Alabama Gazette - The people's voice of reason

A friend kept encouraging me to read “The Shack” so I could discuss it with her. I told her I don’t read much fiction and kept putting her off. But I found the DVD at the local library last week...

Where has the summer gone? Area schools open their doors again soon, to the chagrin of many students and to the delight of many parents. It was always a depressing time for me as a child when the...

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to celebrate our first 100 years of independence. Lady Liberty is 305 feet tall--the height of a 22 story building. It arrived by ship in 214 crates and wa...

It’s among the shortest verses in the New Testament, and it’s also filled with some mystery. Jesus said, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32). Mrs. Lot is a minor figure in the Old Testament....

I first heard the story years ago on Christian television when the author, Bob Benson of Nashville Christian music fame, told it. He called it the baloney sandwich story. And it's still a good one. A...

The ancient patriarch Job felt all alone in his suffering. He said, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat (Job 23: 2)! I’ve heard people echo Job’s lament o...

Karen Carpenter was the preeminent voice of the 70s. Along with her brother Richard she sold 160 million record albums. Karen sang love songs. “We’ve Only Just Begun” has been used at countless...

He was deacon chairman in the church when I became the pastor. I was young and impressionable, and he made an impression on me. I still quote Horace, though he's been in heaven for many years, when I...

We'll soon hear about the new president's "first 100 days." Writer Thurston Clarke published a history in 2013 not of the president’s first 100 days, but of his last 100 days. The president is John...

I traveled to a Tennessee prison last weekend to visit a cousin. My sister engineered our trip, and we picked up our cousin's brother en route and had a nice day, despite the major purpose of our...

A former Nashville studio musician spoke to a group of church leaders in our city recently. He told us a little about his time in "Music City" and how decisions are made about what music to produce...

I heard about a presumably wealthy Texas cattle ranch owner who boasted about his holdings. When asked how he got such a big ranch, he replied that he bought up a bunch of smaller ranches and made...

I went to the business office to get a purchase order for office supplies; I think it was a box of file folders or paper clips, and the attendant questioned me like I was Oliver Twist asking for more...

I vaguely remember the high school dating scene with multiple cases of “going steady” and break-ups. Some of these on-again, off-again relationships were hard to keep up with since they were on-ag...

Canadian Army Lt. John McRae was in the line of defense that withstood the German assault in Belgium in 1915. The Germans resorted to chemical warfare using chlorine gas but the Canadians held fast....

An ABC tribute to Gilda Radner some time ago reminded me of the number of people we’ve lost in the last few years who made us laugh: John Belushi, John Candy, Phil Hartman, Bob Hope, Grady Nutt,...

It was an unusual comment. He was with a group who came to our church to use our facilities for a civic event. I was fairly new at the church and he told me he went to a neighboring church. "We don't...

I must admit I found it just as addictive as I'd been told. When I began watching...

I'm convinced the greatest detriment to faith is the problem of pain. "Why do the righteous suffer?" is a question as old as the book of Job. And it still befuddles serious-minded people who consider...

Christmas is past, and the new year is upon us. And what a year 2016 promises to be. A year of challenge. And opportunity. Every new year’s sunrise represents the dawning of fresh opportunity. Have...

It was a modest motion picture released in 1983 without much anticipation that it would be a block-buster, but the star won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe award for best actor the following...

Teachers take care to include every conceivable guideline in the class syllabus. I suppose years ago syllabuses used to cover pulling a girl's pigtails and chewing gum, but these days other issues are...

Bob Harrington, the former "Chaplain of Bourbon Street," preached one night and advertised his sermon title in the local newspaper: "Three Places Where There's No Problem With Racism." This was in...

I was probably the only one sitting in Sunday School yesterday thinking of Charles Manson. Manson was the crazed cult leader who directed two terrible mass murders in 1969. I read Vincent Bugliosi's...

Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher brought an arm-load of chains and manacles to the pulpit one Sunday. He threw them to the floor and the sound reverberated throughout the auditorium. "God have mercy on...