What do these stories have in common?

• A man cooked and ate a poisonous pufferfish that had been given to him, fell into a coma, and died thirty-five days later.
• A nineteen-year-old hiker was taking photos at a scenic overlook in Utah when the cliff he was standing on crumbled beneath him and he plunged to his death.
• A thirty-four-year-old man in Colorado was bitten by a Gila monster he kept as a pet and died four days later.
• A man in India jumped into a zoo enclosure to take a selfie with a lion who then mauled him to death.

Obviously, none of them knew their decisions would lead to their deaths. They sincerely believed they were doing the right thing at the time.

However, can someone who is sincere be sincerely wrong?

Can a nation?

“Is it true that man is above everything?”

I came across an article this week highlighting Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 commencement address at Harvard University. When I reread the exiled dissident’s words, I knew I needed to share some of them with you today.

How well do they describe America’s culture forty-six years later?

Solzhenitsyn warned:

The fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started. The forces of Evil have begun their decisive offensive. You can feel their pressure, yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses. What is the joy about?

He diagnosed the root of the problem:

We have lost the concept of a Supreme Complete Entity which used to restrain our passions and our irresponsibility. We have placed too much hope in politics and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life.

Then he prescribed the solution:

Since [man’s] body is doomed to death, his task on earth evidently must be more spiritual: not a total engrossment in everyday life, not the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then their carefree consumption. It has to be the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty so that one’s life journey may become above all an experience of moral growth. . . .

Only by the voluntary nurturing in ourselves of freely accepted and serene self-restraint can mankind rise above the world stream of materialism.

Solzhenitsyn concluded:

Even if we are spared destruction by war, life will have to change in order not to perish on its own. We cannot avoid reassessing the fundamental definitions of human life and human society. Is it true that man is above everything? Is there no Superior Being above him? Is it right that man’s life and society’s activities should be ruled by material expansion above all? Is it permissible to promote such expansion to the detriment of our integral spiritual life?

In his view, “We shall have to rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life. . . . This ascension is similar to climbing onto the next anthropological stage. No one on earth has any other way left but—upward.”

The wisest course of action

Would you allow me to ask you some hard questions I’m asking myself this morning?

• Have you “placed too much hope in politics and social reforms”?
• Is your life focused on “the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then their carefree consumption”?
• Is your life “ruled by material expansion above all”?

When we are going in the wrong direction, the wisest course of action is to reverse course. This is why Jesus began his public ministry by calling on those who heard him to “repent,” to make a spiritual U-turn from their sins to their Savior (Mark 1:15).

This is our Father’s urgent call to us still today. If you are hearing a voice assuring you that this call is not for you, you’re being deceived by the “father of lies” (John 8:44).

St. Augustine was right:

“God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but he has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”

Your Father has a “new level of life” waiting for any who make him their unconditional king and Lord (John 10:10). This is the “next anthropological stage” for humanity.

Let’s choose it together, to the glory of God.

Wednesday news to know

• The US vetoes an Arab-backed UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza
• 2 adults are charged with murder in the deadly shooting at Kansas City’s Super Bowl celebration
• Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos are ‘children’ under state law
• Beatles to get a Fab Four of biopics, with a movie each for Paul, John, George and Ringo
• On this day in 1848: Karl Marx publishes Communist Manifesto

Quote for the day

“Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make.” —Rick Warren

Denison Forum

Have you heard about the latest relationship “reality” show?

Couple to Throuple is airing on Peacock. It tells the story of four couples who are curious about polyamory (“many loves”) and head to a resort where they begin dating a group of singles. This is just one way many in our secular culture are working overtime to promote “consensual non-monogamy” through books, cover stories, and other articles extolling its virtues.

As I have noted before, the ongoing sexual revolution follows a four-step strategy:

1. Normalize aberrant behavior.
2. Legalize.
3. Stigmatize those who disagree.
4. Criminalize such disagreement.

It is obviously best to respond as early as possible. To this end, what can those of us who believe in biblical morality say to persuade those who endorse and normalize polyamory?

Is polyamory “relationship suicide”?

