The “thou-shalt-not” approach to child rearing is problematic. You know, the type of parents who live in constant paranoia: You can’t watch this! You can’t read that! Take those clothes off! Don’t talk to that boy! Don’t say that word! No piercings! No tattoos! No cigarettes! No drinking! No thinking on your own! Okay, so [...]
It’s a sticky proposition suggesting one section of Scripture is more important than another. Augustine’s maxim comes to mind: “In Essentials, Unity; in Non-essentials, Liberty; in All Things, Charity.” The idea is that certain biblical concepts are “essential” to the nature, structure, and practice of Christianity. Again, this is not meant to suggest that some [...]
David Mamet’s recent “conversion” to conservatism has been a lot on my mind. Mamet is one of our greatest, most prolific, playwrights and screenwriters — a Pulitzer Prize winner, with a unique voice, and an extensive catalog of essays on everything from drama to literature to cinema. His latest piece, which appeared in the Village [...]
You gotta love this time of year! Sure, opening the windows and letting the smell of citrus blossoms oust the winter must, is great. But I’m talkin’ bout hoops, baby! We LOVE basketball around here and, with the NCAA Tournament starting tomorrow and the NBA in its final month, I couldn’t be more happy. As [...]
The role of faith is explicit for Christians. We are, after all, called “believers.” And Scripture repeatedly emphasizes the role of faith in salvation. For instance, Jesus said: I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed [...]
Despite Barack Obama’s attempt to transcend race, apparently, he’s got a long way to go. Yesterday, he rolled to an easy win in Mississippi, which has one of the highest populations of African Americans in the United States. 9 out of 10 black voters supported Obama, rekindling the ever-volatile suggestion that race is, indeed, alive [...]
According to Technorati, there are over 175,000 new blogs every day, over 1.6 million posts per day, with over 18 updates a second. The blogging phenomenon is well-documented. But how people find their ways to those blogs, and why they continue reading them, is another story. About a year after I started blogging, I hit [...]
The Cold War is over. But if the New York Philharmonic’s concert in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, last Tuesday, is any indication, perhaps we should start fighting our wars with tubas instead of tanks. I guess you could say there’s biblical precedent for such an absurd military strategy, what with Jehoshaphat sending out [...]
“To whom much is given, much is required.” Jesus said those words in Luke 12:48. They came to my mind after I learned about Oprah Winfrey’s latest Book Club selection. Eckhart Tolle, Miss O’s latest inductee, is described simply as a “spiritual teacher.” After long periods of depression, he is said to have attained enlightenment [...]
Larry Norman died this week. While it probably didn’t register on a lot of buzz meters, the news put me in a nostalgic funk. According to a surprisingly good piece in Entertainment Weekly: Larry Norman, the singer/songwriter often referred to as “the father of Christian rock,†died Sunday at age 60 after years of declining [...]
