June 5, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

A personal, inspirational message delivered at solo commencement

By Mike Haynes

                High school and college 2022 graduation ceremonies in our area are pretty much behind us, with young people letting loose happy shouts and sighs of relief. For most seniors, the celebrations start with scores or hundreds of capped-and-gowned ex-students walking across a stage while their names are read and maybe their images are projected on a screen for a few seconds.

                My wife, Kathy, her mother, Peggy, and I attended a ceremony a couple of weeks ago that was opposite in scale but at least as meaningful as the traditional events.

                Our 18-year-old niece, Hope, had finished her home-schooling, directed by her mom, Cheryl, who with her husband, Bill – my wife’s brother – were staging a solo commencement ceremony for their daughter. It might not be the thing for every senior, or even for every home-schooled student, but for Hope it seemed just right.

                And unlike many larger gatherings, God was invited.

                Cheryl had invited Hope’s youth pastor, Ashton, to speak at the 40-minute event at the family’s home in addition to three other teachers and leaders from their church. Mom and Dad also offered words of encouragement, and each of the speakers read a short passage of scripture. Friends and family were the audience.

                Kristie, one of the adult role models who spoke, pointed out an example of family loyalty. Several years ago while she was taking care of Hope and her younger brother, Nate, Kristie put Nate in a time-out for some small misbehavior. Hope emphatically sat down next to her brother in a show of solidarity for what she thought was unjust punishment.

                Most graduates don’t get such a personal ceremony with uplifting words directed specifically to them from people who know them well. Hope did. Wearing a purple cap and gown, she was commended not only for schoolwork but for impressive Bible memorization and for her creativity, especially in art and design.

                She and her 14-year-old brother, Nate, have learned about classical music, geography, history and all the other conventional areas of study, and both have soaked it up. Nate also is a technology whiz who can fix his granny’s computer problems. At the same time, their perspective has been biblical.

                One of the verses read at the ceremony was Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

That statement doesn’t mean to ignore your understanding or learning about the world but to view it through the lens of the creator of that world. It isn’t advice that is heard at many school graduation ceremonies, but at least in our part of the country, we still have baccalaureate services where graduates can be exposed to such wisdom. And at this event, it was central.

Hope’s dad, Bill – a certified public accountant and her home school “principal” – handed the diploma to her, followed by hugs from her parents and a catered supper for the guests. The new graduate also received an honor cord for her efforts to help and contribute to the learning of young children through the years.

                One encouragement during the ceremony could apply to every young person finishing their education in any setting. It’s Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

 May 22, 2022, Amarillo Globe-News column:

'Where the Light Fell' delves into Yancey's upbringing, faith journey

By Mike Haynes

                I had no idea that the young author had endured such deep family trauma and spiritual struggle. All I knew was that his advice to a couple hundred eager writers in an expansive meeting room was inspiring.

                Philip Yancey was 29, an up-and-coming writer and one of the main speakers at the 1979 “Decision” School of Christian Writing, hosted in St. Paul, Minnesota, by the Billy Graham organization’s “Decision”

magazine. I was 28 and attending the long-weekend conference.

                I remember the thin, fuzzy-headed journalist talking about a recent story he’d had published in “Reader’s Digest.” I think it was about a woman who had been involved in some dangerous incident but survived and gave the glory to God. Plenty of smiles and head nods in the audience indicated approval of a Christian writer breaking into a mainstream magazine, and Yancey implied that “You, too, can do this.”

                He had only two books to his credit then, including the 1977 bestseller, “Where Is God When It Hurts?” His third, “Unhappy Secrets of the Christian Life,” came out in 1979. Knowing what I know now, it’s not surprising that Yancey’s early topics leaned toward pitfalls of Christianity and the church.

                In 2021, after more than 30 books, years of columns in “Christianity Today” magazine and acclaim as one of the top Christian writers of the past 45 years, his most personal effort yet was published. “Where the Light Fell” opens up Yancey’s childhood and early adulthood with no punches pulled, and the story isn’t always pretty.

