We’ve all lapsed from something, haven’t we? If we live long enough, we lapse from all sorts of promises, convictions and ideals we thought we’d never relinquish. COVID-19 has enforced collective lapses from restaurants, concerts, movies and sporting events, not…
History tells the power of peaceful protest
When my wife, Priscilla, and I return to Germany for research, we stay at an apartment building in Munich that sits a stone’s throw from the famed English Garden, a magnificent mixture of streams and forest and fields. Halfway to…
A rural church reimagines the Lord’s Supper as a farm stand
During my last semester at Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity, I walked the brick pathway of Hearnz Plaza with one of my professors. Our conversation’s focus was on my future plans to move away from my native North Carolina…
After 23 years in prison, Curtis Flowers is free
I have been working to free Curtis Flowers for 12 years. He’s been locked up twice that long. Yesterday, Sept. 4, after six flawed murder trials, Lynn Fitch, attorney general of Mississippi, dismissed the charges against Curtis with prejudice. That…
This November, I will vote with others in mind
For the last three years, I have lived and worked as a Baptist missionary among refugees in Vienna, Austria. This has been a life-changing experience as I have met God along the way through the life, witness and faith of…
The train of conflict is coming to a church near you
As a child, my neighborhood friends and I loved to play on a train track near our house. Foolish, I know, but quite fun and exhilarating. We learned to tell when a train was coming long before it actually appeared….
Lies we believe about ourselves and our bodies
“Who told you that you were naked?” God asked Adam and Eve in the Garden. It’s one of the first questions recorded in the Bible. From the very beginning, Evil has taught us that our bodies are bad. We’ve been…
Fundamentalists have a problem with Jesus
When Mike Pence substituted the American flag for Jesus in his speech during last week’s Republican National Convention, he continued a long tradition of American fundamentalist Christianity, which seems to have a problem with Jesus. Pence did not misspeak. His…
Faced with generational crisis, Christian universities eye two paths
I began college in the fall of 2006 as a pre-med honors student with an undeclared major, an ambivalent relationship to religion, and a less-than-positive attitude about the entire affair. I wanted to go somewhere big, prestigious and, most importantly,…
I’m standing with the kneelers. Will you join me?
From the beginning, I’ve stood with the kneelers. It’s time for you to join me. The unnecessary furor began in August 2016 when the quarterback for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers was joined by one teammate to take a knee…
Lessons from a late summer pilgrimage
Walk the Walk was a walking pilgrimage of racial reckoning, resolve and love organized and supported by Red Letter Christians, Faith and Action, Vote Common Good, Greater Things, and the Truth and Conciliation Commission. Covering the 120 miles between Charlottesville,…
Chadwick forever
My world stopped last Friday when news of the passing of Chadwick Boseman hit the internet. Chadwick, at the age of 43, was announced dead after a four-year battle with Stage III colon cancer. News that shocked his fans all…