Breakpoint

There have been two mass shootings in a little over a week, on opposites sides of the country by individuals who, from what we currently know, sit on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum. Though quickly trotted out narratives have proven either obviously flimsy or flat wrong, Americans remains deeply entrenched in their corners and are seeing these issues through those lenses. All the while, yet another set of events reveals a country in moral crisis, with very little helpful guidance from media or from government officials. Mass shootings continue to be, tragically, a regular feature of American life. Each new attack on innocent children, students, church members, employees, concertgoers, and shoppers hits before we've recovered from the last one. May we never become numb to the horror of these crimes. After each shooting, the fury and passion to "do something" reaches a new level of volume and intensity. Certainly, those who wish to restrict guns are louder than ever, and the current political situation makes those restrictions at least a legal possibility. Now, in full disclosure, I'm a Second Amendment guy. I own guns, and I support the right to bear arms, which is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Gun ownership has been a consistent feature of American life since its founding, a reflection of the country's DNA – self-government, self-protection, self-provision. But I'm also enough of a student of history and worldview to know that rights always come with responsibility. People incapable of enjoying freedoms will inevitably lose them. Those unable to govern themselves will have to be governed. To be clear, this is not a statement of what ­ought to happen; it's a statement of what always happens when a culture morally breaks down. The choice for any people, as Chuck Colson often said, is between the conscience and the constable. If a people will not be governed by conscience, they will be governed by the constable. The loss of conscience, which is always a failure of moral formation, will lead to the loss of freedom. John Adams, the second President of the United States, famously said that the Constitution was meant for a "moral and religious people" and "is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." His observation applies as much to the Second Amendment as to any other. The shocking lack of conscience on display in America is producing behaviors that can largely be grouped into one of two categories. First, historic levels of suicide, opioid use, and overdoses, as well as epidemic levels of loneliness and isolation (especially among the most vulnerable) are together known as "deaths from despair." Second, the various and consistent acts of mass violence, such as shootings and rioting, are among those things that could be labeled "acts of desperation." With both deaths of despair and acts of desperation at epidemic levels, we are clearly not a people moral or religious enough to sustain the freedoms we've been blessed with. After his visit to America, Alexis de Tocqueville famously described the role that religion and local community groups played in uniting and directing the nation. If de Tocqueville were writing today, almost 200 years later, he'd instead describe a become a society of isolated individuals, and thus a place where addicts, the suicidal, the lonely, and too many disturbed young men are slipping through the cracks. Political conservatives, hear me on this: Freedom is unsustainable without virtue. Demanding rights without acknowledging responsibilities is a failing strategy. Political liberals, hear me on this: The problem isn't guns. Ban them without addressing the real problems of our society, and the next killer will choose some other weapon of mass destruction. The rest of us will be unarmed and unable to defend ourselves. America has become, to borrow words from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 1978 speech at Harvard, a place with "little defense against the abyss of human decadence…such as the misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, such as motion pictures full of pornography, crime, and horror." Even stricter laws, Solzhenitsyn went on to say, would be powerless to defend a people against such moral corrosion. If the devolution of our collective conscience continues, the replacement of constitutional rights with constables might be inevitable. And even constables cannot truly govern, or protect, a people without a conscience.

A listener writes in to John and Shane following a recent BreakPoint commentary on restricting access to organ transplants for those with disabilities. The questioner expands the concept to talk about the challenges inside the organ transplant process. John also fields a question from a listener who wrote in to Arizona Senator Kirsten Sinema regarding the Equality Act. The Senator's office wrote to the listener claiming religious freedoms are protected inside the Equality Act. John responds, outlining the challenge in the Senator's interpretation of freedom. John and Shane also field a question from a listener who is challenged by a church plant that is targeting a racial profile for the congregation. John and Shane work through the foundational concepts of the church.

