universe from which all life is banished without the hope of return." How do we respond to this unsettling truth? Lewis saw only three options: The first is suicide, something not uncommon in Britain of the 1940s and 50s. The second, "simply to have as good a time as possible. The universe is a universe of nonsense, but since you are here, grab what you can." Of course, as Lewis noted, "there is, on these terms, so very little left to grab—only the coarsest sensual pleasures." Whether we're talking about sex or listening to music, the pleasure is diminished by the knowledge that any enjoyment we might derive are merely "illusions," the product of "irrational conditioning" determined by our genes. The third response, Lewis said, is to "go down fighting," to live as if the universe has meaning. We can insist on being rational and merciful even when the universe is not. Of course, if we choose that option, there's no way to actually prevail against the "idiocy" of the universe—it would still win. Our insistence on being rational and merciful has no real justification. The hopelessness of those three options should instead lead us to a different conclusion: "We must simply accept . . .," said Lewis, "that we are spirits, free and rational beings, at present inhabiting an irrational universe, and must draw the conclusion that we are not derived from it." In other words, we must reject naturalism and embrace "a much earlier view:" biblical theism. It's the only grounds on which we can avoid the despair brought on by the knowing that we are under a "sentence of death," whatever form that death takes. Lewis' words are just as relevant today as they were seven decades ago. For people who believe there is a God, doing the "sensible" and "human" things are possible because we have hope. For those who don't have that hope, no amount of toilet paper or cans of Spam stacked in the garage can make anyone truly safe, much less solve the ultimate question of meaning that haunts us all. Today as yesterday, the world is still in God's hands. Nothing has changed. Whatever the next chapter of this coronavirus story might be, the same questions remain to us: Will we trust God? And then, will we love our neighbors? And finally, how shall we then live? This commentary first aired March 13, 2020
Dec 28, 2020
What is it like to portray the lead character in the story of the entire universe? Today on the BreakPoint Podcast, Shane Morris welcomes Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus on the extremely well-done and enormously successful video series, "The Chosen." Roumie discusses the series's approach to the Gospels, to plausible "back stories" of the disciples, and how they wanted to focus on Christ's humanity–without underplaying the fact that He is the Son of God.
Dec 28, 2020
This week we take a look back at the most-talked-about BreakPoint commentaries from 2020, covering the key issues of this turbulent year. In 2013, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a blogger on the Today Show's "Moms" site, described watching Beyonce's Super Bowl halftime performance as a "parenting challenge." The hyper-sensual show's half-dressed performers had left her kids with quizzical looks on their faces. Her eight-year-old simply said, "She looks weird." I wish all of our kids were as confused by seeing something like that, but unfortunately, sexuality packaged as music and performance is an all-too-familiar part of our culture. After Beyonce's version in 2013, Campos-Duffy snarkily commented, "I half-expected a stripper pole to pop out of the platform..." Well this past Sunday, that's exactly what happened. A stripper pole. Sunday's Super Bowl halftime performance, featuring Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, was by far the raciest halftime since Beyonce. For the last several years, there's been a notable de-sensualization of not only Super Bowl halftimes but also Super Bowl commercials. Even Lady Gaga was comparatively modest in her 2017 performance. It's almost as if the NFL and its network producers got the message from Campos-Duffy and millions of moms who complained about the visual assault on their children and families. Well, until Sunday, that is, when the Super Bowl became yet another chapter in the ongoing sexualization of American culture, of women, and of kids. In the midst of our culture's ubiquitous calls to protect kids and women from abuse and harassment, especially in this #MeToo era, we pretend that as long as we call it "art" or "female empowerment," that this sort of overt sexualization will magically have none of the consequences we now complain about. From the beginning, the sexual revolution has promised women that aggressively flaunting skin and sexuality was empowerment, and that divorcing sex from marriage and procreation would be a means to freedom. In reality, it was men who got what they wanted: sexual pleasure without the burden of commitment or requirement of chivalry. For a brief moment a few years ago, it was almost as if that lie had been exposed. More and more women bravely came forward revealing how they'd been treated horrifically as "sexual objects" and such. But if Sunday's performance is any indication, we have not learned our lesson. It's not only women who are victims of these bad ideas. Years ago, British Prime Minister David Cameron appointed a special adviser on the commercialization and sexualization of childhood because, "Our children are growing up in a very sexualized world." That was an understatement even then. A far-more accurate description is that this is an out-of-control social experiment, and the guinea pigs are primarily our children. In addition to the predatory, hardcore pornography that haunts their devices and online lives, experimental theories about gender and sexuality haunt their education, and, as we saw Sunday, stripper poles and outfits haunt their so-called "art" and "entertainment." Of course, J.Lo and Shakira were a throw-back to a couple decades ago, more for the Xers and Millennials than for the Gen Z'ers. Even so, remember that this performance was on prime-time network television. And check out the lyrics of Billie Ellish or Roddy Ricch, or Lizzo to see if anything has changed. As my friend Tom Gilson wrote years ago on BreakPoint.org, ethics require that subjects of social experimentation give informed consent. But in our culture, adults force young people, who have no say in the matter, to go along with their fantasies, theories, and so-called expressions of empowerment and freedom. It's child abuse. Just as with Beyonce back in 2013, there will be progressive voices, even so-called Christian ones, that will celebrate Sunday's performance as "empowering women and Latinas" (particularly the child-in-cages part). But using sexuality for power is a triumph for men, not for women, and certainly not for children—it only leads to their objectification and victimization. After all, I doubt there were very many wives watching their husbands watch, or moms trying to keep their children from watching, Sunday's performance who felt empowered in any way. This commentary first aired February 4, 2020
Dec 25, 2020
Shane Morris and Maria Baer join John Stonestreet to talk about the year 2020, and the numerous pre-existing conditions exposed by the pandemic and other trials that will remain critically important in 2021. Societal trust has been eroding for a long time, but this year invaded our closest relationships, like churches and families. We saw just how many politicians and, for that matter Christians, consider church to be "non-essential." It isn't. And speaking of the Church, John, Shane, and Maria discuss the factors behind last year's scandals involving prominent Christian leaders. And, of course, issues of race and justice, will re-emerge. The question is whether they'll be hijacked by wokeness, or actually addressed within a framework of human dignity and morality. As always, they wrap up the episode with their recommendations for the week.
Dec 25, 2020
A Christmas message came to my mind a few years ago as I stood shivering in the autumn chill at the grave side of Father Jerzy Popieluszko. Jerzy was a young pastor who once delivered the dynamic messages that stirred the Polish people to overthrow their Communist oppressors. His theme was always the same: The Christian is called to defend the truth and overcome evil with good. Father Jerzy was a young man, pale and gaunt, and his sermons were neither fiery nor eloquent. Yet his monthly masses, dedicated to the victims of Communist persecution, attracted tens of thousands of Polish people. He never preached revenge or revolution. He preached the power of good to overcome evil. It was a passion that dominated his own life, as well. In 1980, martial law was declared in Poland. Tanks and troops clogged the streets until the entire country was one vast prison. Jerzy hated the occupation as much as his countrymen, but he fought it using God's weapons of overcoming evil with good. On Christmas Eve, Jerzy slogged through the snow handing out Christmas cookies to the despised soldiers in the streets. And even in his death, Jerzy was victorious. In 1984, he was kidnapped by the secret police. The nation was electrified. In churches and indeed in factories across Poland, people gathered to pray. Steelworkers demanded his release, threatening a national strike. Fifty thousand people gathered to hear a tape of his final sermon. Then the blow fell: Jerzy's body had been found floating in the Vistula River. He'd been brutally tortured, his eyes and tongue cut out, his bones smashed. Yet the gentle pastor had taught his people well. After his funeral, hundreds of thousands of Polish people marched through the streets of Warsaw right past the secret police headquarters carrying banners that read, "We forgive." They were assaulting evil with good. And under the impact, the Communist regime soon crumbled. In 1993, I traveled to Poland for the chartering of Prison Fellowship Poland, a ceremony held outside the very church where Jerzy had preached. His grave is in the courtyard, and as I laid a wreath of flowers on the grave, I looked up at the balcony where the martyred pastor once preached his most powerful message: "Overcome evil with good." Suddenly, I felt a stab of conviction as though the Holy Spirit were saying to me, "Pick up the baton. Make that your message, too." In that instant it was clear to me that the message Jerzy preached has always been God's strategy for overcoming evil. The supreme example is the Incarnation itself, which we celebrate today–-the event when God Himself entered human history to overcome the evil of the world. America is not in the grip of a Communist regime as Poland was, yet Christians are battling a hostile secular culture. And we often wonder how we can fight more effectively. The answer is that God's people are to fight evil using God's strategy and God's weapons. When God wanted to defeat sin, His ultimate weapon was the sacrifice of His own Son. On Christmas Day two thousand years ago, the birth of a tiny baby in an obscure village in the Middle East was God's supreme triumph of good over evil. This commentary originally aired December 24, 1997.
Dec 24, 2020
In his book, "The Triumph of Christianity," (which, by the way, was one of Chuck Colson's favorite books) historian Rodney Stark describes the Roman world of that first Christmas Eve. The gods, Stark writes, "were everywhere and thought to be undependable." Apart from "some magical powers" and "perhaps the gift of immortality," there was little to distinguish them from their human worshipers: "they ate, drank, loved, envied, fornicated, cheated, lied and otherwise set morally 'unedifying examples.'" And, not surprisingly, they didn't care one bit about those who worshiped them. All they wanted was to be propitiated. In other words, Christ entered into a culture in which the gods of the age were not worthy of worship. And Roman society was just as oppressive and undependable as its gods. For most people, life in the empire's cities could be fairly described, to borrow a phrase from philosopher Thomas Hobbes, as "nasty, poor, solitary, brutish, and short." This was world into which Christianity was born. And still Christianity triumphed, not least of which because it offered an alternative to the oppression of Roman society. It offered another way than the dead-end of paganism, a way so compelling that it outweighed the obvious social disadvantages of being identified as a Christian. As Stark writes, "in the midst of the squalor, misery, illness, and anonymity of ancient cities, Christianity offered an island of mercy and security." I hope that when you hear Stark's words, you realize that we also have something far more compelling to offer our contemporaries as well. Many of our contemporaries also worship deities that are undependable and scarcely distinguishable from their worshipers. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "worship" as "the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity." Worship transforms the worshiper. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "the Gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that . . . thus, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming." Emerson wrote that without even foreseeing the age of "social media," in which we increasingly worship what we've become or at least what we imagine ourselves to be. Many pages on Facebook and Instagram can, with almost no exaggeration, be called "shrines." Our deities are as much of a dead end as the pagan gods of Rome. And like all idol worship, self-worship can be a lonely activity. Just like the Greek gods, who didn't play well together, today's pagans are far from anonymous, but just as isolated as their ancient predecessors. A 2011 Cornell study found that the average American has only two "good friends." What Christians today have to offer is remarkably similar to what the early Christians had to offer: what Stark called an "intense community," a place where, instead of being surrounded by strangers, they are surrounded by "brothers and sisters in Christ." A place that when the hard times come, as inevitably they will, "there [are] people who care -- there are people who have the distinct responsibility to care." Stated succinctly, what Christians have to offer is a better way of being human than anything currently offered in contemporary society. That's why, despite the often-distressing state of our culture, I remain hopeful. The Christian alternative is just as desperately needed today as when the early Church offered it to the Romans. Like them, we must proclaim and embody that alternative. And if we do, it could be another Christmas Eve all over again. And friends, as we prepare to gather with our own friends and family to exchange gifts and celebrate the light of Christ coming into this world, I would ask you remember BreakPoint and the Colson Center in your year-end giving . Thank you so much. And have a very merry Christmas. A version of this commentary first aired on Christmas Eve, 2014.
