In the opening paragraph of his book Whatever Became of Sin?, Karl Menninger, one of the founders of the famed Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, tells a funny but very significant story. 

“On a sunny day in September, 1972, a stern-faced, plainly dressed man could be seen standing still on a street corner in the busy Chicago Loop.  As pedestrians hurried by on their way to lunch or business, he would solemnly lift his right arm, and pointing to the person nearest him, intone loudly the single word ‘GUILTY!’ 

“Then, without any change of expression, he would resume his still stance for a few moments before repeating the gesture.  Then, again, the inexorable raising of his arm, the pointing, and the solemn pronouncing of the one word ‘GUILTY!’ 

“The effect of this strange accusatory pantomime on the passing strangers was extraordinary, almost eerie.  They would stare at him, hesitate, look away, look at each other, and then at him again; then hurriedly continue on their ways. 

“One man, turning to another who was my informant, exclaimed: ‘But how did he know?’” Read more…

Staff members at a local Starbucks I frequent for hot chocolate learned that my wife and I recently celebrated our sixtieth wedding anniversary.  They are all relatively young, and sixty years seems like a long time to them.  So they asked me to write about some of the things a couple has to do in order to make it together for that long. 

In this day and age when so many married couples find they are not a match for each other and call it quits, it is not surprising that today’s younger adults find sixty years of marriage to be very unusual.  When my wife and I were married, celebrating a fiftieth anniversary was hailed as the “golden” anniversary that everyone was in awe of.  The fiftieth anniversary is still very special.  But today many marriages bypass the golden anniversary, as well as the sixtieth, and it is not unheard of for people to celebrate seventy-five years together, or even longer.  So there are many others who are more qualified than I to write about what it takes to make a marriage work.  But I will share my thoughts about making a marriage a lasting relationship. Read more…

This is a continuation of last week’s blog: “What is Gospel Music?”  

The origin and development of Gospel music goes hand in hand with the history of evangelism in the United States.  Dwight L. Moody, an evangelist of the mid-to-late 1800s, was the primary “architect” of a new kind of church music that has become what we now call Gospel Music.  Moody’s song leader and soloist, Ira D. Sankey, was the “craftsman” who composed the music that fulfilled the architect’s vision.  

The initial thrust of Colonial America’s “Great Awakening” (1730-1740s) focused on “reviving” the religious fervor of church members, and was immediately followed by the trail of itinerate evangelists who went from town to town pitching their tents and preaching “hellfire and damnation” to the unchurched.  It was then that Dwight Moody came to the fore with a new approach to evangelism that was utilized later by evangelist Billy Sunday and refined to its greatest use by Billy Graham. Read more…

Recently I was asked, “What is Gospel music?”  That would have been very easy to answer prior to the mid-1800s.  Prior to then, the term “Gospel music” was not used.  Instead, people referred to “Gospel hymns”—stately, dignified religious songs with definite references to the Gospel message of the New Testament.  One of the earliest of these Gospel hymns goes back to 1529, when Martin Luther wrote the words and composed the music of the stately and much sung A Mighty Fortress is our God.  The theme of the hymn is “relying on Jesus Christ to overcome the Devil,” with specific references to Psalm 46, Galatians 5:22, and Philippians 2:9-10.  This is not, however, the kind of music we think of today as Gospel music.

In the mid-1800s two men developed a new kind of religious music that was to become today’s Gospel music.  The two men were famed evangelist Dwight L. Moody and his music director and soloist, Ira D. Sankey, known as the “Sweet Singer.” Read more…

Last week when my wife and I were in the car, I was zigzagging down the road, having difficulty dodging all the potholes left over from winter, not yet repaired.  It was impossible to miss all of them, jarring the car each time we hit one.  My wife commented, “This is like trying to dodge the potholes of life.  You just can’t miss them all no matter how hard you try.”

How right she was!  Life has many potholes, and when you hit them, you are jarred, the wheels of life are knocked out of line, and sometimes your tires blowout and you have to come to a complete stop.  Of course, I am speaking metaphorically.  But you know what I mean by the potholes of life, and unless you are a very unusual person, you have experienced many of them yourself. 

Just how does one cope with the potholes of life?  Read more…

Avoiding being labeled as “sexist” is very important these days.  The current emphasis on bias-free language has created difficulties for today’s writers.  Some traditional uses of the English language that have long been the cornerstones of good writing are no longer acceptable: for example, using “he,” “him,” and “his” to refer to a male or a female (if the finder returns my watch, he will receive a reward).  Because these pronouns are masculine-specific, they are now regarded as sexist.        

Good writers will find ways to achieve gender-neutral language, but it may take some thought. There are gender-neutral words that were used in the past, some as long ago as the 1700s, that in later years we stopped using: for example, Read more…