Month: November 2018

Is human nature fixed or malleable? Does life have an underlying order or is it continually in flux? Is the past relevant or is the present and future all we have? Is morality a constant or subject to change? What about truth? And virtue?

All these questions could be boiled down to one simple question: Is the essence of life one of being or becoming?

Antiquity, into which I would place the biblical witness, argues that the secret to human flourishing requires that life align itself with the objective realities of God and/or nature. This means adjusting our lives to the objective, unchanging standards of ‘the good, the true, and the beautiful,’ gleaned perhaps especially through the received wisdom of the past. Continue reading “It’s a Mixed-Up, Muddled-Up, Shook-Up World”

Years ago, while serving my first church and with a Sunday off, my wife and I decided to worship someplace “completely different.” So we went to a Greek Orthodox church in Worcester, MA.

What I failed to consider at the time was that the entire service would be conducted in Greek. It was, in the literal sense, “all Greek to me.” I got nothing out of it.

A couple of months back, however, a family member’s mother died. She was Greek Orthodox, so the service was held in that same Worcester church.

At first I was concerned that I might not be able to find meaning in the service (I still don’t speak Greek). What I discovered instead was that the whole experience was uplifting and in ways I hadn’t expected. Continue reading “Trying the Same Thing Over and Over Again”

In a new, widely reported nationwide poll, a startling 80% of Americans say “political correctness is a problem in our country.” Objections to political correctness, somewhat surprisingly – or not – are even stronger among racial minorities. High-income college graduates, especially those with advanced degrees, are the Americans most likely to think political correctness is not a problem.

Perhaps this makes sense in a society where over the last 60 years we’ve been taught that self-expression is the key not only to personal happiness but the welfare of our nation and world.

Post-WWII fears of a soul-sapping cultural conformity, as well as the even darker specter of totalitarianism, led to a widespread movement away from what was deemed uniformity of thought. Besides, the intrinsic value of the individual, or so it was argued, was as American as apple pie. Continue reading “Old Fogey Screed?”