Author: Gary Furr

I am a musician, writer and Christian minister living in Alabama. I am founder and President of the Alabama Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children.
Family, Justice, Love, Parenting, Politics, Reinhold Niebuhr, StoryLeave a comment

Love, Justice, and Perseverance

Gary Furr

I read an excellent post this morning from Rich Havard, who was in our congregation as a student and now works in community building and social change in his adult life. It is an excellent piece about the struggles of being a person who is intentional in his spiritual journey working in a real world where sometimes there is puzzlement or antipathy toward the notion. He asked, “What place do spirituality and love have in the quest for a just world?” He spurred me to think about it. It’s an excellent piece I commend for your thinking. In his book, … Continue reading Love, Justice, and Perseverance

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Troublesome Waters

Gary Furr

A world of trouble going on, and everybody’s talking about it. I had emergency retinal reattachment surgery last Friday, and I’m stuck at home this week getting over it. Helplessly watching the mess of a world. A dear friend, Miss Jeanie, the hospice nurse who sat with my Dad until he died and me until they took his body, just went through surgery. It went well. But I owe her for being with me on that terrible day, forever. I’m sending her all the gospel songs I have on CDs to listen to. She loves that music. But I have … Continue reading Troublesome Waters

Disabled, Disease, Institutions, Jesus

In His Right Mind  

Gary Furr

Reading the Bible Amid the Culture Wars  A lot of questions could preoccupy us as we think about reading scripture. The whole idea of demons and devils is unsettling, disturbing.  But we can get sidetracked onto a lot of other questions.  We could ask the scientific question, “Are demons real and how would they go into pigs?  Or were the pigs disturbed by the commotion?”  We could ask a psychological question, “Is this just a description of mental illness?” which is our own modern preoccupation.  Or the moral question, “Hey, what about the destruction of that property?  Someone owned those … Continue reading In His Right Mind  

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The Moment is Here

Gary Furr

There is always a tipping point, when some event or tragedy or image seizes the populace with a terrible and unavoidable truth about a systemic injustice. What has been bubbling under our collective awareness, except for those intensely paying attention , now explodes into our faces. Human rights, the Bill of Rights, the deprivation of life, liberty, or due process, are embedded in the American mind and their violation causes us visceral repulsion. Two people have died in two weeks, after a parade of unnecessary cruelties and amateurish ineptitude. The victims were blamed to cover the real questions: how did … Continue reading The Moment is Here

9-11, Aggression, America, Citizenship, Conflict, Constitution, Culture, Ethics, fear, Manners, Politics, Selfishness, Story, violence, war

Greenland, Respect and Treading on Snakes

Gary Furr

My World War II vets in my former pastorate are all gone. They would spit venom at the idea of being aggressors. America defends the little guys, they believed. They beat Hitler and Japan to say, “Stop it. Leave the world alone.” And they came home and raised families, earned a living and served their communities. This is what I am sure they would say: “Leave Greenland alone. You don’t treat friends like a hostile takeover.” They would have said, “No. Leave them alone. Finish the ballroom. Get inflation under control. Fix the highways and take care of the poor … Continue reading Greenland, Respect and Treading on Snakes