We have become far too casual about reproductive technologies. The implications of the decisions people make are rarely thought through in any coherent way. Once our culture severed the natural connection between marriage, sex, and procreation, a whole host of difficulties followed in the wake. Sunday’s New York Times ran an opinion-piece yesterday by an 18-year-old casualty of anonymous sperm donation. This is a boy who wants to know who his father is but never will. It’s gut-wrenching to read, but you should take the time to do so. He writes:
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Where are the men?
Owen Strachan’s reflections on the spirit of the age are spot-on. Here’s a clip: “I cannot imagine what it is like to be a single twenty- or thirty-something woman in the broader culture today. It must be a ghastly experience. Following feminist tenets, you’ve worked your way to a fantastic job in an ultra-urban setting. Because you’re responsible, you’ve been able not only to save money but to buy a nice apartment. You take care of yourself, eat good food, go to fun shows and movies, and generally live a glamorous lifestyle. There’s just one thing missing: a good man.
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Trailer for “Blue Like Jazz”
Here’s the trailer for the movie based on Donald Miller’s bestselling book Blue Like Jazz. (HT: Abraham Piper)
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Remembering a D-Day Hero
Today is the 67th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Major Dick Winters took part in that invasion and his heroism was made famous in the book Band of Brothers. Winters died in January of this year at the age of 92. Winters was a true American hero. He was a part of the 101st airborne division that was dropped behind enemy lines just before the D-Day invasion. He and the men he commanded from Easy Company fought all the way from Normandy to Hitler’s Alpine retreat at Berchtesgaden, Germany. His bravery and leadership is the stuff of legend, and that is why there is a book and a movie telling…
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Greatest Marriage Proposal Ever?
Matt Still has produced one of the most creative marriage proposals I have ever seen. It’s also the latest viral YouTube sensation making the rounds. He and his fiancée were interviewed on “The Today Show” this morning. You can watch the proposal above and then the interview below.
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The Hermeneutics of Gender
There was a lot of discussion last week of the Presbyterian Church’s (USA) decision to allow for the ordination of homosexual clergy. Christopher Cocca has an article at The Huffington Post, however, that pulls a thread that many have not picked up on. Cocca’s article is essentially about hermeneutics and the way that the Bible should inform our moral evaluation of homosexuality. But he comes at the issue from a different angle and argues that there is a connection between the ordination of homosexuals and the ordination of women.
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Gender-bending News Report
Sign of the times alert. Here’s the opening paragraph from a recent news report: Woman charged in transgender beating at McDonald’s ROSEDALE, Md. — An 18-year-old woman has been charged in an attack on a transgender woman over using a McDonald’s restroom in a Baltimore suburb —an incident captured on video by a McDonald’s employee. This is a sad story, and we should be outraged at the crime reported here. Nevertheless, the events in the report aren’t what I want to focus on. Instead, I want to highlight a subtlety in how the story is written that may go unnoticed. Notice that the victim is designated as a “transgender woman,” and…
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Can you defend the sexual revolution?
Anthony Esolen has a helpful article asserting the ideological bankruptcy of the sexual revolution. In essence, he argues that it undermines the common good to treat sex as if it were irrelevant to the flourishing of society. Here’s the first paragraph: “Why should two men who are sexually attracted to one another not be allowed to pretend that they are married? That we are even asking such a question is the result of our having accepted the premise of the sexual revolution, which is, essentially, that what people do with their bodies is their own business, so long as no one is harmed. By ‘no one’ we mean the people…
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An Atheist on Gender Neutral Bibles
Christopher Hitchens has high praise for the King James Bible in the latest issue of Vanity Fair. This year is the 400th anniversary of the KJV, and Hitchens makes the case for the superiority of the King James Bible over all comers. In one section of the essay, Hitchens takes umbrage with gender neutral language in modern versions. In particular, he criticizes the Contemporary English Version’s use of “my friends” in place of the KJV’s “brethren.” He writes: “Pancake-flat: suited perhaps to a basement meeting of A.A., these words could not hope to penetrate the torpid, resistant fog in the mind of a 16-year-old boy, as their original had done…
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Sexting Epidemic
“One day last winter Margarite posed naked before her bathroom mirror, held up her cellphone and took a picture. Then she sent the full-length frontal photo to Isaiah, her new boyfriend. “Both were in eighth grade. “They broke up soon after. A few weeks later, Isaiah forwarded the photo to another eighth-grade girl, once a friend of Margarite’s. Around 11 o’clock at night, that girl slapped a text message on it… Then she clicked open the long list of contacts on her phone and pressed ‘send.’ “In less than 24 hours, the effect was as if Margarite, 14, had sauntered naked down the hallways of the four middle schools… Hundreds,…