Wonder and Surprise
Long ago, I spent a week at Camp Hudgens, a boy’s camp in southeast Oklahoma. Actually, it was an Oklahoma Baptist camp for Royal Ambassadors. Think Christianized Boy Scouts. As a Royal Ambassador, I will do my best to become an informed, responsible follower of Christ, the pledge began. I don’t know if it was by intention,...
An Influential Mentor
Marv Levy takes his dry humor around the globe in the comedy series The Reluctant Traveler. Levy’s travels leave him perplexed and curious. His episode-ending reflections include themes he picks up along the way. Often sounding surprised, he finds that folks living in Finland enjoy life outdoors, even if it is cold. Smiles greet him, and...
Interrogate the Language
We deconstruct everything so why the bugaboo? Mark Driscoll famously attacked deconstruction, or Deconstruction, with the caricature that the goal is to reduce everything to its nub so it may be dismissed. He used the schtick to strike fear in those who dared question what they had been taught, particularly at Mars Hill. We all...
#DEI and Indoctrination?! with Greg Horton
Claims that the Woke Left is indoctrinating students in Oklahoma Public Schools have been a talking point of Oklahoma State School Superintendent Ryan Walters since he began his campaign. Once elected, erasing the Woke Agenda has been his ongoing mantra. My friend Greg Horton posted about the claims of indoctrination on his Facebook Page, to...
Rambo’s First Blood? Nah, Merely a Flesh Wound
Who doesn’t take a selfie with blood running down their face? It’s hard on a preacher to sweat. Jerry and Beth lived across the street from the parsonage on OK 5 in Gould, Oklahoma. We became fast friends in the short time we lived in southwest Oklahoma. Late-night card games and an occasional offer to...
Pastoring, Lasso, and Grace
We do not lasso grace, grace lassos us. From my latest Can We Talk? Last month I was invited to do a breakout session for the Mockingbird Tulsa Conference. The theme was The Kindness of Grace. Father Everett told me the theme was an omage to Ted Lasso. Today’s post is the content of that...
Museum Pieces
What are a couple of Southern Baptists doing among the Liberals? From my recent Substack, Can We Talk? Taken together, these two events, the question I received in Tulsa and Marty’s trolls, led me to reformulate Voltaire’s speculation regarding Southern Baptists. “One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Southern Baptist on...
Too Many Claiming Christ Are Just Admirers
Following Jesus is different. From my latest Substack newsletter, Can We Talk? He gestures toward the images adorning the ceiling: “I paint all this suffering, but I do not suffer myself. I make a living of it.” Franz, too, looks up, knowingly, it seems, but says nothing. The painter continues, his face half in the...
A Threat to Democracy?
From my latest Substack offering, Apply this to the claim that Christians owe no one anything despite the Apostle Paul’s ethical position. It should be easy to see that American Democracy defended by those who fail to read and employ Scriptural ethics imperil both our Country and Christian Witness. Christian Witness cannot survive the failure...
True Myth
From my recent Substack: Can We Talk? If you are like me, growing up in a Southern Baptist Fundamentalist version of the Christian Faith, any reference to anything in the Bible as myth raised a red flag. It was probably worse than that. For many, it still is. Recently a friend sent a version of...
What is the obsession with Beth Moore?
From my latest Substack, We Are Our Own Rorschach Test. My friend Tim once served as a Southern Baptist Youth Minister. He is now an Episcopal Priest. I never once thought that anyone should take a picture of him in his vestments, reading Scripture and giving Communion only to post them to Twitter. It is...
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It’s an Op Ed!
Religion reporting is as fraught with peril as any other specialized field of journalism. Pastors, at least seminary-trained pastors, learn to discern the genre of the text under consideration. Reading the Psalms? It is helpful to be aware of how Hebrew Poetry works. If we simply say it is poetry, we Americans may look for...