Last month, National Public Radio joined the growing fearmongering and dogpiling aimed at the Alliance Defending Freedom. The Fresh Air interview was hosted by Terry Gross and featured David Kirkpatrick, who authored an extensive expose about the religious freedom group in The New Yorker . The article and the interview painted ADF as being against women's rights and LGBTQ equality, as if there were no progressive push to curb the freedom of speech or to standardize mail-order chemical abortions ...
Nov 17, 2023•1 min
In their 2021 book The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession , Duke University professor of medical humanities Farr Curlin and philosophy professor Christopher Tollefsen argued that the Western approach to healthcare has shifted in recent decades from the pursuit of objective wellbeing to a consumer industry. In the process, doctors are increasingly seen as "service providers" whose main job is to help patients do whatever they want with their bodies. Just two years later, their ana...
Nov 17, 2023•5 min
The lawsuit against a member of the Finnish Parliament accused of violating a law prohibiting " War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, " has been dismissed. Päivi Räsänen's crime was quoting Bible verses in support of traditional understandings of human nature and sexuality. According to a state prosecutor, the problem wasn't citing the Bible, but "Räsänen's interpretation and opinion about the Bible verses that (were) criminal." In other words, what Christians have always believed ... In an Al...
Nov 16, 2023•1 min
Last month, 20-year-old Isabelle Ayala filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit , accusing the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) of civil conspiracy, fraud, and medical malpractice. Ayala claims to have been pressured by AAP-affiliated doctors into so-called "gender-affirming care" as a minor. Like the many young girls who were subjected to experimental gender "transition" therapies, Ayala's story begins with significant emotional and mental distress during her adolescence. Sexually assaulted at age...
Nov 16, 2023•5 min
In roughly five months, it will be legal in Canada for doctors to kill patients struggling with mental illness or drug addiction who choose the country's so-called "Medical Assistance in Dying" program. Last year, 13,241 Canadians died by MAiD. Supporters of MAiD for people with drug addiction promise that safeguards will be put in place, such as requiring multiple attempts at substance abuse treatment first. MAiD became legal for Canadians facing "imminent" natural death in 2016, and the "limit...
Nov 15, 2023•1 min
Recently on the Upstream podcast , my colleague Shane Morris sat down with David Pileggi, the rector of Christ Church in Jerusalem. His work there involves helping Palestinian children through increased access to hospital care and combating trafficking. He also educates Christians about the Jewish context of their faith. Fr. Pileggi has served as an Anglican minister in Jerusalem for over 40 years. From that perspective, he thinks that the most important aspect of the Israeli-Hamas conflict is m...
Nov 15, 2023•6 min
Last year, the Canadian government sanctioned the killing of 13,241 people by the euphemistically named Medical Assistance in Dying. MAiD accounted for 4.1% of all deaths in Canada in 2022 and is the fifth leading cause of death in that country. The slide down this slippery slope began by first legalizing doctor-assisted suicide for people facing "imminent death" and then expanding it step by step until it was available to virtually anyone who asks for it . In fact, now Canadians don't even need...
Nov 14, 2023•1 min
In his book Doubts About Darwin: A History of Intelligent Design, Thomas Woodward described how early detractors of Darwin's theory criticized the way it personified nature. After all, according to Darwin, "the origin of species," (the title of his book) occurred "by means of natural selection." Who did the selecting? Nature. Darwin's argument relied on an analogy between animal husbandry and what nature does when "she selects" only the fittest to survive, thus driving evolution. However, this a...
Nov 14, 2023•6 min
Washington Post advice columnist Jules Terpak recently offered her followers on X a look at how AI will challenge our understanding of what's real in the near future. In an unnerving video, she chats with various AI "companions" created by Facebook parent company Meta that are modeled after the likenesses and personalities of celebrities. Kendall Jenner's AI alter ego, "Billie," calls herself your "older sister and confidant," a "friend" who can offer "advice." A realistic video avatar only adds...
Nov 13, 2023•1 min
An argument cited often by propagators of transgender ideology is that ancient cultures across the world recognized so-called "third genders," those who did not fit neatly in categories of male or female. If they recognized this, the argument goes, then so should we. The latest video in the What Would You Say? series engages this claim carefully, refuting it with three simple points. It begins by explaining the roots of the argument: "According to advocates of transgender ideology, because so ma...
