Breakpoint

Today, Memorial Day, I want to share a commentary on Memorial Day from Chuck Colson. Here’s Chuck:   This Memorial Day, reflect with me on how we should respond to the enormous sacrifices of our men and women in uniform.    Memorial Day is when we honor the men and women of our armed services who have made “the supreme sacrifice,” who gave their lives for their country.   Especially these days, when Memorial Day seems nothing more than a time for cookouts and swim parties, we cannot be reminded often enough about how great a debt we owe our war dead.   They gave up their hopes and dreams, families, and friends. They submitted themselves to rigorous discipline—something I understand as a former Marine—24-hour-a-day duty—and placed their lives in great peril. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”   Their sacrifice should inspire in us a profound sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy, bought with a price. And that gratitude should compel us to lives of service as well. Serving Christ, our neighbor, and yes, our nation.   I can’t help but recall the brilliant film Saving Private Ryan. James Ryan, now in his seventies, has returned with his family to the military cemetery in Normandy. He visits the grave of Capt. John Miller, the man who, a half a century before, led the mission to retrieve—to save—Pvt. Ryan. At the end of the mission, Miller was fatally wounded. As he lay dying, his final words to Pvt. Ryan were “James. Earn this … earn it.”   We then see Ryan kneeling at Capt. Miller’s grave, marked by a cross. Ryan, his voice trembling with emotion, says,   “Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. I tried to live my life the best that I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that, at least in your eyes, I’ve earned what all of you have done for me. “  Red-eyed, Ryan turns to his wife and says, “Tell me I’ve led a good life … tell me I am a good man.”   With great dignity, she says, “You are.”   With that, James Ryan salutes the grave of Capt. Miller.   I tell this story in greater detail in my book The Good Life, which you can purchase at colsoncenter.org.   You see, Pvt. Ryan, out of gratitude for Capt. Miller’s sacrifice, did all in his power to live a good life.   And Memorial Day is a great time for each of us to look into the mirror … to examine our own lives. Are we living good lives in gratitude for all those who have sacrificed for us—including our men and women in the military, our families, our friends, and most of all Christ?   Are we, like Ryan, kneeling before the cross? Spielberg, a master cinematographer, had to realize the power of this imagery. Are we, out of gratitude, doing our duty for Christ, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, ministering to those in prison, in whatever harvest field to which the Lord has called us?   Examine your life.   And this Memorial Day, at the very least, thank those who have sacrificed for you and those you know who have served in our nation’s armed forces. Maybe you’ll do what I do when you see a guy or gal in uniform … at the airport, at the store, wherever … walk up to them and thank them for their service.   And then go and remember Whom it is you serve.    For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

A look at the passing of Tim Keller, who was called a giant by both top theologians and The New York Times. Christians are re-considering doing business with companies like Target and a handful of others that mock Christianity.     Recommendations  Lighthouse Voices with J.P. De Gance A Small Light  What Should a Christian's Response be to the Transgender Movement? For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Is the Metaverse headed for the graveyard? A year and a half after its release, the Metaverse remains vastly unpopular, despite millions of dollars of corporate investments and costly marketing campaigns. The most well-funded Metaverse app only has 38 active daily users, and Microsoft and Disney have laid off their specially designated Metaverse teams.  In the initial hype, Meta overestimated the desire and demand for virtual reality. Meta could be our generation’s MySpace, soon to be replaced by something superior, or it could be the failure to account for our embodied natures as image bearers.   Though we’re prone to dissatisfaction with our bodies and our relationships, we still crave “in-person” interaction and experiences, because our bodies are real and so is the physical world. Even the most beautiful picture cannot replace seeing the Grand Canyon up close. Digital knockoffs do not change or alter who we really are, body and spirit, a “living soul” made in the image and likeness of God. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

