We don’t need more humanistic secularism. We need the law and the gospel proclaimed in the pulpits. When that happens, then there might be some hope of turning around the moral decay that has so infiltrated the church. But until that happens, adding prayer in school will do nothing to aid in the cause of... Continue Reading

I remarked to my friend that I seem to think more highly of our fellow Americans than she does, even though I’m the one who acknowledges total depravity while she holds to innate goodness. The disconnect may reside not in our definition of goodness, but in our definition of progress. To me, it’s God’s common... Continue Reading

“Biological entities, in other words, are defined by their characteristic behavior; and that is enough to show that what is generated at conception is a new human being. But by applying the same principle to a more detailed biological picture, we can answer the question to which Caplan shifted: Which event surrounding the meeting of... Continue Reading

“But how or what do we pray? The Scriptures help us with that, too. In particular the Psalms—divine words God has given us to talk and sing to him—provide us with not only wisdom and perspective for parenting, but also with words for prayer.”   I’m not exactly sure how it happens, but almost as... Continue Reading

In his memoir, Hentoff recalls meeting Jackson on a train in 1994. As they journeyed together, Hentoff told Jackson that he frequently quoted his pro-life writings because they were among the most compelling he had read. Jackson, he said, looked troubled. Hentoff then asked the politician whether he had any second thoughts on his change of mind. Jackson looked even more troubled and said, “I’ll get back to you on that.” Hentoff ended the anecdote on this laconic note: “I haven’t heard from him since.”

Professionals have told me that they are scared to speak out or to even ask questions. Journalists are concerned their articles won’t be published, doctors that they will lose their jobs and teachers that they will be sidelined. Politicians fear the Twitter mobs and hate speech that inevitably follows if they dare to question or... Continue Reading

“I said I was sorry. What more do you want from me? What more can I do?” If anything more than my words (i.e., “I’m sorry”) are required in response to my actions, then you are being unforgiving, mean, weak, or hyper-emotional. Also, this response often implies that an apology should be met with an immediate sense of trust and equanimity in the relationship. Any lingering sense of mistrust by the offended person is then labeled as an unreasonable and ungodly form of punishment.

Even if the truth doesn’t seem favorable to us, we don’t have to go looking for an opposing story. We have a hope in something greater. We believe that Truth is personified in a Person—Jesus. When we dishonor the truth, we dishonor Jesus. In 2012, I wrote, “I'm saddened that many Christians are being included in the groups that create their own facts." Unfortunately, more and more people are noticing this to be the case. Gullible or conspiracy-spreading Christians simply do not help these perceptions. Instead, they feed the impression that Evangelicals are simply unwilling to face truth.

He noted that “once a person crosses over the line into full-blown addiction — drug, digital or otherwise — they need to detox before any other kind of therapy can have any chance of being effective.” With tech, that means a full digital detox — no computers, no smartphones, no tablets. The extreme digital detox even eliminates television. The prescribed amount of time is four to six weeks; that’s the amount of time that is usually required for a hyper-aroused nervous system to reset itself. But that’s no easy task in our current tech-filled society where screens are ubiquitous. A person can live without drugs or alcohol; with tech addiction, digital temptations are everywhere.

“The greatest barriers to simplicity, says Bodell, are: meetings, accountability structures, performance metrics and evaluation, red tape, federal regulations and compliance, legal caution, reports, and technology.”   On my recent vacation, I read Why Simple Wins: Escape the Complexity Trap and Get to Work That Matters by Lisa Bodell. Although it’s a book written primarily... Continue Reading