Thinking Critically . . . Acting Faithfully
Bill Jones muses about Baptists, faith, ethics, justice, politics . . . and more
(NOTE: For yesterday’s monthly lunch fellowship of a group we call “Geezers,” we were asked: If we had one last sermon to preach, what would be our scripture text, what would be our topic of emphasis, and why? We were given 3 minutes each to share with the group. Being one of the few non-clergy Read more . . .
(Scroll to the end for links to my previous 20 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) This marks my 21st blog post paying tribute to Joanna since her passing in February 2021. They’ve slowed down since the feverish pace I kept for that first year – 13 in the first 12 months (and that Read more . . .
George Webber, the hero (anti-hero?) of Thomas Wolfe’s novel, You Can’t Go Home Again, realizes that “You can’t go . . . back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.” In his litany of such “homes” he includes, “back home to the ivory tower.” In the sense that nothing is the same as when Read more . . .
(NOTE: I published a much shorter version of this review on Amazon.com this past Saturday night. This is the complete original version, which I cut to fit Amazon’s standards.) My wife and I joined Wilshire Baptist Church in August 2004, on the very Sunday that Wilshire was celebrating George Mason’s 15th anniversary as senior pastor. Read more . . .
(Scroll to the end for links to my previous 19 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) It was 2½ years ago last evening, February 13, 2021, that I reluctantly left the hospital (per COVID rules) in Fort Worth and returned home, concerned that Joanna had not been very responsive the past few hours. Then, Read more . . .
(NOTE: This is taken from my Facebook post of Friday, August 11, 2023. I post it here to my blog for those who have not seen it on Facebook.) It’s not every day that you get to re-visit an elementary school of your youth, 61 years after you left it. For me, it was never, Read more . . .
(Scroll to the end for links to my previous 18 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) It was 50 years ago this past week, July 1973, that I flew from my home in Kansas City, MO, to Boston to visit my girlfriend. Joanna and I had been dating for about 6 months. I had Read more . . .
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow Read more . . .
I have lived in Allen, Texas, for almost 15 years, next-door neighbor Plano for 21 years before that. This is my community. It’s where I shop, eat, get together with family and friends, and so on. On Saturday, mass shootings in America morphed from long-distance events to a tragedy played out just down the street Read more . . .
(AUTHOR’S NOTE: Unable to make it to the Capitol in Austin for today’s Texas House Public Education Committee hearing, I provided the following written testimony – via an online link – regarding four voucher bills being considered by the committee.) I am a resident of Collin County, and my state representative is Jeff Leach. I Read more . . .