In the mostly Pentecostal/fundamentalist churches my Dad pastored, quips that played off scriptures would get a quick frown, if not a secretive note or phone call to the Rev. Robert E. Mims Sr. advising that his son was “in need of much prayer and counseling.” Hey, that actually was a quote from one note. And…

One of these days, I will shuffle off this mortal coil, vacate the earthly tent (as Paul put it), slip beyond the veil, or any of the myriad other metaphors for death. As a preacher’s kid, I had to attend funerals. A lot of them. I grew to hate the traditional bit of pumping a…

Nearly 2,200 years ago, members of such Jewish sects as the Essenes secreted nearly 1,000 biblical and related Jewish texts and records in caves along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. As preservation goes, their instincts were pretty good. The dry desert air and isolated location of these document caches kept some of the…

I first caught the disconnect between the fundamentalist Christian upbringing I had, and what Jesus actually taught, when it came to the question of war.  In Sunday school, this preacher’s progeny, along with the other kids, would be led in such songs as “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “I’m the Lord’s Army.” If the Sunday School…

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