by Managing Editor | Dec 14, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, The Bible, Theology
Guest Post by Joost Nixon Last year on a rainy day near Kathmandu, a Nepali friend and I were on an evening errand for milk. We were tight-rope walking on top of walls because the rain had transformed the dirt roads into goo. Our route took us near a rare unplowed...
by Ben Zornes | Dec 11, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, Science, Theology
We knew it would only be a matter of time before this sort of thing becomes more common. A couple of women who identify as men have a child, which they have decided to not assign a gender to, and thus allow their child the freedom to “discover” itself. You can watch...
by Managing Editor | Dec 10, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, The Bible, Theology, Worldview
Guest Post by Jared Longshore Secularism is all in a tizzy. She is hot and pouty. She’s fired up and making her demands. She’s defying the armies of the living God, and she’s soft as cotton… which is not a good combo. God’s people have...
by Managing Editor | Dec 10, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, Theology, Worldview
Guest Post By C.R. Wiley A lot of ink has been spilled on the subject of fragility, particularly when it comes to young people—you know, safe-spaces, and coloring books on college campuses, and all of that. And while I could add my voice to the chorus, I think...
by Managing Editor | Dec 10, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, Theology, Worldview
By Jesse Sumpter You can’t make this stuff up. A 69 year old Dutch man, named Emile Ratelband, has decided he wants to identify as a 40 year old. He has even asked a court in his hometown to make it legal and change his birth certificate to say he was born on March...
by Managing Editor | Oct 4, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, Politics
By Jesse Sumpter A lot of people turned off Twitter and Facebook when the Kavanaugh hearings were going last Thursday. It was just too much for them to handle. People on social media were threatening each other. Death threats were tossed around like emojis. I’m sure...
by Jason Farley | Jul 26, 2018 | Abortion, Culture, Fight, Jason Farley, Politics, Theology, Uncategorized
What happens if Roe vs. Wade is overturned? That would be, no doubt, a good thing. We should rejoice when it happens. But how much of America’s difficulties are centered in the decisions of the Supreme Court? As a law, it is a judicial tragedy. But it is not enough to...
by Rhett Burns | Jul 19, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns
When I was a young boy I met someone who seemed like a giant to me. At six-foot-seven-inches Jose Rondon was the tallest person I had ever seen in person. He was also incredibly kind, a good baseball pitcher, and loved Jesus. Originally from Venezuela, Jose lived...
by Rhett Burns | Jun 21, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns
My denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, held its annual meeting last week. In response to current cultural trends, namely the #MeToo movement and the Paige Patterson fiasco, leaders and messengers spent a significant amount of time addressing women’s issues....
by Jason Farley | Jun 13, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, Jason Farley, Politics
I was recently sitting in on a lecture from a local university professor on the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. Whitworth University’s Dr. Van Inwegen explained that there are stories from history, “that help us understand the world we are in.” One of...
by George Grant | Jun 13, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, Current affairs, Fight, Fight Featured Post, George Grant, History, Politics, The Bible, Theology, Theology, Worldview
In his Confessions, Augustine (354-430) describes mankind’s universal sinful bent as “concupiscence.” The Greek word epithumia (ἐπιθυμία) occurs 38 times in the New Testament. It describes the utter enfeebling of mankind’s freedom of will through the bondage of sin....
by George Grant | Jun 6, 2018 | Blog, Culture, George Grant, History, Religion, The Bible, Uncategorized
Poet, literary critic, and novelist, Arthur Quiller-Couch, was best known for his incomparable anthology, The Oxford Book of English Verse. As a lecturer at Oxford beginning in 1886 and a professor at Cambridge from 1912-1944, he taught an entire generation of English...
by Rhett Burns | Jun 6, 2018 | Culture, Rhett Burns
Adam Ford has sold the Christian satire news site, The Babylon Bee. Launched in 2016, the Bee employs The Onion-style satire to spoof American evangelicalism—its popular pastors, authors, and fads—while taking occasional jabs at our larger secular culture. It has been...
