John and Shane field a question from a woman who is questioning her motivation to adopt as a single woman. She asks the two if her desire to adopt is to fill a "child-shaped hole" in her heart, or if she is really concerned with the betterment of their life. Additionally, she cites statistics related to children growing up without a father. She asks if it is best for her to pursue an adoption. John and Shane also field a question from a mother regarding best practices in addressing cancel cultur...
Mar 03, 2021•44 min
On a cultural level, COVID-19 did not create as many problems and challenges as it revealed and escalated . Like the medical co-morbidities that made the virus more dangerous and more deadly for individuals, cultural pre-existing conditions only worsened during the pandemic. Social distancing and lockdowns, for example, made our pre-existing cultural problem of loneliness that much worse for many. In the same way, the general, widespread disregard for the those with intellectual disabilities in ...
Mar 03, 2021•6 min
For the last few months at the Colson Center, we've been doing a Q&A feature on our podcast. Each Wednesday, Shane Morris and I field questions from our readers and listeners about all sorts of topics. But once in a while we get a question that deserves a full BreakPoint in response. Recently, a woman wrote in asking how she can know that she's really worshipping God. "For years," she explains, "attending church meant singing in the choir, playing bells, women's Bible study, organizing funer...
Mar 02, 2021•6 min
Ryan T. Anderson and Emilie Kao joined John to reveal the victims of the Equality Act. Ryan T. Anderson is an American political philosopher who is best known for his opposition to same-sex marriage. He is currently president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Emilie Kao is an attorney who has defended religious freedom for the last 14 years. She has worked on behalf of victims of religious freedom violations in East Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South Asia at the State Department's Off...
Mar 01, 2021•51 min
Thirty years ago, the idea of socially and medically experimenting on children to advance a controversial and unproven ideology was unthinkable. Today, it's considered by some to be unquestionable. There is a full-court press to fully and finally embed transgender ideology in public life, especially with school-aged children, starting with the Equality Act. In his promises and nominations , President Biden has made his priorities on this clear. In his first day in office, he signed an executive ...
Mar 01, 2021•5 min
The Equality Act promises to impact nearly every aspect of life for men, women, and children. John Stonestreet, Shane Morris, and Maria Baer explore the impact the Equality Act will have on society. The trio also explores cancel culture and how it is causing big tech responses to ideas that aren't celebrated in progressive advances. Ryan T. Anderson's book When Harry Became Sally, presents strong evidence through research and stories to show the challenge in responding outside of physical realit...
Feb 26, 2021•59 min
Last summer, outside a California courtroom, a group of protestors gathered, marched, chanted, took lots of selfies, and held signs that read, "Free Britney." Footage from that day now comprises the opening scene of a newly released New York Times documentary about Britney Spears, the pop music star who rose to fame as barely a teenager in the early 2000s. Spears is now in the middle of a legal battle over control of her financial estate. Her genuinely tragic story begins with her parents' insis...
Feb 26, 2021•5 min
The Biden administration recently announced it will accelerate the process of replacing President Andrew Jackson image on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman, at least on the front. Jackson would still appear on the reverse side. This plan was first announced under the Obama Administration but was halted by President Trump's Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. As the excellent 2019 film portrayed, Harriet Tubman was a towering figure of courage and faith who risked her own life and freedom, time and...
Feb 25, 2021•4 min
John and Shane walk through a challenging question related to perceived impressions that the church is slipping into moral deism. A Colson Fellow asked about John's Bene-Kuyper option, blending the Benedict Option and Kuyper's view of culture engagement. Another Colson Fellow asked John and Shane to explain how to engage a pastor and encourage a church that doesn't see the need to participate in conversations in the culture. The Fellow mentioned there is a growing fear the church could "lose our...
Feb 24, 2021•43 min
Late last week, Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives introduced the Equality Act, a grave threat to religious liberty and conscience rights that would, in effect, erase all legal distinctions between male and female in public life. The Equality Act would make gender identity and sexual orientation protected classes under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forcing compliance in areas such as public accommodation and education. Until the GOP lost majority in the Senate, there wasn't muc...
