Here are some helpful posts (and a video) addressing our culture’s view of sex and sexuality:
Rosaria Butterfield: No free passes – Marvin Olasky (World)
Almost Everything the Media Tell You About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Is Wrong – Ryan Anderson (TDS)
Keller, Moore, DeYoung on How to Speak to Our Culture About Sex (Video) – Ryan Troglin (TGC)
Here are some helpful posts about how Christians should relate to our ever-growing pagan culture:
Keeping the Faith in A Faithless Age: the Church as a Moral Minority – Albert Mohler
American Christians, You Might Need to Start Living Like Missionaries – Amy Medina
Count the Cost in the New America: Eight Ways to Engage with Hope– Steven Lee
Some more posts to help us think about the current transgender issue:
From 1970s-Era Academic ‘High Theory’ to Transgender Bathrooms on Campus – Heather MacDonald (National Review)
Do Biological Facts No Longer Matter? – Nancy Pearcey (CNS News)
College Kids Say the Darndest Things: On Gender (Video) – Family Policy Institute of Washington (YouTube)
A Transgendered Thought Experiment – Kevin DeYoung
Here are some helpful posts for thinking through President Obama’s recent letter to every public school:
Explainer: Federal Government issues letter on transgender policy to America’s public schools – Joe Carter (ERLC)
President Obama: Accept Transgenderism or Else – Denny Burk
4 Bigger Repercussions of the Bathroom Decree – Trevin Wax
What the Transgender Bathroom Debate Means For You – Russell Moore
We must bear witness to the goodness of what it means to live as creatures, not as self-defining gods and goddesses. – Russell Moore
Here are some helpful posts to help us continue to think through the transgender issue – and more importantly to help us think through how our culture thinks and what it believes.
Watch: College Kids Can’t Explain Why a Short White Man Isn’t a Tall Asian Woman – David French (National Review)
Transgenderism: A Pathogenic Meme – Paul McHugh (Public Discourse)
7 Troubling Questions About Transgender Theories – Trevin Wax
Women’s Sanitary Bins & Bathroom Theology – Peter Jones (truthxchange)
Michigan’s Board of Education wants to allow school-aged students to be able to decide what gender they are. And what bathrooms and locker rooms they can use at their public school. Regardless of their biological and genetic reality. With no input from the child’s parents. Or even the parent’s knowledge. You can find the Board’s memo at the first link below.
Let me be clear that we should treat all people with compassion and respect as image-bearers of God. But compassion does not encourage confusion. Or oppose the family. Or put our daughters in danger of predators and peeping toms.
Here are some helpful posts addressing these and other related issues:
Safe Schools, Gender Non-Conformity, and Common Sense – Kevin DeYoung
Gender Ideology Harms Children – American College of Pediatricians
Transgender Thoughts – Mike Wittmer
An Open Letter to Bruce Springsteen and His Band – Michael Brown
One final thought. Mike Wittmer suggests in his post above that our culture is caught up in “the classical view that our bodies don’t matter and that the real us is our soul. We couldn’t have such malleable views of gender and sex without a deficient view of the human body.” Exactly.
We had a youth winter retreat this past Sunday, and we looked at what the Bible says about social media. Here are some helpful related posts by Tony Reinke to help all of us think further about it. If you only have time for one, read the first one.
Six Ways Your Phone Is Changing You
Facebook Obsession and the Anguish of Boredom
Six Wrong Reasons to Check Your Phone in the Morning
Smartphone Addiction and Our Spiritual ADD
Unsocial Media: Meeting the Digital Age Face-to-Face
The Good Samaritan’s Smartphone and the Law of Love
The cultural event of the year has seemingly arrived, and it wouldn’t hurt to try to think about it through some Christian lenses. So here are some helpful posts to do just that.
Star Wars and the Ancient Religion – Peter Jones (Ligonier)
The appearance of a new episode of the Star Wars film series is an important moment for Christian witness. To be sure, we can shrug our shoulders, since Star Wars is old news. Or we can enthusiastically introduce our grandchildren to what we might think is a beloved, harmless yarn. Or we can—and should—discover in the series an occasion to sharpen our presentation of the gospel message and help our children and grandchildren, and anyone else who might be interested, to understand the culture in which they live.
The Irresistible Force of ‘Star Wars’: 3 Popular Approaches – Michael Svigel (TGC)
The Star Wars saga trades in universal themes of fall and depravity, struggle and conflict, sacrifice and redemption, heroism and hope. In this way, it sings truth to our souls. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, drank deeply from the wells of human experience and incorporated themes that have repeatedly appeared in epic poems, plays, legends, myths, and religious beliefs of various cultures through millennia.
Be A Yoda, Not a Grinch – Marshall Segal (DG)
Inspired by the proximity to Christmas, I’m putting a light saber into the hands of the greedy Grinch and pitting him against the Star Wars hero of blockbuster past. In the end, the two may only have a green complexion in common, but comparing them really can be an exercise in treasuring the coming of Christ, and in living and serving more like him.
Here are some helpful posts to help the church think through the Syrian refugees issue. If you only have time to read a few, read the last two – and dream about the possibilities.
What You Should Know About The Syrian Refugee Controversy – Joe Carter (TGC)
Should we really close the border to refugees? Here’s why fear drives out compassion. – Trevin Wax (WP)
Immigration Policy Must be Based on More than an Appeal to Compassion – Kevin DeYoung
Refugee resettlement process leaves Syrian Christians in the cold – Cody Derespina (FN)
Why evangelicals are torn about admitting refugees to the US – Trevin Wax (RNS)
Syrian refugee screening process reveals progress and pitfalls – Cody Derespina (FN)
We Opened Our Church to Muslim Refugees and Something Unexpected Happened! – Caleb Suko
Building His Church in a Refugee Crisis– David Crabb (DG)
Here are some good posts about current events and issues related to the church and culture:
The Transgender Movement and Government Overreach: Why it Matters – Andrew Walker (ERLC) – In response to the Education Department’s rejection of an Illinois school policy.
The Blind Eyes of Abortion – John Knight (DG) – In response to the latest undercover video release about Planned Parenthood.
Christmas Is Not For Cranks – Kevin DeYoung – In response to the Starbucks red coffee cups.
Brian J. Mikul 