I held leadership positions when I was employed and upon retirement, held leadership nonprofit positions. One of the main leadership attributes that I tried to exhibit was not using the singular pronoun “I” when discussing the work performed by the team I led. I wanted to uplift the contributions of …
Tocqueville (Individualism in Democratic Countries)Read More
I discussed Alexis de Tocqueville’s (1805–1859) writings concerning religion’s influence on American democracy in my last blog (Part I). He believed that religion maintains democracy by preventing laws that diminish democracy and placing moral boundaries on the nation. “Tyranny may be able to do …
One of my favorite weekend readings is Lunch with the FT. Each week, the Financial Times (London) interviews a notable person over lunch. This past week, the FT interviewed Franklin Graham (Evangelical leader Franklin Graham: ‘Americans realize Trump is not pastor-in-chief,’ Derek Brower, July 26, …
During the summer months, I like to write a series of blogs on a prominent theologian by diving deep into one of their publications. Previously, I wrote blogs on Moral Man and Immoral Society (Reinhold Niebuhr, 1932), Christ & Culture(H. Richard Niebuhr, 1951), Christianity and Civilization …
I ran my first marathon just before my thirtieth birthday and my last marathon a few months before I retired. I don’t know the exact number of marathons that I ran but the total was around twenty-five. After the first couple of marathons, I researched training methods and eventually settled on a …
I opened my first bank account before I was 16 years old. I ran a small mowing business and needed a bank account to store my growing earnings. My parents took me to their bank and the bank allowed me to have a checking account. My parents showed me how to write checks, deposit money, and balance …
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” This …
During my second semester of seminary, I took a Theology class from an outstanding professor, Dr. Paul Capetz. His course was a deep dive into six prominent theologians. We studied their writings for two weeks and then wrote a three-page paper on their key theological concepts. Theologians are not …
When I was an undergraduate engineering student, I became friends with two fellow undergraduates, Mark and Cindy (not their real names). who eventually married. They were a couple when I knew them, and both graduated in my field of study. Mark was a brilliant and handsome young man who earned a …
I need to confess; I did not enjoy going to worship services when I was a child. Some reading this may feel a connection with me on this topic while others may wonder why I went to seminary. It was not the church’s fault. The problem was that I did not like to sit still for an hour, whether it be …
