John Stonestreet – Page 3

Inoculating Your Children from Socialism: Guest Column

Sep 2, 2026John StonestreetCurrent EventsCommunism, Socialism

According to a 2025 survey, 62% of Americans under 40 have a positive view of socialism or communism. Where did this come from, and what should be done? That’s the question we asked Eric Patterson, president of the Victims of Communism Museum and Memorial Foundation,

We have a problem with both “practical socialism” and “ideological socialism.” We’ve raised a generation of “practical socialists,” meaning that their every need and desire has been provided for by an external authority with apparently no personal cost. Why shouldn’t this support extend into adulthood?

On the ideological side, many of us weren’t paying attention when the media and public education radically changed the narrative taught in our schools. No more the hard-fought American Dream. Instead, they were taught that our history is one of oppressors (usually white and Christian or Jewish) grinding the oppressed. Thus, we need a radical restructuring of American institutions.

Ideas have consequences. Good ideas have good consequences, so re-centering on gratitude, work and value creation, rightful patriotism, and other key themes can help.

The first step is to cultivate gratitude rather than entitlement in the next generation. This begins in the home with how we teach our children to say thank you, show respect to teachers and elders, and recognize the blessings of daily life in America—food on the table, safety, freedom to fully practice our faith, and opportunity for advancement. These are privileges that millions around the world are denied. We should not take them for granted.

Tied to this, is a generation that deeply distrusts authority. Some of this is the result of failures by older generations—broken homes, public scandals, and a culture that too often mocks or dismisses the role of public officials, police, and even parents. Think, how many times have our kids heard, “all politicians are corrupt” or the police mocked as “po-po” or donut-lovers?

When legitimate authority and public service is undermined at home and in the public square, it leaves a vacuum that radical ideologies are eager to fill. By the time kids arrive in college, they’re primed to see America’s story not as one of opportunity and progress but as a litany of oppression and injustice. How we model gratitude and respect for authority—both in word and deed—matters more than ever.

We must also be mindful of what our young people consume—in books and the boundless online content. “Content” spans everything from more ideological school textbooks and Wikipedia articles to viral TikTok videos and Instagram feeds. Much of this material shapes their worldview more powerfully than any classroom lesson.

Limiting exposure to harmful or hedonistic material is only part of the equation; we must also provide access to uplifting stories and ideas that reinforce the values we hope to see flourish. Carmen Agra Deedy’s The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet and Carina Felina are children’s books that are analogies of the communism that has decimated her native Cuba.

At the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, we’ve curated an Amazon page of appropriate materials for different age groups and curricula for elementary and middle school families and schools that tells stories of courage, honesty, and sacrifice in contrast with the evils of communism.

Another vital element is the cultivation of rightful patriotism, which C.S. Lewis says stems from an appropriate love of home. Patriotism doesn’t mean ignoring our nation’s shortcomings. Rather, it means an honest pride in the American story—a story that, while imperfect, is remarkable for its steady march toward greater freedom and equality.

One of the best ways to cultivate a love of America is by speaking with recent immigrants. My family has heard me quiz taxi drivers: Afghans, Ethiopians, Ukrainians, Pakistanis, Somalis, and others who fled the devastation of their homelands and who deeply appreciate the freedoms and opportunities the U.S. offers.

A fourth element that deserves attention is the value of work. For too many young people, the experience of holding a job, earning a paycheck, and learning to manage money is delayed or missing entirely. Just a few years ago, it was common for teenagers to take on summer jobs, mow lawns, babysit, or work in local stores. Their work created value, and they were compensated for that value. Learning the value of a dollar, saving up for something special, and making decisions about spending and giving are all part of growing into a responsible citizen.

Finally, we must not neglect the role of religious faith in the shaping of character. Martin Luther King, Jr. rightly observed that communism is incompatible with Christianity because it is “secular, atheistic, and materialistic.” Our Judeo-Christian heritage teaches the opposite. It instills a sense of human worth, dignity, and responsibility for family and neighbors. It teaches that every person is created in the image of God, deserving of respect and compassion.

By teaching children about faith, gratitude, rightful patriotism, and the value of work, we instill in them a sense of purpose and reality that can withstand the destructive ideologies of this civilizational moment.

That was Eric Patterson, president of the Victims of Communism Museum and Memorial Foundation, Learn more about their work at vocmuseum.org.

Reinventing the Sabbath: Guest Column

Aug 26, 2026John StonestreetCultureChristianity, Culture, Sabbath

A recent article by science writer Elizabeth Svoboda at the Wall Street Journal argued that an occasional 24-hour break is good for mind and body. As she wrote:

These micro-retreats have proven so energizing that I now take a few each year—and science suggests such hiatuses, despite their brief duration, can renew enthusiasm and relieve mental exhaustion in potent ways. They’re a welcome temporary escape from a chaotic and overclocked world.

This is not about getting away from reality, she explained, but about getting into a better head space. Because modern work involves jumping from one task to another without time to properly focus, a regular break is a simple, constructive way to improve life.

Christians and Jews might think, “Congrats! You’ve invented the Sabbath!” Thousands of years ago, before anyone had done studies on rest and brain activity, Moses told God’s people to take off one day in every seven. In fact, secular takes on life practices and rituals often reflect truths the Bible has always proclaimed.