Dec 23, 2020
John and Shane highlight some of their most challenging and uplifting questions received in 2020.
Dec 23, 2020
As you enjoy this Holy Christmas Day in the company of friends and family, be sure to reflect on how the babe in the manger reveals to us God's wonderful love. But even more, as Chuck Colson explained over a decade ago, remember the cosmic implications of the incarnation… that God would indeed become flesh. Here is Chuck Colson. The manager scene inspires a sense of awe and comfort to the hearts of Christians everywhere. But we often forget the staggering implications of Christmas. What image does the mention of Christmas typically conjure up? For most of us, it's a babe lying in a manger while Mary and Joseph, angels, and assorted animals look on. Heartwarming picture, but Christmas is about far more than a Child's birth—even the Savior's birth. It's about the Incarnation: God Himself, Creator of heaven and earth, invading planet Earth, becoming flesh and dwelling among us. It's a staggering thought. Think of it: The Word—that is, Logos in the Greek, which meant all knowledge that could be known, the plan of creation—that is, ultimate reality, becomes mere man? And that He was not born of an earthly king and queen, but of a virgin of a backwater village named Nazareth? Certainly, God delights in confounding worldly wisdom and human expectations. Thirty years after His humble birth, Jesus increased the Jews' befuddlement when He read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor...to proclaim release to the captives...to set free those who are downtrodden..." Jesus then turned the scroll back and announced, "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." In effect, the carpenter's son had just announced He was the King. So yes, the birth of Jesus is a glorious moment, and the manger scene brings comfort and joy and Christmas cheer. But it should also inspire a holy terror in us—that this baby is God incarnate, the King who came to set captives free, through His violent, bloody death on the cross as atonement for us, His unworthy subjects. It's through the Incarnation God sets His grand plan in motion. He invades planet Earth, establishing His reign through Christ's earthly ministry. And then Christ leaves behind an occupying force, His Church, which is to carry on the work of redemption until His return and the kingdom's final triumph. Do we get this? I'm afraid most of us are so preoccupied and distracted by last-minute Christmas shopping and consumerism, we fail to see God's cosmic plan of redemption in which we, as fallen creatures, are directly involved. Well, the average Christian may not "get" this announcement, but those locked behind bars do. Whenever I preach in the prisons, and I read Christ's inaugural sermon, Luke 4:18, and when I quote His promise of freedom for prisoners, they often raise their arms and cheer. The message of Jesus means freedom and victory for those who once had no hope. They're not distracted by the encumbrance of wealth and comfort. People in the developing world get it, too. Whenever I've shared this message with the poor and oppressed people overseas, I see eyes brightening. Stripped of all material blessings, exploited by earthly powers, they long for the bold new kingdom of Christ. Today is Christmas. Go ahead, enjoy singing about and celebrating the birth of the Savior. Set up a manger scene in your home. But don't forget this earth-shaking truth: The birth of the Baby in the manger was the thrilling signal that God had invaded the planet. And that gives us real reason to celebrate Christmas. For all of us at BreakPoint, this is Chuck Colson in Washington, wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas.
Dec 22, 2020
Ask any random group of ten elderly couples about their marriage, and half of them will probably say something like this: "We were high school sweethearts, tied the knot soon after graduation, worked our way up from nothing, had kids, and here we are. Being married made us who we are today." Beneath these stories is a view of marriage as a foundation of life, a starting point for other goals. Today, this view has been replaced by a different one, what some call the "capstone" view of marriage. In the "capstone" view, marriage is a finishing touch to add to a life after individual careers have been achieved, personal goals have been checked off, and we've discovered "who we are." This massive shift in our ideas about marriage has all kinds of consequences, from delaying weddings (for many people, into their 30's) to cratering the fertility rate in most developed nations to normalizing premarital sex and cohabitation. Still, the most consequential changes might be occurring within the Church. University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus tracks these changes in his new book, The Future of Christian Marriage . Regnerus not only described his findings to Shane Morris on the Upstream Podcaest, he also described the dramatic steps that will be required if a culture of marriage is to be restored within the Church. The Future of Christian Marriage features interviews with numerous Christian young people from seven countries. By being both forward looking and firmly planted in history, Regnerus traces how marriage went from a natural institution bound up with childbearing and blessed by the Church to one that is now, like so many other things in our culture, determined by adult desires and largely defined (or should I say redefined?) by the state. One of the most counterintuitive findings in The Future of Christian Marriage is that Christian young people around the world still have a recognizably biblical ideal for what marriage should be. Those he interviewed typically mentioned the idea of a lifelong union of man and woman. Often, they talked about how marriage is a picture of Christ and His Church, as Paul teaches in Ephesians 5. Many even mentioned that children are part of God's design for marriage. Tragically, far fewer practice, or even try to practice, this design. The average age at first marriage is nearing historic highs in nearly every country Mark studied, and cohabitation is quickly becoming a common lifestyle choice, even for young people within the Church. So, how did we get here? According to Regnerus, it's complicated. Economic factors, the growing expectation that women will work outside of the home, the normalization of birth control and the resulting "cheapening" of sex , and the overall removing of children from the picture have all changed, not only our behavior, but how we think about marriage . Even more, Regnerus suggests that young people, including Christian young people, just aren't that into marriage. In fact, an increasing number is willing to put it off indefinitely. Here's what he writes in the book: "The focus of twentysomethings has become less about building mature relationships and fulfilling responsibilities and more about enjoying oneself, traveling, and trying on identities and relationships…We now get ourselves ready for marriage, rather than marry to get ourselves poised to accomplish common objectives—a home, a job, a family. Instead, marriage itself has become one of those objectives, an accomplishment signaling that [we] have 'made it.'"* This is new. Historically, marriage was never considered an optional feature of the Church's life, nor a trophy you win after reaching "adulthood." God clearly calls some to the single life and elevates their potential for ministry. At the same time, marriage is the picture the Apostle Paul uses when to illustrate the love between Jesus and His redeemed. Marriage reorients our energies and affections away from ourselves and toward others in a way nothing else, other than parenting, can. If we want Christian marriage to have a future, we'll need to change this capstone view. Much of the problem that Regnerus describes in The Future of Christian Marriage is a failure of the imagination and the inability to see marriage as attainable. Among the ambitious and surprising suggestions Regnerus offers is to make sure our kids hear the kind of stories older couples often tell. It's not "rocket surgery" to conclude we need to begin by telling the next generation the truth about marriage. I'll link you to The Future of Marriage, Mark Regnerus' insightful new book, and his fascinating interview on the Upstream podcast at BreakPoint.org. *Mark Regnerus, The Future of Christian Marriage , p. 38
Dec 21, 2020
Mary was Jesus most devoted disciple. Tim Rolston joins the BreakPoint Podcast for a special feature. Sarah Stonestreet and Erin Kunkle present their inteview with Dr. Rolson on the BreakPoint Podcast today, as part of their new podcast, Strong Women. Dr. Ralston brings a rich pastoral background to his classroom, having served as an associate pastor and pastor in Ontario and as a director of adult education in the United States. Dr. Ralston is an active member in the North American Academy of Liturgy and the Evangelical Homiletics Society. His research in New Testament manuscripts and worship has taken him into a wide variety of settings and produced numerous scholarly articles. His teaching interests include preaching, worship, and spirituality. His research interests include New Testament manuscripts, liturgical theology and history, the history and practice of Christian spirituality, and spiritual direction. He vists the BreakPoint Podcast to discuss Mary and her important role in the life of Jesus beyond the Christmas story.
Dec 21, 2020
Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life," starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, is such a TV staple this time of year, it feels like just another Christmas decoration. It's like one of those things that gets put on the wall because it's Christmastime but hardly ever noticed. That would be a shame, however, because there are so many great life lessons in this film. Just ask journalist Bob Welch, the author of a Fifty-Two Little Lessons from It's a Wonderful Life. For those keeping score at home, that's one lesson for every week of the year. For example, Welch points out how much this film teaches us about grace, the idea of unmerited favor. Right at the beginning of the film, the addicted druggist Mr. Gower slaps a young George Bailey on the ear so hard that it starts bleeding. George chooses to forgive him, realizing that Mr. Gower has just received word that his son has died. There's also the scene where George and Mary are trying to leave for their honeymoon but witness a run on the Building and Loan. Old man Potter offers 50 cents on the dollar to customers to move their business. Many are tempted to take him up on it, but George pleads with the townspeople to keep their money at the Bailey Building and Loan. Welch notes, "George suggests that one reason to do so is that the Baileys believe in grace and Potter doesn't." "Here, Ed," George says to one of his neighbors. "You remember last year when things weren't going so well, and you couldn't make your payments? You didn't lose your house, did you? Do you think Potter would have let you keep it?" Of course not. Old man Potter didn't do "grace." And remember the missing $8,000, lost by Uncle Billy on Christmas Eve. While George grabs Uncle Billy and shouts at him, in the end, he ultimately extends grace as well. In fact, forced to ask Mr. Potter for help, George takes the blame, saying that he is the one who misplaced the money. George's wife, Mary Bailey, especially excels at the grace business. When George comes home from work on Christmas Eve, yells at his wife and kids, insults Zuzu's teacher over the phone, and trashes the living room, Mary has every right to be furious. Instead, she forgives George, tells the children to pray for daddy, and then goes around town asking people for help in replacing that $8,000. Grace, Welch reminds us, "is the foundation of the Christian faith. Jesus' granting us grace by forgiving our sins flies in the face of virtually every other religion, which operate on a you-get-what-you-deserve basis. But Jesus says, in essence, you don't get what you deserve. You get what you don't deserve." The willingness to offer grace. The willingness to accept grace. The willingness to live by grace. That's what makes Bedford Falls such a great place to live. There are other life lessons in the film that Welch points out in his book, as well. For example, to count our blessings. Or, that richness is not about money, but about the people in our lives. And, that we can indeed make a difference because, as the angel Clarence reminds George, each person's life touches so many others. Fifty-two Little Lesson from It's a Wonderful Life is a great Christmas gift for the family. You can pick up a copy at our online bookstore at BreakPoint.org and read it together as a family. And of course, don't forget to sit down together and watch Frank Capra's great classic film. Before I leave you today, I want to remind you that BreakPoint is a listener-supported ministry of the Colson Center. The Colson Center is equipping you and countless others, not only through our BreakPoint podcast, but also through our short courses, our What Would You Say? videos and a host of other programs. You can show your support for BreakPoint and these other ministries by making a year-end gift at Breakpoint.org/December2020 . Thank you! A version of this commentary first aired on BreakPoint in December of 2012.
Dec 18, 2020
John Stonestreet and Shane Morris talk about the turmoil of 2020 and how politics, the election, COVID, economic stress, and even face masks have caused division within families, the nation, and even the body of Christ. How do we reconcile with one another? After all, Jesus wasn't merely suggesting we leave our "gift at the altar" and be reconciled with our brother. It was a command. Also on today's episode, two interesting reports: Pew Research shows that restrictions on religion across the globe are at an all-time high. Meanwhile, Gallup released a survey that show while Americans' mental health ratings have "sunk to a new low," on group of Americans is doing much better than others: frequent churchgoers. They wrap up the episode with their Christmas movie recommendations. Listen in as Shane waxes theologically rhapsodic over "It's a Wonderful Life," while John weighs in on every movie version of "A Christmas Carol."