                He had revealed some of his background in 2001’s “Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church.” In that book, Yancey described growing up in a fundamentalist church, how it caused him to doubt God and his eventual embrace of a more loving and grace-filled faith. In fact, grace has been a recurring theme in his writing, with 1997’s “What’s So Amazing About Grace” another of his many bestsellers.

                “Where the Light Fell” goes deeper into his family upbringing, starting with the tragedy of his pastor father, who died in his early 20s after contracting polio. Marshall Yancey and his wife, Mildred, had vowed to become missionaries in Africa, but Marshall’s polio and confinement to an iron lung ended that plan. With their congregation praying for healing, the Yancey couple decided to trust God as Marshall was removed from the iron lung.

                Ultimately, he couldn’t survive without the machine to help him breathe. Marshall Yancey died, and his wife made another vow – which Philip and his older brother, another Marshall, came to regard as a curse. She dedicated both boys to God as future missionaries to Africa.

                Much of the book details the unstable life the Yancey boys had after their father’s death, mostly a result of the strict hand of their mother. She became a well-regarded Bible teacher among fundamentalist Baptist Christians in the Atlanta area, but at home she railed at Marshall and Philip when they fell short of her religious and other expectations. Both boys were relieved to escape from home to a Bible college, but Marshall later lost his faith, and Philip seriously questioned his.

                Marshall drifted away from belief, eventually experiencing major addictions. Philip slowly floated in the other direction. His memoir describes how a love of nature, then music and finally, the college romance that led to his marriage drew him closer to a genuine relationship with God. Most of his life, he had struggled to move past a mechanical half-faith that he didn’t trust. But during a prayer session with friends, he had mystical thoughts of the Good Samaritan story. He saw himself as the wounded victim and Jesus leaning down to help him – only to have Yancey reject the Savior.

                The son of a preacher and of a devout mother, the college student who had grown up embedded in the church, told his future wife, Janet: “…I may have had the first authentic religious experience of my life.”

  

Philip Yancey

              It shouldn’t be surprising that an intelligent, talented, popular writer who has influenced thousands or millions has undergone such a dramatic switch from doubt and hostility to humble faith. C.S. Lewis comes to mind. But Yancey did, and soon after, in an essay he read to a college class, he said, “Something happened. … I was asking God to somehow, even though I didn’t want him to, give me the love of the Good Samaritan. Who loved irrationally, with no reason. …

                “I was the tramp and God was trying to help me. Every time he leaned over I spit in his face. What’s more, I wanted to remain a tramp. An intelligent, sophisticated tramp by choice.”

                Yancey says, however, that his conversion came during that dorm room prayer meeting. Like C.S. Lewis before him, he was a “reluctant convert.” Positive elements of his life had pushed him incrementally toward their originator, God. As the early theologian Augustine wrote, “I couldn’t look at the sun directly, but I could look at where the light fell.”

I knew nothing of Yancey’s journey when I saw him in 1979. I was just stirred by his exhortation to the fledgling writers not to settle for less than the best. He told us that modern Christian artists – writers, musicians and other creative people – didn’t influence our culture as they could because the quality of their work didn’t compare favorably to much that non-Christians were doing. Good intentions weren’t enough; standards needed to be higher.

I think that has changed somewhat since 1979. “The Chosen” TV series. Max Lucado. Christians are producing lots of thoughtful and creative books, blogs, movies, songs, articles and podcasts.

Well beyond his dark start, Philip Yancey has helped light the way.

May 8, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Behind great Christian men are great Christian mothers

By Mike Haynes

                Most Americans have heard of Billy Graham, once called “America’s pastor,” and many know of Franklin Graham, his son who now is head of his late father’s ministry.

Anyone who’s spent much time in a Methodist church has heard of John Wesley, who founded the Methodist movement, and maybe Charles Wesley, writer of more than 6,500 hymns, including “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”

                On Mother’s Day, though, let’s take a quick look at two women who deserve their own accolades outside of the successful men in their lives.

Ruth Bell Graham

                Ruth Bell Graham, born in 1920, married Billy Graham in 1943 after the two met at Wheaton College, a Christian school near Chicago. If she hadn’t agreed to become the behind-the-scenes support of the world’s most famous preacher, she probably would have been a missionary in Tibet or China, where she had grown up the daughter of medical missionaries.

