The first book I've finished this year is a game-changer. Mary Eberstadt's exploration of crucial questions in 'How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization' takes all the dots we've been connecting together for years and connects them in somewhat the opposite way I had assumed.

We all know, for instance, that America is decreasingly religious and increasingly secular and godless. Similarly, we all know that both the marriage and birthrate in this country is much lower than it ever has been before. And knowing these things together at the same time, the popular theory is that fewer of us are getting married and having children because fewer of us believe in God in any serious way.

But what if the relationship between these trends works in the opposite direction? 

Perhaps the reason we believe in God less is related to the fact that fewer of us are getting married and having children. Even just to posit that possibility opens up fresh lines of inquiry we would all benefit from exploring with Eberstadt's help.

As with most chicken and egg dilemmas, the ultimate explanation is probably comprised of more both/and than either/or. All the same, all of the attention elsewhere has been invested in the other direction, and I am grateful to this book for having gone a long way to balancing the discussion.

Yesterday brought both good news and bad news from the Supreme Court of the United States. 

On the one hand, relief pours over millions of Americans who were concerned about President Biden's vaccine mandate for the general workforce through OSHA. 

Dubbed a "workaround," Justices asked this administration's legal counsel why they needed a workaround. The answer from Biden's lawyers was uninspired, and a 6-3 majority struck down the overreach of the executive branch of our federal government which had stated all companies employing more than 100 persons would have to require either COVID vaccination or testing twice a week, or else pay $14,000 per violation for non-compliance.

Make no mistake, it is a very good thing that this portion was struck down and called what it is - a dangerous power grab.

On the other hand, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh double-mindedly sided with the Progressives to allow the mandate for healthcare workers to proceed undeterred. 

Consider me confused. From my vantage point, the pandemic must not be so severe anymore if we do not need all these healthcare workers who have as-yet declined vaccination. But if the pandemic is not so severe anymore, why is there such urgency to either vaccinate or terminate these healthcare workers? Which is it?

Never mind that the European Union this week announced that persons who have received multiple boosters for the COVID vaccine may actually be immunocompromised and therefore more susceptible to COVID. 

And never mind that health care workers would presumably be the best informed decisionmakers for whether they themselves should receive this experimental gene therapy. 

Thanks to Roberts and Kavanaugh, the government has elected to stow the consciences and independent judgment of individual doctors and nurses or else terminate their employment. 

While we may rightly celebrate the OSHA ruling having been struck down - and I do - and be glad that the power to force vaccination on the general public has been stripped from the executive branch who never should have presumed it had that authority to begin with, it is nevertheless deeply concerning that SCOTUS abandoned healthcare workers to the mercy of Biden and his bureaucratic tyranny.

Speaking for myself, I should rather not go to doctors and nurses who care more about money than their conscience and better judgment where their own individual health is concerned. Yet with this decision from the highest court in the land, it would seem we will only have that kind. Only healthcare workers who are willing to shelve their religious objections, or practical and personal medical judgment, will be allowed to keep their jobs.

Yet it is not the healthcare workers who have held out thus far I am disappointed in or resentful toward. It is our elected leaders who presume that the really important decisions are best made centrally and at the top. This should not stand, and I hope and pray it does not for all our sakes.

As I have with the 100th and 200th episode, so also now with the 300th - let's recap the most popular content covered and explore what resonates. Some highlights as far as number of listens goes include the following.

Feel free to go back and listen to those episodes if you haven't yet. But it seems to me as though a certain theme stands out in this batch. Work, freedom, disagreement, belief, wealth, self-defense, and domestic terrorism are especially on our minds these days. 

That's not terribly surprising, but it is interesting to see on my end and with regards to this audience in particular something of particularly how much relative other things these topics are on our minds.

Generally speaking I see the audience for this podcast growing steadily month over month, season over season. The floor for how many listens each episode typically gets rises as we go on. And I celebrate that.

All the same, the goal is to produce high quality content first and let the growth of this audience by numbers attend to itself. I should rather it be said that the audience is growing on an individual basis - wiser, more intentional, godlier, bolder, and more thoughtful and loving and gracious - than to merely entertain a lot of folks but give you nothing or near enough to nothing of substance.

And of course, if it is possible to help you grow individually and also grow the number of the audience who is growing in heart, mind, body, and spirit, that is ideal. 

In any event, thank you for being a listener. Your encouragement and attention are much appreciated. As always, thank you for listening. Until next time, God bless.

Two exchanges yesterday between United States Senators and representatives from powerful federal agencies highlight succinctly the distrust many Americans feel toward their government, especially over the past two years.

First, Senator Ted Cruz from Texas questioned Jill Sanborn, Executive Assistant Director for the National Security Branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Asked repeatedly whether plainclothes FBI agents in any way participated in instigating what happened at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. And just as repeatedly, the FBI declined to answer whether in the negative or the affirmative.

Second, Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky grilled Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on leaked emails exposing collusion on his part with efforts to discredit epidemiologists at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford who had questioned or contradicted the official narrative regarding the government's characterization of and response to COVID. And just as adamantly, Dr. Fauci tried to flip the script on Rand Paul by making the whole business into a kind of dueling argumentum ad hominem game.

