In a recent issue of Orange Coast magazine, Bob Sipchen of the Sierra Club contrasts John Muir, the naturalist, and Walt Disney: Walt Disney, who also shares a place in California’s Hall of Fame, appreciated the natural world Muir loved, […]
Christianity
Art Epiphany, Part II: the Millennium Bridge
I write this, and the previous post, from London. One of the newer features of the city, finished in 2000 [opened for two days, shut down for repairs, and reopened in 2002], is a pedestrian bridge called Millennium Bridge. It […]
Some Bleats About the ‘Common Good’
James Davidson Hunter is doing commendable work trying to restore the interest, of Christians especially, in the ‘common good.’ Not a bad thing, but first we have to think about what the ‘common good’ is. 1. First of all, we […]
Am I an Occasionalist? Christian Philosophy Critiques Intelligent Design
First Things is a magazine I like and find interesting. Just recently they have come out with a criticism of Intelligent Design by philosopher-scientist Stephen Meredith of the University of Chicago. He charges that Intelligent Design assumes the philosophy of […]
Why Does Talk About “Evangelism” Make Me Nervous?
At an event I was at recently I heard about a new effort to get Christian colleges united around the concept of ‘evangelism’. Well, fine. Jesus desires that people in all cultures be brought to Him and taught to do […]
The Last Freedom (and its Relationship to the First)
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World seems, for the most part, to be closer to the future we are facing in the West than George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. I do think that parts of Orwell’s vision are still important, however; in […]
After Jesus, A Better World
Mark Judge, a Roman Catholic writer, has, just in time for Christmas, given us his version of why the coming of Jesus into the world was an improvement. Judge quotes the former pope Benedict XVI as saying that the ancient […]
Thoughts on St. Patrick’s Day
In a few days comes one of the strangest holidays in our American calendar, in which we honor a saint who actually deserves honoring or remembering, and at the same time the first major non-Protestant ethnic group to come to […]
Evangelicals: From ‘Mind their own Business’ to Activism
I don’t think opposition to abortion rights is ‘hating women’, but it is very true that the Evangelical Right, unlike the Catholics, came to its anti-abortion position rather late. It was Francis Schaeffer, his son Frank, and the man who […]
On the Inhabitants of LA and CA
From Derek Sivers, one of the best descriptions of Los Angeles life I’ve ever read, and a lot of it applies to Orange County, even though the OC is not so much a center of the entertainment industry. [Before the […]