The BreakPoint Podcast: Recent Episodes
Colson Center for Christian Worldview
A daily Christian worldview commentary hosted by best-selling author Eric Metaxas and Colson Center President John Stonestreet. BreakPoint provides you with a short and applicable Christian perspective on today’s news and trends.
Dr. Thaddeus Williams explains what's causing the catastrophic loss of meaning today and how the person of Jesus Christ provides what the world needs most.
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For more resources visit breakpoint.org.
An organization started by Chuck Colson celebrates 50 years of caring for inmates and their families. An online video reveals how much family means to children. And who is going to care for the growing number of people aging alone?
Segment 1 – Prison Fellowship's 50th Anniversary; The Story of Family
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Prison Fellowship
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They Loved Me Without Looking video
Segment 2 – Solo Aging
- NPR article on solo aging
Segment 3 – Revealing Oxford Debate
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X post from debate
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Fox article on Michigan Senate race
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The Law of Merited Impossibility
What are we telling humans about themselves, and why has the definition changed in this civilizational moment?
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To get access to every talk from this year's Colson Center National Conference, visit colsoncenter.org/august.
After working as Nixon's "hatchet man," Chuck Colson was transformed through Christ while in prison.
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Download the Colson Educators app today on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Mayor Mamdani's plan for city-run grocery stores versus the American citizen.
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Start Truth Rising: The Study for free today at colsoncenter.org/study.
Fifty years ago, Chuck Colson founded an organization that has changed the lives of millions of men and women across the globe.
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Join Abdu Murray, Gretchen Huizinga, and John Lennox (virtually) as they help us explore how Christians can live out our God-given humanity in an increasingly AI-driven world. Register at greatlakessymposium.org.
We need the wisdom of when to speak, how to speak, and why to speak.
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For more resources visit breakpoint.org.
Working through frustration and anger at revelations from the Fauci hearings. Critical Theory at work in reaction to the Berlin Pride event attack. And President Trump's joke reveals trans inconsistencies.
Recommendations
Bioethics; A Primer for Christians by Gilbert Meilaender
Death and Life in America by Farr Curlin
Segment 1 – Fauci Hearing
- World Magazine
Segment 2 – Attack at Berlin Pride Event
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First Things article
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AP article on WNBA altercation
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Federalist article
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Practical Guide to Culture
Segment 3 – Revealing Trump Joke
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My Gender Dolls
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Economist article
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GLS livestream
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GLS in person event
Where betting is legalized, lives are being destroyed.
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For more resources visit breakpoint.org.
There is an opening for Christians to speak with excellence into the arts.
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For more resources visit breakpoint.org.
For those who don't know who they are, or why they are, or how to live, there is hope.
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The idea of covenant versus power.
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Join Abdu Murray, Gretchen Huizinga, and John Lennox (virtually) as they help us explore how Christians can live out our God-given humanity in an increasingly AI-driven world. Register at greatlakessymposium.org.
Two world religions; two very different bearing of fruits.
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For more resources, or to share this commentary with others, visit breakpoint.org.
This week we feature two speeches from the recent Colson Center National Conference. Os Guinness and Chloe Cole with two memorable presentations.
Segment 1 – Os Guinness: What Made America Great
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CCNC Digital Offer
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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Jewish Review
Segment 2 – Chloe Cole; Courage, Reality and Truth
Business belongs under Christ's Lordship.
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Apply for the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org/apply.
The lasting impact of a lesser-known Founding Father.
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Start Truth Rising: The Study for free today at colsoncenter.org/study.
Can we distinguish AI from a human; and do we care?
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Apply for the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org/apply.
The world needs formed, not just informed, believers.
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Download the Colson Educators app today on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
If we want healthy young men who know that their strength is to serve others, we need to point them to heroes to admire and follow.
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Join Abdu Murray, Gretchen Huizinga, and John Lennox (virtually) as they help us explore how Christians can live out our God-given humanity in an increasingly AI-driven world. Register at greatlakessymposium.org.
We look back at the life of Senator Lindsey Graham. Two politicians talked about American exceptionalism on July 4th; they both got it wrong. And England continues to flirt with oppressive laws
Segment 1 – Lindsey Graham's Death; American Exceptionalism
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Daily Citizen Article on Lindsey Graham
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Mamdani's Address
Segment 2 – Children Rights; Is Britain Gone?
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Children's Rights Poll
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Them Before Us press release
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Rod Dreher article on England
Segment 3 – AI and the Economy
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We Must Act Now statement
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Fake ID by Abdu Murray
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Great Lakes Symposium
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Great Lakes Symposium Livestream
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Our Bodies by Christopher West
If eyes are a window to the soul, denying God's created identity only brings despair.
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Apply for the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org/apply.
Maintaining the Christian worldview in this next frontier.
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Join Abdu Murray, Gretchen Huizinga, and John Lennox (virtually) as they help us explore how Christians can live out our God-given humanity in an increasingly AI-driven world. Register at greatlakessymposium.org.
Jean Twenge joins John Stonestreet to discuss what parents can do to protect their children from harm in a world so different from the one they grew up in.
A new study finds that suicide risk rises and falls with social conditions, but the Church should be a rock of hope.
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Start Truth Rising: The Study for free today at colsoncenter.org/study.
The "man-moulders of the new age" vs. Imago Dei.
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Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
The Northwest Ordinance significantly shaped the future of slavery and education in America.
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To watch a complementary session from Chloe Cole and have the opportunity to receive access to the complete conference video library with a gift of any amount, visit colsoncenter.org/july.
Washington DC celebrated Independence Day in a big way last weekend. Two states with two very different education directives and new research on suicide has some very sobering findings.
Segment 1 – July 4th Celebrations and Education News
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Christian Post article on Maine school directive
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AP article on Texas schools
Segment 2 – Ground breaking Suicide Study
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Suicide Study
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Article on women helping people die
Segment 3 – Questions and Comments
Humble servitude and a life well lived.
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And for more resources, or to share this commentary with others, visit breakpoint.org.
The Bible is God's revealed Word to us, not our word to make applicable to the cultural moment.
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Join Abdu Murray, Gretchen Huizinga, and John Lennox (virtually) as they help us explore how Christians can live out our God-given humanity in an increasingly AI-driven world. Register at greatlakessymposium.org.
The Founders knew that unrestrained government power was the first enemy of freedom.
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Even "the father" of evolutionary theory found holes in his belief system.
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Start Truth Rising: The Study for free today at colsoncenter.org/study.
Is it ethical to charge 15% more for rich clients?
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Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
A bevy of rulings from the US Supreme Court this Week. John talks with attorney Ian Speir about them. America celebrates his 250th birthday and John and Maria answer questions from listeners.
Segment 1 – SCOTUS Decisions
- MSN article on Supreme Court rulings
Segment 2 – Independence Day
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Breakpoint article on patriotism
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PBS The American Revolution
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Breakpoint article on Europeans visiting America
Segment 3 – Questions and Comments
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NPR article on disability memo
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Joni and Friends website
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Legacy Coalition
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Big Picture Story Bible
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The Jesus Storybook Bible
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Summit Ministries
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Worldview Academy
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Impact 360 Institute
The year before he died, Chuck Colson delivered a Breakpoint commentary on the July Fourth holiday in which he reflected on our national identity.
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For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
America's Christian roots should be the catalyst of our respect and the inspiration to want better.
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Join Abdu Murray, Gretchen Huizinga, and John Lennox (virtually) as they help us explore how Christians can live out our God-given humanity in an increasingly AI-driven world. Register at greatlakessymposium.org.
Dr. Allan Josephson joins John Stonestreet to discuss being fired for speaking out about gender ideology, and how ADF helped vindicate him.
A looming transition and a call for the Church to persevere.
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Download the Colson Educators app today on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
AI is here. Hiding from it isn't an option.
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For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
We owe it to children to tell the truth and oppose the lies.
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Apply for the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org/apply.
A devastating earthquake hits Venezuela. John and Maria discuss socialist primary victories in New York, a new Gallup poll on religion, the New York Times' Father's Day essay, Canada's speech law, anti-Semitism on the right, and listener questions.
Segment 1 – Venezuela Earthquake; NYC Primaries; Religion in America
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Venezuela earthquake article
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Coverage of New York City primary elections
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Gallup poll on religion in America
Segment 2 – Father's Day; Canada's Speech Law; Anti-Semitism
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New York Times Father's Day essay coverage
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Canada Bill C-9
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Tucker Carlson interview with JD Hall
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Open Doors World Watch List 2026
Segment 3 – Questions and Comments
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Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
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Free Press article on Christian men's retreat
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Question on church membership and transgender-identifying individuals
Millions of Americans now believe and live as if Obergefell has settled the question of same-sex "marriage". It did not.
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Help ADF defend our freedoms by giving at joinadf.com/breakpoint.
The French philosopher rejected fixed human nature and birthed an identity crisis for the books.
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If we are to be people who are faithful to our families, our nation, and to God, we will need His help.
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Religious worldview matters.
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Should Christians love their country?
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Details of the deal to end hostilities between the US and Iran have been released. Also released this week a report on sexual abuse of women and girls in the UK. The World Cup's attempt at a pride match hits a snag.
Segment 1 – Iran Deal; UK Rape Report
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MSN article on Iran Deal
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Breakpoint interview with Eric Patterson
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The Looming Tower by Larence Wright
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What ISIS Really Wants
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The Death of the Grown Up
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The Clash of Civilizations
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UK Rape Report
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UK Social Media Ban Proposal
Segment 2 – World Cup Pride Match; WPATH Sued; PCUSA Proposes Monogamy
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Yahoo article on World Cup
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Christian Post article on WPATH
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Fox article on minor league team refusing to wear uniforms
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RNS article on Presbyterian Church USA
Segment 3 – Importance of Fathers
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IFS Study on Fathers
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I Was Longing for a Father
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Why Fathers Matter BP article
Happy Father's Day to all the dads; you make a difference.
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What does Scripture say about the role and rank of angels?
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They came for the soccer, but America is wooing international first-timers.
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Believers should speak of our Savior, the Bible, and our faith with the confidence of both objective truth and a changed life.
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Help ADF defend our freedoms by giving at joinadf.com/breakpoint.