                It’s well known that as it turned out, Ruth kept the home fires burning in North Carolina, raising the Grahams’ five children while Billy carried the gospel around the globe. On the Graham ministry website, son Franklin recalled, “My mother was always bright and sparkly, even when she worried or would get only an hour or two of sleep at night. … Mother never went to bed until all of us children were back in for the night. She has that bright, cheerful personality, and I believe it comes from her daily walk with the Lord.”

Daughter Anne Graham Lotz, a speaker and author, remembered, “I would go down to my mother’s room early in the morning. Her light would be on, and I would find her at her big, flat-top desk. She would have about 14 different translations of the Bible spread out. She would be reading and studying her Bible.

“I would go down to her room late at night. I would see the light on underneath the door and I’d go in, and she would be on her knees in prayer.” Anne said she believes her mother’s daily walk with Jesus saved her from loneliness as her husband preached away from home for months at a time.

            In addition to managing the home and the kids, Ruth was a key counselor for Billy’s evangelism decisions and advised him on his sermons and books. She wrote or co-wrote 14 books herself, some for children and many featuring her poetry.

            Susanna Wesley was born in 1669 in England. Her father and husband both were ministers, but it was two of her sons who had a great impact on the world.

Susanna Wesley

            Susanna gave birth to 19 children, 10 of whom survived to adulthood. Like Ruth Graham, she was the primary presence in her children’s lives. She had a talent for organization, scheduling a daily hour to spend separately with each of her children, instructing them in the Bible and about life.

            According to a United Methodist history website, “When the children were small, she developed a remarkable and effective method of education and spiritual nurture.

“As they grew older, she wrote manuals for them on such topics as the attributes of God, the Apostles' Creed and the Holy Spirit. John, Charles and the other children relied on her wise counsel on matters spiritual, theological, and personal.”

With all of John Wesley’s achievements in advancing God’s Word, he was a failure at marriage, and his mother remained one of his major influences. In a 1732 letter to John, she gave child-rearing advice: “As self-will is the root of all sin and misery, so whatever cherishes this in children insures their after wretchedness and irreligion; whatever checks and mortifies it, promotes their future happiness and piety."

To her son Samuel, she wrote in 1709, “In all things endeavor to act on principle, and do not live like the rest of mankind, who pass through the world like straws upon a river, which are carried which way the stream or wind drives them."

Susanna Wesley died in 1742 at age 73. Biographer Susan Pellowe summed up her life: “…although she never preached a sermon or published a book or founded a church, (she) is known as the Mother of Methodism. Why? Because two of her sons, John Wesley and Charles Wesley, as children consciously or unconsciously, applied the example and teachings and circumstances of their home life.”

            Ruth Graham died in 2007 at age 87, 11 years before Billy followed her. Both are buried on the grounds of the Billy Graham Library at Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s telling that a Congressional Gold Medal awarded in 1996 had an engraving of the faces of “the Rev. Billy and Ruth Graham” on the front, recognizing the key role Ruth had played in the ministry.

            Ruth’s gravestone includes Chinese characters meaning, “righteousness.” It also quotes a highway sign she had seen years before: “End of construction. Thank you for your patience.”

            I’d say God’s construction of both Susanna’s and Ruth’s lives was on a firm foundation.

 April 24, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

From a life ruled by drugs to a life ruled by God

Kim Barlow

By Mike Haynes

                There’s a good chance you’ve seen him in TV commercials. He’s been in a bunch for more than one Amarillo retail company, and they usually involved some self-deprecating humor.

                His smile is almost as wide as he is tall, but for 18 years it hid something sinister. Kim Barlow’s life was ruled by drugs.

                Barlow and his three brothers had grown up attending church, but for him, it wasn’t having much effect on his life. In 1990, he was in his mid-30s, married and having an alcohol-fueled party at his house. Two of his guests had wandered into the garage and soon, one returned to the party and said, “Hey, Barlow, come out here a minute. We want to show you something.”

