Free Republic

Last week the DVD of the great film Amazing Grace hit the stores. Go get it if you have not, for it comes at a time when we sorely need to be reminded how William Wilberforce changed history. Throughout America’s history, the role of both church and state has been regarded as essential in safeguarding the culture, with religion providing the moral foundation upon which democratic institutions could function, as well as providing the conscience of society. But in recent years Christians have been all too inclined to put too much emphasis on human kingdoms—especially during an election year. This...

The outstanding film Amazing Grace hits shelves this week in DVD form—and it comes at a time when Christianity is under blistering attack. In his new book, God Is Not Great, subtitled How Religion Poisons Everything, anti-theist Christopher Hitchens states, “religion makes people do wicked things they wouldn’t ordinarily do . . . the licenses for genocide, slavery, racism, are all right there in the holy text.” It is a rather empty accusation when put alongside a man like William Wilberforce, who as the film Amazing Grace shows, attacked and abolished the slave trade because of his Christian convictions. As...

Since late September, the crackdown on pro-democracy forces in Burma has brought unwelcome attention to one of the most oppressive regimes on Earth. For many people, the defining image of the Burmese struggle for human rights has been Buddhist monks in red robes staging demonstrations. Reports about Burma focus on the plight and plans of the estimated 400,000 Buddhist monks in the country. Given the coverage, people might be surprised to learn that Burma not only has a substantial Christian population, but that these Christians have long been the junta’s preferred target. Late last month, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner...

Note: This commentary was delivered by PFM President Mark Earley. A few months ago on “BreakPoint,” Chuck Colson talked about the movie Wristcutters: A Love Story and its controversial ad campaign. That campaign, targeted at older teens and young adults, showed people committing suicide in various ways. The campaign alone was disturbing enough to draw the ire of mental health organizations and psychiatrists. But as Chuck said at the time, it is the film itself that is really troublesome. It is a dark comedy that follows the adventures of a group of people who have killed themselves. All of that...

Note: The following commentary includes details from the movie Bella. Do not read on if you prefer not to read about the film before viewing it. When you go see the movie Bella, you will be struck by a series of simple but powerful images: a child running on a beach, a man dancing with a little girl, a butterfly sucked down a sink. The use of evocative imagery helps transform the film into something more than what it looks like on the surface—just a story of two people spending a day together after getting fired from their jobs. You...

Note: This commentary was delivered by PFM President Mark Earley. In Aurora, Illinois, a Christian construction worker was working on a new 22,000 square-foot office building. But the owner, Gemini Office Development, wanted some unusual features. Why, the construction worker wondered, would the owners want bullet-proof windows and multiple surgical rooms? It turned out Gemini Office Development was in reality a front group for Planned Parenthood, which planned to open a super-sized abortion clinic. It’s an example of just how devious Planned Parenthood is—and of how the abortion industry is running scared. When Planned Parenthood’s front group went to the...

In his book, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins argues that religious belief is—what else?—delusional. He mocks the irrationality of believing in something that you cannot subject to scientific scrutiny; he rails against the so-called “immorality” of the Bible, like the sanctioning of slavery—untrue—and the alleged way that religion, especially Christianity, stands in the way of scientific progress—also untrue. Just in case his readers are not convinced, however, he then pulls out the really big gun: Religious belief is a kind of child abuse. By “child abuse” Dawkins is not, at least not principally, referring to the scandals involving sexual misconduct...

Warning: This commentary may not be suitable for younger readers.The play is not exactly the stuff of Tony awards, but it does have its moments. It’s called “Sex on a Saturday Night,” and it features a naïve Princeton freshman named Joe who is about to go on his first date with an equally naïve girl named Frances. With his friends urging him to “score big,” Joe takes his date to a remote love nest. The two become extremely drunk, and Frances passes out. So does Joe—but not before he violates his unconscious date. The play is meant to be a...

