There have been both contentious and contentious elections before.  U.S. history is full of very nasty campaigns.  During the campaign of 1870, a prominent supporter of the incumbent, John Adams, said that if Thomas Jefferson were to be elected, “we would see our wives and daughters the victims of legal...

Here’s a catchy title for you:  A Platform of Church Discipline Gathered Out of the Word of God and Agreed Upon by the Elders and Messengers of the Churches Assembled in the Synod at Cambridge in New England.  Kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?  Trippingly, as my mom used to...

I was once advised that asking someone “why” — as in “why did you do that?” or “why do you think that way?” — tends to make people feel defensive.  It’s better, then, to ask, “Can you help me to understand … ?”  Most people, after all, respond positively to...