Culture War: Readings for Christians

Weekly Reading for Christian Culture Warriors    

It is the mission of this blog to offer help and encouragement to live out our faith amidst the moral decline of our culture. Make no mistake, we are engaged in a culture war.

And as we enter 2022, challenges to religious freedom, free speech, biblical morality, innocent and defenseless human life continue unabated. That the prevailing culture is becoming more hostile to Christianity is without question.

But do not despair. Standing firmly on the Word of God, we can resist evil and shine as lights, offering hope to a darkened world.

Encouragement from the Apostle Paul

 ³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31–39)

Now, to this week’s suggested readings.

Every week, I offer a curated selection of articles and posts of interest to Christians living in a hostile world. I hope to provide you with information that helps you stand firm in the faith as the culture war raging around us.

Recommended Reading on Roe vs. Wade

With the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision being much in the news of late, and the potential for its being overturned in 2022, I recommend reading Abuse of Discretion by Clarke D. Forsythe for a rational explanation of why the Court should overturn the decision.

Men Have Forgotten God

In this article, Andrew W. Coy provides a sober analysis of the state of our nation and the present culture war.

The American experiment was built on four vital columns of steel. They were Faith, Family, Freedom, and the Free-Markets. The American house appears to be crumbling and titling ever so quickly into a disastrous collapse. This is because the four principal pillars are being knocked out from under it. For the constitutional republic to stand, the four basic columns must be reinforced under the house. Starting with Faith. Faith is the cornerstone. For when “Men have forgotten God”, the house will undoubtedly crumble. And something else will be built upon the ruins, and this something else will look nothing like America.

Religious Freedom Gets Its Day in Court

An excellent summary of 2021 Supreme Court actions affecting religious freedom in the United States.

Religious freedom in the United States is being threatened as never before. This year the Supreme Court vindicated religious freedom in crucial cases, but there were some disappointments. With more key decisions in the pipeline, and the prospect of more assaults on religious freedom sanctioned or sponsored by the Biden administration, this is a good opportunity to look back at the Supreme Court’s record in 2021.

Critical Race Theory and a Christian Worldview | 2021 Year in Review – BreakPoint

Is Critical Race Theory (CRT) compatible with the Christian faith? Should Christians embrace CRT and make it part of their worldview? CRT is a key weapon of the left in the culture war. This article explains why CRT is incompatible with Christianity.

Many Christian critics, myself included, are specifically concerned with how CRT conflicts with a Christian worldview, particularly in areas of identity and morality. Not everyone agrees. Recently on Twitter, a defender of CRT boldly tweeted, “Whoever told you CRT is a worldview was either lying to you or didn’t know what they were talking about.” Of course, assuming malice or greed is a way of dodging the question rather than making an argument.

Animal-Human Transplant Breakthrough Raises Questions

Scientists push the ethical envelope using persistent vegetative state (PVS) patients’ animal-human transplant experimentation.

Dr. Jeffrey Barrows, a retired OB-GYN and senior vice president of bioethics and public policy at the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, said he sees an ethical problem with performing experimental research without direct consent from the patient even if he or she is a registered organ donor.

“When we start looking at bodies as raw material to be used in experimentation, I think we’re on a quick ethical downslide that is going to be quite dangerous,” said Barrows.

1619 Project Creator: Parents Shouldn’t Decide What’s Being Taught in Schools – Harbingers Daily

The creator of the questionable 1619 Project would deny parents the right to influence teaching in our public schools.

Hannah-Jones said, “I don’t really understand this idea that parents should decide what’s being taught. I’m not a professional educator. I don’t have a degree in social studies or science. We send our children to school because we want them to be taught by people who have expertise in the subject area. And that is not my job.”

The Epidemic on Free Speech Is the Number One Story of 2021

There is plenty of evidence that our Constitutional freedoms are under attack from the progressive left.

Yet our government has not only promoted censorship, but they have also actively sought help from Big Tech platforms such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook. As a result, truths about the Coronavirus and therapies began to be censored.

Social media silenced writers, doctors, scientists, and everyday people with questions in the not-so-public square of Big Tech. Communities Digital News has removed dozens of stories, including information about HCQ, Ivermectin, the Clintons, Bidens, and reports of injuries resulting from the vaccines.

Year in Review: Combating “throwaway Culture”

In this article from World News, “throwaway Culture” refers to abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide—the culture of death.

A new pro-abortion White House administration at the beginning of 2021 ended four years of simple but important executive-level advances for the pro-life movement. President Joe Biden swiftly reversed many of former President Donald Trump’s pro-life policies. But the lasting victory of Trump’s conservative Supreme Court picks brought hopes for the end of Roe v. Wade. Tensions increased at the state level as pro-life lawmakers reacted to a national political climate that is hostile to unborn babies. Meanwhile, abortion and euthanasia advanced internationally.

First Amendment Is Freedom of Religion, Not from It

May our elected leaders practice their faith while in office? Many misunderstand the First Amendment.

A lot of people seem to misunderstand the freedom of religion part of the First Amendment.

They seem to expect that when a person is elected to office or hired for a job within the government that they’re expected to leave their religion outside City Hall or the Courthouse or the White House or wherever they’re serving.

So freedom of religion keeps the United State of America’s federal government and every state and local government within its borders from forcing a certain religion – or any religion for that matter – on its citizens.

It doesn’t keep religion out of government.

It doesn’t mean that a person who claims to be a Christian and runs for mayor is to refrain from praying or going to church or reading the Bible or anything like that while he or she is in office for four years every time he or she is elected.

Canada’s Conversion Therapy Ban Commits Six Secular Sins

Our neighbors to the north have passed legislation “criminalizes counsellors who help adults who want to change their gender identity, want to reduce non-heterosexual attractions or behaviour, or want their gender expression to conform to their biological sex—and choose to ask for help in doing so.”

Given the pressure of the LGBTQ lobby and the Biden Administration’s love affair with the LGBTQ agenda, this could happen in the United States.

Canada’s Bill C-4 bans “conversion therapy.” But the bill is bad. How bad is the bill? It’s so bad that it, for lack of a better word, sins. It sins against democracy, freedom, truth, reason, and other goods. (Consider these secular sins that may or may not include sins against God.) Bill C-4 sins so badly that, if there were a fiery pit for bad bills, it should be thrown into it.

I will argue that Bill C-4 commits six sins (secular sins). Bill C-4 violates democratic due process; infringes on the freedom of consenting adults; discriminates against gays and lesbians; infringes on freedom of religion and conscience (and not just religious conscience); negatively impacts families and children; and tells a falsehood about sex being assigned at birth.

Prenatal Search-and-Destroy Genetic Tests Often Wrong

In seeking to drive profits, companies providing prenatal genetic testing have increased testing for very rare conditions, even when not medically necessary.

Eugenics is alive and well with prenatal testing deployed to detect conditions — such as Down syndrome and dwarfism — toward the frequent end (and often, purpose) of ensuring that offending babies are never born. Iceland, thus, brags that almost no Down children make it to birth. What a tragedy for the babies, parents, and Icelandic society.

Some Additional Articles to Consider 

Researchers Create Monkey-Human Chimera Embryos 

 

The Sorry Condition of Christian Ethics

 

A Weak Approach to Nigerian Violence

 

Liberal Men Are Getting Vasectomies to Protest Texas Abortion Ban – LifeNews.com

 

Feminist Lawyer Sarah Weddington Dies. She Argued for Roe v. Wade, Resulting in 63 Million Abortions – LifeNews.com

 

 

Please comment and let me know which of these articles was most beneficial to you.

May you have a blessed, productive, and peaceful week.