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 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 »

Eyes That Do Not See

  

C. S. Lewis may be from an earlier generation, but he never goes out of style. I’m always impressed with how his writings remain relevant, regardless of the cultural changes that have occurred since his death. That’s because he wrote about the “big” themes that never go out of style either. Lewis survived into the early days of the space age, which, for someone who wrote a space trilogy, was probably quite interesting to him. Yet the spirit of that… Read more »

American Character: Noah Webster

  

The name “Webster” sounds familiar to most people. They think for a minute and then say, “Oh, yeah, he’s the dictionary guy, right?” Right. But he’s more than that. Noah Webster is a prime example of someone who exhibits the character trait of diligence. A native of Connecticut and descendant of Pilgrim governor William Bradford, Webster was raised in the Congregational church, graduated from Yale, and even was awarded a master’s degree—unusual for the time. In 1783, he got the nation’s… Read more »

Abortion: Calling Evil Good

  

The state of New York, long established as one of the most liberal in the nation, has now, in its progressive wisdom, decided that abortion is not only a right, but one that can be carried out up to the point of a baby’s delivery. One second, you have a living, vibrant child ready to come out of the womb to enter this world of woe; in the next second, you have a dead baby, killed by an abortionist (who… Read more »