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Some Help For Raising Digital Kids To Use Media Discernment

CPYU (The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding) is a helpful ministry that is doing important work in the area of raising the digital generation. Here is something you need to know:

“One of the most sweeping and influential changes is the rapid expansion and growth of media technologies and outlets. The most recent research indicates that the average 8 to 18-year-old in America is engaging with media for 7 hours and 38 minutes a day. Much of their media engagement includes time spent engaging with others via social media technologies that didn’t even exist six years ago (Facebook, etc.). Today’s children and teens are a “wired” generation. They are constantly connected to their media and their media is constantly connected to them. Because they are at an impressionable and vulnerable age, children and teens are eager and willing to follow a media world that is attractive, pervasive, convincing, and compelling. Media is increasing in influence. In some cases, media is the main socializing and nurturing influence in a child’s life, shaping their worldviews in powerful ways.”

Here is a helpful “family digital covenant of conduct” to help you make clear what everyone’s expectations are in this critical area. More from CPYU.

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Prof. John Lennox Talks About His New Book Seven Days That Divide the World

Lennox discusses ways of interpreting scripture that don’t compromise its authority. “I don’t want to say anything less than what scripture says, but I don’t want to say anything more,” says Lennox. Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University and Fellow of Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Lennox has lectured on science and religion and related themes around the world.

Listen to his interview at ID the Future

John Lennox’s Website

Check out his new book. He presents some very important distinctions and observations about the Biblical text, authority, and science.
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Was Jesus a Socialist?

Recent headlines include words / phrases like: Occupy wall street. Redistribution of wealth. Capitalism. Socialism. And now…Jesus. But what does Jesus have to do with economics? Well, everyone loves to get Jesus on their side of the argument. Here is one of the passages often cited to argue that Jesus would have been in favor of socialism (Acts 4:32-35):

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”

Two pieces of advice. First, always read the biblical context. In his helpful Washington Post article, Jay Richards responds to the claim that Jesus was a socialist / marxist:

“No serious biblical scholar, or economist, would mistake the practice of the early Jerusalem church for Marxism. First of all, Marx viewed private property as oppressive, and had a theory of class warfare, in which the workers would revolt against the capitalists-the owners of the means of production-and forcibly take control of private property. After that, Marx thought, private property would be abolished, and the state would own the means of production on behalf of the people. There’s none of this business in the books of Acts. These Christians are selling their possessions and sharing freely.

Second, the state is nowhere in sight. No Roman centurions are breaking down doors and sending Christians to the lions (that was later). No government is confiscating property and collectivizing industry. No one is being coerced. The church in Jerusalem was just that-the church, not the state. The church doesn’t act like the modern communist state.” (read the rest of the article)

Second read works / authors who understand the biblical worldview and take the Bible seriously (i.e., in its historical-gramatical-literary context) and who also understand economics. Here are two great options: (1) Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem by Jay Richards and (2) The Virtues of Capitalism: A Moral Case for Free Markets by Scott Rae and Austin Hill. Listen to an insightful interview with Jay Richards here.
Economics is a moral issue. It is critical for Christians to understand that when it comes to economics, good intentions don’t necessarily translate into good outcomes. This means that it is actually possible to do harm to people while intending good if we adopt bad economic policy. I interviewed Jay Richards about this and how economics relates to the Christian worldview here.
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I am the 10%

90% of babies who are diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted (or the more clinical phrase is “terminated pregnancy”). This is barbaric and unthinkable and needs to stop.

This little guy is one of the brave ones who is telling a different story. He is one of the 10%.

Here is another story by Gabe Lyons.

This is an excellent booklet – Understanding a Down Syndrome Diagnosis

Train to make the case for the pro life position.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made”-Ps. 139:14

These are ALL the kinds of things we do as we engage culture as everyday ambassadors. For more ideas, see my new book Think Christianly.

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My interview with Brett Kunkle of Stand to Reason on my new book Think Christianly

I just returned from speaking at a parent / teen apologetics conference in Anchorage, Alaska with my friend Brett Kunkle of Stand to Reason. While in the frozen northwest, he interviewed me about faith, culture, worldview, apologetics, the local church and the next generation on his Bulletproof podcast. Here is the audio from that interview. Here is Brett’s podcast.

More about Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture here.