Feb 24, 2021•5 min
Several months ago, Amazon began blocking the sale of books they deemed "dangerous" to LGBTQ people. Some of these books, to be frank, were hateful and demeaning. Others were deemed hateful for simply questioning the dominant narratives about homosexuality, gay marriage, or gender dysphoria. The most recent book banned by Amazon is among the most scholarly and thoroughly researched on the issue of transgenderis m. When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment was written by Ryan ...
Feb 23, 2021•5 min
Recently, a New York Times article quoted a French government official: "There's a battle to wage against an intellectual matrix from American universities.'' As the article went on to explain, "prominent [French] intellectuals have banded together against what they regard as contamination by the out-of-control woke leftism of American campuses and its attendant cancel culture." It's tempting here to channel the faux outrage of the French policeman in the movie "Casablanca." I'm shocked, shocked...
Feb 22, 2021•5 min
For more than a decade, LGBTQ advocates have sought to force Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips to decorate cakes with messages that violate his Christian faith. This despite his victory at the Supreme Court, this despite the Colorado Civil Rights Commission being forced to end the persecution. Jack is back in court again, this time defending himself from a lawsuit initiated by transgender attorney, who, as John Stonestreet explains passionately, is waging a vendetta against Jack Phillips....
Feb 19, 2021•1 hr 2 min
For more than a decade, LGBTQ advocates have sought to force Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips to decorate cakes with messages that violate his Christian faith. This despite his victory at the Supreme Court, this despite the Colorado Civil Rights Commission being forced to end the persecution. Jack is back in court again, this time defending himself from a lawsuit initiated by transgender attorney, who, as John Stonestreet explains passionately, is waging a vendetta against Jack Phillips....
Feb 19, 2021•1 hr 2 min
In 2015, Drag Queen Story Hour launched in San Francisco. Exactly what it sounds like - men dressed as women (often provocatively) reading stories (often provocatively) to young kids in schools or public libraries - the organization now operates across the country. "Dressing in drag" almost always involves exaggerated makeup, exaggerated hair, and gaudy, sexually suggestive clothing. One goal of Drag Queen Story Hour, according to its website , is to celebrate "people who defy rigid gender restr...
Feb 19, 2021•5 min
On June 4, 2018, it looked like Jack Phillips's long legal nightmare was finally over. The Supreme Court had ruled in his favor in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, verbally smacking down the Colorado Civil Rights Commission for attempting to coerce him into using his artistic skills to endorse a message and slandering his religious views in the process. Finally, after several years of fighting, Jack could return to his business and his artistry without compromising his faith. Or so he thought. On ...
Feb 18, 2021•5 min
John and Shane field questions from listeners. Today they give an encompassing explanation to how we define inspiration in the Biblical canon. They identify cultural trends that steer the question and provide strong traditional explanation that provides structure in thinking well on the issue of authenticity and accuracy in the Biblical canon. Shane then engages a question on definitions for the Christian family. The questioner seeks to understand a line or border that defines a liberal or conse...
Feb 17, 2021•41 min
Sunday marked the 203rd birthday of a monumentally important figure in American history, a man who truly understood what it means that every human being is made in the image of God. Frederick Douglass was a former slave, abolitionist, supporter of women's suffrage, orator, writer, adviser to Presidents, and diplomat. All of this is well known, but one of the most misunderstood elements of his life story was his deep and abiding Christian faith. Born in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1818, Douglass'...
Feb 17, 2021•5 min
Last month, after more than ten years in hiding, Lisa Miller surrendered herself to American authorities at the U. S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua. Miller, now in custody at the federal detention center in Miami, faces kidnapping and conspiracy charges. She'll likely be found guilty but, in reality, she's a victim of bad ideas. A mom, attempting to protect her daughter from her own bad choices and our society's attempt to redefine marriage, parenting, and the family. The legal case is as compli...
