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In the Company of Books
David Brooks is easily one of my favorite columnists. This column on the power of books is tremendous. It emphasizes the need to read. Real books help. (We can have the debate of ebooks vs. hard copies as well.) The point is: READ. We already knew, from research in 27 countries, that kids who grow up in a home with…
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Hitting Home
I have watched yet another family on my block lose their home. This one was not pleasant to hear about at all. Compassion is completely gone out of our system. Maybe even out of my own system. (It’s something I need to keep before the Lord.) But this family is out on their ear with stuff being tossed out by…
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Here is to the 4th
One greeting that catches my attention every year is “Have a happy and SAFE 4th of July.” Or, “Have a SAFE holiday.” I would suppose they simply mean, “Don’t go blow yourself up.” Have a SAFE 4th of July? As I reflect on independence, “safe” isn’t one of those words I come up with. That is not to say I…
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Freedom and Allegiance
Chuck Colson is incredibly articulate. He engages the culture. This article speaks to the First Amendment and the eroding place of Christianity in our culture. While I am not convinced of his comments regarding the differences between “freedom of religion” and “freedom of worship,” I am convinced we can reach a day where our government will erode the power of…
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On Judicial Confirmations
This week is the hearing for the latest Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan. All the lead up, then all week at these hearings, we will have the same blow hard fake hand wringing that happens with every nominee. No matter what the party of the president, we get the same pledge of finding a nominee that will listen carefully to…
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Vegas, Baby!
I am fresh off a trip to Las Vegas. I haven’t been there in about 15 years. Another 15 years is just fine with me. Business took me out there the first time. This time it was the Kiwanis International Convention. Vegas is still quite the place. I find myself completely mystified as to why people are attracted to this…
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Our Allegiance
I am patriotic as anyone. I still cry when they play, “God Bless the USA” at a ballgame. The question of allegiance is interesting, though. This post by Michael Gorman again raises the issue of our Christianity and our allegiances. Just a question: Do you pledge allegiance to the flag? Is it a civil religion that clashes with our allegiance…
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Leaving Our Christian Ghettos
One of the great challenges of pastoring is to move beyond pastoring my church and into pastoring my community. The longer I am in ministry, the more fed up I am with “programs” we try and design to keep the machine we call “church” going. If we were out truly pastoring our communities, things might look different. On this matter,…
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Christ and Culture — The Question We Fail to Ask
In their fine book, Exploring Ecclesiology, Harper and Metzger take up the question of Christ and culture in Chapter 13. They use H. Richard Niebuhr’s model of Christ and culture, Christ vs. culture, etc. They also use the model of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and how he stood up against Germany in a time when Germany nationalism was so incredibly strong. Bonhoeffer’s…
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Oddly Enough… We ARE Odd!
Mark Galli strikes to the heart of our aversion to being “different” as evangelicals in America. We just want to be dog-gone normal! We want to compete with the local coffee shop or bar. In his column, Galli relates the story of a lawsuit brought by a high school senior who didn’t want the graduation to take place in a…
Category: Culture
