Orthodox theologian Vigen Guroian tells us that orthodoxy of community is a better witness than politics. I agree. But the Religious Right was originally triggered into politics partly by a fear that they would lose their freedom to function in […]
Community
Does the Working Class Think It Can’t ‘Afford’ to Raise Their Children in a Christian Environment Any More?
In recent years we have heard how Christianity, and even Pentecostalism, seem to be losing their grip on the working classes, at least in white American communities. Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, Charles Murray, who wrote Coming Apart, and […]
A Conference Held to Honor my Father, Howard F. Ahmanson Sr.: “WWHD — What Would Howard Do?”
The “WWHD Conference — What Would Howard Ahmanson, Sr., Do?” — was held August 1, 2018, the year marking the 50th anniversary of my father’s death. I decided I wanted to sponsor it, mostly to honor him. In the tumultuous year […]
Drawing Lines: The Fences of the Church
The modern Church tries to be open to as many as possible, in order that as many as possible might hear the Gospel. Jim Belcher has written about a model of the Church not as a fenced enclosure but as a […]
If We Treated Food the Way We Treated Housing
Josh Barro, an economics columnist at the New York Times who used to be at Forbes, has written an interesting column on what the food marketplace would be like if we owned lifetime resaleable futures in our food instead of […]
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 […]
God = Not Society and Not the Autonomous Individual
Conor Friedersdorf, fortunately declares that children do not belong to the ‘community’ or ‘society’. Actually, they don’t really belong to their parents anyway; they belong to God, and their parents are temporary stewards of them. While we cannot say it […]
Arellano Defends the Fire Pits
Columnist Gustavo Arellano, in his inimitable way, defends the fire pits. He even threatens to name the director of the AQMD to the ‘Scariest People’ list that he keeps, a list that I made once in previous years due to […]
The New Spirituality of ‘Connectedness’
Most of us nowadays can probably recognize what this spaghetti of wires that I have photographed here is. Without it, my laptop, my iPad, and my phone will be useless pieces of metal in a day or two, though my […]
Why Land Use is One of the First Liberties
[Note: This post is taken from a short address I made to legislators in Sacramento on April 16, 2012.] I was first politicized by this issue perhaps 33 years ago, when an attempt was made to run the Orange County […]