What Do We Do When Our View of Morality Is Seen as Hateful and Intolerant?
I am working my way through a blog series in anticipation of my forthcoming book, Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College (Crossway, 2021). This new series will include 7 videos that tackle key intellectual questions about the Christian faith.
This fifth video deals with one of the most common challenges we face: “My Views Are Seen as Hateful and Intolerant: Should I Change Them?”
Here we come to the issue of the Christian view of morality. For those on a secular college campus, there’s nothing that makes you feel out of place more quickly than your distinctive moral code.
Of course, … Continue reading...
How a “You do You” Culture Has Made Us Vulnerable to the Coronavirus
“You do you.”
Perhaps there’s no phrase that captures our current cultural moment better. Back in 2015, Colson Whitehead of the New York Times Magazine, lamented this phrase, arguing that it “perfectly captures our narcissistic culture.”
Indeed, it is hard to disagree. “You do you” embodies our culture’s commitment to personal fulfillment, self-actualization, and the dismissal of any truth claims outside of the self. It means we get to create our own realities, our own right and wrong, and, perhaps most importantly, our own meaning.
And if we are the creators of our own little worlds, then we are also our own little gods. And no one gets to … Continue reading...
A Classic Example of an Incoherent Worldview
As one considers the values of Hollywood and American pop culture, it would be easy to conclude that no one is concerned all that much about morality. The dominant message is that people should live whatever life-style suits their personal preferences. What is right for one person is not necessarily what is right for another.
Or so it would seem.
Just about the time you are convinced that Hollywood thinks morality is relative, a major entertainment figure steps forward and speaks out vigorously about a moral cause. Maybe it’s the environment. Or perhaps its racism. Or maybe the moral cause is caring for the poor. Regardless, it turns out that, … Continue reading...
Where Have All the Heroes Gone? The Refreshing Moral Vision of Lord of the Rings
Ralph Wood, author of The Gospel According to Tolkien, tells us that often his students “have confessed that they feel ‘clean’ after reading Lord of the Rings.”[1] Indeed, one of the most compelling features of Tolkien’s work is the sweeping, grand, and refreshing vision of the moral character of its heroes. It is not just the lack of bad language and sexuality, but the positive presence of attributes like conviction, loyalty, integrity, and courage. There is an “other-worldliness” about the heroes of the Lord of the Rings. They seem to come from a distant time and place where people still behaved like we know they ought—and the … Continue reading...