Years ago, I worked as a mechanical design engineer for Litton, a defense contractor. Our division dealt with navigational systems--- compasses, radars, integrated bridge systems, fin stabilizers, inertial navigation, and so forth, for warships, submarines, and the like. It felt good. I worked, mostly on navigational radar. I enjoyed the work. One day, our company …
Month: February 2016
Asking Better Questions
A friend of mine stopped by my office to ask a question. It was not really a new question, but one he had asked before. "Why would God have allowed the Holocaust?" He is more of a spiritual seeker than a believer in any one particular religion... but I believe that his status as a …
Churchianity
I am a believer in the church... both as a tangible community of faith and as an invisible entity, an arguably mystical organism of all believers, immersed in one spirit and one water. However, the very act of believing in the church suggests there are things that I strongly believe the church is not. There …
Of Abba and Igorot Cowboys
This last Friday, my wife and I began the 6.5 hour trip from Baguio City (a city built by Americans during their occupation of the Philippines) to Laoag, the "center" of the Ilocano language and culture. On the way, we had a pitstop near Vigan, one of the best preserved Spanish colonial cities. Along the …
Enculturation of Faith
The power of culture is the power of habit. How does this develop? Parents and other members of a community influence the next generation. One version of Bronfenbrenner's Human Ecological Model is shown above. The innermost circle is a child. The outermost circle can be thought of as the overall societal structure, institutions and culture …
A Happy Tiny Surprise
Got a package in the mail today. I had ordered a few copies of my book to be shipped over to the Philippines. It arrived today. I put in the order in almost exactly 1 month ago. They printed it off and it arrived today. That may or may not impress you, but it did …
Maintaining Hope as an Act of Protest
I was listening to a podcast of an interview with Jurgen Moltmann at "Homebrewed Christianity" (Click HERE if you want to hear it). Trip Fuller asked, "How do you maintain hope in the face of despair...?" Moltmann responded, "As a protest." I like that. We see a world immersed in various evils, pains and sufferings. …