This election season has been a hard spiritual journey, as well as a grimy political slog. Rancor ran rampant, spilling out of campaign rallies and whistlestops, bounding onto our screens. Candidates mongered fear, amplified animosity and spewed indignation. Now, we…
Most Republicans want U.S. declared ‘Christian nation,’ even though they know that’s unconstitutional
A solid majority of Republicans favor declaring the United States a Christian nation, even though almost as many acknowledge the U.S. Constitution does not allow such a declaration, according to the latest Politico/University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll. Zeal for…
Evangelicals’ hypocrisy is sending their neighbors to hell — and they don’t care
American evangelicals’ most besetting — and most damning — sin is hypocrisy. “Evangelical” has taken on a political connotation, of course. But at their core, modern-day evangelicals are Christians who actively pursue the conversion of sinners, believe the Bible is…
A fond, fade-proof 2022 memory: Ezra’s and Marvo’s big Boston adventure
Go ahead and ask me what I’ll remember most from 2022. I’m pretty sure I know what it’ll be. This year’s memory-making competition could be fierce, for sure: History will record Russia’s unprompted, immoral, savage war on Ukraine in bold…
It’s scary to watch fearmongers at work (but not in the way they think)
Raise your hand if you’re already sick of political ads. Much of the country still hasn’t voted in the primaries, and all of us have the general election to go. At this point, we can safely predict (a) 2022 is…
‘Faith is relationship’ — truer now than it was almost five decades ago
A short sentence has echoed through my adult life, and it rings truer now than it did 46 years ago. “Faith is relationship,” Clint Dunagan told a room full of Hardin-Simmons University freshmen in the spring of 1976. We learned…
What a first grader learned about book-banning from an old-timey Baptist preacher
The recent ruckus about banning books from school libraries dredged up a vivid-yet-obscure memory from my early childhood. When I was in first grade, my father — a prototypical conservative Baptist pastor of his generation — surprised me by saying…
Paradoxical reflections on a significant birthday
Happy birthday to me. There, we got that out of the way. This week, I’m celebrating a “significant” birthday. It’s not round. It’s a gateway. My wife, Joanna, will celebrate the same-number feliz cumpleaños in five months. Because of those…
Politics, partisanship and the powerless
Can you think of a word more maligned than “politics”? Some people believe it’s a dirty term affixed to a despicable craft. That’s because, for the most part, it’s practiced so poorly. People watch politicians engage in politics, and they…