Several years ago, in attempting to justify a serious moral failure. I heard a TV evangelist claim that “the devil made me do it.” He was not the first to make that claim. The phrase was popularized by comedian Flip Wilson in the early 1970s. He used it to excuse a character’s impulsive behavior when she said, "The devil made me buy this dress!". It is possible to blame the devil for all sorts of shortcomings and failures. We can blame the devil, and he (or she) is indeed r

(a Steve Orr Bible reflection) Stephen King described his The Stand: The Complete Uncut Edition as “this long tale of dark Christianity.” It’s an apt description. The novel is packed with themes any Bible reader would recognize. One in particular stands out for me: King’s characters have strange dreams. Each character dreams of a person and a place. All the dreamers are called to come. Each commences a journey to follow the voice in the dream. In time, the dreamers form

One of God’s commandments in Exodus 20 states: “ Thou shalt not kill ,” or more precisely, “ You shall not murder .” The act of deliberately taking a human life is wrong, although we have justified situations such as with self-defense, war, and capital punishment. In 2023 The U.S. homicide rate averaged around 6.8 per 100,000 people, with approximately 22,830 total homicides. The Southeast had the highest rates, showing Mississippi at the top, with around 20.5 deaths per 10

(a Steve Orr Bible reflection) Eagles singer Don Henley and friends wrote “The Heart of the Matter” in 1989. The song was a hit because of Henley's voice and the fact it is so singable. The lyrics tell us that a former love has found someone new. How many similar songs have you heard? A hundred? A thousand? If you thought the song was about a person pining for their lost love, you weren’t alone. It’s just that, well, there's quite a bit more to it. Check these lyrics: Th

“ Friendly fire ” is military slang that means your own side has fired upon you. There was difficulty in communication between two battle stations, and the result is most often loss of life. The casualties are just as severe, whether they are deliberate or not and such events are not “ friendly ” at all. Friendly fire often kills. Recently, a so-called friendly nation shot down three of our jet fighter planes. The pilots bailed out and were safe, but the billion-dollar flyi