This is the third in a four-part series on ethics at the end of life. The ultimate ethical issue at the end of life is whether we wait for death or instead hasten it. A massive and sometimes confusing vocabulary…
On praying for peace in Jerusalem
Over the last couple of weeks, my heart has been heavy over the turmoil erupting in Gaza between Palestinian and Israeli forces. As missiles and bombs dropped on buildings that serve as places of governmental power and countless lives were…
How to prepare for Pentecost
I’m lying on an ice pack early this morning, doing my back exercises and listening to Pray as You Go, a tool for meditation, with monastery bells, music and a Bible reading. It warms up my cranky body — and…
Pentecost and the (Un)Holy Land
On the evening of July 16, 2017, I boarded an 11-hour flight to Tel Aviv, Israel. It was my first trip to what has been known for years as the Holy Land, as part of a clergy contingent sponsored by…
How an upcoming Supreme Court decision on ‘religious freedom’ could undermine religious freedom
Baptists care deeply about religious freedom, so we should care when this cherished freedom is misused and undermined. That’s why we should all pay close attention to the United States Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which will…
Following Jesus, living in truth and love
Jerry Blackwell was one of the prosecuting attorneys in the Derek Chauvin murder trial in Minnesota in April. He started appearing on several cable network news shows one week after the trial. His basic testimony is that he felt led…
God says it: You are good enough
I currently lead a national book club of approximately 60 LGBTQ people, parents, pastors and allies — all of whom are in various stages of deconstruction. We seek to cultivate safe community with one another in a private space so…
Among Syrian Christians, severe persecution yet perseverance
Editor’s note: It is exceedingly rare for BNG to run any article without a clearly identified byline for the author. What follows is a rare exception to this policy, in order to publish the current testimony of a Christian pastor…
We need a new set of metrics for the spiritual life
I recently found this photo of my mom standing with my sisters and me on an Easter Sunday morning around 1964. Aside from my stunning fashion statement, I want to point out the Bible firmly grasped in my right hand….
Ethics at the end of life: The first ethical issue is not who decides but who accompanies
This is the second in a four-part series. Secular Western medical ethics tends to be principlist and procedural. Two crucial core principles in medical ethics are autonomy and informed consent. The affected persons (often shorthanded as “patients,” although we must…
When did ‘woke’ become a four-letter word?
The Texas Legislature is currently considering bills forbidding the teaching in public schools of Critical Race Theory or the notion that America’s founding on slavery and taking land from indigenous people might in any way complicate the greatness of our…
I can’t make sense of how we treat the working poor
She sat across from me at the table, a pretty young woman with a baby in her arms and a toddler at her feet, nervously clutching the paperwork that would prove her eligibility for assistance at the church food pantry…