Can We Help the Poor if We Don’t Listen to Them?

I’m headed home from a couple of days at United Nations Week in New York, where I was fortunate to attend several events relating to a review of the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals. The events brought home one very clear fact for me: Western thinking...

Proud shuttles powering down

Thanks to my nephew Dustin, a NASA engineer, I had the great fortune this past weekend of being a guest during “family day” at Cape Canaveral’s Kennedy Space Center. As a certified space nut, it was my third trip to the space center, but the first...

Save the Date, Change the World on 10.10.10

Imagine 100 million Christians praying on Oct. 10, 2010, for a “fresh vision” that will result in freeing a half-billion people from extreme poverty.   That’s a bold vision worth supporting. That’s a moral agenda worth backing.   Will...

Orthodox Thoughts on Capital Punishment

At 9:13 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 23, the Commonwealth of Virginia executed 41-year-old Teresa Lewis. She was convicted of plotting to kill her husband and stepson. She became the first woman in 100 years to be executed in Virginia and the 12th woman in the United...

Books That Changed My Life and Ministry

A fellow pastor emailed me with some kind words, and a suggestion – blog about the 10 books that changed my life and ministry. Of course, the Bible goes without saying, but I said it anyway to avoid unnecessary comments on its absence from this list. And I’m not...

Looking back and learning

When fearful people seek government preference for their religious beliefs and practices, or paint racial, ethnic or religious groups with the broad brush of generalization based on the actions of a few, or claim to possess complete clarity about the truth by which...