“They stole $77,000. And that was all of my savings.” Her voice was so soft I (Doug) had to lean in to hear her. “I’ve talked with the local police, the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission. The money is...
If you think you’ve got it bad in this season of darkness, disease and division, take a moment to consider the agony of the people of the Middle East. A decade ago, the new year of 2011 brought soaring hopes…
It turns out that East Texas pastor Tom Buck wasn’t the first Southern Baptist pastor in Texas to call Vice President Kamala Harris a “Jezebel.” Steve Swofford, pastor of First Baptist Church of Rockwall, Texas, located in the eastern suburbs…
After Congressional votes to override former President Donald Trump’s veto of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, the stage is set for renaming up to 10 military bases and a variety of military assets named after Confederate war heroes. Among…
Christian nationalism represents a severe and present danger to American democracy, according to religious leaders affiliated with the group Christians Against Christian Nationalism. People of faith must educate themselves about the movement, positively engage its adherents and pursue lives modeled…
While transgender rights are being expanded by the Biden administration in Washington, D.C., bills have been introduced in more than a dozen state legislatures that would narrow rights for transgender persons, especially minors, and for their parents and caregivers. This…
Editor’s note: On Jan. 21, U.S. Representative Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) introduced a resolution in Congress to certify the Equal Rights Amendment. As of last January, the required 38 states have ratified the ERA, but the Trump administration blocked certification of…
I’ve been to my share of doctors. Many of those visits happened when I was so young that they have no conscience in my adult brain. My earliest memories were of Dr. Matchett, an orthopedic surgeon who was assigned the…
Lifeway Christian Resources has entered into contract to sell the $100 million corporate headquarters it built and occupied in 2017. The Nashville, Tenn.-based publisher of curriculum, books, Bibles and other Christian educational resources began to study the viability of the…
The death penalty is dying in America. I cheer its death. Capital punishment has been abolished in 22 states. Ten of the remaining 28 states have not had an execution in a decade. According to the Death Penalty Information Center,…
The music of elementary school never left me. I remember the tinkering incoherence of band instruments, high whistles of the recorder, the school piano at assemblies. But most vividly, I remember the hum of children stirring when my grade six…
A tumultuous January is nearing an end, but for many United Methodists the focus is still on Christmas – a proposal for the church’s future named the “Christmas Covenant” that its organizers call “a gift of hope” for the beleaguered…
An old idiom, usually attributed to Oscar Wilde, says that irony is wasted on stupid people. But not everyone who fails to appreciate irony is a mindless dolt. Some of them are quite clever, aiming their malformed wit in the…
