• Entertainment

    The poignant truth about Andy’s dad from “Toy Story”

    If you pay close attention to Pixar movies, you may notice that filmmakers are intentional about what goes on in the background of their stories. They seem to be dropping hints that imply a backstory to the main story that you are watching. Speculating on the backstory has become somewhat of a parlor game for some. Jon Negroni has devoted a whole website to it. But the fascinating thing is that some of the observations he’s made are not wholly fanciful but are quite compelling.

  • Christianity

    Don’t waste your life in pornolescence

    Tim Challies has a helpful, pastoral word about young people who are wasting the best years of their lives on pornography. He calls it “pornolescence.” He writes: An overlooked cost, and one that will only become clear in time, is that porn is stealing the best years from a million young Christian men and women. Porn is dominating their lives during their teens and twenties. It is controlling their lives during those years when energy is high and responsibility is low, when the world lies open before them and the possibilities are endless, when they are charting the trajectories for the rest of their lives. Their dreams and their abilities…

  • Christianity,  Culture

    Transgender and “Washed in the Blood”?

    Alexandra Scott has a piece over at The Huffington Post that takes issue with the statement Southern Baptists made last week about transgender. Scott identifies as transgender and as a former Southern Baptist. Scott concludes with this: I am really curious why the SBC needs to establish such sharp boundaries, so many lines that cannot be crossed. Why can’t you worry about your eternal salvation and let me worry about mine? Is the sight of a transgender person or a gay couple so vexing and disturbing that somehow your world is rocked beyond repair? Why do you care if people different from you seek validation?

  • Book Reviews,  Christianity,  Entertainment

    Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

    Laura Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken is easily one of the best books I’ve ever experienced. I love biographies, but this one is a stand-out. I first heard about this book years ago but only recently took the time to go through it myself. I just finished it Friday evening. If you are unfamiliar with the story, the book is about the life and times of Louie Zamperini, a 1936 Olympian and hero of World War II. His story is larger than life, painted on a global canvas, encompassing the heights of human triumph and the depths of human degradation. In short, Zamperini went from juvenile delinquent to Olympian (who met Hitler!)…

  • Culture,  News

    Why surgery is not the answer for transgender

    This should be the last item on transgender for the week, but it is one that readers will want to pay very close attention to. Dr. Paul McHugh is the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and he has penned a revealing column for The Wall Street Journal opinion page. In short, he challenges the notion that sex-reassignment surgery is good for transgendered persons. His data are very compelling. He writes:

  • Christianity

    10 ways to love your transgender neighbor

    On Tuesday, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution “On Transgender Identity” that calls for Christians to “love our transgender neighbors” and to “seek their good always.” But what does that look like in practical terms? In light of that question, I thought it might be useful to post some reflections on how we might love our transgender neighbors. I’m sure there is more that might be added to such a list, but here are ten ways to love your transgender neighbor.

  • Christianity,  Politics

    The Daily Beast says SBC resolution is “harmful to the idea of democracy itself”

    At The Daily Beast, Jay Michaelson excoriates the resolution on transgender passed by Southern Baptists earlier this week. His article is riddled with factual errors, not the least of which is the fact that he seems not to have read the actual resolution. Instead, he quotes from an early draft containing elements that did not end up in the final resolution. To wit, there’s nothing in the resolution about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but Michaelson criticizes it as if there were.