Non-believers don't understand how theologically deep and rooted is the Christian faith in truth.
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Help ADF defend our freedoms by giving at joinadf.com/breakpoint.
Sen Lee of Utah took exception with the Pentagon's labelling. NYT announces a new era of gene editing. John talks to Professor Robbie George about Fidelity Month. HelloFresh promotes perversion, A YouTuber is criticized for aborting a preborn baby diagnosed with Down Syndrome, but Bethany Christian Services makes a welcome change.
Segment 1 – Are Mormons Christian? Gene Editing is Back
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Breakpoint article
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NY Times article on gene editing
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Andrew Walker article
Segment 2 – Fidelity Month
- Fidelity Month website
Segment 3 – YouTuber Kills Preborn Baby after Down Syndrome Diagnosis
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YouTuber article
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Spectator Hello Fresh article
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Bethany Christian Services statement
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Resolve Conflict and Find Peace and Hope with Adult Children: Strategies and Conversations That Work by Kathy Koch
America's founding recognizes human exceptionalism.
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Help ADF defend our freedoms by giving at adf.com/breakpoint.
Bacon was an important thinker for the future and the Christian faith.
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The debate about what it means to be a Christian clearly needed to happen.
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Help us reach our $1 million goal by June 30 at colsoncenter.org/june.
What should winning the kingdom really look like for the young men excited about their faith?
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Help ADF defend our freedoms by giving at adf.com/breakpoint.
Dr. Kathy Koch shares three insights from her new book, Resolve Conflict and Find Peace and Hope with Adult Children, that can keep your relationship with your children healthy and restore it if it's unhealthy.
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Help ADF defend our freedoms by giving at joinadf.com/breakpoint.
Pope Leo's Letter has some thoughts on artificial intelligence; an increasing number of schools are telling students to leave their phones at home; Pride Month isn't getting as much recognition this year and college students can't read.
Recommendations
The Call by Os Guinness
Engaging God's World by Cornelius Plantinga
Truth Rising Study
Summit
Worldview Academy
Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung
Segment 1 – Pope Leo's Magnifica Humanitas and Schools Ban Phones
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Magnifica Humanitas
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Jonathan Haidt's Ted Talk
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Behind the AI Curtain by Don Sweeting
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BPTW with John Stonestreet and John Lennox
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Dallas schools see strong boost in school library use since banning phones
Segment 2 – Fidelity Month
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Podium article
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Retailers Scale Back Pride Month Themed Apparel for Children
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After decades of rising support, same-sex marriage acceptance may be stalling, Gallup poll shows
Segment 3 – College Students Can't Read
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Harvard policy
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Chronicle of Higher Education article
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Greater Than Campaign
A look at Al Gore's documentary 20 years later.
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Help us reach our $1 million goal by June 30 at colsoncenter.org/june.
Tim Goeglein joins John Stonestreet in discussing Tim's new book, What Really Matters: Restoring a Legacy of Faith, Freedom, and Family.
The fight for life-giving humor.
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Educators, bring a deeper Christian worldview into your classroom by visiting colsonfellows.org/apply.
Catto believed fighting for equality was part of the Christian duty.
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Download the Colson Educators app today on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
If killing critically ill newborns isn't the line, where is it for medically assisted suicide?
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Start Truth Rising: The Study for free today at colsoncenter.org/study.
A month of fidelity, not pride.
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Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
Beyond time, Father, Son, and Spirit has had full personal fellowship within Himself.
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Join us in praying for our country by visiting joinadf.com/breakpoint.
John interviews Oxford professor and apologist John Lennox on Artificial Intelligence, how should Christians view this technology, and how to maintain a Christian vision of what it means to be human.
Segment 1 – Two Kinds of AI
- God, AI and the End of History: Understanding the Book of Revelation in an Age of Intelligent Machines
Segment 2 – Should We Fear AI?
- What is Claude Mythos?
Segment 3 – AI and Reality
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Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
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My Story by John Lennox
What's happening when narratives, real or not, win over truths?
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Help us reach our $1 million goal at colsoncenter.org/may.
Ryan Bomberger is an amazing speaker with an amazing story, that is now the subject of a new book and documentary.
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Join us in praying for our country by visiting joinadf.com/breakpoint.
We are called to not be deceived and to not fear.
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Join us for our 2026 Rooted Educator Worldview Summit by visiting colsoneducators.org/rooted.
Why the Church's greatest need is formation.
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Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
A report out of the UN says concerns about climate change were overstated. People who use chatbots are changing their views of morality. Proposed rules for funding colleges could create problems for Christian colleges. And another bizarre ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court on hospitals and transgender care.
Recommendations
Triggernometry podcast
Segment 1 – OVERBLOWN CLIMATE CONCERNS; CHATBOTS INFLUENCING MORALITY
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Energy News Beat article
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Washington Post article
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Rod Dreher commentary
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Article on Chatbot interaction
Segment 2 – PASSING OF BOB WOODSON; CHRISTIAN COLLEGE FUNDING CONCERNS
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Woodson Center announcement
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Christianity Today article on college funding
Segment 3 – CO SUPREME COURT ORDERS RESTART OF MINOR TRANSGENDER CARE
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NY Times article on Colorado hospital
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FOX News article on Texas Children's Hospital
Woodson was a civil rights warrior who didn't buy the dominant narrative about race and oppression.
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Download the Colson Educators app today on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
What's the point of formation over efficiency, leisure over work, and wisdom over perfection?
__________
Manage your money with a team that takes good stewardship to heart. Visit sovereignpw.com.
Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson laid the groundwork for the pro-life cause in America.
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Register for our Truth Rising watch party in Knoxville by visiting colsoncenter.org/knoxville.
Like all human beings with eternity in their hearts, Disney adults are creatures of longing.
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Help us reach our $1 million goal at colsoncenter.org/may.
Graduating, commencing, and a better way.
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Start Truth Rising: The Study for free today at colsoncenter.org/study.
A new report on the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th. Connecticut is close to enacting a law placing more restrictions on homeschoolers. Katy Faust of Them Before Us was the victim of a hit piece by the Seattle Times. And John and Maria will talk about the administration's infatuation with IVF.
Recommendations
The World and Everything in It
Segment 1 – The Horrors of October 7; Attempts to Restrict Homeschooling
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MSN article on October 7 report
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Telegraph article on Nicholas Kristoff
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More violence in Nigeria
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Connecticut Democrats pass bill restricting homeschooling
Segment 2 – Seattle Times Doxes Katy Faust; White House Pushes IVF
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MSN article on Chloe Cole
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Age of first time mothers hit record high
Segment 3 – Questions and Comments
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A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today's World
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The Briefing
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Breakpoint
The fissure in America's ideological Left.
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Get ahead of the Colson Fellows summer application rush by applying today colsonfellows.org/apply.
How Martin Luther and centuries of Church thinkers inspired the Bill of Rights.
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Start Truth Rising: The Study for free today at colsoncenter.org/study.
A Tennessee bill and a grass-roots effort bring light to a darkened June.
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Join us in praying for our country by visiting joinadf.com/breakpoint.
When thinking about things like UFO's, aliens, and UAP's, the best place to start is with the rule and reign of Christ over all things.
__________
Join us for our 2026 Rooted Educator Worldview Summit by visiting colsoneducators.org/rooted.
The legacy work of how we face death.
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Join us in praying for our country by visiting joinadf.com/breakpoint.
We're celebrating mothers this Mother's Day weekend. Another study confirms what most already knew; church is good for your family. And there is growing frustration in the pro-life movement with the Trump administration.
Recommendations
Them Before Us YouTube Video
The Desecration of Man by Carl Trueman
Segment 1 – Mother's Day
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Them Before Us Substack
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Them Before Us YouTube Video
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Greater Than Campaign
Segment 2 – Church is Good for You; Is AI Alive?
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X Post
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Religion Unplugged article
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2021 Study
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Guardian Article on AI
Segment 3 – Pro-Life Frustration with the White House
- WSJ article
The language of the laws of nature and nature's God.
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For additional resources, or to download and share this commentary, visit breakpoint.org.
It would make many comfortable if the Founders were Deists, but were they?
__________
Download the Colson Educators app today on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Another First Amendment case is on the docket from the increasingly progressive Rocky Mountain state.
__________
Manage your money with a team that takes good stewardship to heart. Visit sovereignpw.com.
Though a few statements about Jesus in the Koran align with what we know from the Bible, other parts do not.
__________
Register for our Truth Rising watch party in Knoxville by visiting colsoncenter.org/knoxville.
Christians are right to lament moral collapse but should never be reduced to despair.
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Make a gift by May 8th to receive Dr. Carl Trueman's new book, The Desecration of Man at colsoncenter.org/may.
The alleged shooter at the White House Correspondents' Dinner touts his Christian faith in his manifesto. A new documentary released this week is likely to be a breath of fresh air. Planned Parenthood downplays its involvement in gender transition procedures and is the Catholic Church planning to go silent on sex?
Segment 1 – Another Assassination Attempt; God, Creation and the Story of Everything
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Shooter's Manifesto
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Generations by Jean Twenge
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Christopher Lasch research
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Desecration of Man Offer
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WSJ article on documentary
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Documentary trailer
Segment 2 – Planned Parenthood Gender Transitions; Pope Downplays Focus on Sexual Activity
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Lifesite News article
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Rueter's Article on Pope
Segment 3 – Uncomfortable Questions about Abortion
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House Hearing Testimony
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SCOTUS NJ Ruling
According to Carl Trueman, transgression and desecration are at the heart of our current cultural crisis.
__________
Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
Human flourishing needs stillness.
__________
Register for our Truth Rising watch party in Knoxville by visiting colsoncenter.org/knoxville.
Babies need their mamas. There are few things more obvious than that.
__________
Download the Colson Educators app today on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Thomas Huxley's Atheism-lite.
__________
Make a gift by May 8th to receive Dr. Carl Trueman's new book, The Desecration of Man at colsoncenter.org/april.
Anything can be programmed to be intelligent, but wisdom is uniquely human.
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Share how Dr. Os Guinness' writing or speaking has impacted your faith at colsoncenter.org/tribute.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is indicted on charges of fraud in their attacks on conservative groups. A Gallup poll finds a resurgence of religious interest among young men. Clarence Thomas gives a rousing speech on our Constitution. And Tennessee sets aside June as a month to honor the nuclear family.