According to tradition, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew evangelized the region of Armenia in the first century. In the year 301, it became the first nation to declare itself Christian. Through centuries of warfare and oppression, its Christian identity has endured as part of Armenian culture, despite repeated attempts by neighbors to stamp it out.  In 1915, the Turkish Ottoman Empire killed an estimated 1.2 million people during what has become known as the Armenian Genocide. Under the pretext that they were insufficiently loyal to the empire, Ottoman authorities shot entire villages, forcibly converted families to Islam, and marched hundreds of thousands of women and children into the Syrian desert to die. The brutal campaign of extermination led to a significant diaspora of Armenians to other countries.   Even after Armenia emerged from Soviet dominance and declared itself an independent republic at the end of the 20th century, peace has remained elusive. Armenia has faced decades of conflict over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, where some 100,000 Armenian Christians now live but which Muslim-majority Azerbaijan sees as its territory. In 2020, as the world was preoccupied with the global pandemic, Azerbaijan waged war against Armenia. Seven thousand lives were taken, and the region has remained in the shadow of a fragile ceasefire since.   Today, most Armenians exist in a state of uncertainty. Given their control over the region, it may be that Azerbaijan is poised to commit a second Armenian genocide. According to University Network for Human Rights researcher Thomas Becker,  Over the past decade, Azerbaijani officials have invoked language used in the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust, referring to Armenians as a “cancer tumor” and a “disease” to be “treated.” More recently, the country’s authoritarian leader Ilham Aliyev has threatened to “drive [Armenians] away like dogs.”  The situation seems dire with Russia, Armenia’s ostensible security guarantor, bogged down in its own war against Ukraine, and with Iran, Armenia’s southern neighbor eager to fill the security vacuum. However, an unexpected recent development is that a significant number of Armenia’s diaspora population has been returning to their homeland. After a hundred years of exile and living in places like Russia, France, and the United States, an estimated 50,000 Armenians repatriated prior to 2020, with thousands more joining them every year since.   For some, the motivation to return is economic. For others, it’s about standing with fellow Armenians in the face of war. However, for many, the calling is about their faith. As the dean of Armenian Apostolic seminary put it, “We as a nation are called to witness to Jesus Christ in a very difficult region. … Our very existence is a testimony of Christianity.”  Lara Setrakian, an Armenian-American journalist, moved back with her family at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. In a recent podcast, she put it this way,   "I am doing what I’m called to do … and it is to be a helper like Mr. Rogers would say. It is a catastrophe. There are crises. But I want to be among the helpers. … We’re not interested in not being Christian ... For Christians … this country is one big test of faith. And people I see are rising to the occasion. And they are finding strength, and they … have not ever given up. … They haven’t given up the cross; they haven’t given up their language, their love, their dance. They embody the resilience that we’re all looking for."   Another repatriated Armenian mused, “In America, I had a good life: a big house, a good car. But when I say, ‘good life,’ I mean something else.”  As so many in the West reel from a crisis of meaning, Armenian Christians have found joy in the face of severe hardship. In that way, we have much to learn from our Armenian brothers and sisters, even as we ask God to bless them, to strengthen their faith, and to bring peace to the nation they are rebuilding.  This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Middle school girls in a club in Colorado are being told that they are transgender simply if they are uncomfortable with their bodies. Leaders of the middle school Gay-Straight Alliance brought in a speaker who told sixth graders that “if they are not completely comfortable in their bodies, that means that they are transgender.” Two families are suing the school district for promoting the harmful ideas.  Far from remedying a teenager’s discomfort with their bodies, these ideas worsen the discomfort, cause irreversible harms, and significantly increase chances of suicide, especially for girls.   With unrealistic beauty standards and objectification, it’s no wonder girls feel unsettled in their bodies. But this doesn’t mean they were born in the wrong body. Rather than push controversial and dangerous ideologies that harm kids, parents, doctors, and educators should work to address the more immediate causes of body image issues, especially social media and pop culture.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Last Friday, May 19, pastor, theologian, and author Tim Keller passed away. The longtime pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and author of books such as The Reason for God was known for his thoughtful sermons, calm demeanor, and a ministry that extended beyond his own denomination and even his fellow Christians to the wider world of elite society.  It’s rare, especially today, for someone to be called “a giant” by both a top theologian and a New York Times columnist. Rarer still will such a prominent figure be regularly described as unassuming, living out the exhortation of Rudyard Kipling to be someone who can “walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch.” It’s notable that even his critics, which he certainly had, have refrained from doubting his self-effacing grace and kindness for others.  Keller was in his forties before he showed up on the public’s radar. Oddly enough, he went to Manhattan after pastoring a small-town Virginia church for nine years. Success in the Big Apple was by no means a sure thing. A theologically conservative pastor setting up shop in the “Babylon” of downtown New York City had all the makings of a fish-out-of-water story where the well-meaning parson was doomed to failure even before he set out.   Keller took pains to know his audience, leveraging his own intellectual rigor into sermons for his highly educated hearers. He refused to talk down, much less shout down. Nor did he attempt to make the distinctives of the Christian faith more palatable. He took strong stands on the deity of Christ, the reliability of Scripture, the resurrection, the hopelessness of secularism, and the enduring relevance of Christian sexual ethics.   From an initial church plant of 15 people in 1989, Redeemer Presbyterian Church grew to a network of multiple congregations with thousands of people attending each week. In time, his influence extended to other pastors, who were inspired by his example and teaching, and set out to emulate in their own communities what Keller had done in New York. Keller was also instrumental in cross-denominational efforts, linking like-minded Christians to share their ideas and cooperate in endeavors to enhance the presence of the Church around the world. He was a co-founder of The Gospel Coalition, a broadly Reformed network that is among the most influential voices of contemporary evangelicalism, and a central figure in a Reformed resurgence among those who became known as the “Young, Restless, and Reformed.”   He was also an original signer of the Manhattan Declaration, a Christian statement on life, marriage, and religious liberty because, as he put it at the time, “these are biblical.” Keller communicated a confidence that believers could maintain the classical faith of Christianity without being ashamed when dealing with cynical neighbors. Christians could, he believed, meet the claims of the world face-to-face because the Bible offers an accurate and holistic explanation for reality and the human condition and grounds the hope for which people are truly searching. His sermons offered a robust biblical analysis, a keen awareness and understanding of culture, and allusions to art, history, Lewis, and Tolkien.  Ironically, his critics include progressive Princeton students and faculty, who couldn’t stomach the idea that he would be honored by their school, and conservative Christians, some of whom believed his winsomeness to be weakness, and others who, as I often did in recent years, disagreed with his posture about politics and political allegiance.  Even so, Keller was a remarkable gift to Christ’s Church at an incredibly important cultural moment. Even in disagreeing, he made us better by, as St. Paul put it, “set(ting) the believers  an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity,” and reminding us that, in the end, the resurrection secures our hope for today and for eternity. As he said on a podcast near the end of his life, in his trademark thoughtful and calm demeanor, “If Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead, if He really got up ... everything is going to be all right.”  This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy D. Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org 

