Oxford University Press (the dictionary publisher) recently named its international word of the year for 2016: “post-truth.”  Oxford defines post-truth as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”   Post-truth is not to be confused with “truthiness,” a term popularized…

I confess to being a country western fan.  I like the old stuff –  Merle Haggard, George Jones, The Oak Ridge Boys.   In my humble opinion, present day country doesn’t speak to the pain and struggle of life like the old stuff.  Anyway, during the recent CMA awards, the song of the year was “Humble and Kind,” recorded by…

This is my post election blog.  This election season has made clear that our national is deeply divided.  Christians are confused and anxious about the future.  Our voice is labeled, “extreme” and “irrelevant.” The days ahead will be difficult. I try to make sense of our cultural context, from the perspective of the  prophets.  Here is a sampling from Jeremiah.  “They spread…

Back in the 80’s there was a movie entitled, “Distant Thunder,”which depicted the followers of Jesus living in the last days.  Today, men who are awake to the movement of God’s Spirit in our fallen culture, are hearing the sound of distant thunder, warning them, among other dangers,f the coming “sexism tsunami.”  Recently I learned of a new phenomena among  young fathers. Courtney E.…

Bob Dylan was the  surprise winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.  According to the Swedish Academy, Dylan won,”for having created a new poetic expression within the great American song tradition.” In  ways I relate to Dylan.  We were both born in 1941.  He grow up in Northern Minnesota, where I am retired on the lake.  He had an influence on the youth movement of the early…