Recommendations
Clarence Thomas Speech at UT-Austin
Segment 1 – SPLC Indicted; Young Men's Religious Revival
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SPLC Free Press article
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Gallup Poll on Young Men and Religion
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Clarence Thomas Speech at UT-Austin
Segment 2 – Religious Foster Parents Win in Court; TN Declares Nuclear Family Month
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ADF Case
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TN Declares Nuclear Family Month as an alternative to Pride Month.
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Fidelity Month website
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Where's mama video
Segment 3 – Easing Restrictions on Medical Marijuana
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NY Times article on medical marijuana
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Hill article on psychedelics
The pointless practice of looking at the past through the lens of the present.
__________
Download the Colson Educators app today on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
A Christian conservatism without Christ is no more Christian than a Christian progressivism without Him.
__________
Make a gift by May 8th to receive Dr. Carl Trueman's new book, The Desecration of Man at colsoncenter.org/april.
Struggling through difficult questions surrounding the meaning of death and organ donation is not optional for the Church.
__________
Applications for next year's class are now open, and you can learn more at colsonfellows.org.
There is a way for Christians to soar in an AI future.
__________
Start Truth Rising: The Study for free today at colsoncenter.org/study.
Aliens, UFOs, and what we know from Scripture.
__________
Join us for our 2026 Rooted Educator Worldview Summit by visiting colsoneducators.org/rooted.
Trump's social media post portraying himself as Jesus is widely condemned Pope Leo XIV and the administration spar over the war with Iran. Tucker Carlson claims Muslims love Jesus. Is that true? And John and Maria discuss pain.
Recommendations
Creed by Steven Turner
Elevation Rhythm
Segment 1 – Trump's Truth Social Post and the Pope Condemns the Iran War
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USA Today article on Trump's post
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AP article on the Pope
Segment 2 – Do Muslims Love Jesus? And N.T. Wright Questions Bible Stories
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Christian Post article on Tucker Carlson's comments
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N.T. Wright Questions Bible Stories
Segment 3 – How to Think about Pain
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Tell Me Where It Hurts by Rachel Zoffness
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The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis
Culture is getting ideas of singleness and marriage exactly backwards.
__________
Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
More groundbreaking proof that medicalizing gender confusion doesn't help.
__________
Register for America Reads the Bible at americareadsthebible.com/online.
Christian hope found in the American spirit.
__________
Applications for next year's class are now open, and you can learn more at colsonfellows.org.
Dr. Carl Trueman's new book highlights the ways Nietzsche predicted and cautioned about what was to come.
__________
Register for our Truth Rising watch party in Knoxville by visiting colsoncenter.org/knoxville.
We must appeal to and uphold God's clear moral standards amid vast moral confusion.
__________
Start Truth Rising: The Study for free today at colsoncenter.org/study.
John and Maria talk about the Artemis II mission. A new study finds mental health worsens after gender transitions. And what's behind the falling teen pregnancy rate?
Segment 1 – Seeing God from Space
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Artemis and Human exceptionalism
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Victor Glover article
Segment 2 – Finland Study on Gender Dysphoria
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Finland Transgender Study
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City Journal article
Segment 3 – Teen Birth Rates Dropping
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Teen Birth Rate hits Record Low
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Ross Douthat – Ben Sasse interview
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Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The mystery of love and our created specialness from space.
__________
Register for America Reads the Bible at americareadsthebible.com/online.
Jesus' body was not heisted, imagined, impersonated, or misplaced.
__________
Applications for next year's class are now open, and you can learn more at colsonfellows.org.
What does lipstick say about our worldview?
__________
Register for our Truth Rising watch party in Knoxville by visiting colsoncenter.org/knoxville.
Carl Trueman joins John Stonestreet in discussing Carl's new book, The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity.
__________
Receive Carl Trueman's new book when you gift any amount to The Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/restore.
How the creator of the Wizard of Id and B.C. taught millions about the resurrection of Christ.
_________
Help us raise leaders and shape lives through truth by visiting colsoncenter.org/april.
The risen Christ did not leverage anyone else's death for his cause. He offered his own.
__________
Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
The Supreme Court Rules Colorado's law governing conversion therapy violates free speech. In Spain the real-life example of how assisted suicide harms the vulnerable. John and Maria talk Easter and the connection between the miracles and morality of Christ. And Jaden Ivey loses his spot on an NBA roster because of his outspoken faith.
Segment 1 – News Headlines
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Chiles Decision
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Politico article
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Supreme Court Opinion
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How the State Failed Noelia
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First Things article
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Premier article
Segment 2 - Easter Apologetics
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Sean McDowell vs Bart Ehrman video
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Did Jesus Rise from the Dead video
Segment 3 - Jaden Ivey and the NBA Speech Police
- ESPN article
Good Friday—Jesus' last words on the cross fulfill Scripture.
__________
Sign up for Truth Rising: The Study at colsoncenter.org/study.
The Resurrection actually happened, and is the Reality to which these myths have always pointed.
__________
Help us raise leaders and shape lives through truth by visiting colsoncenter.org/april.
An early version of this commentary wrongly referred to Lori Phillips as the owner of 303 Creative, rather than Lori Smith. We apologize for this misstatement. The First Amendment doesn't allow enabling speech on one ideological viewpoint while restricting speech on another.
__________
Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
Hopes of revival are being hotly contested, but that shouldn't stop us from expecting the move of God always.
__________
Grab your ticket to CCNC before they sell out completely at colsonconference.org.
We must protect every vulnerable life and support every vulnerable mother and father every chance we are given.
__________
Applications for next year's class are now open, and you can learn more at colsonfellows.org.
John and Maria discuss three lawsuits in the news; the guilty verdict for a Finnish lawmaker over an "insult"; Moody student teachers can stay in Chicago classrooms as part of their training. And a Jury finds Meta harms children. Also, how should Christians view the deaths of Kermit Gosnell and Paul Ehrlich.
Recommendations
Trevin Wax X post
Gospel Coalition article
Lead Like Jael by Emma Waters
Segment 1 – News Headlines
-
ADF article on Paivi Rasanen
-
X post on Rasanen
-
Moody student teachers article
-
Jury finds social media platforms harmful in pair of lawsuits
-
LA Times articles on social media lawsuit
Segment 2 – Deaths of Gosnell and Ehrlich
-
Kermit Gosnell
-
Paul Ehrlich
Segment 3 – Christian Worldview and Morality
-
Pew Study
-
Trevin Wax X post
-
Gospel Coalition article
It seems God values beauty for beauty's sake.
__________
Register for our Church Leadership Summit at colsoncenter.org/churchsummit.
Understanding the divide between America's Christian ideals and its history of slavery.
__________
Applications for next year's class are now open, and you can learn more at colsonfellows.org.
The truth matters, and it matters more than our tribe.
__________
Join the movement by visiting colsoncenter.org/march.
The tragic legacy of the book, The Population Bomb.
__________
Join us for our 2026 Rooted Educator Worldview Summit by visiting colsoneducators.org/rooted.
We cannot know what God might do with our obedience.
__________
Grab your ticket to CCNC before they sell out completely at colsonconference.org.
We talk with three Colson Fellows who share their experiences with the program and how they've used it later in their lives to live with clarity, confidence and courage.
Segment 1 – What Attracts People to the Fellows Program
- Colson Fellows Program
Segment 2 – Fellowship and Learning Through Cohorts
- Summit Ministries
Segment 3 – Application, Discipleship and Being Equipped for the Moment
Key Scripture that pro-abortionists point to and why life in the womb wins every time.
__________
Join us for our 2026 Rooted Educator Worldview Summit by visiting colsoneducators.org/rooted.
Human intelligence is far too complex to have happened by chance.
__________
Access Truth Rising The Study for FREE by visiting colsoncenter.org/study.
As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, it is essential to reflect on the role of the Bible and Christianity in shaping the country.
__________
Help us keep the Colson Fellows program affordable by visiting colsoncenter.org/march.
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.
__________
Register for our Church Leadership Summit at colsoncenter.org/churchsummit.
A UK study found teens think Jesus is offensive, and they're right.
__________
Register for America Reads the Bible at americareadsthebible.com/online.
A proposal in Congress that would impact the abortion pill. A Senate candidate from Texas has some strange theological ideas. The good and bad side of purity culture. And should Christians be connoisseurs of today's art?
Segment 1 – Proposed Mifepristone Ban; The Bible According to Talarico
-
Hawley proposes bans on mifepristone
-
A Kind Heretic is Still a Heretic
-
David French article
-
Breakpoint article on Talerico
Segment 2 – Purity Culture
- A New Purity Culture – First Things
Segment 3 – The State of Conservative Art
-
First Things article
-
BBC report
Segment 4 - Questions and Comments
Adding text to Scripture because it's "progressive" might score secular points, but it doesn't make it truer.
__________
Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
The biblical authority parents have over their children is a sphere the state cannot, and should not, contravene.
__________
Ready to deepen your faith? Visit colsonfellows.org
. . . and other nonsense Jesus would not have done.
__________
Access Truth Rising The Study for FREE by visiting colsoncenter.org/study.
Chuck Colson's daily prayer was to light the marketplace of ideas afire with Gospel truth.
__________
Register for our Church Leadership Summit at colsoncenter.org/churchsummit.
Businesses are returning to "business as usual" on ideological issues.
__________
Help us keep the Colson Fellows program affordable by visiting colsoncenter.org/march.
As war rages in the Middle East, John and Maria talk about what makes a just war. New studies show a sharp decline in both those identifying as LGB+ and in heterosexuals dating. And The Supreme Court stops California schools from keeping parents in the dark, for now.
Recommendations
Summit
Dominic Sandbrook
Segment 1 – Iran and the Just War Theory
-
Breakpoint Bonus Podcast
-
Hardcore history podcast
-
Tom Holland podcast
Segment 2 – The Decline of LGB+ and Dating
-
Bradley X Post
-
Brad Wilcox X post
Segment 3 – CA School Transgender Policy Stopped
- NY Times article
Jailing dissidents is a standard operating procedure for Communist dictatorships, but Lai is no standard dissident.
