Many of us are trying to figure out what God is trying to do by allowing this Coronavirus plague to circulate around the world so dramatically. As I thought about this, I was reminded of a passage in Luke’s Gospel […]
Culture
Some Thoughts About ‘Identities’
In the classical Christian church we hear much about our identity in Christ. We also have a host of other identities or roles: parent or child in a family; worker in or owner of an organization; a particular church, denomination, […]
The Adams Map: A Different Spectrum, A Challenge That Still Speaks to Us
The little known [in the States] Canadian sociologist Michael Adams has suggested a new classification of American values, in terms of a four-way box. The culture wars of the era after Nixon and before Trump were primarily between the Status […]
Insights from Francis Fukuyama on the Problem of Crony Capitalism
This essay summarizes some of Francis Fukuyama’s historical perspective and insights on the problem ‘patrimonialism’ and its effect on society. I briefly suggest some ways to address patrimonialism, and also identify factors that shape patrimonialism in California and elsewhere. According […]
Merry Christmas [All Three of Them]
C.S. Lewis, in an essay called “What Christmas Means to Me,” declared that there are three Christmases that are celebrated simultaneously: the incarnation of God the Son in the person of Jesus Christ, the merrymaking around the solstice, and the […]
Don’t Blame the Boomers for Everything
Here I affirm that most of the serious structural changes in society associated with the Baby Boomer generation were, in fact, set in place by people far older. The Boomers, however, certainly took advantage of them! And we, on the […]
The Problem with ‘Straight Pride’
A few cities have recently talked of having ‘Straight Pride’ parades. Whether their purpose is celebration or mockery I can’t say. Whatever the intention, I don’t know whether I could participate. About 95% of the population is ‘straight’ by nature, and […]
A Recent History of ‘Skinny Fat’ or How Fit Were People in the Old Days?
Recently in an airport, I saw and bought a rather provocative issue of Scientific American. The cover declared that humans ‘evolved’ to exercise, while the most similar forms of life – chimpanzees and bonobos – function very well as couch potatoes, according to […]
On Political Trust and Media Attention
For a long time, we have spoken of elections, in which a President is not on the ballot, as ‘off-year elections’. I think the Founders would have been horrified by such a notion. The Congress, they would have thought, should […]
Christianity and Science: Two Poles of a Biblical World View
In C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock, in the essay “Miracles” we read this: The experience of a miracle in fact requires two conditions. First, we must believe in a normal stability of Nature, which means we must recognize […]