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Akiniwazisaga: A Light Rises in a Dark World
Reviews | Lorehaven Review Team on Apr 16, 2021

58. How Did We Enjoy the Heroic Majesty of ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’?
Podcast | Fantastical Truth on Apr 13, 2021

How Reading Epic Fantasy Helps Me Be Brave
Articles | Josiah DeGraaf on Apr 9, 2021

All the Queen’s Sons
Reviews | Lorehaven Review Team on Apr 9, 2021

Implicit Magic in Fantasy Fiction Can Stir Our Longing for Transcendent Myth
Articles | Elijah David on Apr 7, 2021

57. How Do Stories Help Us Imagine Suffering and the Hope of Resurrection? | Epic Resurrection, part 4
Podcast | Fantastical Truth on Apr 6, 2021

The PRISM Conspiracy
Reviews | Lorehaven Review Team on Apr 2, 2021

To Help Kids Learn Pop Culture Engagement, Parents Must Work Together
Articles | Jason Joyner on Mar 31, 2021

56. Which Biblical Qualities Empower Strong Female Characters? | with Elisabeth Wheatley
Podcast | Fantastical Truth on Mar 30, 2021

Why We Long for Movies to Match Their Books
Articles | L.G. McCary on Mar 25, 2021

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Aelafas, Peco Gaskovski
The Centauri Survivors, Andrew J. Chamberlain
The Father's Tree, Crystal Jencks
The Mermaid's Sister, Carrie Anne Noble
The Watcher, Sara Davison
Etania's Worth, M. H. Elrich
Cinderella Spell, Laurie Lee
When Desperate Measures Are All You Have Left, J. C. Morrows
Fractures, James C. Joyner
Torch, R. J. Anderson
The Terran Summit, Anna Zogg
The Xerxes Factor, Anna Zogg
The Paradise Protocol, Anna Zogg
The Awakened, Richard Spillman
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Akiniwazisaga: A Light Rises in a Dark World
“M. D. Boncher’s fantasy novel Akiniwazisaga: A Light Rises in a Dark World is a fascinating blend of history, religion, and sinister folklore.”
—Lorehaven on Apr 16, 2021

All the Queen’s Sons
“All The Queen’s Sons from Elizabeth Kipps will delight both young and old fans of level-headed girls, charming princes, and lovely lands.”
—Lorehaven on Apr 9, 2021

The PRISM Conspiracy
“Mary Schlegel’s gentle sci-fi The PRISM Conspiracy offers an attractive blend of possibility and sweet romance.”
—Lorehaven on Apr 2, 2021

Songflight
“Songflight by Michelle M. Bruhn tells the gripping story of dragon singer Alísa, and is best for lovers of fantasy and dragons.”
—Lorehaven on Mar 19, 2021

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58. How Did We Enjoy the Heroic Majesty of ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’?
Fantastical Truth, Apr 13, 2021

57. How Do Stories Help Us Imagine Suffering and the Hope of Resurrection? | Epic Resurrection, part 4
Fantastical Truth, Apr 6, 2021

56. Which Biblical Qualities Empower Strong Female Characters? | with Elisabeth Wheatley
Fantastical Truth, Mar 30, 2021

55. Should Christians Embrace Cultural and Digital Enclaves? | with Austin Gunderson
Fantastical Truth, Mar 16, 2021

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The Symbolic Nature of Sci-fi Apocalyptic Disaster Films
Parker J. Cole, Apr 14

Introduction: Hunger by Jill Williamson
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Apr 12

The Beauty of Short Horror Films
Parker J. Cole, Mar 31

Banning Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Mar 22

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Explore the book The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ

Does ‘Engaging Popular Culture’ Include Right-Wing Talk Radio?
E. Stephen Burnett, Oct 9

Join My Livestream This Thursday: Seven Ways to Find Truth in Fantastic Stories
E. Stephen Burnett, Oct 6

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Does ‘Engaging Popular Culture’ Include Right-Wing Talk Radio?
| E. Stephen Burnett, Oct 9

Join My Livestream This Thursday: Seven Ways to Find Truth in Fantastic Stories
| E. Stephen Burnett, Oct 6

A Wild Review of ‘The Pop Culture Parent’ Appears!
| E. Stephen Burnett, Oct 1

Why My Hopes are Flying High for Tomorrow’s DC FanDome Virtual Event
| E. Stephen Burnett, Aug 21

Join Me Tonight on the Realm Makers Livestream: How Can Stories Help Us Long for Heaven?
| E. Stephen Burnett, Jul 9

Quotes and Notes: Should Christian Fantasy Include Magic?
| E. Stephen Burnett, Jul 8

Does ‘Engaging Popular Culture’ Include Right-Wing Talk Radio?

