If Lincoln killed vampires, he would be no greater than Lincoln was. Lincoln died making men free, killed by a friend of slavers. His murder on Good Friday echoed a greater death that made men holy. I understand the fun of seeing the Rail Splitter blast the undead, but I hope the real Lincoln is not forgotten. The real man was awkward, had only one year of schooling, and a lifetime of pain. The woman he loved died and his... Read more
In my childhood school supplies required no batteries, but did leave a boy armed and dangerous. Every year, I bought a new compass, not the directional kind, but a metal probe designed for drawing circles used by students to spear unwitting victims. I never used this compass for its intended use any more than the thing with the slightly obscene sounding name: protractor. What is a protractor? Nobody knows, but in the nineteenth century a Robber Baron by the name... Read more
Today I have been married for twenty-six years. My memories of the event are hazy, soft-focus, not because I have yet become utterly senile and forgetful, but because my eyes teared up during the event and my contact lenses failed the saline assault. My vision of Hope is all soft-focus as a result like one of those old movies where the lens was smeared with vaseline with the starlet hit the screen. And Hope was the star of the wedding... Read more
Some people are so interesting other people give them credit for witty things they did not say. Plato acquires fictive wisdom often, including in the Sarah Palin autobiography, where he is quoted as saying something he never said. G.K. Chesterton said many wise things and then said everything else in our minds. Only the worst aphorisms escape being dignified by G.K. Chesterton attribution. We are, I think, always in search of authority. My rational friends, eager to escape Biblical fundamentalism,... Read more
God is so good, He makes the necessary joyful. We must eat to live, but God encourages our eating by making it pleasurable. Children must learn not to eat only for pleasure, lest they retain immature palates or become slaves tot food. Gluttony is as deadly a sin any other lust. Healthy desire and licit pleasures can easily come apart. The false gourmet, the foodie, and the food pig, who will eat anything as long as there is a great... Read more
At nine or ten my pastor father (Father Father) talked to me about God and doubt. “I believe,” this honest man said, “but sometimes I doubt. Never be afraid of doubt.” I remember church services in West Virginia forty years ago when men born when William McKinley was an up and comer and there were no world wars woud testify of moments of doubt and how God had “pulled” them through. The Jesus People of my early childhood often came... Read more
My Mother and I used to laugh at greeting cards that began: what is a x? No relationship was so sacred that a card couldn’t make it ludicrous. They were either so over the top, “a mother is an angel in suburbia,” or weirdly negative, “we have never talked much about feelings” that we avoided them. With apologies to Mom, however, this Father’s Day I feel inspired to list some of what Dad has taught me by word and example.... Read more
There are no orcs in a real war. Humans fight and die in a war, not faceless Star Wars clones or robots…at least not yet. For this reason war is a fearful thing not to be fought lightly. Centuries of Christian teaching have labored to make war rarer, if it cannot disappear altogether, Christians have constrained it. Romans fought for the joy of it, but at their worst a Christian power must dissemble to itself to fight. We are a... Read more
From my London window, I see the problem of a border out of control and two parties unwilling to address it. From my home in California, I know decent men hounded by the government for a crime, illegal entry, committed years ago. The issue of illegal aliens in the United States is difficult for a Christian, and I am no expert, but here are some first thoughts. We have a right to control our borders, but once an alien and... Read more
Verona is Juliet’s home in my mind. Romeo is there too, but Juliet! It is incidental to me that she did not exist and Shakespeare made it all up borrowing from several other sources. (Students: it is plagiarism unless you make it so much better people are honored you took their stuff.) So my problem with Verona is not that they acknowledge this fact: Shakespeare made them immortal in the English, and then entire, world. The problem with Verona is... Read more
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