When Family Dies: The Demoralization of the West and the End of Culture

Last updated on: July 27, 2023 at 2:03 pm By Anthony Costello

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the preeminent Harvard sociologist, Carle C. Zimmerman completed his major study on civilization and the family. The study carried the rather anodyne, but straightforward, title Family and Civilization. In 1947, 26 years before Roe v. Wade, 68 years before Obergefell v. Hodges and roughly 70 years before the public emergence of transgenderism and various legal proposals conveying the absurd notion that biological facts are mere mental states, Zimmerman concluded this about the... Read more

Sound of Freedom: A Politically Incorrect Review

Last updated on: July 27, 2023 at 6:13 pm By Logan Zeppieri

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“Never Trust a Pedophile” – Tim Ballard Like most Americans, if you spend little time following the mainstream media’s drift into obscurantism and paranoia, motivated by increasing irrelevance in the social media age, you’d write something like Krista Bontrager, a Conservative Christian writer, saying, “the film has now become entangled in another weird controversy.” And, like many evangelicals who have begun retreating from the political unraveling of our times and, faced with an increasingly immoral and “weird” hostility towards Christianity,... Read more

New Blog Coming Soon!: Welcome to “The Center That Holds”

Last updated on: July 23, 2023 at 1:59 pm By Anthony Costello

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Dear Patheos Readers, Some of you may be wondering why I have not been posting as often as usual. There are a few reasons for this. First, was the simple fact that I needed a break from writing, as all writers do from time to time. Second, I was on vacation for about three weeks with my family in Chicago and stayed away from the computer for most of the trip (a much needed respite from technology). Third, I... Read more

Four “Hot Button” Issues the Church Must Confront

Last updated on: June 14, 2023 at 11:46 am By Anthony Costello

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In this recent episode of the “Come Let Us Reason” podcast, friend and colleague Lenny Esposito and I discuss four hot button issues profoundly affecting America today. They are: The emergence of Strong AI technologies The prevalence of Critical Theory and Critical Race Theory in American society The rise of Neo-Paganism in America The debate over Christian Nationalism These hot button issues are prevalent in our cultural conversations, and they demand a robust and explicit answer by the Church. In... Read more

The Rise and Fall of The Therapeutic Society (Part 2: The End of Therapy)

Last updated on: May 27, 2023 at 2:39 pm By Anthony Costello

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In the last post, I gave a brief account of the rise and dominance of the psychological interpretation of man and the therapeutic society. I noted three areas where psychology has become the dominate force, in Helmut Schelsky’s words, in “shaping the world of human instincts.” Those three areas are: 1) the force that provides the symbols and rituals that organize and give meaning to a society, 2) the force that allows us to distance ourselves from society and classify... Read more

The Rise And Fall of The Therapeutic Society: (Part I – The Rise of Psychology)

Last updated on: May 31, 2023 at 4:30 pm By Anthony Costello

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In 1955 German sociologist Helmut Schelsky wrote these enigmatic yet incisive words: Psychotherapy and psychological care, deliberate sex education and organized marriage guidance, birth control and child guidance clinics, group teaching and human relations, the entire apparatus of modern mental welfare technology or of ‘social engineering’, are taking the place of the dwindling services of institutions and conventions in shaping the world of human instinct …. This process may be described as the conventionalization of the mind through the popularization... Read more

The Religious Views of Tucker Carlson

Last updated on: May 25, 2023 at 8:20 am By Anthony Costello

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This month’s special series for Patheos writers is on the faith of public figures. Since I have written a few articles recently on the highly controversial Tucker Carlson, I figured I would give it a go. Personally, celebrities in general do not interest me, with the exception, perhaps, of boxers (because I love boxing). However, in a celebrity culture, a culture that lives and moves and has its being wrapped up in the life of those on television or in... Read more

5 Dumb Things (Some) Pastors Say

Last updated on: May 22, 2023 at 9:20 pm By Anthony Costello

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I hate to be the guy who points this out, but we need to do some semantic housekeeping in the Church. I won’t name names, but we have to acknowledge we are living in a culture of “memes” and that this is a legitimate problem. It is a culture where vacuous, silly and just plain dumb things get said and then passed along without much thought, usually because somebody famous said them. As the Church, the community on earth that... Read more

Are Demons Real?: Movie Review of “Nefarious”

Last updated on: May 16, 2023 at 6:13 pm By Anthony Costello

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“Yes, Virginia, demons are real.” And they are real not only as Francis Church described Santa Claus in his 1897 response to 8-year old Virginia O’Hanlon. In that editorial classic, Church pointed out to the young New York lass how a world without Santa Claus would indeed be a very “dreary” world. Of course, this argument wouldn’t work for demons, or much else for that matter. However, Church also argued that “The most real things in the world are those that... Read more

Embracing Paradox: Reading the Bible with Reason and Humility

Last updated on: May 16, 2023 at 6:06 pm By Anthony Costello

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Guest Post by Nathan Amerson Is the Bible ambiguous? As Evangelicals who stake our truth claims upon the authority of Scripture we would certainly prefer to answer this question in the negative. At the same time, we must recognize that many of the foundational beliefs we hold dear may be simultaneously defended or critiqued using the same Scriptures. This is a reality we must continually confront with both reason and humility. A Classic Example: Arminian vs. Reformed on Salvation and Election... Read more