In this podcast episode, Dr. Michael Thiessen, Pastor Nate Wright, and Dr. Joe Boot discuss the implications of Charlie Kirk’s death and the church’s response to it. They express concern over the reluctance of many church leaders to acknowledge Kirk’s martyrdom and the broader cultural implications of this silence. The conversation delves into the truncation of the gospel, the political nature of the Christian message, and the need for the church to engage with cultural issues rather than retreating into silence. They emphasize the importance of recognizing the gospel as a transformative force in society and the necessity of addressing violence and injustice from a biblical perspective.
Category Archives: Culture
Against the Machine | Paul Kingsnorth
Video of Interview Eric Metaxas leads with Paul Kingsworth, mainly about the tech companies’ leaders wanting to “transcend” humanity. And what to do against hat.
Think Christianly! (An Interview With Dr. Joe Boot)
1 hour 17 minute interview by pastor Kendal ov “Prodcast”.
Vacant See: Vacant Minds
Article by Sebastian Wang.
Excerpts:
It is a strange age when ugliness is redefined as inclusion. When Canterbury Cathedral — seat of St Augustine, cradle of English Christianity, a place where kings once trembled before God — is reduced to a billboard for discontent and self-pity, one begins to understand how deep the spiritual rot now runs.
The true scandal is not the graffiti itself but the fact that the clergy are proud of it.
It is not a church but a performance venue with a cross on the roof.
When the Church chooses ugliness, she teaches a lie about herself and about God.
Could England Fall? | Tolkien, Lewis, and War | Joseph Loconte
Interview (Youtube) with Eric Metaxas.
Contains a nugget about how Lewis got the idea to write the Screwtape Letters. (Hint: Something to do with Hitler.)
And then this exchange: “Who in the 20th century comes close to Tolkien and Lewis when writing about the nature of evil?” “Maybe Orwell.”
Daniel in the Lions’ Den
Brilliant painting by Briton Rivière
I’d never heard of this artist (Briton Rivière) before, I’ve never seen this picture before (Daniel in the Lions’ Den).
There’s a video about it titled: ‘This Painting Is an Absolute Masterpiece’
It really is brilliant!
Interesting that it was particularly popular in Victorian times.
8-minute video here.
The Totalitarian Impulse vs. Two Words: “Oh, Yeah?”
Article by Gary North (from 2014).
Excerpt:
CONCLUSION
Totalitarianism comes when a special-interest ideological group gets in control of the machinery of government. This attempt never lasts very long. Totalitarianism must be implemented by bureaucrats, and third-generation bureaucrats are not driven by a desire to change society. They are driven the desire to protect their jobs. That desire, above all other desires, will shape any government that attempts to impose the vision of the anointed on the masses of Americans.
Americans have a two-word response to all such attempts: “Oh, yeah?” They have a follow-up: “You and who else?”
If the Communists could not pull it off in the USSR, the anointed will not pull it off in America.
Is Christian Nationalism WEIRD?
Video by Glen Scrivener.
Discusses the fact that Christianity is the only religion that knows the distinction between secular and sacred.
Includes clips of Tom Holland discussing Christianity with ‘Triggernometry’.
It’s the End of the Age, NYTimesies
Article by Christopher Chantill.
Quotes:
It looks like our liberal friends wanted to use the firing of Jimmy Kimmel as a narrative to neuter the Charlie Kirk assassination. That was then. But now, after the speech by Charlie’s widow, Erika Kirk, who cares?
[. . .]
Twenty years ago, Lukacs wrote that the Modern Age at its height was the Age of the Bourgeois, for its minds and creators were mostly of bourgeois origins and status that replaced the nobles of the Middle Ages.
I say that the new age will be an age of the ordinary. The future will belong to energetic youngsters like the TPUSAers we saw and heard at the Charlie Kirk memorial. And his widow, Erika Kirk.
It’s okay, NYTimesies. We forgive you.
The “Climate Change” Danger
Review of the book “Fossil Future: Why Global Human Florishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas – Not Less”, by Lew Rockwell.
Quote:
Epstein thinks that the danger from global warming has been exaggerated, but though he presents extensive evidence in support of this, his main contribution lies elsewhere. He argues that modern civilization depends on fossil fuels and that far from curtailing their use, we need to spread them to the impoverished parts of the world. So great are the benefits from using the fuels that only a true “end of the world” nightmare caused by CO2 emission could require that we shift to other energy sources, and despite the alarmists’ caterwauling, this nightmare is most unlikely to occur. Moreover, Epstein holds that the benefits of fossil fuels are so obvious that only a defect in thinking could have induced people to ignore them. He is a philosopher as well as an energy economist, and he expertly identifies the false thought pattern that has led to our current confusions.
Epstein says, “Whenever we hear about what the ‘experts’ think, we need to keep in mind that most of us have no direct access to what most expert researchers in the field think. We are being told what experts think through a system of institutions and people…. Understanding how this system, which I call our ‘knowledge system,’ works and how it can go wrong is the key to being able to spot when what we’re told the ‘experts’ think is very wrong—about fossil fuels or anything else.”