Nancy will discuss themes from her newest book Finding Truth during a "Ladies Banquet" at Grace Family Baptist Church. This time together includes a book table offering Nancy's work, plus a book signing afterward. Get directions and more details here.

Zach Dasher of the Monroe, Louisiana, "Duck Dynasty" clan will be substitute hosting for FRC's Tony Perkins.

Nancy is scheduled to appear around 5:32 pm eastern time today.

Here's a list of stations to listen locally in your area. And here's the main page for Family Research Council radio.

Click here to listen:

Many people today believe that Christians have a "blind faith"” that's based on feelings and not facts. But Nancy Pearcey returns to Family Talk to continue her explanation of how Christianity is the only worldview that is consistently logical. She also shows how no other worldview answers the questions that matter the most. Don't miss this powerful conclusion here on Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk.

For more on the Biblical basis for challenging blind "faith," see my Foreword to Nancy's book Finding Truth.

Here are the first few paragraphs:

It's not every day that an avowed atheist and devout hymn writer agree.

First, from famed atheist Richard Dawkins: "Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence."

Second, these words from the composer of a beloved hymn: "You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart." Pastor and musician Alfred Ackley wrote the hymn "He Lives" when challenged by the question "Why should I worship a dead Jew?" His answer is that Jesus is not dead but is the resurrected Messiah. How does Ackley know? "He lives within my heart."

What Dawkins condemns, Ackley approves. But note: both atheist and hymnist declare that "faith" is a matter of internal realities.

In contrast to this internalized definition of faith is the liberating call to "test everything" that infuses the Christian worldview and animates Finding Truth. In this vibrant mind-set, people are expected to think for themselves, question authority, examine evidence, and push for answers that make sense of our world.

Read more.

Our editor at large Nancy will be discussing her new book Finding Truth (you know, the book with that fantastic Foreword).

You can listen to today's broadcast here.

Join Nancy for a book-signing and presentation Thursday, April 21, 5:30-8:00 p.m. at Evangel Classical Christian School in Alabaster, Alabama.

Nancy and I will be speaking at a conference in the Houston area Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016.

Titled "Christ Culture Conference -- Finding Truth Now," the event will be held at Sienna Ranch Baptist Church in Missouri City, Texas, in the southwest Houston metro area.

Here's the schedule of the conference:

9:00-10:00 am -- Open doors/light refreshments

10:00-11:00 am -- J. Richard Pearcey presents: "Test Everything: What Every Atheist and Christian Needs to Know"

11:15 am-12:15 pm -- Nancy Pearcey presents: "Finding Truth: Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes"

Lunch Break: 12:15-1:15 pm (Lunch is provided by Sienna Ranch)

1:15-2:15 pm -- J. Richard Pearcey presents: "A Nation in Crisis: The Truth About Where We're Headed and What We Can Do About It"

2:30-3:30 pm -- Nancy Pearcey presents: "The Worldview Factor: Finding Sexual Healing in a Secular Age"

3:45-4:30 pm -- Book Signing: Nancy Pearcey available to sign books

Talks subject to change

This conference is free of charge, and there will be a book table.

For more information, please see this announcement from Sienna Ranch Baptist Church.

Here is the website for Vérité Totale.

For Nancy's official website, please go here.

We look forward to hearing from Nancy's Francophonic readers.

Meanwhile, congratulations, Nancy!

I am happy to announce that The Pearcey Report editor at large and Houston Baptist University Professof of Apologetics Nancy Pearcey is writing a new book for publisher David C. Cook. The new book will address life and sexuality issues and is the second volume of the two-book contract that she signed with the Colorado publisher.

The book will be based on plenary addresses Nancy has delivered in several venues, including L’Abri, Denver Seminary, New Orleans Baptist Seminary, Apologetics Canada, Southern Adventist University, Southern Evangelical Seminary, Evangelical Ministries to New Religions, and Igreja Batista da Lagoinha, reputed to be the largest church in South America.

Nancy has has also published on the subject of human sexuality in the Christian Post, and in national media outlets such as The Daily Caller ("CPAC, Homosexuality, and the Crack-Up of Conservatism) and The American Thinker ("Facts, Values, and the Redefinition of "Marriage").

She delivered the annual lecture for Denver Seminary's Gordon Lewis Center, speaking Oct. 2, 2015, on "Finding Truth: How the Bible Teaches Critical Thinking." For a luncheon the following day, she addressed to topic of "Arguing for Sexual Truth in a Secular Age." That evening she spoke at Horizon Christian Fellowship in Denver.

In addition, The Pearcey Report editor at large published two articles on John Piper’s website, Desiring God, each of which attracted several thousand hits: "One Strategy to Rule Them All: How to Answer Skeptics from Romans 1" (published Aug. 30) and "The Bait-and-Switch over Same-Sex 'Marriage'" (published Oct. 1).

