First Bill Hybels. Then Frank Page. While it is not uncommon these days for new names to be added to the roll-call of leaders who are either accused of moral misconduct or have admitted to it, this week the evangelical Christian community was rattled when two respected leaders were swept into the company of the accused. March 22 Christianity Today published the story that Bill Hybels, founding pastor of the innovative megachurch Willow Creek Community…
Last week Facebook revealed that Cambridge Analytica had mined the data of around 50 million users’ profiles due to Facebook’s lack of security, and its own complicity with Cambridge. But for five days Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook officials were strangely absent from the media. No word on their thoughts, no declaration of alarm, no acceptance of responsibility. And no apology. Quickly the clamor for an apology grew deafening, and angry subscribers starting exiting Facebook.…
Three weeks after Billy Graham crossed the confines of time and entered eternity, so did physicist Stephen Hawking. In this life, both were focused, effective, influential, and intensely missional. And then both met their Creator. One was embraced, his arrival anticipated and heralded in heaven. (Psalm 116:15). The other was dismissed, forever tragically separated from the Creator he had spent his earthly existence denying. And both determined that destiny in this life. Hawking, who suffered…
You’ve been through it, I know. Sometimes, dreams fail. Even completely capsize. Nikki Walsh and her boyfriend, Tanner Broadwell, decided nearly a year ago that they were tired of the humdrum of everyday Colorado life. Already in their twenties, they felt life was slipping by. They were tired of getting up and going to work and then doing it again, only to service debt and to see nearly every dollar dumped into living expenses. So…
Hollywood’s annual season of self-congratulations wraps up this Sunday night with the Academy Awards. No doubt host Jimmy Kimmel, the presenters, and the recipients will continue to advocate for the #MeToo and the Time’s Up movements, designed to draw attention to, and hopefully start ending, sexual harassment in Hollywood. Good for them! It’s about time actors and their ilk used their time on stage for something other than more self-promotion. #MeToo and Time’s Up are…
In case you’ve been asleep this week, here’s a summary of the absurdity. On the Feb. 12 episode of Big Brother, Omarosa Newman, former White House staffer, pontificated about immigration and impeachment. While chatting, she felt it her obligation to warn America that the only thing worse than having Trump as president would be having Vice-President Pence in his place. Why? Because Pence is a committed Christian who believes his relationship with Christ includes regular…
It’s a fuzzy memory, but it’s there. On Library Day in the elementary school I attended, I pulled from the shelves a biography of the Marquis de Lafayette. I remember liking the book, reading with fascination the exploits of one of the heroes of the American Revolution. That was the early 1970s. But if I had been a student in the elementary schools of 21st century Cumberland County, I probably would have never seen the…
I agree. Racism is evil. It is a sin. Period. Whether it happens in Charlottesville or Ferguson or Charlotte or at home. But from the week’s events, plenty of people are declaring that case, so I want to move on to something else, something that we could easily miss in the fray. A lesson leaders can learn in all this. President Trump was blistered for taking too long to declare that what happened in Charlottesville…
Social media is becoming less and less civil, and Christians and churches are not immune. Facebook, for instance, seems to be breeding incivility among siblings in Christ who ignore biblical admonitions to “love one another.” But social media, and FB in particular, is ingrained in society and impossible to extract. And we really don’t need to. In itself, social media is not a bad thing. But I think we need to be proactive in applying…
April 22 was Earth Day. Earth Day was born in 1970, and the movement still claims to retain its purpose of promoting climate and environmental literacy. The Earth Day Network takes credit for most legislation designed to protect the environment and endangered species. Most of that legislation is sound and depicts a genuine stewardship of the environment. The problem arises when we forget there is a thin line between protecting the environment and worshiping the…