Dec 18, 2020
In the recent Tom Hanks movie Greyhound, the captain of a destroyer leads a convoy across the U-boat-infested North Atlantic during WWII. To say that the trip from the U.S. to Britain in 1942 was dangerous is not only is an understatement of epic proportion, it offers context for the extraordinary composition of Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols." Britten was arguably the most important British composer of the 20th century. In 1942, after three years in North America, he found himself in the middle of the Atlantic aboard a Swedish cargo vessel, trying to return to his native England. Instead of panicking amidst the harrowing circumstances of the dangerous crossing, he wrote two choral works: the "Hymn to St. Cecilia" and the "Ceremony of Carols." As the name suggests, the "Ceremony of Carols" consists of ten carols framed by the chant "Hodie Christus Natus Est" ("Today, Christ is born") at both the beginning and the end. The carols he employed date from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, and are sung in Middle and Early Modern English, as well as Latin. One carol, "Deo Gratias" ("Thanks be to God"), sung in a combination of Middle English and Latin, tells the story of Genesis 3. While the text is primarily about the Fall, the carol's musical energy and emphasis is on thankfulness, specifically to God for providing a savior who sets things right. The most beloved carol in the work is "This Little Babe." Despite its sentimental-sounding title, the text describes the all-out battle the Babe of Bethlehem wages against Satan himself. The words were written by Robert Southwell, a Catholic priest who was hanged, drawn, and quartered by Queen Elizabeth I. Here's how they read: "This little Babe so few days old, Is come to rifle Satan's fold; All hell doth at his presence quake, Though he himself for cold do shake; For in his weak unarmed wise, the gates of hell he will surprise." Jeff Spurgeon of New York's classical music station, WQXR, calls "This Little Babe" his " favorite Christmas carol." In Southwell's words and Britten's music, says Spurgeon, the battle between good and evil is won by "a baby born in obscure poverty" and is depicted "not by a huge orchestra and massive voices, but by a harp and a choir of children." Britten, the man who pulled this off musically, could hardly be described as an orthodox Christian, much less a devout one. His personal life, including his sexual proclivities, was the source of numerous controversies during his life and even after his death. However, if this work composed during a potentially deadly voyage in 1942 is any proof, he was at least a Christ-haunted man. Believe it or not, in this, Britten wasn't unusual. So much of the West's greatest art was inspired by Christian themes. In fact, it's impossible to imagine the West's cultural heritage without Christianity. Though much of great art was created by people of unquestionable faith, such as Johann Sebastian Bach, others were produced by people whose faith is unknown, or even, nonexistent. The power these works hold to move us is, at root, the power of the story that makes the work possible--the story that explains where human creativity, like is evident in the talent of Benjamin Britten, comes from. And in this case, to use Spurgeon's words, the story of God's "sneak attack on the forces of evil," which we will soon celebrate. For BreakPoint, I'm John Stonestreet. Merry Christmas. A version of this commentary was aired by John Stonestreet on December 23, 2016.
Dec 17, 2020
Last week, I shared the story of a man and his wife who decided not to pursue in vitro fertilization , despite being told by their doctor that it could be successful in their case. "A little boy or girl created with our own genetic material," he wrote, "is not morally worth the many inevitable deaths of his or her embryonic brothers and sisters." The moral clarity and moral courage of this couple is impressive and, as I said in the commentary, too rare. More than a few people wrote to ask us if the problems raised by IVF, particularly the issue of so-called "excess embryos," could be solved by what's called "snowflake adoption." Snowflake adoptions involve adopting and implanting frozen embryos "left over" after IVF. Like pregnancy care centers that offer redemptive ways for people to confront the issue of abortion, embryo adoption is an amazing and redemptive response to a pre-existing brokenness. It's not accurate, however, to call it a "solution." Here's why. While the numbers are hard to pin down, it's estimated that only one in four viable embryos created by IVF will be implanted . And, only about 40 percent of implantations result in a successful pregnancy. Once a successful pregnancy is achieved, any excess embryos created by the process are either discarded, donated for scientific research, or frozen. By most estimates there are more than one million frozen embryos in storage, just in the United States. In other words, to "solve" just the current crisis would require one million couples willing and able to undergo the expense of embryo transplantation. And, it's important to know that at least 60 percent of the "adoptions" would not result in a successful pregnancy. But, of course, the number of frozen embryos continues to grow. The cultural factors that currently drive IVF are still in play. There is still an utter lack of ethical consideration surrounding artificial reproductive technologies. We still operate, as a culture, from a utilitarian "ends-justifies-the-means" mindset, where people often use technology to postpone childbirth and in which same-sex couples, who have intentionally chosen a sterile union but who nonetheless demand children. That's why "snowflake adoption" is better seen as a wonderful, redemptive response, but not a solution to the problem. Another response would be organizations who perform IVF without creating excess embryos . However, they are the exception, not the rule. For the most part, we have accepted the destruction of countless lives so that some infertile couples can have a child of their own genetic making. For the most part, many Christians have also accepted this. Back in March, I spoke with Hannah Strege, America's first "snowflake" baby and her family on the BreakPoint Podcast. Her parents adopted her from a freezer, and they courageously gave her a chance at life. During the interview, Hannah told me that she wished to devote her life, in part, to opposing in vitro fertilization. "Snowflake adoption" is an amazing response to the brokenness, but we have to stop adding to the brokenness. Christians must stop participating in any technology that creates excess embryos. Pastors need to know enough about IVF and be brave enough to counsel couples to make the right decision. And Christians must live counter-culturally when it comes to those factors that drive the use of IVF, such as delayed parenting and same-sex marriage. God bless any couple willing to adopt and bring a snowflake baby to term. And God give us the kind of moral courage we need to live in this cultural moment, the kind of courage displayed by the young couple who wrote me. Before I leave you today, I want to remind you that BreakPoint is a listener-supported ministry of the Colson Center. The Colson Center is equipping you and countless others, not only through our BreakPoint podcast, but also through our short courses, our What Would You Say? videos and a host of other programs. You can show your support for BreakPoint and these other ministries by making a year-end gift at Breakpoint.org/December2020. Thank you!
Dec 16, 2020
A mom writes to BreakPoint to ask about a school request. The school wants to push inclusion in the classroom for her son with a disability. The family is concerned that joining the inclusion effort will inevitably be tied to sexual dysphoria inclusion. After explaining the Christian view of dignity and value, John and Shane provide support for a youth worker. The youth worker asks for church history resources in an effort to make church history connect to a Christian worldivew. John and Shane highlight the development of doctrine inside church history. They explain the distinct nature of the Christian worldview over other belief systems. -- Resources -- Political Idolatries - Mark Tooley Why You Think The Way You Do - Glenn Sunshine Church History Vol. 1 - Everett Ferguson Documents of the Christian Church - Henry Bettenson Church History in Plain Language - Bruce Shelley
Dec 16, 2020
George Frideric Handel was mainly a composer of operas. In fact, he composed dozens of them. Though his productions were popular in 18th century London, Handel had his enemies. A foreigner, born in Germany, and by many accounts not a very likeable fellow, his rivals detested his style of opera. He was also kind of a large, awkward man, rough and hot-tempered enough to earn the nickname "The Great Bear." When his operas and his health began to fail, Handel sank into bankruptcy and despair, believing his career was over. In 1741, he was invited to Ireland to direct one of his works at a charity performance. Handel decided to write a new oratorio. A deeply religious man, he turned away from the human foibles common to his operas and chose his text and themes from Scripture. Something remarkable happened. He composed with a super-human zeal and energy. People thought he was mad, or even under a spell. One servant reported that Handel seldom ate or slept and worked with such frenzy that his fingers could no longer grip his pen. He was, in fact, in the grip of divine inspiration. The result is one of the world's great masterworks, Messiah. Handel finished Part I in only six days. He finished Part II in nine days, and Part III in six days. The orchestration took him only a few days more. In other words, in all, two-and-a-half hours of the world's most magnificent music was composed in less than twenty-five days. When he finished, he sobbed: "I think that I did see all heaven before me, and the great God Himself!" Immediately, from its premiere in Dublin in 1742, Messiah was pronounced a masterpiece. Messiah recounts the prophecies of Christ and his triumphant birth, utilizing an amazing amount of Scripture including passages like, "For unto us a child is born . . . and the government shall be upon His shoulders." And "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God . . . the Prince of Peace." In fact, Messiah pulls from the Psalms, Job, Isaiah, Lamentations, Haggai, Malachi, Zechariah, Matthew, Luke, John, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Hebrews, and Revelation. At its London premiere, King George was so moved by the "Hallelujah Chorus" that he spontaneously rose from his seat. The entire audience followed his example and, for the past 250 years, audiences have continued to do the same. After the success of Messiah , Handel continued to write religious music. Beethoven said: "To him I bend the knee, for Handel was the greatest, ablest composer that ever lived." Even after his eyesight failed, Handel continued to perform until, at age 74, he collapsed while conducting a performance of Messiah . He was put to bed saying, "I should like to die on Good Friday." Instead, he died on Holy Saturday, April 14th, 1759. His grave, at Westminster Abbey, is marked by a statue of Handel with a score of Messiah opened on the table. The page that is visible is, "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth." My wife starts listening to Messiah each year during Advent, or even a bit earlier. Like King George, our hearts still rise at that great triumphal chorus. We sing "Hallelujah" to the King who will reign forever and ever. A version of this commentary by Chuck Colson first aired December 22, 2000
Dec 15, 2020
A few years ago, a popular Christian singer, even though it wasn't Christmastime, ended her set by leading the audience in "O Come All Ye Faithful." By the time the song was over, and the crowd's attention was pulled back to the stage, the singer was gone. Even though it was her concert and not a church service, the singer hoped to point to God and not herself. When it was time for her well-earned applause, she was out of sight. A few weeks ago, news broke that a young, popular pastor from Hillsong Church in New York City had been fired. Carl Lentz is known for hanging out with celebrities, throwing so-called " Church house parties ," and dressing in expensive, stylish, and even provocative ways. On Instagram , Lentz confessed that he had been unfaithful in his marriage. This remarkably sad story is certainly not the only one we've heard recently of a pastor or ministry leader found guilty of a moral failing. Both from common observation and from Jesus' teaching, it is clear that fame and wealth can both attract temptation and cultivate corruption. The main lesson for all of us is to stay accountable. Stay humble. There, but for the grace of God, go I. There's also a lesson here about the relentless pursuit of relevance. When pastors and ministry leaders flirt with celebrity, Christianity becomes a brand. When that happens, the surrounding noise of marketing and brand- building drowns out the central promise of a changed life. Suddenly, the metrics of a "successful" ministry shift from faithfulness to the number of likes, shares, and dollars. About the same time that I read the heartbreaking news about Carl Lentz, I learned of the passing of a man I've known since I was young. Lee Stone spent decades as a volunteer girls' basketball coach at the little Christian school I attended and as the pastor of a small country Baptist church in Virginia. For 34 years he led the local rescue mission in town, helping men and women who were down and out with alcoholism, addiction, and homelessness–often the same men and women, over and over again. Lee Stone was a quiet man, and he walked with a limp. He was certainly no celebrity. I can't say for sure, but I would be willing to bet a lot of money that he never had an Instagram account. However, what's clear, both from his obituary and from the tributes that poured in on social media, is that Lee Stone was a man who loved others deeply and was deeply loved by many. He left his community better without ever building his "platform." "Lee's legacy," the local newspaper read, "is one of serving God with the compassion of Jesus Christ." That legacy and Lee's impact were quietly built on a lifetime of faithfulness. He is survived by his lovely wife, to whom he was married for 65 years, his 4 children, and his 23 grandchildren. The contrast between these two stories, one which made national headlines and one that made the local paper's obituary section, was stark. I am sure he wasn't perfect, but Mr. Stone chose a life largely insulated from the temptation to entitlement or self-worship or fame. But his impact was great. I want to be like Lee Stone. I don't think I'm old enough to offer much life or ministry advice, but I will confidently advise anyone called to serve the Lord as a pastor or speaker or ministry leader, if given the choice between the way of a celebrity pastor or the way of Lee Stone, choose the way of Lee Stone. Our talent and our drive and even our charisma can often write checks that our character can't cash. Err instead on the side of a quiet, faithful life. Leave the stage before the applause starts. The applause of our Father, "who sees in secret," is the only praise we need anyway.
