Posts with the category “pathway-perspectives”

[Photo credit: "A Public Witness" -- Word & Way] This article was originally published in the Center's E-News on Oct. 31, 2024 I arrived prior to sun-up on Tuesday of this week at a designated early-voting site in my city. My hope, as I walked across the pitch-dark parking lot toward a light at the front door, was that all voters would be enlightened to the responsibilities of citizenship. Perhaps...  Read More

Politics has moved to the epicenter of our lives in ways that seemed unthinkable a generation ago. Rancorous quakes between political parties and candidates have created a deep divide in the highest branches of our government and their aftershocks are felt down to the grassroots level. Polite discourse and disagreement about issues, once grounded in deep respect for the value and dignity of anothe...  Read More

The 74-year-old prestigious American Mathematics Competition (AMC) represents a premier math event that America’s colleges and finance-industry recruiters use to locate top-tier teenage “whiz kids” for future university enrollment and business employment. Students begin to prepare for this competition when they are in elementary school and spend long hours working with coaches, participating in ma...  Read More

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostilityâ€-Ephesians 2:13-14, ESV The opening scene of the 1951 movie, “The African Queen,†which starred Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, shows two British missionaries leading a church s...  Read More

[Credit: Abraham Hunter] “Each of us as human beings has a responsibility to reach out to our brothers and sisters affected by disasters. One day it may be us or our loved ones needing someone to reach out and help” (Michael W. Hawkins, American Red Cross). “One day” happened last week in my hometown of Houston, Texas, when my relatives were affected by a severe storm that hit the city, left 900,0...  Read More

Medieval scholarly theologians, while contemplating the notion of “being,” speculated how many angels might be able to stand on the head of a needle. Seventeenth century theologians mocked such mental gymnastics. I will admit that the thought of such speculation is a bit humorous to me. Here's something, however, that is no laughing matter.How much fentanyl may be placed on a pin before it becomes...  Read More

[Shutterstock images] A woman claimed that her unborn child counted as a person when pulled over for driving alone in a North Texas High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane! She explained, “I just felt that there were two of us in [the car] and I was wrongly getting ticketed.” She argued that under Texas’ new abortion law, a fetus is considered a living being. The woman also claimed “this is a baby” (Tex...  Read More

[Getty Images] “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” Tina Turner’s 1984 mega-hit rock ‘n’ roll song, could easily serve as a front-page headline for contemporary Christian America. The song saw nothing enduring in love and reduced it to a “secondhand emotion.” Granted, Ms. Turner had lived for years in an abusive relationship, but surely there must be more to love than the logical and physical. I belie...  Read More

Friends, the insanely popular television show, will celebrate its 30th anniversary this coming September. Two-hundred-thirty-six episodes aired between 1994 and 2004, and the show amazingly remains a favorite of viewers. Each episode warms us with thirty minutes of escape and entertains us and promises us what we all are created to enjoy—close relationships.The show has endured, in fact, because i...  Read More

[Listen to the podcast of this article] The famous antiwar refrain to the 1970 song entitled, “War,” used as a title above, provides its own answer: “Absolutely nothin’!” Edwin Starr, who recorded that version of the song, continued to sing it through the years because he wanted such conflict to cease.War indeed represents one of the most controversial and complex moral issues of this age, and I w...  Read More

(Click here for the podcast version of this article) “The end of all moral speculations is to teach us our duty; and, by proper representations of the deformity of vice and the beauty of virtue, beget correspondent habits, and engage us to avoid the one, embrace the other,” says David Hume (1711-1776), the Scottish philosopher and historian. (1) His words certainly resonate with many of us who wer...  Read More

Media sources carried the terrifying story earlier this week of an attempt to rescue two adults and six children who were stranded hundreds of feet above ground on a disabled cable car in northwest Pakistan. No effort or expense was spared to bring those adults and children home safely. Now, consider the annual return of your children and grandchildren to school and the extraordinary efforts to en...  Read More

“What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God,” says Martin Luther. The great Reformer knew the special significance of the home and God's word at work in that place. Here is a reason why: the fifth command in the Ten Commandments emphasizes proper motives inside the home.It links honor for one’s father and mother to possession of the land that God prom...  Read More