                The two guys had deposited two lines of whitish-amber powder on the hood of Barlow’s car, he later recalled, and urged him to sniff some of it into his nose with a straw.

                Thinking of his upbringing and about one of his brothers who was a police officer, Barlow resisted. But being called “chicken” and hearing “It isn’t going to hurt you,” he gave in and tried it.

                It was a form of methamphetamine, and that one experiment was all it took. He loved the energy and euphoria it gave him, and he couldn’t resist it. Barlow was on a downward slide for almost two decades.

                In April two years ago, he published a book called, “My Rehab Is Spelled J-E-S-U-S.” That’s a big clue that he would escape his descent into meth addiction, drug dealing, three divorces, jeopardizing his job, and considering shooting a man over a drug deal.

                His book begins with an account of another meth addict calling him at 2 a.m. one morning, desperate for some “stuff.” Barlow, then a dealer, was out of “stuff.” The man called him a liar, said he was coming to Barlow’s house and if he didn’t get what he wanted, “I’m going to kill you when I get there.”

                So Barlow got his 12-gauge shotgun out of a closet and sat, waiting.

       
         He found out later that his meth customer did reach the house but for some reason decided to turn around and give up on his quest. Maybe that was God’s protection. Regardless, it brought home to Barlow the depth of the hole he had fallen – or jumped – into.

                His short book details the suffering that addiction brought to Barlow and to some around him. It also highlights the times when God was pointing to the direction of freedom. The turning point came in 2008 when someone emailed him a link to a video called “Cardboard Testimonies.”

About 20 people at a local church walked onto a stage, one at a time, each holding up a piece of cardboard with a negative message on the front and turning it around to a redeeming message on the back. “Christian men seemed weak” turned into “Now I am one!!” “Sideline Christian” became “Going to be a missionary.”

                With music praising God’s love, one young woman held up her cardboard message, “Was addicted to METH.” She turned it over to “Now addicted to HIM.”

                 Barlow described his reaction as a chill down his spine and tears down his cheeks. He felt ready to listen to God telling him, “Kim, this is enough. It is over, and I will take you out of this.”

Kim Barlow, right, prays with two people
at the Franklin Graham God Loves You
event in Amarillo in September 2021.
(Photo by the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association)

                His book recounts an immediate decision to get rid of meth and everything associated with it. He says that the next day, he put several thousand dollars’ worth of drugs and paraphernalia in a box – his cardboard testimony? – and buried it in a dumpster.

                His turnaround wasn’t easy, but he ran from his addiction with the help of friends, family, a program called Celebrate Recovery and involvement in Walk to Emmaus weekend retreats. And this businessman who had successfully sold retail merchandise, then illegal drugs, couldn’t help but begin to sell the most valuable product of all, Jesus Christ. “I’m a pretty good promoter,” he said.

Barlow says conventional rehabilitation programs are important and necessary for many who are captive to drugs, alcohol or other addictions. But for him, his restored faith in God was the answer.

                Barlow, who retired from business in 2020, speaks to church and other groups – to pretty much anyone who will listen to his story. He started a Facebook group called “Real Men and Women Who Follow Jesus,” which has 14,600 members, and he has 4,900 friends on his personal Facebook page. He posts devotional messages every day.

                Last year, the CBN cable network featured him on “The 700 Club” in a six-minute segment called “My Return to the Father.” The narrator says Barlow now has a strengthened relationship with his daughter, Dawn. Fighting back tears in the video, the Amarillo salesman says, “Jesus is always there, and he is wanting to take you back to have a relationship with him.”

 April 10, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News

Remembering family reunions and "The Tie That Binds'

By Mike Haynes

                I don’t remember where I got my silly, brown tie that has the words, crudely written on it in iridescent green with a paint pen, “Blest Be The Tie That Binds.” Maybe I found it at a garage sale.

                It attracted me years ago because it brought to mind an annual reunion my family had attended for around 50 years. At the end of each weekend gathering, we would sing that Christian hymn before everyone departed for their homes.

