Featured Essay
Will we be able to sustain our population and our institutions?
We do know that the Nordic countries and other parts of Europe are engaged in a social experiment in whether marriage can fade away and culture survive. So far the experiment appears promising, but the returns are superficial. European countries have not needed to defend themselves against an aggressive advers...
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The Rough Notes for a Homily
On The Wedding of Jamie and Michael: I Will Not Keep Silent
(June 22, 2008)
It is an honor to be here today. It is especially significant to Hope and to me, because it is the day after our own wedding anniversary.
Yesterday we were looking at the few pieces of glassware that have survived all the moves and four children. Our marriage has ...
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Twenty-two years ago today, I married Hope. This last week we had my wonderful parents move in with us and our brood of four.
If blogging is slow, if email doesn't get answered, you can understand why. If you want the last word in a debate, this time you are going to get it!
There are better things to do. There is dinner with my best girl and a dishes to put away with my...
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I summarize my views of the election here.
By setting goal posts that are reasonable and have worked historically before the day to day and breathless reporting on the race swamps reason, partisans can get a good check up on how the race is going.
Obvious fact #1: If the election were held today, Senator Obama would win handily.
Obvious fact #2: The election is not tod...
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Write on the "gay marriage" issue . . . and you get lots of unpleasant email. I don't blame most of the writers. They deeply disagree with me and are angry. I have, after all, asserted that something important to them is wrong.
It is good we live in a free country where "venting" is possible.
However, two posts about what I have written seemed like good chances to clari...
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I have wanted to visit Russia my entire life. I have dreamed of it, hoped for it, and been disappointed several times. Reading about Russia consumes a good bit of my free time. Growing up in the winter of the Cold War made my dream to see Saint Petersburg, red stars replaced by golden eagles, seem a fantasy. Finally, at the end of last month I made a short visit and saw much an...
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Marriage is a Jewish and Christian institution as it exists in much of the world.
We built it. We lavished care on it. We wrote great poetry about it.
Growth in marriage was a good sign of civilization. Breakdown in the monotheistic idea of marriage was a good sign of coming decadence and social decay.
Why?
Married love is difficult. One reason it is difficult is t...
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Bottom Line:
Like the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, this election turns on whether the public, sick of the party in power, will trust the office of President of the United States to the sort of politician they would normally reject. Whatever John McCain does, this election is about Senator Obama. If Senator Obama makes no mistakes, he will win. He is not, however, winning...
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Featured Essay
An hour ago I unloaded my things after a long drive down the 5, back from three weeks in Berkeley with two other faculty members, their families and thirty-some students. Every year, a crew of Torrey students and faculty live in Utopia, also known as the Westminster House in Berkeley. Mornings are for classes, afternoons and evenings are for reading and Boggle and basketball an...
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My Dad is a great man.
There I said it and I hope you can say it too about your own father. My Dad loves my brother and me and has always been a man of integrity and honor. He has, so far as I know, never told a lie.
I cannot help but think that this good experience with DOD (Dear Old Dad for those not in the Reynolds' home) shaped my views of God (the Great Omnipotent ...
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Sitting in a museum and just listening can be a great way to learn.
You hear tour guides struggling to hold flagging interest in young people and in old people. It is interesting to note the differences between the two. With older people, there is always promised, just ahead, the Utopia of public toilets and good food. With younger people, there is almost promised some sig...
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Little children used to go to bed praying, "If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee Lord my soul to take."
Contemporary Christians worry that the story of the crucifixion may be too intense for children.
Death is uncomfortable to our consumer driven and decadent popular culture. There is nothing we can buy on late night television to cure it. It is the end our choices...
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