John and Maria comment on how reactions to the images from the James Webb Telescope tell us about God and humans. Moving to the fallout after the Dobbs decision, they discuss Gov. Whitmer's stance in Michigan to restrict extradition due to abortion. They also respond to the accusation of transphobia aimed at Senator Hawley when asking for clarification for women's rights. Finishing, they touch on two popular stories from this week's Breakpoint.
Jul 16, 2022•1 hr 6 min
The Declaration of Independence's statement that "all men are created equal," which Chuck Colson called "the American creed," often elicits a response: since slaves were anything but equal, was this creed a lie? Many signers of the Declaration were abolitionists who compromised on this issue so that the hope of independence would not end before it started. And without excusing the injustice of slavery, it's notable that Thomas Jefferson originally included a condemnation of slavery in the Declar...
Jul 15, 2022•1 min
The moment Roe v. Wade was overturned last month, desperate activists began to dust off the oldest and oddest arguments for abortion. These "gotcha" scenarios are supposed to prove that pro-lifers don't r eally value human life or consider preborn babies from the earliest stages of development to be human. Instead, these pretend scenarios demonstrate that pro-lifers are simply hypocrites. On closer inspection, however, these scenarios fail to convince. For example, there's the so-called "burning...
Jul 15, 2022•5 min
A line typically attributed to George Orwell states that "in times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." Well, we live in times in which "deceit" has been joined by "confusion." So, even claiming to know truth can mean being called a "liar," even when it comes to the observable realities of shared history or biology. In other words, telling the truth today requires nothing short of revolutionary courage. That's why I hope you can join me, Lee Strobel, and Brett Kun...
Jul 14, 2022•1 min
In response to the recent Dobbs decision and the Supreme Court's clear, consistent support for religious liberty throughout this term, many progressives are warning of an imminent "Christian theocracy." Among the loudest voices predicting our collective doom are mainstream media outlets. For example, a recent story in Reuters claimed, " U.S. Supreme Court Takes Aim at Separation of Church and State ." What's missing in virtually all of these pieces is a proper understanding of the "establishment...
Jul 14, 2022•6 min
Since SCOTUS overturned Roe , sales of the morning-after pill have exploded. Amazon had to restrict purchase numbers as did the pharmacies CVS and Rite Aid. One company saw a 600% increase in purchases within 24 hours of the Dobbs decision, with 72% of those for multiple units. Morning-after pills, colloquially called by the brand name Plan B, don't need a prescription. They range from $10 to $50 a pop. Women take it within three days of unprotected sex to deter ovulation and, if not that, to pr...
Jul 13, 2022•1 min
In most of the world today, slavery is unthinkable. Is it possible that we could ever reach that same place with abortion in America? Just as there were once states where it was legal to own slaves and other states where it wasn't, we are now a nation deeply divided on the issue of abortion on a state-by-state level. In certain states, abortion is allowed, encouraged, and even subsidized abortion. In others, abortion is all but illegal. The history of the Church's stance on both issues, abolitio...
Jul 13, 2022•5 min
Yesterday in 1924, Eric Liddell (1902-1945) won an Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter race. As a devout Christian, Liddell decided to never race on Sundays. Imagine his dismay when he realized that his best race—100 meters—was scheduled for a Sunday. Liddell withdrew, to the derision of many Britons, who thought he was being disloyal to his nation. He quickly pivoted for the 200-meter and 400-meter races, taking third in the 200-meter and claiming the gold in the 400-meter. Liddell was the son ...
Jul 12, 2022•1 min
One of the most enigmatic, sensational, and misguided thinkers of the last 10 years is Israeli historian and pop philosopher Yuval Noah Harari. His book Sapiens , published in English in 2015, sold over a million copies as it told the story of mankind's evolution. His 2017 book Homo Deus predicts a transhumanist future, a world where technology fundamentally reshapes what kind of entity human beings are. "We humans should get used to the idea that we are no longer mysterious souls. We are now ha...
Jul 12, 2022•5 min
I'm going to say it—a book is better than a phone. Stop me if you've heard this: A guy is walking his dog right beside a very busy road and he almost dies because he's staring straight into, wait for it . . . a book! You were expecting it to be his phone, right? If you're going to risk your life, at least do it for the printed word. We might tell ourselves there's no difference between reading on paper and reading on a screen. But as Dr. Martin Tobin writes, "Our eyes lie to us." "Cognitive scie...
