Breakpoint

According to recent numbers released from the CDC, about 1 in 4 of today's high school students identify as LGBTQ. This means it's never been more important for Christian parents, teachers, pastors, and mentors to love, support, and guide teens who are wrestling through these issues. They need to know what biblical truth is about sex, identity, and relationships, and why it is loving, reasonable, and best.

I am so grateful for a brand-new resource from my friend Greg Stier, whose writing and work at Dare 2 Share ministries has made him a leader in working with students. In a recent blog post, Greg outlined four key principles to help lead teenagers to a biblical understanding of these difficult issues in a way that is loving, articulate, and bold.

The first biblical principle is to "choose love, not hate, as [our] posture." Even though Christians reject the false views of love promoted in so many ways today, we are not off the hook from practicing the real thing. Greg explains:

"God is love." That's who He is. ... Because of His love, God doesn't wait until we clean up our act to save us. ... Romans 5:8 shockingly asserts: 'But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.' ...

Encourage your teenagers to love everyone, no matter what, all the time, because God has relentlessly loved us. Teach your teens to continually drench their theological convictions with biblical compassion and agape love—and may we do the same.

Second, we must "choose the Bible, not culture, as [our] authority."

The Bible originated from the mind of God. ... Because it's inspired from God Himself, it's as perfect as God Himself.

As Christians, we're commanded to listen to, respect, and obey God's Word—whether we like what it says or not, whether culture disagrees with it or not, whether people mock us for it or not. Even when we don't like the rules, we can take comfort in the fact that they aren't arbitrary—they're based on God's perfect character and are given for our good (see Deuteronomy 10:12-14).

[but] it's important to help [students] understand that God's house rules don't apply only to Christians. ... God made the universe, so everything in it belongs to Him. As Psalm 24:1-2 explains:

'The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for He founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.'

The Bible is His primary way of explaining to His creation—to all humanity—who He is, who we are, and how the world works. Since the whole universe can be considered God's "house," His rules—as outlined in the Bible—apply to everyone.

In other words, the Bible is humanity's instruction manual. And it's clear on issues of identity and sexuality.

Greg goes to outline just how clear the Bible is on identity, gender, and sexual orientation.

Third, we need to "choose the Gospel, not sin management, for solutions."

It's vital to believe, and help our teenagers to believe, in this transforming power of the Gospel. Romans 1:16 makes it clear that "it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." The Greek word for "salvation" means "deliverance from peril or danger." We must believe that the Gospel can deliver any teenager from any sin, including any kind of sexual brokenness.

We're all born as slaves to our flesh—which encompasses our genetics, hormones, natural instincts, and sinful desires—and into a sinful, fallen environment—which includes abuse, unbiblical ideologies, and more. But the amazing news of the Gospel is that when we trust Christ, His Spirit frees us from that slavery and enables us to live in God's ways—no matter what caused our sin to begin with.

And finally, fourth "choose engagement, not detachment." For years, Greg and Dare 2 Share ministries have been training and equipping students to share their faith. Increasingly, this means having to engage difficult questions and issues such as these. What if it's possible not only for Christian teens to not be confused and deceived, but to also be ambassadors for Christ to their confused and deceived peers. Greg thinks it is.

Imagine if the Church began to intentionally reach out—with a Jesus-style blend of love and conviction—to people who identify as LGBTQ and started seeing more and more lives transformed by the power of the Gospel. How much different would the future look, both for the Church and for the lives that were changed?

Greg is offering a free four-lesson curriculum for students called Hard Questions: Examining Gender, Sexuality, and Identity Through a Gospel Lens on his website. You can find it at gregstier.org.

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander.

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

With a one-minute look at culture from a Christian worldview, I'm John Stonestreet with The Point.

Recently, Christian writer Samuel Sey tweeted, "The question isn't: 'does God exist?' The question is: 'how could anything exist without God?'"

Or, as Fraulein Maria sang in The Sound of Music, "Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could." Not only is there something (lots of them) in this world, but there is also consciousness, creativity, beauty, love, and order. These things say an awful lot about what kind of First Cause is required to bring all these somethings into existence.

