Tag Archives: Cultural Observations

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The Law of Influence and Christian Public Engagement

Should Christians be engaged politically? Should they make arguments in the public square? While some are calling for Christians to abandon the political arena due to perceptions that we are “too political,” this would ultimately be unwise and a net loss for everyone because of the moral vacuum it would create. “The alternative isn’t to not do politics,” observes Michael Gerson. “The alternative is to do it better.”

One thing is certain—someone will influence our society. Someone will make laws. Someonewill raise the topics for national, judicial, and constitutional debate. So why not labor as faithfully and prudently as we can for the greatest good of others and thus fulfill our role to be salt and light (cf Matt. 5:16)? As Christians, this is one way in which we can love our neighbor as ourselves.

Regardless of the spirit of the age, we are to use whatever tools and opportunities are arranged for us by God for his glory and for the proclaiming of the good news of the kingdom.

To find out more about our biblical responsibility to engage the public square, see my new book Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture

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Courageous the Movie Opens Tonight – Honor Begins at Home

Here is a great opportunity for our culture to talk about what it means to step up to manhood and fatherhood. Opening weekend matters a lot when it comes to movies. If you can go see it, support the film. Here is the trailer:

Here is the movie website. Here are resources on exploring biblical manhood as a follow up for watching the movie.
Excellent book on biblical manhood by Dennis Rainey – Stepping Up: A Call to Courageous Manhood (highly recommended!)
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Chuck Colson On Seeing Sin through Cinema and the New Movie “The Help”

Chuck Colson on the new movie The Help:

“Sometimes we Christians don’t see the sin right in front of our faces; our culture, upbringing, or personal attitudes seem to block it. And that’s where the arts can help us — whether the sin is deep in the past, or very much in the present.

Last week a film opened that beautifully illustrates my point. It’s called The Help, and it’s based on the bestselling novel by Kathryn Stockett. The story is set in the early 1960s, in Jackson, Mississippi, when the fight for civil rights was gaining international attention. The film tells the story of a young, socially prominent white girl named Skeeter who’s just graduated from college. Skeeter wants to be a writer, and comes up with a dangerous idea: To secretly interview the black maids who raise the white children of Jackson, Mississippi, and find out how they really feel about their employers.

Their answers are a revelation. Skeeter’s eyes are opened to the irony of white employers who depend on their maids to raise their children — and yet won’t allow them to use the same bathrooms. If a piece of silver goes missing, a maid can be blamed, based on no evidence whatsoever, and arrested. When a maid named Yule May asks her employer for a loan to help her sons attend college, she’s….(more)“

Think Christianly with Jonathan Morrow
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Moral neutrality and relativism are not how you build a good society says UK Prime Minister

Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to address the “moral collapse” that led to widespread looting and violence across English cities last week; “moral neutrality, this relativism – it’s not going to cut it anymore.” He further adds, “politicians shying away from speaking the truth about behavior, about morality” has “actually helped to cause the social problems we see around us….We have been too unwilling for too long to talk about what is right and what is wrong. We have too often avoided saying what needs to be said – about everything from marriage to welfare to common courtesy.” That is both well said and refreshing to hear. (read the rest of this article)

As I see it, here’s the bottom line: A society cannot long survive if they elevate personal autonomy and freedom above virtue and personal responsibility; including the United States of America. True freedom is not doing whatever you want, but doing that which is good.

For more reasons why moral relativism is a really bad idea, see chapter 7 in my book Welcome to College.

For more information on the excellent Doing the Right Thing six part DVD (Chuck Colson, Robert George, Britt Hume, etc.) and Church Simulcast on September 24th click here.

Think Christianly with Jonathan Morrow
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Want to love your neighbor today? Then stand against false tolerance

We live in an interesting, ever-changing, and challenging day. As Christians, learning to navigate such a reality can be very confusing and intimidating. In one of Jesus’ central teachings, he commands us to love our neighbor (cf. Mark 12:31). And while we can and should often do this by meeting physical needs, there is another vital, but often overlooked, application of this passage. We need to stand up for the possibility of truth. We need to protect the endangered species of honest disagreement concerning the nature of reality. Today a not so subtle battle is raging from newspapers columns to college classrooms concerning the nature of tolerance. There are 2 competing definitions:

  • False Tolerance: We can make no judgments at all about the truth of others’ beliefs.
  • True Tolerance: We allow others the freedom to hold beliefs which we judge to be false.

If we cannot tell our neighbors or ourselves the truth about reality, then we cannot really love them. Because love involves seeking another’s highest good, and goodness is anchored in reality (after all, the truth sets us free). We must fight the false tolerance that seeks to intellectually bully our culture into agreeing that every viewpoint (especially when it comes to religion and morality) is equally valid. We must speak up in love for the possibility of truth. Loving our neighbor requires this.

Think Christianly with Jonathan Morrow