In media, Pearcey was invited to appear on Breitbart News (Sept. 26) during the recent Values Voter Summit broadcast, and on various Christian programs: Gino Geraci on Crosswalk, John Clemens on the Clemens Report, David Wheaton on The Christian Worldview, and a podcast interview with Michael Easley, former president of Moody Bible Institute.

Nancy did print interviews that appeared in Apologetics for Parents and in ByFaith, in both the online and the print versions, which was titled "Man -- the Master Idol Maker: Pearcey Shares Principles from Romans 1." ByFaith is the "online magazine of the Presbyterian Church in America."

It was last March that Nancy published her new book, Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism & Other God Substitutes. The book was endorsed by leading Christian philosophers and apologists, including J.P. Moreland, Doug Groothuis, and Paul Copan; by popular apologists Lee Strobel, Ravi Zacharias, Greg Koukl, J. Warner Wallace, and Sean McDowell; by writers and artists such as John Erickson (Hank the Cowdog) and Doug TenNapel (Veggie Tales), and even entertainer Phil Robertson (Duck Dynasty). 

Publicity for the book has included some 50 media interviews, including radio interviews on the Janet Parshall Show, the Janet Mefford Show, the Frank Sontag Show, Stand to Reason, Campus Crusade (Cru), American Family Radio, and Family Talk hosted by Meg Meeker and Ryan Dobson. Print interviews have appeared in World magazine, the Christian Post (Napp Nazworth), Jonathan Merritt’s On Faith & Culture, ByFaith, the Gospel Coalition, and HBU's The Pillars. 

Nancy was featured in a cover story in Today’s Christian Living and over the past months was invited to give plenary talks on Finding Truth at several conferences, including Faith & Law (an organization of Capitol staffers in Washington, D.C.), Apologetics Canada, the Newport Foundation, New St. Andrews College, and the Association of Christian Classical Schools. She also addressed the apologetics class at Second Baptist Church in Houston. 

Reviews of Finding Truth have appeared, among other places, in Patheos, Challies.com, and Christianity Today. 

The apologetics organization Stand to Reason has led reading groups on Finding Truth, a Ratio Christi group has led a women's group through the book, churches report using it in their youth groups, a businessmen's group in Atlanta is currently studying the book, and Christian school teachers have contacted Nancy about using the book in their classes.

For additional information on Nancy and her work, please see the official Nancy Pearcey website.

Today Pearcey Report editor at large Nancy Pearcey will be a guest on a Focus on the Family Radio event at Asbury University, which is near Lexington, KY. 

And, by the way, you are invited to become part of this event. The Asbury U website states:

All members of the Asbury community — students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends — are invited to be part of the studio audience for the Daily Broadcast on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Co-host John Fuller and special guest Nancy Pearcey, a well-known author and professor of apologetics at Houston Baptist University, will join Daly for the episode, titled “Examining Worldviews to Find the Truth.”

The event is free, but due to limited seating, tickets are required. Tickets are available online at: asbury.edu/FoF2015.

To listen to Focus on the Family radio programs, please go here.

For info on Nancy's new book, Finding Truth: Unmasking Atheism, Secularism and Other God Substitutes, go here.

Nancy will appear on the Bob Dutko Show today at 1:40 pm Eastern Time (12:40 pm Central Time).

To listen live online, go here. The call-in number for the show is 1-877-828-2262.

For more information on Nancy's books, media events, and speaking schedule, please she her website www.nancypearcey.com.

Here is the page for Nancy's just-published book Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes.

Bethany Salgado reports at Campus Reform:

Students at the University of North Texas are outraged with the school’s chosen commencement speaker for next month’s graduation and more than 2,400 students have signed a petition to have him replaced.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) is set to speak at the ceremony in May, but students who have signed the petition argue that he is unfit to speak because they disagree with his political stances.

"Kimberly Williams, a student who signed the petition, wrote that, '[h]e is not the appropriate person to lead our young leaders into the world,' and continued on to list specific incidents of his alleged anti-feminism," Salgado writes.

Another student, Allyson Nophsker said, accordidng to Salgado, "I'm signing because I want to attend my own graduation ceremony, but cannot due to my moral disagreements with Abbot's [sic] policies."

"According to the Houston Chronicle, University President Neal Smatresk would not budge on the school’s selection," Salgado reports.

"He's a new governor, he's supportive of higher education. Why wouldn't we want to celebrate the success of our institution in its 125th year with him?" Smatresk said, according to Salgado.

Comment: If you'd like your college student to develop the ability to think independently and to acquire tools of sales resistance to any notion of "Don''t Think, Just Believe" (whatever your college professor tells you, for example) or "Don't Think, Just Graduate," you may want to check out Nancy's new book Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes.

Nancy wrote Finding Truth to counter the easy believism that characterizes so much of today's society -- whether in church, on campus, across media, in the boardroom, or at the voting booth.

