Taylor Swift and Good Sense. . . .
Last night I caught the tail end of this re-broadcast of the Tayor Swift interview from last fall. Fascinating stuff. Pay attention around 12 minutes in. There’s some good stuff and good sense that Swift communicates at that point. It’s…
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I Miss This Guy. . . .
Thanks to the folks at PBS Digital Studios, Fred Rogers is back. I realize how much I miss him. . . and how much I miss the times that he represents. Children’s television programming used to be more balanced, restrained,…
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Facebook and Kids Under 13. . . Not A Good Idea. . .
So social networking giant Facebook – now the third most populated “country” in the world – is considering a planned “baby boom.” OK. . . so they’ve already got millions of kids under the allowed age of 13 already “living”…
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Sandusky Goes To Court. . . Pondering Confession and Repentance. . .
Get ready. The Jerry Sandusky trial begins tomorrow. It will be all over the news. What will you do with it? I’ve learned that the best way to process these things is not to mock, laugh, or make jokes. There…
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The Male Brain, Pornography, and the Young Woman Sitting In Front of Me. . .
Today I had a long flight. I decided to dig into the stack of books that’s growing on a spot on my office floor. My summer reading/study emphasis is pornography. . . its place in our culture and what it’s…
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Marvel Comics and Same-Sex Marriage. . . .
Northstar proposes to Kyle So yesterday the world’s comic book fans found out that Northstar proposed marriage to his boyfriend Kyle. A mutant who is a member of the super-hero X-Men of Marvel Comics fame, Northstar and his…
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Disordered Eating. . . Beyond Anorexia and Bulimia. . .
Perhaps the best way for me to state it is like this: If my grandmothers were ugly, they didn’t know it. I know that the statement sounds a bit crude and harsh, but I don’t remember either of them being…
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God Can’t Change People. . . . Sad. . . .
Yesterday, I celebrated 30 years of marriage with my wife. After a nice dinner out, I came home to a moving and thoughtful surprise that put a smile on my face and gave me great joy. There in our room sat…
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Hey Abercrombie. . . I Accept You As My Savior. . .
I was going through some files the other day and came across a syllabus for Dean Borgman’s “Understanding Youth Culture” class at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Dean has had a profound impact on my life so I took some time to…
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Realities And Questions Few Of Us Ever Imagined. . . .
It’s commencement season. That means that a small army of “speakers” have been invited. . . one per institution of higher education. . . to address a gymnasium or stadium full of robed graduates and their parents. And every realistically…
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The Virtuous Business of Scaring The Kids. . . Maruice Sendak, Oswald, and the Lindbergh Baby. . .
The older I get, the more convinced I am of the fact that a healthy dose of realistic fear is a healthy and helpful thing for children. Yes, I think children need to be scared in just the right way.…
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Parental Diligence Needed Here. . . .
The other day my post asked whether or not the mix of teens and technology is good, bad, or ugly. I think it’s got the potential to be all three. . . powerful potential. Certainly one of the “bad” and…
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