Category: Culture War
Is it really that bad?: Christianity, Secularism, and the Apocalypse
I think it was C. S. Lewis who once said of a new friend, maybe Owen Barfield, that he had read all the right books only to come to all the wrong conclusions. Lewis’s quote came to mind on several...
The Religious Right Is Not a Subsidiary of the Alt-Right
In a recent essay for The New Republic, religion reporter Sarah Posner contends that the Religious Right has “effectively become a subsidiary of the alt-right, yoked to Trump’s white nationalist agenda.” By effectively wedding themselves to Trump’s narrative about ‘American...
A Social Justice Warrior in King Roderick’s Court
Last Thursday’s “Time for the Benedict Option?” discussion hosted by Plough, First Things, and The American Conservative was a great summary of the Benedict Option debate so far and where things ought to go from here. You can watch the...
The “New Alarmism” is not new and is not alarmism.
When asked about the Holy Roman Empire the French philosophe Voltaire once quipped that said empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. I had something like that thought while reading Dr. James K. A. Smith’s piece for the...
Dr. Moore and the Politics of Dinner Parties
I’m pleased to publish this essay by Susannah Black reviewing Dr. Russell Moore’s recent Erasmus Lecture given last weekend in New York City. On Monday night I got on the E train in Forest Hills and headed to the Union...
More on Sex After Christianity
About a month ago I lit a bunch of stuff on fire and then grabbed some popcorn and set up a lawn chair to watch what would happen. The next day, even as the embers were still glowing a little, I...
On David Gushee’s Dishonesty
Earlier this week David Gushee continued his sad decline with a cowardly piece for Religion News Service. It’s all par for the course for progressive evangelicals like Gushee, of course, which is why I’m generally not too bothered by what they say....
Recovering our Confidence: Four Theses on Social Conservatism (#4)
Note from Jake: This is the final post in Matt’s social conservatism series published in 2012 which we are re-publishing this week. Post 1, Post 2, Post 3 One of my underlying themes through this week has been the current...
Recover Intellectual Creativity: Four Theses on Social Conservatism (#3)
Note from Jake: This is part three of Matt’s series on social conservatism from the fall of 2012 which we are re-publishing this week. Part 1, Part 2 Let’s start today with a detour through David Brooks’ column from this...
End the Hostilities Against Elites: Four Theses on Social Conservatism (#2)
Note from Jake: We are re-publishing Matt’s old series from the fall of 2012 on social conservatism: Part 1 Thesis: For social conservatism to thrive, it needs to end its hostility toward elite institutions that are currently opposed to it....