September 25, 2015
What's Wrong with Marrying One's Father?
Earlier this year, an article in New York Magazine
featured a story involving an 18-year-old woman who plans to marry and
have children with her father. When the interviewer asked her to respond
to those who might question her relationship, she offered the following
reply:
"I just don't understand why I'm judged for being happy. We are two adults who brought each other out of dark places ... When you are 18 you know what you want. You're an adult under the law and you're able to consent."
If you wonder exactly what's wrong with her moral reasoning, read this.
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One Small Step for Civil Discourse
I regularly find myself puzzled by liberal friends, who consider
themselves open- and fair-minded, but seem clueless about the substance
of a conservative argument. Likewise, I find myself disheartened by
conservative friends, who consider themselves intelligent and
reasonable, but seem ignorant of what liberals actually believe. We can
chalk some of this up to human nature: we all prefer having our views
reinforced to confronting a challenging argument. But we live in a time
of myopic political discourse, with mocking and misrepresenting other
views as the order of the day.
"The Decline and Fall of American Political Debate"—which
looks at how we got to this point—argues that "our fragmentation and
insularity has reached a dangerous tipping point: we no longer agree on
what's real."
Author John Daniel Davidson includes cultural critic Camille Paglia's solution:
It is everyone's obligation, whatever your political views, to look at both liberal and conservative news sources every single day. You need a full range of viewpoints to understand what is going on in the world.
Can I get an "amen"?
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Thomas Merton on Radical Grace
I don't usually associate grace with Merton, but this excerpt
suggests otherwise. It's not exactly an easy read. But take the trouble
to read it, and then thank God that "it is for freedom that Christ has
set us free" (Gal. 5:1, NIV).
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The Bible Is Not Self-Help Therapy
Most of us evangelicals have been nurtured on small group Bible studies
and sermons that emphasize the Bible as a practical guide for living.
We're each taught to read the Bible so we can discern "what it means to
me." In this essay,
I argue that, for all the warm piety this approach engenders, it turns
Christianity into little more than a self-help therapy with a spiritual
covering. It's time we take the Bible for what it primarily is: the
revelation of who God is and what he has done for us in Christ, and what
he will do in the end for the flourishing of the world.
To read the Bible like that will, of course, lead to many a practical
application, the chief one being a deep sense of wonder and gratitude
that will infect us with the love of neighbor.
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Grace and peace,
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