John Stonestreet and Maria Baer remember the lives and legacies of two remarkable people of faith. They also discuss new information regarding the alleged mass graves at Canadian boarding schools and how the Church should view singlehood. — Recommendations — "Fresh off a Supreme Court Win, the Praying Coach Takes the Field" Lighthouse Voices Event: Dr. Matthew Sleeth Section 1 - Remembering the Legacies of People of Faith "Former Minnesota Gov. Al Quie Dies at 99" Alice K. Noebel Obituary Sectio...
Sep 01, 2023•1 hr 1 min
According to an article in The Daily Chatter, government officials decided to alter academic standards to be more in line with "decolonization" to offer a more favorable view of leftist ideas, and to fit better with the latest sexual ideologies. In response, conservative parents in southern states took the government to court and destroyed some of the proposed new schoolbooks. Politicians then claimed it was all about partisanship. But this wasn't America: It was Mexico. The parents protesting w...
Sep 01, 2023•1 min
Fifty years ago on September 2, one of the most important authors of the twentieth century passed away. While most today know his amazing works of fantasy and fiction, J.R.R. Tolkien was long recognized in academic circles as a brilliant philologist and scholar of medieval literature. For example, his essay on Beowulf, written in 1936, reshaped scholarship around the poem and remains highly influential today. It was in the following year that the world was first introduced to Middle Earth. The H...
Sep 01, 2023•5 min
How many faces do you have? Atheist comedian Stephen Fry once said (quite ironically) that you are who you are when nobody's watching. When social restraints are removed, when the cameras aren't rolling, what sort of person are you? What sort of choices do you make? All of us—especially men—need to ask these questions of ourselves in the wake of the daily flurry of scandals from Hollywood and Washington. This isn't a problem "out there" in someone else's sound studio, office, or home. It's a pro...
Aug 31, 2023•1 min
Americans today are getting married later in life than their parents or grandparents. As of 2022 , the average age at which Americans get married is 28 for women and 30 for men. This is eight years later in life than the average bride and groom of the 1960s. As many have noted, today's spike in singleness and single-person households is, in part, the result of a widespread cultural erosion of marriage, both inside and outside of the Church. Over the past 60 years, marriage has taken a social and...
Aug 31, 2023•5 min
Primatologist Jane Goodall, who has dedicated her life to studying chimpanzees, recently made what some have jokingly called " an Avengers level threat. " If she had magical powers, Goodall said , "I would like to, without causing any pain or suffering, reduce the number of people on the planet, because there's too many of us. It's a planet of finite resources, and we're using them up." Not only did the statement echo Thanos, it's fundamentally mistaken. As a tweet from the CATO Institute put it...
Aug 30, 2023•1 min
At least since the movie Inherit the Wind butchered the history of the 1925 Scopes "monkey trial," many Americans—especially those on the left side of the political spectrum—have cherished a kind of myth about national debates being settled in dramatic courtroom clashes. In reality, they seldom are. However, that doesn't stop idealistic plaintiffs from trying. The most recent controversy dragged before a judge was whether the state of Montana could be held responsible for climate change. Earlier...
Aug 30, 2023•5 min
Kids born in our morally turbulent age, and the parents committed to guiding them through it, have precious few resources that can help them sift through the chaos. A few years ago, WORLD Magazine, a longtime Christian worldview partner of the Colson Center, added a daily news program for kids to their already impressive lineup of print and digital resources. The tagline for WORLD Watch with host Brian Basham reads: "We can't keep your kids from growing up too quickly, but we can help them grow ...
Aug 29, 2023•1 min
A few weeks ago, voters in Ohio rejected a ballot measure that would have made it harder to amend the state's constitution. As it stands, to amend Ohio's constitution only requires 50% of the vote plus one. Issue 1 would have raised that threshold to 60%. The turnout for this vote was unexpectedly high for what appeared to be a procedural change. It was the only issue on the ballot. However, this vote was not merely about a procedure. It was also about abortion. In November, abortion advocates w...
Aug 29, 2023•6 min
Stories that depict parenting as the end of happiness are a cottage industry these days, but a story told recently in People magazine was different. Arkansas teachers Tasia and Drew Taylor are , at just 23 and 25, raising two teenagers, with a baby on the way. First, the Taylors took in Tasia's cousin Tamiray. Then they adopted Rory, a 13-year-old student at the school where Tasia taught, when they learned she was being placed in foster care. When asked why, the Taylors said, "We felt God was ca...
