April 7, 2024, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

You can go home - especially on Easter

By Mike Haynes

                I never have liked the saying, “You can’t go home again.” A book by Thomas Wolfe published in 1940 made it popular, and I’m sure that circumstances make it true for some people. Even Jesus said, “No prophet is accepted in his hometown.”

                But I’m not a prophet, so I like much better the words from 2005 of rock band Bon Jovi: “Who says you can’t go home?”

                I did on Easter Sunday.

                I’m fortunate that I live close to my hometown and can go back fairly often. Interstate 40 bypassed it 40 years ago, its population is half the size that it was when I was a kid, scores of the people I knew back then have passed away, and I don’t know many of the newcomers who have moved in since I went off to college.

 

The Easter sermon

               But sitting on the same second pew last week that my family has occupied for 70-plus years, I certainly was home again.

                I’m blessed. My cousin, 18 days younger than me, has been the Methodist Church’s pastor for close to 30 years. My sister, who moved back home a decade ago after a coaching career, leads the hymns and the children’s music. Last Sunday, the congregation joined the dozen little kids – two of them sons of my niece and her husband – in singing, “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart … Where? … Down in my heart to stay!”

                And a big portion of my extended family – more than 20 – filled several of the front rows, just in front of a slightly larger group of another family that has graced the church since I can remember.

                My youngest brother and two cousins were in the choir, and another brother held down the end of our pew. My 93-year-old dad is having trouble getting around these days, so he and one of my aunts, also a little mobility-challenged, sat in the foyer at the back of the sanctuary. Dad sang in the Methodist Men’s Quartet for years, and my aunt used to be the choir leader. They were given microphones Sunday, so even from our spots on the second pew, my wife and I could hear Dad singing bass on “In the Garden.”

                Of course, the focus wasn’t my family. It was Easter, so the community was well-represented. My cousin, the preacher, pointed out that it would have been the 95^th birthday of a woman who was one of my childhood Sunday school teachers. She had passed away four weeks earlier. Her birth in 1929 also had been on Easter Sunday.

                Even that remembrance wasn’t the focus. My cousin’s sermon directed our minds and hearts squarely on the astounding, historical story of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross to take the punishment for all our sin, his miraculous resurrection from the dead and the provision that if we believe in him, “Because I live, you shall live also.”

Children's time

                My cousin stressed that the first three disciples who came to Jesus’ tomb on Sunday morning – John, Peter and Mary – had different reactions to Christ’s body being gone. John and Peter “went home,” while Mary stayed at the location where she last had seen her Lord’s body. And she was rewarded when Jesus appeared and spoke to her.

                The sermon borrowed a few elements from my cousin’s first Easter sermon in 1994 – another return to the past. What drew tears from a few eyes, though, was his recalling of the heartwarming decision he had made to follow Christ fully – which resulted in his becoming a minister.

                Standing in front of an Easter cross, he pointed to the exact spot at the altar where he had experienced a spiritual breakthrough three decades ago and had begun a journey to become a hometown pastor.

                 After church, my family and a few friends enjoyed a big Easter meal at my dad’s house – in the same kitchen and den where my four siblings and I grew up. The children raced to find eggs in the front yard where we had done the same.

                So sometimes, you can go home. But if I paid attention to my cousin’s sermon, I should remember that believers have a home to go to that we never will leave.

March 24, 2024, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Why you should see 'Cabrini' and learn about her selfless quest

By Mike Haynes

                Don’t skip “Cabrini” because you’re not Catholic.

                Don’t skip it because you’re not Italian.              

Don’t skip it because the title reminds you of opera singers. (The movie does include just a little opera singing, but that isn’t what it’s about.)

                Just don’t skip it.

                Here are two reasons to see “Cabrini”:

Cristiana Dell'Anna as Mother Francesca Cabrini

According to Angel Studios, executive producer J.E. Wolfington agreed to help make the film on two conditions: (1) that it would be about a great woman who just happened to be a nun, and (2) that a 501(c)(3) entity would be set up so that all the net revenues would go to charity.

