This past week, I watched as my social media pages were flooded with “first day of school” photos. My friends’ school-aged children stood by their front doors, or perhaps a nice tree in their yard, smiling and adorned with new…
How MLK’s questions became my questions too
When Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in April 1963, I was a sophomore Bible major at a church-related college in the South, studying to become a preacher. None of my professors suggested that I read…
Donald Trump’s smear of Kamala Harris’ race is what people like me experience
Recently, former President Donald Trump made one of his most idiotic comments yet by saying Vice President Kamala Harris conveniently “turned Black” for political purposes. “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said…
What your pastor can’t tell you but really wants you to know
Your pastor wants you to know, but just can’t tell you. Your pastor knows too much transparency can be vocationally dangerous, depending on the level of honesty allowed in your church. At the same time, if you knew these things,…
Gaston Christian Center in Dallas — the place where hope lives
I remember the first Monday in February of 2010. I was on my way to Gaston Oaks Baptist Church in Dallas to serve as interim pastor to an aging congregation with a 62,000-square-foot facility. The church at that time had…
Ken Paxton and the NRA bullies are at it again
Last time I wrote about the NRA and Dallas, it was to lament the city’s tourism office getting in bed with the gun-rights-at-all-costs advocacy group. That’s a story that still needs to spread more. Now, however, the city has done…
The grace of joy — and the sneerers
One of the astonishing differences in the new Kamala Harris-led change in the political landscape today is the unmistakable note of joy in her campaign and in her followers and, in contra-distinction, the way her political opponents are sneering at…
Can you handle the truth?
Therefore Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth….
Letter to the Editor: I am the unnamed source
Dear Editor: Mark, mystery solved. Please let your BNG readers know that I am the “rogue, non-professional, lone ranger source” that provided the Abuse of Faith information to Phillip Robertson that you referenced in your Aug. 5 article. It was irresponsible for…