Each year as Easter approaches, pseudo-scholars, newspapers, and cable networks make headlines claiming to offer the real story about Jesus. Their accounts assume that much of the Jesus story contained in the Gospels, especially anything miraculous is largely a myth created and propagated by, first, His followers, and then, Church leaders seeking to expand their power. Despite the skepticism, few suggest that Jesus never existed. Online, of course, that is a different story. Though there are no serious scholars who question whether Jesus of Nazareth actually existed, it's still a claim you might encounter, either on the internet or from someone who believes their internet source. So, what if you find yourself in a conversation with someone who says: "No one really knows whether Jesus existed or not." The latest video in our "What Would You Say?" series tackles this question: Here's my colleague Shane Morris… The next time someone says they don't think we can be sure that Jesus ever existed, here are 3 things to remember: Number 1: Several non-Christian historians of that period mention Jesus. Josephus was a Jewish historian who had grown up in Jerusalem in the first century, the same city where Jesus was reported to have been crucified. Josephus' father was a Jewish priest who would have been a contemporary of Jesus, and almost certainly would have seen him if he had existed. Josephus mentions Jesus on two occasions in his History of the Jews: In one he reports his crucifixion at the demand of the Jewish leaders and in the other, he mentions the execution of James, the brother of Jesus who is called Messiah. Josephus would have known Jesus was a historical person and would have no reason to invent him if he didn't. Other non-Christian historians also mention Jesus, including the Roman historian Tacitus, the Greek satirist Lucian, and a prisoner named Mara bar Serapion. Number 2: The apostle Paul, someone who persecuted the Christian Church, would have been a contemporary of Jesus and claims to have known Jesus' brother James. It is very unlikely that Paul would have given his life to a movement he had once persecuted if it had been based on a fictitious man who had supposedly traveled and preached in the same area in which Paul himself lived. Jesus would have been publicly crucified at a time and location where and when Paul would have been present, in response to demands made by Jewish authorities whom Paul would have known. Paul claimed to personally know Jesus' brother James. Fictitious people tend not to have brothers who are personally known. Number 3: Most contemporary scholars think that at least some of the Gospels are closely rooted in the eyewitness testimony of Jesus' disciples. Although modern scholars differ in their opinions about the historical accuracy of the Gospels, most think the Gospels of Mark and John are closely based on eyewitness testimony of two of Jesus' disciples, who had traveled with him. It would have been easier to invent the existence of a mythical person that supposedly lived centuries prior to writing about them. It's much harder to invent a person that supposedly existed within the memory of living eyewitnesses. The accounts of Jesus are eyewitness accounts. Find the whole video of Shane answering the question "Did Jesus Really Exist?" at whatwouldyousay.org. Or, search for "What Would You Say?" on YouTube. The first result will be a music video from the Dave Matthews Band, but look for the icon with the blue question mark. That's the What Would You Say channel. Be sure to subscribe and be notified each time a new What Would You Say video is released. And look out for next week's video on "The Resurrection of Jesus and Pagan Myth," just in time for Easter.