Dec 14, 2020
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas, Shane Morris invites Dr. Alastair Roberts to explain the stunning symmetry in the Gospel narratives between Jesus' birth and His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Dr. Roberts also explains how reading the Bible typologically can help us see the amazing parallels between the Old Testament and the life of Jesus—much as Jesus must have explained to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, where Jesus, "beginning with Moses and all the prophets, interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."
Dec 14, 2020
I'm ready to make a prediction about the 2020 election. I realize it's a bit late, though I am comforted by the fact I cannot be more off than the polls were. For the record, this isn't a prediction about whether or not President Trump will con cede or suc ceed in returning to the Oval Office, or even about what will happen in the very important Georgia Senate run-offs. No, this is a prediction I thought about making months ago, but I couldn't quite figure out how to articulate it. But now, I'm ready to predict that many people are going to regret how they talked about and treated others over the last year or more. Christians, especially, will regret how this election has ended deep and important alliances and even friendships. We are going to regret things we posted and tweeted. We are going to regret ways in which we questioned motives or even character. We are going to regret placing so much weight on a set of political outcomes that certainly matter, but not nearly as much as it felt like at the time. It's not just the election. Disagreements over mask mandates, lockdown orders, and other aspects of pandemic frustration have broken up families, churches, and friendships. I predict there will be a good bit of self-reckoning in the future, looking back at words we allowed ourselves, and wondering, "Was it really worth all that?" Don't get me wrong: All of these issues at the center of our fighting have mattered greatly. I don't think there are "two sides" to most of them, at least not two sides that are rational, measured, or moral. There are, however, image bearers on both sides. In most cases, there are image bearers with whom God has ordained us to "do life," or by whom God has blessed our lives for years. Many Thanksgiving meals were ruined this year, and we can't just blame overreaching governors. I've experienced the fracturing myself. Emails and phone calls from long-time listeners and even friends demanding I agree with them . . . or else. Of course, instances of "How dare you!" and "Shame on you!" are always part of this gig, but they have dramatically increased in volume and frequency, and have come from surprising corners. This was a crucially important election, and this was a charge we took seriously. Each week for three months prior to it, the Colson Center held a national prayer webinar for the Church and our country. We did our best to help Christians be informed, not only on the presidential and congressional elections, but also about the very important local and state elections and state ballot initiatives. Chuck Colson often observed that politics is downstream from culture. That's almost always true, but most outside observers would have to admit that today, politics has taken over the lion's share of our culture. In a sense, that's still a "downstream" reality, because so much of the larger culture has thinned out over recent decades. Nature might abhor a vacuum, but political forces love it. As other aspects of culture, especially our pre-political relationships and local institutions, have drawn back, the noise of political ultimatums ride the tide of big tech right into more and more of our lives. Fr. Robert Sirico once said that Christians should be ruthless with ideas but gentle with people. Too many Americans, but especially too many Christians, have been ruthless with people. Not only is this a way of shortcutting our task of truth-telling and persuading, it's wrong. A second prediction is that we are going to miss, and even need, many of the relationships we lost. Christian friendships, as C. S. Lewis describes in his masterful book The Four Loves , are among God's greatest gifts to His people this side of eternity, and even beyond. "To the Ancients," Lewis wrote, "Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue." But of course, a time is coming, and coming soon, when Christians who spent the last few years shooting at each other will find themselves, once again, side by side in the cultural foxholes. Many of us used the word "reprieve" to describe the 2016 election. That was the right word; it was never a solution. By all accounts, although there may be some additional buffering courtesy of a remade judiciary, that reprieve is over. The incoming administration has promised to revoke the Mexico City Policy , which forbids U.S. foreign aid for organizations that promote abortion, and the recent appointment of Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services indicates there's not really an interest in "coming together" and "moving forward" with those of us not in lock-step on abortion and sexual issues. Not to mention, during the campaign, Joe Biden promised to continue the fight against the Little Sisters of the Poor, who have been to the Supreme Court three times so that they don't have to pay for birth control. And he's promised to repeal the Hyde Amendment , which bars federal funding for abortion. Will Christians be ready to face these challenges? And, even putting those challenges aside for just a moment (because a moment may be all we have), the Body of Christ predates and will long outlive any election cycle. How are we going to humbly obey Christ's command to encourage one another towards love and good works, from thought leaders to family members, when we can't stand each other? Jesus' instruction, even before we appeal to the throne of God for help, is this: "First go and be reconciled to your brother."
Dec 11, 2020
Faithfulness, not success. That was a phrase that circled around Chuck Colson. However, as John Stonestreet points out to Shane Morris, that was something Chuck learned through real life consequences. John and Shane think through the power of celebrity, drawing listeners to recognize the power of social media to build an idol of success. They make the statement that social media is the most powerful force to engage and reveal a worldview since the printing press. John and Shane also explore the worldview of former Vice-President Joe Biden as he begins making placements for his cabinet.
Dec 11, 2020
Christians have so many wonderful resources that can help us celebrate Christ's birth and prepare our hearts for His second coming, and one of them is sacred music. The abundant supply of truly majestic Christmas music points to a long line of theological artists, individuals who took seriously both what truth needed to be said in music and how it could be said so as to be both memorable and beautiful. Perhaps the greatest offering of all is Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio. For much of his life, Bach was in charge of music at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Leipzig, Germany. However, his many other responsibilities, such as raising 20 children, might explain why he indulged in a few shortcuts. For example, Bach often recycled old material for new musical pieces. Of course, true creativity does not always require an artist to work from scratch. We are made in the image of the God, who created ex nihilo , out of nothing, but human creativity always, to some degree, involves cultivating what God has given us and developing it to its highest form. In the Christmas Oratorio, Bach took virtually every solo from sacred music he had composed earlier and combined them with other choruses and instrumentals that were both new and old. The opening chorus, "Celebrate, rejoice, rise up and… glorify what the Highest has done today," was completely original. Later in the oratorio, Bach invites us to contemplate the paradox of the Incarnation: that the King of heaven saw fit to become a tiny baby born in a stable. By means of a powerful bass, Bach marvels that, "Great Lord, O powerful King, dearest Savior. . . He who sustains the entire world, who created its magnificence and beauty, must sleep in a harsh manger." Bach's original lyrics are in German. Come to BreakPoint.org, for a link to the entire English translation . Bach's notion of creativity has been largely lost today. As children of 19th century Romanticism, many contemporary artists focus on the self as the creator and sees the role of the artist to spin out something completely novel and unique. Most artists today equate creativity with novelty, some even think that the role of art is to be subversive to any and all norms. It's a form of what C. S. Lewis called "chronological snobbery." Bach's music is as a powerful reproach to that vision of what art is. He saw creativity as a means of highlighting and enhancing traditional Christian belief. He saw scriptural texts and musical forms were compatible, serving each other in order to supply rich liturgy. Bach signed all his work "SDG," shorthand for Soli Dei Gloria , which means "to God alone the Glory." Bach knew the One true source of human creativity and that He must work through the composer if the art is to be what it should. This Christmas, let one of history's greatest artists, remind you that all of our work should be done to the glory of God. Like Bach, our creativity is intended to serve the Creator, who is the source of our lives and our abilities. A version of this commentary was first published by Chuck Colson on BreakPoint in December of 1998.
Dec 10, 2020
An agnostic historian just offered some interesting advice to Christians who want to be heard in a skeptical culture: "Preach the weird stuff." In a recent video interview with Glen Scrivener of Speak Life , Tom Holland, award-winning historian of the ancient world and author of the book Dominion , said that Christians shouldn't shy away from the things that make the Faith unique. For example, the idea that Jesus of Nazareth is both God and man, said Holland, "sets everything on its head." In fact, it is the Incarnation that provides what Holland calls Christianity's "strange singularity." Christians, especially in light of modern sensibilities, are tempted to downplay the supernatural dimension of the faith. Yet Holland asserts that Christians should insist on things like angels, demons, and miracles. Not only are these beliefs non-negotiable within historic, confessional Christianity, they are foundational to much of the world's great art and literature. Christianity's greatest contributions, the ones that literally transformed the world, as Holland documented in Dominion, are grounded in "the weird stuff" of Christianity. Even better, these truths have stood the test of time. Perhaps that's because they're true . In the early third century, the church father Tertullian wrote that the death and resurrection of Christ "is entirely credible, because it is unfitting . . . [and] it is certain, because it is impossible." Tertullian understood that Christianity makes claims that people will find, at best, weird, and, at worst, offensive. And even back then people tried to make Christianity more palatable to contemporary ears. For example, the Gnostics, thinking the Incarnation and bodily resurrection were philosophical non-starters for the pagan world, remade Jesus into a sage and dispenser of hidden wisdom, and His physical resurrection into a spiritual one. Fifteen hundred years later, in the so-called "Age of Enlightenment," Christian ideas like the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, miracles, and the authority of Scripture were deemed to be insurmountable stumbling blocks for sophisticated minds. So, attempts were made, once again, to reinvent Jesus and Christianity to suit the spirit of the age: Jesus was a great teacher but not Divine, miracles had reasonable explanations, and Scripture could be scientifically scrutinized but still teach good morals. Of course, the Jeffersonian attempts to remove the supernatural left no reason to accord Jesus a higher status than any other moral teacher or philosopher, despite the best attempts of people such as Friedrich Schleiermacher to win the intellectual approval of Christianity's "cultured despisers." In other words, reimagining Jesus and Christianity to appeal to skeptics and unbelievers is nothing new. The result is always the same: We end up with a Jesus who looks nothing like the Jesus of history but looks an awful lot like the person doing the reinventing. In the 1960s and 1970s, many American churches attempted to become "relevant" by embracing fashionable political causes while downplaying and even denying historic Christian orthodoxy. These churches have been hemorrhaging members ever since. Today, many have chosen to reimagine Jesus into the image of a social revolutionary or as a champion of the sexual revolution. Many of these churches face extinction . Scholars may debate ( and they do ) whether or not the loss of members is caused by these attempts to be relevant, but a church that merely repeats the New York Times doesn't give anyone a compelling reason to get out of bed on Sunday morning. Why sit through a boring sermon when there's NPR? What's relevant to the larger culture will always be a moving target. As William Inge, the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, once put it, "Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next." Trying to win the approval of non-Christians by changing the message of Christianity is as much of a waste of time as it was in Tertullian's day. Plus, the message of Christianity is True, which means we don't have to make it relevant. It already is relevant—to reality! Tom Holland is right. Let's preach the Truth. God exists. Miracles happen. Jesus is God incarnate. He actually rose from the dead. That He cares how we live. That He's coming again to judge both the living and dead. You know, all that "weird stuff."
