If your household is like mine, the commercials during the Super Bowl garner as much attention as the game itself, and this year one in particular caught my eye. In the break between the third and fourth quarters, the NFL…
A reminder to ministers: It’s not all about you
I recently heard a priest at Conception Abbey offering the homily at Eucharist, attended by all the young men preparing to enter the priestly vocation. He was making the point “it’s not about you” to these who might presume overweening…
Voices in the Church: Suppressed or amplified?
Seldom do I read the hunting and fishing enthusiast’s “Fish and Game” column in the Madison County paper, but a recent offering on the “State of the Firearms Industry,” drew my attention. The article spoke of the firearm industry returning…
You can’t do it all. Choose well.
It was 11 years ago this month that I was diagnosed with preeclampsia. I was not due to deliver my first child until April of that year, and we were not yet two full months into the semester at Baptist…
Splitting churches right and left
Several years ago I put a self-imposed moratorium on employing the term “separation of church and state.” When I wrote the book Baptist Ways: A History, I don’t think I referenced the phrase unless citing its use in the Baptist…
Refusing to quarrel on Facebook, and what to do with new found free time
The first words of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis read: “Everyone has heard people quarreling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however, it sounds I believe we can learn something very important from listening to…
Lifting the Johnson Amendment: A return to cultural captivity?
At the recent National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump expressed his desire to repeal the Johnson Amendment and “allow our representatives of faith to speak freely.” He was heard on the campaign trail saying that he would give pastors back their…
The Sermon on the Mount is counter-cultural. That’s the point.
If your church follows the Revised Common Lectionary you will know that in these weeks after the Epiphany we are hearing parts of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ famous teachings from the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5-7. Last Sunday…
With or without us: The Church and the growing protest movement
During a particularly dry spell in my spiritual life characterized by a good-sized dose of cynicism and an overdose of institutionalized religion, I walked into the middle of a church service and found faith again. There was corporate song, public…
Holy Spirit prompts change; inmates experience worship
By Thursday, I was pretty much prepared for the sermon I was to preach the next evening at the prison worship service; but when I read over it Friday morning, it just didn’t feel right. I tried revising it, but…
Isn’t there a third way through our disagreements?
As a child of the Depression, my mother developed two guiding principles that on the surface might seem at odds with each other. She lived her entire life in fear of not having enough resources. And yet she valued sharing…
Muslim justice: A Christian imperative for the Trump years
Our Muslim siblings have been under attack this week. While Muslim discrimination is not new, it’s taking more emboldened forms than ever before in the Trump era. Last Friday, it came in the form of a travel ban from seven…