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Articles by Maria Keffler
Libby Emmons, Ron Estes, Maria Keffler, Arielle Del Turco, Dr. Ben Carson
On today’s program: Libby Emmons, Editor-in-Chief for The Post Millennial, offers insight into the motivation behind the shooter who attacked the Catholic School children in Minneapolis. Ron Estes, U.S. Representative for Kansas’s 4th District, reflects on how his staff fell victim to violence and contemplates the next steps for protecting Washington, DC.
Stop Transgender Identification from Breaking Your Family
The announcement “I’m trans” can lob a grenade into the family, throwing everyone into chaos. Transgender identification strains relationships with siblings and extended family members and drives a wedge between those who applaud it and those who don’t. Young siblings of trans-identified kids have specific and special needs that parents must recognize. In addition, separated parents may experience a harder time working together on the issue—if they even want to.
Parents, You Aren’t Wrong About the Dangers of Transitioning
In April, Hilary Cass’s medical review of the care that transgender-identified adolescents receive via the U.K’s National Health Service revealed what many already suspected: children don’t have the capacity to make responsible long-term decisions, and no high-quality evidence supports the effectiveness of gender transition.
The Therapeutic Model Of Childrearing Is Destroying Kids' Lives
When undergraduates came through university education programs 30 years ago, professors drubbed into teacher candidates the importance of fostering in their students an internal locus of control, or the belief that one’s choices and actions drive one’s outcomes: If I choose not to do my homework, my grades will suffer because of my poor decision.
At Age 80, The Screwtape Letters’ Value Endures
C. S. Lewis worried his book The Screwtape Letters would be quietly banished “toward spare bedrooms, there to live a life of undisturbed tranquility.” But the book sold well, and in the 80 years since it was published, the series of letters from a senior devil Screwtape to his underling Wormwood remains a regular on Christian bestseller lists. The idea for The Screwtape Letters came to Lewis while he was sitting in church.
Stop Throwing Pastors Under the Bus
I’ve noticed an increasingly prevalent genre of online evangelical Christian commentary in which pastors are shamed because they’re insufficiently vocal about this or that outrage or not militant enough in the culture war. Increasingly, it seems, there’s a lot of social media mileage in throwing pastors under the bus.
How to Do Faithful Work at a Thankless Job
“I can’t wait to go home already,” groaned my coworker. She and I had just spent a hectic two hours taking orders from waves of difficult customers. We were working in the drive-through at a local fast-food restaurant and were sizzling in the heat like the filets in the kitchen.
Review: ‘Confronting Jesus’ by Rebecca McLaughlin
On a cold and dark Siberian winter’s day in 1850, an inmate at a Tobolsk prison was handed a New Testament—the only book prisoners were permitted to own and read. Over the following 10 years of hard labor, that New Testament became a lifeline to him. It introduced him to Jesus. “I believe that there is nothing and no one more beautiful, deeper, more sympathetic and more reasonable, courageous and more perfect than Christ,” he wrote in 1854.
When Ministry Isn’t What You Expected
What do you do when you’re fresh out of seminary and looking for ministry jobs? Some suggest working under a seasoned pastor who can help you learn the ropes. Tim Keller has suggested going to a small church as a solo pastor where you get to do everything. In the providence of God, I ended up at a small country church in Sulphur Springs, Ohio (population: 194).
‘Surprised by Oxford’ Film Adaptation Is a Pleasant Surprise
I was a big fan of Carolyn Weber’s memoir, Surprised by Oxford, when I read it a decade ago. For someone who loves C. S. Lewis, spent time in the “City of Dreaming Spires,” and isn’t afraid to admit enjoying a good, old-fashioned romance, Weber’s book checked all the boxes.
Why Does Jesus Make Us Pray ‘Our’ Father?
From the crack of the starting pistol, we get into trouble with the Lord’s Prayer. This is one of those funny situations where you’re only lost if you’re paying attention. Our? Why the plural? Who is included in this “our”? It’s like trying to follow directions that begin with, “Step 1: Combine said ingredients.” Assuming we missed a step, we begin shuffling through stacks of papers looking for the lost front page.
How Lament Leads to Racial Reconciliation
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy. Mark Vroegop Well, today, our aim is to have a helpful dialogue about how lament and racial reconciliation go together. Or maybe to think about it this way, how lament opens a door for racial reconciliation.
‘The Black Intellectual Tradition’ by Parham and Prather
In Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon, “Lincoln’s Heaven” is the name of a black family farm that symbolizes the unrealized hope of the Reconstruction era before Jim Crow laws stripped land and rights away from the black community. For the novel’s protagonist, Milkman, and his friends, Lincoln’s Heaven was a farm that colored their lives like a paintbrush and spoke to them like a sermon. “You see?” the farm said to them. “See? See what you can do? . . .
Use the Kaizen Method of Sermon Application
Over the course of your life, how many sermons have you heard? Let’s say, for example, that you’re 35 years old and started attending church at age 20. Over that time you’ve gone to church an average of three times a week. Your rough estimate is that you’ll have heard about 540 sermons. Advertise on TGC Now for a tougher question: Over the course of your life, how many sermons have you applied?
Seek Wisdom in the Age of Algorithms
Ours is an age of algorithmic flattery. Internet algorithms tell us pleasant lies we want to hear because clever people want what we have. They want our money, our attention, our vote. Whether for profit, praise, or power, some of the most brilliant minds on earth are employed to flatter us. Algorithms care nothing about the truth. They’re designed to capture our attention for the maximum time to exert the maximum influence over our decisions.