One Twitter user pushed back against Sey arguing that a more important question is, "What kind of people should we be?" Sey responded, "It's impossible to know what kind of people we should be without affirming who our [C]reator is." God, in particular the Christian God, is the best explanation for the world we experience.

As C.S. Lewis put it, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else."

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet.

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

Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet.

It's been almost two years since the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving a void of power quickly filled by the Taliban. In that time, Taliban rulers have outlawed women's education, religious freedom, and even music. That's why a concert violinist named Ali left his instrument behind when he fled Afghanistan in 2021. He knew the Taliban would confiscate and destroy any instruments they found, along with music shops and schools.

After Ali arrived in the United States, a stranger heard his story and decided to donate his violin to the displaced musician. Through a series of connections, the violin made its way from New York to L.A., courtesy of a podcaster who shared the saga in a now-viral Twitter thread. Initially, Latif Nasser struggled to track down Ali in California. His texts and calls went unanswered. Eventually, when the two met, Nasser discovered Ali had been unresponsive due to an unpredictable work schedule at the mall. Most of the money Ali made was sent to support his family in Kabul.

Nasser also learned that Ali had been a famous violinist in Afghanistan. He performed in a TV orchestra and even toured in the West. In fact, he'd once played at Carnegie Hall.

Nasser not only gave Ali the violin, but he also set up an online fundraiser to help Ali restart lessons or attend music school. The fundraiser was so successful that Ali eventually shut it down, not wanting to take more money than he needed.

This remarkable story is not only about the kindness of strangers: It also points to something deeper about what it means to be human. God created us to create, like He does. Made in His image, as the first few chapters of Genesis make plain, humans were created for the purpose of cultivating the rest of creation for the glory of God (Genesis 1:26-28). God's Word makes clear that, in Christ, He intends not just to save souls but to restore His creation. Just as the garden was full of beauty, when Christ's Kingdom is finally "on earth as it is in heaven," its beauty will be perfect. Though our attempts to cultivate the earth are tainted, frustrated, and even painful, our calling to care for His creation remains. Beauty remains even when perfection is impossible. Beauty pleases God and brings Him glory, just as beauty pleases us.

In his book Man's Search for Meaning, Holocaust survivor and psychologist Viktor Frankl tells the story of waking up one night in Auschwitz to the unlikely sound of a violin.

To discover that there was any semblance of art in a concentration camp must be surprise enough for an outsider, but he may be even more astonished to hear that one could find a sense of humor there as well.

According to Frankl, beauty and humor offered the prisoners a kind of cognitive distance from their suffering, even if only for a few minutes, suggesting that a deep longing for beauty is central to the human experience. Art and music are not frivolous parts of life. If Frankl's account is true, human beings will hunger for beauty even when they have far more urgent needs—like food, water, and safety—going unmet.

The gratuitously oppressive move by the Taliban to outlaw music is fundamentally different from how the Bible describes the purpose and substance of beauty, especially its power to point us to the one true God andmove us to worship Him. It only makes sense that the Taliban would hate music, just as they hate education, religious freedom, and individual rights. Each of these things flows from Christianity's fundamental view about God, His world, and human beings.

In fact, the power of beauty to point us to God was a theme of this year's Colson Center National Conference. We hosted an impressive lineup of speakers, many of whom have dedicated their lives to creating beautiful things, from graphic design to good barbecue. If you missed the conference this year, the footage will be available soon to stream online. Just visit colsonconference.org.

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer.

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

TikTok is feeding teens a "diet of darkness." Recently, a group of researchers created fictitious accounts of 13-year-olds and quickly found their feeds full with content about eating disorders, body image, self-harm, and even suicide. This is despite the fact that TikTok currently employs 40,000 content moderators and has default screen-time limits for teens.

TikTok's problems have long plagued all social media platforms. Most have made efforts to prohibit the promotion of socially contagious self-destructive behaviors, but none have been able to eliminate this content entirely. Their guidelines, bans, and moderators do nothing to restrict other destructive content, such as ideas about gender confusion and transition.

Parents can't rely on the goodwill of social media giants to protect their kids. They must be proactive in teaching them how to use tech wisely and, often, just say no to it. Most importantly, parents need to remind their kids who they are: people made in the image and likeness of God.

