Breakpoint

On this day 75 years ago, an elderly German couple living in the shattered remains of Berlin turned on the radio. This was Klaus and Paula Bonhoeffer, the parents of pastor, theologian, and resistance leader Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Because lines of communication had been devastated by the war, the first Klaus and Paula heard of their son’s death was his memorial service in London, organized by his good friend Bishop George Bell and broadcast over the BBC.   In the words of my former colleague Eric Metaxas,   "As the couple took in the hard news that the good man who was their son was now dead, so too, many English took in the hard news that the dead man who was a German was good."   Bonhoeffer’s faithfulness was a reminder to the world that, even in the face of radical evil, faithfulness to Christ is possible. As Bishop Bell would put it, “He represents both the resistance of the believing soul, in the name of God, to the assault of evil, and also the moral and political revolt of the human conscience against injustice and cruelty.” For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

To see Dr. Kristin Collier’s speech at this year’s Colson Center National Conference, go to colsonconference.org. To hear more about how her faith shapes her medical practice, check out her interview on the Strong Women podcast.   ______ Perhaps the most helpful framework for wrestling with moral issues comes from T.S. Eliot. To paraphrase, we can only know what we should and should not do with something if we first know what that something is for. For example, before we decide what we should do with human life (whether we should take it, make it, or remake it), we should know what human life is for.   Recently, Dr. Kristin Collier, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan and a speaker at this year’s Colson Center National Conference, published an important essay in the healthcare journal BMJ Leader. In it, she called doctors and the medical profession in general to return to this essential question. In fact, Dr. Collier entitled the piece, “What is Medicine For?”  Today, medical leaders are participating in an industry dominated by the production of science and technology. But what is scientifically possible for the body and what is humane for the person are different questions which medicine must answer together.  In other words, Dr. Collier says, doctors shouldn’t only ask what medicine can do. They must first ask what medicine is for. This is even more important in an age of increasingly complex ethical dilemmas in medicine.   For example, consider the abortion pill reversal regimen which, according to estimates, has led to the saving of more than 4,000 lives. Medication abortions consist of two pills, the first of which starves the baby by cutting off the mother’s production of progesterone. The abortion pill reversal is essentially a blast of progesterone, something commonly administered to women in fertility treatments. Abortion advocates in medicine and public policy oppose allowing women to even consider this option, even falsely claiming that supplemental progesterone is, or at least might be, unsafe.  So, is supplemental progesterone “good” or “bad”? On the one hand, it can be administered to save a child’s life. On the other hand, it can be used in a process that leads to the creation of an excessive number of embryos, many of which will be abandoned, discarded, or subjected to medical experimentation.   This is where Dr. Collier’s question is critically important. What is medicine for? Is the telos (or intended goal) of medicine to give us what we want, or to serve healing? And is health merely the “absence of disease or pain,” or something else?   Dr. Collier rightly points out that to answer these questions, we must first answer another, deeper one: What does it mean to be human? A holistic view, which integrates biomedical science with theological and philosophical realities, understands health as rightly ordered relationships with our bodies, with the world around us, with others, and with the God who made us.   Medicine has made many things possible. But it’s a profound and consequential mistake to assume that because we can, we therefore should.  We can cut off or carve up healthy body parts in a misguided attempt to relieve the psychological pain of gender dysphoria. We can use surgical instruments or chemical drugs to kill babies in their mothers’ womb or to create babies in laboratories to be sold to adults who will have no biological connection to them. We can even prescribe lethal drugs to patients who say they want to die. But to use medicine like this violates the moral boundaries of our relationships to our own bodies, our relationships with each other, and our relationship to God, who made our bodies, who Has a specific design for marriage and family, and who forbids the taking of human life.   