Four months ago the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. As I said at the time, banning this unspeakably barbaric form of abortion was a victory—albeit a small one—for the pro-life cause. It represented another step toward the end of abortion-on-demand in this country. Certainly the nation’s pro-abortion forces saw it that way as well. The near-hysterical reaction of the Center for Reproductive Rights was typical: “The U.S. Supreme Court,” it said, “effectively overturned 30 years of precedent and announced that women’s health is no longer a paramount concern . . . the Court’s decision paves...

Loving Our ChildrenFor the past few years, I’ve been telling BreakPoint readers about our culture’s undeclared war on people with Down syndrome. Earlier this year, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that all pregnant women, regardless of age, undergo amniocentesis. Obviously that’s to put them under increasing pressure to abort the child if a genetic defect is detected. I thought that I heard every possible argument for and against this barbarism, but I was wrong. Apparently, in addition to asking themselves “what would Jesus do?” women should ask themselves “what would Darwin advise?” But Dr. Frank Boehm of...

For the first time in more than 30 years, Mother Teresa graces the cover of Time magazine. But unlike the 1975 cover that hailed her as a living saint, this week’s cover titillatingly trumpets, “The Secret Life of Mother Teresa.” The subtitle declares, “Newly published letters reveal a beloved icon’s 50-year crisis of faith.” NBC led the TV pack with serious questions about her faith. Those letters, written by Mother Teresa over more than 60 years, form a new book called Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. So what do these letters really reveal? Newsflash: One of the great saints...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Every week during the fall, approximately 70,000 people attend NFL games in cities like Detroit and Houston. They pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for the privilege, and, if all goes well, they come away with some happy memories. Every week throughout the year in China, approximately 70,000 people do something very different: they, too, pay a price, but it’s not measured in money. And what they come away with not only changes their lives but promises to change a nation, a continent, and even the world. According...

Note: This commentary was delivered by PFM President Mark Earley. Last month, federal judges “ordered the creation of a three-judge panel” to address the overcrowding crisis in California’s prisons. One possible solution is a cap on prison population. That could force the state to release up to 35,000 inmates. Sounds drastic, doesn’t it? It’s a shame that no one saw it coming—no one except people who work in and around the criminal justice system, including Justice Fellowship, the criminal justice reform arm of Prison Fellowship. California’s prisons put the “crowd” in “overcrowded.” There are 173,000 inmates in a system designed...

Since 1782, the Latin phrase E pluribus unum—“out of many, one”—has appeared on the Great Seal of the United States. But what happens when we neglect and even deny the importance of the “one”—that is, cultural unity—and emphasize the importance of the “many”—that is, individuals—which, today, we call “diversity”? As a renowned social scientist learned, nothing good. In his famous essay “Bowling Alone,” published some years ago, Robert Putnam documented our increased tendency to “go it alone,” instead of the civic participation that marked earlier eras. This decrease in “social capital,” Putnam argued, adversely affected American democracy. Putnam’s latest project...

An event planner named Carron Morrow says she had two choices when it came to treating a serious heart condition: Sign liability papers for an unusual new treatment—or drop dead. Not surprisingly, she chose to sign the papers—and became another stem-cell miracle. An adult stem-cell miracle, that is. Carron, a 58-year-old Alabama mother, was in bad shape last year after suffering four heart attacks. The right side of her heart was functioning at less than 50 percent. Carron needed a new heart—but 100,000 people were ahead of her on the transplant list. By fall, she told CitizenLink, “I couldn’t walk...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. As I mentioned on yesterday’s broadcast about Peter Wood’s new book, A Bee in the Mouth, anger has become the new norm for public discourse today. Just think about any arguments you have had—or heard—lately about the war in Iraq, global warming, gay “marriage,” or abortion. Clearly, our nation and our culture are polarized. Discussion and debate have been replaced with yelling and demonizing. We Christians cannot retreat from the public square. We are called to speak the truth in love. But how do we engage others in a...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. A respected journalist begins an article about the president with a statement of undiluted hatred. A prestigious Christian essayist takes every opportunity to rail publicly against Christians more conservative than she is. A famous conservative columnist uses a sexual epithet to describe a presidential candidate at a national conference. Are these isolated incidents? Or do we have what Peter Wood calls a “national epidemic of anger”? Wood, the provost and academic vice-president at King’s College, thinks that such an epidemic is indeed raging. In his new book, A Bee...

Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia isn’t known for mincing words on the Senate floor. Still, even by his standards, his recent comments about a crime in the news were especially impassioned. He repeatedly called the alleged crime “barbaric” and even volunteered to attend the execution of the accused. He told his colleagues that he is “confident that the hottest places in hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God’s creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt . . .” What prompted the senator’s ire? Genocide? Ethnic cleansing? No, cruelty to animals, specifically the...

Last month, our bloggers at The Point came across two seemingly unrelated news stories that had one important thing in common. Both were by writers who claimed that a prominent figure from the past would have been on their side of current debates—flying in the face of what those historical figures actually said. The first story was by Professor Mary Zeiss Stange of Skidmore College. In USA Today, she asked, “What would Luther do” about same-sex marriage if he were alive today? Stange brushed off what Luther actually wrote about homosexuality. Based on “the way his theological mind worked,” and...

Silence is golden, everywhere but the Church. Yet, silence has largely been the Church’s response to the issue of drugs in American culture. In his most recent book High Society, Joseph Califano, a personal friend and the chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, offers a harsh, but accurate, look at America’s addiction to addiction. Listen to some of the shocking findings in his excellent new book: Americans consume two-thirds of the world’s illegal drugs, although we make up only four percent of the world’s population. Sixty-one million Americans are chronic smokers. And more...

The paintings are vibrant with color—brilliant slashes of red, yellow, and aqua. The artist’s best work hangs in a gallery at Salisbury University in Maryland. Who created these abstract masterpieces? A dog named Sammy. Sammy’s trainer, Mary Stadelbacher, taught Sammy to paint—holding a brush in his teeth—to raise funds for her dog-training academy. An art-lover who spent $350 on a Sammy original told the Associated Press: “There are people who make a lot of money to make paintings that aren’t as intriguing as what [Sammy has] done.” Sadly, she’s right. As a BreakPoint blogger put it, Sammy’s paintings raise “an...

Every week, millions of Americans seek advice on how to deal with a troubled loved one. The man they turn to for help doesn’t hesitate to blame them for much of their loved one’s problems. He tells them that they have been lax in their discipline and haven’t spent enough time with the miscreant. Not only do people accept the criticism, they come back for more: They buy books, attend workshops and fit their loved one with the “Illusion” collar. Did you think I was talking about my friend James Dobson? I’m talking about Cesar Millan, the “Dog Whisperer.” On...

Joan Blades describes herself as, among other things, a “nature lover” and a “mother.” She is also a co-founder of the liberal activist group MoveOn.org and a regular contributor to the liberal blog The Huffington Post. In a recent post, Blades wrote about an article she read in her local paper. It described a group that supports the kind of measures Blades expected liberals like Huffington Post readers to support: health care for children, “fair wages,” and flexible work schedules for moms. What Blades found surprising were some of the comments that came into the paper’s website. One person “reasoned”...

In February, representatives from the UN Security Council and Germany met to discuss possible economic sanctions against Iran. This came after reports that Iran has expanded its uranium-enrichment program in defiance of a Security Council resolution. This and other provocative behavior makes Iran the most dangerous nation on Earth. It also makes it important to understand what is driving the provocations. The standard explanation—Iran’s desire to dominate the region—is only part of a larger problem: Iran is living on borrowed time. In 1985, the average Iranian woman gave birth to 5.6 children, one of the highest birthrates in the world,...

According to its Academy of Social Sciences, China “suffers from the world’s most severe brain drain.” Approximately two-thirds of the Chinese who have studied abroad in the past two decades did not return home. The BBC offered many possible explanations for this drain: the lack of opportunities at home; a lack of freedom, especially after Tiananmen Square, and a preference for the Western “lifestyle.” One factor that was not mentioned but should have been was a concern about spending the rest of your life alone. According to China’s State Population and Family Planning Commission, “by 2020 some 30 million Chinese...

