Breakpoint

"Unapologetic antisemitism—whether the incidents are few or numerous—is a college phenomenon because of what we teach, and how our teachings are exploited by malign actors." That's a line you'd expect to hear from some right-wing activist or conservative think tank. Instead, it came from Harry Lewis, Harvard grad, Harvard professor, and former Harvard dean.

In his article "Reaping What We Have Taught," Lewis took his own school to task:

When complex social and political histories are oversimplified in our teachings as Manichaean struggles—between oppressed people and their oppressors, the powerless and the powerful, the just and the wicked—a veneer of academic respectability is applied to the ugly old stereotype of Jews as evil but deviously successful people.

It's not easy in today's academic environment to point out the emperor has no clothes. Ideas have consequences, but so does courage. Let's hope others in ivory towers are willing to call out the dangerous ideas that control these institutions.

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Chuck Colson often described the importance of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 2009, Chuck, along with fellow authors Dr. Timothy George and Dr. Robert George, cited Dr. King in the Manhattan Declaration, a statement of conscience regarding life, marriage, and religious liberty in the United States.

In 1955, after only a year of pastoring a church in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. King was selected to lead an organization that boycotted public transportation. This was in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat for a white passenger on a bus. With a remarkable speaking ability and his advocacy of peaceful protest, Dr. King became a primary voice of the Civil Rights Movement.

Chuck Colson noted three significant aspects of Dr. King's work. First, Dr. King was deeply influenced by his Christian faith. Though a series of personal failures are now known to be, sadly, serial, the principles from which he spoke and wrote were undeniably Christian. Reflecting on Dr. King's time in Birmingham, fighting against segregation and for equal job opportunities for African Americans, Chuck noted the following:

During his Birmingham civil rights campaign, Dr. King required every participant to sign a pledge committing to do ten things. The first was to "meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus." Others included the expectation that all participants would "walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love" and "pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free."

To truly understand Martin Luther King, students must learn about his Christian faith. It was at the heart of what he did.

Recently, sports commentator Chris Broussard and human rights expert Dr. Matt Daniels have produced a video series emphasizing the biblical principles that inspired Dr. King's life and work. Dr. Daniels is concerned that the Christian underpinnings of Dr. King's legacy are being lost. You can find this series "Share the Dream" at churchsource.org.

In another commentary, Chuck Colson noted how Dr. King understood divine law as the source of human law. King's greatest demonstration of this was in his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," something Chuck Colson often referred to as "the most important legal document of the twentieth century." Here's Chuck:

King defended the transcendent source of the law's authority. In doing so he took a conservative Christian view of law. In fact, he was perhaps the most eloquent advocate of this viewpoint in his time, as, interestingly, Justice Clarence Thomas may be today.

Writing from a jail cell, King declared that the code of justice is not man's law: It is God's law. Imagine a politician making such a comment today.

Based on this belief, that God is the ultimate source of law, Dr. King insisted that any unjust law is, in fact, not a law at all. This was the basis of his view of civil disobedience, something that Christians not only could engage in, but must engage in. Here, again, is Chuck Colson describing King's view:

"One might well ask," he wrote, "how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer "is found in the fact that there are two kinds of laws: just laws … and unjust laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws," King said, "but conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."

How does one determine whether the law is just or unjust? A just law, King wrote, "squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law … is out of harmony with the moral law."

Then King quoted Saint Augustine: "An unjust law is no law at all." He quoted Thomas Aquinas: "An unjust law is a human law not rooted in eternal or natural law."

If it is true, as Chuck and his co-authors asserted in the Manhattan Declaration that "unjust laws degrade human beings," then Dr. King's teachings continue to have relevance for us today, not only on issues of race but on all kinds of areas in which our ideas are misaligned from our Creator. Take a moment today to read Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Trans rights are becoming the latest state-by-state issue dividing America. The Vatican releases a very pointed condemnation of surrogacy. And the Biden White House declares abortion is the number one issue in the upcoming presidential campaign.

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Segment 1: States vs. the Feds on Trans Policy

How Democrats Set the Stage in 2023 for an LGBT Onslaught In 2024

Ohio House Overrides Governor

Missouri's Ban on "Gender-Affirming Health Care" for minors can take effect next week, judge rules

Segment 2: The Pope Condemns Surrogacy

Francis Urges Ban on Surrogacy, calling it "Despicable"

Segment 3: Biden Campaign Says Abortion #1 Issue

Biden's Top Priority for a second term: abortion rights

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

After securing his team's place in the NFL playoffs, Texans' rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud was asked by a reporter to respond to the moment. In a brief statement that has now made rounds on social media, he expressed gratitude for the city of Houston, honor for his fellow players, and, most of all, praise to Christ for saving him and choosing him to be in this role.

