This may sound funny for a clergy person-- "But I really do not like church people!" I suspect that it is not so much the people I do not like but the condition upon which I come to know these particular people. I have this student that I really like. This students life is really screwed up. In fact this year this student has really been struggling-- however, what I like about this student is precisely how raw, how real, how deep, how profound this student feels. Someday if thi... Read Full Story

I know I should be embarrassed but I must admit that my favorite reality Television show is "Trading Spouses." I have never been a big fan of CMT and what I would call white-trash television but I really have learned to enjoy watching "Trading Spouses." Each episode is packed full of cultural linguistics and the images of the Marxist struggle between the bourgeois and the proletariat. The questions of whose socio-economic, racial, regional etc. culture is superior reign... Read Full Story

Gladys Parsons was one of my favorite parishioners back at Parsons Grove United Methodist Church in Pekin, North Carolina. Understand I think it is fare to say that I was not one of her favorite pastors-- however, I truly learned to love this old lady and her unique sense of a pre-Mature future.Let me explain shortly after Bishop Minnick appointed me to serve Parsons Grove I received a phone call from Gladys. She told me that she wanted to share with me her death experience and how God sent... Read Full Story

I haven't found a place in United States where 95 miles an hour is legal however, more than once I have found police officers and highway patrolmen who overlook 95 miles per hour. Yesterday was one of those days. Abriana was being Medi-flighted from Stillwater to Tulsa. Eagle flight, unlike St. Francis fligt service does not allow parents to fly along. Therefore, I left Stillwater for St. Francis medical center as soon as the flight left.The flight from Stillwater to Saint Francis tak... Read Full Story

More than twenty years ago I worked in the housewares department at Dillard's in Shepherd Mall in Oklahoma City. It was a strange place for me to work because I knew nothing about blenders, microwaves, dishes or any of the other items sold. However, I must admit that it was one of my favorite jobs I had during college. I liked this job because of the people who worked in the other department.A few of the people I remember are Jenelda and Jeff. Jeff worked in men's clothing and Jen... Read Full Story

Recently on a flight back from Raleigh, North Carolina one of my students asked me, "Why are you and Ronda so nice to us?" He completed his comments by saying, "please don't give me a Sunday school answer." That is, "please don't tell me-- Jesus told me to be nice." To his surprise I told him that my answer was going to be some what complex and difficult to understand because he had taken away the Sunday School option.I started to answer his question b... Read Full Story

I went to see "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" this evening. As I watched this movie I was drawn ever more deeply into the gospel statement from John-- ". . . and the light came into the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it." I know it might seem some what bizarre to watch a tragic film, in fact a very dark film, and hear from it the transformative proclamation that God's good light cannot be overcome.Bruno the main character in this wonderfully horrific f... Read Full Story

Rene Girard has always been one of my favorite philosophers. In the work of Rene Girard I have been able to find the mimic characters of our lives. That is to say, in Girard, I have often seen both myself and those whom I relate to on various levels. In one of his more famous, and certainly one of my most favorite works, Girard unpacks the human penchant of creating scapegoats and giving moral character to the scapegoating efforts.I am one of the members of the Oklahoma United Methodist C... Read Full Story

A few years ago I had the opportunity to talk with one of the soldiers who gaurds the Tomb of the Unknown Shoulder. I asked him, after his shift was over what all the symbols and motions were about. He said, "Most of the them mean nothing, they just reflect an understanding of royality that is deserved by those who gave their life for us." At another point in the conversation I brought back up the question meaninglessness. He said, "we do not apply meaning, we allow meaning... Read Full Story

Need! I am asked this question about Church quit often and I must admit that for me it gets harder and harder to answer. Need! I am not sure precisely what people mean by the word need. That is, am I being asked does God's existence depend on the existence of the Church? Such a question would be very easy to dismiss and simply overlook. Certainly any believing person could say that God's existence is obvious and doesn't need our institutions to underwrite his/her existence. ... Read Full Story