• An Open Letter to the Arizona Diamondbacks

    This season promises to be an exciting one for your (and my) Arizona Diamondbacks.  If the early results continue, the Diamondbacks may make a strong push for the playoffs and maybe even win their division.  That’s a very good thing! But I have an issue—a serious one—with a decision you...

  • Religious Liberty and Sex Abuse

    I believe in religious liberty.  It is a Biblical concept.  Our first responsibility is to God and not to the state.  Peter and John stated it very well when called before the Jewish Sanhedrin and told to stop testifying about Jesus.  They said, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to...

  • Christians and Voting 2022

    An Update of a 2020 Blog I vote.  And I encourage you to vote.  But I won’t tell you to vote for.  I don’t endorse candidates and I don’t endorse parties.  I know some pastors endorse candidates directly, and I know many more who do so indirectly, by saying something...

  • Ethical and Practical Questions About Water

    I’m a pastor and so I’m primarily concerned with spiritual matters, and I focus on teaching people to love God, love people, and follow Jesus.  But that does not mean that I am unconcerned with physical and practical matters.  The truth is that I love Arizona and the people of...

  • The Good News About Abortion

    Last week, a leak from the United States Supreme Court indicated that the court may be considering reversing Roe v. Wade, which made abortion widely available.  We don’t know yet how the courts will officially rule.  And if they do overturn that case, we are not yet certain what the...

  • A Biblical View of the Environment

    I am not an earth worshipper.  I am not a tree-hugging environmentalist.  I know that there are those in the environmentalist movement who deny God, who worship “mother earth,” and who have all kinds of strange beliefs. And though I’m posting this during the week that includes “Earth Day,” I...

  • A Word to our Catholic Brothers and Sisters

    Let me start by saying that I am not a Roman Catholic, and so I don’t want to be overly critical. Baptists, too, make serious mistakes, and we should be called out—lovingly, I hope—when we do. I hope you take this word in a loving way, for I have something...

  • Abortion and the Church

    I am pro-life. Completely. Totally. Absolutely.  I believe abortion is wrong. Period. I state that right up front because I want you to know where I stand. I am occasionally criticized for not preaching on it often enough or for not “observing” Sanctity of Life Sunday in my message on the...

  • Putting the “Civil” back into “Civilization”

    A “civilized” nation has the responsibility to act with civility.  If we lose that—and we are dangerously close to losing all traces of respect and civility in our public speech in America—then we cannot continue to call ourselves a civilized nation.  You can see the lack of civility and respect...

  • The Blame Game

    Let me start by saying that the world is broken.  And there is plenty of blame to go around. But it’s unhealthy to spend too much time playing the blame game. Need evidence that the world is broken and messed up?  Look around.  Wars.  Terrorists.  Earthquakes.  Murders.  Hurricanes.  Pandemics.  There...