I am blessed with a handful of friends who make me think. One of them is John Ockels. John thinks deeply about his faith. Over lunch the other day, he pointed out that thinking about life as eternal had changed the way he lives. “You know, he observed, if you think that this life is all there is, it doesn’t matter how sweet natured and good you happen to be, the notion that it will all be over in 80... Read more
Writing for Real Clear Religion, author Mark Judge observes: Somebody needs to stage an intervention on Bob Beckel. The man needs to stop taking about being a drunk. Beckel is a Democratic operative who now co-stars on The Five, the popular Fox television show. The Five has five stars — Beckel, Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Eric Bolling. The show has received good reviews — even from the New York Times — and it’s not hard to see why. It has... Read more
My brother is a surgeon and he understands the desire for second opinions. When a procedure is complicated or the implications are far-reaching, it can be important to get another point of view. If the second opinion confirms the first one you received, it’s also reassuring. But when patients look for a third, fourth, or fifth opinion, he has also learned that his patients are probably looking for the opinion they want, not the opinion they need — or they... Read more
In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal James Brovard reported: In recent years, numerous experts have declaimed that the gross domestic product is a flawed measure of whether citizens are truly thriving. President Obama’s designee for World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, for example, warned that “the quest for growth in GDP and corporate profits has in fact worsened the lives of millions of women and men.” In light of this growing concern, the Obama administration is financing... Read more
In 1960 D. W. Winnicott published what appeared to be an inconsequential article describing “the false self.” Winnicott argued that, in self-defense, we all build versions of ourselves. Those “false selves” are designed to offer a version of ourselves to the world that keep us from being hurt and promote public civility, ordering our impulses and the ways in which we act on them. Winnicott argued that in those who are emotionally troubled, the false self looms so large that... Read more
An ancient story from the Talmud offers an answer to the question, “Where will I find the Messiah?” A Rabbi asked Elijah, “When will the Messiah come?” Elijah replied, “Go and ask him yourself.” “Where is he?” “Sitting at the gates of the city.” “How shall I know him?” “He is sitting among the poor covered with wounds. The others unbind all their wounds at the same time and then bind them up again. But he unbinds one at a... Read more
I have been in more than one setting recently in which people have urged one another “to just forgive.” The incongruity of the pain people have described is jarring when compared with the easy, definitive guidance that others have offered that advice. Running over the questions of how fresh the wounding might be or how long the healing might take, they are like a Nike commercial, “Just do it.” Forgiveness is the point of departure, the first step in our... Read more
Should we say our prayers or read them? Some fairly strong opinions on the subject have driven people one direction or the other in their search for a place to worship. Baptists will extol the virtues of extemporaneous prayers. Catholics will celebrate the written prayers of the church and rely on them with regularity. Other denominations are scattered across the spectrum in between. People can also be fairly passionate about their commitments. For some Episcopalians the Bible is just The... Read more
One of my friends was attending a monastic convocation, when one of his brothers handed him a coin sold in the monastery gift shop. Passing it to him with one side turned upward, he read the famous Pauline maxim, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” But the other side of the coin referred to a Christian cheerleaders’ training camp. My friend found it very difficult to focus before they began praying again. For any number of... Read more
In Hijacked Mike Slaughter and Charles Gutenson make a fairly detailed case for arguing that the ground has shifted in the church and that political, not theological language now dominates the way that Christians talk about their faith. Clearly, I am sympathetic, as any casual reader will have realized by now. I’ve marveled at the way in which Christians will take pride in calling themselves “Christian, this-that-something or other-Republicans or Democrats.” Have they registered that the only noun in that... Read more
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