A Wealth Problem?

My friend, Rob Dillon, a devoted and disciplined Christian, is an evolutionary biologist, a college professor who studies snails, surely one of life’s more practical endeavors.

I once asked Rob, “If one of your secular humanist science professor colleagues, who respects you as a scientist, were to ask you, ‘Why are you a Christian?’–how would you answer him?” To which Rob–who hardly worships at the altar of conventional wisdom–he replied, “I’d tell him I wish I weren’t.”

What do you suppose Dr. Dillon meant by that?

The Fundamentalist Temperament

A recent op-ed piece by syndicated columnist Cal Thomas (Charleston, SC, Post and Courier, 7-26-11) is typical of Thomas’ glib observations concerning matters religious, cultural and political. In the piece, he abhors, as he should, the atrocity committed by one Anders Behring Breivik, the murdering of a host of innocent people in Breivik’s native Norway, most of whom were young people gathered at a somewhat isolated island youth camp. 

What’s “Your Word” Worth?

In 2009, my friend and colleague, Mitch Carnell, edited a worthy book entitled Christian Civility in an Uncivil World (Smyth and Helwys). Dr. Carnell not only wrote the Preface and the last chapter of the book (“The Power of Words”), he envisioned the project, enlisting various accomplished persons, primarily clergy-types from an array of Christian traditions, to write other chapters, such as “Civility and the Common Good,” “Christian Civility on the Internet” and “Good Manners for Public Christians.”

Good, Bad, or Tragic?

These days, the word “tragedy” (or “tragic”) is over-if not mis-used. There are many examples of what I’m suggesting, not the least of which involves the latest wearisome Congressional squabble over where to cut spending and/or increase taxes (or at least close some loopholes)–all in the guise of raising our nation’s debt ceiling–a matter of hardly such conflicted historical precedence.

Who’s Perfect?

Trying to be “perfect” can make you crazy–if not others, as well–if they let you do that to them. At least in the way most of us, these days, define the term–”perfect.” This, I recently discovered, once again, when writing the initial installment of my blog. It was a piece in reference to disgraced New York Congressman, Anthony Weiner. Or is it “Wiener”?