A daily look at an ever changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. with a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends.
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Since 1991, Breakpoint—a program of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview—has provided believers around the U.S. Our daily Breakpoint commentaries, co-hosted by Colson Center President John Stonestreet, air on some 1,400 radio outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. Its "Breakpoint This Week" counterpart, also hosted by Stonestreet and Shane Morris in
cludes a weekly conversation with leading Christian writers and thinkers on topics ranging from the sanctity of life to marriage, religious liberty, and the restoration of virtue and ethics to public life. Over at Breakpoint.org, Stonestreet is joined by other thoughtful Christian writers through columns and feature articles equipping believers to live and defend the Christian worldview. Check us out online for great worldview content and resources, including book reviews for teens and preteens, need-to-know news headlines and more.
Patriotism, Pride Month, and Does Jesus Want a Christian Nation?
John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss celebrating America’s independence in a time of political uncertainty and the decline of companies celebrating pride month. Also, what does it mean to be a “Christian nation”?
Listen to the full episode: https://breakpoint.org/christian-patriotism-the-fall-of-pride-month-and-defining-christian-nation/
The Ten Commandments Provide a Moral Code
Recently, the governor of Louisiana signed a bill that requires every public classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments. Headlines quickly reported panic and filed lawsuits, but is the idea that far-fetched?
No. Historically, the Mosaic Law was one of the first recorded legal codes, dating only a few hundred years after Hammurabi’s Code of Babylon. As State Representative Dodie Horton explained, this is reason enough for the bill. “It doesn’t preach a certain religion,” she said, “but it definitely shows what a moral code we all should live by is.” And, America cannot be understood separate from the idea of a moral law, this one in particular. In fact, both the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence appeal to it.
It would be ironic if a legal challenge goes to the U.S. Supreme Court. After all, on the east side of the building is Moses holding the Ten Commandments.
Coping With a Fallen World
To be human is to experience pain and suffering. The betrayal of a friend, the loss of a loved one to cancer, the hurtful words of a hot-tempered coworker, the apathy of a spouse—the consequences of sin and brokenness can take various forms. Our sin hurts ourselves and others and, even when we are not personally guilty, the world is broken.
It’s tempting to respond by either detaching from the world around us or by indulging it. Advocates of detachment encourage folks not to get too close to people or things in this life. Some suggest that by developing rigorous disciplines—mental, physical, or spiritual—we can remain unaffected by pain and pleasure.
Others tell us to indulge ourselves. In Paul’s day, the message of indulgence was, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). In other words: live for today, maximize pleasure, and don’t think about pain. Today, this message often takes the form of what is falsely named sexual “liberation,” and can be seen in the normalization of po*******hy, divorce, homosexuality, and gender identities. Or it can take subtler forms of indulgence like gorging on delicious food, impulse buying, or binging Netflix.
Though they seem opposites, detachment and indulgence are two sides of the same bad coin. Both are, in the end, attempts to escape the pain of what Christianity recognizes as a fallen world. These attempts are, however, futile. In this broken world, death and decay are inevitable. This world, created good, suffers under the curse brought by human sin. Through our first parent’s disobedience, sin and its attendant consequences entered the world and our hearts, and it has been plaguing us ever since.
Rather than ignoring or denying sin, or offering an escape from it, God required His people to atone for sin. In the Old Testament, this came via sacrifice. Knowing that we could not bear the weight of endless blood sacrifices and that sacrifices could never heal the human heart of its bent toward destruction, God acted. By taking on flesh and offering up His own Son, the final sacrifice was made.
In Jesus Christ, God took on human flesh, entering fully the muck and the mire of this fallen world and the human heart. Beyond merely acknowledging or affirming sin, He broke its power. In His death and resurrection, sin and death were defeated.
Thus, though the suffering of this fallen world, along with all the pain and grief, is a real part of the world, it is not the end of the Story. Nor is sin a final obstacle to God. Rather, it is through suffering that He draws humanity to Himself. It is in His death and resurrection that we are transformed. Christ thwarts sin by turning it on its head. As one theologian put it, in Christ, “death is not an inexplicable accident that happens to life; it is the very engine by which life runs.”