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

On June 5, 1865, Anglican priest and polymath Sabine Baring-Gould wrote the processional hymn, "Onward, Christian Soldiers." The hymn was originally written for children walking to Horbury St. Peter's Church near Wakefield in Yorkshire, England. Far from the cultural stereotype that the hymn earned Baring-Gould—that of a militant, narrow-minded clergyman fearful of and fighting against new knowledge—he actually led an impressive life, remaining keenly inquisitive about the world God has made.

The song, which he wrote in about 15 minutes, was originally titled "A Hymn for Procession with Cross and Banners." It was inspired by biblical imagery of the Christian as a soldier and only became popular when composer Arthur Sullivan wrote a new melody for it later. Its military imagery, out of step with today's cultural vibes, has led many contemporary hymnbook compilers to leave it aside.

Like other Anglican clergymen of his day, Baring-Gould was involved in more than serving parishes and writing children's processionals. He was the son and heir of a noble family but decided on a career in the Church. Ordained in 1864, he became curate at the church at Horbury Bridge, where a year later he would pen "Onward, Christian Soldiers." There, he met Grace Taylor, the then-teenaged daughter of a local miller. The two fell in love and, despite a considerable age gap, were married for 48 years until her passing. Together, they raised 15 kids, all but one of whom survived into adulthood.

Even while serving in parishes, Baring-Gould was a prolific writer, with nearly 1,300 titles to his credit. These include novels and short stories published in a variety of journals, a 16-volume series called Lives of the Saints, modern biographies, travelogues, hymns (the best-known of which aside from "Onward, Christian Soldiers" being "Now the Day Is Over"), sermons, apologetics, and cultural and anthropological studies. He had an international reputation as an antiquarian. His Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, a study of 24 medieval superstitions and their variants and antecedents, was particularly popular and was even cited by sci-fi and horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. He also published The Book of Werewolves, a collection of stories still widely cited.

To do some of this work, Baring-Gould studied and mastered several ancient, medieval, and modern languages. Along with more common languages for British scholars of the period, he knew Basque, an obscure language unrelated to any other, sufficiently well enough to translate a Basque Christmas carol into English as "The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came."

Baring-Gould's God-driven curiosity about the world only furthered when he inherited his family estate in Devon in 1872. He moved there as both squire and vicar in 1881, devoting a great deal of time to studying and writing about Devon and the West Country. He transcribed hundreds of folk songs from the region that would otherwise have been lost, even publishing several volumes in collaboration with Cecil Sharp, a central figure in preserving and promoting English folk songs in the Edwardian period. Baring-Gould considered these collections of songs his most important work.

He also earned an international reputation in the developing field of archaeology. With his friend Robert Burnard, Baring-Gould began the first scientific archaeological excavations of Dartmoor in Devon, which includes the largest concentration of Bronze Age remains in Britain. The two initially concentrated on hut circles, depressions in the ground outlined with stones that were the foundations for conical wooden huts thousands of years ago, before launching a more systematic investigation of the region. As secretary of the group, Baring-Gould authored the first 10 annual reports of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee. This began a systematic exploration and occasional restoration of the region's prehistoric sites. Beyond the annual reports, he published several other works on Dartmoor.

As if all this were not enough, Baring-Gould was also an amateur ironworker and painter. Prior to his ordination, while a teacher at a boys' school, he designed the ironwork for the school and painted scenes from The Canterbury Tales and The Faerie Queene on the jambs of the windows.

In all, Baring-Gould was far more than the lyricist for "Onward, Christian Soldiers." As Anthony Esolen commented, he could only have lived in the 19th century, when scholarship was not so specialized, and amateurs could still make important contributions to a wide range of fields. For our era, he is a remarkable example of a person who used the prodigious talents God had given him to serve the church, his community, and the wider world.

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine.

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

John and Maria look at some alternatives to Pride month. Christian schools in Minnesota are taking the state to court.

— Recommendations —

Saving Private Ryan

Out of a Jar by Deborah Marcero

Segment 1 - Minnesota Dual Enrollment Law

Segment 2 - Pride Month

"Second Dodgers pitcher speaks out against Pride Night festivities: 'God cannot be mocked'"

The Washington Examiner

Fidelity Month webinar

Segment 3 - Marijuana and Mental Health

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

Today is Donut Day. Believe it or not, the day wasn't founded by Krispy Kreme or Dunkin but by The Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938 to commemorate their "Donut Lassies" who served during World War I.

Methodist minister William Booth founded The Salvation Army in the 1860s to care for the poor in London. It was originally called the East London Revival Society. During World War I, the organization provided ambulances, clothing for soldiers, and refreshment huts. Booth's daughter, Evangeline, told volunteers, "You are going overseas to serve Christ. … You must forget yourselves, be examples of His love, be willing to endure hardship, to lay down your lives, if need be, for His sake."

The Donut Lassies stationed at the refreshment huts in France served donuts to the weary men on the front lines to bring them a taste of home. When the troops returned, they brought their love of "donuts" with them. And that's why we have Donut Day.

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

Therapy is about as much of the American experience these days as baseball, pickup trucks, and apple pie. Professional counseling is now seen as more than just a last resort for psychological distress, but as a healthy, essential path for resolving personal issues. In 2019, nearly 20% of Americans received some form of mental health treatment ranging from medication to therapy. Over 40% of Americans have seen a counselor at some point in their lives.

Recently in the New York Times, journalist Susan Dominus asked an important question, especially given that the U.S. is in the grip of an ever-worsening mental health crisis: "Does therapy really work?"

On one hand, dozens of studies confirm the value of talk-based therapy. A landmark 1977 study, for example, found that those with significant psychological distress "fared better than 75 percent of those with similar diagnoses who went untreated." University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Bruce Wampold put it, "the fact that you can just go talk to another human being … and get effect sizes that are measurable" is kind of miraculous.

Other research, Dominus explains, is less clear. A 2021 study found that more than half of depression patients saw little or no benefit from talk therapy, and only one third found their depression receding long term. Another study found that only 50% of patients responded to cognitive behavioral therapy regarding anxiety disorders. The uncertainty has led some to push for alternative treatments, including more prescriptions of drugs like psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms. One prominent researcher mused, "Maybe we have reached the limit of what you can do by talking to somebody."

Of course, the results of therapy depend on a number of factors. While counseling is a powerful tool, it can only aim at the question, "What's going on inside of me?" Often missed, which is especially consequential for a culture in a crisis of mental health, are the fixed reference points outside of ourselves by which we can be known and orient who we are.

Psychology is one of the many areas of modern life that has taken what sociologists call "an inward turn," characterized by radical individualism and reliance on self-definition. Rather than pursue healing or the restoration of relationships, counseling can devolve into endless rounds of affirmation, a sort of perpetual re-baptism in the church of self-expression. This is just one way that therapy has replaced religion for many seekers. Self-discovery is the new salvation, and therapists the new priests. The key feature of psychology as religion, however, is the self as the new deity.

This has only enabled, as Lisa Selin Davis observed recently at The Free Press, so many of the West's top schools and institutions to embrace and employ Critical Race Theory rhetoric and LBGTQ politics. The American Counseling Association now divides counselors and clients into either "privileged" and "marginalized" groups with a dedicated script for each and little mercy for those who dissent. More states have passed so-called "anti-conversion-therapy" laws, which threaten professionals who do anything other than only affirm a client's proposed gender identity.

As a result, deeper mental health issues are never addressed, and anyone who speaks up can find themselves out of a job. One therapist in training put it, "My concern is that we're not helping people heal and transcend. We're just helping people live in their victim mentality." In a tragic irony, the inward turn has made it harder, not easier, for the struggle to know themselves.

There are some, many of them Christians, striving to rethink psychology and counsel others by looking outward as well as inward, to know themselves by first knowing what is true and good. We can only know ourselves by first knowing reality, ultimately God and the world He made. Any mental health journey without that fixed reference point is destined to harm more than it helps.

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander.

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

Recently, The Washington Post published an oddly titled piece celebrating the miraculous survival of Denver Coleman. Thirty weeks into pregnancy, Kenyatta Coleman learned her unborn child had a pre-birth condition which gave the baby only a 1% chance of survival. With Coleman's permission, doctors performed a first-of-a-kind surgery. Days later, Coleman gave birth to Denver, a miraculously healthy little girl.

