Let’s step away from the news today to discuss the way we consume the news. The Guardian asks, “Are we living in a golden age of stupidity?” Here are some reasons for the question:

• American high school seniors’ scores on math and reading tests have fallen to their lowest levels on record.
• Dependence on AI tools erodes critical thinking skills, harms learning and creativity, and increases isolation and loneliness.
• Research shows that overuse of social media, video games, and other digital platforms impairs executive functioning skills, including memory, planning, and decision-making.
• Short-form videos have been conclusively linked to poorer mental health and cognition.
• “Brain rot” has become such an ubiquitous term that Oxford University Press selected it as its 2024 word of the year.

Andrew Budson, a Boston University neurologist who specializes in memory disorders, explains our problem: we are using technology for the wrong purposes.

“Their brains actually shrink”

Dr. Budson reports that “our brains evolved for social interactions.” As a result, “People who become socially isolated, their brains actually shrink, even if they don’t have a disorder, and people who are socially isolated are at increased risk of developing dementia.”

I would amend his observation to say that our brains “were created for social interactions” by our triune God, who is relational by nature and made us in his image (Genesis 1:27). Nonetheless, Dr. Budson’s point stands: When we use technology in ways that isolate us from others, we misuse our brains. And this is by far the primary way we use technology.

Right now, I am sitting alone in my study as I type these words. You are likely reading or hearing what I write by yourself as well. Even if you watch television or a movie today in the company of others, you are unlikely to be discussing or experiencing it relationally. Earbuds and headphones intentionally block out everything else. Screens we can hold in our hands keep our hands from doing anything else.

And research emphatically shows that such isolation causes our brains to shrink, lose neuroplasticity, and otherwise decline in health and function.

So the answer is to engage more fully with the world around us, or so it would seem.

Not so fast.

“A dangerous network of domination”

Henri Nouwen warned in The Way of the Heart: “Our society is not a community radiant with the love of Christ, but a dangerous network of domination and manipulation in which we can easily get entangled and lose our souls.”

Nouwen then explained how we become so entangled:

“Compulsive” is indeed the best adjective for the false self. It points to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. Who am I? I am the one who is liked, praised, admired, disliked, hated, or despised. Whether I am a pianist, a businessman, or a minister, what matters is how I am perceived by my world.

If being busy is a good thing, then I must be busy. If having money is a sign of real freedom, then I must claim my money. If knowing many people proves my importance, I will have to make the necessary contacts. The compulsion manifests itself in the lurking fear of failing and the steady urge to prevent this by gathering more of the same—more work, more money, more friends.

If being isolated from the world harms our brains, but engaging with the world entangles us in its lostness, what is the way forward?

“Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power”

In The Holiness of God, theologian R. C. Sproul observed:

Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds his holy love in our hearts, unless he stoops in his grace to change our hearts, we will not love him. . . . To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and awaken our moribund souls.

1. S. Lewis would have agreed. Commenting on Jesus’ sixth beatitude (Matthew 5:8), he noted: “It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.”

So, the way forward seems clear:

1. Recognize our need for the grace by which God changes our hearts and transfigures us with his love (2 Corinthians 5:17).
2. Pray for such transformation daily as we submit to the Spirit who alone can sanctify us (Ephesians 5:18; Romans 12:1).
3. Partner with God by refusing conformity to the world and seeking the “renewal of your mind” in Scripture, prayer, and worship (Romans 12:2).
4. Engage in technology and other isolating activities while in conversation with the Spirit as he guides our minds and hearts (John 14:26).
5. Engage in community while in conversation with the Spirit as he speaks through us to draw us closer to our Lord and thus to each other (cf. Matthew 10:20).

In short, “practice the presence of God,” as Brother Lawrence famously advised. What happens when we do?

“Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lᴏʀᴅ”

The Bible reports that “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). The Hebrew for “walked with God” could be translated, “continually conversed and traveled together with the Lord.”

