By Bill Leonard On Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015, the terrorists who call themselves an Islamic State released a lurid video showing the decapitation of 21 Egyptian laborers working in Libya. Taken hostage in January, largely because they were Coptic Christians,…
Answering God’s call isn’t like choosing the right door
By Amy Butler Most days I’m very grateful for my conservative evangelical childhood. For one thing, I can beat almost anybody at sword drill, which has never actually come in handy since I reached adulthood, but I’m not discounting the possibility…
How can you love God but hate your neighbor? You can’t.
By Scott Dickison For those of us in the Western wing of the Christian family, yesterday was the first Sunday in Lent, which began last Wednesday and is the 40-day season of fasting and preparation leading up to Easter. But…
Six words to describe a life: Saints don’t know they are saints
By Brett Younger As a child of deaf parents, she was the one who made the phone call when the refrigerator stopped working. Bennie went to bed knowing she was the one who would hear if something happened during the…
Religion’s week from hell
By Molly T. Marshall This past Monday, CNN religion writer Daniel Burke called the prior week “Religion’s week from hell”: “Whether you believe that religious violence is fueled by faith or is a symptom of larger factors — political instability,…
Why I struggle with Ash Wednesday
By Nora O. Lozano As I prepared to write my column for this month, I checked my assigned publication date as well as the liturgical calendar. To my dismay, I discovered that the day for this publication is Ash Wednesday….
The forgotten art of living together
By Corey Fields When two women who had spent years serving the community decided to start a new venture in Topeka’s poorest neighborhood, they knew they were going into a place plagued by crime, dysfunction and poverty. There was one…
Who decides what it means to ‘be a man’?
By Jason Coker Only a couple of days after my firstborn child came into the world, I was in the hospital room with him when he did what all new babies do. So I carefully laid him on the changing…
The two most dangerous words
By Bill Wilson “Yes, but …” Two of the most dangerous words in a minister’s vocabulary. Two of the most destructive words a congregation will ever utter. “Yes, but …” The order of their utterance is important. First we say,…