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Topic: Truth in Culture Weekly Commentaries
 

	In Defense of Marriage - Part I
	July 7, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   In the wake of the California Supreme Court’s audacious decision to legitimize marriage between people of the same sex, media outlets have been dominated by discussions on the topic. Frustrated by the lack of any cogent arguments defending the Judeo-Christian conception of marriage, a friend challenged me to pen a more thorough apologetic so that the church might be better equipped to offer an articulate and rational defense of this essential institution. Over the course of the next four to six weeks, that is precisely what I will attempt to do. The battle to define marriage is not over; the church must be able to speak in more convincing terms than simply “because the Bible says …”
	From Political Pessimism to Gospel Hope
	June 30, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   I am amazed at the level of pessimism among so many Christians that I encounter. I think this may also be a product of too much reliance on politics. This is, after all, the pressing concern of the population whose frustrations center mostly on the failed expectations of their political leaders and government: the economy, the war, fuel prices, and so on. Add to that concerns over the moral direction of the nation, and the church often appears indifferent or defeated. There is a cure for this pessimism...
	Christians, Politics, and the Fate of the Nation
	June 23, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   In this heightened political season, there are many, including some Christians, who believe the fate of the nation rises and falls on the outcome of November’s presidential election. That is not to say that politics and elections are inconsequential—the nation prospers from good leaders and suffers from the inept—but are government and political leaders really the hope or ruin of a nation?
	Being the Church in a Time of Troubles
	June 16, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   It was into the sexually immoral environment of the first century Roman world that Christians would bring forth a radically different sexual ethic. The concern for the Christian today is that unlike our early brothers and sisters, the church all too often appears similar to the surrounding culture. This is especially true among the forthcoming generation. Knowing this, what hope does the church have of restoring the dignity of marriage? We must reclaim the subject of sex by giving our young people a comprehensive theology of sex...
	A Time of Troubles
	June 9, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   The famous historian, Arnold J. Toynbee observed that civilizations arose in response to some set of challenges of extreme difficulty prompting “creative minorities” to devise solutions that would reorient the entire society. When a civilization responds to challenges, it grows. Conversely civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively or with wisdom. Toynbee points out that in the wake of an inadequate response, the civilizations in question then sank owing to either nationalism, militarism or the tyranny of a despotic minority. It seems we, as a nation, have sunk to the level in which a “despotic minority” is in the process of reorienting our entire society, that minority being those who advocate a natural and now constitutional right to homosexual behavior. Recent decisions in California and New York demonstrate that the line in defense of traditional marriage continues to erode.
	To the Class of 2008
	June 2, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   Adolf Hitler once said, “It is the luck of rulers when men do not think.” The writer of Proverbs underscores this truth by saying, “Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse.” (2:12) This begs the question; what role does the intellect and scholarship have in our faith? What role does a consciously Christian education play in seeking first, the kingdom?
	Expelled: Exposing the Darwinian Paradox
	May 12, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   The thing which most offended critics and reviewers of Ben Stein’s film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, was his attempt to link Darwinism to the Holocaust. It is here, in the area of moral philosophy, that the Darwinian paradox is revealed. On the one hand, modern Darwinians posit that the universe is the result of impersonal, amoral, natural forces while on the other denying this undermines objective moral standards. However, the Nazi’s understood what modern Darwinians do not; if you reject the Creator you cannot hope to live within the safety of the Creator’s rules. It is either God’s loving law or the law of the jungle.
	Hope for a Christian Renaissance?
	May 5, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   Two years ago I wrote that we may be seeing the first signs of what could be a new cultural renaissance in Italy. Recent events in Italy seem to indicate that this "renaissance," if you will, has not only continued but may be gathering momentum. Could this indicate the revival of Christian influence in Europe?
	Why Theology Matters
	April 28, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   I think many in the American church know God in the same way they know the President—they know some facts about him, where he lives, what he does, etc.—but they do not have a relationship with him. This could be described as a cultural theology but a biblical theology is more akin to the relationship between a child and a good parent. The child in this sense has a much more intimate knowledge that, through time and maturation, reveals the loving nature of the parent. Experience only confirms this knowledge and this produces trust, which in turn fosters obedience. Failure to develop a coherent and systematic theology affects our ability to live as faithful followers of Christ.
	The High Cost of Immorality
	April 21, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   For more than five decades, self-proclaimed experts and so-called sexual reformers have worked to advance the belief that there are no public consequences to private sexual behavior. And Americans, for the most part, have bought into this notion, proving what Lenin said, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth!” However, first-ever research reveals the fallacy of this notion and quantifies the high cost of immorality in America to be more than $112 billion each year!
