Dec. 18, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Christmas is a time to eat, drink and be merry

By Mike Haynes
    One of the reasons I like eating out is seeing the people at other tables in the restaurant.
    Not that I watch them closely, but when glancing around the room, it’s gratifying to see people having fun.
    Eating out can be for a special occasion, but even if not, it’s a treat to be away from the house, away from work – and ideally, away from worries. Smiles on diners' faces indicate that troubles often are forgotten, at least temporarily, when friends or family get together over enchiladas or shrimp or even a hamburger that someone else made for them. I like seeing those smiles.

    The same is true of other escapes: a movie at the theater, a basketball game, a concert. Most of us have venues where we take breaks from humdrum – and sometimes difficult – daily life. It’s heartwarming to notice a couple laughing as they exit a funny movie or someone boot-scooting at a wedding reception.
    The Bible doesn’t say much about Jesus having fun, but some of his stories and guidance hint at humor. I’m no ancient language expert, but according to “Father Tim” at clergyconfidential.com, Jesus’ criticism of religious leaders in Matthew 23:24 – “You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel” – includes a sort of pun. In Aramaic, gnat is “galma,” while camel is “gamla.” We lose a little irony in the English translation.
    When Jesus performed his first miracle, changing water into wine, he was attending a wedding. It’s hard to imagine that he didn’t join in the festivities of a Jewish celebration. He was human as well as divine, and after all, if we believe he is God, well, he invented fun.
    We’re in a month of Christmas parties. I’ve been to three this December, and I couldn’t help looking around at the joy on lots of faces. We laughed at our bad bowling at my wife’s office party, and it was nice meeting a coworker and her husband, plus finding out they are active in a local church.
    My wife and her mother volunteer with the Amarillo SPCA animal shelter, and the people involved in that organization spend the year in the important work of saving dogs and cats. But at the SPCA Christmas party, all were at ease guessing how many M&Ms were in a container and displaying big smiles in a group picture taken by a restaurant server.
    It also was nice when wait staff members received unexpected small gifts from the animal shelter volunteers.
    Because I spent 25 years working with Amarillo College mass media students, I get invited to a lunchtime party each year with media students and faculty. It’s rewarding to see young people enjoying an hour or two away from writing news stories, editing video or studying for finals.
    Some college students are confident and become the life of the party as gifts are exchanged, while the more shy ones tend to have apprehensive looks on their faces that fade away when they see their teachers being silly and playful. Who wouldn’t laugh when one gift was a box of rocks – with a small amount of cash taped to each one.
    The Old Testament – the Hebrew scripture – mentions laughter more than the New Testament, and Jesus, whose life is described in the NT, certainly quoted and endorsed the OT. The sometimes depressing book of Job includes this verse: “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy” (Job 8:21).
    The famous statement in Ecclesiastes 8:15 says, “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.”
    Of course, much of Jesus’ message is serious business. But Christmas is one of those times when we can eat, drink and be glad, and for good reason. The God in whose image we were made visited us in person with Good News for all people.
    If we believe what he said, then even in times of fear and uncertainty, we can smile.

Dec. 4, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

New 'Chosen' episodes show disciples' reaction to first mission

By Mike Haynes

                On a movie theater screen Nov. 18, a group of 12 men formed a circle and prayed. Dressed in first-century clothing, their arms around each other’s shoulders, they appeared eager and apprehensive at the same time.

                With dramatic night lighting and moving music, they asked God to be with them as they started their first assignment without their leader. They were to go in pairs to communities throughout the region, telling the residents that the kingdom of God was near. And they were to heal people’s ailments and command impure spirits to go away – things they had seen their teacher do but that they had no idea he would give them the power to accomplish themselves.

                It was the closing scene of “The Chosen: Season 3, Episodes 1 and 2,” premiering in theaters across the country in anticipation of the regular streaming presentation of Season 3 of the first multi-season series depicting the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.

