By Jeff Brumley There was a time when even the unchurched came to church for at least one occasion — their deaths. It was an era when nearly everyone, even those who rejected religion, had some connection to faith, however distant….
Saying goodbye
I conducted a memorial service recently for a friend who passed away after a lengthy illness. The service was a time of celebration among family and friends for a life well lived. Despite the lengthy illness of the deceased, she…
Chick-fil-A founder, Baptist layman, Truett Cathy dies
By Bob Allen Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy, a devout Southern Baptist layman known for building his business empire on principles of his Christian faith, died Sept. 8 at age 93. Cathy, who taught 13-year-old boys in Sunday school at…
Missing Gwen
By Pam Durso It has now been a year since that moment on Aug. 27, 2013, when I learned that Gwen had died. She was my friend. She was my pastor. She was my Panera Bread lunch date, my fellow…
Deaths of pastor, wife, ruled murder/suicide
By Bob Allen The deaths of a Baptist pastor and his wife discovered Aug. 20 by their granddaughter in the patio area of their home in Lumberton, N.C., have been ruled a murder-suicide. The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office released a…
Desperate to avoid (dealing with) death
Recently I spoke at a conference of Retirement Community Chaplains. My thesis was that people who deal with the vicissitudes of life best tend to deal best with the reality of death. There are 72-year-old men and women who seem to…
Will you be known when you die?
Years ago, there was a national ad campaign aimed at helping Americans understand the importance of going to church. One of my favorite ads in the series showed pallbearers carrying a casket in the front door of a church. The…
Lessons before dying: Reflections from the bedside
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee In a spring in my life filled with illness, dying and death, here are a few hard lessons I have learned. To borrow from novelist Ernest Gaines, let’s call them “lessons before dying.” Perhaps…
Grief isn’t a disease
She’d lost her husband to a terrible, slow disease and now had just buried her son. I asked her how she was. “Some days, she said, “I just stand in the middle of my house and scream.” What a wise…
On baptism and peace
Baptism was abused and used violently as a form of capital punishment in 16th century Europe, a time of significant Anabaptist persecution. The death method of choice was drowning in order to mock believer’s baptism. Water has the amazing capacity…
Funeral arrangements set for Glen Stassen
By Bob Allen A viewing and memorial service for Glen Stassen, a Baptist ethicist and originator of the “just peacemaking” opposition to war, is scheduled this weekend at First Baptist Church in Pasadena, Calif. Viewing is scheduled 5-8 p.m. on…
Glen Stassen, Baptist peacemaker, dead at 78
By Bob Allen Glen Stassen, an evangelical peace activist who taught Christian ethics more than 50 years, died April 26 in Pasadena, Calif., months after being diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer. Stassen, 78, the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian…