Breakpoint

Fifty years ago this week, Charles W. Colson became a follower of Jesus Christ. Chuck would subsequently become one of the most respected evangelical leaders of the 20th and early 21st centuries, founding both Prison Fellowship Ministries and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and authoring bestselling books such as Born Again, How Now Shall We Live?, and Loving God. Chuck Colson's influence came about because of how deeply and thoroughly Jesus Christ changed his life. Certainly, he was an incredibly gifted person (after all, not everyone lands in a White House office as special counsel to the President of the United States in their thirties!). Yet, Chuck's giftedness before he found faith was corrupted by pride, which led to an incredible public fall. On the thirtieth anniversary of his conversion, Chuck Colson described it in detail. Here, in his own voice, is Chuck Colson: "Thirty years ago today, I visited Tom Phillips, president of the Raytheon Company, at his home outside of Boston. I had represented Raytheon before going to the White House, and I was about to start again. But I visited him for another reason as well. I knew Tom had become a Christian, and he seemed so different. I wanted to ask him what had happened. That night, he read to me from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, particularly a chapter about the great sin that is pride. A proud man is always walking through life looking down on other people and other things, said Lewis. As a result, he cannot see something above himself immeasurably superior—God. Tom, that night, told me about encountering Christ in his own life. He didn't realize it, but I was in the depths of deep despair over Watergate, watching the President I had helped for four years flounder in office. I had also heard that I might become a target of the investigation as well. In short, my world was collapsing. That night, as Tom was telling me about Jesus, I listened attentively but didn't let on about my need. When he offered to pray, I thanked him but said, no, I would see him sometime after I had read C.S. Lewis's book. But when I got in the car that night, I couldn't drive it out of the driveway. Ex-Marine captain, White House tough guy, I was crying too hard, calling out to God. I didn't know what to say: I just knew I needed Jesus, and He came into my life. That was thirty years ago. I've been reflecting of late on the things God has done over that time. As I think about my life, the beginning of the prison ministry, our work in the justice area, our international ministry that reaches one hundred countries, and the work of the Wilberforce Forum and Breakpoint, I have come to appreciate the doctrine of providence. It's not the world's idea of fate or luck, but the reality of God's divine intervention. He orchestrates the lives of His children to accomplish His good purposes. God has certainly ordered my steps. I couldn't have imagined when I was in prison that I would someday go back to the White House with ex-offenders as I did on June 18—or that we would be running prisons that have an 8% recidivism rate—or that Breakpoint would be heard daily on a thousand radio outlets across the United States and on the internet. The truth that is uppermost in my mind today is that God isn't finished. As long as we're alive, He's at work in our lives. We can live lives of obedience in any field because God providentially arranges the circumstances of our lives to achieve His objectives. And that leads to the greatest joy I've found in life. As I look back on my life, it's not having been to Buckingham Palace to receive the Templeton Prize or getting honorary degrees or writing books. The greatest joy is to see how God has used my life to touch the lives of others, people hurting and in need. It has been a long time since the dark days of Watergate. I'm still astounded that God would take someone who was infamous in the Watergate scandal, and soon to be a convicted felon, and take him into His family and then order his steps in the way He has with me. God touched me at that moment in Tom Phillip's driveway, and thirty years later, His love and kindness touch and astound me still." Chuck Colson's life and legacy continues to be a testimony to God's amazing grace. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

It's an experience that drives many young mothers crazy. After carrying a child for months, enduring labor and childbirth, nursing through many sleepless nights, what are the first words she hears from the kid? "Dada!" It isn't always the case, but across time and cultures, babies are more likely to name their father before their mother. However, rather than a preference for dad or a slight to mom, according to a tweet by Dr. Dan Wuori, it more likely reinforces how important mom is. At that young age, the mother/child bond is so tight that babies simply can't see her as "other." She is the world, with Dad more of a visitor. This is a reminder of what Ryan T. Anderson has said. Kids don't need just "parents." They need a mom and a dad, and each provides unique and distinct gifts by their presence to children. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