Just off the top of my head, I can think of more than 2,400 college students who might benefit from exposure to such a book.

Nancy will join Chris Fabry of Moody Radio today at 2:00 pm Central Time.

"Bill O'Reilly said something years ago in a conversation about his Christian faith. When pushed against the wall about his belief, he said that Christianity is "true for me," host Chris Fabry states on the show website. 

"We talk with author and thinker Nancy Pearcey about truth and the principles you can use to unmask atheism, secularism and other God substitutes," Fabry says.

Topic: Nancy Pearcey on Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes.

To listen live and onlne, please go here. Here is where O'Reilly states, "It's true for me."

For more information on Nancy and her media schedule, please see her website at www.nancypearcey.com.

Nancy will discuss her new book Finding Truth on the Frank Sontag show at 99.5 KKLA radio.

Time: 6:30 CT, 4:30 PT

To listen live online, go here.

For more information on Nancy's work and schedule, please visit her website at www.nancypearcey.com.

Nancy will appear on "The Ride Home With John and Kathy" of 101.5 FM radio at 5:15 pm ET.

Here's the website. To listen online, please click here.

You can call the show at 800-320-TALK.

For information on Nancy and her new book, Finding Truth, please see her official website at www.nancypearcey.com.

Nancy will join host Kerby Anderson live on Point of View radio today from 1-2 pm central time (2-3 eastern).

This show can be heard nationally on 360 stations.

Listen live online here.

For more information on Nancy and her new book, Finding Truth, please see her website at www.nancypearcey.com.

Nancy will deliver remarks at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, from 6:30-7:30 pm on Wednesday, April 15.

Look for her at the weekly "Apologia" class held on the West Campus of Second Baptist (L-199 JHigh Room).

Nancy will be happy to sign copies of her new book, Finding Truth, which will be available for purchase.

Here is the Finding Truth press release.

Related
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Nancy will join host Craig Roberts on "Life!line" of KFAX AM 1100 at 8:10 pm eastern time, 7:10 pm central time, and 5:10 pm pacific time.

Here's the website. Listen live online here.

You can call the show at 1-888-367-5329.

For more information on Nancy's work, please see her website at NancyPearcey.com.

Her just published book is Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes.

To see the Finding Truth press release, go here.

Nancy will join radio host Kevin Boling on "Knowing the Truth" from 10:30-11:00 am, central time.

"Knowing the Truth" is a live radio call-in show that you can reach at 1-888-660-9535.

Here's the website. To listen live online, go here.

For more information, see Nancy's website at www.nancypearcey.com.

Here is the press release for Nancy's new book, Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes.

She is speaking at a conference hosted by the John Newport Foundation and the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute -- students, pastors, and leaders are invited. Sessions begin at 3 pm central time.

For more information, please see the conference website.

For more information on Nancy's media and speaking schedule, please see her new website.

You can tune in today at 3:00 pm central time as Nancy joins host Bill Feltner on "Pilgrim Radio." The name of the program is "His People."

Topic: Nancy's new book, Finding Truth.

Here's the website. To listen live online, go here.

For more information on Nancy's media and speaking schedule, please see her new website.

Update: Just learned that today's interview was recorded to air at a later date. We'll update the broadcast schedule when that information becomes available.

Nancy appears on KRKS 94.7 FM Crosswalk radio in Denver with host Gino Geraci today at 5:00 pm CT (4:00 pm MT).

Here is the KRKS website. To listen live online, go here.

For more information on Nancy's media and speaking schedule, please see her website.

Join Nancy on the Bill Martinez radio show this morning at 9:06 am central (10:06 am eastern).

According to the station website, the Martinez show is "now in over 260 markets."

To listen online, go here.

For additional information on Nancy's speaking and media schedule, please see her official website.

Here's the website. To listen online, go here.

"Stand to Reason" radio airs at 4 p.m. pacific time, 6 p.m. central time.

For more information on Nancy's speaking and media schedule, please see this page on her official website (www.nancypearcey.com).

Nancy will appear on KFUO radio in St. Louis today 2-3 p.m. central time. You can listen online here.

For more on Nancy's media and speaking schedule, please see her website.

Related
Finding Truth Press Release

Nancy is speaking in metro Vancouver today at a conference hosted by Apologetics Canada and Northview Community Church. Here's the conference website.

Copies of her new book Finding Truth will be available to purchase. For more info on the book, please see Nancy's official website at NancyPearcey.com.

Finding Truth is also available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or at your local bookstore.

For more on Nancy' upcoming media and speaking events, please see her schedule page at NancyPearcey.com.

Enjoy!

Related
Finding Truth Press Release

Nancy discusses her new book Finding Truth on the Janet Mefferd radio show 1-2 p.m. central time today. Call the show at 1-800-343-9282.

Here's the show website. Listen online here.