_________
Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone
The Zoomers aren't religious, but the ones going to church are seeking depth.
__________
Access Truth Rising The Study for FREE by visiting colsoncenter.org/study.
The "lost boys" rebelling in all the right ways.
__________
Help us keep the Colson Fellows program affordable by visiting colsoncenter.org/march.
Dr. Eric Patterson joins John Stonestreet in discussing how Christians can navigate a just war with Iran.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
It's essential for Christians to think like Christians about anything, including current world affairs.
___________
Help us keep the Colson Fellows program affordable by visiting colsoncenter.org/march.
Some denominations are aging out.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
John and Maria take a look at the highlights and lowlights of President Trump's State of the Union speech. More medical institutions and professionals are rethinking their past support of gender affirming care. And Colorado continues to lead the nation in the harassment of Christians.
Recommendations
Redemption arcadia sermons
Proud of Us
Segment 1 – State of the Union
-
Washington Stand article
-
US Hockey Team
Segment 2 – Backtracking on Trans Surgeries; Student Mental Health
-
Vanderbilt Trans Surgeries
-
ACSI report on mental health
-
Rooted Conference
Segment 3 – More Religious Harassment in Colorado; Did Jesus Have a God Complex?
-
Colorado Religious Liberty Cases
-
Youthscape study
-
Vermont Foster Care Case
A far-reaching hoax over a century ago reveals something about our searching souls.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
First, Whose are we?
__________
For additional resources, or to download and share this commentary, visit breakpoint.org.
Is legalizing "sex work" no big deal for society?
__________
Want to be a part of equipping Christians? Make a gift to the Colson Center today by visiting colsoncenter.org/february.
Ordering life from the perspective of death.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Part of the job of parents, grandparents, pastors, and teachers is to prepare students for the questions and criticisms they will face.
__________
For additional resources, or to download and share this commentary, visit breakpoint.org.
Marco Rubio's Munich speech is filled with worldview lessons. The topic of antisemitism pops up at a Religious Liberty Commission hearing. And Colorado lawmakers introduce a proposal to legalize prostitution.
Recommendations
Ben Sasse interview
Segment 1 – Rubio Munich Speech
-
Rubio's Speech
-
It Was Said Podcast
-
Breakpoint article
Segment 2 – News Headlines
-
Controversy at Religious Liberty Commission
-
CO Sex Workers Bill
-
NY Times article on Marijuana
Segment 3 – Questions and Comments
- Colson Fellows program
Christians are people of hope, made for such a time as this, and providentially placed in this moment of God's unfolding story.
__________
Want to be a part of equipping Christians? Make a gift to the Colson Center today by visiting colsoncenter.org/february.
Christians should be the first to defend and promote what is good and worthy of preserving.
__________
For additional resources, or to download and share this commentary, visit breakpoint.org.
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
Modern pagans despise Christian sexual morality, but they are forced to borrow from it as they condemn the kind of horrific treatment of women and children revealed in the Epstein files.
__________
For additional resources, or to download and share this commentary, visit breakpoint.org.
Christian efforts in politics can shape American culture.
__________
For additional resources, or to download and share this commentary, visit breakpoint.org.
Another transgender goes on a shooting spree. A racist meme from the White House is causing controversy. A look at the two Super Bowl Halftime shows. And what's the next big thing coming from AI?
Recommendations
IFS Study on Dating
Segment 1 – Canada School Shooter
- Fox News Report
Segment 2 – Trump's Meme and Super Bowl Halftime Shows
- Daily Citizen article
Segment 3 – Something Big is Coming
- Fortune article
______________________
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.
The Founding Fathers framed the struggle against Britain as a moral crusade in need of divine favor, not just a political one.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
The fundamental truth that all life is worth living is the bedrock of a healthy and flourishing civilization.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
The Zoomers aren't religious, but the ones going to church are seeking depth.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
This past weekend had the Olympics Opening Ceremonies and the Super Bowl halftime show: How did worldviews fare?
__________
Access Truth Rising The Study for FREE by visiting colsoncenter.org/study.
The thinning of the soul needs the robustness of Truth.
__________
For additional resources, or to download and share this commentary, visit breakpoint.org.
Once again this year there is a lot of controversy surrounding Sunday's Super Bowl Halftime show. A $2 million verdict is awarded to a victim of transgender care. And how will demographics impact the church over the next few decades?
Segment 1 – Super Bowl LX Halftime Show
-
One Million Moms urges Christians to boycott Bad Bunny's 'Queer Icons' Super Bowl halftime show
-
Turning Point halftime show
Segment 2 – Transgender Lawsuit
-
Breakpoint article
-
AMA statement
Segment 3 – Future of the Church
-
Ryan Burge
-
Art Needs No Justification by Hans R Rookmaake
-
Art and the Bible by Francie Schaeffer
-
Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning by Nancy Pearcey
-
Art and Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto Fujimura
______________________
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.
Public reaction to surrogacy scrutiny and why we should be more critical about the practice, not less.
__________
Access Truth Rising The Study for FREE by visiting colsoncenter.org/study.
God calls the Christian to be reconcilers with the Story.
___________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
This year, Os Guiness will be recognized with the 2026 Wilberforce Award, at a ceremony to be held at the Colson Center National Conference in Knoxville, TN.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Lawsuits ruling in favor of "detransitioners" is a good sign, but there's work to be done.
__________
For additional resources, or to download and share this commentary, visit breakpoint.org.
The unlikely partnership of Washington and the Church to help shape culture.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Guest host Katie McCoy talks to John Stonestreet about their recent trips to South Korea and Brazil. More violence in Minneapolis as ICE raids continue in that state. The Greater Than Campaign is underway to remind us that children's needs are greater than adult desires. And we wade into a social media debate over interracial marriage.
Recommendations
Colson Center National Conference
The Comment
Segment 1 – Worldwide Religious Persecution
-
Colson Fellows
-
A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today's World by John Stonestreet and Brett Kunkle
Segment 2 – Continued Chaos in Minnesota
- The Independent
Segment 3 – Greater Than Campaign
-
Greater Than Press release
-
Breakpoint article
Segment 4 - March for Life
-
European Conservative
-
Colson Center National Conference
Segment 5 – Is Interracial Marriage a Sin?
-
X post
-
Webbon debate
______________________
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.
Having rejected a Creator, it's no wonder that we've lost creativity.
__________
To support the prodcution of Breakpoint and receive exlusive benefits, visit colsoncenter.org/monthly
"Babies aren't a tool for adult validation," and other messages society seems primed to hear.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Take up and read!
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
New book affirms Christ from a non-believing Jewish scholar's own words.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Understanding natural law and positive law when world events affect everyone.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
John talks about his trip to South Korea where he visited a pastor who is in prison over his faith. John and Maria also discuss the ongoing protests in Minneapolis as well as the Supreme Court hearing on state bans on transgender athletes.
Recommendations
A Practical Guide to Culture by John Stonestreet and Brett Kunkle
First Things article
Segment 1 – Crises South Korea and Minneapolis
-
Colson Fellows
-
Breakpoint article on Pastor Son
-
Fox article on church protest
Segment 2 – Supreme Court Hears Transgender Athletes Case
-
SCOTUS blog article
-
First Things article
-
Sen. Josh Hawley grills expert Democrat witness on if men can get pregnant
Segment 3 – Headlines
-
2026 World Watch Report
-
American Deaths to Exceed Births Faster Than Expected
-
New Heritage Foundation Report
______________________
Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.
In educational decadence, classical Christian education roots the created in purpose.
____________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
When Christians don't "get with the times," they change empires.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Dr. Jeff Myers and Dr. Kathy Koch join John Stonestreet in discussing what it means to raise gender confident kids, and how their new book can help equip parents for hard questions.
____________
Get your free resource while supplies last at genderconfidentkids.com
Distinguishing who is in a room of the Christian house and who is in another house entirely.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
The chipping away of religious freedom and why Christians can't avoid politics.
__________
Register for the Truth Rising showing at Colorado Christian University by visiting colsoncenter.org/ccu.
We would do good to stand on these giant's shoulders.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Why what we believe- especially about the ultimate questions of Origin, Identity, meaning, morality and destiny— shapes how we think and live.
Stephen J. Gould
Woody Allen
Tom Brady
G. K Chesterton
God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis
Francis Schaeffer
James Orr
Robert Webber
______________________
Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.
Convincing our neighbors and the greater culture that life matters.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
The countermovement to the New Atheists will be authentic if it understands the truth and person of Christ.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
All of us should consider how today's helpful technologies may become tomorrow's tyranny.
__________
Register for the Truth Rising showing at Colorado Christian University by visiting colsoncenter.org/ccu.
How are your New Year's resolutions going?
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
The little shards of Critical Theory are slowly shattering Britain's identity.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
John and Maria talk about the daring raid that captured Nicolas Maduro and Zohran Mamdani taking office in New York. A look ahead to where the abortion debate is headed in 2026 and a discussion about the growing trend of adult children cutting their parents out of their lives.
Recommendations
Liberty Kids
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Segment 1 – Maduro Capture, Mamdani Inauguration
-
The Daily podcast on Maduro
-
World article on Mamdani
Segment 2 – Abortion in 2026
-
Reuters article
-
Wyoming Supreme Court Decision
-
Justin Banta TX
-
Christopher Cooprider TX
-
Hassan Abbas OH
-
Emerson Evans IN
-
Breakpoint article on Union Gospel Mission
Segment 3 – Adult-Child Estrangement
-
New Yorker article
-
Legacy Coalition
-
Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing by Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis
Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.
Two new terrifying words for the English language.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
The government can not force a Christian organization to hire employees who openly reject its faith and mission.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Many Founding Fathers had a complicated relationship with slavery, but one fought it from the start.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
No matter the political landscape, Venezuelans deserve better because they're image-bearing creatives.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
The rise in outsource parenting and why a vibe check might help.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
A New Years kiss led to some anxious moments for an ESPN host. President Trump adds his name to the Kennedy Center. What is keeping young people from marriage. And a new Ken Burns documentary just in time for the nation's 250th birthday.
