Dec. 31, 2023, column in the Amarillo Globe-News

ACU nuclear research gets national Christian exposure

By Mike Haynes

                I was a little surprised to see a feature story in Christianity Today, which The Washington Post has called “evangelicalism’s flagship magazine,” about nuclear energy. I was even more surprised to find that the story near the front of the December 2023 issue focused on Abilene Christian University.

                It hasn’t been a secret that the Church of Christ-affiliated school in Abilene is researching an improved way of producing nuclear energy and plans to have a state-of-the-art nuclear reactor running by around New Year’s in 2026. Being reported prominently in the respected Christian publication, however, not only brings it to a wider audience but prompts thoughts of the spiritual implications of nuclear energy.

                  It could help create better lives for millions of people, a part of the Christian social mission that conservative churches often are criticized for neglecting.

                Dr. Rusty Towell, an ACU physics professor, convinced university president Dr. Phil Schubert of the value of a nuclear project that uses molten salt as a coolant instead of water, according to Adam MacInnis’s CT story.  

                Towell told the president that type of nuclear power generation would produce clean, cheap energy in a safer process than that used at traditional nuclear plants. Schubert said a U.S. Department of Energy expert had told him it could ensure that the country stays ahead of China and Russia while reducing dependence on fossil fuels. 

MacInnis wrote that Doug Robison, an oil and gas producer and ACU trustee who is helping fund the project, believes nuclear energy is much more likely than wind and solar to make a successful transition away from carbon-based power.

And Schubert thinks the innovative project fits the school’s Christian mission well, according to CT. MacInnis wrote, “…what if Abilene Christian could lead the way with new research on transformative technology that could help move America beyond its dependence on fossil fuels, pump clean energy into the world, make electricity available in places that currently don’t have it and lift people out of poverty?”

ACU isn’t alone in the project. It’s the lead institution in a research alliance that includes Texas A&M, Georgia Tech and the University of Texas at Austin. But it already has built a $23 million facility in Abilene to house a reactor which, with Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval, it hopes to start constructing by next May.

                The process doesn’t generate high pressure, dramatically reducing the chance of accidents that could happen in current nuclear plants. And Towell told CT that small salt reactor systems could be set up quickly and used to meet needs globally.

                Climate scientist Dr. Jessica Moerman also is a pastor in Washington, D.C., and president of the Evangelical Environmental Network. She told MacInnis, “If we had done these investments in these technologies decades ago, we would be much further along on our path towards clean energy and ensuring that we have clean air and clean water and a safe climate.”

                “God has given us an opportunity to use wealth and to use abilities and scientific understanding and all of that to carry out what is a uniquely Christian mission,” Robison said.

                And Schubert told CT, “I know that what these guys have envisioned can be achieved and that we can be the ones to achieve it.”

                That kind of attitude certainly is appropriate as we begin 2024.

 Dec. 17, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

'Twas the life before 'Christmas' of Clement C. Moore

By Mike Haynes

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and Clement C. Moore

Gets credit for writing the poem we adore.

He told of St. Nicholas, but you might be surprised

That he spent his long life teaching all about Christ.

                Who knows how many lame parodies – like the verse above – have been written based on “A Visit From St. Nicholas”? From sugar-plums dancing in children’s heads to the jolly old elf exclaiming, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”, the poem first published in a Troy, New York, newspaper in 1823 is engrained in American culture and has been adapted and abused hundreds of times. Usually, we laugh in spite of ourselves.

Clement C. Moore

                So we might picture the poet as a not-so-serious but clever writer – maybe a 19^th century reporter taking a break from the news or a theatrical humorist getting into the Christmas spirit.

                Clement Clarke Moore’s day job was weighty – and spiritual – than a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer would indicate, however. From 1821 to 1850, he was a professor of Greek and Hebrew literature at General Theological Seminary in New York, a school affiliated with the Episcopal Church. Before his fame as a Christmas Eve poet, he was known for publishing a “Hebrew and English Lexicon” in 1809.

