Author: Gary Furr

Gary is a musician, writer and Christian minister living in Alabama.
America, Baptist life, Bible, Christian Nationalism, Christianity, Citizenship, Evangelicalism, fear, Immigration, Interfaith Dialogue, Jesus, Politics, Race, racism, reconciliation, Theology

Reading the Bible Amid the Culture Wars

Gary Furr

How we read it determines what we see, no? Part one of a four part series This article arose originally from a writing assignment from the Women’s Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention. It is more than an irony for me that this assignment came even as Baptists were still reconciling their own painful history with slavery in the 19th century. As an ardent mission-sending organization, it is nonetheless a continuous wonder that the SBC was birthed out of a split in American Baptists of the Triennial Convention when a slaveholding Southerner was put forward to become a missionary … Continue reading Reading the Bible Amid the Culture Wars

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How Will We Be Remembered?

Gary Furr

Since retirement, I have shifted from leading a wonderful congregation in suburban Birmingham, Alabama to working with partner organizations to provide food pantries in schools and communities, buy beds for children who slept on pallets, or shared a bed with a sibling, fund programs that deliver food, and build up people in vulnerable communities with great ideas. Our organization, the Alabama Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children, also works to find and support maternal and child health. The struggle to feed your family and pay for health care are among the most challenging in the state, but certainly not limited … Continue reading How Will We Be Remembered?

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Squanto’s Kindness

Gary Furr

How can you not like the story of the Pilgrims?  They came to America to find freedom, we remember.  Religious freedom.  They were Puritan “separatists,” believing that the True Church must separate itself from the corruptions of the world, in particular the Anglican church and its state-supported status as an established church.  They were known as “non-conformists,” as in non-conformity with the state and with the book of Common Prayer as its guide.  As in, “Hey, one of us needs to watch for the sheriff.”  First they went to Holland, where there was greater religious freedom.  Amsterdam was a bit … Continue reading Squanto’s Kindness