Feb 16, 2021•5 min
Trevin Wax shared about Proverbs 16:16, encouraging those in the Time of Guided Prayer to get wisdom. Trevin K. Wax is the Bible and Reference Publisher for LifeWay Christian Resources. A former missionary to Romania, Trevin hosts a blog at The Gospel Coalition and regularly contributes to the Washington Post, Religion News Service, World and Christianity Today, which named him one of 33 millennials shaping the next generation of evangelicals. His books include Eschatological Discipleship, This ...
Feb 15, 2021•24 min
Two days before Christmas, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries confirmed that its founder had engaged in sexual misconduct over the course of many years and promised further information when the investigation into the matter was complete. Late Thursday afternoon, RZIM released the full report as they had received it, along with an extended, contrite statement of apology. Ravi was a significant personal influence and a great friend of the Colson Center. When Ravi died in May of last year, we ...
Feb 15, 2021•6 min
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer note that the focus of the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump is centering on the power of words: What did then-President Trump say, and did his words incite violence? Also in this episode: Did cancel culture strike again in the case of now-former Mandalorian star Gina Carano? And for all you philosophy and worldview fans, John discusses the ironic alarm in France (the home of prominent post-modern philosophers) over the "threat" of American wokeness. They w...
Feb 12, 2021•59 min
In Mere Christianity , C.S. Lewis warned about the high stakes of overindulging our sexual desires. If men indulged their sexual appetites every time they were inclined, he said, and if each act produced a baby, one man could easily populate a small village. Seventy years after Mere Christianity was published, one Dutch man is fulfilling that prophecy. In an investigative piece published last week, The New York Times uncovered that Jonathan Jacob Meijer has fathered hundreds of children through ...
Feb 12, 2021•5 min
Francis Schaeffer described how ideas escape the ivory towers of universities and think tanks eventually to shape how ordinary people think, speak, and view their world. This past year, one idea made that journey in record time. Not that long ago, conversations involving Critical Race Theory were largely relegated to academic papers, classroom discussions, and scholarly journal articles. Today, dialogues about CRT can be found across social media, in corporate boardrooms, and even in the Church....
Feb 11, 2021•6 min
Michael Craven joins the BreakPoint Podcast to bring a few questions from the Colson Fellows. The Colson Fellows is a 10 month worldview training program that equips participants with analytical tools to understand and lead in culture. Today, John and Michael answer a heartfelt question where one listener seeks understanding on how she can know she's really worshipping God. John and Michael provide definition inside our current culture context to give footing for confidence in worship that rests...
Feb 10, 2021•35 min
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small village in south-central France. Back in 1940, the total population of this area, including the surrounding villages was only about 5,000. Sill, under the leadership of their Protestant pastor André Trocmé and his wife Magda, the residents of these villages were responsible for saving up to 5,000 Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps during World War II. In late January, Eric Schwam, a survivor, passed away at age 90. According to a BBC article, Schwa...
Feb 10, 2021•5 min
A colleague of mine, while looking for Civil War artifacts near his home, once found a brass button from a Union Army uniform. What made his discovery even more amazing was the bright blue jacket thread still attached to the button, even after 150 years. That's pretty impressive. What about finding threads dating back 3,000 years? But imagine these are not connected with an event everyone believes happened, like the Civil War, but with events secular scholars often doubt. Even better! That's the...
Feb 09, 2021•4 min
Social Justice is making claims that are turning America's streets into war zones. Some of these claims refer to a "color blind upbringing", where an individual raised in a community predominantly homogenous in ethnicity is an example of "white privilege" and therefore a form of racism. Thaddeus Williams has written an important book, "Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth". Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor of Theology at Biola University. Dr. Williams loves enlarging students' ...
Feb 08, 2021•1 hr 9 min
One of the more memorable lines written by C. S. Lewis has to do with whether or not a sense of morality is innate to human beings. "Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him, he will be complaining, 'It's not fair' before you can say Jack Robinson." Our culture in particular is full of demands for justice, of all kinds: social ju...
Feb 08, 2021•5 min
One of the more memorable lines written by C. S. Lewis has to do with whether or not a sense of morality is innate to human beings. "Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him, he will be complaining, 'It's not fair' before you can say Jack Robinson." Our culture in particular is full of demands for justice, of all kinds: social ju...
Feb 08, 2021•5 min
