RealClearReligion Articles

With so much online today and more and more becoming accessible through our phones, kids and cell phone addiction has become a common problem. Recent studies have cited digital addiction among youth as a global concern, with 60% between the ages of 5-16 exhibiting behaviors indicative of technology dependency. When not intentionally addressed, excessive digital engagement can negatively affect our children in profound ways without them even realizing it. Here are five bad habits cell phone addiction can cause in kids, and five biblical solutions to help them...

“Top DOJ officials,” we are told in a Fox News report, “say they are looking into whether the agitators who disrupted services at St. Paul's Cities Church on Sunday violated the FACE Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act.” Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota is Baptist, a strong proponent of marriage (“We believe that marriage joins one man and one woman in a single, exclusive, lifelong union and that God designed and directs sexual intimacy exclusively for one man and one woman married to each other), also regards sexual immorality as sinful and abhorrent...

A recent historian said that a line from the Declaration of Independence is the most important sentence in history. Well, certainly that sentence is exceedingly important, but I agree with those who counter-argue, “No, actually John 3:16 is the most important sentence in history.” Meanwhile, the great statement in the Declaration is: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The...

There are already plenty of pundits weighing in on polarization and division in American life. However, as a senior pastor for over 40 years, I can’t help but address one major problem that’s becoming all too bipartisan.  I’m talking about the meteoric rise in antisemitism, which has clearly infected both political parties. This age-old bigotry has expanded in both overt and covert forms, not just in the U.S., but around the world.  In the wake of the Tucker Carlson-Nick Fuentes controversy, anyone assuming that rising anti-Jewish animus in this country...

No U.S. President has written an extensive theological treatise on — or against — the Eucharist; but John Quincy Adams came the closest.  In April 1812, the future president criticized the doctrine of the Real Presence for cultivating “pernicious tendencies” that “enslave the human mind” to the “arbitrary dominion of the priesthood.” Though written more than two centuries ago, Adams’ objections — rooted in a misunderstanding of transubstantiation, Scripture, and the nature of freedom — remain emblematic of the divisions...

As the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) challenges the nature of art itself, a 3rd-4th century desert monk demonstrates the creative process’ efficaciousness to our souls — and the need to reinvigorate the transcendentals: the good, the true, and the beautiful.    Abbot Paul lived in a “vast” country — a seven days’ journey from towns or “inhabited districts,” as John Cassian, a 5th century monk and theologian, recounts in his history of the desert Fathers. Yet Abbot Paul had plenty to sustain himself: date palms, a small...

One of the good guys in the battle for celebrating America at 250 is PragerU, founded by the Jewish scholar and author Dennis Prager. But a state senator from Omaha, Nebraska, might not agree. Last week, Michaela Cavanaugh, upset at seeing historical displays outside her office at the State Capitol building in Lincoln, tore them down. She claims she tried not to destroy them as she yanked them off the walls. Her rationale for removing these things is that, supposedly, nothing should adorn the walls outside of those offices. Although she has since apologized,...

In the world of athletics, the pressure to prove is relentless. Athletes try to earn starting spots, coaches try to build winning programs and everyone hopes to earn respect from teammates, fans and parents. The message is loud and clear: Prove your value. Earn your worth. What if the most important things about us (our worth, identity and value) have already been proven? What would it look like if we competed, coached and lived not for love, but from love? Here is the good news: We are loved wholly and unconditionally by the One who created us. We don’t need to earn His love or chase...

At the foot of Mount Sinai, in the shadow of the place where the Old Testament recounts that Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, there rests one of the most enduring monuments of Christian faith: the Monastery of St. Catherine. Nestled amid the rugged peaks of the Sinai Peninsula, this Byzantine church has stood as a light of Christianity in the desert for over fifteen centuries. Known in the West as St. Catherine’s Monastery, the site has borne many names through its extended history. Its origins trace back to the reign of the Roman Emperor Justinian I in the mid-sixth...