In 1973, evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote that "nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution." Almost 50 years later, an increasing number of scientists are asking whether evolution makes any sense in light of what we now know from biology. A recent long-form essay in The Guardian signals just how urgent the problem has become for the most dominant theory in the history of the sciences. In it, author Stephen Buranyi gives voice to a growing number of scientists who think it's time for a "new theory of evolution." For a long time, descent with slight modifications and natural selection have been "the basic" (and I'd add, unchallengeable) "story of evolution." Organisms change, and those that survive pass on traits. Though massaged a bit to incorporate the discovery of DNA, the theory of evolution by natural selection has dominated for 150 years, especially in biology. The "drive to survive" is credited as the creative force behind all the artistry and engineering we see in nature. "The problem," writes Buranyi, is that "according to a growing number of scientists," this basic story is "absurdly crude and misleading." For one thing, Darwinian evolution assumes much of what it needs to be explained. For instance, consider the origin of light-sensitive cells that rearranged to become the first eye, or the blood vessels that became the first placenta. How did these things originate? According to one University of Indiana biologist, "we still do not have a good answer. The classic idea of gradual change, one happy accident at a time," he says, "has so far fallen flat." This scientific doubt about Darwin has been simmering for a while. In 2014, an article in the journal Nature, jointly authored by eight scientists from diverse fields, argued that evolutionary theory was in need of a serious rethink. They called their proposed rethink the "Extended Evolutionary Synthesis," and a year later, the Royal Society in London held a conference to discuss it. Along with Darwinian blind spots like the origin of the eye, the Extended Synthesis seeks to deal with the discovery of epigenetics, an emerging field that studies inherited traits not mediated by DNA. Then there are the rapid mutations that evade natural selection, a fossil record that appears to move in "short, concentrated bursts" (or "explosions"), and something called "plasticity," which is the ability we now know living things have to adapt physically to their environments in a single generation without genetically evolving. These discoveries—some recent, others long ignored by mainstream biology—challenge natural selection as the "grand theory" of life. All of them hint that living things are greater marvels and mysteries than we ever imagined. And, unsurprisingly, all of these discoveries have been controversial. The Guardian article describes how Royal Society scientists and Nobel laureates alike boycotted the conference, attacking the extended synthesis as "irritating" and "disgraceful," and its proponents as "revolutionaries." As Gerd Müller, head of the department of theoretical biology at the University of Vienna helpfully explained, "Parts of the modern synthesis are deeply ingrained in the whole scientific community, in funding networks, positions, professorships. It's a whole industry." Such resistance isn't too surprising for anyone who's been paying attention. Any challenges to the established theory of life's origins, whether from Bible-believing scientists or intelligent design theorists, have long been dismissed as religion in a lab coat. The habit of fixing upon a dogma and calling it "settled science" is just bad science that stunts our understanding of the world. It is a kind of idolatry that places "science" in the seat of God, appoints certain scientists as priests capable of giving answers no fallible human can offer, and feigns certainty where real questions remain. The great irony is that this image of scientist-as-infallible-priest makes them seem like the caricature of medieval monks charging their hero Galileo with heresy for his dissent from the consensus. As challenges to Darwin mount, we should be able to articulate why "settled science" makes such a poor god. And we should encourage the science and the scientists challenging this old theory-turned-dogma and holding it to its own standards. After all, if Darwinian evolution is as unfit as it now seems, it shouldn't survive. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org This Breakpoint was originally published on August 3, 2022.