Dec 9, 2020
John and Shane field questions from BreakPoint commentary. They start their session pointing out common challenges that Christmas is a pagan holiday. Shane provides a few resources he is providing this week from the Colson Center. John builds a structure of thought that stands against the torrent of criticism some face about Christian's hold on the holiday. Shane then introduces a challenge to a piece related to the United States' recent history in accepting Christian refugees. John provides necessary distinction in defending borders and providing asylum, calling listeners to understand the importance of the cultural moment. To close John and Shane dig deep into theological thought on determinism. Shane frames the conversation around a comment from a listener related to a recent BreakPoint article. They lead listeners to a place of awe for the mind and love of God.
Dec 9, 2020
Several years ago, in a documentary called "Religulous" (clever, right?), Bill Maher claimed that most of the story of Christ, especially the parts about His birth, were cribbed from pagan mythology. After all, Maher claimed, the Egyptian God Horus was born of a virgin on December 25th, was baptized, had twelve disciples, performed miracles, and ultimately died and rose again. Christianity, said Maher, is nothing but a cheap knockoff. The problem is, as numerous critics have pointed out , Maher's claims are complete nonsense. No original source material backs up his description of Horus or, for that matter, of Mithras or Krishna, two other deities Maher claims early Christians copied. As ridiculous as "Religulous" is, some of its same claims about the origins of Christian holidays remain and tend to surface most at Christmas time. For example, how and when did the Church determine that date of December 25th? Was it to compete with the Roman festival of Saturnalia? And what about trees, and gifts, and lights? Where did all of that come from? And, what about those pagan stories that resemble Christ, of sons of the gods and "corn kings" who die and rise again? Recently, historian and long-time friend of the Colson Center, Dr. Glenn Sunshine joined Shane Morris to talk about these things on the Upstream podcast . Glenn is a favorite teaching faculty of the Colson Fellows and, I can assure you, he is no Grinch. During his conversation with Shane, Dr. Sunshine answered some of the core questions about Christmas. For instance, Sunshine argued that December 25th was not chosen as the date for Christmas in order to co-opt a pagan solstice festival. More likely, it was based on an ancient Jewish belief that people are conceived on the date of their deaths. Since Christ died on or around March 25th, some Church Fathers believed that Christ must have been conceived on that day and born nine months later… December 25th. Was this Jesus' actual birthday? No one knows, of course. Still, the choice to celebrate Christ's birth at the end of December reflects a "sacramental" view of reality, which Christians have held through the ages. In this more "enchanted" view of the world, one that held sway in the Early and Medieval Church, nature itself was understood to have signified the life of Christ. The visible death of winter—the withering of the leaves, the dormancy of the ground, and the longer nights—symbolized to many Christians of centuries past the death Jesus came to die. The turning of the seasons and the increase in daylight that symbolized the dawning of the Light of the World in a manger. Many of our traditions, like Christmas trees, probably began as symbols of life in the midst of death. Dr. Sunshine suggests that this mingling of symbols of atonement with the joyous news of the Savior's birth can even be detected in the Gospel narratives. For instance, could those swaddling clothes be the burial cloth Joseph carried with him in case of death? Even more, the pagan myths that atheists often exaggerate to attack Christianity, Dr. Sunshine thinks, offer tantalizing echoes of Christ in other religions. C. S. Lewis also recognized this when he wrote in Mere Christianity of what he called "good dreams," or "those queer stories scattered all through the heathen religions about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men." For Lewis, these echoes were not evidence of religious plagiarism, but that Christ is the "true myth," the waking reality behind these "good dreams." To celebrate Christmas well, focused on Christ as opposed to "stuff," we do more than repeat old traditions. We are glorifying the King of Kings who came to save His people from darkness and make all things new. You can get Shane's podcast with Glenn Sunshine at breakpoint.org, and the latest "What Would You Say" video tackles this same question, "Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?" Watch it as a family, share it on social media, or with your church to help others answer this question that still stumps too many of us.
Dec 8, 2020
Last week, I received a stunning email from a gentleman who had, only days before, learned from doctors that he and his wife would likely not be able to conceive children. The doctor did say that, in their case, in vitro fertilization could be successful. The email described the couple's decision: "We just can't go forward with IVF. I know it could satisfy one of the deepest desires of our hearts, but the cost is unacceptable. A little boy or girl created with our own genetic material is not morally worth the many inevitable deaths of his or her embryonic brothers and sisters." I'm not sure what's more stunning: the moral conviction shown by this young couple or just how deeply they understand the moral realities of artificial reproductive technologies. In a culture that views children as products instead of image-bearers, many Christians feel lost when faced with similar decisions. We hear from them all the time, and, while I'm grateful to be a resource for those wrestling with these issues, the Church has, too often, simply failed young couples in this area, both in communicating a theology of children and in helping them navigate the ethical challenges of infertility. Whether from Scriptural stories (like Abraham and Sarah, Samuel's mother Hannah, and John the Baptist's mother Elizabeth) or from personal experience, to say that infertility is painful is an understatement, as anyone who has gone through it can attest. Even if lacking a clear ethic on reproductive technology, Christians tend to value children more than the wider culture. In this context, technology can seem like answer to the prayers of those who wish to conceive their own children but cannot. It's understandable why pastors and fellow believers would be loath to counsel against it. All of this made the moral clarity found in this email so stark. This couple acknowledges that their deep, God-given desire for children is more than a matter of personal preference or a choice to further their happiness. Rather, it's an inherent part of their marriage. Yet, they've sought to understand the moral complexities of IVF, realizing that means are not justified by well-intentioned, or even Godly, ends. Listen to this line again: "A little boy or girl created with our own genetic material is not morally worth the many inevitable deaths of his or her embryonic brothers and sisters." In most IVF clinics, couples consent to create more embryos than they intend to parent. They do that to increase the chances of success through various rounds of implantation. It's a strategy built around the probability that not all of the embryos will survive. If more embryos survive implantation than desired, a so-called "voluntary reduction" is often recommended and performed. That's another word for abortion. To be clear, there are fertility specialists and clinics, many of them Christian, who, while not finding IVF unethical per se, refuse this pragmatic sacrifice of human life . Unlike a practice that has resulted in over a million abandoned embryos , subject to custody battles , or being discarded as medical waste, these clinics require that only one embryo is created and implanted at a time or that the couple will agree to implant all embryos created. All of this is a poignant reminder that talk about Christian ethics and worldview is not some disembodied, esoteric exercise for the theologically nerdy. Like the couple that wrote to us, the real-life issues Christians face in this cultural moment have flesh-and-blood implications. "Forgoing IVF is hard," they wrote, "but we have peace that it is right and good." This couple has chosen the narrow way Jesus referred to in His Sermon on the Mount. They've chosen the way of Mary, who, when told by the angel that unexpected motherhood was her future, said "let it be to me according to Your Word." I don't know precisely how, but I pray God will bless this couple with peace and in amazing ways for their faithfulness. I pray others, facing the pain of infertility, will follow their courageous example and do the hard work required to make the right decisions. I pray God will equip His Church and its shepherds to prepare His people to live faithfully in this cultural moment.
Dec 7, 2020
If the Christmas story is a cosmic drama, we would do well to know all we can about the cast of characters onstage at Bethlehem and beyond. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, of course. But what about the innkeeper? The angels and the shepherds? Simeon and Anna. And even "the surprising people" Jesus' family tree. What does God's selection of this cast of supporting characters say about the star Himself, Jesus the King? Today on the BreakPoint Podcast, John Stonestreet welcomes Dan Darling, the author of the beautiful and insightful book "The Characters of Christmas: 10 Unlikely People Caught Up in the Story of Jesus."
Dec 7, 2020
Sixty-two years ago, a young Italian woman named Edi Bocelli, pregnant with her first child, was hospitalized with appendicitis. Her doctors advised her to abort the child because, they said, "the baby would be born with some disability." A devout Catholic, Edi Bocelli refused, but the doctors' prognosis was correct. Her son Andrea was born with congenital glaucoma and was completely blind by age 12. Despite being unable to see, Andrea was born with other gifts. One, in particular, stands out. His voice has been called "the most beautiful in the world." According to Celine Dion, "if God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli." In fact, Bocelli's albums have sold over 90 million copies. His 1999 album "Sacred Arias," is the biggest selling album by a solo classical artist in history, and his 1996 single, Con te partirò ("With You I Shall Leave") is one of the biggest selling singles of all time, putting him on a list that includes Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, and Adele. Bocelli has sung for presidents, prime ministers, and popes. He was even named one of the world's "Fifty Most Beautiful People" by People Magazine. In 2010, Bocelli told his mother's story, in a video entitled "Andrea Bocelli—His Unknown Story That Touches Hearts." Sitting at the piano, after describing his mother's decision to not abort him, he adds, "Maybe I'm partisan, but I can say that it was the right choice." Bocelli told an Italian newspaper, that he was inspired to share his story by a missionary in Haiti who works with children and women facing difficult pregnancies. "Because of my personal convictions as a devout Catholic," said Bocelli, "I am not only fighting against something, I am fighting for something - and I am for life." The video went viral. Bocelli said he hopes it will "help comfort those who are in difficult situations and who sometimes just need to feel that they are not alone." In this way, Bocelli's story is reminiscent of the important work of pregnancy care centers, which also exist to remind women facing a difficult pregnancy that they are not alone. The comfort and support they provide helps women choose life, just as Bocelli's mother did. Especially at this time of year, Bocelli's story reminds us of the part a challenging pregnancy played in the story of our redemption. It's easy for us to forget that God gave Mary the option to say "no." Her reply, "may it be done according to thy will," are similar to the words that Edi Bocelli and countless other women have echoed throughout the ages. And here's just a small sample of "the most beautiful voice in the world, Andrea Bocelli singing, " Glory to You, Christ Jesus , you will reign today and forever. Glory to you, you who will soon come!" Glory to you, Christ Jesus, you will reign today and for ever Glory to you! You will soon come; you alone are our hope! The Colson Center team has prepared a free downloadable and beautifully illustrated e-book, "Emmanuel! Readings for Advent." It's available at BreakPoint.org. And, by the way, Andrea Bocelli is holding a Christmas concert, to be streamed online around the world, on December 12. It's available on pay-per view. We'll link you to that as well at BreakPoint.org
Dec 4, 2020
Given the post-election turmoil and growing distrust of Americans in our nation's institutions, John Stonestreet and Shane Morris discuss the health of America's system of government, what Chuck Colson once called "the greatest experiment in Liberty ever undertaken." Also on this episode: Are we on the cusp of a COVID baby bust? With the American fertility rate well below replacement level, what does it say about our culture that fewer people are having--or even want to have--babies? And what are the ramifications for our economy and our society? Have we lost hope? In the meantime, NASDAQ is asking the Federal Trade Commission to approve new guidelines for companies listed on the exchange concerning the diversity of their corporate boards. John and Shane discuss woke capitalism and the proliferation of identity groups. John and Shane wind up the show with their recommendations for the week. Why not actually read Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol"? And John is beyond excited about . . . the return of NCAA basketball.
