Dr Paul Allen

Why does this cultural issue have such vehement backing when all science points against it? When the rare mental illness known as gender identity disorder became “gender dysphoria” under the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 2013, it set in motion a chain of events that led to the “transgender” craze. This relatively small name change effectively morphed a well-documented mental illness that had always presented in young boys into a more generalized feeling of discomfort with one’s own body that’s become much more prevalent in adolescent girls. “Dysphoria” means being uneasy or dissatisfied with life. In essence, the APA name change expanded something serious to make it more codable by the medical system, but in actuality, it helped start to foster the monster that would later be   dubbed by Dr. Lisa Littman   as Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD). In the early 2010s, renowned Finnish psychiatrist Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala was asked to   head Finland’s first gender youth clini

Lyne Wallace In simple words, John gives us an important observation about the morning of the resurrection. “…It was still dark…” As always with John the words operate on two levels. Yes, it was before dawn so it was dark. John, however, was not referring to the limited number of lumens peering over the horizon. The time of day is only a servant to his greater point. The world was dark not because the sun had yet to peer over the horizon. John is not trying to describe the ordinary. The world was dark because the power of evil had if just for a moment, won the day or so it seemed. The Light of the World was extinguished, and, for all Mary Magdalene knew, that fact remained unchanged. She most likely suspected it to forever remain unchanged. Mary was beside herself in grief. Her eyes, swollen by hours of wailing, were unable to see clearly. Her wailing had drowned out both extraordinary and familiar voices. John 20 -  Mary and Jesus She watched in disbelieving horror as the soldiers tie

Brett McCracken You can understand where a culture is at by paying attention to its hits. What in pop culture is resonating with masses of people right now? This question isn’t only interesting to ponder; for Christians, it’s instructive for mission. Pop culture sensations have explanatory power—revealing the loves, longings, pain points, and paradoxes of the populace we’re called to reach with the gospel. Surveying the pop culture landscape of summer 2023, four big sensations stand out: two movies ( Sound of Freedom  and  Barbie ) and two musical artists (Taylor Swift and Oliver Anthony). Each pair represents our cultural fragmentation in microcosm, its polarities indicative of widening cultural divisions. I’ll consider each of the four “hits” first on its own terms and then as duelling “pairs” that, I argue, map onto contemporary cultural tensions. Taylor Swift We knew Taylor Swift’s Eras tour would be big. But few expected it would be so jaw-droppingly big that  it would significant

Eva was in a church luncheon when she got an email from her 12-year-old daughter Grace. (Their names have been changed.) “Mom and Dad, I need to tell you I’m not actually a girl,” she read. “My pronouns are they/them.” Eva couldn’t breathe. She felt like she’d been punched in the gut. She hadn’t seen this coming—in fact, a few months before, Grace had shared on social media her belief that God created people male and female. Back then, Eva was sure that statement was going to earn Grace—who attended a progressive public school—some social problems. Instead, it seemed to blow over right away. “I would’ve gotten bullied,” said Grace, who is now 16. “Instead, they decided to reeducate me. I got invited to groups where all they wanted to talk about was the transgender stuff. Over the course of a few months, I decided I was going to be an agender. And then I ended up deciding I was a boy.” Grace was experiencing what is often called “rapid-onset gender dysphoria,” in which friendship groups

A little over ten years ago, the book The Shack became an unexpected best-seller, sparking debate and garnering appreciation from across the evangelical landscape. Though originally written for the author’s children and copied at Kinko’s, the book reached number one on the New York Times fiction best-seller list after its release. It hit number one again in 2017 after a major motion picture was released based on the book. The themes of the book are heavy, at times harrowing, and inescapably theological, though they are presented in such a way that the reader can forget it is indeed a work of theology. The theological themes touched on include the character of the church, the problem of evil (theodicy), the nature of revelation, the depiction of God, and our understanding of the Trinity.  I want to speak to an element of this last theme because the novel assumes something we are all tempted to assume: in reference to God, ”Father” is ultimately a metaphor and, as such, can be manipulate