The 2020 pandemic disrupted the education of millions of kids. In response, many parents opted for alternative forms of education. “In that single summer,” wrote Dixie Lane with the Institute for Family Studies, “the number of registered homeschoolers in America more than doubled, rising from about 5.4% to about 11.1 %. Homeschooling among African Americans alone jumped to 16.1%, a nearly five-fold increase.”   Still, Lane argues, the pandemic was not the only reason for the boom. In general, Americans are committed to two principles in education: localism and parental authority. The state overreach in K-12 education has brought parents back to those fundamental values.   Some are fighting to make public schools better; others are investing in homeschooling or private Christian education. Either way, kids are rightly being seen as the primary responsibility of parents, not the state.   More options mean a beautiful opportunity for Christians to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, and minds … and to teach their kids to do likewise.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Much has been documented about the growing mental health crisis among American teenagers. Young people, however, are not the only ones struggling. Middle-aged women, particularly white women over the age of 45, account for nearly 60% of all Americans who have been taking antidepressants for more than five years.  To be sure, with this kind of statistic, it is not clear the role that medical and pharmaceutical industries, which are incentivized to medicalize mental health struggles, play. There are also cultural factors at work. Affluent people, white people, and women are on average more likely to seek help for mental health issues than African American or Hispanic women, men, or people in poverty.   It is good that more attention is now given to the mentally and emotionally hurting and that these struggles are no longer as stigmatized. But we also have reached a point where it’s almost fashionable to be diagnosed with a mental health condition. This is especially true for women, and progressive women in particular.   It is not unusual for people to include a mental health diagnosis in their social media profiles. Regardless of how well-founded these diagnoses are, the fact that so many (especially women and young people) embrace them as part of their identity is a troubling sign of dysfunction.   Clearly, people are suffering. In a culture shaped by a “critical theory mood,” claims of suffering can be thought of as a desirable way of elevating a person’s moral status. It is also not a coincidence that this suffering has accompanied a culturewide loss of a sense of meaning. A 2021 Lifeway Research study found that nearly 60% of American adults wonder about how they can find more meaning and purpose in their lives on at least a monthly basis. Rates of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide are up across all demographics.  Even as the wider world is struggling, there is a notable exception. In 2019, the Pew Research Center found that 36% of Americans who attend church or are “actively religious” regularly report being “very happy.” In other words, faith in God, marriage, family, and a sense of duty to something larger than ourselves are often what provide people with the richest sense of meaning.   Ironically, these are the very things that, we are constantly being told, will constrain us. Women are told that being a wife or a mother “gets in the way” of true happiness. Men and women are told that sacrificing for others leads to unhappiness. The numbers, however, don’t lie. Living unattached lives committed to individual autonomy is making us miserable.   Of course, mental health struggles often inflict the righteous, too.  Elijah, Martin Luther, and many others also battled inner demons. Still, whether the increased rates of mental health struggles are primarily physiological or due to self-inflicted circumstances, how we think about them matters. As author O. Alan Noble puts it, in moments of profound mental suffering, “getting out of bed is an act of worship”:   But when you choose to rise out of bed each day, you also set a table for your neighbor. You declare with your being and actions that life itself is good. Whether you like it or not, your life is a witness that testifies to the goodness of God.  Worship, in fact, takes many forms: singing, teaching, reflecting, relating. This is because worship is a way of recognizing the meaning that God placed in His world and for His image bearers. In fact, worship is the meaning for which human beings were made. There is nothing more than to know and to glorify God. In His grace, He makes Himself known throughout His world. It is one of God’s great mercies that, by fulfilling His purpose for us, we are able to know happiness, satisfaction, and meaning.  This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

If the language of yesterday is continually updated, how can we maintain an accurate grip on history?  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Only 3% of the world’s population currently lives in a country whose birth rate isn’t declining.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org