The wall has come down. By my lights, anyway, it appears that this was the year that brought it crumbling to the ground. When I was a teenager, I lived in a world where Christian music existed in a carefully protected city with high walls, where we whispered about the dangers and depravity of “secular” music. We believed that we could copy the sound and production values of secular music and just write “Christian” lyrics. We were fooling ourselves. If... Read more
More important than giving Christmas presents… (more…) Read more
My Christmas visit with family and friends in Portland, Oregon, was a time that humbled me and reminded me of just how generously God has filled my life with amazing people. (more…) Read more
My life would be empty without Christ, who has shown me what little of love and beauty I have seen, who has spoken to me what little of truth I have heard, who has forgiven what foolish things I have done, and who occasionally finds that he can do something, here and there, with my feeble capabilities. I’m taking the next three days off, giving my computer a rest and focusing on my wife and family, giving back to them... Read more
[This review was originally published at Christianity Today in December 2004.] – For the second time this year, American audiences are being treated to a martial arts epic by the acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou. But where Hero was a perfect title for a movie about a courageous warrior’s quest for vengeance, the title of the new film, House of Flying Daggers, is misleading. In Japan, it is more appropriately titledThe Lovers. Daggers is a more colorful choice, but The... Read more
My good friends and ever-so-dependable colleagues in film-dissection have beaten me to the punch on Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. In fact, I haven’t even seen the film yet. But they have. (more…) Read more
The author. (more…) Read more
The funniest thing I’ve read online today was in the blog of my brother-in-law Jeremy, a mischievous father if I’ve ever known one. His blog basically recounts interesting episodes with his children. Here’s the entry that made me laugh out loud…. (more…) Read more
It’s hard to believe Finding Neverland, a small, beautiful, almost perfect motion picture, possessed of a rare and gentle grace, is from the same director who brought us the heavy-handed, implausible, indulgent Monster’s Ball. Marc Forster has given us a big screen blessing with this softspoken, restrained, unsentimental movie. Yes, I said “unsentimental,” and that’s where I part ways with some of the film’s critics. Most American movies that employ the word “BELIEVE” in capital letters never get around to... Read more
More and more critics’ awards are coming in, and the Golden Globe nominations are in as well. (more…) Read more
Looking Closer
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