If anyone would engage popular culture for God’s glory and others’ good, then you must find the good even in populist conservative culture.
E. Stephen Burnett on Oct 9, 2020 | No comments

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to engage popular culture.

We do this for the glory of God and for gospel-sharing with your neighbor.

Why? To sum up: Because popular culture reveals God’s creativity, God’s common grace via his image in humans, and the idols we make to corrupt his gifts.1 Very often (and not just when superhero X dies to save the world) popular cultural works even reflect the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can engage this stuff via streaming, music, memes, games, comic books, blockbuster film franchises, podcasts, and beyond.

Yes, that’s right, faithful Christian! You needn’t automatically shun these things as evil or suspect these things as worthless.2 get to enjoy some of these things. They are not “mindless entertainment.” Rather, they are human heart-reflections that reveal not only Society but the longings and idols of your individual neighbors. You get to discover the good, the beautiful, and the idolatrous and ugly that gets subverted and answered by Jesus Christ himself.

Hurrah! You don’t even need to boycott Disney or cancel Netflix.3 Instead, you can pursue this gospel mission in the real world—a real world in which popular culture was/is God’s idea, and in which your neighbors love popular stories and songs.

Oh, one other thing: Your mission might also include engaging popular culture like this:

Alas. I hear wailings and gnashings of teeth! Some of us, especially younger Christians, claim to favor such blunt approaches in response to badness.

So I must give this approach right back to ourselves:

No.

You. Have. No. Exceptions.4 No exceptions.

If you accept the mission of engaging popular culture for the good of your neighbors, then this mission. Includes. Engaging with Trumpism.

And engaging right-wing talk radio.

And engaging conservative websites, TV network(s), and memes.

That means engaging thoughtful stuff, like from David French or Peggy Noonan, and less-thoughtful stuff, like from Sean Hannity or Todd Starnes.

Engaging does not equal condemning. A Christian parent does not “engage” her teen’s heavy-metal albums by burning them in the backyard.

Engagement means more than this, for the glory of God and the good of our neighbors.

"Many Christian movies are too preachy. They use truth as a weapon. They don't engage well. To reach people, you must identify the good in their culture."
—young Christians

"IF YOU VOTE FOR THAT TERRIBLE GUY THEN YOU'RE JUST AN IDOLATER AND A HYPOCRITE."
—some of the same people

— Stephen (The Pop Culture Parent) (@EStephenBurnett) October 8, 2020

To engage right-wing popular culture, you must find and praise God’s ‘fingerprints’ in it.

Yes. This means you might find the good in those memes and shows and cable network(s) that terrible Aunt Marge is obsessed with.

You might find the good in asking about Uncle Bill’s favorite silly right-wing news website, no matter how you wince at those “BUY GOLD!!1!” ads.

One might even need to listen The Rush Limbaugh Show, perhaps even today, to understand the latest trends in Donald Trump-ism.

Call it: The Pop Culture “Parent”-to-Your-Own-Parents (or Your-Parents’-Generation).

This also means you must not act like a stereotypical 1980s dad angered because little Brad has been sneaking peeks at M-TV. You are not called to issue simplistic damnations such as “hypocrite!” and “idolatry!” against your fickle flag-waving voters who (no matter how reluctantly) voted for You Know Who, and then declare, with great sanctimony, your prophetic task well accomplished.

Instead, you’re called away from such separatist, fundamentalist instincts. You must actually engage the thing before you.

To pursue this mission well, you must:

  1. Know the “story.” What is the pundit’s “plot”? How do they understand the history/present/future of one nation or Western civilization?
  2. Explore the world. What are the stylistic and moral assumptions in the universe(s) of these narratives? For now, just describe. Don’t judge.
  3. Praise the good. Ask yourself: What is true and beautiful about Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, or yes, even Trumpism? What can we affirm?
  4. Find and subvert the idols. Many younger Christians can do this part very well. But we can’t skip steps 1–3, or step 5. They give vital context.
  5. Answer with the gospel. This isn’t just about moral condemnation! How does Jesus fulfill the “story’s” good longings that idols cannot fulfill?

On this theme I may have more to say.

We need specific examples. We need to see this done, not just be taught how to do this. Someone who is more skilled at this approach—though sometime I might try it, if this doesn’t weaken my Fantastical Stories Brand—must give a live demo. This skilled teacher must listen to real, unredacted talk radio, like Rush or someone else. She must lay aside prejudices and irritations with The Church Back Home, and act in genuine fairness.5

For now this will suffice as an initial challenge and conversation-opener. It may especially (and I hope kindly) challenge my oft-disillusioned Christian friends, who often fail to apply their own positivity about popular culture, not so much in relationships with their kids, but with their own parents.

