And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. Ecclesiastes 1:13
by Mike Halpin — Tom Clancy imagined history before it happened. This prodigious writer of fiction had a knack for sewing together elements of technology, animus between nation states, and the dark schemes of terrorists into seamless and compelling works of fiction. His 1994 book Debt of Honor laid out a Japanese plot to take... Continue Reading →
by Mike Halpin — Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but... Continue Reading →
One of the chief arguments against hell is that a loving God wouldn’t consign anyone to eternal punishment. I appreciate this sentiment and think it’s a typical response to the notion of eternal suffering, at least in the West. (Punishment, judgment and severity are not strangers to some religions of the East.) The assumption in... Continue Reading →
Sometimes an image or a moment, a word spoken or a flash of understanding hits us such that we not only never forget it, but are left imprinted, changed. Such a moment hit me several years ago. In a former life as a home inspector I looked over residential properties to determine their condition and... Continue Reading →
Choosing Donald Trump: God, Anger, Hope, and Why Christian Conservatives Supported Him, by Stephen Mansfield. Reviewed by Mike Halpin I gained unlooked for sympathy for Donald Trump from Choosing Donald Trump, and a wish that the author would have stuck to the story instead of making this book his own pulpit. I loved learning about... Continue Reading →
Rudyard Kipling wrote Recessional for Queen Victoria’s 60-year Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Her life and reign were winding down, she would die in 1901, and though the British Empire was at its zenith, it too would soon descend from its lofty heights to earth. After World War II the British Empire would become a less fearsome... Continue Reading →
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurp'd town to another due, Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end; Reason,... Continue Reading →
Allysia Finley has an outstanding article in the October 4th, 2018 Wall Street Journal Opinion section titled, "Will the Senate Kill A Mockingbird?" It's a great, point-by-point comparison of the treatment Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is receiving with Tom Robinson in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird", my wife's favorite book of fiction, and... Continue Reading →
Social justice and the gospel.
In talking about attending a Roman Catholic wedding Protestant friends asked rather enthusiastically about taking communion during the wedding service. They thought it would communicate a sense of unity and support with the bride and groom and their families. They thought it would show their ecclesiastical egalitarianism, Protestants big enough and confident enough to cross... Continue Reading →
Applied Heart 