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December 2018

December 16, 2018

“Reason” and “Religion:” Why Religion does less harm, even when misunderstood.

Everyone should wish to be reasonable, just as everyone should wish to breathe. The unreasonable person...

December 16, 2018

“Reason” is Not Enough: Ask French Mobs

Every so often the mobs in Paris go mad and impose the madness on the...

December 14, 2018

The Man We Need: A Cathelineau of America

The bloody men in Paris get all the press: Robespierre the butcher tormented his countrymen...

December 13, 2018

The Purity Culture of Christmas: Commercialism is Bad. So?

Let’s kill the Purity Culture of Christmas. Our family fought Christian Gnosticism (“purity culture”) as best...

December 12, 2018

Our Thoroughly Smug Thought Leaders and Us

O generation of the thoroughly smug and thoroughly uncomfortable, So begins a Salutation from Ezra Pound*...

December 11, 2018

The Commute to Bethlehem: Getting There on Time

Every so often a commuting college student will realize his final ("Don Rags" here) is...

December 10, 2018

Problems and Solutions: Physical, Spiritual, and Psychological

People are complex immortal souls, consciousness, in an animal body. We are not angels, we...

December 09, 2018

Designated Survivor (the Equivalent of a Christian Movie for the Resistance)

Great entertainment will often contain a message, but it takes great entertainment to do the job...

December 08, 2018

Mary was born to get the Christmas we got, because she consented. Thank you, Mary.

Mary was born, raised by good parents, decided to say “yes” when she could have...

December 07, 2018

Looking for Good Shepherds (Thoughts from Dad)

My Dad has a pastor’s heart. He set a high standard for ministry and he...

December 06, 2018

An Unexpected Journey: Michael Ward and Answering a Question

From a brief retrospective here: In an issue honoring a remarkable scholar, I have been...

December 05, 2018

For the Humanities PhD: Some Sort Of Advice

I get questions.* For a person who teaches by asking questions, these are always tricky...

December 04, 2018

Fantastic Beasts: Rowling Vindicates (Some of) Her Critics

JK Rowling (JKR) did sub-creation splendidly in the Harry Potter series. She had seven books, with...

December 03, 2018

The Necessity of the Stranger Friend (Laws)

We need stranger friends. Now this is not an appeal that people befriend me eccentricity...

December 02, 2018

The Phoney Victory: Contrarian Hitchens (The Other One)

There must have been something wonderfully contrarian in the water of the Hitchen’s house as...

December 01, 2018

The Color Line Cannot Be Ignored: An Example from the Columbian Exposition

Ida Wells: a leader in the fight for human dignity and against lynching. Nothing...

November 2018

November 30, 2018

The Right Place to Talk: the Importance of Nature to Education

Only go to virtual college if you have a virtual soul. Take virtual communion if...

November 29, 2018

Is the city built on the gods or on men? (Laws)

When the state is divinized, tyranny follows. All rulers, even the best, are tempted to...

November 28, 2018

The Budget, the Local Church, and Who Is Helping: People not Money

Can we look at where a local church spends money and judge what that congregation...

November 27, 2018

See You at the Great Christmas my Brother . . . (On a Syrian Buried in Bath)

He was buried in a Roman province far away from home, this Syrian Christian. We...

November 26, 2018

No Ant Farm for Me: Counting Down to Christmas

Comic book ads were almost my downfall. One year I made what I thought at...

November 25, 2018

Number 1: Thank U Next (An Old Guy Reads the Lyrics and Wonders as He Writes a Review)

I try to listen and think about the number 1 song of the moment: Ariana...

November 24, 2018

Don’t Cross the Bridge (Think Differently)

He had the most famous sideburns in American history did General Burnside, but Ambrose Burnside...

November 23, 2018

The Christmas Movie that Helped Build Our School OR Why a Christmas Movie You Have Never Heard of Is the Movie You Should Watch Now

Hope and I did not know what to do. There were practical choices and yet...

November 22, 2018

People for Thanksgiving Dinner (The Feasters, not the Feast!)

Today social media gave me a chance to ‘find’ the six people who would come...

November 21, 2018

Thankful for Unearned Happiness

Sometimes we are paid what we are due, that’s just. Thank God, often we do...

November 20, 2018

Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom

Growing up and going to graduate school in Rochester, New York meant Frederick Douglass was...

November 19, 2018

Don’t Be a Party Pooper

A jingle from my childhood went: Every party has a pooper, that’s why we invited...

November 18, 2018

“Have Thanksgiving,” he said. And I was crabby.

“Be thankful,” the radio preacher said. My immediate reaction, God help me, was crabbiness. “I...

November 17, 2018

Speak with Courage, Kindness, and Clarity (Religious Liberty Today)

Religious Liberty is the Fundamental Human Liberty I have been listening to a biography of...