Like many of you, I will be otherwise occupied during the Oscars ceremony this weekend. In the past year, I have not kept up with film as closely as I used to and have missed all the names currently vying for Best Picture. However, from the admittedly small sample of movies I did see in 2018, one picture stood head and shoulders above the rest. So, for your consideration, I would like to present my best picture of 2018: The Rider…. Read more
February 4, 2019
5 Lessons Jordan Peterson Has Taught the Church
February 4, 2019 By Esther O’Reilly
52 Comments
A year ago, I had no idea who Jordan Peterson was. Like many people, I got my first inkling after That Debate went viral. I was entertained, but I didn’t understand what I was watching. If you had told me then that this Canadian psychology professor was embarked on nothing less than a decades-long quest to rescue Western Civilization from the pit of nihilistic despair, I would have assumed you were joking. But Jordan Peterson, it seems, was not. As… Read more
January 26, 2019
What is an Evangelical?
January 26, 2019 By Esther O’Reilly
28 Comments
Last week, various people in my feed began retweeting this summary of what makes “a true evangelical” from Dr. Dustin Benge, a lecturer and administrative research assistant at The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies on the campus of Southern Seminary. Benge pulled these twelve points from the book What is an Evangelical? by David Martyn-Lloyd Jones (ML-J): A true evangelical:1. Bible-centered2. Watchful3. Distrusts reason4. Low view of the sacraments5. Studies history critically6. Acts upon beliefs7. Simplifies everything8. Loves the church9. Stresses new… Read more
January 22, 2019
“Bad” Pro-Life Arguments (Which Are Actually Good)
January 22, 2019 By Esther O’Reilly
12 Comments
Despite the media’s despicably skewed coverage of the past weekend’s events, hundreds of thousands of pro-life Americans were able to enjoy a day of solidarity at the March for Life, peacefully demonstrating for the rights of the most vulnerable among us. The day’s highlights included an excellent speech and live podcast by Ben Shapiro, who reviewed the pro-life case with a compelling photographic presentation of the unfolding unborn life. While outlining and dismantling various pro-choice arguments, he graphically described the… Read more
January 2, 2019
Jordan Peterson is Wrong About Abortion
January 2, 2019 By Esther O’Reilly
58 Comments
[Update, 01/04/19: Since my publishing this, an interview from June has come to my attention where Peterson unpacks his thoughts on this issue in slightly more depth than I’d heard before, with a focus on the legislative situation in Canada. The host asks him if there’s a way for some Canadian politician/party to “recapture the center” by focusing on sex-selective abortion, abortion past age of viability, etc. You can watch his answer from minute 27 to about minute 32. He starts… Read more
December 21, 2018
The End of All Our Exploring
December 21, 2018 By Esther O’Reilly
6 Comments
This year, we marked the 175th birthday of A Christmas Carol. Yesterday, we marked the 72nd birthday of another Christmas institution. Three generations have now grown up with It’s a Wonderful Life. The story of George Bailey is a story with more layers than you would think, about more than you would think. It’s a story about duty. It’s a story about depression. It’s a story about human dignity. Ultimately, it’s a story about home. Young George is restless, ambitious, impatient to shake… Read more
December 16, 2018
Married, Pregnant, In Crisis
December 16, 2018 By Esther O’Reilly
1 Comment
If you saw a woman walking into a crisis pregnancy center, what would your first thought be? She is pregnant and in crisis. That much you can safely assume. Beyond that, you could speculate: A single mom, most likely. She looks quite young, so probably an unwed mom. Maybe she’s considered an abortion and been steered towards better options. Maybe it’s her first. Maybe it’s her second. Then you do a double take. That’s when you realize it: That’s not… Read more
December 1, 2018
Book Review: A War of Loves
December 1, 2018 By Esther O’Reilly
2 Comments
The cover design for David Bennett’s new book A War of Loves is striking. The reader’s eye is immediately drawn to the rainbow stripes in the background, and in the foreground, a fist closed around a sign bearing the book’s title. A closer look reveals something else: a cross necklace hanging from the bottom of the sign. What does the image mean? You’re not sure, but you’d like to read more. Mission: accomplished. Bennett’s book is subtitled “The Unexpected Story… Read more
November 22, 2018
What a Thanksgiving Classic Taught Me About Grace
November 22, 2018 By Esther O’Reilly
4 Comments
Planes, Trains and Automobiles has been described as the quintessential Thanksgiving movie, even though the turkey barely gets five seconds of screentime. Perhaps it owes its enduring appeal to the very fact that it flips the holiday movie formula on its head. Neal Page wants very much to be home with his family, yet he spends all but the last few minutes of the movie with a complete stranger. Glimpses of the homecoming feast are held out as a tease in… Read more
November 15, 2018
The Gods We Make Will Fail Us
November 15, 2018 By Esther O’Reilly
6 Comments
Last weekend’s plans did not include having a Twitter chat with Eric Weinstein about God. Nevertheless, that was a thing that happened last weekend. But first, I should explain who Eric Weinstein is. The very short version: Eric Weinstein is a mathematician, a physicist, an economist, and the guy who manages Peter Thiel’s money. Some of his side projects have included becoming an immigration expert, working to develop a new unifying theory, and most recently, christening the Intellectual Dark Web…. Read more
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