My theory is that great years for movies come along once every 35 years: 1972 and 2007 come immediately to mind. I’m eager for 2042. Still, 2017 wasn’t an unmitigated disaster. I was greatly disappointed in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which, like Mark Hamill, looked old and tired; in Blade Runner 2049, a visual spectacle Continue reading

  The death of Socrates is a beautiful death. Nothing is seen here of death’s terror. Socrates cannot fear death, since indeed it sets us free from the body. Whoever fears death proves that he loves the world of the body, that he is thoroughly entangled in the world of the senses. Death is the Continue reading

  It’s fascinating to consider how the ancient Greeks used the word euaggelion (gospel). It was closely associated with the imperial cult. The emperor issued good news, his gospel. He himself embodied the good news. He was deemed in some sense divine. He healed. He performed other miracles. He was the world’s savior. He as Continue reading

Friends,   Since year’s end is the time when a bulk of the annual donations arrive for many ministries, I try to remind you that we at the Center for Cultural Leadership need money and what we need it for. This year is no different, but there’s much else besides.   It was a profound Continue reading

  Slightly revised from remarks delivered at the 2017 CCL symposium in San Francisco, California   Introduction   Sometimes the topics that the Center for Cultural Leadership targets might seem far removed from your life: D.C. politics, tax-reform legislation, the political correctness of elite Leftist universities, or Hollywood screenwriting worldviews. But today’s topic bores itself Continue reading

  In the 500th year of the Protestant Reformation, it’s helpful to rehearse the five Reformation solae, of which sola Scriptura might be the most well–known. What does it mean, and what doesn’t it mean?   Not the exclusive authority   Sola Scriptura does not mean that the Bible is our only authority. The Bible Continue reading

Rod Dreher has solicited responses from ordained ministers asking whether they are sufficiently courageous to acquaint their congregants or audiences with the present dire apostasy afflicting our society. Below is my response: Rod, I am a long-ordained Reformational minister committed to credal, Bible-believing Christianity. I’m a member of the Fellowship of Mere Christianity. I agree Continue reading

On the verge of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, it is imperative for Protestants to neither exaggerate nor underestimate the differences with Roman Catholicism. The original reformers were quite happy with the basic inherited orthodoxy they shared with the Latin church (for example, Nicene Trinitarianism and Chalcedonian Christology), as well as what Christopher Continue reading

Hosted by Living Church International, Summerville, Pennsylvania David Shay, Pastor  WEDNESDAY 5:30 – 6:45pm – Dinner Provided at Parsonage for out-of-town guests 7:00 – 7:15pm – Hymn & Invocation 7:15 – 8:00pm – “Creation Lost and Regained” with Dr. P. Andrew Sandlin 8:00 – 8:45pm – “Sexual Order IS Social Order” with Jeff Shafer, Esq. Continue reading

How within a handful of minutes does one take measure of a life, especially the life of a parent, and particularly the life of an extraordinarily godly, Christian parent? It cannot – and perhaps should not – be attempted. But to say something is preferable to saying nothing, even if the something is woefully insufficient. Continue reading

  Every year, the Center for Cultural Leadership hosts for its friends and supporters at least one major symposium on a critical cultural issue. CCL is a think tank, so we value thoughtful discussions that can lead to godly change in our families, churches and wider society. In addition, and no less importantly, we value friendships, and we are Continue reading

We live in a time drenched in the Romanticist notion that spontaneity is king. In the church, this means that godly habits and customs are sub-spiritual, while spontaneous, carefree, “Spirit-led” actions truly please God. The less we ponder and plan and premeditate, the godlier we are. Nothing could be further from the truth. The same Continue reading

Pete Enns, self-appointed champion of the burgeoning anti-inerrancy wing of evangelicalism, joins a chorus of “progressives” opposed to the Nashville Statement. That statement is a simple, direct, bold affirmation of the Bible’s teaching concerning human sexuality, particularly with reference to homosexuality, signed by leading biblical evangelicals. Enns assaults the statement with satire and irony, but Continue reading

There are two chief forms of racism in the West.  First, the garden-variety, traditional racism of the antebellum South, the KKK and the current white supremacist sort. It is abominable and abhorrent. Fortunately, this form of racism is proportionately less pervasive than at any time in history. Second, there is the ideological racism of Libertarian Continue reading

  Today Communism as a political system, if not dead, is on life support. It survives only in North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam — and the campuses of elite American universities. That last sphere is the one that concerns me, and it should concern you, and it does concern you, whether you want it to or Continue reading

Secularism is simply a temporary, transitional intellectual and cultural phase between the Christian Faith and neo-paganism, as Peter Jones has demonstrated. All of us are created in God’s image and therefore are at root religious beings. When we turn away from the triune God, we do not become irreligious; we eventually adopt another religion, even Continue reading

Over the last 300 years, three chief political ideologies have dominated Western societies. While they can coexist and have coexisted, they do not coexist peacefully, and each seeks dominance. First, there is old-line, caste conservatism, including (sometimes) racial slavery. This version of conservatism is often, though not always, associated with monarchies: British, Spanish and French, Continue reading

Biblical Christians, of all people, should not avoid or tiptoe around the issue of race. Shout it from the housetop without fear or favor: racism is anti-Christian. White supremacy is evil. Leftist identitarianism is evil. The idea that whites are superior to blacks is evil. The idea that whites are “structurally” racist is evil. The Continue reading

  Long before our lifetime, the West gave up on Christianity, so even we Christians aren’t aware of the cultural capital we owe to Christianity. It’s not possible to conceive of the West without the influence of Christianity. Our civilization, though now secular and pagan, is unthinkable apart from Christianity.   Jesus Christ was born Continue reading