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Samuel D. James

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Select a Month October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 November 2013

September 2015

September 19, 2015

Loving Our Movies Well In the Golden Age of Nostalgia

There’s a scene in Back to the Future II where Marty McFly, played by Michael...

September 16, 2015

The Trouble With Facebook

The other day I remarked to Emily that Facebook has become useful for essentially only...

September 14, 2015

The Problem of “Problematic”

This month's issue of The Atlantic came with a provocative cover story, entitled "The Coddling of the American Mind." It...

August 2015

August 26, 2015

The Phantom Females of Ashley Madison

I wasn't planning to write about the Ashley Madison hack. For one thing, the story...

August 18, 2015

A Conversation With TobyMac

It's an unfortunate reality of Christian music that most of its truly talented artists either...

August 15, 2015

Tinder Mercies–Or, How Porn Destroyed Sex

You've probably already seen the Vanity Fair piece on how the dating/hookup app Tinder is...

August 09, 2015

Keep Teenagers Weird

Last summer, Jan Hoffman wrote a piece for The New York Times on the disparity...

July 2015

July 24, 2015

What Abortion Does to Us

Charles Krauthammer explains why the Planned Parenthood expose videos will have effects on the public:...

July 21, 2015

The Mythological Moralities of Planned Parenthood and Caitlyn Jenner

What does the organ harvesting ugliness of Planned Parenthood have to do with the spectacle...

July 08, 2015

Can Public Schools Define “Family”? (Spoiler: They Already Do)

Will Saletan, a writer for Slate, posted this to Twitter this afternoon. Just so...

July 07, 2015

The Myth of “Adult Entertainment”

Let’s contemplate one of the most widespread and most unfortunate phrases of recent times: The...

May 2015

May 14, 2015

Why Your Kid Doesn’t Need Twitter

When you think of the things children need to succeed later in society, you probably think...

May 07, 2015

The Future of Christian Music

As I write, I've just returned from a delightful evening with Emily at a local concert....

April 2015

April 23, 2015

Should Christians Watch “Game of Thrones”?

Christians have debated amongst themselves for thousands of years how to approach entertainment and secular...

April 07, 2015

How RFRA Helps Us Love Our Neighbors

In the sincere hope, dear reader, that soon we may speak of other things, let me...

March 2015

March 23, 2015

Loneliness and the Religion of Personal Autonomy

Is it even possible that my generation, which sends 6 billion text messages per day...

March 19, 2015

This Is Your Brain on Hot Takes

Fare Forward has published this outstanding piece by Jake Meador on how the current state of...

February 2015

February 25, 2015

How the Oscars and Elitism Help America

Mathematically speaking, the odds are that if you A) purchased a ticket to a movie...

February 20, 2015

How Addiction Votes

Carl Trueman has written several fine pieces lately on both the nature of and antidote to our...

February 19, 2015

Why the Oscars Still Matter

I know, I know. Of all the major American entertainment award shows--the Grammys, the Tonys,...

February 19, 2015

How to Watch TV Like a Christian

Last week I wrote a review for The Gospel Coalition of a helpful new book...

February 18, 2015

50 Shades and the Limits of Cultural Engagement

As forecasted, 50 Shades of Grey is a box office hit. The film toppled a...

February 11, 2015

The Case Against Comments

Andrew Sullivan’s farewell to blogging has inspired reflection on his legacy and influence on the...

February 09, 2015

Dotage and Dawkins

Valerie Tarico is the latest to observe the spectacular decline of Richard Dawkins. She zeroes...

February 05, 2015

Fifty Shades of Self-Loathing

I have absolutely zero intention of talking about the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey movie....

February 02, 2015

Marriage and Me

My mother and I were sitting across from each other at the dinner table, talking...

January 2015

January 28, 2015

The Pioneer of Blogging Says Goodbye

I owe a debt of gratitude to Andrew Sullivan. We've never met; actually, we've never...

January 22, 2015

Abolition vs Abortion

John C. Calhoun, "Slavery, A Positive Good:" But I take higher ground. I hold that in...

January 16, 2015

Some Oscar Thoughts

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the nominations for this year's Oscars...

January 13, 2015

“Professional Cuddling” and Our Pornified Culture

At The Wall Street Journal, Stephanie Armour looks at a blossoming new industry: Cuddling. Armour...