Our nation is continuing a process of discovering past wrongs, airing them, and seeking some kind of resolution/reconciliation. In the most egregious cases where laws were actually broken, appropriate punishment is of course also required. From the Judge Kavanaugh hearings to the ongoing allegations against powerful men (and some women) in the Me Too Movement to sexual abuse in the Catholic and Baptist Churches (and probably others) to the Virginia Governor’s Blackface/KKK picture in his...
This week in August marks the Fiftieth Anniversary of two events in the tumultuous year of 1968 which had a lasting impact on my life: The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia on August 21st, and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 26th. I had just graduated from UNC and turned 21. What follows is a personal post, using mostly my own photos. The Warsaw Pact countries invaded Prague that week because the Czech leadership had dared to give their citizens a few freedoms...
We are blessed to have five grown children who, with their spouses, shine brightly--first as people, and then in the areas where they have focused their gifts and talents. Our oldest son, Parker, is a doctor in Austin, and he has written a moving opinion piece in The Houston Chronicle about love, understanding and healing. I recommend Parker's piece to you. And I challenge you, as I have challenged myself, to apply these Christ-like principles to the people and the relationships in our lives...
This month is the 25th Anniversary of two big personal milestones: the completion of the draft of my first novel, On The Edge, sending it to Thomas Nelson for editing, where it was published later in 1993, and writing the first pages of The President, which was published by Multnomah in 1995. So this post is going to be an unusual (for me) look back at those 25 years, with some brief reflections on what I’ve experienced and learned along that journey. A powerful story based on God’s truth can...
This post is dedicated to Colonel Jim Harper of Men’s Fraternity, who first spoke those two words to me. I am disturbed by how we are becoming a Nation of Lemmings. You know, the little creatures who unthinkingly follow the crowd wherever it is going, even if the destination is off a cliff, and to destruction. Two recent stories on CBS’ Sixty Minutes underscore my concern. The first was an interview with Aly Raisman, the U.S. Olympic gymnast, now 23, who was sexually abused for years by the...
I was just in Seattle, and the rumor there is that amazon.com will choose Toronto, Canada for its highly-sought after second headquarters, to poke the President in the eye for his immigration and trade policies. I hope that won't happen, but if it turns out to be true, it will be the latest in the list of counterproductive results from our President’s unfortunate words, tweets and actions. A year ago, worried about the election, I wrote that we had a terrible choice. Separating the choice...
This Saturday I spent the first part of the day on two unrelated but connected events. In the morning I assisted my talented wife as she visited several Estate Sales on their second days, looking for bargains from the belongings of those who moved to a different place, either to a different home or to the life beyond. And then we attended the Memorial Celebration for a mother, grandmother and thirty-year-career elementary school teacher who I’m sure left behind many physical things, but...
After a season of grand political events, this month’s post will be more narrowly focused and personal. Last week I had my first-ever battle with kidney stones, from Saturday afternoon thru Thursday evening, when a surgeon at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta removed one stone and pulverized the other. In between there was quite a bit of constant pain. As I reflect on this week of unexpected events, I have the following offerings: Our American healthcare system is amazing, and we tamper with it at...
Our recent elections and subsequent events have left many of us slightly exhausted but cautiously optimistic about the future of our country. Conservatives now have a HUGE responsibility to govern creatively and well, from the White House to the majority of local counties. Many of us have asked and prayed for this opportunity for years, and now it is here. We must continue to pray, even more now, for those in office and for their advisers, that God will put men and women in positions of...
This is a very personal post, offering some perspectives to those who have been watching both political conventions, and who are led to worry that we live in an extraordinarily tough time. I attended the 1968 DNC in Chicago as a young, disenfranchised Challenge Delegate from Georgia, where the government was really only the Democratic Party, which, by the way, systematically disenfranchised Blacks all across the South and our state, while the Governor sold ax handles at his restaurant to...
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