At the moment, we’re having a national brouhaha over health care, and many people are irritated and bewildered. Some have gotten notices that their current policies have been cancelled, yet the website for buying government insurance is malfunctioning. They’re stuck in no man’s land, and anxiety levels are rising. It’s a good time to put …
In 2011, President Obama called the Defense of Marriage Act “unconstitutional” and said his administration would stop enforcing it.1 Now, the Supreme Court has followed suit, declaring the act constitutionally flawed. One delighted citizen tweeted, “I’m not a legal expert but I think this ruling officially makes [lesbian] Ellen [DeGeneres] our new ruler.”2 Perhaps not …
Last year, while visiting some missionaries in Japan, I was struck by the homogeneity of Japanese culture. We spent a day at Tokyo Disneyland, and I don’t think I saw more than 25 non-Japanese all day long among the thousands of park visitors. This made for some serious cultural insularity, and I couldn’t help wonder …
The other day, I was at the checkout in a Louisville bookstore when I spied a display of refrigerator magnets with more or less humorous themes. Most were pretty snarky, some scatological, and a few proudly blasphemous. The first one that caught my eye featured an angler in a beautiful wilderness setting leaning over to …
Reza Aslan’s best seller, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, is a Procrustean Bed. (You remember the Greek mythological figure who sized people to his bed by either stretching them or lopping off limbs.) He’s willing to do a great deal of editorial and rhetorical violence to the Bible and to Jesus …
We have a new granddaughter on the way, and our daughter has asked us to help brainstorm Bible names. This new grandbaby will join sisters Ruth and Lois, both from the Bible, plus cousins named Josiah, Asher, Judah, Susannah, Adriel, and Alethia (Greek for “truth”). As for my wife Sharon and I, we’re named, respectively, …
A Name for the New Baby? Have You Checked the Bible? Read More »