On Friday, The Bully Pulpit podcast featured a stimulating discussion about Matt Walsh’s new movie Am I Racist? Among other things, the four hosts discuss the ethics of deception in Walsh’s film. Andrew Walker stood alone in arguing that Walsh’s use of deception in the film was not morally justified. I think Walker is spot-on about that. The truth is that—in spite of Walsh’s claims to the contrary—the film repeatedly engages its subjects through deception. Walsh defends the film in a video arguing that his methods were necessary in order to expose the DEI grift. While that claim is disputable, the more important point is the structure of his argument.…
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An Epilogue on My Column about Lying
It has been fascinating to read responses to my column in WORLD magazine about the ethics of lying. The occasion for the article was Robin DiAngelo’s claim that Matt Walsh had lied to her in order to procure her participation in Walsh’s new film Am I Racist? I was asked to write the article last week before the film released and to address the ethics of lying for an ostensibly good cause. There was an online conversation unfolding before the film released as a result of DiAngelo’s statement, and many people were arguing in response that lying and deception are justified whenever waging culture war. For my part, I never…
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The Heroes of World War 2
The tale of the evacuation from Dunkirk during World War 2 is one of the most riveting and inspiring true stories that you will ever hear. It is a story of heroes, common and uncommon. It is a story of national valor and courage, and for that reason the story is beloved and cherished. What happened at this little fishing village in the north of France in 1940? At the beginning of World War II, Hitler had almost completely overrun Europe. One by one, country after country fell under the Blitzkrieg—the lightning war. And in 1940, he finally got the continental prize—France. The British army was there fighting alongside the…
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Making Himself Equal with God – Part 2 – John 5:19-23
Last Saturday, I watched an old video of the moments right after my son’s birth. Right after the delivery, the nurses took him to a table near the bed, cleaned him off, and put medical tags around his wrist and around his ankle. Do you know why they did that? So that no one at any time would get confused about who this baby is. I recently read about two men who were born on the same day in the same hospital in Canada 67 years ago (source, source). A few years ago, the men discovered that the hospital sent them home with the wrong families. At this point, all…
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Making Himself Equal with God – John 5:1-18
We are a people prone to allow lesser things to loom larger in our thoughts than God does. For those without Christ, ignoring God or denying His beneficence is a way of life. The apostle Paul says it this way: Romans 1:21, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” But even for those of us who have experienced the grace of God, is it not the case that we too are often tempted to let other things loom large in our imaginations while God appears to be…
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Are there male boxers fighting in the women’s division at the Olympics?
Perhaps you saw the news about an Italian boxer name Angela Carini, who threw in the towel after 46 seconds in the ring with Algeria’s Imane Khelif at the Olympics. Carini said that she had never been hit so hard by another boxer and that she had to stop the fight. Olympic hopes dashed, she fell to her knees after the forfeit weeping and crying out that it’s not fair. Why wasn’t it fair? As clips from the fight began flooding social media feeds, many viewers concluded that Carini’s opponent was a man identifying as a woman (i.e., transgender). Riley Gaines tweeted, “This is glorified male violence against women.” J.…
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A Prophet Not without Honor – John 4:43–54
Why did people reject Jesus and fail to give him honor? Because the old secular proverb is still true: “Familiarity breeds contempt.” People witnessed Jesus’ perfections with their own eyes. Nevertheless, they could not fathom how ordinary and imperfect Mary and Joseph–with all their other rascally kids–could come produce someone worthy of worship. They knew his parents. They knew his siblings. And they knew him. And there was nothing remarkable to them in anything that they had seen. And so they appeal to their familiarity with this family as a basis to dishonor Jesus. [Hear the rest of the sermon at the Spotify or Apple links below.]
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No Facts or Evidence Required
In the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on former President Trump, social media were treating us to an endless stream of uninformed “hot takes.” Although the better part of wisdom would refuse public speculation, precious few were so restrained. We were told that the shooter was a member of Antifa. We were told that he was Italian. There were even pictures circulating of some poor guy who was identified to be the shooter but who actually had nothing to do with any of it. Within minutes of the shooting, images and video from the site of the shooting began circulating. Some of these appeared on social media in misleading…
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How a Christian Patriot Loves His Wayward Nation
I love G. K. Chesterton’s reflections on what it means to be a Christian patriot. If you have never read it, I encourage you to read “The Flag of the World” in his classic work Orthodoxy. Chesterton contends that love of one’s homeland is not like house-hunting—an experience in which you weigh the pros and cons of a place and choose accordingly. He writes: A man belongs to this world before he begins to ask if it is nice to belong to it. He has fought for the flag, and often won heroic victories for the flag long before he has ever enlisted. To put shortly what seems the essential…
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Could This Be the Christ? – John 4:27-42
Jesus’ behavior toward women reflects the fact that God created both male and female in his image with equal value and dignity and differing complementary callings and roles. Their differences don’t negate their equality, nor does their equality negate their complementary differences. Thus, wherever Christianity has taken root in a culture, the lot of women has improved. “Men treat women with respect, and they take humble, courageous initiatives to protect women and create stable, loving families where the covenant faithfulness of husband and wife display the mystery of Christ and to his church to the world” (Piper). Jesus is showing us that even if other men wouldn’t give this woman…
