I am pleading for my people, A poor, downtrodden race, Who dwell in freedom’s boasted land, With no abiding place. While I bear upon my body The scars of many a gash, I am pleading for my people, Who groan…
Interpreting the present time
Note: This sermon was preached Aug. 16 at the “From Seminary to Society: Journeys of Legacy, Loss and Hope” reunion of graduates and former faculty members of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, hosted by Wake Forest University School of Divinity. The sermon…
The rights of the born: An American dilemma
Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them. (Matthew 15:30) As a parent of a person with special…
What’s your church: Republican? Democrat? Independent? Gospel?
On July 7, 2025, the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division, issued the following ruling: When a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith…
A less than Christian nation?
And Mary said: God’s name is Holy, his mercy sure from generation to generation toward those who fear him; the deeds his own right arm has done disclose his might: the arrogant of heart and mind God has routed, He…
Withholding the water
In America 2025, DEI programs are in trouble. Remember Diversity, Equity and Inclusion? CNN recently interviewed seven “DEI experts and industry leaders” who gave these definitions: Diversity is embracing the differences everyone brings to the table, whether those are someone’s…
On drowning Anabaptists and tarring/feathering governors
Baptist scholar William R. Estep wrote in 1963: “If the Anabaptists teach us anything, it is that those who fear freedom and court the governments of this world in the interest of a more moral or ‘Christian’ state are placing…
Children in the marketplace
Jesus said it: But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not…
Renewing our baptism in a time of cruelty
This week, Common Dreams reported on the federal budget outline approved with a party-line vote in the House of Representatives, noting: Republican hardliners are also reportedly pursuing changes that could force states to end their Medicaid expansions, which would strip coverage from…
The church is what we do next
Toward the end of the movie Conclave, members of the College of Cardinals regroup following a series of bomb explosions that have rocked the Vatican. After a seasoned cardinal demands militant action against Muslims, a younger Cardinal speaks: No, my…
‘Not of this world’: Jesus, Caesar and Holy Week
In Luke’s Gospel, the Jesus story begins with these words: “And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” The Gospel of John describes a…
What will your church do, if …
On Dec. 1, 1955, a Black woman named Rosa Parks, sitting in the “no man’s land” of a Montgomery, Ala., bus, declined to relinquish her seat to a white rider as required by law. The refusal led to her arrest…