An Open Letter to Hollywood Regarding Ratings (And Morality)
Posted on November 9, 2017 in Sexuality by Nathan Cherry
Dear Hollywood,
You’ve got a problem. It’s a big problem costing millions. The headlines are all talking about it and sharing a lot of details that I am certain you won’t like. They’re talking about the major flops that have come out of your studios this year and the millions (maybe billions?) in lost revenue.
Here’s where I think the problem started.
You thought that since everyone loved going to the movies that you could produce whatever you wanted. You could include all the filthy language, graphic sex, violence, and anything else you wanted and we would simply accept it. And, for a while, we did. We went to the movies, we rented them, and we watched just about anything you were willing to produce. It was our mistake to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume a movie was just a movie.
But our mistake emboldened you to produce movies with even greater graphic sex and violence. You assumed that since we were watching that you had carte blanche to create whatever twisted picture you could imagine. So the endless stream of graphic horror movies and sex-filled drama’s started rolling. Then, it really got crazy.
I suppose you got bored with those sex and gore movies as your desire to be politically active grew. So you started inserting your political viewpoints into movies. You even produced movies that were nothing more than thinly veiled political propaganda films. And while you gathered 12 times a year to pat each other on the back and give each other awards, you didn’t notice that we were going to the movies less and less. Continue reading…
If I Get To Define Grace We Are All in Trouble
Posted on November 7, 2017 in Theology by Nathan Cherry
Who gets to define grace?
I had an encounter not long ago in which I affirmed the disciplinary action a school took against a student. I wrote my comments in a blog post and made them public. I engaged in numerous conversations with multiple people that did not share my perspective. One comment that was made multiple times was “The school should have shown the student some grace.”
I challenged that statement by asking two questions:
1. How do you know the school did not show any grace?
2. Who gets to define grace?
Christians are big on grace. We like grace. And why shouldn’t we, “it is by grace we are saved.” The subject gets a little murkier when we seek to define grace for others. Defining saving grace is easy because the Bible has already done it for us. It is the gift of God shown to each of us that, combined with faith, allows a person to be born again. Defining grace for other people, or, more specifically, what grace should look like in the lives of other people, that’s a very different matter.
Trvin Wax has written an article I wish I could get everyone to read. You would be well served by taking a few minutes to read and understand what he is discussing in “Welcome Everyone, Affirm No One.” In the article Trevin makes this statement: Continue reading…
The Hypocrisy of Feminism is on Display in the Boy Scouts
Posted on November 2, 2017 in Public Policy, Sexuality by Nathan Cherry
The modern feminist movement is a hypocritical movement.
Modern feminism is a movement quite unlike the movement that sought equality in the 1960’s. While there can be no doubt that the founders of feminism in the 60’s wanted more than just equal pay, or the right to vote; the movement as it stands today communicates a male-hating hypocrisy that is hard to ignore.
The deafening silence of modern feminism to sex-selective abortion both in the United States and abroad is enough to earn the title of hypocrite. However, I am particularly interested in the reaction of feminism to the recent announcement by the Boy Scouts of America to allow girls into the program.
It was recently announced by the Boy Scouts (BSA) that they would begin allowing girls into the Cub Scouts starting in 2018 while developing a program to integrate girls into all stages of the BSA program. The end-goal will be to give girls access to the Eagle Scout program. And while boys and girls will not initially be mixed, it is reasonable, given the many changes in scouting protocol to assume that boys and girls will eventually be together.
Albert Mohler commented on his daily podcast, The Briefing, that this change comes as a result of “years of pressure from women’s groups that say girls should have access to programs like the Eagle Scouts.” Here’s where we can see the hypocrisy of feminism and those that adhere to a modern feminist worldview on display. Continue reading…
Religious Freedom Win: Employers Can Opt Out of Contraception Coverage
Posted on November 1, 2017 in Life by Nathan Cherry
The Trump Administration continues to dismantle Obamacare one mandate at a time.
Exemptions to the contraception mandate have been expanded under the direction of Matt Bowman, an attorney with the Department of Health and Human Services. President Trump has followed through on his promise to defend religious freedom by making sure business owners that object on religious or moral grounds to birth control pills, abortion pills, and sterilization are not forced to provide such things to their employees.