Both of those stipulations were met, and the film’s heroine, Mother Francesca Cabrini, was the definition of charity. With some dramatic liberties that add characters and condense timelines, “Cabrini” is the story of her selfless quest to help orphans and immigrants in the New York City of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The movie begins with harsh coughing by Mother Cabrini, played by Cristiana Dell’Anna, and a doctor telling the young woman she might have two years to live. That doesn’t stop her from seeking a missionary appointment abroad, and Pope Leo XIII (Giancarlo Giannini) sends her from Italy to America to minister to the masses of Italians who have sailed to New York in search of better lives only to find filth, hunger and discrimination.

Her persistence – to be exhibited throughout the story – results in Mother Cabrini and a small group of other sisters sighting the Statue of Liberty in 1889. They make do with a broken-down building in the city’s Five Points district, searching muddy streets and climbing down sewer ladders to find children they can move into their makeshift orphanage.

                The sisters encounter heartaches – such as the death of an orphan boy in an industrial accident – and resistance from racist residents, city officials (John Lithgow plays the mayor) and even the local archbishop (David Morse). Through it all, Mother Cabrini not only survives but succeeds with her ambitious ventures to aid the poor.

                  The archbishop does allow his Christian kindness to outshine city and church politics and offers buildings and land formerly owned by the Jesuit order to Cabrini so she can build a proper children’s home.

                One catch is that water is scarce on the property, but Cabrini and her followers overcome the problem by searching for water and digging a well manually themselves.

     

Federico Ielapi as Paolo and Cristiana Dell'Anna
as Mother Cabrini in "Cabrini"

           Actress Dell’Anna’s unyielding yet sympathetic face is perfect to convey the grim determination that takes Cabrini well beyond her doctor’s prognosis and past her initial, vague mission to help disadvantaged immigrants. She manages to open a hospital with funds from New York Italian, Irish and Jewish groups and even travels to Rome to ask for money from the Italian Senate to finish the project.

                At one point, the pope questions Cabrini’s motives, wondering whether she is trying to create her own empire instead of doing the work of God. She replies that she wants “an empire of hope.”

                As the film ends, we are told that Cabrini lived to be 67 years old, establishing 67 missionary institutions for the sick and poor in New York, Chicago, Seattle, New Orleans, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Latin America and Europe. She became a U.S. citizen in 1909, and in 1946, an estimated 120,000 people filled Soldier Field in Chicago when the Catholic Church canonized her as the first American saint.

                Mother Cabrini certainly must have been a saint, whether in the Catholic definition,  the Protestant use of the term as any born-again Christian or the way I remember people describing a person who did good deeds and lived an admirable life: “She’s a saint.”

She took to heart Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ …

“…’Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

If you don’t see “Cabrini,” do think seriously about her example.

 March 10, 2024, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Scottish woman remembered with much respect

By Mike Haynes

                A fierce battle in Scotland in 1746 sometimes is called “the Scottish Alamo” because of the overwhelming victory of British Redcoats against an under-equipped band of tartan-wearing Highlanders.

                It was the Battle of Culloden (pronounced “kul-ODD-in”), and it effectively ended many of the Highland traditions such as wearing kilts and speaking Gaelic, at least for a few decades. It put the British government in London in firm control of Scotland.

                I suspect that Scots would be likely to call our revered Alamo massacre “the Texas Culloden,” because their bitter fight on a moor near Inverness is as much a key part of Scottish history as the Alamo is for us. It was the last full-scale battle on British soil, and the site has been preserved along with a modern museum. The Alamo is just now catching up on its presentation for visitors.

 

Flora MacDonald

               The key figure in the battle and surrounding events was 25-year-old Charles Edward Stuart, known as “Bonnie (Pretty) Prince Charlie.” He had recruited Highlander clans to rebel against British King George II in an attempt to put a Stuart, his father James, back on the throne of England and Scotland. His supporters were called Jacobites (“JACK-o-bites”), using the Latin word for James.

                “Bonnie Prince Charlie” led his rebel army successfully for a few months before meeting his “Waterloo” at Culloden. Until then, the attractive prince had stirred the imaginations of many Scots who thought he would lead them to victory over the oppressive government.