Living as Christians in a National Fertility Crisis
About 10 years ago, when I was pastoring in the United States, I was invited to speak at a college student rally in Korea. After returning home, I received a question via email from a student who attended the event: “Have you heard of the ‘3-po generation’? What does the gospel mean for us living in such a generation?” As someone who hadn’t been living in Korea for a while, I wasn’t familiar with the term.
Why I Stopped Church Hopping
I’ve attended close to a dozen churches in my life. Growing up, my parents considered church important, but I watched them struggle to find one they believed was both doctrinally sound and community oriented. By the time I went to college, I’d developed the dangerous habit of visiting a new church, finding something I didn’t like, and then leaving, only to repeat the cycle. I wouldn’t commit to just one church.
Review: ‘Reorganized Religion’ by Bob Smietana
On the day we buried my mother’s husband, Deacon Lance presided over the graveside service. It was a hot May day, and Deacon Lance was dressed in khaki slacks and a blue button-down. His face beaded with sweat as he read to comfort those gathered: a wife, children, grandchildren, a friend of more than 60 years who needed assistance from his car to the folding chairs beside the casket. Deacon Lance was deacon of the week at my mother’s Baptist church—on call, one might say, for such emergencies.
How to Respond If Your Child Comes Out Today
“It’s not a matter of if students will announce same-sex attractions and transgender identities, but when,” a Christian private school administrator told me recently. “I’ll be surprised if my own kids don’t wonder whether they’re gay or trans, given how ubiquitous these ideologies are.” We can expect a spate of announcements on October 11, dubbed National Coming Out Day by the sex-and-gender movement.
Dysconnected: The Real Story Behind the Transgender Explosion
Over the past few years, a transgender tsunami has swept the nation, especially among young girls. What is going on? How did it come to this? Who is behind it? Filmmaker and father Don Johnson traveled the country to find out. We all are being affected by the transgender phenomenon. Here is a film to help make sense of it, and provide a way out.
The Transgender Revolution in the Classroom: What Parents Need to Know
Transgender ideology is flooding public school classrooms. What does this mean for our children? And what can parents do? This webinar from the Ethics and Public Policy Center equips parents with the knowledge and insights they need to recognize and resist the promotion of transgender ideology in public schools—and to protect their children from the transgender revolution. Please join EPPC Fellows Patrick T.
Is it Fixed, Fluid, or Formed from Society's Stereotypes?
How do we resolve the inconsistency with regards to claims that gender is innate, that it can fluctuate, or that it is rooted in social constructs? Every parent of a child who announces a transgender identity has heard the same emotionally manipulative slogan from the “experts”: “You must agree with who they say they are.
Transgender Activists Tell Our Daughters They’re Not Acceptable the Way They Are
Home/Featured/Transgender Activists Tell Our Daughters They’re Not Acceptable the Way They Are In Irreversible Damage, Abigail Shrier has done for us the preponderance of work necessary to demonstrate exactly who are the enemies of all who value healthy children, healthy families, and a healthy society, and what tactics they employ. The gatekeepers we trusted to safeguard our children have not only failed, they have turned their teeth and claws on our kids as well as on us.
Trans Activists Tell Girls They're Not Acceptable The Way They Are
Transgenderism has been called the medical scandal of our time. Facilitated by contemporary culture’s voyeuristic fascination with all things sexual, and its blithe willingness to turn a blind eye to the mutilated bodies and psychological devastation in transgender activism’s wake, this social and political movement is sweeping through our nation’s schools with catastrophic consequences for children, families, and society.
Scaring Parents Of Trans Kids With Suicide Shuts Down Their Minds
As one of the co-founders of the Arlington Parent Coalition, an organization that helps parents demand accountability from public schools on issues of parental rights, sex and gender training, and children’s protections, I receive considerable venom from transgender-rights groups and people who have been led to believe that transitioning a gender-dysphoric child is the only kind and scientifically rational thing to do.
The Pandemic Failure of Northern Virginia's Public Schools
It’s been anything but smooth sailing for northern Virginia’s public schools since Governor Northam shuttered them on March 13, 2020. In fact, 47% of our nation’s public school students haven’t attended a single class since the shutdown, compared with only 18% of private school students. Rivendell School in Arlington, Virginia, took up 9:00 AM -3:00 PM online school days starting March 16. Homeschooled students also seem to have continued their learning with just a few tweaks.
For Those of You Who've Suddenly Had Homeschooling Thrust Upon You, Here Are Three Tips
I’ve been a homeschooling parent for six whole months now, after pulling two of my three kids out of public school at the end of the 2018-19 school year. But my oldest, who successfully argued for completing his final two years at public school, is now on the COVID-19 hiatus along with his sisters. “I told you God wanted you homeschooled too,” I taunted him when schools cancelled classes last week.
Opinion | Gender politics don’t belong in the classroom, but Title IX protections do
Maria Keffler is a former middle and high school teacher whose children attend Arlington Public Schools. On Feb. 25, a friend and Arlington Public Schools parent inadvertently discovered a meeting that evening of a working group charged with developing procedures to implement the district’s transgender/gender-nonconforming students policy. We attended as nonparticipating observers and were stunned.
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