One moment during the lowest point of their journey, when all seems lost in the black ashes of Mordor, Samwise Gamgee asks Frodo whether he can remember the taste of good food and the feeling of warmth. Frodo’s reply has haunted me often: ‘No, I am afraid not, Sam,” said Frodo. ‘At least, I know that such things happened, but I cannot see them. No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memory of tree... Read more
1) Why Britain Should Leave the EU—Pascal Gobry, The Week We often like to define ourselves by what we’re against, rather than what we’re for, and elites are no exception. And what many elites are against is nation-states and tradition. Therefore, European and global elites love the European Union and hate anything that stands in the way of its multi-decade project to build a federal European state, including that pesky European tradition, democracy. 2) Heads, LGBTs Win, Tails, Christians Lose—Rod Dreher... Read more
Is Christianity fading in America? Are atheism and religious disaffiliation soaring? What does this mean for the future of American culture? Those were the questions being asked this week in light of the latest report by the Pew Center, a report which probably didn’t tell us nearly as much as its analysts and interpreters did. The report’s content has been covered extensively and many good commentaries on it are out there. In summary, the percentage of Americans who claim no religious faith (the... Read more
Introducing the Weekend Roundup, a new weekly feature of links and interesting finds from around the web. ________________________ “What’s Diving the Kafkaesque Crackdown on Free-Range Parenting?” George Will, National Review. Today’s saturating media tug children beyond childhood prematurely, but not to maturity. Children are cosseted by intensive parenting that encourages passivity and dependency, and stunts their abilities to improvise, adapt, and weigh risks. “What Is Marriage to Evangelical Millennials?” Abigail Rine, First Things. Students now arrive in my class thoroughly versed in... Read more
When you think of the things children need to succeed later in society, you probably think of things like good education, a stable family life, and lots of love and emotional support. One thing you probably don’t think of? Social media. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a parenting book or a sociological report on childhood well-being that emphasized how important social media and iPhone apps are to a kid’s personal and economic flourishing. Well, there’s a first time for everything... Read more
Douglas Wilson has some helpful perspective on C.S. Lewis’s beliefs on human origin. While it’s true that Lewis wrote of his belief in evolution at least as late as 1940, the intellectual trajectory of his later Christian writing seems to take a very different direction. Wilson: But remember that Lewis had been converted as an adult…in stages out of strident atheism. The longer he was a Christian, the more we can track his distance from evolution. In 1942, he published... Read more
One of the most perplexing passages in the entire Bible is one that may come up around Mothers Day. In 1 Timothy 2, Paul gives theological reasons for a church’s only having male teaching pastors. Regardless of how you interpret Paul or approach this particular issue in the local church, you probably have been stumped at least once by how Paul concludes his argument. Here’s the passage in context: Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do... Read more
As I write, I’ve just returned from a delightful evening with Emily at a local concert. Granting that I am not what you call a “concert goer,” I had an excellent time. It was an outdoor show at a park here in Louisville, and the weather was pinpoint perfect-75 degrees and clear with a gentle breeze. I guess between a night out with my future wife in a beautiful late spring evening, the whole thing was set up to be a... Read more
It was the pastor Martyn Lloyd Jones who said, “Have you realized that most of the unhappiness in your life is caused by your listening to yourself rather than preaching to yourself?” His point was not that depression and anxiety are remedied by constant muttering or inane “self-value” pep speeches; rather, Dr. Jones’s point was that most of the most precious truths that give us strength, humility and grace are not things we instinctively rehearse in our minds on a Monday morning. Rather,... Read more
I invite you to join many Christians around the nation in praying today as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments over the power of states to define marriage between one man and one woman. #PrayForMarriage is more than a prayer for legal victory (though it isn’t less). It’s a prayer for a cultural renewal, for awakening from the toxic slumber of the Sexual Revolution and awareness that marriage and family are gifts from a Creator and not social constructions to be... Read more
Samuel D. James
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