1 Peter 3:15 and a Loving Apologetic (Part 1)

Posted by Caleb Coy on

Christian apologetics is as old as Christianity itself. While the word apologetics may sound funny, it doesn’t mean to apologize, but rather, “to give an explanation or justification.”

This is where we get our word apologize, the basic meaning to explain we now take to mean expressing contrition. While apologetics is not about being sorry, it is also not about being rash or reckless. For Christians, it just so happens that the humility it takes to be sorry is the same humility it takes to defend our faith in Christ, because our faith begins with the repentance of our sin and the confession of Christ as savior. Continue reading →

Self Esteem: What Matt Walsh Gets Wrong and Why It Matters

Posted by Caleb Coy on

Last week Christian conservative blogger Matt Walsh, who writes for The Blaze, published a video for PragerU, titled “Why Self-Esteem is Self-Defeating.”

Walsh’s argument in the video is that teaching people to have self-esteem is a fantasy that does more harm than good. He makes several good points, but falls short of applying them appropriately.
Continue reading →

Cormac McCarthy Narrates Minecraft

Posted by Caleb Coy on

Recently Max Brooks, author of The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, published a novelization of the game Minecraft.

While I haven’t read the novel, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if great American author Cormac McCarthy, author of No Country for Old Men, were to narrate the world of Minecraft.

Say no more. We’ve just found an early draft of his novelization:

Continue reading →

A Simple Way to Comprehend Kneeling at National Anthems

Posted by Caleb Coy on

As of this month, over 27 NFL players have chosen to sit, kneel, or raise a fist of solidarity during the procedural playing of the US national anthem.

This has strangely been met with some very angry reactions. People who don’t know what’s going on see rich football players refusing to comply with the pledge and imagine it’s just a bunch of spoiled brats who haven’t seen combat and therefore don’t respect what soldiers are dying for.

Some people in America seem to hate Colin Kaepernick more than they hate racism. That is part of why he initiated this wave of lamentation and solidarity. Continue reading →

An Architectural Historian Weighs-In On Confederate Monuments

Posted by Caleb Coy on

A thoughtful middle ground

the way of improvement leads home

Confederate_soldier_monument,_Union_County,_AR_IMG_2583

Back in the days when I was a post-doctoral fellow with the Lilly Fellow in Humanities and the Arts, I had a Valparaiso University office next to a young architectural historian named Louis Nelson.  (Actually, we were also next-door neighbors on Valparaiso’s “famous” McIntire Court).  Nelson left Valpo after a year in the program and headed off to Charlottesville to become a faculty member in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia.  Today he is a Professor of Architectural History and the Associate Dean of the school.  Nice work.

Over at the website of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, Nelson argues that Confederate monuments should stay and be contextualized.  Here is a taste of his interview with the website:

The national debate surrounding confederate monuments is often presented in very narrow terms – as a battle between those who want them to stay and those who…

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from the Warblr—Will the Religious Right Wake Up on the Right Side of the Bed?

Posted by Caleb Coy on

This past weekend The Warblr chose to publish my Op-Ed. I am thankful for the opportunity.

Will the Religious Right Wake Up on the Right Side of the Bed?

“I wish I could say that the Charlottesville horror—those coddled little Nazi’s with tiki torches shouting “white lives matter” at a statue until someone was killed by a terrorist—was completely isolated from our culture, that this is not America. But it is America, because you’ve tolerated it for far too long. You’ve allowed the lunatic fringe, the alt-right, the conspiracy peddlers, and the petty rumor mill to influence you, hijack your religion, seduce your otherwise outstanding zeal.

You helped create this. Will you repent of it?”