After listening to sermons for the 35 years I’ve been a Christian, I agree with those who say the call to preach is the highest honor there is. It can also be the most frustrating. Think of the Parable of the Sower: Three-fourths of the seed lands by the road, or on stony ground, or... Continue Reading

What factors influence your decision to support a particular charity? A new survey sheds some light on this question. For one, religion might not have as great of an impact as might be assumed. Indeed, according to the Heart of the Donor study, commissioned by the Russ Reid Company, only a minority of religious donors... Continue Reading

Most people have heard this one: “God helps those that help themselves.” It’s another phantom scripture that appears nowhere in the Bible, but many people think it does. It’s actually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, one of the nation’s founding fathers. NFL legend Mike Ditka was giving a news conference one day after being fired as... Continue Reading

Fortunately, the revolution Kevorkian envisioned hasn’t yet succeeded. Despite decades of agitation, only three states allow some form of physician-assisted suicide. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous 1997 decision, declined to invent a constitutional right to die. There is no American equivalent of the kind of suicide clinics that have sprung up in Switzerland, providing... Continue Reading

Corroded and decayed by revelations of cheating and lying, college and professional sports are platforms that faith promoters should not be looking to exploit, but one they should be trying to repair, redeem. Otherwise, the next Jim Tressel-style embarrassment, and the next, and the next, are always just a headline away. Now that Jim Tressel... Continue Reading

Question #19 of the catechism for young children is a regular at our dinner table. When my husband asks, “Have you a soul as well as a body?,” the answer brings a lump to my throat every time my three-year-old says it: “Yes, I have a soul that will never die.” As parents, we must... Continue Reading

When the Bible, in part or in whole, is dismissed as “clobber Scriptures,” it is not only the Bible that is subverted, but also the Gospel. The Church must recognize that fact clearly — and fast. Is the Church guilty of beating people with the Bible? As strange as that argument might sound, it is... Continue Reading

Hagiography – the uncritical and adulatory description of the life of a hero of the faith – is probably the most common form of popular Christian biographical writing and probably the most useful in a strictly pragmatic, results-oriented way. A. Donald Macleod, speaking at Westminster last week on the challenges faced by a Christian biographer,... Continue Reading

In John 4.21-24, she wants to talk about mountains, and in that way is much like us. He wants to talk about the heart of the matter. Christ’s coming into the world means that worship is no longer identified with a location, because the Son, the true temple of God is here. What kind of... Continue Reading

The only hope I can see is to break it up. California’s core problem is that it has outgrown the constitutional model we have for it. California is too populous, too diverse, too complicated to flourish as a single state. Unless we carve this beast into something like five more compact and manageable states, Californians... Continue Reading