                Headlines after that first weekend of the theatrical release included the words, “surprised,” “shocked” and “stunned” regarding the box office ranking of “The Chosen.” It opened in the No. 3 spot behind only No. 1 “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and No. 2 “The Menu,” both heavily financed Hollywood productions. Then it moved up to No. 2 with a take of $11.8 million, ahead of “The Menu” at $11.3 million and behind “Black Panther” at $82.9 million. “Black Panther” was shown on 4,396 screens, according to boxofficemojo.com, and “The Menu” was on 3,228 screens. “The Chosen” was on only 2,021 screens.

                Of course, “The Chosen” primarily is a streaming production, filmed in Utah and increasingly near Midlothian, Texas, and financed by crowdfunding, sales of merchandise and theater tickets so that it can be offered free on its streaming app. It’s a sort of intruder into the entertainment field – maybe like Jesus himself was perceived by religious leaders 2,000 years ago.

                It has grabbed the attention of Christians of many stripes as well as others who might not be inclined to enter a church. It has generated some controversy, including from those who think nothing about Jesus should be presented unless it’s word-for-word from the Bible.

Dallas Jenkins, its creator and director, has explained clearly that “The Chosen” isn’t the Bible but that it does not contradict scripture. One of its purposes is to show Christ’s first disciples as human beings with worries, joys and extended families and friends. The storylines for Mary Magdalene, Matthew and Peter, for example, speculate on what might have been going on in their lives as Jesus chose them and as they came to believe and follow him.

Episode 2 of Season 3 shows Jesus encouraging James, son of Alphaeus, who has a physical ailment and wonders how he will be able to heal people when Jesus hasn’t healed him. That conversation isn’t in the Bible, but as Jenkins says, it is a creative, plausible supposition that fits into the biblical narrative. Christ probably didn’t have that exact talk with James in real life, but the scene reminds us that the disciples were real people who would have had serious discussions with their rabbi and savior. And Jenkins cites many examples of viewers turning to the Bible to read the scriptural context of the “Chosen” stories.

The prayer circle that the 12 form after receiving instructions from Jesus to go out “two by two” and tell people about him is an entirely likely occurrence that follows the New Testament accounts, and “The Chosen” makes it an emotional time for the men who have become brothers.  

I remember a sermon many years ago by the late Roy Wheeler, who was the senior minister of Paramount Terrace (now Hillside) Christian Church. He described a football game where the home team’s 11 offensive starters were huddled in the middle of the field with the opponents’ defense waiting for them to break the huddle and run a play.

But in Wheeler’s scenario, the home team stays in the circle, talking about the X’s and O’s of the next play. While the defense waits, the offense doesn’t move. The obvious comparison is to the church, where often we worship on Sunday, attend Sunday school lessons and encourage each other – but don’t go out into the world to spread the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ.

In “The Chosen,” the disciples are preparing for their next offensive play, and I assume we’ll see them in action in subsequent episodes. We know that in scripture, they did follow Jesus’ lead in reaching people with healing and word of the coming kingdom of God.

God changed the world through them. Many believers hope he will continue that revolution through “The Chosen” and through other methods. And all of us need to break the huddle and run the play.

  

Nov. 20, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Reflections on loyalty to hometowns, churches, God

By Mike Haynes

                Loyalty was the topic of a column in this newspaper last Sunday by Dr. Walter Wendler, president of West Texas A&M University.

                It got me to thinking.

                I have plenty of faults, but after living for quite a few decades, it’s obvious that I’m loyal, mostly to people and place, as Dr. Wendler expertly described. So is Kathy, my wife.

                People all over the Panhandle can say the same thing, but here are my examples. I’ll bet most who read this will find them familiar.

                I worked for 25 years at Amarillo College, and after I retiring, I attend luncheons of the AC retirees’ group. I visit my old department often. AC is a great place and has great people, which still motivates me.

                Kathy worked more than 30 years at the first Amarillo cancer treatment center. She left only to join the team of an oncologist for whom she had worked for several years and who was helping start a new center.

