I’m ready to make a prediction about the 2020 election. No, this is a prediction I thought about making months ago, but I couldn’t quite figure out how to articulate it. Even so, I’m ready to predict that many people are going to regret how they talked about and treated others over the last year or more.
This Christmas, let one of history’s greatest artists, remind you that all of our work should be done to the glory of God.
An agnostic historian recently suggested that Christians who want to be heard in a skeptical culture: “Preach the weird stuff.”
In a documentary called Religulous, Bill Maher claims that most of the story of Christ, especially the parts about His birth, were cribbed from pagan mythology. Here is why Maher’s claims are complete nonsense.
In a culture that views children as products instead of image-bearers, many Christians feel lost when faced with fertility issues. The Church has, too often, simply failed young couples in this area, both in communicating a theology of children and in helping them navigate the ethical challenges of infertility.
Famed singer Andrea Bocelli recently shared that while his mother was pregnant with him, she fell sick and was encouraged to have an abortion. She chose to go against the advice and carried her son to term, thus birthing one of the most talented singers of our time.
As more and more people are forced to flee religious persecution around the world, the United States will need to admit more refugees. This is especially true of those fleeing persecution in China and Iran, where our ability to resolve crisis points on the ground is limited. This can be done without compromising our commitment to vet the situations and stories of those seeking refuge. Already, refugees are far more strictly vetted than others seeking to enter the United States.
America’s fertility rate keeps falling further and further from the average rate of 2.1 required to maintain the population. While the reasons behind this falling rate are vast, one thing is certain, Christians must remind others of the centrality of marriage and the God-given good of children.
To borrow a phrase philosopher Craig Gay uses in his book The Way of the Modern World, Westerners and Americans are “practical atheists.” A subtle, operational-level form of secularism, practical atheism is not necessarily to believe that God does not exist. Rather, it’s to live as if God does not exist. One major characteristic of “practical atheism” is anxiety. Anxiety is the inevitable reaction when we realize just how out-of-our-control this fallen world is, and how fragile our shoulders – which now bear the weight of the world without God – really are.
Many Christians, have bought into what might be called “the inevitability thesis.” Nearly everything in our culture has convinced them to assume that it is futile for anyone to resist their same-sex attractions. And, any attempt to help someone, especially young people, reduce their behaviors and attractions is just as futile, and probably even illegal. Many legislators have adopted and courts have upheld bans on such things, but now, a ruling last week from the 11th Circuit court is challenging the inevitability thesis.