by George Grant | May 26, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, Fight Featured Post, George Grant, History, Religion, Theology, Theology, Worldview
Haarlem is a beautiful little Dutch town on the River Spaarne, fifteen minutes by train from Amsterdam. Founded sometime in the 10th century, in 1245 it was granted city status or stadsrechten and was made the capital of the province of North Holland. By the 14th...
by Rhett Burns | May 23, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Politics, Rhett Burns
Last week was crazy. The United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Hamas greeted the move in their usual manner, which means with bombs and human shields. Major media outlets portrayed Hamas in their usual manner, which means referring to them as...
by George Grant | May 7, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, George Grant, Religion, The Bible, Theology, Worldview
When I was in seminary, the “Church Growth Movement” was just getting its sea legs. So, of course, it was all the rage in the hallowed halls of academia—if not amongst the profs, most assuredly amongst their charges. Filled with uninformed enthusiasm my peers tended...
by Rhett Burns | May 3, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight Featured Post, Rhett Burns
By now the tragic story of Alfie Evans is well known. The English toddler with an undiagnosed neurodegenerative disorder died last week, five days after doctors extubated him and abandoned all treatment, except palliative care. A judge denied Alfie’s parents the right...
by George Grant | Apr 26, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, George Grant, History, Religion, Theology, Theology
The years leading up to the Scottish Disruption and those immediately afterward produced some of the most remarkable servants of God in the history of the church. Andrew Alexander Bonar (1810-1892) was a member of that galaxy of brilliant, Reformed Scots preachers,...
by George Grant | Apr 20, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Current affairs, George Grant, History, Religion, Worldview
The horrific ruthlessness of ISIS, the brazen cruelty of Boko Haram, the obsessive repression of the North Korean Juche, the vicious terrorism of Al-Qaeda: I confess that when faced with the gleeful persecution of my Christian brothers and sisters around the world in...
by Rhett Burns | Apr 11, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Three weeks ago, I wrote a response to Michael Gerson’s essay in The Atlantic about evangelical support of President Trump. I found it hypocritical that Gerson, a senior policy advisor to President Bush and a member of The White House Iraq Group, was lecturing...
by George Grant | Apr 9, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, Current affairs, Fight Featured Post, George Grant, History
Every year new words and phrases find their way into our vocabulary. Sometimes these neologisms are the result of political turns of events, like Brexit, alt-right, or newsjacking. Sometimes it is technology and digital media that introduce new words like hashtag,...
by admin | Apr 5, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Politics, Theology
Idaho Senator Bob Nonini has come under fire recently for nodding his head in agreement with the view that those who murder a baby in the womb should face criminal charges. CrossPolitic hosted a live show interviewing three of the Republican candidates for Lt....
by George Grant | Apr 4, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, George Grant, History, Religion, The Bible, Theology
In his classic book, The Holiness of God, R.C. Sproul bemoans the absence from our vocabulary of certain, once-familiar, King James Version words. It wasn’t so much the loss of antiquated verb forms like walketh and talketh, or sayest and mayest that bothered him. It...
by Rhett Burns | Mar 27, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
A few weeks ago, I reviewed Andrew Peterson’s beautiful new EP, Resurrection Letters: Prologue. His new full-length album will release on Good Friday, and in advance of that, The Gospel Coalition premiered the video for Peterson’s Revelation 5-inspired song, “Is He...
by George Grant | Mar 3, 2018 | Blog, Culture, George Grant, History, Religion, The Bible, Theology
“And thus was he called Ichabod, for the glory of the Lord had departed.” 1 Samuel 4:21 The rising tide of heresy in the latter half of the fourth century very nearly engulfed the entire church. Most of the Nicean fathers had either passed into glory or were...
by Jason Farley | Mar 1, 2018 | Arts, Blog, Culture, Feast, Jason Farley, Movie Reviews
Every once in a while you hit a movie that is just plain beautiful. I mean, real life beautiful. The story is wonderful, the characters and acting are wonderful, and it moves you to want to do what you were made to do. Chef (written, produced, directed by, and...
by Rhett Burns | Feb 26, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Politics, Rhett Burns
The news cycle following a mass shooting is predictable. Thoughts and prayers are offered, outrage and demands are expressed, and the cable news stations fill up time with people yelling for or against gun control. The week after Parkland has been no different. Yet,...
