Joe Carter

Note: This is my annual Halloween rant. Every autumn Christians throughout North America engage in hand-wringing disputes over what to do about Halloween. The discussions tend to reflect in microcosm how we interact with overtly secular aspects on a larger scale. Should we separate and stand apart, . . . . Continue Reading »

Name: Charles “Chuck” ColsonWhy you’ve heard of him: Colson was Richard Nixon’s “hatchet man” and spent seven months in prison for Watergate-related charges. Entered Alabama’s Maxwell Prison in 1974 as a new Christian and became a staunch advocate for . . . . Continue Reading »

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, is one of those people you read and then wonder, “How does anyone ever take him seriously?” A prime example of what I’m referring to is an article for Big Questions Online in which Shermer considers the question, ” Why is there . . . . Continue Reading »

Professor’s research allows audience to hear Shakespeare’s words in his own accent : “American audiences will hear an accent and style surprisingly like their own in its informality and strong r-colored vowels,” Meier said. “The original pronunciation performance . . . . Continue Reading »

Sign of the times : Scotland Yard’s famous Vice Squad, which deals with prostitution and other aspects of London’s underworld, has changed its title to the rather less dynamic “Serious Crime Directorate 9: Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command”, or SCD9 for short. [ . . . . Continue Reading »

Although we live in the Information Age some people are still, as Seth Godin says, ” deliberately uninformed .” Although it doesn’t apply to anyone who would read this blog (obviously), Godin’s rant is an entertaining way to start your Monday blog reading: Many people in the . . . . Continue Reading »

1. Dysfunctional Disney Social worker and blogger Jae Ran Kim applied a “social worker’s perspective to the wholesome characters in popular Disney movies” and asked, “How many of these beloved characters live in a married, two-parent (hetero) household?” • Aladdin . . . . Continue Reading »

Tablet has a preview of Shalom Sesame , a new series in which Grover from Sesame Street will “explore Jewish identity, history, and culture for the American Jewish preschool demographic.” In this snippet, viewers learn about the famous  rivalry between Hillel and Shammai, and hear . . . . Continue Reading »

Andrew Sullivan doesn’t own a dictionary. That is the only explanation that I can think of for why he doesn’t know the definition of the word “bigot”. Yesterday, he used the term a couple of times in reference to the Juan Williams affair . Today he clarifies his claim : . . . . Continue Reading »

[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of popular culture. Have a suggestion for a topic? Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com] Since I was a boy I’ve been captivated by country music. But recently I’ve been dismayed by a disturbing trend in . . . . Continue Reading »