Dec 4, 2020
Among the commitments made for his administration's first 100 days in office, Joe Biden has promised to reverse Trump-era policies on the admission of refugees into the United States. Specifically, Biden has promised to raise the number of refugees admitted into the U.S. during his first year in office to 125 thousand , a significant increase from the current levels of around 25 thousand per year. Given the increasingly grave threats faced by religious minorities in many regions of the world, especially Christians, a careful change of national policy in this area is desperately needed. To understand why, the refugee issue must first be untangled from the larger issue of immigration. Immigration levels are determined by a combination of factors, mostly having to do with national economic interests. Refugee levels are, or at least should be, a matter of humanitarian concern. In recent years, the two issues have been conflated, partly by government failures on immigration and partly by increasingly passionate political loyalties. They shouldn't be conflated. A refugee, as officially defined by the Refugee Resettlement Program, is someone who fled their country because of a "well-founded fear of persecution based on his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion." The number of refugees around the world has reached its highest point since the end of World War II. Most are from the Middle East, where wars throughout the region have caused millions, including millions of Christians, to flee their homes. ISIS, for example, was birthed out of instability in Iraq and Syria, and their targeting of Christians and Yazidis was eventually (and rightly ) called genocide. In African countries such as Upper Volta and, especially, Nigeria, Christians are broadly and violently targeted by their non-Christians neighbors. In Nigeria, where Boko Haram and militant Fulani herdsman have killed, injured, kidnapped, and displaced thousands of Christians, the situation has also been labeled "genocide" by the Internal Committee on Nigeria . In China, the Communist Party has not only declared war on Christians, with pastors and Christian leaders both on the mainland and in Hong Kong fleeing and seeking sanctuary elsewhere but has also targeted the Muslim Uighur population in ways reminiscent of the Nazi Holocaust. About a year ago, I noted that certain promises made to persecuted Christians by the Trump Administration , including by Vice-President Mike Pence , had not been kept. In particular, the number of refugee admissions into the United States has been reduced to a level that Mindy Belz of World Magazine has labeled "cruel and unusual." To be clear, the administration has pursued "a new, practical focus on assisting refugees where they are concentrated," using foreign assistance and other tools "to resolve the crisis points that drive displacement in the first place." The administration also appointed former governor Sam Brownback as the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom and hosted two international ministerial conferences for advancing religious freedom. New approaches like this are needed and are welcome. Ultimately, we want the number of refugees reduced, and that will require that religious freedom and protections for religious minorities be advanced around the world. And, simply put, most people don't want to leave their countries, their families, and their homes behind. In other words, there are things that can be done to help refugees, both Christian and non-Christian, that do not involve resettling them into the U.S. Any and all effective policy advancements to that end ought not be reversed by an incoming administration clearly committed to reversing almost everything from the previous administration. At the same time, as more and more people are forced to flee religious persecution around the world, the United States will need to admit more refugees. This is especially true of those fleeing persecution in China and Iran, where our ability to resolve crisis points on the ground is limited. This can be done without compromising our commitment to vet the situations and stories of those seeking refuge. Already, refugees are far more strictly vetted than others seeking to enter the United States. Time will tell if the U.S. will open its doors. Whether we do or not will tell us what kind of nation we are.
Dec 3, 2020
Since the beginning of COVID-19 lockdowns, plenty have joked about the expected pandemic-induced baby boom. In more recent months, however, those predictions have changed. For example, last week in The Atlantic, Joe Pinsker joined the growing chorus predicting a 2021 "COVID baby bust." While there's not a lot of direct evidence for this pessimism, at least not yet, Pinsker's predictions are the safest bet based on what might be called "pre-existing conditions." Like the physical comorbidities that contributed to COVID complications for many patients, there are also cultural comorbidities which indicate maternity wards could be eerily quiet this time next year. How quiet? Pinsker cites economists who predict somewhere between 300,000 to 500,000 missing pregnancies due to COVID-related economic strain. And even those bleak numbers, say some economists, could be too optimistic. The volume of Google searches for pregnancy-related terms has dropped off significantly, reports the same Atlantic article, which could signal a fertility shortfall of as much as 15 percent in the coming months. One survey of Americans under 40 found that 17 percent who currently don't have kids now plan to delay even longer because of the pandemic, with most of those reporting less interest in having children at all . To be clear, in light of birth rate trends throughout the developed world, this shortfall is like losing a handful of dirt in the Grand Canyon. America's fertility rate was already significantly below replacement levels, at an average of 1.7 children per woman over a lifetime. This number keeps falling further and further from the average rate of 2.1 required to maintain the population. The most common explanation is that millennials, who currently make up the majority of the population in their childbearing years, were handed an economic raw deal. Having come of age during the Great Recession, they lacked the head start and resources their parents had to build families. While this is part of the truth, there's a lot more to be said. For example, neither the economic slumps of the Great Depression nor of World War II resulted in a fertility slump this persistent . The oldest millennials are entering middle age, but still only 32 percent of their generation is married . There's no indication of a second Baby Boom on the way anytime soon. Instead, a huge percentage of Americans of childbearing age are simply choosing a childless lifestyle. Recently, the "Conversation of our Generation" twitter feed posted two covers of "The New Yorker" side by side to illustrate the point. The first cover is from December 1957 and features a painting of a young family with two children admiring the home they've freshly decorated for Christmas. The second, from December of this year, features a young woman sipping wine and gazing at her laptop in an apartment surrounded by cats. Of course, there are dramatically different economic realities behind the two pictures, but there are also dramatically different choices behind them. An article in Mic published earlier this year entitled, "11 Brutally Honest Reasons Millennials Don't Want Kids," quoted young adults citing all the reasons they don't want kids: overpopulation, the physical toll of pregnancy, parenting challenges, and political fears. One woman simply said, "Children have always irritated me." If the dire predictions of a COVID Baby Bust come true, it will point to a condition that existed prior to the pandemic. Ours is culture committed to immediate gratification, which no longer thinks of the long-term future of our society enough to value children or the family. At the same time, we're facing a near-term future filled with aging adults, who will increasingly lack meaningful connections with family members. To understand why that could be a problem, see the short documentary shot in Japan last year called "Dying Alone." The call to action, the only one that can reverse this trend seems too simple to be effective. But, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man in king. In simple terms, the Church must re-catechize its people of the centrality of marriage and the God-given good of children. Christians must make different choices and urge our children to make different choices. Christians must have different priorities. Otherwise, a generation from now, what happened in ICUs this year will be overshadowed by what didn't happen in our maternity wards.
Dec 2, 2020
John and Shane field a challenge on using data to take a stronger stance on the covid situation around the country. The pair also field a question on the Trinity, and Shane provides some good resources to help build a Christian perspective that is rooted in Scripture. To close John and Shane field a comment that helped a family navigate infertility. Through the Colson Center's presentation on IVF technology, the couple making the comment share that they were able to build a Christian view that has legs to stand. They thanked John and Shane for their work to help this couple hold a consistent Christian worldview.
Dec 2, 2020
In early March, the University of California San Francisco held a panel discussion of infectious disease specialists on a new virus that had, at that point, killed 41 Americans. These experts not only estimated that 60 to 70 percent of America's population would eventually contract the virus, but that our best attempts to contain it, either through lockdowns or contact tracing, would be, in their words, "basically futile." Today, nine months later, the predictions of this particular panel of experts have turned out like most other COVID-19 predictions: right on some things, wrong on others. It's not clear just how effective all of the quarantining, lock-downing, social distancing, and masking has been in reducing the number of infections, or why, despite more data, our assumptions about COVID-19 remain largely unchanged. And, of course, we've yet to reckon with the economic, educational, and mental health consequences of the policy paths we've chosen. What is clear, more clear than ever in fact, are the base set of assumptions we now operate from as Westerners and Americans. Catastrophes like COVID always reveal worldview. To borrow a phrase philosopher Craig Gay uses in his book The Way of the Modern World , we are "practical atheists." A subtle, operational-level form of secularism, practical atheism is not necessarily to believe that God does not exist. Rather, it's to live as if God does not exist . Professor Gay identifies two features of a culture operating from a deeply engrained practical atheism. First, there is an illusion of control. If there is no Higher Power determining the course of human events or judging the morality of our actions, the world is a place for us to make and remake according to our wishes. Grand leaps in science, medicine, and technology only deepen the faith we put in ourselves. At the heart of our illusions of control is the assumption that world is totally understandable . We actually believe, Professor Gay says, not only that we can "comprehend reality in its totality," but that "we are capable of rendering it stable and predictable." In other words, we will ultimately make the world "work for us." That's a really attractive proposition, of course. However, what happens when we face something beyond our understanding, something that is an existential threat to the "convenient fiction" of our control? Like a global pandemic? The answer can be seen in how so many U.S. governors approached last week's Thanksgiving holiday: travel restrictions and curfews, bans on indoor gatherings, shaming even the idea of family gatherings for everyone, not just those at higher risk. The Governor of my home state of Colorado said that gathering with family for Thanksgiving was like " putting a loaded pistol to Grandma's head ." How quickly we went from the "we acknowledge we can't control this" of the UCSF panel of experts to the "we absolutely can and will control this" of elected officials. The shift from "most of us are going to get sick but let's care for and protect the vulnerable" to "everyone must avoid getting sick at all costs" is a significant one. Now, if anyone contracts COVID, it's not because it's a novel virus we don't understand, but because someone failed. Practical atheists want control. When control is lost, someone is to blame. This brings up another characteristic of "practical atheism" that Professor Gay rightly identifies: anxiety. Anxiety is the inevitable reaction when we realize just how out-of- our -control this fallen world is, and how fragile our shoulders – which now bear the weight of the world without God – really are. It's here that we see how much "practical atheism" has permeated the Church. Even for Christians who worship God on Sundays, it's hard not to give in to promises that our doctors, or our politicians, or our favorite celebrity preachers, or our organic vitamin regimen, or our purity rings will fix the world, or at least allow us to control all the scary stuff in it. And, we too, are tempted to look for someone (or someones) to blame for all that seems out of control with our world, whether a global pandemic or election results. That's why this moment is such an incredible opportunity for the Church. It will reveal our worldview, too. A Christian vision allows us to fully acknowledge our human limitations to understand everything, much less control everything. And yet, in this self-awareness, we are anxious for nothing , because we know there is a God who not only does understand but oversees the world He created and loves.
Dec 1, 2020
Many Christians, especially when it comes to LGBT-related issues, have bought into what might be called "the inevitability thesis." Nearly everything in our culture has convinced them to assume that it is futile for anyone to resist their same-sex attractions. And, any attempt to help someone, especially young people, reduce their behaviors and attractions is just as futile, and probably even illegal. After all, many believe, legislatures have adopted and courts have upheld bans on such things. Pastors, youth pastors, Christian-school teachers, entire counseling degree programs at Christian colleges and seminaries, and plenty of parents have embraced the "inevitability thesis" when it comes to LGBT issues, and now refuse either to address these questions at all, or, if they do, it's to counter the cultural consensus they assume has been settled. A ruling last week from the 11th Circuit court challenges the inevitability thesis. In 2017, the city of Boca Raton and the county of Palm Beach in Florida joined a growing list of jurisdictions that have adopted bans on "Sexual Orientation Change Efforts." By ordinance, licensed professional counselors are prohibited from treating minors with the goal of "changing [their] sexual orientation or gender identity." When Robert Otto and Julie Hamilton, two licensed counselors, challenged the ordinances in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, their chances of success seemed slim to none. After all, similar bans had already been challenged and upheld in the 9th and 3rd Circuit Courts. Judge Britt Grant of the 11th Circuit , however, sided with Otto and Hamilton. The counselors told the court that the ordinances "infringe on their constitutional right to speak freely with clients," including those who have sought counseling because of "sincerely held religious beliefs conflicting with homosexuality." Judge Grant found these free-speech restrictions of the ordinances to be "presumptively unconstitutional." While Judge Grant acknowledged that the kind of therapy Otto and Hamilton practice to be "highly controversial," which is why dozens of states and municipalities have banned it, the ordinances applied only "to particular speech because of the topic discussed or the idea or message expressed." The First Amendment, Judge Grant clarified, "has no carveout for controversial speech." Despite the government's "legitimate authority to protect children," speech, no matter how controversial, "cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable for them." "If the [therapists'] perspective is not allowed here," Grant concluded, "then the [government's] perspective can be banned elsewhere." In other words, what's sauce for the goose could easily become sauce for the gander. Thus, speech should not be restricted merely because some people object to what is being said. Not only does Grant's decision create what's called "a conflict in the circuits," making it all the more probable that the Supreme Court will have to consider the issue, there is an implicit lesson for anyone tempted by the inevitability thesis. After California and other jurisdictions passed laws restricting what counselors could discuss with their clients, many Christians and Christian institutions chose to conform to ideas and practices they knew to be wrong, so as not to put their licensure, accreditation, or some form of the state's blessing, at risk. The pressure they felt was, of course, real, but they were mistaken to think there was no further legal recourse available. A similar mistake was made a couple years ago by a Christian adoption agency who had been told they had to place children with same-sex couples. A judge decided against the state in that case as well . Of course, it's not clear what decision a newly remade Supreme Court may return on any of these issues. That's why the best advice in times like ours remains that given by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, advice we were all reminded of by Rod Dreher: We must not live by lies. While there may be no call for us to stand on everywhere street corner or counter-protest every pride march, the greater challenge for every mom, dad, pastor, professor, youth pastor, or professional counselor, is never, ever to allow ourselves to say or go along with what is not true. Especially when it comes to what it means to be human.
