Resources by Charlie Wingard
Various & Sundry: September 6
Articles of interest I read this week: A prayer of Brownlow North. Does Facebook make us unhappy? “Any Harvard Law School degree obtained by a woman who then chooses not to use it in any sort of professional capacity throughout most of her life is a wasted opportunity,” insists one writer. An Ivy League graduate, stay-at-home Mom disagrees. (HT: Erica Parker) Sinclair Ferguson on assurance, the greatest of Protestant “heresies.” A pastor apologizes to his former congregation. In response to pleas for moral responsibility, a hotel chain stops offering pornography in its rooms. Nicholas Carr on “Paper versus Pixel.” (HT: Craig Bosma) Do laptops belong in classrooms?
Read MoreMy book club’s next meeting is Monday, October 28, 6 p.m. We’ll discuss The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough. Just read the book, come, and contribute to the discussion. We’re usually done in 90 minutes. If you’re not already a member of the group, please let me know if you plan to attend. Watch Brian Lamb’s “In Depth” interview with the author.
Read More“If an inquirer thinks he ought to settle absolutely every question, great or small, before becoming a Christian, he little appreciates the limitations of human life or himself.” Augustine of Hippo, Epistolae 102.38 in Henry Chadwick’s Augustine of Hippo: A Life (Oxford, 2009), 29. (“St. Augustine in His Study,” by Vittore Carpaccio, 1502)
Read More(Today would have been my Mother’s 87th birthday. I wrote this tribute ten days after her death in 2008.) My Mother was not given to self-disclosure. Health updates, news about her activities, and reminiscences on her long life came only by my persistent personal inquiry. She was a quiet, godly woman, and conversations with her quickly turned away from herself and to her desire to know how Lynne, her grandsons, and I were doing. I never heard my Mother brag. She came to womanhood during the Great Depression and World War II, and was never at home with the moral climate and self-absorption of much of my Baby Boomer generation. When she prayed aloud, it was with the language and…
Read MoreYoung George Washington’s education included copying by hand “Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.” In the process he learned not only penmanship, but a code of manners that shaped his character and conduct. Some of the 110 rules pertain to etiquette: “In the Presence of Others Sing not to yourself with a humming Noise, nor Drum with your Fingers or Feet.” And, “Shake not the head, Feet, or Legs roll not the Eyes lift not one eyebrow higher than the other wry not the mouth, and bedew no mans face with your Spittle, by approaching too near him when you Speak.” Fortunately, I’ve never been in situation that required me to: “Kill no Vermin as Fleas,…
Read MoreOur pleasure and our duty, Though opposite before, Since we have seen His beauty, Are joined to part no more: It is our highest pleasure, No less than duty’s call, To love Him beyond measure, And serve Him with our all. – John Newton
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