In January 2009, I sat down at my desk to think about the upcoming season of Lent. I was the pastor at Wilton Baptist Church in Wilton, Conn. I had been there for just over two years but was the…
‘We are Cain’: Owning up to the reality of racism in America
Inside both the National Memorial for Peace and Justice visitor center and the Legacy Museum in downtown Montgomery, there is an installation composed of rows and rows of glass jars on wooden racks, containing soil samples from lynching sites. These…
America, these are self-inflicted wounds
The United States has now lost 150,000 people — almost three times the number of people we lost during the Vietnam War – due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is spreading unchecked across the nation. Meanwhile, national, state and…
Embracing technology prepared us in advance for COVID-19
During this pandemic, churches, schools and organizations have been forced to learn and use new approaches to worship, ministry and learning. We are creatures of habit, but habits can limit our perspective. As Baptist Seminary of Kentucky began offering theological…
History will judge both John Lewis and Donald Trump
The death of John Lewis has once again brought into sharp focus the stark differences between the congressman and the president. The future congressman was born as one of 10 children of Alabama sharecroppers Eddie and Willie Mae Carter Lewis….
On building, planting and faithful questions in a time of exile
“Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there…
If you would have marched with Dr. King, where are you now?
Editor’s note: In October 2017, Freddy Haynes of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas wrote an open letter to Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas, asking his cooperation in fighting racism in America. Haynes is a nationally known figure…
‘OK, we live in a racist society. What do we do next?’
The videos don’t lie, and we can’t turn away from the images of George Floyd gasping for breath, from the truth of his story and so many like it. So over the past few months as demonstrators have taken to…
Six lessons living with chronic illness has taught me about surviving a pandemic
For the last seven years, I’ve battled chronic pain and illness. A traumatic back injury in 2013 was only the beginning of what these years have held for me. Intense treatments and therapies with very slow results kept me hopeful…
If government causes poverty, shouldn’t government address poverty?
There are those whose Christian conviction somehow excludes the government from any involvement in addressing poverty. That responsibility, they say, rests only with the church. There is great error in this position. If only because governmental policies often cause poverty,…
Are we finding God in ourselves or ourselves in God?
Is God behind the COVID-19 pandemic? Is God intervening to bring judgment on America? Does God bless gay marriage? Does God recognize a woman’s right to choose? Is God accepting of everyone? Does God welcome everyone into the body of…
Learning late about my hometown: Selma, Alabama
I was born in Selma, Ala., in November 1962. I lived in a little ranch house on Dixie Drive, three miles from the Pettus Bridge. The only memories I have of Selma were the stories told by my parents, who shared…