by George Grant | Feb 26, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, George Grant, The Bible, Theology, Theology, Uncategorized
“Jeremiad.” Definition: an elaborate and prolonged lamentation; a cry of woe; and expression of righteous indignation. “Nehemiad.” Definition: an elaborate and prolonged humiliation; a cry of grief; an expression of righteous repentance. Well might we plead the case...
by Jason Farley | Feb 23, 2018 | Abortion, Blog, Culture, Fight Featured Post, Jason Farley
I love basketball. In particular, I love the NBA. I watch a game multiple times a week. And every February they do a passably good job of celebrating Black History Month. I do not have a problem with black history month itself, but I have begun to wonder about one of...
by Toby Sumpter | Feb 17, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, Politics, Toby Sumpter, Uncategorized
As you have no doubt heard, there’s been another school shooting, and seventeen people are dead. An evil man took lives he had no right to take. His actions were full of hate and spite. These were human beings made in the image of God, most of them young people, lives...
by Rhett Burns | Feb 14, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
The best music is imaginative in the Chestertonian sense. It does not attempt to create a new world. Rather, it seeks to uncover and reveal the truth, goodness, and beauty God has already placed in this world, but remains hidden because we do not have eyes to see....
by George Grant | Feb 10, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, Fight, George Grant, Politics, Uncategorized
All leaders are controversial. They invariably risk the ire of others. Because they stand for certain things, they necessarily stand against certain things. This causes them to stand out. It makes them more than a little peculiar in this plain vanilla world of...
by Rhett Burns | Feb 8, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl Sunday night to conclude a controversial NFL season. This year, pregame inaction eclipsed the action on the field, as many players refused to stand for the national anthem, choosing instead to take a knee in protest. Former...
by George Grant | Feb 5, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, George Grant, Politics, Religion, Theology, Theology, Worldview
It is one of the great ironies of our day that Christians can pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” and not actually mean anything by it. Indeed, it is a stunning paradox that we can live as if such a prayer could not be answered. Even worse, we can...
by Rhett Burns | Jan 31, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Mixed martial arts fighter Ronda Rousey became a professional wrestler Sunday night. The UFC women’s bantamweight champion agreed to terms with WWE and appeared unexpectantly on the pay-per-view Royal Rumble show in Philadelphia. Rousey, who won a bronze medal in judo...
by Rhett Burns | Jan 24, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
It has been two weeks since President Donald Trump allegedly referred to Haiti and some African nations as “s***hole countries” in a meeting with congressional officials discussing immigration policy. In the wake of these comments, his detractors offered their...
by George Grant | Jan 23, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, George Grant, History, Religion
In 1821, Dr. John Rippon, pastor of the New Park Street Chapel in Southwark, London, began a ministry to the homeless poor. A complex of almshouses was erected on a property adjacent to the church and the monumental task of rehabilitation was begun. Rippon wrote,...
by George Grant | Jan 19, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, George Grant, Religion, The Bible, Worldview
“We ought to bring our minds free, unbiased, and teachable, to learn our religion from the Word of God.” Isaac Watts One of the basic demands of Christian discipleship, of following Jesus Christ, is to change our way of thinking. We are to “take captive every thought...
by Jason Farley | Jan 14, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Jason Farley, Politics
In 1652 John Milton went completely blind. His eyes had been waning, the world fading, for some time. The darkening was complete the same year his first wife and only son died at one year old. He was a published poet, but he had spent his energy in English politics...
by George Grant | Jan 13, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, Fight Featured Post, George Grant, Science, Science, Worldview
Watkins’ Bookshop in Cecil Court, just off Charing Cross between Leicester Square and Covent Garden in London, was established in 1891 by John Watkins, and is still London’s premier occult bookstore. One of its most famous customers was Carl Gustav Jung, who, together...
by Rhett Burns | Jan 11, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
When Tua Tagovailoa woke up Monday morning, he was a relatively unknown backup quarterback for the University of Alabama. Sure, he was a touted freshman signal-caller, perhaps the future for the Crimson Tide. But on Monday morning, few college football fans outside of...
