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.
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

Uncategorized1 Comment

Thoughts on Suffering

Gary Furr

From a sermon two years ago. This was a post from a listener (and one of my staff) from that day. I am not fond of theories and theologies that discount the depths of human suffering for some exotic notion of “making us better people.” It can pass over the misery and sorrow too quickly. Better to see it, as perhaps the Ukrainian people are teaching us (as did Jesus), that sometimes suffering is the only alternative to yielding to wickedness and evil. I prefer Romans 8 which pictures the entirety of God’s good creation yearning for wholeness and completion, … Continue reading Thoughts on Suffering

Ash Wednesday, Ethics, Hope, humanity, Justice, Theology, Ukraine, violence, war1 Comment

A Prayer for the Russian People

Gary Furr

Today I pray for the people of Russia, passive victims of a sociopathic leader, taken into war without their voices and opinions being considered, lacking full knowledge or with the benefit of a factual and free press we pray. Lord have mercy. For a nation whose history is replete with czars, dictators and authoritarians, who have crushed dissent, stolen her wealth, compromised her people’s trust and repelled her Christian heritage unless it bow the knee to the idols. Lord have mercy. For mothers and grandmothers, whose young sons have been sent on a mission of bloodshed against kinsmen for no … Continue reading A Prayer for the Russian People