A book review — If you are interested in the history of the popes of the Catholic Church, the reading options can be daunting, and not just because there have been 266 of them over the past 2,000 years. The sheer size of the volumes are enough to give the most committed reader pause…

I think I’m addicted to this prompt — Most of the prompts/writing challenges you’ll find on this site are one-offs; you accept the challenge, publish, and move on to the next article. The very nature of most of them dictates that they’re a one-time thing; for example, I can only write once about my favorite songs from the…

These are stubbornly persistent — “And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth.” — Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Myth and history have been intertwined for as long as humans have walked the earth. In ancient times they were often…

Christians should be outraged, but are we? — Politicians quoting the Bible in an effort to garner votes or appeal to the religious beliefs of their supporters is nothing new; politicians quoting a verse completely out of context is equally common. For example, a favorite verse used when appealing to Christian voters is 2 Chronicles 7:14, which says: …

It’s not a game changer, but… — As you probably know by now, Medium has rolled out a new feature that allows readers to tip writers for stories. I rarely write about Medium or its inner workings (most readers could care less how the sausage is made), but there are a few things about this newest development…

Part Six of the ‘Not Many Mighty’ series — When I started this series about the flawed heroes of the Bible six weeks ago, I said that the series title, “Not Many Mighty,” came from the following passage in 1 Corinthians: “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty…

And what a magical thing it is — For some people, August means one last month of summer fun before school starts back and fall sets in. For others it means that football season is almost upon us. For me, though, it only means one thing: the anniversary of the 1975 release of The Greatest Album Ever. If…

Let’s end the month with a laugh — We’ve finally reached the end of July and good riddance to it. I was tempted to close out the month with a rant, but after being beaten down all month by the normal political nonsense, 58 days without rain in D/FW (and counting), and insane Springsteen ticket prices, I feel…

You really should have seen these already — Last year I published a series of articles with perhaps the least original titles imaginable: “Ten Classic Westerns You Absolutely Must See Before You Die,” “Ten Classic War Movies You Must See Before You Die,” “Ten Classic Comedy Films You Must See Before You Die;” you get the idea. …