More than a typical generic thanks to God for a win, Stroud spoke with grace and humility, noting the Scriptures written on his wristbands after being asked.

For all the stories of scandals and salary fights, there's still a strong remnant of faith in this corner of our too-often Christless society. For more stories like this, from a lifelong sports fan and strong believer, check out the new book In the Big Inning by John Strege, where he shares stories of people whose faith influenced their performance and their relationship with coaches, teammates, and fans.

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Seven years ago this month, National Geographic published an issue that they now refer to as "historic." With a cover featuring a young boy with long pink hair and pink leggings, they announced a "Gender Revolution." The newsstand edition featured a different cover, a child and a collection of hip young people with identifying labels, such as "transgender female," "androgynous," and "bi-gender." Our perceptions of those who are transgender, these covers suggested, should not be simply men with a fetish. Rather, embracing new understandings of gender was about the kids.

In addition to the articles explaining the emerging "scientific consensus" around these things, and why "gender" is "fluid" and should be thought of as distinct from one's biology, one article focused on the challenge of "toxic masculinity." Five others promised that rethinking gender would elevate women. The journalists accurately predicted that a revolution was occurring, even though some who read the issue (me included) thought their announcement premature. However, seven years later, it's clear that the gender revolution has done everything but elevate women.

As child psychiatrist Miriam Grossman, author of Lost in Trans Nation, explains, the number of teen girls "with recent-onset discomfort with their sex is up 4,000 percent [emphasis added]." Especially vulnerable are girls with comorbidities, like autism, an association that even one of the National Geographic articles acknowledged. People who are autistic are three to six times more likely to not identify with their birth sex. Child psychiatrist Dr. Steven Grcevich, the founder and president of a ministry for families with hidden disabilities, called this "[t]he scandal that nobody is talking about … the vulnerability of kids with pre-existing medical conditions and autism and other developmental disabilities to this gender ideology."

According to Dr. Grossman, this social contagion has been especially driven by social media, which has become a virtual "assembly line" for challenging girls to question their sense of self. Medical professionals jumped in, resulting in a trail of mutilated bodies, sterilization, bone-density loss, and other irreversible damage done.

Women have been hurt in other ways too. According to the Telegraph, a male student recently attacked female students in a gender-neutral bathroom. In sports such as in jiujitsu and volleyball, girls have been overpowered and injured, not to mention the other issues of fairness of competition, scholarship opportunities, and privacy concerns.

Seven years ago, the first article in the "historic" National Geographic issue promised that "science is helping us understand gender." In what became a frequently used "bait and switch" tactic, the article focused on the incredibly rare conditions called "intersex" or "disorders of sex development." Not mentioned in the article is something that Abigail Favale clarified in her book, that "[i]n 99.98% of these cases, sex is readily recognizable as unambiguously male or female." Instead, the author lumps physical disorders of sex development with the mental conditions of gender confusion, via a mishmash of edgy psychology and personal narratives, with one neuroscientist stirred in for good measure. The takeaway is clear: All that matters is what an individual feels on the inside.

And yet, there are clear signs that this revolution is slowing. Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Norway have all drawn back from providing so-called "gender-affirming care" to young people because the science is not settled. Though the Biden Administration seems committed to advancing the revolution by force, in states such as Missouri and Ohio, lawmakers are taking definitive steps to protect children.

The credit for slowing down what seemed to be an unstoppable train headed off the cliff goes to a coalition of unlikely allies: from the so-called "TERFs" (or "trans-exclusionary radical feminists") like Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, to brave young people like Chloe Cole who have "de-transitioned," filed lawsuits, and testified before state legislatures, to Matt Walsh. Twenty-two states have now stopped or limited so-called "gender-affirming care" for minors.

National Geographic may have thought that the "gender revolution" was inevitable, but it's time for an update on the cultural state-of-play. Next Tuesday, January 16, at 7 p.m. ET, the next free online Breakpoint Forum will provide "The Real Facts About Gender Ideology." Featured presenters are child psychiatrists, Dr. Miriam Grossman and Dr. Steven Grcevich.

Sign up to join in live and ask questions, or to receive a link to access the recording. Go to breakpoint.org/forum.

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Heather Peterson. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave a review on your favorite podcast app.

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Anxious or depressed? Now you can download a digital therapist to your phone. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Chatbots that hold therapist-like conversations and wellness apps that deliver depression and other diagnoses or identify people at risk of self-harm are snowballing across employers' healthcare benefits."

On one hand, given the erroneous beliefs of many human therapists, how bad could it be? It's kind of like driving in Colorado since the legalization of pot. Maybe self-driving Teslas are a safer bet.

On the other hand, if in Canada, will the therapist AI bot on my phone help me or ask if I'd rather die?