  1. This is a great idea for a book. In The Pop Culture Parent, however, we don’t get into political narratives as much. This seems like worthy sequel material. ↩
  2. The only exception, which is not rare but serious, is this: You need to shun or suspect a popular cultural work if it makes you (or perhaps someone close to you) tempted to sin more than usual. ↩
  3. I did, however, recently cancel Netflix myself. My wife and I had already been thinking about it. But the company’s pompous indifference to Cuties concerns pushed us over that decision point. ↩
  4. Only one exception: porn. ↩
  5. Such instructors must also be educated beyond a set of skills associated with “professional ministry pundit.”

    By this I refer to one growing problem with some Christian punditry about/against right-wing popular culture. Much of these wider-spread opinions come from church leaders in what we might describe as the “professional ministry” class. They may pastor churches, and/or teach at universities, and write as experts about political topics for evangelical webzines, yet they may have limited exposure to right-wing culture beyond its fringe elements. Many others have read much in fields like “biblical social justice,” but haven’t read well into topics such as the origins and philosophies of Western civilization and representative government. (These elements are reflected dimly in some popular-level right-wing popular culture, but they are there.)

    Some evangelical pundits—a bench of pro-ministry “bishops,” if you will—lack expertise in topics like immigration law, and lack real-world experience with no-win-scenarios in secular government. This may lead the pro-ministry pundit to reduce these issues to symbols. Instead of asking about legal or human rights concerns about a border wall, the pundit follows popular media trends and (frankly) rank emotionalism. He may view “The Wall” as symbology, leading to personal associations with people “kept outside the wall,” and disfavoring whatever group views itself “secure inside the wall.”

    Other pro-ministry pundits seem genuinely blind to actual threats against religious freedom. David French is a notable exception. I don’t always agree with David French, especially when he seems to paste his own pro-ministry experience atop more-nuanced issues. French, however, does represent the kind of broad qualifications and experiences that the better evangelical-ministry-class writers must have to expand their scope of understanding. ↩

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Join My Livestream This Thursday: Seven Ways to Find Truth in Fantastic Stories

You may have grown up hearing that certain fantastical tales are “bad” or “good.” Yet how does Scripture actually reveal that popular culture is a mess of all the above?
E. Stephen Burnett on Oct 6, 2020 | No comments

This week I’m hosting another livestream courtesy of Realm Makers: “Seven Ways to Find Truth in Fantastic Stories.”

You may have grown up hearing that certain fantastical tales are “bad” or “good.” Yet how does Scripture actually reveal that popular culture is a mess of all the above? Lorehaven’s E. Stephen Burnett, coauthor of the new nonfiction book The Pop Culture Parent, shares seven questions1 to help us discern, engage, and enjoy these stories.

For me, ’tis a favorite theme. We even have it on Lorehaven bookmarks, available at live events should-we-ever-have-those-again-etc.-etc.

Sign up here at Crowdcast. You may also see this mirrored on Facebook. But only Crowdcast has the direct chat and interactive capability.

Or you can get a look at my notes. These of course are based on our five questions from The Pop Culture Parent. To these I’ve added two of my own:

1. Explore the story itself.

  • Who does what, and why?
  • What happens in the plot?

2. Discover this story-world.

  • What place is this?
  • What styles and images do we find?

3. Find the common grace.

  • What is beautiful, good, and true?

4. Discern the idols.

  • What may the story exalt for “worship” apart from God?

5. Behold the gospel!

  • Idols always fail, so how does Jesus fulfill the story’s broken promises?

6. BONUS: How can this story help Jesus’s people glorify Him?

7. BONUS: How can this story help me better enjoy God forever?

Oh, and you can also get a replay of our last livestream: “How Can Fantastical Stories Boost Your Bible Reading?”

  1. Originally I posted these questions last spring, back when we had actual live events, etc., etc. ↩

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A Wild Review of ‘The Pop Culture Parent’ Appears!

“The Pop Culture Parent is written by a trio of authors who describe why it’s important for parents to engage with their children in popular culture.”
E. Stephen Burnett on Oct 1, 2020 | No comments

My first book The Pop Culture Parent1 released early last month, and public reader response has been slow, yet sure.

Understand: I’m on record directly opposing some authors (well-intended) efforts to demand, er, solicit reviews. I’m especially annoyed when indie-streaking types of authors stick out guilt-trip slogans, such as, “You’d buy a $4 cup of coffee but you won’t take a little time to buy $4 novel, eh? Or to post a review of that book to help the widows and authors, eh? EH?” To me this sounds like a sort of “support your local Starving Artist” kind of shtick. It might appeal to my give-money-to-missions side, but then, if it’s all about charity, why then would I give money to authors instead of missions?

So it’s true that I haven’t been haberdashing about the social medias to solicit reader reviews for The Pop Culture Parent.

