John and Shane field a question about where Christians find grounding for freedom. Then they discuss a few questions related to a recent commentary on death and dying before helping a listener process the rise in books that are challenging Christian history and tradition that are impacting the church. To close, John answers a question from a listener who asks for advice in raising a strong-willed child.
Jan 26, 2022•1 hr 11 min
John and Shane field a question about where Christians find grounding for freedom. Then they discuss a few questions related to a recent commentary on death and dying before helping a listener process the rise in books that are challenging Christian history and tradition that are impacting the church. To close, John answers a question from a listener who asks for advice in raising a strong-willed child.
Jan 26, 2022•1 hr 11 min
John and Shane field a question about where Christians find grounding for freedom. Then they discuss a few questions related to a recent commentary on death and dying before helping a listener process the rise in books that are challenging Christian history and tradition that are impacting the church. To close, John answers a question from a listener who asks for advice in raising a strong-willed child.
Jan 26, 2022•1 hr 11 min
An eight-year court battle over a bakery cake in the United Kingdom is finally over . Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights declined to hear the case brought by Gareth Lee, a gay activist who sued a Christian-owned bakery in 2014 after the shop declined to decorate a cake with the words "Support Gay Marriage." This leaves in place Britain's Supreme Court's 2018 ruling, which said the bakery didn't discriminate against the customer by refusing to print a message . This is good ne...
Jan 26, 2022•1 min
"Love and marriage, love and marriage," crooned Frank Sinatra , "go together like a horse and carriage." Today, however, an ever-growing majority of Americans seem to think marriage is just as outdated as a social institution as a horse and carriage are as a transportation technology. And this includes those who have historically championed marriage as essential to a healthy and flourishing society. Overall, belief in the importance of marriage is at an all-time low. According to Gallup's annual...
Jan 26, 2022•5 min
"The U.S. is facing an aging population, a shortage of caregivers, a dearth of affordable housing, and an increase in social isolation that threatens wellbeing," wrote Clare Ansberry in The Wall Street Journal earlier this year . It's true. Covid-19 only deepened an existing crisis for seniors , who were the most susceptible to both the virus and prolonged social isolation. A solution is desperately needed, but in the words of Ansberry , "some think what we really need is Magic." She's referring...
Jan 25, 2022•1 min
"Human beings look separate because you see them walking about separately," wrote CS Lewis in Mere Christianity. But, "if you could see humanity spread out in time, as God sees it, it would look like one single growing thing-rather like a very complicated tree. Every individual would appear connected with every other." This punchy analysis is apt for, among other things, assessing the spiritual health of American Christianity. How people within a cultural setting think about and practice spiritu...
Jan 25, 2022•5 min
If you've spent any time at all on the Internet talking about controversial political subjects, chances are someone has told you to "do your own research." In theory, reading up on a topic before giving an opinion is a good idea. But as James Ballantine and David Dunning write at the New York Times , it's not always so easy to get good information online. A little bit of reading, especially reading purposely selected to reinforce our biases, can convince us we know a lot more about a subject tha...
Jan 24, 2022•1 min
One quote in Steve Garber's excellent book on education, The Fabric of Faithfulness , has always stood out to me. It comes from a Duke University graduate and offers an important observation, an indictment really, about higher education. "We've got no idea of what it is that we want by the time somebody graduates. This so-called curriculum is a set of hoops that someone says students ought to jump through before graduation. No one seems to have asked, 'how do people become good people?'" In othe...
Jan 24, 2022•4 min
John unpacks a number of recent commentaries from BreakPoint, specifically highlighting the march for life and a hero we profiled, Dr. Mildred Jefferson. John also discusses a new report from the New York Times which suggests that many prenatal tests give false positives more often than they produce an accurate diagnosis. John then discusses death and dying and how we as a society struggle to think carefully about such matters. He highlights two recent commentaries the outline how the Christian ...
Jan 21, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 30Ep. 21
Many churches have shut their doors in the face of Covid, but one large church in Denver hasn't just shut their doors; they've sold them. According to Christianity Today , "The Potter's House Denver will sell its property in Arapahoe County and continue to worship exclusively online." We often hear that because the Church isn't a building, it doesn't matter whether it meets in one. But trading in-person worship for an online experience misses what the Church actually is. It isn't just a place fo...
