Category: Theology

Ethics, Hope, humanity, Jesus, Pilgrimage, Theology and Life2 Comments

Following Jesus From Israel to Rural Alabama

Gary Furr

The Day After Thunder It was truly a day beyond words in April of this year when record tornadoes tore through Alabama.  I put it on my facebook page this way: “It is the morning after a wall of thunder ripped across our lovely state.  Time to roll up our sleeves and see what we can do to help.” A lot of death and injury greeted us when we emerged–damaged homes, businesses gone—and we found the task of cleaning up absolutely daunting.  One family in my church found themselves in a neighborhood of felled trees, including a big one right … Continue reading Following Jesus From Israel to Rural Alabama

Hope, Suffering, Terrorism

Remembering What I Said After 9-11

Gary Furr

I wondered about the things I said on the Sunday morning after 9-11.  So I retrieved my sermon from that day,  September 16, 2001 at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama.  I am still in the place where I was on that day, still trying to preach sermons to my people.  So, I wondered, what do I remember about what I said and felt and thought.  Turns out I had a record.  Some of these thoughts still help me.  Some cause me questions about where we have come since then.  You decide.   NRS Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember your creator in … Continue reading Remembering What I Said After 9-11

Culture, Hope, humanity, Terrorism, Theology and Life

Dreaming On

Gary Furr

The anniversary of 9/11 is not only a marker of a terrible historical moment, it is a reminder that we have lived an entire decade in the collective shadows of fear and diminished hopes.  Our children graduating now have spent their childhoods absorbing tsunamis, wars, terrorism, hurricanes, earthquakes and economic catastrophe.  They enter a job market that will test their ability to hope.  It may be a great moment not only to remember 9/11 but also to remember how to hope. Howard Thurman once wrote that “as long as a man has a dream in his heart, he cannot lose … Continue reading Dreaming On

Christianity, Music, Pilgrimage2 Comments

I Am a Flatpickin’ Pilgrim

Gary Furr

Pilgrim’s Progress is one of my favorite spiritual writings to come from the Baptist and Puritan stream.  The longer title of the original The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come written by John Bunyan first appeared in 1678.   It was written by Bunyan while locked in jail for violating the Conventicle Act, in which the state forbid anyone but officially licensed Anglican priests from holding religious services. I have been to that jail where Bunyan was, been to his grave in London, and visited the town where he lived as an early Baptist.  It is … Continue reading I Am a Flatpickin’ Pilgrim

Blues, Books, Christianity, Country Music, Culture, Hope, Music

I Was Thinking Tonight About Elvis, Hank, and Gillian

Gary Furr

I was reading about Hank Williams, went to hear Gillian Welch, and wound up thinking about Elvis Presley.  Just finished the late Paul Hemphill’s wonderful biography of Hank Williams, Sr.   This being “the Year of Alabama Music,” I have decided to do a study of some great Alabama musicians.  It’s a pretty great list.  Anyway, sometimes secular musicians, especially in folk, country and blues, are windows into what Stephen J. Nichols calls, “the gospel in a minor key”  I call it, “the rest of creation that never finds its way into church.”  We’re pretty long on the resurrection side of … Continue reading I Was Thinking Tonight About Elvis, Hank, and Gillian