Tag Archives: Cultural Observations

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Listen to Chuck Colson on Family Life Today with Dennis Rainey

Please take 20 minutes and listen to Chuck Colson talk with Dennis Rainey about why it is so important that Christians engage well within the public square on the issues of our day. Click Here to Listen

Have you read and signed the Manhattan Declaration yet? (This is an important document.) You can spread the word by retweeting this post or sharing it on facebook.

This fall, my book Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture, will be releasing by Zondervan in which I lay out our biblical responsibility as Christians to engage culture well. I highlight examples, issues, and areas we must engage because they are cultural moments and we are to be everyday ambassadors. Here is a short video about it:



“The task of this generation – as it will be in every generation – is to understand Christianity as a complete view of the world and humankind’s place in it, that is, as the truth. If Christianity is not the truth, it is nothing, and our faith mere sentimentality.”–Chuck Colson
Think Christianly with Jonathan Morrow
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What Rob Bell Should Have Said In His MSNBC Interview (video)

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It saddened me to watch Rob Bell in this interview for several reasons. First, Bell is a creative and articulate person who was given a platform to speak into our culture in the midst of tragedy and quite frankly dropped the ball. This was a cultural moment and he balked. In a recent article in Outreach magazine, Pastor Dan Kimball said “I am more and more convinced that we need to be theologians in our culture today.” That is what we need to be about.

Second, he was theologically irresponsible. It was hard to find much that was distinctively Christian in the interview. Again, I don’t say this to beat up Rob Bell. This should serve as a reminder for all of us to “be always ready to give an answer for the hope we have” (1 Peter 3:15)
Finally, Bell exerts considerable influence with the emerging generation (18-30 year olds). Many will follow Bell because he is charismatic and creative. But in this case, he is not stewarding the truth well (James 3:1).

When asked to address the problem of evil and suffering, Bell simply dodges the question. What he should have said was something like this: Christians are called to pray for and serve those in need. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that part of what it means to know God is to care for poor and needy (22:15-16). Our hearts break for the people of Japan.
We all ask the question where is God in the midst of this tragedy in Japan? This is where Christianity brings hope of an all powerful God who did not remain quarantined from our pain and tears. God was the exact same place during this event he was as he watched his son Jesus die an unjust death. It appeared that evil won. “Experience cannot be allowed to have the final word,” reminds Alister McGrath, “it must be judged and shown up as deceptive and misleading. The theology of the cross draws our attention to the sheer unreliability of experience as a guide to the presence and activity of God. God is active and present in His world, quite independently of whether we experience Him as being so. Experience declared that God was absent from Calvary, only to have its verdict humiliatingly overturned on the third day.”
So even if we don’t know why these things happen, we know it is not because God does not care—that can’t be the reason. We know this because of the Cross. What we cling to in these moments is summed up well by Os Guinness, “we know why we trust the God who knows why.”
Bell also punts to speculation regarding final judgement and the importance of responding to God in this life when the Bible is clear on the matter:

“And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.”–Hebrews 9:27-28
Let us pray for boldness and compassion to love this world well. And let us remember the world is watching to see what we say and what we do.
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Don’t be cruel to yourself, engage in theology!

Theology matters, is deeply personal, and always relevant. What we need to do today is trade in self-help for sound theology.

In his classic work, Knowing God, J.I. Packer reminds us, “We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it. The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life, blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you.”

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the Lord” (Jer. 9:23-24 NASB)
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6 Ways to Protect Your Kids on YouTube

2 billion videos viewed every day around the globe on You Tube…24 hours of new content uploaded every minute…how can we wisely engage this medium? Found a helpful article at Covenant Eyes:

YouTube Tips for Parents

In a “broadcast yourself” culture, parents are in a unique position to help the Internet generation guard their eyes and hearts.

  1. Establish a YouTube account for yourself – It is both easy and free to sign up for an account. Simply go to YouTube.com and click on the “Create Account” link in the top right-hand corner. You will be asked a few details about yourself, including a date of birth. By stating you are over 18 you will be able to have access to all of YouTube’s content, including content not available to minors or those who don’t have an account. Make sure you guard your password so no one else can access your account.
  2. Monitor YouTube – Make sure your underage kids have not lied about their age and created their own 18+ YouTube accounts. Check your kids Internet history, or better yet, use good Web accountability services like Covenant Eyes to see which YouTube videos they view.
  3. Restrict YouTube – Cris Logan says, “We know that 79% of a child’s access to inappropriate content occurs right through the home. If a parent is doing their job with regard to parental control and filters, the likelihood of their child accidentally coming across pornographic material will be significantly reduced.” YouTube has created something called “Safety Mode” to help parents to better guard against adult content. While this is a good precaution, it will not catch all inappropriate content and can be circumvented with relative ease. That’s why it can be helpful to go with software solutions, like the Covenant Eyes Filter, that can selectively filter inappropriate videos.
  4. Get to know YouTube – Cris Logan recommends parents start surfing around on YouTube, see what this video sharing culture is like for themselves, “and be ready to have an open dialogue—an ongoing dialogue—with your child regarding what they’re seeing, what they’re doing with this site.”
  5. “Flag” videos and teach your kids about flagging – Beneath each YouTube video is a small flag icon. When logged into your account you can “flag” a video you deem inappropriate. Usually YouTube staff will review this video within an hour or so. As you use YouTube, train yourself and your teens to be good cyber citizens and call out videos that do not meet the Community Guidelines.
  6. Have fun with YouTube – There are thousands of videos on YouTube to enjoy. As you come across these videos, you can make them one of your “Favorites” in your account. Perhaps you will want to create an account for your teen (YouTube account holders who are 13 to 17 years of age do not have access to all the videos on YouTube). You can then start creating a catalogue of these favorite videos for you and your family to enjoy.

To hear the whole interview with Cris Logan about YouTube, visit the Covenant Eyes blog, Breaking Free.

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Engaging the Spirit of the Age Without Losing our Soul

“In this climate, the crucial challenge is to present Christianity as a unified, comprehensive truth that is not restricted to the upper story. We must have the confidence that it is true on all levels—that it can stand up to rigorous rational and historical testing, while also fulfilling our highest spiritual ideals. Christians are called to resist the spirit of the world, yet that spirit changes constantly. The challenges facing our generation are not the same that faced an earlier generation. In order to resist the spirit of the world, we must recognize the form it takes in our own day. Otherwise, we will fail to resist it, and indeed may even unconsciously absorb it ourselves.” – Nancey Pearcey (Total Truth)

Amen…may we show ourselves faithful in this generation! Here are some verses that need to guide our path…(Romans 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Jude 3; 2 Cor. 7:1; 2 Tim. 2:15)