by Andre Towner | Mar 14, 2024 | Feature-, Opinion
In the shadowy backdrop of the American Civil War, Claiborne Towner’s quest for freedom began with a harrowing escape, fraught with danger and cloaked in secrecy. Born into the merciless confines of slavery in the early 1860s, Claiborne, alongside his siblings, was...
by Craig Nash | Feb 28, 2024 | Feature, Opinion
On November 2, 2016, four female musicians from Texas performed for an audience of fellow artists, industry insiders and fans. They were accompanied by fiddle, banjo, harmonica and an ensemble of Delta-Jazz instruments harkening to hot, dirty summer nights in barns,...
by Starlette Thomas | Feb 1, 2024 | Feature-, Opinion
Race is the issue — not human beings. It is a bad social prescription; it is the lens not the image. The sociopolitical construct, which fluctuates in meaning, will never produce relational stability. Instead, baptism, the waters that trouble all othering and power-...
by Bruce T. Gourley | Jan 30, 2024 | Christian Nationalism, Feature-, Opinion
The four-and-a-half-year war is finally over. No, I don’t mean the American Civil War, which, culturally speaking, has never ended. Instead, I am referring to the latest civil war among Methodists. The first Methodist Civil War lasted from 1844-45. Short but...
by Starlette Thomas | Jan 29, 2024 | Feature, Opinion
“You know better.” The familiar expression communicates that our speech or behavior is beneath what we have been taught. Those three words summarize the expectation that we stop what we’re doing immediately and get our act together. Their pointed fingers and furrowed...