Recommendations
Benjamin Rush Breakpoint
Lead Like Jael: 7 Timeless Principles for Today's Women of Faith by Emma Waters
Segment 1 – An Awkward Kiss; Renaming the Kennedy Center
-
Scott VanPelt comments
-
TGC Article
-
Sports Illustrated article
-
Kennedy Center renaming
Segment 2 – You Can Have a Trad Life
-
Matt Iglesias article
-
The Briefing
-
In the Library
Segment 3 – Ken Burns: The American Revolution
-
Ken Burns American Revolution
-
Joe Loconte videos
______________________
Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.
It takes only one generation who lacks the courage to stand up for what's right, for liberty to be lost.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
In this classic BreakPoint commentary, Chuck Colson tells the story behind "Amazing Grace".
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Take heart, this civilizational moment has some warriors.
__________
Give to The Colson Center by December 31st for double the impact at colsoncenter.org/december
Not all activities can be measured in the utilitarian way that fans of AI claim.
__________
Give to The Colson Center by December 31st for double the impact at colsoncenter.org/december
Life issues on the docket this year.
__________
Give to The Colson Center by December 31st for double the impact at colsoncenter.org/december
In this end-of-year recap episode, Maria Baer and John Stonestreet reflect on the significant cultural shifts of 2025, discussing major stories such as the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the rise of antisemitism, and the evolving landscape of transgenderism. They explore the implications of these events on society and the church, emphasizing the importance of truth and the need for a return to meaningful relationships in the face of technological advancements like AI. The conversation also touches on the changing dynamics of Christian leadership and the ongoing challenges and opportunities for the church in a rapidly shifting cultural context.
Segment 1 – Charlie Kirk and Antisemitism
-
A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today's World
-
Breakpoint article: The Charlie Kirk Effect
-
Quiet Revival Bonus Podcast
-
Rise of Antisemitism
Segment 2 – Charlie Kirk and Culture
Segment 3 – Transgenderism, AI, Return to Masculinity and 2025 Deaths
-
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
-
Nellie Bowles TGIF
-
Mumford and Sons new album Rushmere
-
The Desecration of Man How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity By Carl Trueman
______________________
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.
What has come of the "Kirk Effect"?
__________
Give to The Colson Center by December 31st for double the impact at colsoncenter.org/december
Why the classic Christmas movie should play on repeat in homes this holiday.
__________
Give to The Colson Center by December 31st for double the impact at colsoncenter.org/december
The Gospel story, recited by astronauts, that captivated the world.
__________
Give to The Colson Center by December 31st for double the impact at colsoncenter.org/december
Go ahead and put up that tree.
__________
Give to The Colson Center by December 31st for double the impact at colsoncenter.org/december
Humming along to the truth of Scripture.
__________
Give to The Colson Center by December 31st for double the impact at colsoncenter.org/december
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
Take heart, this civilizational moment has some warriors.
__________
Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson.
The silenced generation of Gen-Z white males is finding an identity, but is it the True one?
__________
Register for CCNC at colsonconference.org
Lessons from Scrooge on assisted suicide.
__________
Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Britain, once the birthplace of world evangelization and now a birthplace of nothing.
__________
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.
Christians must love and serve those who are the most vulnerable among us.
__________
Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson.
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
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Jamestown experiment
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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
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Philip Pilkington X post
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Jamie Bambrick X post
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GovFacts: US Birth Rate Hits Historic Low: What It Means for America's Future
______________________
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Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
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.
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.
Oppression is not a bug of socialism. It's a feature.
__________
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The science has led back to the truth.
_________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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
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Anthony Bradley X post
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Gallup: Drop in U.S. Religiosity Among Largest in World
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Rod Dreher Substack: Men & The Rise Of Orthodoxy In America
Segment 2 – The End of Work?
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Elon Musk X post
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The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success by Ross Douthat
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Presence in the Modern World by Jacques Ellul
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Breakpoint: Evaluating the "Kirk Effect"
Segment 3 – Crisis in Education
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The Atlantic: 'A Recipe for Idiocracy'
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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.
What has come of the "Kirk Effect"?
__________
Give today at colsoncenter.org/november.
God's word is not our plaything, neither personally nor culturally.
__________
Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
The mission drift and how the closing of several Christian colleges can ignite a new era of educational excellence.
__________
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From Voltaire to Beavis and Butthead to the loss of humor the heart really needs.
__________
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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
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Christian Post: Supreme Court rejects Kim Davis' request to reconsider landmark gay marriage ruling
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ADF: Defending Education v. Olentangy Local School District Board of Education
Segment 2 – IVF and Down Syndrome Deaths and Bible Reading
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LifeSite: IVF embryo deaths surpass number of babies killed annually by abortion, report shows
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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.
While the world turns away, Christians must keep the persecuted in prayers and in the spotlight.
__________
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Christian response should be urgency, not alarm.
__________
Access Truth Rising The Study: Educators' Edition at colsoneducators.org.
What makes humans exceptional and distinct from machines?
__________
Register for our Colson Fellows informational webinar at colsonfellows.org/webinar.
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.
The war between science and religion should never have been.
__________
Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
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.
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.
Christians should always consider what our celebrations say about evil.
__________
Access Truth Rising The Study: Educators' Edition at colsoneducators.org.
In a desecrated age like ours, beauty will be denied, mocked, or caricatured.
__________
To register for the Colson Center National Conference, visit colsonconference.org.
The precarious footing of religious freedom everywhere.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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
______________________
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Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
Increasing IVF access means more bought and sold kids, and more lost lives.
__________
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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.
A right vision of the Gospel of the Kingdom is the better path to forge.
__________
Stream Truth Rising today at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
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
______________________
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Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
The racist origins of Planned Parenthood.
__________
Sign up for the Why Life? video series at colsoncenter.org/whylife.
The atheist who had a lot to say about God, man, and the West.
_________
Register for CCNC by going to colsonconference.org.
Humans were made to worship with song.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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
______________________
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Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.
Is the West a sitting duck?
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Giving as a Christian comes with self-evaluation.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Practicing the pro-life argument with Aunt Betty.
__________
Learn more about Truth Rising at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
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.
Only Christianity provides the framework for forgiveness.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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
______________________
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Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cultural Christianity is not Christianity.
__________
Become a Cornerstone Monthly Partner today at colsoncenter.org/monthly.
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.
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.
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?
______________________
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Access the Why Life? video series at colsoncenter.org/whylife.
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A new era has been marked; Christians must tell the truth.
__________
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If abortion is truly about women’s health, as advocates claim, they should immediately demand more regulations and limits on the practice.
__________
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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.
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.
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.
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
______________________
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Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When it’s worse to be a racist than a rapist.
______________
Sign up for the free Worldview Formation course at colsoneducators.org.
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!
__________
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Stay up to date on Truth Rising, premiering September 5, at truthrising.com/colson.
The legendary Columba and the call to redeem paganism.
_______________
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The very low bar of deciding your own death.
________________
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As the western world detaches from its Christian foundations, we should expect that more children will be devalued and harmed in more ways.
_____________
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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.
_____________
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What would Jesus do?
___________________
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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!
__________
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Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
How do you get to Heaven?
______________
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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.
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
How some get the work on the Cross wrong.
_______________
Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.
Take heart, this civilizational moment has some warriors.
_____________
Get updates for the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson.
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.
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.
The most underrated Founding Father.
_____________
Sign up for updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson.
Because only humans bear the image of God, AI will never be human.
___________
Get updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson.
Good doctrine supports Christians in their calling to be truth-tellers.
_____________
Get updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson.
Humans were made to worship with song.
____________
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
________________
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Why it’s important to read bad books about bad ideas.
_____________
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When a civilization loses touch with what made it great.
Related Resource
The Truth Rising Documentary
_______________
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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.
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.
No technology will provide a shortcut to moral reasoning.
______________
Truth Rising premieres on September 5. Sign up for updates at truthrising.com.
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.
... and other ways how not to read the Bible.
Related Resource
What Would You Say?: Am I on the Wrong Side of History?
____________
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Find yourself an Omega Buckner and be an Omega Buckner.
Related Resource
Get updates on the Truth Rising documentary at truthrising.com/colson.
_____________
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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.
Chuck Colson’s legacy of defending truth in the marketplace of ideas.
_____________
Apply for the Colson Fellows program before July 31 at colsonfellows.org.
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.
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.
When a civilization loses touch with what made it great.
Related Resource
The Truth Rising Documentary
_________________
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Can you mobilize your kid’s community to hold off on screens?
_____________
Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly.
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.
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.
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.
_____________
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Law shouldn’t be about feelings.
_______________
Apply for the Colson Fellows Program today at colsonfellows.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Why we’re not satisfied, even if we should be.
___________
Launch Christians into Kingdom work today at colsoncenter.org/june.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What the Boulder attack and the rise of antisemitic violence in the U.S. says about society’s critical mood.
____________
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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?
__________
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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.
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.
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
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.
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 colsonfellows.org/webinar.
It’s all level at the foot of the Cross.
____________
Register for the Great Lakes Symposium: Truth, Love, and Humor and colsoncenter.org/truth.
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?
____________
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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.
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.
Thanking those who serve and remembering Whom you serve.
__________
Join the Colson Center as a Cornerstone Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Christians should get there first.
___________
Learn more about the impact of the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“Hard” is not hell; it leads to treasures in heaven.
___________
Register for the informational Colson Fellows webinar on May 8 at colsonfellows.org/webinar.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Katy Faust on the legacy of the most disruptive law on marriage.
___________
Become a Cornerstone Partner with the Colson Center at colsoncenter.org/monthly.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Without God, opposing cultural forces look awfully alike.
___________
Register your student for a 12-day worldview conference with Summit Ministries at colsoncenter.org/breakpoint.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The gods of technology, demons and all.
__________
Sign up for a free account with the Identity Porject at identityproject.tv.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Why apologetics is important to the skeptical mind.
___________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
IVF practices need far more regulations, not less.
___________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The counter-cultural truth about the afterlife.
___________
Sign up for a FREE Identity Project account at identityproject.tv.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Young Christian men need strong role models. They should turn Tate off.
__________
Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org.
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.
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.
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.
We are all theologians. The church needs good ones.
___________
Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Making home ownership a Christian cause.
___________
Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org.
Aggressive sex identity messaging may be in retreat in 2025.
