I love summer. In fact, I love everything about summer. Last summer didn’t seem like normal as we battled the effects of COVID. But this year, as we get ready for the long, hot days, some things come to mind….
Following Jesus, living in truth and love
Jerry Blackwell was one of the prosecuting attorneys in the Derek Chauvin murder trial in Minnesota in April. He started appearing on several cable network news shows one week after the trial. His basic testimony is that he felt led…
Is your kind of Christianity divine or human?
The American church today needs to distinguish between what is from God and what is human and historically conditioned. We could do this by observing how people do the will of God. Matthew 7:20-21 offers a simple biblical solution —…
Prescription for a divided nation: Love and forgiveness
It didn’t surprise me in recent weeks to read articles like the essay Gene Weingarten wrote for the Washington Post in which he lamented the fact that “I find myself profoundly disliking and disrespecting almost half of my countrymen and…
In times like these: Love of hope and hope of love
Does hope mean anything anymore? What is the point of hope in this season? I’ve asked myself those questions, along with many, many others in the preceding months and today. I look at the mess we’ve made of the United…
Why we must not look away in the current crisis
It was a sermon illustration I will never forget. Our pastor told the story of Father Michael Renninger, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Richmond, Va. While a college student on his way home one weekend, Renninger stopped to…
Sitting in someone else’s chair
We do not want to sit where others sit, because we like believing that our perspective is the best perspective. This is how we divide the world into us and them.
Paul didn’t pen 1 Corinthians 13 for weddings and Valentine’s Day celebrations
Love gets a lot of hype in February. But what kind of love are we celebrating? Too often we concede the concept of love to a cultural definition that adversely affects our relationships, especially at church.
Decades of life with the ‘Lost Boys’ from South Sudan: Charlotte church loves their neighbors as themselves
Martha Kearse knew the young men were out of their element as soon as she saw them milling in bewilderment at the grocery store’s vast array of options. Very tall, very thin and very confused, they stood out like flies in a glass of milk. Kearse suspected they were some of the Lost Boys of South Sudan that she’d seen featured on the TV news magazine 60 Minutes.
Photo Gallery: Lost Boys in photos
All photos taken in this photo gallery of the Lost Boys are by Norman Jameson. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”16″ gal_title=”Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte”] In this ‘Welcoming the Stranger’ series, we learn what happens when one…
Looking into the heart of racism and responding with … love
Martin Luther King Jr. knew that the fight for justice and equality must continue, but he also knew that no protest or law or court battle can change a heart. What can is love, but not just any kind of love.
Justice and joy combined in the words of Mary
Justice and joy are intertwined, not unlike the link between joy and pain. To love is to suffer, as the mystics remind us. Deeply acquainted with the recesses of the human heart, C. S. Lewis wrote: “Joy is distinct not…