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The hurt in our hearts
2 How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked…
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The choice of no moral voice
“Is it any wonder that there can be no peace in a world where everything possible is done to guarantee that the youth of every nation will grow up absolutely without moral and religious discipline, and without the shadow of an interior life, or of that spirituality and charity and faith which alone can safeguard the treaties and agreements made…
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NSA-FREE day
Congress couldn’t manage to renew the Patriot Act provisions regarding bulk surveillance. That means that today (and probably today only) the NSA isn’t allowed to simply sweep all information into their possession from any a ND every phone call in America. Enjoy. We’ll lose it again within the week I’m sure.
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Black lives still matter
Let’s get this out of the way: Yes… ALL lives matter. Absolutely, positively, every one. But each of us know when there are those neglected and there is a sense of, “Does MY life matter? Is anyone seeing?” That is why, from time to time, we lift up a particular part of society to try and emphasize, YES… YOU matter! This…
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The new scarlet letter
Immediate qualifier: I don’t know the first thing about Duggars or TLC or any facts of the old case against one of the Duggars. But with the charge of molestation and the vehement blog post titles I see on my Facebook feed, I think once again to the issue of child molesters and how we handle it as a country.…
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The place of vocation
Vocation, according to David Brooks in The Road to Character, is core to a “good life.” We need a calling. We won’t find satisfaction in using work to serve ourselves alone. We will keep chasing unattainable ambitions and goals. If we give our lives to simply “serving the community” we end up wondering if people appreciate us enough. The key…
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Where Character is Built
Character is not built in the smooth sailing. It is not built in anything that is something from the outside. Character is built in the course of inner confrontation. When we struggle against pride and sin we find the ability and resolve to overcome. That is the place of character. David Brooks in his book The Road to Character says…
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Sin won’t go away
We want to rename it, ignore it, ridicule the thought of “sin,” but the fact of it just won’t go away. We do our best to ignore it, though. Bill Arnold in his commentary on 1-2 Samuel in the NIV Application Commentary noted this: Once “sin” is no longer in the church’s vocabulary, there is no longer a need for…
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Why conversations fail and the public square doesn’t want “religion”
This review of a biography on Richard John Neuhaus has a particular insight that I find true generally of our inability to have decent public discussion anymore. An ethicist friend once told me he had a hard time reading Neuhaus. “I know there is stuff to learn from him,” he said, “but given the things that I find so irritating,…
Category: Culture
