The definition of a hero is: “a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.” We do sometimes use it for a person with heroic qualities, such as the widowed […]
Archives for December 2008
Imperfect people do great deeds
“I don’t confuse greatness with perfection . . . all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection.” I am a fantasy and science fiction fan in my reading-for-relaxation. I love going to other worlds that imagine other realities. Today–for Monday is my day off–I read the following quote: “‘Are you saying that no matter […]
December 7, 1941 – Day of Infamy speech by Roosevelt
President Franklin Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Speech December 8, 1941 To the Congress of the United States Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace […]
Separating Church and State
In the post yesterday about Patriarch Alexiy, I wrote the paragraph below. It struck me that this could lead to some additional comments that might be helpful as we, in the USA, think through what Church and State mean. However, being Cuban, and having served as a missionary in South America, I had the opportunity […]
Gandalf, my priest friend, and what awaits
Pippin: I didn’t think it would end this way. Gandalf: End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path… One that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass… And then you see it. Pippin: What? Gandalf?… See what? Gandalf: White shores… […]
Patriarch Alexiy of Russia – 1929 to 2008
This morning, Patriarch Alexiy of the Russian Orthodox Church died at the age of 79. He was the man credited with restoring much moral authority to the Russian Orthodox Church after the years of Communism. He became patriarch in 1990, shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union. I can remember that he faced serious […]
Sacramental, Attractional, Missional, what is the Church? – Aslan knows!
The author of another blog asked several of us a question. “What is the way to go to be the church Jesus is building: Sacramental, Attractional or Missional? And in what mixture? For what reasons?” I answered as follows: In the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, the Pevensie children, after […]
A small victory for religious expression
The Associated Press just recently published an article titled Rastafarian can sue over Jiffy Lube hair policy. You can read it here. The gist of the article is that Jiffy Lube had already in its employ a person who follows the Rastafarian religion. He had been allowed to follow the Rastafarian hair regulations previously, then […]
Follow-up on the Three Laws of Robotics
When I wrote about the Three Laws of Robotics, I wrote about it as a fond memory of a series of books that I began to read as a child and continued to read through adulthood, as Isaac Asimov kept writing more books. His I, Robot series, his Foundation and Empire series, and his later developments of […]
And the bishop cried
Have you ever heard a bishop cry? I do not mean the crocodile tears that some pastors seem to be able to drop on cue. I mean, the honest release of emotion that expresses our deep inner feelings. No, most of us have not. The last two days have again delayed my planned blogging, but given […]
