For months, now going on years, I’ve been trying not to talk about David French. Of course, I was aware of his work. I couldn’t not be in the circles where I run. These days, it seems every other week someone asks me the same question: “What happened to David French?” By which they mean “What happened to the David French we used to know? What happened to the culture warrior, the free speech guy, the guy who went to… Read more
There has been a stir in recent days around the Presbyterian Church in America’s latest General Assembly, where two new overtures were passed to address the fraught issue of homosexuality and the pastorate. Overture 23 amends the constitution to state that in addition to practicing homosexuality, the use of “identity language” such as “gay Christian,” “homosexual Christian,” or “same-sex attracted Christian” can bar a man from ministry. This leaves it up to individual presbyteries’ discretion whether this can bar men… Read more
Full disclosure: I am a Protestant, and as such I am on the outside looking in on the past week’s stir in Catholic/ex-Catholic circles over the public spiritual wrestling of trad Catholic apologist Steve Skojec. While Steve hasn’t exited the faith or the Church, his raw outpouring has generated a wide range of responses. It’s a very long, very angry blog, weaving together specific grievances about Skojec’s current priest with his past history of getting burned in trad Catholic circles,… Read more
For long-time fans of the Unbelievable? radio show, the evolution of the program has been fascinating to watch. It first emerged in the golden age of the contemporary Christian vs. atheist debate, arranging high-profile matchups between apologists on both sides. Through the years, it’s tackled all manner of hot-button religious and political topics. But not every program has been framed as a debate per se, particularly in recent years as more Christian-friendly non-Christian public figures have emerged. One of these… Read more
[Obligatory shilling: I now have a Substack. If you’d like to read my writing ad-free, head on over here and subscribe, why don’tcha?] Three years ago, I was a very enthusiastic writer with a very small audience. I’d been WordPressing it for years, dipped my toe into the world of freelancing, made a little side cash, had a Twitter, but few people outside of a couple niche areas were aware of my existence. Which was fine by me. At… Read more
[Update, 4/19: I include a link to a site raising questions about a double standard in mandate enforcement with churches and mosques. A commenter points to this article clearing one of the two mosques mentioned, even though the full parking lot understandably raised suspicions. According to the report, written a day before I wrote this blog, “Good COVID-19 protocols are in place and no warnings or orders have been issued. As attendees are not carpooling and are coming in separate… Read more
Growing up Anglican, I have never quite gotten over the oddity of the fact that we read through the Passion of Christ on Palm Sunday. It is a startling piece of liturgical foreshadowing. One moment, we are recalling the children who made sweet hosannas ring, proceeding to the altar to kiss and receive our own palms as tokens of the ones they waved, in the wild erratic way of children. Next moment, a cloud is passing over the sun of… Read more
Coming up on a month ago, I read a piece that bugged me. Had I been holding myself to a more rigorous writing schedule at the time, I would have banged out a response piece quickly. But perhaps it’s just as well that I didn’t, because experience has taught me one rarely does one’s best work on impulse, especially with sensitive questions such as those raised in this piece. I’m speaking of this essay by James K. A. Smith for… Read more
Like most people following the Ravi Zacharias scandal, I knew the full report of his misconduct would be bad when it came. The only question was how bad. Now that it’s dropped, we have the whole ugly picture. Calculated side deals, manipulation, Inception-like layers of deception. A man who publicly preached the vital importance of private virtue, yet ostracized anyone who dared to scratch the facade. For those on the outside of the scandal looking in, the story may not seem… Read more
After last week’s madness, I had some thought of banging out a Take within a few days. That plan went by the wayside as more data came out and more dominoes continued to fall. Now a single week out from January 6th, it feels like we’ve already run through multiple weeks’ worth of news cycles. I, for one, am tired. Literally, physically tired. More than ever, I feel the hyper-accelerated pace of news in the digital age, the exhaustion of… Read more
