I begin by noting something by Samuel Johnson in The Vanity of Human Wishes, a little something for us to keep in reserve. How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure. In this next chapter, Rod Dreher says many good and pertinent things, but these …
Waiting for the Rat to Die
The situation described in the following letters continues to be entirely fictitious, including persons, names, crimes, sins, relationships, circumstances and all particulars. The kind of situation that is described, however, is all too common and my hope is that biblical principles applied to this fictitious scenario may be of some help to individuals tangled up …
One Innuendo Too Many, Pal
So The Washington Post did a profile on the wife of our vice-president, Karen Pence, and it came out that Mike Pence followed a variation of the “Billy Graham rule,” in that he would never eat alone with a woman who was not his wife, and he would never attend an event where alcohol was …
On Setting the Bone
The situation described in the following letters continues to be entirely fictitious, including persons, names, crimes, sins, relationships, circumstances and all particulars. The kind of situation that is described, however, is all too common and my hope is that biblical principles applied to this fictitious scenario may be of some help to individuals tangled up …
On the Moral Necessity of Judging Books by the Cover
Allow me to begin this brief meditation by urging everyone to calm down. Okay, I grant this intro may have worked some people up all by itself. Let’s begin again, shall we? There is nothing here that should be a cause for alarm, but given the times in which we live, there will likely be …
Win or Winnow or Both?
Introduction: Sometimes, after I have thrown a Molotov cocktail or two, meaning by this an incendiary adjective, or hot incandescent metaphor, a number of my friends who follow this blog have counted to twenty-five, muttering to themselves all the while that they know there is going to be a follow-up post, one that will seek …
On Not Throwing Away What You Do Have
The situation described in the following letters continues to be entirely fictitious, including persons, names, crimes, sins, relationships, circumstances and all particulars. The kind of situation that is described, however, is all too common and my hope is that biblical principles applied to this fictitious scenario may be of some help to individuals tangled up …
Letters to a Broken Girl
The situation described in the following letters is entirely fictitious, including persons, names, crimes, sins, relationships, circumstances and all particulars. The kind of situation that is described, however, is all too common and my hope is that biblical principles applied to this fictitious scenario may be of some help to individuals tangled up in real …
7 Reasons Why Submission is not a Dirty Word
It is not uncommon for me to conduct wedding ceremonies, and one of the questions I usually ask the couple during the premarital counseling is what the composition of the assembly is likely to be. When I preach, everybody is there more or less voluntarily, and they know what they are likely to be getting. …
Virgins and Volcanoes
Introduction: There are only two “ways,” two fundamental religions in the world. One of them feeds people, and the other one eats people. We see this contrast in vivid relief in the juxtaposition that Mark gives to the death of John the Baptist. That sad but typical episode is followed immediately by the feeding of …