Breakpoint

John and Maria discuss how the Governor race highlights more than how one political party can win future elections. John shares how worldview is underneath the movement in Virginia politics and how looking to the future we shouldn't look through a political lens but one that understands the human person. Maria asks John to provide a more in-depth understanding of school and what the role of education is in society. To close, Maria and John revisit a handful of commentaries for the week. First, they revisit a commentary from Shane Morris on how some in science are grasping to explain the apparent reality that the universe had to have a creator. Then they revisit The Most Reluctant Convert, the new movie by Max McLean and the Center for the Performing Arts. John shares that the movie did incredibly well in theatres, and many theatres are extending the premiere for two weeks. -- Recommendations -- The Most Reluctant Convert The Movie>> The Limits of Pleasure Paul Bloom & Sam Herris | Making Sense | November 3, 2021 Surprised by Joy C.S. Lewis | Harper One | 2017 CRT and Woke Christianity Owen Strachan vs Jermaine Marshall with Justin Brierly | Unbelievable Podcast | October 15, 2021 -- Story References -- Parents Find Support from SchoolsKuyper believed that societal breakdown was inevitable whenever a God-ordained authority either abandoned or exerted authority outside of its ordained sphere. That's an ominous analysis today when so many, including gubernatorial candidates, see the state as society rather than as a mere element of society.BreakPoint>> How this suburban school board became the hottest issue in the Virginia governor's raceAmid school board chaos across the country, Loudoun has become particularly prickly, as Youngkin and McAuliffe argue about so-called critical race theory, the potential banning of books like Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and how to navigate COVID-19 protocols in schools.USA Today>> The Most Reluctant Convert's Journey to Faith and to the Big ScreenToday, too, we need a revival of the Christian imagination. One of my favorite scenes in The Most Reluctant Convert is when Lewis reads George MacDonald's Phantastes for the first time. MacDonald's gripping imagery and deep love of goodness did something incredible for Jack, long before his conversion: it taught him to long for holiness. "That night," he would write years later, "my imagination [was] baptized."BreakPoint>> Intelligent Design without God?This is Ockham's Razor on a cosmic scale. As Meyer concludes in his book, the "God hypothesis" is still the most scientifically reasonable explanation for the universe, one that does not "unnecessarily multiply explanatory entities." While it's an improvement that some modern astronomers and physicists are willing to consider intelligent design, given a choice between a transcendent God and an infinite number of immanent alien designers (or turtles?), the answer is obvious.BreakPoint>>

On Tuesday, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated incumbent Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor race. The issue that gave Youngkin the edge was education, something that Republicans in Virginia typically do not perform as well on. Things have apparently changed in the Commonwealth, however, after a year and a half of school shutdowns, heated disagreements over masking policies, debates over whether Critical Theory should be taught in the classroom on issues of race and LGBTQ, a horrific cover-up by the Loudon County school board, and, especially, Governor McAuliffe's comment during a September debate that parents 'shouldn't be telling schools what to teach.' As shocked as Virginians were by the statement, the view of education it reflects has a storied history. The late sociologist Christopher Lasch described it in his 1979 bestseller, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. Lasch believed that when industrialization took labor outside of the home, it led many Americans to question whether other responsibilities should leave home, too. Lasch quotes two national education officials who, in 1918, said, "Once the school had mainly to teach the elements of knowledge; now it is charged with the physical, mental and social training of the child as well." Around the same time, Sigmund Freud was psychoanalyzing parenthood, often casting parents in the role of villain. This was also the era in which the modern concept of social work was born, and when America launched the juvenile justice system. Entire industries were built upon the premise that parents were largely unqualified to raise their kids, or at least needed a lot of help from the state. In the late 1800s, Ellen Richards, the founder of modern social work, suggested that "in a social republic, the child as a future citizen is an asset of the state, not the property of its parents." A few decades earlier, Dutch theologian, statesman, and philosopher Abraham Kuyper outlined a very different theory of the relationship between the family, the state, and other aspects of society. With his view of "sphere sovereignty," Kuyper suggested that government was only one of the God-ordained governing institutions, each created with their own purview and scope of authority. Though they have a vested interest in the education of citizens, governments don't bear the responsibility or the right to usurp parents' authority. Kuyper believed that societal breakdown was inevitable whenever a God-ordained authority either abandoned or exerted authority outside of its ordained sphere. That's an ominous analysis today when so many, including gubernatorial candidates, see the state as society rather than as a mere element of society. Scripture describes the birth of a child as a gift from God. God gave Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, Samuel to Hannah, and so on. "The Lord has given me many sons," said King David. Of course, God's gifts come with responsibilities. Parenthood intrinsically commits Christians to follow Jesus, to be thoughtful and self-sacrificing, to live virtuously and teach kids to do the same, to bring them up in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Any authority we have over our children is God-given, and must ultimately and eventually be surrendered to God. Sometimes carrying out parental duties requires help. Modern parents are incredibly fortunate to have access to pediatricians, child psychologists, family counselors, pastors, educators, and even whole institutions that assist them in their roles as moms and dads. At the same time, both the parents and the experts have to keep straight who is the authority and who is the helper. We take our children to the doctor when they're sick, but we don't expect them to bathe, feed and clothe them. Having more "technical knowledge" of a child's body neither alters the line of authority nor implies that they know our child. Thomas Jefferson believed the purpose of public education was to foster citizens who were knowledgeable of history and virtuous enough to peacefully self-govern. That, however, requires an accurate view of what it means to be human, what it means to be human together in families and societies, what it means to be fallen humans, and how fallen humans can become self-governable people. When a culture loses its grip on those foundations, the "experts" (or, as C.S. Lewis called them "conditioners") step in. They loudly suggest that a college degree in education and a place on the government's payroll gives someone the vocational and moral authority over kids. Don't buy it. That authority belongs to God, Who assigns it to parents, along with the responsibility to educate children. If we believe that, we should also trust Him to equip us to rise to the occasion of raising our children.