Despite the piece's clear joy over the miracle of Denver's life, even calling her an "unborn child" throughout the piece, The Washington Post's editors ran with this title: "A Fetus had a 1% Chance at Life. A Historic Surgery in Womb Saved It."

"Fetus" and "It," not "Child" or "Her"? Talk about underwhelming. ... I doubt that her parents, her family, or even the doctors trained in medicalese used that language to describe Denver after working so hard to save her life.

All life is miraculous. All are, whatever their health or ability, created by God in His image. Welcome to God's world, little Denver!

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

In his recent and remarkable book, Biblical Critical Theory, theologian Christopher Watkin points out how often our thinking falls into false dichotomies. Humans are either animals or gods; the planet is either progressing toward utopia or doomed to catastrophe; sex is either no big deal or our whole identity. Back and forth the cultural pendulum swings, never considering that there may be another option: a story that transcends these dichotomies and makes better sense of the way the world is.

Sex in particular has been subject to ideological extremes. For most of my lifetime, pop culture has followed the maxim that "sex sells." So, scantily clad women have been used to market everything from cars and football to movies and music. Beer companies often took the lead, featuring provocative models in swimsuits unabashedly pandering to the lust of their predominantly male customers.

The pendulum seems to have swung the other direction, though the undisguised profit motive remains. For example, Miller Lite's messaging has done a 180. In a new ad, the beer company chose to appeal to faddish feminist sensibilities. In it, actress Ilana Glazer indignantly tears down beer ads featuring women in bikinis while announcing that Miller Lite is now a champion of women's dignity and women brewers. The company is doing the right thing and, to quote David Spade from Tommy Boy, "in just a shade under a decade, too ... Alright!"

If it weren't laced with profanity, I could get behind this new direction. I fully support any move away from cynically exploiting women for marketing, whatever the motive. Unlike Bud Light's recent, disastrous choice to feature transgender actor Dylan Mulvaney (a man) on its cans, Miller is at least gesturing toward an ideal that companies should sell products, not objectify people.

However, here's where another cultural false dichotomy complicates things. Glazer and the executives at Miller would no doubt say they support abortion, so-called same-sex marriage, transgender identity, sexual liberation, and a whole host of other ideas that have now replaced the "sex sells" mentality of years past. But these still objectify, dehumanize, and exploit women. The pendulum has swung from one misguided extreme to another.

There is a better vision for sexuality that transcends the exploitation of women's bodies on one hand or the denial of their existence on the other. That alternative was recently on display in a surprising place. Christian pro-life activist Lila Rose appeared on the dating talk podcast Whatever, which boasts over 4 million subscribers on YouTube. She was joined by a colorful assortment of guests, including a self-proclaimed pickup artist and several women who have made careers selling pictures of their bodies online.

Typically, the format of the podcast involves the men shaming the women for their promiscuous behavior which, of course, the men also engage in. Lila threw both sides for a loop by describing a Christian view of the sexes in which men and women have "equal dignity" and in which sexual relationships are not only about pleasure but also about "procreation and the ability to bring life into the world." All of this, she added, is designed to occur "within marriage," "a lifelong, public commitment" to one's spouse, a commitment which, as she rightly pointed out, social science demonstrates to be the most fulfilling and stable type of sexual relationship.

The other guests on the podcast seemed mystified. One of the men dismissed Lila as "annoying" and "a goody-two-shoes" after she challenged him to exercise self-control and commit himself faithfully to one woman. She may not have converted any of the other guests, but if the reaction online is any indication, she made a lasting impression on a lot of people.

Lila did what every Christian should do in a culture captivated by false dichotomies. She painted a better vision of anything currently on offer. She pointed to an alternative in which men and women are not at war with one another but in harmony, an alternative characterized by self-giving and life-affirming love, not lust or an attempt to eliminate sexual difference.

Even if the world has forgotten this option in its reckless swings from one false extreme to another, God still calls us to reject these distortions and make the case for something better, and not to sell beer or win subscribers but to point people to the One who made the world that way. After all, a life lived in light of this truth can be a far more effective advertisement than anything a beer company produces.

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris.

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