Monthly Archives: September 2015
The Toronto Word on the Street festival was a hectic heads down exercise in focusing on the people that showed up with little time for long conversations. I was humbled by the diversity of the people that showed up to greet me. Thanks so much for the warm reception to a brand new city where I thought I didn’t know anyone! One person asked “Who Supports You?” I know what she meant — she meant the question in terms of a sponsor……
In 1644 when Roger Williams returned from England with a charter for his New England colony providing for an experiment in toleration, it was still a small experiment watched but not admired. He has instituted the separation of church and state but his civil government was weak, his colony impoverished, and success was not certain. In the end, religious freedom did not spread back to England as he’d hoped for fear of Catholicism. Parliament blocked measure after measure put forward…..
When I wrote Shadow of Denali I wondered if I should add a warning label at the point I jumped off the cliff. Soon after publishing it I got a tweet to the effect of “jump and plan how to land on the way down.” That is just not so not the whole story, if you want to reliably survive. Even in an fast moving world. Here are ingredients: Preparation. In the case of jumping off the cliff that means…..
Rekindled Chapter 1 opens with HH’s story as if it is certain who he was. That certainty is fiction. What is known is that the introductions to Roger Williams’s book The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution opens with HH’s writing, and Roger Williams asserted that it came out of Newgate prison. The introduction is clearly meant as an inspiration for what follows in the book: a rational for the separation of church and state. Because the text of HH’s writing showed…..
The Blue Ink Review beat out the competition to provide the first professional review of the book Rekindled, posted here. I was warned to have a thick skin on this review business. Really, it is a fine review. It gets the spirit of the book right. What they say about what I did is true — I certainly did not make the characters use archaic language as that would have made the story really hard to read. I stand by that, even…..
Shadow of Denali “See that mountain? It looks close, but it is three HUNDRED miles away.” It was forty below zero Fahrenheit and February in Alaska, and the mountain was Denali. Alaskans called it Denali even then, now everyone will. The morning was early. The pick-up truck was so cold it was painful to sit still. It was hard to even think about unloading the bicycles much less riding. My digits were numb. The man I’d just met, the fellow…..
Last November, the seminarian student originally from Romania called Lumi came and told us her story. If you have not heard Lumi, you can listen here: Lumi She left us with an assignment—to figure out how to tell our own stories. Lumi is scheduled to return in April—what will she find? It is my hope she will find us preparing feverishly to tell our stories — first in church to edify each other, then outside. Toward that end I invite you to…..
Roger stood in the 1600’s for life and liberty. Since the 1700’s we’ve believed in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The goal of happiness may spawn from an increased focus on the individual, a focus that took a big step forward with Christ’s recognition of each soul as valuable. However individualism did not fully flower until after Roger Williams was gone. It seems now that happiness has overtaken life and liberty as the most sacrosanct goal. If we…..
Kim Davis, as a Christian, is obligated to honor her conscience. Therefore she cannot sign marriage licenses as they are currently constructed in Rowan county. Kim Davis took an oath to uphold the civil law which now conflicts with her conscience. Her conscience led her to publicly ask the question if the law was just, which civil authorities have now answered. Some are expressing surprise Kim Davis is in jail. However, she was not only upholding her own conscience but…..
In the uproar over Megyn Kelly, I pulled out your web site to see what it said, expecting to get angry. Incidentally, thanks for elevating her fame. I did not know her, but thanks to you I know of her now — and she’s awesome. She is hard hitting — a worthy opponent for sure. Your immigration memo pleasantly surprised me. Did you write those first paragraphs, I wonder, or did some politically correct staffer — I just want to be certain you’ve at least read…..