John Mark Reynolds on Faith and Culture
Perhaps Disney does not fear my wrath. My kids do not fear my wrath and actually I do not have much wrath, but the notion of a Star Wars reboot fills me with hope and dread. Hope because I love the myth and am going to get more of it. Dread because J.J. Abrams is a lens flare away [...]
Last night marked yet another episode centered around some aspect of the adults-with-juvenile-taste industry. This episode included a bow to the fact that the industry is ugly, exploitative, and evil. Of course, people in it were (generally) more sympathetic than “moral crusaders” . . . redeemed only by the love of daughters that evidently all [...]
Modernity came and many of us said: “Good. We like some of that, but don’t like other bits.” We rejected the idea that natural science (“Science!”) was the only means to know, though we appreciated the help it gave us in forming questions. We thought the idea that man was fundamentally economic was wrongheaded. We [...]
Suppose for a moment you deeply disagree with a friend or family member. What do you do? Imagine that the family member or friend does something bad. How do you handle it? I know I don’t know, but I know things I have done that haven’t worked or been wrong. Given the Christianity that formed [...]
A joy of blogging and Facebook are the thoughtful people who respond to what you write. Trolls exist, but they like all trolls they can mostly be ignored and left living in their basements working out their impotence in socially harmless ways. More common is a person with a different perspective who teaches me how [...]
We are being told by people who should know better that making the “morning after pill” over-the-counter is a “matter of science.” Those of us who oppose this cost cutting and convenient measure must be “anti-science.” If one cannot get a cheap abortion as easily as exfoliant, than science is being assaulted! This is either ignorance of [...]
This year I supersaturated in Charles Dickens to celebrate his bicentennial and used his Christmas Carol as part of my jollification. Whatever the state of Dickens’ soul, and no man can judge, he lived in a pervasively Christian country. His books are shot through with references to the Faith and he assumes the Christianity of all but his [...]
Scrooge repents. He repents even though he is unsure of salvation. He is sorry for his misdoings and no longer attempts to bargain with Justice. He accepts that he is wretched and does not just retreat from selfishness, but to positive charity. C.S. Lewis made the point that too many of us confused unselfishness with [...]
We discount Scrooge’s sins too steeply if we make him merely stingy. Scrooge’s stinginess made him a bad neighbor and subject of the Crown. This was his chief sin and the Ghost of Christmas Future reveals that the City is better off without him. His story is the reverse of that of George Bailey: it [...]
Christmas Carol has targets in mind and it isn’t Ebenezer Scrooge. Charles Dickens is after Ignorance and Want. Nobody, even Mr. Scrooge, is in the Ignorance and Want Lobby, but Dickens knows that many of us support both without intending to do so. My vices, small in themselves, added to the vices of my neighbors, can [...]
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