May 15, 2015 | Uncategorized
Four truths are emerging: First, the battle is not between gay rights and religious liberty—although religious liberty is certainly at stake—but between the sexual revolution and Christianity itself. This means that Christians are faced not with allegedly “minor” or “insignificant” theological changes to gain leftist acceptance, but with wholesale changes to the historical doctrines of the church.
Second, not a single orthodox denomination is making or even contemplating such changes. This means that tens of millions of Americans will remain—indefinitely—opposed to the continued expansion of the sexual revolution.
Third, rather than going quietly, cultural conservatism is showing increasing strength at the grassroots—opposing leftist campaigns at the ground level, bypassing politics to support those most embattled by radical hate campaigns.
And fourth, the conservative grassroots and conservative public intellectuals are united—from Ross Douthat at his lonely perch at the New York Times to the pages of National Review and the Weekly Standard, from First Things to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, there is no wavering among America’s most influential conservative writers and thinkers.
In short, if the cultural Left is hoping to dominate the culture—and feels strong in its coastal bastions—it is overreaching, extending beyond the limits of its power. It is exposing itself to embarrassing cultural defeats and succeeding mainly in hardening conservative resolve. In the fight over religious freedom, the Left will not prevail.
–David French, “The Battle of Indiana and the Promise of Battles to Come”
May 9, 2015 | Uncategorized
Those who write stories influence the broad cultural narratives that determine the direction and health, or lack thereof, of a society. For too long Christians have left the writing of these narratives to people who do not share our worldview or the underlying assumptions about the nature of reality. Both fiction and non-fiction are important and contribute on one way or another to what people believe and base their lives on.
Many Christians will say the Bible is one long narrative we call redemptive history, and God didn’t convey his will to us through propositions. Yet God chose Paul, and the other writers of the epistles, to interpret or give meaning to the stories. You need both; but stories are especially powerful in capturing the imagination of a people and a culture, and thus its manners, morals and mores. Human nature and the reality of God’s created order, good and fallen at the same time, give us an endless supply of potential stories.
ChristianWriters.com is a resource for, believe it or not, Christian writers! They state their purpose succinctly:
ChristianWriters.com offers an open and friendly community, resources, and tools for authors who are followers of Jesus Christ.
Websites and communities like this are an encouraging reminder that Christians in the 21st Century are slowly but surely coming out of their cultural cocoon.
May 7, 2015 | Uncategorized
I confess that I hate Tom Brady. Ever since the snot nosed kid beat my St. Louis (previously LA) Rams in the 2002 Super Bowl, I’ve despised him. Plus he’s handsome, rich, married to a gorgeous woman, and wins all the time, not that I’m jealous or anything. So I was trying to suppress my glee and schadenfreude this morning when I read headlines such as, “Tom Brady’s image is flattened as Deflategate report is released.” Or one highlighted on Drudge, “PAPER: Tom Brady Suspension ‘Could Span Up To One Season’…” (more…)
May 6, 2015 | Uncategorized
Since Baltimore and its discontents broke upon the national seen a couple weeks ago, the left and the right have been arguing over the causes of inner city unrest in America. For the progressive, the issues are racism and poverty; if these didn’t exist there would be no riots. Black anger is completely justified. Conservatives counter that the fundamental cause of the unrest goes deeper, that it is cultural, especially the breakdown of the black family. I think everyone could agree on one thing: whatever the causes, the problems facing what used to be called the ghetto are deeply complex and not easily solved. (more…)
May 1, 2015 | Uncategorized
This is a pattern. For whatever reason, liberals feel compelled — whether out of self-delusion or deliberate deception — to lie about the fact that they are liberals. . . . Unfortunately, the vast majority of the Beltway establishment, particularly political journalists, believes these talking points, largely because they, too, are committed liberals who think they are mere non-ideological arbiters of the facts.
–Jonah Goldberg, “Why Does the Left Continue to Lie about Its Ideological Agenda?”
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