Are families, moms, and dads irreplaceable? Or is family merely a social construct that can be removed or changed at will to suit the agendas of those who wield political and cultural power at a particular moment in history?

To help answer questions like this, Pearcey Report editor at large and best-selling author Nancy Pearcey will appear on film in some 700-plus theaters nationwide this coming Tuesday, May 6, as part of a new documentary titled Irreplaceable.

Irreplaceable is a "special event in theaters nationwide from Focus on the Family," states Irreplaceablethemovie.com.

Nancy was interviewed for the film on the campus of Houston Baptist University, where she is a professor of apologetics and scholar in residence. Nancy has an honorary doctorate from Cairn University, and her next book is near ready to be sent to the publishers. Her previous books include Total Truth and Saving Leonardo. 

In this new film project, Nancy is joined by radio host Michael Medved, philosopher Roger Scruton, and other thought leaders, as host Tim Sisarich (in photo above) travels around the world to "find out whether the adage 'If the family fails, society fails' is actually true," states FathomEvents.com.

"In their view of the family, Americans have been deeply affected by what is called social contract theory, propounded by thinkers such as Locke and Rousseau," Nancy states in an interview at The Family Project.

"American conservatives tend to be influenced by Locke, while liberals think more along the lines of Rousseau. But in both cases, the heart of social contract theory is the idea that the ultimate starting point is the individual, the autonomous self," she explains.

On this view, however, "where then do social institutions, like the family, come from?" she asks. Answer: "They are products of choice."

Nancy argues that the "implications" of this view "are staggering. Social contract theory implies that we agree to be in relationships when they meet our needs. Relationships are essentially redefined as products of enlightened self interest. Thus if a marriage relationship is not meeting my needs, then I can choose to leave.  If the origin of marriage is individual choice, then marriage is subject to the whim of the individual."  

No wonder," she concludes, "marriage has become so fragile in our day."

In an article published at American Thinker and The Pearcey Report, I argue that marriage "has a normative meaning. It refers to the diversity of male and female, one man plus one woman, united in love, service, and commitment for life. Its merit derives not from tradition or from being a 'value preference,' a social construct, a belief system, or a crutch of the bourgeoisie."

Rather, "marriage should be respected in terms parallel to the concept of freedom and unalienable human rights endowed by the Creator. Marriage is thereby recognized as an unalienable societal structure embedded by the Creator into the architecture of creation and into the essence of human nature. People who smash marriage end up smashing themselves as well, as does anyone who defies gravity by jumping off a cliff without a parachute."

We would encourage you to consider seeing Irreplaceable.

To find a theater near you, go here. Using the website's interactive map, I counted 12 viewing locations in the Houston area.

And to buy tickets for this one-night event, go here. 

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The blog of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (where Al Mohler serves as president) asked our editor at large the following three questions:  

1) How should Christians prioritize personal holiness in their engagement of the art and entertainment of an unbelieving culture?

2) Is there such a thing as unredeemable art and entertainment?

3) What does your ideal Saturday morning look like?

In his endorsement of Saving Leonardo, Mohler said Nancy "has taken the complex sophistication of the best cultural analysis and laid it out for any person to grasp, enjoy, and use to live out their daily lives honoring Christ. An astounding accomplishment!"

Go here to see how Nancy answers these questions.

Our editor at large will appear on the Frank Sontag show today (KKLA) at 5 p.m. Pacific time (8 p.m. eastern, 7 central, 6 mountain), to discuss, among other items, issues raised by her WPost column "Should Secularism Be Taught in Public Schools?" 

You can listen online here. To call the show, dial 888-995-KKLA.

Pearcey Report editor at large Nancy Pearcey will be interviewed today by Leigh Bortins of Classical Conversations at 1 p.m. eastern time. 

Here's the link to listen live at BlogTalkRadio.

Pearcey Report editor at large Nancy Pearcey will be speaking this Friday at Dallas Baptist University on her book Saving Leonardo. 

The event is part of a lecture series organized by David Naugle, author of Worldview: The History of a Concept.  If you are in the Dallas area, come by.  The lectures are held at Rogers Theater, Pilgrim chapel, at 12 noon.   

For more information, click here.

Note also that editor and publisher J. Richard Pearcey and Nancy Pearcey are developing a series of team-taught worldview seminars for universities, churches, and other venues. Further announcements on this new development will appear on The Pearcey Report.

If such events are of interest to you, please contact us at pearcey@thpearceyreport.com.

Excerpt from Saving Leonardo : 

In our own day, the evolutionary worldview has filtered down through all levels of society. In 2005 the London Zoo offered a provocative exhibit with a sign that read: “Warning: Humans in their Natural Environment.” The exhibit featured men and women dressed in bathing suits with green fig leaves attached.

The humans cavorted, posed on the rocks, and pretended to groom like baboons, picking parasites out of one another’s hair. Several children were heard asking, “Why are there people in there?” That’s exactly the question the zoo was hoping to spark, a spokeswoman replied: “Seeing people in a different environment, among other animals . . . teaches members of the public that the human is just another primate.”

