“For the purposes of this class, I don’t care what your position on abortion is. I care that you have a position that is well-informed, well-reasoned and respectfully articulated.” That’s what I’ve told nearly 16 years’ worth of students in…
Skinny-dipping at a church picnic
The first time I went skinny-dipping was at a church picnic. If I’m lying, I’m dying. As of this writing, brothers Ron and Steve Wilson are still alive — by some miracle — and can verify the bare facts of…
Skipping verses: When the Christmas Kranks read Scripture, at Advent and otherwise
John Grisham’s novel Skipping Christmas got me laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. It was the same with Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon Days, which evoked such uncontrolled laughter that many in the New Year’s Day crowd at the Nassau airport…
Two roads diverged in a cold food court
Ninety percent of my dissertation was written in the food court at the mall. I’m an extreme extrovert. Prolonged silence exhausts me. Plus, the irregular noise of an ant walking greatly distracts me. So, crowded restaurants and coffee shops are…
Mr. Speaker, what might the Wizard of Oz-es teach us about engaging the Bible?
New Speaker of the House Mike Johnson recently commented that he is a “Bible-believing” Christian, and all anyone needs to do to understand his view on any topic is to read the Bible. Politicians of every stripe often trample faith…
WWJP? A checklist for testing the Christlikeness of your pastor’s ‘sermon’ about Israel
It’s been said many Christians have two things for Sunday lunch: fried chicken and fried pastor. I once got a Sunday afternoon phone call lambasting me for a Memorial Day homily during which veterans lit a candle not only for…
‘Social media posts never change minds’ — and other lies I love to hate
Note: This article includes significant discussion of profanity. The previous record for most f-bombs and insults aimed at me in an e-message was from a graduate student’s mother who was upset with her adult child’s grade in my class….
‘Who sets the temperature in the sanctuary?’ and other questions pastor candidates ought to ask
After seminary, I was coming to the end of my one-year residency as a hospital chaplain. I was a few months from unemployment and had turned up the heat on finding a position. After a miserable experience in a church…
One of my pastors is serving life in prison
The first time I saw Judy Mullins, everything shifted into filtered slow motion like a scene from a teen movie. I was a high school senior attending a combined high school and college Sunday school class when she — a…
Remember that time three women won the preaching award at Southern Seminary?
In a previous essay, I reflected on the harrowing of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that happened in the shift in administrations from President Roy Honeycutt to President Al Mohler, 30 years ago in 1993. Readers’ comments on that column reported…
The lion, the witch-hunt and the boardroom: Reflections 30 years after the harrowing of Southern Seminary
In December 1992, I graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. It was the last full year of Roy Honeycutt’s storied career as president of Southern Baptists’ first seminary. It has been 30 years since the transition to…
Tennessee Legislature passes another bill promoting atheism
I graduated high school in East Tennessee in 1984. My senior thesis was about George Orwell’s haunting apocalyptic novel 1984. In the 1940s, Orwell projected a future where an oppressive empire exercised authoritarian control presided over by an entity known…