Jul 11, 2022•1 min
A recent photo essay in The Atlantic documented dozens of pro-abortion demonstrations around the country following the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling. Protesters, often dressed like handmaids from Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, seem to believe the Court has taken something away from them. Even the article's description blames the justices for "removing a federal right to an abortion." In reality, the majority's decision in the Dobbs case did not change a single abortion law. What they did was ...
Jul 11, 2022•5 min
Maria and John hold a lively conversation about human dignity in the Declaration of Independence, the correlation of marijuana use to teen mental health, and the surge in purchases of the Plan B morning-after pill.
Jul 09, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Recently, Ezra Klein wrote a column attempting to answer a question he says he is asked all the time: Should today's adults have kids, given the climate crisis? Klein received a good bit of pushback for the odd premise of the question, which seems to reveal more about the company he keeps than actual sentiment. After all, according to Pew Research, only a tiny fraction of childless adults cite climate worries as their motivation. But the most poignant part of Klein's piece is what it assumes. Th...
Jul 08, 2022•1 min
According to the writer of Proverbs, " death and life are in the power of the tongue ." So is cultural change, which most often comes with efforts to change language use and the definitions of words. For example, Harvard Medical molecular biologist David Sinclair is combining innovation in the lab with innovation in language. In a recent CNN article , one of Sinclair's financial backers described the goal of his research as changing the definition of the word "aging." He wants to "make aging a d...
Jul 08, 2022•5 min
Last month, a New York court ruled that Happy the elephant should not legally be considered a person. An organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project had sued the Bronx Zoo for "imprisoning" Happy, arguing it should be set free since it showed signs of "self-awareness ." "While no one disputes the impressive capabilities of elephants. ..." Janet DiFiore, the chief judge, wrote, "[h]abeas corpus is a procedural vehicle intended to secure the liberty rights of human beings who are unlawfully re...
Jul 07, 2022•1 min
Last year, a coalition of organizations, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Policy Alliance, Colson Center, and the Heritage Foundation, teamed up to issue a Promise to America's Children, a commitment to protect their minds, their bodies, and their most important relationships amid this hypersexualized culture. Today, we join again, this time to issue a Promise to America's Parents . Why? As the website puts it, Local, state, and federal government policies are imposing ideologies...
Jul 07, 2022•5 min
According to a recent poll conducted by Gallup , the portion of Americans who believe in God has dropped to barely over 80%. That's still a majority, but the one-in-five who don't believe is the highest number ever recorded in this country. Anyone seeking to understand this data should remember something theologian Carl F.H. Henry said, 70 years ago, when told that 99% of Americans believed in God: "The vast majority of Americans today may believe in a ghost god, in a phantom god, in a god who m...
Jul 06, 2022•59 sec
What looks like good news for a nation in the midst of a demographic crisis isn't really . Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that "U.S. births increased last year for the first time in seven years." In 2020, the U.S. fertility rate dipped to 1.64—the lowest "since the government began tracking it in the 1930s." In 2021, the rate increased for the first time since 2014, to 1.66. Though that sounds like good news, that's a lower spike than we'd historically expect during something that ke...
Jul 05, 2022•1 min
The first step in making abortion unthinkable has been taken. Now that the Supreme Court has reversed Roe v. Wade with its ruling in the Dobbs case, it's time to roll up our sleeves and work towards building a culture of life. This is not the time to back off, or as some Christians have suggested, to tone it down. Back in May, at the " Preparing for a Post-Roe World " event at the Wilberforce Weekend , Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins issued a powerful and stirring challenge. Here's K...
Jul 05, 2022•7 min
As part of The Gospel Coalition's " Good Faith Debates, " Scott Klusendorf and fellow pro-life advocate Karen Swallow Prior discuss what it means to stand for life today . Is it enough to oppose abortion? Or must the pro-life movement take on a wider range of causes? The exchange brings clarity to a hot button issue. Both agree that Christians should be consistent, and that our love for neighbor and commitment to life should be reflected in how we think about and address other issues, from genoc...
