No, America Is Not a Racist Country!

No, America Is Not a Racist Country!

By now most Americans are familiar with “Charlottesville.” I understand there was a protest in that city that had something to do with race. A group of people called “white nationalists,” which I gather is not a good thing, and some Nazis, never a good thing, we’re protesting something. It’s not important. There was a ruckus, people were hurt, and one young woman was killed by a car driven by one of those “white nationalist” people. Ugliness all around. That another group of people was there who were not “white nationalists” doesn’t seem to have been an important part of the equation, so we were told.

As usually happens around events like these, the secular, liberal media always uses the occasion to affirm what a rotten racist country America is. We’re never allowed to put behind us that slavery was part of our history; white people will bear the guilt of America’s original sin forever. Those of the left are also consistent in their affirmation that America still suffers a race problem, and that white people need to admit it, and . . . . well, I’m not quite sure what comes after the guilt and shame of admitting I’m a racist, even if I don’t know it or think I am. Something about dialogue, and caring and . . . like I said, I’m not quite sure.

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Notable Quotation

Notable Quotation

This is the third way. A belief in objectivity—in Beauty, Truth, and Goodness—requires neither a rejection of the complexities of the world nor a rejection of those who think differently. In fact, it requires more work. It requires a willingness to enter into the mess of a seemingly contradictory reality with a hope and a trust that there is something worth fighting for.

And thus, the sincerity of Wonder Woman and her Lasso of Truth arrive as a brief but necessary respite from the cycle of deception and disillusionment that plagues our cultural landscape. It unearths a newly repressed desire for wholehearted sincerity, even Truth, that we forgot we could believe in.

The critical and financial success of Wonder Woman proves audiences are ready for a strong female superhero. We might also be ready to face the Truth.

—Caleb Gotthardt, “Why Wonder Woman is the Best Lie Detector of 2017”

The True, The Good, and the Beautiful

The True, The Good, and the Beautiful

I learned about this phrase when my daughter went to the great Hillsdale College in 2010. I’m sure I’d come across it in the past, but its significance as a pointer to the power and glory of our almighty Creator God has been impressed upon me continually in new ways since then.

In case you’re not familiar with it, the concepts, while not the exact phrase, go back to the ancient Greeks. Over time the phrase stuck, and the three always seemed to be mentioned together. The reason is that each depends on the other, and each implies the other. Most importantly, they depend on and assume God, a God of truth, goodness, and beauty, to which the Scriptures everywhere attest.

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Queens of the Stone Age – The Vampyre Of Time And Memory -Searching But Never Finding . . .

My teenage music obsessed son shared this song from Queens of the Stone Age with me, and I was haunted by the lyrics. Human beings are really good at rejecting any ultimate meaning in the universe, but spending their life searching for it. Never finding. The lyrics of this song capture that futility, perfectly. The melancholy of the melody also captures that futility, perfectly. See if you agree: (more…)

Of Course the Solar Eclipse is an Act of God, But So Is Everything Else!

Of Course the Solar Eclipse is an Act of God, But So Is Everything Else!

In case you’ve been in a cave somewhere without this Internet thing, or access to any TV, Radio, the regular or short wave kind, you likely know there is going to be a total solar eclipse tomorrow across much of America. This doesn’t happen very often so it’s kind of a big deal. It’s also awe inspiring for reasons that don’t need explanation, and that makes it a big deal too. I’ve seen several headlines in previous weeks similar to this one in the Washington Post: “The first solar eclipse to cross America in 99 years is coming. To some, it’s an act of God.”

Such a headline is indicative of the naturalism and its assumptions that pervade secular Western culture. Naturalism simply means that whether there is a God or not, the universe was set in motion, and natural laws are what keep it going, no God required. The Deism popular around the decades of America’s Founding was a form of naturalism. God’s a clock maker, he made the clock, and now it runs on its own.

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