Less than a year into my marriage I was invited to preach at a church in Houston. It was a small Pentecostal congregation in a lower-income neighborhood. The worship experience was like entering a time machine headed for the 1950s. Priscilla and I felt obligated to stay for a church-wide lunch. That’s when the time […]
Summer is here and that can mean only one thing — more time for books! Whether it’s a leisurely day at the beach or an excursion to the mountains or just a beautiful afternoon in the backyard hammock, summer is a great time to catch up on the reading list you haven’t had time for […]
Have you ever put your foot in your mouth? Our words can betray us, and don’t always reflect who we are. Based on his own words, the Apostle Paul, at times, has been labeled a misogynist and an antisemite. Two labels he doesn’t deserve, but also a reminder of how easy it is for us […]
The thing I love about Jesus is that he treated everyone with equal respect and value, and didn’t see any of the limitations society places on certain groups. He came to set us free from the chains that keep us in our assigned boxes. As a father and grandfather to some beautiful and brilliant young […]
I have shown that Jesus’ teachings elevated women. Jesus also held women in the highest regard in the way he interacted with them. [198] In fact, his treatment of women was so antithetical to the patriarchal culture of his day that he could only be characterized as egalitarian. [199] There are four specific cases […]
A few years after my father died, I went on a one-month sabbatical. I drove from Texas to California and back, stopping along the way to take in the beauty of the land and to reflect on my life. It was a great experience in some ways. In others, it was difficult. Finding Joy […]
I grew up in a very small Spanish-speaking Baptist Church. The people were mostly poor or on the underside of the middle class. As I grew into my teenage years, the church grew as well. Over time we drew people from all over the Spanish-speaking world. At one point, there were 21 countries represented in […]
The role of women in American society changed dramatically in the 1960s. In 1963, the President’s Commission on the Status of Women issued a report entitled American Women, which recommended that women be granted equality in employment and educational opportunities, as well as wages. In the same year, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act, the […]
My wife teaches ESL at a local Junior High School. Her official role is to teach English to students who speak another language, but she always teaches so much more than just English. She teaches etiquette and ethics and critical thinking and … well … the list could go on. She is sometimes a teacher, […]
The duck test – “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck” – suggests that something can be identified by its habitual characteristics. I would apply this age-old principle to the biblical text and say, “If she’s called a prophet, talks like […]
