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Sanity, …. Within Reason Michael Jinkins Given the popularity of “The Onion,” the satirical newspaper that makes up some very funny stories (and some very rude ones too), a bunch of rowdy young Christians started publishing an online spoof newspaper with some hilarious fictional stories. One headline I read went like this: “Mountain […]
Ghost of Advent Present Michael Jinkins Why are Christmas stories such as Frank Capra’s movie It’s a Wonderful Life and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, so popular on television in this season while American culture seems so often to contradict their messages? We seem horrified by the prospect of a vulgar, self-serving […]
The Gift of Advent Michael Jinkins If someone forced me to choose whether I would declare myself to be an “Easter Christian” or “Christmas Christian,” without doubt I would come down on the side of Christmas. I love Christmas. And it’s not just because I love the whole joyful, sparkling, pagan-spangled, Bethlehem-bound discombobulation […]
“Together” in the Wilderness of Solitude: An Advent Exercise Michael Jinkins “When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.” Matthew 14:13 Anyone familiar with the gospels will be familiar with the pattern. From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, one finds the flow and ebb of […]
Can Christians Be Justified in Saying: “I Was Just Following Orders”? Bonhoeffer’s Germany, Part 5 Michael Jinkins In response to one of my blogs on “Bonhoeffer’s Germany”, someone asked that I comment on the relationship between St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Chapter 13, and the issues raised by Bonhoeffer’s resistance to Adolf Hitler’s […]
A Deafening Silence Bonhoeffer’s Germany, Part Four Michael Jinkins “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” (Edmund Burke, 1729-1797) The phrase “a deafening silence,” gets used a good bit these days, usually to describe a situation when something ought to be said but […]
God Himself is With Us? Bonhoeffer’s Germany, Part Three Michael Jinkins “Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all.” (Edmund Burke, 1727-1797) Perhaps there is nothing quite so seductive, yet so dangerous, as the idea that God is on our side and that our enemies are […]
Michael Jinkins (letter to the editor, The Advocate) Submitted October 15, 2019 Published November 4, 2019 See original post on The Advocate’s website, here. Recently, I attended an Interfaith Breakfast sponsored by our Mayor. Surrounded by ministers and priests, rabbis and imams, I was reminded how big is God’s family. Christians (and I am one) […]
A Front Row Seat for the Nightmare Years Bonhoeffer’s Germany, Part Two Michael Jinkins “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing.” (Edmund Burke, 1729-1797) From 1934 till 1940, American journalist William Shirer had a front row seat to witness the era in Germany that […]
How Could It Have Happened? Bonhoeffer’s Germany, Part One Michael Jinkins “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” (Edmund Burke, 1729-1797, Irish political philosopher) Early on a gray spring morning in Flossenbürg, Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was taken from his cell, marched naked to the gallows, and hanged. The prison doctor […]