A couple of times when I was young, my family made a vacation out of traveling to and from General Assembly. The most memorable Assembly for me during those years was the 135th, held in San Francisco 51 years ago. For a naïve, twelve-year-old kid who had grown up in Memphis, a town that a […]
Well, here we are again. As I write this column, our nation—and in fact, much of the world—reels from the news out of Orlando, Florida. Fifty persons dead. More than fifty wounded. Hundreds, if not thousands of friends and family members suddenly left without relationships they had cherished. I suppose one might argue that there […]
A few days from now, several hundred representatives from various entities of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPC) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America (CPCA) will descend on Nashville, TN. For the CPC, it will be the 186th such gathering, while it will be the 141st for the CPCA. Of no small significance is the […]
There has been a lot of news recently concerning conflicts over “freedom of conscience” and/or one’s freedom to behave within the constraints of her/his “sincerely-held religious beliefs.” Like any good partisans, folks on both sides of the issues have turned to the principles of marketing in labeling their causes, claiming that their position “protects freedom” […]
And now, we find ourselves at Eastertide. A time when what we feared was dead and gone surprises us, bursting forth as new life wherever we look. It’s a time when we’re confronted at last with the realities of what Jesus told us but we found so difficult to grasp: love is all we need. […]
Not long ago, some friends of mine and I were lamenting the fact that our denomination is currently experiencing a dearth of “giants of the faith”—theologians and thinkers who articulate for the entire church the essence of our faith and who take as their calling the task of helping us navigate its evolution and growth […]
As the lunar cycle would have it this year, the last stale piece of denominational birthday cake will scarcely be gone before we plunge into the season of Lent. From cake crumbs to ashes in less than a week—just like that. While such an abrupt transition could leave some folks feeling as if they’ve boarded […]
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…” —1 John 4:18 (NIV) The Charleston Emanuel A.M.E. Church shooting, the Paris attacks, the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood and San Bernardino shootings, the recent anniversary of the Newtown Sandy Hook school shooting—we’ve had ample reminders of the specter of terrorist activity throughout the […]
As the Christmas season approaches, so too does the seemingly inevitable onslaught of talking heads ginning up concern about some pervasive conspiracy to take Christ out of Christmas—the “war on Christmas” as it has become known in infotainment-speak. It’s a story-line that has no doubt been very profitable for those who promote it, but frankly, […]
Somewhere toward the latter half of Pope Francis’ address to the Congress the other day, I had a Homer Simpson moment… You know, one of those times when you realize that some clear-as-day fact or bit of truth has been staring you in the face and you’re only at that moment actually grasping it… As […]
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