                Born in New York City in 1779, Moore was the son of the Rev. Benjamin Moore, president of Columbia University (who gave the last rites to Alexander Hamilton in 1804 after Hamilton’s infamous duel). He attended Columbia and, according to Britannica, “had a lifelong interest in church matters.” In 1819, the younger Moore donated a large tract of land, an apple orchard, in Manhattan that he had inherited to the Episcopal Church with the condition that a seminary would be built there. It became General Theological Seminary, which still operates today.

In 1820, he helped New York’s Trinity Church establish a new parish church, St. Luke in the Fields.

"St. Nicholas" poster by Thomas Nast

                The title of an 1804 pamphlet that Moore published anonymously criticizing Thomas Jefferson – “Observations upon Certain Passages in Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, which Appear to Have a Tendency to Subvert Religion, and Establish a False Philosophy” – indicate both his religious and political views. I don’t think he mentioned Dasher or Dancer as he condemned the incumbent president who later clipped out verses from a Bible that included Jesus’ miracles and other mentions of the supernatural.

   
             “A Visit From St. Nicholas” also was published anonymously, and Moore wasn’t identified as the author until 1837. Saying he wrote it for his children, he included it in his book, “Poems,” in 1844. But the family of Henry Livingston, who was related to Moore’s wife, claimed that Livingston had written it.

                Livington died in 1828, never having claimed the Christmas poem, but several scholars, including Donald Wayne Foster of Vassar College, have said it has more in common with other poetry by Livingston than with other writing by Moore.

In 2001, an article by Stephen Nissenbaum of the University of Massachusetts – “There Arose Such a Clatter: Who Really Wrote ‘The Night Before Christmas’? (And Why Does It Matter?)” said his research showed that Moore was the author.

                Moore died in 1863 at age 83. The authorship controversy continues, but the poem forever will be a beloved part of Christmas. Whoever wrote it, “A Visit From St. Nicholas” established the American vision of Santa Claus.

Assuming that it came from the pen of Clement C. Moore, it even validates the idea that St. Nick coming down the chimney can co-exist with “the reason for the season.” It would be hard to believe that a professor who helped start a seminary and taught in it for three decades intended for St. Nicholas to replace Jesus.

Dec. 3, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News 

Pilgrims' lessons from 1830 book - plus 'Peanuts' - needed today

By Mike Haynes

                Kathy and I joined some of her family during the Thanksgiving weekend to watch “The Mayflower Voyagers,” part of the 1988 miniseries, “This Is America, Charlie Brown.”

                The animated program shows Charlie, Lucy, Linus and others of the “Peanuts” gang traversing the Atlantic on the Mayflower in 1620, dealing with disease and hunger at Plymouth and welcoming Chief Massasoit and 90 of his tribe to “the first Thanksgiving” in 1621.

  

              It’s one of many retellings of the story of the Pilgrims who landed in Massachusetts, part of the New World, in search of religious freedom. Other than the inclusion of the cartoon kids, the “Peanuts” version seems pretty accurate. It even points out how the settlers’ faith in God was a key factor in their perseverance through hardship.

                 Another retelling was published in 1830, 210 years after the famous landing. In a day when most history focused only on the men, it was titled, “The Pilgrim Fathers, or the Lives of Some of the First Settlers of New England.” The little book was printed in Portland, Maine, and was “Designed for Sabbath School Libraries.” It was reprinted in 2020 by the Dunham Bible Museum at Houston Baptist University, now Houston Christian University.

                Like “Peanuts,” its main target audience was young people.

                The last chapter of the book – “Remarks: Addressed to the Young, on the biography of the Pilgrim Fathers” – offers four lessons learned from the examples of those early Americans, including the pioneer women. Now, four centuries after they disembarked on the East Coast, we would do well to follow their advice.

No. 1: “Observe the devout spirit of the Fathers of New England. They prayed when they parted from their friends in Holland; they prayed amidst the dangers of the sea; they prayed when they first landed on these shores; they prayed when famine threatened them. They asked God the blessings they needed; and they thanked him for the favors they received.

“Let this example, dear youth, remind you to pray. You are the beloved hope of our country; learn then to pray to him, who only can give our country prosperity, and by whose favour alone you can become instruments of good to the land of your birth.”