I doubt that you need me to remind you that the Bible forbids sexual relationships outside the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman in marriage (cf. Genesis 2:24; Hebrews 13:4; Ephesians 5:22–33; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 4:3–5; Galatians 5:19).

But what about those who don’t care what the Bible says?

As a cultural apologist, I am called to declare and defend biblical responses to the critical issues we face today. This work often begins with the apagogic task of demonstrating the flaws in the worldview to which I am responding.

To this end, let’s note what is objectively wrong with polyamory, with links to articles by secular counselors and other professionals:

• Polyamory prevents “the depth of intimacy human beings really want and need” that can be accomplished only through “deep commitment” to a single individual.
• It raises enormous issues for children: “If one parental figure were to leave, and there wasn’t the institution of marriage stopping them, it can be extremely devastating for the child.”
• Some argue that polyamorous families offer more love for the children, but in one counselor’s experience, they actually feel themselves to be less of a priority and learn that “significant people are replaceable.”
• Many who engage in polyamorous relationships do so to avoid intimacy, hedge against real vulnerability, and sidestep adult responsibility.
• According to one counselor, polyamory is “simply one more technique of conflict avoidance and problem escapism to the external.” She warns that “polyamory is a detrimental non-solution for marriages, it is relationship suicide and a problem just waiting to negatively impact the emotional welfare of children.”
• A writer who tried polyamory said it did not work for her because of jealousy issues, power plays within the triad, and a deep sense of loneliness over not being someone’s primary love.

The best predictor for happiness

Now let’s pivot to the positive: Are there secular arguments in favor of the biblical version of marriage?

I just finished a fascinating and deeply researched book on the subject by University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox. In Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization, he demonstrates conclusively that nothing predicts happiness better than a strong marriage between one man and one woman.

Here are some key facts:

• Those who are married are nearly twice as likely to say they are “very happy” as those who are unmarried.
• Both men and women who get and stay married accumulate much greater wealth than people who don’t marry or remarry.
• Married men and women with families report more meaningful lives compared with their single and childless peers.
• Married adults report much lower levels of loneliness than single parents and those who are single and childless.
• Children from intact families (where their biological mother and father are still married) are far more likely to graduate from college and have far fewer problems at school. They are also far less likely to go to prison and far less likely to be the victims of abuse.
• Parents are much less lonely and much more likely to say their lives are meaningful and happy than non-parents.
• Those who believe marriage is for life are far more likely to be “very happy” in their marriage.
• Married couples who regularly attend religious services together are more likely to say they are “very happy” with their marriage, “very happy” with their sexual relationship, and “very satisfied” with life than couples who do not.

Unsurprisingly, God’s word turns out to be right yet again. So, be encouraged: when you declare and defend biblical morality, you are offering others the truth they desperately need. When you live by that morality personally, you are showing them the reality and relevance of your faith.

To do both, ask the Holy Spirit to make you holy and to use you to help others be holy. A. W. Tozer was right:

“When we have the Holy Spirit we have all that is needed to be all that God desires us to be.”

If you’re a Christian, you “have the Holy Spirit” right now (1 Corinthians 3:16).

How fully does he have you?

Note: In addition to The Daily Article, Denison Ministries produces First15, a daily devotional experience with God; Foundations with Janet, a Bible study resource for individuals and small groups; and Christian Parenting, resources to help parents raise children to know and love the Lord. These ministries are intended to work collectively to build a movement of culture-changing Christians as a catalyst for spiritual awakening and more transformation. I encourage you to try them today.

Tuesday news to know

• Part of Los Angeles could see record rainfall as flood alerts span almost all of California
• Alexey Navalny honored by Bono and U2 during Las Vegas concert
• Yulia Navalnaya, Alexey Navalny’s wife, says she will take up his fight
• Israel says it will attack Rafah by Ramadan if hostages not returned
• On this day in 1962: John Glenn becomes first American to orbit Earth

Quote for the day

“There is not one instance in all of God’s word where God advocates or celebrates sex outside of a marriage relationship between a husband and wife. Not one.” —David Platt

Denison Forum