Music to melt the stars

Music to melt the stars

“Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.” – Gustave Flaubert In the week prior to my writing of this column, this happened: Because I have a word limit for this column, I will…

Superheroes and Binoculars
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Superheroes and Binoculars

For one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are we not (all) merely human? (I Cor. 3:4) A couple of Sundays ago I asked the children assembled at the front of the church to name their favorite superheroes. There was quite a buzz of responses. Among the candidates were Spiderman,…

Remembering a Prophet
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Remembering a Prophet

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Neil Postman’s death at age 72. Postman spent most of his career at New York University as a Professor of Media Ecology and wrote more than 20 books, mostly about the effects of the electronic media on our lives. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age…

Sex and money
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Sex and money

I have purposely not written a column expressing my opinion on the 2022 Christian Reformed Synod’s Human Sexuality Report, and specifically not about the report’s recommendations concerning same sex relations. My reason is that, from the outset, I judged the entire process to be disingenuous. Handcuffing the committee members with a mandate that forced it…

Better with Age?

Better with Age?

Here we go again! Last month we columnists were told that the Christmas issue was themed “In Praise of Broken Things”; a crazy topic until I thought about it some more. This month it’s “Better with Age.” Better with age? Tell that to my creaky 76-year-old knees, or my wife’s 23-year-old Honda Civic. New and…

The broken silence of Christmas
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The broken silence of Christmas

On a regular basis Angela Reitsma Bick, Editor of Christian Courier, sends out an email to columnists like me with a reminder of due dates and with a heads-up about issue themes. In November she reminded us that the December issue would have two themes: Christmas (no surprise there) and “In Praise of Broken Things.”…

A fantastic comedy
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A fantastic comedy

Many years ago, when teaching in a small Christian elementary school, I had my first encounter with a parent adamant about removing a novel from the language arts curriculum. The novel was A Wrinkle in Time by Christian author Madeleine L’Engle. It won the 1963 Newberry Medal for best children’s book of that year and…

Grasping the rope of grace
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Grasping the rope of grace

This column will conclude my brief foray into an examination of the Five Points of Calvinism as articulated in the Canons of Dordt, one of the Three Forms of Unity of Reformed churches, including the Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA). The fourth point of the Calvinist TULIP is Irresistible Grace. The irresistibleness of…

Are Christian schools worth having in a secular culture?
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Are Christian schools worth having in a secular culture?

Over the past century and especially during the last fifty years, much work has been done at both philosophical and curricular levels to justify and define the distinctive character of an education that takes place in reformed Christian schools. Most Christian day schools have vision and mission statements emphasizing their commitment to instill a Christian…

The choices of God
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The choices of God

The second and third of the Five Points of Calvinism (known by the acronym of TULIP) have to do with the time God decided or knew (past tense) about what would happen (future tense). As I said in my previous column, these doctrines violate the fact that God does not exist in time, which in…

A doctrine of time
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A doctrine of time

As mentioned in my previous column, the Canons of Dort (1619) were formulated as an orthodox Calvinist response to purported errors in theology taught by Jacob Arminius (1560 – 1609). Although the theological differences between Arminians and Calvinists were (and are) complicated, they fundamentally hinge on different claims about the sovereignty of God. Calvinists claim…

Tiptoe Through the TULIP(s)
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Tiptoe Through the TULIP(s)

The Three Forms of Unity is a collective name for the Belgic Confession (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) and the Canons of Dort (1619) which reflect the teachings of Calvinism and which are accepted as official doctrinal statements by many Calvinist churches, including the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). Anyone seeking an official position (minister, elder, deacon) in the CRC must…