"I know you are but what am I" hardly inspires confidence in 'The Science.' 

So also, "I can't answer that question" repeatedly from the pre-eminent national law enforcement agency with regards to the active role that agency may have played in an alleged instance of domestic terrorism for partisan political purposes cannot engender anything other than fear and distrust in the Department of Justice.

But both of these exchanges really get to the crux of the problem with our government. When direct, specific, substantive, important, and relevant questions are asked by Senate committee members tasked with providing oversight of unelected government officials and their respective bureaucracies, the public and our elected representatives have a right to clear-cut answers which are simple, concise, and sensible. Script-flipping and unresponsiveness will not do.

The "conspiracy theorists" can be forgiven then for having said for some time that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. And this really does get to the problem with supposing that anyone but God is basically good. 

If people were inherently good and could be relied upon to act in accordance with justice and science, what need would we have for these agencies in the first place?

The darker and more unsettling answer is the one which those who are quick to dismiss all uncomfortable questions have chiefly in mind when they wave off attempts at connecting dots and calling spades by their names. Sometimes the greatest threat to justice and good science comes from those who are chiefly tasked with guaranteeing those things. Sometimes indeed the fox is assigned guard duty at the hen house.

The appointment with the midwife yesterday confirmed our suspicions that Lauren is in early labor. She is of course uncomfortable and exceedingly ready to conclude this pregnancy and meet our son Andrew face to face. And holding him in her arms, she will be able to rest in a way she has been unable to for weeks and months now.

That all sounds very good to me also. I too will rest easier once Andrew has been born and both he and Lauren are safely and soundly on the other side of this birth and recovering from it all.

For all the labor and delivery not only my wife has been through, one might imagine it's old hat by now. But it's always exhausting. It's always uncomfortable. And it's always a difficult thing in its own way, even for fathers.

And as much press as the woman's experience gets - and rightly so, don't misunderstand me - this episode is for the husbands and fathers out there. You too have a struggle. So I will share my experience, and hopefully that sharing will help you to be as calm and helpful to your wife and child as you can be in these times.

First of all, you have to remain calm. And you have to pay attention, but not in a frantic or spastic way. Your job is to provide for and protect your wife and child. But sometimes the counterintuitive thing is that - in these times more than most others - you can help your wife and child most by knowing when to be patient and watch and wait as the process proceeds apace. 

Your wife will have an easier time with labor and delivery if she can be as calm and comfortable as possible. And she will have an easier time being calm and comfortable if you remain calm.

Also, on that note, sometimes you will find that by asking her too often if you can do or get anything for her you will make yourself into a perfect nuisance. So know when to ask her for her benefit, and when you are only asking to make yourself feel like you are doing something. And if you find yourself pestering your wife just to feel like you are doing something, stop that. Don't be self-indulgent, particularly right now.

Sometimes what you can do for your wife in labor is to give her some space, or just be with her patiently and calmly. Still other times, she clearly does need something and she does need you to ask if you can get her something because she won't think to. Just make sure you're serving her for her sake rather than to feel good about yourself.

Other than all that, it can't hurt to deliver a well-timed and tasteful joke now and again if it'll make her smile and lighten her mood. And tell her she can do this, and that she's doing well, and that you're proud of her, and that you love her. 

You might not believe how much help little encouragements like that can be.

But now too is as good a time as any to come to terms with the fact that you yourself, oh man, are a limited and finite creature. And you cannot provide for and protect against everything the way God can. So own that. Your wife being in labor and delivery is a perfect opportunity to go to the Lord in prayer for wisdom, endurance, strength, patience, and grace - not only for your wife, but for you too.

Four out of five Americans recently reported in a poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group and Convention of States Action that they believe the U.S. is in "a state of decay," Not the Bee reports.

And check out this viral song by Canadian Christian artist Matt Brevner titled 'More of Us' released the day before Ontario went back into lockdown.

Next, consider this segment from Kim Iversen at The Hill laying out a theory called 'Mass Formation Psychosis' to explain the widespread acquiescence to mask and vaccine mandates and other draconian measures which have been imposed on us across the country and the world. 

Lastly, give a listen to J.R.R. Tolkien reading the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, also known as the Ride of the Rohirrim from the Lord of the Rings and imagine with me if you can that sort of heroism and leadership in our context.

Laying down some basic, formative truths to serve as the foundation for sound thinking, we need to come to terms with where we come from, who we are, and where we are going.

First comes the premise that there is a God, and we are not Him. Genesis tells us He is the Creator who made the heavens and the earth and everything in them in six days and rested on the seventh.

Then there is the fact that God created man in His image - male and female - to reflect the character and goodness and purpose of God in Creation informs the dignity, respect, and love we ascribe to ourselves and one another.

Third we must consider the most basic of human relationships - the two who become one flesh as man and wife. Marriage is the basis of family, and children come as a consequence in most cases.

Next, God tells us His purpose for marriage is to produce godly offspring. Children then are supposed to be trained up by their father and mother in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

Fifth, man is not basically good. He is not inherently good, nor is he fundamentally good. Rather, as inheritor of a sinful nature as descendants of our first forefather Adam, we are broken, and so is the Creation. This is what is commonly known as 'Original Sin.'