Nov 30, 2020
Os Guinness is a renowned scholar and accomplished author. He sits down with John Stonestreet on the BreakPoint Podcast to receive recognition for a republishing of his first book. In The Dust of Death, Os outlines the trappings of a liberal movement that hadn't yet reared an overwhelming influence in society. He shows the strategy and forecasts much of the modern challenges we face to our freedoms in America.
Nov 30, 2020
Yesterday marked the start of Advent. Officially, at least according to the Church calendar, it's not yet Christmas. Officially, it's Advent. This time of preparation is among the most important seasons of the Christian calendar. Reflecting on the God's promises throughout history, first to Israel and then to the Church, is a remarkable way to cultivate and reinforce a Christian worldview in our hearts and minds. For nearly two millennia, Advent has called Christians to understand life between the two bookends of God's redemptive acts in Christ: His Incarnation, when the Word became flesh, and His coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Advent is a time to recall God's utter and unstoppable faithfulness to His people. Though Israel failed to keep its covenant with God, made at Sinai and renewed on several occasions afterwards, He always intended to keep His covenant with Abraham, that "through your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." That offspring was, of course, Jesus Christ. Throughout Church history, reflecting on God's faithfulness has led to the inspiration and production of many great hymns, including the one most identified with Advent, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." The lyrics of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" are taken from what are called the "O Antiphons." An antiphon is a phrase or short sentence recited or sung either before or after a psalm or other passage of Scripture. The "O Antiphons" belong to Christian antiquity. Roman philosopher Boethius, who lived in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, alludes to them in his writings. One scholar suggests that, "in some fashion, the O Antiphons have been part of our liturgical tradition since the very early Church." And, since at least the eighth century, the "O Antiphons" have been set aside for the week preceding Christmas Eve, December 17 to 23. The O Antiphons, like the hymn they produced, offer a journey through salvation history. Each Antiphon includes both a Messianic title, a reminder of who Christ is, and the invitation, "Come," a reminder of our helpless state and need for divine rescue. Christ is the Wisdom of God (Isaiah 11). He is Adonai , the Lord our lawgiver and judge, who will save us (Isaiah 33). He is the root of Jesse's stem, whom the Gentiles will seek (Isaiah 11). He is the Key of David, who unlocks the doors of our prison. He is the Radiant Dawn, the light that shined upon the people who dwelt in darkness (Isaiah 9). He is the King of the Nations (Isaiah 2). And of course, He is Emmanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7). This sort of theological profundity, which cannot be found on any of the 24-hour Christmas music stations, is worthy of our silence, reflection, and meditations. My Colson Center colleagues have prepared a free, downloadable booklet featuring an explanation of each of the O Antiphons, a short meditation on their meaning, and quotes from Christians throughout history on the wonder of Advent. The booklet is called Emmanuel: Readings for Advent. Come to breakpoint.org to receive this gift from our team to you and your family. Exploring these remarkable statements about the nature and work of Christ is a wonderful way to intentionally engage with the season of Advent.
Nov 27, 2020
John Stonestreet and Shane Morris recount what they're thankful for this Thanksgiving season . . . and then wade into the deep waters of the ethics surrounding the upcoming COVID vaccines, whether they use fetal stem cells and whether it is ever ethically acceptable to take an innocent life, even for a so-called greater good. The good news is, major Christian organizations and ethicists have given the green light to two of the upcoming vaccines . . . but not a third. Also in this week's episode, a federal circuit court has enjoined local ordinances that forbid so-called gay "conversion therapy." Clearly, the law is not settled, and John urges Christian counselors, churches, and institutions not to cave into the cultural narrative that our urges and desires define who we are. They wrap up the show encouraging Christians to observe the season of Advent--and have some recommendations to make to bless you and your family.
Nov 27, 2020
Black Friday will be different this year, thanks to COVID-19. Instead of a single day of sleep-deprived consumers trampling security guards for flatscreen TV's, it's more a couple weeks of online over-marketing. While the presumed decrease in physical violence is certainly an improvement, the additional appeals to fill the voids in our hearts and minds with material goods isn't. If there were ever a time that we needed less distraction and more focus on what really matters, it's now. In such a context, the next four weeks is, for followers of Christ, a gift. Sunday is the beginning of the season of Advent, a time set aside in the Christian calendar to reflect on the coming of Jesus into the world. The Latin word adventus, from which the word "Advent" is derived, literally means "coming." Positioned as it is, in the weeks before Christmas, Advent places Christ's first coming into the world, in a manger in Bethlehem, within the larger historical context of redemptive history and the long promises of God to send a Messiah. At the same time, Adventus is the Latin translation of the Greek word parousia, which is used repeatedly in the New Testament to describe Jesus' second coming, when He returns in glory at the end of the age. Prior to this usage by Paul and other New Testament authors, parousia referred to the arrival of the Emperor in a city or a province. When notified of his coming , citizens would scramble to properly greet this very important person, preparing great feasts, and dressing in their finest clothes. The original readers of the New Testament not only would have understood parousia in this context, they would have seen it as an explicit rejection of Caesar's claim of lordship. While Christians today think and talk of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in personalized terms, such as "have you made Jesus Lord of your life?" the earliest Christians understood it as a public, definitive, and risky proclamation. In other words, to say "Jesus is Lord" is to say, "Caesar is not ." By using parousia to refer to someone other than the Emperor, Christians were saying something about who was really in charge. This backdrop is essential to understand why so many early Christians became martyrs. Rome would tolerate various and eccentric religious beliefs and practices. At times, they'd even incorporate alternate religious celebrations and beliefs into their own. What would not be tolerated, however, were rival allegiances. Nearly two millennia later, Christians must still clarify their allegiances. We, too, are tempted to give ourselves to would-be Caesars. Our false gods may be more subtle, but through the prevailing culture they exert power over our thoughts, imaginations, and loyalties. Unless we are intentional, we will worship them. While our would-be lords rarely demand, at least in overt terms, that we deny the lordship of Jesus, they are most effective in distracting us from ever thinking about what the lordship of Christ means and requires. Advent invites us to prepare to greet the One who is "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation," through whom "all things were created." We, too, are asked to prepare through prayer and generosity. We, too, are asked to array ourselves in our "finest." Not in garments but in truth, love, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. To prepare this way, not only to remember Christ's first coming but to anticipate in hope His second coming, is every bit as culturally subversive as using the word parousia was two-thousand years ago. It's a way of living as if Jesus is Lord. Because He is. For a list of resources, podcasts, books and ideas for Advent, visit us at breakpoint.org.
Nov 26, 2020
G.K. Chesterton once said that gratitude was "nearly the greatest of all human duties, (and) nearly the most difficult." It is the greatest of human duties, because as Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, "what do we have that we did not receive?" It is especially difficult in a year like this, because we see in so many ways that things could be better. Chuck Colson made this point in a BreakPoint commentary from 2011. When life is great, Chuck said, it's easy to be grateful. When life is difficult, however, expressing gratitude can be a strange, yet profound , witness to the world: A few years ago, university psychologists conducted a research project on gratitude and thanksgiving. They divided participants into three groups. People in the first group practiced daily exercises like writing in a gratitude journal. They reported higher levels of alertness, determination, optimism, energy, and less depression and stress than the control group. Unsurprisingly, they were also a lot happier than the participants who were told to keep an account of all the bad things that happened each day. One of the psychologists concluded that though a practice of gratitude is a key to most religions, its benefits extend to the general population, regardless of faith or no faith. He suggested that anyone can increase his sense of well-being just from counting his blessings. As my colleague Ellen Vaughn wrote in her book, Radical Gratitude , no one is going to disagree that gratitude is a virtue. But, Ellen says, counting our blessings and conjuring an attitude of to-whom-it-may-concern gratitude, Pollyanna-style is not enough. What do we do when cancer strikes — I have two children who have battled it — or when loved ones die, when we find ourselves in the midst of brokenness and real suffering? That, she says, is where gratitude gets radical. While they often mingle together in the life of a follower of Christ, there are actually two types of thankfulness. One is secondary, the other primary. The secondary sort is thankfulness for blessings received. Life, health, home, family, freedom, a tall, cold lemonade on a summer day — it's a mindset of active appreciation for all good gifts. The great preacher and American theologian Jonathan Edwards called thanks for such blessings "natural gratitude." It's a good thing, but this gratitude doesn't come naturally — if at all — when things go badly. It can't buoy us in difficult times. Nor, by itself, does it truly please God. And, to paraphrase Jesus, even pagans can give thanks when things are going well. Edwards calls the deeper, primary form of thankfulness "gracious gratitude." It gives thanks not for goods received, but for who God is: for His character — His goodness, love, power, excellencies — regardless of favors received. And it's real evidence of the Holy Spirit working in a person's life. This gracious gratitude for who God is also goes to the heart of who we are in Christ. It is relational, rather than conditional. Though our world may shatter, we are secure in Him. The fount of our joy, the love of the God who made us and saved us, cannot be quenched by any power that exists (Romans 8:28-39). People who are filled with such radical gratitude are unstoppable, irrepressible, overflowing with what C. S. Lewis called "the good infection" — the supernatural, refreshing love of God that draws others to Him. And that, more than any words we might utter, is a powerful witness to our neighbors that God's power is real, and His presence very relevant, even in a world full of brokenness as well as blessings. I'm John Stonestreet, from all of us at the Colson Center, happy Thanksgiving.
Nov 25, 2020
John and Shane venture where men seldom dare. They field questions on contraception and the role of sex in marriage. They're asked for resources to build a scaffold for the purpose of marriage unions. In their explanation they delve into the impact of same-sex parenting and critiques on studies that show challenging outcomes. John and Shane address the difficult issue of contraception. They field a question asking for a Christian worldview response to how contraception might separate childbearing from sex. They conclude their time fielding a poignant request for resources on parenting boys. The listener references John's recent interview with Anthony Bradley, asking for resources to guide parenting and care for fathers and sons.
