The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Teachers take care to include every conceivable guideline in the class syllabus. I suppose years ago syllabuses used to cover pulling a girl's pigtails and chewing gum, but these days other issues are addressed. At one school we carried on a running dialogue about cell phones. Some teachers thought they should be banned outright from the classroom and others thought this was a losing battle, especially when students could quickly look up a fact or a date if the teacher needed help. And it's impo...
Bob Harrington, the former "Chaplain of Bourbon Street," preached one night and advertised his sermon title in the local newspaper: "Three Places Where There's No Problem With Racism." This was in the civil rights era and our nation was fixated on this problem. Hundreds came that night to hear Harrington. He touched on his announced theme only in the first paragraph of his sermon: "The three places where there's no problem with racism are heaven, hell, and the heart of a Christian." Then Harring...
I was probably the only one sitting in Sunday School yesterday thinking of Charles Manson. Manson was the crazed cult leader who directed two terrible mass murders in 1969. I read Vincent Bugliosi's "Helter Skelter" years ago, and the author explained how Manson used the Bible to brainwash his followers. Our scripture yesterday was Revelation 9. John wrote about scorpions who torment the ungodly in the days of God's wrath. It's scary stuff. Manson had a unique interpretation according to...
Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher brought an arm-load of chains and manacles to the pulpit one Sunday. He threw them to the floor and the sound reverberated throughout the auditorium. "God have mercy on a nation that puts men and women in the chains of slavery," he thundered. Another memorable visual occurred in the Old Testament. The prophet Jeremiah stood before the leaders of Judah and smashed a clay vessel into hundreds of pieces. "Thus says the Lord," he thundered. "Judgment is coming and the...
The wind in my face was bitterly cold in downtown Dallas a few years ago. My continuing education classes had ended at the seminary in nearby Ft. Worth, so the afternoon was free for some sightseeing. A chill came over me independent of the temperature when I walked onto Dealey Plaza and saw firsthand those sights emblazoned in my memory: Elm Street, the triple overpass and the sixth floor window. I thought back to that terrible Friday in November, 1963. Our class had just returned from lunch...