What are the implications of seeing humans as “just another primate”? Even Hollywood actresses know the answer to that question. In an interview, Scarlett Johansson was once asked to respond to rumors that she had a reputation for being sexually promiscuous.

Her reply was unfiltered naturalism: Humans are merely biological organisms and therefore the practice of monogamy -- being sexually faithful to one person -- is just not natural. “I do think on some basic level we are animals,” Johansson said, “and by instinct we kind of breed accordingly.”

Actress Sienna Miller was more caustic. “Monogamy is . . . an overrated virtue,” she told Rolling Stone, “because, let’s face it, we’re f------ animals.”

Obviously, Darwinian evolution is not just a scientific theory. It has worldview implications that percolate from classic literature down to Hollywood and into our living rooms.

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Readers of The Pearcey Report may be interested know that I will be speaking at the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature on the campus of Houston Baptist University on Friday at 2:15. My talk draws on themes from Saving Leonardo and is titled, "Recovering Our Virtue: Does Dickens Succeed in Overcoming the Fact/Value Split in Hard Times?"

In the novel Hard Times Dickens is doing battle with philosophies like empiricism and utilitarianism, which had come to dominate the public sphere of politics and economics. Writing at the height of the industrial revolution, Dickens realized that the impact of these philosophies was reductionistic and dehumanizing, and he raises the question: In an age where Truth has been identified solely with empirical fact, what is the truth status of Goodness and Beauty?

Dickens knew that the outstanding philosopher of utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill, had undergone a personal crisis (related in Saving Leonardo). He recasts Mill's story as the plot line in the novel.

Here is a brief preview of my remarks:

When John Stuart Mill was born, his father was close friends with Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism. They decided to turn the boy into a kind of experiment: They would educate him from a young age to become a prophet for their utilitarian creed.

And it worked. As a young man, Mill was brilliant. He was writing for professional journals, he had founded several intellectual societies, and he was heralded as the crown prince of an influential utilitarian movement in politics.

But at the age of twenty, Mill suffered a mental crisis. As he wrote in his Autobiography, it came crashing down on him that he had been turned into little more than a "reasoning machine." He felt he had been robbed of entire dimensions of life.

So intense was Mill's depression that he compared himself with someone on the threshold of a religious conversion. Yet he did not find a resolution to his crisis in religion. Instead, he found it in poetry. His depression lifted when he discovered the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the other Romantics.

Now, however, he was faced with a dilemma. The discovery of poetry and beauty had saved his life. But his philosophy did not allow for any form of truth except the empirical and the quanitfiable.

How would Mill resolve the conflict?

And how would Dickens resolve the conflict in his fictional treatment of the same issues? Most importantly, how can we stand against the inhumane reductionism and scientism of our own age and assert once again that Goodness and Beauty are rooted in Truth?

According to the conference website, online registration "is $85 per professional ($95 at the door) or $55 per graduate student ($65 at the door) and includes the Friday dinner meal. In addition, all registrants must be current members of Conference on Christianity and Literature. The membership rates are $35 per year or $60 for two years."

On the topic of conferences, Rick and I are excited to announce that we are developing plans for conferences where together we address the critical challenges of our day, in light of the liberating and reality-oriented principles set forth in the Judeo-Christian worldview. Stayed tuned for updates on this initiative.

Nancy was recently interviewed by Jeremy Dys of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia (FPCWV), and a podcast of the interview is now posted online.

"The next big push in sexual orientation rights is for transgender people. There's an idea that one's physical body has nothing whatsoever to do with who a person really is," states FPCWV. Pearcey Report Editor at Large and HBU Prof. Nancy Pearcey argues "that affirming the transgender lifestyle is damaging to a person's self-image. She talks about how our view of our physical body is linked to our worldview and, consequently, the laws we advocate for."

The interview centers on Nancy's article, "Transgender Politics vs. the Facts of Life," recently published in The Pearcey Report.

Perhaps also of interest to readers is my article "The Revolt of Intelligence Against 'Marriage Equality,'" published at American Thinker and The Pearcey Report.

Among other points, this article examines how the push for "marriage equality" in reality leads to "'marriage elasticity,' with the ultimate goal of 'marriage extinction'." The stated views of a leading lesbian journalist-activist on these matters is most revealing.

On March 29, we published at Pro-Existence Nancy's remarks, "Memo to Conservatives: Accepting Homosex 'Marriage' Opens Door to 'Unlimited Statism'."

It's terrific to report that her observations now appear in Portuguese at this website in Brazil.

Thank you (obridado!) Jorge Alberto for translating Nancy's column -- and a hat tip to our São Paulo and Mackenzie University friend Mauro Meister for posting on Facebook.

