Introduction: I will begin by noting that today's installment is going to be more autobiographical than normal, and will consequently be a bit more personal. There is a reason for this, as I hope will ...
Fever in the Bunkhouse Now
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 …
Coming Up on Forty Nine
Nancy and I got married on New Year’s Eve, 1975. It took us a few years to figure out why the restaurants were always so crowded on our anniversary dates. But because we got married New Year’s Eve, that being the case, we will be marking our 49th anniversary in just a few weeks. And …
Summers
As I was growing up, my family was a road-tripping family. My father was not yet a pastor, but he was an evangelist and conference speaker, and so we would often accompany him on speaking gigs, and roll a family vacation into it. As I was just a kid at the time, and not yet …
Jim and Bessie
Honor is not an invisible thing. When the Bible tells us to honor the emperor, or to respect all men, or to honor our fathers and mothers, this is not referring to an invisible attitude tucked away somewhere in our hearts. Honor must be expressed and shown, and not some cliched and trite greeting card …
NQN Game Film 2023
Introduction: It has become our custom—and why shouldn't it have become our custom?—to review the month of November once we turn the page of the calendar, and all the pieces have fallen out ...
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 …
Boyhood Rambles
Our last five years in Annapolis were in the house at the top of Genesse Street. The house had a spacious side yard, and so of course lots of time was burned through there. But the chief glory of that house’s location was the fact that it was catty corner from “the woods.” The woods …
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 …
The Jesus Revolution
So just a quick note to say that Nancy and I had the opportunity to go see The Jesus Revolution last night. Man, what a time capsule that was. The movie was well done, and we appreciated many things about it. They really captured the excitement and the good weirdness of that excitement, and they …