By DANNY MINTON About this time last year, my class watched the film “The Star.” It’s an intriguing study that a lawyer did trying to find out what the phenomenon in the universe called the Star of Bethlehem actually was. I’m not necessarily saying his research is without flaw. It’s a topic that will be discussed from now until the
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By LORETTA FULTON Perhaps nothing illustrates the year 2020 like a group of volunteers, all wearing masks, standing in the cold to hand out Christmas packages to families in a drive-through line. Masks and drive-through lines, to avoid close contact, became the norm in 2020, the Year of COVID. As the year progressed, so did the number of cases and
Read moreMcMurry University News ReleaseAlaisha Montanez McMurry University President Sandra S. Harper has been awarded the 2020 Carol A. Luthman Meritorious Service Award by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The annual awards honor outstanding service to the SACSCOC, including volunteerism, leadership and commitment to the principles of accreditation. Harper has supported and served SACSCOC as
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By DARRYL TIPPENS “Life has never been normal.”—C. S. Lewis In the midst of the pandemic with its endless disruptions and tragic loss of life, it’s tempting to shout, “This is unprecedented—the worst ever! Nothing like this has ever happened before!” It’s easy to think such thoughts, but they are not true to the facts. It’s been this bad before
Read moreIDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Recent conversations–OK, maybe just banter–have me thinking heavily about grandmothers. Those who’ve had the nurturing of two are doubly blessed. (I knew just one, since the flu epidemic in the 1920s took one away several years prior to my birth.) They constitute a special group, these grandmothers who answer to many names, some of which
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Editor’s Note: The following column by Darryl Tippens first was posted in December 2019. The coming winter seems even bleaker than a year ago, with the COVID pandemic to thank. Dr. Tippens’ reflection on the Christmas carol, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” is re-posted as an early Christmas gift. By DARRYL TIPPENS I have celebrated many Christmases, but only a few
Read moreEditor’s Note: Jim Nichols wrote this piece for Spirit of Abilene just before Christmas 2019. The message is too good not to re-post for 2020. By JIM NICHOLS “No more let sin and sorrow grow,Nor thorns infest the ground;He comes to make His blessings flowFar as the curse is found.” Somewhere in town is an unknown clerk at a convenience
Read moreBy GRACE SOSA When I was growing up, my parents had a glass nativity set that we put up every year. The lights from the Christmas tree would cast beautiful colors on the clear figures of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men. But one year, we may have been rushing to put up the decorations a little too
Read moreIDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury The subject of footwear has hit me dead center in recent days. Following are details of unlikely happenings last week. Remembrances are hand-on-the-Bible truths to which I am sticking. Said topic involves a frustrated kindergarten teacher, the boots-were-made-for-walking tune and a mystery involving one of my shoes. As suggested in Julie Andrews’ Do-Rey-Mi song that set
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