No. 2: “Our fathers loved the ordinances of religion. … when a company of them sailed first for America, they did not go without a preacher.” The book quotes “the historian, Hubbard” on the importance they placed on Christian leaders “to direct, protect, and defend the people, and promote the cause of God and religion among them, as well as their civil rights and liberties.”

The book applauds the establishment of a college, Harvard, to educate ministers and which “formed habits, which, through the sovereign mercy of God, spread a Christian influence through each successive generation. Depart not from these habits.”

 No. 3: “Family religion flourished among our fathers. … I bless the memory of those good and generous women, whose enlightened and fervent piety contributed so much to the respectability, usefulness, and eminent devotion of their husbands and our fathers. Dear to me are the names of John Robinson, William Bradford, John Winthrop and other founders of New England, but not less dear to me is the remembrance of the faithful women who accompanied them. …

“Dear youth. Has not a mother’s lips taught you to pray? Has not a mother’s heart poured into your mind the melting truth of a Savior’s love? Has not a mother’s hand led you to the sanctuary?

“It is in the family that great benefactors to society and blessings to the church are trained up; and it is by maternal care, joined with a father’s influence and authority, that a rising race are formed for usefulness.

“Let the hours then of family devotions be dear to the youth who read these pages.”

No. 4: “An enlarged public spirit flourished among our fathers. I know of no temper which spears so disgusting in the young as a sordid selfishness. Let our youth early cultivate a generous, disinterested (impartial) public spirit.”

The book then urges young people to follow Christ’s directive to carry his Good News to the ends of the Earth. “Millions are suffering miseries from which nothing can relieve them, but the gospel which you enjoy.:

So the unidentified 1830 author encouraged the youth of his day to adopt from the 1620s Pilgrims the virtues of prayer, organized religion, family faith and public outreach. I can’t think of better ways to steer our country onto a healthier course in the 2020s.

 My wife and family even saw a hint of that outlook in Charlie Brown’s America.

Nov. 19, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Pilgrims' first landing wasn't at Plymouth Rock

By Mike Haynes

                On a rainy day this September, Kathy and I had two of the best sandwiches we’ve ever eaten. They were messy, with gobs of macaroni and cheese filling the space between two pieces of toast at a place in Provincetown, Massachusetts, called the Grilled Cheese Gallery.

                My wife and I followed that with some Lewis Brothers Homemade Ice Cream – also some of the best we’ve tasted – before getting back on the bus to continue our tour of New England.

                Until that trip, we had no idea that Provincetown was the real site of the Pilgrims’ first landing in 1620, not Plymouth Rock, more than 20 miles across Cape Cod Bay.

                Not to take away the significance of that hallowed granite boulder, but the English Separatists, looking for a favorable home where they could worship God as they believed they should, set foot on shore in November 1620 near the tip of Cape Cod, which juts out into the Atlantic Ocean in the form of an arm with a coiled fist.

We Texans were surprised to learn that Provincetown, now a tourist destination, even has a 252-foot tower, also granite, commemorating that first landing. It was dedicated by President William H. Taft in 1910.

                The famed Mayflower Compact, which set out how the new settlement would be governed and which began, “for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith,” was signed by 41 male passengers while still aboard the even more famous ship as it was anchored off what now is Provincetown, not Plymouth.

                The travelers decided the area wasn’t suitable for a permanent home, and a scouting party in a small boat located the Plymouth site in December 1620. The Mayflower then sailed to the location of Plymouth Rock, where all the 102 passengers disembarked.

   

               The Pilgrims enjoyed no luxuries such as mac and cheese or ice cream. They had to scrounge for food, and after a harsh winter battling disease – possibly scurvy and pneumonia – only 53 people remained alive.

                 With help from the Wampanoag native American tribe, the survivors grew corn and other crops in 1621, and they had a good yield in the fall. In October, they celebrated with a three-day harvest festival, an English tradition, attended by about 90 native people.

                Edward Winslow, one of the Pilgrim leaders, wrote about “the first Thanksgiving” in a journal published in England in 1622:

                “"…our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors;

“…they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others.

“And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”

  Inquiring minds, of course, want to know, “Where are the turkeys?” Winslow didn’t mention the Thanksgiving staple, but the group’s governor, William Bradford, and a later arrival, William Hilton, both mentioned the big bird as common in the area.

