A roundup of news and commentary from around the interwebs.
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For those of you interested in what is going on in the broader evangelical community in America, I have found Samuel D. James’s Substack very insightful on a number of subjects.
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Over at my own Substack, I have a roundup of my best interviews of 2021, from Peter Hitchens on COVID-19 and threats to liberty to the president of Malta on legalizing abortion.
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With aging populations, growing secularism, radical hyper-individualism, and a growing crisis of meaning, Western countries are legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia one by one. Austria is the latest, with the heartbreaking news that the legislation also includes legalizing assisted suicide for people with disabilities.
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I’ve posted this article by Tim Challies before, but I see he’s reposted it—and it is extremely timely. “Please don’t give them porn for Christmas” is a plea to parents, asking them not to give their children technological devices that they are not mature enough to handle and will give them access to the sort of weapons-grade poison the Internet is providing to our children. Honestly, please, please heed his advice. The number of parents who have told me that they are glad that their children don’t look at porn when I know for a fact that their children have/do would stagger you.
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“Conversion therapy” bans continue to pass across the West, as well. France is the latest:
France’s Senate has overwhelmingly voted in favour of a ban on so-called LGBT conversion therapy. The bill was approved at its first reading on Tuesday, with 305 voting in favour and 28 against. Under the new law, citizens can be punished with prison sentences and fines for attempting to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBT+ people. Last month, France’s parliament had approved the law proposed by members of President Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche! party.
As I’ve written before, these laws are not about cruel practices of decades ago so much as an attempt to criminalize Christian preaching and pastoral support on LGBT issues. Sex change surgeries, for example, are obviously the definition of “conversion therapy”—but in many cases these laws actually ban the practice of making someone comfortable in their actual body.
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If Roe v. Wade falls next year, California plans to become an “abortion sanctuary.” Can you think of a paradoxical statement more sinister than that one? A sanctuary where you can kill your unborn child without interference; a sanctuary where babies in the womb have no rights and are considered the legal equivalent of so much meat.
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If you’re wondering whether your technology is making you miserable, the answer is probably yes. Dr. Anna Lembke has a column over at the Wall Street Journal explaining how our devices have reshaped our minds and our lives titled: “Digital Addictions Are Drowning Us in Dopamine.” Big Tech has spent millions figuring out how to hook us on our smartphones and our apps and our Internet, and it has worked.
