The Pitfalls of Emotional Christianity
We’re never meant to live out our faith as a constant chase for emotional highs.
By Chris Queen
My story of coming to faith in Christ is… well… boring. I grew up in a Christian family, and there was never a time when we weren’t involved in church. When I was seven years old, I decided that I was ready to become a believer in Jesus. It was a simple, logical decision for me – no emotion whatsoever.
My Church Heritage and How It Shaped Me
What studying my non-denominational history taught me
By Chris Queen
I grew up in church, and I don’t remember any point in my life where my family wasn’t actively involved in a local congregation.
The church I grew up in was a Christian Church. You probably read that last sentence and thought, “well duh!” Aren’t churches Christian by nature? What I mean is that, where some people grew up Baptist, Presbyterian, or Assemblies of God, my quasi-denominal tradition is known as the Christian Church.
What I’ve Learned from Reading a Systematic Theology
Sometimes an in-depth study reveals more about you and others than it does about God.
By Chris Queen
Last summer, theologian Wayne Grudem announced that he would publish a second edition of his Systematic Theology later in 2020. My Bible study software made it available at a price that was tough to pass up, so I decided to download it and read it “next year.”
4 Reasons I Decided to Launch Liberty Island Books 4.0
A New Era of Publishing Begins for Counterculture Conservatism
By David M. Swindle
There are 4 main reasons why I decided to accept the opportunity to lead Liberty Island, relaunching it in this, its now fourth publishing arrangement…
Dave Chappelle’s All-American Anti-PC Heresies Vs. Ramy Youssef’s Woke-Intersectional-Islamist Cousin-Loving
Check out my new article on Islamist entertainment at The Daily Wire
By David M. Swindle
I had a new article published yesterday at The Daily Wire. I compare and contrast the comedy specials of two American Muslims, and Ramy Youssef, coming down very hard against the latter:
Among the fascinating phenomena of America’s most prominent Muslim activist organizations is how they decide which Muslims to lift up and which to ignore. Compare two recent comedy specials. One, Dave Chappelle’s newest Netflix special “Sticks & Stones,” which is generating intense reactions given its choice of material — including abortion, #MeToo, Transgenderism, “the alphabet people” (referring to the expanding acronym LGBTQIA+), and the implications of the “cancel culture,” which seeks to silence all who do not adhere to the “woke” doctrines of political correctness.
Thinking about this hilariously offensive special brought to mind another recent comedy special that challenged different cultural taboos: Millennial Ramy Youssef’s “Feelings,” released on HBO on June 29.
Pulling Your Cosmic Trigger: Why July 23 Is Robert Anton Wilson Day
An Overview of the Unique Sci-Fi Novelist and Occult Explorer Who Made Contact With *Something* Today in 1973
By David M. Swindle
If I had to pick a single author who has influenced me more than any other it would be the counterculture godfather Robert Anton Wilson whose books, speeches, and ideas have influenced generations of oddball individualists since the 1970s.
Abortion Advocates Dare Not Face Their Own Beliefs
By Alec Ott
G.K. Chesterton’s masterpiece, Orthodoxy, remains completely relevant in today’s world in spite of being published over 100 years ago. This is so partly because he tackles and eviscerates the contemporary philosophies of his day that are still revered to this day. One philosopher he took on was , whom many in his own day praised as bold and courageous in his ideas and writing.
Chesterton would have none of this. In Orthodoxy, he criticized Nietzsche for having “always escaped a question by a physical metaphor, like a cheery minor poet. He said, ‘beyond good and evil,’ because he had not the courage to say, ‘more good than good and evil,’ or, ‘more evil than good and evil.’ Had he faced his thought without metaphors, he would have seen that it was nonsense.” Chesterton explained that the use of such metaphors was the mark of “vague modern people” who would not dare to define what was the good of their own doctrine.
Fighting the Abortion Status Quo With “Heartbeat” Bills
Part 3 in an Ongoing Series
By Alec Ott
This past week, Amanda Prestigiacomo of The Daily Wire reported on the signing of the “fetal heartbeat” bill into law by the Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine. As a wonderful next move for the pro-life movement, the new law is intended to protect unborn babies with beating hearts from being aborted. Unborn babies’ heart beats are detectable after approximately six weeks of gestation.
As Prestigiacomo reported, a handful of states have passed such bills, including Mississippi and Georgia. And just to the south of Ohio, the Kentucky state legislature passed SB 9, and Governor Bevin signed into law the Commonwealth’s own “fetal heartbeat” bill. As summed up by a report from the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the legislature passed several pro-life-related bills before wrapping up their session. One bill anticipates the overturning of Roe v. Wade to provide significant legal protection to the unborn. Another prohibits abortion on the basis of sex, race, or physical disability.
An Unplanned Conversion of the Heart
By Alec Ott
Roughly 50% of this country identify as being pro-choice, meaning that members of this group believe that abortion should be legal at least in the early stages of a pregnancy. I have often wondered how many of this group would remain pro-choice if they really knew what was involved with abortion. Rather than agreeing with a lofty concept of letting a woman have a “right to choose,” would they maintain the courage of their convictions if they actually spent time in an abortion clinic to witness what happens there?
For I hope obvious reasons, I myself have not gone to an abortion clinic for this purpose, but I have read the testimonies of women who have gotten abortions and people who have worked at such facilities. And just recently I had a great opportunity to witness the story of a former abortion industry worker.
The Author’s Dilemma: Introducing Morality Into the Writing
By Andrea Widburg
One of my cheap thrills is watching the CW show Supernatural. The interaction between brothers Sam and Dean Winchester and their friends, whether angel, demon, witch, or even human, along with imaginative and sometimes incredibly funny plots, has made it an engaging viewing experience.
In addition to the standard horror show and comedy shticks, the long-running show occasionally grapples with moral issues, in no small part because most episodes have the brothers and their friends killing “ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night.” Usually the monsters are presented as appropriately evil, but there have been times when these evil monsters have been trying to reform — and the brothers sometimes offed them anyway. Fun stuff, as I said…
