Resources by Topic: Culture and Worldview

Here’s another great post from one of my sons-in-law, Dan Franklin, who’s married to my daughter Karina. While I admit I am biased about not only my daughters but about both my sons-in-law, in my opinion this is really great teaching.

Relativism dominates the thinking of most educated people (which means sometimes that uneducated people are morally smarter). The “it all depends” morality, controversial fifty years ago when called situational ethics, denies the existence of any objective standards of right and wrong. What’s wrong for one person, so it insists, may be right for another. One uses internal, not external, standards to judge morality.

My friend Tony Reinke has written a terrific article that I think is right on target concerning sarcasm and snark and its profound effect on us, both outside and inside the church.

Last week, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and The Gospel Coalition hosted the MLK50 Conference, which focused on the state of racial unity in the church and the culture 50 years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s death.

I am not a Star Wars naysayer, and it might seem self-evident that “these movies aren’t based on reality.” But I’ve found that while almost no one ends up believing that the particular aliens onscreen really exist, matters of worldview are much more subtly conveyed. So I encourage parents to talk with their children about this, since many of them don’t yet have the filters in place to screen out what’s false.

Last month when Nanci and I were in Washington, D.C., we had the opportunity to preview the 430,000 square foot Museum of the Bible, which officially opened to the public this past weekend. I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s absolutely incredible. 

Recently, a strong Christian friend, who owns a business here in my home state of Oregon, asked my opinion about his doing work that would either directly or indirectly facilitate the legal growing and selling of marijuana. I’m sharing my edited response to him because this is a subject that is relevant for many, and will only become increasingly so as more states legalize marijuana.

I appreciated the opportunity to sign this letter, not only to make a statement about what I believe is right and God-honoring, but also because I am alert to the situations of some of these young people as a result of being in the process of becoming a mentor for minority students who aspire to go to college. 

If you follow social media and news online, you’ve likely heard about the Nashville Statement, put together by The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Along with several dozen other Christian leaders, I’m one of the initial signatories of this statement, which seeks to provide a Christ-honoring and biblically faithful standard on homosexuality and transgenderism.

A lot of good things, and some not so good, have been said and written since the tragic events in Charlottesville last week. None have been much better, in my thinking, than what Russell Moore wrote. 

I have written before, sometimes with a fair amount of pushback, about the large number of young men in our culture who are not working (or serving or reading much besides social media), and instead are playing video games and watching TV and movies large number of hours each day.

The following prayer for our new president-elect and for our nation, from Pastor Kevin DeYoung, is my prayer as well. Please read it and see if you wish to make it yours too.

“Dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:28). Because God has absolute power, no one can thwart His ultimate purpose. “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).

Now that nationwide legalized homosexual marriage is here, it has broken down many restraining walls in our society. Consider the speed at which transgenderism and gender identity have grabbed hold of our culture, and even the world of our children and grandchildren. Christian families in my hometown of Gresham, Oregon are feeling some of those effects after reading Oregon’s new public school policies regarding transgender students.