When Joshua was faced by the Captain of the Lord’s Army, the new leader asked the Captain: “Are you on our side or our enemies?” The answer is one for this time: And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” Many evils have been justified by the claim that we face a “binary choice.” We must be on the side of Israel or on the side of Jericho: pick... Read more
My mom put up with a great deal, including a son who thought he could build a house in the yard. “All you have to do,” I would say and she would smile and listen. This seems to be common as recently a student developed a variation. This young person said that he was unworried about a particular problem, because “all Mom will have to do is. . . ” The rest doesn’t matter that much, because I understand the... Read more
Recently a nice fellow on social media suggested my advice on some practical question proved I should move to the Shire and write books for children and on Plato. I would if I could. The Shire would be an excellent place to live, Thorin and Company always welcome, while the chance to write books for a living in the Shire sounds like Heaven. Sadly, this was a great idea that just is not practicable. The Shire is mentally accessible, but... Read more
What follows is the correspondence between myself and a person who is Not Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Sadly, Not Dietrich Bonhoeffer is unavailable for further interviews, but I thought in this time of moral confusion that this dialog with Not Dietrich Bonhoeffer might prove helpful. My concern began when my social media feed began to explode with advice when facing a bad political situation: Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak... Read more
Argument can help save your soul (by God’s grace) or be a way to damn it. Bad arguments happen when a husband and wife who disagree disagreeably. He cannot see why she cannot see what is obvious while she cannot understand why he does not understand the truth. Each pound away to win. Sometimes one will use soft persuasion, the offers of treats, to placate the other into compliance or words will hammer away until exhaustion produces consensus. These are arguments,... Read more
Church songs are many and varied. As a pastor’s kid, I sang them all and made even the sublime ridiculous with my piping little voice. The worst of the songs were the ones with infinite verses, tunes so flexible anyone could design new words, and everyone did, especially at summer camp. A particular sin against the Faith that inspired Bach was “Give Me Oil for My Lamp.” The original words were not Shakespeare, but at least had Biblical backing: Give... Read more
Perspective: This is not the most important election ever. There will be another election in four years. A Republic that survived Richard Nixon, Warren G. Harding, James Buchanan, and Woodrow Wilson will survive President Clinton or Trump. Still we should hope for the best, even if we often do not get it. The leader of the Free World matters. The biggest issues of the election are the future of the Courts, nationalism versus internationalism, and how to respond to economic... Read more
Jesus said a hard thing when He said: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. I don’t know about you, but I am not perfect. In fact, we pass off our failure by saying to ourselves: “Nobody is perfect.” This is wrong since at least the God-Man, Jesus, is perfect and there is a good theological argument that in her obedience His mother was also perfect. When we demand perfection of ourselves, then we... Read more
When our annual blow-out Super Bowl party comes around, there is pressure to root for a team. This is normally easy: the Panthers had a feel-good story. Cam Newton and Denver had the old guy going out looking for a win. I am an old guy, so I picked Denver (and this made my two brother-in-laws happy as well). I cared, but not much. The year will come, God help us, when the Packers arch-nemesis the Bears will face the team I... Read more
Kids are not smoking so much. That is good, but schools and colleges are seeing a problem that may be as serious as smoking. We see kids who have never been outside for more than ten minutes. We see kids that do not know how to play with toys. We see kids that have never played with other kids where adults are not dictating the game. This is not good. Professors see it and teachers experience it: students with glazed eyes, overly... Read more
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