                 Kathy and I met at Paramount Terrace Christian Church. We got married there soon after and kept attending PTCC, switching only from a singles class to a couples class. The church moved and became Hillside Christian Church; we moved with it and still are there after 31 years

                I grew up at First Methodist Church in McLean, 70 miles east of Amarillo. After moving away for college and various jobs, I still have a strong fondness for that church, and Kathy and I give part of our contributions to it. My cousin being the pastor for most of the past three decades might have something to do with it, but my loyalty is deeper than that. I still have a little wooden children’s chair that I’m sure he and I sat on during Sunday school when we were preschoolers. It’s where I started learning about God.

                Lots of people have lasting loyalty to their hometowns, but I doubt that theirs surpasses mine. I love living in Amarillo and love friends and family here. But it isn’t my hometown. My hometown is McLean, at about 725 residents, half the size it was when I graduated from school there. And most of my family still lives in or outside of McLean, attending that same Methodist Church.

                Family is an obvious one, and I won’t spend much space going into details today. But the fact that Kathy and I will be traveling down I-40 for Thanksgiving at the ranch, then rushing back to Amarillo for “Thankmas” – our combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas – with my mother-in-law and Kathy’s brother and family from Oklahoma is testament to the priority both of us place on our kinfolks.

                Also in my hometown is my No. 1 school. I’m the worst athlete in my family, but I’m still proud of having been on McLean football, basketball and track teams. I love that our football coach still returns from the Dallas area to our reunions. To paraphrase the Amarillo High saying, “Once a Tiger, always a Tiger.” But it isn’t just sports. My classmates, the excellent teachers we had and the old high school building all make it my school.

                Kathy may not have quite the level of loyalty to AHS that I have to MHS, but she does to her best friends from school and her church youth group. She kept in touch with one who moved to Kansas and then to Florida until that close friend passed away. Several women from her teenage years reconnected some time back and now get together often. One will be staying a weekend at our house in a couple of weeks.

                Then there’s the Texas Panhandle as a whole. I love that when a sports team from the region makes it to state, fans from Higgins to Happy and everywhere in between root for “our” representatives – even if our town lost to their town that season.

                 And the state of Texas. The Alamo, the ranching heritage, the fact that we were a nation and much more. Yes, I like to brag on Texas. And the United States, its history and its flag.

                If you look at the T-shirts in my closet, you’ll know I have sports loyalties. Radio announcer Jack Dale and Southwest Conference football star Donny Anderson from Stinnett made me a Texas Tech fan long before I attended school there. Later, working at Tech for seven years cemented the fact that it’s a great place with great people.

                I often say that my second favorite school is the University of Oklahoma. Family loyalty to OU started with relatives in leadership there and my grandmother and uncle going to school there. Ever since seeing Don Meredith and Bob Hays lead the Cowboys in the 1960s, I’ve stuck with Dallas as my NFL team. Of course, Tech’s Patrick Mahomes has compelled me to add Kansas City as another must-watch team.

                I have some loyalty to West Texas A&M, although I look for T-shirts that say “WT” without the “A&M.” Pistol Pete Pedro, Jerry Logan and Mercury Morris were some of my football heroes, and it is the Panhandle’s university. My mom and dad attended WT, which adds fondness for me. But luckily, they quit school to get married, moved back to McLean and had me.

                I’m sure that blind loyalty can be a bad thing. Sometimes it’s best for people to change jobs or churches or careers or even political parties. But I think there are plenty of good reasons for the loyalties that Kathy and I have. And one of them is a big factor in why we got married.

                Besides both liking the Beatles and salt on our chips, we knew we both had commitments to Jesus Christ. And that’s the most important loyalty of all.

 Nov. 6, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

'Belfast,' 'Derry Girls' illustrate times of Troubles in Northern Ireland

By Mike Haynes

                Since the Reformation, most of the countries of Europe have been split at one time or another between Catholic and Protestant. Martin Luther kicked off the divide when he posted his 95 complaints about the Roman Catholic Church in 1517 in Germany, and people for centuries after were jailed, exiled, burned or beheaded – by both sides – for not having the correct beliefs.

                One of the modern periods of conflict that continued the discord was the Troubles, about 30 years of violence from the 1960s to 1998 that brought fear and uncertainty to the people of Northern Ireland.

                The Troubles weren’t entirely a Catholic-Protestant thing; the causes of the strife also included longstanding political and cultural tensions between the Irish and the English.