Nov 25, 2020
When Christians use the term "free will," it's often in discussions about divine sovereignty and predestination. Whether we choose God or God chooses us has been at the center of theological debate for centuries. On the other hand, when the term "free will" is used by evolutionary biologists the debate is over whether choice itself is real, whether it is an illusion produced by our brains. Materialists have long insisted, because they kind of have to , that human actions and decisions are determined, not free. In other words, we think we make real choices as humans, but we don't. Our choices are really the inevitable outcomes of a whole chain of material causes that go back, like falling dominoes, to the Big Bang. This idea is called "determinism." If true, a scientist with perfect knowledge of all of the conditions from the beginning of the universe could, like a cosmic weatherman, predict everything that would ever happen. Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, who runs a popular blog called "Why Evolution Is True," has long held this view. As he puts it, "our choices and behaviors are the result of the laws of physics…" Given our chemistry, the arrangement of atoms in our brains, and outside forces acting on us, we cannot help doing what we do. Obviously, determinism does quite a number on things like meaning and moral responsibility, among other things. Determinism is an unavoidable conclusion if you start with the assumption that the world is only a place of natural causes and processes. However, if you start with the evidence, it's another matter altogether. For example, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor points out at "Mind Matters" that quantum physics suggests we do not live in a deterministic universe. As early as the mid-60's, physicists had devised experiments that strongly pointed to the fact that nature does not determine every event beforehand. Quantum events, such as those that put a certain spin on an electron, are not the result of "hidden variables" at the subatomic level. In fact, we don't know what determines them! While Jerry Coyne seems to be recognizing the implications of quantum physics for his determinism, he has chosen to double down rather than admit his framework is flawed. Reviewing a PBS video entitled "Can Free Will be Saved in a Deterministic Universe?" Coyne reiterates his belief that our sense of having free choice is merely an illusion. "…we could not have done other than what we did at any moment in time," he writes. "And, except for the action of any quantum events, the future is completely determined by the past." In other words, Coyne's determinism applies everywhere in the universe … except for quantum events. Other than an undetermined variable that influences literally every physical process in the universe, everything else is determined? Michael Egnor has responded with a personal challenge to Coyne: What in nature isn't the action of quantum events? Certainly, e very event in the brain is quantum in nature—every brain state…every bit of protein synthesis or ion flow—is the consequence of quantum events. Because all quantum events are non-deterministic, then all brain states are non-deterministic, and the free will deniers' claim that nature is deterministic falls to pieces." All of that physics jargon is making an important worldview point. In a Christian worldview, human attitudes and human actions are not only morally significant, but central to what it means to be in the image of God. We are not mere effects of material causes. It is because our minds are not mere emanations of our brains that we can talk about "right" and "wrong" as real concepts, to hold people accountable for their actions. It also makes all of our talk about physics or neuroscience meaningful. To borrow an argument from Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga, if our minds are merely the products of material causes, why should we trust our thoughts to conclude anything, including that our minds are merely the products of material causes? Ironically, Jerry Coyne is assuming free will and rationality in arguing against free will and rationality. This is one of those things we can't not know about ourselves: Our thoughts, decisions, and beliefs are morally meaningful, not pre-determined. Anyone who is determined to deny this must assume their denial wasn't determined.
Nov 24, 2020
In 1967, ex-Harvard professor Timothy Leary famously coined one of the slogans of 60's counter culture when he told hippies to "turn on, tune in, [and] drop out ." Psychedelics like LSD became a vital part of what Leary would later call the "graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments." Advocating for psychedelics made Leary an academic pariah and a target of the FBI. Had he come along fifty years later, he may have landed a lucrative consulting gig with venture capitalists. On November 3, Oregon became the first U. S. state to legalize "magic mushrooms" for therapeutic use, following the lead of a few cities like Denver, Oakland, and Ann Arbor. Almost immediately after, articles appeared advising investors how to " take full advantage of this $100 billion (USD) market potential. " Investing Daily summed up the bullishness many see in this new market segment: "'Magic mushrooms' aren't just for getting high and playing your old Iron Butterfly albums . These versatile fungi are entering the consumer mainstream and they're evolving into a major investment theme." Joining the "cha-ching" chorus, Business Insider has run a few articles as well, with titles such as "4 ways entrepreneurs can break into the psychedelics industry," and "Why I'm betting big on psychedelics." If I were to bet big about psychedelics, I'd bet our nation is making a big mistake. Psilocybin , the ingredient that puts the "magic" in "magic mushrooms," is sold on its therapeutic potential but, like marijuana (which also won big on election day in Montana, Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, and even Mississippi), there's no way to limit its use to medical settings. In fact, Michael Pollan described the real-world use of psychedelics in his 2018 best-seller, " How To Change Your Mind: "What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence ." Pollan and others don't ingest "LSD, psilocybin and the crystallized venom of a Sonoran Desert toad" because they are clinically depressed. They are doing it to pursue what Leary called "the divinity within" and "the discovery of one's singularity." To put it in more accessible terms, our increasingly materialist culture rejects any God Who is authoritative and transcendent (i.e. who exists outside of the material world). Thus, the divine must be found "within." Many think psychedelics can assist their search by making it that much easier to escape the constraints of reality, authority, and limitations. Of course, something is noticeably missing in any alternate reality, whether induced by psychedelics, alcohol abuse, or virtual reality: other people. "Pursuing your singularity," as Pollan put it, leaves little room for anyone else, and feeds the illusion that we are somehow free of any obligations and commitments to others. People who use psychedelics say simply that it makes them feel better. What often goes unconsidered is whether or not psychedelics makes them better… better spouses, better parents, better employees, better friends. Advocates, like Pollan, also say that it helps them see things more "clearly." In the 1990s, a small group of volunteers were injected with the psychedelic DMT . "Almost half experienced terrifying hallucinations, like 'aliens' that took the shape of robots, insects or reptiles." And, of course, there's this notion that psychedelics help you "find yourself." But, as John Horgan wrote in the Scientific American , that may not be a good thing. "Far from making you wiser and nicer," he wrote, "psychedelics can make you an arrogant, narcissistic jerk. It can be hard distinguishing an ego that has vanished from one that has expanded to infinity." It reminds me of what my friend Mike Miller used to say, "We told a whole generation of young people 'go look inside, go find yourself.' But what if they find themselves, and they're jerks?" That is, of course, at the root of the problem with psychedelics. Escaping reality never solves the problem of reality. Deluding oneself about oneself is never a fix for the problems of oneself. Leary died in 1996. He didn't live to see this brave new world of psychedelics entering the consumer mainstream. It's just as bad of an idea today as it was fifty years ago.
Nov 23, 2020
Mary Eberstadt believes our national distrust is linked closely to a shift in fatherhood. A recent articled published in First Things makes the point that there is a link to violence and fatherlessness. Eberstadt notes a rise in national distrust and violent response. John Stonestreet pulls out more reasoning from Eberstadt's article, The Fury of the Fatherless, and allows her to share more research that led her to her conclusion. Resources: The Fury of the Fatherless: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/12/the-fury-of-the-fatherless
Nov 23, 2020
A recent report by the Belgium affiliate of Amnesty International contained an elephant-sized irony that neither Amnesty International nor much of the media seemed to notice. Entitled "Nursing Home Blind Spots," the report claims that the human rights of nursing and rest-home residents were violated during Belgium's initial wave of COVID-19. Of the 11,500 people who died from COVID-19 in Belgium during that first wave, 6,500 were residents of nursing and rest homes. Amnesty International calls this a "stupefying figure." The residents of these homes were, according to the report, "abandoned" by government authorities as the epidemic raged. Out of fear of overwhelming Belgian hospitals, only about half of COVID patients in nursing homes that needed to be hospitalized, were. What happened in Belgium is outrageous. That it happened in Belgium is not surprising. Though Belgium wasn't the first country to legalize euthanasia, it has " the world's most liberal law on physician-assisted suicide ." A practice originally sold as a way to ease the pain and suffering of terminally ill older people quickly expanded. In less than a year's time , legalized euthanasia was expanded to include children. Then it was extended to those chronically ill, but not necessarily terminally ill. Then to psychological suffering, not only physical suffering. The Psychiatric Times calls Belgium the " epicenter of psychiatric euthanasia ." In 2014 , Belgium extended the right to die to a convicted rapist and murderer who preferred dying to serving his sentence. Soon, other prisoners requested to die. They were turned down, not out of a new-found respect for human life, but because the country had been criticized for a "failure to properly treat mentally ill prisoners." Earlier this year , three Belgian doctors were cleared of murder charges after euthanizing a 38-year-old woman with autism. Her family insisted the doctors violated informed consent requirements and failed to properly treat her psychological issues. For Belgians, euthanasia is quickly becoming a normal way of dying. Social workers and nurses who specialize in palliative care are quitting their jobs. In many instances, their jobs have been reduced to "preparing patients and their families for lethal injections." While this recent history in no way makes abandoning the elderly during a pandemic any less outrageous, it does make it easier to understand. Once a certain group of people is considered expendable, something Belgium concluded a long time ago, necessarily becomes part of all kinds of equations, especially when this kind of stress is added to the system. It is then impossible to have conversations about medical rationing, or resource efficiency, or financial prudence, or even, "flattening the curve" without factoring in what has already been decided: that some lives are not worth the cost. Once a society steps onto this slipperiest of slopes—which has already happened in Belgium and the Netherlands and, to a lesser degree for now, in Canada and even Oregon —it becomes impossible not to re-evaluate human dignity and value based on some extrinsic criteria, such as convenience or financial costs. The so-called "right to die" is sold on promises of personal freedom and autonomy. But once the so-called "safeguards" such as "informed consent" are justified, something that has proven incredibly easy to do, it's a short, inevitable step from "right to die" to "expected to die." We should know better. Certainly, many in the disabled community do. They've felt the unspoken but very real psychological pressure to buy the lies our culture tells about human value, to believe – God forbid – they'd be better off dead. Christians should know better. We shouldn't kill our suffering or our elderly for the same reasons we shouldn't abandon them during a pandemic. They are image bearers. Their lives have infinite value, from conception to natural death.
Nov 20, 2020
What does it say about American society that when a justice of the Supreme Court gets hammered for defending the first freedom guaranteed under the Bill of Rights? John Stonestreet and Shane Morris discuss the media and political reaction to Justice Samuel Alito's speech hat the National Lawyers Convention, in which Justice Alito described the current threats to religious freedom. Also on today's episode, some 92,000 complaints of sexual abuse have been filed against the Boy Scouts of America. While the decline--and demise?--of the Boy Scouts is a huge loss for American boys, there are, thanks to Christians across the country, alternatives such as Trail Life USA. And Belgium has come under fire from Amnesty International for its shabby treatment of the elderly during the COVID crisis. But has anyone noticed that Belgium's lax euthanasia laws have been killing the elderly for years? On a brighter note, John and Shane end the episode with their recommendations of the week. Shane going with "Adventures in Odyssey," and John recommending Melanie Kirkpatrick's book, Thanksgiving: The Heart of the American Experience. Resources: Address by Justice Samuel Alito at the 2020 National Lawyers Convention, YouTube "Justice Alito is Right: Freedom of Speech and Religion Face Real Threats," Keith D. Stanglin, Newsweek "The Fury of the Fatherless," by Mary Eberstadt, First Things "The Last Children of Down Syndrome," by Sara Zhang, The Atlantic "When COVID Hit, Many Were Left to Die," New York Times "Adventures in Odyssey" Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience , by Melanie Kirkpatrick, available at Amazon.com John Stonestreet's Interview with Melanie Kirkpatrick on Thanksgiving, The BreakPoint Podcast