• Disney’s Strange World Embodies Strange New World. Brett McCracken writes “Two 2022 releases: Disney’s Strange World and Carl Trueman’s book Strange New World (see my review of Trueman’s book here). Any youth unfortunate enough to have seen the former should be required to read the latter. Disney’s film represents the cultural sickness Trueman’s book analyzes.”
• What Should Christians Think About Same-Sex Marriage? Kevin DeYoung writes “We must not be naive. The legitimization of same-sex marriage will mean the de-legitimization of those who dare to disagree. The sexual revolution has been no great respecter of civil and religious liberties. Sadly, we may discover that there is nothing quite so intolerant as tolerance.”
• A Massive Victory for the Moral Revolutionaries. Albert Mohler writes “Yesterday was not just another day in the life of the United States Senate. It was not just another badday in Senate history. What happened yesterday represents an abject failure to uphold the most basic institution of human civilization. The Senate voted to redefine marriage. Sixty-one senators voted for what they dared to call the Respect for Marriage Act, as if subverting marriage is an act of respect.”
  

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• Your Spouse Is God’s Creation: Celebrating Differences in Marriage. Paul Tripp writes “When you celebrate the creativity of God and how he formed your spouse and brought you both together for his glory and your good, you quit being irritated by the differences and start celebrating how they have enhanced your life.”

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• Calvin University Votes to Allow Faculty to Embrace Heretical Views on Sexuality. Joe Carter writes “The board of trustees at Calvin University recently voted to allow a group of faculty members to dissent from a clause in a confession of faith that regards sex outside of heterosexual marriage as sinful.”
• 3 Steps Christian Institutions Take from Orthodoxy to Sexual Immorality. Joe Carter writes “It might be presumptuous to imply the path from orthodoxy to heterodoxy is the same for all institutions. Yet there does seem to be a recurring pattern that includes three steps.”

• Can Cancer Be God’s Servant? What I Saw in My Wife’s Last Years. Randy Alcorn writes “God isat work behind the scenes, and one day we will understand our suffering’s hidden purposes.”

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• Why Christians Should Oppose Marijuana Legislation. Joe Carter shares some of the evidence for why marijuana (cannabis) is a dangerous drug.
• Help! My Employer Celebrates Gay Pride and Pays for Abortion Travel. Miranda Carls responds to the question “My employer publicly celebrates the LGBT+ worldview and has announced it will pay for employees to travel to get abortions. Those things are anti-Christian and make me uncomfortable. As a Christian, am I obligated to quit in protest?”
• From Silence to Complexification to Capitulation. Kevin DeYoung writes “When evangelical capitulation on LGBTQ issues makes the news it is rarely a surprise. There are almost always a series of familiar steps.”
  

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• How to Survive a Cultural Crisis. Mark Dever shares seven principles for surviving the very real cultural shifts we’re presently enduring.
• Is Abortion a Woman’s Right? In the discussion about abortion, questions are often raised about the rights of women. In this video clip, R.C. Sproul uses Scripture to illustrate the distinction between how civil law often defines “rights” and how God, as the author of life, defines them.

• Friend, You Can Be Ready to Die. Two Ways to Prepare Now. Ray Ortlund writes “Among the many ways to prepare for death — like buying life insurance, making a proper will, and so forth — here are two truths that can help you prevail when your moment comes. Both insights come from an obscure passage near the end of Deuteronomy.”
• Reconstructing Faith: Christianity in a New World. Tim Keller writes “Christians in our cultural moment will have to rethink their faith, but at the same time they must learn to ‘doubt their doubts.’ They must deconstruct not only their tacit, mistaken beliefs and their secondary beliefs that pose as primary, but also just as importantly, the cultural narratives that are offered as the alternatives to Christian faith.”

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• John MacArthur’s Open Letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom. On September 28, pastor John MacArthur sent this open letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom.
• Where Abortion Is on the Ballot in 2022. Joe Carter writes “For elections in 2022, 137 statewide ballot measures are certified for the ballot in 37 states. Five states have ballot initiatives related to abortion that will be voted on November 8, 2022.”
• ‘Jesus Has Left the Building’: Scotland’s Secular Slide—and Signs of Hope. Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra writes “In his retirement years, (Sinclair Ferguson), one of the most influential modern Reformed pastor-theologians will spend his time preaching mainly evening services on one of the most secular streets in Scotland.” Also, listen to “Why Sinclair Ferguson Moved Back to Scotland’s Most Secular City” on the Recorded

• Why You Should Memorize Psalm 23. Kevin Halloran gives us five reasons to memorize Psalm 23.
• Helping One Another to Forsake Sin and Follow Jesus. Randy Alcorn writes “If you love someone who says they want to follow Jesus, you don’t ignore sin that is destroying their lives. You go to them humbly and prayerfully, and represent Jesus and help them fulfill their stated goal of honoring Christ as Lord.”
• 10 Short Prayers That Might Change Your Life. Kevin Halloran shares ten examples of short prayers that might just change your life.