Aug 28, 2023•1 min
Sixty years ago today, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" Speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The most well-known line of King's speech is this one: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." That vision has never been fully realized, and its greatest threat today is a set of ideas that ...
Aug 28, 2023•4 min
John and Maria discuss the high and low points in the GOP presidential debate. A growing number of states are telling Christians they can't be foster parents and reaction to the song "Rich Men North of Richmond." — Recommendations — The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks Get your copy of Live Your Truth & Other Lies Section 1 - Worldview takeaways from the GOP Debate "Mike Pence, Nikki Haley Spar Over Federal Abortion Ban at RNC Debate" "GOP Candidates Clash Over...
Aug 25, 2023•55 min
According to The Daily Mail, the Biden administration's health secretary recently endorsed a gender clinic in Alaska. The secretary is a man who identifies as a woman. The clinic advocates for replacing the term "mother" with "egg producer." Somehow "Happy Egg Producer Day!" doesn't have the same ring to it as "Mother's Day." As a colleague of mine noted when she heard the story, "That really is The Handmaid's Tale." Language matters. Especially from people who occupy positions of cultural power...
Aug 25, 2023•1 min
Last month, an article published on NBC described "[p]ractitioners of 'race change to another,' or RCTA," which refers to people who "purport to be able to manifest physical changes in their appearance and even their genetics to truly become a different race." Interviewed for the article were teenagers who are enamored with Japanese and Korean cultures and who have become convinced that, by listening to subliminal messages while they sleep, they will eventually wake up with Asian characteristics...
Aug 25, 2023•7 min
Sixteenth-century French theologians do not usually make an appearance in twenty-first century political press conferences. But earlier this August, Governor Ron DeSantis introduced Andrew Bain as a new Florida state attorney. After briefly thanking the governor and those who'd helped him get to this point, Bain said, "For me, this is the place where John Calvin's second purpose of the law came to life." He then summarized Calvin's idea, that the law is a restraint on evil. Though it cannot, in ...
Aug 24, 2023•1 min
A recent article in The Atlantic by Helen Lewis made the bold claim that "The Gender War Is Over in Britain." An overstatement, to be sure, but not entirely unwarranted. Keir Starmer, head of the Labour Party, recently led his party away from full support of radical gender ideology. This was a notable shift for the United Kingdom's largest left-wing party, which had previously encouraged radical elements of trans activism and stood aside as feminists were canceled for resisting the new orthodoxy...
Aug 24, 2023•4 min
A recent tweet featured a clip of a sermon on Psalm 139. In that Psalm, David famously declares , "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb." The preacher applied the passage to the place of abortion in our culture, noting that abortion is a subject that makes people feel uncomfortable and has been politicized to the detriment of society. So far, so good. Then the pastor, wearing vestments emblazoned with Planned Parenthood's insignia, went on to celebrate abor...
Aug 23, 2023•1 min
In The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche tells " The Parable of the Madman. " In it, a madman lights a lantern in the early morning, runs to the marketplace, and declares, "God is dead." Nietzsche's point was that though Enlightenment philosophers had embraced atheism, they had not yet realized the huge implications. So, Nietzsche told them, via a rant from the Madman, which ends when he bursts into church buildings and asks, "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and se...
Aug 23, 2023•5 min
A recent BBC article questioned what last year's Dobbs decision could mean for in vitro fertilization. The owner of a self-described " boutique fertility clinic " in Austin, Texas, told reporters that she's worried abortion restrictions will be bad for business: "If you say life begins at fertili[z]ation, then how can I grow an embryo in a lab, or biopsy it for genetic testing, or freeze it or thaw it, or implant it in somebody, or leave it frozen?" These questions should have been asked before ...
Aug 22, 2023•1 min
Are bodies something we merely "have," or are our bodies essential to who we are? In an advertising video for a local fertility clinic, a doctor asks, "Are you ready to have children, but your body is not?" And then he goes on to describe the services on offer. The question is an odd one. Even more, it's downright misleading. Of course, the desire to have a child and not being able to conceive is a terrible experience. Still, the assumptions in that question—that we are somehow disconnected from...