Bradford wrote in “Plimoth Plantation”:

 "All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached … And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.”

 And Hilton wrote to his cousin in November 1621:

“At our arrival in New Plymouth , in New England, we found all our friends and planters in good health, though they were left sick and weak, with very small means; the Indians round about us peaceable and friendly; … Timber of all sorts you have in England doth cover the land, that affords beasts of divers sorts, and great flocks of turkey, quails, pigeons and partridges; many great lakes abounding with fish, fowl, beavers, and otters. …

“Our company are, for most part, very religious, honest people; the word of God sincerely taught us every Sabbath; so that I know not any thing a contented mind can here want.”

On our trip, Kathy and I did get to see Plymouth Rock, not far from where that 1621 celebration happened, and we went below decks of the Mayflower II, a replica ship built in 1957. It’s docked in Plymouth Harbor, a two-minute walk from the iconic rock.

I think only the most adventurous of us today would undertake a 66-day voyage in those cramped conditions with limited food and an uncertain future. The courage that allowed the Pilgrims to do it and to start a successful community undoubtedly came from their faith. Referring to the group years later, Bradford wrote:

“All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both met and overcome with answerable courage. … What, then, could now sustain them but the spirit of God, and His grace?”

* * *

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.

Nov. 5, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Wesley’s ‘proper’ way of hymns includes singing spiritually

By Mike Haynes

                A Methodist pastor quoted part of John Wesley’s “Directions for Singing” at a service a couple of weeks ago. Along with a whole library of sermons and other Christian writing, the English founder of the Methodist Church wrote seven points on the subject.

                Some of Wesley’s instructions lean toward micro-managing; others seem as appropriate as they were when he published them in a 1761 hymn book.

John Wesley

                “Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.”

                I’ll admit I sometimes am afraid of people hearing my singing voice. The only instruction I ever had was from my dad, who sang in my hometown Methodist choir for decades and was the bass singer in the Methodist Men’s Quartet. In the few high school years that I joined him, my uncle and my cousin in the choir, Dad gave me the basics of singing the bass line in hymns.

                I usually follow that guidance when singing in church, but much modern music isn’t played in a manner that needs a bass line. So sometimes I try to sing the melody. Either way, as an introvert, I don’t sing very loud. Once when my Baptist grandmother visited our church and sat by me in the pew, she sounded surprised when she complimented my voice.

                Also from Wesley: “Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.”

                I probably sing a little too modestly, as does my wife, Kathy, who has a nice voice. But lots of people at churches I’ve attended don’t sing at all, and Wesley wouldn’t have liked that. “If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing,” he wrote.

                Wesley’s advice also included a preference for the songs in his Methodist hymn book. He wanted them sung exactly as printed. “If you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can,” he directed.

                Despite Willie Nelson’s beautiful renditions of some old hymns and his “preacher songs” in the “Red Headed Stranger” album, the country legend would not have fared well with Wesley (and my dad would agree). Wesley wrote, “Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it…”

                But I think Wesley’s annoyance with straying from the “proper” way of singing is overshadowed by his top exhortation: “Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing.”

                Hours before writing these words, my wife, Kathy, and I were part of a Sunday morning service where singing spiritually was obvious. With our church choir clapping behind them, an elementary school girl and a boy about the same age led the congregation in “I’ll praise ’cause you’re faithful, I’ll praise ’cause you’re true … I’ll praise ’cause you rose and defeated the grave,” accompanied with raised hands followed by arms waved left and right. Even my reserved personality couldn’t keep me from participating.

                Then, harkening back to my childhood, we sang “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” with the kids doing a cute “leaning” movement. “What a fellowship, what a joy divine,” weren’t just words in that hymn but a description of what was going on at that moment. Kathy and I both had tears.

                Add the boy’s and girl’s young voices – “Yes, Jesus loves me; the Bible tells me so” – with just a guitar joining them, and I think Wesley’s exhortation was alive in that independent Christian church:

                “Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. … See that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.”

