A teacher at a local high school who hadn’t turned 30. A minister who helped baptize my Pap. And just last week my Pap’s brother-in-law Bill, who had the friendliest smile you’d ever seen. Each of them, and many more…
Fall lessons on life and faith from the history of the apple
Hello, fall — season of planting trees, learning, road trips and comfort cooking. Coming to a community near you, it paints the trees in colorful splendor and invites us all to enjoy the earth’s bounty of fruits and vegetables. Traveling…
On National Coming Out Day 2021: ‘Here I am, Lord’
Have you experienced life as a child of God who identifies as a homosexual? I have. What follows is only a small part of my story which is, admittedly, intensely personal. But that’s OK. I am ready to tell you…
Apocalypse now? If only it were that easy!
I was scared; 16 years old and scared. Jesus Christ was going to return at any moment, and I was scared. It was the last night of church camp, and the preacher had practically promised that Jesus Christ would return…
Listen for a change
White guys sporting ball caps and goatees, driving loud pickup trucks. You know the type. They’re everywhere, especially in the South. They get on my nerves, bigtime. Lately, I’ve found myself assuming they’re all obnoxious Trumpers — and probably racist…
Not your typical Pastor Appreciation Month
I confess, I haven’t given too much thought to Pastor Appreciation Month in years past. Most of my career was spent as part of vocational ministerial teams in local congregations. Asking for “appreciation” for oneself is certainly not apropos. Truth…
10 ways to appreciate clergy this month
For me, ministry is the family business. I am an ordained Baptist minister. Married to an ordained Baptist minister. My grandfather was a pastor, my dad is a pastor, my sister is a pastor. The rhythms and the risks of…
It’s tough being a pastor on World Hunger Sunday, but it’s harder to be hungry
In order to keep the senior minister from becoming popular, Plymouth Church observes World Hunger Day on the second Sunday of October each year. We sing hunger hymns none of us like. We add hunger to the list of prayer…
Gov. Abbott’s COVID-19 vaccination ban tramples on my religious practice
Like me, many Christians in Texas live in a state of perpetual agitation over the actions of our governor, Greg Abbott, regarding sensible public health practices around the coronavirus pandemic. His latest action — an executive order “banning any entity in…
Enslaved by freedom
He stood up to address the House of Burgesses, the legislative body in Virginia, meeting to determine how to respond to British military intervention in the colony. Relationships between the colonists and the British had deteriorated over the past two…
The deconstruction of American evangelicalism
We are witnessing at this moment the intellectual deconstruction of a religious group that has been called “evangelicalism.” Illusions about this community are being destroyed left and right. Of course, those illusions first eroded in practice, through the contradictions and…
Tony Evans misses the mark and misrepresents history with his Kingdom Race Theology
Tony Evans, founding pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, recently introduced a concept he calls Kingdom Race Theology to his congregation as his alternative to Critical Race Theory, by way of two Wednesday evening sermons. According to a…