I am scheduled to go on a three-day silent retreat with the Jesuits today and I don’t want to go. Worse, I don’t exactly know why.
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Thinking you can escape judgementalism by staying away from church folk is like thinking you can avoid cancer by staying away from hospitals.
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The newspaper doesn’t often upset me, largely because it rarely surprises me—either in the events it describes or the opinions it expresses. Occasionally, however, it will crystallize something for me.
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My time at Calvin College’s Festival of Faith and Writing. Heard some stories. And told a few. And learned some things.
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The spirits are kindred spirits, people who understand me and who I understand, though we are largely unknown to each other. I want to put in a good word for kindred spirits.
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Why is Holy Week a big deal to so many Christians? It wasn’t so much to the Baptists I grew up with in Texas and California.
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I belong to a book club for two reasons: I enjoy the company and it leads me to read books that I would not otherwise read—or even know of.
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Any “moderate” position on an important issue should not be a mere averaging of the extremes (resulting in a tepid middling), but a position that itself retains the best of both extremes (and which one supports vigorously).
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I am often not bothered by things that others think I should be bothered by. Some attach dark meanings and motives to my not being bothered, but that doesn’t bother me either.
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Whenever I hear someone claim that they only believe what is demonstrated by reason and science, I want to smile.
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The death of Billy Graham provides an opportunity for reflection. A near-saint to some, another religious huckster to others, I personally take him as both a model and a warning.
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Religious ritual is whatever you do repeatedly for the purpose of positioning yourself before God.Ritual becomes empty when it is done only for the purpose of performing the ritual, with no thought or concern for positioning yourself before God.
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Today I am here watching my mother die. She is not cooperating. I was about to say I am glad she is dying, but that’s not right. Not even close really.
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I spoke recently at the wedding of a friend’s son. I opened by comparing the couple’s decision to have me speak to Hitler’s decision to invade Russia. Not the opening for your traditional wedding talk.
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It is quite possible that this post adds up to nothing. But, on this cold-clear day after Christmas, it has two good stories in it, so it is not, I think, a total loss.
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How do Christians today think of this defining event in human history – God joining his creation? Three different conceptions of Christmas among believers come quickly to mind.
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A passage from a novel in progress—the third novel in the Jon Mote series that began with Death Comes for the Deconstructionist. Jon is a troubled soul, in many different but related ways. He tends to be obsessive in his thought life, which is the only life any of us really knows. He’s abandoned the religious faith of his youth, but is still haunted by it.
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We have long known that many addictive behaviors are linked to the release of pleasure-giving chemicals in the brain—from drinking to drugs to risky behavior to watching football.
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