“A man who says that he is easily led . . . never uses this characteristic to explain his good deeds, good characteristics, or positive achievements. A man never claims to have been easily led to higher mathematics, the subjunctives of foreign languages, or unpaid work among the poor. People are influenced by the people …
What Makes Satan’s Factories Hum
When we emphasize that Christ died as a propitiatory sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, we are emphasizing something right at the heart of the gospel. And shrewd evangelists have known for centuries that preaching the cross this way is essential to effective evangelism — a process quite distinct from what passes for evangelism these days, a …
Try a Little More Fabric Softener
When a relationship goes south on you, and the whole thing seems inexplicable, the place to turn for wisdom is James 4. Where do these out-of-the-blue conflicts come from, for pity’s sake? And of course, all the initial trouble-shooting diagnostics you run ought not to be trying to figure out what went wrong with the …
Son of a Gun. Whattaya Know?
“Unfortunately, it is not only those who take heroin who are blinded by illusions, but almost the entire population, including—or especially—the experts. Every problem in contemporary society calls forth its equal and supposedly opposite bureaucracy. The ostensible purpose of the bureaucracy is to solve that problem. But the bureaucracy quickly develops a survival instinct and …
Christian Book Expo 2009
Lord willing, I will be in Dallas this Friday night at the Christian Book Expo. There will be a special pre-screening of the documentary Collision there, both Friday and Saturday evenings at 9 pm. Both Christopher and I will be available to sign books on Friday, and will participate in a panel discussion on Saturday …
The Power of Naming
I want to begin this review of Dandelion Fire by acknowledging at the outset that I am not an objective reviewer. Fathers of writers who produce works of genius are really up a creek. What are they supposed to do? Pretend like nothing happened? Dandelion Fire is the second book in the cupboards triology, 100 …
A Perennial Question
The Republican Party is now living in a moon crater, and lo, many are bumfuzzled about what to do. At the recent conservative hoodah thingy, where Rush whipped up the true-bluers, the winner of the presidential straw poll was Mitt Romney, of all people. Now many of the good folks there might have abstained, on …
Bertie Comes Through
Things are in a parlous state when Bertie Wooster understands economics better than all the smart johnnies running the Western world . . . Orlo Porter, an old school acquaintance and ardent leftist, speaks to Bertie, and Bertie thinks sense to himself: “‘He has a big house in the country with a stable of racehorses, …
Got a Ninctobinkus Broke In It
Michael Spencer has written a thoughtful article on the coming evangelical collapse that has gotten some good circulation, and you can take a gander here. Only two quick comments. First, he is absolutely right that the evangelical movement is in the process of collapsing, but only in the sense that the banks that are all …
Boy Howdy
I put my truck in 4-wheel drive this morning to help me get to work . . . in March. Late last week, I was assuming that we were dealing with a spring snow, the kind of thing we have to put up with in Idaho from time to time. But no, this is the …