The Best Super Bowl Commercial

There is no cultural event in contemporary life that draws as much cross-demographic interest as the Super Bowl. In a world where the monoculture has largely gone extinct, the Super Bowl remains that one thing where men and women, young and old, rich and poor, black and white, conservative and liberal, the football passionate and...

3 “Through Lines” of Contemporary Culture and How Living Churches Probably Shouldn’t Respond

Recently I was speaking at a church on the topic of cultural engagement. It's a huge and complex topic. It's also, understandably, a controversial topic. It's controversial for a few reasons. First, there are often very controversial issues at stake, issues related to politics, sex, family, entertainment, education, and wealth to name just a few....

Asking Questions Doesn’t Make You a Relativist

Hello friends. If you are a regular reader of my blog, I want to thank you. I'm not writing as much lately just because, you know, life and stuff. I'm also working on another project that is taking a lot of my writing time. If you are not a regular reader of my blog, there...

Propaganda

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A show designed specifically for the education of preschoolers had created a "Pride Parade Sing-a-Long" complete with drag queens, transgendered beavers, and lesbian alligators. It was clearly an example of activist indoctrination. The hope, I'm sure, was that very young children (who typically watch these shows without their...

The Impossibility of Empathy

Amanda Gorman is an extremely accomplished poet. She was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published her first book of poetry at the age of 17, and in 2021, she delivered one of her poems at the inauguration of President Biden. At a time when serious poets don't generally become...

Our Lying Eyes

George Floyd. Adam Toledo. Daunte Wright. Ma'khia Bryant. We know the tragic threads that draw each one of these four names together. Each of their stories differ in important details, but each was a black person whose life was ended by a police officer. The circumstance of their deaths is not all they share however....

Doubting Well

Seems like I've been talking about doubt a lot lately. Whether it's being asked to respond to the latest exvangelical publicly denouncing their faith on TikTok or friends asking me to intervene with a loved one who is asking difficult questions about God, doubt - and our response to it - has been on my...

twitter doesn’t get a vote

If you haven't read Bari Weiss' letter of resignation from the New York Times, I won't at all be offended if you forgot about this post in order to read her blistering manifesto. In case you don’t know the context. Weiss was a centrist columnist at the NYT. After months of internal hostility and abuse...

when am i getting off social media?

I've gotten a lot of questions lately from friends asking what I think about the documentary on Netflix about social media called "The Social Dilemma." I don't have the time right now to dedicate to a full review, so I'll say simply that it is essential viewing. If you use social media at all, you...