“I am a nihilist,” Austin declared during one of our conversations around the fire. In the three days together in this remote, idyllic cottage, our conversations had run the gamut from serious to silly, personal to global. This statement did not surprise me. I’d heard it before. One of Austin’s closest friends, a professor of […]
Three days in the woods
Three days with my son, Austin, in a cottage in the woods of Southern Maine. I wasn’t sure he would join me. I wasn’t sure we were ready for that kind of time together. The previous few years had been full of drama, from moments that seemed to tear us apart for good, followed by […]
The joy of being wrong
“The three most difficult things for a human being are not physical feats or intellectual achievements. They are, first, returning love for hate; second, including the excluded; third, admitting that you are wrong.” I used this quote from Anthony DeMello as part of a talk I gave to graduating seniors a few years ago. I […]
What’s the church to do?
This is Temple Baptist Church of Tyler, Texas. It is just an empty building now, no longer a church. The church disbanded years ago. It was the church I grew up in during my elementary school years. I had the chance to see it when Judy I went to Tyler for a funeral about a […]
Some thoughts about the church
I am preparing a sermon for July 19. AAAKH! I have been invited to preach at my former home church in Urbana, IL. The lectionary suggests texts from 2 Samuel (David’s desire to build a temple) and Ephesians where the writer welcomes Gentiles into the church in Ephesus by saying, “You are no longer strangers, […]
My mother was not my best friend
As a university psychologist, I heard many students describe their mothers as their “best friend.” My mother was not my best friend. In my book, mothers, fathers, and spouses constitute a whole different category. They are not best friends. I told my secrets, my stories, my dreams to my best friends. I withheld lots of […]
The Season of Lent: paying attention
If you are like me, much of life is lived on automatic pilot. I don’t pay attention to many of the routine things I do each day. I can go through a meal without really paying attention to what I am eating. I can get through a long conversation and remember very little of what […]
Rebuttal to a rebuttal
This is my response to an editorial rebuttal for an article in which I claimed that sexual orientation, like handedness, is an innate rather than chosen characteristic of a person. I appreciate Robert Dennis’s thoughtful response to my November 1 article. Any time an important topic such as sexual orientation prompts thought and response is […]
It always gets cruel when you confuse innate with willful behavior
(This article was printed in the Abilene Reporter News, November 30, 2014. It is a shortened revision of a speech I presented, also included in this website). When I was first learning to write, I obediently positioned my paper on my desk according to the teacher’s instructions. But when I wrote, unlike my classmates, I […]
Church, don’t be afraid. Be informed.
Religion is declining in its influence in America according to nearly three quarters of those surveyed in a recent Pew Research poll, and most of those thought that was a bad thing. Nearly half of those surveyed indicated that churches and houses of worship should express their views on social and political issues, and a […]