                But to grasp the effect of the Troubles on the men, women, boys and girls of Northern Ireland, two recent bits of pop culture have enlightened me and my usual movie and TV partner, my wife, Kathy.

                The birth of friction between Northern Ireland and England followed the invasion of England by the Normans and William the Conqueror in 1066. About a century later, the British found their way to Northern Ireland with settlers establishing themselves there and making that corner of the Emerald Isle much more English than the rest of Ireland.

                Fast-forward to the 1960s, and the native Irish there, mostly Catholic, were pushing back against those who had become Protestant and against the British soldiers who patrolled the streets to keep order. The British ruled Northern Ireland, but some supporters of independence became violent. Bombings were done by both sides in the largest city, Belfast, and in Londonderry, or Derry.

                In 1972, British soldiers shot at Catholic protesters, killing 14, in an incident that became known as Bloody Sunday. In 1979, Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin, Lord Mountbatten, was killed along with three others in a bombing of his small boat.

                The Troubles continued with about 3,600 people killed until 1998, when politicians finally brokered the Good Friday Agreement that ended hostilities.

                That’s a too-brief historical outline of the Troubles. But to understand the culture of the time, the attitudes of ordinary people and how the uneasiness seeped into daily life, literature can assist us. And sometimes movies rise to the level of great literature.

  

              Kenneth Branagh’s 2021 film, “Belfast,” fits that category. The young boy Buddy, based on Branagh’s 1960s childhood in the city, sees violence in his own neighborhood, his dad being intimidated by young activists, barricades in the streets and a store being ransacked. His mother and dad, tied to Belfast by a long family history, talk about leaving for a safer life in England. They attempt a normal life, taking the whole family, grandparents included, to see the 1968 movie, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

                Buddy becomes infatuated with Catherine, a pretty girl at school, but he doesn’t know what to think when he finds out her family is Catholic. His is Protestant. Buddy’s dad eventually tells him that if she’s a good person, whether Catholic or some other religion, she’s welcome in their house.

                Trying to make sense of the violence, Buddy asks, “Was that our side that done all that to them Catholic houses in our street, Daddy?” Also trying to make sense of it, his dad replies, “There is no our side and their side in our street. Or there didn’t used to be, anyway.”

                Kathy and I both put “Belfast” on our lists of all-time favorite movies.

                And you also can get some perspective on Northern Ireland from a sitcom. “Derry Girls” on Netflix has finished three seasons about four schoolgirls and a guy who live through the 1990s period leading up to the Good Friday Agreement. Because of some pretty raunchy language – Irish versions of teenage cussing – we can’t recommend it for everybody. But even in silly comedy episodes, the attitudes of Derry kids, parents and neighbors about the Troubles come through.

                The one male member of the group, James, is English, and he comes in for verbal abuse about his accent and for being, well, English. He’s loyal to his friends, though, and dresses as an angel as the girls do for Halloween – although everyone else thinks they’re swans.

                British soldiers with machine guns patrol the streets as the Derry girls take abuse from the local shopkeeper who yells at them for complaining that the American flag he is selling is faded and has the wrong number of stars. The sequence is in an episode about the visit of U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1995, which figured into the eventual end of the Troubles.

                “Derry Girls” is hilarious and also gives insight into history that most Americans know little about.

                Northern Ireland in 2022 is experiencing political controversy about trade at the borders that observers hope won’t inflame old wounds from the Troubles that were thought to be healed. Working people and families certainly don’t want to return to the days that Irish band U2 sang about in 1983’s “Bloody Sunday”:

                  “Broken bottles under children’s feet, Bodies strewn across the dead-end street.”

                Bono and other U2 members hoped that the good news of the God who both Catholics and Protestants worship would prevail forever:

                “The real battle just begun (Sunday, Bloody Sunday), To claim the victory Jesus won (Sunday, Bloody Sunday).”

 Oct. 23, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Some things just shouldn't be customized

By Mike Haynes

                It’s easier than ever for people to customize things, and we’re spoiled to an extent when we expect so much in life to be created just for us.