Friends such as Marian Jacobs and Cap Stewart have reviewed it, though! They had already read pre-release copies for endorsement, then shared their remarks on Goodreads. My thanks to them both! On release day, Cap Stewart also shared this longer article inspired by our themes.

Shepherding our children’s hearts is a challenging task in and of itself. It’s a responsibility that shows us our own weaknesses, our own childish and petty ways—and the Savior which we and our children desperately need to overcome our sin. In His kind provision, God has graced the church with numerous books on the subject of parenting, many of which have proved beneficial to my own family.

The Pop Culture Parent earns its place near the top of the list of those books I will likely refer to again and again, for years to come. It may not have been a parenting book we were looking for, but it’s a book we discovered we needed. And dare I say it, my perspective on parenting—and on living the Christian life itself—will never be the same again. That’s about as strong of a recommendation as I can give.

After them came this review from Shirley Alarie. In part, she wrote:

Raising children with a biblical worldview is no easy feat. Add to that today’s secular culture of television shows, movies, and music, and the challenge is even greater. The Pop Culture Parent is written by a trio of authors who describe why it’s important for parents to engage with their children in popular culture. They also discuss why the alternative techniques of avoidance or endless childproofing won’t accomplish a healthy or biblical outcome. . . .

The focus of Pop Culture Parent isn’t about finding fault with secular television, movies, and music. It’s more about helping your children discern Christian values or lack thereof and finding examples of God’s common grace among those pop culture venues. The book includes examples of what engaging with your children in popular culture would look like and plenty of encouragement to make it a routine part of your parenting and ongoing communication. There are also resources listed for additional support.

How this book affected me: I chose to read this book not because I’m parenting a child, but because I think that today’s parents can use guidance for the many challenges they face. Christian parents face great challenges to raise their children with a biblical foundation. I hoped to be able to recommend a positive resource depending on whether I found the book content to be relevant and actionable, and it is both!

Read her full review over at Goodreads. She also posted this to Amazon.com (which, of course, owns Goodreads).

This is just the kind of review we hope to receive. Lord willing, The Pop Culture Parent will serve even more readers in the months and years ahead!

  1. Coauthored with Ted Turnau and Jared Moore, released from New Growth Press. ↩

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Why My Hopes are Flying High for Tomorrow’s DC FanDome Virtual Event

All the film-critic “super apostles” said #TheSnyderCut and Ben Affleck’s return were “pipe dreams.” What else could happen? Here are my predictions for #DCFanDome.
E. Stephen Burnett on Aug 21, 2020 | No comments

At great risk to my personalal Brand®, I’ve become quite known for my advocacy of #ReleaseTheSnyderCut.

What is that? Why, I’m glad this imaginary reader asked. After 2017’s DC superhero team-up film Justice League (a.k.a. “Diet Avengers”) faltered in theaters, I joined the ranks of fans calling for the real one. We wanted the real movie that oft-dismissed director Zack Snyder intended before he left the production under weird/bad circumstances.

Anyway, you likely know the story. If not, you can catch up with all of it here and in this Fantastical Truth podcast episode.

To sum up: Fans won big, and the victories haven’t stopped. Even in a terrible year, we’ve learned that:

  • Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a.k.a. Justice League: The Snyder Cut, will arrive in 2021.
  • The film will step back two degrees from the lackluster theater edition: it won’t be that, or Snyder’s earlier “compromised” version.
  • Justice League, a la Snyder, may arrive on HBO Max in a massive multi-hour film format, or in a miniseries format with chapter divisions.
  • Already, the promise of The Snyder Cut has urged many other hopes, including: Ben Affleck’s return as Batman, or other director’s cuts released.
  • Among other, er, suggestions, fans suggest David Ayer’s original, pre-tampered Suicide Squad come out, or even Joel Schumacher’s old Batman Forever from the mid-1990s starring Val Kilmer!

This week in other Bat-news, director Matt Reeves revealed the logo and concept art for The Batman (2021), starring Robert Pattinson. I say: the more Batmen, the merrier.

One Bat-dream has already come true. Just yesterday, Variety announced Ben Affleck will return as Batman. He will suit up at least once more, for The Flash (2022). That a film that already promises to cinematically commission the DC “multiverse” in which all the different actors/heroes/adaptations are all declared canon.

Tomorrow’s DC FanDome virtual conference event (which is open to anyone) promises to bring even more goodness for super-friends, including:

  • Zack Snyder’s brand-new teaser for the long-delayed Justice League film/miniseries.
  • A new trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 (also delayed too long this year, because of virus shutdowns).
  • Early official announcements about sequels to Aquaman and Shazam!, and Shazam! spinoff Black Adam.
  • First footage and/or props from Matt Reeves’s new-continuity Bat-film The Batman (2021), starring Robert Pattinson.
  • First footage from James Gunn’s soft reboot/sequel The Suicide Squad, and early looks at Andy Muschietti’s solo intro for The Flash.

