Varieties Of Hypocrisy

There is a certain kind of fellow whose intellectual interest in some traditional theological position grows even as his own interest (or ability) in living out the implications of that theology decline. In fact, he believes his right to indulge the flesh is purchased by his vehement condemnation of the same indulgence.

Why We Need Jane Austen More Than Ever

“When reading and discussing Pride & Prejudice with my students, I explained they would all meet Charlotte Lucas someday. ‘When you’re in your early thirties, you will someday be invited into the home of a young married couple, perhaps some friends, whose children are wildly disobedient, profoundly unhappy, and yet the couple will dispense advice on childrearing all evening. If you have any common sense, you and your spouse will resolve on the car ride home to do the opposite of whatever that couple said to do, and perhaps also resolve to not dispense any childrearing advice at all to your friends in the future, lest they think you as lacking in self-awareness as the couple whose home you have just departed.’ By the end of Pride & Prejudice, Charlotte has entered into an unhappy marriage precisely because she has followed her own advice, and Jane has entered into a happy one because she has done the exact opposite. “

-from Why We Need Jane Austen More Than Ever, my latest for CiRCE 

Integrated Zeitgeist Solutions

Last summer, I saw a billboard for a massage therapist who claimed to offer “Integrated Massage Solutions,” which sounded perfectly absurd, but then I started to notice these terms everywhere. Everything is integrated. Everything is a solution. Yogurt companies don’t sell yogurt anymore. They sell “Integrated Yogurt Solutions.” Teachers don’t offer online classes, they offer “Integrated Education Solutions.”

This all seems part of the Fortune 500ing of everything, the same trickle down phenomenon which leads classical Christian schools to adopt the fashionable ethics and virtues of big businesses.

Woke Evangelicals Interviewing Josh Harris

Harris: …and so that was when I knew I couldn’t be a Christian any longer.

Podcaster: You just have such an amazing, difficult story and you are so courageous for telling it. There’s so much brokenness in the world. And I know that I’m not exactly where you are, so I guess there’s sort of a… distance between us, maybe that’s the right word, but I deeply resonate with what you’ve said today. I think it’s so important stories like yours are amplified so we can all continue learning and growing.