                The Kunkel Reunion was a longtime tradition on my mother’s side of the family that brought together the descendants of Samuel Kunkel, who was buried in 1926 in my hometown of McLean, Texas. Of course, various branches of the family had different last names, and members of my immediate family plus my uncle, a Smith, joked every year that if you attended the reunion, you had been “Kunkelized.”

                On my dad’s side, we attended the Morse Reunion for many years. It didn’t last as long as the Kunkel one, which I think ran from the 1940s to the 2000s, but Dad’s kinfolks got together annually for 30 or 40 years. That reunion stemmed from my great-grandfather, J.S. Morse, who died at McLean in 1968, and others in his family.

                The Kunkel Reunion usually took place at the American Legion Hall in McLean, sometimes moving to Thompson Park or other Amarillo sites. The Morses moved around more, often meeting in McLean but sometimes in the mountains of New Mexico.

                The Kunkel group certainly was more organized. As long as I can remember, the reunion began with an informal gathering on Saturday night, a huge potluck dinner on Sunday (in our part of the country, the noon meal is dinner, not lunch) and then a formal business meeting where money was collected, officers were elected, minutes were recorded and those who had been born, married or died in the past year were recognized.

                And before that Sunday dinner, most of the group attended church together.

                Methodists and Baptists were the denominations most represented, so in alternating years, the congregation of one of those two McLean churches grew by 40 to 60 people on one Sunday in June. There were plenty of jokes about Baptists not dancing and Methodists not having an invitation to be “converted” at the end of their service.

                Sadly, both reunions have faded away. I’m still accused teased by my dad and siblings for “killing” the Kunkel Reunion, because at the last business meeting 15 or 20 years ago, I was elected president for the next year. By that time, most of my grandparents’ generation – the driving force behind the reunion – had died, and attendance had been low for a while. Drucilla, the family historian and secretary, was gone, and the usual practice of each family group sticking to its own table had gotten even more pronounced.

I talked to some of the remaining Kunkels and other relatives, and all agreed that it was time to fold up the card tables.

                The Morse Reunion came to a similar demise, although I wasn’t involved in that decision. Now some of us “younger” family members run into each other occasionally and say, “We should have a reunion again,” but so far, we haven’t.

                Another branch of my mother’s family, the Smiths, had a one-time event in 2012. Roger Smith, then pastor of Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, managed to get a big group of Smiths and relatives to a weekend at his church, and I’m glad. Four cousins of my mom’s generation posed for pictures, and a decade later, only one of them is left.

                I also was happy that I got to participate in a couple of reunions of my wife Kathy’s family. Her mom, Peggy, grew up in eastern Kentucky. She’s lived in Amarillo for more than 50 years, but she has visited her home in the heart of Hatfield-McCoy country most Memorial Days.

                On that weekend, the Francis clan traditionally has gathered to place flowers at mountain grave sites, eat the best fried chicken anyone’s ever had and sit on the porch telling stories and warning the kids not to get too close to the creek. I even got to meet a McCoy one year, kin to Peggy by marriage. I don’t think any Hatfields were invited.

                As with my family, deaths have reduced the number attending that reunion and worshipping at the pretty white Presbyterian church in the holler. The last time we visited Kentucky, I didn’t even get any fried chicken.               

                My mom has been gone since 2013, but the rest of the immediate family, consisting of my dad, three brothers, sister and their kids and grandkids, started a new tradition in 2021. We met in Ruidoso, New Mexico, for what we hope will be an annual Haynes reunion. My brother David’s wife, Ginger, had moved on to heaven unexpectedly, and David decided we could honor her by gathering in one of the family’s favorite places.

                Our family is no better or worse than a lot of families, but it comforts me that on big occasions, we do circle up and pray. There weren’t many dry eyes when about 25 of us did that around pizza boxes in a Ruidoso condo last summer.

                I used to get choked up, too, when Tom Caldwell’s bass voice would lead the Kunkel group: “Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.”

 March 27, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Looking at Russia's rich history - some good, some bad

By Mike Haynes

                Three years ago this month, my wife and I booked a Viking river cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Yes, Russia.