“I do not recognize Larry Ashlock” was the humorous end result to a brief conversation I recently had with Amazon’s “Alexa,” a virtual assistant artificial intelligence (AI) technology now popular in homes and businesses. My experience indicates only one of many frequent daily interactions we all have with this type of technology.Face ID and image recognition, emails, apps, social media, Google se...  Read More

Economics permeates every facet of human existence, and how we use financial resources collectively holds moral implications for governments and businesses, as well as families and individuals. This first sentence undoubtedly creates a mind full of thoughts! I’ll break it down a bit to introduce a fresh challenge to the way we typically think about economic equality and our Christian responsibilit...  Read More

Rudeness is like the common cold; it is contagious. Uncivil behavior in global culture has become highly transmissible. Whether it is a member of the United States Congress shouting “liar” at the President when he is making an address, or an actor climbing onstage and then slapping and cursing a comedian friend at an awards ceremony, or numerous social media platform videos that capture bad conduc...  Read More

It has been said that “Death is no respecter of persons. Natural disasters are no respecter of nations.” Both statements have been demonstrated, yet again, in the aftermath of events that recently took place in Turkey and northwest Syria. A catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck that region on February 6, 2023. The death toll has surpassed forty-six thousand lives, as of this writing, and th...  Read More

The poet Robert Frost once wrote, “good fences make good neighbors.” This maxim influences the beliefs and actions of many people when they consider the hot-button topic of immigration. This moral issue currently evokes visceral reactions, as well as intense political, legal, economic, social, and religious discussions.Despite the often-heated rhetoric divide that surrounds the topic, I find that ...  Read More

An airline company advertising slogan has greatly increased its brand awareness with the sales pitch, “Wanna get away?” I am certain in a similar vein that many people are wishing they could get away as the hectic holiday season descends upon us.Our culture is shackled by rapidly rising costs and greatly diminishing buying power due to inflation, frightened by escalating crime and violence across ...  Read More

Jesus' ministry on this earth demonstrated how to live in response to the voice of the Heavenly Father. He teaches us that we can hear the Father most clearly when we are in agreement (Matthew 18:19). Christians struggle in every age, but especially in our current generation, with coming to agreement in ways that give witness to God's voice. This requires the Spirit's guidance. The terms "guiding"...  Read More

“To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instructions in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth”Proverbs 1-4, ESV A curious phenomenon occurred recently when I was shopping at a Walmart big-box store. Those locations have quite a reputation for odd dress and behavior, so nothing I ...  Read More

"And the Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do I not send you?'"Judges 6:13-14, ESV Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 storm with winds in excess of 180 mph, slammed into the Bahamas in 2019 and left inestimable damage in its wake. Property loss ranked in the billions of dollars and seventy-four people perished in the storm. More than two h...  Read More

“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you."Proverbs 3:1, ESV The horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has caused our nation, and the world, to convulse, yet again, with wave upon wave of grief. There have been fourteen mass school shootings and 169 killed in the United States since the 1999...  Read More

"And in this matter . . . who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have."2 Corinthians 8:10-11, ESV “They need not go away; you give them something to eat” were instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples prior to the feeding of the five t...  Read More

The Psalmist wrote, “I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart” (Psalm 38:8, ESV). His longstanding sickness left him isolated from family and friends and feeling as though he had been abandoned by God! His journey through illness led him to consider his spiritual well-being. Many of us will know the feeling of abandonment that such an experience with lengthy illness will ...  Read More

Vedran Smailovich was the foremost cellist for the Sarajevo Opera when the siege of Sarajevo began in 1992. Bosnian Serb forces shelled the capital city and snipers targeted citizens. The siege lasted nearly four years. On May 27, 1992, an artillery shell exploded in front of a bakery where people were lined up to buy bread. Twenty-two innocent citizens were killed, and more than 100 others were s...  Read More

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”Isaiah 43:2-3a, ESV Introduction "The life of a Christian is wondrously ruled in this world, by the consideration and meditati...  Read More

The XIT Ranch in Texas, established in 1885, was once the largest ranch in the world enclosed by fences. Its barbed wire surrounded more than 3 million acres. Amazingly, one fence line ran 150 miles without a turn! That huge enclosure provided grazing land for enormous herds of cattle and presented equally as large challenges.The ranch’s size required cowboys to travel long distances to protect th...  Read More