A U.S. Supreme Court that increasingly views freedom of religious expression as an absolute right even amid a global pandemic appears to feel differently about the religious rights of a condemned inmate. On Tuesday, Nov. 9, the high court heard…
Twister blows up a crisis in the BubbaDoo’s family
I’m used to the phone ringing at odd hours. Or at least as used to that as you get. Nothing about the sacred call upon a minister’s life for vocational work completely smooths over untimely interruptions. If the call comes…
Supreme Court wants to hear Death Row inmate’s request to have his Baptist pastor comfort him at time of execution
The nation’s debate over capital punishment took an unexpected turn Sept. 8 when the United States Supreme Court intervened in a Texas case where the man sentenced to die wanted his pastor to hold his hand while he drew his…
Flint congregation finds strength through Wellness Check Wednesdays
DeVontae Powell could see last summer that he and his Baptist congregation in Flint, Mich., would have to take mental health seriously if they were to get through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and two human-generated disasters afflicting the…
Ethics at the end of life: How medicine and technology have changed the context of dying
As the school year ends and I try to process the many agonies of the annus horribilus COVID year of 2020-21, I will remember many deaths, but most especially the death of my father in late December 2020. These posts,…
Through 14 months of pandemic, hospital chaplains have carried others’ burdens
The emotional trauma suffered by health care workers in the battle against COVID-19 also is being felt by the chaplains who ministered to the sick and dying during the pandemic. “I think chaplains may have a little PTSD when this…
New devotional book asks what it means to follow God in a time of global pandemic
Greg Funderburk’s first book followed the survivors of the Great Storm that killed 8,000 people in Galveston, Texas, in 1900. His second book, released this month, is a devotional born from the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed nearly 3 million…
The power of an encouraging word
One doesn’t typically reach my age without the onset of one or more health issues that must be confronted. So, in this 75th year of my life, I have had lower back surgery to help ease the pain in my hips…
Barna advice to pastors: Talk honestly about emotions and relationships
The pastoral skills and mental health of clergy were pushed to the limits in 2020, and the first few weeks of 2021 may be doing much of the same. Recent research shows that leading congregations through the traumatic events like…
Are you suffering from Pastor Separation Syndrome?
Julie Schaaf said she immediately identified with the term “pastor separation syndrome” when she first heard it recently. The concept refers to the loneliness, frustration and grief some clergy have endured after months of pandemic-induced physical separation from their congregations….
We need to talk about dying
We were riding in a limousine to the graveside. Most of the people in the car were family so — except for the masks — the conversation was comfortable and familiar. Then the funeral director said: “See those smokestacks. That’s…
New book explores pain of preaching after a suicide in the congregation
In January 2009, I sat down at my desk to think about the upcoming season of Lent. I was the pastor at Wilton Baptist Church in Wilton, Conn. I had been there for just over two years but was the…