Contrary to the voices of this cultural moment and of the numerous alternate religions and worldviews that teach us to deny or indulge sin, God asks us to acknowledge it, to repent of it, and to trust the One who has defeated sin through His own suffering. Only when we acknowledge our inability to escape or change the fallen world in our own strength, and turn to Christ, will we find peace and hope in the midst of this broken world.
This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Hayden. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
Is It Cheating?
As if we needed another troubling social media trend, some are experimenting with “micro-cheating.” In one popular micro-cheating game, partners create hypothetical romantic or sexual situations and ask each other if certain actions (such as wearing another guy’s sweater or paying for a female coworker’s meal) should be considered “cheating.”
Defenders of the game claim it helps partners communicate more clearly about relational expectations and boundaries. In practice, it reduces infidelity to intentions rather than actions. Arguing about where the line is between “cheating” and “not cheating” ignores the possibility that the “line” is itself the problem.
It’s another version of the wrong question asked by millions of Christian teenagers through the years: “How far is too far?” That’s because fidelity is not a line: It’s a direction. Actions matter, of course, but as Jesus introduced to the world, so do motives, attitudes, and intentions.
A “Declaration of Dependence”
In 2004, Chuck Colson delivered a Breakpoint commentary entitled “A New Declaration of Dependence.” His words were prophetic.
A student of history, Chuck understood the founding principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the eternal truths that grounded them. But what happens when the foundations are rejected? Here’s Chuck Colson from July 2, 2004:
"July 4 celebrates our liberty and our national independence. Americans will hoist their flags, march in parades, and set off fireworks. I get a thrill every time I hear the cannons blast that rousing finale of the 1812 Overture. And I get a lump in my throat whenever I join in singing “America! America! God shed His grace on thee.”
Indeed, God has blessed America. This nation, dedicated to the proposition that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, has endured 228 years. America is the oldest constitutional republic on earth.
But all is not well in our land. When Thomas Jefferson penned the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence, he deliberately appealed to the Creator. He acknowledged an overriding obligation to “Nature and Nature’s God.” And he understood that ordered liberty is not just a subjective preference, but a divinely ordained condition for which human beings are designed.
But over the last few decades, legions of skeptics have mounted a massive assault on these “self-evident truths.” In prestigious law schools, in the halls of government, and especially in the Supreme Court, God is often banished from public conversation. If a public school teacher introduces Jefferson’s ideas and language into the classroom today, she would likely be called on the carpet—and possibly disciplined.
This assault on God in public culture severely damages our republic. If God is thrown out of our history, we lose our basis for believing that individuals have rights and dignity. In an empty universe, we have no meaning, no value. Without God, there are no unalienable rights, and no certain proof that liberty is better than tyranny or that life is better than death. Everything is a matter of opinion and power.
The references to God in the Declaration of Independence provide a foundation for a moral argument within civil society. And moral truths pervade our founding documents from beginning to end. Without God as the source of all those moral principles, the public square would quickly revert to the law of the jungle. Brutish power would prevail. The weak, the unborn, the elderly, and the gravely ill could be quietly terminated.
As much as I enjoy the anthems and the fireworks, more than that is called for on this July 4th. We need to confess our moral failures and our national sins. Repent of the lies that have justified killing innocent babies and the elderly. Renewal begins on our knees. It’s there that we hear soul-searching questions from God Himself, asking: “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?…Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
Our nation’s founding document declared independence from Britain, but, with equal fervor, declared dependence upon God. Expressing “firm reliance on the Protection of divine Providence,” the signers committed the American experiment to their Maker. The Spirit of 1776 was reverence and trust.
So, as we mark this solemn occasion, let us seek a rebirth of true liberty, which is possible only when governed by divine law. For, without God, we can never have “liberty and justice for all.”
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
This commentary was previously published on July 3, 2020.
Politics got you down? You’re not alone. “Why Vote? Courageous Faith for an Election Year” offers a biblically grounded approach to voting. This free, four-episode video series reminds us that God calls us to faithfulness, not success. Watch now and cultivate a courageous faith even in a turbulent political climate.
