Category Archives: Christianity

Without this, Christianity ceases to be Christian

Posted on November 1, 2015 by salooper57

Some religions are impossible to imagine apart from their founders. Can anyone picture Islam without Muhammed, or the Latter Day Saints without Joseph Smith, or Scientology without L. Ron Hubbard? In other religions the human founder is historically important but … Continue reading →

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How does a church measure success?

Posted on October 26, 2015 by salooper57

The other day my wife accused me of harboring a secret desire to be a race car driver. We were on vacation in Tennessee, hiking state parks and national recreation areas. Getting to those places sometimes meant driving serpentine roads, … Continue reading →

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Tear down this wall!

Posted on October 17, 2015 by salooper57

One of the chief difficulties people (skeptics, seekers, and believers) have with Christianity is the idea that it doesn’t belong to this world, that religion and reality don’t intersect. It’s assumed that religion is a kind of fantasy world that … Continue reading →

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What you need to know to avoid God

Posted on October 10, 2015 by salooper57

Avoiding God is no easy task. Many people who try it fail. It takes effort. It calls for constant vigilance. As C. S. Lewis, reminiscing about his days as an atheist, put it, “Really, a young Atheist cannot guard his … Continue reading →

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Dignity is not the result of circumstances

Posted on September 19, 2015 by salooper57

Whenever I faced a challenge as a boy, my leatherneck dad would say to me: “You can do this standing on your head.” It didn’t matter what “this” happened to be – football tryouts, trigonometry, passing a driver’s test – … Continue reading →

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A rose by any other name

Posted on August 29, 2015 by salooper57

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Those are of course Juliet’s lines in Act II of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. If only Romeo’s last name were something other … Continue reading →

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Be careful not to stare into the wrong eyes

Posted on August 8, 2015 by salooper57

I was in the Istanbul airport this summer, standing at Passport Control, while a uniformed officer went through my papers. He was scowling. He looked at my passport picture, then at me, then back at my papers. I couldn’t tell … Continue reading →

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It’s up to us to change the political climate

Posted on August 1, 2015 by salooper57

It feels like we’re standing on the shoreline, watching a storm building in the west. Another general election is on the horizon, the rhetoric is heating up, and accusations are beginning to fall like thunderbolts on the talk shows and … Continue reading →

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We were made that way

Posted on July 25, 2015 by salooper57

Lady Gaga sings about Mary Magdalene, the friend and disciple of Jesus. Katy Perry refers to the biblical hero Esther and writes about being called and chosen. The Clash refers to the floods of God, the walls of Jericho and … Continue reading →

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Discontent is a two-edged sword

Posted on July 18, 2015 by salooper57

Each year the Gallup organization polls people from 120 countries around the world to find out if they are satisfied with the freedom they have to choose what to do with their lives. In 2006, the U.S. ranked as one … Continue reading →

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