Columns

January 23, 2021

Column: Listening Better to the Blues

Listen to B.B. King’s “Why I Sing the Blues.” This time, really listen: his soulful singing, Lucille’s crying. They belie the lyrics.
November 23, 2020

Column: COVID-19 and Character

“Tell me,” Albert Camus’ Clamence asks, “doesn’t shame sting a little?”
November 19, 2020

Column: Catholics and Presidents

What to make of a Catholic president?
October 31, 2020

Column: Fire and Brimstone: Tips for Preaching the End Times

Dwight Moody, the great revivalist, appreciated fire and brimstone. He knew nothing better, he said, than the notion “that Our Lord is coming again” to “take the men of this world out of their stocks and bonds.” As a preacher, he knew it worked, that it moved souls.
May 14, 2020

Column: What If We Lose Touch?

Making readers like me of George Orwell or Yevgeny Zamyatin highly uncomfortable, a San Diego company has developed a technology to monitor social distance. Already in use in some places, it’s called Active Distance Alert and Monitoring, or ADAM, eerily, for short. The technology maps signals emitted by phones, so that crowded areas like grocery stores […]
April 10, 2020

Column: The Poor are the Altar of God

The poor are the altar of God.