How are we to treat our enemies? The question should make one give pause. Do I have enemies? What does an “enemy” look like in a society in which we are simply free to turn away from or ignore those who grate against us? For most of us, we are not called to face those who have murdered our loved ones, as did many after the Rwandan genocide of the early 1990’s. We must instead look to understand how to face those who have wronged us in both large and small ways.  Matthew 5:38-48 offers us a new approach to justice....

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Recent studies have begun to explore the apparent decline in participation in communal activities over the past twenty-five years. Theorists have proposed this decline is the result of greater cultural mobility, increased work hours, and greater societal fragmentation pertaining to values.   Yet, there are evident groups in our society. These groups, however, tend to be based not on communal activity, but on common theoretical ideologies.  Many secular groups spend most of their time showing the virtue of their views and how these views are the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. However, if you ever get them talking about...

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Richard John Neuhaus, the Catholic theologian, once wrote that “On a certain Friday afternoon it could truly be said ‘God is dead,’ and there is no catastrophe beyond the death of God.”  In reading John 19, we watch as the greatest catastrophe in all of history unfolds before our very eyes.  We look on as the Foundation was hung on a piece of wood.  We stand with the crowds as life slowly escaped from Life himself.  We listen as the eternal Breath breathed his last.   We watch God die. And yet what’s fascinating about the account is that the Apostle...

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 NIV Jeremiah 29:4-7 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers,...

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As we continue our conversation on dating, it becomes necessary to examine more specifically the qualities that we should be seeking in a potential significant other. Contemporary media reinforces stereotypes about what women and men should be, yet seems to leave out significant qualities. Women like Megan Fox are lauded for their beauty and sex appeal. Men like George Clooney and Gerard Butler are praised for their charm and party-boy ways. "Love affairs" between infatuated young women and brooding vampires have become the standard for true love. How then do we weed through all the cultural lies and hype and...

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