Oct. 22, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Tim Keller was rooted in traditional Christianity, love and grace

By Mike Haynes

                Not long after Timothy Keller died of cancer this May 19 at age 72, “Christianity Today” magazine published a commemorative issue on the New York-based pastor and writer. It had 104 pages and included 10 insightful remembrances plus an excerpt from one of his sermons called “Everything Bad Is Going to Come Untrue.”

Dr. Timothy Keller

                I don’t recall anybody but Billy Graham, the magazine’s founder and the most famous evangelist of the 20^th century, receiving such a tribute from America’s premier evangelical Christian publication.

                Before that special issue, I had heard one of Keller’s sermons online and had read just one of his books, “The Prodigal God.” And I’ve noticed some pastors that I respect quoting him in recent months. I knew from those encounters with Keller that his take on Christianity was a little different from many of his fellow evangelical believers.

My brief description of Keller would be that he was rooted in traditional, orthodox Christianity but with an emphasis on love and grace, not condemnation.

Not that he was alone in that approach, but he certainly didn’t fit the stereotype of the judgmental Christian that many people outside the church like to criticize.

In addition to his books – the best-known probably is “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism” – Keller’s largest work was founding Redeemer Presbyterian Church in 1989 in Manhattan, along with his wife, Kathy.

                In a long New York Times obituary, Sam Roberts wrote that Keller was “a best-selling author and theorist of Christianity who performed a modern miracle of his own – establishing a theologically orthodox church in Manhattan that attracted thousands of young professional followers.”

                Several social ministries sprang from the church, including Redeemer City to City, a global urban ministry; Hope for New York; and Center for Faith and Work. Redeemer has spread to multiple New York campuses, but not under one large umbrella.

                In the “CT” memorial issue, writer Emily Belz pointed out that Keller didn’t want Redeemer to be a megachurch, although it had grown to 5,000 members when he stepped down as its leader in 2017. In a video shown to Redeemer churches the day he died, he said he preferred churches on a “human scale” and that “to have three churches of 800 people is better than having one church of 2,400 people.”

                Keller’s combination of intellectual thought and personal connection, his speaking skills and his best-selling books resulted in publicity that he didn’t want. Collin Hansen said in the “CT” issue that Keller believed he was called to pastoral ministry. “Even when Keller criticized evangelicals, he spoke and wrote as a pastor with love for his flock,” Hansen wrote.

                In 2017, Princeton Theological Seminary planned to give Keller its Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Witness and asked him to give a lecture along with the award. But because of his orthodox views on homosexuality and women’s ordination, various groups protested, and PTS rescinded the prize.

                Keller graciously gave the lecture anyway.

                Hansen wrote that Keller quoted Lesslie Newbigin, “who identified the post-Christian West as the most resistant, challenging missionary fronter of all time.” In the lecture, Keller agreed with Newbigin that “Christians must not withdraw like the Amish, pursue political takeover like the Religious Right or assimilate like the mainline Protestants.”

Keller agreed with James Davison Hunter that “faithful presence” is a better alternative, and he said one strategy of that presence is emulating the early Christians as writer Larry Hurtado had encouraged.

“The persecuted early church wasn’t just offensive to Jews and Greeks,” Hansen wrote. “It was also attractive. The first Christians opposed abortion and infanticide by adopting children. They did not retaliate but instead forgave. They cared for the poor and marginalized. Their strict sexual ethic protected and empowered women and children.

“Christianity brought together hostile nations and ethnic groups.”

Those are some of the recommendations Keller offered to a Princeton institution that had declined to give him an award. His demeanor that day certainly reflected his belief in the grace of the gospel.

In 2006, “Christianity Today” wrote, “Fifty years from now, if evangelical Christians are widely known for their love of cities, their commitment to mercy and justice, and their love of their neighbors, Tim Keller will be remembered as a pioneer of the new urban Christians.”

Oct. 8, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Revolution began in colonies that had godly heritage

By Mike Haynes

                I must have been 10 or 12 when Mom and Dad gave me a big book called “The Golden Book of the American Revolution,” by the American Heritage Publishing Co., dated 1959.

