Here’s a sure way to know Southern Baptist institutions and some Baptist universities don’t think they’re accountable to anyone outside their inner circle: The perpetual refusal to comment on, or even acknowledge, questions from media. A year ago this fall,…
Ain’t no tellin’
I know it’s not correct grammar. I know it’s a double negative. I know it calls into service that most criticized of English juxtapositions. I know it betrays me and surfaces my semi-hidden blue-collar origins. I was taught better, but…
Six times when it’s better for a Christian to stay silent
Let’s face it. Christians don’t have a great reputation in the larger community. This wasn’t always the case but increasingly seems to be the norm. When people encounter a Christian, they instinctively raise their protective shields. Why is that? A…
This Mohlerian moment
Albert Mohler has a problem. You may be tempted to think this problem was his surprising third-place finish in the race for Southern Baptist Convention president at last year’s annual meeting in Nashville. But that is only partially correct. You…
The Ahmaud Arbery murder trial encapsulates the two Americas today, but there’s a silent third group
One of the things that’s easy to forget about the conviction of three white men for the cold-blooded murder of Ahmaud Arbery is that there almost wasn’t a trial. There were no arrests for two months after the murder. Two…
Amid isolation and silence forced by a pandemic, ‘We’re all monks now’
Even if shelter-in-place for you feels like being held in solitary confinement, this devastating pandemic WILL end. Until then, perhaps you have been given a rare opportunity to quiet your heart and mind for a greater purpose.
Two days with the monks: Protestant envy, confusion and gratitude
Two days in a monastery is a gift, but so is realizing that you belong somewhere else.
It’s not too late, even for extroverts like me, to cultivate silence as a Lenten practice
Fortunately, God has not called me to be a monk. But, by cultivating the discipline of silence during Lent, I see ways God is doing a new work in me.
Words matter. What if the source of our words matters as much as the words themselves?
Faced with the overwhelming abundance and appalling emptiness of human speech these days, something inside me wants to follow Job’s lead and “lay my hand over my mouth.”