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Preacher's Kid: Honest Faith, Real World

The growing anti-Wall Street protests have triggered a sort of déjà vu experience for me. It was probably inevitable, when the high school economics teacher was a closet Marxist, that my introduction to the “way things work on Wall Street” was a summary of the history of class warfare, and why ownership of the “means…

There are many ways to experience humility, find that perfect moment when time seems to stop long enough for you to notice something simple and beautiful — and profound — about nature. A sunset. Water tumbling over rocks in a mountain stream. An eagle soaring off a cliffside over its meadow domain. The wind in…

You have caught the YouTube (and national news) rage over so-called “real life superheroes.“ No longer fictional, comic book heroes. Oh, no. These are real guys out there in a variety of costumes, in cities across the nation, fighting crime. Or checking up on the homeless, handing out food and toiletries. They even have their…

A Southern Baptist pastor is catching a lot of heat for daring to say what so many fundamentalist Christians will say among themselves, if not on a nationally-televised platform: that they believe Mormonism to be a “non-Christian cult.” Specifically, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, speaking to the Values Voters Summit of Christian Conservatives last Friday, praised Republican…

It’s all about Steve today. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple computers, who died, too young, on Tuesday. But the praise for the man, certainly deserved as an innovator and consummate marketer in the digital age, has entered the realm of hyperbole. Good grief. Rest in peace, Steve. But at this rate, Jobs may become the…

There was a time when wearing religious garb or jewelry was seen as an innocent, even admirable testimony of faith. A cross or crucifix around the neck meant at least some level of commitment to Christ and his teachings. A yarmulke was symbolic of an Orthodox Jew’s respect for the “Divine Presence” above us all.…

Living in Utah, I’ve gotten used to The Question: Are you a Mormon? No, I’m not. The closest I ever came to considering becoming a Latter-day Saint was in high school, when I developed a huge crush on a Mormon girl. She had long, dark hair and warm brown eyes that went on forever, but…

I looked. It is, indeed, 2011. In fact, it’s nearly 2012. But if you think the blood of Christian martyrs was last shed in the Coliseum by the Roman Emperor Nero two millennia ago, you’d be wrong. Most of the apostles of Christ died for their faith in him. But that was so long ago,…

In the mostly Pentecostal/fundamentalist churches my Dad pastored, quips that played off scriptures would get a quick frown, if not a secretive note or phone call to the Rev. Robert E. Mims Sr. advising that his son was “in need of much prayer and counseling.” Hey, that actually was a quote from one note. And…

One of these days, I will shuffle off this mortal coil, vacate the earthly tent (as Paul put it), slip beyond the veil, or any of the myriad other metaphors for death. As a preacher’s kid, I had to attend funerals. A lot of them. I grew to hate the traditional bit of pumping a…
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