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Articles by byHarold Ivan Smith
14 dangerous words – Baptist News Global
Never underestimate the power of words or a string of words. A news story about the Florida Board of Education — not a local school board but the state board — adopting new standards for teaching American history for children in Florida public schools flabbergasted many Americans. As did the governor/presidential candidate’s attempt to back up their “new” history of slavery.
Will you take The Truman Challenge in 2023? – Baptist News Global
American presidents must be prepared to respond to whatever questions might arise at a press conference. Presidents have answered or dodged difficult questions, or snapped, “No comment. Next question!” In a 1949 press conference, Harry Truman made clear that as commander in chief, he dictated the defense policy of the United States — not generals, admirals, the joint chiefs of staff or the civilian secretaries of the Army, Navy or Air Force.
Counting your blessings instead of sheep – Baptist News Global
“Have you not heard anything I’ve said in the last four weeks!? Just what do I have to be grateful about?” The elderly widower in my grief group was incensed that the fourth session was focused on gratitude. The topic had made sense to me as facilitator since the group was meeting two weeks before Thanksgiving. The group went silent. I waited a moment before responding. “Yes, in fact, I have been listening to you. You told me that you and your wife had 51 years of marriage. Not everyone gets 51 years.
Ready for some Friday night football and prayer? – Baptist News Global
Autumn offers a string of Friday Night Lights at high school football. And this autumn marks the first time coaches can feel free to “take a knee” on the 50-yard line to pray at the end of a game. The Supreme Court said so on June 17, 6-3. And that settles it! Or does it?
When you’re tempted to forget about the latest school shooting, remember the embalmers – Baptist News Global
Note: This article includes a detailed description of burial preparation for children. I embalmed a baby, for the first time, when I was 18 years old. Another baby I did not embalm — I could not embalm — lay on the other embalming table in the funeral home. She had been starved to death by her parents. I embalmed a toddler, for the first time, when I was 19. I have never talked to anyone about what I experienced in these past 56 years.
On this date 85 years ago, the worst school tragedy in American history occurred – Baptist News Global
On Thursday afternoon, March 18, 1937, in the Texas oil boom town of New London, 694 students and 40 teachers awaited the dismissal bell and the start of a special three-day weekend. Then at 3:17 p.m., just 13 minutes before dismissal, New London School — a structure 253 feet long and 56 feet wide — imploded. The roof of the building was blown upward, the walls crumbled, then the roof collapsed, trapping students and teachers in the rubble of concrete, brick and twisted steel.
What Abraham Lincoln has to say about our national grief this Presidents Day – Baptist News Global
This month, 160 years ago, Abraham Lincoln was ensconced in grief. The Civil War frustrated and hounded him 24 hours a day. Too many young boy-soldiers were dying; too many mothers and fathers were grieving. Gen. George McClellan was not only reluctant tofight, but derided Lincoln as “a coward,” “an idiot,” and “the original gorilla.” The daily demands for “more troops, more supplies, more money” challenged Lincoln’s energies and sanity. And then there was Mrs.
Something doesn’t add up about the two Kentucky seminaries suing the federal government over vaccine mandates – Baptist News Global
“Pandemics unmask who we really are — our morals, our values, our ethics, our humanity. They test us in ways nothing else can.” — Sanjay Gupta, M.D., World War C, 2021 In a tutorial for doctor of ministry students at Asbury Theological Seminary, several of us were struggling with the new statistical component that had been introduced to D.Min. projects.
The pandemic of the unclaimed dead – Baptist News Global
“Show me the manner in which a nation cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land, and their loyalty to high ideals.” — William Gladstone, four-time prime minister of Great Britain between 1868 and 1894 Gladstone’s words were rebooted in my mind after reading a Washington Post article about the startling number of “unclaimed” corpses and cremains in the nation’s coroner/medical examiner offices and...
‘He being dead, yet speaketh’ – Baptist News Global
Another new year has come, and I have a new year’s resolution — actually a rerun of 2020 that never clicked. Clean out a stack, or two, of “When I get a moment, I want to read this” newspapers, journals and magazine articles. More than once, I have been embarrassed by noticing stacks of articles and spotting the date of publication.
Four stones to support your grief this holiday season – Baptist News Global
One rainy Washington night in February 1862, Abraham Lincoln groaned in deep grief. Yes, there were the mounting casualties in the War Between the States, but closer to home, Willie, his 11-year old son, had died of typhoid fever despite the excellent nursing care of Rebecca Pomeroy. Now his son Tad, age 9, was fighting for life. And Lincoln had buried Eddie, a 4-year old son, back in Springfield. “I cannot lose another boy,” he moaned. Life was demanding too much from him that February night.
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