On Sept. 11, 2001, I was flying into Cairo with my photographer partner to do a magazine coverage on that vast, ancient city. Gazing at the Giza pyramids from the air on approach, we had no clue about the horror…
9/11 was a day of dark despair but also multicultural unity
Serving amid the chaos and anguish of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks was more about ministers and congregations living into callings than it was about summoning great courage, said David Waugh, who was pastor of Metro Baptist Church in…
On the anniversary of 9/11: Reclaiming ‘unanticipated courage’
On Tuesday, Sept.18, 2001, poet/prophet/writer Maya Angelou, professor of humanities at Wake Forest University, spoke to students and faculty at the Wake Forest School of Divinity. We had scheduled her visit months before, never knowing that it would occur exactly…
Leaving Afghanistan was the right thing done the wrong way, Americans say in two polls
Doing the right thing the wrong way seems to summarize how Americans feel about the United States’ exit from its 20-year occupation of Afghanistan. Two national polls, conducted about a week apart, show growing confidence among Americans that leaving Afghanistan…
Escaped from Afghanistan: One family’s story of terror
Mustafa Aria, 14, escaped from terror-torn Afghanistan with his family just days ago, airlifted by the United States military from Kabul to Qatar to Germany and then by United Airlines to Washington, D.C. On Sunday, after grueling days at the…
Here I am, Uncle Sam, send me: What Biden got wrong
Those (military members) who have served through the ages and have drawn inspiration from the Book of Isaiah, when the Lord says: “Whom shall I send? Who shall go for us?” The American military has been answering for a long…
On Afghanistan, there were no innocent choices available
There were no morally unambiguous options, no innocent choices, facing President Joe Biden when it came to deciding what to do about the 20-year U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan that has cost the lives of nearly 2,500 U.S. troops, 3,800…
Afghanistan and America: Bloodlust and the failure of prophetic imagination
It is hard to be dispassionate when people have died fighting for a cause. Objectivity seems especially hard when it comes to the outcome after 20 years of United States-led war in Afghanistan. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan after Al Qaeda…
Reflecting on the effects of 9/11 and the disarray of America foreign policy
Nineteen years ago tomorrow, terrorists directed by Osama bin Laden successfully orchestrated an unforgettable attack that defined the next decade of American life. Hijacking four commercial jets, terrorists flew two into the World Trade Center towers and one into the…
Repent and be healed: Our response to the global pandemic has revealed our sin | #intimeslikethese
No, the COVID-19 virus is not some kind of divinely unleashed pestilence to punish us. But what seems clear is this: It is not the disease itself that has revealed our sin, it is the ways we have responded that have condemned us to our current misery and suffering.
A failure of discipleship: Iran, Iraq, and American Christianity
There are plentiful reasons to question whether white American Christians, as a group, learned the right lessons following the so-called “War on Terror.” Our default settings have not changed.
Under pressure, Baptist church drops plans for anti-Muslim program on 9/11
A Baptist church in Michigan has dropped plans to host a controversial 9/11 anniversary event after two members of Congress called it out for spreading Islamophobia.