I sometimes wonder if constructive dialogue is possible on the hot button issues of the day. It looks to me as if not but, perhaps, I am reading opinions and discussions in all the wrong places. Who would argue that the volatility index for discussion of white hot cultural and racial issues is not in […]
Best retirement advice I ever received
I’ve always paid attention to the matter of retirement and retirement income. When GuideStone or the state convention sent a guy around to speak to the pastor’s conference or to an associational meeting, I was present and paying attention. When I reached the age (I think it was 55) where I received an invitation to […]
Lost in the blogging black hole: Cooperative Program is up
Lost, swamped, overwhelmed by white hot discussions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, by debate about whether or not elder rule practitioner and SBC Pastor’s Conference invitee James MacDonald made a proper apology for calling congregational governance “satanic”, and by other weighty matters is this little item that directly affects tens of thousands of Southern […]
The Christian butcher, baker, and wedding picture maker
Should Christians who by reason of belief and conscience discriminate against same sex couples be held liable under non-discrimination laws or should there be an exception made in order to uphold their First Amendment religious liberty rights? Though none of the occupations (I added the butcher for obvious literary reasons) are mentioned in the recent […]
The “ideal” Cooperative Program division between state and national
Our venerable Cooperative Program now in its tenth decade and while somewhat diminished in percentages and sums from earlier times, is still a mammoth funding engine without which the SBC at the state convention and national levels would be unrecognizable. In my several decades of pastoral hacking and plodding in the SBC hinterlands I […]
Reality on the ground in the Middle East
Recent posts and comments here on the reality on the ground in the Middle East have been somewhat informative though, to me, generally discouraging. Most of us share some level of concern for the appalling, senseless, and shocking violence committed by radical groups in the area. Although we receive steady streams of news, videos, and reports […]