“ALL DAY LONG I HAVE HELD OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.” —Romans 10:21, citing Isaiah 65:2 How to feel about the recalcitrant? (Here is just another lesson in the long course in imitatio Dei that is the Christian life.) They just don’t get it. Are they incapable of understanding? Do theyContinue reading “All day long (Romans 10:21)”
Tag Archives: delusion
Follow the bulls: part 2, the return of the bulls (Psalm 51)
This is the only possible solution to the problem of failure in self-knowledge, the problem of the locked room of delusion and self-deception: to be known by The Other, to invite and open oneself to the knowledge that only The Other has, but which The Other has offered to share.
Follow the bulls: part 1, the banishment of the bulls (Psalm 50)
Psalm 50 is a psalm of judgment. When God’s people fall in with thieves and adulterers, God rejects their sacrifices.
Reading Psalm 102 on Inauguration Day
We are given another opportunity to love our neighbor as ourselves, which must in the final analysis from a godly, biblical perspective be the sole aim and justification for participating in politics.
Psalm 95 and discipleship failure: An invitation and a warning
O come, let us sing unto the LORD:let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.For the LORD is a great God,and a great King above all gods.In his hand are the deep places of the earth:theContinue reading “Psalm 95 and discipleship failure: An invitation and a warning”
Persuasion does not work; love anyway
Here’s a news item: file, according to your own preferred system and nomenclature, under “sociology of knowledge” or “mass delusion” or “our epistemological maelstrom” or (for the Harry Frankfurt fans) “bullshit”: Eighty-one percent of respondents who never watched Fox, and 76 percent of respondents who never listened to conservative talk radio, said the government shouldContinue reading “Persuasion does not work; love anyway”
How to love our atheist (in a sense) neighbors?
Good people can believe outrageously false things. For example, a certain good man was able to believe, earlier this week, that: COVID-19 should in public policy be treated like a flu epidemic. The closings aimed at controlling the pandemic hit small businesses unnecessarily hard because politicians and the media hate small businesses and want themContinue reading “How to love our atheist (in a sense) neighbors?”
My American reflections on the news from Belarus
Yesterday morning whole driving across the state I listened to BBC news on Michigan Radio. The report that I heard contained essentially the same information that you can read online today at the BBC website or in the BBC app. If you’re not up on events in Belarus, I encourage you to click that linkContinue reading “My American reflections on the news from Belarus”
Our crisis of truth in society and church
As I have said before, events around us in American society over the last several years have completely flummoxed me. I am left wondering whether and how we know what we think we know. How does anyone know anything? Is it possible to know anything? Anyone who wants to answer that last question affirmatively isContinue reading “Our crisis of truth in society and church”
The stable genius who harnessed the power of nuclear fission
For four years I have lived in bafflement.How can so many of us have suddenly taken leave of our senses and dived or fallen so deep into delusion?No answer yet.But—here’s the flash—what if the question was wrong? Over the last four years I reckon I have devoured thousands of news articles and analytical essays, read perhaps dozens ofContinue reading “The stable genius who harnessed the power of nuclear fission”
Verba Sparsa 