Author Archives: Dr Snyder

The Cultural Shift & the Christian Response

  

When we lived in the northern Virginia suburbs in the 1980s, we sent our children to Christian schools because we wanted an environment for them that supported our beliefs. Training up a child in the way he/she should go is a requirement for Christian parents. One of the schools we entrusted with our children for a few years was Immanuel Christian School. While no Christian school is perfect (indeed, can we find a perfect anything in this world?), we were… Read more »

The Media’s Not-So-Good, Really Bad, Horrible Week

  

Rarely does the mainstream media self-destruct as demonstrably as it has this past week. There are so many examples, I hope I can contain them all in this one post without wearing you out reading it. Let’s begin with the annual avoidance of the largest mass movement in the nation–the pro-life community. As it does every year, the news media practically ignores the thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children who descend upon Washington in the cold of January,… Read more »

The Journey That Never Ends

  

By late 1951, C. S. Lewis had written the majority of his most influential books: The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Abolition of Man, Miracles, his Space Trilogy, two of the seven Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian), and his WWII BBC broadcasts were about to be repackaged and published under the title of Mere Christianity. Why refer to this litany of Lewis’s works? One would think that… Read more »

Questions Worth Asking

  

“It would not perhaps be altogether surprising if, in this nominally Christian country, where the Creeds are daily recited, there were a number of people who knew all about Christian doctrine and disliked it,” wrote Dorothy Sayers. She concluded that thought with this: “It is more startling to discover how many people there are who heartily dislike and despise Christianity without having the faintest notion what it is.” That statement comes from her essay, “The Dogma Is the Drama,” and… Read more »

The Witness of Hilary of Poitiers

  

Periodically, I share a story sent to me via e-mail from Christian History magazine. This one, which highlights the fight for maintaining orthodoxy and the ability to unite those who are true Christians despite minor differences, was inspiring to me. I hope you find it to be also. HILARY OF POITIERS was one of the best-known churchmen of the fourth century. His fame rested largely on the holiness of his conduct and his defense of orthodox Christianity. However, Hilary was… Read more »

Impasse: The Limitations of Government

  

The new congressional session has begun with the Democrats back in charge of the House of Representatives. While a lot of attention has been given to the younger Democrats newly elected, we’re actually being treated to the a lot of the Same Old Thing. I did see Mary Poppins Returns, by the way, and liked it very much. But the return of Nancy Pelosi to the reins of power is a sequel I could have skipped. She’s exhibiting a fascinating… Read more »

Religion & the Presidents

  

A couple of years ago, I had an idea for a new course that would examine the religious beliefs of the presidents. The course would also attempt to determine how those beliefs may have influenced the policies each president followed. That proposed course will now be reality this semester as I teach, for the first time, “Religion and the Presidents.” It will be a little different in structure than my other courses. First, no exams—how does one adequately “test” students… Read more »