                It had lots of color pictures, and some that fascinated me were of the April 19, 1775, skirmish at Lexington Green in Massachusetts, where British troops fired on American militiamen, killing eight before marching on to Concord in an attempt to seize weapons and gunpowder the militia had been storing there.

                The Lexington violence sparked the Revolutionary War and eventual American independence from Great Britain. The book’s Lexington and Concord pictures were done shortly after by militiaman Amos Doolittle, so as a kid, I thought, “Wow, this must be what it really looked like.”

                Last month, my wife, Kathy, and I got to see what it really looks like 248 years later as we took a tour from Boston, 15 miles away, during a fall vacation to New England. The triangular green remains much as it was in 1775 when the militia stood near a tavern and a meeting house to face the British “regulars.” The tavern still stands as well as a nearby minister’s house from which John Hancock and Samuel Adams had fled after being warned by Paul Revere.

                You would think it’s a routine public park except for the First Defenders of Liberty monument and the Minuteman statue next to Massachusetts Avenue. Three churches are visible from the green, but city leaders have done well in keeping commercial development such as Stop and Shop and Omar’s World of Comics a little distance away.

                Seven miles west is the Concord North Bridge, where more militia from surrounding towns, including those committed to being ready at a minute’s notice, confronted several hundred British redcoats. Americans on the west side of the bridge and British on the east side fired musket volleys that resulted in only three British soldiers and two militiamen killed, but that bridge is the inspiration for the lines in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1837 poem:

                “By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.”

                Seeing that colonists from the entire region were descending on them, British troops started on a march back to their Boston headquarters. They were harassed the whole way, suffering heavy casualties with militiamen firing at them from behind trees and fences.

                 Kathy and I rode back to Boston with our tour guide on roughly the same route, but in an SUV and no one shooting at us. I recalled a drawing in my childhood book of soldiers in red marching in formation on Battle Road between scattered groups of patriots.

                At the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, we saw up close John Singleton Copley’s portraits of Hancock, Adams and Revere, three of the key “rabble rousers” of the revolution. Revere is best known for his “midnight ride,” which has been greatly exaggerated. He was one of several “express riders” who covered the country roads the night of April 18. But David Hackett Fischer’s 1994 book, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” makes it clear that even if Revere never had mounted a horse, he should be noted in history for his significant role in organizing informers and militia. He was an active member of the Sons of Liberty and supported opposition to British abuses with acts such as creating an illustration of the 1770 Boston Massacre, when soldiers killed five residents.

                Reading accounts of our nation’s beginning, I was struck by the fact that most – not all – of the players had strong Judeo-Christian values. Yes, the revolution was caused by economic and political factors shown in the cry, “no taxation without representation,” but the rebellion happened on a foundation of biblical principles.

   

             The house where Hancock and Adams were staying when Revere alerted them that “the regulars are out” was a parsonage built by Hancock’s grandfather, the Rev. John Hancock. Its 1775 occupant was the Rev. Jonas Clarke.

                Revere belonged to New Brick Church in Boston, a Puritan-influenced congregation, and according to Fischer, he attended church “as regularly as the Sabbath came.”

                In his early teens, Revere had helped organize a sort of “youth group.” He and some Boston friends started a bell ringers’ association for the North Church in which they agreed “not to demean themselves by Roman Catholic corruptions and promised to work for their rewards,” according to Fischer’s book.

                Fischer noted that the bell ringers drew up a document reflecting “founding principles of New England,” including “the doctrine of the calling.” One calling was for a career (Revere’s was as a goldsmith, silversmith, engraver and bell manufacturer), and the other was “a general calling to do Christ’s work in the world.”

                Another of my childhood memories is having to memorize part of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous 1860 poem that begins:

                “Listen, my children, and you shall hear, Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Hardly a man is now alive, Who remembers that famous day and year.”

                Like the poem, some of our history has been embellished and sweetened. We would do well, though, to remember the spiritual foundations on which the new nation was built.

Sept. 24, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Jerry Clower's style may be different, but message of Christianity is the same

By Mike Haynes

                I suspect a lot of people reading this column are like me: equally comfortable with C.S. Lewis and Jerry Clower.

