I stop in occasionally at a store called Bubba-Doo’s. It’s about 10 miles outside the interstate on the main highway that rolls through a series of towns. They are supposedly “world famous” for their hamburgers, according to the big sign…
A cold and broken hallelujah: Learning from the Damaged David
In my seminary days, I was taught that a good sermon or Bible study begins with a provocative question. So, when Nancy and I became pastors 41 years ago, I introduced a Sunday school class with the story about David,…
Racism is never an innocent joke
I don’t think Baptists today are particularly gifted in the spiritual discipline of confession of sin. We’re glad to echo Romans 3:23 and declare that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, but we tend to avoid candid…
This year, I need Lent
I told a friend, “I need Lent this year.” I have practiced Lent in some form or fashion since middle school, although not always with the greatest of intentions, and before it was commonplace in Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-adjacent circles. One…
Repent and be healed: Our response to the global pandemic has revealed our sin | #intimeslikethese
No, the COVID-19 virus is not some kind of divinely unleashed pestilence to punish us. But what seems clear is this: It is not the disease itself that has revealed our sin, it is the ways we have responded that have condemned us to our current misery and suffering.
Lent 2020: Improvising grace and embracing repentance, civility and dissent in ‘a time of national urgency’
Whatever else, Lent is the church’s reminder that we are ever improvising, seizing the half-baked idea or the unexpected moment of irony, tragedy or failure as an occasion for grace.
A Facebook post, a detained citizen and racial profiling right under our noses
White Christians in America must see racism for what it is: sin. Seeing our sin and our complicity is the first step to repentance. We must see this because it’s literally killing our neighbors of color, all created in the image of God.
Fighting for our lives – and saving ourselves from ‘this corrupt generation’
In confronting white nationalist terror and the Washington-based bigotry that has invited it into the mainstream, we must be both fierce in our struggle but also prayerful in our devotion. We must call this nation to repent for its sins and call it too to save itself from this “corrupt generation.”
A Lenten reflection about repentance, reparations and resistance
An appeal to my white Baptist sisters and brothers: when it comes to talk about the issue of reparations, I hope you will embrace and maintain a penitent silence during the remaining days of Lent.