Get this free, four-episode video series at https://colsoncenter.org/whyvote
Supreme Court to Hear Case on “Transition Care” for Minors
This month, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to take a first-of-its-kind and potentially landmark case on so-called “gender-affirming care.” In United States v. Skrmetti, various trans-identifying individuals, joined by the Biden administration, are suing the state of Tennessee for passing a law protecting minors from chemical or surgical “gender transition” interventions.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for this historical case this fall. The decision will have serious implications for more than 20 conservative states that have restricted “gender transition” interventions for minors.
Also, United States v. Skrmetti is an opportunity for the United States to join so many other first-world countries, and the growing medical-political consensus, that “gender transition” intervention is not a safe or effective treatment for gender dysphoria in minors.
Let’s pray that the justices will rule in favor of the truth and help states bring an end to the destruction of children’s health.
The Bible Really Does Tell the Truth, Skeptics Learn
A recent article in Britain’s The Daily Mail suggested that the prophets Amos and Zechariah may have had something right. As the writer put it,
“A scientific breakthrough has exposed the truth about a site in ancient Jerusalem, overturning expert opinion and vindicating the Bible’s account. Until now, experts believed a stretch of wall in the original heart of the city was built by Hezekiah, King of Judah, whose reign straddled the seventh and eighth centuries BC. ... But now an almost decade-long study has revealed it was built by his great-grandfather, Uzziah, after a huge earthquake, echoing the account of the Bible.”
“… echoing the account of the Bible.” The story reminds me of a scene from a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, when a character says to Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow, “You actually were telling the truth.” To which Captain Jack replied, “I do that quite a lot. Yet people are always surprised.”
Throughout the last century, and especially in the last few decades, the scholarly world has been “surprised” to find that the biblical authors were telling the truth. Skeptics assume that the content of the Bible is more “pious fraud” than history, a well-intentioned story to inspire the faithful. And yet the reliability of the Word of God has been repeatedly affirmed, as more biblical archaeological sites are discovered and more extra-biblical sources corroborate biblical events.
From small artifacts to larger sites, recent discoveries lend proof to biblical accounts. For example, DNA found in the City of David confirmed that the Philistines, Israel’s main enemy during the reign of King David, turned out to be exactly the sort of people the Old Testament described. A smaller discovery was of a signet ring that confirmed the detail of an Old Testament character who only gets a passing mention in 2 Kings. And, of course, there was the discovery of the site of the Pool of Siloam, where we know Jesus walked.
These findings match characters and events in the Bible to tangible, touchable, real things, a crucial confirmation for a worldview that is not esoteric but fully grounded in events that took place within human history. Luke, once written off as a fable-maker, is now considered by most scholars to be an excellent and precise historian. Though online atheists may continue to insist that Jesus never existed, no reputable biblical scholar would support this theory. To paraphrase Mark Twain’s preemptive obituary, rumors of the Bible’s inaccuracies have been greatly exaggerated.
Of course, the Bible is a more comfortable book if only merely “spiritually” true and not really true. This is the sort of thinking that has both shaped and sapped the strength of liberal Christianity, such as is found in many mainline denominations. Once giants in American Christianity, most are now mere husks of their former glories, with increasingly empty churches that have dropped all the doctrine but kept the robes and collars of their now rainbow-accented vestments.
The Bible, however, doesn’t offer the option of just believing the comfortable stuff. It demands to be taken as fact or not at all, while making claims about real times and real places, about real people and real things. Most notably, it claims that the God revealed in its pages intruded Himself into the grit and grime of our fallen world in a way that can now be found by archaeological discoveries. If the God of the Bible is indeed God, He is the God of the real world.
It should comfort that what God has given to us in the Bible is true. Thus, it can be trusted in all that it promises, whether about the past, the present, or the future.
This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
No-Fault Divorce and God’s Design for Marriage
Once upon a time, divorce was a scandal. In the wake of the sexual revolution, divorce dramatically increased, so much so that it became a cultural norm.
No-fault divorce was feminism’s solution to what Betty Friedan termed, “the problem that has no name.” In her book, The Feminine Mystique, she dubbed marriage and the home as a “concentration camp” for women.
Divorce is even praised as a cultural good, but rather than delivering the freedom and happiness promised, the data shows that men and women who remain faithful in lifelong marriage are happiest.
That’s because marriage was intended by God from the beginning, as part of the creation mandate. Jesus pointed to this when He was asked about divorce: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh” (Matthew 19:5).