A biblical view of health and healing presumes a few things: first, that the absence of disease and suffering is not the full biblical picture of living well; second, that while physical death is a reality for each of us, it has not rendered living meaningless, so we shouldn’t fight the end of life as if it has; third, that our obligations to God, to the world around us, to ourselves, and to each other may come into conflict with our desire to not be in pain—physical or mental—and when they do, we ought to prioritize those relationships.  The Christian witness in the next 20 years is going to not only involve Christian doctors practicing medicine well. It will also involve Christian patients suffering well, dying well, and helping others die well as human beings made in the image of God, whose ultimate hope is in His salvation, not medical technology.  To see Dr. Kristin Collier’s speech at this year’s Colson Center National Conference, go to colsonconference.org. To hear more about how her faith shapes her medical practice, check out her interview on the Strong Women podcast.   This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. If you’re a fan of Breakpoint, leave a review on your favorite podcast app.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Groundbreaking medical technologies such as immunotherapy and targeted chemotherapy have changed the game when it comes to fighting cancers, with new treatments seemingly on the horizon. Praise God.    At the same time, one non-medical factor has long been known to significantly improve the odds of someone surviving cancer. According to one 2013 study of over 700,000 cancer patients, those who were married were less likely to die of cancer than those who were not. In fact, at least according to this study, marriage was a more decisive factor for a patient’s survival than even chemotherapy.  This points to the reality that relationships are central to who we are as human beings and points to the kindness of God for creating and designing the institution of marriage the way He did. It also supports the idea that marriage is a created part of reality, and not merely a social construct. And that, whenever our single friends suffer with cancer, they need the support of God’s family. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org 

In his new book, 32 Christians Who Changed Their World, Colson Center Senior Fellow Dr. Glenn Sunshine tells the stories of faithful men and women, most of whom are unknown today, whose lives were used by God in extraordinary ways.  To receive a copy of 32 Christians Who Changed Their World, give a gift of any amount this month to the Colson Center (please visit colsoncenter.org/July).    _______ Ho Feng Shan was born in Yiyang, Hunan province, in China. Orphaned at age seven, he was taken in and educated by Lutheran missionaries. A lifelong Lutheran, he eventually immigrated to San Francisco and became a founding member of the Chinese Lutheran Church there.   In 1935, after earning a doctorate from the University of Munich three years earlier, Ho joined the diplomatic corps of the Republic of China. Two years later, thanks in part to his fluency in both English and German, he was appointed First Secretary to the Chinese legation in Vienna. In 1938, when Austria disappeared into the Third Reich, all foreign embassies were downgraded to consulates. Ho was appointed Consul General in Vienna, answering to the ambassador in Berlin. As he would later recall,   “Since the annexation of Austria by Germany, the persecution of the Jews by Hitler’s ‘devils’ became increasingly fierce. There were American religious and charitable organizations which were urgently trying to save the Jews. I secretly kept in close contact with these organizations. I spared no effort in using any means possible. Innumerable Jews were thus saved.”  Among the “any means possible” at his disposal were visas. At that time, the Nazis permitted Jews to leave Austria, even from concentration camps, if they had a visa to another country. China’s Nationalist government had instructed Ho to be “liberal” with visas, so he began issuing them to Jewish families for travel to Shanghai. Shanghai was an open city, and no visa was required to go there. However, Ho used the ruse to help Jews escape Austria.   Keeping the secret was not easy. Ho and his family were at risk of the Nazis ignoring his diplomatic immunity if they decided he was too much trouble. On at least one occasion, Ho faced down an armed Gestapo officer to protect a Jewish family.  When the Chinese ambassador ordered Ho to stop giving Jews visas, Ho replied that the Foreign Ministry had told him to be liberal with visas. The ambassador could not figure out what Ho was getting out of the visas and sent an inspector to Vienna to investigate. Finding no evidence of wrongdoing, the inspector returned to Berlin and placed a negative report into Ho’s record for insubordination.   No one knows just how many visas Ho issued during this time. A conservative estimate is around 4,000. How many were used is also unknown. What is known is that Ho’s courage saved thousands of lives.  After the war, when the Communists won the Chinese civil war and the Nationalists withdrew to Taiwan, Ho remained loyal to the Nationalist cause. He served in numerous diplomatic posts until a subordinate, whom Ho had turned down for a promotion, accused him of misappropriating $300 of embassy funds. Though innocent, Ho was pushed out of his job and denied his pension despite 40 years of service.  