                We were supposed to board the boat more than a year later in the summer of 2020. At the time, traveling in Russia had become fairly common since the downfall of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991. In fact, the popular Viking cruise line had gotten its start in 1997 with Norwegian entrepreneur Torstein Hagen’s small ships taking vacationers along the Volga and other rivers between Russia’s two largest cities.

                Travel had opened up, the result of Mikhail Gorbachev’s relaxing of the iron-fisted Soviet rule and the breakup of the USSR as most of its pieces became independent nations. Christian missionaries from the West also were more free to operate in Russia and in former Soviet republics. From Amarillo, minister Roy Wheeler and Bill Duncan led many Christian outreach trips to Belarus in the 1990s.

                Now, reports have said Belarus is a staging ground for some of the Russian attacks on Ukraine that have dominated the news since Feb. 24. Under Vladimir Putin, Russia’s openness gradually had been receding, including more restrictions on foreign church activity, and the invasion of Ukraine pretty much put a stop to all western involvement in Russia, a country with a rich history – some good and some bad.

                As for the river cruise Kathy and I booked, the cruise line canceled it in 2020 because of COVID-19. We rebooked, and the pandemic again forced its cancellation in 2021. We rebooked for summer 2022, and … well, the war in Ukraine put an anchor on the boats again.

                Part of the enjoyment of planning a big trip, though, is learning about your destination. Since 2019, I have read three or four books on Russia and watched two video lecture series on Russian history and culture. One of the books is “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” published by Alexander Radishchev in 1790 during the reign of Catherine the Great.

                Like the Russians protesting this year’s atrocities in Ukraine, Radishchev was arrested because Catherine, despite preaching reform of the Russian empire’s repression of the lower classes, saw his writing as a threat.

                Radishchev’s book reminds me of “The Canterbury Tales” but with less humor. He describes a nobleman traveling by coach through multiple villages on the way from the Baltic Sea port of St. Petersburg to Moscow in the interior of the country. At each stop to change horses, he meets various characters who either have strong political opinions or stories of hardship under the ruling authorities. The tales include a young maid forced to marry a rich aristocrat, peasants coerced into the army illegally and a big landowner getting away with murder.  

                The author touches on the strong influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the country’s history which – long after his and Catherine’s time – was pushed underground by the 1917 revolution and the ruthless Bolsheviks. The colorful “onion domes” of St. Basil’s Cathedral, which opened in 1561, were the top visual treat that Kathy and I had hoped to see in Moscow.

                Historically, maybe Putin’s brutal push into Ukraine shouldn’t be surprising. Russia has had high points, such as the acceptance of Christianity as the state religion in 988, Peter the Great building St. Petersburg into a European-style city in the early 1700s and reforms by Catherine in the late 1700s that improved life for the poor. Some czars were better than others, and Russian literature, music and dance have enriched world culture.

                But suffering has been common, from leaders such as Ivan the Terrible (who had St. Basil’s built but otherwise earned his nickname) to the devious Lenin after the revolution to Stalin’s bloody purges under Communism from the 1920s to the 1950s. And now, Putin is trashing his country’s reputation again.

                Russia actually began in Ukraine. Its people descended from the Kievan Rus, who had origins in Viking Scandinavia and in Slavic territories. In the 800s, they centered their society on Kiev (currently spelled Kyiv), where Orthodox Christianity became the official religion.

                Radishchev’s book reflects the strong influence of the Russian Orthodox Church when he wrote in the late 1700s. Describing a forced wedding, the author laments the misuse of the church of “the Father of all blessings, the giver of tender sentiments and joys, the architect of true happiness, the creator of the universe.” He notes the importance of several monasteries around the city of Novgorod.

                And he recalls the 1570 attack by Ivan the Terrible on Novgorod that started with Ivan’s forces surrounding the city: “Stung by the resistance of this republic, this proud, savage but intelligent ruler wished to raze it to its very foundations.”

                Historians estimate that 2,500 to 12,000 residents were killed, with many tortured, and the city was ravaged. Radishchev writes, “…by what right did he rage against them? What right did he have to annex Novgorod. … because he styled himself the Tsar of All Russia? … Can a right exist when the blood of peoples seals an outcome?”

