Striking a Nerve - SBC Sexual Abuse Scandal

The  Houston Chronicle article series  regarding sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches really struck a nerve with me.  It hits a little too close to home.

Hurtling Down the Slippery Slope

(Author’s Note:  Though I originally wrote this post in July, I have been so busy that I have just now found a moment to edit it and step back into blogging.) 

I realize that the more I wade into this marriage water, the hotter it is going to get.  My views (though unchanging) are increasingly becoming politically incorrect and soon to be, if not now already, branded as “bigoted” and “hateful”.  I adamantly reject those labels and press on.  I suppose I want to get on record now so that as events and decisions regarding marriage play out in our country, a memory (however faint it may be) of these words may provoke others to consider what I’m saying.

How to Encourage Your Child to Abandon Christian Faith

It might surprise some to know that I once teetered on the brink of agnosticism if not outright atheism. Though it was 30 years ago, I still remember the hopeless, black, world-rending feeling of considering that there just might be no such being as God.  I didn’t feel I could talk about my doubts – I was supposed to just set aside my concerns and look to God for faith.  I didn’t think anyone would understand my doubts anyway.

Traditional Marriage – Facing a Painful Reality

I like war movies.  I guess I got that from my dad.  My father was a WWII veteran who lied about his age and volunteered as a 16 year-old to fight for America.  He was always quick to explain that his patriotism and desire for adventure greatly exceeded his knowledge of what he was getting into.  I have two sons of my own, the youngest of which is seventeen.  It is hard for me to imagine either of them going to Italy and fighting across the Apennine Mountains at the age of 17.   I can’t imagine having done so myself.  Yet my dad and many others did. I used to love to watch war movies with my dad and listen to him talk about the different battle tactics.

Thankful on the Cancer Wing?

Having just celebrated what is one of my very favorite holidays of the year, I’m reflecting a little on thankfulness.  It is 1:30AM as I sit here at Kosair Children’s Hospital in my University of Kentucky lounge pants (real men don’t wear pajamas).  My son has been a patient here on the oncology floor for the last two weeks.  What we hoped would be a relatively uneventful round of chemo to treat his leukemia relapse turned into a full blown septic infection in his bloodstream as well as a fungal infection in his lungs.  With no immunity because of the chemo treatments, he has been in a very precarious position.  It has taken constant care, constant treatment, a herd of doctors and nurses, round-the-clock attention from his mother and me, a can-do attitude from Brad, plus much prayer just to keep our noses above the water line. 

What's in a Day? A Great Deal When Your Son Is No Longer Dying!

The 29^th of August.  This day may not be significant for you, but it is forever burned into the very psyche of our family.  It was on this day, four years ago, that our then 13-year-old son Bradley went into septic shock from the staph infection that ran rampant through his body.  It was August 29^th, 2009, that our lives were irreversibly changed.  It was August 29^th when we were told our previously energetic, brilliant, healthy, and loving son would not live.  It was August 29^th that we learned he had leukemia which had allowed the septic infection to destroy every system of his body.

Now Flatulating Cattle are Driving Teens from the Church?

When I wrote my last post on Christians and climate change a few days ago, I had no idea the New York Times would publish the following article validating my points:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/science/earth/what-to-make-of-a-climate-change-plateau.html?_r=1&

Again, I'm not discounting the possibility of global warming - I'm just challenging the confidence of what we really know.  I've had some people come after me very aggressively for my views on the subject.  I just find an incredible amount of hubris in the environmental science world about an incredibly difficult to solve (mathematically) problem.  Forgive me if my wee bit of experience (OK, a little more than a wee bit) mathematically predicting physical phenomenon makes me skeptical of the confidence of the environmental climatologists.

All that being said, I want to reiterate that it really doesn't matter if the science is correct or not - Christians should be the first in line to take care of the planet, albeit without unnecessarily taking a "hair-on-fire" kind of approach.