When last we saw the Bubba-Doo’s crew, they were off on an ocean cruise to the Western Caribbean. Funny things had happened, and more misadventures were about to happen. One thing you can count on with our beloved community members:…
The Sunday we left the Southern Baptist Convention
On Sunday, we voted to leave the Southern Baptist Convention. It happened at a special, called business meeting that took place in our Fellowship Hall during the Sunday school hour. When I got there, after preaching at the early worship…
A response to Harrison Butker
I have listened to the entire commencement speech on YouTube that Harrison Butker gave at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan. Butker has the right to say whatever he wants and I will always defend that right. However, I have a…
Trump has a women problem
As former President Donald Trump sits in criminal court racking up criminal contempt of court orders, the world gets a sordid view into the behind-the-scenes behavior of the former president. We shouldn’t be shocked; we have seen the pattern of…
Hold to Christ and loosen your grip on the rest
The noted Cambridge historian Herbert Butterfield in his book Christianity and History, closes with the words: “Hold to Christ, and for the rest be totally uncommitted.” Those may be words most needed these days when we are tempted to place…
Queer folks are used to having to come to terms with workers who come late to the vineyard
You know the parable: After the work, after the harvest, after the painful hours of crushed dignity and thankless labor, the day grows cool. As the work becomes easier and the task less thankless, some new friends come to join…
How can the church help youth struggling with mental illness?
With the demands of social media and the stress and challenges of greater social isolation as evidenced during the COVID pandemic, youth today are facing significant pressure with limited support. Ask any youth you know, and they will tell you…
Holy Week and Pentecost at UT Arlington’s Palestinian protest
One of the tasks and joys of my ministry in the last year has been to build relationships with young adults in our community and respond to their needs. Recently, that work brought me out from the walls of the…
On giving to Caesar
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s; and to God what is God’s — Jesus (Mark 12.17) What belongs to God never really has been the question. God’s Spirit is our life breath, animating our bodies with every inhale and…
When Baptists fight, they stop fishing
In his book In the Eye of the Storm, Max Lucado shares a story of a group of guys going on a long-awaited fishing trip. The problem starts when the weather turns ugly. They arrive at the lake and have…
Butker’s commencement speech echoes MacArthur and other male supremacists
With Pride Month looming over the horizon and women graduating from college, Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker decided to attack “dangerous gender ideologies” when he gave the commencement address at Benedictine College. Butker, an outspoken conservative Catholic, believes the…
New data show SBC not really reckoning with sexual abuse
According to the Southern Baptist Convention’s latest statistical report, the SBC has lost more than 3.3 million members since 2006, which happens to be the year I did my first sidewalk press conference outside SBC headquarters, talking about clergy sex…