Losing Touch with a Friend
Thu 03 Jan 2008 • Responses: 1 • by Peter Sanlon
Do we need God to experience true friendship?
In a tedious meeting I noticed the blinking light on my BlackBerry. Disinterestedly I glanced at the e-mail that had landed in my inbox—the sender’s name evoked memories. Years had passed; we had vacationed together, shared meals, talked of hopes and fears. The e-mail was from a friend I lost touch with. Last I had heard from him he was heading to college, excited but slightly fearful of what the future might hold. It was a joy to discover that he has since graduated and established his own art business, selling his work via the internet.
Cicero asked himself what the most important thing in life is, concluding that, “Virtue (without which friendship is impossible) is first; but next to it, and to it alone, the greatest of all things is friendship.”
Making a Difference
Fri 21 Dec 2007 • Responses: 6 • by Donald M. Bishop
‘Young Altruists’ Need a Broader View of Doing Good
Donald Bishop, a senior U.S. Foreign Service officer, looks at the difficulties faced by some young adults who want to use their careers to make the world a better place. He argues that they leave unexplored real possibilities to do good. It’s time to question the conventional wisdom and consider the possibilities of business, the military, and long-term overseas service as means to help the poor and suffering.
‘Christian America, this is YOUR Columbine’
Fri 21 Dec 2007 • Responses: 2 • by David Aikman
Isn’t this a hate crime?
There is something very perplexing in the mainstream media response to the shootings at a Youth With A Mission center in Arvada, Colorado, and New Life Church in Colorado Springs, seventy miles away. The shooter, Matthew Murray, 24, initially murdered two staffers at the Youth With A Mission training base in Arvada, Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24, shortly after midnight on December 10. Several hours later, he drove seventy miles to the large Colorado Springs church and murdered two more victims, young sisters, Stephanie Works, 18, and Rachael Works, 16, before being shot at by a female security guard, falling to the ground, and then shooting himself.
Professor Putnam and the City on a Hill
Thu 20 Dec 2007 by Pete Peterson
Modeling Diverse Community
Pete Peterson looks at the new report from sociologist Robert D. Putnam and sees some evidence that American churches are living out their faith in ways that will help the country learn to live with its ethnic diversity.
A Second Look at Annapolis
Thu 13 Dec 2007 • Responses: 2 • by David Aikman
A “successful” round of talks?
It is more than two weeks now since the Annapolis Conference on Middle East peace convened by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on the property of the U.S. Naval Academy. The one-day conference could hardly avoid being seen as a huge anti-climax, in spite of the fact that it was touch and go until just before the event that some of the countries invited would even turn up. The invitees were nearly fifty in number, and included the entire Arab League’s 22 members, representatives of the EU, the UN, China and Russia. The central guests of the conference, of course, were Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Conspicuous by their absence—they were not invited—were representatives of the Palestinian political party, Hamas, and of course, the Iranians, who denounced the conference before, during, and after it took place.
The Elusive Goal of Mastery
Tue 11 Dec 2007 • Responses: 1 • by Wilfred M. McClay
The Shadow Side of Technological Control
Senior Fellow Wilfred M. McClay recently had a friend die of cancer. It got him to pondering again about the implications of our ever-expanding control of our bodies and our world. In this essay, originally presented at an October meeting of the Trinity Forum’s Senior Fellows, he looks at the inescapable ironies of our quest for control. Progress is good, right? Longer lives and less suffering is good, right? Sure. But all treatments have side effects and every advance has unintended consequences.
A Mandarin-Speaking Prime Minister for Australia
Tue 04 Dec 2007 by David Aikman
There was no doubt some handwringing, not to say heartburn, in the White House recently when America’s great Australian ally, John Howard, leader of Australia’s conservative coalition government, was defeated in Australia’s general election. Howard had been prime minister since 1996, and was a staunch ally of President George Bush. He had sent his country’s best troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion of 2002, and when the U.S. invaded Iraq in March of 2003, Howard sent troops there also. Howard had a blunt, Anglo-Saxon conservative view of life that was instantly attractive to George Bush. The two men clearly liked each other.
Two Virtues of Western Culture
Mon 03 Dec 2007 • Responses: 3 • by Roger Scruton
Irony, Sacrifice, and the Transmission of Culture
Roger Scruton, in a speech first presented to the Trustees of The Trinity Forum, draws engagingly from his autobiographical experiences to help us explore the purpose of education and the formative role of faith in fostering two virtues in Western culture that make it worth celebrating and preserving.
Attention Deficit Disorder
Wed 21 Nov 2007 • Responses: 10 • by Fred Harburg
The blinding pace of our world makes it tempting to split the signal rather than to give our full attention to the people with whom we are engaged at any given moment.
Increasingly common stories of traffic accidents involving people “texting” while driving add poignancy to the epidemic of fractured attention in our world. There is a presumption that multitasking is a necessary, even admirable skill in our hyper-speed age, but nothing could be farther from the truth.
As an Air Force instructor pilot one of the first myths I had to dispel for aspiring young pilot candidates was the idea that good pilots are multitaskers. Research supports a different conclusion. The best pilots are excellent at rapid sequencing. They give full and complete attention to a visual indication, an aural signal, or a kinesthetic sensation, interpret it accurately, act on it effectively, and then move to the next appropriate point of focus. Scientists from the NASA Ames Research Center conclude that attempting to split attention is deadly for a pilot.
Name change
Tue 20 Nov 2007 by TTF Staff
We are changing the title of our online journal from Implications to Provocations.
No URLs or bookmarks need to be changed.