The award for the weirdest and most misleading headline of the year goes to a recent article in the Washington Post that announced, "An abortion ban made them teen parents." The article tells the story of Billy and Brooke High and describes her pregnancy at age 18 as something that just "happened" because they were hanging out after meeting at a skate park. Brooke gave birth to twins soon after the Dobbs decision. She wanted an abortion but would have had to drive 13 hours to get one. Instead, she kept the babies and married their father. Because all of this is hard, the Washington Post implies, neither the children nor the marriage should have ever happened. Billy's and Brooke's perspective on the other hand is that day-to-day life is really hard. And being parents is growing them up, though they didn't have great examples. What we can learn from the Post article is not where babies come from, but what young families need. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

This month, for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, request a copy of Live Your Truth and Other Lies by Alisa Childers. Visit colsoncenter.org/august to learn more. ___ In her new book, author and apologist Alisa Childers targets the lies that often masquerade as cultural proverbs today. In Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed, Childers offers just what the title promises. She exposes the bad ideas at the center of slogans we hear all the time. You can receive a copy of the book with a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month. Just go to colsoncenter.org/august. Though the mantras that dominate our world can seem harmless, they are not. "Our culture," Childers writes, is brimming with slogans that promise peace, fulfillment, freedom, empowerment, and hope. These messages have become such an integral component of our American consciousness that many people don't even think to question them. … The problem? They are lies. In fact, Childers argues, slogans like "You are enough," "authenticity is everything," "Put yourself first," "It's all about love," or "God just wants you to be happy," commonly redefine words like love and hate and happy. What's left is a modern-day "tower of Babel" (or "Babble") situation where those with the most social media followers are granted authority and assumed to have expertise on life and how to live it. At the root of these destructive slogans is a view of the self. For example, Childers cites Glennon Doyle, whose New York Times No. 1 best seller Untamed centers around her decision to leave her husband for a woman she saw at a local zoo, all while quoting Carl Jung: "There is no greater burden on a child than the unlived life of a parent." Alisa compares Doyle's story with that of Elisabeth Elliot, the missionary famous for bringing the Gospel back to the same Waodani people who killed her husband, Jim. With a toddler in tow, Elliot lived in the Waodani village for two years before returning to the United States to speak, write, and appear publicly with some of her husband's killers who had become dedicated followers of Jesus: Elisabeth Elliot laid hold of deeper strength. … She rejected the urge to defy God's Word or redefine his holiness. … How did she do it? She once wrote, "The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances." Childers openly admits to struggling with these ideas, including what it means to be truly authentic, during her time as a popular and successful Christian musician: [A] therapist I began seeing toward the end of ZOEgirl's run (who had the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job) looked at me intently and gently asked, "What if you got throat cancer and could never sing again?" I was dumbstruck. She had stumped me. After all, I was made to sing, and if I couldn't sing, who was I? That question pushed Alisa away from the shallow definition of authenticity that is widely embraced today, and toward a deeper grounding in the truth of who we are—made in the image of God, and yet fallen. This makes all the difference in how we think about ourselves and how we choose to live life: Today I write. Maybe tomorrow I will wash feet, clean toilets, or start a food blog. God knows. He is trustworthy. My identity is grounded in him. True biblical authenticity is glorifying Christ with whatever gifts and talents he has given me. As my friend Teasi says, this is my calling whether I find myself in a palace or in a prison. Another commonly repeated, highly consequential lie is that there's such a thing as "your truth" and "my truth": Christian, your truth doesn't exist. Your truth won't bring hope or save anyone. ... The Cross is the answer to every lie that tells me I can find everything I need inside myself. … The Cross is not just a symbol of salvation. It's a place of rest. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Since it was legalized in 2016, Canada has increased pressure on doctors and hospitals to offer assisted suicide. Recently, an article in WORLD Magazine reported that Canadian authorities kicked a nonprofit called the Delta Hospice Society out of its rented building because they refused to kill their patients. Before they closed, executives with the hospice said they had briefly considered registering as a "faith-based organization" to qualify for a religious exemption under Canadian law. This is a cautionary tale that while religious exemptions are important, they do not offer protection from immoral laws. This is especially the case when the state dramatically limits who should be considered "religious" enough for an exemption. Faith cannot be reduced to names or titles or just evangelistic work. More importantly, a religious exemption cannot make an unjust law just. So-called "Medical Aid in Dying" is exactly not aid in dying: It is aid to die, and that means it's not medical. Instead, it is harmful. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Recently, Chloe Cole, a 19-year-old young woman who was pressured to undergo transgender surgeries, challenged a social media video by Neil deGrasse Tyson, the populist astronomer and science personality. Although a legitimate astrophysicist, Dr. Tyson's public proclamations and videos are not always from his area of scientific expertise. In fact, they aren't always scientific. In this particular video, Tyson asserted, in favor of gender ideology, that "no matter my chromosomes today, I feel 80% female, 20% male. I'm going to put on makeup. I'm gonna do it. Tomorrow, I might feel 80% male." Seemingly to Dr. Tyson, the ability of people of any gender to feel a particular way and then to put on makeup accordingly, proves that "the XX/XY chromosomes are insufficient because when we wake up in the morning, we exaggerate whatever feature we want to portray the gender of our choice." Dr. Tyson continued in a blatantly non-scientific statement, "What business is it of yours to require that I fulfill your inability to think of gender on a spectrum?" In her reply, Chloe Cole interspersed video of herself confronting his bizarre claims. How about we stop confusing basic human biology with cosmetics? Like, what a weird jump. … I don't wear makeup most days. If I leave the house without makeup on, does that make me like 70% [m]ale?... If it was only truly about aesthetics, nobody would care. It's my business because you're using 1950s gender stereotypes to justify an ideology that leads to the sterilization and mastectomies of 15-year-old girls who just don't fit in, girls like me. Cole ends her video with, The idea that people can be percentages of either male or female just further reinforces the fact that biological sex is a binary. There's only two. There may only be two sexes, but there are an infinite number of personalities. I mean, it really doesn't take a degree in astrophysics to understand that. Watching Dr. Tyson's video and Cole's response, I was reminded of something from my childhood. Due to the popularity of Superman in the late 1970s, Mr. Rogers dedicated a week of his daily TV show to helping kids distinguish between what was real and what was make-believe. He was concerned by the reports of children who put on capes and thought they could fly, leaping from staircases or top bunks or balconies and causing serious injuries. He even took his viewers onto the set of the show The Incredible Hulk to show them that the actors involved were indeed only actors. In other words, he understood that children struggled to distinguish between make-believe and reality. This is exactly what Chloe Cole did earlier this week, only she was instructing an astrophysicist about the harm done to children in the name of "science," while Mr. Rogers was confronting the harm done to children by cartoons. Cole knows that putting on makeup, a dress, or a muscle shirt cannot transform a man into a woman or a woman into a man. Even worse, she knows that neither did the testosterone she received at age 13 nor the double mastectomy at age 15 make her a boy. According to Mr. Rogers' biographer Max King in the documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Rogers was "angry that it was his medium that was doing this," i.e., deluding and harming children. What began with his concern about children being misled prompted a new weekly theme for the show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood that dealt with tough issues such as death and divorce. Like Cole, Rogers wasn't a scientist. But he was committed to helping children discern truth from error, the difference between make-believe and reality, between the cosmetic and one's identity. He even famously sang a song that clarified that kids could not become whatever or whoever they wanted, that only boys could be daddies, and only girls could be mommies. In fact, he once said, "I'll tell you what children really need. They need adults who will protect them from the ever-ready molders of their world." Those are the kind of adults that children still need. What we all need less of is the sort of thinly disguised, condescending, and anti-scientific rhetoric that molds their identities. This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Heather Peterson. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Recently on NPR, reporter Rachel Martin interviewed Dr. Lisa Miller, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University, about her controversial claim that spirituality is good for mental health. According to Miller, those who say spirituality is "very important" show an 80% decreased risk for addiction to drugs and alcohol and are 82% less likely to die by suicide. "[T]he more high risk we are," Miller said, "the more that there's stress in our lives, … the greater the impact of spirituality as a source of resilience." "Here is published, peer reviewed science for skeptical audiences," the interviewer concluded, which runs contrary to what we so often hear. Though a particular kind of religion is not specified by Dr. Miller, apparently turning our focus outward and even upward is better for us than just "looking inside" or "following our hearts." That makes sense if we are indeed creatures and not just self-creations, made for relationship with the One who gave us life in the first place. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

