In a piece that I posted way back in 2008 (“How Did You Get On The Information Superhighway?), I pointed out that many students are not what we could call computer literate.  Now it might be that I should have said technologically literate instead of computer literate because our society has evolved from a collection […]

I was working on an education piece but I first want to express my thoughts about John Wooden’s death at the age of 99 on Friday (June 4, 2010).
I do not remember when it was that I became interested in John Wooden. It was probably, as I wrote in my review of his last book […]

It is quite possible that these are the “end times”, though not necessarily those favored by religious fundamentalists.
They see the end of the world from their own moral viewpoint; one that, in my mind, is self-righteous, self-centered, and hypocritical. They complain about the morals of others while clearly living a life that follows the dictum, […]

These are my thoughts for the past week as well as for this Sunday, May 9, 2010, the 6th Sunday of Easter and Mother’s Day. The Scriptures for this Sunday are Acts 16: 9 – 15, Revelation 21: 1 – 10, 22 – 22: 5, and John 14: 23 -29.
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The title of this piece comes […]

This is a copy of a letter that we have sent Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY).
Dear Senator Schumer,
Let us start off by saying that you have lost two votes when you seek reelection to the United States Senate.
We have made this decision because of your recent statements to an Israeli political commentator. It is one thing […]

A couple of things have happened since I started thinking about writing this piece.
First came the announcement that Dr. Bruce K. Watke was resigning his position as a Professor of Theology at the Reformed Theological Seminary. In a video that was posted on the BioLogos Foundation website, Dr. Watke not only endorsed evolution but said […]

When I began thinking about this piece several days ago, it was with a single item in mind. But then something happened at a college in South Carolina that spoke to the same topic on a little larger scale. And all of this is occurring against the backdrop of reforming education.
What is academic freedom?
I suppose […]

This is a potpourri of items that aren’t necessarily related but needed to be posted.
Don’t Call Me!
No doubt you know about the “do not call” list. This was the result of legislation passed a number of years ago to keep marketers from calling you at any time of the day. A site was created where […]

Well, it’s almost spring, no matter what some rodent may have seen or not seen. I have never quite understood what Groundhog Day was all about. After all, if you look at a calendar and you agree that spring will begin on the Vernal Equinox, then there are seven weeks between Groundhog Day and spring. […]

These are my thoughts for the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany, 17 January 2010. The Scriptures for this Sunday are Isaiah 62: 1 – 5, 1 Corinthians 12: 1 – 11, and John 2: 1 – 11. This is also “Human Relations Sunday”.
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Cross-posted to Thoughts From The Heart On The Left – please post your […]

I am working on a number of projects right now, all of which deal with science, education and science education in some manner, shape or form. First is the “book” project. Entitled “Science and Education in the 21st Century: A Contrarian View”, it is a look at science, science education and topics that we all […]

In this Christmas season, the blogosphere is once again posting thoughts back and forth on the so-called “war on Christmas.” I posted something on it myself last week. But I have been wondering how serious Christians square the radical and even subversive nature of the gospel with what seems to be our theologically trite observance […]

Here are my thoughts for the 2nd Sunday in Advent, 6 December 2009. It is as much a political piece as it is an Advent piece.
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For whatever reason, the thoughts that I had about this piece never quite came together like I thought they would. But the words of John the Baptizer, written in Luke, […]

Every Christmas season we endure the “holiday wars.” Should sales clerks say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas?” Should Christmas trees on public property be called “holiday trees?” Should schools have Christmas break or winter break? I could give more examples, but you know where I am going here.
Each year both sides in this “war” […]

I begin this piece by asking what you plan to do at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Will you stop to pause and remember the significance of that time some ninety years ago? Will you stop to pause and perhaps hear the bells of the church tolling in remembrance […]

There’s lots of bad stuff going on in the world today. A natural worrywart would have a feast wigging out over what is happening in the world and right here in the good ole’ U.S. of A. How many times I hear people speaking of the good old days, of simpler times when life wasn’t […]

