I confess that my kids are out of town w/Grandma and Grandpa for a few days. I confess that I rarely worry about the safety of my children, except when they are in someone else’s care. I confess that used to struggle to understand how people could be consumed with worry or fear… and then I had children. I confess that June 24th Aaron Sorkin’s new show The Newsroom starts airing on HBO. I confess that I really want HBO... Read more

When Miroslav Volf talks about America, I’m inclined to listen. I think he has done as much as anyone in reminding me that America isn’t innocent. A belief in American exceptionalism is one of the more insidious requirements our society makes of those who are running for office and attempting to lead, if not of the ordinary citizen. Volf is refreshing because he reminds us that goodness and innocence are not the same thing. We can love and appreciate the... Read more

Below is the most recent article I wrote for the Huffington Post. I hope you’ll take moment to read it. If you are willing to help me out a little bit, the best way to support the article is the 1) share it on your facebook wall via the Huffington Post page itself. Just go the article, click the Facebook “share” icon & post it to your page. 2) click the “like” button. 3) Email it or tweet to your... Read more

I confess that my wife was gone for most of the weekend & I had the boys all by myself. I confess that we all made it through w/out a scratch and with a rekindled respect and appreciation for mom. I confess that if “marrying up” is a real thing, I did. I confess that I’m headed to Conception Abbey to pray with the monks, see Fr. Adam, and spend time w/my AMO fellows, so I may not be a... Read more

Okay, I finally pulled the trigger and spent my $150 Amazon.com gift card. The first purchase was Bethge’s biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I have to say, upon opening the package, I feel the need to retract my earlier griping about the book’s cost. I had no idea it was over 1000 pages long. It’s like buying two books and the price now seems appropriate. I’m obviously glad to have the book in hand… 45 pages in and am already completely enthralled.... Read more

Today is Ascension Day, or as most evangelicals call it, “Thursday.” Do we not know what the ascension really means because we don’t celebrate it? Or do we not celebrate it because we don’t know what it means? Either way, I’ve been sitting on a nice post by Mark Cortez, who is a professor at Western Seminary. I don’t know much about Dr. Cortez or Western, but I really like what he has to say about why the ascension is... Read more

As a follow up to the conversation begun yesterday about Christian marriage, I wanted to share the best marriage quote I’ve ever read, at least in relation to the modern institution of marriage. Schmeman was an Eastern Orthodox priest, writer, and theologian. His book For the Life of the World is a must-read. “A marriage which does not constantly crucify its own selfishness and self-sufficiency, which does not “die to itself” that it may point beyond itself, is not a... Read more

Here are some new stats on marriage from the Black, White, & Gray blog. Interesting trends happening right now. Divorce rate seems to be going down in our society – if only slightly. Overall marriages are down as well, which means the drop in divorce rate is due to the fact that more people who would enter “risky” marriages are now less like to marry. Kudos to Iowa for being the best state in the union for sticking with a... Read more

I confess that everyday when I’m running on the Mill Creek Trail I speed up and watch for flying objects as I pass under the bridge at K10 Highway. I confess that I do this because I have an irrational fear that someone is going to throw a glass bottle out of a car driving past at 80 miles an hour, and that it will hit me on the head, (despite the fact that nobody uses glass bottles anymore except... Read more

Anne Lamott is one of my favorite writers of creative non-fiction. I love her writing – so raw and beautiful – because she meanders in an almost stream of consciousness fashion, then drops in a zinger so profound I have to put the book down just to let it sink in. She’s brilliant, irreverent, and unwilling to describe the world without utter honesty. Lamott wrote an interesting article in Salon called “Why I Hate Mother’s Day,” in which she takes on the... Read more