March Madness, the NCAA Division 1 national basketball tournament is back, and better than ever. Two interesting developments so far are the incredible number of upsets in the first two rounds and, with the notable exceptions of Liberty University and BYU, the success of the religious schools. So far, the Catholics (Loyola-Chicago), the Disciples of Christ (Abilene Christian), the Baptists (Baylor), and the charismatics (Oral Roberts University) have all advanced. The sweet 16 is quite the ecumenical affair this year. Another notable change this year is the non-stop commercials for online sports betting. In fact, as anyone who watches and follows sports can attest, betting on games is an increasingly important part of what it means to be a sports fan. March Madness will be, as the American head of British bookmaker William Hill predicted, "very heavily bet." The American Gaming Association expects about $8.5 billion to be wagered on the tournament. In fact, William Hill is ESPN's official sports betting partner, which means ESPN has an official sports betting partner. And all this is having an effect. Though much of the sports world shut down during the pandemic, 2020 was still a record year for sports gambling. The main target of this advertising is young men. Though men and women of all ages bet on sports, 43 percent of 25-to-34-year-old men who watch sports place at least one bet a week. That percentage drops to 20 percent for men 35-44, and to only 4 percent over the age of 55. Much of this dramatic demographic difference can be attributed to increased availability and ease of participation. Researchers have long known that living within ten miles of a casino nearly doubles a person's chances of becoming a pathological gambler. Now, with the legalization of online services and apps, everyone lives within not ten miles but ten feet. There are also the differences in generational norms. Gambling is, of course, no longer as taboo as it once was. Still, there's more to it than that. The vision of life in which men strive to contribute, and in which hard work is both rewarded and considered its own reward, has diminished, particularly among the young who, we now know, struggle to find a sense of meaning, and are catechized by cultural forces to live for amusement and entertainment. In a remarkable essay titled "Men Without Chests," C. S. Lewis described what happens in a culture that fills the brain with facts and titillates the senses but does nothing to cultivate virtue: "In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." A defining feature of young men today is what some have called perpetual adolescence, or "Peter Pan Syndrome." Just a generation ago, young men were expected to be on a life trajectory that culminated with marriage and child-rearing. So, their decisions and actions, even as late teens and early twenties, were aimed at the future. As recently as 1986, most 25-year-old men were already married. Today, the median age for first marriage among American men is 30. Traits long associated with adolescence — self-entitlement, addiction to entertainment, lack of self-control, overall angst — are now features of young men well into their 30s and beyond. Fewer young men are reaching other marks of maturity, either, such as joining or remaining in the work force. With so much time on their hands, many turn to entertainment or video games or addictions or gambling to stave off the boredom. The legalization and growth of online gambling has coincided with the legalization of recreational marijuana. This is no coincidence. After all, laws are mostly downstream from the larger culture, and these laws do far more to expand personal license. Rather, they reflect and reinforce an unmistakable message, especially to young men, to aim low, to think short-term thoughts about life and the world, to pursue immediate gratification, and to not aspire to too much. In many cultures, this message would fall on deaf, more mature ears. Not in ours.

The gospel isn't just two chapters, but four – not just fall and redemption. Rather, the whole story begins with creation – then fall, redemption – and concludes with restoration (for His glory). Pastor Matt Heard shares the importance of guarding our heart, understanding that the gospel is restoring us to the original purpose for which we were made. The heart includes – but is way more than – our emotions. It's where we experience longing. It's where we discern and understand. It's where we ponder and think. It's where we remember significant events. It's where my interactions with others are birthed (all authentic relationships are heart connections). It's where we experience stress (i.e., "Do not let your heart be troubled"). It's where we cultivate our intensity. It's the center of our attitude. It's where we exhibit courage. Bottom line – our heart – including our walk with God (it's with our heart that we believe) Matt Heard is the Founder and Principal of THRIVE, a teaching, speaking, and coaching ministry that engages people to flourish as fully alive human beings to God's glory in every arena of their life, journey, and culture. The seeds for Matt's vision were planted when he studied at L'Abri in Huémoz, Switzerland with Francis Schaeffer, who introduced him to the writings of the late Hans Rookmaaker, an art historian known for proclaiming, "Jesus didn't come to make us Christian; Jesus came to make us fully human." A graduate of Wheaton College and Reformed Theological Seminary, Matt is the author of Life with a Capital L: Embracing Your God-Given Humanity. He and his wife, Arlene, are the grateful parents of three adult sons and two daughters-in-law and they divide their time between Colorado Springs and Orlando. He can be contacted through his website, mattheard.org.