The other day I posted “How Ironic” to alert you all to what was happening at Butler University.  It was announced over the last two days that the University was dropping its lawsuit (see “Butler Drops Suit Against Student Blogger”) against the anonymous student blogger.  But it was also indicated that there was still the […]

It’s increasingly PC to spit on the memory of Columbus and his intrepid band of explorers. After all, you can’t “discover” a place that already has people in it! And then introducing them to disease, slavery, and colonialism simply ruins all chances of having a Hallmark holiday in your honor.
But I think ol’ Chris is […]

The recent arrest of fugitive and film maker Roman Polanski for fleeing before being sentenced for raping a fourteen year old girl thirty years ago, is another reminder of the lack of a moral compass that is continually displayed by so many in the Hollywood community. It is a shock, but it is not a […]

This started with a discussion on the Chemical Education Discussion List (CHEMED-L) about what the internet will do and is doing to traditional colleges (to see the discussion go to http://mailer.uwf.edu/listserv/wa.exe?S1=chemed-l and enter “Will the Internet Kill Traditional Colleges” in the search for string box).
It was pointed out by one individual that the Internet has […]

When I was young I remember my grandfather (when he was alive) and my grandmother telling me stories of how everyone in the United States sacrificed for the war effort during WW II– enduring regular and scheduled blackouts, saving tin, and making do with what had been rationed. They felt it important to sacrifice for […]

In the anthology God, Truth, and Witness, church historian Robert Wilkens argues that Constantinianism was not a program engineered from the halls of power, but rather it was a grass roots movement from the people of the Roman Empire. In making his case, he gives an account of the episcopacy of Ambrose of Milan, who […]

This was supposed to be a piece questioning the motives of those who marched in Washington last weekend. At best, they have a selective memory; at worst, they are representative of days past when the police set the dogs on the children in Birmingham, state troopers beat the marchers on the Edmund Pettis bridge outside […]

On January 20, 1961, John Kennedy stood before the people of America and the world and announced that the torch had been passed to a new generation. I cannot help but think that on August 26, 2009, with the death of Ted Kennedy, the light of that torch may have gone out. We must now […]

As the title says, what is happening does not make any sense. Unless, of course, you feel that the problems with reforming healthcare and an ever increasing deficit are problems that occurred when Barack Obama was inaugurated as President last January.
Would the arguments against health care be taking place if John McCain had been elected […]

I do not like to keep posting on the same subject two days in a row. I like to mix it up, but yesterday Henry Neufeld linked to my post on town hall meetings, protests, and tone-deaf politicians. In expressing his thoughts Henry basically gets to the main point of what I was attempting to […]

It is not a surprise that most political conservatives prefer to watch FOX News; neither is it difficult to believe that most political liberals rate MSNBC as their favorite cable news outlet. Both networks like to present themselves as unbiased. FOX News says that it is fair and balanced, but only political conservatives seem to […]

I do not understand the psychology behind those prone to believing conspiracy theories, but if nothing else these folks do provide us with entertainment.
Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he is not a natural born citizen (he was actually born of a virgin in Bethlehem).
George W. Bush knew in advance about 9/11 (Bush […]

“In the beginning” is a phrase that a lot of people have problems with; perhaps not with the words themselves but with how long ago it was. The physical evidence tells me that this world began several million years ago and the universe began even further back in time. But there are those who will […]

Forty years ago this week the world was watching a little point of land in central Florida as this country prepared to launch Apollo 11 on its mission to the moon. For some, it was to be the first voyage to the stars, a voyage that would take us beyond the moon, to Mars, and […]

Before I’m thrown under the bus for the title read the passage below.  It reminds me a lot of what my friend, Eric Goranson, wrote back in May when he wondered if he was still a conservative, at least by its proper definition.
Dinesh D’Souza in his book Letters to a Young Conservative says the […]

One of the things that bothers me is those individuals on both sides of the political aisle who seem to equate the intelligence of people with their political views. A case in point is the recent editorial by Maureen Dowd on Sarah Palin, which is a well articulated piece of irrational demagoguery aimed at the […]

If you are of my generation, then 1) you remember “The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam” and 2) you knew who Robert McNamara was.
The Moratorium was held on October 15, 1969 and by some accounts was the largest nationwide anti-war demonstration in the country. Whether or not it had any affect on the […]

