These days the stark realities of American culture can overtake us anytime, anywhere. I learned that again at a recent lunch with Doug Bailey, Episcopal priest and former Wake Forest School of Divinity colleague. We’d not seen each other in…
As Supreme Court weighs gun restrictions for domestic abusers, two Christian groups oppose restrictions
Is it constitutional for laws in the United States to order that people under domestic violence orders may be disarmed? In 2022, Supreme Court justices overturned one law restricting guns. But last week, they seemed to support gun restrictions in…
Are we all guilty of mass shootings?
Here we are again. Another mass shooting. Another set of grieving families and friends. More calls for sensible gun control. More fist-shaking about Second Amendment rights. More inaction. In the 2016 movie The Limehouse Golem, the catchphrase of entertainer Dan Leno…
This school shooter is going viral for telling his story, but does it help or hurt?
Note: This article discusses attempted suicide, suicidal ideation and gun violence. In the life of a school shooter, what happens almost 20 years after the crime? On Feb. 9, 2004, 16-year-old Jon Romano left a suicide note at home before…
A well-regulated militia: Gun owners of the nation, unite!
My father gave me a .22 rifle for my 16th birthday. We shot it together at empty plastic milk containers for target practice far out of town. After heading off to college, my birthday rifle sat on a shelf for…
A Methodist church leads an interfaith response to Texas outlet mall shooting
A United Methodist congregation in Allen, Texas, is leading an interfaith response to the May 6 mass shooting at a local outlet mall that ended with eight deaths and multiple injuries. Suncreek United Methodist Church kicked off its interfaith effort,…
Our weekly gun massacres mark a devastating cultural failure
Our weekly gun massacres in the United States are shocking in the extreme. They set us apart from other nations in the worst possible sense. I have not yet been in or near one of these massacres. The closest I…
The good news and bad news of our latest mass murder
The good news is, it’s still against the law in Texas to kill an entire family in cold blood. The bad news is, it’s just fine in Texas for an unstable man to possess an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle and…
The other epidemic: Fear
The more I read the news, the more I become convinced there’s another epidemic currently facing the nation. It seems to be particularly acute in churches right now, too. And while it’s an epidemic largely of our own making, it…