In preparation for two recent back-to-back blizzards, residents in the Washington, D.C., area emptied the shelves of neighborhood grocery stores. Notwithstanding the pre-blizzard panic buying, what’s interesting is that no one was freaking out about whether the stores would be adequately stocked after the blizzards. Read More»

In the home in which I grew up, the daily newspaper was almost as important to our everyday lives as the Bible.

Daddy came home every night, finished his supper – which Mama brought to him on a tray as he relaxed in his favorite recliner – then picked up the paper and read every page.

Until she died, Mama planned her day around the arrival of the newspaper. As soon it arrived, she hurried to get it, made a cup of coffee with cream and sugar, then settled into her chair and savored the pages. She took hours to read every word. Read More»

Question: I have been diagnosed with cataracts, what does that mean?

Answer: Cataracts are not a disease, but rather a normal part of the aging process.

Answer: A cataract is a clouding of one of the focusing lenses in the eye. As this lens gradually becomes more clouded, blurred vision, glare (especially at night) and halos are the result. A more subtle change is a gradual decrease in the perception of color intensity.

Question: What is the treatment for cataracts? Read More»

• Try before you buy.

• Look for cell phone with a rating of M4/T4 and Blue Tooth Compatible, if you are going to use Blue Tooth accessories (www.betterhearing.org/hearing_solutions/cellphones.cfm.)

• Try cellphones from company owned stores as opposed to big box stores as they are required by the FCC to let you try them before you take them home. The ratings M4/T4 or whichever ratings are listed on the box. Read More»

In two decades of practice, I have seen almost everything, both the good and bad in parental behavior. By far, most of the parents of the children I’ve worked with, even the ones who have abused their children, were not evil people. They were often good people who deeply loved their children and they were doing the best they could within the limitations of their training and understanding of children. Even the best parents make mistakes - we all do. Other than deliberate abuse, neglect, and abandonment, the most common mistakes parents make can be grouped easily in to five categories. Read More»

It has been heartening to me the number of grandmas whose grandbabies have been diagnosed with autism. Whether at church or Curves or the Kroger, grandparents of autistic children come up to me with huge smiles and saying, “We have an autistic grandchild too and you’d never know it.”
I still have no idea what to expect – it’s hard having grandchildren who live 700 miles away. Samuel is a joy to our daughter and her husband, and most of those who know him. Read More»

Answers to your questions about life, religion and the Bible

Pastors get some of the most interesting questions from people they meet and people in their congregations. Here are some questions that I’ve gotten over the years of my ministry and via email for this column. Read More»

When I was a 25-year-old pastor I had better answers to the questions of life than I do now. When I took my first church at 23, I knew I didn’t know anything about almost everything. By the time two years had passed, I had all the answers.

Why do some people suffer? I could tell you. Why do bad things happen to good people? I had the insight. In fact, when a supervisor suggested I read a certain theologian, I declined. I knew what I believed. Read More»

Few things in life are as clear as the futility of a real debate on the clarity of America’s religious origins.

“Debate,” I said? Lay a finger, unsuspectingly, on The New York Times Magazine’s inspection of the attempt by so-called Christian fundamentalists to overhaul history textbooks, and you require treatment for first-degree burns.

I refer less to the article itself than to readers’ sulfurous responses to the claims of Texas State Board of Education members concerning the need they see for forthright teaching of the founding fathers’ Christianity. Yow-ee! Read More»

The snowball was the size of a grapefruit, or at least it felt that big when it slammed into the back of my head. With the force of a sledgehammer, it almost bowled me over. Snow then slipped down the inside of my shirt. The wetness brought with it the frigid hand of Old Man Winter.

I didn’t have to turn around to know who had hurled it my way. But turn around I still did.

The second snowball hit harder than the first. It brought me to my knees. Under a snow-covered cheek, my skin stung like a thousand bee stings, then suddenly went numb. This was war. And I was losing – losing badly. Read More»