The late F. Donald Coggan (1909-2000), the former Archbishop of Canterbury wrote a wonderful little book many years ago entitled, Christ and Our Crises. It is delightful to read and quite insightful. Over the years I periodically take it off my book shelf and read portions of it again. I was reading it the other […]

On Pentecost Sunday I had the great honor of confirming fourteen young people during worship. Two of them were our sons, Joshua and Jason. It was a very meaningful time of worship and I pray that these young people remain strong and steadfast in their faith.
Bishop William Willimon noted many years ago that confirmation is […]

“If you want to tell whether someone is conservative or liberal, what are a couple of completely nonpolitical questions that will give a good clue?”
“How’s this: Would you be willing to slap your father in the face, with his permission, as part of a comedy skit?”
“And, second: Does it disgust you to touch the faucet […]

Memorial Day began as a remembrance of the Union dead of the War Between the States. It was not until after World War I that the meaning of the day was expanded to honor all those who died in American Wars. And it was not until 1971 that Congress made the day a national holiday.
Major […]

This is a portion of what I have posted on my own blog for this Sunday:
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Abraham Lincoln once told us that the government of this country was a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” But it doesn’t appear to me that we have that sort of government anymore.
In the […]

Here are my thoughts for the 2nd Sunday in Easter.  The Scriptures for today are Acts 4: 32 - 35, 1 John 1: 1 - 2: 2, and John 20: 19 - 31.  This is also a political piece but the times demand it.
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For as long as I can recall, I have considered myself a […]

Barna has published the results of a recent survey on how those who identify themselves as liberals and conservatives differ on the beliefs, practices, and politics. I am only going to list, though not exhaustively, the results without commentary. Anyone is welcome to offer their insights and comment, but I ask you to read the […]

Well, the most obvious answer to the question is yes, the future shall be different from the past. But I wouldn’t have anything to write about if that were the case, now would I? But, to paraphrase George Santayana, if I see the future as the past, then my life would be condemned and I […]

I had intended to write a commentary about the countdown to the end of President Obama’s first 100 days in office but the thoughts are not coming together for such a missive. However, I do want to make a note that it seems like everyone, on the outsides of both aisles, are setting up this […]

The post on my own blog with this title (Thoughts From The Heart on The Left) is for this coming Sunday but I think that it needs to be on this blog as well.  I have posted a link to the entire piece so that you can continue reading it there (besides, I added a […]

This was first posted back in October, 2005.  I have also addressed this issue in my post, "Intelligent Design" (and my apologies for the links in that post that don’t work; I hope to have them up and working this week).
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The following is a copy of a letter that I sent to the Kansas Board […]

It’s not going to surprise any regular readers of this site that I think homosexual relationships are sinful. It might surprise you that I don’t think they should be illegal.
I think the government should stay out of our lives as much as possible and those sins that only do serious harm to those who are […]

Of numerous things that President Obama said in his inaugural address his comment about science was one that stuck out to me.  He said that he would, "restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality."
Some questions:

What is science’s rightful place?

What exactly happened, in his mind, that preempted science?  […]

For the past eight years, we have had to put up with conspiracy theorists on the loony left, bloggers who have had an incurable case of Bush Derangement Syndrome, willing to believe everything about the former president in their delusional meanderings. Now, it looks as if, for the next four years at least, we will […]

I approach January 20, 2009, with mixed emotions and ambivalence. I sense the historic nature of what is about to happen but I also remember what happened forty years ago.
You have to understand that I have two hometowns – the place where I was born and the place that I identify with. I was born […]

What is the solution to America’s economic problem? How will we resolve the foreign policies debacles of the last eight years? How will insure that graduates of our schools, both pre-college and college, can meet the challenges of the coming years?
The answers to these questions, whether you want to hear them or not, will require […]

Just some thoughts to begin the year
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What will it take for change to occur in this country in the next year? What will it take for this country to understand that the methods and the thoughts of the past have no place in the future and that those who cling to the past will find […]