By Alan Bean This sermon was recently preached at a memorial service for those who have lost loved ones in the past calendar year. Before preaching, I sang an old country gospel song by Merle Travis, I am a Pilgrim…
No elf on our shelf
Like most American Christians, my family celebrates Christmas with a mix of Jesus and Santa Claus. Our stockings are hung by the fireplace; there’s a nativity set on top of the mantel. We sing “Rudolph” and “O Come, All Ye…
Jesus, Santa, and the Elf on the Shelf
He’s here and has been given the name, “Twinkle.” For awhile, it looked like our Lil’ Elf’s name was going to be Booger Mountain ( Booger being Mr. Boy’s name suggestion and Mountain came from the Little Lady)… Hubby thought…
The faux fight for Christmas: Backdrop on the annual year-end culture war
“Every company in America should be on its knees thanking Jesus for being born. Without Christmas, most American businesses would be far less profitable.”
When prayer is not enough
By Thomas J. Whitley It was “just another day in the United States of America. Another day of gunfire, panic and fear.”
A call for American evangelical leaders to confront evangelicalism’s lunatic fringe
A Call for American Evangelical Leaders to Confront Evangelicalism’s Lunatic Fringe Every religious movement that grows sufficiently large has a lunatic fringe; extremists attach themselves to religious (and other) movements to gain respectability and a “voice”-to influence the movement and…
Toggling between abhorrence and appreciation
There are numerous variations of the song. The one most frequently bellowed in my house is, “Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg.” It is maddening. Not only are my children (and their friends) butchering a delightful Christmas tune,…
The dangers of radical Islam and Christian hypocrisy
I’ll be honest. The sight of all those cheering Christians almost brought me to tears. I cannot bear the thought of a so-called “Christian” sanctuary filled with cheers and praise. The pastor says: bomb the hell out of them, just…
Listening to Richard Rohr
The pun is intended, but the man who is now a Franciscan priest, prolific author, and wise teacher was named Richard when he was born in Kansas in 1943, the first son of Richard and Eleanore Rohr. The way he…