We’re no better
JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--"What on earth was he thinking?" How many times have we silently asked that question as we've heard about yet another politician, leader or even close friend who has been caught in a web of immorality?
FIRST-PERSON: ‘You teach them,’ she said, at Nazi camp
JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--I spent my 40th birthday in the Nazi work camp at Flossenburg, Germany, near the Czech Republic border during the summer of 2003, walking with my family in silence through the gates of the camp to wander among the monuments and the levels of death.
FIRST-PERSON: Cultivating hearts for missions
JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--My father was a church planter in western New York when I was a child. In fact, for a few years we lived in a house church, with a baptistery in the garage and folding chairs in our living room sanctuary. My brother and I both made our public professions of faith in that living room.
FIRST-PERSON: The Hero, ancient yet modern
JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--Each semester in my sophomore literature course, I teach an ancient Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Dream of the Rood,” in which the narrator has a vision of the cross (a “rood” is a decorative cross used for contemplation) and describes Christ’s suffering.
FIRST-PERSON: Emily’s urgent call
JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--The urgent call came early in the third quarter of a football game on Thanksgiving night, interrupting the family gathering at my aunt's house.
FIRST-PERSON: Columns of smoke
JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--Most of us remember the sick feeling in our stomachs as we watched the column of smoke, fire and dust rise thunderously in the space where Trade Center Tower Two had stood. Moments later, a second column merged with the first. The world had changed.