The purposes of these expanded exemptions is to widen the scope of protections for business and charities with religious opposition to providing contraceptive products. Obamacare has always contained these protections for churches, but other employers, such as religious non-profits, charities and Christian-owned businesses had no protections. This made it possible for the government to force groups like The Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of Catholic nuns, to pay for contraceptives.
Mark Rienzi, senior counsel with The Becket Fund, pointed out that refusing to give exemptions to religious employers was a divisive move by the previous administration:
“The new rule is a victory for common sense. The previous administration pursued a needless and divisive culture war … It should be easy for the courts to finalize this issue now that the government admits it broke the law.”
The new rule is also a step in the right direction to correct the mistakes of the Obamacare mandate concerning how pregnancy is viewed. A recent article explains how the abortion lobby slandered pregnancy in order to advance their agenda: Continue reading…
Making Sense of the NFL and the Rights of Business Owners
Posted on October 26, 2017 in Public Policy, Religious Freedom by Nathan Cherry
Everyone from sports analysts to rappers and even the president have weighed in on the issue Is it really that confusing?
The NFL has been a ratings and revenue powerhouse for quite some time. Sports in general has enjoyed a prestigious place in our culture for years. Some would say that it has become a detrimental distraction to families that needs to be reigned in (I’m among those holding to this opinion).
As of late, however, sports, and the NFL has been in decline.
We’re all familiar with the now highly publicized and politicized NFL protests started last year by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick decided to kneel for the national anthem rather than stand with his hand over his heart. He said it was a symbolic protest against racial violence and police brutality against minorities. From there it sparked a controversy that has continued from last years’s NFL season to the present.
This year the story intensified as President Trump weighed in by saying that NFL owners “should fire” players that protest the flag and the national anthem. That single comment by the President has caused more controversy, tweeting, news coverage, and arguments than perhaps any single comment concerning this entire issue. That either tells us how powerful the president is, or how much the mainstream media doesn’t like him. You decide. Continue reading…
President Trump Promises to Sign Bill Outlawing Late-Term Abortion
Posted on October 24, 2017 in Life by Nathan Cherry
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to ban late-term abortions; President Trump says he will sign it.
Continuing the wave of pro-life legislation, the U.S House of Representatives has once again passed the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This bill, previously passed in 2015, seeks to make abortion after 20 weeks illegal.
This is a common sense piece of legislation in that it seeks to make it illegal to dismember unborn children capable of feeling pain while they are in the womb. Regardless of whether you support abortion or not, the idea of allowing an unborn child be dismembered should be repulsive. This is not a “blob of tissue,” or a ‘clump of cells,” this is a human being capable of feeling the same pain you and I feel.
A recent article carried the sentiments of Rep. Chris Smith as he echoed the belief of a majority of Americans that agree abortion after 20 weeks is barbaric and should not be tolerated. Smith said:
“Overwhelming majorities of Americans—some 60-64% according to pollsters—support legal protection for pain-capable unborn children. Today we know that unborn babies not only die but suffer excruciating pain during dismemberment abortion—a cruelty that rips arms and legs off a helpless child.”
I’m having a hard time thinking of a scenario in which it would be appropriate to kill an innocent human. It’s an even harder scenario to consider when the human in question is capable of feeling pain and being subject to extreme torture. Any person that claims to represent the civil liberties of other humans has no choice but defend the unborn or admit that he or she is a hypocrite. Continue reading…
Why the “Ordo Solutis” is a Critical Doctrine to Understand
Posted on October 18, 2017 in Theology by Nathan Cherry
If someone asked you what the steps to being saved were, would you be able to answer the question?
The “Romans Road.”
The “Sinners Prayer.”
A lot of different methods have been used to teach people the steps of salvation. It Is reasoned that if people have a quick, easy, catchy way of remembering these steps that they will be able to use them if they are asked about being saved. The intent is good, but it’s also lacking. There is a distinct lack of doctrine and theological underpinning in many of these methods. In the end, I’m afraid most people have little to no understanding of the process of salvation and how critical each step is to that process.
The “Order of Salvation,” or, “ordo solutis” as it is referred to (a latin phrase simply meaning “order of salvation”) is the step by step process by which salvation occurs. Dr. Derek Thomas, writing at Monergism.com, shared the definition of ordo solutis used by Louis Berkhof:
“The ordo salutis describes the process by which the work of salvation, wrought in Christ, is subjectively realized in the hearts and lives of sinners. It aims at describing in their logical order, and also in their interrelations, the various movements of the Holy Spirit in the application of the work of redemption.” Continue reading…
How Do Christians Think Biblically (and Economically) About Prison?