Aug 22, 2023•5 min
Recently, ADF International's Lois McLatchie Miller tweeted out her "radical takes" for 2023: "1. Biological men shouldn't compete in women's sports. 2. Silent prayer is not a crime. 3. Ending the lives of babies in the womb is wrong." She then offered this conclusion: "Radicals of the past got to say things that were groundbreaking. We're stuck with defending the obvious." She's right. We ought not underestimate, at least if we take seriously Paul's description from the first chapter of Romans,...
Aug 21, 2023•1 min
A few years ago, a Philadelphia area Apple store featured a display in which a vibrant rainbow of the latest iPhones broke through a greyscale crowd of people. What was particularly striking about the advertisement wasn't the use of contrast nor that this was not some thinly veiled "Pride" month display. The multi-colored iPhones were positioned like veils, so that no face, or even part of a face, could be seen. If Apple hoped the display would inspire new eagerness to join the technicolor life ...
Aug 21, 2023•6 min
Last month, the Colson Center hosted a conference from Bay Harbor, Michigan on our changing culture. John Stonestreet was joined by Kristin Waggoner from Alliance Defending Freedom and Jim Daly with Focus on the Family to discuss how Christians should respond to everything from critical theory to the Barbie movie. Find more information on the event and watch the full recording at greatlakessymposium.org . For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org...
Aug 19, 2023•1 hr 2 min
According to an article in Vancouver's Globe and Mail , after years of struggle and a recent traumatic event, Kathrin Mentler sought medical care at a local hospital for her suicidal ideation. Like America, Canada has spent millions on public service campaigns encouraging those contemplating suicide to seek professional help. Katherine, however, was not offered help. Instead, she was offered death. The hospital staff told Katherine that it would take a long time to see a psychiatrist and suggest...
Aug 18, 2023•1 min
On August 19, 1662, French philosopher, mathematician, and apologist Blaise Pascal died at just 39 years old. Pascal, despite his shortened life, is renowned for pioneering work in geometry, physics, and probability theory. His most powerful legacy, however, involves the ways he engaged with life's biggest questions. Pascal's intellect garnered attention at an early age. At 16, he produced an essay on the geometry of cones so impressive that René Descartes initially refused to believe it could p...
Aug 18, 2023•7 min
We often hear of folks forced to endure "sensitivity training" for holding opinions everyone did five years ago. But, in an unusual turn of events, a U.S. District court judge has ordered corporate lawyers for Southwest Airlines to undergo training with the Alliance Defending Freedom about the nature and importance of religious liberty. On August 7, a U.S. District Court ruled that Southwest Airlines violated Charlene Carter's rights when they fired her for posting pro-life opinions on her perso...
Aug 17, 2023•1 min
In her book Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed, apologist Alisa Childers breaks down widespread mantras of culture and their consequences. One of these is a misunderstanding of Jesus' words so common that, for many, it may be the eleventh commandment that supplants the other ten: "You shouldn't judge." Over the last 60 years, studies have confirmed that Americans have become more tolerant of alternative sexual lifestyles...
Aug 17, 2023•5 min
A feature of life in Colorado is the prevalence of pot. There are dispensaries on virtually every corner, and everywhere I travel I hear a pot joke. Something else my adopted state is becoming known for is the harmful aftereffects of legalized marijuana. According to state statistics , the drug was found in the system of some 42% of teen suicides, a rate nearly twice as much as with alcohol and four times of any other substances. Of course, correlation doesn't mean causation, but it can mean con...
Aug 16, 2023•1 min
Few voluntary associations in American history have had as deep and wide an influence as the Boy Scouts of America. The training ground of soldiers and senators, pastors and presidents, the organization effectively instilled values like trustworthiness, loyalty, courteousness, thrift, bravery, and reverence in many of the over 100 million young men who joined in its over 100-year history. In fact, for much of the 20th century at least, "Scout's honor" was among the highest assurances one could g...
Aug 16, 2023•5 min
Recently, NBC news shared an article entitled, " Pope says church is open to everyone, including gay people, but has rules ." Asked if it was inconsistent for him to say that Christianity was open to "everyone" when some, including gay people, were apparently excluded, Pope Francis replied, "The church is open to everyone but there are laws that regulate life inside the church." To anyone even vaguely familiar with the Roman Catholic Church or Christian teaching throughout history, the only news...
Aug 15, 2023•1 min
