I believe that there are rare moments when a person speaks to a political issue yet transcends political discussion to capture the clarity of one of the deepest pieces of all of our humanity…namely an ability to see love and speak of it for what it is. I doubt I will ever vote for Jeb Bush…in fact I am very close to giving up voting altogether for a variety of spiritual and moral reasons dealing with what happens when... Read more
When injustices take place, there are always hand washers. To absolve his self of the responsibility of the execution of Jesus, Pilate washed his hands. The judges that sit on the numerous courts that have turned down the appeals of Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas have washed their hands of the burden of his execution. The governor of the State of Texas has become a professional at washing his hands of the burdens of execution after execution using words like monster and... Read more
I was scared the first time I visited Texas’ Death Row. I knew no one and had no one to talk to. The rules about interaction are very strict…do not interact with anyone except the guards and the person you are visiting. I was sitting there in my visitation booth and I heard a whisper. Looking up, I discovered an older lady who introduced her self as Major Kathy Cox with the Salvation Army and quietly encouraged my work and... Read more
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is a chief producer and promulgator of spiritual abuse. The guilt and judgment sucked the oxygen out of my body and soul and literally almost killed me on more than one occasion. I left with a degree and a broken faith in humanity and God. During this emotionally exhaustive period of time, I met a minister who invited me to a place called “the wilderness” for conversation and healing. I felt like I had... Read more
The sky has been dark all afternoon. Lately, it seems the sky is always dark. The drive down was longer than usual. Tonight, I sit in a hotel room. Tomorrow, I will be on Texas’ Death Row visiting inmate Will Speer. I had a tremendous amount of time to think on the way down. Sometimes such excesses of time are good and sometimes they are not. My mind wondered to my ministry over the last year. I have... Read more
The end is near. The writing is on the wall. The courts are ruling in favor of marriage equality one after the other all over our county. So what happens when marriage is just marriage? I think there is something to be found both in the struggle and at the end of the road when the rights have been secured and the victory won…a mandate for all of us to champion love. There is an older lady I... Read more
tears flow you found me fist lands you found me screams condemn you found me people leave you found me hate takes over you found me in the dark chaos you found me but where were you to begin with Read more
“But as for the towns of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. You shall annihilate them—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites-just as the Lord your God has commanded, so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the Lord your God.” -Deuteronomy 20:16-18 If you love God... Read more
One day, a man became overcome with evil, grabbed an object and repeatedly struck the body of another until that person was dead. After committing the murder, the man took the body, hid it and fled. This series of events sounds eerily similar to what Texas Death Row Inmate Anthony Doyle was convicted of doing in 2003 to Hyun Cho. However, the initial story is not about Anthony Doyle…it is found in Exodus 2 and describes Moses’ murder... Read more
Growing up our church was a rather stoic place. On Sundays we sang stoic songs. There were only a few foot-tapping songs in the hymnal and only on rare occasions did we ever get close to any hand clapping. There was however one song that seemed to get the feet tapping, bodies swaying and hands colliding every time…”There is Power in the Blood.” I will never forget the lyrics…”Would you be free from the burden of sin? There’s power in... Read more
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