A trip home to be with family in the face of an illness gave an interesting lens to the dynamics of return. Then on the heels of that, the memorial service of a formative ministry figure called the writer also…
No one else is coming, so do something
Dear church, Today I write to you from three places in my soul: parent, prophet and pastor. Like many Texas parents, I had a momentary flash of panic last Tuesday. I opened my news app on the way to pick…
On another classroom full of murdered children
Tuesday afternoon, May 24: My focus was the Republican primaries in my home state of Georgia. Donald Trump, in his continued efforts to protest the lost 2020 election and make sure he can never lose another one, had put up…
Baptist therapist has a prescription for our anxious pursuit of the good life
The American way of life may be good for business, but it wreaks havoc on the mental and emotional well-being of individuals and society, psychotherapist and former Baptist youth pastor Eric Minton believes. The diagnosis stems from his observation of…
When a child comes out, every family’s journey is different, professor says
Healthy parental responses to a child coming out as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender cannot be reduced to a one-size-fits-all formula, said one of the nation’s leading Christian counselors and scholars focused on sexual identity. “There is no one family…
Baseball is teaching my grandchildren how to cheer for others
My heart jumped into my mouth as my adult son, Doug, began to unwrap the baseball supplies he had purchased for his son, Harris, ahead of the beginning of his first T-ball season. Spilling from the plastic bags were tiny…
Faced with a frightening dream, my father with dementia showed me the way
A few nights ago, I had a dream that terrified me. Actually, it woke me up feeling physically ill in my waking moments. I was on the side of a mountain that had a series of large boulders lining it….
Book to help kids with faith questions turns out to help parents too
A book initially conceived to nurture the religious curiosity of children came to add assurances for adults nervous about giving wrong answers or feeling they should be much more theologically proficient when talking with children. “So many grown-ups feel like…
Everything that’s wrong with the world explained in one brief column
We do love simplicity. We love the idea that complex issues can be distilled into easy sound bites, that nuanced conversations can be summarized as “he said/she said” and that internet memes and bumper stickers offer plenty of space to…