Acknowledging a history marked by power in high places that included 54 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence and 11 presidents including George Washington, the top officer of the Episcopal Church in the United States declared the…
Crossing that Good Ol’ Baylor Line
Monday, I shared the news with my classmates at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, where I am pursuing a master of divinity degree, that Baylor University had received a grant from the Baugh Foundation to “foster LGBTQ inclusion in churches,”…
Thin places, sacred spaces: Why our national parks matter
Driving through the fog gave the air a thickness that seemed to envelop us, to welcome us into a place that fizzled with eternity. A group of friends and I had traveled into the Cades Cove area of the Great…
Shiny Happy People season two: Teen Mania
On July 23, Prime will release its second season of Shiny Happy People, and they’ll be dragging some old bones out of the closet, including some of my bones. Back in 2008, I attended Teen Mania’s Honor Academy. If you’ve…
Attacks on Zohran Mamdani defy religious liberty
Recent events reveal some of our politicians have forgotten America was founded on religious freedom that included respect for those whose religious beliefs differ from our own. Zohran Mamdani faces a flurry of anti-Muslim attacks after his New York City…
Vetoing our future
More than 3.8 million Texas kids qualify for the free or reduced-price lunch program during the school year. Government programs support their nutrition because we know hungry children do not learn as well as other children. They don’t grow as…
The fireworks we need this Fourth of July
In 1989, I stood on a pee-wee football field, my skin the color of a fresh beet and close to blistering. Done so by the beams of a luminous ball of gas floating in space, some 93 million miles away….
Will Trump pardon Sean Combs like he pardoned Jack Johnson?
On May 24, 2018, then-President Donald J. Trump issued a long-overdue posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the first Black world heavyweight boxing champion, convicted in 1913 under the Mann Act — a federal law originally intended to crack down on…
How to reinforce impoverishment
Give a man a fish, you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and he and his family will eat for generations. Judge a man for the circumstances surrounding his need and accuse him of being…
God didn’t give me this message for Christian musicians and preachers
I’m so over musicians saying, “God gave me this song.” No, I’m not saying God didn’t give you the song. You just don’t need to say it. When you say, “God gave me this song,” it’s like you’re saying, “You…
How Jimmy Swaggart shaped my life
Jimmy Swaggart has died at the age 90. Swaggart was born and raised in the heart of Louisiana and ended up being rooted there to do what he and his followers would call “the Lord’s work” in Baton Rouge. As…
When patriotism becomes worship and we don’t even notice
I remember the yellow first. It shimmered in the early light. —draped across the pulpit, woven into the choir rail, curling like a ribbon around the sanctuary ceiling. Yellow is the royal color in Thailand, the color of loyalty to…