	In Pursuit of Community: What Can We Do?
	April 14, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   If Christians living within a distinct community is an essential witness to the mission of God, and because so many of us seem unwilling to surrender the independent self, and since our present understanding and expression of this community falls painfully short; what can we do to remedy this situation? What hinders this community is NOT a weakness of the institutional church and its leadership but rather the radical individualism of its members. This is not simply a matter of concern over sporadic church attendance or mediocre participation in the church potluck dinner; this is a central underlying principle, which nullifies the witness of God’s people and opposes the redemptive mission of God!  So, I am asking you: What practical steps can churches and individuals take to foster and promote a healthy, distinctively biblical, and witness-bearing community? Contribute your ideas at the end of this article.
	The Church in Post-Christendom: Recovering the Mission of the Church
	March 31, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   As Americans, we enter the church with nearly overpowering individualistic inclinations. As a result, we are failing to fulfill an essential part of God’s mission because we fail to demonstrate the reign of God within the authenticating community of faith that is distinct from the world. If we don’t get this right, our service will remain indistinguishable from any other and our proclamation of the risen Christ will appear shallow and without basis.
	The Church in Post-Christendom: Understanding the “Good News”
	March 24, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   As I wrote in the first part of this series, the church of Jesus Christ is not the purpose or goal of the gospel, but rather its instrument and witness.” This brings us to our second question: What exactly is the church’s mission?In order to answer this adequately, we must first accurately define the gospel or “good news.” I say “accurately” because I think many Christians, particularly in our highly individualized culture, have come to view the gospel as simply the personal plan of salvation. The modern emphasis tends toward “fixing the sin problem” in terms that are entirely personal. However, the Scriptures speak in a more comprehensive way that goes beyond the private version of the gospel that we know in the West.
	The Church in Post-Christendom
	March 16, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   In the age of Christendom, the church occupied a central and influential place in society and the Western world considered itself both formally and officially Christian. So when we speak of post-Christendom, we are making the point that the church no longer occupies this central place of social and cultural hegemony and Western civilization no longer considers itself to be formally or officially Christian. This clearly represents an historic change in the cultural context into which the Western, and specifically American, church is now attempting to carry out its mission. This raises two fundamental questions: What does this new cultural context mean for the church and its mission? And, what exactly is the church’s mission?
	The Unrelenting Culture of Life
	March 10, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   There is much talk today about the “culture of death” and certainly there are powerful forces emanating from competing worldviews that predictably foster such conditions. These worldviews have driven us as a culture to legitimize abortion, consider euthanasia, and proceed to cross a whole host of bio-ethical issues as technology advances. However, these worldviews, in which the value of life and human dignity are diminished, inevitably encounter a most formidable obstacle: natural revelation.
	The "Oprahfication" of Eastern Mysticism
	March 3, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   As orthodox Christianity continues to ebb in the Western world there follows a spiritual vacuum and as it has been observed, nature abhors a vacuum. At present this spiritual void appears to have found its latest alternative to Jesus Christ in the convoluted and ambiguous world of New Age religion.While this may conjure up images of incense, crystals, and Shirley MacLaine—or associations with flower haired hippies—this “new” spiritual movement, which is anything but new, has acquired a most powerful and influential advocate: Oprah Winfrey.
	Is Loving Our Neighbor Merely a Means to End?
	February 25, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   Do good works and loving our neighbor necessarily have to include a direct gospel proclamation to be worthy, or is it enough to love our neighbor as ourselves and trust the Lord to assign our part in His redemptive work? By not getting this right, we may inadvertently be creating obstacles to the missio dei.
	They Love Jesus; They Don't Like the Church
	February 18, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   This appears to be a growing sentiment among many younger Christians in America today. They love Jesus but they want little to do with His Church. It’s not that they don’t like the their local church or even other Christians—it’s that they don’t like how Christianity in America is frequently represented by many professing Evangelicals, which in their minds is often unloving, judgmental, arrogant, and hypocritical. What concerns me most is that this reaction among young evangelicals is fraught with peril as are all reactive movements.
	The Culture War is Over: We Lost!
	February 11, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   I have come to face this possibility along with its implications, most recently while reading the new book by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons entitled unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity … and Why it Matters. In the book, Jud Wilhite, a pastor in Las Vegas says just that, “In Las Vegas, where I live, the culture war is over. We lost. Let me repeat: WE LOST. Now our calling is to love and accept people one-on-one, caring for them where they are. Our role is subversive as we carry the light and love of Jesus into the casinos, clubs, and streets of our city.”
