Breakpoint

Last Friday, May 19, pastor, theologian, and author Tim Keller passed away. The longtime pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and author of books such as The Reason for God was known for his thoughtful sermons, calm demeanor, and a ministry that extended beyond his own denomination and even his fellow Christians to the wider world of elite society.

It's rare, especially today, for someone to be called "a giant" by both a top theologian and a New York Times columnist. Rarer still will such a prominent figure be regularly described as unassuming, living out the exhortation of Rudyard Kipling to be someone who can "walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch." It's notable that even his critics, which he certainly had, have refrained from doubting his self-effacing grace and kindness for others.

Keller was in his forties before he showed up on the public's radar. Oddly enough, he went to Manhattan after pastoring a small-town Virginia church for nine years. Success in the Big Apple was by no means a sure thing. A theologically conservative pastor setting up shop in the "Babylon" of downtown New York City had all the makings of a fish-out-of-water story where the well-meaning parson was doomed to failure even before he set out.

Keller took pains to know his audience, leveraging his own intellectual rigor into sermons for his highly educated hearers. He refused to talk down, much less shout down. Nor did he attempt to make the distinctives of the Christian faith more palatable. He took strong stands on the deity of Christ, the reliability of Scripture, the resurrection, the hopelessness of secularism, and the enduring relevance of Christian sexual ethics.

From an initial church plant of 15 people in 1989, Redeemer Presbyterian Church grew to a network of multiple congregations with thousands of people attending each week. In time, his influence extended to other pastors, who were inspired by his example and teaching, and set out to emulate in their own communities what Keller had done in New York. Keller was also instrumental in cross-denominational efforts, linking like-minded Christians to share their ideas and cooperate in endeavors to enhance the presence of the Church around the world. He was a co-founder of The Gospel Coalition, a broadly Reformed network that is among the most influential voices of contemporary evangelicalism, and a central figure in a Reformed resurgence among those who became known as the "Young, Restless, and Reformed."

He was also an original signer of the Manhattan Declaration, a Christian statement on life, marriage, and religious liberty because, as he put it at the time, "these are biblical." Keller communicated a confidence that believers could maintain the classical faith of Christianity without being ashamed when dealing with cynical neighbors. Christians could, he believed, meet the claims of the world face-to-face because the Bible offers an accurate and holistic explanation for reality and the human condition and grounds the hope for which people are truly searching. His sermons offered a robust biblical analysis, a keen awareness and understanding of culture, and allusions to art, history, Lewis, and Tolkien.

Ironically, his critics include progressive Princeton students and faculty, who couldn't stomach the idea that he would be honored by their school, and conservative Christians, some of whom believed his winsomeness to be weakness, and others who, as I often did in recent years, disagreed with his posture about politics and political allegiance.

Even so, Keller was a remarkable gift to Christ's Church at an incredibly important cultural moment. Even in disagreeing, he made us better by, as St. Paul put it, "set(ting) the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity," and reminding us that, in the end, the resurrection secures our hope for today and for eternity. As he said on a podcast near the end of his life, in his trademark thoughtful and calm demeanor, "If Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead, if He really got up ... everything is going to be all right."

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy D. Padgett.

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

The 2020 pandemic disrupted the education of millions of kids. In response, many parents opted for alternative forms of education. "In that single summer," wrote Dixie Lane with the Institute for Family Studies, "the number of registered homeschoolers in America more than doubled, rising from about 5.4% to about 11.1 %. Homeschooling among African Americans alone jumped to 16.1%, a nearly five-fold increase."

Still, Lane argues, the pandemic was not the only reason for the boom. In general, Americans are committed to two principles in education: localism and parental authority. The state overreach in K-12 education has brought parents back to those fundamental values.

Some are fighting to make public schools better; others are investing in homeschooling or private Christian education. Either way, kids are rightly being seen as the primary responsibility of parents, not the state.

More options mean a beautiful opportunity for Christians to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, and minds … and to teach their kids to do likewise.

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

Much has been documented about the growing mental health crisis among American teenagers. Young people, however, are not the only ones struggling. Middle-aged women, particularly white women over the age of 45, account for nearly 60% of all Americans who have been taking antidepressants for more than five years.

To be sure, with this kind of statistic, it is not clear the role that medical and pharmaceutical industries, which are incentivized to medicalize mental health struggles, play. There are also cultural factors at work. Affluent people, white people, and women are on average more likely to seek help for mental health issues than African American or Hispanic women, men, or people in poverty.

It is good that more attention is now given to the mentally and emotionally hurting and that these struggles are no longer as stigmatized. But we also have reached a point where it's almost fashionable to be diagnosed with a mental health condition. This is especially true for women, and progressive women in particular.

It is not unusual for people to include a mental health diagnosis in their social media profiles. Regardless of how well-founded these diagnoses are, the fact that so many (especially women and young people) embrace them as part of their identity is a troubling sign of dysfunction.

Clearly, people are suffering. In a culture shaped by a "critical theory mood," claims of suffering can be thought of as a desirable way of elevating a person's moral status. It is also not a coincidence that this suffering has accompanied a culturewide loss of a sense of meaning. A 2021 Lifeway Research study found that nearly 60% of American adults wonder about how they can find more meaning and purpose in their lives on at least a monthly basis. Rates of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide are up across all demographics.

Even as the wider world is struggling, there is a notable exception. In 2019, the Pew Research Center found that 36% of Americans who attend church or are "actively religious" regularly report being "very happy." In other words, faith in God, marriage, family, and a sense of duty to something larger than ourselves are often what provide people with the richest sense of meaning.

Ironically, these are the very things that, we are constantly being told, will constrain us. Women are told that being a wife or a mother "gets in the way" of true happiness. Men and women are told that sacrificing for others leads to unhappiness. The numbers, however, don't lie. Living unattached lives committed to individual autonomy is making us miserable.

Of course, mental health struggles often inflict the righteous, too. Elijah, Martin Luther, and many others also battled inner demons. Still, whether the increased rates of mental health struggles are primarily physiological or due to self-inflicted circumstances, how we think about them matters. As author O. Alan Noble puts it, in moments of profound mental suffering, "getting out of bed is an act of worship":

But when you choose to rise out of bed each day, you also set a table for your neighbor. You declare with your being and actions that life itself is good. Whether you like it or not, your life is a witness that testifies to the goodness of God.

Worship, in fact, takes many forms: singing, teaching, reflecting, relating. This is because worship is a way of recognizing the meaning that God placed in His world and for His image bearers. In fact, worship is the meaning for which human beings were made. There is nothing more than to know and to glorify God. In His grace, He makes Himself known throughout His world. It is one of God's great mercies that, by fulfilling His purpose for us, we are able to know happiness, satisfaction, and meaning.

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer.

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

If the language of yesterday is continually updated, how can we maintain an accurate grip on history?

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

Only 3% of the world's population currently lives in a country whose birth rate isn't declining.

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

To put all the weight of our humanness on consciousness is an erroneous idea that will have disastrous consequences

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

The emperor's real role in Christian history and what he didn't do at the Council of Nicaea.

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

ADF has created a corporate index ranking companies on anti-Christian bias and John and Maria discuss John MacArthur's claim that "We Lose Down Here."

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

Keeping adult explicit material out of children's libraries is common sense, not cancel culture.

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

Are we to get on board with the label or not let it drag us down?

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