A top-rated relative asked me what I thought of Peter Wehner's piece in the New York Times, "Why I Can No Longer Call Myself An Evangelical Republican." This was my reply: *** I kept saying "Amen" the whole time. I feel the pain of anyone who is sick, sick, sick of...
Culture
Dating in the Fifties, Sex in the Sixties
Probing thoughts from Kenneth Woodward, long-time religion correspondent for Newsweek (as in 1964–2002!), in his fascinating memoir, Getting Religion: Most adolescents in the Fifties were raised to observe certain sexual limits—just as lovers did in the movies from...
Review: Michael Sandel’s What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael J. Sandel My rating: 5 of 5 stars I find it incredibly refreshing to find any writer who sees through the tempting veneer secularism has laid not just on our politics but on our lives. It's a tempting...
David Brooks, Harvey Weinstein, and Original Sin
I always like David Brooks, even when I have to disagree—or quibble. Not that he should care what an obscure redheaded conservative Christian blogger thinks… Except that I think he pays attention to religion in a way no other opinion columnist at the New York Times...
Review: The Vanishing American Adult by Ben Sasse
The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance by Ben Sasse My rating: 4 of 5 stars A good-hearted, tough-minded, generous, hopeful, Mr.-Smith-goes-to-Washington who nonetheless knows his Augustine (and, more...
How to Think about your Political Opponents
Alan Jacobs is interviewed by his now-unbelieving former Wheaton student, Emma Green, who nonetheless provides insightful journalistic coverage of evangelicals. They discuss his new book How to Think. And Jacobs says this: Conspiracy theories tend to arise when you...
Tentative Thoughts on VidAngel
I am so far from telling other Christians what they should do with VidAngel. So far. I don't want to be a member of the Fraternal Order of Discernment Police. I'm just wary of my own flesh. I hate the feeling of spoiled pleasures; I love the feeling of pure ones. I'm...
A Bracing Conversion Story
A lesbian at Yale starts exploring Christianity (a must read): At the time, I knew two girls who were seriously dating each other. One was training to be a Lutheran minister. I wanted to know how they could reconcile their lives with Jesus and his teachings. They...
Former Fundie on Genesis 1
"Former Fundie" Ben Corey notes that extraterrestrial life may be discovered on what Trekkies would call a likely "Class M" planet—a planet that has the conditions for supporting life. Does this shoot the literal reading of Genesis 1? Corey summarizes two responses to...
Social Justice’s Warrior Children
David Brooks: The mob that hounded [Google engineer James] Damore was like the mobs we’ve seen on a lot of college campuses. We all have our theories about why these moral crazes are suddenly so common. I’d say that radical uncertainty about morality, meaning and life...
Liberals Are Eating Their Own
Liberals are eating their own. The Google Engineer who wrote a piece appealing to science to explain gender differences, and who has received massive blowback (including a denunciation from the new Vice President of Diversity, Integrity & Governance), doesn't...
Review: John McWhorter’s Words on the Move
I've gone through two of John McWhorter's Great Courses on language; I've read several of his books, and I'm a faithful listener to his podcast. When I picked up this book I suddenly realized, "I know just what he's going to say. I get John McWhorter." I put the book...