It’s a mystery, according to Paul, but one that is rooted in reality.
Jack Phillips Dragged Back to Court
This past month, cake artist and business owner Jack Phillips was back in court. After a Supreme Court win and 12 years of legal battles, an LGBTQ activist has continued to harass Phillips for his Christian convictions and his presumption to act upon them.
Jack was first taken to court by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission in 2012, when he respectfully declined to bake a cake for a same-sex “wedding.” The couple pursued legal action against Jack despite his offer to serve them anything in his store and his recommendation of other cake shops that would gladly take their order. The case ended with a 7-2 ruling for Jack in the United States Supreme Court with a strong condemnation of the state of Colorado for its “clear and impermissible hostility” toward his faith.
However, the state went after Jack again soon after for refusing a request to design a cake in celebration of a “gender transition.” This time, the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a countersuit on behalf of Jack against the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. They backed down.
Though that should have been the end of Jack’s troubles, it wasn’t. After months of repeated harassment and increasingly bizarre and perverse cake requests, the trans activist who had requested the “gender transition” cake filed a civil suit against Jack Phillips. The request to dismiss was denied by a progressive judge, and a lower court ruled against Jack. The Alliance Defending Freedom appealed the decision in the Colorado state supreme court.
I attended the oral arguments, which were heard earlier this month, and the press conferences afterward. The contrast between Jack and his opponent was palpable and stark. Despite this 14-year ordeal and the last several years of harassment by a man who is committed to, in his own words, “correct the errors of [Jack’s] thinking,” Jack is at peace. His trans-identifying activist opponent is not.
During the course of his legal trials, Jack has become an example of how to live like a Christian in a world that is increasingly hostile to our beliefs. He is fleshing out what “a theology of getting fired” should mean.
First, Jack has refused to live by lies. While he probably did not anticipate that his court battles would last over a decade when he made that fateful initial decision, he did. And, he has remained steadfast in his convictions since. It would have been easier, and less costly, to just bake the cake. Yet, Jack refuses to say something with his creative gifts that is not true.
Jack has also learned to trust God. As was apparent at his press conference outside of the Colorado Supreme Court, Jack’s joy and confidence have only grown over the years. His life models what it means to “count it all joy … when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2).
Finally, Jack and his family seem to understand that this is not ultimately about him. Because of his faithfulness, others are pointed to Christ. In her recent WORLD article, ADF CEO and General Counsel Kristen Waggoner revealed that Jack has played a role in a story the world has been watching since last year, the journey of faith of “Somali-born human rights activist, author, and podcast host, as well as a former leader of the New Atheists” Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Waggoner asked,
”What exactly woke her up to the rising wave of intolerance? In her own words: ‘It was the cake-baking story.’ Jack Phillips. A man she described as an ‘obscure baker’ in an ‘obscure place.’”
Of course, Jack is not obscure and unknown to God. And, from homeless shelter managers to graphic designers, Jack’s story has inspired countless Christians to stand up for their convictions even in the face of hostility. Sherrie Laurie, the manager of a women-only homeless shelter in Alaska, drew courage to protect the women she served from a male trying to gain entry simply by telling herself, “Remember the baker.” As Waggoner wrote,
”Jack’s example has spurred countless Christians to bear joyful witness to Christ in the place God has called them, no matter the headwinds they face.”
These are, of course, the kinds of things that the Apostle Paul meant when he spoke of “God working all things together for good.” Though Christians can repeat that truism to those who suffer and struggle in a way that is too dismissive and glib, it is nonetheless true. Jack Phillips is evidence that it is.
This Breakpoint was co-authored by Jared Hayden. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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The Price of Self-Obsession
A recent article in Vox detailed the rise and consequences of the “self-care” movement. What started as calls for rest, or maybe a binge of mind-numbing television or a bath, became an anthem for isolation and self-obsession. Self-care companies have sold all kinds of cures for our stress and mental health problems: candles, lotions, journals, and routines. Each one encourages us to focus on ourselves.
And yet, what are the fruits of this movement? We’ve never been more lonely and depressed. According to one 2013 study, our materialism and our loneliness are locked in a vicious cycle.
