Roger Scruton: There is a kind of conservatism that sees all political questions as reducible to economics, with the free market as the ruling principle and the expansion of consumer choice as the only coherent political program. This way of looking at things can be...
Culture
“It Made My Body Feel Confused”
This GQ article on Carl Lentz and Hillsong NYC is enlightening. If the very definition of discernment is discriminating the good from the bad, let me start with the good: I watched the video and listened to Carl talk, and I liked a great deal of what I heard: biblical...
New York Times on Dressing for Success
Only science has the authority to tell us to dress differently than we want: For anyone who sees people as part of the job or wants to influence the behavior of others, the way we dress does matter. So let’s not kid ourselves. First, people judge us, at least in part,...
From Alan Jacobs’ Sent Folder: Christian Education in the Legal Future
From Alan Jacobs: A great many other Christian colleges may well, in the coming decade or two, have to close their doors because they lack the financial resources and reputational stature to respond effectively to legal challenges, denial of federal student-loan...
Robert Gagnon vs. J. Daniel Kirk on Homosexuality
Note: You can download a 279MB audio version here. Valley Presbyterian Church of Phoenix, Arizona, a congregation of the Presybterian Church (USA) is having a formal, church-wide discussion regarding whether or not active homosexual persons will be permitted to serve...
The Myth of Neutrality. Yet Again.
This from Alan Jacobs is real good. The myth of neutrality is one of the most useful insights I've ever been given, and the ability to spot belief in that myth is essential if you're going to be a reader. People's worldviews will out. If you don't believe me,...
An Important Article for Pro-Life People to Read
This article by Ross Douthat is important for all pro-life people to read. He does two major things. 1) He shows why pro-life rhetoric should not be blamed for vigilantes (especially mad ones) like Robert Dear: Pretty much all passionate, justice-seeking movements...
“There’s no God in Transformers!”
My wife and I do allow our children to watch some TV, but we often feel vaguely guilty about it, even though we’re super careful in what and how much they watch. Here’s one reason why we feel that guilt: my five-year-old son was watching his then favorite cartoon, a...
Biblical Worldview: Creation, Fall, Redemption Promo Video
Biblical Worldview: Creation, Fall, Redemption now has a promo page on bjupress.com. If you haven't yet purchased a copy, you will want to do so now that there is a promo page. Bryan Smith, the presenter on the video there, is the one whose vision I was trying to live...
Absolute Must Read
I have been swept away. This article by Allen Guelzo (whose dissertation benefited my own, and whose work on Lincoln and the Civil War is waiting for me on my Kindle) is a must-read for every Christian academic. If there's anything in the world wrong with it, I can't...
Sacred Social Science
I thought the following quotations from Ken Myers' interview with Christian Smith were so valuable that I took them down word-for-word. Smith is the author, most recently, of The Sacred Project of American Sociology. This is from the book (taken down from Myers'...
Insightful Quotation from Francis Spufford
This quotation has really caught my fancy recently as a good summary of the way conservative Christians are viewed by the surrounding culture in Western nations: Believers aren’t weird because we’re wicked. We’re weird because we’re inexplicable; because, when there’s...