She was an odd child who always seemed to know what was happening. I recall standing with her in Clendenin Elementary School and hearing the fire alarm go off in town. “The high school is on fire,” she said. When I got home, my mom told me Herbert Hoover High (yes, the real name) had experienced a fire. “I know,” I said, “Belinda** told me.” She did this so often that this merely became the most extreme case of Belinda-ism,... Read more
I once wished Christianity, particularly traditional Christianity, was false. Professionally, I was told that being a very traditional Christian in philosophy would make work, already hard to get, harder to get by the President of my secular university. He was being compassionate and, as a more left-of-center theist, giving me what he took to be good advice. He was right and I appreciated his candor and his writing me a job recommendation! I love philosophy and this nagged at me.... Read more
We can find God, know God, and pick God out from all the other godlings. Read more
Let’s never be sad sacks, instead find where God has put us and keep on the firing line. If the enemy distracts, stand. If we feel discouraged, stand. If our heart is weary, stand. Thank God for this time, for God’s church, and for this nation. When called to a place and time, even when we do not like that place or time, we must keep on the firing line. What does that mean? The “firing line” is where we take attacks... Read more
European politics is dysfunctional because no center-right party challenges the secularist, European Union vision of a European future. Most parties, center-right or center-left, have done nothing to debate fundamental issues. Is there a place in Europe for nations that reject secularism as an organizing system? Can nations like Poland choose God? Can a society organize around religious belief (including Islam) and still be part of the West? Is there a place for nations of historically oppressed peoples to have a home... Read more
I wrote on the President of the United States speech in Poland. A good friend, Christian, and academic dissented from my perspective. Now we hear from another friend and academic who is a Trump voter who dissents from my perspective from another point of view! If nothing else, I hope we are a good example of hard disagreements among believers. I voted third party in the last election, but am generally a traditional Republican in a family that has been... Read more
A good friend and historian was not pleased with my piece on the President’s visit to Poland. I appreciate different perspectives and so publish this excellent rejoinder without immediate comment. I will respond separately tomorrow so the piece can stand in its integrity. Her thoughts below: I must confess first that the part of this piece that irks me the most is the title: Mr. Trump Goes to Poland. And it irks me because it exhibits the exact inversion... Read more
The piece below engendered strong, thoughtful reactions and so became the starting point of a mini-symposium: I wrote on the President of the United States speech in Poland. A good friend, Christian, and academic dissented from my perspective. Now we hear from another friend and academic who is a Trump voter who dissents from my perspective from another point of view! My original piece: The time has come to calmly measure the policies of our President. He has become so polarizing that on any... Read more
Dates are hard for me, but April 30, 1972, is easy to recall because I went down to the river to be baptized. I still remember Dad lowering me under the brown, cold water at the conjunction of two West Virginia streams. I saw a fish leap over me as I went under the water. What did that mean? Wags (looking at you dear brother) suggested I had scared that old fish out of that river. The muddy water, full of... Read more
Angels above us and animals beneath us, the planet Earth is full of souls, with people in the middle. Just as even fallen angels deserve respect for what they were, so animals deserve help being what they are and becoming what they might be. One reason I love CS Lewis’ Space Trilogy is that all three books show how man and animals might live together in harmony. There is a great chain of being starting from material being and culminating in... Read more
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