COMEUPPANCE (noun): a punishment or fate that someone deserves: “he got his comeuppance.” Synonyms: due, retribution, requital, recompense, just deserts, deserved fate, due reward, just punishment, castigation, wrath, chastisement. Beginning shortly after 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sept. 10,…
Conservative Christian Trump supporters: I want to understand
As we move toward another presidential vote involving Donald Trump, I really am trying to understand conservative Christians’ support of him. So, in all seriousness and good faith, I’m asking you to tell me. I’m posing a number of questions…
‘My teachers shot’
“My teachers shot.” That’s what a 10th grader texted her mom on Wednesday, Sept. 4, from a locked-down school room at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. There was “blood everywhere,” she later recounted. And another teacher “put pressure on…
Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Robert P. Jones
Robert P. Jones is founder and president of Public Religion Research Institute and one of America’s foremost scholars on race, religion and politics. He is regularly featured in the news media and is the author of several essential books including…
We should follow the words of Jesus, ‘No more of this!’
For as long as I can remember, I have loved watching rivers, with their beautiful shapes, surfaces and movements. If you’ve ever watched a river, I’m sure you’ve noticed its current is a powerful thing. It shapes the river’s boundaries…
How long will we tolerate The Lottery?
My middle school memory keeps rewinding the film our teacher showed one day of this disturbing short story by Shirley Jackson. Everyone in a small town is assembling. Something important is about to happen. Like a human Farmer’s Almanac, one…
Central Seminary is on the move — physically
Seminary life is profoundly different in 2024 than it was in the late 1980s when I was a seminary student. Looking back, I marvel at the transformation that has taken place in theological education. The rhythms of seminary life, the…
Be No. 2
I’m no movie buff, but there is this list of films in my head that I return to from time to time. One of them is African Queen (Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, 1951). I saw it at Fair Park…
Little League coach’s speech: Home run, foul or something else?
If the speech were a hard-hit baseball, it was high, deep and down the baseline. Some say it was a home run. Some say despite feeling and looking great to many of the “home-team fans” (aka Christians), it went foul….