BreakPoint WorldView » February 2009

Where to Next?

So often in matters of public policy we forget the underlying issue. The policy dimensions are all we see. We are presented with no deeper conversations on a subject with moral overtones by the sometimes shallow news media. Activists on all sides are given a full 10-second sound bite, if they’re lucky.

Benjamin Franklin and William Cowper

C.S. Lewis and Jane Austen are among his admirers. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a poignant poem after visiting his grave. He was subject of a famous biography by the poet laureate Robert Southey. In the 1950s, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and critic Mark Van Doren prepared a famous collection of his correspondence. Part of the distinguished Great Letters Series, this book accorded the British poet William Cowper a place in the company of Keats, Byron, and Chekhov.

Four Essential Priorities for 2009

We need deep social change. Few of us need convincing of that. It seems to me, though, that we have not taken seriously enough the depth of social change needed, or the magnitude of the challenge. We have especially not reckoned properly the need for change among ourselves, we followers of Jesus Christ. Our credibility outside our own communities is low, and is it any wonder? We have failed to fully employ our real power: the power of God, the power of lives lived well, and the power of excellent engagement in the realm of ideas.

Life Worth Protecting

When Lauren Richardson’s mother told her back in September that she and her father had agreed to take Lauren out of the hospital and care for her at home, Lauren wept deep and emotional tears of joy. Her mother cried, too, as they held hands as mother and daughter. It was the first of many beautiful exchanges that Lauren and her reunited family are still enjoying today.

BreakPoint WorldView » January 2009

BreakPoint WorldView » January 2009

BreakPoint WorldView » January 2009

BreakPoint WorldView » January 2009

Believing in the Incredible Christ

“Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosophical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to, to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.” (Matthew Parris, The Times)