by Rhett Burns | Jun 21, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns
My denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, held its annual meeting last week. In response to current cultural trends, namely the #MeToo movement and the Paige Patterson fiasco, leaders and messengers spent a significant amount of time addressing women’s issues....
by Rhett Burns | Jun 6, 2018 | Culture, Rhett Burns
Adam Ford has sold the Christian satire news site, The Babylon Bee. Launched in 2016, the Bee employs The Onion-style satire to spoof American evangelicalism—its popular pastors, authors, and fads—while taking occasional jabs at our larger secular culture. It has been...
by Rhett Burns | May 23, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Rhett Burns
Last week was crazy. The United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Hamas greeted the move in their usual manner, which means with bombs and human shields. Major media outlets portrayed Hamas in their usual manner, which means referring to them as...
by Rhett Burns | May 3, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Featured Post, Rhett Burns
By now the tragic story of Alfie Evans is well known. The English toddler with an undiagnosed neurodegenerative disorder died last week, five days after doctors extubated him and abandoned all treatment, except palliative care. A judge denied Alfie’s parents the right...
by Rhett Burns | Apr 23, 2018 | Blog, Politics, Rhett Burns
Last week, I posted my article on just war and the ascendance of foreign policy hawks in the White House on the same morning President Trump tweeted this: Two days later, President Trump, along with his British and French counterparts, ordered a limited missile strike...
by Rhett Burns | Apr 11, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Three weeks ago, I wrote a response to Michael Gerson’s essay in The Atlantic about evangelical support of President Trump. I found it hypocritical that Gerson, a senior policy advisor to President Bush and a member of The White House Iraq Group, was lecturing...
by Rhett Burns | Mar 27, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
A few weeks ago, I reviewed Andrew Peterson’s beautiful new EP, Resurrection Letters: Prologue. His new full-length album will release on Good Friday, and in advance of that, The Gospel Coalition premiered the video for Peterson’s Revelation 5-inspired song, “Is He...
by Rhett Burns | Mar 19, 2018 | Blog, Politics, Rhett Burns
Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, published a takedown of Trump-supporting evangelicals in the latest issue of The Atlantic. Gerson attempts to answer the question of how a once confident and influential cultural movement became an...
by Rhett Burns | Feb 26, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Rhett Burns
The news cycle following a mass shooting is predictable. Thoughts and prayers are offered, outrage and demands are expressed, and the cable news stations fill up time with people yelling for or against gun control. The week after Parkland has been no different. Yet,...
by Rhett Burns | Feb 22, 2018 | Rhett Burns
Several years ago, I was riding in a taxi on the north side of Istanbul. For a good portion of the ride, the driver explained to me how bad America is. It was the usual diatribe: George W. Bush is bad, war for oil, Islamaphobia, and so on. He knew I was American—my...
by Rhett Burns | Feb 14, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
The best music is imaginative in the Chestertonian sense. It does not attempt to create a new world. Rather, it seeks to uncover and reveal the truth, goodness, and beauty God has already placed in this world, but remains hidden because we do not have eyes to see....
by Rhett Burns | Feb 8, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl Sunday night to conclude a controversial NFL season. This year, pregame inaction eclipsed the action on the field, as many players refused to stand for the national anthem, choosing instead to take a knee in protest. Former...
by Rhett Burns | Jan 31, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Mixed martial arts fighter Ronda Rousey became a professional wrestler Sunday night. The UFC women’s bantamweight champion agreed to terms with WWE and appeared unexpectantly on the pay-per-view Royal Rumble show in Philadelphia. Rousey, who won a bronze medal in judo...
by Rhett Burns | Jan 24, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Featured Post, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
It has been two weeks since President Donald Trump allegedly referred to Haiti and some African nations as “s***hole countries” in a meeting with congressional officials discussing immigration policy. In the wake of these comments, his detractors offered their...