A young coed named Heather paid a visit to her campus health clinic. She told the doctor she was suffering from depression. The doctor explored possible causes, but Heather could not come up with any reasons for her sadness. Oh, wait—there is one thing, she remembered. Since Thanksgiving, she said, “I’ve had a ‘friend with benefits.’” That is, a male friend that she is not in a relationship with, but has casual sex with. “I’m really unhappy about that,” Heather said. “It’s hard to be with him and then go home and be alone.” Heather’s story is told in an...

In the 16th century, London’s mentally ill were often kept at Bethlem Royal Hospital. The conditions inside the hospital were notoriously poor. Patients were often chained to the floor and the noise was so great that Bethlem was more likely to drive a man crazy than to cure him. The conditions were so infamous that the nickname locals gave the hospital—Bedlam—has come to mean any scene of great confusion. Unfortunately five hundred years later, we’re still treating the mentally ill more like prisoners than patients. Fifty years ago, more than 550 thousand people were institutionalized in public mental hospitals. Today,...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. For the past several months, the media have been full of stories about outreach efforts to evangelical voters by candidates from the major political parties. The candidates have had faith forums, websites, as well as simply talking a lot about God. There’s a place for religion in the public square, and any effort to make that bipartisan is welcome from me. But if Democrats ¾ or Republicans ¾ think that wooing evangelical voters is about “God talk,” they are mistaken. ­ At a recent event sponsored by Sojourners magazine,...

Atheism has nearly always been with us in one form or another, but the atheists we’ve been hearing the most from lately—chiefly Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris—are a new breed. Unlike the old-school humanists, the new atheists—or anti-theists, as some of them prefer to be called—don’t want to just deny the existence of God, they want to wipe religion off the map. Christopher Hitchens follows this pattern with his new book, belligerently titled God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. In his first chapter, called “Putting It Mildly,” Hitchens writes, “I will continue to [respect my friends’...

As the summer grinds on, the war of words over the real war in Iraq is growing hotter every day. Critics of the war are saying that the American people are fed up and want the troops to come home; that the Iraqi government needs to step up and take responsibility for the growing violence; that the war is straining our military—and our soldiers—to the breaking point. Meanwhile, the war’s defenders are claiming that if the troops leave now, the enemy will have won. Instead of fighting terrorists in Iraq, we’ll be fighting them here in our homeland. Leaving now...

Note: This commentary was delivered by PFM President Mark Earley. If you were going to appoint a surgeon general to office, you’d want to make sure he had impeccable qualifications, perhaps something like a degree in medicine from Duke, a Ph.D. in anatomy and physiology, and a graduate degree in hospital administration. They’d need experience, something like serving as medical director for the Department of Veteran Affairs for 25 years, chancellor of the University of Kentucky Medical Center, and secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services for Kentucky. Well, unfortunately these qualifications of Dr. James Holsinger, the President’s...

A new book, entitled Falling Behind, attempts to resolve one of the defining paradoxes of our age: Why doesn’t increased prosperity and rising standards of living translate into more happiness? Ultimately, Falling Behind misses the mark, like other similar efforts, because it doesn’t understand where happiness comes from in the first place. What columnist Robert Samuelson calls the “economic disconnect” is evident in polling data: 30 years ago, 36 percent of Americans said that they were “very happy” and another 53 percent called themselves “pretty happy.” In 2006, only 32 percent called themselves “very happy” and 55 percent said they...

In study after study, the absence of fathers is linked to a host of what social scientists call “adverse outcomes” in the lives of children. These adverse outcomes affect all of society—increased crime, substance abuse, and dropping out of school, to name but a few. The “adverse outcomes” can also be more “personal,” although just as devastating: increased incidents of mental illness, sexual promiscuity, and an inability to form stable and lasting relationships. Since there’s no serious doubt that fatherlessness is bad for our kids, the obvious question is: How do we get fathers to live up to their obligations?...

