Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. The first and greatest temptation is to be like God. When that happens, however, the result's not that we treat one another like gods. Instead, we dehumanize one another.
And that's what's at the heart of the desecration of man in modern culture. At the Colson's International Conference, Dr. Carl Truman described this by pointing us to a Russian novelist. Here's Dr. Truman.
But it was not Marx who was the great prophet of the nineteenth century. Here was Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky, in his books, of course, explores in powerful ways. The inner conflict. of the divided human heart.
And the role of God. in how we think about what it means to be human. Most famously, perhaps, in Brothers Karamazov, though it's throughout his works. One of his lesser red works, but I think a very important work, is his Notes from a Dead House. which is his account of Life in a Siberian Penal colony after he was, he was sentenced to death, of course, and at the very moment of execution.
Was reprieved and sent to Siberia to be first of all at a prison camp and then in exile for some period of time. And he writes this semi-fictionalized account of his time in prison there. And one of the things he does is that he offers these pen portraits of different prisoners. That he rubbed shoulders with during his time. And one of the prisoners who really intrigues him is a very well-spoken, urbane man, educated man.
And Dostoevsky discovers that this very urbane, entertaining man that he's come to know is what we would today call a serial killer. He's killed many people. And Dostoevsky is intrigued by this. The question is, why would such a well-educated urbane man engage in such barbarity? Time and time and time again.
And as is the way with Dostoevsky, he offers, I think, a brief but brilliant analysis. Of the situation of this particular man. He says, This: the first man he killed. was an oppressor. An enemy.
That is a crime, but understandable. He had a reason. But then he kills not an enemy, but the first man he meets kills him for fun, for a rude word, for a glance, for a trifle, or simply Out of my way, don't cross me, I'm coming. See what he said there. First guy he kills, maybe it's somebody who cheated him at cards.
Maybe somebody made a pass at his wife. We don't approve of people killing people, but you can at least see there was a reason why that guy was killed and not some other guy. But then he says It changes. The bar, if you like, for qualifying for being murdered by this guy drops considerably lower. Why is that?
He said, Well, it's like this: it's as if the man is drunk. As if he's in a feverish delirium. And then comes the key couple of sentences. As if, having leapt over a line that was sacred to him. He begins to admire the fact that nothing is holy for him any more.
As if he feels an urge to leap over all legality and authority at once. and to revel in the most boundless and unbridled freedom. to revel in this thrill of horror which it is impossible for him not to feel. Notice what he's saying there. Killing another man, or I would say destroying the image of God in another man.
That's the biggest godlike rush you can get. That's like having the blood of God himself. Dripping. from your hands. Desecration, the destruction of the old sacred order.
is exhilarating. But what are its results?
Well, I would say let's just look very, very briefly at where modern man has gleefully and is gleefully smashing through the old sacred restrictions, the sexual revolution. Sexual revolution has divorced sex from religious and social significance. It glories. In the destruction. of the limits that were once placed on it.
And yet what has it done? I would say it has arguably reduced women to nothing more than pieces of meat. It has destroyed the humanity of countless people. Why do we think that such destruction of humanity is a good and virtuous thing. It's desecration.
It makes us feel Godlike. That was Dr. Carl Truman. To hear the rest of his incredible talk, as well as receive the recordings from every session of the 2026 Colson Center National Conference, give a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month. You can learn more by going to colsoncenter.org/slash August.
That's colsoncenter.org/slash August. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