The phrase is used of only one other person: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). I think the latter explains the former: because he “walked” with God, he acquired God’s character and thus was “righteous” and “blameless.”

But an earlier reference explains them both: “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lᴏʀᴅ” (v. 8). “Found favor” could be translated, “received grace.”

So we are back to our pathway to God’s best: receiving the grace of God leads to walking in the presence of God, which leads to being transformed into the character of God, which leads to (in Enoch’s case and ours one day) being taken into heaven with God.

Will you pray for such transforming grace now?

Quote for the day:

“A Christian is never in a state of completion but always in the process of becoming.” —Martin Luther

Our latest website resources:

• Reason for hope after the shooting of Alex Pretti
• Finding hope after life’s detours
• What is the purpose of the Board of Peace? Trusting God when we cannot see him
• “Owning” Greenland and other legal fictions: Why do we seek to possess what can never be truly ours?
• Greenland explained, Indiana’s championship run, Iran updates, Minnesota tensions & Epstein files

Denison Forum

President Trump announced Monday that he was dispatching his border czar, Tom Homan, to Minnesota amid outrage over the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents. He also suggested in a phone call with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz that he is open to reducing the number of federal immigration agents in the state, the governor said after the call.

As you know, Mr. Pretti, a US Department of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse in Minneapolis, was killed by ICE agents on Saturday. He was carrying a 9mm handgun for which he had a legal permit. The Department of Homeland Security stated, “The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted. . . . Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots.”

However, according to CBS News, video from the scene and witness accounts are “at odds with official statements.” NBC News reports that “some policing experts said the shooting appeared unjustified and one said it amounted to murder.” President Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the administration is “reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.”

Whom do you blame for this tragedy?

• Mr. Pretti, whom Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s homeland security adviser, called a “domestic terrorist”?
• ICE agents, whom critics call “inexperienced” and “minimally trained”?
• Mr. Trump, whom Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called upon to “end this operation”?
• Gov. Walz, whom White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused of encouraging “left-wing agitators to stalk and record federal officers in the middle of lawful operations”?
• Democrats who, according to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), “supported Biden’s open border, which created the mess that now must be cleaned up”?

All of the above? None of the above?

How do you know moon rocks are from the moon?

Unless you have information unavailable to the rest of us, my guess is that you are filtering what you read, hear, and see by what you think you already know. Your prior beliefs regarding Mr. Trump, ICE activities, and Democrats are likely governing your view of the present tragedy.

I’m not accusing you of partisan bias: this is how nearly everyone knows nearly everything they know.

I know that Minneapolis exists because I have been there personally. But I had not met Mr. Pretti, have never met an ICE agent, and have no personal relationship with anyone else in this story. How, then, am I to interpret it apart from what I do know and believe?

My two great-aunts were convinced astronauts never went to the moon, that the TV coverage of Neil Armstrong and the rest of it was staged to steal money from American taxpayers. When I asked them about moon rocks I saw in a museum, they asked, “How do you know they’re from the moon?” I hadn’t thought of that.

We learn new words by associating them with our existing vocabulary. If I told you my “mumblephump” was in the shop for repairs, you wouldn’t know if I was talking about my vehicle, my son’s guitar, or my grandfather’s antique watch, among other options. But if I told you that it needed a new transmission and a brake job, you’d know that I was probably using a strange word for a car. This is because you already know what “transmission” and “brake job” mean.

If you’re an average American, you know about six hundred people. The existence, character, and activities of the other 343 million of us are known to you only through sources who know them better than you do.

Why a greenhouse becomes bright

This matters because our “post-truth” culture has abandoned objectivity for subjectivity, so we have no objective means by which to test our biases. In a media world where subscriptions have replaced advertising revenue, causing outlets to focus on producing content their customers want to purchase, our biases become even more entrenched.

As a result, when divisive tragedies such as Mr. Pretti’s death occur, whatever their actual reasons, we have no way to achieve an unbiased understanding of what happened, much less what to do about it. And so our political and cultural divisiveness continues and deepens.

