There was something revealing about Texas Representative James Talarico’s exchange with Republican lawmakers over requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public-school classrooms. Talarico, a Christian who has studied theology and speaks openly about his faith, started asking some basic questions about the commandments lawmakers were so determined to put on classroom walls. One […]
It is an extraordinary image: the president of the United States concealed in an airport catering vehicle because the Secret Service believed his life could be in danger. According to recent reporting, intelligence indicated a credible Iranian threat against President Donald Trump as he prepared to leave Turkey following a NATO summit last month. The […]
One of the things I’ve come to appreciate about studying history is that it teaches you to be suspicious of permanence. As someone who spends a great deal of time reading history and trying to help others understand it, I’ve learned that today’s political controversies often become tomorrow’s history lessons. Every generation has a way […]
When I was a younger man, I was often obnoxiously confident in expressing my opinions. The funny thing is, many of those opinions were only loosely connected to actual knowledge, but that didn’t stop me from sharing them with absolute certainty. I was loud, convinced, and rarely burdened by the possibility that I might be […]
For most of my life, I was taught that every meaningful conversation should eventually arrive at what we called “the gospel presentation.” Depending on your church tradition, it might have been the Roman Road, the Four Spiritual Laws, or simply leading someone through the sinner’s prayer. But growing up in the United Pentecostal Church, our […]
Wandering the streets of Old San Juan over the last few days has been nothing short of a wonder. The brightly colored homes and storefronts put on a display that danced across my eyes with delight. The Atlantic stretched endlessly beyond the old city walls. El Morro and San Cristóbal stood as reminders of another […]
I keep coming back to a question that I can’t seem to shake. What shapes our conscience? Not what we say shapes it. Not what we hope shapes it. What actually forms those instinctive reactions that make our pulse quicken, our stomach tighten, or our sense of moral urgency awaken before we’ve even had time […]
There are moments in life that feel far bigger than the amount of time they occupy. A conversation lasts only a few minutes, but it quietly rearranges the furniture of your mind. I had one of those moments recently in Birmingham, Alabama. Last month, I was honored to participate in the Secure Families Initiative’s Still […]
Growing up in the Arkansas Delta, I had no idea that some of the most consequential battles over voting rights in American history had unfolded just across the Mississippi River. Like most kids, I assumed the world I inherited had always existed. I didn’t know that many of the laws and political customs surrounding me […]
I don’t remember exactly what year it was, but I was still in elementary school at a small rural public school in Gosnell, Arkansas. It was sometime around Thanksgiving, and our teacher was telling us the traditional story many of us were taught about the holiday. The Pilgrims and the Indians had gathered together, shared […]