THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury The Great Depression is now remembered by a precious few, and foggily if that. Still, it remains a ready backdrop in conversations when accounts of deprivation abound. Born in 1937, I have memories back to the outbreak of World War II. I remember first-hand accounts of folks barely getting by during much of the
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By JIM NICHOLS Each of us has events in our past that, in retrospect, have been pivotal in our development. Sometimes they are specific items or times; on other occasions, they are prolonged. One such in the latter category for me was the choice I made for some reason to take four years of Latin when I was in high
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By LORETTA FULTON Aldersgate United Methodist Church has moved up its date to vote on disaffiliation to 6 p.m. Nov. 10. Originally, the church was set to vote sometime in 2023, according to Dustin Wilhite, pastor. At stake is whether to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church and join the new conservative branch of Methodism called Global Methodist Church or
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By LORETTA FULTON Pioneer Drive Baptist Church’s new ministry for families with special needs children is up and running with the selection of Courtney Todd as director. Todd previously served as the preschool minister for another Baptist church in the Abilene area. She started her new position as director of Embrace Ministry Oct. 2. “I am very grateful to step
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By LORETTA FULTON Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, All Saints Day and All Souls Day will be observed in the coming days, with plenty of fun mixed in with solemn religious traditions. For the second consecutive year, Pioneer Drive Baptist Church is commandeering Cypress Street for a fun-filled festival Wednesday, Oct. 26, and everyone is invited. Hours are 6-8 p.m.
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON “The Blue Butterfly” is probably one of those movies where you keep scrolling down the menu after seeing the title. It’s not an exciting movie, with few action scenes and no violence. But it is a love story. It’s the story of a mother who wants her ten-year-old terminally ill son to be able to travel to
Read moreTHE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Okay, I confess. I am–as many retailers know–a sucker of the first order. I’ve ignored pleas of loved ones and friends warning me about buying items at greatly reduced prices. I want to do better, but can’t help it if adrenaline jumps into overdrive upon my noticing signs like “drastically reduced” or
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By LORETTA FULTON St. Paul United Methodist Church is remaining united. The congregation voted Sunday, Oct. 16, by a margin of 80 percent to 20 percent to remain affiliated with the United Methodist Church, rather than disaffiliate and either align with a conservative denomination or go independent. The new pastor of St. Paul, Benji Van Fleet, saw the vote as
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON Growing up, I played a lot of sandlot baseball. In the summer, every week, we’d get a group together and head to the field behind the old high school building. Sometimes we’d have a dozen or so, and other times we’d have only seven or eight. In those days, we had so few players, we’d play scrub
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