Religion and Civic Life

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Closeup shot of prayer candles with dark background
Closeup shot of prayer candles with dark background

The Mass Shooting in Uvalde, Texas Calls Us to Spiritual And Moral Revival

After getting over the pain and grieving of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, many people and so-called experts have weighed in—offering more of the same old responses that have followed other similar tragic incidents. Read More ›
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Traditional Easter ham dinner. Top down view table scene on a dark wood background. Ham, scalloped potatoes, vegetables, eggs, hot cross buns and carrot cake.

Easter: Let’s Feast!

I’ve written at length in this series about fasting, but have not said much about feasting. I did that for two reasons. First, few of us know why or we how should fast. And second, if we don’t know why we should fast, we may lose the meaning of feasting as well. Read More ›
Washington DC - US Capitol building

America Needs a New Declaration of Equal Justice Under the Law

In prior times of war, crisis, suffering, and loss of life from causes outside the U.S., Americans of both parties would pull together and focus on what can be done to quickly help, alleviate, and solve the problem. No longer. The COVID-19 crisis provides us a window into our national social and spiritual health, and what we see from much of America’s Left as expressed in the media and Democrat Party reveals a degree and strain of moral impoverishment we haven’t seen before. The COVID-19 crisis in America will pass as all such virus epidemics do, but an overriding issue and question that will remain for the American future is: Do we have sufficient courage and determination to successfully deal with the internal threats and contradictions that jeopardize the future viability of the United States and its Constitution? Read More ›
Photo by Matt Botsford

Are Evangelicals “Crippling” Our Coronavirus Response?

Evangelicals didn’t cause thus plague, and we desperately need the courage and wisdom that evangelicals have always brought to bear against pandemics. They deserve better than this slander. We would be wise to look closely at the real ideological and scientific “consensus” — a wholly secular consensus — that inflicted this misery on humanity. Read More ›
Doctor checking breathing machine while putting oxygen mask on patient
Close up of female hands touching monitor of mechanical ventilator. Middle aged man lying in hospital bed on blurred background

Medicine, Religion, and Cosmos — Was Andrew Cuomo Wrong to Invoke God?

In a press conference yesterday about the coronavirus, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo used notably religious language. He observed that healthcare workers are “doing God’s work” of caring for people. Was he mistaken in saying so? You might well think so from watching the Cosmos series on Fox and the National Geographic channels. Read More ›
Cherry tree on mountain
A single cherry tree on top of the rocky mountain

Living Amid a Pandemic

“Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice.” C.S. Lewis It’s been a blissfully sunny week in Seattle — the kind of week Seattleites pine for after their gray and soggy winters. The official start of spring isn’t until today, but the cherry blossoms have already been out for a long time. Of course, it doesn’t Read More ›

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Photo by David Mark via Pixabay

Upstairs into the Plague

I was driving into work this morning and I hit the traffic jam. Every morning at about 6:30 am the traffic begins to back up on the highway leading into my medical center. It’s the morning shift — hundreds of nurses and clerks and aides and orderlies and housekeepers bleary-eyed and guzzling Starbucks and they wait to enter the parking Read More ›

Delicious roasted whole chicken or turkey on plate with cutlery and sauce , harvest grilled vegetables on dark rustic background, top view, banner, frame. Thanksgiving Day food
Delicious roasted whole chicken or turkey on plate with cutlery and sauce , harvest grilled vegetables on dark rustic background, top view, banner, frame. Thanksgiving Day food

One Person’s Journey to a Fasting Lifestyle: Week Three

In week three of the plan I lay out in the forthcoming Eat, Fast, Feast, fasters limit all of their food intake to four hours a day for at least three days during the week. (The days don’t have to be consecutive.) This is called the 20/4 routine, since you don’t eat for twenty consecutive hours of the day. (This includes sleep time of course.) There’s still no attempt to eat less food during the day than you normally would. At this point, you’re just trying to get your body acclimated to going longer periods without food and using its fat-burning metabolism more effectively. This third week happened to land on Thanksgiving week, so I expected it to be even harder for our volunteer faster. Read More ›