Opponents of teaching Critical Race Theory in U.S. classrooms allege that it indoctrinates impressionable students and, worse, makes them feel responsible for past injustices they had no part in. Much time is devoted to such indictments and to efforts to…
The meaning of Jesus in these odd times, part 3
In the season of Lent 2022, our world is at war. No, it’s not World War III. Not yet. But if you think the Russo-Ukrainian conflict has no worldwide implications, you’ve not stopped at the gas pump lately. Last January…
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Really? Have you not been watching the news?
I preached on the poor in spirit, because when I listened carefully it sounded like God saying we have to do better – as the church, as communities and as a nation.
‘Will it come like this, the moment of my death?’ Living and dying in a COVID-19 world
This global pandemic requires us to confront the possibility of death – not fearfully or obsessively, but with intentionality born of the reality of the present moment, longing for Easter as Gethsemane and Golgotha linger.
Why all Christians, not just Baptists, are profoundly indebted to Glenn Hinson
A weekend of lectures on the life and teaching of Baptist historian E. Glenn Hinson prompts further reflection on Hinson’s contributions over six decades. These are just four of his many gifts to the Christian community.
50 years after his death, Thomas Merton’s words haunt us yet.
What draws us back to Merton 50 years after his death is his haunting ability to unite the transcendent and the worldly, the inner and outer life with wondrous prose, occasional poetry and enduring spiritual insight.
‘Exsurge Domine’: Pursuing Re-formation
“Arise, O Lord (Exsurge Domine), and judge thy cause. A wild boar is loose in thy vineyard.” That’s how Pope Leo X introduced his denunciation of Martin Luther in a papal encyclical released 15 June 1520. The document condemned a…
At home in a foreign land
Last Sunday I taught a class at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., the second of a two-part conversation entitled, “Retelling the Jesus Story in a Post-Modern, Pluralistic, Post-Protestant-Privileged World: Who’s Listening?”The topic, sent in weeks earlier, was of…
The quotable Thomas Merton
My favorite definition of God is Thomas Merton’s: God is “mercy within mercy within mercy.” -Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB A special issue of ” Signs of the Times ” devoted to Thomas Merton (31 January 1915 – 10 December 1968)…