With the Marvel Cinematic Universe sadly sidelined this year by (1) lost story momentum after Avengers: Endgame, and (2) delayed theatrical releases, DC is owning 2020 so hard that it’s making me consider fulfilling my long-delayed promise to start defending Marvel as the underdog!

DC FanDome, Aug. 22, 2020

My predictions for DC FanDome tomorrow

I have, and could again, consider several ways such fan responses reveal the grace-meets-idolatry mess of popular culture.

For now, however, I just want to act as a Christ-redeemed fan myself. I wish to extend a little fandom joy I’ve felt in an otherwise very hard week.

Also, I want to gamble: with these soft predictions for tomorrow’s event. Of course, these are just speculations. I know so much better, however, than to pretend these crazy fan theories won’t happen. Why? Because it’s the year 2020. All the “wise men” of this age said #TheSnyderCut was impossible, and it happened. All the same “super-apostles” of FilmTwitter scoffed at Ben Affleck returning as Batman, and now that’s real too.

Why, then, couldn’t all these fan-dreamed announcements also occur?

Zack Snyder's Justice League1. Zack Snyder will hint at/promise more Justice League.

Zack Snyder will at least strongly hint that Justice League: The Snyder Cut will not be the last film in his long-planned and –delayed series. He may even directly promise that, based on wildly enthusiastic fan response, he will indeed be able to finish the Justice League series.

2. Henry Cavill will appear, and they’ll announce he will finally return as Superman.

Snyder, and/or the directors/stars of Shazam! or Black Adam, will help announce that Superman actor Henry Cavill will certainly return. He’ll star in one or more of the following:

  • Sequel films or series to Justice League: The Snyder Cut
  • A solo Superman film or series of films (this is Cavill’s hope for sure)
  • Guest appearances or supporting roles in Shazam!! 2 and/or Black Adam.

3. Ben Affleck will appear, and they’ll hint at/promise he will return as Batman in other films.

While Cavill stayed quiet during the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut activism, Ben Affleck jumped right into it. A tweet from his official account, on Nov. 17, 2019, made the movement go crazy and granted it legitimacy. Affleck eagerly supports Snyder. It was only after the Justice League (2017) mess that he reluctantly stepped back from a solo Batman film some years ago. Now, Affleck has recovered from some life issues and against all odds seems eager to play Batman again. Will The Flash (2022) mark his last appearance, or could he be open for even more?

I predict that Affleck will at least appear in Snyder’s panel discussion to discuss Justice League: The Snyder Cut. But they may also hint at/promise:

  • Affleck could return in sequel films or series to Justice League: The Snyder Cut
  • Affleck could indeed return for a nobledark Batman miniseries exclusively for HBO Max.

4. Ray Fisher, who plays Cyborg, will appear (confirmed) and they’ll hint at a movie or series.

Fisher’s role as Victor Stone, who becomes Cyborg, was infamously cut short in the Joss Whedon–repurposed Justice League (2017).1 But Snyder has long wanted to focus on Fisher as “the heart of” his Justice League. Fisher will literally be portraying a black man whose sports career is ended at his transformation into a cyborg. Alien technology threatens to take over his body and soul. Some fans speculate that Fisher will not only showcase that unique struggle, but effectively portray a superhero who has a disability.

5. Believe it or not, they could even do a thing with Ryan Reynolds.

This one’s further out there (ha ha!). But I’d like to make this wild construct: that coy #TheSnyderCut supporter (and unfairly maligned Green Lantern star) Ryan Reynolds will reclaim the Green Lanterns’ ring in some capacity, including one or more of:

  • A starring role as Hal Jordan in an HBO Max Green Lantern Corps. “buddy cop in space”-style series
  • A guest star/cameo/supporting role as Hal Jordan in Justice League: The Snyder Cut (rebooted continuity from the 2011 franchise attempt)
  • Perhaps he could even have a voice acting role as Hal Jordan in a Green Lantern Corps. animated film or animated series.

6. Miscellaneous predictions:

  • Henry Cavill (Superman) and Zackary Levi (Shazam!) could share a virtual screen, joking about the body-double oddness concluding Shazam!
  • Ryan Reynolds could “crash” the thing, maybe even Snyder’s panel. He may lend his Deadpool-like flair to lighten Snyder’s “dark” emphases.
  • At long last, everyone will go all-in with the “multiverse” concept. This means film actors may appear alongside TV actors of the same roles.
  • Examples: You could literally see (confirmed guests) Pattinson and Batman Forever star Val Kilmer appear with Affleck, for a Bat-panel.
  • Oh, and more announcements will follow in the newly announced second day of DC FanDome, confirmed as Saturday, Sept. 12.

