Tag: addictions

Trump’s So-Called "Sexgate Scandal"

I would like to clarify my stance on the whole Trump-sex-talk debacle. I have posted several memes on Facebook pointing out the massive hypocrisy of the whole matter and to some, that may have looked like I’m defending Trump and what he said, compromising my Christian witness in the process. Let me make myself perfectly clear:

There is no combination of persons and circumstances which could ever make his words acceptable, excuse his words, or exonerate him for saying them, period, full stop.

His words were and are reprehensible, offensive, ungodly, and demeaning to women everywhere, period, full stop.

However, for folks to presumptively occupy an imaginary moral high ground from which they can pass judgment on the man over this matter is hypocritical beyond description. More on that later…
Continue reading “Trump’s So-Called "Sexgate Scandal"”

A Requiem for George: A Tragic Cautionary Tale of Addiction — Part 1

My step-brother George passed away on Wednesday, December 17, 2014. He was born just short of being exactly 3-years-to-the-day older than me, making him 64 at the time.
George and I were not particularly close and had little in the way of common interests, though he helped Tess and me immensely by performing our home inspection before we purchased our house as well as working with me to move in the washer and dryer that our parents gave us.
My mom and step-dad met and married in the mid-1980s while in their 60s after my birth father died of his final heart attack in January 1980, so George and I never even lived in the same city during the ensuing 30+ years — in fact it was not until early in the first decade of this century that I first laid eyes on the man. Just before he died, I estimated that we had physically been in the same room for less than 24 hours during our entire lives.
Regardless of how little we interacted, I regarded him as good man, a heck of a nice guy actually, generous with his time and labor. The Jewish term mensch would be entirely accurate. Though he could be a bit taciturn at times, once you got him talking, George was generally fun to be around, with a lively sense of humor and a dry wit. I already miss his wisecracks delivered in that deep gravelly voice of his.

George’s Obituary

The obituary I wrote on my step-dad’s behalf was published in various regional newspapers and is quoted here:
Continue reading “A Requiem for George: A Tragic Cautionary Tale of Addiction — Part 1”

Marijuana & Christianity

Now that marijuana has been legalized for recreational use in Colorado as well as for medical use in numerous other states, the issue is now one of the hot buttons in the culture and political wars, with frequent mentions in the news.
Many pro-marijuana folks have tried to support the idea that the Bible is silent on the issue of recreational drug use and that it’s OK for Christians to indulge. “After all, the Bible is OK with drinking alcohol in moderation, so what’s the problem with a little weed?” some have asked.
Actually, the topic of psychotropic (aka psychoactive) drugs is indeed mentioned — and mentioned unfavorably, I might add — in the NT.
Here’s the scoop:
Continue reading “Marijuana & Christianity”