“Destination Unknown.” That was the stated course of the troop ship on which Julia Graham and her first husband, Henry, embarked in May 1945, with their 7-month-old son, as Baptist missionaries to the Middle East. Julia and Henry and the…
A prayer for Independence Day 2015
Freedom-loving God, you teach us through the prophets to “to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8). This week, as we celebrate our nation’s Independence Day, we are simultaneously grateful for our heritage…
‘Are you not entertained?’ Discipleship and Pew Research findings
Have you ever claimed to be something you’re not? I once posed as a town sheriff, brandishing a gun and stopping everyone who disobeyed the law. Of course, at the age of 4, and with a plastic orange-tipped six-shooter, my…
The journey to Snake River and marriage equality
Editor’s note: Bojangles Blanchard is an ordained Baptist minister, a longtime advocate for marriage equality, and a plaintiff in one of the cases which led to last week’s Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. We asked him to share his…
I beg to differ
My colleague in the Baptist ministry, Greg Faulls, has written an article about Christian life in the aftermath of the ruling on same-sex marriage.It mirrors so many others from the evangelical camp, articulating disappointment, angst, awareness of new cultural realities,…
In organized Christianity, some people are gone and others are done
Do we need another category to describe people who are either no longer related to organized Christianity or never were? Probably.
‘Inside Out’ asserts children are stronger than we think
There is a wonderful line in To Kill a Mockingbird. After Atticus and Jem return from a visit to the Robinson home, where Atticus is called an ugly name, Atticus looks at his son, Jem and says, “There’s a lot…
The Church and homosexuality: Finding a way forward
The months leading up to General Conference are sure to see a raft of proposals on homosexuality in the United Methodist Church. Being a centrist denomination by inclination many of these will seek to scratch out ground for compromise. This…
Obergefell decision does not remove the separation of church and state
By K. Hollyn Hollman, BJC General Counsel Click here for a 2-page handout about the decision (PDF link). Early in the U.S. Supreme Court decision finding a constitutional right to marriage that includes same-sex partners, Justice Kennedy describes the “transcendent…