Grab Those Irons.. “But the worthless, every one of them will be thrust away like thorns, Because they cannot be taken in hand.. But the man who touches them Must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear, And they will be completely burned with fire in their place.” A Presbyterian pastor friend manages to go vague,..
Easter, Roundabout In a few weeks, Lord willing, my wife and I will take a first class vacation across the country in celebration of being married thirty years. I look forward to this, inordinately, in much the same way I looked forward to school starting in the fifth grade, and the yearly ritual of new..
Startling Simplicity I tend to superficially over-think religious subjects. I say “superficially” because my attorney friend, Tom Eastmond, reminded me about David Hume’s “is-ought” problem, and when you get under the hood with the metaphysical uber-thinkers, it humbles you. You get that “nothing new under the sun” feeling. Someone has already seen this here thing…
It’s a Small World After All, with a few nasty bugs.. YouTube can more or less read my mind, but that’s really nothing more, technically, than an observation of the Patrick Henry wisdom I impart nightly: “I know no way of judging the future, but by the past.” That means Tucker Carlson updates, Jonathan Winters,..
Picture a baseball stadium full of Hasidim — somber faced, bearded men wearing black hats and frock coats. Their hair, by our standards, appears both a little ragged and severely uniform at the same time. Shaved close above the ears and in the back and then allowing for long, curled sideburns in front, (what they..
All Souls Day “Look out the window,” my wife said. It was a Sunday afternoon. I had my dates mixed up, and there was an early evening Halloween party in the works. All of the Riley grandchildren and cousins and little people friends were gathering for a hayride. I’m telling you it was a grand..
When I was a child, one of my mother’s church lady friends kept describing me as a good little boy in a way that made me feel distinctively uncomfortable–because I didn’t feel even remotely “good.” Even then, I thought she was mistaking shyness for virtue. I was peevish, selfish, and prone to thinking too long..
I was talking with an evangelical friend the other day. His elderly parents are literally on the street, walking around Southern California pushing a shopping cart. This seemed odd, because my friend is pulling down some hefty numbers — well into the mid six figures mark. I asked him if he could help his parents..
My wife and I took an anniversary break out on the Palos Verdes peninsula last week. Is it just me or do the sleek young people who greet you at a fine hotel make you feel something like the newest citizen in Emerald City? I’ve never really felt worthy of these places. I love them,..
This will not stand.. I’m not just talking about the barbarity of African Muslims killing 147 Christian students in Kenya last week. I’m talking about the escapist, incomplete, pacifist bilge you hear from some believers in its wake. If you are the sort of person who considers what happened here — armed zealots, mentally and..
