Saturday Good Reads

It often seems, especially to Christians, that the United States is caught in a downward cultural, social and political spiral, a spiral that seems to be rapidly accelerating. I try to caution myself against constant pessimism, knowing that it’s too easy to fall into discouragement and that I might well be overreacting. I take some heart from author Marilynne Robinson’s observation that “We are better than what we see on television.”

And then comes a conversation, reported by Rod Dreher at American Conservative, between Yale University professor Dave Gerlenter and Bill Kristol on how the past two generations of American educators have focused on disdaining Western culture, and how the slide is now happening very, very fast. This isn’t our imaginations. And they are not making this up: just consider recent events at the University of Missouri, Yale, Emory, Pepperdine, Wheaton, Princeton, and on and on.

What I think back to is 1991, when we moved our then 11-year-old from our highly regarded public school district because his English teacher couldn’t send a note home without grammar and spelling errors, but she surely wanted to make sure the class had plenty of exposure to “diversity opportunities.” That was 24 years ago – a generation ago.

I read a story like this, and I think, “The Dark Ages aren’t coming. The Dark Ages are upon us.”

And then I remember my hope is not in the federal government, American universities, the news media, any of the 20 people running for President, or even the American people. My hope is someone else. See the Rend Collective’s video.

Faith

Muslims and Christians Do Not Worship the Same God – Thabiti Anyabwile at The Gospel Coalition. And Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? – Nabeel Qureshi at RZIM.

The Death of God is Greatly Exaggerated – Kate Bachelder interviews Erix Metaxas in The Wall Street Journal.

Confronting the Problem(s) of Evil – Joe Rigney at Desiring God (Hat Tip: Mike Duran).

Give Away – Jay Cookingham at Soulfari.

Poetry

Norman Nicholson – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

Landscape Art – Tim Good at Arts by Tiwago.

Writing

Why the Greatest Gift of Christmas is Not Hope – Mick Silva.

Do You Write for Yourself? – Alton Gansky at Novel Rocket.

Photography

Pilgrim Congregational Church, Union Boulevard – Chris Naffziger at St. Louis Patina.

Three Impressions – Tim Good at Arts by Tiwago.

Life and Culture

Educating for a Dark Age – Rod Dreher at American Conservative.

Purdue University Pushes Back against Free-Speech Suppression – George Will at National Review

Star Wars: The Force Ages – Perry Block at Nouveau Old, Formerly Cute.

Dissecting the Irreversibly Altered Brain of a Pro Football Fan – David Murray at Huffington Post.

Inside Chipotle’s Contamination Crisis – Susan Barfield at Bloomberg Business.

Rend Collective: Build Your Kingdom Here

Photograph by George Hodan via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.