by Rhett Burns | Jan 11, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
When Tua Tagovailoa woke up Monday morning, he was a relatively unknown backup quarterback for the University of Alabama. Sure, he was a touted freshman signal-caller, perhaps the future for the Crimson Tide. But on Monday morning, few college football fans outside of...
by Rhett Burns | Jan 3, 2018 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Rhett Burns
Iran is once again embroiled in national protest. The demonstrations started a week ago as an economic protest, but have taken on an increasingly anti-government tone, resulting in twenty-one deaths and over 450 citizens imprisoned. This protest marks the largest...
by Rhett Burns | Dec 21, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns
Fight, laugh, feast. You’ve no doubt heard and read those words around the CrossPolitic podcast and website, as they capture our vision of cultural engagement. Faithful Christians are joyful warriors. They are mighty in battle with their enemies, yet they fling jokes...
by Rhett Burns | Dec 11, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
After another dismal football season, the University of Tennessee has now fumbled its coaching search. Last week, the Volunteers had reached an agreement to hire Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano as its head football coach. However, the deal was dropped...
by Rhett Burns | Nov 20, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
So…witches are on the rise. Sadly, this is not the beginning of a stand-up comedy routine, but a religious trend in the United States. According to this report, millennials are trading traditional religion for witchcraft and astrology. A majority of young adults...
by Rhett Burns | Nov 13, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Twenty-six of our brothers and sisters in Christ were gunned down a week ago during Sunday morning worship in Sutherland Springs, Texas. The victims ranged from unborn baby to seventy-seven-year-old, including eight people from one family. Devin Kelley, dishonorably...
by Rhett Burns | Nov 3, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Racial reconciliation is all the rage these days, and rightly so. It is hard to deny the animosity and division that plague our nation and that race-based attitudes are often involved of such hostilities. Further, Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:11 are still in our...
by Rhett Burns | Oct 27, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns
For several years Peter Hitchens has made a sustained argument against the legalization of cannabis. One feature of his argument is to point out the correlation between cannabis use, mental illness, and violent crime. He links mental illness with both legal and...
by Rhett Burns | Oct 13, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Featured Post, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was outed as a sexual predator last week in a New York Times story. Or, more accurately, he was outed nationally and with corroborating evidence. His predations on young women have long been the rumor of the film industry. Thus far...
by Rhett Burns | Oct 5, 2017 | Abortion, Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Carrie DeKlyen, a Michigan mother of five, started getting headaches last March. After the pains worsened she saw a doctor, and scans showed a brain tumor. According to the Chicago Tribune, the pathology report revealed something more cruel: glioblastoma, a rare and...
by Rhett Burns | Sep 8, 2017 | Blog, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
I’ve always wanted to watch an extended political interview where the host stubbornly refuses to allow the politician to retreat to pat answers and stump speech talking points, where he interrupts evasive techniques and forces arguments to their logical ends. Sure,...
by Rhett Burns | Sep 1, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
The LGBT war machine rolls on. According to the latest polling data from the Pew Research Center, natiohttp://www.people-press.org/2017/06/26/support-for-same-sex-marriage-grows-even-among-groups-that-had-been-skeptical/nal support for so called same-sex marriage is...
by Rhett Burns | Aug 21, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
One of the central plays the Left is running is to paint Christians and conservatives with the same dirty brush as they do the alt-right white supremacists. They have been calling conservatives Nazis for years, a standard retort to such offenses as budgetary math and...
by Rhett Burns | Aug 11, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
“You have the command to remain silent. Anything you say, not approved by the vice president for diversity, can and will be held against you.” Or so it seems. Google employee James Damore wrote an internal memo addressing diversity and gender gaps at the company,...
by Rhett Burns | Aug 3, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
I recently returned from vacation where I swore off keeping up with the news in favor of logging lots of swim time with the kids and diving into some fun books. Two of the books were fascinating memoirs, and, though seemingly unrelated, they coalesced in my mind once...
