The Sci Fi Catholic Yak Module
So, if I understand those three quotes, Horton is suggesting that syncophancy is a more persuasive rejection of error than direct proclamation of truth. High culture since the Endarkenment has systematically hounded Christian faith wherever it dares to appear. What passes for culture today is not merely debased nobility of virtue, truth, and beauty, but actually praise of brtual vice, idolatry, and contempt. When culture is so narcissistic and corrupt, one is forced to ask, "What has Jerusalem to do with Athens?" At the level of culture, the answer is the same today as it was for Tertullian.
So, if I understand those three quotes, Horton is suggesting that syncophancy is a more persuasive rejection of error than direct proclamation of truth.
I'm by no means in complete agreement with Horton: for one thing, he's a rather extreme Calvinist, and with all his talk of high and low culture, he's also something of an elitist. Besides that, I don't think he grasps that the road between high and low culture is two-way; after all, Faust was a Punch-and-Judy show long before it was Goethe's magnum opus. In his view, culture is "trickle-down" (his own term) from "high" to "low," words he doesn't define well.
I do, however, think he is correct in saying that Christians would do better to engage with, make, and shape culture than criticize it. One of his biggest complaints is that conservative Christians in the U.S. criticize a great deal but contribute almost nothing.
Perhaps I've chosen my quotes poorly; Horton is much in favor of direct proclamation of truth (which in his view is the religion of the Puritans); what he opposes is attack without contribution.
And let's face it, what he says about boycotts is exactly right.
Hilarious video..and the animation is GREAT!!
However--you can be a scientist and be religious....I am one.. 
I just see evolution in a little different way...and yes I believe in dinosaurs I have a fossil of shells sitting in front of me now...collected from the Wendover Nevada area from the ancient Lake Bonneville shoreline Estimated from Devonian period, approximately 375 million years old....when was the last time you found seashells in the desert?? And no--neither lying scientists nor aliens put them there..
I don't know if it's just because I have a wimpy computer or bottom-line DSL...but the videos for me are viewed much better directly off of YouTube...
Ditto to the boycott statement..
He is right in the "Christian ghetto" of fiction - books that the faithful read but no one else would open because they assume them to be badly written or "preachy" in the sense that the characters and plot seem to be there to present a lesson - or because the action is stopped every now and then so that a point of Christian doctrine can be expounded at lenght - and thousand of other authorial sins.
They should pay attention that Tolkien did not get famous by catering to Catholic faithful but to everyone who enjoys fantasy - same with C.S. Lewis, and with the immortal Chesterton.
But maybe they should look into the different genres - mystery, romance, fantasy, science fiction, and look at their tropes, and how to break into them. Because those books cater to everyone who is interested in the genre, and do not require prior agreement with the writer's world view to enjoy them.
As long as Christian publishing is seen as a comfy shelter for those who are not good enough for prime time, then its impact will be minimal.
Funny video. I like your caveat with the Horton quotes. I'm a big fan of Francis Collins about the evolution issue.
As for the high brow, low brow, middle brow, and other directions of brow, I can't help but thinking Ben Stein seems to have gone the way of Michael Moore. Moore's movies don't work because they aren't fair.
Expelled--while funny in its way--seems to be similarly unfair.
As long as Christian publishing is seen as a comfy shelter for those who are not good enough for prime time, then its impact will be minimal.
I'm reminded of again of Diesel's outrageous, but to my mind, well-thought-out, attack on Thomas Kinkade. The type of art that addresses no difficult issues and aims for a single predetermined response in the viewer is pornography. By writing novels or creating art designed only for the purpose of convincing readers to be Christians, many creators of today's Christian art are therefore purveyors of Jesus porn.
This is, incidentally, why I get so angry at the likes of Michael O'Brien. By insisting that tropes used in fantasy have single, pre-defined meanings and that fantasy's only purpose is to reaffirm O'Brien's Christian worldview, he is trying to turn fantasy literature into Jesus porn.
It's a pity such a funny video was attached to a film like Expelled (I haven't seen the film, but I'm not big on ID).
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