Malvina Reynolds’s song, “Little Boxes,” satirized the boxy houses that dominated suburban landscapes in the mid-20th century, and the conformist spirit they symbolized: they were “all made out of ticky-tacky and they all looked just the same.” Today, we’d see them as symptomatic of an even larger reality. To live in a certain place, in…

I have been thinking lately about how the Army educates chaplains. It starts with the eight-week Chaplain Basic Officer Leadership Course (CHBOLC), which is designed to both introduce chaplains to the military and help them adapt their civilian skills and experience to the military. Later, active duty chaplains attend the twenty-week Chaplain Captain Career Course (C4–it’s only…

Three years ago I was writing poetry in the Kuwait desert … Arabian Nights A half moon joins scattered stars In a gray sky brightened by dancing lights Of growling Blackhawks While whining generators chase shadows Into the corners of concrete bunkers and barriers Surrounding boxes, “little boxes, Little boxes made of ticky-tacky” And the…

In 2012 The International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School and the Global Justice Clinic of NYU School of Law issued a report, Living Under Drones: Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone Practices in Pakistan.  See a short video synopsis here. A number of people have written on the topic…

President Obama will be the first president to visit Hiroshima.  The White House insists he will not apologize. I think he should read this August 1945 editorial, and ask for all to reflect on it: This is the ultimate in violence. What consequences will flow from this dis- covery nobody can guess. Of one thing…

Provocative quote by G. K. Chesterton: “It may be said with rough accuracy that there are three stages in the life of a strong people. First, it is a small power, and fights small powers. Then it is a great power, and fights great powers. Then it is a great power, and fights small powers,…

Sermon preached at Spring Creek Seventh-day Adventist Church on May 7, 2016. This morning I turn to a familiar Adventist topic, the role of the United States of America in Bible Prophecy. It is important that we review this from time to time, so that we can be clear in our thinking. So that as…