Mike Wittmer

Category: Christian Worldview

  • the dark knight

    In light of the horrific shooting in Aurora, Colorado last week, I decided it was time to watch the earlier Batman movie, “The Dark Knight,” which just happened to be running on TNT over the weekend. I’m glad I did, because I hadn’t realized before how Batman was a Christ figure, bearing the guilt of…

  • blind sided

    There has been a bit of commentary on Lifeway Christian bookstores bowing to Southern Baptist pressure to stop selling the movie “The Blind Side” because it contains some profanity and racial slurs. The comments I have seen have been entirely critical, ranging from “This is what’s wrong with Christian bookstores” to “When will Christians stop…

  • parole

    The Grand Rapids Press has a front page story today about Saulo Montalvo, a 32 year old serving life in prison for being a 16 year old getaway driver for a robbery that ended in murder. Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision that life sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional may finally grant Saulo his release. I saw Saulo…

  • cursed

    Disclaimer:  I actually do not care who wins or loses any athletic contest, except for that time when Rocky beat the Russian boxer and gave that postgame speech which brought our two countries together and ended the Cold War. I happily acknowledge that my life does not change one bit if my team wins or…

  • Paul Beals

    Yesterday I received the sad news that my missions professor from my time in seminary, Paul Beals, had passed into the presence of our Lord. He leaves behind his adoring wife, Vivian. I don’t know what word to use here, for “adoring” or “devoted” are far too weak to describe their marriage. You will be hard pressed…

  • what you win them with you may lose them with

    My friend Eric Strattan sent me this link. It is long, but it deftly explores the progression of contemporary Christian music and its effect on discipleship and the church. The money quote comes in the last paragraph: “Despite all the affected teenage rebellion, I continued to call myself a Christian into my early twenties. When I…

  • ain’t that the truth

    I just read this article that perfectly describes my experience with a rising minority of student papers. Have you ever read something that made you say, “How did she eavesdrop on our conversation?” I have had these exact dialogues with students, and it seems that I’m having a few more of them each year. I would…

  • a good word

    I just read this wonderfully written essay by Ed Dobson on Christianity Today online. I admire his honesty and biblical perspective on his disease. This is spot on. May God give Ed many more years, and may he indeed grow old with Lorna.

  • one true sentence

    Writers will appreciate this quote from Ernest Hemingway in A Moveable Feast: “I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day. But sometimes when I was starting a new story and…

  • dying for the Word of the Lord

    I have refrained from using this blog to plug my new book, The Last Enemy, but I mention it now because it’s an important counterpoint to another new book on death. It’s simply called Death, and it’s written by Shelly Kagan, a Yale philosopher, and published by Yale University Press. Kagan excerpts his book in…