Historical Backdrop to Smashmouth Incrementalism

As best as I can recall, abortion first became a real issue for me when New York legalized the practice, three years prior to Roe. That happened in 1970, but my recollection of my anger and dismay is somehow located during my time in the Navy, sometime in 1971 or 1972—so I don’t know what …

Remarks at the CREC Council Dinner

The Same Old Things: Introduction: So I have been assigned a topic that delights me. I am the son of a colporteur, an antique word that refers to the peddler of religious books. Not only was my father an avid distributor of literature, he was one who thought about the whole enterprise carefully, and who …

Elijah Went Up in a Whirlwind. We Landed in a Whirlwind.

Sea of Galilee from our hotel room . . . We landed in Tel Aviv in the morning, prepared to see what countless pilgrims before us have seen. There are many things to see, of course. Tel Aviv is right next to old Joppa, where Peter saw the vision of the unclean animals in the …

No, No—Know Your Noeo

Introduction: If you scroll down to the bottom of this thing, you will readily ascertain that this post is partly “Autobiographical Fragments,” and partly “Shameless Appeals.” So allow me to dispatch the autobiographical fragments part first. When I was in the Navy, before they let me anywhere near the water, I went through boot camp, …