Posted on October 17, 2017 in Money, Public Policy, Theology by Nathan Cherry
The state of incarceration in America is out of control and it’s time the church began talking about it.
I have little experience with incarceration. I’ve never been in jail. Unless you count the one time I sat in a jail cell in Appomattox, Virginia listening to a historian discuss the Civil War. I was there of my own free will and I walked out as soon as the presentation was over.
For millions of Americans, though, prison is “home.” The number of Americans in prison continues to grow. The crimes for which prison is now a mandatory sentence also continues growing. Perhaps its time to have a conversation around the theological (and economic) implications of a growing prison population.
A recent article states that “1 in 4 Americans has a criminal record.” A full 25% of all Americans now has a criminal record. That statistic is hard to wrap my mind around. This means that when I look around my neighborhood and see 7 of my neighbors mowing their yard, washing their car, or walking their dog, at least 2 of them have a criminal record. This also means that when I look around my church on Sunday morning, a lot of people have a criminal record.
Ironically, crime and arrest rates are down from where they were in the 90’s, according to a White Paper at Prison Fellowship’s website. And yet, the number of crimes being punished with prison sentences is growing. Continue reading…
Johns Hopkins Psychiatrist Makes Bold Statements on Transgender Issue
Posted on October 11, 2017 in Uncategorized by Nathan Cherry
Former Johns Hopkins psychiatrist issues honest statement regarding transgenderism.
Culturally speaking, it’s a strange time to be alive. The upside down nature of our society makes it curious for anyone retaining a modicum of common sense and reason. Perhaps one of the most peculiar sights to behold is the idea that someone’s imagination is more valid than their reality; that their desires are more “real” than anything else.
This cannot be seen more clearly than in the transgender movement.
Here is a movement dedicated to making the imagination and desires of people as real as the chair I’m sitting in. A group of people that are confused and, some would say, mentally disturbed are being held out as the next great group of civil rights heroes. Somehow I think Martin Luther King Jr. would disagree. What King and other civil rights activists fought for were inherent rights based on reality: all people are equal regardless of the color of their skin. I don’ recall King encouraging anyone to change the color of their skin. Skin color, like gender, is biologically verifiable, determined at birth, unalterable.
At one time in history we as a society would have confessed the same about gender. Our elementary education in biology would have asked and answered questions related to gender with absolute truth. It seems the gray area is getting larger though, in our effort to normalize anything and everything.
Imagine my surprise when renowned psychiatrist Dr. Paul R. McHugh, formerly the psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins recently claimed that transgenderism is a “mental disorder.” How dare he say such hurtful things. Doesn’t he know that our society doesn’t care about facts and biology? Doesn’t he know that our imaginations and desires are more important that centuries of verifiable, empirical evidence? Continue reading…
The Supreme Court May Soon Decide the Limits of Religious Freedom
Posted on October 4, 2017 in Public Policy, Religious Freedom by Nathan Cherry
One of the most important cases in recent history will be heard before the Supreme Court to determine if religious rights apply to business owners.
In 2012 a cake artist named Jack Phillips politely declined to create a cake for a same-sex wedding. The couple requesting the cake were previous customers of Phillips’ cake shop where he had created cakes for other events for the couple. But this time, Phillips said his faith would not allow him to celebrate an event he believes is a sin.
As you can imagine, the couple sued, saying Phillips discriminated against them. The baker in Colorado was now in the middle of a lawsuit that became a national story and has continued to gain attention to this day. What makes this is interesting is that, according to a recent report, other bakers in Colorado were permitted to refuse to bake cakes due to the message being promoted.
For Phillips though, it was never about attention or anything else superficial. Phillips simply wanted to live out his deeply held religious convictions at his business. Now, Phillips is fighting to avoid being forced to violate his religious convictions under threat from the government.
I’ve written about the lawsuits brought by homosexuals against Christians on many occasions. I’ve read their stories and considered their position as Christians seeking to live and do business according to their faith. A question I’ve often pondered is: what would I do if a local business owner refused to serve me because I am ____? Continue reading…