Pathway Perspectives

The articles below were written by Dr. Larry Ashlock for the Center's monthly newsletter. Each article addresses a current moral issue, identifies the underlying problems, and offers a way forward for Christians. (To sign up to receive the monthly newsletter in your email inbox, click here.)
HOV Lanes, IVF, and Human Personhood
March 22nd, 2024
[Shutterstock images] A woman claimed that her unborn child counted as a person when pulled over for driving alone in a North Texas High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane! She explained, “I just felt that there were two of us in [the car] and I was wrongly getting ticketed.” She argued that under Texas’ new abortion law, a fetus is considered a living being. The woman also claimed “this is a baby” (Tex...
Loving the Lonely Crowd
February 23rd, 2024
[Getty Images] “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” Tina Turner’s 1984 mega-hit rock ‘n’ roll song, could easily serve as a front-page headline for contemporary Christian America. The song saw nothing enduring in love and reduced it to a “secondhand emotion.” Granted, Ms. Turner had lived for years in an abusive relationship, but surely there must be more to love than the logical and physical. I belie...
The Quest for Genuine Community
January 27th, 2024
Friends, the insanely popular television show, will celebrate its 30th anniversary this coming September. Two-hundred-thirty-six episodes aired between 1994 and 2004, and the show amazingly remains a favorite of viewers. Each episode warms us with thirty minutes of escape and entertains us and promises us what we all are created to enjoy—close relationships.The show has endured, in fact, because i...
“War, What is it Good For?”
November 2nd, 2023
[Listen to the podcast of this article] The famous antiwar refrain to the 1970 song entitled, “War,” used as a title above, provides its own answer: “Absolutely nothin’!” Edwin Starr, who recorded that version of the song, continued to sing it through the years because he wanted such conflict to cease.War indeed represents one of the most controversial and complex moral issues of this age, and I w...
Replacing “Smash and Grab” with “Taste and See”
October 18th, 2023
(Click here for the podcast version of this article) “The end of all moral speculations is to teach us our duty; and, by proper representations of the deformity of vice and the beauty of virtue, beget correspondent habits, and engage us to avoid the one, embrace the other,” says David Hume (1711-1776), the Scottish philosopher and historian. (1) His words certainly resonate with many of us who wer...
Broken Cables, Unsecured Doors, and Surprising Safety Troubles at School
September 15th, 2023
Media sources carried the terrifying story earlier this week of an attempt to rescue two adults and six children who were stranded hundreds of feet above ground on a disabled cable car in northwest Pakistan. No effort or expense was spared to bring those adults and children home safely. Now, consider the annual return of your children and grandchildren to school and the extraordinary efforts to en...
Shaping the Christian Family on the Anvil of Everyday Living
July 2nd, 2023
“What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God,” says Martin Luther. The great Reformer knew the special significance of the home and God's word at work in that place. Here is a reason why: the fifth command in the Ten Commandments emphasizes proper motives inside the home.It links honor for one’s father and mother to possession of the land that God prom...
Alexa Does Not Know Me, but God Does!
May 20th, 2023
“I do not recognize Larry Ashlock” was the humorous end result to a brief conversation I recently had with Amazon’s “Alexa,” a virtual assistant artificial intelligence (AI) technology now popular in homes and businesses. My experience indicates only one of many frequent daily interactions we all have with this type of technology.Face ID and image recognition, emails, apps, social media, Google se...
What a Folded Dollar Teaches Us about Lasting Wealth
May 3rd, 2023
Economics permeates every facet of human existence, and how we use financial resources collectively holds moral implications for governments and businesses, as well as families and individuals. This first sentence undoubtedly creates a mind full of thoughts! I’ll break it down a bit to introduce a fresh challenge to the way we typically think about economic equality and our Christian responsibilit...
Being a Map that Leads to Civility
April 10th, 2023
Rudeness is like the common cold; it is contagious. Uncivil behavior in global culture has become highly transmissible. Whether it is a member of the United States Congress shouting “liar” at the President when he is making an address, or an actor climbing onstage and then slapping and cursing a comedian friend at an awards ceremony, or numerous social media platform videos that capture bad conduc...
Natural Disasters: The Great Disrespecter of Nations and Persons
February 26th, 2023
It has been said that “Death is no respecter of persons. Natural disasters are no respecter of nations.” Both statements have been demonstrated, yet again, in the aftermath of events that recently took place in Turkey and northwest Syria. A catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck that region on February 6, 2023. The death toll has surpassed forty-six thousand lives, as of this writing, and th...
Tearing Down Fences to Build Bridges
January 28th, 2023
The poet Robert Frost once wrote, “good fences make good neighbors.” This maxim influences the beliefs and actions of many people when they consider the hot-button topic of immigration. This moral issue currently evokes visceral reactions, as well as intense political, legal, economic, social, and religious discussions.Despite the often-heated rhetoric divide that surrounds the topic, I find that ...
The Joy of Quietly Slipping Away
November 26th, 2022
An airline company advertising slogan has greatly increased its brand awareness with the sales pitch, “Wanna get away?” I am certain in a similar vein that many people are wishing they could get away as the hectic holiday season descends upon us.Our culture is shackled by rapidly rising costs and greatly diminishing buying power due to inflation, frightened by escalating crime and violence across ...
Moving in Sync with the Divine Rhythm
November 12th, 2022
Jesus' ministry on this earth demonstrated how to live in response to the voice of the Heavenly Father. He teaches us that we can hear the Father most clearly when we are in agreement (Matthew 18:19). Christians struggle in every age, but especially in our current generation, with coming to agreement in ways that give witness to God's voice. This requires the Spirit's guidance. The terms "guiding"...
The True Source of Intelligence
September 9th, 2022
“To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instructions in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth”Proverbs 1-4, ESV A curious phenomenon occurred recently when I was shopping at a Walmart big-box store. Those locations have quite a reputation for odd dress and behavior, so nothing I ...