                A “Pearls Before Swine” cartoon strip the other day showed a man ordering at a coffee shop. “Gimme a grande, half-caf, caramel macchiato, non-fat, soy, at 110 degrees, no whip,” he told Rat, the barista, whose reply was, “Somewhere in that order is everything that’s wrong with this country.”

                We can buy water bottles, phone cases, pillows and magnets with our kids’ photos printed right on them and our schools’ football jerseys with our names on the back instead of Patrick Mahomes’. A college football team whose colors are red and white might wear black or gray uniforms or different helmet logos every week.

                About the only thing I remember customizing as I grew up was plastic models of race cars. I could paint them the colors I wanted and decide which racing stripe decals to stick on.

                There isn’t anything inherently wrong with personalizing products or tailoring clothes to your tastes. When it comes to beliefs, though, maybe we have a problem.

                George Barna, who has been polling people on the connections between faith and culture since the 1980s, said last month that too many Americans mix and match their beliefs to create “a customized worldview” that has led the country into a spiritual crisis.

                Barna, now head of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, spoke at a Family Research Council event in Atlanta, according to The Christian Post. He said research by the CRC shows that Americans are influenced by seven major worldviews: Eastern mysticism, Marxism, moralistic therapeutic deism, nihilism, postmodernism, secular humanism and, last but not least, biblical theism.

                Christianity, of course, falls into that last category.

                “As we look at America today, we know that there are a number of worldviews competing for the heart and the soul of the nation,” Barna said. “Each has a different understanding of everything that takes place in the world, a different explanation for why things are happening, a different concept of how you might best live your life.”

                Some understanding of Christianity dominated U.S. culture for most of the nation’s history, but he said no one worldview is No. 1 now. “We take bits and pieces from each one,” Barna said. “And we blend that together into a customized worldview that describes what we feel, what we think, what we want, where we want to go, how we want to live.”

                The researcher defined that approach as syncretism, or the combination of different religions, cultures or schools of thought. Some will think there’s nothing wrong with that. Others look at the state of the country today and see a need for a common moral code. And for Christians who believe part of their mission is to evangelize, the task isn’t easy.

                “When you have a nation of 255 million adults and another 80 million children who are choosing bits and pieces from many different worldviews, and they come up with their own personalized, customized way of thinking and living, that's much more difficult to combat because every person, in essence, requires a different strategy,” Barna said.

                He said only 6 percent of Americans have a biblical worldview, about half the percentage in the 1980s, and that the decline has been faster in recent years.

                “It’s interesting that we have a nation where almost seven out of 10 adults call themselves Christian, but only six out of every 100 try to think like Jesus so that they can live like Jesus. So there's a big gap there,” he said.

            CRC statistics also show another stiff challenge. Barna said only 2 percent of American parents who have children under age 13 have a biblical worldview. That’s mostly younger parents.

            “Why does that matter?” he asked. “Because you can’t give what you don’t have. And here we have 98 out of every 100 parents in America who cannot give their children a biblical worldview because they don't have one.” 

            To hold a true Christian worldview, Barna said, a person must have the experience of Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

                Traditional Christianity says there is one truth, not a different truth for each person. It’s OK to pick and choose the kind of drink you want. When it comes to how you think and act, though, it might be wise to listen to the one who called himself “the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

Oct. 9, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Elvis, music remind us 'How Great Thou Art'

By Mike Haynes

                Kathy and I have a new routine. Driving to church, our satellite radio is tuned to “Sunday Morning Gospel Time” on the Elvis channel.

                Yes, it’s because of the musical jolt we received from seeing this year’s “Elvis” movie. Both of us tend to get a little obsessive about certain things sometimes, and right now it’s Presleymania.

                Those gospel songs that Elvis loved are inspiring, though, and some are fun, too.  Maybe the best of them is “How Great Thou Art,” which movingly praises the all-knowing and all-powerful God. And as great as George Beverly Shea sang it countless times at Billy Graham crusades, Elvis’s rendition can’t be beat. The “King of Rock ’n’ Roll” displays the soft touch of his voice with “Oh Lord my God,” that rolls into a crescendo of power and vocal range at the climax, “How great thou art!”

