Ryan T. Anderson and the Task Ahead

Ryan T. Anderson gave an address at the Alliance Defending Freedom banquet last Friday night. I happened to be teaching at that conference, and had the privilege of having dinner with Ryan and a few other friends. Alas, my schedule had me leaving before his banquet address. Helpfully, First Things has published his remarks in their entirety for you to digest. 

I want to call attention just to this bit: 

We should be as concerned about what the FOX TV show Glee has done to corrupt a young generation as we are about anything the Court has done. But what is the Christian alternative to Glee? We need to encourage those with vocations in the artistic realm to continue their important work. 

It’s not that we need fewer natural law philosophers, or appellate litigators; it’s that we need more of everything. Christians need to be at the forefront of everything. At one point Christians were shaping culture—because God became a man, not just a mind. The best literature, the best art, the best music—for over a thousand years—was all produced by Christians: Shakespeare, Dante and Chaucer; Palestrina, Bach and Beethoven. Who do we have today?

Christians should be at the forefront of every sphere of human life, embodying excellence in all that they do, bringing glory to God in every domain. Including law and philosophy.

Yes. A thousand times yes. This is partly why Jay and I are launching Dead Reckoning as a web video series this fall. Christians are doing far too little of this sort of thing.

If you believe Ryan's message, as I do, if you want to see more Christians engaged in the public squares of our culture, then consider supporting Dead Reckoning. This is a hobby project for both of us, but a gigantically time-consuming hobby project. We're fairly close to achieving our start-up overhead costs, and your contribution will currently be matched.