Category: Culture
looking for better mind-readers
There is a strain of commentary that has been more or less constant for the past decade or so, and its thesis is basically thus: A certain group of Christians, by virtue of their cultural position, are embarrassed by the...
a few different and possibly useful categories of idea-expressers
Here is a list roughly in ascending order of how much attention I think these different sorts of people who express their ideas deserve. You, of course, have every right to engage with ideas and the people who express them...
could i interest you in everything all of the time? [because everything is the same]
By now you’ve probably watched “Welcome to the Internet”, Bo Burnham’s hilariously disturbing song about… well, the Internet. It’s funny, but I’ve stopped laughing at the jokes but still keep listening to it. If you haven’t already seen it and...
things that can be true at the same time
I’ve made these points at greater length in other essays, but I can’t seem to get people who disagree to push back in a meaningful way. So I’m trying a different strategy, for the skeptics who seem to think that...
an alternative ethic
In the current context, where everyone is talking about the world as a global village, it is important to undertake an exploration into the particularities of the indigenous world view of Africa. We wish to sample them because they have...
exposing the wounds in the Church
I really wish this New Yorker profile of Karen Swallow Prior had been about three times as long, but it’ll have to do for now: The next morning, we shared a breakfast of scrambled eggs with some venison that Roy had...
whither conservatism?
While there’s a lot more that could be said and a lot of things that could be said differently (as I hope to in a forthcoming essay for Mere-O), I appreciated this assessment from Timothy Shenk at Dissent of where things are...
“Is redemption even possible?”
It’s impossible not to be moved by this story about gang members in El Salvador finding redemption for their souls (and practical help for their very difficult post-gang life!) in local churches: As I speak to Gomez, the former gang...
education and all God’s children
I really appreciated D.L. Mayfield’s essay about educating our children and “gifted and talented” programs: What is the right relationship to educational choice for the Christian? It’s complicated, and I often think about what Paul was trying to communicate in...
the moral vision of George Bailey
I really appreciated what K.B. Hoyle had to say about It’s a Wonderful Life: Most of the film is devoted to showing us these things about George’s life. From the deafness he suffers in one ear—physical disability—to having to miss out...