Cultural Christianity Is Not Enough
Paying homage to Christianity will not save conservativism.
The problem is paying homage to Christianity while denying the truth of its teaching. That is what public intellectuals like Jordan Peterson or Douglas Murray do. Even when you find Peterson speaking positively about the Bible, it is as a Jungian who reduces the Bible to a grouping of myths that represent archetypes found in... Continue Reading
The Country Music Culture War
Country music was once about embracing a certain type of culture—one that, it bears pointing out, is rapidly dying in many of the very places where country music first originated.
Just as the family-friendly, tradition-oriented culture championed by old country (think Alan Jackson’s “Small Town Southern Man”) has undergone a sharp decline over the past couple of decades, so has country music. Traditional country has been largely replaced on the Top 40 charts by what has been dubbed “bro-country” or “stadium country,” which Wikipedia helpfully... Continue Reading
Characteristics of a True Church
Working through a landmark Machen article, part 11.
The freedom of the church is the freedom to demand that its members and ministers adhere to its own biblical standards. The church is not the state (nor is it backed by the state’s power) and has no power of enforcement or compulsion except to declare truth and declare who is a member. 1 “It would,... Continue Reading
After the Dark Night of A Lost Ministry, Bring Light to Others
My life and ministry, which had been for the most part vibrant, blew up in a matter of three weeks.
During this time, as far as my presbytery was concerned, I was not seen as a brother in crisis; I was just a problem. I suspect in many other presbyteries ministers are going through rough times. These brothers are experiencing a crisis in their lives. Please do not look at them as a problem, but... Continue Reading
American Flags
Churches are embassies of the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel. They are not the property of any one country.
The only symbols that should be present are those that belong to Christ—word, sacrament, and prayer. I used to hide the American flag, therefore, so that my congregation knew that as a congregation we belong to Christ and no one else. I’m sure that the idea of removing the American flag from the sanctuary might fray... Continue Reading
You’re Romantic Whether You Know It or Not
How and When We Became Romantic
One of the finest expressions of Romanticism today is Donna Tartt’s prize-winning novel The Goldfinch. Published in 2013 to critical acclaim and commercial success, it is a classic Bildungsroman in which a teenage boy, grief-stricken by the death of his mother, follows his emotions into a series of increasingly unwise decisions, complex relationships, and the criminal underworld.... Continue Reading
The Exultant Nature of Today’s Abortion Advocacy
The glee with which abortion is advocated and the anger that any restrictions upon it provoke indicate that we need a different category to capture our current cultural ethos.
When abortion advocates dehumanize the baby in the womb, they dehumanize themselves too. Ours is an age when so much of our culture encourages us to treat others made in God’s image as less than human. This is true, from the comparatively trivial trashing of others that is the favored idiom of those who seem... Continue Reading
Why Progressivism Destroys Everything
The ideologies of the left keep marching on.
The problem with progressivism is not simply an ephemeral set of policies. The problem is that progressivism is a worldview with a set of metaphysical assumptions. And while I would never go so far as to equate Christianity with conservatism proper, there is no metaphysical comparison between progressivism and conservatism. They possess an organizing logic... Continue Reading
On Images (or Against Images)
The Reformed and Presbyterian doctrinal standards speak in unison to tell us that any image, of any of the persons of the Godhead, is sinful.
There seems to be an expectation that one can create an image of Christ and not worship such an image. On the one hand, if the image is a true representation of Christ, then worship ought to be expected – how can we see an image of God in the flesh and not worship? On the other hand,... Continue Reading
There’s Never Been a Better Time to Be a Man in America
The average man might be struggling, but for the man who has it together, the opportunities are incredible.
For many of us, we can spend so much time focusing on the problems of men in society, or complaining about the latest attack on toxic masculinity in the media, that we forget how good our own opportunities are. Just because there’s so much bad in the world doesn’t mean you can’t personally succeed. And... Continue Reading
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- …
- 1271
- Next Page »