___________
Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual Revolution at colsoncenter.org/phoenix.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Islamism in the Muslim and Christian world.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
The littlest known Christian holiday with major significance.
__________
Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org.
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.
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.
Even our spare time should glorify God.
__________
Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Remembering the Tsunami of 2004
__________
Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly.
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.
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.
The last year revealed deep antisemitism.
__________
Strengthen the Church to move the world in 2025 by giving today at colsoncenter.org/december.
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.
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.
Studies show that family mealtimes are a key component to health and happiness.
__________
Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A “special instrument sent of God.”
__________
Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint by becoming a monthly partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly.
A roadmap to avoid political food fights around the holiday table.
__________
Register for the upcoming Colson Center National Conference at colsonconfernce.org.
Ethics should also be a knowable truth.
__________
Strengthen the Church to move the world in 2025 by giving today at colsoncenter.org/november.
The Christian knows about brokenness and the Healer.
__________
Strengthen the Church to move the world in 2025 by giving today at colsoncenter.org/november.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Belief in Self unsettles the soul.
___________
Give your best gift toward our $350k match now at colsoncenter.org/November.
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.
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.
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.
Are digital natives going to raise their children screen-free?
__________
Register for the 2025 Colson Center Nation Conference in Louisville, Kentucky at colsonconference.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Christian discipleship should offer the way forward.
__________
Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference: Be the Church at colsonconference.org.
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.
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.
The addiction of gambling hits not just in dollars, but in human lives.
__________
Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
If marijuana definitively destroys lives, should we be free to smoke?
__________
Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org.
It turns out, love isn’t a product.
__________
Register for the Colson Fellows Church Affiliate Informational Webinar at colsoncenter.org/church.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
...and spread the word.
___________
Get your tickets for the 2025 Colson National Conference at a discounted rate at colsonceonference.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Why Christians need to be the smartest about news.
__________
Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint with a monthly partnership at colsoncenter.org/monthly.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A prayer from Dr. Glenn Sunshine.
__________
For more resoruces to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
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 Worldby 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.
The call to remember our Christian heritage.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
How Scripture speaks of what makes a family.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
Suffering in Christ is different.
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.
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.
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.
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 Worldby 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.
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.
What’s in a name?
__________
Register for the 2025 Colson Center National Conference May 30- June 1 in Louisville, KY at colsonconference.org.
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.
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.
When the Church shows up to say, “I’m here with you.”
__________
Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum at colsoncenter.org/forum.
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 Worldby Carl Trueman, along with exclusive accompanying digital content.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“The Talk” just doesn’t cut it anymore.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
Don’t believe your lying eyes.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
From “safe, legal, and rare” to openly celebrating evil.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Regulations refusing Christian care in the foster and adoption systems is a bad idea.
__________
Support the Colson Center to get your on-demand access to this year's national conference library at colsoncenter.org/august.
Children belong to God, entrusted to parents.
__________
Reserve your spot for the Lighthouse Voices event with Samuel James at colsoncenter.org/lighthouse.
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
The landscape of unbelief in America.
__________
Claim your free access to the video series Why Vote? at colsoncenter.org/whyvote.
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.
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.
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.
Excessive mental health therapy may do more harm than good.
__________
Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Fourm: Should Christians Get Political? at Breakpoint.org/forum.
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.
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.
Non-believing influencers are sounding a lot like believers.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Christians don’t worship Zeus.
__________
Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: Should Christians Get Political? at breakpoint.org/fourm.
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.
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.
Obsession with social media fame is not the typical ‘rite of passage’ we’ve seen throughout history.
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.
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.
A stunning turn from Truth.
__________
Register for the upcoming Great Lakes Symposium at greatlakessymposium.org.
Three cases that will be consequential for years to come.
__________
Claim your free access to the Why Vote? video series at colsoncenter.org/whyvote.
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.
Westernization without Christianity doesn’t work.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Lessons from Nero and the Great Fire of Rome.
___________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
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.
The roles of divine providence and the human condition.
__________
Get free access to the Why Vote video series at colsoncenter.org/whyvote.
Women are leaning left and bucking mediating institutions.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment go to Breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Activists are working hard to convince that abortion makes everyone safer, including babies.
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.
The lifelong power of lasting connections.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment go to Breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The decision will have implications across the U.S. on the legality of “transition care” for minors.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Employee religious conviction rights a new battleground as more drugstore chains offer the abortion pill.
Are Americans dropping their rainbow zeal because of a zealot takeover?
__________
To apply for the Colson Fellows program, visit colsonfellows.org.
The federal government pushes harder on gender transition interventions as other nations pull back.
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.
Christianity is to be lived courageously outward facing for this time and place.
__________
Apply for the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org/apply.
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.
The famous artist revealed his hope in Christ in his many sonnets.
__________
Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org.
Restoring our impersonal bodies to God’s original intention.
__________
Register for the upcoming Great Lakes Symposium at greatlakessymposium.org.
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 Breakpoint.org.
Understanding the embryo is crucial in an age of unfettered reproductive technology.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
A hopeful court case for those mentally and physically harmed by progressive treatment plans.
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.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
Colorado baker who already won a Supreme Court case for his religious rights is being sued again.
Choosing culture over Christ, Mainline Protestantism is in its last days.
__________
Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org.
How we give reflects the heart of God and His Son.
__________
To make a gift to the Colson Center, visit colsoncenter.org/june.
Remembering essential allegiances this month instead of depraved ones.
__________
To learn more about Fidelity Month, visit fidelitymonth.com.
Counter to a self-first culture, Christians must hold fast to creational realities found in Holy Scripture.
__________
Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org.
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.
Science Can and Does Point to God
___________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment go to Breakpoint.org.
God placed us in this cultural moment. Let’s be equipped.
__________
Support the ongoing production Breakpoint at colsoncenter.org/give.
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 today visit Breakpoint.org.
A discussion between John Stonestreet and Sean McDowell.
_______
Learn more about the Identity Project at identityproject.tv.
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.
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.
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.
Scientists are starting to speak out about the simple realities of “male” and “female.”
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian today visit Breakpoint.org.
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.
What’s the push behind delaying menopause?
__________
Download your free copy of The Christian Mind at colsoncenter.org/book.
The publisher of America’s first spelling guide since its independence from Britian understood that words are worth fighting for.
__________
Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org.
House resolution hopes to put the most martyred country back on the radar for protection against persecution.
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.
Let’s honor those who sacrificed so we can live in a flourishing society and then live to keep it from decline.
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.
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.
Single-sex spaces aren’t outdated and may be needed more than ever.
__________
Help support another year of Breakpoint production at colsoncenter.org/may.
A friendship to bless the world.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian today visit Breakpoint.org.
What parents? Colorado thinks kids are the property of the state.
__________
Claim your free copy of The Christian Mind at colsoncenter.org/book.
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.
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.
Soviet dissident Nobel Prize winner had prophetic words for America.
__________
To learn more about Alliance Defending Freedom, visit joinadf.com/colson.
Christians know that babies are blessings, not burdens.
__________
To learn more about Colson Fellows, go to colsonfellows.org.
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.
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.
Take heart, mothers; keep praying for your children.
__________
Support the ongoing production of Breakpoint at breakpoint.org/give.
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.
Putting the right perspective on the trending term.
__________
To sign up for the Lighthouse Voices livestream, go to colsoncenter.org/lighthouse.
Overpopulation and climate change are leading the drive to remain childless.
__________
Grab your free copy of The Christian Mind at colsoncenter.org/book.
With links to increased mental health and societal disruption, we should question the reclassification of pot as a safe drug.
As social pressures to comply increase, Christians can be courageous.
__________
To support the ongoing production of Breakpoint visit breakpoint.org/give.
Misusing Tech to Become Superhuman
__________
Download your free copy of The Christian Mind by S. Michael Craven at colsoncenter.org/book.
Learning from our Christian ancestors how to order sex, marriage, and family for a better society.
__________
Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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.
Trusting truth, not just science, will go a long way in saving children from “gender-affirming” care.
Student protests and trusting the “cult of youth.”
__________
Download your free copy of The Christian Mind at colsoncenter.org/book.
Ignorance on college campuses is on full display with protesters admitting they don’t know what they’re protesting.
The report should be used at all levels to counter the pseudoscience of altering kids’ bodies in the name of mental healthcare.
__________
Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org.
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.
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.
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.
Our cultural attention is on girls, but we can’t neglect the proper self-confidence building of boys.
It turns out, the human condition requires accountability, not absolution, from the state.
__________
Learm more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org.
Preventative care is down; taxpayer-funded abortions and “gender-affirming” care is way up.
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.
The declaration explains why image bearers should reject all attempts to obscure sexual differences.
__________
Find more resources on how to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org.
New rules will strip rights from parents, children, and women.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
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.
A swelling cultural shift bent on censorship could be what kills democracy.
__________
Learn more about the COlson Center National Conference at colsonconference.org.
God’s goal has always been to be in unbroken fellowship with us and with His creation.
__________
Claim your copy of The Beginning and End of All Things at colsoncenter.org/april.
How C.S. Lewis has helped this world of believers and skeptics alike understand Christian hope for the past 80 years.
__________
Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org.
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.
Bill intends to help residents report “hate crimes” and “bias” against fellow citizens.
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.
A so-called step forward in “gender affirming care” uses babies as props in yet another social experiment for narcissists.
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.
The time is now to start asking real questions about the unregulated industry of child manufacturing.
__________
For more resourcs to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
Tammy Peterson’s conversion to Christianity highlights how faith in Christ reveals true self.
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.
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.
You can’t have Christianity’s fruit without its root.
__________
Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org.
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.
In the age of remarkable technological feats, we must check our hubris from time to time.
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.
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.
Anyone found guilty of hurtful content under the new law could face up to seven years in jail.
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 Breakpoint.org.
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 Breakpoint.org.
Woman who underwent transgender surgeries shares how God restored her life as an image bearer.
Our culture is shifting from denying reality to attempting to usurp God’s authority over reality altogether.
__________
For more resources on living like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Breakpoint.org.
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 Christians, despair is a sin because hope is not a feeling, it’s a reality made alive in the resurrection of Christ.
Secure your spot for the 2024 Colson Center National Conference today, go to colsonconference.org.
