Reflections on God … Man … Life
Where does our faith reside as a nation? Simply putting “In God We Trust” on coins doesn’t really mean that we trust in God, does it? The god of America currently might be no more than a benevolent grandfather who isn’t really all that upset with what’s happening and who certainly wouldn’t want to damage anyone’s self-esteem. However, that’s not the God of Scripture. In my book on Ronald Reagan and Whittaker Chambers, I try to deal with the views… Read more »
What startled many readers of Whittaker Chambers’s Witness when it first was published in 1952 (and became a bestseller) was its deeply spiritual tone, its message of returning to faith in God, not only for the sake of individual salvation but also for the hope of salvaging Western civilization. Chambers had been a avowed atheist, an ideological stance influenced by his dysfunctional family upbringing, the nihilism communicated to him by his university education, and his commitment to changing the world… Read more »
All of those letters C. S. Lewis wrote to innumerable people throughout his lifetime are a treasure trove. Some show the mark of his published works while others emphasize the personal side of the man. When I researched my book on Lewis (caution: unashamed plug coming up), I read every letter in the collection that he wrote to Americans. It was a highlight of my sabbatical year when I could devote hours each day reading them and making notes for… Read more »
I have taught Biblical principles in my courses for the past twenty-seven years. I’ve wanted my students to understand that we must look deeper than outward appearances when we scrutinize historical events. A principle is a source or origin of anything; it is a general truth, that is, a truth that is so broad and sweeping that many other truths can be considered off-shoots of it. The idea of general truths that apply to all of society formerly had wide… Read more »
Ten years ago, I had the vision for a book on Whittaker Chambers and Ronald Reagan. I wanted to compare/contrast the pessimism of the former with the optimism of the latter. I also wanted to know just how much Chambers influenced Reagan. I had read Chambers’s masterful autobiography, Witness, back in the mid-1980s. It affected me deeply. I also was very appreciative of the principles that guided Reagan in his life and administration, an appreciation that grew over time as… Read more »
While there are so many angles one can take when writing about the horrific murders on that Oregon community college campus yesterday, only one came to the forefront of my mind: the Christian witness of those who were murdered. According to multiple eyewitness accounts, we know the murderer demanded to know the religious beliefs of his potential victims. If they stated they were Christians, he then shot them in the head. After hearing of this, it was as if God… Read more »
C. S. Lewis’s attitude toward money is fascinating. He was no economist, and if he could have lived without having to think about money ever again, he would have been most happy. In his early years, before he became famous, he had to be very careful with his expenses, so one might think that when the money started rolling in after the publication of his quite popular books, he could have relaxed and used all that extra funding as a… Read more »