Apprentice 2 Jesus

Culture

  • Our NSA free day is just about over

    Congress will finally get it together and yank away privacy again soon. What a glorious day free of NSA data collecting! But, never fear, there are so many other ways to gather the data needed… all while invading your privacy and you still won’t know. This report covers the air surveillance the FBI uses. Once… Read more

  • 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. Read more

  • 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… Read more

  • 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… Read more

  • 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… Read more

  • 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… Read more

  • 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… Read more

  • 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… Read more

  • When things go WELL in a city

    It’s easy to get caught up in the stories of Baltimore, Ferguson, and so many more places and possibly think, “Wow… NOTHING seems to be going right.” What we don’t get to hear enough of is when things go WELL in a city. My city, where I pastor, is an inner ring suburb of the… Read more

  • Talking about sin and righteousness

    David Brooks has an interview in “Christianity Today”online about his new book, The Road to Character. It is wonderful to read of his personal journey. It is also little wonder why many who prefer to live in a “secular” society (meaning no place for religion in the public square) rejoice over the latest Pew numbers… Read more