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Pearcey Report editor at large Nancy Pearcey will be among the keynote speakers at the "One True God?" conference April 11-13 in the metro area of Denver, Colorado.

Also keynoting are Doug Groothuis from Denver Seminary, Craig Hazen of Biola University, and James Bjornstad, professor of philosophy at Cedarville College.

"Evening sessions are free to the public. The three day conference is $25," states the conference website.

Nancy will be speaking April 12, Friday morning and Friday evening (no charge!). You can register online by clicking here.

Editor's note: While the Supreme Court heard arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California's Prop 8 this week, apologists for homosexual "marriage" ask how such an arrangement poses any harm to society. In fact, very much is at stake, and negatively so, for the individual person and for society at large, as Nancy Pearcey demonstrates below, in remarks published in 2011, prior to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

The conservative coalition has always been unstable. And homosexuality may be the issue on which it shatters.

Several groups have announced that they will boycott next month’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) because of its decision to invite the pro-homosexual activist group GOProud to participate.

Dissenting groups include the Family Research Council, Concerned Women of America, The American Principles Project, American Values, the Center for Military Readiness, Liberty Counsel, and the National Organization for Marriage.

Not all conservatives support the boycott. At Hot Air, Ed Morrissey opines that by pulling out, social conservatives create the perception "that they don’t even want to debate their position on homosexuality."

At Commentary, Peter Wehner says that these groups could give the impression "that they do not have the arguments needed to win on the merits."

Unfortunately, too many Americans already have that impression -- especially younger voters. A 2009 Pew study found that 58 percent of young adults 18 to 29 years old support same-sex "marriage," compared to 39 percent of the population nationwide.

By voting with their feet, however, social conservatives are not giving up, they are taking a public stand -- which creates a forum to make their case more effectively. They should take this opportunity to argue that the practice of homosexuality has a negative impact not just on the family but also on individuals -- that it expresses a profound disrespect for a person’s biological identity.

Biologically, physiologically, males and females are clearly counterparts to one another. The male sexual and reproductive anatomy is obviously designed for a relationship with a female, and vice versa.

Homosexual practice thus requires individuals to contradict their own biology. It disconnects a person’s sexuality from his or her biological identity as male or female -- which exerts a self-alienating and fragmenting effect on the human personality.

And the logic of alienation will not stop there. Already the acceptance of same-sex relationships is metastasizing into a postmodern notion of sexuality as fluid and changing over time.

For example, an article in the Utne Reader highlights individuals who came out of the closet as homosexual, but were later attracted to heterosexual relationships again. The article quotes psychotherapist Bret Johnson explaining that people today "don’t want to fit into any boxes -- not gay, straight, lesbian, or bisexual ones." Instead "they want to be free to change their minds."

What we’re seeing, Johnson concludes, is "a challenge to the old, modernist way of thinking 'This is who I am, period' and a movement toward a postmodern version, 'This is who I am right now.'"

In other words, yesterday I was straight, today I may be homosexual, and tomorrow I could be bisexual. One’s psychosexual identity is said to be in constant flux.

In the past, homosexuals employed the defense that they were born that way. But now they are beginning to embrace the postmodern idea that you can be anything you want to be along a sexual continuum.

This contradicts conservatism at its philosophical core. Conservatism bases human rights on the recognition that there are certain non-negotiable givens in human nature, prior to the state, which the state is obligated to respect.

As political scientist Philippe Beneton explains, in conservatism, equality "is grounded in the recognition of what is human." By contrast, in liberalism, equality "is founded on the claim that nothing is specifically human" -- that human nature itself is a social construction, something we make up as we go along, including our psychosexual identity.

In that case, however, there is nothing in the individual that is given, which the state is therefore obligated to respect. Liberalism undermines the basis for inalienable human rights.

The CPAC walkout is a chance to highlight what is at stake. Jesse Hathaway at NewsReal Blog defends CPAC, saying, "I’m a bit fuzzy on why it matters what a person does in the privacy of his or her bedroom, as long as it doesn’t affect me."

But it does affect him -- and everyone else. Every social practice is the expression of fundamental assumptions about what it means to be human. When a society accepts and approves the practice, it implicitly commits itself to the worldview that supports it -- all the more so if the practice is enshrined in law.

If America accepts practices such as same-sex "marriage," in the process it will absorb the accompanying worldview -- the redefinition of human personhood as a purely social construction -- which opens the door to unlimited statism, because there is no human nature that an oppressive state could possibly offend.

Those who resist will be compelled by the state to go along, or face penalties for "discrimination."

Margaret Thatcher used to say, "First you win the argument, then you win the vote." Instead of caving on this issue, the leaders of CPAC should be vigorously advancing the core arguments of conservatism. Not just to win the vote but to preserve the foundation of the American republic.

Note: This column first appeared in The Daily Caller.

