I do not normally weigh in on ecclesiastical issues in this space, but given my long association with and current membership in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), I think it is appropriate to comment on Synod 2026’s decision to withdraw from the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). I understand that church denominations have to…
In my youth I cut my political teeth on the Watergate scandal, and this, along with the Turkish invasion of my father’s native island of Cyprus, moved me to study politics. Like many Americans at the time, I was incensed that a sitting president, sworn to uphold the constitution, would abuse his office to gain…
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the death of one of the great figures in Dutch – and arguably Western – history. Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer was born in 1801 and was raised in a Netherlands undergoing significant change. When revolution broke out in France in 1789, it would unleash such instability as to…
This year marks Nancy’s and my 30th wedding anniversary. On our honeymoon, we travelled through the mid-Atlantic states, visiting sites associated with our respective family histories. In April and May of this year, we returned to some of these places, especially Baltimore, Annapolis, and St. Mary’s City, the first capital of Maryland in the seventeenth…
In 1790, one year after revolution had broken out across the channel, the Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke wrote his now classic Reflections on the Revolution in France. Many of Burke’s compatriots, especially his fellow Whigs, thought that the French were finally rid of their absolutist government and were embracing the constitutional institutions which they themselves…
Iran has had an outsized influence in the Middle East since ancient times. The Persian empire figures prominently in several books of the Old Testament, primarily because of King Cyrus’ role in permitting the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the Jerusalem temple. Since then several dynasties have ruled Persia, extending their influence…
Minneapolis holds a special place in my heart because, as a young man, I attended a Christian university in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. I grew to love the area’s numerous lakes, Minnehaha Falls, the many Lutheran churches, the Dinkytown neighbourhood near the University and the many friendly, hospitable people who lived there. There is even a…
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the demise of the Soviet Union, a tyrannical state that kept its people imprisoned under an ostensibly liberating ideology. After it passed out of existence, many of us had moderately high hopes for the fragments left in its wake. Might Russia finally end its centuries-long efforts at territorial…
As I write, we have just learned that Donald Trump has captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, following several weeks in which American forces had been destroying seagoing vessels in the Caribbean on the pretext that they were shipping contraband drugs to the United States. This is the latest development for an administration…
Four years ago I completed a project begun when I was 30 years old: setting the biblical Psalms to verse in contemporary English to the proper melodies of the Genevan Psalter. Four grants from the Stanford Reid Trust and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship enabled me to hire someone to format the texts to…
Although I consider myself reasonably knowledgeable about the world around me, I have too often initially heard the name of a prominent person on the occasion of his or her death. Somehow I have managed to miss certain people’s fame or notoriety while they were still alive, probably because I travelled in different circles and…
Many residents of Hamilton drive the Lincoln Alexander Parkway daily. While billboards are not as ubiquitous along Canadian highways as they are along their American counterparts, there is a single digital one adjacent the “Linc,” allowing multiple advertisers to communicate their respective messages in quick succession to the public without unduly cluttering up the surrounding…
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