As unexpected as it was that the Barbie movie would spark such a widespread and intense cultural conversation, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, a film about the brilliant and broken man who became the father of the atomic bomb, has too. The film tells the story of the man who gave the world the power to destroy itself, or as Oppenheimer famously put it, "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." Atomic weapons have been a constant source of debate since their initial use to end the war against Japan in 1945. At the time, Christians had a dual reaction. On one hand, many breathed a sigh of relief that the long war was over, that the boys would come home, and that there would be no further repeats of the devastation seen at places like Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where Japanese resistance was so fanatical that they fought almost to the last man. On the other hand, Christians shared the widespread sense that a deadly Pandora's Box had been opened and that there was no way to go back to a world before "the Bomb." Certainly, the sheer destruction and the immense casualties leveled on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are difficult to justify. America has also been accused of racist motivations in dropping the bomb, and in overlooking the significance of the August 8 Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the weakened state of the Japanese military that late into the war. The fact remains, numerous factors must be considered in light of some ethical framework. By far the best framework for considering war comes from the Christian contribution of the just war doctrine. Specifically, in what is known as jus in bello, just war doctrine says that for a war, or even part of a war, to be considered moral, it must only be done for the right reasons and in the right ways. For example, while civilian deaths are inevitable, particularly in modern war, noncombatants must never be targeted. This was recently argued again by Adam Mount in Foreign Policy magazine. He wrote that in dropping the bomb, Japanese civilians weren't merely collateral damage but intentionally killed as an act of terror to scare Tokyo into surrendering. In response, Marc LiVecche wrote in Providence magazine that the attacks were indeed a demonstration to the Japanese government, but the target of destruction were the cities, not the people within them. It's also significant to keep in mind the pressures of the cultural moment. President Truman faced the brutal question of how to end the immense suffering of a war that had gone on so long, when great suffering would follow no matter what he did. As such, doing nothing would not have been a preferable moral option. The Japanese empire had for years been perpetuating great evil upon its neighbors, leaving millions dead and millions more enslaved. Had the Americans gone ahead with the planned "Downfall" invasions of Japan, the death toll might have made the atomic attacks pale in comparison. Simply blockading Japan without direct attacks of any sort would have left millions of Japanese people to slowly starve before the military caved, something they'd already demonstrated an intense unwillingness to do. From the comfort and safety of distance and time, it is much easier to issue a simple proclamation. Reality on the ground at the time is not so simple, and theological reflection, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, must be done in the "tempest of the living." Centuries ago, when asked by a Roman officer if he could, in good Christian conscience, continue his work as a soldier, St. Augustine replied, "Therefore, even in waging war, cherish the spirit of a peacemaker, that, by conquering those whom you attack, you may lead them back to the advantages of peace." Just war doctrine warns us that any and all actions in a war must not be seen as their own end but only as the means toward a greater end. War is always awful and sometimes necessary. The great virtue found in just war doctrine is not that it allows for a clean war, free from doubt about our actions. There's no such thing. However, it can help guide those forced to do terrible things in the face of horrible options. To learn more about just war theory, see Just War and Christian Traditions, edited by Eric Patterson and Daryl Charles. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

The Oppenheimer movie has Christians revisiting the morality of warfare. An extra warm summer in some parts of the U.S. raises climate fears again. John and Maria discuss ways to slow down the growth of assisted suicide. — Recommendations — Summit Ministries Latigo Ranch Section 1 - Just War and the Bomb Between Pacifism and Jihad: Just War and Christian Tradition by J. Daryl Charles Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer "Let's Talk About Just War" by Nathaniel Peters "Canadian hospice forced to close after refusing to offer assisted dying" CNA Section 2 - Climate Change The Editors podcast Section 3 - Assisted Suicide "States remove protections from assisted suicide" WORLD "Canada's Suicidal Slide" Breakpoint For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org