I walked the streets of Charlotte, N.C., four nights last week. I walked alongside protesters clad in Black Lives Matter t-shirts and all the signs: “Am, I Next?” “Hands up. Don’t shoot.” “End white silence.” I walked in blue jeans…
Sin? Of course. Depravity? Not so much.
Amy and I led a retreat for a wonderful Presbyterian church this weekend. The response to our leadership and the session material was excellent — though my wife scolded me for throwing John Calvin under the bus in one of…
‘Spiritual but not religious’ or ‘religious but not spiritual’?
I often hear people say, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” The sentiment just wearies me. I wonder if what these people are, despite their sometimes angry claims to the contrary, is “religious but not spiritual.” Let me explain. I will…
When it comes to same-sex marriage, it’s all over but the shoutin’
I recently spent one day at the national convocation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which is just beginning a conversation about the hiring of non-celibate gay employees. That frustrating experience made me reflect on my own experience. I thought I…
This is religious liberty? For whom?
“Religious liberty” has been in the media a lot lately so this piece is hardly news. But as Mississippi prepares to roll its “Religious Freedom” bill into law on July 1, apparently there’s still room for an opinion. Here’s mine:…
A letter to North Carolina’s governor
In response to the recent passage of House Bill 2 in North Carolina, I penned my first-ever letter to our state’s governor, and posted that letter on our church’s webpage. I have had near-unanimous affirmation for my words. Two weeks…
No great wisdom, just a willingness to speak out
I’m not a “media hog.” I really don’t go looking for ways to get noticed, quoted, published, but it’s not been uncommon recently for a local television station reporter to show up seeking a voice from “our perspective.” It didn’t…
The ‘not-nothingness’ of space
We’ve been reminded that the whirling galaxies, the energy and the matter, the space and the time, the quarks and the stars, the waves and the wind are all part of One, grand and unifying Spirit. I was surprised when…
Churches need to be less concerned about labels, more about being faithful
When we announced to the first church we served, in South Carolina, that we were moving to Alabama, someone came up right after church and said, “Here’s the question if you’re moving to Birmingham: Are you gonna say, ‘Roll Tide’…