Of course, rest and reflection are essentials spoken of in Scripture, but the Bible always orients our attention upward, to our Maker, and outward, to our relationships with others. The focus is not inward. When our focus is only inward, self-care quickly devolves into self-obsession and ultimately, a greater sense of emptiness.
Truth and Counterfeits: Discerning the Lies that Take People Captive
Many of the New Testament epistles chronicle the significant temptations that raged against the early Church, both from within and without. From the beginning, the Church was forced to deal with heresies, false gospels, and false teachers. For example, here’s Paul writing to the church at Galatia:
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”
Externally, the church faced the hostility of a pagan culture, along with the temptations to sexual perversity, idol worship, and worldliness in various forms. “See to it,” Paul wrote to the church at Colossae, “that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
The Church has faced the same kinds of challenges, from within and without, ever since. Knowing how to recognize and respond to them in this cultural moment is our calling. Alisa Childers, author of Another Gospel, has been an especially helpful voice to the Church in recognizing the challenges from within. Ryan Bomberger, author of the wonderful children’s books He Is He and She Is She, is a voice of courage and creativity on the issues facing the church from without.
On July 25, Alisa and Ryan will join me for the 6th annual Great Lakes Worldview Symposium, “Truth and Its Counterfeits: Discerning the Lies that Take People Captive.” (Join us live in Bay Harbor, Michigan, or for the livestream. To register, go to https://www.greatlakessymposium.org/.)
The focus of this event is discerning what is facing the Church, from within and without, today. Christians need to know what Alisa and Ryan have to share. However, there’s also the matter of how we can respond to the people, both within and without, who reject truth. To that, Paul also has wise advice: “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
A strategy for this kind of dialogue comes right from Jesus. He was able to talk to almost everyone, from religious leaders to fishermen to women at wells to even Pilate, by asking questions. Here are six questions that can be used in even the most difficult of conversations:
What do you mean by that? The battle of ideas is always over the definition of words. Thus, it’s vital to clarify terms. For example, the most important thing to clarify about “same-sex marriage” is the definition of marriage. So, when the topic comes up, ask, “Before we talk about what kind of unions should be considered marriage, what do you mean by marriage?” Often in these debates, we may be using the same vocabulary, but not the same dictionary.
How do you know that is true? Assertions are often mistaken for arguments, and there’s a vast difference between the two. An assertion is a definitive statement made about the nature of reality. An argument is required to back an assertion. By asking, “How do you know that’s true?” the conversation moves beyond dueling assertions to why an assertion should be taken seriously.
Where did you get this information? Once arguments are offered, it’s important to ensure the arguments are valid. For example, news reports love to shout headlines about some study that shows same-sex couples are better parents than straight couples. However, this quickly repeated talking point is based on limited, flawed studies. Broader-based studies all suggest the exact opposite.
How did you come to this conclusion? Behind an argument are individuals with a story. The more passionate someone is about a topic, the more personal their story. Knowing their story is a reminder that the person you’re talking with is a real, image-of-God-bearing person.
Two final questions are What if you’re wrong? and What if you’re right? It’s easy to sit back and make claims about the world, but what happens when those claims are released out into that world? Ideas have consequences that are always worth considering. For example, what happens if ma*****na isn’t as harmless as people say it is, or if we are wrong to tell kids that they’re born in the wrong body? These are big risks to play with the next generation.
Christians are called to know and defend truth at a time truth is contested. Please join us for “Truth and Its Counterfeits: Discerning the Lies that Take People Captive,” Thursday, July 25. To register to attend live or join the livestream, visit https://www.greatlakessymposium.org/.
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, go to breakpoint.org.
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The Presidential Debate, Language of Transgender Politics, and Women's Ordination
The presidential debate left more questions than answers. John and Maria discuss the implications. Proponents of using chemicals and surgery on gender-confused kids are changing their terminology. And we look at how different denominations are handling the question of women in the pulpit.
Listen to the full episode: https://breakpoint.org/the-presidential-debate-language-of-transgender-politics-and-womens-ordination/
A Win for Women and Women’s Sports
Earlier this month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an international court for sports governance, rejected a challenge from trans-identifying swimmer Lia Thomas to overturn policies that prevent men from competing in women-only “elite” swimming events.