To be updated, sometime after we see whether (or how) I was right!

  1. Fisher has since even challenged Whedon, former DC films executive Geoff Johns. Fisher claims Whedon acted unprofessionally and even abusively, enabled by others. That investigation is pending. And it’s very interesting to go back, now, and see articles like this one swearing that (based on Very Inside Studio Sources) that Fisher will never, ever play Cyborg again. ↩

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Join Me Tonight on the Realm Makers Livestream: How Can Stories Help Us Long for Heaven?

Join E. Stephen Burnett to smash some idols while exploring the God-exalting gift of fantasy that reflects eternity.
E. Stephen Burnett on Jul 9, 2020 | No comments

Save your spot now for my livestream with Realm Makers tonight, July 9. It starts at 8 p.m. Eastern (7 Central).

Fantastical stories can show us amazing worlds. But might these turn our hearts toward earthly beauties and away from the future Jesus promises? Join E. Stephen Burnett to smash some idols while exploring the God-exalting gift of fantasy that reflects eternity.

This classic Betty Lukens flannelgraph scene is surprisingly biblical (except: New Earth will include far more variety in skin tones and garment choice).

I’d love to hear what kinds of stories prepare your imagination for eternity. Our poll at Crowdcast asks:

Have stories with fantastical worlds drawn your heart to long for Heaven?

  • Yes, all the time
  • Yes, sometimes
  • I don’t think so
  • No, they haven’t

The livestream feed will also be mirrored on Facebook. But by joining us on Crowdcast, you’ll be able to interact in chat with other viewers and with me. We’ll have question-and-answer options and everything. Crowdcast can also send you a notification when we’re about to go live.

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Quotes and Notes: Should Christian Fantasy Include Magic?

Explore these biblical quotes and notes for E. Stephen Burnett’s July 11 workshop at SoCal Christian Writers Virtual Conference.
E. Stephen Burnett on Jul 8, 2020 | Series: SoCal Christian Writers Conference 2020 | Enter your password to view comments.

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Quotes and Notes: Putting Pop Culture in its Place

Explore these biblical quotes and notes for E. Stephen Burnett’s July 11 workshop at SoCal Christian Writers Virtual Conference.
E. Stephen Burnett on Jul 8, 2020 | Series: SoCal Christian Writers Conference 2020 | Enter your password to view comments.

This article is exclusive to Lorehaven magazine subscribers.

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Join Me at the Realm Makers June 25 Livestream: How Can Stories Help Us in Traumatic Times?

I’d love to hear what kinds of stories you prefer during traumatic times.
E. Stephen Burnett on Jun 22, 2020 | No comments

Save your spot now for my livestream with Realm Makers this Thursday, June 25. It starts at 8 p.m. Eastern (7 Central).

When we groan with God’s anguished creation, what creative works help us work through our sense of trauma? Let’s explore, with biblical faith and sensitivity, how imagination helps us seek healing.

I’d love to hear what kinds of stories you prefer during traumatic times. Our poll at Crowdcast will ask:

What kinds of stories most often help you during traumatic times?

  • Lighter, relaxed stories
  • Darker, complex stories
  • Some lighter, some darker stories

The livestream feed will also be mirrored on Facebook. But by joining us on Crowdcast, you’ll be able to interact in chat and with yours truly. Crowdcast can also send you a notification when we’re about to go live.

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Yes, Marriage and Family are Still Normative and Good Gifts for Today’s Church

Some Christians do idolize marriage and other gifts of God. But the solution isn’t to ignore or minimize his gifts’ original good purpose.
E. Stephen Burnett on Jun 18, 2020 | No comments

This article from Kevin DeYoung is raising some concerns, and some ire, on the Twitters.

DeYoung suggests “It’s Time for a New Culture War Strategy.” Among his most seemingly concerning statements, he writes:

Here’s a culture war strategy conservative Christians should get behind: have more children and disciple them like crazy. Strongly consider having more children than you think you can handle. . . .

Do you want to rebel against the status quo? Do you want people to ask you for a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15)? Tote your brood of children through Target. . . .

The future belongs to the fecund. It’s time for happy warriors who seek to “renew the city” and “win the culture war” by investing in their local church, focusing on the family, and bringing the kingdom to bear on the world, one baby at a time.

Among DeYoung’s readers’ criticisms:

  • What if you can’t have kids?1
  • He shouldn’t say “culture war”; it’s combative.2
  • But the Church makes marriage and family an idol!
  • But the Church makes marriage and family an idol!
  • Did we mention the Church makes marriage and family an idol?

So, does the church make marriage and family an idol, or … ?

