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.
Advent is a time to recall God’s utter and unstoppable faithfulness to His people. Though Israel failed to keep its covenant with God, made at Sinai and renewed on several occasions afterward, He always intended to keep His covenant with Abraham, that “through your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."
When Christians use the term "free will," it often refers to the debate over whether we choose God or God chooses us. On the other hand, when the term "free will" is used by evolutionary biologists, the debate is over whether choice itself is real, whether it is an illusion produced by our brains.
On November 3, Oregon became the first U. S. state to legalize “magic mushrooms” for therapeutic use, following the lead of a few cities like Denver, Oakland, and Ann Arbor. Almost immediately afterward, articles appeared advising investors on how to “take full advantage of this $100 billion (USD) market potential.” Our increasingly materialist culture rejects any God Who is authoritative and transcendent (i.e. who exists outside of the material world). Thus, the divine must be found “within.” Many think psychedelics can assist their search by making it that much easier to escape the constraints of reality, authority, and limitations.
In Belgium, the residents of nursing and rest homes were, according to a new report, “abandoned” by government authorities as the coronavirus epidemic raged. Out of fear of overwhelming Belgian hospitals, only about half of COVID patients in nursing homes that needed to be hospitalized, were. What happened in Belgium is outrageous.
