The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists and the Affirming Network of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have merged, AWAB announced June 17. Moving forward, the consolidated organization will operate under the AWAB name and will strive to meet the rising…
Bracket-busting faith
It was halftime, and we were down by double digits to one of our biggest rivals. It was summer basketball, which means the game didn’t count for much other than bragging rights, but we were playing one of our biggest…
When we’re afraid of the dark, God is a Mamaw waiting at home with all the lights on
I was a teenager driving myself home late one night from what we called, “the big city,” Pikeville, Ky. Several of us “juniors going on seniors” had gone to Pikeville that night to watch what I thought was a comedy….
With gratitude for the Respect for Marriage Act, we’ve still got Advent work to do
Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Respect for Marriage Act, providing federal protection for same-sex and interracial marriages. Outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi beamed on the House floor as she emphasized the importance of this legislation, the culmination…
Here’s why cremation is now chosen after 57% of all U.S. deaths
The ongoing surge in U.S. cremation rates can accurately be described as “stunning,” author and grief educator Harold Ivan Smith said. “When I was in mortuary school in 1966, cremation was probably done in 1% of cases,” said Smith, also…
The State of the Union felt like an old-fashioned revival to me
Long ago, my fourth grade teacher warned me: “Jordan, if you want to be a preacher some day you have to give up on politics. Religion and politics just don’t mix.” I always was a good student, but maybe not…
When the dying stops, will we remember to address the multiplied grief of COVID?
Among the many innovations to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic is this sad rubric: The COVID-19 Bereavement Multiplier. Ashton Verdery, associate professor of sociology and demography at Pennsylvania State University, led the study that created the Bereavement Multiplier, which estimates…
Matter-of-fact statements about Scripture aren’t always the gospel truth
It was a beautiful September day on the campus of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The sun was shining brightly through the Beech trees along Lexington Road as they turned from green to orange. I ran down the stairwell from my…
What I learned from RBG about the ‘dissenter’s hope’
As a funeral director, I sit across from families trying to process their grief. Just about any funeral director you’ll meet will tell you that no two families are exactly alike. Some families really open up, and their faces light…