According to a new report from the China Tribunal, the Chinese government is harvesting organs, essentially running a "kill to order" business of conscience dissidents from inside the Fulan Gong sect and Uyghur prison camps. They then remove organs from the dead. The scale is stunning. Last year, China reported 20,000 organ transplants to the World Health Organization. Critics think the number is closer to 100,000. The numbers are staggering, but this is something that's been widely reported since 2006, with government documents from China outlining parts of the practice since the early 2000s. Forced organ harvesting from minorities is barbaric. It's a consequence of the Chinese Communist Party's dehumanizing view of its citizens and its totalitarian methods, which are further reflected in its draconian birth policies. The continuation of this practice is enabled by an international community still pretending it isn't happening. The test of a society, and the worldview driving it, isn't just what it promotes, but also what evil it confronts. Right now, the silence is telling.

Shane Morris invites Colson Center Director of Equipping and Mobilization, Michael Craven to answer a host of questions about the church. A number of listeners have written in to ask how the church can engage this cultural moment. One listener asks what things we can celebrate inside the church, rather than simply critiquing what is happening in the church.

Atheist comedian, Stephen Fry, once said (quite ironically) that you are who you are when nobody's watching. When social restraints are removed, when the cameras aren't rolling, what sort of person are you? What sort of choices do you make? All of us—especially men—need to ask these questions of ourselves in the wake of the daily flurry of scandals from Hollywood and Washington. This isn't a problem "out there" in someone else's sound studio, office, or home. It's a problem "in here," at the depths of the sinful human heart. Is the person we portray to others the same person we are when we're by ourselves—or more importantly—when we believe there'll be no consequences for our actions? This is sometimes called "living on your face," in other words, making sure that what you present in public is the character you demonstrate in private. Only as Christians, we know that there's nowhere we can flee from the presence of God, who sees all, and who's always with us, and who promises that "our sins will find us out."

One of the most beloved and quotable scenes in The Chronicles of Narnia is from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when the children learn that Aslan is a lion, "the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." Though we love the idea that God is not "safe," we often live as if our safety or comfort marks the boundaries of our relationship with Him. Catechized by bad theology, captivated by our culture's enablement of self-centeredness, or weary of an angry and fractious age, many Christians cannot conceive that God's will for our lives could involve anything unpleasant or uncomfortable. When it does and our expectations collapse, we wonder if God cares, having conflated God's faithfulness with a painless, placid life of blessing and provision. We are quick to assume that pain or discomfort means that God's will has been thwarted, or that His love and protection have been withdrawn. It's difficult to accept that, rather than a sign of God's absence, the presence of pain could be a sign of His sovereign care. Throughout The Horse and His Boy, Aslan continually allows fear, hardship, and even physical pain for the main characters. When Shasta, one of the two main humans in the story, is fleeing from his abusive, adoptive father on the Narnian horse Bree, a lion chases them through the darkness. Fleeing from the danger, he encounters another rider fleeing from, it seems, another lion. Aravis is also escaping her home on a talking Narnian horse. Their shared fear and confusion bring them together for a journey neither of them could have made without the other. Later, in the story, they're riding as fast as they can to head off a threat to Narnia. Just as Bree claims he can go no faster, a "new" lion closes in on them. Lewis writes, "His eyes gleamed red and his ears lay back on his skull. And Bree now discovered that he had not really been going as fast – not quite as fast – as he could. Shasta felt the change at once. Now they were going all out. The lion then badly wounds Aravis, before retreating unexpectedly. Later, Shasta learns the full story. There was only one lion, not many. Aslan was "swift of foot." Without the fears and the pain, Shasta and Aravis, Bree and Hwin, would have never met; their quest would have failed; the enemy would have been victorious; and Shasta would never have learned who he truly was. The pain wasn't an afterthought on Aslan's part, but a key element in his plan. None of this implies that pain should be sought out. Pain is never the point of God's plans, any more than it is the purpose of physical exercise. Never pushing ourselves to the point that it hurts means never improving our health. On the other hand, seeking pain is more likely to do harm than to aid our well-being. In and of itself, pain is not good, but it is meaningful. Pain indicates that something is wrong and needs to be addressed. Without pain, we'd never know. In the same way, breaking bad habits of the past requires pushing beyond our comfort levels, through the pain, and onward on the path to full restoration. Pain is sometimes required to reorient us. What else can turn one away from a debilitating addiction or insatiable sexual impulse? Without discomfort, would we ever give up on our preferred source of "safety" for the faithful and sometimes painful love of God? Whether through sickness or sacrifice, in ending a dream or enduring hostility, we must remember that God's faithfulness is not determined by how well our lives are going. In fact, it is often known only in the hardest things of life. To deny that God could or would use discomfort for our good is to deny that He is present in our pain. He is. Just as, in His quest to restore the glory of His creation, He did not shrink back from inflicting pain on His dear Son, His love for His people often includes a level of discomfort and pain. In the end, it is part of His work to restore His image-bearers to their intended dignity. As Lewis wrote elsewhere, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