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• Died: Frederick Buechner, Popular Christian ‘Writer’s Writer’ and ‘Minister’s Minister’. Frederick Buechner died on August 15 at the age of 96. Emily McFarlan Miller writes “Over the course of his life, Buechner wrote nearly 40 books across a number of genres: fiction, autobiography, theology, essays and sermons.”
  

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• As We Exalt God, We Edify One Another. Matt Merker writes “Exaltation is the vertical dimension of our corporate response to God’s initiating grace. Edification is the horizontal dimension. Both take place at the same time. As we exalt God, we edify one another.”
• Christians Volunteering Pronouns? Andrew Walker writes “In the transgender debate, Christians must be vigilant to avoid using language that serves falsehood. We should not allow our language to be drafted into a cause that is fundamentally false on the one hand, and positively harmful on the other.”
• What Should We Remember in Trials? In this short video, Derek Thomas provides encouragement for Christians who are enduring suffering.
• Songs of Suffering: A Short Film Featuring Joni Eareckson Tada. No one has spoken more personally and insightfully into the intersection of suffering and faith than Joni Eareckson Tada. In this 13-minute documentary, hear more from Joni herself about her story, how she reacted when she learned 55 years ago that she would never walk again, and what she does to find the heartbeat of Christ within her daily struggle with chronic pain and quadriplegia.
• 10 Free Tools for Prayer. Kevin Halloran writes “Here are ten of the best free prayer tools from the gracious hand of God. They are all simple but profoundly helpful and effective at seeking God’s face.”
  

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• The Myth of the Modern Self. Carl Trueman writes “The sheer rage that has greeted the Dobbs decision demands reflection.”

• How Should Christians View Sunday? Sinclair Ferguson writes “Hebrews teaches us that eternal glory is a Sabbath rest. Every day, all day, will be “Father’s Day!” Thus, if here and now we learn the pleasures of a God-given weekly rhythm, it will no longer seem strange to us that the eternal glory can be described as a prolonged Sabbath!”
• God-Centered Prayer. Derek Thomas tells us that our prayers reveal much about us.
• 6 Ways Christians Can Respond to Our Strange New World. Carl Trueman writes “Sooner or later every single one of us is likely to be faced with a challenging situation generated by the modern notion of selfhood. And this means that for all of us the questions of how we should live and what we should do when facing pressure to conform are gaining in urgency. Here are six ways Christians should respond to this new world.”
• 5 Ways to Maintain Unity amid Disagreement. Dan Doriani writes “We may want fellow believers to agree on social issues, but a church that opens its doors to its community—a church where unbelievers gladly attend—can expect both members and attenders to sometimes disagree. Is there a better way to maintain a unified community amid disagreement?”

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• Speeding in Opposite Directions: Lightyear and Maverick. Brett McCracken writes “Yet for all these similarities, the two summer blockbusters that bear their names could not be more different. And the differences between Maverick and Lightyear reveal subtle but important cultural divisions in how we view the past, the future, and the nature of progress.”
• 2 Films Explore a Volatile Question: ‘What Is a Woman?’ Brett McCracken writes “Two recent documentaries have spoken up, offering rarely heard pushback on the sexual revolution’s party line. While you won’t find these films in theaters or on major streaming sites—no corporate entity could survive association with them—they are worth seeking out and discussing.”
• Roe v. Wade Has Ended – Our Pro-Life Work Has Not. On this special episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “As the work continues, what has been your answer to the question “What should I do?” How have you answered that question in your own life and ministry?”
• Roe v. Wade Has Been Overturned…What Now? Scott Sauls writes “The answer to what it means to be consistently pro-life includes laying down our own lives for others, just as Christ has done for us.”
• The FAQs: SCOTUS Upholds Religious Freedom in Praying Coach Case. Joe Carter writes “The Supreme Court issued its ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton, a religious liberty case involving a Washington State high school football coach who lost his job because he prayed silently on the 50-yard line after a football game. The decision states, “The Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect an individual engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal; the Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression.””
• Praying Football Coach Wins at Supreme Court. Daniel Silliman writes “Joseph Kennedy’s prayers are protected by the First Amendment’s right to free speech and free exercise of religion, the court decided. The coach didn’t coerce any Bremerton, Washington, high school players into praying, so the school district was wrong to try to stop him from practicing his Christian faith.”

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