Let’s build a better alternative within our cities in great good cheerfulness. That is the essence of the Constantine strategy in the face of perilous times. Our cities represent a chance to serve. Forget what is wrong for just a moment and think about what can be done. There are jobs to create, lifting people out of poverty. Create new solutions in health care, education, or social work and try them out. Volunteer at a charity. Serve on your church... Read more
If he was a minuteman, a Patriot when the cause was high risk, then you know the man loved the United States of America. If he returned to pastor a church successfully, then you know he loved Jesus. If he managed some youthful poetry and became a fine preacher and interesting theologian in such a busy life, then you can be sure he had discipline and a first-rate intellect. Lemuel Haynes lived a wonderful life and having helped create this country, he... Read more
Race based slavery built the United States. Northern states made money on the slave trade. Delaware kept slavery until the end of the Civil War. Southern states embraced slavery and built a culture around racism and the superiority of the white race. Is this heritage dead? Not when Christian leaders mock “Black” diction used by employees or strip diversity statements from hiring practices. Not when a Christian university uses the soundtrack of Gone with the Wind and the opening of the... Read more
Big business papers like The Post will go all first-amendment when their favored team is out. Read more
A few of us are called to be Jeremiah, but most of us cannot live that way. We cannot live long or happily staring at what is going wrong without breaking. Some of us simply become too discouraged and the rest become like what they hate. We must, on occasion, speak up about bad ideas, but live our life (as we can) creating beauty. Anne Spencer is an American model for this Christian attitude. Her times were bad, and Anne Spencer... Read more
America is my home. After visiting, reading, studying, I have come to particularly love Mongolia, the UK, and Russia, but I could never be Mongolian, British, or Russian. Not perhaps because I would not find a welcome from the generous people of those nations, but because I am an American so deeply that I would never get the folkways of any other place right. It is too late for me to leave and I have never wished to do so... Read more
The reality of God, like the reality of air, water, and ideas, hits us from birth. I was there for the birth of five babies (one born into Paradise) and they were a revelation of divine goodness each time. The next births in our lives will be grandchildren, though not yet . . . sigh. Mistakes were made in our parenting, as the politicians say, but one of the things we got right was surrounding our kids with books. Buy all... Read more
If at every moment during The Greatest Showman, one forgets the actual P.T. Barnum, then the movie with his name in it is splendid. Since most people know nothing about Barnum other than that his name used to be on a circus, this is not difficult for a typical audience. Most of my students have never even been to a circus! I knew too much about Barnum and so I struggled. Still, this is an entertaining motion picture, almost an excellent show.... Read more
Learning, real education, is a product of the love of wisdom, a desire that cannot be satisfied with anything less than whatever will satisfy. We long for wisdom, but wisdom is hard to find! Does wisdom exist? Love is of something a young man conceded to Socrates in the Symposium (199D). We do not just love, we love something. Sometimes that something is different than we believe, but some sufficient cause must have produced this love of wisdom. While this is... Read more
Carter G. Woodson demonstrated that racists kept African-Americans in a subservient state after Empancipation by using twisted education. An entire group of Americans were educated to work for the “white race”. Self-confidence, reason, and curiousity were both intentionally undermined through a miseducational program. Reading one of his works suggested to me that these same techniques are still used in schools today, but for an even broader group of people . I don’t “do” comments on this site, because I find Facebook... Read more
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