Bob Dylan said, "The executioner's face is always well-hidden". That's the problem: The cross pulls that hood off.

The cross is Jesus going into the very lair of death. He goes to meet head-on that which frightens us the most. And what does He do? He battles it. He engages it. And finally he conquers it.

Beauty is the arrowhead of evangelization, the point with which the evangelist pierces the minds and hearts of those he evangelizes.

The only thing particularly new about the "new atheism" is its nastiness.

Christians have no business moping around.

By far the most dangerous people in the world are optimists (those who believe that all can be made well here below). If you think all can be made well in this world, then you will go to any extreme to make it happen. There is the story of the 20th century. As Lenin said, "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs".

Love is not a sentiment or feeling. Love is actively willing the good of the other.