by Rhett Burns | Jul 17, 2017 | Blog, Featured Post, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Last week I posted an interview with my friend Emily Buchanan of the Susan B. Anthony List, a political organization based in Washington, D.C. We talked about abortion politics and the SBA List’s efforts to end the abortion carnage. I greatly appreciate Emily taking...
by Rhett Burns | Jul 12, 2017 | Blog, Politics, Rhett Burns, Uncategorized
Recently I sat down with my friend Emily Buchanan to talk about abortion politics and her work as executive vice president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life organization in Washington, D.C. RB: Hi Emily, thanks for joining us. Can you introduce us to the SBA...
by Rhett Burns | Jul 4, 2017 | Blog, Culture
Our Heavenly Father, On this July Fourth we give thanks that in your good providence you established us as a nation. Down through the centuries you have poured out blessings on us—blessings that we did not deserve, but for which we are profoundly grateful. Among these...
by Rhett Burns | Jun 28, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Uncategorized
Georgia’s food stamp program provides an interesting case study for thinking about the current debate surrounding social welfare. In good fiscal news Georgia has seen a sixteen percent drop in food stamp usage over the last four years, saving tens of millions of...
by Rhett Burns | Jun 20, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Uncategorized
Graduating senior Moriah Bridges was chosen by her class president to provide the closing exercise at Beaver High School’s June 2nd graduation ceremony in Beaver, Pennsylvania. Bridges, a Christian, included a prayer in her remarks, but the Beaver School District...
by Rhett Burns | Jun 13, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
Last week Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders transformed a rather mundane confirmation hearing for the deputy director for the Office of Management and Budget into high political theater, pronouncing the nominee unfit for office due to his religious beliefs. Sanders...
by Rhett Burns | Jun 7, 2017 | Blog, Culture
Once again Islamic terrorists have struck London, this time killing seven and injuring forty-eight. The perpetrators mowed down pedestrians on the London Bridge with a van before exiting the vehicle and stabbing civilians in the nearby Borough Market. This marks the...
by Rhett Burns | Jun 1, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Uncategorized
Matt Walsh joined the CrossPolitic podcast this week to talk about his new book The Unholy Trinity, in which he takes aim at the Left’s “assault on life, marriage, and gender.” One point Walsh raised is that one of the Left’s strategies to make minority positions...
by Rhett Burns | May 25, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Featured Post, Politics, Uncategorized
Venezuela is continuing its slide into disorder and mayhem. Protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government have continued for almost eight weeks, and they are growing more violent each day and showing no signs of slowing down. At least fifty-five...
by Rhett Burns | May 17, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
Last week city workers removed a statue of Jefferson Davis from a prominent city thoroughfare in New Orleans. This action marked the second removal of a Civil War era structure in the city; statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard are slated...
by Rhett Burns | May 11, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Uncategorized
This week in Washington, D.C. the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is hosting its World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians. Believers from over 130 countries gathered for the summit, with many of them sharing their personal stories of persecution....
by Rhett Burns | May 3, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics, Uncategorized
Recent attacks on Christian florists, bakers, and pizza-pie makers opened the Church’s eyes to the threat against our religious liberties. By refusing to rise and applaud today’s favored sexual perversions, Christians risk heavy fines and business foreclosures. In...
by Rhett Burns | Apr 26, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Politics
Earlier this month United States attorneys charged a Detroit doctor with female genital mutilation (FGM), the first prosecution of this crime since the U.S. outlawed the practice in 1996. Authorities accused Jumana Nagarwala, an emergency room doctor, of performing...
by Rhett Burns | Apr 18, 2017 | Blog, Culture, Featured Post, Politics
Back when he was mayor of Istanbul, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan, once famously quipped that democracy is like a tram. You ride it until you get to your destination, then you step off. Well, after Sunday’s constitutional referendum, democracy has exited...