by George Grant | Jan 9, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Culture, George Grant, History, Theology, Theology
A doxology is a short chorus of praise to the Lord, often sung as a stand-alone piece or as a coda at the conclusion of psalms, hymns, or canticles. The word comes from the Greek doxa, meaning “appearance” or “glory,” and logia, meaning “study” or “declaration.”...
by Rhett Burns | Jan 3, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Politics, Rhett Burns
Iran is once again embroiled in national protest. The demonstrations started a week ago as an economic protest, but have taken on an increasingly anti-government tone, resulting in twenty-one deaths and over 450 citizens imprisoned. This protest marks the largest...
by Jason Farley | Jan 3, 2018 | Arts, Blog, Culture, Jason Farley, Laugh, Movie Reviews
Team Farley has a number of Family Rules that are beyond discussion. Rule #1: When Billy Idol comes on the radio no one may leave the car until the song is over. You must respect the Idol. It is our most sacred Family Rule. Rule #2: “Hello,” by Adele, requires that...
by Rhett Burns | Dec 21, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns
Fight, laugh, feast. You’ve no doubt heard and read those words around the CrossPolitic podcast and website, as they capture our vision of cultural engagement. Faithful Christians are joyful warriors. They are mighty in battle with their enemies, yet they fling jokes...
by Luke Dickson | Dec 11, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Fight Featured Post, Politics
The estate tax (or death tax, or silver spoon tax, depending on who you ask) is the state’s attempt to redistribute the money of the wealthiest families in America. In recent months, it has seen support from Bernie Sanders, and has been sharply criticized by President...
by Rhett Burns | Dec 11, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Fight, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
After another dismal football season, the University of Tennessee has now fumbled its coaching search. Last week, the Volunteers had reached an agreement to hire Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano as its head football coach. However, the deal was dropped...
by Rhett Burns | Nov 20, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
So…witches are on the rise. Sadly, this is not the beginning of a stand-up comedy routine, but a religious trend in the United States. According to this report, millennials are trading traditional religion for witchcraft and astrology. A majority of young adults...
by Rhett Burns | Nov 13, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Twenty-six of our brothers and sisters in Christ were gunned down a week ago during Sunday morning worship in Sutherland Springs, Texas. The victims ranged from unborn baby to seventy-seven-year-old, including eight people from one family. Devin Kelley, dishonorably...
by Rhett Burns | Nov 3, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Racial reconciliation is all the rage these days, and rightly so. It is hard to deny the animosity and division that plague our nation and that race-based attitudes are often involved of such hostilities. Further, Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:11 are still in our...
by Jason Farley | Oct 30, 2017 | Arts, Culture, Feast, Jason Farley
In my first church job the Pastor gave me a bit of advice that stuck. Children learn most of their theology from the songs that their church sings. They may not remember your sermons, but they will carry the songs they sing in church the rest of their lives. This is...
by Rhett Burns | Oct 27, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns
For several years Peter Hitchens has made a sustained argument against the legalization of cannabis. One feature of his argument is to point out the correlation between cannabis use, mental illness, and violent crime. He links mental illness with both legal and...
by Moses Bratrud | Oct 16, 2017 | Culture, Fight, Politics
Like a sniper in a war zone, Stephen Paddock found a defensible position 400 yards from his target, and set to waging his little war on the Route 91 Harvest music fest in the early morning hours of October 1. From the killing fields of the darkened concert ground it...
by Tyler Hatcher | Oct 13, 2017 | Culture, Theology
Recap In this series, we’ve been dealing with some of the idols in the world that need to be torn down and the fact that Christians keep their own version of these idols in their hearts. Same-sex mirage out there is akin in some ways to fornication and sexual...
by Rhett Burns | Oct 13, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Fight Featured Post, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was outed as a sexual predator last week in a New York Times story. Or, more accurately, he was outed nationally and with corroborating evidence. His predations on young women have long been the rumor of the film industry. Thus far...
by Rhett Burns | Oct 5, 2017 | Abortion, Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Carrie DeKlyen, a Michigan mother of five, started getting headaches last March. After the pains worsened she saw a doctor, and scans showed a brain tumor. According to the Chicago Tribune, the pathology report revealed something more cruel: glioblastoma, a rare and...