Jul 04, 2022•1 min
Eleven years ago today, Chuck Colson delivered a Breakpoint commentary on what would be his last July 4 holiday. In it, Chuck reflected on the basis of our national identity. Specifically, he recognized that the only true way to ground the ideals found in the Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created equal" and possess "certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," is if we are indeed "endowed by their Creator." The stunning clarity of the Decla...
Jul 04, 2022•4 min
After discussing the horrific death of migrants in San Antonio, John and Maria talk about the reactions of some Christians to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. They analyze the hedging that is occurring and insist there's no shame in being grateful. Afterward, they parse misunderstandings of the establishment clause for Supreme Court cases on religious liberty. — Recommendations — What is a Woman>> Tearing Us Apart>> — In Show References — Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against...
Jul 02, 2022•1 hr 2 min
According to The Economist , potential employees are beginning to discover the cost of their online behavior. "The rise of the online self means the employer's eye can travel … past your desk, past your office and into your home, family and even (through ill-judged social-media posts) your most intimate thoughts. Today, companies wield the sort of spy power less commonly associated with directors than with dictators, even deities." Of course, this shouldn't come as a surprise since our "most int...
Jul 01, 2022•1 min
Today marks the death of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), a Christian whose storytelling ability inspired thousands to see the evils of slavery. Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, Harriet was the sixth child of prominent Presbyterian minister Lyman Beecher. Unlike many girls from that time period, she received a first-class education, attending the Hartford Female Seminary which was run by her older sister Catharine. In 1832, Harriet's father became president of Lane Theological Seminary in Cinc...
Jul 01, 2022•5 min
"For many years, the internet in China was seen as a channel for new thinking, or at least greater openness," writes Human Rights Watch researcher Yaqiu Wang . "Online discussions were relatively free and open, and users, especially younger ones, had an eager appetite for learning and debating big ideas about political systems and how China should be governed." That changed when Xi Jinping took power. Explaining what's known as China's "Great Firewall," Wang notes, "the government got savvier, a...
Jun 30, 2022•3 min
In all the talk about racial injustices, the racial disparities for abortion are ignored. And that's because we would need to talk about marriage. I'm John Stonestreet, and this is Breakpoint. Recently in The Wall Street Journal , Jason Riley asked a provocative question, "Why Won't the Left Talk About Racial Disparities in Abortion?" In it, he describes how the "black abortion rate is nearly four times higher than the white rate," how more black babies in New York City are aborted than born, an...
Jun 30, 2022•6 min
Last month, NBA legend LeBron James tweeted, "It's a weird feeling to feel so alone sometimes!" He received over 4,000 replies from people expressing sympathy, disbelief, and from some, criticism. It can be difficult to understand how rich, famous celebrities, like LeBron, could be lonely. Doesn't he have it all? Four NBA championships, two Olympic gold medals, a $23 million LA mansion, marriage to his high school sweetheart, three kids, deep investment in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, ... and st...
Jun 29, 2022•3 min
This term of the U.S. Supreme Court has been consequential, to say the least. In addition to the landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health , the court has now issued a second ruling that protects religious freedom. The first, issued about a week ago, protects religious institutions from being singled out and discriminated against by state-run entities and programs. The 6-3 decision was consistent with previous rulings in Trinity Lutheran v. Comer and Espinoza v...
Jun 29, 2022•7 min
Disney's newest Pixar film, Lightyear, isn't doing great at the box office . While critics puzzle over why, an obvious reason is parents are tiring of the constant indoctrination in sexual matters. They feel betrayed by the once trusted Toy Story franchise. All that may come as a surprise to Chris Evans, the new voice of Buzz, who recently said concerned parents are "idiots" who will soon "die off like the dinosaurs." Not only, as Hans Fiene noted, is it strange for 41-year-old man with no child...
Jun 28, 2022•3 min
There are certain moments in history, such as the end of the Roman Empire or the dawn of the Enlightenment, when it becomes obvious just how much the cultural ground has shifted. In such moments, cultural norms that once fostered social cohesion and defined the good life can change dramatically. Shared ways of thinking, such as the definitions of words, can no longer be taken for granted. It's precisely at these historical hinge points that Christians must "re-catechize" themselves. This means r...
Jun 28, 2022•5 min