I jest a little. But those last three salient points keep recurring in some Christian articles and rhetoric. That includes one 2018 article at a website for which I’ve written and that I overall respect. Unfortunately, however, the author had some very wrong ideas, perhaps best summarized by this statement:

Marriage should not be the norm that orients the communal life of the church, and Christians have an opportunity to show the world a better way rather than falling into the same obsessive focus on finding our Prince or Princess Charming.

At the time that article appeared, I replied at length with gentle pushback. This I’ll edit and expand below. But first I must make the pushback not-so-gentle: The writer’s first statement (and much of the article) are flat wrong and even unbiblical. Marriage should be a great norm that orients the communal life of the church.

Abusis non tollit usum: abuse [of a good thing] does not disqualify proper use.

Yes, Christians can certainly show the world a better way. In all our families and churches, we must include single people as they are, image-bearers of God. We must refuse to idolize or obsessively focus on good gifts like marriage and child-bearing. Instead, we must recognize that we live in a groaning world when it is not always possible for everyone to do this. And to be sure, we must reject the simpering romanticisms of the “Prince(ss) Charming” images, which (as no few articles and marriage-retreat hosts have reminded us) come from shallow stories, not the Bible.

However, we cannot insist that “the biblical norm of marriage” = “obsessive focus / idolatry.” This is a false equivalency: treating a biblical idea the same as one’s personal experience with the twisted version, in order to reject both at once. That’s not a biblical approach to any idolized gift, any more than we would reject the goodness of food because some people are gluttonous.

God made gifts like marriage, which are made holy by God’s word and prayer.

Leaders of the early church, faced with the charge that they have idolized marriage, repent and give proof by burning all their devotionals and conference workbooks by Dennis and Barbara Rainey (artist’s conception).

In fact, the apostle Paul makes this very point about abuses of good gifts, such as food and marriage:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

(1 Timothy 4:1–5, emphases added)

This is a sound proof-text when confronting Christians who seem caught between the icon / iconoclast divide about anything, be it:

  • Food and feasting,
  • Marriage and family,
  • Stories and creativity,
  • Celebrations of holidays.

Regarding the twisting of marriage, I can’t help seeing the direct clash between the apostle Paul’s correction and some teachers today.

  • They say: the Church idolizes marriage; therefore, we should not see marriage as especially holy.3
  • Paul says: false teachers forbid marriage; therefore, we must make it holy by God’s word and prayer.

Paul insists that marriage, like all good gifts, is made holy by these actions. He doesn’t feel the need to give an inch toward those false teachers who might have, even then, insisted that earthly things like marriage (and food) were just too important to the early church, and should therefore be forbidden (or at least strictly regulated). Instead, he takes his rebuttal right back to the source: God’s creation and intent for these good gifts.

Bad experiences really hurt, but they can also lead us into legalism.

Did some Christians then, as some Christians now, idolize these good gifts? Sure.

But if we base our response on reacting to the sin—rather than proactive reminders about God’s intentions for the good gifts—then we err. And we may even err in ways that Paul might describe as “deceitful spirits and teachings of demons”!

Even more strangely, we err in ways that we ourselves have seen aplenty, whenever Christians of the past have thrown out gifts like certain music genres, games, visual storytelling (like TV or movies), and even specific foods and drinks. From the outside, we can immediately see that they’re being reactive and not biblical. So it’s time to apply this wisdom more consistently. Yes, we must do this, even if Christians we’ve known in the Church Back Home have annoyed us, or even made us suffer, by idolizing good gifts and frowned on us for being different.

After all, how do you think those anti-movies, anti-recreational-drinking Christians got that way? They didn’t just make up their legalisms to be legalistic. They often had profoundly tragic backstories about bad experiences: a child read Harry Potter and got into witchcraft, or an uncle grew addicted to alcohol and physically abused his wife.

Those stories are real and terrible. But even those abuses do not disqualify proper use of good gifts.

If we disclaim marriage, we must also disclaim Christians making culture.

I direct this part toward Christians who believe in specific cultural redemption work. If we believe these slogans:

  • Because the church often makes marriage into an idol, we probably need to stop being so focused on marriage.
  • But if the church makes popular culture into an idol, then it’s still good for us to view popular culture in redemptive ways.

This collapses into self-contradiction when you realize this big truth:

The Bible commands both family-making and culture-making all at once in the Cultural Mandate. If you reject one gift as hopelessly idol-corrupted, then you must also reject the other gift.

Here’s what I wrote in 2018 (with some editing).