by Jason Farley | Oct 3, 2017 | Arts, Culture, Feast, Jason Farley
The Blues are sad songs. No one wants that. And yet The Blues persist. There is little reason to believe that The Blues is going away. Even when the current pop music is thumping and protesteth its cheerfulness too much, The Blues continue to hold a steady fanbase. I...
by Luke Dickson | Sep 20, 2017 | Abortion, Blog, Culture
Most of the people who walked by us looked indifferent; they probably didn’t even notice our signs. But of those who actually looked at us, most of them smiled or gave thumbs up. Many stopped by and said thank you for volunteering. One woman stopped by to talk about...
by Tyler Hatcher | Sep 20, 2017 | Culture
Round Two Same-sex mirage and divorce. Same-sex mirage and fornication. In a previous post, I argued that far too often, the idolatry we enshrine in our own hearts matches the idolatry present in same-sex mirage. As Christians, when we countenance any sort of abuse of...
by Seth Bloomsburg | Sep 15, 2017 | Blog, Book Reviews, Culture, Theology
Given what Bell has said so far about the Bible, a brief excursus about the doctrine of Scripture would be helpful. As I have pointed out, one of Bell’s problems is that he will simply not accept some things that the Bible says, especially what the Bible says about...
by Luke Dickson | Sep 12, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
We must move toward serious welfare reform not by simply pressuring people to work, but rather by supporting the pursuit of higher-wage employment. The ultimate goal would be to get rid of welfare entirely, or at least reduce it to being a last safety net for those...
by Luke Dickson | Sep 5, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
When we think about states’ rights, our minds often go straight to the Civil War. Few of us recognize that the debate is actually still quite alive. Events like those in Charlottesville draw our minds back to unresolved animosity of the War Between the States, but we...
by Rhett Burns | Sep 1, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
The LGBT war machine rolls on. According to the latest polling data from the Pew Research Center, natiohttp://www.people-press.org/2017/06/26/support-for-same-sex-marriage-grows-even-among-groups-that-had-been-skeptical/nal support for so called same-sex marriage is...
by Jason Farley | Aug 29, 2017 | Arts, Blog, Culture, Feast, Fight Featured Post, Jason Farley, Laugh, Politics
Editing is an art form. My son Cedric was coming in the front door a few days ago when his sister asked, “Did you eat an ice cream sandwich?” He replied, “Malachi had two.” That was, strictly speaking, true. Malachi had eaten two ice cream sandwiches. The...
by Luke Dickson | Aug 28, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
After the Charlottesville riots, America was thrown into a fit of iconoclasticism. Tearing down statues of Confederate leaders, demanding the renaming of streets named after “white supremacists.” When did American history become so binary? I always thought that there...
by Rhett Burns | Aug 21, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
One of the central plays the Left is running is to paint Christians and conservatives with the same dirty brush as they do the alt-right white supremacists. They have been calling conservatives Nazis for years, a standard retort to such offenses as budgetary math and...
by Tyler Hatcher | Aug 16, 2017 | Culture, Theology
Here There Be Idols Our hearts are idol factories (quote cred: Calvin, somewhere). We can make anything and everything an idol that we put in the place of God. We all agree that our culture has erected many idols around us. And they demand our worship. In order to...
by Rhett Burns | Aug 11, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
“You have the command to remain silent. Anything you say, not approved by the vice president for diversity, can and will be held against you.” Or so it seems. Google employee James Damore wrote an internal memo addressing diversity and gender gaps at the company,...
by Luke Dickson | Aug 7, 2017 | Abortion, Blog, Culture, Fight Featured Post, Politics, Science
Abortion pill reversal has been a point of serious contention lately, with some states even mandating that abortion providers inform their patients that the effects of the abortion pill on the baby may be reversible. And yet this is an issue that many pro-life people...
by Rhett Burns | Aug 3, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
I recently returned from vacation where I swore off keeping up with the news in favor of logging lots of swim time with the kids and diving into some fun books. Two of the books were fascinating memoirs, and, though seemingly unrelated, they coalesced in my mind once...
