Last November the strongest typhoon ever recorded slammed into the southern islands of the Philippines, with winds reaching 195 miles per hour.  The storm caused more than 6,000 deaths (a thousand people are still missing) and 27,000 injuries, many of them bone fractures caused by collapsing buildings and flying debris. Hurricanes and typhoons, earthquakes, violence … Read more

I went back through the blogs I wrote in 2013 to see which ones generated enough interest for readers to click through.  If you missed some of these and they pique your interest, you can click on them for the original. Here’s the Top Ten list: 1. Farewell Brennan (remembering the writer and priest Brennan … Read more

As I look back on the pile of books I read in 2013, a number of them seem to fall into a new genre.  “Christian hip,” I’ll call it.  Move over John Stott, Chuck Colson, and Max Lucado.  These books circle around faith matters in a decidedly non-traditional way.  Many of the authors came out … Read more

On a visit to South Africa I visited the tidy home of Nelson Mandela in the Soweto township, which is preserved as a museum.  Just down the street sits Bishop Desmond Tutu’s house.  A slum made famous by its bloody uprisings now boasts the only street in the world that has produced two Nobel Peace … Read more