But there is a way Christians can be part of the solution rather than the problem.

Secularism leaves us with no transcendent hope since we have no source of help but ourselves. Religions across human history offer the opposite: a God or gods who do what they do independent of our agency.

By contrast, the heart of Christianity is the claim that Christ can live in our hearts. As Oswald Chambers noted, “The Holy Spirit will make all that Jesus did effectual in me.” C. S. Lewis agreed, writing in Mere Christianity:

The Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because he loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.

As God makes us “good,” he manifests himself in our minds, hearts, and lives (Galatians 2:20). We can have his wisdom by which to interpret the events of our world if we seek and submit to his Spirit’s guidance (John 14:26). We can have his compassion by which to love those who do not love us (John 13:34). We can have his character by which to demonstrate the radical difference he makes in our lives (Romans 8:29).

Asking your father for money to buy him a present

The key is to recognize how passionately our Father loves us and then to ask his Spirit to manifest his love for our Father in our hearts in response (Galatians 5:22). It’s like a child who asks her father for money to buy him a Christmas present.

When we love our Father with his love, we love others and ourselves in the same way. We then become the change we wish to see in our broken culture. And neither we nor those we influence can ever be the same.

Diadochos of Photiki (c. 400–c. 486) noted:

Anyone who loves God in the depths of his heart has already been loved by God. In fact, the measure of a man’s love for God depends upon how deeply aware he is of God’s love for him.

How “deeply aware” of God’s love are you today?

NOTE: Dr. Ryan Denison will offer an in-depth analysis of the recent ICE shootings in his weekly newsletter, The Focus, when it is published later today. I strongly encourage you to subscribe, which you can do here.

Quote for the day:

“The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.” —Julian of Norwich (c. 1343–1416)

Our latest website resources:

• What is the purpose of the Board of Peace? Trusting God when we cannot see him
• “Owning” Greenland and other legal fictions: Why do we seek to possess what can never be truly ours?
• Greenland explained, Indiana’s championship run, Iran updates, Minnesota tensions & Epstein files
• Faith and politics, yoga and Christian practice, salvation, and hope in a divided culture
• Is Greenland worth what it will cost the United States?

Denison Forum

A “generational” winter storm and the solidarity of our souls

If you happen to live in the geographical half of the country that was not victimized by a “devastating dose of winter weather” over the weekend, please permit me to reflect on the experience on behalf of the half of the country that was.

• Trees exploded in Minnesota.
• In the coldest areas, people were warned that they could incur frostbite in five minutes.
• President Trump approved twelve federal emergency declarations yesterday.
• Nearly 820,000 are without power this morning.
• More than twelve thousand flights were canceled yesterday.
• Railroad operations were disrupted.
• Twenty-three states and Washington, DC, declared a state of emergency.
• A meteorologist warned that much of the country would be “entombed” in ice.
• A writer in Austin wrote, “If I were to run, where would I run to? The cold is everywhere, all the way up to New York City.”

His complaint points to the point I’d like us to consider today.

Why YouTube is the most popular TV platform

A “generational storm” like this is one of the few things that unites us with other people. I got a phone call Friday afternoon from a friend in Pennsylvania who was expecting thirteen inches of snow over the weekend. Like us in Texas, she assumed her kids would not be going to school on Monday.

Apart from a storm system that spanned forty states stretching from Arizona to Maine, what else unites us these days?

Media has shifted hard to the left and right as paywalls replaced advertising revenues, causing outlets to cater to “passionate subscribers who want their worldview reinforced, not marginal readers.” The United Nations no longer unites the nations. The World Health Organization no longer encompasses the world.

Our political polarization has reached an all-time high. From abortion to same-sex marriage and LGBTQ ideology to euthanasia, a record-high 80 percent of us agree that we are “greatly divided when it comes to the most important values.”

In an insightful Wall Street Journal article, Ben Fritz notes that “for most of the twentieth century, pop culture was the glue that held the US together.” He reports that an estimated 200 million tickets were sold for Gone With the Wind when the US population was 130 million. In 1983, more than 100 million people watched the finale of M*A*S*H.

