Wandering Elder

According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, telling the truth is both a matter of moral character and "a matter of correct appreciation of real situations and of serious reflection upon them."  I do not wish to minimize Bonhoeffer by utilizing only this quote or idea.  His essay, What is meant by 'telling the truth'?  is one that is meritorious of study and reflection.  What I do  wish to address is the simple profundity and lucid yet almost foreign idea of telling the truth. With the ascension of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States, lies and falsehoods have become so frequent and so often passed off as the truth that truth itself finds short shrift in the fact that the task of simply pointing out and naming the lies has become a full time task.  Refutation and argument have little time to take place before a new list of fabrications arise. While I don't agree much in Rod Dreher's book The Benedict Option , I do find that his statement about Trump...

There is a saying that you have to strike while the iron is hot.  Apparently now is the time to strike on issues of sexual harassment.  Let me be clear.  Strike away! It is a little overwhelming to hear day after day new allegations, and the scope and severity are just as bad.  Perhaps though, and this is just perhaps, we as a country have finally awoken to an issue (would that we could react as quickly on issues of race and violence). I find it interesting that allegations  are enough to end careers (except for some  politicians and public figures it seems).  I do have a little bit of a problem with that.  Only because allegations are just that: allegations.  Yet the fact that some actors have quit roles and shows just over allegations seems to me to be some kind of declaration of guilt.  Perhaps, and again - perhaps, we are coming to a point where we can actually learn to value  persons as persons and not sexualize or obje...

A few days ago, I was walking down the street and was approached by an older woman who, very pleasantly I might add, handed me a small folded piece of paper.  "God bless you," she said as she then turned her attention to the person walking behind me. So far as being handed something by someone, it was perhaps one of the nicer ones I have experienced.  No plea, no questions. But as I read the paper she handed me, I found that I suddenly had a whole raft of questions. The piece of paper was a "Personal Invitation...to you."  It was "From, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd." Ok. So I read on.  And in reading on I became aware of the fact that had I not  already had a background in the Christian faith, I would possibly have been very confused or bewildered by the passages on the inside of the folded paper. For example, the first part of the paper read as follows: "...who is called [apparently this is supposed to follow the opening line...

Thor:Ragnarok is wonderful.  It is brightly colored and filmed expertly, the story is fun, the humor is great, and the action is fulfilling. Thor:Ragnarok is terrible.  It looks like a Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, the story is a poor attempt to do a Hulk movie - in particular the Planet Hulk story, the humor detracts from the emotional punch the movie could  have had, and the action seems to cover some unfortunate plot holes. So, Thor: Ragnarok is up for grabs, comic fans. All in all, I did enjoy it.  I found it to be a far better sequel than the second entry, "The Dark World" which had a great plot, but then went off key by trying to pull a fast one with the Loki story, a story that was more or less ended in the Ragnarok story, though somewhat unconvincingly.  Odin had Loki hide him so he could die in peace?  "Oh, and by the way, I forgot to tell you boys that when I die it is all going to fall apart.  And you have a sister.  That I locked...