The Good News is that God purposed to resolve this thorny problem of our sinful nature by sending His Son to live a sinless life, suffer and die in our stead, and be raised from the dead after three days as a foretaste of the restored Creation God has promised.

In these truths we have cause for both confidence and humility. On that psychological tandem and God's favor do human flourishing depend.

Therefore, any conservative resurgence which might succeed, in this country or any other, must first work at a restoration of these convictions. All other ground is sinking sand.

So also, we predicate love for God and one another on the informed sensibilities in this framework. Only from that fertile ground of these truths do we have some hope of bearing the fruit of loving restoration - for ourselves, our families, and our communities - to a place of peace and prosperity.

January 6, 2021 - a day that will live in infamy. Yet it was not a terrorist attack, Senator Cruz. And claiming that it was even briefly represented a lapse of good judgment on your part.

Whether we describe the disruption of Congress with the entry of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. as a mostly peaceful protest, a riot, or a terrorist attack makes a great deal of difference.

During a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Senator Ted Cruz decried all violence against police officers in the strongest possible terms, and that is proper. We must all agree that law enforcement is to be respected, honored, and protected as its members strive mightily in our neighborhoods, cities, states, and nation to serve faithfully.

Yet even there it is worth pointing out that the vast majority of concerned Americans who went to the capital city of these United States of America a year ago to march and make their voices heard were similarly motivated to the brave officers who patrol our streets upholding the laws of this land.

Democrats have made much political hay out of trying to flip the narrative. As they see it, they are the law, and their will and whim reigns forevermore. Complaints from flyover country therefore represent a coup against the established order and the right side of history. 

Yet a much stronger and more durable argument can be made that law-abiding, God-fearing citizens who objected to the certification of the 2020 Election better represented the rule of law, and that Democrat operatives carried out the real coup - with some success, I might add.

Peacefully assembling and petitioning our government for a redress of grievances is a sacred right protected by our Constitution. Above that, however, the Constitution is not the source of this right, but rather an acknowledgement of the God-given right which exists transcendental. Human governments are always made of fallible men, and sometimes those men err. And when they err, they should be respectfully invited to correct themselves before God.

Similarly, with the utmost respect for the senator from Texas, it is a poor use of language and tact to describe January 6, 2021 as a terrorist attack. And it is good to hear Ted Cruz admit as much the day after. 

All the same, we do well to consider why Senator Cruz made this blunder, whether intentionally or not.

Yet more crucially, we need to resist the temptation to adopt a kind of conservative cancel culture even as we strive to be wise as serpents. The harmless as doves piece may mean we need better representation than Senator Cruz. I hope not, but it may. 

Even so, let us take care that we remain gracious rather than embittered and vengeful. Our enemies do enough of that, and if we become like that I dare say we have given up on conserving truth, beauty, and goodness in this country.

For my son Solomon's 12th birthday, he asked to see the newest Spider-man movie in theaters. So on December 30th, my four older boys and I went to see it, and we need to talk about that. 

Spoiler alert: I will be exploring some major plot components from the beginning of the film to the end. Go out and watch this movie before listening to me talk about it. 

That said, if you don't plan to watch the movie, or if you don't mind finding out ahead of time what is going to happen, carry on. Just remember you were warned.

Suffice to say for the purposes of the write-up, this film got me right in the feels. I laughed and I cried. It moved me, Bob. 

But magic is dangerous. Higher education is highly overrated. And cancel culture is a super-villain.

Of course there needs to be another installment in which the annihilation of Peter Parker is rectified. 

Also, to the folks who think these comic book superhero films are shallow, repetitive, and predictable, I say you are really missing out. A deep-dive into the nature of purpose and belonging and what it means to be human is here in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, particularly in its latest entry.

If you ask me, Spider-man needs to settle down with MJ and raise a family. The critics and detractors be damned. 

And so what if MIT won't let you in? You're Spider-man! You're amazing! You don't need to have your value and worth validated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. If anything, it's the other way around and they could benefit from being validated by you.

Work and study hard. Do the right thing. Marry the girl. Raise a family. If the wider world doesn't understand or like you for it, that's no reason to give the world a hocus-pocus lobotomy and destroy yourself. Just make a mental note, accept it, and move on. 

There's a lot more to life than being liked and understood by everyone. And thank God for that.

Today's homework - check out this refreshing commentary from Elon Musk on the declining birthrate and what the science tells us about what to expect in the coming years and decades.

The short version is that overpopulation is not the thing we should be most concerned about. If anything, demographic implosion is the real danger. People are just not having enough children.

By the way, for all those who think my wife and I crazy for expecting our eighth any day now, Elon Musk is father to seven.

But on this whole business, as with every other sphere, our worldview goes a long way to molding and shaping the sorts of decisions and value judgments we make. Whether we think of children as a blessing or burden is downstream what we believe about who we are, where we come from, and why we are here.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And to that end, we embrace the Dominion Mandate to "be fruitful and multiply, fill the Earth and subdue it."