Apparently I’m one of the twelve percent: three years on since the first lockdown was imposed only twelve percent of the British population strongly agree with the statement, “In retrospect, lockdowns were a mistake.” I am part of the “dissenting minority” who, “Have had to grapple with the possibility that, through panic and philosophical confusion, our governing class contrived to make a bad situation much worse.” If you’re part of the majority can you, Imagine living with the sense that the manifold evils of the lockdowns that we all now know — ripping up centuries-old traditions of freed ..read more

I’m a young(ish) man. Young men often get a bad rap in contemporary society. Apparently we are lazy, with a fear of commitment and a failure to take responsibility. Some say that we are in an extended adolescence. Obviously this isn’t universally true; I’m not even sure it describes a majority, but it probably is sometimes true and it certainly seems to be something people are worried about. Sometimes in Christian circles, I hear this situation referred to as a crisis of masculinity. What we really need is for these young men to start being real men. And what that often means is that they nee ..read more

My parents were the first generation in my family to not have their teeth pulled out, at the age of 21 and often with pliers at the butchers, to avoid the cost of future dental treatment. I was put in mind of this quote while having lunch in a restaurant at a table alongside a group of striking school teachers. Their placard, propped up on a seat, read, “Too poor to buy soap or deodorant” – which made it difficult to imagine how they could afford lunch in a restaurant. About as hard as it is to imagine that in living memory people were going to the butcher to have their teeth extracted. Pover ..read more

"To our 21st-century, Western ears, love across racial and cultural difference, the equality of men and women, and the idea that the poor, oppressed, and marginalized can make moral claims on the strong, rich, and powerful sound like basic moral common sense. But they are not. These truths have come to us from Christianity. Rip that foundation out, and you won’t uncover a better basis for human equality and rights. You’ll uncover an abyss that cannot even tell you what a human being is. Like cartoon characters running off a cliff, we may continue a short way before we realize that the ground ..read more

Joseph Henrich’s The Weirdest People in the World may be way too long and convoluted but his overarching thesis is compelling: that the ‘marriage and family programme’ of Christianity completely reordered western society and is the reason for our liberal values, democracy, and economic success. Imposing the rule that you should not marry more than one person, and that person should not be your cousin, transformed everything – and made us WEIRD. That Christianity lies at the roots of western values and assumptions is something we’ve often posted about on Think. It’s been the observation behind ..read more

It struck me recently that some of Jesus’ most important words for us today were arguably almost redundant when he first said them. In Mark 10:1-12 (and Matthew 19:1-12), the Pharisees are trying to test Jesus. Desiring to catch him out, they bring up one of the big contentious issues of their day: divorce. Jesus’ response is well known. Rather than debate a point of law with the Pharisees, he goes back to creation, back to Genesis, to God’s design for marriage and makes his case from there. Jesus’ basic point is simple enough. In marriage, God unites two to become one and no human should see ..read more

Last week I posted Janan Ganesh's explanation for the fact that cultural institutions always lean left in the end: essentially, he argues, it is because right-leaning people today prefer commerce and business to arts and education. Here is an alternative (and more mischievous) explanation from Ed West, who thinks it is the result of elite overproduction: The politicisation of previously neutral institutions is a facet of elite overproduction; large numbers of people are going to universities to study areas of the humanities and social sciences where progressive ideas about deconstruction are ..read more

The American Journal of Medical Genetics documents the results of a remarkable study of a particular people group that is not generally characterised by worry: "Among those surveyed, nearly 99% ... indicated that they were happy with their lives, 97% liked who they are, and 96% liked how they look. Nearly 99% ... expressed love for their families, and 97% liked their brothers and sisters." Who are these extraordinary people? The answer: those with Down’s syndrome. “A slew of recent studies has shown that people with Down’s syndrome report happier lives than us ‘normal’ folk. Even happier than ..read more

The idea that the fault line runs down the middle of us all may well raise some concerns among those with a heart for protecting the weak, poor and vulnerable. Surely some people are victims, "more sinned against than sinning," so to speak, and surely some are oppressors who need to be stopped. When we say that "we are all sinners," are we not in fact blaming the victim and enabling the perpetrator? No, we are not. The same Bible that shouts loud and clear “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Rom 3:10; Pss 14:1; 53:3) also raises its bullhorn and hollers in the face of the powerful that ..read more

It's a huge privilege to be one of the inaugural fellows of the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, which launched yesterday. The basic idea is expressed in this video; the list of fellows includes a number of people who will be known to regular readers, including Sam Allberry, Josh Butler, Rachel Gilson, Mike Kruger, Rebecca McLaughlin, Glen Scrivener and Trevin Wax. Check it out ..read more