The Life Given

Recently, YouTube recommended a video to me that was entitled: "Bill Burr Thinks Women Are Overrated."   (Sometimes, content just wanders across your path.)  For those of you who don't know, Bill Burr is a comedian.*  Something that I've noticed in the last few years is just how much of a cultural commentator comedians are.  Yes, they can make you laugh.  But it is normally because they can pack a little bit of truth in with their joke that everyone recognizes and laughs at it.  (At least good comedians do.) In his interview with Conan, he said that he misses two things: "Tougher parenting and evidence."  Burr went on to mention just how bad it was by pointing out the crowd's reaction, "You feel how nervous everyone just got in here the fact that I just suggested due-process."  He is right.  On social media, it is so easy to jump onto someone or something and pass judgement without doing our due diligence, and looking into the subject matter....

VICE  recently released a  video  of a panel of people that represents the LGBTQIA+ community as they discussed what the term "queer" means, Trump, and a number of other topics.  (Yes, I and A have been added to the alphabet. They mean "intersex" and "allies.")  I listened to the video and was struck by the confusion and weariness from the sexual movement.  As you watch, you begin to see the left running their own into the ground.  Identity politics is moving so quickly that it has left its former champions (homosexuals and lesbians) in the dust.  The lack of standards and objectivity is beginning to dizzy them, which should encourage Christians.  It is really easy to look around and be  discouraged  at the current state of the culture, but if you look closely you are beginning to see that the whirlwind is fighting itself. From one of their own: "Sometimes it just becomes too many damn letters."  To quote Psalm 1 again:...

I was recently at a conference this last week as a counsellor, and it was there that one of the speakers mentioned that the Reformation Wall in Geneva was vandalised with multiple vibrant different colours.  It isn't that far of a stretch to put it together to realize that this is the symbol of the rainbow that the LGBTQx1000 camp proudly waves.  For some, this could raise a similar reaction to that of people when Notre Dame Cathedral went up in flames this last year.  Instead, I would encourage Christians to see it as a sign of exactly what the "left" is doing.   Don't mistake it, the far left isn't playing around.  They are going for the jugular of western civilization.  And the heartbeat of that is the Christian religion.  For too long, we have allowed the culture to go unchecked.  Now it has become rampant, and the church is spineless.  It is time to gird up our loins and call out the culture's madness.   How are ...

Sometimes I need to go looking for an article that sparks a fire, other times I just open up CNN.com and NYtimes and issues will leap off the screen at me.  I found an article entitled 'Heather Has Two Mommies' Is Still Relevant Thirty Years Later under the genre of . . . parenting.  The article opens up with this paragraph: "Three years ago, when my daughter Marty was born, a queer friend gave me and my spouse a copy of Lesléa Newman’s iconic lesbian children’s book, “Heather Has Two Mommies.” It was meant as a joke about how heteronormative I’d become, getting married and having a child after years of firmly identifying as queer and aspiring to a life that challenges the norm. At the time, I threw the gag gift on a bookshelf to gather dust, only to realize later how valuable its lessons would be for my family." There were a number of things that struck me throughout this column, but it was this sentence that seemed to sing Romans 1: " It was meant ...

Even memes can help us to remember simple doctrines about our faith.  These being grace and new life. Enjoy:

There is a saying in writing and screenwriting that goes something along the lines of "show don't tell."  If you hold true to this proverb, then your writing treats the reader or audience as intelligent beings that can piece two-and-two together.  You rely on their cognitive abilities to figure out details that once told, the story becomes primitive.  (I confess that I do this too much with my creative fiction writing.)  But I want to push against this proverb briefly. A lot of Christians today, the reformed world included, rely on their actions to speak for themselves.  Which I hold and adhere to.  Actually, the community I live in now is the strongest I have seen.  And the college I attend challenges me to live out what I preach.  It is very challenging, yet you can see the fruit of it everywhere in the community and around the world.  But there is a ditch to this road.  And we often steer ourselves into it.  It is a quiet ditch...

Yesterday, an article by Rann Miller came out on theProgressive entitled "Education Reformers Still Don't Understand Racism."  It is an interesting read that I would encourage you to take a look at for one of two reasons.  The first is that this is a common mistake our culture makes.  They will look around for an answer to the problems that our country is facing and begin to worship a false idol.  The second is, I do believe that there is still racism in the United States, and I believe Miller picks up on one of those elements.  The reason I say this is to point out that I am not ignoring the argument this article makes, but rather contradicting the underlying assumption it is built on.  Rann Miller starts off his article with a quote from former President Barack Obama, who commented on a study done by Nick Hanaeur: “the article is a reminder that education reform isn’t a cure all.” This obviously grabbed my attention, but then Miller quotes Hanuer in th...

Whenever I listen to debates from the pro-choice side or read some of their writing, I am always struck by how determined they are to ignore the elephant in the room.  This article,  The Endless Cost of Maligning Abortion , writes on all the hurt that our country endures, that is socially, politically, or economically.  Within their article, they cite that about 90% of counties in the US lack an abortion clinic.  And it seems that the author wants to build on this premise - showing the retardation of these counties.   This is one of the opening paragraphs: "In the case of Americans' reproductive health, such numbers clearly show that denying women contraceptives and wanted abortions has a substantial toll on their lives and livelihoods, their children and families, and society as a whole. Evidence in favor of giving women full access to family planning is extensive and varied, with many pragmatic aspects, from the costs of Medicaid-paid births to com...