According to a recent poll published in Reason magazine, trust in American political parties is at an historic low. For the first time, more than 50 percent of Americans now identify as Independent, as opposed to Republican or Democrat. And, of course, it's not just political parties that are targets of our growing skepticism. Trust in societal institutions across the board has been on the decline for years. For example, the American people have shrinking confidence in the media, in big tech, and in Congress. Even confidence the historically popular institutions, such as law enforcement and the military, is on the decline. Three years ago, civilian trust in the military stood at a whopping 70 percent. Today, that number has dropped to 56 percent. What's the story here? As one scholar put it, "This is not just the events of the past 12 months." It's a trend. At least part of the reason is an overall disorientation and fear in the general population. Any sort of traditional consensus has now receded in our collective memory. Such a shared consensus offers stability and consistency, but, now, no new governing paradigm or worldview has replaced what has been cast aside. Also, various offspring of postmodernism, such as critical theory, have slipped the surly bonds of academic culture to become defining features of popular culture. The portrayal of everything and everyone as only motivated by the acquisition and preservation of power erodes trust. And a growing number of Americans are now constantly looking over their shoulders for the cancel culture police. Perhaps the primary reason we have distrust for institutions is that so many institutions have earned it. Simply put, they've failed us – Politicians who change their principles at the drop of the hat; journalists who play fast and loose with the truth; Hollywood, sports, and political icons fallen to scandal; couples who said "till death do we part" finding various escape clauses; not to mention, pastors and ministry leaders indulging in corruption or turning a blind eye to those who do. This is a time for one of my favorite anecdotes. After a particularly embarrassing loss in the playoffs, the legend goes, Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi started the next season by holding up a pigskin and saying to his Green Bay Packers, "Gentlemen, this is a football." Maybe the best way for the Church to regain the trust of the world is to go back to basics. Christ's first words in the Gospels were straightforward, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Paul seemed to assume that caring for the poor was a given for the Christian life. James's definition of true religion was that it was a lived, not merely spoken, reality where Christians should "visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." To quote another of my favorite anecdotes, this one from an old friend from Tennessee, "It ain't rocket surgery, man." Chuck Colson called this the Church being the Church. In an age of failing institutions, the opportunities are incredible for those who reject both a privatized, pietistic faith and the temptation to be a rootless activist group. Now is the time to take seriously the tasks of living out the Gospel, being what Paul called "ministers of reconciliation." What that might look like could be different for different churches in different contexts. It may mean maximizing the use of church facilities, offering medical clinics or food pantries. It will certainly mean defending the weak and vulnerable, especially the victims of our culture's bad ideas, and supporting those Christian organizations that do. A former colleague used to say, "The Church is God's Plan A and there is no Plan B." Taking that calling seriously will require, at the very least, a "this is a football" moment for Christians. The task of re-catechizing Christians in a Christian view of life and the world is essential. The Church certainly has things to offer the wider culture that no other social institution does. We'll need to be clear on what is different about the Church, beginning with the Christian understanding of the human person and human dignity. Who humans are, nothing less than an image bearers of God, is not only a fundamental distinction of a Christian worldview, but finding ways to communicate and apply it will be critical to our cultural witness. We'll spend this year's Wilberforce Weekend, May 21-23 in Fort Worth, looking at the idea image of God and fleshing out how it can shape our approach to the world around us. For a full schedule, with speakers and topics, including our Friday intensive on what it means to image God as male and female, visit wilberforceweekend.org.

