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.

The Devolution of the Democrat Party

  

Democrats and Republicans have always disagreed about policy, but there was a time when the two parties weren’t as polarized as they are today. In my study of American history, the last Democrat president with whom I would have felt entirely comfortable was Grover Cleveland—and that goes a long way back. Yet Democrats weren’t always as radical as they seem to be now. The change in my lifetime has been rather dramatic, and I’m sure many others can attest to… Read more »

The Graham-Eisenhower Connection

  

Yesterday in my “Religion and the Presidents” course, I shared the unusual relationship that developed between Dwight Eisenhower and Billy Graham. I say “unusual” because Ike was decades older than the young evangelist and had far more experience in the world. After all, he led the European Theater of WWII, including the daring and dramatic decision to go forward on D-Day. Yet Ike was being drawn by God into a closer examination of his religious beliefs. No achievement in this… Read more »

On Influencing Public Opinion

  

In the Book of Common Prayer this morning, I came across a prayer called “For Those Who Influence Public Opinion.” Since that’s the very reason why I attempt to write this blog, I paid close attention to it and prayed the prayer for myself. I was taken by how the words spoke directly to what I seek to do. Here’s how it goes. Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we… Read more »

The Chambers Lesson: From the Negative to the Positive

  

I discovered Witness by Whittaker Chambers back in the 1980s as I was working diligently on my doctorate in history. From my first reading, the book took hold of my spirit. More than thirty years after that encounter, it has never released its hold. I’ve used it in classes since the late 1980s, and one of my greatest teaching joys is to offer a full-semester course called “The Witness of Whittaker Chambers.” I’m teaching the course once again this semester…. Read more »

Democrats & Infanticide

  

One of the few senators I still respect is Nebraska’s Ben Sasse. He has remained a voice of principle and conscience in a Republican party that has lost its way in the “New Tribalism” of our politics. Sasse took the lead in bringing a bill to the floor of the Senate that demands that any child born alive after an attempted abortion must be treated as a human being and given all the medical care necessary to sustain life. One… Read more »

The Pilgrimage Known as Life

  

“If only life would get back to normal!” Have you ever said that during times of exceptional distress? If you are human, you undoubtedly have expressed that, or something similar, at times. C. S. Lewis, in an essay called “Learning in War-Time,” found in the series of essays collected under the title of The Weight of Glory, helps us to reorient our thinking on this subject. He wrote that essay, obviously, during WWII. If ever anyone might long for a… Read more »

Creed or Chaos?

  

Evangelical Christians in America today say they are concerned about morality, yet how well do they understand the basis for morality? We have “progressive” Christians who decry poverty but don’t have strong convictions about the evil of abortion, and many are now advocating homosexual relationships because “all love is love,” or some other banal statement. I sometimes wonder what Christians in earlier eras would think of us now. How amazed would they be at this devolution/watering down of basic Biblical… Read more »