Jan 21, 2022•1 min•Season 30Ep. 19
Today, as tens of thousands March for Life in Washington D.C., we remember one of the movement's most important pioneers. Dr. Mildred Jefferson emerged from the segregated South during an era of intense racism. She was the first black female doctor from Harvard University, the first woman to intern at Boston City Hospital, the first female surgeon at the Boston University Medical Center, the first woman admitted to the Boston Surgical Society and a renowned professor of surgery at Boston Univers...
Jan 21, 2022•5 min
We're used to hearing that free speech is being squashed in places like Iran or China. But Finland? According to Christianity Today , several Lutherans in that country are now on trial for "criminal incitement against a minority group—hate speech." All for affirming the same beliefs about human sexuality Christians have held for thousands of years. On the one hand, this is surprising. Finland is a Western country that prizes human rights and diversity of thought. On the other hand, this kind of ...
Jan 20, 2022•1 min•Season 30Ep. 19
Grappling with death is as old as the Fall, but a new generation of smartphone apps provides a modern twist. By combining predictive factors such as age, smoking habits, and body mass index, these apps predict when a user will give up the ghost. To be fair, some of the "death" apps do more reminding than predicting. WeCroak , for example, is inspired by a Bhutanese saying that "to be a happy person, one must contemplate death five times daily." Users receive "five daily invitations" with quotes ...
Jan 20, 2022•5 min•Season 30Ep. 18
John and Shane answer a listener's question about training men to embrace manhood. They also field a question from a listener who has seen a conversation open up with a daughter who has closed the listener off. The question is, how should the listener should proceed? John then revisits a commentary on sperm donation and provides greater context to a challenging topic before answering a listener's inquiry in whether Adam and Eve were primates. ** Resources ** How to have a Conversation: Difficult...
Jan 19, 2022•58 min
Recently Cambridge University established Europe's first center devoted to studying and promoting animal rights law. The academics in charge say they'll focus on questions such as whether animals should be farmed for food, used for testing, caught and killed, or kept in zoos. According to the Los Angeles Times , it's part of a growing push to designate some animals as "non-human persons," with legal rights to life, liberty, and even property. This would be bad for both humans and animals. The ve...
Jan 19, 2022•1 min•Season 30Ep. 16
Imagine a pregnant mother, recently informed that her baby may have a rare genetic condition . She now faces a future caring for someone with an intellectual or physical disability, perhaps financial stress, and even a shortened life. Certain dreams and hopes she has harbored for her preborn child have been dramatically altered. To make matters worse, many women in this challenging situation face intense pressure from medical professionals and family members to have an abortio n. Some have even ...
Jan 19, 2022•5 min•Season 30Ep. 13
Recently, Medium 's Tom Whitwell reported, "a study of 14,000 Australians over 14 years found that neither being promoted nor being fired has any impact on either emotional well-being or life satisfaction." The fascinating study compares the emotional impact of a variety of life events, from retiring to going to jail, being robbed, getting married, or having a baby. Some of the results are what you'd expect. For example, major health issues hurt both emotional wellbeing and life satisfaction; an...
Jan 18, 2022•1 min
We live at a rather unusual time in history when it comes to death. Not because there was ever an age when death was escapable, but because, until fairly recently, death was a much more present reality in people's lives. Infant mortality was high; women died in childbirth at much higher rates; different kinds of accidents claimed the lives of men, women, and children, not to mention infections, parasites, diseases. A major difference is that, in the past, people tended to die in their own beds. ...
Jan 18, 2022•5 min•Season 30Ep. 12
Last week John Stonestreet joined the Colson Fellows in Training in a special teaching webinar. These live presentations with a Q&A to follow are a staple for the Colson Fellows program. Last week, Dr. Bill Brown asked John for an explanation on the speed and direction of culture change and how it is impacting mediating institutions and why it matters. For more on the Colson Fellows program visit www.colsonfellows.org
Jan 17, 2022•21 min
According to Fiona McDonald with Science Alert , " There's Evidence Humans Didn't Actually See Blue Until Modern Times " Apparently, people tend to group or separate colors in different ways depending on their language. In a lot of languages, blue wasn't considered a separate color. it was thought of as a kind of green. So many ancient writers compared the sky to copper and the sea to wine. Even today, Namibia's Himba tribe has several words for green, they lack any specific word for "blue," and...
