By Danny Minton Over five years ago, I signed up to be a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children in the foster care system in Texas. While most cases are said to last an average of 18 months, due to several complications, my case lasted for over five years. I sat down in a foster home a little over
Read moreTHE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury A Wheel of Fortune contestant, one Reginald Somebody, answered matter-of-factly to host Ryan Seacrest’s query about life goals. Reginald answered soberly. “My dream is to hawk beer in every Major League Baseball park in America.” Sure enough, Reginald prevailed on that night’s show, winning $24,626. Stationed nearby were his mom and cousin. Seacrest typically controls conversational
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By Loretta Fulton Wylie Methodist Church is about to undergo its second major transformation in the past four years. The first one came on Sept. 27, 2022, when the congregation voted to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church and join the Global Methodist Church, which launched May 1, 2022. The next change will affect the church’s appearance when ground is
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By Loretta Fulton Craig Enoch, retired justice of the Supreme Court of Texas and a practicing attorney, will be the second speaker in the Fletcher Lecture Series for the spring semester at Hardin-Simmons University. Enoch is an attorney with Butler Snow LLP, which has offices in various cities, including Dallas. He will speak at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17, in
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By Glenn Dromgoole My grandfather was a gentle and loving man who went blind at the age of forty or so. He died when I was sixteen, but I’ve never forgotten him. Tap. Tap. Tap.Slow. Deliberate.One tap. One step.Another tap. Another step.Feeling his way. Carefully. Gently.His cane announces his coming.Tap. Tap. Tap. He cannot see me,
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By Loretta Fulton Craig Sanders didn’t grow up in the Lutheran Church, and it wasn’t until he met his future wife, Kathy, that he was introduced to the church. But once he started taking a class on the teachings of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, he realized he agreed with them. It was while serving as an Elder
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By Loretta Fulton Cole Jodon was 17 when Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, The Cost of Discipleship, was recommended to him at a pastoral conference. It was the first theology book he ever read. He didn’t know then that he was on his way to becoming a Bonhoeffer scholar. Jodon will share his scholarship at the Abilene Association of Congregations meeting on
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By Glenn Dromgoole When my daughter Janet was ten, she suggested one day that we go over to the nearby elementary school and shoot baskets. She was just learning how to play basketball, and it was a beautiful day. So off we went. The school was better than the park, she said, because the school had eight-foot goals as well
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By Jim Nichols There are words in our language that can have quite different meanings depending on the context of their use. One such word merits our interest here; the word is “agency.” Most commonly, when someone uses that word the reference is to a division of the government, that is, some federal agency. For example, the Central Intelligence Agency
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Spirit Of Abilene 