Ho retired to San Francisco, where he dedicated himself to his church and to community service. When he died in September 1997, Ho’s daughter brought his ashes to China and buried them in his hometown of Yiyang. Ironically, the Communists government sent a wreath while the Nationalist government ignored his passing. Finally, in 2015, Taiwan recognized his work and posthumously awarded him the President’s Citation Award.  When asked why he worked so hard at such great personal risk to save Jews when other diplomats did not, he explained, “I thought it only natural to feel compassion and to want to help. From the standpoint of humanity, that is the way it should be.” Shaped especially by a character formed by his Christian faith and a Western liberal education rooted in Christianity, Ho was providentially prepared to save lives in Vienna even at great risk to himself and his family.   His life is an example of how, through history and across diverse eras, Christians courageously lived lives of restoration in incredibly difficult cultural moments. In his new book, 32 Christians Who Changed Their World, Colson Center Senior Fellow Dr. Glenn Sunshine tells the stories of faithful men and women, most of whom are unknown today, whose lives were used by God in extraordinary ways.  To receive a copy of 32 Christians Who Changed Their World, give a gift of any amount this month to the Colson Center (please visit colsoncenter.org/July).    This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. If you’re a fan of Breakpoint, leave a review on your favorite podcast app.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

It’s not unusual for family photos to include the family dog, but as families in the photo have become less traditional, the dog has taken on new significance. A recent poll by Pew Research found that about half of U.S. pet owners consider their pets “as much a part of their family as a human member.”   Those living with a partner but not married were the most likely to say this, at 65%, followed by those never married, non-parents, and then those divorced or separated. Those married and those with children were the least likely to place pets on par with people.  Pets can be awesome. However, putting them on par with humans not only humanizes pets, but de-humanizes people. It’s notable how the presence and committed family love between real human beings corrects that bad idea for people. It’s also notable that as much as we appreciate the affection of Fido, when we need to be cared for, only a person and not a pet will do.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

 In the parable of the sower, Jesus illustrated how the seed of God’s Word flourishes or perishes depending on the kind of ground it falls on. Some seeds fell on a path, and birds ate them. Some fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings. “Other seeds,” said Jesus, “fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.”   That rocky soil group aptly describes the rapid rise and decline of evangelicals in America in recent decades. Recently, political scientist Ryan Burge, co-author of The Great Dechurching, explained how, between 1983 and 1993, the share of Americans who identified as evangelicals exploded. In fact, at their height in the early ’90s, nearly a third of Americans called themselves evangelical.   This growth overlapped with the sharpest period of decline for mainline Protestants which, between 1975 and 1988, fell from one in three Americans to less than one in five. As Burge points out, this coincide-ence was no coincidence. Evangelical gains resulted partly from “cannibalizing” the mainline denominations. By 2018, however, those gains had withered. Evangelicals returned to their pre-1980s percentage of the population, and by all indications, are still declining today, though more slowly.   Part of the story of what happened is the rise of the “nones,” those who claim no religious affiliation. Between 1991 and today, the percentage of Americans who identify as “nones” skyrocketed from 6% to 29%. Burge calls this “the most significant shift in American society over the last thirty years.”  Of course, pointing to the rise of the “nones” is basically a way of restating the problem. The evangelical bubble of the ’80s and ’90s, as well as the longer-term decline of American Christianity, requires a fuller explanation.    Perhaps, given how quickly the evangelical bubble burst, part of the problem was that it was filled with shallow belief. Or to switch back to Jesus’ metaphor, perhaps some of the seeds that came up so quickly in the final decades of the 20th century—amid chart-topping Christian albums, huge music festivals, and sprouting non-denominational megachurches—lacked deep roots.  Of course, there is nothing wrong per se with creative outreach strategies, but Jesus never told us that the goal was to get bodies through the doors or bottoms in the chairs. It was to make disciples committed to Christ and His Kingdom—disciples who would in turn “bear much fruit.”  