Last week in Norman, Okla., where I serve as a pastor, our high school girls basketball team was playing in the state championship tournament. During the National Anthem, the team took a knee. The announcer, believing his microphone was turned…
This is my story: Seeking an equal seat at the table of privilege
In the summer of 2014, I served as a hospital chaplain placed at an 1,800-bed adult trauma level one and pediatric level three hospital in Park Ridge, Ill. I was the only African American full-time chaplain at this hospital, and…
Letter to the Editor: Say it ain’t so, Al
Read our latest Letter to the Editor from John Dye of Louisville, Ky., about the Southern Baptist Convention’s expulsion of his church. He writes: “I have been a Baptist for over 50 years, but I finally got the ax at…
On my 80th birthday, remembering what COVID has taken and acting like I might live to 100
Yesterday was my 80th birthday. Despite the unopened and flagged emails that have piled up since the Texas deep freeze in mid-February and the papers overflowing on my office desk, I gave myself the day off to reflect, remember, to…
After spiritual trauma, finding welcome in church once more
Growing up, the church always was a safe place for me. I grew up in the same small-town church my entire life, and a lot of our life revolved around the church. Sundays were filled with Sunday school and the…
Don’t let the Atlanta shooter off the hook by claiming women drove him to addiction
On the evening of March 16, Robert Long allegedly shot and killed eight people, seven of whom were women, at three separate massage parlors in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Initial reports say he is a Christian and the son of…
Voting rights and the people who died for them: Jonathan Daniels et al.
A March 11 article in the Washington Post began with these two paragraphs: “The GOP’s national push to enact hundreds of new election restrictions could strain every available method of voting for tens of millions of Americans, potentially amounting to…
How I learned to stop making excuses for the men in my world
There he was, 10 feet in front of me in broad daylight. There was no mistaking him for someone else. To my advantage, I spotted him from behind the tinted windows of my car, where he couldn’t see me, yet…
Moving churches from risk management to risk-taking
On this one-year anniversary of the start of the COVID pandemic, it seems appropriate to take stock and assess the American church. For many of us, the year has been the challenge of a lifetime in ministry leadership. The obstacles…
Seven recommendations this hospital chaplain wishes patients and loved ones knew before a hospital admission
As a hospital chaplain, I’ve walked with many patients and families through the illness and even death associated with COVID-19. Because of the pandemic, every hospital admission is different today than it was a year ago. Out of this experience,…
Finding new life in the desert as a church becomes a place of healing for racial trauma
Hot, tumbleweeds, dry, brown, desert, mountain. These are words often used to describe El Paso, Texas. When I think of El Paso, I think of the sun kissing my skin. Heat enveloping me like the embrace of a long-lost friend….
Beth Moore and a lost Southern Baptist Convention
Religion News Service reporter Bob Smietana broke the story this week that famous Bible study leader Beth Moore is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention and ending the mutually lucrative publishing relationship with their Lifeway group. She claimed that the SBC…