Category: Christians & Culture

Commentary, from a Biblical perspective, on current events that are primarily cultural. There may be some overlap with politics and government, but the emphasis is on broader societal developments apart from politics, which also includes analysis of specific individuals.

Remaining Faithful to Biblical Truth

  

I have never been at such odds with American culture. That’s fine, if being at odds means I’m remaining faithful to Biblical standards of morality. But there is a price to pay for being faithful. Some Christians are experiencing legal nightmares due to their stance. That hasn’t happened to me yet, but everyone who refuses to bow to the new immorality will receive criticism, sometimes harsh criticism, in some way. For instance, try saying something like this publicly and see… Read more »

Only the Scent or Echo of the Real Thing

  

“What does not satisfy when we find it,” wrote C. S. Lewis, “was not the thing we were desiring.” That short statement came in the middle of his first Christian book, The Pilgrim’s Regress, and it summarizes the whole point of the book, wherein the protagonist comes back to the Christian faith that he didn’t desire at the outset of his journey: he finally realizes that what he was running away from was the real thing after all. The book… Read more »

When the Curtain Comes Down on the Play

  

“It seems to me impossible to retain in any recognisable form our belief in the Divinity of Christ and the truth of the Christian revelation,” C. S. Lewis remarked, “while abandoning, or even persistently neglecting, the promised, and threatened, Return.” The world likes Christ’s first coming, His nativity, because we get presents and feel-good Hallmark movies—you know, that amorphous “Christmas spirit” that is bereft of the Christ of Christmas. The Second Coming concept, though, as Lewis notes, is, for some,… Read more »

Bold Steps for Life

  

One of my most adamant public policy positions, based on my Christian beliefs, is the promotion of the pro-life movement. Abortion is one of the most heinous sins, arguably the most heinous, to be found in American society. Along with the normalization of the sin of homosexuality, the very nature of human beings and their interaction with each other has altered fundamentally over the past four decades. I’ve also tempered my deep concern over abortion by advocating whatever incremental measures… Read more »

This Is the Most Important Issue

  

Most who have read any C. S. Lewis at all are familiar with his oft-quoted Liar-Lunatic-God “trilemma” in Mere Christianity. It exposes the false notion that Jesus can be a great moral teacher while at the same claiming to be God. In a short essay entitled “What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ,” found in God in the Dock, Lewis addresses that subject again, but from a different angle. He begins by showing that Jesus does offer “clear, definite… Read more »

Teaching Narnia

  

I’m now a member of a church that has a strong education program. On Wednesday evenings, for an hour and a half each week, I’ve had the joy of teaching C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity (along with my book, America Discovers C. S. Lewis). I’ve now been asked—and have readily agreed—to teach The Chronicles of Narnia. I won’t try to cram them all into one semester; instead, I’ll divide them into a two-semester format, covering the… Read more »

My Political Wilderness (Part 2)

  

In my last post, I made it clear that I don’t have a home in the Democrat party. The extremism that dominates that party makes it an unwelcome place for those, like me, who believe abortion is wrong, that same-sex marriage is unacceptable, and that big-government socialism is not the proper path to follow for policy. All of those positions are anathema to me because of my basic Christian presuppositions. So my obvious political home should be the Republican party,… Read more »