By LORETTA FULTON In April 2020, local historian Jay Moore put together a self-guided tour of historic churches in Abilene, all but one of them serving predominantly Black congregations, as an answer to the question everyone had–What can we do during this COVID-19 shutdown? Unfortunately, almost a year later that’s still a good question. And Moore’s tour is still a
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS Perhaps we try to make this too complicated. God’s requests of us as His people are relatively few; the list may be challenging, but they are not mysterious. The dilemma for us is not that we do not know what God desires; we just do not want to behave that way. The hospital announcement requested a chaplain
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON One of my favorite stories from the Old Testament centers around the Exodus. Numerous lessons come from Moses’ life and his encounters with God, the Pharaoh, and the people in the wilderness. If you remember, God sent Moses to Pharaoh with the request to let the people leave Egypt. Pharaoh proved to be stubborn, or as the
Read moreBy MARIANNE WOOD I learned a new abbreviation last fall when classes at Hardin-Simmons were held synchronously in the classrooms and via Zoom or simply F2F: Face to Face. For ages, face-to-face teaching was the standard way of delivering instruction to prekindergarten age children through graduate school adults. But lately, brick and mortar classroom learning has succumbed to instruction via
Read moreIDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Norman V. Horner is a retired educator who doesn’t really care whether folks call him “Dr.” or not. His distinguished career–plus his 40 articles in professional journals and his leadership in scholarly organizations–suggest that he’s been worthy of his degree for a long time. A Brown County native, Horner earned A.A., B.S., M.S. and Ph.D.
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON You’ll see it pop up everywhere. It’s on the news every evening and regularly listed in the newspaper. You’ll find it online daily. Press conferences boldly announce the numbers. What is it? It’s the death toll from the COVID-19 virus. The last time I remember seeing a death toll announced daily was during the Vietnam war years.
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By LORETTA FULTON The Rev. Andrew Penns, pastor at Valley View Missionary Baptist Church, grew up in Abilene and was in the last graduating class at Woodson High School. After graduating from Woodson, Penns served in the Army, including time in Vietnam. When he returned to Abilene, he didn’t like the racial environment he saw. So he moved to Austin
Read moreBy JIM NICHOLS There is much to be said for simply paying attention. This may be short- or long-term. Since we seem to be unable to control (or even influence) much of what occurs in our lives, we must move on to trying to decipher the meaning of what does occur. For those of us trying to follow God, this
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Pew Research CenterAnna Schiller As the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause deaths and disrupt billions of lives globally, people may turn to religious groups, family, friends, co-workers or other social networks for support. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 14 countries in the summer of 2020 reveals that more Americans than people in other economically developed countries say the outbreak has
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Spirit Of Abilene 