He was handsome and committed to his cause. John Wilkes Booth also killed Abraham Lincoln. Don’t be John Wilkes Booth. Booth was an excellent actor, investor, and man about town. He made a massive salary and could have done anything he chose to do. He chose to shoot Abraham Lincoln. How does a man go so wrong? Hate. He hated African-Americans and so hated Abraham Lincoln. He hated the North and so... Read more
Attacking Syria is not just. Why? As Lindsey Graham put it: “Unless something changes, we don’t care if you kill people, we only care how you kill them, which is a long way from where Ronald Reagan was.” Just so. Mr. Graham wants to replace the Assad regime with something better and use the full force of the US military to do so. That might be a just war, since the outcome would be better. Of course given our present... Read more
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I Christians prefer peace to war. We do not rush to war as the first solution or because killing might improve things. In fact, Christians helped create an academic discussion around where force can be justified. The use of force in Syria cannot be justified. Many people do not even try very hard. They shoot missiles as easily as they shoot off their mouths. Their reasoning runs this way: 1. Assad is very bad man. 2. Assad used chemical weapons. Conclusion:... Read more
We cannot be sorry for a thing we have not done, yet we might have done things we do not know. Every week in church I confess sins known and unknown. There are bad things we do, even if we do not know they are bad. When called to repent for the sin of injustice in the form of racism, some people respond that they are personally not racist nor have they ever done a racist act. As a result (assuming this... Read more
We are slouching to civil separation, less costly than divorce, but bad for the children. The President of the United States faces investigation by independent counsel Robert Mueller. There are four possible outcomes for the investigation. Sadly, none of them appear to leave us with a civil (or even normal) 2020 election. Blame anybody you wish, but Mr. Trump’s public acts and opposition to Mr. Trump both have been unusual, loud, and angry. What do I see coming? First, the... Read more
Syria is a mess. Let’s not make it worse. I am no expert on the Middle East, but you do not need to be one to know that there are no “good guys” waiting to take power in Syria. Just ask anyone in this or the last administration for names of the alternative government that has any public support in Syria. The present government is very bad, but as Libya demonstrates every day, getting rid of a very bad government... Read more
Whenever I say something about race or racism, certain good hearted friends suggest that the solutions I propose are racist themselves, because they take race into account. I hope those friends will take the time to hear my response. We share a goal: The lie of race should die and the sins that cluster around the false ideology of racism should become evil artifacts of the past. The dream of most Americans is for the color-blind society of Reverend Doctor... Read more
As one gets ready to become a Christian, a tough question is asked: “Do you renounce Satan and all his pomps?” Some have substituted “empty promises” for the better “pomps,” but that is sad, because it misses the force of what we need to do when we renounce this particular diabolical temptation. We need to renounce the showy fakery of worldly power in order to worship God: we trade the merely gilded for the golden. Christians turn their backs on... Read more
As a quick glance at my profile at different times in my life would show, I don’t like excercise, but I (sometimes) do it. As a lover of meat, I don’t like the vegan fast of Lent, but it is good for me so I do it. Work is a joy, generally, but every profession contains the job part of work where one suffers like Job with the parts of the job that are tedious. No complaints, just longing for... Read more
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