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…
A modest proposal for imperiled pulpit plagiarists
Pulpit plagiarism has been making the news again. “Again” is the operative word. This is not new. A couple of friends, now in their 80s, recall making a wager about which swiped sermon a famous Baptist preacher/evangelist would deliver to…
Memorial Day: An occasion for empathy and understanding
If you’re of a certain age, you may recall hearing Memorial Day called by another name, Decoration Day. And if the old-timers who mentioned it had their stories straight, the term originated as a call to decorate the graves of…
Reeves to lead Fellowship Southwest
Stephen Reeves has been named the second executive director of Fellowship Southwest and will follow the organization’s founding leader, Marv Knox, who will retire at year-end. Reeves currently serves as associate coordinator for advocacy at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in…