Christmas is a time of gifts. It has always been so. Today though, it is all too often nothing more. As such, it often leaves us empty: Yearning, seeking to hold on to the day which is, like all days, fleeting — a mere twenty-four hours. This too will always be thus, so long as our Christmas gifts are only temporal ones. Gifts were part of the first Christmas. The shepherds came with praise and fabulous tales of what angels had told them. That the angel Gabriel had already foretold such things to Mary made her ready to accept these.  Then there came the Three Wise Men, each bearing...

News always traveled fast in my father’s village. Every morning when we were there, my father and I would walk down the street to a little tea shop. An old man sat out front while his wife sold tea, and the village men gathered to swap stories, exchange gossip and tell all the news from the neighborhood. Whether the news was good or bad, everyone heard it before long. Life was shared face to face, and news spread person to person. Mary, the mother of Jesus, would have lived in a community very much like that. After the angel Gabriel appeared to her, I imagine that might be why Mary...

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It sounds catchy in a song, but for many, this time of year can feel anything but wonderful. Feelings of loneliness, sadness or even depression are common, yet they can leave us wondering if or why something is wrong with us when everyone else seems to have it all together. This time of year should seem like a Hallmark Christmas movie full of singing carols, family gatherings and festive memories. If you have ever felt out of sync with the cheer around you, let me assure you… you are not alone. Loneliness and depression tend to...

Christmas evokes a warmth during the winter: bright lights, roaring fires, and good cheer with loved ones. However, as St. Andrew’s Novena distinctly emphasizes, the “piercing cold” conditions of the first Christmas starkly contrast with the holiday season’s comforts, beckoning us to not only recognize Christ’s humility, but to care for the poor, forgotten, and the suffering.   The novena — spanning from the apostle’s feast day (November 30) to Christmas Eve — is prayed fifteen times a day. And while its roots are nebulous, most likely...

During the American founding era, week after week, on Sunday mornings, the congregation members would arise and recite together The Apostles’ Creed, a historic statement of the Christian faith. Often it was written on the walls. Who participated regularly in such affirmation of their faith? George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and so on. For example, at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Congregationalists, such as Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, and Roger Sherman, also affirmed their faith in the divine Savior, Jesus Christ, in...

What happens when Jesus meets you at work? The shepherds were at work when they encountered the angels. They were in the fields tending their flocks — engaged in the ordinary, routine tasks that defined their days. In the midst of their work, something extraordinary happened. From out of nowhere, an angel appeared with a message that changed their lives forever. “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the...

They’re killing Christians in other countries, often with impunity. And many Christians in America seem either ignorant or apathetic about it. Perhaps many of us fail to act because  we are not sure how we can help. But religious freedom is exceedingly important. America began because of anti-Christian persecution. Many of the original colonies were peopled by Christians of one brand or another seeking the freedom to worship Jesus here without harassment from the government. As they worded it in the New England Confederation of 1643: “we all came into these parts of America...

Christmas is a wonderful time for us as believers to worship our Lord and remember the true reason for Christ coming into this sinful world some two thousand years ago. Matthew’s Gospel clearly lays out the reason for the season, writing, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Here in this verse, the angel Gabriel is speaking of Mary giving birth to a baby boy. His name will be Jesus, which means “the Lord saves.” This baby will be named Jesus because of the saving work He will do...

I never met James T. Mullaney, Jr., my maternal grandfather — or ‘Grampy,’ as my family affectionately calls him. He passed away on Father’s Day, June 15, 1986, six years before I was born.  Yet his practical, sacrificial faith — rooted in duty to his country, family, and those in need — has not only shaped my spiritual journey, but it also stands as a model of civility in an age often marked by inaction and contempt for others. Born on Dec. 28, 1928, in Leominster, Ma., my Grampy grew up in an Irish-Catholic family with his parents, James T. Sr. and...

His delight is not in the strength of the horse,Nor his pleasure in the legs of a man;The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,In those who hope in his steadfast love. (Psalm 147:10-11) I have a good friend named Douglas. I met him about 15 years ago in a way only God could have orchestrated. One Saturday morning, my wife’s MacBook froze up. I volunteered to drive about eight miles from our home in South San Francisco to the nearest Apple store in Burlingame to see if they could repair it. I was wearing the shirt I had slept in, I am a Jewish believer in Jesus, and the shirt says,...