Eight years ago, a young writer named Wendy Shalit took the culture by storm with a radical book called A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue. While many people embraced the idea of a return to modesty—especially the young women whose struggles and aspirations Shalit wrote about—others were appalled. “I knew that my arguments . . . might be challenged,” Shalit recalls now, “but nothing prepared me for the tongue-lashings I would receive from my elders. . . . [Feminist writer] Katha Pollitt called me a ‘twit.’ . . . The Nation solemnly foretold that I would ‘certainly be...

It doesn’t pay to take your constitutional right to free speech seriously anymore—at least, not if you live in Oakland, California. There, a handful of African-American Christian women recently found out that their free speech rights had effectively been outlawed. The women, who are Oakland government employees, had formed an organization called the Good News Employee Association. As their flyer put it, their group was “a forum for people of Faith to express their views on the contemporary issues of the day. With Respect for the Natural Family, Marriage, and Family Values.” As columnist George Will relates, the women posted...

It was an event all new parents enjoy: watching their unborn child turn somersaults on the ultrasound screen. Seeing their child hiccup or suck his thumb makes parents realize that, for real, there is a baby in there. A New Zealand couple, Pat and Sheena Wheaton, were so impressed with the reality of their child that they decided to name their son “4real.” That’s when their troubles began. A judge told them they couldn’t do it: New Zealand law forbids the use of numbers when naming babies—also, names that are likely to offend, such as Hitler or Satan. Bloggers around...

Note: This commentary was delivered by PFM President Mark Earley. The release of the last book in the Harry Potter series has unleashed a book-buying frenzy unlike anything we have ever seen. The fate of the books’ characters, especially Harry himself, stirred up mass speculation, angst, and even lawsuits when a few early spoilers made their way onto the Internet. The phenomenon left some scratching their heads. Ron Charles, a senior editor of the Washington Post’s Book World section, called it “a bad case of cultural infantilism.” Charles wrote that what we have been thinking of as a resurgence in...

If there’s a child in your house, then you probably know what’s going to happen when the clock strikes 12 tonight. The final Harry Potter book—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—will be unleashed on the world. The big question that has millions of kids on edge: Will Harry live—or will he die? But the big question many parents have is: Should their kids be reading novels about wizards and witches and magic? A Christian expert on Potter mania says, “It depends.” Connie Neal, a veteran youth pastor and mother of three, is the author of a book titled What’s a...

Are Americans gradually becoming illiterate? It’s not because we never learned to read, but because we’re relying more and more on images instead of words. A debate about this recently broke out on The Point—BreakPoint’s blog site. One of the BreakPoint staff wrote about the frustrations of test-driving a new car: “There were many buttons and knobs with pictures on them instead of words,” she wrote. “What did they do? One of them had a picture with a big “X” painted over it, as if someone had made a mistake and crossed it out.” Response from our blog readers was...

If you’re not already weary of the 2008 presidential election campaign—some 18 months before we vote—you must be living in a cave without cable or Internet access. The 2008 campaign began the day after the 2006 election, making this the first non-stop presidential campaign in history. The media, desperate to sustain interest in it, is reduced to pursuing such earth-shattering stories as: Which candidate owns the most pets? The answer: John McCain with three turtles, three parakeets, two dogs, and a ferret. Even Christians, this early, seem frantic over who’s going to be nominated. Have we finally succumbed to what...

Never judge a book by its cover, so goes the old expression. But what’s true about books is even more true about legislation. For example, a bill pending before the Senate is titled the “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007.” Since few people want to promote “hate crimes,” preventing hate crimes sounds like a laudable goal. Right? Not if you read what’s between the covers: The title of this bill ought to be the “Thought Control Act of 2007.” I told “BreakPoint” listeners and readers about the bill when it was pending before the House. Unfortunately, that...

Like other northern European countries, Denmark has historically been a homogenous society. Also like its neighbors, this has changed in recent years with the arrival of immigrants from what’s called the “Global South.” The religious fervor of some of these immigrants, like that of immigrants to other European countries, has shaken things up among the “notoriously staid” Danes. But if you’re thinking this is “another story about Muslims in Europe,” guess again. A recent Washington Post story described the impact that Christians from Africa, Asia, and Latin America are having on the Danes. Immigrants have started more than 150 churches...

