Karl Marx said that religion is the opium of the people, but by that he meant that it was a drug that treats genuine suffering. Carl Trueman says that the ideology of identity politics is a similar drug, which--though false--also treats genuine suffering.
"Being a free American requires practically loving your neighbors so that the government doesn’t have to love them for you." So says Cameron Hilditch, discussing de Tocqueville, thus suggesting that vocation lies at the heart of the American experiment.
Voters in both Colorado and Oregon are considering referendum petitions that would not only restrict the slaughter of livestock, but also define artificial insemination and the castration of bulls as illegal "sex acts."
We keep hearing that Christianity has been sullied by politics. That complaint usually is against evangelicals and other conservative Christians for supporting Trump and the Christian right. But new research has found that progressive Christians are far more political in their religion that conservatives are.
President Biden's "American Families Plan" will institute universal pre-kindergarten for children, starting at age 3. Also, government-paid child care for children even younger. Would this help families or replace them, with government raising our children for us?
Some explanations of the substitutionary atonement are abstract, rationalistic, and legalistic. Luther, though, avoids that.
Many contemporary Christians are drawing back from the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement--that Christ bore our sins and died in our place. But their criticisms tend to neglect the doctrine of the Trinity. The teaching is well-attested in Scripture, including the Old Testament sacrificial system as foreshadowing the work of Christ, and the Early Church.
The Reformers said that the doctrine of justification--that is, how sinners are put right with God through the work of Christ--is "the article upon which the church stands or falls." Today in many of America's churches, this teaching is often neglected, distorted, or directly repudiated. When that happens, of course the church will fall.
Why we believe certain things is a fascinating question. Why we don't believe in certain things is also fascinating. It isn't just a matter of dispassionate reason. Some information we find plausible and other information we find implausible. And this has to do with our plausibility and information curves. Timothy Dalrymple applies this concept to today's disagreements.
Big corporations are increasingly taking on the functions of government, to the point of overriding legislative decisions. Sometimes this is taking on authoritarian form, as in restrictions of speech and other civil liberties. How this is different from traditional political influence and free market capitalism. And why unelected executives are doing this.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In