David French

This Week's Recommendations

This Week's Recommendations

1. I’m Not Hateful, You Are: David French shares one of the consequences of our “you-can’t-judge-me-culture” is the perception that those in the other political party are more extreme than they actually are. He says, “This mutual loathing translates into other misperceptions, such as completely misjudging the extremism of your political opponents.”

2. A Day for Lament at the Supreme Court: Marvin Olasky explains John Roberts’s convoluted reasoning for now allowing even the most modest protection for moms and unborn children at abortion clinics. Christianity Today provides its own analysis, including more background on the lack of safety in Louisiana abortion clinics.

3. How Often Do Churchgoers Read Their Bibles? Lifeway’s study is relevant for this week’s blog post on the Bible.

4. How Many Reasons May Christians Divorce For? Wayne Grudem shares why his thinking has changed. He begins, “Until 2019, I held the common, historic Protestant view of divorce, namely, that adultery and desertion were the only two legitimate grounds for divorce allowed by Scripture.”

5. A King Proximate to Pain: Chris Thomas with a short reflection on the powerful lies of pain and the gift of a Savior who is present in our pain. He begins, “As pain levels intensify, so does my sense of isolation. As the ache sets in, so does loneliness. I wake in the night with torment whispering sweet nothings in my ear, ‘No one understands. No one feels. No one knows. You’re alone.’”

6. Stand Up! So beautiful and powerful.

This Week's Recommendations

This Week's Recommendations

1.        Proof that the Sexual Revolution Got Sexual Satisfaction All Wrong: David French reflects on surprising findings: " In a time when our nation has erased sexual taboos, cast off moral restraints, and become “more tolerant of sex in just about every permutation,” young Americans are having less sex. And one of the prime reasons is the “decline in couplehood among young people.” Married people have more sex than single people, yet fewer people get married, and the people who do marry “have been marrying later.”"

2.        Ergonomics Expert Explains How to Set Up Your Desk: Three worthwhile minutes for anyone who works at a desk.

3.       Against Open Doors: This is the second article I've posted pushing back the interpretation of interpreting God's will by interpreting open doors. Aaron Denlinger reminds us that Paul and Silas once had a prison door open in front of them and instead of seeing it as God's miraculous hand in freeing them, they saw it as an opportunity to save the jailer. Maybe we need to reconsider how we interpret open doors in our lives.

4.       5 Reasons to Treasure the Trinity: Each of Jerod Gilcher's five reasons opens up the fresh beauty of our Triune God. The first is: " The eternal relationship of the Trinity informs us that God is the happiest, most joyful Person in the universe. God has been infinitely happy because, within the context of the Trinity, He has been eternally enjoying, loving, and rejoicing in Himself. The fountain of our joy as believers is the joy that has always abounded within the Trinity."

5.       The Literal Translation of Every Country's Name: This is pretty fun. I like "Red Like An Ember," "Land of Burnt Faces," "I Go to the Beach," and "In the Naval of the Moon." What are your favorites?

This Week's Recommendations

This Week's Recommendations

1.        3 Reasons Christians Cannot Commit the Unforgivable Sin: Michael Bird handles the question of whether Christians can commit the unforgivable sin. 

2.       America's Science-Denying, Antiquated Abortion Law: Ardee Coolidge with a strong opinion on America's abortion law, " [D]espite these amazing advancements in science, technology, and medicine, we lag behind the rest of the developed world in one very important area: our abortion laws. In fact, one key aspect of abortion in the United States is so outdated that only six other nations ON EARTH agree with our position (and one of those nations is the forward-thinking paradise of North Korea)."

3.       Do You Have a Child-Centered Home? This is a helpful questionnaire. 

4.       Don't Compliment by Comparing: Eric Geiger shares three reasons we shouldn't compare when we compliment and then concludes, "Compliment. Be liberal with encouragement. But work hard to offer compliments without comparisons. They are more effective and an indication of your maturing." 

5.       It Turns Out Sexual Liberation Isn't All That Liberating: David French concludes, " Faith and family aren’t guarantors of human flourishing (nothing is), but our nation certainly feels their absence, and our culture aches at their loss."

This Week's Recommendations

This Week's Recommendations

1.      Intersectionality, the Dangerous Faith: David French on the rise of "The demise of religion among American youth is greatly exaggerated. It turns out that America isn’t raising a new generation of unbelievers. Instead, rising in the heart of deep-blue America are the zealots of a new religious faith. They’re the intersectionals, they’re fully woke, and the heretics don’t stand a chance."

2.      Why Mister Rogers Still Matters: If you're a New Lifer, you know Mister Rogers has a special place in my heart. Russell Moore agrees, "That’s the part of Fred Rogers’s work that is probably the easiest to misunderstand. One can listen to the songs he sang… “It’s such a good feeling to know you’re alive…” or “I like you just the way you are…” and assume that Rogers was a live-action version of a sappy self-esteem curriculum. Rogers, though, would talk to children about the darkest topics possible, addressing children’s fears directly, whether those fears were about being sucked down the drain in a bathtub or parents’ divorcing or the death of grandparents."

3.      The Fundamentalism of Post-Evangelicalism: Rob Bell just released a new movie, 'The Heretic' which Owen Strachan explains that, "Bell actually operates and speaks as a “fundamentalist.” He does not exhibit an open mind toward conservative religious types; he censures them. He does not truly believe that everyone has an equal place in the Christian tradition; he believes that serious evangelicals are bad people. He does not show generosity in the film toward his disputants; over and over again, he drags them through the mud. He does not truly hold an open, flexible, free-thinking faith; he draws his own doctrinal lines precisely, and makes no bones about excluding conservatives... It’s the strangest thing: the heretic is actually the fundamentalist."

4.      Retractable Fish Decal Now Available: It's funny because it's true: " 'Want to cut someone off, but worried you’ll be a bad witness? Now you can slap the red button on your dashboard and a small panel will rotate on your bumper, hiding the fish from view,' a company spokesperson said. 'Flip people off on the freeway, gun down the shoulder during a traffic jam, all without worrying about marring the good name of Christ.'"

5.      Why You Can't Divide By Zero: I didn't expect this to be interesting. It drew me right in. Fascinating conundrum for a simple issue.