by Ben Zornes | Jul 31, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Uncategorized
Stories are a DNA test for a culture. They show a culture’s its ideals, its perceptions of the world, its hopes for the future. Our stories reveal the marrow of our faith. That being the case, our increasing godlessness has resulted in stories of dystopia. Our...
by Luke Dickson | Jul 29, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
In a series of three Tweets on Wednesday July 26th, President Trump announced that “transgender individuals” would no longer be allowed to serve “in any capacity” in the military. This ruling is clearly intended to garner support from much of his base, which voted for...
by admin | Jul 25, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Fight Featured Post, Politics
In the light of various Supreme Court decisions—Roe, Obergefell, and other mutants—where they have sought to sanctify things that God has declared unholy, confused and abominable, our ongoing responsibility as Christians is to think through a biblical understanding of...
by Luke Dickson | Jul 23, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
If there’s one thing the Left hates, it’s corporate America meddling in politics. Well not all of corporate America, but, like, Hobby Lobby and stuff. And not all politics: fighting against those wicked Southern Christians is okay. So maybe the Left isn’t actually...
by Brittany Martin | Jul 20, 2017 | Culture, Science
Resisting Evolutionary Theory is becoming more and more unpopular in evangelical circles. It isn’t considered respectable, or in any way intelligent, to maintain Creationism at all costs. Fighting the culture wars has been exhausting, and why shouldn’t we put our...
by Ben Zornes | Jul 17, 2017 | Blog, Culture
When the Bloggers Go Forth to Battle As the summer months are upon us the Christian blogosphere has taken upon itself the task of rallying to their respective “modesty” camps. Some advocate for liberty of conscience for women to dress as they please, chiding anyone...
by Luke Dickson | Jul 17, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
France and the United States have been politically linked since the Revolutionary War. The American and French Revolutions, while wildly different in ideology, were products of the same age, occurring within fifteen years of each other. In our respective revolutions,...
by Jason Farley | Jul 12, 2017 | Arts, Blog, Culture, Feast, Jason Farley
The Christian Church is in exile. Not that we are living in tents (though many church buildings may qualify as temporary). Instead, there is a deeper exile. The soul of the American Church is in the plot point of the epic poem in which the protagonist becomes a...
by Benjamin Alexander | Jul 11, 2017 | Culture, Politics
As Christians, we are to be salty. Christians are to be winsome, but we’ve become increasingly unsavory. Let’s face it, most Christians are not known by what they are for, but by what they are against. Relentless criticism is never a good platform to persuade...
by Luke Dickson | Jul 7, 2017 | Blog, Culture
In 2015, 28% of Americans said that they were concerned about race relations. One of the biggest points of contention within race relations is the wage gap between races. The common narrative is that racial factors can lower wages and job prospects for...
by Seth Bloomsburg | Jul 6, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Theology
What should Christians think of building “The Wall”? Conservative think-tank PragerU has produced a video giving some very practical reasons for building a border wall between America and Mexico. But, as Christians, we should not be...
by Rhett Burns | Jul 4, 2017 | Blog, Culture
Our Heavenly Father, On this July Fourth we give thanks that in your good providence you established us as a nation. Down through the centuries you have poured out blessings on us—blessings that we did not deserve, but for which we are profoundly grateful. Among these...
by Jason Farley | Jul 2, 2017 | Arts, Culture, Feast, Fight Featured Post, Jason Farley, Politics
Everyone has to have an overarching story. A mythos that holds what they see and hear together. When I lived in California, I did evangelism on Wednesdays. I hoped to do it other days as well, but Wednesdays I did my sermon prep at the neighborhood park. I introduced...
by Luke Dickson | Jul 1, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
News broke on Tuesday that a young boy in Britain would be denied access to further healthcare in the United States. Charlie Gard, a ten-month-old boy from London, was born last August with an incredibly rare genetic condition called infantile onset encephalomyopathy...
by Moses Bratrud | Jun 30, 2017 | Culture
“Sir, I have to tell you that I do have a firearm on me.” These were almost the last words of Philando Castile’s life. Castile was driving with his girlfriend and their daughter on the night of 6 July, 2016, when two officers stopped him in a Minnesota suburb due to a...
