Posts with the tag “culture”

Sociologists are warning that parents are facing heretofore unprecedented challenges. Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School, has documented the challenges in his book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing An Epidemic of Mental Illness. He warns of a mental health crisis among youth due to the effects of social media and gaming. H...  Read More

The number that is bandied about is 50%. The average man has 50% greater brute strength than the average woman. She is a “weaker vessel,” as the Bible pointed out 2000 years ago (1 Pet. 3:7). Watch a WNBA game and observe the players struggle to get off the ground as they leap for the basket. Or go to an exercise facility and compare their lifts with men in the military or bench presses. The diffe...  Read More

The maternal instinct in our wives makes better men of us husbands. It pushes us to be moreconscientious as protectors and providers. It forces us to pay attention to the needs of wife and family. It punishes us when selfishly we neglect our duties and pursue our own narrow interests. Most of us are better men because we are married. Our wives’ maternal-driven demands have forced us to grow up, to...  Read More

Louise Perry, author of The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, a 30-something United Kingdom columnist, feminist, and host of a podcast with the title of this article, has written insightfully about the three stages of a woman’s life. Here is her analysis. A woman is first a maiden: young, single, at the peak of her physical beauty. To one degree or another she is admired and sought for her physi...  Read More

Women are not men and men are not women. We state the obvious for the sake of a civilization that no longer grasps the obvious, denies the obvious, and is at war with the obvious. God made us male and female (Gen 1:28). There are distinctive qualities of maleness not shared by femaleness, and distinctive qualities of femaleness not shared by maleness. What are they? The visible ones are physical. ...  Read More

As I progressed through my seminary education (ca. 1977-81), I began to notice an interesting phenomenon. As men became more reformed in their doctrine, they tended to become more demonstrative in the exercise of Christian liberty. This was particularly true of those who were reared in conservative Protestant traditions which tended to be careful or legalistic (depending upon your perspective) reg...  Read More

The June 24 Dobbs decision is not a pro-life decision. It is a pro-constitution (in which there is no right to abortion) and anti-court decisions made by judicial fiat (like Roe v. Wade). It restores the question of abortion to the people and their elected representatives. It is the first check in what has been a tidal wave of victories for liberal, secular, progressive ideology stretching back ov...  Read More

How can a secular society make moral distinctions? How can it separate right from wrong? This is more of a problem than most people realize, especially in the realm of sexual ethics. A generation of “everything is normal” sex education, mixed with “everything is desirable” Hollywood sit-com and cinema seductions has morally disarmed our civilization. Politicians frame the issue as, “the freedom to...  Read More

This is the ninth of nine articles in a series entitled “The Future of Christianity in the West.” Princeton University professor Robert P. George, writing in Touchtone magazine, highlights the conflict with the world that Christians today face. He writes, The biblical and natural-law conception as marriage as conjugal, that is, as the one-flesh union of sexually complementary spouses, is not only ...  Read More

This is the eighth of nine articles in a series entitled “The Future of Christianity in the West.”  Rob Dreher in The Benedict Option addresses two additional strategies beyond the home and school for dealing with a hostile secular culture, the first addressing the marketplace, the second, technology.Businesses and employmentDreher writes,As the LCBT agenda advances, broad interpretation of antidi...  Read More

This is the sixth of nine articles in a series entitled “The Future of Christianity in the West.” The fourth institution that Rod Dreher urges must be strengthened in his much-discussed book, The Benedict Option, is the Christian school. Not only the church, not only marriage and the family, but Christian educational institutions must be established and strengthened for the coming dark age of secu...  Read More

This is the sixth of nine articles in a series entitled “The Future of Christianity in the West.”Since just 2015 a more militant secularism has entered the stage of American public life. “Marriage” has been redefined, or rather, defined out of existence. Any group of people associating with each other are now recognized as “family.” If everything is a family, nothing is a family. Abortion is now c...  Read More

This is the fifth of nine articles in a series entitled “The Future of Christianity in the West.” The momentum of hostile secularism seems at this point in time to be irresistible. Christians must prepare for a time of overt opposition and perhaps even persecution by strengthening their institutions, says Rod Dreher in his book, The Benedict Option. So far we’ve discussed strengthening the church,...  Read More

This is the fourth of nine articles in a series entitled “The Future of Christianity in the West.” We have argued that the West is embracing a secular pagan future that is hostile to orthodox Christianity. In order to meet the challenges that lie ahead, it is imperative that Christians strengthen their basic institutions. Last time we discussed the church. We come now to the second and third of th...  Read More

This is the third of nine articles in a series entitled “The Future of Christianity in the West.” How are we to respond to the coming hardships of life in a hostile secular culture? We must take the long view. There will be no quick fix in a world that has lost its way. We face a marathon, not a sprint.Our responseChristian families, communities, churches, schools and other institutions must be st...  Read More

This is the second of nine articles in a series entitled “The Future of Christianity in the West.” Rod Dreher in The Benedict Option proposes that Christians focus their energies in strengthening their institutions of the family, church, and school in preparation for dark times ahead. He envisions a time when the secular order collapses and is hopeful that Christian institutions will survive. Chri...  Read More

IntroductionThis is the first of nine articles in a series entitled “The Future of Christianity in the West.” Rod Dreher argues in his book The Benedict Option (2017), that the traditional western, Christian civilization of the past 1500 years is collapsing. The evolving secular society that is replacing it increasingly is opposed to Christianity. Christians today are living and working in an envi...  Read More

It has been surprising to see the speed with which the churches have shut down public operations and shifted their ministries online. Having this online capacity is a wonderful provision during an epidemic, one unavailable to previous generations. Live streaming allows the church to do something when the alternative might have been to do nothing, to provide some spiritual food when circumstances m...  Read More

Our society celebrates the openness with which it accepts homosexuality and transgenderism. It contrasts our present enlightened times with past eras when what are now called "sexual minorities," LGBTQers, were once consigned to the closets, forced to keep their "sexual identity" hidden. Now those who identify according to their sexual and gender preferences are "out of the closets" and have been ...  Read More

By and large I have stayed out of the politics of the General Assembly (GA) for the past 34 years. Because I pastor at an independent Presbyterian church, I have not been motivated to educate myself--in a significant way--about the nuances of the BCO (Book of Church Order). If I'm honest, I have to admit that there is much that I do not understand about the RAO (Rules of Assembly Operation). Addit...  Read More

Among the problems that the American of today faces is what political scientists call Balkanization and academics call identity studies. Americans are seeing themselves less as Americans, and more as hyphen-Americans, and often as aggrieved hypen-Americans, Americans second, and minority identity first. Voting patterns reveal groups voting at rates approaching those of Soviet Republics, predictabl...  Read More

Those who (realize that they) are forgiven must love much (Lk 7:47). We can even say that love/gratitude is the highest motivation for Christian living. What we can’t say is that it is the Christian’s only valid motivation. Not by a long shot.I know a little about God’s grace. I’ve experienced God’s grace in Christ in my own life. I’ve written three books with grace in the title. I’ve preached gra...  Read More

“Modest dress is required, in keeping with the dignity of the place as well as the solemnity of the occasion. Whatever you strip off the wedding dress afterward to turn it into a party dress is not at issue; one does not show up for a religious ceremony in a plunging neckline or strapless party dress.” –Miss MannersOh Miss Manners, in the years since you wrote those words, the issue of modest dres...  Read More

My high school-aged children attend a secular prep school. The process of deciding to educate them there was long and difficult. They spent their lower and middle school years in Christian schools and home school. But in the end, all factors considered, the prep school seemed to us the best choice. Among the many challenges that have come our way as a result have been regular contact with people o...  Read More