John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the top events impacting culture this week. They highlight the recent, horrible shootings in Atlanta and dig into the various narratives by people making sense of the situation, including those which blame evangelicals. Maria then comments on the border crisis, pointing to the humanitarian concerns specifically impacting young people. John and Maria offer a Christian perspective to support both children and parents as the crisis is likely to grow in the coming weeks. Finally, Maria shares her gratitude for a number of virtues that make the United States a blessed place to live, while John alludes to line from Chuck Colson to guide our attention as we understand the privilege of living in America. To close, Maria introduces a story on a new "Zionist Congress" being established by young Jews who are facing persecution. John and Maria both comment on the spiritual component of racism that is impacting our country. Finally, John highlights the inspirational story that led Dick Hoyt to run marathons over the course of four decades with his son. Dick passed away this week at eighty-years-old. Maria shares a family tradition of honoring Passover with a recommendation for audience members to participate in a Seder meal. -- Resources Join us at the 2021 Wilberforce Weekend, May 21-23! "Curating Beauty," the Strong Women Podcast with guest Ashley Marsh "Anti-Semitism: The Oldest Hatred," by John Stonestreet and Maria Baer, BreakPoint "A New Zionist Congress Is Born," by Blake Flayton, Tablet "Inspirational Boston Marathon dad Dick Hoyt dies at 80 after 4 decades of races with his son," ABC News "Strongest Dad in the World," by Rick Reilley, Sports Illustrated A Passover explainer and recipes: https://mjaa.org/passover/ A Messianich Haggadah: https://www.amazon.com/Messianic-Jewish-Passover-Haggadah-Celebrating/dp/0917842081/ref=sr_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=messianic+haggadah&qid=1616167431&s=books&sr=1-13 Passover and it's NT connections: https://jewsforjesus.org/jewish-resources/jewish-holidays/passover/

Recently, especially as a response to the revelations of particularly egregious misconduct by Ravi Zacharias, and even abuse, we've been warned away from saying anything akin to "There, but for the grace of God, go I." What is, to some an admission that, as my colleague Shane Morris has put it, everyone is made of the same clay, is, to others, excuse-making cloaked in faux humility. To them, it suggests that sexual sin, even the most terrible kind, is inevitable for men, so we shouldn't expect any better. Or to put it differently, if only God's grace stands between us and horrific sin, we don't need to take responsibility for avoiding sinful behavior. In the end, it's up to God, and, in the end, the horror suffered by victims is downplayed. Though none of these things is, in our view, necessarily implied by saying "there but for the grace of God go I," the concerns are valid if for no other reason than an observation Chuck Colson often made. "There is no limit to the human capacity for self-rationalization." Even our admissions of guilt can be, he knew, attempts to rationalize our behavior. Still, there is an important truth about our propensity for sin no matter which slogan we use. In fact, the Bible repeats this in various ways. Proverbs 4 says, "The way of the wicked is deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble." In other words, we can surprise ourselves with our sin. After all, our "hearts are deceitful above all things," the prophet said, "and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" The Bible is full of this wisdom. At the same time, these verses are not excuses. It's precisely because our own sin can so surprise us, that we should be cautious and beg God for protective grace, even to the point of metaphorically cutting off our limbs and gouging out our eyes, should it come to that. In recent weeks, we've learned of abuse committed on a staggering scale, but it didn't come from nowhere. It came from a long-term trajectory of compromises made possible by a perfect storm of failures – of accountability, of honesty, of tolerating, hiding, and abetting temptation. It is a gift of God that so few of us are in such a position to commit evil on this scale. I doubt that anyone who says "there, but for the grace of God, go I" is suggesting they're mere inches away from doing the exact same thing as we've learned about Ravi Zacharias. That's because it's doubtful that anyone intends to sin on a grand scale. Back in the age of Saturday morning cartoons and "Just Say No!" public service commercials, there was one ad where, as the screen flashed images of a down-and-out drug addict, the announcer would proclaim, "No one dreams of becoming a junkie." In the same way, spouses who decide to cheat are often already unfaithful in their internal trajectory. Great sins are often the product of many little decisions and are driven by internal rebellions that are finally offered opportunity. King Solomon might be the best example of all (see 1 Kings 10-11). Acknowledging that our nature is fallen and susceptible to such compromise is a wise thing to do, especially when mixed with asking for God's grace. One of Jesus' last and most urgent commands to His disciples was for them to pray that they would not fall into temptation. The same request is a central part of how Christ taught all of His followers to pray in the Lord's Prayer. In other words, while not every sin may be expressly inevitable, each is possible. We are capable of it. To think otherwise is to sound an awfully lot like Peter, "Lord, I would never deny you." Every fallen human being is at least capable of many evils, even the unthinkable ones. If we are to accept our capacity to surprise even ourselves by the depth of our own depravity, we may need to deny ourselves things we'd like to have. Cutting off our limbs may mean some men or women shouldn't be in leadership, or shouldn't travel as much as they do, or shouldn't take that promotion, or accept that new job, or buy that new toy, or stay on Twitter. Where the rubber of "there, but for the grace of God, go I" meets the road is in understanding the depth of our sinful capabilities and in bearing the responsibility of making arrangements to avoid it. There but for the grace of God go any of us. It's true. We still have to grip that grace, from moment to moment, for dear life.

