Author Archives: salooper57

Although the experience of shame is universal, it is difficult to define. We can rightly distinguish shame from guilt – shame has to do with what I am, guilt with what I have done – but we are still left … Continue reading →

CBS has adapted Steven King’s 2009 thriller, “Under the Dome,” as a big-budget summer series. In King’s book, a mysterious dome falls out of the sky, isolating a small town in rural Maine from the rest of civilization. No one … Continue reading →

I’ve been attending worship services for so many years now, I cannot remember what it felt like when I first started. Did I feel out of place? Was I intimidated? Were people welcoming? I do remember feeling out of place … Continue reading →

For many people it is the most difficult – and arguably the most unreasonable – instruction given in sacred literature: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2). James, who led the Church … Continue reading →

Ask anyone under the age of fifty to explain why Memorial Day is special and they’re liable to tell you it’s because Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer. That may be a good enough reason to celebrate, but … Continue reading →

I admit it: I sometimes write with a hidden agenda. When I quote writers and thinkers – poets, like the renaissance poet George Herbert and the contemporary poet Billy Collins; philosophers from Augustine to Alvin Plantinga; apologists, like G. K. … Continue reading →