“When you do away with the old High-Low [brow] hierarchy, people become more obsessed than ever with status” [John Seabrook, Nobrow (New York: Vintage Books, 2000), p. 168].
The Real Salt and Light Argument
“Rightly understood, this is the true ‘salt and light’ argument. Before we can win the children of this world, we have to stop losing our children to that world. And as we teach them their identity in Christ in such a way that they embrace that identity and the terms of the covenant that define …
Why NPR Listeners Think They Are Aristocrats
“For more than a century, the elite in the United States has distinguished themselves from consumers of commercial culture, or mass culture. Highbrow/lowbrow was the language by which culture was translated into status—the pivot on which distinctions of taste became distinctions of caste. The words highbrow and lowbrow are American inventions, devised for a specifically …
Constant, Total War
“Van Til is not urging the physical destruction of non-Christians — note his ‘spiritual weapons only and always” — but he does see the task of the Christian educator as one of constant, total war. Every thought must be made captive to Christ. A Christian school is not the place where we complete this task, …
The Movie of Me
“I stood there for a moment longer in the yellow tornado light while the techno music in my ears reorganized my consciousness into cleaner lines than the gangsta vibe . . . implanting in the folds of my cortex the way poetry used to before I got a Discman and made pop music the soundtrack …
And Not Just Billy Idol Either
“My answer to the question about Christian involvement with popular culture is essentially the same. You can enjoy popular culture without compromising Biblical principles as long as you are not dominated by the sensibility of popular culture, as long as you are not captivated by its idols.” [Kenneth Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede …
Great Books Aimlessness
“Those who have participated in ‘great books’ conversations inspired by this approach to modern classicism know that few things can wreck the intellectual party more quickly than a claim of absolute truth, goodness, or beauty. The student is equipped for anything the great conversation might bring to him, except for one thing — answers. To …
Churchacabana
“But try telling someone from the Barry Manilow School of Liturgy that something is schlock and they will regard you as an arrogant elitist.” [Kenneth Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1989), p. 99].
No Luminous Glow
“God is our life. In Him we live and move and have our being. If He had not created the world, we would not be here (and hence could not do our math). If He had not created the world, there would be no oranges, and hence we could not discover that two oranges plus …
Folk Culture and Popular Culture
“Folk culture has the values and aspirations of a community. Popular culture, on the other hand, presupposes the absence of a community of belief or conviction. It is for many a means of escape from such a community” [Kenneth Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1989), p. 61].