In his remarkable autobiography, Confessions, St. Augustine famously wrote, "Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee." Solomon talked of God "putting eternity in our hearts." In other words, as John Calvin observed, humans are "incurably religious creatures." Though millions of Americans have given up on organized religion and a growing number now declare themselves as "nones" (in other words, no spiritual affiliation), these observations by Solomon, John Calvin, and St. Augustine remain true. In fact, our religious impulse is so strong, even the New York Times has noticed some new places where it is showing up. The vast majority of those who have fled the church, argued millennial author Leigh Stein in an article last week, haven't become less-religious at all. Rather, many (especially women) have embraced new belief systems, often led by self-appointed social media gurus who preach self-care, left-wing activism, and New Age spirituality, maybe with a side of herbal supplements. Instagram "Influencers" such as Glennon Doyle and Gwyneth Paltrow have won millions of followers with their personal growth advice and positive thinking. Though the packaging is updated, Stein pointed out, they're using the same old formula as televangelists. These "Instavangelists" (her word, not mine) don't talk as much about God, but they employ the same me-centric business model. It was in 2017, Stein claims, that she "began noticing how many wellness products and programs were marketed to women in pain," and how the social media industry would stoke moral outrage but fail to offer a worldview big enough to handle it. This, in turn, became a business opportunity for the internet gurus. Some specialized in call-out culture and others in self-help cures, but all insisted that the answers to our problems lie within us if only, like little gods, we assert our desires and moral intuitions as absolute. Self-worship in any form, however, is a recipe for spiritual restlessness. After all, we make terrible gods, and we know it, especially in our more honest moments. The women that millions have chosen as moral leaders, Stein argues, "aren't challenging us to ask the fundamental questions that leaders of faith have been wrestling with for thousands of years: Why are we here? Why do we suffer? What should we believe in beyond the limits of our puny selfhood?" "We're looking," she continues, "for guidance in the wrong places, instead of helping us to engage with our most important questions, our screens might be distracting us from them. Maybe," she finishes, "we actually need to go to something like a church?" For those of us who do go to church, this may seem obvious. But, for a writer who admits to seldom praying to God, this is a remarkable realization. As St. Augustine himself would attest, no one is more vulnerable to the truth than when they've seen all that the world has to offer and ask, "Is this it?" At the same time, a very different self-help guru seems to have come to that realization, recently. In a podcast with Orthodox iconographer Jonathan Pageau, clinical psychologist and bestselling author Jordan Peterson all but admitted, in remarkable and tearful words describing the limits of his intellectual capacity to understand, that God is breaking down the door of his heart. As a disciple of Carl Jung, Peterson has long treated Christianity as a useful myth in which people can find meaning. Yet, through personal struggles and dialogue with Christians, he admits to wanting to believe (and maybe in some sense to actually believe) that this Jesus story is true. "I probably believe (in Christ)," Peterson said, "but I'm amazed at my own belief and I don't understand it." Both the trajectory (outward not inward) and posture (teachable not entitled) of Peterson's search stands in stark contrast to Instavangelism, and it raises tough questions for those leaving organized religion behind. With what will you replace it? What's big enough to fill the God-shaped hole in your heart? If Christianity isn't the true story of the world, is there an alternative? If Stein and Peterson and, for that matter, Augustine are right, these alternative religions will never satisfy the human impulse to worship. At least not for very long.

John answers listener questions related to using gender pronouns, responding to employer terminology in assisted suicide, and considering statistics for support in defending marriage and parenting structures.