There have been times in my life when what was best for me, obvious to everyone else, was not what I wanted: not at all. What about this? Plato argued that people always want to be happy, but that we do not always know what will make us happy. Being good will make us happy, but we mistake what happiness is and what will make us happy. Aristotle built on this insight by pointing out that some people cannot do what... Read more
A sure way to spot a dysfunctional church, business, or organization is to look for kingmakers or would be kingmakers. The kingmaker is the man who makes the man: the person not out front, but who has the ‘real power.’ The kingmaker is the member of the elder board who thinks he really runs the church. “Pastors may come and go, but my family is forever.” Contradict the opinions of the kingmaker and your head will eventually roll. The kingmaker... Read more
Discouragement is always clever, but hope is always wise. Why? We live in God’s cosmos and God is in His Heaven. This does not mean all is right with the world in the sense that everything is good. We could make a long list of things that are not good in the world without even touching American politics! Citizens of this God blessed Republic who think this year is the worst should consider the rest of the world: where are... Read more
We need more than piety in leadership. We need strength, competence, and piety. The combination of the three qualities is rare enough that most of us settle in our churches, businesses, and in government. In some religious organizations, saying the “leader meant well” is good enough to justify an inability to do what must be done. Good intentions or noble rhetoric are important, but had best come with achievement. If Moses says: “We are going to the Promised Land,” he may... Read more
When there is no place else to go, that can be a bad thing, unless the place you are is with Jesus. During one point in His ministry, Jesus gave a hard teaching. Like any good teacher, He wanted his students to keep asking questions, to follow the argument where it led, and not to run away from hard work and harder thinking. Most students, then as now, are not up to the challenge. They wish to be told what... Read more
As we enter a Presidential election where a majority of Americans dislike both candidates, we should not fall for one myth. Good media cannot make a defeat a win or a saint a sinner. How do we know? If Shakespeare cannot make the French or a French hero look bad, then nobody can do it, certainly not FOX and CNN. The media is not mightier than God’s truth. In Henry VI (Part 1) Shakespeare takes on the English loss of... Read more
Conservatives are rightly skeptical of great men. For every Lincoln, there is a string of Harding, Hoover, Dewey, Taft mediocrities. Worse, few great men are like Washington, able to give up power when they have it. instead, they become Napoleon, a great man who went the wrong way for all the right motives. Christians know our leaders all are human and if we forget, the Bible gives us the examples of Abraham, of Moses, and of David. Abraham lied through... Read more
Secular or Christian-too much of American higher education should be named Iago University where promising leaders are poisoned by playing on the faults of the society and the state. Shame to our sins, but great shame to the institution that uses our moral lassitude to kill the future of students. Othello may be Shakespeare’s most important play for our times. Tragedy destroys a promising beginning due to the wages of racism (institutional and personal), misogyny, and abuse of power. Society is... Read more
I outlined the tensions of our era in a brief lecture at The Saint Constantine School a week ago Thursday. Our Provost Dr. Robert Stacey spent time outlining three challenges we face in the United States. . . a talk proved prophetic within twenty-four hours. Do listen to an academic leader of this revolutionary k-college school here. You can listen to my comments here. Put bluntly: I believe that we have increasingly failed at the job of educating ourselves and the... Read more
Jesus was a very smart and wise man and when we have a chance to see Him influencing the greatest writer in the English language and an astute political philosopher, we had better pay attention. Americans wobble between harsh moral judgments or an inability to make any moral distinctions. Try stating “Bruce Jenner is a man.” on Twitter and you will see a great deal of ugly moral absolutism. On the other hand, those Americans turned off by the harshness... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In