Thanksgiving is a holiday almost entirely devoted in spirit to the virtue of gratitude and it is the most distinctively American of all our holiday traditions. Whether or not Thanksgiving is ultimately of Protestant or Catholic origins, it is certainly the case that it has become not only an annual . . . . Continue Reading »
As Christians, we are a people who live in a present that is shaped definitively by the past and the future. The meaning of our present, of our contemporary lives and relationships, is fixed, but not yet revealed. We take shape only in relationship to the eternal, which Boethius famously defined as . . . . Continue Reading »
Greetings:Google analytics have shown that you are, in fact, the only person pathetic or lonely enough to be reading this blog on a holiday. You have escaped family and friends to read a blog on Evangelicals and the culture.Well done.I am the recently appointed Obama administration czar in charge . . . . Continue Reading »
Every town has the annoying messenger of cheer.This is the lady, it is almost always a lady, who will come to you with your broken arm and point out that you could have broken both your arms. If your town is unlucky enough to experience this lady in her born-again form, then she will remind you that . . . . Continue Reading »
I saw a disturbing play last weekend. It was disturbing because it spoke the truth about the condition of man. Extinction is the story of two men who, for a decade since their friendship began in college, have met annually in Atlantic City to revel in all the drugs, gambling, and women . . . . Continue Reading »
When I was a kid comics were not comix and only a Goober read them when he was grown up. They had yet to become the graphic novels taken seriously by any student of pop culture.It was a more child-friendly era and so comics were governed by a “code” that eliminated overt swearing. I . . . . Continue Reading »
The American posted this interesting graph that examines the prior private sector experience of the cabinet officials since 1900. It includes secretaries of State, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Energy, and Housing & Urban Development, and excludes Postmaster . . . . Continue Reading »
This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for blood. It’s one of the most powerful metaphors in any language, and it is the substance by which we measure our humanity.Blood can mean death, of course. With loss of blood goes our life. Blood is the mark of violence, whether it is brought to bear . . . . Continue Reading »
For years, I have been warning people that the time has come to man (and woman) the ramparts to defend the citadel of human exceptionalism (that’s a metaphor for you literalists) against its many attackers. Indeed, the unique and intrinsic value of human life merely for being human is under . . . . Continue Reading »
I posted the letter to the Financial Times where a college professor from India decried monotheism and declared the benevolent goodness of polytheism and its modern ally, secularism. The letter struck me as provocative and worth mentioning in its own right.But now I think I see a . . . . Continue Reading »