                The same questions could be asked about Putin and Ukraine. I suspect that if Radishchev lived today, he would be on the streets of Moscow protesting the invasion. The overall theme of his book is the suffering of powerless people at the hands of powerful leaders, which has been the case through much of Russia’s history.

                Radishchev says, “Blessed is the writer if he is able to enlighten even one person through his creation; blessed is he if he has sown virtue in even a single heart.”

                I wish the current Russian leader would embrace those words of his countryman.

 March 13, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

'Remember the Alamo' reflects spirit of resistance seen in Ukraine today

By Mike Haynes

                I dragged Kathy to a Lone Star Ballet performance last week – not because either of us likes ballet, but because of Texas history.

                The event was the excellent “Remember the Alamo,” created by King Hill, the local theater teacher, writer, director and man of many talents. It presented
a streamlined version of the 1836 battle when fewer than 200 Texans were surrounded by thousands of dictator Santa Anna’s Mexican soldiers. Actors voiced historical quotes from key battle participants interspersed with dramatic music and young dancers illustrating the fighting and its sad aftermath.

                  It was hard for us not to compare the story of the “Shrine of Texas Liberty” to the 2022 war in Ukraine, where at this writing, the eastern European nation’s army and citizens were fighting off invaders from Russia in another David vs. Goliath mismatch.

                As an actor spoke words from young Alamo commander William B. Travis’s famous “Victory or Death” letter – addressed “To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World,” young Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to mind.

            I pray that Zelenskyy’s fate will be more like that of World War II British Prime Minister Winston Churchill than that of the heroic martyr Travis. The Ukrainian has been called “Churchill in a T-shirt” for his bold leadership, and his inspiring words have been in the mold of Travis and Churchill.

            Here are some quotes attributed to Zelenskyy:

            “Life will win over death, and light will win over darkness.”

            “When you will be attacking us, you will see our faces; not our backs, but our faces.”

            And concerning Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his military: “They count on the fact that God’s retribution isn’t instant. But He sees. And answers. You cannot hide from His answers. No bunker can protect you from God’s answers.”

            Zelenskyy is Jewish, while Putin represents the traditional Communist establishment that for most of the past 100 years has been anti-religion. Certainly, millions of Christians and Jews have been praying for the well-being of the Ukrainian people and nation.

C.S. Lewis

            The same was true for those who opposed Hitler during World War II, and while the outcome remained seriously in doubt, Christian writer C.S. Lewis reminded us that whatever happened, no matter how terrible the situation, believers would be OK in the end.

            Lewis gave a sermon in 1939 titled, “Learning in War-Time,” urging Oxford University students not to forsake their education just because the war in Europe seemed so much more urgent.

            “Why should we – indeed how can we – continue to take an interest in these placid occupations when the lives of our friends and the liberties of Europe are

in the balance?” Lewis asked. He answered his own question:

            “I think it important to try to see the present calamity in a true perspective. The war creates no

absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. …

“We are mistaken when we compare war with ‘normal life.’ Life has never been normal. Even those periods which we think most tranquil, like the nineteenth century, turn out, on closer inspection, to be full of cries, alarms, difficulties, emergencies. Plausible reasons have never been lacking for putting off all merely

cultural activities until some imminent danger has been averted or some crying injustice put right.”

                Lewis didn’t downplay the tragedy of war. He had been in the French trenches of World War I himself. But looking at the bigger picture in light of history, he reminded his audience that God ultimately is in control and that each person’s eternal destiny is more important even than suffering in war. He cited the Nazis’ then-recent invasion of Poland:

                “We think of the streets of Warsaw and contrast the deaths there suffered with an abstraction called Life. But there is no question of death or life for any of us; only a question of this death or of that – of a machine gun bullet now or a cancer forty years later. What does war do to death? It certainly does not make it more frequent; 100 percent of us die, and the percentage cannot be increased.”