Nov 13, 2023•5 min
John and Maria discuss another sobering election night in America, specifically in Ohio. The Nashville shooter's manifesto was leaked but we noticed a stark difference with other mass shootings. And the number of newborn syphilis cases is becoming a crisis. - Recommendations - Lighthouse Voices with Alisa Childers Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Why Prison Ministries Are Growing Segment 1: Ohio Passes Abortion Amendment How did abortion amendment pass in Ohio and what does it mean for futur...
Nov 10, 2023•1 hr
Recently, Rolling Stone magazine reported on an emerging scandal involving the new speaker of the House of Representatives—not financial corruption, an illicit affair, or ties to foreign powers. No, it turns out that Mike Johnson and his son use the Covenant Eyes app to keep each other accountable about pornography and the internet. According to Rolling Stone, this is weird. And, seizing on the article, others called it creepy, even grooming, as if they could not grasp that the point is to keep ...
Nov 10, 2023•59 sec
November marks the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1989, this symbol of Communist tyranny came tumbling down, marking the end of a totalitarian nightmare. After the threat of Nazism was defeated, Communism turned a third of the world into a police state the likes of which had never been seen. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II recognized, in a clear-eyed way not shared by many other academic and political elites, that Marxism's blood-red banners meant not libe...
Nov 10, 2023•5 min
Tuesday, Ohio became the most recent conservative state to defend a "right" to abortion. Only a year and a half ago, pro-lifers celebrated the legal significance of overturning Roe v. Wade . Since then, voters in state after state have protected the right to end innocent, preborn life. This is a "you are here" moment. Many people, even if personally opposed to abortion, are not willing to restrict anyone else's freedom. This is part of the legacy of Roe: Americans learned an absolute allegiance ...
Nov 09, 2023•1 min
Not even a decade ago, television personality Bill Maher had cemented his brand of snarky atheism and political leftism. His crass, snide, and often irrationally irreligious humor infuriated many and led to an earlier show being canceled, not to mention plenty of gigs. For a couple of years now, however, many of his former critics have noted something new: how often he's willing to say out loud what many on the left are not. In a monologue on last Friday's episode of his HBO series, Real Time wi...
Nov 09, 2023•6 min
In one of his books, historian Tom Holland asked, "Who needs the Devil when there is Adolf Hitler?" Since the Holocaust, calling someone "Hitler" has been the quickest way to call someone "evil" and to short-circuit debate, even for those who don't know much about who Hitler was and what he did. However, because of its constant use, calling someone a "Nazi" or "Hitler" is almost meaningless. Put differently, if everyone is Hitler, no one is . But I say almost because any of our moral proclamatio...
Nov 08, 2023•1 min
Just War theory is one of the most significant contributions of Christianity to the world. On a recent episode of Breakpoint This Week , Dr. Eric Patterson , president of the Religious Freedom Institute and a political scientist who has done extensive work on the subject, discussed how the Just War tradition can help us think through the atrocities of Hamas and the retaliation by Israel. In fact, Patterson's new book, entitled A Basic Guide to the Just War Tradition, is among the best primers av...
Nov 08, 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...
Nov 07, 2023•59 sec
In November of 1660, Puritan lay preacher John Bunyan was arrested and subsequently spent the next 12 years in prison. Under the restored monarchy of Charles II , dissent from the Church of England was once again illegal. Initially sentenced to three months, under the condition that he would stop preaching, Bunyan famously replied that he was willing to suffer "till the moss shall grow on mine eyebrows, rather than thus to violate my faith and principles." In prison, Bunyan completed one of the ...
Nov 07, 2023•5 min
The Holy Spirit has been called "the forgotten God." But He's also, according to Scripture, at the heart of the Christian life. "I believe in the Holy Spirit," says the Nicene Creed, "the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is both worshiped and glorified, who has spoken to us through the prophets." Now, there's a longstanding debate between Eastern and Western churches about whether the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or from t...
