In 1973, Karl Menninger wrote Whatever Became of Sin? He was responding to a cultural move away from any concept of moral transgression. The sociologists and psychologists of the day redefined what Western Christianity had always considered as sinful fruit of dark and hardened hearts. Instead, they argued that those effects, whether individual or corporate, […]
The Cosmic Border Crisis
Cities. For some the word evokes thoughts of skyscrapers, taxi cabs, subway systems, and an integrated nexus of life, lifestyle, and labor. For others the word brings to mind a hurried pace they would better off avoid, a cultural environment where people are reduced to business machinery and secularism rules from an unimpeachable iron throne. […]
Naming the Void
In the recent article, “The Three Hebrew Words that Describe Our Time,”[1] opinion writer Martin E. Marty puts his finger on the underlying issue in our current climate of cultural chaos. What are those three Hebrew words? Tohu wa-bohu. This is the phrase that appears in Gen. 1:2, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was […]
The Speech Police Are at the Door
The Speech police are at American doors, especially in the case of same-sex marriage. As someone has said, liberal public opinion promoting same-sex marriage is “evolving in the direction of both theological certainty and illiberal intolerance.” Expressing their own ideological prejudice, liberals want opponents to have absolutely no place in their godless utopia.
BEYOND CAPES AND COWBELLS: How a Christian Approach to Law and Virtue Transcends Both Autonomy and Authoritarianism
Law often functions as the proverbial executioner’s sword to deter unlawful action. But can it also serve as a sculptor’s chisel to help form a more virtuous public? A positive answer to that question has a long and diverse pedigree in Western culture. For Aristotle, a “chief concern of political science is to endue the […]
From the Blog
“Fairness For All” But A Growing Unfairness For Many
by Dr. Peter Jones | February 9, 2019In 2018 well-meaning fellow Christians on the boards of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities(CCCU), adopted an initiative called Fairness for All. Among notable signers were Philip Graham Ryken, President of Wheaton College and Derek Halvorson, President of Covenant College. The initiative seekssome kind of common ground with LGBTQ people. These thoughtful Christian […]
Ungovernable
by Dr. Peter Jones | January 25, 2019Last November’s elections brought into Congress some of the most extreme office holders ever seen. Recently defeated Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill said: “I’d be lying if I did not say I was worried about this place. It just does not work as well as it used to.”[1] Paul Kane of The Washington Post describes how […]