Today I will continue my review of Christopher F. Rufo: America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything (Broadside Books, 2023).  In Part II, Rufo deals with race and develops the narrative with constant reference to Angela Davis (b. 1944). As in the previous essay, I will follow Rufo’s chapter divisions. 1. Angela Davis: The Spirit of Radical Revolt Davis’s story is fascinating and well worth reading, but I want to focus on one thread, that is, how in her life Marcuse’s theory of revolutionary violence was put into practice. Angela Yvonne Davis was born on Januar ..read more

Today I will begin a series in which I interact with a new book by Christopher F. Rufo: America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything (Broadside Books, 2023). The book documents the growth in influence of the radical left, that is neo-Marxism or Critical Theory, from the 1960s to 2023 in American higher education, government, and corporations. Rufo uncovers the origins of the now familiar leftist theories and programs: Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Critical Pedagogy, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, Identity Politics, and many others. He introduc ..read more

In this post I will conclude my reflections on the just released declaration of the Roman Catholic Church’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on “Dignitas Infinita” (Human Dignity). Below is the outline of the document. Today I will address the bolded point #4. Presentation Introduction 1. A Growing Awareness of the Centrality of Human Dignity 2. The Church Proclaims, Promotes, and Guarantees Human Dignity 3. Dignity, the Foundation of Human Rights and Duties 4. Some Grave Violations of Human Dignity Conclusion Some Grave Violations of Human Dignity Under this heading Dignitas Infinita a ..read more

Today I will continue my reflections on the just released declaration of the Roman Catholic Church’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on “Dignitas Infinita” (Human Dignity). In part one I commented on the Introduction and point # 1. I will take up points #2 and #3 below. Presentation Introduction 1. A Growing Awareness of the Centrality of Human Dignity 2. The Church Proclaims, Promotes, and Guarantees Human Dignity 3. Dignity, the Foundation of Human Rights and Duties 4. Some Grave Violations of Human Dignity Conclusion The Church Proclaims, Promotes, and Guarantees Human Dignity The ..read more

In the March 31 episode of CBS’s Face the Nation, Roman Catholic Cardinal Gregory Walton of Washington DC spoke of President Joe Biden as a “cafeteria Catholic.” The Cardinal explained to the audience that cafeteria Catholics pick and choose which church teachings to believe and practice based on expediency and preference. Walton hastened to add that Mr. Biden is “sincere,” which to my mind strains credulity. For I can’t square flagrant disobedience and direct contradiction of the Church’s clear teaching with sincerity. What stands out in the cafeteria Catholic mentality is the lack of a spiri ..read more

I shall have more to say later…but I wanted to announce that my new book The Choice: Should the Church Affirm LGBTQ+ Identities and Ways of Living? is now available in paperback and Kindle. It will soon also be available in AI audio. You can read the first 6 pages of the Introduction on Amazon.com. More later ..read more

My new book, The Choice: Should the Church Affirm LGBTQ+ Identities and Ways of Living? will be published and available within a week from today! Here is what my good friend Rubel Shelly said about it: Ron Highfield has made a significant contribution to the present-day discussion of LGBTQ+ claims by a tight focus on the work of Karen Keen. Highfield’s The Choice is a careful and erudite analysis of Keen’s work that uncovers a species of argument being offered from many quarters. First, he lays bare Keen’s postmodern substitution of feeling and rhetoric for Scripture and sound reas ..read more

Today I want to recommend two books devoted to a topic that has increasingly occupied my mind of late: Rubel Shelly, Male & Female God Created Them: A Biblical Review of LGBTQ+ Claims. Joplin, MO: College Press, 2023. PP. 426. Rubel Shelly, The INK is DRY: God’s Distinctive Word on Marriage, Family, and Sexual Responsibility. Joplin, MO: College Press, 2023. PP. 182. The Revolution Before 2010, I thought most authors advocating the Christian legitimacy of LGBTQ+ identities and ways of living were liberals or progressives located in such mainline denominations as the United Church of Christ ..read more

Dear friends: I am excited about an innovation in Artificial Intelligence! My book Rethinking Church has just been rendered audible via AI. Though I am sure we all would love to hear books read by their authors, AI technology cuts production costs by 95%! And it comes close to sounding like a real voice actor. So many people these days tell me that they do not have time to sit down and read a book, but they do listen to podcasts and audible books. Listen to the free audio sample by following the link above or simply going to Amazon.com and searching for the book. I am in between series at the ..read more

Introduction In their last conversation, the professor and the seminarian concluded that modern academia’s 250-year effort to rationalize faith has failed miserably. Academia’s obsessive desire to avoid believing anything false led it to apply standards appropriate only to mathematics and (perhaps) logic to the Bible. Of course, no theological scholar attempted to translate the Bible into mathematical terms. But the historical and literary methods critical biblical scholars developed aimed to approximate the ideal of mathematical certainty as closely as possible. And they do not limit their ef ..read more