Summer is winding down, and students are returning to college. Whether they learn while seated, while remote, or while masked or unmasked will largely hinge on how your institution is waging the war against Covid. But either way, colleges will be back in action. But another war continues to rage in our colleges. It’s the war against objective truth. Higher education is soaked in worldviews and values that challenge, ignore, or overtly attack a…
It seems nearly a foregone conclusion that Amy Coney Barrett will take a seat on the US Supreme Court. And she should. Even without reading her resume, anyone who pauses for an honest and unbiased glimpse of her interactions during her confirmation hearings was impressed with her brilliance, clarity, and expertise. If she isn’t qualified for the Supreme Court, who is? But no matter how qualified she is, her confirmation hearings were destined to dissolve…
For three years, the practice of astrology has been on the rise. And according to a 2019 article in The New Yorker, millennials are fueling this spike in the popularity of astrology. Astrology is the practice of seeking guidance from signs in the stars and planets. More to the point, it’s reading your horoscope and believing what it says, based on your astrological sign on the zodiac. And the acceptance of astrology is soaring, driven…
In Part 1 of this blog (if you haven’t read it, please stop and read it here before you continue), I summarized quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ journey out of the faith of his youth. It’s a cautionary tale of the impact of postmodern, progressive Christianity and its influence on people who are struggling with faith. In July 2019 the UK web magazine premierchristianity.com ran a story called “Deconstructing faith: Meet the evangelicals who are questioning everything.”…
According to People Magazine, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers expounded on his religious views last month during an interview on the Pretty Intense podcast with his girlfriend Danica Patrick. Rodgers told Patrick that he has gone down a path to a “different type of spirituality” that is more meaningful to him than what he experienced as a child. What was he talking about? Raised in a Christian home, Rodgers once said he trusted Christ as his Savior when…
You hear it often. God can do anything. But is that true? Actually, no. There is at least one thing that God can never do. When the apostle Paul wrote to his young friend Titus, a pastor in a raucous place called Crete, he instructed him on personal matters and on how to be a better pastor. And because the people of Crete were known for playing fast and loose with the truth, and considered…
Lately Scientology has been pulverized in books and docuseries by celebrities such as Leah Remini. So the organization badly needs a PR boost. It found it in a very unsurprising place. Last month Tom Cruise’s daughter, Isabella, became the new face for a Scientology recruiting email. She extolled the virtues of the religious group and thanked her dad for “everything.” She recently completed Scientology’s training to become an “auditor,” someone who leads other Scientologists through…
It was the first day of a college journalism class, and I was practically dizzy with idealistic anticipation. Then it happened. As the professor was introducing the syllabus, he came to the subject of “straight news reporting,” the meat of journalism. The phrase describes those news stories that pepper the front page and evokes images of gutsy journalists chasing Pulitzers. It supposedly distinguishes the reporting of news events from features or comics or, more importantly,…
“Fake news” is hardly new. Journalists, media spokespersons, and school yard gossips have been faking news since the day Eve pointed at Adam and said, “He made me do it.” But based on the attention it has received the last two years, you would think no one had ever heard of it before Donald Trump came along. Last weekend President Trump revealed that he met with New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger on July 20.…
A committee in the Episcopal Church (EC) met July 4 to begin the process of revising the denomination’s Book of Common Prayer. (Because nothing celebrates Independence Day like a church committee meeting). According to the Episcopal News Service, the committee heard fervent testimony from individuals who believe it is time for the EC to produce an inclusive-language revision “to correct the overwhelming use of masculine language to refer both to God and to human beings.…