Svoboda learned to prize rest and time away as a mom with small kids. But everyone needs rest. This is especially difficult for Americans, who can have trouble taking vacation, at least compared to our European counterparts. We might blame our bosses, but even when given the chance, Americans aren’t good at rest.

As Jay Dixit wrote in an article a few years ago, “We’re Doing Downtime Wrong,” the habit of scrolling or streaming to “relax” still requires the brain to focus, even if on irrelevant things. By contrast, Dixit noted, studies suggest that the “imagination network” of the brain is as essential as the “task-positive” network.

That’s why Archimedes’ Eureka moment came to him when he was sitting in the bath, and why Newton formulated the law of gravity when he saw an apple fall in an orchard. The epiphanies that seem to bubble up from nowhere when your mind is wandering are actually products of the imagination network.

Though the average working American still works a roughly 40-hour work week, there is far less shut-off time. Our phones function more like our computers, keeping us tethered to work at all hours. In other words, the rhythm of constant activity in our culture—even while lying on the couch or sitting on a beach—is not the rest we read about in Scripture.

In his book 24/6: A Prescription for a Happier, Healthier Life, physician Matthew Sleeth noted that the only one of the Ten Commandments to begin with the word “remember” is the one about the Sabbath. As Sleeth put it, “It’s almost as if God knew we would forget.” If we do remember, we often think of the Sabbath as a burden instead of a gift. But as Jesus said, man was not made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath was made for man.

And that is because God is for us, not against us. Remember the Sabbath, not to follow a rule but to receive one of God’s gift to His creation. In doing so, we remember our frailty, and we can be refreshed by hearing His voice and better following His calling for our lives.

Existential Crisis and the Antidote: Guest Column

Aug 19, 2026John StonestreetChristianityChristianity

A 2026 study found that one-third of Americans are currently experiencing an existential crisis of meaning, including 39% of Millennials and an alarming 52% of Gen Z.

Today on Breakpoint, author and professor Dr. Thaddeus Williams has some thoughts on what’s causing the catastrophic loss of meaning today and how the person of Jesus Christ provides what the world needs most.

If we want to speak meaning into our cultural moment, with its epidemic levels of felt meaninglessness, let us run a short thought experiment.

Paul tells us in Colossians 1:16 that all things were created both by Jesus and for Jesus. In Romans 11:36 we see that from Christ and through Christ and to Christ are all things, to whom all glory is due. Theologian Colin Gunton notes that “It is not therefore something which holds things together, but someone,” and that Someone is Jesus.

In our thought experiment let us assume for a moment that the resurrected Person of Jesus is not the ultimate focal point of meaning, what then?

Dr. Loyal Rue, an avowed atheist, helps us run the experiment. In a famous lecture called “The Noble Lie” delivered to the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Rue offers us three possibilities for finding meaning. First, each individual can become the centerpoint of meaning for his own universe of personal fulfillment. Rue calls this “the madhouse option,” which abandons all hope for social cohesion. Second, the State can make itself the centerpoint of meaning in an otherwise meaningless cosmos. Rue calls this “the totalitarian option” where all individuality and freedom are lost. Third, we can say that the universe has meaning even though it doesn’t. Rue calls this “the Noble Lie,” which “deceives us, tricks us, compels us beyond self-interest.” In Rue’s bleak trilemma, either the Me destroys the We, the We destroys the Me, or the Lie saves them both, but only by destroying the Truth. (Rue himself defends option three, since “without such lies we cannot live.”) Atheist Alex Rosenberg offers a fourth possibility in the concluding line of his book, The Atheist’s Guide to Reality: “Take Prozac or your favorite serotonin reuptake inhibitor, and keep taking them till they kick in.”

So take your pick: Would you rather live in Rosenberg’s Pharmacy of chemically-induced meaning, Rue’s Church of the Noble Lie, the totalitarian’s Prison of State-imposed meaning, or the relativist’s Madhouse of self-made meaning?

Thankfully, the thought experiment fails. Those are not our only options. Jesus is, in fact, the Telos, the Goal, the focal point where all lines converge and find enduring purpose.

In the era before the seventeenth century, before Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, a fixation on meaning questions often left our understanding of the material world dragging woefully behind. In the era following the Scientific Revolution, we have come to understand the mechanics of the universe far greater than ever before. Yet it appears more meaningless to us than ever. We know more and more about matter but less and less about why matter matters.

Such close-minded materialism has ushered us into a kind of teleological Dark Ages. We have become just as naïve about the meaning of the universe as the medieval alchemist was about the mechanics of the universe. But the meaning void left swirling at the center of a materialist’s cosmos will be filled with something. The human heart, like nature, abhors a vacuum.

To our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers who are experiencing that existential crisis, we must show them a Grand Telos beyond Dr. Loyal Rue’s madhouse, totalitarian nightmares, and noble lies, a meaning infinitely more meaningful than Alex Rosenberg’s pharmaceutical illusions. We must point them not to an impersonal Something but to the Personal Someone by whom, through whom, and for whom they exist. Bold and clear evangelism—pointing to the resurrected Jesus as the only one big enough to save us from sin and satisfy our deepest existential longings—is precisely what our increasingly nihilistic age needs. Tell someone about Him today.

For more on how the Person of Christ speaks to the meaning crisis of this cultural moment, see the latest book by Dr. Thaddeus Williams, Reflecting the Son: How to Mirror Jesus.