The Miss America pageant (which will no longer be called a “pageant,” but a “contest”) is cancelling its swimsuit portion in favor of a segment in which contestants interact with the judges to showcase their individual talents and passions. This is evidently the result of pressure from Gretchen Carlson, a former Miss America and chair of the Board of Trustees, and a longtime advocate of the #MeToo movement. Carlson explains: “We’ve heard from a lot of young women who say,... Read more
The digital ink spilled over Canadian clinical psychologist and author Jordan Peterson by now could fill a metaphorical ocean, but I want to venture what I think may be an unexplored cause of his popularity: his lack of guile or pretense. Anyone who has spent any time in comment box debates or hasn’t been living in an undersea cave since the 2016 presidential election knows the tone of news commentary, opinion writing, and even journalism has taken a nasty turn.... Read more
Aimee Byrd from the Mortification of Spin podcast has written a new book challenging the core idea behind the so-called “Mike Pence rule” (or “Billy Graham rule,” as it was originally called). For those unfamiliar with the term, the Pence rule is the personal practice some Christian men have adopted of never eating, drinking, or spending alone time with an unrelated woman. A woman might also practice the rule in reverse. So, whether in business settings, church counseling, or friendships,... Read more
Last week biblical illiteracy in the news media was put on display like never before. First, the Wall Street Journal misquoted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that “Moses brought water from Iraq.” What the prime minister actually said was that Moses “brought water from a rock,” a reference to either Exodus 17 or Numbers 20. This mistake was frankly hilarious, especially if you were raised (as I was) in a part of the country where the standard pronunciation for Iraq... Read more
It’s Eastertide (it’s not just one day!) and if you know an evangelical Baby Boomer with an Internet connection and a tendentious side, chances are you put up with annual claims that this most blessed Christian feast has a pagan origin. More than likely, the attacks have sounded something like the text of this eternally-popular-but-disastrously-inaccurate meme. I suspect this gem is the work of poorly-researched atheists, who also take regular swipes at Christmas (and have been ably answered). The Facebook... Read more
We in the West must constantly seek out reminders of what real hardship looks like. Last week I was given a screener for “Paul, Apostle of Christ,” starring Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ,” as well as James Faulkner from “Downton Abbey.” This biblical movie was just such a reminder, not only of what it’s like to endure persecution for the name of Christ, but of the fact that the Apostles and early Christians were... Read more
Christianity really is the answer key to the human experience. This is nowhere truer than it is in the experience of sex. I have an Eastern Orthodox friend (you can read his blog, here), with whom I have spent countless hours in conversation about the Bible, creation, science, symbolism, and for lack of a better term, the mysticism of everyday life. He’ll tell anyone who will listen that reading Reformed theologian James Jordan’s “Through New Eyes” changed his life, and... Read more
I’m reading (and thoroughly enjoying) Benjamin Wiker’s “10 Books that Screwed Up the World (And 5 Others that Didn’t Help).” The chapter on Nietzsche’s “Beyond Good and Evil” was beyond good (sorry). In truth it was cursory. This is a popular-level and somewhat tongue-in-cheek treatment of a lot of very complex ideas. One should (and I intend) to read Nietzsche’s work firsthand. But Wiker is as thorough as his medium will allow, and based on his sketch of Nietzsche, I... Read more
Yesterday, Billy Graham finished his course on this earth full of years—ninety-nine to be exact. Graham was a man who profoundly impacted not only this country but the world for the better part of a century. He ministered to every U.S. president from Harry Truman to Barack Obama, was instrumental in the Civil Rights movement, even posting bail for Martin Luther King Jr., and appeared on Gallup’s list of most admired men and women more often than anyone else in... Read more
A few weeks ago, I wrote about what I call the “abortion-juke,” which is the use of the unborn to short-circuit all other important moral debates. It’s usually deployed by conservatives during an election when they face a choice between deeply-flawed candidates. It’s a way of whitewashing the lesser of the two evils, or of imposing a moral duty on other pro-lifers to support a candidate despite serious failings. More generally, it’s used to silence valid moral objections on other... Read more
Troubler of Israel
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