Although a phobia has been historically understood to be a fear of something (e.g., arachnophobia is a fear of spiders), adding the suffix today is intended to signal that you hold a bigoted view on that subject…and that’s bad. You’re supposed to be so afraid of being labeled phobic that you’ll change your position or,... Continue Reading

The Court may not be done protecting worshippers from Newsom. Justice Gorsuch, who would have overturned the singing ban as well, observed, “Even if a full congregation singing hymns is too risky, California does not explain why even a single masked cantor cannot lead worship behind a mask and a plexiglass shield. Or why even... Continue Reading

After reading Kendi and his explicit endorsement of racial discrimination, I’m convinced that anyone heeding his advice will end up being more racist, not less. It would be pastoral malpractice to commend such sources as if Christians should be mining them for all their worth. I’m doing the opposite. I’m warning them and pointing them elsewhere.  ... Continue Reading

None of this is good for a regime that depends on a belief in Islam to stay in power. Crackdowns have been increasingly harsh, especially over the past five years. But evangelism hasn’t slowed. Despite the pandemic, ministries have reported growth in engagement and interest in the gospel via social media outreach or personal evangelism... Continue Reading

Some of the social concerns that our society classifies as justice issues are actually matters of mercy. Caring for the poor and the needy are often matters of mercy in Scripture–rather than civil principles of justice. The context determines the approach. Though the oppression of the poor is a social injustice, the compassionate care of the poor is a... Continue Reading

The political problem, of course, is that this expressive individualism that allows, even requires, that we create our own identities and destinies is still limited by notions of harm, as the executive order makes clear. Any form of social organization that denies or challenges the identity of transgender people is by definition discriminating against them. And... Continue Reading

What will fall next? Will it be the taboo on incest? Will it be the taboo on pedophilia? I hope the taboo on neither falls, but I think we have to accept that the conceptual framework for holding those things in place has long since vanished. So be shocked, but do not be surprised. If... Continue Reading

Romans had blamed Christianity for their Capitol’s fall to Visigoths in A.D. 410. Augustine’s response was to show Rome that what ailed her was not the onslaught of barbarians, but their own torrential downward rush into immorality. Romans needed not only to return to the cardinal virtues that once made them great, but to overcome... Continue Reading

“There’s some speech that definitely provides no value and some speech that could even be harmful for society, but who gets to make those determinations? Who gets to draw that line? And when you’re somebody that’s perched in Silicon Valley, and you’re woke, and you believe George Washington and Abraham Lincoln should be removed from... Continue Reading

Each day at work, I saw my loss repeat itself in devastating variations: a sick wife whose partner, but not parents, could visit her. An elderly father going into surgery by himself. Patients who would vanish into thin air like my grandmother. As their physician, I often had to explain to patients the policy I... Continue Reading