As a child of the Depression, my mother developed two guiding principles that on the surface might seem at odds with each other. She lived her entire life in fear of not having enough resources. And yet she valued sharing…
On immigration, Franklin Graham is dead wrong
Franklin Graham is dead wrong about immigration, refugees and the Bible. And his comments will have deadly consequences. And by the way, if you support Samaritan’s Purse and its Operation Christmas Child next December, you will be supporting Graham’s kind…
The greatest challenge your pastor will face in 2017
Pastors across America will face a common challenge in 2017, and it could be you. Not that you’re a bad person or mean. But the greatest challenge for your pastor in this new year could be you — if you…
If you’re not outraged …
Several years ago, a bumper sticker popped up here and there that said, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” We need to print up some more of those for times like these. Love him or hate him, you’ve…
Don’t blame Trump for your bad behavior
Kids don’t show up at school and suddenly say racist things to their classmates because of who won a presidential election; most often they repeat what they’ve heard at home. College students don’t suddenly start yelling racial epithets on a…
It’s an odd time to be a male
I like to think of myself as a “sensitive” male. That doesn’t mean I always live up to my own billing, I’m sure. But it’s what I want to think about myself. After all, I’ve never groped a woman, never…
How will you use your privilege?
There’s a lot of talk today about those of us who have “privilege.” There’s white privilege, male privilege, education privilege, urban privilege, Christian privilege, economic privilege, neighborhood privilege and on and on. I’m not denying any of these are real;…
What if we ‘promoted’ in adult Sunday school again?
Decades ago, even among churches that retained adult Sunday school, we adults stopped promoting. More accurately, we adults refused to keep promoting. We put down our feet and said we would not move any more. We wanted to stay where we were.
The problem with not talking about politics at church
Here’s the problem with saying we must never talk about politics at church: We immediately cede to politicians the right to define what is political and what is theological. And then the church loses its voice on theology because important…
Three ways family ties hinder us in our faith
The “faith of our fathers” offers a nice American ideal, but it also has become one of the key reasons adults fail to respond to the work of the Holy Spirit in their own lives. Those are likely startling words…
Empowering youth to speak when racism, discrimination loom
One of the lessons I learned this week is that most of our youth are way ahead of us adults on this stuff. They are aware of what’s going on, they are passionate about it, but they often haven’t felt empowered to speak.
Separating the weapons of truth from truthiness
There’s truth, and then there’s truthiness. At least that’s what we learned from Stephen Colbert in the days of yore when he came to us on TV via “The Colbert Report.” “Truthiness” is that kind of information that sounds like…