Christmas season means a lot of things — family, presents, carols, Hallmark movies, the Grinch, lights, Santa, Nativity scenes, stockings hung by the chimney with care, and the dreaded Christmas pageant. Why, oh why, did the church decide turning over…
I’ve seen this movie before
If you live long enough, you can tell when the re-runs are playing. Now eyeing 80, I find some of the re-runs are no better now than the first performance. For instance: When the Southern Baptist wars began in 1979,…
Christ came to make us truly human: Social ethics and the image of Christ
This is the last in a three-part Advent series. Dietrich Bonhoeffer always brings me up short when he emphasizes the indicative rather than imperative voice in Paul’s thought and in Christian ethics more broadly. For example, in terms of Bonhoeffer’s…
‘Thank you, bell hooks, for your biblical vision of love’
Editor’s note: Author and activist bell hooks died Wednesday, Dec. 15, at her home in Berea, Ky. This is a tribute to her influence. I first heard bell hooks when she spoke at a graduate school event in 1999. She…
Ungodly? That all depends on what God you serve
Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, has long been an ardent public supporter of Donald Trump. He recently preached that the Biden administration was “the ungodliest administration in the history of our country,” a continuation of ongoing…
A few notes on Kenny G, the history of jazz and being tone deaf to how we got here
“John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, their technique was phenomenal, but that music was never heartfelt for me, so, when I went out and gigged, it wasn’t anything that I wanted to emulate.” So said Kenneth Gorelick, the much-beloved, and much-maligned,…
Christmas joy must be tempered by the cries of our neighbors
Christmas is, for many or most Christians, the most joyous Christian celebration. And it certainly should be a great reason of joy; in fact, according to the Christian tradition, we are celebrating the birth of God’s Son on earth, for…
Searching for the Christ Child? No directions needed
I come from generations of farmers, machinists, carpenters and clothing makers, all gifted with finely honed spatial skills. They are adept at deciphering maps, finding their way home without directions and creating clothing without patterns. My loved ones can conceptualize…
Atheism and agnosticism: The last closet
In 1996, John Updike released his 17th novel, In the Beauty of the Lilies, a story about a Presbyterian minister, Clarence Wilmot, who loses his faith, leaves the ministry and becomes an encyclopedia salesman. In a strange case of art…
If we are to accept Advent’s invitation, we must talk about money
There’s a joke we tell in my line of work: “Why does the church spend so much time talking about what goes on in the bedroom? Because we’re too scared to talk about what goes on in the boardroom.” Perhaps…
What the prophet Amos has to say about the Omicron variant
7,500 miles. That’s the approximate distance between Johannesburg, South Africa — the city where the new Omicron COVID variant first was detected — and the East Coast of the United States. It would be at least a 12-day drive or…
Merry Christmas from Paul the apostle in prison
Leave it the Apostle Paul to make a prison cell sound like a spiritual oasis. Throughout much of the New Testament, he’s trapped, you know, imprisoned by the Roman Empire for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Time and again,…