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Faith and Discipline: Navigating Non-Profit Governance

In retirement, I work on non-profit boards and committees. I select organizations that have a clear mission and a track record of making a difference as they act on it. I love seeing the impact these organizations have on their constituencies. A couple of businesses also retain me to help clarify and focus their operations and executive perspectives. Both businesses have a strong sense of social…

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The Hope of Christmas: God Incarnate

All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). (Is 7:14 NLT) The church has wrestled with how to understand this reality since its inception: God in the flesh! The longer one thinks about it, the more wondrous the implications that emerge. But here I want to…

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Engaging Learning to Communicate to Culture

“There is a big fallacy in your train of thinking, sounds like it may have been learned at one of those institutions of ‘so-called’ higher learning!” This is a deflective, cheap shot that I hear frequently. Interestingly, I never promote my education in conversations; one must look at my CV, LinkedIn profile, or Academic profile to obtain that information.  However, this raises an interesting…

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Who Gets In? A Pastoral Reflection

I was asked recently, “Do you think horrendously evil people could get into heaven? You know, people like murderers, rapists, child molesters, and war criminals.” “I think it’s the wrong question,” I answered. “Why?” She sat looking surprised and puzzled by my response. She has listed an undeniably repulsive list of criminal actions. “It seems to me that the criteria Jesus talked about most,…

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The American Ideal – A Disappointing Reality

What differentiates the United States from every other nation? I was taught that American exceptionalism, the idea that the United States of America is a unique and even morally superior country for historical, ideological, and religious reasons was the differentiator. Proponents of American exceptionalism generally pair the belief with the claim that the United States is obligated to play a…

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When Dialogue Ceases

I awoke this morning to discover that my Facebook account had been permanently disabled. Apparently, in the night, a hacker first tried to reproduce my site and then did something to have my account permanently disabled. I have been engaged in multiple discussions about what it means to be a follower of Christ in this Orwellian time. I found people who vehemently disagreed with me. I understand…

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God and DEI

I’m trying to understand the backlash to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Apart from feelings of a loss of control or a shift in social favoritism (privilege), is there a rationale that securing equal opportunities for a diverse group of marginalized people is a bad idea? To be clear, my perspective as a white male now retired may not reflect the wide diversity of marginalized groups, but it…

God and DEI

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Church and State - A Model Relationship

During the 2024 Presidential election campaign season, an acquaintance asked me what my problem was with Mr. Trump. I explained that my difficulty wasn’t with Mr. Trump, I could vote for someone else, my difficulty was with Evangelical leaders’ unqualified support of Mr. Trump’s candidacy for the presidency. I explained that what I found surprising in the support offered by the Evangelical world…

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Happy New Year - Lessons Learned

When I saw the picture of this coffee mug on social media, it caused me to reflect on those times in 2024 when those around me challenged my behavior. What caught my attention about the mug is the sense of shock it portrays that we may well be the author of consequences we face that are too easy to blame on others. Responding effectively when confronted about your behavior is a significant…

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Election 2024 – Picking Up the Pieces

Commentary about the 2024 presidential election focuses a lot on the polarization in American politics. But what were the common themes, even between widely divergent extremes? Michael J. Sandel’s synopsis of issues identifies two themes of discontent: the fear that, individually and collectively, we are losing control of the forces that govern our lives and the fear that the moral fabric of…

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A Different Kind of Community

Janice and I recently heard a message that spoke to some of the issues believers face in being like Jesus in a context that has often confused cultural norms for being a disciple and Christian nationalism for faithfulness. It was refreshing to hear this pastor cut through the noise with a call to something different. This will encourage you.

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Thankful and Tenuous

Thanksgiving, when it is a practice of gratitude, is one of the most potent exercises one can do for mental health and thriving. However, some of my friends have expressed some trepidation about being with family, especially after the sometimes brutal harangues that accompanied this last election here in the United States. Like others, I have had friends (thankfully, no family members) assign me…

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Do Not Take the Name of Lord In Vain: A Commentary on Louisiana’s HB71

Louisiana is now the first state in the U.S. to require the Ten Commandments to be posted in all school classrooms. The news has left me with questions and a gnawing sense of foreboding. The foreboding arises from what seems to be the misappropriation of faith in the public sphere for the singular goal of acquiring legislative power. Said differently, faith is being used as a club, a deterrent of…

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Knowing History

Many are familiar with the well-worn adage that those ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. It seems almost trite, but it bears investigation in a day when memories are often no longer than the latest news cycle. This short-term memory contributes to duplicity in our social interactions and public policy. Politicians blatantly contradict themselves from moment to moment in ways that defy…

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Bad Theology Makes Bad Public Policy

Tom Parker, chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court explained the rationale of the court’s recent ruling stating that embryos were people.  “God created government, and the fact that we have let it go into the possession of others, it’s heartbreaking,” Parker said. Parker went on to explain that he is calling and equipping people to step back into the Seven Mountains Mandate — the belief that…

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What a Year We Enter!

What a year we enter! Uncertainty, suffering, joy, injustice, and grief surround the experiences of many of my friends around the globe. My stage of life and the experience of friends have taught me to make room for a wide variety of experiences, disappointments, victories, defeats, gladness, and grief. But isn’t that life? How do I approach this new year? My resolutions this year take a…

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Well, I'm Still Here

Waking up from a medical procedure to the anxious faces of the medical team and my wife, when we had been told she wasn’t allowed in recovery because of residual COVID protocols, is – well I’m not entirely sure what it is. It was surprising, sobering, disconcerting, a little humorous, thought inducing, and eerie. There was no narration by Rod Serling. There was no sudden panic, on my part – I was…

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