Reflections on God … Man … Life
“The place for which He designs them [human beings] in His scheme of things is the place they are made for.” That’s C. S. Lewis commenting in The Problem of Pain regarding human desires. “When they [humans] reach it [the place God has made for them] their nature is fulfilled and their happiness attained: a broken bone in the universe has been set, the anguish is over.” Yet human beings universally set their desires on the wrong things. We want… Read more »
I’m sure everyone has heard the complaint against some Christians who, we’re told, are “too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.” While that may sound rather clever, and it may be easy to pick up on the refrain because, after all, this is the world we live in, it nevertheless doesn’t hold up under close examination. History itself denies this cliché. C. S. Lewis can always be relied upon to make us rethink popular slogans. He tackles this one… Read more »
Diversity is all the rage. It’s a word no one can escape nowadays, especially if you are on a university campus. We are told continually that there is strength in diversity, as if differences are inherently better than similarities. Perhaps it’s best illustrated by this graphic: I believe in diversity, but in God’s way. Notice that the wheel above makes no distinction between natural differences and those that are the result of choices we make. My ethnicity is a matter… Read more »
The controversy over the movie UnPlanned was to be expected. Abortion is a controversial subject. But it should not be. No one who still maintains any moral sense at all should be in favor of a “procedure” that dismembers and destroys innocent life. Yet in a society where Planned Parenthood makes billions promoting this “procedure,” one can expect a strong reaction to the truth this movie portrays. Livelihoods and political power depend on defending the indefensible. Television networks refused to… Read more »
Democrats and Republicans have always disagreed about policy, but there was a time when the two parties weren’t as polarized as they are today. In my study of American history, the last Democrat president with whom I would have felt entirely comfortable was Grover Cleveland—and that goes a long way back. Yet Democrats weren’t always as radical as they seem to be now. The change in my lifetime has been rather dramatic, and I’m sure many others can attest to… Read more »
Yesterday in my “Religion and the Presidents” course, I shared the unusual relationship that developed between Dwight Eisenhower and Billy Graham. I say “unusual” because Ike was decades older than the young evangelist and had far more experience in the world. After all, he led the European Theater of WWII, including the daring and dramatic decision to go forward on D-Day. Yet Ike was being drawn by God into a closer examination of his religious beliefs. No achievement in this… Read more »
In the Book of Common Prayer this morning, I came across a prayer called “For Those Who Influence Public Opinion.” Since that’s the very reason why I attempt to write this blog, I paid close attention to it and prayed the prayer for myself. I was taken by how the words spoke directly to what I seek to do. Here’s how it goes. Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we… Read more »