May 29, 2015 | Uncategorized
Let’s be honest: Some black lives really don’t matter. If you are a young black man shot in the head by another young black man, almost certainly no one will know your name. Al Sharpton won’t come rushing to your family’s side with cameras in tow. MSNBC won’t discuss the significance of your death. No one will protest, or even riot, for you. You are a statistic, not a cause. Just another dead black kid in some city somewhere, politically useless to progressives and the media, therefore all but invisible.
–Rich Lowery, “#SomeBlackLivesDontMatter”
May 25, 2015 | Uncategorized
Growing up as the son of a Baptist minister I confess that my attitude toward alcohol was, at one time, less than positive. Drink was associated in my mind with drunkenness. Like most late-Gen X/early-Millennial evangelicals, my attitude changed. In fact, even my parents now enjoy a glass of wine on occasion.
What I regret most about this upbringing is not the absence of adult beverages. Having an aversion to these things as a teenager may well have saved me a host of troubles. What I regret is not having been initiated in a positive manner into the enjoyment of fine drink by older and wiser men, for the culture and community in which we learn to drink affects us well into the future. I had to stumble around, so to speak, and find my own way.
But I did find mentors, I suppose—mostly Catholic ones. I learned from Chesterton that there are radically different motivations for imbibing. His advice? “Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.” Just as we must not grieve as those who have no hope, I learned, neither must we drink like them.
–Logan Paul Gage, “It’s Vespers Somewhere”
May 24, 2015 | Uncategorized
The importance of apologetics cannot be overstated, in the life of the Christian, the life of the Church, and the life of the Church in the world. The famous verse that all apologists, which should really be all Christians, base their obedience to defend the faith is I Peter 3:15:
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect . . .
The Greek word for “answer” is ἀπολογία, or 1) verbal defense, speech in defense 2) a reasoned statement or argument. These defenses or arguments can come in many forms and address many issues, like the reliability of the Bible, or the resurrection, the philosophical arguments for God’s existence, etc. The impact of Christianity on the world is another. (more…)
May 22, 2015 | Uncategorized
My 13 year old Marvel loving son and I saw the latest Avengers blockbuster recently. I’d read a piece prior to seeing the movie titled, “Age of Ultron May Be the Most Spiritual Superhero Movie Yet,” and I can see why. But it’s not just spiritual in the amorphous sense of the word, like people today might say, “I’m spiritual not religious,” but Christian. Even, if I remember correctly, when one of the heroes near the end of the movie sacrifices his life to save innocents from the bad guys, or bad robots, he is laid out in death in a cross-like fashion. (more…)
May 19, 2015 | Uncategorized
This is the wonderful exchange which, out of his measureless benevolence, he has made with us; that, becoming Son of man with us, he has made us sons of God with him’ that, by his descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us; that, by taking on our mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us; that, accepting our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power; that, receiving our poverty unto himself, he has transferred his wealth to us; that, taking the weight of our iniquity upon himself (which oppressed us), he has clothed us with his righteousness.
–John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
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”
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