Actions speak loudly, but words also count in a time when many who should be speaking out about injustice remain silent. A public statement read by a group of Christian leaders Feb. 27 on the steps of First Baptist Church…
Jack Martin, bringer of hope to Thai prisoners
Jack Martin, who pioneered ministry to prison inmates in Thailand during his nearly 35 years as a Baptist missionary, died Sept. 20 after a long illness. He was 90. Like many pioneers, Martin didn’t take no for an answer when…
Bullying homeless people isn’t just wrong, it won’t work
I hate to admit it, but I used to hold the same view of homeless people many other folks seem to have. Most of ‘em are winos and druggies, I thought. Headcases and drifters. Derelicts pestering me for money on…
The word of the Lord to Donald Trump
We read from Isaiah 1 on Sunday, and the prophet didn’t mince words about Judah’s need to repent, not just of personal sin and idolatry but of remaining silent in the face of rampant injustice and oppression: Wash and make…
‘Toxic empathy’ isn’t our problem; hardness of heart is
I’m new to the “empathy is sin” debate, which has been bouncing around for years in the rightwing Christian echo chamber. It’s gained new traction in the wider culture recently as rabble rousers such as Elon Musk and JD Vance…
The U.S.-European alliance is dead
For a bunch of America First isolationists, Donald Trump and his merry band of busybodies sure seem to enjoy interfering in the independence and sovereignty of other countries. Not in Ukraine, mind you. The ally who needs us most is…
Jimmy Carter and the strength of fields
I’m thinking about the late poet James Dickey tonight as I reflect upon Jimmy Carter’s impact on my life. Dickey became famous for his terrifying 1970 novel Deliverance, about four suburban weekend warriors from Atlanta (Dickey’s hometown and mine) who…
My slow slide into addiction
I started drinking after my wife died in 2017. It wasn’t a plunge to drown my sorrows, exactly. More of a slow slide. The widower buddies who helped me get through that brutal first year of loss met at a…
The politics of joy
While having lunch at a restaurant the other day, I overheard a college-age server behind the counter telling co-workers she wished her friends wouldn’t get angry every time politics comes up. “Why can’t people just be positive for a change?”…
Can you handle the truth?
Therefore Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth….
Geezers vs. youngsters: The battle heats up
Joe Biden, 81 and alarmingly feeble, refuses, at least for the moment, to pass the torch of presidential leadership to a younger Democrat. Meanwhile, the possible reelection of convicted felon Donald Trump, 78 and barely rational, looms like a doomsday…
You only leave home when home won’t let you stay
no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark you only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well your neighbors running faster than you breath bloody in their throats the boy…