The story unfolding in culture these days often seems uneven, tragic, and even hopeless at times. As believers, though, we know that however upside-down and inside-out it may all seem, the end of the story has yet to be told. Be patient.

Growing up, our kitchen bulletin board across from the refrigerator was filled with doctor appointment card reminders, ball schedules – and lots of inspirational quotes, mostly courtesy of my mom. She would tack up clippings from the many newspapers and magazines she read.
One of the quotes that sticks out in my mind:
“The grist of God grinds slowly – but it grinds exceedingly fine.”
The expression dates back to the second or third century’s Sextus Empiricus, a Greek philosopher. It seems then, like now, people struggled with patience and wishing things would happen more quickly.
No matter the century, forbearance and long-suffering doesn’t come easily. Empiricus’ perspective came to mind the other day in the aftermath of the disappointing Ohio vote to increase the percentage threshold on state constitutional amendments. As it stands now, a mere majority will be necessary to enshrine abortion “rights” into state law this November.
The battle to protect every preborn life under law has been raging for a half-century. Many of the original pro-life advocates are no longer with us. The fall of Roe was satisfying and necessary, but the work goes on. Instead of one front in the war, there are now fifty.
The hijacking of the definition of marriage, the attack on masculinity and femininity, and the assault on religious freedom these last few years have put Christians on the defensive.
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Ruth stumbled upon a doll in an “adult” store where consumers were known to buy gag novelty gifts for bachelor parties. In fact, the doll was based on a German cartoon character that ran in the comics of a Hamburg newspaper. Drawn by an artist named Reinhard Beuthien, the character was called “Bild Lilli,” and she had a reputation for seducing wealthy men.

Moviegoers far surpassed industry expectations this past weekend as “Barbie” pulled in north of $155 million, earning the distinction of being the biggest film debut of the year thus far.
Our team at Plugged In has done its usual heavy lifting in reviewing the movie, and parents and anyone interested in watching the film would be wise to access their exhaustive and thorough analysis.
The “Barbie” doll franchise dates back to 1959, and so for many of us of a certain age, there has never been a time when the toy didn’t exist on store shelves. Many a woman has no doubt warm and nostalgic memories of the childhood staple. My sister had a few and my wife fondly remembers the “Barbie Condo” she received one Christmas.
But Saturday’s Wall Street Journal mentioned something of the doll’s origin that was both downright disturbing and maybe even revealing.
Husband and wife team Elliott and Ruth Handler, along with Harold “Matt” Mason, started “Mattel” toys out of their Southern California garage. Their first big product was a “Burp Gun” which sold very well thanks to the fledgling company’s sponsorship of Disney’s “Mickey Mouse Club” – a children’s variety show that ran in the afternoon on ABC television. Both the show and the gun were big hits with kids.
But it was on a European vacation the summer after the company’s first year of operation where the Handlers landed upon the idea for the Barbie Doll.
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Conformity and a “go along to get along” mentality are one of the many reasons we find ourselves in this uneven and dysfunctional season of American life. Of course, it’s propelled by fallen man and sin, but if nobody steps up or speaks out, the abnormal begins to be seen as normal.

It’s an old adage: The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Writing in his diary in 1845, the French writer and politician Victor Hugo chronicled some advice he gave to Abel Francois Villemain, a teacher and fellow French public servant.
“You have enemies?” he asked him, somewhat rhetorically. “Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything which shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats.”
Winston Churchill famously echoed Hugo’s sentiment, once saying, “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
It seems both the Old British Bulldog and the beloved author of Les Misérables ran up against, if for different reasons, the tension many Christians feel in today’s culture.
As believers in Jesus Christ, we strive to maintain a pleasant posture that lives up to the Apostle Paul’s admonition to believers in Rome to “if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
You have to have something of a sadistic or masochistic streak in you to want enemies, but their inevitability seems to be a foregone conclusion for Christians who remain committed to maintaining and living God’s ways in an increasingly secular world.
Charlie Kirk, who heads up Turning Point USA, recently weighed in on his frustration with Christians who stand down when it comes to cultural discussions out of fear of turning off others or appearing intolerant to the world.
“We as Christians are not called to be tolerant,” he said. “We shouldn’t be tolerant of sin. We shouldn’t be tolerant of rebellion from God.”
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With more couples delaying marriage and children, it’s inevitable that children will come later, if they come at all. Of course, that’s the crux of the crisis facing the family. That’s why all this talk about over population is such utter nonsense. We’re not suffering from too many people. We’re suffering from too few.

