Timshel

In an age with more access to information at the very tips of our fingers (literally) than any other time in the history of humanity - it is baffling how often we still get it wrong. Society has lost the art of fact checking, peer reviews, and perhaps most importantly - correctly inferring meaning from data. This dilemma isn't limited to the backwoods high-school drop outs. We see this on every side of the isle and in every socio-economic breakdown across the country. Once a scientific people, we have drifted into the land of relativity - where perception and sound bites are infinitely more valuable than truth and reality. But I digress. Yesterday I jumped into my '05 Ford Ranger and squeaked (yes, squeaked - it's time for new ball joints) down the road to a local diner to join about 65 other constituents for a town hall with US Congressman Tom Rice. Overall, the event was very encouraging - almost everyone in attendance was vocally supportive of DREAMers and they deman...

Once upon a time the family was the backbone of American culture. Thinking back to the era of "Leave it to Beaver" and "The Andy Griffith Show" - we remember that the place of the family unit is a traditional aspect of what it means to be "American". For generations, young people look forward to the day they say their vows before their families, get their first mortgage, and have children. This elicits pictures of 4th of July barbecues, family reunions at the lake, and even the occasional sharing of tears around a casket. We were created to experience a myriad of emotions and events alongside a select group of people we call family. In many ways, the fairly new culture of this country capitalized on strength and resolve generated by these connections - establishing a society weaved intimately with the thread of family relationships. When my great-grandfather came through Ellis Island in 1901 from Sicily, the process was quite simple - as it was for every...

On 9 January, President Trump gathered a coalition of bipartisan congresspeople together to discuss the necessity of passing immigration reform – primarily regarding DACA, secondarily regarding “comprehensive reform”. The table was full; each participant coming with their own ideas and desires regarding both how to handle DACA, and how they define “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.” For 55 minutes the only clear conclusion agreed on by everyone in the room was that we need to protect DACA recipients from loosing protected status and that we need a strong border. That was it. No additional comment, no additional details – pure, cut and dry consensus. Yet what do we see not even 24 hours after that meeting? The president’s party is speaking as though DACA is a request from the Democrats, and in order to give them what they want he will have to get border security (including a wall), Visa lottery removal, “chain migration” removal, and merit-based immigration implementation. No longe...

In John Calvin's "Institutes," he says the following, Now it is very clear what our duty is: Thus, if the Lord has committed to us the protection of our life, our duty is to protect it; if he offers helps to us, to use them; if he forewarns us of dangers, not to plunge headlong; if he makes remedies available, not to neglect them. But no danger will hurt us, say they, unless it is fatal, and in this case it is beyond remedies. But what if the dangers are not fatal, because the Lord has provided you with remedies for repulsing and overcoming them? (John Calvin, Institutes , 1:216 (1.17.4). But what is the duty the Lord has committed to us? For the believer, the answer to this question should guide how we organize our lives, expend our resources, and fill our prayers. For each of us this question can be answered in two ways: one being the generic answer that is the same for all of us, the other being the specific calling given by the Lord to the individual. I will focus ...

Christianity in the United States between the 70s and 90s was a time focused on evangelism. The big push was to get as many people as possible to hear the gospel; the underlying belief being that our role is to speak it, and then it is up to the Holy Spirit alone to determine the response of the hearers. For years the church in America was sacrificially dedicating time, money and potential embarrassment for the purpose of getting as many people to hear as possible. And what happened? It worked. We began to see pews fill up, budgets increase, and the Sunday experience revamp to become a more comfortable space for non-Christians. But what else happened? In hindsight we see a church that was heavily reliant on the work of the pastor, extremely personal in their relationship with God, and largely "anti" in their approach to most things (by this I mean they were known for what they didn't do: smoke, drink, curse). Essentially we had a body that spoke against what was wrong ...