Nov 06, 2023•1 min
In a viral post back in July, entrepreneur Robert Sterling described what many people feel: "There is something deeply unwell in our society right now. … I'm sure social media, economic malaise, Covid lockdowns, fentanyl, and every other reason we hear about factor into it." Yet, all these reasons, he continued, "in aggregate, still feel insufficient." Something "metaphysical," seems to have shifted. A Breakpoint commentary in April described the mental health crisis of American teens, especiall...
Nov 06, 2023•6 min
Dr. Timothy Padgett, Resident Theologian for the Colson Center, hosts a conversation at our latest Breakpoint Forum with Christian scholars Neil Shenvi, Ph.D. and Pat Sawyer, Ph.D. as they break down the roots of Critical Theory and how it's impacted our culture. Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer have delved into this important issue as a part of their general work and in writing a recent book entitled, Critical Dilemma: The Rise of Critical Theories and Social Justice Ideology—Implications for the Chu...
Nov 03, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Live Action recently posted a photo on X that shows that a baby developing in the womb is not "just a clump of cells," even at eight weeks gestation. Though the baby is only about half an inch long and roughly the size of a raspberry, retinas begin to form during this stage , as well as intestines and other organs . This is also the time when fingers and toes start to take shape and the baby gains the ability to flex at the elbows. In about 10 more weeks, the baby's sex can be determined. To cal...
Nov 03, 2023•57 sec
One of the most beloved and quotable scenes in The Chronicles of Narnia is from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , when the children learn that Aslan is a lion, "the Lion, the great Lion." "'Ooh' said Susan. 'I'd thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.' 'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver ... 'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'" Though we love the idea that God is not "safe," we often live as i...
Nov 03, 2023•5 min
In November 1917, Scottish Bible teacher and evangelist Oswald Chambers died while serving as chaplain to British troops in Egypt. Ten years after his death, his wife Gertrude compiled her notes of his sermons into one of the most influential devotionals of all time: My Utmost for His Highest. Chambers revered the Scripture. "God never fits His word to suit me;" he wrote , "He fits me to suit His word." But he also understood the kind of book the Bible was. Not something only to be looked at, bu...
Nov 02, 2023•1 min
Mark Twain famously said that "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does often rhyme." The new film, Golda , starring Helen Mirren, provides evidence of that maxim. A surprise Arab attack is carried out on the nation of Israel in the first week of October. An embattled Israeli Prime Minister fights to secure American support. There are whispers of Russian involvement and atrocities in Ukraine. Golda is not a film about 2023, but it does recall the remarkably similar story of 1973. In fact, the ...
Nov 02, 2023•5 min
As the world continues to learn the disturbing details of the Hamas atrocities against Israeli women, children, and other civilians, an added horror is the thousands of people around the world, even in the West, publicly supporting those doing the killing . While many have stood up for the Jews , many others have taken to the streets, celebrated the evils, protested Israel's justified retaliation, and even called for "Jihad." As Lois McLatchie Miller noted, this is particularly galling in the U....
Nov 01, 2023•1 min
Few people, particularly in the U.K., have shown the kind of courageous, tenacious commitment to truth as media personality, minister, conservative commentator, and Anglican deacon Fr. Calvin Robinson. In 2020, after discerning a call to church ministry, Robinson left a career in teaching to pursue a degree in theology through St. Stephen's House, Oxford . In 2022, he applied for a curacy within the London Diocese of the Church of England. Robinson, a British citizen of mixed race, learned that ...
Nov 01, 2023•4 min
Some 1,700 years ago, Armenia became the very first nation in history to adopt Christianity as the official religion of the state. That long history is fast disappearing. A photo recently posted by the Christian Emergency Alliance records the last clergy of an ancient monastery, forced to flee from the Azeri advances, which are often accompanied by desecrations of Christian sites by Muslim soldiers. In ancient times, the Armenians endured a precarious existence, with Rome to the west and Persia ...
Oct 31, 2023•1 min
Every autumn, in a sort of seasonal ritual, the leaves start turning, the air turns chilly, and Christians argue over whether to celebrate Halloween. While I've never been a huge fan of the dark, sketchy costumes (and I'm talking about what adults wear), there's a whole history to this day, unknown to most people . In fact, there's an even more amazing history behind tomorrow, All Saints' Day. Back in 2007, Chuck Colson described that history in a Breakpoint he called, "Honoring the Witnesses." ...
Oct 31, 2023•5 min
