Believe it or not: God Dead on a Cross
Wed 3/27/2024 8:25 AM Tom Holland, the author of a recent book titled “Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Changed the World,” who himself is not a Christian, writes this: “A myth, though, is not a lie. At its most profound—as Tolkien, that devout Catholic, always argued—a myth can be true. To be a Christian is […]
A Prayer for Good Friday
This week is Holy Week for Christians around the world. It began yesterday on Palm Sunday and will conclude on Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, this weekend. In her poem Good Friday, which is the day on which Jesus was crucified, Christina Rosetti writes: Am I a stone, and not a sheep,That I can stand, O Christ, […]
A Time to Laugh
In 1862, under the heavy burden of leading a divided nation through the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, gathered his cabinet to discuss his draft of the Emancipation Proclamation—the executive order that would make 3.5 million American slaves free people. But before the discussion of the draft, Lincoln read a humorous story titled “High Handed […]
God Gave us Laughter
Wed 3/20/2024 8:09 AM Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.” Of course, it is a laughable suggestion that man invented laughter; but Nietzsche’s expression shouldn’t surprise us. He thought that man invented God as well. The first account […]
Laughter Drives Winter from the Human Face
Wed 3/20/2024 7:10 AM Victor Hugo once said: “Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.” Well, today is the first day of spring. So, this week, I’m going to see if I can make you laugh a little bit. We may not be able to drive winter from Ohio yet, but […]
Manners are Elevated Conduct for a Humble Heart
The rules of etiquette are not always used for the good. There is a long history of the aristocratic use of the rules of civilized conduct to exclude and ostracize those from a lower social position. While anyone can learn good manners, the more rules that are created and the more strictly they are observed, […]
Etiquette: The Dance of Living in Civilized Community
Oscar Wilde famously said: “The world was my oyster, but I used the wrong fork.” He wasn’t really talking about manners, per se, but his expression still reflects something both peculiar and yet important about the rules of etiquette. What on earth am I on about? Well, consider Mr. Wilde’s fork. Traditional rules of etiquette say […]
Manners: A Portrait of our Regard for Others
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said that “[a] man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.” How we conduct ourselves in the company of others reveals a great deal about the kind of person that we are. They are a genuine reflection of our own character. But that is not how everyone views […]
Manners: The Domain of “Obedience to the Unenforceable”
Mark Twain once wrote that “Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater.” One of the unique things about manners is that although they are a sort of “rules,” they are, in the end, only self-imposed. They are a matter of right conduct, rather than legal compulsion. What do I mean? Well, think about […]
Manners: The “Petty Sacrifices” that Show Respect
Sometimes it seems as though good manners have gotten a bad rap these days. That the vulgar and unrefined is celebrated far more than the decent and polite. Whether in business and politics or show business and the arts, the so-called American nobility seems rather less noble than ever. Now, I’m sure I sound like […]