After a little withdrawal, banning the wildly popular social media platform will only lead to good for teens addicted to screens.
The reality of sin and why Good Friday is good news.
To secure your spot for the 2024 Colson Center National Conference, visit colsonconference.org.
Vermont school officials agree to pay damages to snowboard coach who stated boys have a physical advantage in sports.
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.
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.
A ban and then a swift unban by Veterans Affairs over a famous photo shows the vulnerability of truth on the internet.
It's time for a revival of Christian imagination inspired by God instead of self and online likes.
__________
Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org.
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.
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 on how to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit breakpoint.org
The NHS announced the decision after a years-long study found no significant change in the mental health of children treated for gender dysphoria.
A U.K. pastor wins legal battle to keep preaching after police told him he could not discuss other religions.
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.
Kidnappings add to the tens of thousands in recent years while the Nigerian government and the global community remains silent.
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.
Pharmacy chains to start selling the chemical abortion pill mifepristone in several states this month.
__________
For more resources on how to live like a Christian in this cultural momevent visit Breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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.
__________
Get your copy of The Deconstruction of Christianitywith your gift of any amount this month at colsoncenter.org/march.
The Christian alternative to doom-and-gloom environmentalism.
__________
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment got to Breakpoint.org.
A Kentucky region riddled with the opioid epidemic is fighting for sobriety and finding motivation in business ownership.
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.
Despite what oracles of a post-Christian society promised, the kids are far from happier and free.
__________
Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at colsonfellows.org.
Christians burned at the stake for refusing to deny Christ is in no way the same as self-immolation to protest Israel.
It’s about honoring God no matter what for Hobby Lobby owners David and Barbara Green.
____________
For more resources on how to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
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.
It turns out the science isn’t settled and suffering families have been lied to all along.
__________
Register for the ACSI Rooted Educator Worldview Summit at ACSI.org/rooted.
Referendum seeks to eliminate the word “mother” and reference to marriage from the Irish constitution.
__________
Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org.
The increasing trend of believers attending same-sex “weddings” belies a bigger problem with our Christian worldview.
Scientists who mimic creation’s design unknowingly glorify the Creator.
__________
For more resources on how to live like a Christian in this cultural moment visit Breakpoint.org.
In a prolife world, recent reports about rape rates would be a shocking story about crime and not about access to abortion.
__________
Learn more about the Colson Fellows program at ColsonFellows.org.
Appellate court to decide on the “harm” a shirt stating traditional genders had on a school that encouraged students to wear Pride apparel.
Another case of a teen taken from home over pronoun usage.
__________
For more resources on how to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Breakpoint.org.
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.
Progressive ideology, not the Right-wing patriarchy, is denying women at the federal level their privacy, scholarships, and equity in sports.
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.
In contrast to what the government keeps telling us, Americans want religious freedom and support with their kids’ educations.
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.
Attacks on churches and pro-Christian causes are not met with the same outcry as other hate crimes.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 its 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.”
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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?"
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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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, go to breakpoint.org.
This Breakpoint was revised from one originally published on May 17, 2016.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
This Breakpoint originally aired October 27, 2021.
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"
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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."
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 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 of 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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’"
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.
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 towards 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 “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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
In The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche tells the “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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
(This commentary originally aired February 22, 2017.)
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.
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 barriers 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 offered 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.”
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
By contract, surrogacy sets children up as commodities to be bought, sold, or eliminated for convenience, which is a bad start for image bearers.
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.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
This Breakpoint was originally published on August 3, 2022.
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 Brook’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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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 who 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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 preferrable 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 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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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
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
If all we had to go on was Salon, Slate, or The 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.
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 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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. 46% 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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-Conner 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 Alexendr Solzhenitsyn put it, may have to make tough choices about what or Whom they must serve.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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
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.”
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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 the Colson Center, I’m John Stonestreet.
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.
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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 Marriage 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, go to breakpoint.org.
Ground-breaking 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.
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).
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Ho Feng Shan (pronounced fung-shen) was born in Yiyang (yee-yahng), 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 vias. 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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
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.
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, he 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
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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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
This Breakpoint was revised from one originally published on March 30, 2021.
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.
Register to attend live or join the livestream for the Great Lakes Symposium at colsoncenter.org/greatlakes.
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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.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.”
This Point was originally published 6.12.22.
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 that 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.”
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’s 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’s 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 shows why Lewis’s 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, go to breakpoint.org.
Recently, the FDA approved a brain-implanted computer chip, developed by Elon Musk’s company Neuralink, for human trials.
Holocaust-era movie eerily resembles the expansive loosening of euthanasia laws in the name of human dignity.
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?
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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 Times 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.
This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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/.
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.”
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
This Point was last published on July 3, 2020.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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 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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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 disempowered.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.”
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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. Join the class of 2024 by applying before June 30 at colsonfellows.org/apply.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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
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.
A year ago, after 49 years of Roe v. Wade 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. 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
This Breakpoint was revised from one aired March 16, 2022.
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.
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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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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.
This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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 Shelly’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, go to breakpoint.org.
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
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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).
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
Could all of this mean Americans aren’t as thoroughly converted on these matters as activists assumed?
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
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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 was helping 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.
To give, please go to colsoncenter.org/fye23.
This Breakpoint was co-authored by Michaela Estruth. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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
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.
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. 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, go to breakpoint.org.
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!
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.”
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
This commentary was last aired on May 30, 2022.
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.
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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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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.
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 in 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, go to breakpoint.org.
If the language of yesterday is continually updated, how can we maintain an accurate grip on history?
Only 3% of the world’s population currently lives in a country whose birth rate isn’t declining.
To put all the weight of our humanness on consciousness is an erroneous idea that will have disastrous consequences
The emperor's real role in Christian history and what he didn’t do at the Council of Nicaea.
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.”
Keeping adult explicit material out of children's libraries is common sense, not cancel culture.
A few weeks ago, one of the world’s largest peddlers of pornography scored what they thought was a stunning victory for their cause.
Despite a government ruling suggesting the opposite, true religion takes place outside of church walls and should not be penalized.
The last few years, Christian colleges have faced a crisis of how to respond to increasingly vocal calls to “accommodate” LGBT students.
The rate of Gen Z women identifying as men has skyrocketed to about twice that of Gen Z men identifying as women.
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.
Scoring system will help faith-based and Conservative institutions fight discrimination in loaning and business practices.
How human rights are defined depends, first and foremost, on who we believe humans are and what we believe humans are for.
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.
Did a pro football player just tell grads marriage and kids are more worthy than a career?
The aging generation may not be in an economic crisis as much as in a crisis of meaning untethered from absolutes.
Good books tell children the truth about the world and who they are, respecting their age, imagination, and innocence.
Proponents argue that chemical abortions are safe, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Christians show Christ by helping those in need through the suffering, not by eliminating it altogether.
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.
In the history of the world, the wholesale rejection of the supernatural is a quirk of Western secularism.
However many numbers trendy marriage laws allow in, God’s simple union plan of one man and one woman to create life really works.
On this day of May 2 in 373, Athanasius of Alexandria died in the city where he served as bishop.
The value of every human life is inherent, not determined by what we can do or how we feel.
Another measure makes parents suspects of the state over true advocates for their children.
The Church has a great opportunity to offer right ideas about faith, truth, and love to a primed generation slightly askew.
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.
Recently in The New Atlantis, physician Matthew Loftus described how a culture of death has distorted our view of the vulnerable.
Four years ago, the 60-plus members of the Shenzhen fellowship fled their homes in Communist China.
No matter the reason, divorce is especially costly for children, something adults are quick to minimize and ignore.
In a touching moment at a press conference earlier this month, Drake thanked the students of Covenant School.
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.
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.
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.”
Recently, a number of prominent tech executives, including Elon Musk, signed an open letter urging a 6-month pause on all AI research.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The ability to think and act morally largely depends on the ability to speak accurately.
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
A Texas court ruling, expected to go into effect today, temporarily revoked FDA approval for the abortion drug Mifepristone.
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.
On July 27, I will be hosting a conversation about these things for the 2023 Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview in Bay Harbor, Michigan. I’ll be joined by Jim Daly, CEO and president of Focus on the Family and Kristen Waggoner, CEO, president, and general counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom. Please mark the date, July 27, to either join us live or by livestream.
Some of the loudest voices calling for conservation efforts are philosophical naturalists who espouse a worldview that lacks any basis for conservation efforts.
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.
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.
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.
Last month, the Israeli Knesset considered a bill that would make religious evangelism punishable by up to two years in prison.
We need not deny reality to affirm that every person and therefore every body possesses dignity and deserves respect and kindness.
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.”
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 - Rethinking the Gun Data/ Stories of the Week
"Gun Murders are not the leading cause of death for children"
"Suicides, Cities, and the Concept of Coupling"
Brandon Donnelly
"Proclaiming Human Dignity with Infectious Joy: Heart by Max"
Breakpoint
The Gospels spend a good chunk of time on the last few days of Christ and why this matters.
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.
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.
Jesus embodied truth and love, not only in the event we commemorate this day, but in every event we remember this Holy Week.
Utah recently passed legislation to better empower parents to protect their kids online.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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
This month, a Norwegian independent government agency declared that Norway’s current standards of so-called “gender-affirming” care need to change.
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.
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 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.
Signals of Transcendence: Listening to the Promptings of Life is a profound tool for living and pointing others to Christ in a time of practical atheism. It will sharpen your own senses to find a God who is present and active in the world He has made. Receive a copy of Signals of Transcendence for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month. Just visit colsoncenter.org/March.
This Breakpoint was revised from one published 9.25.19.
Over the last few months, several long-established Christian schools announced cutbacks, budget crises, and major restructuring.
San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer made the decision not to wear a jersey celebrating LGBT pride.
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
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.
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.
Over the past decade, the medical community has treated cases of gender dysphoria differently than other mind/body disorders.
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.
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/.
Ke Huy Quan’s joy and gratitude were absolutely infectious and point to something deeper than mere nostalgia.
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.
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.
When lawmakers and politicians redefine the legal meaning of “marriage” and “family,” they do not make lies true. They create additional tragedy.
As it turns out, the consequences of fatherlessness are not only temporal, but eternal.
