I think faithful pastors are heroes right now. I have nothing to take away from the hard work and suffering of those we consider to be first responders during the COVID pandemic. Nurses, doctors, police and fire, grocery workers, delivery drivers, a lot of teachers, and so many more, have all extended themselves in 2020... Continue Reading →
Bonhoeffer and Loving Our Enemies
Every Christian needs to be informed of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A theologian and pastor, he also enters the historical record as a spy, a cultural prophet, and eventually a martyr. He pastored and led during the rise of Nazi Germany, through World War II, and lost his life in a concentration camp hours... Continue Reading →
There is Hope in Original Sin
The American culture has made the decision that in order to fix what is wrong with society it needs to split people up into small groups of individuals according to some of the most superficial traits we have: skin color, genitals, and income. Think about that for a moment. We think we have identified a... Continue Reading →
Lockdowns are not an Inconvenience. They are Inhumane.
There is an economic principle that we should all learn in a Civics class sometime in Middle School. The catchy acronym is: T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L. (pronounced, โTanstaflโ). It stands for, โThere ainโt no such thing as a free lunch.โ The principle is a simple observation of the choices we make โ there is always a trade-off, and... Continue Reading →
Thanksgiving is Better Than Politicization
Last year I wrote a Thanksgiving address titled, โThanksgiving is Better Than Grievance.โ This year I am struck by how much better Thanksgiving is than politicization. For a few years now, certain political forces have asked young people to return to mom and dadโs house, and once all the work of food prep is over... Continue Reading →
Power and Infinite Repetition
Belief in truth is a bigger deal than you might at first imagine. If a truth exists, that puts me in a position, both in respect to knowledge and ethics, under that truth. I am its subject and it is not mine. I do not determine which ordinal direction the sun will rise from; I... Continue Reading →
Totalitarianism, Loneliness and Meaning
Hannah Arendtโs The Origins of Totalitarianism is a broad-ranging and powerful description of the rise of totalitarianism in Russia/Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in the first half of the 20th century. Born into a Jewish family, she experienced firsthand the Anti-Semitism that that came with those totalitarian regimes. The book was first published in 1951... Continue Reading →
“Live Not By Lies”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn penned an essay titled, โLive Not By Liesโ in 1974, and it contains a lot of wisdom for people who feel the force of coerced opinion and speech codes in our culture today. If you donโt know about Alexander Solzhenitsynโs life, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with him. He was a dissident... Continue Reading →
Defending True Truth
A little while ago I wrote about what I thought were some of the critical frontiers in Christian apologetics. None of them are new as in sui generous, but they are new in the sense that we have not paid much attention to them in the American culture for a while. I still believe all... Continue Reading →
All The Truthy Feels
Tara Isabella Burtonโs book, Sacred Rites: New Religions for a Godless World is an incredible rollercoaster ride through the emerging religious landscape in the American culture. Throughout, not only does Burton catalogue new religions and religious practices, she insightfully analyzes the theology. She labels these religious practitioners the โRemixedโ. They are part of the infamous... Continue Reading →