How much do we trust our government? This is a practical question for a Christian whose answer will determine how we will answer some important questions related to government and power. We might let a good, trustworthy government have more power if the track record were good. We might not let a bad or unstable government have nearly so much latitude in action. Here are some examples:  Can government (state or federal) be trusted on racial issues? Can our government (state or federal)... Read more

Recently someone said: “Happy Lent!” I paused and considered. Lent strikes me as a terrifically unhappy time of the year. If we are having a happy Lent in that sense of “happy,” we are doing something wrong. Now I could be Mr. Philosophy and point out that “happy” can mean “human flourishing” as the Declaration uses it in “pursuit of happiness” but it would not help matters. Fasting from the world, the flesh, and the devil is necessary for human flourishing but... Read more

Person of Interest forgot what it was as a television show, and so is dying, soon to be forgotten. Evidently, the producers of the show could not recollect the likely fan base of a show starring Jim Caviezel as they began to write based on a view of morality best suited for an entirely different group of people. Since Caviezel is most famous as Jesus in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, many traditional Christians gave the show a look,... Read more

I would support Israel if I were not a Christian, but given that I am a Christian, I must support Israel. Why? Support for Israel is the most reasonable position and Christianity demands I choose reasonably this side of Paradise. There are no choices here between the Perfect and the Wicked, only choices between the Better and the Worse. I owe my soul to the Arabic speaking peoples. They have created beauty, culture, and preserved so much that is good in Christianity. I hate when... Read more

Dear William, God, some people think is an odd sort of person, and this is true as far as it goes, if by odd one means unusual. He is not a god, since a god would merely be a superhuman but the Ground of Being. He is.  Who is He? He is best known by His attributes. These single Him out from any other possible beings: all powerful, all knowing, all good. He is revealed to us in the pages of... Read more

Here is an obvious, and uncomfortable, fact: the New Testament writers were as likely to break fellowship over bad behavior as false teaching. Right teaching was never isolated from holy living: each witnessed to the other. We need not confuse terms and call a wicked Christian a “heretic.” The attempt to justify sin often leads to bad theology about the great truths of the Faith, but need not. A man may confess the Creed while denying the right practice of the Christian... Read more

Someone once asked how I could pray that the soul of a person I know to have been a non-Christian, even the soul of an enemy of Christ like a terrorist, rest in peace. Is this just goodie good words? Am I using language to cover up a harsher reality? Best reason and experience say there is a Hell and some people will choose to be sentenced there. Yet I do not think I am inconsistent to have hope for every soul. ... Read more

Only Kirk is left. Saturday nights I would endure the end of Lawrence Welk to see Star Trek. No internet summaries of episodes existed. No fan fiction was available. I bought photo-novels and recorded episodes on a tape recorder for the times when Star Trek was off the air . . . which oft occurred, though Lawrence Welk endured to irritate me for decades. I know Leonard Nimoy was not Spock. He wrote a book to tell me so, though later he sort of... Read more

If you were Henry, everything started splendidly and ended badly. He was born King of England and much of France. He died in the Tower of London murdered by his successor. He outlived his son, went mad, and manifestly was unfit for the job of ruling Medieval England. He would have been an ideal constitutional monarch, but lived in a time when he had to ride and fight. He was good at praying, founding schools, and being a decent chap.... Read more