Thomas, a man claiming to be a woman, is the former University of Pennsylvania swimmer who won the national championship in women’s swimming. He was seeking to overturn the policy in hopes of competing in the 2024 Olympics. However, the policy issued by World Aquatics, the body that governs elite swimming competitions, protects women’s swimming competitions from trans-identifying men who have gone through male puberty.
Women deserve the safety and opportunity that comes with competing on an even playing field—with other women. And the court’s decision to uphold this policy helps ensure that safety and opportunity for women will continue, even in our strange new world.
The World Aquatics celebrated the court’s decision. As they said, “we believe [it] is a major step forward in our efforts to protect women’s sport.” Let’s hope the sanity continues.
Are Human Rights a Fantasy?
In a TEDx talk years ago, Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari made the startling claim that human rights do not exist.
“Human rights are just like heaven and like God: It’s just a fictional story that we’ve invented and spread around. … It is not a biological reality, just as jellyfish and woodpeckers and ostriches have no rights, Homo sapiens have no rights. … Take a human, cut him open, look inside—you find their blood, and you find the heart and lungs and kidneys, but you don’t find there any rights. The only place you find rights is in the fictional stories that humans have invented and spread around.”
Harari’s talk resurfaced on the site formerly known as Twitter and sparked a lively debate among Tom Holland, author of Dominion, Glen Scrivener, an Anglican priest and author of The Air We Breathe, and Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist who wrote 12 Rules for Life. Scrivener took issue with Harari’s materialism and called his remarks about human rights “nonsense.” Rights are indeed faith-based, he said, but that doesn’t make them any less real.
Tom Holland, who is not a Christian, responded that while he believes in human rights, they are not self-evident. Rather, they require an act of subjective belief. “Human rights have no more objective reality than, say, the Trinity,” wrote Holland. “Both derive from the workings of Christian theology; and both, if they are to be believed in, require people to make a leap of faith.”
Jordan Peterson disagreed, and responded in somewhat jumbled psychological lingo that rights are somehow “built into the structure of human beings” and are therefore “not arbitrary at all.” Holland shot back that if rights really are somehow “built into” reality, it’s awfully strange that the concept of human rights only emerged around the twelfth century in a specifically Christian and Western political context.
The whole exchange was fascinating and instructive. For example, if the idea that human rights are not universal seems strange, that just shows how deeply Western one is. For most of history, as Holland described in his book Dominion, the idea that humans have “self-evident” rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” would have been baffling: “A Roman would have laughed at it.”
Yet today, “rights” language is central to our way of life. It was at the heart of the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which asserted, following the Holocaust, that “inherent dignity” and “equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family” are “the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” Obviously, the UN declaration was inspired by the Declaration of Independence, which also called rights self-evident, but went further to name their source: a Creator who endowed people with “certain inalienable Rights.”
If true, then human rights are indeed universal, even if they are not universally recognized. What of those civilizations that do not acknowledge a Creator, or even, that Creator? What of the increasingly secular, post-Christian West? Can the idea of human rights be sustained, much less enforced globally if God is no longer acknowledged? If there is no one to endow human rights, how can everyone be expected to honor them? There remains widespread agreement that genocide, terrorism, and slavery are wrong, but by what authority will we continue to agree that they are wrong?
Glenn Scrivener offered the best answer to these questions. “Rights indeed belong to all,” he says, “—that’s the nature of them. But they’ve also come from somewhere particular.” The source is not just any God, but the God Who specifically became man in Jesus Christ, forever ennobling human nature and sparking the Christian revolution that would shape the West and inspire this declaration, that all are “created equal.”
It’s vital to note that Jesus did not invent the sanctity of life, the love of neighbor, or the inherent value of each individual human during His earthly ministry. Rather, through His life, obedience, death, and resurrection, He restored this concept inherent in creation, established by God’s own words: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
At the heart of Christianity is the claim that our Savior is also our Creator. The idea that humans have inherent, eternal value is a truth Christianity gives back to a fallen world. This claim and the rights inferred from it are real and universal precisely because the God who first made the world and us is.
As the West loses touch with this God, it will also lose grasp on the concept of human rights. Scrivener warned, a dark “pit” awaits those who adopt Harari’s view of morality. In the days to come, only Christians, who first gave the West its concept of rights, will be able to declare them with any authority. That, at least, should be self-evident by now.
This Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.
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Divorce Denies God's Reality💔 ➡️ Follow for more commentary about culture from a Christian worldview.
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🤔Ayaan Hirsi Ali Responds to Richard Dawkins🔬 ➡️ Follow for more commentary about culture from a Christian worldview.
🚨 Reuniting Inmates with Family ➡️ Follow for more commentary about culture from a Christian worldview.
The Point: This is another in a long list of examples of how the internet's nature of being constantly edited makes telling the truth increasingly optional for institutions even as big as the UN. For more commentary about culture from a Christian worldview, follow for more.
The Point: Gender transition interventions, whether social, surgical or chemical, are neither cure nor care for those, especially children, struggling with gender dysphoria. For more commentary about culture from a Christian worldview, follow for more.
The Point: The promises of the Sexual Revolution to liberate women instead brought sexual exploitation and violence. And as it turned out, men, not women, were the true beneficiaries of "consequence-free" sex. For more commentary about culture from a Christian worldview, follow for more.
The Point: APR is safe and effective. All activists like James are doing is misleading women. For more commentary about culture from a Christian worldview, follow for more.
On Breakpoint This Week, John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the worldview implications of Jerry Seinfeld's controversial commencement speech. Listen to the latest episodes on your favorite podcast app or on our website at Breakpoint.org.
DOJ & Marijuana Follow for more commentary about culture from a Christian worldview.
Exvangelicals VS. Athiests rediscovering and proclaiming the importance of Christian teaching & morality. “It’s fascinating to see exvangelicals decry a Christian ethic at the same time many atheists are seeing its necessity. Like two ships passing in the night.” – Dan Darling Follow for more commentary about culture from a Christian worldview.
‘I grew up evangelical...and I’m fine.’ Follow for more commentary about culture from a Christian worldview.
On Breakpoint This Week, John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the latest headlines from a Christian worldview, including the studies showing that married, religious couples have the highest rated of reported happiness. Find more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment at Breakpoint.org.
On Breakpoint This Week, John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the significance of living a life for Christ and the beauty of seeing God in the small things. Find full episodes of Breakpoint wherever you get your podcasts or on the Breakpoint website at Breakpoint.org. #christianworldview
On Breakpoint This Week, John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss legislation out of Alabama and the impact it will have on the IVF industry and the prolife movement. Find the full episode on our website at Breakpoint.org.
On Breakpoint this week, John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the latest headlines from a Christian worldview perspective, including the crisis at the border and what the Bible teaches us about immigration. Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app or directly on the Breakpoint website at Breakpoint.org.
The New Issue Dividing America: Trans Rights On Breakpoint This Week, John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss the state-by-state approach to transgender legislation. Find the full episode on your favorite podcast app or directly on Breakpoint’s website at Breakpoint.org.
On Breakpoint This Week, John Stonestreet and Maria Baer discuss what the latest midterm elections reveal about the current state of worldviews in politics. Listen to the full podcast and find more resources at Breakpoint.org.
In this clip from our latest Breakpoint Forum, Dr. Neil Shenvi discusses how critical theory has had an impact on every aspect of our culture and what we can do about it. Listen to the full podcast and find links to the complete forum on the Breakpoint website: https://breakpoint.org/the-cultural-impact-and-worldview-implications-of-critical-theory-a-conversation-with-neil-shenvi-and-pat-sawyer/
On Breakpoint This Week, John Stonestreet interviews Joel Rosenberg on what life is like for Christians living in the Middle East right now. Listen to the full episode and find more resources at Breakpoint.org.
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We live in a moment of cultural confusion. Fewer and fewer of the things that give meaning to our lives come easily. Family, community, beauty, truth seem to be constantly eroding around us—while our news feeds are full of despair, anger, and division.
How are Christians to make sense of the world around us? How can we make sure we have clarity in our daily lives?
Welcome to BreakPoint. A program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, our commentaries offer incisive content people can’t find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion.
Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go. Or right here on Facebook.
The Colson Center for Christian Worldview is a ministry that equips Christians to live out their faith with clarity, confidence, and courage in this cultural moment. Every day, we work to:
Want to go deeper, with webinars, short courses, conferences, and the Colson Fellows Program?
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