Stream Splashes: June 23-29 in Review
Every week, The Stream rounds up some highlights from the recent news. We call these our “splashes”: everything from insightful commentary on the week’s big events to small inspiring stories you may have missed.
Nearly 40 years ago, in his landmark bestseller A Christian Manifesto, theologian Francis Schaeffer described the fragmentation that has accompanied the shift toward relativism in our society. Schaeffer suggested the basic problem with our culture was that parents and leaders had only “seen things bits and pieces instead of totals.”
In other words, part of the reason it has been so difficult to address the cultural challenges of our day is that we have largely ignored that these changes in our society have occurred because of changes in our thinking. Not only have we failed at times to acknowledge the consequences of our ideas, we’ve often failed to recognize the ideas themselves. We have not clearly seen how our worldview affects our decisions and our values.
In an overdue effort to give men a voice in the abortion dialogue, the LA Times featured an article by the executive editor. It chronicled his then- girlfriend’s’ abortion 57 years ago. Norman Pearlstine’s article is “Lesson from a pre-Roe vs. Wade Experience: Men cannot be silent on abortion rights.” Incredibly, his story was not one of penance or even lament.
Pearlstine is right about one thing in his article. Too many men have quietly shirked responsibility. Hidden like cowards behind the pretense of deferring to women on this issue. But such men are not advancing the rights of women. They’re just washing their hands of them. Is Pearlstine rejecting the status quo of men as mute accomplices? Then I agree with him.
But it stops there.
The Barna Group has just released a study finding that fewer than half of U.S. adults agree that America’s history of slavery still affects African Americans. We know that racism still affects America. Our race problem would hardly exist to the degree it does if there hadn’t been slavery.
What is that other half thinking?
What do we say to the heart-broken mother whose child chose science over Christianity? Her daughter had lost her faith at medical school. As a new doctor, she thought she’d learned too much science to believe in religion.
The mother wanted to know what to say. I had suggestions, which I’ll give in another article, but I couldn’t say for sure. It’s a tricky question. It’s a really tricky question when a mother asks it.
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