                With a memory boost from my brother David, I recall now that Elvis sang “How Great Thou Art” for the sellout crowd at Lubbock Municipal Coliseum in 1972. It was part of the reason both of us became his fans.

                “He Touched Me” also reveals that gentle Presley tone and, like much music does for all of us, brings me memories of the past. I’m sure I heard Richard Campbell, the native of Matador, Texas, and a Texas Tech All-America football player, sing it at my hometown church in the early 1970s. He had recorded a couple of Christian albums and had a strong voice not unlike that of Elvis.

                And how can you not get into the rollicking tempos of southern gospel tunes such as “Run On” and  “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” with Elvis singing lead and the pumping backup vocals by the Stamps Quartet, the deeper-than-Johnny-Cash bass of J.D. Sumner and the pretty female voices of the Sweet Inspirations? That’s stirring music – and fun.

                Gospel music brings God to the forefront, of course, and I think that’s who gives talent to the people who write it and perform it. I’m thankful. But I also have gratitude for music that may not be Christian but is just enjoyable.

                I thank God for John Denver’s lovely “Annie’s Song,” which was played last weekend at the wedding of my brother, Sam, and his new bride, Jonnie. For “Amazing Grace,” one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever – especially when heard on bagpipes. For Bob Wills’ “Faded Love,” which is almost as sad as Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”

  

              For “Oh Boy!” and “Peggy Sue,” written by Buddy Holly from just down the road. For the Beatles’ “Penny Lane” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” For “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi, not really spiritual but still encouraging. For “Kiss An Angel Good Morning” and others featuring the smooth sound of Charley Pride. For “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and other bluegrass pickin’.  For Vince Gill’s “Go Rest High On That Mountain,” harmonized brilliantly at both my mother Joyce’s and sister-in-law Ginger’s funerals by hometown brothers Bobby and Carey Richardson.

                Those are just a few songs that come to my mind. They aren’t on everybody’s list of favorites, but isn’t all music that’s pretty or moving or just sets toes to tapping part of the good things that God gave us to enjoy?

                 Some people like classical music more than I do, but I appreciate some of it such as  “The 1812 Overture” by Russia’s Tchaikovsky and “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Norway’s Grieg. And of course, the German-British Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”

                The eternal praising of God in heaven might consist of traditional hymns accompanied by organs or harps. But I wonder if sometimes those who make it there also could hear a familiar voice singing “Peace in the Valley” or a quartet joyfully pounding out “Swing Down Sweet Chariot.”

                In heaven, you wouldn’t even need a satellite radio subscription.

 Sept. 25, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

God-driven occurrences appear in the sky, timing after queen's death

By Mike Haynes

                Queen Elizabeth II’s death Sept. 8 and the days of mourning and celebration of her life were marked by some “God things,” I think.

                First were those rainbows that appeared shortly after the 96-year-old Queen of England’s passing was announced. A brilliant one decorated the sky over the large, round tower of Windsor Castle, Elizabeth’s home outside London, just as the British Union Jack flag was being lowered to half-staff.

And a double rainbow materialized at Buckingham Palace, the residence where the queen spent much of each working week, in sight of the Queen Victoria Memorial. A statue of Victoria there is joined by representations of courage, constancy, victory, charity, truth and motherhood – all concepts that certainly applied to Queen Elizabeth, too.

 A TV commentator remarked that it was fitting that the queen died after the pandemic restrictions in the United Kingdom had been lifted, enabling huge crowds to show their love and appreciation from Scotland, where she spent her last days, to London to Windsor and on roadways in between. That’s not to mention the line of people, peaking at seven miles, who waited along the River Thames as long as 24 hours to file past the queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall.

For me, my wife, Kathy, and mother-in-law, Peggy, the timing also seemed appropriate because Elizabeth and our friend, Iris Houghton, died just a month apart. Iris, a 45-year-member of Amarillo’s Paramount Terrace – now Hillside – Christian Church, was 99 when she died in Bryan. As believers, we wonder whether she finally will get to meet the queen in heaven. Iris and Elizabeth both were young women in London who endured German bombing and other hardships of World War II. Elizabeth went on to become queen, while Iris married American solider Wayne Houghton and wound up in Amarillo. (See https://www.amarillo.com/story/news/2016/07/01/sometimes-all-it-takes-faith-god/13185893007/ for my column about the very English woman who made Amarillo her home.)

