Some blogs are diaries – personal revealing and making you feel you have been invited into the interior of the author’s life. Others are more like almanacs – filled with useful information and resources. Pointing you to other people and places. I’m more like the latter. But sometimes you can blend the two and I want to point you to a wonderful example of the diarist who draws you into the interior of his life. Such is the case here. This is a short excerpt from David Wayne (jollyblogger.wordpress.com) a pastor in Baltimore Maryland wrestling with God and cancer. “I have tried to play the good soldier in my battle…

The 16th chapter of Numbers is the account of the rebellion of the Levite Korah. While Korah is the instigator, he somehow manages to convince 250 of the leaders of Israel to join him. These are the men who are “famous” for their integrity and character. They were hand picked to help relieve Moses of the burdens of leadership. Yet, here they are attempting instead to relieve Moses and Aaron of their leadership entirely. What kind of deception was powerful enough to make the wisest, most-respected men in the nation join such an insurrection and with no sign of force or coercion? I’m teaching Eric Metaxas’s Bonhoeffer: Pastor Prophet Spy…

Candice Millard, the author of “Destiny of the Republic” a biography of President James A. Garfield, tells the story of Chester Arthur, the Vice-President who became the President after Garfield’s assassination. Chester Arthur, the son of a Baptist minister, was selected to be the Vice-President of James Garfield’s as a way to secure the electoral votes of N.Y. where Arthur was a political pawn of the powerful Roscoe Conklin machine. It was said that Arthur was rarely at work before 11:00 and was known for his parties and elegant clothing. He was very wealthy, having made his money selling and collecting fines on illegal imports as a customs official in…

I have been watching the SyFy channel during the holidays for some reason. One of the things that is obvious is the apocalyptic nature of so much science fiction today. It’s all about the end of the world as we know it with either invasions or self-destruction. Being 65 I started thinking about what science fiction was like when I was growing up. It was NOT apocalyptic at all. It was futurist and optimistic – even a bit naïve. However I much prefer that to the unending stream of dark and violent special effects. Even someone as sophisticated and innovative as Peter Thiel one of the founders of PayPal and…

I posted an article on the shrinking of the middle class as an increasing number of people are falling into the category of low-income. “Squeezed by rising living costs a record number of Americans – nearly 1 in 2 – have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.” While I did not say much about the article I did say “Is it un-Christian of me to doubt these numbers?” A Facebook friend responded to me with a private message to voice his disagreement with my obvious bias. Out of that has come an interesting exchange from our different – but not opposite…

My friend asked me why I was not writing a piece on Christmas. Well for all the reasons so many use to support their own reservations about Christmas – crass commercialism mind-numbing jingles exhausting rounds of parties and social events and yes a proliferation of blogs about the true meaning of Christmas I have taken the easy way out. I don’t like that but it’s easier – until this year. Leigh Vickery our editor at The Gathering published one of Luci Shaw’s poems and I’ve read and reread it because for me it captures the essence and the riddle of Christmas. How can One who “hurled a universe” be compressed…

Question: Fred we are just getting started with our foundation. I am interested in learning how other foundations meeting the IRS requirements of obtaining statements of good standing and the most recent letter of determination with the organizations the foundation chooses to support. What steps do others take to make sure they are always in compliance? Is there any way to verify this information? Thank you for your time and effort to reply. It is appreciated.   Thank you for responding to “Ask Fred” on the website.  Here are starting points:  1.  Proposal cover letter from the Chief Executive Officer to include:  endorsement of the proposal explaining how it relates to…

One of my favorite books is Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I’m sure that’s so because I like his premise that some decisions and appraisals made quickly are more accurate than those made after deliberation. Having said that I don’t like to find books that challenge that! Unfortunately that is what Daniel Kahneman does in Thinking Fast and Slow. Most of us (and especially those of us who consider ourselves intuitive) have what he calls “cognitive illusions”. This is a false belief that we intuitively accept as true. While we think we make good decisions on our own experience or our ability to judge situations we actually have a poor record…

The Boston Globe article “Why We Give” I wrote about in the previous blog made me curious about Deborah Small at The Wharton School. It turns out she has done quite a bit of research on charity and why people give…or don’t. One of her papers is titled, “The Face of Need: Facial Emotion Expression on Charity Advertisements.” Maybe it’s just me but I found the results fascinating. Did you know: Pictures showing sad faces are far more capable of producing similar states of sympathetic sadness than pictures of happy faces can create happiness on the part of the viewer. A phenomenon known as “emotion contagion” occurs when people pick…

An article titled “Why we give to charity” in the Boston Globe caught my eye last week.     “What we find is that when people are thinking more deliberatively . . . they end up being less generous overall ” said Deborah Small an associate professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Is it possible to be both generous and smart about it? A lot of donors would like to think so but new research suggests that it may be harder than we realize. And while there may be things we can do to make sure our money doesn’t end up wasted charity appears to be one area where…