The UmBlog

In my local paper recently, I learned that a young man who used to be my neighbor, was charged with the crime of rape. The story is complicated, because his ex-girlfriend is the accuser. When the romance was reciprocal, their intercourse was acceptable, but once that reciprocity was broken, the same act was heinous and terrible. There are many directions to go with this. Keeping sexual intercourse within marriage is a good start, however, rape can happen within marriages as well. But my mind drew a line between this incident and something I read on a blog, which I can no longer find, equating promiscuity with worship. We are all made to worship God and the sensation of those experiences are similar in their aspect of transcendence. I've written about transcendence before and those other near miss attempts at transcendence ( sex , drugs ) that only true worship satisfies (see this post on other religions and the transcendent). But can rape be transcendent for the rapist? I wouldn...

This is not the first book I've attempted by C. John Collins , but at least I finished this one. It is not that his books are bad, it's that they are like pound cake , too rich. Pound cake has a pound of butter and a pound of sugar to go with a pound of eggs and a pound of flour. Too much of something that rich makes me sick. I need to eat it in small portions when its richness can be appreciated. Normally, I can digest in a night or two a book just over 150 pages. Collins's book did not let me do that. I had to put the book down and process after every few subsections in his chapters. Part of the reason I chose to study for a degree in biology was that even as a boy, I was really concerned with the challenge Darwin presents to those who would take Genesis as a somewhat reliable guide to the earth's and life's origins. He writes partly in response to Francis Collins and the work of the group Biologos which seeks to harmonize origins science with Christianity. C. J...

I believe it is my duty to all husbands, as incompetent as myself at celebrating milestones for their wives, to share the small victories. I have one arrow in my quiver; Haiku. Rhyming is not expected, just a meter, and a brief one at that. So I offer to all of you men ( those of you desperately searching for a poem for your wife because you forgot to buy a present or order flowers or reserve a table at the nice restaurant she's always wanted to go to) the poetry I presented my wife on her birthday last month. When you were twenty And, still, when you were thirty More, now you’re forty Every birthday And each anniversary I love you e’en more I am so grateful To have you as companion For this journey of life