The underlying challenge of all AI is that it is programmed by fallible, biased humans. Whether it's the errors that creep into an automatic car or the assumptions driving the therapy bot, our human frailties will always be a part of even our best technologies.

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Many Christian parents worry about how best to pass faith onto their children. Tragically, statistics suggest they are right to worry. In 2020, the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University found that just 2% of millennials, a generation now well into adulthood, have a biblical worldview. That is the lowest of any generation since surveys on the topic began. According to a Lifeway Research report , two-thirds of those who attend church as teenagers will drop out of church as adults.

A significant aspect of the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation has to do with ideas. Helping students think correctly about life and the world, God and themselves, would be hard enough if they weren't also facing such strong cultural headwinds. Simply put, many young people today leave the faith because they lack the necessary immunity from the bad ideas of our culture. Christian parents must not only present truth to their kids; they must find ways to immunize them against lies.

Dr. William McGuire, a Yale psychology professor in the 1950s, suggested that bad ideas behave like viruses. Specifically, he thought that the more exposure one has to bad ideas in a controlled setting, the less likely they are to fall for those ideas later. McGuire performed several experiments in which he tried to convince subjects of a lie, that brushing teeth is bad for them. Unsurprisingly, those given no preparation for what they were about to hear were more easily convinced of the lie than those warned against a specific bad argument they would hear.

However, the subgroups that were the easiest and the hardest to dupe were surprising. The group most vulnerable to falsehoods was not the one with zero preparation, but the one who had merely had the truth reinforced. In other words, the subjects most easily deceived were told things like, "You know brushing your teeth is good for you, right? You've been taught this since you were little. Trust us." When they subsequently heard arguments they never had before, this group felt sheltered and even deceived.

The least vulnerable group were those who had not only been warned against a bad argument they would hear, but they were also taught how to respond. They were also warned they could face additional bad arguments and needed to be aware and vigilant.

One thing we can learn from McGuire's experiment is that the method many Christian parents and churches use to pass on the faith—reinforcement without taking counter ideas seriously—is the one most vulnerable to failure. In fact, it can leave young people more vulnerable to lies, especially in high-pressure environments. It also means that we don't have to give kids all the answers, but they do need to be aware and ready to think for themselves. This requires we give them a framework, or a pattern, of responding to bad ideas thoughtfully and confidently.

This is what Dr. Jeff Myers and the team at Summit Ministries has been doing with students for decades. Not only do they know how to immunize students against bad ideas by taking them seriously and preparing them to defend their faith, but Summit also helps students apply the truth claims of Christianity to every area of their life.

The results of Summit training are both measurable and impressive. An independent 2020 survey of Summit alumni showed that, before attending a student conference, just 40% felt able to defend their faith against challenges. After attending, that number skyrocketed to 90%. Before Summit, 87% claimed a strong commitment to Christianity. Afterward, 96% did. And, almost 97% of Summit alumni indicate they are currently attending a church that holds to the truth of the Bible.

Chuck Colson once called Summit Ministries "the gold standard" for training young adults in Christian worldview. I agree. In fact, I've personally witnessed the transformation that God brings through a Summit ministries two-week student conference. Held at Covenant College in Georgia and at the Summit headquarters in Manitou Springs, Colorado, young people are given a Christian worldview about topics like abortion, doubt and deconstruction, evolution, gender identity, God's existence, sexuality, and more.

If you know a student who needs to attend a Summit conference this summer, visit summit.org/breakpoint, and use code BREAKPOINT24 to receive $200 off.

The numbers speak for themselves. Passing on a Christian worldview to our kids requires much more than just telling them the truth. It requires us to help them love the truth and gain spiritual immunity against infectious bad ideas.

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to colsoncenter.org.

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

This Breakpoint was revised from one first published on 2.18.22.

A recent study highlighted by King's College London suggests that, wait for it, sex is a greater predictor of athletic performance than gender identity. The study found that in the "nonbinary" category of races, men outperformed women.

The researchers were careful to note that not much research has been done in this area ... unless I'd add, you consider the history of sport.

That we need this study reveals much more about our cultural moment than it does about runners. To say that men and women are different is to say something that was universally obvious until just yesterday.

The created differences between men and women aren't a bug of our humanity but a feature, beautifully leading to differences in many areas of life. Women's sports should be protected because, if they aren't, men will continue to steal the place of women, not only on the winner's podium but in other areas of life too.

Chromosomes, like ideas, have consequences.

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

If you're interested in discovering how to develop the wisdom and skills needed to walk wisely in this cultural moment, then the Colson Fellows program might be for you. This ten-month program combines theological, spiritual, and worldview formation through a carefully curated combination of readings, daily devotions, live webinars, and monthly meetings with your peers. With both in-person and fully online offerings, you can choose the format that works best with your stage in life. Interested in learning more? You can explore the program and submit an application at colsonfellows.org.