	The Muslim Rebuttal and the Islamization of Knowledge
	February 4, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   This Muslim response to last week's commentary, Christianity & Islam: Two Worldviews and Why They Matter reveals a number of increasingly popular myths that have resulted from a deliberate process by modern Muslims to “Islamize knowledge” in order to enlarge and elevate the place of Islam in history. Examples of this include claims that Muslims led the fields of science and medicine during the Middle Ages; Muslims founded the first hospitals; Muslim explorers reached America before Columbus, the Crusades were an unprovoked European assault on the peace-loving Muslims of the Holy Land, etc. So what are the facts?
	Christianity & Islam: Two Worldviews and Why They Matter
	January 28, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   The Islamic worldview fails to correspond with reality at every point, producing less than adequate results in every standard by which we measure personal, social, and economic well-being. So, why does this matter? And, what is the Christian response?
	Sex Ed: Education or Propaganda?
	January 21, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   The last four decades have seen a significant shift in the philosophy behind sex education in America’s public schools. Prior to the sexual revolution, human biology and reproduction, hygiene, and marriage were the focus of sex education. In essence, this approach was grounded in particular moral virtues, namely biblical. The new emphasis seeks to eliminate these traditional moral distinctions. Instead the student’s “choice” is given the supreme moral authority and the goal of these curriculums is to merely aid in the “safest” expression of the child’s choice. However, more and more, modern sex education programs are becoming nothing more than publicly funded platforms for legitimizing homosexuality and other deviant and unsafe behaviors—pro-homosexual propaganda presented under the guise of “tolerance” and “diversity.”
	Chemical vs Spiritual
	January 14, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the official diagnostic manual used by mental-health professionals, defines depression as “two continuous weeks of such symptoms as despondency, diminished pleasure in life, and difficulties in sleeping and eating.” In the manual, it doesn’t matter why a person is despondent. If you’ve lost your job, or your romantic partner dumped you, or you’ve been given a diagnosis of cancer, you’re still deemed ‘clinically depressed’ if you’re "sad" for two weeks or more. This might account for the recent 300 percent increase in Americans diagnosed with depression.
	Art as Prophetic Proclamation
	January 7, 2008 by S. Michael Craven   It is the role of the Church to preach the gospel. What the Arts provide is a medium for cultural formation that can promote the plausibility of the gospel story. Literature and film, in particular, shape the stories of our culture and our stories help shape our conceptions of reality. If our literary traditions are dominated by nihilistic hopelessness then society becomes less hopeful. If however, our literature includes themes of redemption and messianic saviors then the story of the true Messiah rings true.
	$pending Christmas or Spending it Well
	December 3, 2007 by S. Michael Craven   The Christmas season is once again upon us and with it, overwhelming encouragement from Madison Avenue to spend what we have not earned to buy what we cannot afford. The day after Thanksgiving, known as “Black Friday,” indicating the period in which retailers are in the black (or at least hope to be), signals the start of the “holiday shopping season.” That phrase in and of itself reveals the commercialized emphasis that has unfortunately come to define Christmas for many Americans.
	Willow Creek's Confession
	November 26, 2007 by S. Michael Craven   Recently, Willow Creek published the results of their 2004 congregational survey entitled, Reveal: Where are You? The surprising results required the study’s authors, including executive pastor Greg Hawkins, to tell senior pastor Bill Hybels that “the church isn’t as effective as we’d thought.”
	Giving Thanks, Again
	November 19, 2007 by S. Michael Craven   As we, once again, approach this national day of “thanksgiving” I thought it necessary to reflect upon our nation’s long history of acknowledging and giving thanks to Almighty God.
	Politics, Religion, and Evolution: The Three Don'ts
	November 12, 2007 by S. Michael Craven   I have written many articles over the years often addressing controversial issues, some of which have provoked strong reactions. However, no other subject so provokes as the suggestion that Darwin’s theory of evolution is false. In my recent article, James Watson is Not a Racist; He’s a Darwinist! I commented on the recent statements of noted scientist and evolutionist, James Watson. You may recall that Watson suggested that black people were inherently less intelligent due to their stunted evolutionary development. As I pointed out, Watson was simply speaking in a way that revealed the ethical dilemma of Darwinism in which morality as we understand it has no place. True to form, the evolutionists were outraged.
	James Watson is Not a Racist; He's a Darwinist!
	October 29, 2007 by S. Michael Craven   In a recent interview with ’s The Sunday Times, noted scientist, James Watson set off an international firestorm when he was quoted as saying that he is “inherently gloomy about the prospects of ” because " all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours…”  Watson then added that he would like for everyone to be equal, but “people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true.”  Watson is not being bigoted in the sense that he is expressing a personal prejudice against black people. In fact, he is being quite “reasonable” given his evolutionary beliefs about the nature of man and reality.