                I sometimes have to re-read one of Lewis’ paragraphs to grasp what the late Oxford professor just said. Most of his writing for the general public is absolutely clear and logical, though. No wonder the beloved, intellectual author, who died in 1963, has been called the greatest Christian writer of the 20^th century.

                Jerry Clower, on the other hand, was a down-home, Southern storyteller who talked about country roots in Yazoo City, Mississippi, and the hilarious escapades of characters such as Marcell Ledbetter and Uncle Versie.

Jerry Clower

One of Clower’s best-known tales was about his visit to a Texas Tech-Mississippi State football game. To enthusiastic laughter, he described Tech’s horse and rider mascot: “Out of a chute down in the end zone, here comes a fella dressed up, they called him the ‘Red Raider,’ and he looked like Zorro – boogity, boogity, boogity – right on that field, he’s comin’.”

                The other day, my brother David sent me a link to a 15-minute video of Clower talking at a church in Virginia. The style is the polar opposite of Lewis’ writing that explained and defended Christianity, but for me, it gets the message of Jesus across just as effectively.

                 The country comedian even sets out one of the main themes of the British author, that of “mere Christianity,” a faith that transcends denominations.

                Clower said someone asked him, “What church do you go to?” and he replied, “Oh, I’m a Christian.” “You are?” “Yeah. And I worship at a Southern Baptist Church. But if you’re a Christian and go to some other kind of church, I can worship with you.”

                He proceeded to deliver what he said would be his sermon if he could get up on a mountaintop and preach to everybody.

Point No. 1: “I’d say make for sure that you are saved.” Clower recalled when, as a 13-year-old in 1939, his mother took him and his brother to an annual revival meeting, carrying “a chicken pie and two egg custards” for lunch before the preaching.

                When the revivalist told the congregation that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death,” the young Clower said President Roosevelt and General MacArthur popped into his mind. They must be exceptions, he thought.  “And that preacher said, ‘I’m talkin’ about everybody – even the president, even generals.” the young Clower recalled that “I caught aholt of that old pew, and … I thought, ‘if that’s so, I’m in a mess.’”

                But the preacher added the literal saving grace: “If we’ll confess with our life the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we can be saved.” The Mississippi boy was convinced. “While they were singing No. 197, ‘Only Trust Him,’ I walked down the aisle and I had that experience of grace that only comes from the saving power of God.

                “And I have been a Christian ever since.”

                Point No. 2: “I’d make for sure that I could find a New Testament, Bible-believing church, and I’d put my membership in that church, and I’d make ’em a good hand.”

                Point No. 3: “Make for shore that you’re not a nitpicker. It don’t make no difference to me what color shirt a preacher wears.” Clower advised visiting an unchurched person or family and telling them about salvation through Jesus. “And when they walk down the aisle and publicly profess Christ and join the church because of your witness … (Clower let loose his signature, wide-mouthed howl that sounds like “haaaawww.”) … 99 and 44/100ths of your nitpicking will be cured. You’ll be so thrilled to see someone born into the kingdom of God, you won’t have time to nitpick.”

                Point No. 4: “Be sure and be a storehouse tither. Do not rob yourself of the blessing of giving. … I make a motion every business meetin’: Them that ain’t givin’ nothing, we post their name on the vestibule out there where you walk in the church. … Ain’t nobody gonna rob me of the blessing I get from givin.’”

                Point No. 5: “Make sure that you go to church, that you read the Word of God, that you hear your pastor preach, that you are so close to God that if tragedy hits your life, you won’t act like a pagan, you’ll act like a Christian.”

                Clower recalled when his teenage son was in a coma after a car accident. Thinking his boy was dead, he prayed, “Lord, I want you to let me be in amongst the faithful that stand up and use this to the glory of God. I’m gonna give thanks and keep going…”

                His son, Ray Clower, recovered after four days in the ICU, played football and became a coach.

                The Grand Ole Opry comedian closed with this: “I am convinced there’s only one place where there ain’t no laughter, and that’s in ha-ell. And I’ve made arrangements to miss hell.  So ‘Ha, Ha, Ha!’ I won’t never have to be nowhere where some folks ain’t laughing.”

                That’s not quite how C.S. Lewis would have put it, but I love it.