Nobody gets every detail right, especially if they speak or write for a living. A good person does the best they can knowing they will make inadvertent mistakes. To give one example: I once said I wrote a book that I edited, leading to a proper correction from a friend. I didn’t mean to get it wrong, but writing an entire book is much different (I know!) from editing one. In fact, editing a good book was harder, but it... Read more
Recently, in hard (but friendly) dialog with some non-theists, I was reminded how small the atheist media world is and how large the Christian enterprise must seem. The biggest problem with our Christian witness will never be atheism. Atheism is a small minority movement in any part of the world where it is not imposed by force. All the atheist media produced this year will do less harm than the toxic and shoddy stuff produced by the Christian industry. The... Read more
If you struggle with biologically based depression, as many people in my family do, then feeling good is rare. Today is one of those days. I breath and think: Hurrah! And then the day keeps grinding along and I hear bad news and worst of all, I fail. I mess up. I fall short of the mark that a reasonable and moral man should have achieved. When that happens, I feel bad. Feeling bad is . . . often bad. Yet... Read more
The United States Supreme Court has, once again, created a contentious issue that will not go away in my lifetime unless it returns marriage to the states. As polling has grown more questionable and as research on “psychological studies” shows, many oft cited research studies fail the basic test of being repeatable. We have had more “intellectuals” trumpeting polls and studies as showing a changing America. Maybe we should question the narrative. We are told if we don’t get on... Read more
When I was a boy I heard a pastor described as “so narrow, he could see down a straw with both eyes.” Oddly, he was the kind of man who would not have viewed it as an insult. If there was ever a perfect predictor of a ministry, business, or group in trouble, it is when the group of advisors around the leader all share exactly the same vision, values, and vices as the leader. Every group must have a... Read more
Abraham Lincoln knew it and many of us have lived it. Prayer works, and a nation that punts on prayer has disarmed itself for no good reason. The sensible religious majority of this nation should do all it can to avoid offending their secular neighbor, but good manners must give way to good policy. Prayer is good policy. Some may object that prayer cannot possibly manipulate the mind of the Almighty. He is not, after all, a Chicago ward politician... Read more
Dear Mr Starr, They tell me in this fiftieth year of the Super Bowl that you are ill, though getting better. I thought I would tell you two stories in the h0pe that against all odds you would see this letter and be encouraged. Many of us would rather see you at a Super Bowl halftime than whatever flash in the pan they find to perform. When I was a boy, you had retired from the game and come back... Read more
Monsters scare and yet fascinate little kids. Just as Mom and Dad find it hard not to look at a wreck, even if such curiousity makes them feel ghoulish, so the little ones cannot avoid peeking at a scary movie. We don’t like being afraid for real, but the thrill of seeing something scary is real and can be fun if the frightening object isn’t real! I had an uncle who could play a convincing wolfman and if it was... Read more
Dr. Carson has earned a second look from all traditional Christian voters. I had dismissed him earlier because he lacks the traditional qualifications for political offices and shows a lack of depth on many issues. However, this may be the year for the “outsider” and Dr. Carson is intelligent, has a heroic backstory, and is learning quickly. One thing he should not learn is how to lie like a politician. When asked about his involvement in a dodgy supplement company,... Read more
For each of our (now adult) children, we had a “lesson.” For one it was: it is more important to be beautiful on the inside than the outside. So powerful was this lesson that this child became staggeringly beautiful on the inside and the outside. For another child, one lesson was: If I am humble, I will not stumble. I did not claim these were profound or great poetry. I am John Reynolds not John Donne. As this youngling learned... Read more
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