2016-12-09T12:01:18-05:00

Donald Trump’s choices for his cabinet and other high-level positions in his administration are interesting, to say the least.  He is stacking defense-related positions with generals, well-qualified to be sure, but this has some worried about the tradition of civilian control of the military.  He is

2016-12-08T21:46:46-05:00

The victory of Donald Trump–along with other political insurgencies in England, France, Italy, and other countries–was a triumph of nationalism.  It was not a triumph of conservatism, though conservatism went along for the ride and is generally hospitable to nationalism.  But the new political force

2016-12-07T19:32:40-05:00

A new book by Gerry Bowler entitled Christmas in the Crosshairs:  Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the World’s Most Celebrated Holiday points out that the “Christmas wars”–the conflict between secular and religious observances of Christmas–have been going on throughout the history of Christianity.  The Bishop

2016-12-07T19:33:53-05:00

Time Magazine’s Person of the Year is Donald Trump.  Of course it was.  Who else could it be? One of our end-of-the-year customs here at the Cranach blog–along with making predictions and checking last year’s predictions–is to make our own proposals for  Person of the

2016-12-07T19:35:10-05:00

Contrary to the stereotypes about ancient and medieval knowledge and totally contradicting Mark Twain’s depiction in Connecticut Yankee of King Arthur’s court panicking over an eclipse, the scientists of yore were keen observers of the heavens.  They kept meticulous records of things like eclipses and analyzed them mathematically.   Now astronomers

2016-12-07T09:37:19-05:00

Today is the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.   The Daily Oklahoman has a fascinating and moving feature looking not only at the coverage of that event but of its anniversary through the war years and beyond. We often forget that the

2016-12-06T17:43:53-05:00

Notice how many movies are about vocation.  For example, consider Hacksaw Ridge, Mel Gibson’s movie about Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector who won the Medal of Honor.  A medic, he rescued 75 wounded servicemen in the Battle of Okinawa. I haven’t seen the film

2016-12-06T19:52:43-05:00

Tony Campolo and some other liberal evangelicals have started a movement they call “Red Letter Christians.”  The term comes from the convention in many editions of the Bible to print the words of Jesus in red. Red Letter Christians believe that Christianity should be about following the

2016-12-06T20:28:14-05:00

Television ratings are way down for professional football games.  The NFL is trying to figure out why the sudden loss of interest. I have to say that I am not as interested in the games as I used to be, even last year, and I’m

2016-12-05T20:34:16-05:00

Another remarkable prophecy of Christ in the Old Testament (the study of which is a classic devotion for Advent), is Isaiah 9:1-7.  Not only do we learn that the Messiah will live in Galilee and will be the eternal Davidic King.  Verse 6 also establishes

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