We have been watching the Netflix series, “East of Eden,” a miniseries on John Steinbeck’s book, “East of Eden.”  It’s a complex story to say the least and focuses in on the story in Genesis 4…

The Importance of Serious Conversations When one teaches Philosophy in college the subject itself inspires what one could call serious conversations.  Philosophy is the mother subject of acade…

For those who actually practice Christianity and Judaism the 10 Commandments are commands instead of suggestions. In all honesty, most of us have broken some of them because se the whole concept of…

So, Pete Hegseth decided to start “Project Meridian” to study the future of warfare.  The need for this became painfully obvious when Russia invaded Ukraine and has been mired in a…

Sometimes we make a big mistake and what we do with the mistake is representative of something we call character.  People with really good character recognize their errors, acknowledge their e…

Why a Book on Empathy?I recently authored a book “How Empathy Changes Everything.”  So, you might ask, why did you write a book on empathy? The short answer is that I was asked to do so, but t…

There is a law in New Zealand that makes lying by candidates in the media, illegal, 48 hours before an election.  There is a movement in that country saying that politicians who lie are going …

Years ago, a friend and something of a mentor told me there were two words never to use.  The two words are always and never.  From that point on I have always made it a point to never us…

Often movies have classic lines.   “Jaws” had the line, “I think we need a bigger boat.  In the movie “A Few Good Men,” there was the classic line by Colonel Jessup, “Truth!  Yo…

Often movies have classic lines. “Jaws” had the line, “I think we need a bigger boat. In the movie “A Few Good Men,” there was the classic line by Colonel Jessup, “Truth! You can’t handle the truth.” ...

In the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson wrote the earth-shaking words, “All men are created equal.”  The words are both inspirational and aspirational and words people have been gr…

Recreational Bitterness There is a concept that I suspect we’ve all been aware of but have often found it difficult to put into words.  I recently heard the words I had been seeking.  The…

Recently there have been national headlines about a member of Congress accused of domestic violence.  I am not going to mention his name or party because I don’t want to have this post perceiv…

Scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson poses a question.  If an intelligent being from another solar system came to earth and asked you to take them to your leader, who would you choose?  In think…

An Object Lesson There is an object lesson, a parable of sorts, which is not really a parable.  It comes in the Hebrew Scriptures in 1 Samuel and speaks of a young shepherd boy, David, going u…

Ayn Rand was born in 1905 in Russia and died in 1982.  She was a novelist and two of her most famous novels were “The Fountainhead,” and “Atlas Shrugged.”  Many of her novels were between…

Recently, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made an observation about her own generation.  Said her own generation, Gen Z, of being raised with “silver spoons in their mouth” and being “a littl…

Being Good I’m going to go out on a limb here and state that most people aspire to be good people.  History tells us that there have been incredibly dreadful people in society.  People ha…

One of the most important writers and observers of our society and culture is the social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt. His book, “The Righteous Mind” was a brilliant analysis of morality and its ti…

The Actual Teachings of Jesus If a person who had never known anything about Christianity or Jesus came out of a cave one day and decided to figure out what Jesus’ main priorities were by listening…

Happy Father’s Day Spending the bulk of my adult life as a minister and pastor of churches, one Sunday I always somewhat feared was Father’s Day.  It was something of a perilous day in terms o…

Most of us live with a certain level of ideology.  Ideology is a system of beliefs or what we perceive as values, that are, essentially, ideas that set our way of interpreting the world and ou…

Safeguarding Dignity Recently, Pope Leo XIV wrote an encyclical entitled Magnifica Humanitas, (Magnificent Humanity) that is subtitled, “On safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial i…

Yesterday, June 6th was the 82nd anniversary of D-Day.  The Secretary of Defense chose his words. Different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies. Beaches in Spain and…

I have been taken aback more and more concerning the attacks on college and the education students receive at colleges.  There is a presumption that colleges are trying to impose an ideologica…

Life is Not Fair I entered the seminary (in college) in 1973 when I was 18 years old.  I have spent 53 years of my life either studying for or involved in some sort of ministry for 53 years.&n…

Practice.  Practice.  Practice. There is an old joke about Carnegie Hall.  A person asked a cab driver,  “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? “  The cab driver said, “Practice…

Let me start by saying something that people who know me well know about me.  I like technology.  I bought my first computer in 1989.  It was, at the time, hot stuff.  I had a 2…

Robert Barron, a Roman Catholic Bishop recently stated: “The role of the Church, therefore, is to call for peace and to urge that any conflict be strictly circumscribed by the moral cons…

The President has been or will be recorded reading a portion from the Bible.  The passage comes from 2 Chronicles 7:11-12.  It is an exchange between God and Solomon with Solomon essentia…

Of late we are seeing a lot of conversation about Pope Leo’s comments on the United States and war. Some have said that the Pope should not be talking about politics.  What is interesting is t…

Holy Saturday Holy Saturday is the day in between.  The events of Friday were horrific and, in reality, if one puts themselves in the situation of the people who witnessed it, a day of great u…

I’ve always been fascinated by paradoxes.  A paradox is usually defined as something that seems contradictory, even impossible, and yet, somehow leads to a deep underlying truth. The word “Goo…

Let me use a loaded word.  Sin.  It is a theological or religious term to discuss what might be considered to be good or bad behavior.  It is a word that focuses on morality of lack …

Something I have found fascinating has been religious attacks on James Talarico who is running for the Senate in Texas.    Before I continue, this is not a post on whether people sho…

The Rise of Social Darwinism Charles Darwin is most famous for his idea of evolution.  He said that species, including human beings, were part of never-ending evolutionary cycle.  Other t…

One of the big questions in terms of religious faith and Christianity is this.  Was Jesus political? The short answer is that Jesus was definitely political. But. He was not political in any w…

I do not believe myself to be a technophobe or a technological luddite.  I purchased my first computer, a PC, in 1989 and was using DOS 3.1 at the time.  It has a staggering 20 mg. hard d…

Last Sunday there was a demonstration of the stark division in the United States as to which halftime show to watch.  Early estimates tell us that close to 122 million people watched Bad Bunny…

I instruct students, most of whom are in what is called Gen Z.  Gen Z is classified as people born between  1997 and 2012. I was born right in the middle of the Baby Boomers.  There …

If you ever saw the movie “A Few Good Men,” the climatic scene comes near the end of the movie when Colonel Jessep, played brilliantly by Jack Nicholson is asked to tell the truth by Lieutenant Kaf…

There is a new buzzword that often gets connected to empathy.  The word is ‘toxic,’ with the foundational belief that empathy is toxic.  The people who espouse this believe that empathy i…