"There's some order in this chaotic universe." Those are the words of Noam Libeskind a postdoctoral researcher at Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam. He was referring to recent breakthrough findings in astrophysics. Scientists have long thought that the entire universe is interconnected by a "cosmic web" of dark matter and gas structures. What Libeskind and his team found was that these colossal filaments are rotating, which makes them "the largest objects known to have angular momentum." In Libeskind's words, "they're not just swarming randomly. There's actually an ordered motion to them."

Max McLean is bringing Lewis to life for a generation of theatergoers. His Fellowship for the Performing Arts has toured the country bringing C.S. Lewis from the page to the stage. During Covid, McLean pivoted their in-person presentations to transform one of their most popular presentations into a feature film. The Most Reluctant Convert chronicles the faith journey of C.S. Lewis. Drawing from the canon of Lewis, McLean presents how Lewis realized the need for God in the world, realized his need for a God who so loved the world, and how Lewis stepped from writing his own story to join the Great Narrator in His story. The Most Reluctant Convert is playing in select theatres around the country today. For details on showtimes, and to see if theatres near you are extending the performance, visit www.cslewismovie.com

For years now, my friend Max McLean has brought incredible stories to life on stage through his organization, Fellowship for Performing Arts. He's doing this in the heart of the arts world, in New York City. I've appreciated his work bringing the life and work of C.S. Lewis to life on stage. Just a few weeks ago, my wife and I were able to see Lewis's The Great Divorce brought to life on stage in a compelling presentation and one of the first performances Max led after the Covid lockdowns. However, during Covid, Max and the Fellowship for Performing Arts took one of their most popular performances, The Most Reluctant Convert, and turned it into a movie. It hits theaters across the country today. My colleague Shane Morris recently interviewed Max McLean about Lewis's redemption story on the Upstream podcast. Listen to how Max McLean describes the remarkable conversion of one of Christianity's most ardent and talented defenders, C.S. Lewis. We, as Christians, particularly on the evangelical side, we're pretty impatient about things. Lewis's journey as a hard-boiled atheist to the pursuit of God is very dramatic. His journey didn't start until after the War, probably when he met Owen Barfield and they had those arguments. These were had at some point during The Great War, and Lewis called it a "war with Barfield," I think. Those conversations probably didn't start until Lewis was 21 years old. So, there's a ten-year journey of moving towards Christianity for Lewis. Lewis said what he found was horrifying; it was just abysmal. He really recognized his utter sinfulness, and then ultimately he could understand that he believed in God. His conversion was not this sort of "god of the philosophers" moment. It was "the God who demands." Lewis lived in that world for a while. He couldn't understand the importance of Jesus. So, when he finally comes to Christ (and I think the film does a nice job with Lewis's walk and his conversation with Tolkien, which is key to the film and key to Lewis's story) and then from there, we have this extraordinary church scene, which he talks about in his letters, that he took a short walk to church. He says that walk marked the end of one journey, and the beginning of another. You know, I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but I understand the word Israel means "struggle with God." When Jacob wrestles with God, I think that's the norm of the real Christian life. We have to wrestle with our desires, our sin nature, because the last thing we really want to do is follow God. We want to follow ourselves; God wouldn't let him off the hook. And I anticipate that this film is going to awaken a lot of that struggle in many, many people. That story, the story of C.S. Lewis's struggle-leading-to-reliance in Jesus, is now in theatres across America. It releases today. Go to cslewismovie.com for theatres and showtimes.

As Inc.com's Bill Saporito reports, a new innovation called "controlled environment agriculture" is poised to shake up how we grow food. By stacking greenhouses vertically in abandoned buildings, entrepreneurs are growing food in less time with higher yields, using up to 95 percent less water, no pesticides and a dramatically shorter supply chain. As a result, vertical farms can be up to 400 times more productive than traditional farms. This approach may help mitigate environmental problems like pesticides and water usage, and could reduce the number of "food deserts," miles of urban sprawl with no affordable fruit and vegetables. It could even bridge the divide between farms and cities. Farms are currently operating in South Karney, New Jersey, in warehouses that stood empty for years. In Scripture, God demonstrates an affinity for both gardens and cities, and innovations like this reflect how God made people to think. What's more, it undermines climate anxiety like the kind made popular by Paul Ehrlich, which treats people as problems to be solved. He predicted millions would starve; instead, people are once again innovating and solving problems.