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A pitfall of the fallen human mind is how narratives shape our perception of the world, even outweighing facts and common sense. For example, nuclear power is one of the safest ways to generate electricity. According to the Our World in Data report, nuclear is 99.8% safer than coal in terms of deaths per unit of power. Yet because of three dramatic accidents and the press surrounding them—Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986, and Fukushima in 2011—nuclear power is widely perceived as extraordinarily dangerous and in need of claustrophobic regulation.

Similarly, a narrative pushed by many in the press aims at rendering something else radioactive: home schooling. As a Washington Post analysis found late last year, home schooling is America's fastest growing form of education. Around 2.7 million students are home-schooled in America today, up by about a million since before the pandemic. For Washington Post reporters, this is scary.

One article described home schooling as a "largely unregulated practice once confined to the ideological fringe," whose rise in popularity is leading critics "to sound alarms." In it, an emeritus Harvard Law professor ominously warned, "Policymakers should think, 'Wow—this is a lot of kids.' We should worry about whether they're learning anything.'"

A school board member from Florida echoed their concern: "Many of these parents don't have any understanding of education. The price will be very big to us, and to society. But that won't show up for a few years."

In a Washington Post story from December 2, Peter Jamison recounted the tragic death of an 11-year-old California boy named Roman Lopez, from severe neglect and abuse. Though, as in most such cases, the story involved a broken and blended family—a factor children's rights activist Katy Faust points out is a consistent risk—according to The Washington Post, the thing to blame was that Lopez's stepmom said she was home schooling him.

"Home education was an easy way to avoid the scrutiny of teachers, principals, guidance counselors," suggests Jamison. Yet, he admits,

"Little research exists on the link between home schooling and child abuse. The few studies conducted in recent years have not shown that home-schooled children are at significantly greater risk of mistreatment than those who attend public, private or charter schools."

And the Post wasn't finished. Nine days later, the Post devoted an article aimed at debunking the work of home-school researcher and advocate Brian Ray, who has long argued that home-schoolers out-perform their public-schooled peers. With little content to criticize Ray's methodology, the Post devoted space to quoting anti-home-schooling activists and Ray's aggrieved adult daughter.

And then, three days after Christmas, the Post ran another article by Peter Jamison on the growing fear among home schooling families that state funding in the form of vouchers will come with increased government oversight. Leaving little doubt where he stands on the issue of state oversight, he threw in a story about a network of Nazi home-schoolers in Ohio.

These articles reveal not only the biases of Washington Post reporters and their willingness to use scare stories in place of data, but they also expose crucial questions they are unwilling to ask, as well as assumptions about the role of parents and the state when it comes to education.

To simultaneously note how home schooling has exploded in popularity but, in almost every article, refuse to ask why the popularity, is at best, a stunning lack of curiosity. If asked, I suspect the parents of the over two-and-a-half million home-schoolers in America, would say something about endless school closures during COVID, ideological indoctrination in public school classrooms, the fact that standardized test scores are at a 30-year low, and that administrators and school boards act and, at times, articulate that they know better, and parents should butt out. Perhaps many parents concluded they could do a better job teaching their kids. Perhaps they didn't think they should "butt out." Perhaps they are not comfortable with the lack of oversight in classrooms, and over teachers and school boards. Perhaps, they are skeptical of the "experts" who are "sounding alarms" about home schooling while ignoring the massive failures of the current state-run system.

Ultimately, The Washington Post's breathless attacks on home schooling reveal an unquestioned assumption that children belong primarily to the state and not to parents. The rise in home schooling, Christian schooling, parent-run charter schools, and other innovations show that more and more families are rejecting that assumption. In doing so, they are acknowledging the biblical expectation that parents, not the state, are ultimately responsible for teaching and raising children.

If the press wants to keep giving home schooling the nuclear power treatment, they should also develop some curiosity about why so many parents are choosing, often at great sacrifice, to take their children's education back into their own hands. And they should ask what that says about the status quo.

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris.

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Since Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned over accusations of plagiarism, many in the media have defended her. The Associated Press, for instance, tweeted: "Harvard's president's resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism."

It's not clear how Gay's lack of academic integrity could be a conservative "weapon," but, according to Neil Shenvi, this willingness to ignore or defend plagiarism reflects how Critical Theory "has saturated our culture."

In a thread on X, Shenvi documented how key texts of Critical Race Theory disparage objective truth, merit, and neutrality: "whether they know [it] or not, many progressives have imbibed [CRT] categories, its skepticism towards 'merit,' and its belief in the ubiquity of 'white supremacy culture.'"

In other words, for many in the press and academia, plagiarism is no big deal if you're from an oppressed class and have progressive views. These ideas challenge the very idea of truth and must be clarified and confronted.

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org