by Guy Sayles | Apr 26, 2012 | Uncategorized
Sometimes, we need to set-aside efficiency for the sake of love and to sacrifice success for the sake of faithfulness. There are some things so right and good, so significant and wonderful, that we have to do them, no matter what. We “know” that they matter, even if...
by Guy Sayles | Apr 16, 2012 | Uncategorized
In an essay about the 2000 presidential election, David Foster Wallace wondered why so many potential voters, especially younger ones, seemed so “uninterested in politics.” He concluded that, more than anything else, younger people found politics boring and...
by Guy Sayles | Apr 13, 2012 | Uncategorized
Following are remarks I made at the April 12, 2012 meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Education. While the statement is content-specific, it does reflect my basic approach to the issue of religion in the public schools. By the way, the School Board voted to adopt...
by Guy Sayles | Apr 6, 2012 | Uncategorized
Writer and Lutheran minister Walt Wangerin told about finding his son reading a big stack of comic books. “Where did those come from?” “I took them from the library.” “You mean you borrowed them?” “No. . .” So Wangerin marched his son to the library and made him...
by Guy Sayles | Apr 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
We were created for worship and fashioned for praise. Tortured genius and brilliant critic of the church, Frederick Nietzsche, believed that human beings are driven by a will to power. We are, he said, desperate to have a sense of mastery over the sinister, unseen but...
by Guy Sayles | Mar 29, 2012 | Uncategorized
Not long ago, I had to make a hurried trip to Atlanta and back. As I traveled, I noticed the restaurants and fast food joints, or signs for them, which line our interstate highways. Appleby’s, Arby’s, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Chili’s, Church’s Chicken,...
by Guy Sayles | Mar 23, 2012 | Uncategorized
Would you please give it a rest? Try to settle-down. Loosen up. Lighten up a little. Ease off. Back off. Whoa, wait a minute, time out. Give me a break. Chill out. If you’re hearing these kinds of things more often lately, there’s a pretty good chance you’re missing a...
by Guy Sayles | Mar 15, 2012 | Uncategorized
When I was in elementary school, our report cards contained a section on “class citizenship.” We didn’t just get grades on spelling and arithmetic; our teachers also evaluated our character. There was a list of personal qualities; and, next to each one, a ranking: VS...
by Guy Sayles | Mar 9, 2012 | Uncategorized
This week, I had the privilege, along with about 60 other Baptist leaders, of spending several hours at a White House briefing and conversation about important domestic policy issues. The briefing took place in a fourth-floor conference room in the venerable and...
by Guy Sayles | Mar 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
We need community, but community isn’t easy. And it isn’t easy mostly because there are people in community, and people have a way of being predictably and messily human. Some of the people in community with us have strange ideas and unreasonable expectations. Some...
Recent Comments