Rocks
By Foy Valentine

A few shriveled souls I know are not crazy about rocks.
They are to be pitied.
The depths of their deprivation boggles the mind.
If good manners allowed, they should be discreetly shunned.
As for me, I just love rocks.
Always have.

At least I can’t remember a time when I was not smitten by rocks, charmed by rocks, enthralled by rocks, fascinated by rocks.

‘Where I grew up as a boy in East Texas, there were no rocks. Oh, there may have been some deep down in the earth; but where I lived, God covered them all up with fine sandy loam and immense deposits of splendid red clay.

I was, well, rock challenged.
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A Man's Word is His Bond 
By Hal Haralson

[Hal Haralson practices law in Austin, Texas and is a frequent contributor to Christian Ethics Today.]

My father "graduated" from Centerpoint school near Haskell, Texas in 1915. The highest grade was the eighth grade. That was the end of his formal education.

He appears on the 1920 census as a farm hand near Haskell. (Thanks to the Internet sleuthing of his attorney-grandson, Brad Haralson of San Angelo.)
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The Addiction Affliction 
By William Cope Moyers

Let me tell you a few things about me.

I pay property taxes because I own a home. I pay income taxes and contribute to Social Security because I have a job.

I serve on the boards of several nonprofit organizations in Minnesota, volunteering my time to improve my community.

As the father of three children, I do my best, along with my wife, Allison, to raise them in a loving and healthy environment.

Perhaps that seems unremarkable to you. After all, society expects each of us to do some or all of those things regularly. But let me share something else with you, too, to put all of this in context.

I am an alcoholic and drug addict who is in recovery today. And none of this would be possible if I hadn't overcome substance abuse.

Science tells me I have an illness. I didn't ask for it, I am not quite sure how I got it. But I have learned that if I don't take responsibility for learning to live with it, I will die from it.

For years, I struggled on my own to master a baffling inability to "just say no."
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• Missing The Clinton-Lewinsky Morality Play

Millennial Madness: An Ethical Crisis
By Richard V. Pierard

• The Obsession with Prophecy and Temptation to Engage in "Date-setting" 
• Sensationalism
• The Quest for Commercial Gain 
• What Does This All Mean? 

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The New Millennium Manual: 
A Book Review 
By Darold Morgan

Here is must reading for anyone interested in the millennial issues which are now making headlines. Tied in with an effective historical overview of millennial theology are the inescapable ethical issues which result from some obvious applications.

The current Y2K crisis for our computer-driven economy, now nearing the twenty-first century, has produced a veritable army of evangelical alarmists who are preying on the fears of uncounted individuals. Many of these are quite possibly sincere in their beliefs. The results, however, are a strange combination of some questionable (though highly profitable) business ventures related to an escalation of eschatological frenzy that will inevitably run into a crashing dead-end.
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A Woman's Years 
By Kathryn Shamburger

Where did the years go?
I turned and they'd fled.
My sandpile, my paper dolls
Under my bed.
My shiny bicycle
All silver and blue
Long ago vanished.
My doll Patsy, too.

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Americans today are faced with a serious ethical problem. Are we prepared to give up separation of church and state, the unique American contribution to constitutional government adopted at the end of British colonial rule? Or will we be seduced into adopting the political agenda of the Vatican and its right-wing Protestant allies? That political agenda, however much some of whose items may appeal to our prejudices, can only be achieved by religious control of the Congress, the Presidency, and the Courts.

