Pat Robertson and Haiti – where angels fear to tread

I had a great birthday. January 12 was a happy day for me, all day long. But a couple of days later I discovered what a big tragedy it was… an earthquake hit Haiti, killing maybe 100,000 people. Aside from the small donation I sent to World Vision, there isn’t much I can do. I [...]

Benjamin Button – more about death than life

I took my wife to see the Curious Case of Benjamin Button on Christmas day. We both enjoyed it a great deal. It’s a love story, and an adventure story. Someone compared it to Forest Gump, but it’s never as emotional as that masterpiece, nor as funny. But it’s got some humor, I’d give it [...]

Happy Heretic, meet Happy God

I’m happy to rediscover Judith Hayes, the Happy Heretic. I’m a happy heretic myself, being convinced that most of Christianity is dead wrong about the end game God has planned.  In her most recent post, Judith points her incisive wit at the 7 visions of Hell described in an article she reviews. All the views, [...]

Atrocities from Absurdities

  “If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.” “Let us therefore reject all superstition in order to become more human; but in speaking against fanaticism, let us not imitate the fanatics: they are sick men in delirium who want to chastise their doctors. Let us assuage their ills, and never embitter them, and let [...]

The Fairness of a Father

One of the toughest lessons I had to learn as a father was trying to find ways of making consequences “fit”. To feel corrected rather than abused, a child must sense proportionality. Punishment is a loving thing for a father to concern himself with, because if a father does not correct a child early and [...]

Yet more wrath?

I love the premise of “Desiring God” — that our chief end is to delight in God, enjoying Him forever. It can and should be “all joy” to know, and be loved by, the great and good God of the Universe. But when John Piper gets to describing what God is doing, and how the [...]

Father Provides

My son-in-law passed the first day of his new role in promising fashion. He stayed up with the baby to let Mom sleep. As with the human creation, night came first, and as in one of my favorite texts, there was a lot of weeping. Like a good father, my son-in-law met the needs of [...]

Grand Fatherhood

First things first. My first daughter had her first baby, my first grandchild, my first male descendant, and his initials are… A.D. It has been a really good year in the Lord, and Adrian is just one of the many reasons. Fatherhood is better than ever, starting with the first day of the year, when [...]

Me and Mark Twain

Last week I had the rare great privilege of attending Hal Holbrook’s performance of Mark Twain Tonight. It had been 19 years since the last time I heard it. I noticed that Hal has become Mark Twain, and his choice of material reflected a man who is mellow and profoundly touched by the fear and [...]

Revised Genesis

I’m glad God didn’t have to revise his first chapter. But not knowing the end from the beginning, I’ve had to evolve in my blog creations. I’m an evolved person since I started blogging 6 years ago, and what I care about has shifted slightly as well. So here’s what this blog is about. Why [...]