Related
The Revolt of Intelligence Against "Marriage Equality"  
Memo to Supreme Court: Who Respects the Human Body? Not Homosexuals
Rosie O'Donnell's Oppressive Coat
Coulter on "Faggot" Easy to Defend

Join best-selling author and professor Nancy Pearcey for a "full year (two semesters) of intensive study in worldview apologetics to ground students in the knowledge and skills needed to think critically about secular worldviews and apply a liberating Christian perspective in their studies, their professions, and across the whole of life," announces the Francis Schaeffer Center for Worldview and Culture at Houston Baptist University.

Out of the Box, Into the World: In the Fall 2013, students can take "Worldview Apologetics: 'Testing Everything' with C.S. Lewis & Francis Schaeffer."

Hello Campus, Good-Bye God: In the Spring 2014, students can take "Worldview Apologetics: Surviving and Thriving at the University."

For contact information and course descriptions, read the Francis Schaeffer Center announcement here.

Pearcey Report editor at large and HBU professor Nancy Pearcey will be speaking twice and autographing books this Friday, November 30, at the Center for Faith and Culture, which is housed on the campus of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Nancy will discuss politics and worldview on "Connecting Faith." Listen online here. 12 noon, central time.

A hamfisted Juan Williams said Ann Romney during her RNC speech looked like a "corporate wife," which led one of my FB friends to ask how my "beautiful corporate wife" Nancy "is doing."

My response:

She's having her nails done, back by pool no. 2., which is next to the tennis courts and outdoor theatre.

Tomorrow, we join Clint Eastwood at the "Make My Day" self-improvement center for more target practice.

Saturday, we're over at the Kants to demolish a few tacky intellectual slums . . . maybe replace them with groundwork for a shining city on a hill.

Ahem, Williams wasn't guilty of imposing upon Mrs. Romney rather outworn stereotypes about the "rich," blondes, faithful mothers, and life outside of Template Obamaville, was he?

Surely, everybody knows that blondes have more fun because they have more brains.

We have added Houston Baptist University to The Pearcey Report list of resources.

Nancy has recently accepted an HBU appointment as a Scholar in Residence.

As we noted previously, she will join the faculty as a full professor, and "her duties will include teaching, research and writing, and helping to create a new MA program in Apologetics."

Nancy and I tendered our resignations to Rivendell Sanctuary yesterday. What follows is from the letter of resignation, submitted to CEO Bobby Norment:

We are writing to let you know that our family is moving to Houston, Texas, so that Nancy can assume a new appointment as Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University. As a full professor, her duties will include teaching, research & writing, and helping to create a new MA program in Apologetics. Rick is pursuing exciting opportunities that would be premature to announce at this time. 

John Mark Reynolds of the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University was recently announced as the soon-to-be new Provost of HBU.

Here's more news: Today, Nancy and I depart for a series of lectures at the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Also, there is the recent publication of Darrow Miller's important new book, Emancipating the World: A Christian Response to Radical Islam and Fundamentalist Atheism. 

I was honored to write the Foreword, which you can read here.

Join Nancy at KKLM on the Frank Pastore show. The broadcast airs at 7 pm eastern time (6 pm central, 4 pm Pacific).

To listen online, go here.

Update
Pearceys Resign From Rivendell Sanctuary

The following list of 15 websites is an indication of how The Pearcey Report is performing on the internet, according to ratings provided by Alexa.

Although these results are only a snapshot of "World" and "U.S." rankings from today, and are results that include a mix of different kinds of websites (news, think tank, magazine, ministry, etc.), we thought it might be a kick to see how we're doing when compared with other sites you may come across on the web.

In the top tier of websites (1-5) are Drudge, WorldNetDaily, Rush Limbaugh, Human Events, and World magazine.

In the second tier of websites (6-10), we see Challies, Family Research Council, The Pearcey Report, Philadelphia Biblical University, and Eagle Forum.

In the last tier of websites (11-15), we find BreakPoint, Alliance Defense Fund, Summit Ministries, Rivendell Sanctuary, and Mark Steyn.

Website                                                  World                      U.S.
1. Drudge Report                                       411                         81
2. WorldNetDaily                                    2,689                       603
3. Rush Limbaugh                                   6,287                    1,695
4. Human Events                                  12,637                    2,424
5. World magazine                               65,398                  12,338
6. Challies                                               76,954                  19,244
7. Family Research Council                202,135                 33,746
8. The Pearcey Report                        314,425                  56,993
9. Philadelphia Biblical University    496,330                  82,526
10. Eagle Forum                                   457,296               105,687
11. Breakpoint                                      528,810               111,345
12. Alliance Defense Fund                  671,923               136,418
13. Summit Ministries                         505,484               147,103
14. Rivendell Sanctuary                       796,285               186,484
15. Mark Steyn                                      937,350               261,966

Nancy will be interviewed by Phyllis Schlafly on "Eagle Forum Live" tomorrow morning.

