Political Meandering

Anyone who thinks his or her preferred political party has a corner on truth and goodness, much less morality, is tragically mistaken. We live, at best, in a compromised world where our choices aren’t always between good and bad, but...

What is Pastoral Counseling?

I’m often asked this question–“What is pastoral counseling?”–or perhaps even more often, “Who are pastoral counselors?” So here are some answers to those and other similar questions which I’m presenting in Q and A form....

Three Different American Stories

The May 14th issue of Charleston’s Post and Courier contained three evocative articles, each concerning a notably accomplished person. One concerned the recently deposed CEO of Yahoo, one Scott Thompson. It seems that Mr. Thompson fabricated his resume to claim...

A Parenting Perspective

One of the most important books I have read in recent years is David Brooks’ The Social Animal (Random House, 2011). Later, I saw Mr. Books speaking and responding to questions on the weekend “Books TV” feature on CSPAN2. And he said something important: “You don’t...

Praying for America?

I received an email recently from an old college friend, an appeal passed on and shared, apparently, among many people. The request was for recipients to “pray for America.” Exclaiming, as it did, that this was our nation’s “last chance”...