Jan 17, 2022•1 min
Though President Ronald Reagan signed into law a national holiday to honor Civil Rights Movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1983, it was not fully observed by all 50 states until the year 2000. This, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is an example of a law being upstream from culture rather than the other way around. Today, the day is recognized across the country and even by cities and nations worldwide. In more recent years, King's legacy as a leader, minister, and powerful orator h...
Jan 17, 2022•5 min
John and Maria discuss a new report on the division in the American church. John outlines how it is helpful to have these kinds of reports, but Maria points out that statistics shouldn't be a determining factor on living out one's faith. Maria then asks John a few questions that embody some of the feedback we've received from our January commentaries. John explains the approach BreakPoint has inside these tense politically-charged moments and thanks and welcomes feedback from listeners as we nav...
Jan 14, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Activists in the mid-2000s coined the term "Latinx" as a gender-inclusive, non-binary way to describe anyone with Hispanic heritage. But According to one study , only 2% of Hispanic voters actually use the term, and almost 40% say it offends them. That might only be surprising to the academics, Hollywood stars, and policymakers who, for some reason, keep using it. Like other Romance languages , gendered language is woven into the fabric of Spanish. That's why the Royal Spanish Academy so fiercel...
Jan 14, 2022•1 min
An old Chinese proverb says that if you want to know what water is, don't ask the fish. Why shouldn't we ask the fish about water? I asked that question to a group of high schoolers years ago, and they replied, "because fish can't talk?" No, you don't ask fish about water because fish don't even know they're wet. Fish don't know anything other than the water. Culture is to humans what water is to fish. It is the air we breathe, the environment we think is normal. Because of this, we often forget...
Jan 14, 2022•5 min
By contrast, Dixit explains, an important half of our brain lights up and makes new connections when we're actually at rest, which helps foster innovation and creativity. Because so many distractions preoccupy the modern world, we have to be intentional to have what previous generations did . Perhaps it's because God knew this quirk of human psychology that He gave the world the Sabbath and a command to rest. He knows what we need because He made us....
Jan 13, 2022•1 min
Several years ago, Cheryl Strayed hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Southern California into Washington State by herself. In her memoir , Strayed described the trek as a search for self-fulfillment after several family tragedies, including her own divorce. In 2014, Strayed's story was made into a movie. In 2010, Julia Roberts starred in Eat Pray Love , a movie adaptation of another memoir about a post-divorce self-fulfillment trip, this one across Europe. Last year, The New York Times published...
Jan 13, 2022•5 min
John and Shane respond to listener feedback that critiques John's commentary on the Woke Rebuilding of Notre Dame. John and Shane walk through why they believe the rebuild has problems, while also offering that it might not be as bad as it seems. Then Shane asks what resources are beneficial in pre-marital counseling, as a mom is asking how to come alongside her children in that area, and also in the area of race relations. Another listener wrote in to ask how she should talk with her daughter w...
Jan 12, 2022•57 min
Last week, The Wall Street Journal published the heartbreaking story of a 27-year-old man who died from a drug overdose back in 2020. Steven Gunner was conceived through the use of a sperm donor. He also struggled with schizophrenia. After his death, his mom and adoptive dad reached out to other children who were also fathered by Steven's donor, in order to let them know that their son's mental illness may have been genetically inherited. Their research confirmed that the sperm donor — known to ...
Jan 12, 2022•1 min
BreakPoint with John Stonestreet Tags Length 1 Of 1 Title God Loves His World: Leavening Grace in Herman Bavinck Author Shane Morris Rcvd Recorded Air Date So, does God love the world or not? Does He plan to overcome it or restore it? Christians have long struggled to understand the various ways the Bible, especially the New Testament, talks about "the world." In John 16:33 , for example, Jesus tells His disciples that "in this world (they) will have trouble," but to "be of good cheer" because H...
Jan 12, 2022•5 min
