“What is it that overcomes the world? Is it not our faith (1 John 5:4)? We lament, Why does the world not believe? Well, when was the last time we commanded it to? When was the last time we spoke with authority, and not like the scribes?” (From With Calvin in the Theater of God, …
Entertainment and What You Become
Let us begin by recognizing that an unconverted heart will do one of two things with these principles — the first is that of attempting to put these principles into practice in such a way that God will be placed in your debt, and the second response is to rebel against these principles. Those are …
Atheism As Failure to Grasp the Implications
“If the two of us [an atheist and Christian] were looking at a new report of the latest atrocity, I would say that at some point in the future, in some fundamental way, that will be put right. You want to say, as an atheist, that it will not ever be put right. But you …
Doll Babe
“It is quite false that Puritan women were porcelain doll figures. They were women, created in the image of God, designed by Him to complement the men. But if we flip this around, we do find that young girls today are encouraged to become Barbie dolls. And so they do, growing up to acquire their …
And Fame Cogs
“The poet Rainer Rilke was quite prescient when he observed that anyone who investigates the ‘thousands of fame-wheels and fame-belts’ of the fame industry is ‘ultimately also pressed into service and soon contributes to the machine’s monstrous actions and berserk roaring'” (Halpern, Fame Junkies, p. xxviii).
Fame Junkies Indeed
“How many viewing hours will be devoted to contests like American Idol, in which seemingly every single person in the country is lining up to become famous?” (Jake Halpern, Fame Junkies, p. xxii).
Gritty and Raw
[A sympathetic literary portrayal of opiate addiction allows a writer] “to demonstrate a personal knowledge of the lower depths, which has increasingly become a requirement for an imaginative writer to be taken seriously, at least in literary circles. We do not live in an auspicious age for the likes of Jane Austen or Henry James: …
Doilies on the Davenport
I have the book Young, Restless and Reformed on order, but have not yet read it. Comes now Peter Masters with a review of that book right here, and he says some things in the course of his review that I have to respond to. I am not saying anything about the book, mind you, …
The Authenticity Jive
“Moreover, there is something deeply attractive, at least to quite a lot of people, about squalor, misery, and vice. They are regarded as more authentic, and certainly more exciting, than cleanliness, happiness and virtue” (Dalrymple, Romancing Opiates, p. 88).
You Only Wind Up Driving the Porcelain Bus
“But of course, alcohol had few romantic possibilities. It wasn’t exotic, and everyone, practically, took it. To be a mere drunk was not compatible with the Romantics’ thirst for world-significant angst” (Dalrymple, Romancing Opiates, p. 83).