The lead in a recent Washington Post article paints a disturbing picture: “Children rank as the highest source of personal fulfillment for their parents but have dropped to one of the least-cited factors in a successful marriage, according to a national survey.” What’s the matter with that sentence? Too much to unpack entirely in a few minutes, but let’s zero in on those two enticing words: “personal fulfillment.” The emphasis on that idea tells us a lot about what’s really wrong with marriage and family today. As the article states, “The 88-page report . . . underscores a widening gap...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Radical feminists have got to be at their wits’ end. First, they helped spur the so-called sexual revolution to “empower” women. So what do we see today? Pornography has been mainstreamed. The youngest of girls wear the tawdriest of clothing. Female co-eds settle for meaningless physical “hook-ups” with male students. In essence, the culture has come full circle, where women willingly objectify themselves in the name of so-called “empowerment.” And then there’s that other goal: breaking the so-called glass ceiling. Women could have everything they wanted, feminists said, a...

When you think of God, what comes to mind? A.W. Tozer once said, “We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.” If our ideas about God are coming from the wrong places, then our God will be too small. God’s Word, His Son, and creation give us ideas about the Creator. In Romans 1, Paul tells us that creation reveals God’s glory, but men have suppressed this knowledge. In her latest book, Time Peace, my friend and colleague Ellen Vaughn has come up with a wonderful way to blast our too-small...

Imagine an archeological dig hundreds of years in the future. On each human skeleton—young and old alike—the diggers find a shackle on the left wrist. Some people’s bonds are brilliant silver or gold, others appear to be leather or plastic. A few of these manacles are strangely ticking. It seems, the archeologists surmise, these people were ruled by this little ticking object. Perhaps they considered it a household god of sorts. Well, our future archeologists wouldn’t be too far off. We are constantly ruled by our watches. We have fifteen minutes to do one thing. Two hours to do another....

The most memorable moments during the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards on the Fox television network weren’t performances: They were the remarks made by recipients and presenters. Actually, in both instances it was a single word. In 2002, the singer Cher responded to her critics by using the “f word.” A year later, Nicole Ritchie, who has no apparent abilities of any kind, used a similar word when talking about her show, The Simple Life. The Federal Communications Commission ruled that both utterances were “indecent,” but it did not fine Fox. Nevertheless, Fox appealed the FCC’s ruling. A few...

For 20 years the letters sat in sealed boxes in a library at Emory University. But in mid-May, the seals were broken. Lovers of great fiction are now reading hundreds of private letters penned by the celebrated Christian writer, Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor wrote the letters to her friend, Elizabeth Hester, who donated the letters to Emory on condition they remain closed to the public—until now. The correspondence sheds light on the private musings of a writer whose novels and short stories provide one of the undisputed bright spots in twentieth-century fiction. Flannery O’Connor was born in 1924, in Savannah, Georgia....

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President, Mark Earley. For thirteen weeks, former child soldier Ishmael Beah has seen his memoir, A Long Way Gone, hover in the top-ranks of the New York Times’ bestsellers list. For a young man whose village and family were burned, who evaded capture amidst the war-torn landscape of Sierra Leone, and finally was given an AK-47 and coerced to join the government army, a best-selling book comes as quite a twist in the road. As a child soldier, Ishmael heard his commanding officer frequently tell him and his comrades, “Visualize the enemy,...

Quick, what famous event do we commemorate on the Fourth of July? Not sure? A little rusty on your sixth-grade civics? Well, you're in good company. One Gallup poll revealed that one out of every four Americans doesn't know that July Fourth commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It's a poor patriotism that doesn't even know our national history and traditions. This Fourth of July, let’s ask what it means, in the light of Scripture, to be an American citizen. Patriotism used to be a simple matter. Most of America's traditions were rooted in a Christian heritage. To...