Gardener

     Lester De Koster (1916-2009) was a Calvin Professor and later, the editor of The Banner, the weekly magazine of the Christian Reformed Church.  As a Calvin prof he was sometimes considered liberal because of his politics, but as a Banner editor he was sometimes considered conservative, especially because of his opposition to Kuyperianism as developed by Dooyeweered. It is also worthy of note that De Koster had a deep and profound knowledge of the writings of John Calvin.      I am interested in his political ideas because of an essay he wrote in 1958 that attempts to answer a question that I am asked to answer from time to time, "Can a Christian be a Democrat?"  For example, when my grand-daughter was told by her Christian School teacher a few years ago that Christians are Republicans, she asked her mother (my daughter) "If Grandpa's a Christian, how can he be a Democrat?" (Or maybe she put it the other way around). I was happy to answer her question; I h

I Recognized the Mitten   as soon as I saw it, gray fuzzy leather and a wide wristband (to keep snow out) stitched with gold thread, horizontal lines crossed with V’s going up and down around the band. I must have dropped it there sixty years ago while checking to see if my glasses were in my pocket (they weren’t, they were lost again) as I walked home from school in mid-December.   Of course it’s not really the one I dropped—one of the many   I lost over the years— it was dropped by some kid, some forgetful kid whose mind was so full of plans for a snow fort or the plot of a Hardy Boy book or the wonder of sailing ships like the three Columbus sailed, some kid, one of hundreds all over the state who lost a mitten yesterday after the first snowfall of winter, kids who are constantly driving their mothers crazy because they lose their mittens and glasses and forget to take out the trash or feed the dog,

     An enterprising employee in an office area near my office has a small cache of candy and other goodies that he sells. The little business depends upon the honor system; you put your fifty cents in a plastic container and choose your sweet. The sign at the top says “Snoops Are Us,” and as I read it, I wonder if people who are not of Dutch background would understand, for snoepen is a Dutch word for sweets, candy especially.      They might, for when I check the Oxford English Dictionary, I discover that the first definition of snoop is “to appropriate and consume dainties in a clandestine manner.” And apparently there’s something sneaky about eating those sweets. For it is from that usage that the more common American use of snoop has developed: A snoop is “someone who goes about in a sly or prying manner.” He pokes his nose in where it does not really belong—but in a sneaky way. Sometimes, in fact, the snoop is an eavesdropper.      And what is an eavesdropper? The or