June 4, 2014 — Over the last few weeks the vagaries of my job included driving back and forth from Birmingham, Alabama to the Florida Gulf Coast. Three different times. About five hours in each direction. It was on the first trip down I noticed a sign for the “Hank Williams Museum” on a…

May 19, 2014 — Growing up in a Jewish neighborhood meant that even among the goyim common language was brindled with Yiddish words. He’s a putz. Spare me the spiel. The movie was schlock. Stop kvetching. And Oy Vey, you can’t be serious. Then there was schlep. The semantic range included designating a person…

June 27, 2013 — During an online discussion of the recent PCA General Assembly, Kenneth Pierce referred to “certain facets of our polity…creating procedural cul de sacs that are making issues impossible to resolve.” He put into words something that was a vague but persistent notion as I left Greenville last week. Often GA’s…

June 13, 2013 — In a normal state the human brain operates with a relatively stable level of neurons “firing” in the brain stem. With the introduction of a threat-stimulus that changes. It’s not just that brain activity increases, it’s how it increases. There is a release of noradrenaline that immediately acts on the…

May 17, 2013 — There is a simple way to end any genuine conversation about the brief institutional history and present state of the PCA. Actually, there are at least two. Just say, “The founders of the PCA fought to establish it because they believed the Bible and now it’s under threat by men…

March 24, 2013 — I am a pastor in the PCA. I believe the gospel. I also believe our view of the diaconate as an authoritative office needs to be reexamined. Though I hold a conservative view of Genesis 1-3, I strongly believe we should be inclusive of a wide berth of views. I…

March 14, 2013 — During my third year in seminary a denominational official came to speak in chapel and interview several “key” students. I was anointed one of those students. The criteria for making the key student cut was never made clear. I think it may have something to do with me being the…

March 13, 3013 — As screenwriters often do, Roy Nysamer takes some liberties in the 2006 film adaptation of The Painted Veil, W. Somerset Maugham’s story of longing, unrequited love and forgiveness set in 1920's colonial China. Unlike most movie treatments of novels it arguably improves on the source material. It’s always a hazard…

January 24, 2013 — Not long ago I found myself in a discussion with another PCA pastor→about the future of our denomination. I had met him a few hours before at a denominational gathering and we were eating dinner with a group of mutual friends. In a few more hours we would be traveling…