The 2002 musical film, Chicago, set in the 1920s, demonstrates the ease with which the public can be deceived – especially if you know how to manipulate the press into selling your narrative. The basic story line is that of a married woman, Roxie Hart (played by Renée Zellweger), who is having an affair with a furniture salesman, Fred Casely (played by Dominic West) who had promised to get her into show business. As Casely was (more…)
In the 1930s, Roman Catholic priest and radio commentator Fr. Charles Coughlin discovered a very effective way of discrediting people he considered political threats. He would appeal to the anti-Semitism and isolationism shared by much of his audience by denouncing various individuals as “atheistic Jews” or “imported radicals.” It mattered little to Coughlin that the sources of his “information” were often untrustworthy. He knew that once he used the power of the broadcast medium to (more…)
In his 1978 speech, “How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later,” science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (who wrote the book that became the movie Blade Runner) wrote, “The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. George Orwell made this clear in his novel 1984.” Forty-five years (more…)
In recent weeks we have undertaken the project of reviewing, updating, and adding to our 2003 book, A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and the Christian Life. It had gone out of print a few years ago, but with the HBO docuseries “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets,” about the Duggars and their spiritual leader, Bill Gothard, it seemed appropriate to update the book and put it back in print. In the process, we (more…)
C.S. Lewis said many famous things, but one of the most striking was his declaration, “You have never talked to a mere mortal.”1The Weight of Glory, (San Francisco, CA, USA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), 46. Lewis was reflecting on the biblical teaching that, after the resurrection, “the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, (more…)
It is fairly common to hear objections to our faith from the biblically uninformed. Two such examples are assertions that the Bible cannot be trusted, or a claim that current Christian beliefs conflict with the earthly life of Jesus. Currently, a meme which is attributed to the biblically uninformed actor, writer and political commentator, John Fugelsang, is making the rounds. It’s basic thrust appears to have been lifted from the December 6, 2017 Huff Post (more…)