1,992 years ago, the Son of God died a death of atonement to save this underserving sinner from death (a death not like the one we are all bound to encounter, but rather an absolute one, namely, eternal separation from God). In that great sacrifice was the promise of His constant presence and faithfulness, and the privilege of sharing in His mission to redeem the world for Himself. According to Whitney Houston, the greatest love of all is “learning to love yourself”; I would like to amend the lyrics of that song as follows: ‘The greatest love of all, isn’t easy to achieve / Learning to love your God, it is the greatest gift of all.’
Author: Mac
In a sense, yes. In the way that every culture and nation is different, and everyone can be proud of the unique place they and their culture occupy in this world. To the extent that patriotism involves hatred of other cultures for whatever reason, no. Reasoned critique of aspects of someone’s culture is one thing, and is quite distinct from prejudiced notions that lead to superiority complexes. The same grave where the so-called ‘inferior’ ones go awaits you too (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
Angbanmwine
A bit of background: Because of the spread of Christianity (and to a degree colonisation), many (though not all) Africans have a Christian given name, which is often their legal first name, and a middle name which is their traditional given name (and more accurately their proper first name).
Angbanmwine (Northern Ghana, West Africa) means ‘Who knows God?’ (in the sense ‘who can know the mind of God?’) in the Dagaare language
Ang – who
ban – to know
Mwine – God (also Naamwine, ‘Naa’ meaning ‘King’)
Protip: Français ou français?
Protips: The little things you learn to pro up your French
In English, adjectives that express demonyms (nationality, ethnicity, etc.) are always capitalised, as are the names of languages. E.g. ‘She is French’, ‘He speaks German’.
In French, however, demonyms are always capitalised whereas languages are not. Compare the following examples:
Les Français sont des râleurs – French people are whiners
Elle parle français couramment – She speaks French fluently
In the first example, the demonym (nationality) is capitalised as it is considered a proper noun, but in the second example it is not capitalised as it refers to the language instead of the people.
When the demonym acts as a modifier (i.e. an adjective), it is capitalised in English but not in French:
Tu savais qu’en fait les frites sont d’origine belge ? – Did you know French fries are actually of Belgian origin?
