One Little Word Newsletter - August 29, 2022

David French on debt relief, a review of Senator Tim Scott's book, and a renaissance of virtue

Hello friends, we are settling into Texas here as summer wanes and the school season is here in full bloom, including my kids’ multiple sport events. Last week my seventh grade daughter had a volleyball game, my son started practice for basketball and my youngest daughter was part of the cheerleading squad for the high-school football team. By the way, Friday night lights is pretty fun in Texas and we had a good time watching our school win their home opener.  

I’m also in the thick of teaching at Texas Baptist College. In my human dignity class last week we talked about connecting the imago Dei to the kingdom of God. In my church and culture class we started asking and thinking about the question: What is culture? 

I had another piece published in The Dispatch this week, this time a reflection on the need for virtue as a counterweight to liberty:  

A renaissance of virtue won’t begin in Congress or the White House, because politics is downstream from culture. It must begin in our communities, in our churches, and in our families. What kind of ideas and character traits are we championing for our children and anyone over whom we have influence? And could we get political leaders who embody the kind of character we’d like to see around us? Would it hurt our politicians to occasionally resist the cheap one-liners and call people to something higher?  

Too often, it seems, our public witness has emphasized liberty without prioritizing virtue. In doing so, we allow ourselves to make moral concessions about the way we speak, about the people we call our heroes, about the state of our discourse. As long as we are on the “right” side of a particular issue, it doesn’t seem to matter how we conduct ourselves.  

I also reupped a piece I did for TGC from a few years ago on the culture wars that seems relevant as the debate continues to rage among Christians on the level of involvement in cultural skirmishes:  

I’ve lived on both sides of the debate over the culture war. Most of my adult life has been in vocational Christian ministry, working in leadership for churches and Christian nonprofits. I’ve also served in political campaigns and worked for activist organizations. Most recently I was a pastor. Now I work for a public policy organization with a twofold mission of speaking for the church and speaking to the church. 

I’ve wrestled with the many tensions of public theology in a religious, representative republic. When I pastored, I often cringed at the sharp and partisan rhetoric of the culture war, vexed by the many ways God’s people easily confused conservative talking points with biblical witness. I’ve also been on the other side, wishing pastors would more courageously prepare their people to live out the gospel in the public square. 

In these roles I’ve discovered that we can’t escape the culture wars. That may not be what Christians want to hear, but it’s the reality of fully obeying the demands of the gospel in a fallen world. The shape of our witness may change, and the culture we serve may look different than it did a generation ago. But if we care about obeying all that Jesus commanded us, we will have to die to our desire to be liked and recommit to doing as the early church did, “obeying God rather than man.” 
 

And the second part of my conversation with Mike Cunningham on The Wilkins Radio Network is out now. We talk more about my book Characters of Creation. 

What I’m Reading 

I found this by David French to be persuasive on debt relief. David walks through both the way in which this move doesn’t really fit the biblical view of debt cancellation and justice its very thin (if any) constitutional basis. 

Matt Labash is always a good read and this advice in “Letter to A Young Fiancé” is funny poignant.  

Kathryn Parker reviews Senator Tim Scott’s book and finds it, unlike so many political tomes, uncharacteristically substantive and hopeful. 

Patrick Miller gives some sage advice on the mendacity of anonymous Christian twitter handles.  

And I found this a fascinating and surprising study on the root of the January 6th insurrection. The actual data runs against a common (and tiresome, I must add), trope.  

Books 

So books. I’m reading a ton of stuff for school, for classes and faculty readings, etc:  

Center Church by Tim Keller 

Ethics as Worship by Mark Leiderbach and Evan Lenow 

The Wonderful Works of God by Herman Bavinck 

Biblical Reasoning by Bobby Jamieson and Tyler Whitman  

I’m also in between Audible credits, so debating another historical novel by Kristin Hannah, a biography of King George by Andrew Roberts or A Gentleman in Moscow, a novel by Amor Towles. Any feedback on what my next listen will be?