I can’t say for sure that such occurrences were God-driven, but it makes sense considering the obvious Christian life that Elizabeth lived. As the monarch, she was the official head of the Church of England, but that doesn’t necessarily make a person devout. Her words and actions did.

Queen Elizabeth II

 Consider these comments from two of Elizabeth’s Christmas messages, first in 2000:

“In his early thirties, He was arrested, tortured and crucified with two criminals. His death might have been the end of the story, but then came the resurrection and with it the foundation of the Christian faith.”

And in 2011:

“Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive … It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord.”

If you’ve seen the TV series, “The Crown,” you know that the queen met American evangelist Billy Graham when he was preaching in London in the 1950s. In Graham’s book, “Just As I Am,” he wrote, “Her official position has prevented her from openly endorsing our Crusade meetings. But by welcoming us and having me preach on several occasions to the royal family at Windsor and Sandringham, she has gone out of her way to be quietly supportive of our mission. …

“I always found her very interested in the Bible and its message. After preaching at Windsor one Sunday, I was sitting next to the Queen at lunch. I told her I had been undecided until the last minute about my choice of sermon and had almost preached on the healing of the crippled man in John 5. Her eyes sparkled and she bubbled over with enthusiasm, as she could do on occasion. ‘I wish you had!’ she exclaimed. ‘That is my favorite story.’”

Elizabeth died just a year and a half after the love of her life, Prince Philip, who was 99.  They were married for 73 years. Philip wasn’t the only man who had a crush on the queen, though. My Texan dad remembers thinking she was pretty cute in her teenage years, as did a British guy named Paul McCartney. The Beatle wrote a ditty at the end of the “Abbey Road” album that included these lines: “Her Majesty is a pretty nice girl, But she doesn’t have a lot to say … I wanna tell her that I love her a lot … Someday I’m gonna make her mine, oh yeah, Someday I’m gonna make her mine.”

The queen’s 4-year-old great-grandson, Prince Louis, had a more serious comment last week. According to his mom, Princess Kate, Louis said, “At least Grannie is with Great-Grandpa now.”

                I believe she is.

* * *

Mike Haynes taught journalism at Amarillo College from 1991 to 2016 and has written for the Faith section since 1997. He can be reached at haynescolumn@gmail.com. Go to www.haynescolumn.blogspot.com for other recent columns.

 

 From The Upbeat Reporter, Fall 2022:

Mission M25

Gary Burd

By Mike Haynes

                Gary Burd constantly looks in all directions. He’s been a pastor or ministry leader for close to half a century, but these days, the church isn’t where his gaze usually falls. Sometimes it’s Israel, sometimes a Navajo reservation, sometimes under a bridge in Amarillo. He takes to heart Jesus’ guidance in Matthew 25 when Christ explains why some people will be blessed by the Father:

                “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

                Burd, his church and Mission M25, named for that Bible chapter, accomplish all those charitable activities and more on a regular basis – sometimes on motorcycles. And the 71-year-old’s founding of Mission M25 is a result of a dramatic change in how Burd viewed the church.

                “I live with my head on a swivel, asking God to show me what I need to do, if I’m broken,” Burd said. “The real key to me is that I don’t do anything because it’s tradition. I do it because I have a broken heart or because I’m being obedient to the Bible.”

He said he believes helping people is the duty of every Christian, not just when they perceive a special calling. “The Bible clearly states that it’s all our job,” he said.

                The Amarillo native followed his father, Lloyd Burd, as pastor of Christian Heritage Church at 900 S. Nelson St. The son was a pastor there for 40 years, 29 of them as lead pastor. In 1999, he had “an earth-shaking experience that changed my direction.”