From the 1940s through the 1990s, three TV networks and seven movie studios decided everything we watched, while five or six record labels determined what we heard. Nearly everyone saw Jaws and Star Wars, Jurassic Park and the Harry Potter and Marvel series, or so it seemed.

Then came the internet, enabling everyone to make and stream video content, and handheld screens on which to watch it. YouTube is now the most popular television platform. As Fritz notes, this is “not because it has the hottest handful of shows, but because there’s something on it for everyone, no matter how mainstream or obscure.”

A photo of my father and his father

Disasters and crises can still unite us. If you’re old enough to remember 9/11, you also remember what it felt like to crowd into churches along with people who were there for the first time, to watch the president of the United States throw out the first pitch at a New York Yankees game, and to grieve with hundreds of millions of fellow Americans in the face of such horrific tragedy.

Think back to the COVID-19 pandemic and, again, the solidarity we all felt. When my wife and I ordered groceries online, drove our car to the store, and opened the back hatch so the masked store employee could put our food inside, we thanked them with a level of heartfelt gratitude I had not felt for a grocery store employee before.

My parents had similar stories about surviving Pearl Harbor and World War II, and my grandfather about serving in Europe during World War I. My brother recently sent me a photograph of our father in his war uniform, standing next to his father, both of them with prideful smiles I seldom remember seeing from either.

But the exceptions prove the rule. For people made in God’s image and thus for relationship, the atomizing fragmentation of our secularized society is devastating. The US Surgeon General reported that our “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” directly impacts cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, infectious diseases, depression and anxiety, suicidality, and self-harm.

If it takes a storm that endangers thirty-five states to unite us, what is our future as a “United” States of America?

The power of “a love genuinely lived”

Behind all that divides us, there is a commonality waiting to answer my question. St. Augustine spoke for us all when he prayed, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee” (Confessions 1.1.1).

Thirteen very disparate colonies in the New World became a united nation only after the First Great Awakening drew them closer to God and therefore to each other, then an existential war for independence forged their national cohesion. The reason subsequent national crises, such as world wars, terrorist attacks, and pandemics, have not sustained the unity they sparked is that they were not preceded by such a transforming spiritual movement.

Our first president was therefore right to identify “religion and morality” as “indispensable supports” to “political prosperity.” Gen. Washington’s assertion makes sense: If we are created and intended to love our Lord and our neighbor as our highest purpose and aspiration (Mark 12:30–31), we will find unity and cohesion in doing both.

I cannot imagine that the weather crisis gripping much of our country will produce a national solidarity that endures once the ice and snow have melted. But I can respond to the personal finitude and mortality this storm revealed by seeking greater intimacy with the Lord who still calms stormy seas. And I can renew my commitment to loving my neighbor by praying earnestly for spiritual awakening to transform my nation and then by sharing my Father’s love with those I meet today.

In Meditations on the Cross, Dietrich Bonhoeffer observed:

The world is overcome not through destruction, but through reconciliation. Not ideals, nor programs, nor conscience, nor duty, nor responsibility, nor virtue, but only God’s perfect love can encounter reality and overcome it. Nor is it some universal ideal of love, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ, a love genuinely lived, that does this.

How “genuinely” will you live such love today?

Quote for the day:

“The real love of God does not consist in tear shedding, nor in that sweetness and tenderness for which we often long just because they console us, but in serving God by serving those around us in justice, fortitude of soul, and humility.” —Teresa of Avila (1515–82)

Our latest website resources:

• What is the purpose of the Board of Peace? Trusting God when we cannot see him
• “Owning” Greenland and other legal fictions: Why do we seek to possess what can never be truly ours?
• Greenland explained, Indiana’s championship run, Iran updates, Minnesota tensions & Epstein files
• Faith and politics, yoga and Christian practice, salvation, and hope in a divided culture
• Is Greenland worth what it will cost the United States?

Denison Forum