The Impact of Intimate Theology
A few years ago, I met with a pastor of a church near a large campus. As the university grew in prestige, it attracted thousands of international …
Cultural creep
Exposing the Cataracts of Nonsense
I lived on a communal farm in Israel the summer of 1978. It was my first extended visit to another country. From May through August, I lived among a …
What About That GTO?
When I grew up in Detroit, the population was over 1,200,000 people. I spent the next forty years living in Ann Arbor, population of about 120,000. …
Our Future Is Our Past
Ten years ago I read a study asking people to list their earliest memories of world news. The survey intrigued me, but I wanted to see for myself. So …
Do We Know What We Worship?
In 1930, legendary economist John Maynard Keynes wrote an essay about our future lifestyle in the twenty-first century. He predicted that industrial …
When You Lie …
My sister Sarah went to a small college where real professors taught the classes. Her history advisor was Professor Petrovich. He was born in …
Torches of Freedom
Four score and eleven years ago—in 1928—George Washington Hill had a problem: he wanted more women to smoke cigarettes. But smoking was scorned as a …
Your Lovers Will Despise You
During its first fifteen years, my software company only worked with domestic clients. In the late nineties, we landed Oxford University Press (a …
Gifts and Gods
When I fly, I never talk to the person next to me. I sit quietly and read a book while they sit quietly and watch a video, just as God ordained …
Shut Down by a Sneer
Six weeks ago, I flew back from a Hearing God retreat in Seattle. I sat next to a young man—thirty-ish—who was returning home from a job interview. He …
Invaded
Growing up, I had two close friends: one came from a devout, Christian family, and the other came from a devout, atheist family. One family went to …
Spiritual but Not Religious
Fifteen years ago, I was dining alone in New York City when I overheard a Christian woman ask a friend for dating advice. She had met two men on …