Although it was a temptation, I resisted titling this article “Gawking at Hawking.” June and I have, though, been ” gawking ” at Hawking some this past couple of weeks. We first watched “The Theory of Everything,” the engrossing 2014…
What if schools enjoyed pork-barrel largesse and the military depended on corporate charity?
One recent slow morning, in late August, the grocery stores’ circulars in the newspaper caught my attention. I began to wonder how things might be different if certain fortunes were reversed. Instead of “back-to-school” it’s “back-to-basic-training” discount offers. Imagine, if…
Defining evangelicals with a mirror: A response to Russell Moore
“We demand the freedom of all religious confessions in the state, insofar as they do not jeopardize the state’s existence or conflict with the manners and moral sentiments of the Germanic race. The Party as such upholds the point of…
Religion and irreligion: Friends or foes?
Atheists, agnostics, and other people who profess no religious faith have often been criticized, ostracized, ridiculed, discriminated against, and belittled. Especially in recent years such people have begun to fight back. Some of that fight has been rather hostile towards…
Common story, community and Christian higher education
(The following are my prepared remarks delivered as a devotion for the President’s Prayer Breakfast at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina on September 2, 2015.) The one unalterable date on our family’s summer calendar is the third week…
Guns, violence, and Christian faith
In June we were at the General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship when we received news of the shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston. Yesterday I was at a denominational leadership meeting when we received word of…
One year later: The search process revealed
A year ago today, I announced to all my friends that my days of searching for a church were over (at least for the extended future, anyway). After nearly a year of editing resumes, filling out questionnaires, meeting with search…
Is Gov. Huckabee right?
To be fair, since earlier this summer I wished Sen. Lindsey Graham a Happy Birthday ( here), I am now wishing ex-Governor Mike Huckabee a Happy Birthday. Huckabee celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday, and as I said in the article…
Five grieving mothers & the problem of race
I’m finishing a fine novel called All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr in which one of the characters repeats this mantra: Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever. I feel…