Heroic Values
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Heroic Values

“Evangelicals were looking for a protector,” Kristin Du Mez says, to explain their attraction to President Trump in 2016, “an aggressive, heroic, manly man, someone who wasn’t restrained by political correctness or feminine virtues, someone who would break the rules for the right cause” (Jesus and John Wayne, 253). The word “heroic” led me into…

What Do Radical Islam and Militant Christianity Have in Common?
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What Do Radical Islam and Militant Christianity Have in Common?

Radical minorities  In both Islam and Christianity, the mainstream has understood the core teachings of their founding prophets as proclamations of the Peace of God on earth. In each, the “way” has been characterized by peaceful interaction in societies that welcomed coexistence with religious minorities. While both have had their historic “bad moments,” the operative…

As Syria Goes…
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As Syria Goes…

While living in Jordan, my wife Sally and I fell in love with Syria and its people through many visits stretched over four decades. Our last adventure in 2006 was to Aleppo, when we stayed in a converted khan in the middle of its souq (market), which sold traditional hand-crafted goods, inlaid wood, beaten copper, loom-woven silks and braided gold. We saw Syria through the eyes of besotted tourists and barely noticed the unrest roiling under the surface.

Senseless Death
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Senseless Death

Footage of the drone-fired missile strike on January 3 that obliterated Iranian general Qasem Suleimani instantly triggered a memory of World War II, when I was five years old in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Vividly engraved on my mind’s eye is the image of a large dead farm animal in our neighbour’s barn, “assassinated” by a bayonet-wielding “White Russian” soldier who had wandered up the river dike at Langerak, our village of refuge during the waning of the war.