Christmas and New Year’s are fascinating seasons for scholars into temporal studies, the emerging academic field concerned with the ways humans understand time, author and cultural historian Alexis McCrossen said. “Holidays are special moments in time and special moments on…
Time management, soul management
I hope reading this column is a good use of your time, and I hope writing this column was a good use of my time, because you and I waste a lot of time. We turn on the TV out…
Being there
A few years ago, I helped an Afghan refugee find a job. He spoke very little English, but he had some plumbing experience from Afghanistan. I took him to an interview at a plumbing company in my town. I worried…
When social media photos transport me
It happens a lot with me in this last month of the year. December being Christmastime and also with more than just a few weddings having been scheduled then, I often see photos on Facebook of people I know, or…
Learning to tell time as a minister
Remember the 1960s song from the group Chicago, “Does Anyone Know What Time It Is?” This is an excellent question for a new year, especially as one does ministry. I retired as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Abilene,…
A New Year’s resolution from Gandhi and a three-word movie subtitle
Gandhi helped free me from prison. Now there’s some fun with syntax and the ambiguity of a preposition. That sentence has two potential meanings: Either Gandhi helped me get out of prison, or, while he was in prison, Gandhi helped…
Maryland senate panel hears two sides of evangelical sex abuse scandal
A Washington-area evangelical church featured in recent reports in an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse took center stage March 9 at a Maryland state senate hearing. Proposed legislation considered at the hearing would extend the statute of limitations on…
Is church a waste a time?
If I could have more money or more time, I’d take more time. No doubt. There’s so much I want to do in this world, too much to see, to experience, to know. Nothing puts me in a foul mood…