We all have biases when it comes to a sense of place. Most of us struggle to break free from false perceptions about a people and a land that we aren't familiar with. I don't blame people for their narrow minded dismissal of the northern…

The calendar says June so I guess summer is upon us. It just doesn't feel like summer in Iowa; the high temperature's been in the 60's all week. Despite the weather the rhythm of summer is starting to settle in. The kids are adjusting to…

A week ago today I was in San Francisco, CA standing on a bluff looking at the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful day, about 65 degrees or so, blue sky, with a wonderful sea smelling breeze blowing off of the Pacific. I walked…

Yesterday was graduation at Dordt College. Over 300 students sat up on the stage, waiting for their diploma, so they could leave. Graduation day has a strange aura about it. Professors are still grading, but most are glad the end has come. Parents and family…

As I was driving with my daughter the other day the chit chat gave way to a more serious topic. "In school next we're going to talk about sex," she told me. "We're going to talk about girl parts and boy parts." I didn't know…

This semester I'm teaching a course on the topic of Christianity and popular culture. We started the semester reading selections from Niebuhr's Christ and Culture and Andy Crouch's  Culture Making, trying hard to make the case for a Kuyperian transformational approach to how we should…

Does the precise locus of this Saturday, at the interface between cross an resurrection, its very uniqueness as the one moment in history which is both after Good Friday and before Easter, invest it with special meaning, a distinct identity, and the most revealing light?...The…

Twice, yesterday, I got teary eyed. I don't cry easily; I guess it's a character flaw. But yesterday - twice - I ended up wiping tears from my eyes. What's strange, maybe even embarrassing, is what caused this moist, salty, discharge. Two separate movie scenes:…

As a theology professor at a protestant institution I've learned the art of self-depreciation. The heritage of the reformation is always suspect of the "priesthood"- questioning anyone who might claim to have the theological corner on matters of God, salvation, or the bible. Especially the…