A regular columnist in The Economist magazine writes under the label “Lexington” and recently published an article summarizing a 1988 six month visit by a Chinese political scientist, Wang Huning, to America and his subsequent book, America Against America. [Wang is now Chief of Ideology and Propaganda in China.] Wang was mesmerized by the voluntary pursuit of financial wherewithal, rather than any ideology or political system of coercion in America. For him, this was a source of stability. He was astonished at public libraries, where people could access the knowledge of generations past.

In 2023, Jean M Twenge, Psychology professor at San Diego University, published an important book entitled Generation: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silent—And What They Mean For America’s Future. She offers profiles of the living generations in the midst of a century of social change

In 1978, the historian Christopher Lasch published a profoundly important book, entitled The Culture of Narcissism, in which he argued that this culture “assumes that psychic health and personal liberation are synonymous with an absence of inner restraints, inhibitions, and ‘hangups.’” And what could offer more liberation than throwing off the constraints of one of humanity’s oldest institutions, monogamous marriage? Polyamory is the most recent manifestation of this narcissistic penchant.

One of my favorite Christian authors is Gene Edward Veith, Provost and Professor of literature at Patrick Henry College. Cleverly, Veith has put together a Catechism written by advocates of our secular culture. He follows the typical catechism questions found in many Reformation documents.

Within the Christian church, broadly speaking, the LGBTQIA movement and the growth of same-sex marriages have caused controversy, division and divisiveness.

The ethical case against abortion rests on the proposition that life begins at conception—and that killing a baby in the womb is ethically wrong. The life of the baby in the womb is as valuable in the eyes of God as that of the mother. However, since the 1970s, abortion has been defended on the grounds of privacy and bodily autonomy: “my body, my choice.” The legal and philosophical debates that culminated in Roe v. Wade (1973) considered abortion in terms of competing rights: the woman’s right to control her body against the baby’s right not to be killed.

We live in a world where one of the few constants in life is change. I recently read media theorist Douglas Rushkoff’s book, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. It captures quite effectively the unsettledness and disorientation many feel in our postmodern, post-Christian, media-saturated culture. Rushkoff’s analysis is brilliant, but he offers few solutions and little comfort in a world of religious skepticism, moral/cultural progressivism and animosity toward traditional values and religious convictions.

I have come to appreciate David French, a columnist for the New York Times and an evangelical Christian. Writing in one of the most liberal newspapers in America, his voice is surprisingly refreshing and wise. Recently, he wrote a column highlighting the difference between a libertarian and a libertine.

Former Republican senator from Missouri, John Danforth, recently wrote, “Since the end of World War II, Republicans have stood firm against Russian designs in Europe. Now, populists have injected an isolationist element into the party.” The Economist also observed that “in place of a foreign policy that saw America as a protector of freedom and democracy is a new doctrine of America First that shuns allies (barring Israel) and would give up on the Ukrainians fighting off a Russian invasion even when no American soldiers are at risk . . . Although [Ronald] Reagan remains beatified within the party, the institutions he was aligned with have changed.” The party now stands for protectionism, isolationism and nativism.

Psalm 1 is one of my favorite Psalms, for it makes clear that life is about choices and, in effect, there are only two paths to choose in life—the path of a walk with God or the path of rejecting, defying God. Each choice has profound, eternally significant consequences. I have returned to this Psalm many times over the years—but especially now in 2023 when things seem to be in such a mess. Even though the human race has amassed immense knowledge, now accessible via the Internet, we seem incapable of stopping the pain we inflict on ourselves and on one another. Wars, dysfunction, disorder and chaos describe our culture, our world—and even many of our families and communities. We cannot halt “the path of the wicked,” this repetitive path that leads to the “way of evil” and “deep darkness.”