This year, may we replenish the cistern that nurtures the principles of the Declaration: the vessel that is our recommitment to the Christian faith, the sharing of the Gospel, and the denunciation of the enemies of Truth... the vessel, that makes the United States the last, best hope for mankind. On July 5, 1926, Calvin [...]
Near the end of his essay "The Inner Ring," C.S. Lewis says, “To a young person, just entering on adult life, the world seems full of ‘insides,’ full of delightful intimacies and confidentialities, and the desire to enter them. But if he follows that desire, he will reach no ‘inside’ that is worth reaching.” In [...]
C.S. Lewis believes in the laws of nature, but he argues that miracles do not violate them because miracles are done by the Creator of the natural world Himself. Miracles are, therefore, exceptions to the laws of nature. The Great Commission commands all Christians to share the Gospel with non-Christians. Different groups of non-Christians want [...]
The sun rose steadily over main street in the mornings. The air was cool and light. The sky was clear. City workers watered the flowers on the lampposts. An older man sat on a bench and read the newspaper, and a young mother rocked her baby gently. A father held his little girl’s hand, and [...]
Booker T. Washington did not call for a revolution. Instead, he called for the simplest of building blocks in American society: helping your neighbor. I reread an undergraduate paper comparing the educational methods of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois and realized the comparison was horribly incomplete. I cited only Of the Training of Black [...]
The absence of beauty in education robs students of their natural curiosity, intuition, and creativity. Beauty provides direction, order, and harmony. Humans are made to desire and perceive beauty, which itself is the mystery of God. Professor Margarita Mooney of Princeton Theological Seminary and the Scala Foundation is a dear friend and brilliant academic. Five [...]
I went to Grandma’s house to decorate Christmas cookies today. Decorating cookies with her is a tradition. She bakes cookies for Easter and Thanksgiving too, but she bakes the most for Christmas. She has lived in her house since 1968. That is 56 years. It was where her children were raised, and it was where [...]
My heart breaks for Tolkien's Denethor, whose life ended unnecessarily, as bitterness, anger, and hopelessness in the face of evil consumed him. Let our prayer be that, even as we observe the darkness at the doorstep of Western Civilization, we imaginative conservatives stand at our posts and look to the Heavenly Father as our protector. [...]
Ancestry.com and 23andMe are brilliant modern genealogical tools. They are connected to various databases around the world, including the National Archives, and can fill in gaps of genealogical history. But genealogy is more than a collection of digitized documents and records; it is listening to stories at the dinner table, digging through dusty scrapbooks, and [...]
“Education is the movement from darkness to light” –Allan Bloom The city was empty, cold, and dark, yet at one point I sensed it was beautiful. It rose in the distance like a mighty mountain. Its presence was cold. I do not mean cold. I mean cold. Every building in the city was a faded [...]
The California State University system is long overdue for a revision to its general education program. But why not leave politics out of it and work at cultivating a rigorous and coherent core and a free and open marketplace of ideas—so that graduates are prepared for career success, for informed citizenship, and to participate productively [...]