Imagine what would happen if the ninth-largest city in America worked out a deal with Planned Parenthood to host a weeklong convention in city-owned facilities and gave them a $927,000 discount. Conservatives and anti-abortion churches would lose their ever-loving minds….
If ‘guns don’t kill people, people do,’ how should we respond?
You probably have heard the simplistic explanation, often delivered proudly as if it is the very first time someone has thought to say it: “Guns don’t kill people, people do!” This retort is most often given after another senseless murder…
We have ‘soft targets’ of war here at home too
With the news of so many tragic events over the past few weeks, I have been struck by the thread that seems to run through so much of the carnage-filled images continuously in the media. The interviews from mass shootings…
Mass shootings, DNA swabs and gospel triage: America 2022
Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my Lord burn hot; you know the people, that they…
Yes, there is a way out of our national gun violence epidemic
There is a lot of discussion about gun violence after the mass shooting in Ulvade, Texas, and the alarming number of mass shootings across the United States. I suspect all of us have hurt deeply as the news of these…
No one else is coming, so do something
Dear church, Today I write to you from three places in my soul: parent, prophet and pastor. Like many Texas parents, I had a momentary flash of panic last Tuesday. I opened my news app on the way to pick…
The three arguments used to block sensible gun control and why they’re flawed
The most we manage to produce in the wake of another school shooting is a spate of arguments back and forth. Never any action. The satirical website The Onion is infamous for this headline, posted after almost every mass shooting:…
When you’re tempted to forget about the latest school shooting, remember the embalmers
Note: This article includes a detailed description of burial preparation for children. I embalmed a baby, for the first time, when I was 18 years old. Another baby I did not embalm — I could not embalm — lay on…
Who’ll be there at the end of your prayer?
It was late in my adolescent chapter of the Fabulous Fifties, and I was a member of the youth group in my home church — the Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church in Meridian, Miss. Soon, the Sweetheart Banquet would be here…