                One cold, snowy Sunday morning, instead of praying and studying his sermon notes in his office, Burd rode his motorcycle under a bridge where homeless people could be found. He encountered a man named Moses who was dirty from head to foot, including his long beard. He gave Moses a cup of coffee, then took off his gloves and offered them to him.

                “You can’t give me your gloves; it’s cold out here,” the man replied. Burd recalled, “Out of my mouth rolled these words: ‘You can have them, but it’s not for free. I want you to pray for me.’ In a reversal of roles, Moses put his hand on Burd’s shoulder and did pray for him. It led to Burd baptizing him and Burd and other church members getting him off the streets and eventually back to the family from which he had been estranged.

                “I started reading the Bible without my church lens on,” Burd said.  “I read the four gospels and realized I called myself a Christian, but I was in no way like Christ; I was everything like a traditional church. And the Lord began to break me.”

Since then, Burd’s focus has been on helping those who come into his path through Mission M25 and his church. Craig Lawlis is the senior pastor now, but the two ministries go hand in hand, and the sign outside the church now reads “Feed the Need: A City of Refuge.”

            Much of Burd’s outreach has been done on two wheels. A few years ago, he rode in the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge, a trip based on Lakota Sioux principles of respect, honor, integrity and compassion. The trek covered 10,000 miles from Key West, Florida, to Homer, Alaska. Along the way, Burd visited the Wounded Knee memorial in South Dakota where 150 Native Americans were massacred in 1890.  

            “In that journey, the Lord broke my heart for the Native Americans,” Burd said.

            Later, he connected with a Montana church that was serving Native Americans, eventually leading Burd and Mission M25 to start delivering food, water, firewood and other necessities to a Navajo reservation in western New Mexico. “There are a large number of Native Americans there who have no running water and no electricity,” he said. “That should not happen in America.”

            The ministry and the church also have built 25 chicken coops and given 800 egg-laying hens to the Navajo as well as houses to keep their dogs out of the weather. With the help of Affiliated Foods, three semi-truckloads of food have been hauled to the reservation.

            Mission M25 has done motorcycle rides to support military veterans, the nation of Israel and pro-life causes. Burd and others from Amarillo have ridden in Rolling Thunder and Run for the Wall, both of which honor military veterans, POWs and MIAs, and Mission M25 has provided support for riders.

            In 2017, Burd arranged for 30 motorcycles to be shipped to Israel, and he took 74 people to honor the Israeli Defense Forces. In 2018, a Jewish man in Canada asked Burd to ride with him in “Never Again” rallies to remember the Holocaust. “We stand with Israel,” Burd said.

            For the movement against abortion, Christian Heritage Church in the 1980s ran a program called Breath of Life Defenders (BOLD) to support women who wanted to keep their babies. In 2015, Mission M25 started the 50CC Diaper Ride, a 50-hour motorcycle challenge to raise funds for diapers for Royal Home Ministries in North Carolina.

            Burd and others rode in a pro-life rally from California to Mexicali, Mexico. He said he asked a Mexican pastor this year if such a rally was necessary in his country. “He said, ‘It is now, because we followed the United States.”

            As the ministry reacts to faraway needs, it doesn’t overlook its back yard. Until the pandemic, “we fed homeless people seven days a week, two meals a day, for over 20 years,” Burd said. “And the church has given more than $44 million of food out of the parking lot since COVID hit,” supplied by Affiliated Foods.

            The church offers Free Camp each summer for local children. “We stand against racial, economical and social barriers,” Burd said. “It’s not a church camp for church kids. It’s a camp where we mix church kids with street kids.

            “I’ve slept on the floor of our gymnasium with a kid from an $870,000 house on one side of me and on the other side a kid that lived in a house with cardboard windows. When you cross those kind of barriers, that’s huge.”

Burd’s wife of 52 years, Carolyn, also has taken Free Camp to Africa and the Philippines, and Mission M25 planned a similar camp for Navajo children in New Mexico this summer.

            “I’m deeply convinced that we’ll never solve problems from inside the church. We need to hang with those people on the outside,” he said.

            To that end, Christian Heritage Church and Mission M25 stay on the north side of Amarillo where the need is greatest. And they embrace Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:40:

            “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”