Last week PBS aired Ken Burns’ new documentary on the lives of Teddy, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt. He began with Teddy’s childhood in 1858 and worked through the death of Eleanor in 1962. While many aspects of their life story are worthy of attention, an episode in Eleanor’s childhood caught my attention. Her mother believed she was not a beautiful child and even mocked her looks by calling her “Granny.” Eleanor felt unloved as a child but found an opportunity... Read more
The Lord blessed me early in my Christian life with friends who put good books and preaching tapes in my hands. (Yes tapes, it was the late 90’s.) During this time I have written down many quotes that stuck out to me from sermons, articles and books. This document now covers sixty-four pages. It is almost always in my recent documents as I am constantly adding to it and looking for quotes from it. Below you will find the seventeen... Read more
The indictment of Adrian Peterson last week ignited a nationwide discussion about spanking. Many used this as an opportunity to make a point about all forms of spanking. Armed with social science studies and emotional stories of child abuse, they argued that all spanking is child abuse which psychologically damages children. Their jumping on this situation to push their agenda surprised no one. What I did find surprising has been the chorus of voices defending spanking. Charles Barkley defended both... Read more
We live in interesting days. For several centuries Christians enjoyed a privileged place in American society. In large part our symbols, traditions, and way of life were not merely tolerated, but set the direction for American society. This reality began slowly eroding during the 1960’s and now no longer exists in most regions of the United States. Open hostility towards Christians is growing in our society as evidenced by the derecognition of InterVarsity Fellowship by the California State University system... Read more
One of my first stops every morning is Ray Ortlund’s blog at The Gospel Coalition. In a post last week entitled “How church conflict escalates to the nuclear option” he referenced a 2012 9Marks post about how conflict escalates in a church and I think the description is spot on. I’ve seen this play out more times than I care to rehearse. 1. An offense occurs. 2. A biased view of the offense is shared with friends. 3. Friends take... Read more
“Stupid is the New Smart” Daniel Flynn writes about our culture’s downplaying of culture and learning. He particularly laments trends in education and library that elevate video games and YouTube to the level of reading good books. “People are too lost in the virtual life. They have lost track of how to live the real life. New amusements have not made old distractions obsolete. Americans spend more than two and a half hours every weekday watching television. The figure has risen since... Read more
Recently a friend pointed me to Matt Cutts’ TED Talk “Try Something New for 30 Days.” Cutts got the idea from Morgan Spurlock and determined to try something new every month. One month he took an interesting pictures every day and another he worked every day towards writing a 50,000 word novel. (That’s one thousand, six hundred, and sixty-seven words a day.) He explains that by implementing small, incremental changes for thirty days you can develop a new habit naturally.... Read more
No one who has been paying attention would deny that we are living in a politically polarized society. From taxation to gay marriage to the border, we have gone to our respective corners and are ready to come out fighting. It helps to have God on your side in a political debate. After all, what better ace in the hole is there than “God agrees with me?” Both sides of the political spectrum are not afraid to use the Bible... Read more
Some friends began sharing the top ten books that influenced them on social media this week. One of them asked me to post my ten most influential books and it took a while to trim down the list. Good books tug at your heart and make you think. My list includes some Christian classics you would expect and a couple of fiction books that helped me understand human more completely. I was tempted to add Laura Hillenbrand’s amazing book Unbroken to... Read more
The recent events in Ferguson, MO have reignited discussions about white privilege in our society. Many people misunderstand what is meant by the term “white privilege.” No one is saying white people should repent for being white or that individual white people do not struggle against systemic difficulties in our culture. It simply means that in our society there are ways people benefit from being white that others do not have. The reason people call it privilege and not racism... Read more
One Degree to Another
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