  1. Some popular culture and real-life people (including Christians) make marriage and family into an idol.
  2. Marriage is still normative for Christians.
  3. So is filling the Earth (with children).
  4. So is making and engaging culture (including popular culture). In fact, marriage and family and stewardship and cultural creation are all inexorably tied together in the Creator’s original command (Genesis 1:28).
  5. If you can’t do any of these for various reasons—say, because your family keeps you from culture participation or your missions work keeps you from starting a family—that’s a real and genuine exception. You’re no less valuable to our Savior and his Commission!
  6. Still, it’s dubious for us to go on about “idols.” We might as well go on at length about how “some Christians” (e.g. “people in my admittedly limited experience with the Church”) are making an idol out of either “cultural engagement” or “engaging popular culture.”
  7. Do some Christians make an idol out of popular culture engagement? Yes. I’ve seen it happen a lot. Is this the majority view among Christians? Probably not. Yet in either case, claiming “this isn’t normative”—either about marriage or about making or engaging culture—is simply (at best) a vague statement or (at worst) not a biblically accurate statement.

Final concessions

When we read DeYoung’s article or any other reminders about God’s good gifts, they will certainly raise many questions:

  1. What about that Church Back Home that did idolize marriage/children, and treated me as a pariah?
  2. How then should Christians address smaller, localized idolatries versus the greater idolatries of our culture?
  3. Should we try, in all our articles and materials about good gifts, to address every possible idolatry of those gifts?

The first two questions likely call for general biblical principles, applied in specific ways for specific situations.

However, for that third question, I heartily answer: no. That’s because no article or book or interaction can possibly account for everyone’s experience, struggles, or account of idol-abuses. It might seem easier in the information age to expect all the information at once. But not even a biblical chapter or book can fulfill such an expectation. Rather, we must rely on someone’s whole body of work (past, present, and future) for reassurance that they’re aware of the idolatrous risks, and can and will address them in other articles or interactions.

That’s why, despite DeYoung’s very casual tone and the brevity of his article, I overall trust him to offer balanced perspectives. He seems quite aware of potential abuses. In this exact article, however, he’s simply chosen not to address them. That’s not a failure of biblical teaching. It’s simply a decision to focus on one theme. That’s a creative decision. Other books and articles can offer different focuses.

I think we should show him grace. And let’s show grace to other writers who remind us about God’s good gifts without always giving “equal time” to warnings about the gifts’ corruptions. I’ve asked the same when I write about God’s good gift of imagination, without always devoting similar wordcount (in the same article or post, etc.) to imagination’s misuse. And so I request the same grace here. If necessary, we can have further discussions in the comments sections or on social media. After all, that’s another good gift in the Church, with all our gifts and warnings not to idolize these gifts: graceful interaction and presumed goodwill in all our relationships—marriage and otherwise.

  1. DeYoung mentions this in brief, but singleness / infertility exceptions aren’t his focus here. Those familiar with his whole body of work know he’s among the first to directly disclaim idolatrous expectations among evangelicals. ↩
  2. Among the criticisms, this one seems the oddest. DeYoung is literally subverting the “culture war” definition. He contrasts the typical definition, of waging battles in politics and government, and recommends we instead do peaceful things like having families and discipling children. I realize the term “culture war” may itself alarm some Christians. We have a host of images for “culture war” in our heads. However, if we cannot gaily use and subvert these terms, irrespective of our own trigger points, we’ve no hope of effective evangelism. This mission often requires subversion. For example, the apostle Paul could speak freely about “gods” plural in Acts 17, on his way to make a point about the one true God. If his audience included Christians who felt offended by him seeming to presume multiple gods did exist, then Paul’s evangelism would not have gotten far. ↩
  3. Some may say this approach to marriage is not the same as “forbidding.” I agree that it is not the same, but these are both still on a spectrum of legalism. At one end of the spectrum is the accusation, “This thing is an evil idol, and no Christian should be allowed to do it.” At the fainter, more-moderate end of the spectrum is the gentler reminder, “Well, it may not technically be wrong, but alas, Lots of People are making it into an idol. (And therefore you must see that thing as not especially good, and perhaps even a step away from the Very Serious marks of faith, such as monk-like chastity, or evangelism, or justice advocacy.)”Both these responses are on the spectrum of legalism. We’ve seen much the same when Christians don’t outright forbid, say, fantasy stories or certain foods/drinks, but just raise their eyebrows and let you know those things are just not very spiritual. ↩

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Local Blogger Gives ‘The Screwtape Letters’ A Modern Spin for Today’s Uncertain Times

If C. S. Lewis’s satirical demon Screwtape was around in today’s modern contemporary present, what would he say to us now?
E. Stephen Burnett on Apr 30, 2020 | 1 comment

My dear Wormwood,

It is unfortunate that, here in the 21st century, I cannot write you any more correspondence. You see, I actually absorbed you back in 1942 at the conclusion of letter thirty-one.

Your affectionate uncle,

Screwtape1

  1. P. S.: “Fortunately I have no doubt that many aspiring manufacturers of what the humans call ‘memes’ are well suited for the task of impersonating the otherwise inimitable writing style of the Lowerarchy.” ↩

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Lorehaven magazine, spring 2020

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