Bible
Report Card
Friday, May 9th, 2008“Dad, if I miss some homework the last week of school, will I make it into second grade?”
School will be out in a couple more weeks. I wondered where Austin was going with this line of inquiry.
“I think your teacher will let you know if you’re missing any homework. You’re not leaving any in your […]
Unlikely Theologian
Friday, April 25th, 2008Paul Verhoeven has made news with his pronouncement regarding the birth of Jesus Christ. The Dutch film director of such seminarian titles as Basic Instinct and RoboCop assures the world’s Christians that the Virgin Birth is a hoax. According to Verhoeven, Jesus was the offspring of Mary’s tragic rape by a Roman soldier.
An Amsterdam publishing […]
Footprints
Friday, April 18th, 2008I’m an armchair outdoorsman. The last time I “camped out” was on a frigid November night last year with Austin in our backyard clubhouse. But I subscribed for a year to an outdoor magazine and enjoyed reading about cutting-edge camping equipment and exotic locales.
One of the concepts I encountered was “low-impact camping.” The idea is […]
“The wind blows wherever it pleases …”
Friday, April 11th, 2008Ubiquitous John 3:16. Max Lucado has written about it in his latest best-seller, calling it the “Hope Diamond” of the Bible. During professional sports broadcasts the reference jumps out with highlighter intensity from handmade signs creeping onscreen. In a day of growing biblical illiteracy, the verse remains readily quotable.
Almost reflexively, the words pop in my […]
Fishy
Friday, April 4th, 2008Los Angeles Times columnist Jonah Goldberg’s April 1 subject struck me at first glance as a possible April Fools’ joke. The column, “Evolution of religious bigotry,” considered “the cowardice and intolerance of slapping a Darwin fish on your car bumper.”
I had already been taken in by a local Christian radio station’s April Fools’ plea for […]
Final Odyssey
Friday, March 28th, 2008Arthur C. Clarke, world-renowned science fiction writer, died last week in his adopted homeland of Sri Lanka. Clarke, 90, was perhaps most famous for 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1968 film on which he collaborated with director Stanley Kubrick and on which he developed the novel of the same name.
I read the novel in high […]
Hands
Friday, March 21st, 2008When I look closely at my hands, details of my life come to mind.
Scars speak of accidents large and small. One of the smallest scars is from one of my worst injuries. I sliced the end of my right ring finger with a razor blade—deeply. But razors make for very thin scars. A more visible […]