Jason Albertson

George MacDonald didn’t believe that Jesus’ death on the cross atoned for our sin. [1] I base this claim on MacDonald’s sermon, “Justice,” published in his Unspoken Sermons , vol. 1, 2, and 3. I read from this Project Gutenberg edition. I don’t agree with him about that. But he did have some other ideas that are useful. He was a bit eccentric. According to one scholar, MacDonald esteemed roses so highly that he “seemed to think it unbecoming to speak of them as growing on bushes.” [2] Timothy Larsen, George MacDonald in the Age of Miracles (Grand Rapids: MI, Intervarsity Press), 2018. Read for free from HooplaDigital . Instead, in novels, poems and short stories, he most often describes roses as growing on trees. The trees may be small and crooked, the roses may grow close to the ground, but they’re rose trees, not rose bushes. He’s got one fantastic scene in The Princess and Curdie in which a boy enters a room to find that “on a huge hearth a great fire was burning,...

Kung Fu Panda 3 (KFP3) is a 2016 movie from Dreamworks Animation. It’s the third movie in the Kung Fu Panda series (surprise!), a continued story about a panda bear, Po, who learns kung fu. KFP3 has three villains. Only one of them gets a “villain” name tag (and music cue ); the other two look like good guys, but are abusive authority figures in Po’s life. That’s what this movie is about: how to recognize abusive behavior and how to escape an abusive relationship. One of the nice-guy villains is Po’s adoptive dad, Ping. He’s a goose. When Po’s long-lost biological dad, a panda, shows up early in the movie, Ping is jealous. Because he’s a smaller animal and looks nothing like Po, it’s easy to imagine feeling inadequate in his shoes. It’s easy to relate to his jealousy. Instead of considering what will be best for Po, Ping uses every means he can to prevent Po from going back home with his biological dad to the hidden village of the pandas. It’s more important to Ping to kee...