Time: 11-12 am (central standard time)

To find a local station, please go here.

To listen live online, please go here.

A longtime friend of mine asked me the other day, "What's it like to be married to a famous person?"

"You'll have to ask Nancy," I replied.

Don't miss musician, composer, and writer Terry Yount's thoughtful review of Saving Leonardo, published on the website of Ligonier Ministries.

Having become aware of Nancy Pearcey's response to Ryan Lizza's New Yorker hit piece on Michele Bachmann, Red State editor Erick Erickson asks, "Is Ryan Lizza an Idiot or Willfully Distorting Christian Theology?"

Related
Bachmann, Schaeffer, Pearcey, & Dominionism Paranoia 
Cal State Prof: Michele Bachmann a Scary Dominionist?

On the question of that anti-Bachmann hit piece in the New Yorker, don't miss this from philosopher Douglas Groothuis:

Those who tar and feather "dominionists" are confusing their readers by conflating Rushdoony's reconstructionism with the thinking of Schaeffer and Pearcey. Worse yet, Lizza and company may believe that any Christian influence in politics is dangerous and un-American. If so, they should reread and ponder the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom and the freedom of speech. Christians are free to be active members in the public square -- along with those of other religions or none. Erecting "dominionist" straw men does nothing to advance this noble cause of freedom.

For more on this, please see, "Francis Schaeffer Expert Offers Facts on Michele Bachmann, Francis Schaeffer, and Dominionism," at Uncommon Descent.

Related
Cal State Prof: Michele Bachmann a Scary Dominionist?
Dangerous Influences: The New Yorker, Michele Bachmann, and Me

Listen here live at 2:30 central time today. Here's the main page for "Point of View" radio.

For background information, you may want to read "Dangerous Influences: The New Yorker, Michele Bachmann, and Me."

Jesse Mullins offers an in-depth profile of Nancy Pearcey -- with observations from columnist David Limbaugh, World magazine's Marvin Olasky, "Hank the Cowdog" mega-author John Erickson, and more.

Fans and friends of Nancy should really enjoy this in-depth, 4,000-word-plus profile.

It will require courage and a commitment to free-thinking, but disciples of sheltered ideological, formerly mainstream media outlets such as the New Yorker may also want to turn in here for a far more fair and balanced look at the life and times and thinking of my favorite editor at large of The Pearcey Report. 

And not just Nancy because of her more than 100,000-copies selling book Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity ("Wonderful" book, says Bachmann), but also Francis Schaeffer because of his work, including the 10-part film series How Should We Then Live? and his book A Christian Manifesto.

Equally as dangerous as Total Truth, I would suggest, and perhaps even more so, is Nancy's new book Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning. I hope Michele and Marcus Bachmann put this new rascal on their reading and thinking list. But don't let the teenagers get ahold of it!

So who is Nancy? Not mentioned in the New Yorker is that Bachmann once told me, by phone, when Bachmann was a Minnesota state senator and considering a run for Congress, that she had two heroes: "Ann Coulter and Nancy Pearcey."

Nancy is a former agnostic, who, like me, embraces critical thinking as a way of life. This too is, perhaps to some, seen as dangerous and even subversive. To us, it's simply being human and taking responsibility for one's ideas and one's choices in life. I think Camus might have liked that. I like Camus; he played soccer, like me.

For some reason, the so-called elite establishments in politics and media seem frightfully worried about the resurgence of a people who can live and think for themselves.

We're not afraid of the big questions, and we're not bigoted toward possible rational answers to the big questions, even if, as the Founding Fathers noticed, the possible answers involve taking seriously the subversive and liberating influence of the Creator.

This divine subversion, as you may recall, upset the reactionary, non-critical-thinking establishment of its own day. Imagine, those extremist tea-partiers actually had the audacity to write it up in the Declaration of Independence (is that document still legal in New Yorker land?). By the way, here is the, sadly, all-too-predictable New Yorker hit piece on Bachmann. Enjoy!

Rivendell Sanctuary faculty member Nancy Pearcey will join Hank Hanegraaff tomorrow on his "Bible Answer Man" radio program.

Listen here at 6 pm Eastern for a discussion of "Sex, Lies, and Secularism" in relation to Nancy's new book Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning. 

And given that a lengthy, snarky New Yorker article on Michele Bachmann is now quoting Bachmann as saying Nancy's book Total Truth is "wonderful," don't be surprised if a little politics enters into the discussion, as well.

Update
Pearceys Resign From Rivendell Sanctuary

The Valley Girl Apologist explains all, including what every pastor needs to do.

Day of Discovery will air "What Jesus Said About Life" tomorrow July 31 at 7:30 a.m. eastern and pacific (6:30 a.m. central and mountain time).

Click here to find a listing of local station air times. Here is a link for the program itself.

Update
Pearceys Resign From Rivendell Sanctuary