People often associate Lent with giving up some vice for God. It might be cigars or alcohol or sweets, or something a bit more devious. Now if spinach or prunes counted, I think you would find a lot more people claiming to keep the fast. But Lent is not only about giving up vice. It is also about gaining. What do we gain? The virtuous Savior. Just as Jesus went into the wilderness and suffered hunger and thirst for forty... Read more

Lent commemorates Jesus’ forty days of temptation by Satan in the wilderness prior to the start of his public ministry. Apart from the Sundays during the Lenten season, Lent is in effect forty days. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter Sunday. Many of us are familiar with the “Forty Days of Purpose” study by Rick Warren that addresses what he takes to be God’s five purposes for human life. The Lord Jesus didn’t have Pastor Warren’s study... Read more

President Clinton has been known to minimize his sexual misconduct, as shown in an  interview regarding the Monica Lewinsky case. Refer here for Clinton’s remarks (0:56-5:58). President Trump has been known to mock women for coming out and making allegations of sexual misconduct by him and others. Refer here for Trump’s remarks against Dr. Christine Ford in making allegations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett Kavanaugh. In our democracy, people are considered innocent until proven guilty. However, while that is... Read more

John 12:1-8 is a fitting text to consider for this Sunday in Lent. The text narrates Mary’s anointing of Jesus for burial with an extremely expensive perfume made of pure nard. Only a few verses separate Jesus’ anointing in Bethany at Mary’s, Martha’s and Lazarus’s home and Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. We honor Jesus’ triumphant entry next week on Palm Sunday. What we find here in Jesus’ anointing is the equivalent of Lenten excess or extravagance: Six days before... Read more

I had the privilege of serving as a project supervisor for my seminary’s Science for Seminaries grant from the American Association for the Advancement of Science with funding from the John Templeton Foundation. The aim was to incorporate science into our core curriculum with the aid of scientific mentors. I now serve as a theological advisor for the program. Three of the qualities I have most admired in various scientists with whom I have interacted are intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, and... Read more

Altruism refers to those situations where people presumably pursue the well-being of others freely and selflessly. This notion flies in the face of those who believe natural selection and the survival of the fittest explains fully all human behavior.[1] On the latter view, purportedly selfless acts are at their source self-serving drives that benefit the individual and their kin or larger group’s survival. E.O. Wilson, for example, argues that Mother Theresa’s noble acts of charity for the poor and leprous... Read more

We have been getting glimpses of the recently submitted “Mueller Report.” Those favoring President Trump and those opposing him have sought to leverage the report for their political agendas. All sides in the national debate maintain that there have been ethical improprieties, whether on the part of the White House and its key allies, or the President’s opponents, whom he claims seek to smear him. It got me to thinking about divine judgment. There is something within each of us... Read more

Who Would You Pick as Designated Survivor? Tom Kirkland in Designated Survivor is a striking contrast to Frank Underwood in House of Cards. Whereas Underwood rules by ruthless pragmatism, Kirkland’s press secretary says in a private conversation with a colleague that Kirkland is “nothing but decency and compassion…this guy is service over ambition, integrity above expedience.” No doubt, ruthless pragmatism has often characterized the national political scene. So one could easily wonder who Underwood’s character best depicts on the national... Read more

There are many reasons why we should care for people with disabilities. Here are four reasons: inevitability; invisibility and isolation; inseparability; and invaluable worth and indispensability. The following reflections unpack these reasons. First, we should care for people with disabilities because it is inevitable. What is inevitable? We either know, will know, or will become someone with a disability. According to a U.S. Census Bureau report released in 2012, “nearly 1 in 5 people have a disability in the U.S.”... Read more

A distinguished medical doctor shared a keen insight yesterday about caring for people with disabilities. He realized years ago that what he needed to know about caring for people with disabilities was that he didn’t know anything about them. So, he determined that he needed to listen humbly to people with disabilities tell him what he needed to know to care for them. Otherwise, he would be guilty of bad diagnoses and prescriptions (You can find my video-taped interview with... Read more