I always thought Palm Sunday was such a fun day as a child. Each year, the choir or children would enter into the sanctuary waving palm branches to a celebratory hymn of some sort. And each year, someone would awkwardly…
Springsteen and Lent: ‘We Are Alive’
As we continue through this Lenten season, I find myself becoming more and more overwhelmed with work. When I gaze at everything that needs to be done, however, it amounts to nothing more than usual. With winter waning and spring…
Springsteen and Lent, part 4: ‘Hungry Heart’
I had the privilege of participating in a nearly 35-year-old tradition two weeks ago. On Feb. 18, along with a few thousand people, I sang the opening verse and chorus of “Hungry Heart” at Bruce Springsteen’s stop in Atlanta while…
Springsteen and Lent, part 3: Fear and love
I was reminded a few months ago when I visited Ginter Park Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., of the numerous scriptures in which the phrase “Fear not” appears. Some counts suggest that phrase and similar phrases appear 365 times — one…
Springsteen and Lent, Part 2: The First Sunday in Lent
When I think of this week’s lectionary text from the book of Romans, I am always reminded of the now infamous comments of former Southern Baptist Convention president Bailey Smith. The year was 1987, and Smith was at a conference…
Springsteen and Lent: Part I, Ash Wednesday
In graduate school, it can often seem as if all of the good ideas have already been taken. Someone smarter and older has already written on whatever idea you may have. To remedy this seemingly unending problem, one begins to…
Finding new meaning in ‘blood’ language
By Andrew Gardner For numerous people the sight of blood can cause a level of queasiness unmatched by anything else. In a somewhat related manner, for some Christians who characterize themselves as moderate, progressive or (dare I say) liberal, the…
Cooperate or fold
By Andrew Gardner Predictions that differing opinions about homosexuality will cause division in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship pose a quintessential challenge: Are we a people who can cooperate despite our differences? I agree with CBF moderator Colleen Burroughs’ call for…
75 years of religious liberty for all
By Andrew Gardner I am finishing up a student internship with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. This year the BJC celebrates its 75th anniversary as a religious organization devoted solely to the protection of our first freedom. With…