“In a wedding, the family is giving birth; it is reproducing itself” (Her Hand in Marriage, p. 80).
The Bridezilla Blunder
“The wedding is simply a doorway into the house of the marriage. There is no problem with “decorating” this doorway — the practice of adorned brides and plenty of wine for the guests is certainly biblical — so the parents of the bride should fee free to spend some money and have a joyful wedding. …
And Fame Cogs
“The poet Rainer Rilke was quite prescient when he observed that anyone who investigates the ‘thousands of fame-wheels and fame-belts’ of the fame industry is ‘ultimately also pressed into service and soon contributes to the machine’s monstrous actions and berserk roaring'” (Halpern, Fame Junkies, p. xxviii).
How About Saturday Then?
“When a girl says no to a young man, he often feels free to press her for her reasons. She may not have to date him, but she frequently has to debate him” (Her Hand in Marriage, p. 77).
Fame Junkies Indeed
“How many viewing hours will be devoted to contests like American Idol, in which seemingly every single person in the country is lining up to become famous?” (Jake Halpern, Fame Junkies, p. xxii).
The Common Denominator
“When men fall away from the Lord, they do so for all kinds of reasons — money, career, a woman, sex, drugs, alcohol, etc. But when women fall away from the Lord, invariably there is a man involved” (Her Hand in Marriage, p. 75).
Gritty and Raw
[A sympathetic literary portrayal of opiate addiction allows a writer] “to demonstrate a personal knowledge of the lower depths, which has increasingly become a requirement for an imaginative writer to be taken seriously, at least in literary circles. We do not live in an auspicious age for the likes of Jane Austen or Henry James: …
What Marriage Is
Sexual activity without a covenant is not a marriage, and a marriage ceremony without sexual activity is no marriage. Marriage is covenanted sex with attendant covenantal responsibilities” (Her Hand in Marriage, p. 73).
Snippet from a Work in Process
“If someone is disposed to argue this particular point with me, they could win that argument by making a list of all the denominations that have begun to ordain women in the last generation, and show me how this was followed by an explosion of moral chastity, purity, and fidelity. Looking for flourishing chastity in …
Doilies on the Davenport
I have the book Young, Restless and Reformed on order, but have not yet read it. Comes now Peter Masters with a review of that book right here, and he says some things in the course of his review that I have to respond to. I am not saying anything about the book, mind you, …