Given the rapid rise and fall of the evangelical crop, we might safely conclude that many of those who joined and helped it spring up so quickly had shallow roots. Overall, Christians were not cultivated with deep roots in the truth God has revealed about Himself, His world, human beings, and His plan to make all things new.   Much of that is the Holy Spirit’s work through families and the church, of course. He prepares the soil, and He gives the growth. He also gives many commands in Scripture that indicate the part we play and the responsibility we have.    One of the most important ways to ensure deep roots is through the cultivating of a worldview informed by Christian truth, something in stark contrast from sprinkling Christian encouragements on top of the world’s view. This means teaching the Bible as if it is the true account of reality, contrasting a Biblical understanding of things with those widely accepted, meeting challenges from the wider culture head-on, answering tough questions about the faith, teaching Christians to take seriously Christ’s sovereignty over all of life, belonging and not merely attending church, and teaching worship as everything we do, not just when we sing.  It also means recognizing the role cultural currents play in eroding faith—especially those undermining marriage and the family. As Mary Eberstadt wrote almost 10 years ago in How the West Really Lost God, one of the most powerful forces behind secularization and the rise of the “nones” is the decline of the family. Subsequent research has only proven how right she was. If evangelicals or members of any Christian tradition want to have a future, we’re going to have to prioritize intact, stable families. After all, families not only make new people, they teach them the language and categories God uses to describe His new family—the Church.   Despite the numbers, we should always maintain hope and expect a harvest. Those who’ve turned in the last few decades from Christian belief to no belief aren’t doing well. We’re in the midst of a historic mental health crisis, and people raised without faith in God are suffering the worst of it. Religious observance, by contrast, is strongly correlated with better mental health. As helpful as therapy can be, the greatest longings of the human heart and the greatest problems of human relationships are only redeemed in Christ.   That’s why, despite evangelical decline in America, we continue to till the soil and trust the Sower, fully believing He can produce deeper roots than before and fully expecting the hundredfold harvest He described.   This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. To help us share Breakpoint with others, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Recent research from political scientist Ryan Burge indicates that, at least in the United States, the Christian faith is found primarily among the educated and wealthy. Americans most likely to regularly attend church hold graduate degrees and have an average annual income of $60,000-$100,000.   Does this mean Christianity is a “luxury religion?”    Not exactly. According to marriage experts John Van Epp and J.P. DeGance, “one’s economic future is greatly impacted by the relationship choices one makes, specifically in the areas of marriage and parenting.” So, for example, for people whose values include having children after marriage (and not before), the likeliness of being in the “middle- or top-income tier” brackets more than doubles despite their background.   This reinforces, again, that God’s design of marriage and family is built into the created order and, when followed, leads to economic, social, and spiritual flourishing.   For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

In John 16:33, Jesus said that “[i]n the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” In the 20 centuries since our Lord spoke these haunting yet hopeful words, they’ve proven true. In fact, in terms of absolute numbers, we live in the worst period of persecution against Christians in history. More Christians died for their faith in the 20th century than the previous 19 combined, and the 21st century is shaping up to be at least as deadly, but likely more.   According to Open Doors International’s latest World Watch List, 312 million Christians face “extreme” or “very high” levels of persecution—1 in 5 in Africa; 2 in 5 in Asia. Last year was the worst year on record for persecution, with 5,500 Christians killed for reasons related to their faith, more than 2,000 churches attacked, and over 4,500 Christians detained or imprisoned. For the most part, each year of the past decade has been worse than the previous year.   Writing of the persecutions that plagued God’s people in the early days of Christianity, Tertullian claimed that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Though particularly intense persecution has, at times, led to a decrease in overall Church numbers, the Church has grown far beyond the wildest imagination of Jesus’ first followers. Stories of the faithful who endured persecution and faced martyrdom have been a catalyst for that growth.    