April 30, 2012
Let me confess that I am not a great royalist–despite the fact that I have often joked about the three queens in my life. As a New Zealander, there’s Elizabeth. As a Dutchman, there’s Beatrix. As a husband, there’s Romkje, sometimes nicknamed ‘the Queen’ by family and friends. Royalism is not in my genes. One […]
April 23, 2012
One of the iconic films from my youth was a Stanley Kramer comedy called it’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world. The title came to mind as I prepared to share at an urban missions conference in Montreal about the challenges and opportunities of living in a post-Christian society. For today, the western world over, […]
April 16, 2012
The bombs rained down on Dresden on the night of February 15, 1945. At Stalin’s request, Allied bombers wreaked vengeance on the German people, killing over 20,000 civilians (at conservative estimates) as well as refugees and Allied prisoners of war in a horrific firestorm that laid waste the inner city. The magnificent ‘Florence of the […]
April 9, 2012
Straddling the German-Austrian border at 1800 metres high above Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s infamous Eagle’s Nest remains a sober reminder of a madman’s disastrous attempt at world domination. This Easter weekend, the Kehlsteinhaus, as it is known in the German-speaking world, was covered with fresh snow but clearly visible from the Berchtesgaden Congresshall where Romkje and I […]
April 2, 2012
Once upon a time, in a city called Copenhagen, there lived a story teller named Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75). His many tales, including The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Pea, The Snow Queen, The Ice Maiden and The Philosopher’s Stone have been enjoyed by young and old worldwide for over 150 […]
March 26, 2012
Here’s a verse to ponder for this coming Sunday, April first: ‘The fool has said in his heart, there is no God’ –Psalm 14:1. The psalmist’s wasn’t trying to offend or denigrate. Rather, he described a dangerous condition with real consequences for individuals and those they influence. Take the warning we referred to last week […]
March 19, 2012
In many European schools and universities these days, believers in God are dismissed as mental dwarfs and intellectual wimps. Yet from ancient times right up to the present, many of history’s greatest and most influential minds have wrestled with the question of God. Reason and faith, they concluded, were complementary, not contradictory. The Greek philosopher […]
March 12, 2012
Three years ago this month, the Archbishop of Canterbury gathered a group of experts together at Lambeth Palace to seek ways to restore ethics and justice in global economics after the financial turmoil beginning in 2007. A year later, the discussion was published in book form with the title, Crisis and recovery: ethics, economics and […]
March 5, 2012
Brace yourselves. We’re reaching the next stage, as predicted by Francis Schaeffer a generation ago. Now the experts tell us that after-birth abortion is ethical. After-birth abortion should be considered late-term abortion because there isn't much of a difference between them biologically. That’s the considered opinion of two academics being argued in a report published […]
February 27, 2012
There’s nothing particularly new about the intense and emotional outcry against God and biblical morality led by today’s ‘new Atheists’. The psalmist asked in his day, ‘Why do the heathen rage?’ [Ps.2] One person well-qualified to answer that question is former atheist, Peter Hitchens. His famous and recently-deceased, anti-theist, older brother Christopher was one of […]
February 21, 2012
A German Pope in Rome and a Muslim baroness from Britain teamed up last week as unlikely allies against ‘militant secularisation’ in Europe, including Britain. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of threats from ‘aggressive forms of secularism’ when he visited Britain in 2010. Last week, Britain’s first female Muslim cabinet minister, Baroness Warsi, echoed his words […]
February 13, 2012
Thanks to some guy named Valentine, the cash registers are ringing up sales of greeting cards, chocolates, roses, lingerie and perfumes this week all over Europe and beyond. Not a bad business, in both senses of the word. Few would be able to tell you who this Valentine was, however. Maybe some casanova or […]