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
Late last month, 18-year-old Chloe Cole sued medical provider Kaiser Permanente for surgically and chemically altering her body.
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.
Last month, pro-life doctors were banned from setting up an exhibit at an annual medical education conference.
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.
The U.K. has decided to shift its loyalties from courageously defying tyranny in the 20th century to embracing it in the 21st.
If the Son of God took time to pray, Christians should too. Learn more about Shodankeh Johnson’s ministry at colsonconference.org.
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.
It turns out that we really do want sacrificial love, and women want someone willing to make a physical sacrifice.
Whether we are 99 or 84% similar to chimps genetically, there is clearly more going on than materialists can account for.
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
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.
The slope from abortion to infanticide by way of physician-assisted suicide is a slippery one indeed.
This Point was originally published on August 14, 2020.
Historically, the Church’s shining moments have often come in direct conflict with dominant cultural beliefs and practice.
This Breakpoint was originally published on August 2, 2021.
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, Twitterverse erupted, decrying the article as “icky,” “cringe,” and “dangerous.”
Last week, Senator Dick Durbin held a committee hearing in hopes of resurrecting the controversial Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
Shodankeh Johnson is an example of Christians running into the brokenness with truth and hope, not away from it.
Biblically speaking, if there is no place for divine judgment in our theology, there is something unchristian about our worldview.
For millennia, Christians have celebrated truth, goodness, and beauty as transcendent testimonies to God’s existence and character.
American plastic surgeons are reporting a spike in clients under 30 seeking changes or “enhancements” to how they look.
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.
Like the sacred songs of the Advent season, Lenten hymns are wonderful tools for theological instruction and worship.
Since so-called Medical Aid in Dying was legalized in Canada, those with severe medical conditions have been increasingly in danger.
Churchgoers tend to be more willing to associate with people outside of their immediate economic bracket.
Millions of girls with instant access to our culture’s most viral (and dangerous) behaviors and beliefs are currently manifesting the results.
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/.
While other famous people in the music and movie industries talk about parenthood as a career-killing disease, Pink is living the opposite.
As a pastor and church planter in Sierra Leone, this year’s Wilberforce Award recipient Shodankeh Johnson has faced serious threats and danger.
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.
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 Conference, May 19-21 in Indianapolis. Tomorrow, February 28, is the last day to receive the discounted rate.
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
Many critics of transgender ideology today argue that the “T” in the LGBTQ acronym doesn’t fit with the other letters.
Unrestrained by theology or organized faith, people eager for transcendence are opening doors without considering what might walk through.
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.
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.
To learn more about how Christianity dignifies women, ask for a copy of Abdu Murray’s new book More Than a White Man’s Religion when you give a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month. Just go to ColsonCenter.org/February.
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.
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.
Advocates of abortion claim to limit suffering by killing the sufferers. Every premise of that idea is wrong.
Revivalism, with a focus on a personal faith with public implications, dramatically shaped American life and culture.
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.
This month, the World Surf League announced it will allow transgender-identifying men to compete in its women’s surfing competitions.
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.
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
Words matter. If our language is not honest, then our language is not compassionate either.
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.”
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.
If ever a player for the losing team deserved the Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player Award, it was Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.
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.
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.
There has been a notable shift in Hollywood from film portrayals that mock Christianity to films that portray Christianity as a force of evil.
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.
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
Allowing MAID patients to donate organs incentivizes doctors to forsake medical ethics and exploit patients.
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.
Stonewalling parents from the lives of their children leaves already suffering kids without those who know and love them most.
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.
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.
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.
Today, the anniversary of Josephine Margaret Bakhita’s death, has become the International Day of Prayer to Stop Human Trafficking.
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.
The God-given joy of meaningful work is often, in our late-modern cultural moment, sapped by overwork, overregulation, and mission drift.
When a society is unmoored from any enduring truth about reality, what starts as a punchline quickly becomes plausible.
Erin Friday refused to give up on her 11-year-old daughter when she began to struggle with her identity as 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.
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
Just after midnight on February 3, 1943, the American transport Dorchester, carrying nearly a thousand men, was sunk by a German U-boat.
Because the transgender movement lacks any positive good to pursue, it only survives by hijacking other cultural movements that claim to “protect the oppressed.”
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 a donation of any amount this month, receive a copy of Abdu Murray’s new book, More Than a White Man’s Religion, which examines and refutes many of the modern claims against Christianity. Go to colsoncenter.org/February.
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.”
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.
Jess Gill with the British media site Reasoned recently took to the streets of London asking, “What are men good for?”
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?
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.
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.
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
NFL coaching legend and commentator Tony Dungy is under fire for speaking at the March for Life.
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?
Recently, scholars announced another breakthrough discovery relating to Israel’s King David.
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.
Last week, Philadelphia Flyers hockey player Ivan Provorov refused to wear a jersey for the NHL’s Pride Night.
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.
Years after the dawn of the Me Too movement, Hollywood’s reckoning with its embrace of bad ideas about sex continues.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
If you would like to hear a recent interview with Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, on the Strong Women podcast, go to colsoncenter.org/podcasts.
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.
Recently, Reuters news service published an article titled, “Why detransitioners are crucial to the science of gender care.”
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.
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.
This week marks the death of Amy Carmichael, missionary to India and defender of children.
Revised from Breakpoint on March 16, 2021.
In grounding his dream in Scripture, Martin Luther King Jr. shows us the way forward.
This Point was originally published on August 27, 2021.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
As Fox News reports, a biblical site only discovered in the last 20 years will soon be available to the public.
According to the BBC, doctors in Greenland inserted contraceptive devices into several thousand local women without their knowledge or consent.
Back in December, March for Life UK director Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for praying silently outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham, England.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that medication abortion drugs can now be sold over the counter at retail pharmacies.
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.
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.
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.
Canada’s campaign to normalize suicide as a viable and even preferred medical treatment continues to escalate.
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. To learn more, please visit colsoncenter.org/January.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
John and Maria look at the best and worst Christmas movies and would you host or attend a same sex wedding?
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.”
For image bearers, names are not just blobs of letters, but a way of affirming identity, value, and history. Words mean something.
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.
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.
The secular world doesn’t have a box for answered prayer or forgiveness. The Hoffman family does. Thank God.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This month, China exploded in protests against President Xi Jinping’s three-year “Zero-Covid” policy.
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.
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.
Throughout history, Christians have fought for the protection and wellbeing of children, quite often from sexual exploitation and abuse.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
As British commentator Peter Hitchens recently pointed out, being “schooled” isn’t the same as being “educated.”
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.
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.
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.
On December 5, we remember poet Phillis Wheatley, on the day of her death in 1784, at just 31 years old.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Recently, a Massachusetts boarding school banned smartphones because the devices stunt kids’ attention and make them more emotionally volatile.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Each and every Christian should be clear on this point: Antisemitism in any and all forms is a despicable evil.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
This week marks the death of Columbanus, a Christ-follower used by God to nurture education and establish the Christian foundations of Europe.
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.
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.
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.
The sexual revolution promised women liberation, but men were the real beneficiaries. Children paid the price for that too.
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.
Fanny Crosby, the “Blind Poetess,” wrote hymns such as “Blessed Assurance” and “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” that remain beloved today.
Young people need parents who will have the difficult but thoughtful and gracious conversations with them.
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?
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.
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.
Because a child is more than a “product,” procreation without relationship robs children of the right to know their parents.
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.
The best stories, Tolkien wrote, acknowledge the seriousness of evil, but give us “a fleeting glimpse of joy… beyond the walls of the world.”
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.
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.
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.
Killing inconvenient babies has long been framed as an issue of “rights,” not what is right.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Recently, music icon, multi-millionaire, and U2 lead singer Bono said that the key to beating extreme poverty is “entrepreneurial capitalism.”
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.
China’s repression of Hong Kong has led to an explosion of growth for Chinese churches in the U.K.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
The Vatican has renewed its 2018 arrangement with Beijing. Critics continue to warn that it’s a recipe for disaster.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Morality, and its absence, are contagious, especially from one generation to the next. After all, families are the place we first learn to trust and to be trustworthy.
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.
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.
Stories of the faithful who have gone before offer a perspective for our own life and faith that we cannot get anywhere else.
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.
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.
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.
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).
As the intentional handiwork of a Creator, we have a foundation to discover the meaning our culture has lost.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
While 66 clinics are no longer providing abortion, pregnancy resource centers continue to do their important care.
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.
According to NPR, Planned Parenthood will soon be sending out “mobile abortion clinics,” buses outfitted to provide abortion services on wheels.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
From its earliest days, wherever abortion was practiced, the Church condemned it and must continue to do so today.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Can the definition of family “morph”? Is family a real thing that exists or is the word family is 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 an exclusive video series developed by Ahlquist exclusively for the Colson Center. Visit colsoncenter.org/october for more information.
Emma’s poise, serenity, and sense of humor counterbalanced her husband’s impulsive, emotional nature and became the backbone of [Dwight] Moody’s success.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pregnancy resource centers need public support from business leaders and pastors. They need our support and prayers more than ever.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
| 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. |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.” Near the end of her life, 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.
Last Saturday was World Suicide Prevention Day, a time to remember that suicide is a growing problem. In the U.S., it increased by 33% from 1999-2017, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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 notthe 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 morereligious, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 frequently, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, an 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.
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.
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.
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 oppositeof 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Though we tend to think that Europe is less “Christian” than the United States, in some ways, that’s not true. Certainly, per 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Roughly 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 areCalifornia 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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Recently, police 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.
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.
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>>
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 activists 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.
Today marks the death of Johann Sebastian Bach (1865-1750), 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.
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 andthat 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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
The LA Times 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 really 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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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...
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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. ...
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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“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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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- 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...
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“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.” ...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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Authority and submission are difficult concepts in a society that’s fully committed itself to individual autonomy. In this special BreakPoint Podacst Dr. Bruce Ashford explains the unrivaled...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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”...
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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...
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As NBCNews 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...
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“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...
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Several Nordic countries that, for decades, have had among the world’s lowest birthrates, experienced a babyboom during the pandemic. In the second half of 2021, Iceland saw an incredible 16.5% more...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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“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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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“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...
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“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...
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“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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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“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 ...
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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...
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“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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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