American Soundings

Halloween's tradition of shadowy characters makes it as good a time as any to think on the reality of evil, sin and death that besets us.

If agriculture survives at all on the Great Plains, it will be very limited. What will take its place? Not many people, that's for sure.

I am not squeamish about most animals or insects. But snakes are a different story.

Air travel—perhaps paradoxically—tutors us in patience, a practice in short supply in today's world.

I am confident that the new creation will include animals. I hope that it will include Merle, my deceased smooth-coat collie.

While Christian scholars have long questioned body-soul dualism, it remains common in church circles. This may finally be changing.

If anything remains sacred in our culture, it’s the family. Yet Jesus challenged the family’s ultimacy.

My wife and I used to visit a bookstore at least once a week. We can’t anymore, unless we drive 20 minutes to the now nearest one.

Snow can be tiresome, even deadly, but it can also be a sign of holiness and of hope.

All zombie plots include great hordes of the stalking dead. But the genre is maturing.

Since the years of Reagan and Thatcher, we have heard a steady drumbeat about the limitations of government. But what about the limitations of the free market?

We owe our homeland patriotism, but not just any kind of patriotism—because just as we don't choose our parents, neither do we choose our country of origin.

Stretches of emptiness are not unusual in life, nor in the life of faith.

It's not primarily the financially shady elements that make me ambivalent about my favorite sport. It's the sometimes dangerous levels of violence.

Prayer is not something we do first and foremost on our own. We pray with other Christians.

Unless you're Pentecostal, you've probably never run or jumped or worked up a sweat in church. But whatever your tradition, your church has some kind of worship calisthenics.

Lady Gaga is a Kierkegaard in fishnet stockings. Intentionally or not, she reminds us that Jesus came among us as a misfit.

The symbol of the fish resounds throughout scripture, and it splashes well beyond the pages.

How sweet was the moment when, the catheter removed, I was able to again urinate on my own. I heard myself whispering enthusiastically, with no hint of disrespect or irony, "Thank you, Jesus!"

Outside Paradise, government will never be perfect. But that's no reason to give up on it.