Most families have running jokes, memories and moments talked about and discussed repeatedly across the years. They can bond us and help elicit happy recollections of days gone by.
My mother, whose been gone since 2012, loved to bring up something I said when I was just ten years old. She said it always tickled her. We were at church, milling about and talking with the pastor and some friends. The subject of age came up, and I apparently blurted out, “I never knew my mother when she was young!”
At the time, my mom was fifty, which is actually my age now. You can do the math. That means she had me when she was forty. Back in 1982, a half-century ago seemed ancient to me. It was the Great Depression – and nine years before the start of World War II. Thinking of my mother’s childhood and era, I may have even thought of those days in black-and-white. I wasn’t trying to be witty or sarcastic. It was just a matter of fact. From the lips of a child, so to speak.
I thought of that story this morning after seeing that just yesterday, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its annual report concerning births in America for 2021. This particular edition, published under the banner of “National Vital Statistics Reports – Volume 72, Number 1,” paints the picture regarding not just the numbers of births, but also maternal demographic and health characteristics, medical and health care utilization, source of payment for the delivery, and even infant health characteristics.
The main headline was that there were 3,664,292 births in the United States, an increase of 1% between 2020 and 2021.
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Some may suggest it’s possible to love one another in various ways beyond being together at a church service, but there is no adequate substitute for being together in fellowship. The Holy Spirit works in marvelous and wondrous ways when believers congregate. By staying away from your church’s services, you’re snubbing your nose at one of the Lord’s great gifts.

Two-and-a-half-years since the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the rebound of American church attendance remains stalled.
Various surveys find that upwards of 25% to 33% of Christians who previously attended services prior to the virus shutdowns have not returned to their pre-pandemic routines.
Carey Nieuwhof, a former pastor and church leadership strategist, told Christianity Today:
“In 2022, the constant cycle of hope and disappointment will give way to the new reality that this is your church. It will become evident that some of the people who said they’re coming back later clearly aren’t coming back—ever.”
One pastor told me, “Here we are trying to encourage non-Christians to visit our churches, and yet, many of our own people won’t even come back!”
Singling out the one primary reason for this disturbing and disappointing trend would be difficult, but the lean towards online worship inevitably remains in the top tier of explanations.
Virtual worship services pre-date the pandemic, of course, but many churches went all in when they were either forced to close their doors or when their congregations or communities balked at the prospect of traditional gatherings.
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We should all admire Kirk Cameron’s principled, brave outspokenness. He’s willing to use his platform and his celebrity to advance biblical truth. We should be cheering him on. Actors are trained to play to a crowd and seek the applause of their public, but it’s clear that the kid we once knew as “Mike Seaver” in Growing Pains is laser-focused on using his time to bring honor and glory to God, and Him alone.

Christian evangelist and ‘80s heartthrob actor Kirk Cameron was trending on Twitter on Tuesday, as critics pounced on comments he made ahead of the release of his new movie, “The Homeschool Awakening.”
“The problem is that public school systems have become so bad. It’s sad to say they’re doing more for grooming, for sexual chaos and the progressive left than any real educating about the things that most of us want to teach our kids,” he said in a recent interview.
Cameron called out “those who are rotting out the minds and souls of America’s children” and suggested they were “spreading a terminal disease, not education.”
“And you can take your pick. Just go down the list. The things that are destroying the family, destroying the church, destroying love for our great country: critical race theory, teaching kids to pick their pronouns and decide whether they want to be a boy or a girl, The 1619 Project,” he said.
He continued:
“If we send our children to Rome to be educated, we shouldn’t be surprised if they come back Romans. If we want them to love God and love their neighbor and feel gratitude and thankful that they live in the United States of America, the freest country on earth, then you’ve got to teach them those things. I realized that there was no better way for our family to do that than to bring them home and join in with this rich, robust community, with tons of curriculum to be able to have the flexibility and freedom to raise our kids the way we wanted them to be raised.”
Cue the Twitter dumpster fire.
Antagonists responded in a flurry of thousands of profane and rude tweets, attacking Cameron’s devout Christian faith and beliefs, his socially conservative views, his acting abilities and, not surprisingly, homeschooling itself.
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