A brief pastoral letter. I do not usually put church-related stuff here, but I received such overwhelmingly positive feedback for this letter to my congregation that I figured it might benefit you, too. Church Family, I have heard from many of you a heightened sense of fear and anxiety as…

An impassable and unnerving contradiction arose last night in the Republican Presidential Debate. When asked if they would support Donald Trump as the candidate for President even if he was convicted for the crimes for which he is currently indicted, all of them said yes except Asa Hutchinson and Chris…

Christine Emba’s article on masculinity making the rounds left and right has been hailed as the most important of 2023. Emba identifies three historical essentials of masculinity that need to be incorporated into any new vision whatever it means to be a man: protector, provider, procreator. Of course many on…

I hate blogs about factual stuff (recipes, allergies, etc) with long personal stories as introductions, so my story will be at the end. Here’s the info first: What Is it? A “devilishly complex” sensitivity to foods made with nightshades that is poorly studied and poorly understood. …

South of Raleigh about 45 minutes is a place of considerable importance almost totally lost to history. The Cumnock / Egypt mine provided coal for the smelters that shaped the bullets of the civil War. It was easily accessible cold that could be used locally or floated down the nearby…

She smoked angrily, like she thought she’d seen too much of the world already at the ripe old age of 19. She wanted me to know she smoked, I guessed, because she could’ve smoked anywhere else, anytime else then as we sat down to talk. And she talked fast, intensely…

The Godwin Temptation is real, and not everything pertains to Nazis. When it comes to the latest iteration of Christian Nationalism, however, the Nazi comparison applies. Why? Not because of the Kinist tendencies of the people floating around the movement. …

I wrote this paper as we wrestled with a couple of specific situations in my church. I figured it was salient given the current discussions around marriage. Two situations in the church have caused more consideration of this issue which I had never considered before becoming Pastor at FACWS! The…

And an even briefer indictment it as a guiding personal philosophy. First, note the definitions that will be used in this essay: LIBERALISM — a political philosophy centered around freedoms — personal, familial, congregational — and ensuring the government protects those freedoms. This is NOT what might be called liberalism…