As a first grader, I was a pretty big talker. I loved to talk to everyone about everything. And one day we had a fire drill at school. You were not supposed to talk during the fire drill, but I did.
Formations 03.20.2022: The Adulteress
March 13, 2022 by
If we want to understand just how revolutionary Jesus was, we can look at his treatment of women. In his time, women were excluded from most of the societal positions that gave men prominence, financial security, dignity, authority, and good reputations.
Truth Beneath the Ashes
February 16, 2021 by
Several years ago in Waco, TX, a couple hundred of us gathered for a crack-of-dawn Ash Wednesday service led by a team of seminary students. All kinds of folk—Baylor students, doctors, construction workers, grandparents—gathered at the shoreline of Lent, sleepy-eyed and somber.
Sins I Could Have Committed, but I was on the Other Team
July 22, 2020 by
The teachers never checked the area between the gym and the cafeteria—the perfect place for high-stakes penny pitching. Fifth-grade boys lined up during recess and threw pennies at a brick wall.
Connections 03.01.2020: Replacing the Plug
February 23, 2020 by
It’s an image most of us are familiar with: the dropping of a stone into water produces ripples, which represent the ongoing effects of an action.
Hardwired to Sin
July 4, 2018 by
As future adoptive parents, my wife and I just completed a two-day course about the ways that neurochemistry determines the behaviors of children and parents. We learned that neuropathways form in an infant’s brain on the basis of a caregiver’s abuse or neglect.
Connections 03.05.2017: So Much More
February 26, 2017 by
Back when the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was all the rage, Saturday Night Live presented a parody of it (of course they did). Darrell Hammond portrayed host Regis Philbin, and Will Farrell played a contestant named Rich Preylant.
Formations 02.21.2016: The Ten Excuses
February 14, 2016 by
A few months ago, an employment website called Career Builder polled users to see how many employees had come up with an excuse to avoid going in to work in 2015.
Connections 02.21.2016: Day of Atonement
February 14, 2016 by
We all know what a “cover-up” is. We also know it’s not a good thing. How many times have we learned of a crime only after the cover-up falls apart?
Crossroads: Ash Wednesday
February 8, 2016 by
I always feel the weight of the ashes on my forehead on Ash Wednesday. It wasn’t until I went to a Catholic school in Middle School that I began participating in Ash Wednesday services.
Uniform 06.14.2015: God Is Not Fooled
June 7, 2015 by
It occurred to me that we may never make much progress toward effectively addressing our social problems until we are interested in the causes as much as or more than we are in the results.
About Those Sins
February 25, 2015 by
At the end of his song “These Days” the prophet Jackson Browne sings, “Don’t confront me with my failures; I had not forgotten them.” Preach it, Brother Jackson! I haven’t forgotten mine, either.
Crossroads: Ash Wednesday
February 16, 2015 by
I always feel the weight of the ashes on my forehead on Ash Wednesday. It wasn’t until I went to a Catholic school in middle school that I began participating in Ash Wednesday services.
Uniform 07.06.2014: A Choice that Blesses Others
June 29, 2014 by
It’s tough to find a balance between honoring our free will to make choices for ourselves and taking responsibility for how each choice might affect another person. Especially in the United States, we take pride in independence and self-sufficiency.
Ode to Jimmy Carter – Lauren F. Winner
May 7, 2014 by
When the desert fathers withdrew from the city, they found that they could not escape thoughts of their former lives of ease. So they developed a three-step method to retrain their thoughts: notice, quarantine, and replace.