Wait—stand with what, now? National Geographic is running an ad on Facebook featuring the caption, “Stand behind the facts. Stand with science. Stand for the planet,” and then below that, “Subscribe to National Geographic for just $12.” It’s good advertising. But how will subscribing to this magazine help facts, science, or the planet in light of their January cover? If you recall, it featured a young boy dressed in pink leopard print with long, dyed hair and the caption, “The... Read more
We’ve all seen it. A progressive and a conservative are crossing swords on some subject of contemporary importance, and the progressive reaches for the old standby: “Your views are antiquated. It’s 2017. Time to move on.” C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield coined the phrase “chronological snobbery” to describe this rhetorical move. It’s a variant on the non-sequitur fallacy whereby someone insists that an idea is wrong merely because it was held a long time ago by people who are dead... Read more
You may want to grab some tissues for this. Not long ago Amy and Jason Rosenthal sent their youngest off to college. Then they found out that the pain in Amy’s abdomen was actually ovarian cancer. Now they’re counting down the weeks her doctors say she has left. But Rosenthal isn’t thinking about herself. In a very difficult-to-read piece over at The New York Times she writes, “You May Want to Marry My Husband.” Then she tells of what a sharp... Read more
These days, policing generalizations is the go-to move when you’ve got no other arguments. The distinction between the logical fallacy known as “hasty generalization,” and generalizations as such, has broken down. Now the mere observation, “that’s a generalization,” is expected to strike our ears as an effective counter-argument. But rational people make generalizations all the time. It’s part of life. There’s nothing wrong with them per se, and we don’t owe anyone an apology for making them. Here are some... Read more
I’ve long been intrigued by the idea of a place where Christians can go to deepen their understanding of the faith together outside of an academic setting. I pictured a place that felt more like a home than a seminary–a place focused on conversations outside of classrooms–where work and worship are as integral to the daily routine as theology. The mountains always seemed like the natural setting, perhaps because of Christ’s self-revelation on mountaintops throughout the gospels, and perhaps because... Read more
What’s with progressives and Harry Potter? Since the election of Donald Trump, many left-wing commentators have likened his administration to the bad guys’ rise in J. K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” novels. Writing at Mere Orthodoxy, Anglican deacon Bart Gingerich calls this strange. Why? Because though many Christians dislike the stories’ magic elements, the world of “Harry Potter” is deeply conservative—nuclear families, childbearing, church, authority, tradition, and clear lines of morality. Gingerich thinks the reason progressives like “Harry Potter” so much... Read more
The very word “creationism” elicits mockery, even from Christians. As a shorthand for “young-Earth” or “young-age creationism,” it’s become a key feature of fundamentalist stereotypes, usually dismissed with laughter rather than engaged. Those who reject the modern concept of deep time and believe (as most Christians prior to the last couple of centuries have) that the Earth and universe are mere millennia old are frequently compared with flat-earthers and labeled “science-deniers.” But fellow Christians fond of dismissing young-age creationists should pause a moment... Read more
With his resignation as Breitbart tech editor, Milo Yiannopoulos has signaled the end of his career’s present iteration. Oh, I have little doubt that this self-admitted water-carrier for the Alt-Right will come back in some way or another, perhaps following a few months of personal reflection and retooling. But after losing a book contract and being disinvited from CPAC, resigning from Breitbart means big changes for Milo. As it should. Defending pedophilia and pederasty, as he apparently does in two videos that recently surfaced,... Read more
Religious freedom for me, but not for thee. That was the message members of the Southern Baptist Church sent loud and clear to their leadership after the International Mission Board and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission filed an amicus brief last year on behalf of a planned mosque in New Jersey. On Wednesday, Southern Baptist International Mission Board president David Platt issued an apology to the 15-million-member denomination and his board of directors over his group’s involvement in fighting for the... Read more
If you find your mind darting from one thing to the next, struggling to concentrate for even a short period of time, it could be related to technology. Writing at Motherboard, Kaleigh Rogers tells of an experiment in which she banned screens from her home for a month. No TV, no tablet, no smart phones, no computers—cold turkey. The results were dramatic, she says. Unlike with exercise or dieting, they were immediate: better concentration, more time, closer relationships, and a... Read more
Troubler of Israel
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