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.
Christianity, church, Culture, Ethics, Higher Education2 Comments

Writing Together

Gary Furr

For over thirty years, I have been part of an extraordinary community of theological friends. In our careers we were pastors, missionaries, seminary and college professors, and a university president. All of us were productive writers and thinkers and published individually a great deal over the years. We began coming together during the time that the Southern Baptist Convention was imploding over politics and theological disagreement in the 1980s. It was formed with three members and they soon began to invite the rest of us to join . This group became a wonderful place of freedom and fellowship. We found … Continue reading Writing Together

Uncategorized1 Comment

A Word from George

Gary Furr

This is a quote from George Washington’s Farewell Address, 1796, after he had refused a third term.  It was published in every newspaper in the country.  This is only a section I thought relevant to now, as election hysteria causes us once more to wrongly believe this is THE worst situation our nation has ever faced, that our politics right now is a matter of GOOD vs. EVIL, and when we cannot agree which is which, and a time in which we cannot bear the past unless we either gloss over its truth and exchange it for a myth of our own construction or … Continue reading A Word from George

Blessing7 Comments

Blessing for an Anniversary

Gary Furr

Now that I am retired, I am still busy, but not consecutively. I bounce from one “one-time” event to another–a funeral, a wedding or two, a concert here and there, and writing. That along with the avalanche of priorities for caring for two parents and family priorities. My joke is, “I do lots of things, but not two in a row.” My other is that now I mostly do “leavings, cleavings and (when I fill in for a preacher) relievings.” Relationships abide past the end of work, and recently we were invited to celebrate a sixtieth anniversary of two dear … Continue reading Blessing for an Anniversary

America, Citizenship, Culture, guns1 Comment

Responsibility, Freedom and Uvalde

Gary Furr

It’s incomprehensible that 325 million people can’t figure out how to keep their 18-year-old males from killing us and our children and grandchildren. We will hear a barrage of excuses, arguments, high-minded rationalizations and fatuous fears in the days ahead. I am feeling the despair I had after the massacre of babies that happened at Sandy Hook. We will pit gun rights versus safety for children, argue about paranoid conspiracy theories and generally avoid doing anything. Because that’s how we’ve turned away from the crisis. Here’s the deal for me. You let an 18-year-old stroll in and buy body armor, … Continue reading Responsibility, Freedom and Uvalde