In 1563, historian John Foxe told many of the earliest stories in a book that would become one of the most widely read works in the English language. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs chronicles hundreds of Christians who gave their lives or were persecuted for their faith from the New Testament all the way to his day. Through generations of expansions and editions, it became an indispensable classic.   Foxe’s Book of Martyrs was written from a Protestant perspective and, almost 50 years older than the King James Bible, is a challenging read. Recently, a pair of daring authors took up Foxe’s mantle to tell the stories of the martyrs afresh for modern readers. In The New Book of Christian Martyrs, Johnnie Moore and Dr. Jerry Pattengale of Indiana Wesleyan University offer accounts of heroes of the faith from the first to the 21st centuries.  Written in a fast-paced and richly informative style, with reference to important historical sources, Moore and Pattengale make cultural connections and frequently quote Foxe’s best “vintage” passages about the martyrs. Throughout, they seem constantly aware that they are writing to a Christian Church vastly larger, more global, and by some measures more persecuted than it was in Foxe’s day.   Dr. Pattengale joined Shane Morris on a recent Upstream podcast to talk about The New Book of Christian Martyrs. He covered a number of stories from the book in the episode and connected the ancient martyrs to modern victims of persecution.  Perpetua and Felicita were two newly converted and young Christian mothers who were killed in the arena at Carthage in 203. At the time, Perpetua, a noblewoman, was nursing her newborn. Despite entreaties by her friends and family, Perpetua and Felicita refused to denounce Christ or worship the emperor.   Perpetua’s diary was likely preserved by Tertullian, who tells how, on the day of her execution, she and her companions faced leopards, wild boars, and a raging bull. Perpetua was eventually gored and tossed across the arena but took the time to fix her hair before soldiers finished her off. As Tertullian reports, she did so because “it was not becoming for a martyr to suffer with disheveled hair, lest she should appear to be mourning in her glory.”  Eighteen centuries later, in February 2015, 21 Coptic Christians displayed a similar dignity as they prepared to meet Christ from a beach in Syria. Pattengale and Moore compare their orange jumpsuits to the jerseys of a sports team, ready to leave it all on the field for their Captain. In the moment before their masked executioners beheaded them, the Coptic 21 sang a line from the hymn, “Ya Rabbi Yassu,”—“my Lord Jesus.”   Thanks to an Islamic State propaganda video, millions witnessed their martyrdom. As the book notes, ISIS’s objective “backfired” when the video galvanized the world against their cause and became a source of pride and celebration for Coptic Christians. In the words of Revelation, the world saw 21 young men conquer “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”   In a time when our brothers and sisters face more persecution than ever, the stories from across times and cultures told in The New Book of Christian Martyrs will inform your faith and your prayers. As Tertullian and Foxe believed, such stories can fuel the growth of a Church whose Lord overcame the world and will ultimately grant rest from all persecution.  This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

John and Maria discuss the importance of biblical literacy as well as how a worldview of the human condition can impact the function of government.  — Recommendations — Free Livestream: Great Lakes Symposium on Christian Worldview Meghan Daum & Sarah Haider on Child Activists Section 1 - Tucker Carlson and Biblical Literacy Tucker Carlson on spiritual warfare Section 2 - Bureaucracy and Human Nature For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

If you haven’t heard, the state of Texas is under invasion from small creatures who are, according to breathless media reports, popping up everywhere. “Nearly 10,000 more babies born in nine months under Texas’ restrictive abortion law,” read The Texas Tribune.   Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School arrived at the number by comparing Texas births after Senate Bill 8 took effect, which prohibits abortion after conception, to the number of births in the same period the year before.  One of the study’s co-authors told CNN that 10,000 new babies mean women were “denied a needed abortion.” Referring to the moms, she warned ominously, “It’s hard to imagine the short- and long-term implications of a personal trajectory that may have been rerouted.”   Of course, it’s harder to imagine the implications for a child denied the right to have a personal trajectory. Ultimately, interpreting the Texas baby boom depends on worldview. It’s either a tragedy or 10,000 inherently valuable, unique, and beautiful reasons to celebrate ... thanks to Texas’ pro-life lawmakers.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org