Tag: Culture

  • Dan

    Lost time

    I came down with COVID this week. It was a good run. I made it to this point, so I’m thankful. At some point in my first couple of days of battling some nasty symptoms, I began to lament time I was “losing.” Appointments to be rescheduled. I even thought, “Goodness! I had two weeks of vacation followed by a…

  • Dan

    Extreme views and the fall of democracy

    Christian nationalism is a hot topic. Extreme ideologies to both sides are a worry to me. Each extreme works to tell people what IS right, which is THEIR way. But Christian nationalism is of concern because it rips out the bedrock bellied to love our neighbor. This edition of the Holy Post podcast truly deserves your attention. The warnings are…

  • Dan

    A study in contrasts

    I am beginning a deeper dive into 1 Timothy and doing an overview of the letter. It brings out a certain contrast I see in our current context. Kingdom living: There is bad behavior around you. Contrast that with good behavior. Christian Nationalism: There is bad behavior… therefore we must ELIMINATE THE THREAT!

  • Dan

    Violence and fear is our DNA

    I was listening to a podcast discussing Christian Nationalism. It reminded me that for decades now all political campaigns on a more national level have mostly run on fear. “Elect us (our agenda/ideology), or this nation will collapse (or some other disaster will ensue).”

  • Dan

    Exhaustion

    David French gets to the heart of most things culturally and politically in a way that speak volumes to me. His free weekly comments are spot on this week as well when it comes to our nation and the Fourth of July.

  • Dan

    The power of privilege is killing us

    A series of blogs I wrote in the past couple of weeks focused on an article from Jonathan Haidt about social media and how it’s made our culture more stupid. In particular was a statistic on the extreme positions in our country being white and wealthy. David French makes the same case:

  • Dan

    The last ten years have re-wired us, Part 4

    Part 1Part 2Part 3 In his article, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid,” Jonathan Haidt has laid out the case for the downfall of practical thinking and directly correlates it to the rise of social media. He likens it to the Tower of Babel, how we all communicated with a common language, to the…

  • Dan

    We have to stand up

    I have been blogging over the past week on an article by Jonathan Haidt on how social media has rewired our brains over the last 10 years. What has been lost is nuance and the ability to live in the nuance in the power of the gospel. This video is a powerful example of not throwing back hatred at someone…

  • Dan

    The Last Ten Years have Re-Wired Us, Part 3

    Part 1Part 2 “… Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a few other large platforms unwittingly dissolved the mortar of trust, belief in institutions, and shared stories that had held a large and diverse secular democracy together. ” — Jonathan Haidt

  • Dan

    The last ten years have re-wired us

    In February 2012, as he prepared to take Facebook public, Mark Zuckerberg reflected on those extraordinary times and set forth his plans. “Today, our society has reached another tipping point,” he wrote in a letter to investors. Facebook hoped “to rewire the way people spread and consume information.” By giving them “the power to share,” it would help them to…