Recently after worship at First Baptist Church, Asheville, N.C., where I’m the interim minister of music, a choir member approached me almost as soon as the pastor had finished the benediction and said, “Doug, I’m scared.” Looking into this diminutive…
The ICE Age is upon us
Besides water hoses, German Shepherds, Billy clubs and racial epithets, what truly makes today’s ICE agents — dressed like militarized Klansmen and women — any different from yesterday’s state-sanctioned terror? The Ice Age, the one taught in science class, ended…
The only thing we have to fear …
The problem with fear is it can be a situationally appropriate emotion that triggers hyper alertness or an emotion irrationally stoked for malevolent ends. This is where we are today as a nation and as a society. And more than…
When hate masquerades as love
Hate fills the air as “Christian” America fights over values, social issues, race and sex. An increased rage punctuates our communication. Hate crime and hate speech are mutually charged to MAGA and the Democrats. Both sides tear through news reels…
Hymns bear witness to faith and fear
Sitting and looking out on the frothy waves crashing on the rugged shoreline outside the window of our room at an inn in Depoe Bay, Oregon, these old words came to me: I was sinking deep in sin far from…
‘Antifa’ is another Trump branding victory
When President Donald Trump convened a roundtable today to warn against the dangers of “antifa,” he put on yet another made-for-TV performance about an issue without substance. Trump said federal law enforcement will be “very threatening” as it goes after…
Abram and Sarai illustrate the danger of obedience in advance
Abram and Sarai’s story in Genesis 12 is more than an ancient moral fable. It is a prophetic mirror for our political moment. When famine strikes, Abram and Sarai flee to Egypt as refugees. On the way, Abram begins to…
Student learning is another casualty of Trump’s fear campaign
The Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign is striking terror in the lives of children worried their parents could be detained at school drop-off or while they are in classes during the day, education and immigration advocates say. The stress also…
In Washington, DC, the peace of Christ isn’t passive
Sometimes the Spirit’s timing feels downright intentional. Long before federal authorities would assume control of Washington, D.C., policing, our sermon calendar had us turning to Paul’s words about “the peace of God which is beyond all understanding.” This Sunday we’ll…
Get out of the echo chamber and hold to hope and courage
The echo chamber sends unending messages each day about the onslaught of the evil that is walking the national leadership halls surrounded by an aura of being unstoppable. It is maddening. I am sure I am not alone in being…
You won’t believe our story of Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse
Three days before what we thought would be my wife, Ruth Ellen’s, final surgery for stage three breast cancer, my mind was racing as I was trying to finish moving out of our old house while confirming plans for where…
Concerning diversity, equity and inclusion
“Love casts out fear,” says 1 John 4:18, concerning which the late John Claypool once observed, “As surely as love casts out fear, fear casts out love.” Fear casting out love may help explain the current national obsession with dismantling…