by Rhett Burns | Jun 28, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Uncategorized
Georgia’s food stamp program provides an interesting case study for thinking about the current debate surrounding social welfare. In good fiscal news Georgia has seen a sixteen percent drop in food stamp usage over the last four years, saving tens of millions of...
by Brittany Martin | Jun 28, 2017 | Culture
Schools of all types desire an interdisciplinary education. Secular education strives for it, and liberal arts assumes to be the master of it (Newell, 2007; Edutopia Team, 2008). In order to be truly interdisciplinary, subjects must be united around a central theme...
by Benjamin Alexander | Jun 24, 2017 | Arts, Culture, Feast, Movie Reviews
Well, it’s summer. It’s time for the beach towels, sunblock, the nearest pool, and, yes, good movies. Who doesn’t love a late night movie with some great friends? Good movies, though, are harder to find than the nearest swimming hole. What do I mean by a...
by Luke Dickson | Jun 23, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
“Believe in equal pay for equal work? Put your money where your mouth is.” So reads the website of the most comically unfair product I’ve ever seen. I first ran across the EquiTable app about six months ago. At first, I thought that their advertisement video was a...
by Moses Bratrud | Jun 21, 2017 | Culture
If you haven’t heard the term “Intersectionality,” it probably doesn’t seem important. The study of traffic intersections? Yawn. But intersectionality is actually a new development in the history of feminism and class and gender studies that has wide-ranging...
by Rhett Burns | Jun 20, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Uncategorized
Graduating senior Moriah Bridges was chosen by her class president to provide the closing exercise at Beaver High School’s June 2nd graduation ceremony in Beaver, Pennsylvania. Bridges, a Christian, included a prayer in her remarks, but the Beaver School District...
by Ben Zornes | Jun 19, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Theology
The Church of England has been cowed. We’ve known this for years, but it is rapidly capitulating and scrambling to “origami” itself into something that will appease the sensibilities of the culture. Rev. Chris Newlands is proposing a motion to the General Synod next...
by Luke Dickson | Jun 16, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
Stephen Harper served as Prime Minister of Canada for nine years. While few would say that Trump and Harper are similar leaders, there are some things that we can learn from the genesis of the former Canadian Prime Minister that tell us about the current American...
by Seth Bloomsburg | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog, Book Reviews, Culture, Theology, Uncategorized
In chapter one, “Moses and His Moisture,” Bell sets a precedent for how he argues in for the rest of the book. The two biggest problems he has are that, with a single exception in the whole book, he does not provide any citation for obscure cultural or...
by Brian Points | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
If you haven’t noticed, a new form of Refer Madness is sweeping the nation. Starting with full legalization of recreational marijuana use in Washington and Colorado in 2012, numerous other states have loosened regulations in subsequent years. At the time of writing...
by Toby Sumpter | Jun 13, 2017 | Abortion, Culture, Fight Featured Post, Politics
“The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light” (Lk. 16:8). Modern conservative Christians are cowards. We are cowards by many different measurements, but one will suffice. We have almost entirely lost a culture war...
by Rhett Burns | Jun 13, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
Last week Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders transformed a rather mundane confirmation hearing for the deputy director for the Office of Management and Budget into high political theater, pronouncing the nominee unfit for office due to his religious beliefs. Sanders...
by Brittany Martin | Jun 13, 2017 | Culture, Theology
Classical education has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in both Christian and secular schools. The Association of Classical Christian Schools is just over 20 years old and has members around the world. Secular educators have noted the success of the classical...
by Benjamin Alexander | Jun 12, 2017 | Culture, Politics
We all know America is changing… Over Christmas break I took my W.A.S.P (white anglo-saxon protestant) blond children to the local outlet mall in the east bay area of northern California. Besides my children, I think we counted about three blond heads in a room of...
by Jason Farley | Jun 12, 2017 | Culture, Fight Featured Post, Jason Farley
I make my children practice telling jokes at dinner. If I can help it, none of my progeny will have bad comedic timing. The girl that married me, lo so many zodiacal rotations ago, hoped to be a comedian when she grew up. The same skills, it turns out, apply to...