                That perspective may sound cold or callous, but it’s consistent with Paul’s statement to the Philippians:  ^“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

            In 1941, Lewis wrote in “The Screwtape Letters” that while Satan’s demons might be happy that war was causing grief for humans, the evil ones should worry because of the likely increased faith in God the conflict could encourage:

            “… if we are not careful, we shall see thousands turning in this tribulation to the Enemy …” In the language of the book’s demons, “the Enemy” is God.

            Many prayers have been sent up since the Ukraine crisis began last month. I earnestly hope that, unlike the pleas of Travis in Texas, those of Zelenskyy are answered positively and that, in the longer run, many lives will turn permanently to God.

 Feb. 27, 2022, column in Amarillo Globe-News:

'Belfast' shares human side of Irish conflict between Catholics, Protestants

By Mike Haynes

                One way to explain what went on in Northern Ireland for roughly the last 30 years of the 20^th century is to say “the Troubles” were a conflict between Catholics and Protestants.

                That’s way too simple. Without getting too deep into the history, the main point of contention was political, not religious. Northern Ireland was under the control of the United Kingdom, while the rest of Ireland was independent.

Encyclopedia Britannica says, “Catholics by and large identified as Irish and sought the incorporation of Northern Ireland into the Irish state. The great bulk of Protestants saw themselves as British and feared that they would lose their culture and privilege if Northern Ireland were subsumed by the republic.”

                Belfast, the largest city in Northern Ireland, was the center of disputes that erupted into violence in the late 1960s, and it’s the setting of Kenneth Branagh’s new movie, “Belfast.” You don’t need to know the history to understand and enjoy this outstanding film; you just need to see it as if you were 9 years old – like Buddy, the main character played by Jude Hill.

                The plot, set in 1969, is fiction, but it’s based on the childhood of Branagh, the award-winning Irish actor who wrote and directed it.  And from the first scene, when Buddy’s play in the street is interrupted by young Protestant men throwing rocks and setting things on fire, to the last, when we find out whether he and his family will move to a safer city, the peaceful street where the family has lived for at least three generations is a place of turbulence and anxiety.

                A cute storyline showing Buddy’s crush on pretty classmate Catherine (Olivia Tennant) is complicated by the fact that her family is Catholic. Most of their street is Protestant, but the few Catholics living there are the reason for the repeated violence by the Protestant gang. Buddy asks his dad (Jamie Dornan) if the ongoing conflict will keep him from talking to Catherine. Although in another scene Pa questions some Catholic beliefs, he tells Buddy, “She and her people are welcome in our house any day of the week.”

                Buddy – and for the most part his family, who only want to stay out of the social strife and pay their bills – wonders why people can’t just get along. Their parish pastor isn’t much help with his fire-and-brimstone preaching, which prompts Buddy to sketch two roads – one leading to heaven and one to hell – on a piece of paper and ask his older brother which one they should take.

                Their grandmother (Judy Dench) just confuses things when Buddy asks her about the NASA moon landing and she says the dark side of the moon is “where Lucifer hangs his shillelagh.”

                The closeness of family and the importance of place outweigh political or spiritual concerns in “Belfast,” and Branagh doesn’t depict either side in the Irish fighting as the right side. The film’s visual aspect reflects the gloom of “the Troubles” and occasional moments of joy. It’s in black and white, but when the family temporarily escapes the stress – such as watching the 1968 Dick Van Dyke movie, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” – we see glimpses of color.

                Caitriona Balfe as Ma and Ciaran Hinds as the grandfather add to the talented cast of this PG-13 movie. It doesn’t include much violence, but danger always seems around the corner, and you worry about the family. As Pa has a standoff with an enemy brandishing a gun, Branagh shows Gary Cooper in “High Noon” along with Tex Ritter singing, “I must face a man who hates me.”

 

One instance of hope is when, at a graveside, a minister recites I Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

                In real life, riots, shootings and bombings by extremists on both sides resulted in the deaths of police, soldiers and civilians for years. The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 finally ended “the Troubles.” Northern Ireland remains a part of the United Kingdom but is governed primarily by local representatives instead of the British Parliament.

                I remember reading news reports about the violence between the two sides. “Belfast” shows us a third side – the human one.