When our ancestors decided against remaining a confederation of British colonies, they decided to form "A more perfect union." That union was not only a break with monarchy but became an openly and intentionally secular state unlike those in Europe that claimed divine authority or religious allegiance. The United States was organized by the will of the people. The only reference to religion in the Constitution was Article 6, Section 3, that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification for office or public trust under the United States." Even the requirement to support the Constitution could be taken either by an oath or by affirmation.
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Updated Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Leave No Child Behind 
By Marian Wright Edelman

"…As the Children's Defense Fund 1999 Annual National Conference meets on the cusp of a new era, few matters concern Americans more than the quality of education provided for our children. Our future as a thriving nation depends on having a literate, skilled population with the ability to reason clearly, solve problems, and apply and advance knowledge. A sound education for each child will contribute enormously to a population in the next century that will be able to succeed in the workplace and achieve financial and personal growth and security. Yet, at this critical moment in time, America's educational system fails to provide millions of children with the tools they need for success.
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Easter Eggs and Starting Over 
By Roger Lovette

Every Easter I remember a story that fell into my hands several years ago. There was a woman named Kay who was Associate Pastor of a Methodist congregation in Georgia. After twenty-five years of marriage her husband came in one day and told her he wanted a divorce. He had found someone else prettier and younger. He wanted to be free and she gave him his freedom. She writes that she and her sixteen-year-old son had to begin life over again, rebuilding their family, just the two of them...." One day, between sobs, he pulled from his desk drawer an Easter egg. He gave it to her and said, "I'm going to give you this plastic egg. One of these days you will use this egg to bury your relationship and let life begin again." Those were the only instructions he gave her. He told her she would know what to do with the egg when the time came.
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Black History 
By Roger Lovette

Black History Month has come to an end. All month long we have been observing the richness of the black tradition in the church I serve. One of my pastor friends finds this strange. He writes: "Why in the world would a primarily Caucasian congregation observe Black History Month?" ... I knew little of W.E.B. Dubois, Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington. They simply did not exist in our world. Ralph Ellison wrote, years ago of the "invisible man." I can now look back at a whole culture and say that it was invisible. It was White history month all the way.
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Prayer at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Birmingham, Alabama 
on the occasion of the 35th Anniversary of the bombing
By James R. Barnette

O God who sees us through the wilderness,

We acknowledge with weary hearts
that one score and fifteen years was not too long ago.
Indeed, O God, one score and fifteen years is frightfully recent.

And so, call us back to just yesterday-
Just yesterday when a dream deferred exploded
Just yesterday when a voice was heard in Ramah
Just yesterday when worship turned to wailing
Just yesterday when white dresses were blood-spattered

Just yesterday when we wept and raged
Just yesterday when You wept and raged with us.

And yet, O God, even in that wilderness
of smoke and stone
of blood and brokenness
of hared and cowardice
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Poems By Jimmy Allen

• Jacob at Jabbock: Sunrise 
• Star Maker/Sparrow Watcher

Secular Government: One of God's Greatest Gifts 
By Franklin H. Littell

By a curious coincidence, two symbiotic items reached my desk the same day. One was an interview with Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua which was featured--with a fine front page photo--in a newsletter from Liberty University (Lynchburg, VA). The other was a newspaper story about Rabbi Hertz Frankel in Williamsburg--Brooklyn (NY).

What do a Roman Catholic prelate, a Hasidic rabbi, and the PR instrument of a Protestant Fundamentalist (Jerry Falwell) have in common? How do they represent a clear religious and political alliance, very real although rarely visible?
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The Early Settlers: Heroes or Cowards? 
By Ralph Lynn

The people who settled the United States were running away from their problems.

This is not to say that the early settlers were not admirable people. But it is to say that a good many myths have been concocted about them and sold to millions of unsuspecting people.

One of these myths is that the early settlers were such heroes. Actually, they were running from problems in Europe. They were running from lands where they were denied freedom of worship. They were fleeing lands where taxes were high. They were running from compulsory military service. They were running from lands where opportunities for economic and social advancement were few.
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The Early Settlers: Heroes or Cowards? 
By Ralph Lynn

The people who settled the United States were running away from their problems.

This is not to say that the early settlers were not admirable people. But it is to say that a good many myths have been concocted about them and sold to millions of unsuspecting people.

One of these myths is that the early settlers were such heroes. Actually, they were running from problems in Europe. They were running from lands where they were denied freedom of worship. They were fleeing lands where taxes were high. They were running from compulsory military service. They were running from lands where opportunities for economic and social advancement were few.
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