A few weeks ago, I spent a week traveling in India.  My wife and I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy trip.  Friends of ours who went there before us warned us that transportation is tough, scams are everywhere, there’s lots of pollution and there are areas of extreme poverty.  Their best advice [...]

Last week, I casually mentioned a well-respected Christian ministry to a fellow Christian. With vitriol and definitiveness, he blurted out, “They’re not Christians.”
Unfortunately, I’ve seen enough in our Christian culture—even in the last week—to know this is not some rare ugly example of how Christians can treat fellow believers with whom they don’t agree. Arguments [...]

Several  years ago, I attended a convention worship service which ended with open prayer at various stations. As I prayed on hand and knee under a wooden cross, I had one of the most intense worship times of my life. And then a flash went off. I kept my head down but I was sure [...]

I’m a sucker for the Olympics.  I’m not sure why, but for several weeks every two years my evenings consist of my wife and I sitting on the couch and watching an evening full of events.  Like every Olympic year, NBC rolls out a whole shlew of stories featuring athletes and their emotional struggles that [...]

I’ve read two articles recently focusing on how Christians can come together to support a larger cause when it comes to making sacrifices or showing compassion for Lent.
A group of Anglican British bishops are urging Christians to reduce their carbon footprint during Lent.  According to the USA Today, the bishops are asking people to at [...]

I’m a fairly blunt person.  If I’m asked a question, I answer it.  For the most part, I just say what I’m thinking.
I’ve always thought this open book style fits the Christian lifestyle well.  It keeps me from lying.  If I hide things from other people, am I more abt to try to hide them [...]

Like many music geeks, I spent the idle moments of the last month or so ranking and re-ranking my favorite music that came out this year. A lot of factors can make an album stand out for me—music serves a lot of functions in my life. It’s a soundtrack for bus rides and reading, writing [...]

“We’ve decided to adopt from China?” I’d announce.
“Really! Why?” was usually the standard answer. Then came, “You know there are lots of babies who need good homes right here in the United States.”
I knew. And I’d seen some of their faces on adoption websites. It was gut-wrenching to read about them. The more I investigated [...]

The Vatican doesn’t think much of Avatar. And frankly neither do I.
When the film opened in Italy, the Vatican offered a review.  A Philadelphia Daily News columnist covering the release wrote:
The Vatican newspaper and radio station are criticizing James Cameron’s billion-dollar 3-D blockbuster for flirting with the idea that worship of nature can replace religion [...]

The earthquake in Haiti and the visible response raise a lot of issues for me. I was a missionary in the Dominican Republic for 6 years working near the border mostly with Haitians. I visited Port on a couple of occasions.
When I went to the DR as a missionary I imagined that helping would be [...]