By Bill Leonard Sometimes universities confront historic moments when their identity is put to the test, occasions that challenge a school’s public character, and require it to reexamine its mission in the world. The appointment of Imam Khalid Griggs as…
Blessed irony
By Bill Leonard After all, Joseph Smith, the prophet/founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been gunned down in Carthage, Ill., 13 years earlier, the same year he declared his candidacy for president of the U.S….
The river
By Bill Leonard Then, John the Baptizer stormed out of the wilderness, demanding repentance of everyone. Jesus showed up, seeking baptism, but John hesitates. Jesus insists and under muddy Jordan he goes, taking all God’s people with him. Now, New…
Engaging the stranger
By Bill Leonard As Advent turns to Christmas and the reality of a New Year looms, we revisit that often overlooked post-nativity saga portrayed by innumerable artists as “the flight to Egypt.” Matthew 2:12-14 says that after the Magi left…
When Jesus had a pacifier
By Bill Leonard For more years than anyone remembers First Baptist Church, Highland Avenue, in Winston-Salem, N.C., has marked Advent with “The Nativity,” a living reenactment of the birth of Jesus presented in worship on the second Sunday of the…
Always reforming
By Bill Leonard Ecclesia Semper Reformanda, so the saying goes, “the church is always reforming.” Those words came to mind last week when I heard sociologist-prophet-iconoclast Tony Campolo preach at the New Baptist Covenant II meeting, that multiracial effort at…
Separate and unequal
By Bill Leonard When Jim Crow segregation laws ruled the American South, their classic defense lay in the phrase, “Separate but Equal,” meaning that while the races were divided, their facilities and services were supposedly the same. Of course everybody…
It’s just war
By Bill Leonard “It’s just war.” That phrase often describes our society’s implicit response to the war in Afghanistan, begun in 2001, the longest combat conflict in American military history. The “other war” in Iraq, begun in 2003, continues with…
Green as a cabbage patch
By Bill Leonard Forty years ago this fall I became pastor of First Community Church in Southborough, Mass. I actually started as their interim pastor and wound up staying four years. It was a great place for one who had…