One night recently, I was speaking by phone with the adult son of a man whose funeral I would officiate a few days later. While getting to know the family and the deceased in preparation for these “pick up” funerals…
A generational torch passes at Bubba-Doo’s
Today I sat on the other side of the Bubba-Doo’s restaurant from where I normally do. I suppose more of us are creatures of habit than we care to admit. There’s nothing wrong with the portion that I sat in…
If you’re uncertain how to approach Israel and Gaza, start with grief
I’ve known churches that have been on the frontlines of every concern of justice, congregations in which you could well assume nearly everyone is voting for the same candidate at the top of the ticket, churches in which no controversial…
The youngest victims of war
The news stories of what has been happening in Israel and Gaza since Oct. 7 have been difficult to absorb. The horrific loss of life, utter destruction of neighborhoods and the terrifying abduction of civilians of all ages have seemed…
Pastor and peacemaker Bob Roberts has traveled the world, and he has some thoughts on Israel and Palestine
Growing up a Baptist pastor’s kid in East Texas, Bob Roberts found himself in church a lot. That time allowed him to develop a love for the church, eventually landing him at Baylor University and then Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,…
What dying patients are teaching me about the end of life
We lay down trophies and accolades After visiting a well-known aging pastor and his wife, I thought about the couple’s influence among their peers, church, community and denomination. Most of this had vanished because of their declining health and years…
‘The moment we allow our hearts to go numb to the deaths of any children is the moment we shut down our humanity’
As someone whose ancestors immigrated to the United States from Lebanon, the faces of children suffering in the war in Israel remind me of my own children. The limp body of a 5-year-old girl being carried through the rubble, and…
On death
“Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of…
Now I know my grandmother was a person, not just an event
Note: This article includes graphic descriptions of suicide. In my life, she wasn’t a person. She was an event. My mother’s mother ended her own life with a shotgun blow to the head. It’s a conversation stopper if there ever…