Christ and Pop Culture
"It’s nearly impossible to love and raise children without dreaming of their futures, without imagining successes for them that surpass our own." Read more
"It’s nearly impossible to love and raise children without dreaming of their futures, without imagining successes for them that surpass our own." Read more
Chicago’s RedEye reports on a recent UCLA study on porn addiction. While self-described porn addicts’ compulsions do resemble those of shopping, gambling, and tanning addicts, brain scans demonstrate an essential difference in psychic processes: Brains hooked on porn show clear neurological signs of evaluating and choosing when presented with smutty images; those signs vanish for cocaine addicts presented with their drug. Redeye suggest that porn addiction is not its own disease, but a symptom of deeper underlying issues. Read more... Read more
"The rational order we discover in the universe—the very thing that makes missions like Voyager's possible—is a clue to our purpose." Read more
Popular music generally and Americana in particular are full of Christian relics—images, sounds, and pictures that innately yearn for their spiritual fulfillment. Read more
Happiness as a Second Language author Valerie Alexander writes at The Huffington Post about internet bullying. She is outraged by cruel memes and mobile photos of our frumpy neighbors. Can we treat people as imago dei online too? Read more
To mark the release of a documentary about his life, Stephen Hawking was recently interviewed by the BBC. Hawking gave this reply when asked about assisted suicide: “I think those who have a terminal illness and are in great pain should have the right to choose to end their lives, and those who help them should be free from prosecution. We don’t let animals suffer. So, why humans?” Thankfully, Hawking has bravely chosen to live and to suffer through his... Read more
Perhaps we could simply let the show and the Hatmakers be what they are: a TV show and a family. Read more
"Should we preserve tradition or be “relevant” and imitate the culture at large?" Read more
The Miller family seems to have life figured out: They travel, live simply, and share their stories with others. Their hippie blog shares their lives as homeschooling global pilgrims who have ridden camels, met the Maya, and biked across Europe—all with four kids. Brazen and inspirational, the family shares stories as they travel, ending up on a different continent almost every year. Read more
In addition to theological issues, the PCUSA’s decision to not include “In Christ Alone” in their new hymnal relates to another issue, that of how churches should handle copyrighted worship materials. Or so claims Steve Thorngate, who performed an informal survey of church and worship leaders and found that a significant number will use songs for which they don’t have the proper licenses, or will regularly change the words to suit their purposes. Though a seemingly trivial issue, Thorngate’s article raises some... Read more
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