                But he is known more for his flight to avoid capture after Culloden than for the admiration he had before the battle. And surpassing him in fame and respect is a young woman who didn’t ask for recognition but who is more celebrated in the British world than the prince.

                Flora MacDonald was a 24-year-old woman living on a farm on one of the Hebrides islands west of the Scottish mainland when the bonnie prince and a few protectors took refuge there as they fled to avoid capture after Culloden. Flora helped sew a disguise for Charles and continued with him and his entourage. The prince dressed as Flora’s Irish maid with the name Betty Burke.

                The most famous, dramatic and romantic part of Flora’s involvement was a boat ride to the Isle of Skye, where the prince hid before eventually boarding a ship and escaping to France. Despite rumors, there was no romance between Flora and Charles. She and others eventually were arrested. She was held on a prison ship, then in London and finally was released. But the legend of Flora and “Bonnie Prince Charlie” already had been born.

                Many have heard versions of the “Skye Boat Song”:

                “Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing, Onward! the sailors cry; Carry the lad that’s born to be king Over the sea to Skye.”

                Flora was hailed not so much for her faithfulness to a cause but because in a moment of crisis, she had done what seemed right to her.

                Author Flora Fraser follows the Scottish heroine for which she is named from birth to her death on the Isle of Skye in her 2022 book, “Flora MacDonald: Pretty Young Rebel.” Fraser describes the “in between,” when the woman who had saved the prince moved with her husband to North Carolina, supported the British in the American Revolution and ultimately sailed back to her homeland.

                The book details how Flora MacDonald became a celebrity in her lifetime and remains in the British consciousness today with her picture on sewing kits, jewelry and tins of Walker’s Shortbread cookies. A statue of her stands in front of Inverness Castle.

                Admired as a strong, clever woman who affected history, Flora even is remembered in North Carolina, where Flora MacDonald College for young girls operated for a few years and she is mentioned on historical markers.

                Her grave on the Isle of Skye features a tall, Celtic cross monument with the words, “Flora MacDonald – Preserver of Prince Charles Edward Stuart – Her Name Will Be Mentioned in History – And If Courage and Fidelity be Virtues – Mentioned with Honour.”

                So the majestic, flamboyant man with royal blood was defeated, escaped and lived an uneventful life in Europe while the ordinary, practical, woman who helped him briefly is remembered with much respect.

                I can’t help but think of the Jewish people 2,000 years ago who prayed for a messiah who would arrive, a royal prince possibly leading an army against Roman oppression and bringing them peace and prosperity.

                Instead, Jesus came as an humble baby, grew up as a carpenter’s son, traveled by foot with his followers and died a criminal’s death.

                Sometimes the best in life comes from unexpected faces.

 Feb. 25, 2024, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Party reminds us: Don’t just do it; pass it on

By Mike Haynes

                Do you sometimes think it would be good if people would get together with family and friends to celebrate a loved one, expressing love and thanks to the person while they are around to hear it instead of waiting to say those kind words at a memorial service?

                My family has done that a few times through the years for various birthdays, usually inviting our kin from far and wide and good friends who live close enough to come. The Saturday before last, three days before his 93^rd birthday on Feb. 20, we honored my dad, Johnny Haynes.

Johnny Haynes

                With knee, hip and back troubles, Dad finally has had to give up most of the sports in which he excelled: tennis, skiing, roller hockey on the tennis court, basketball on the tennis court, front-yard touch football and pretty much anything else somebody wanted to play.

                Even with trouble getting around, he can’t resist competition. When weather permits, he still plays a few holes on McLean’s sand-green golf course and on the grass in Pampa. And almost every day, he and my youngest brother, Sam, rack up the snooker balls for a couple of games at Dad’s house. As of last week, the win count was Dad: 1,558, Sam: 1,553, in the game that’s similar to pool and billiards.

                Dad also doesn’t rope or get on a horse anymore, watching from the pickup or through the fence when we work cattle.

                It isn’t just physical skills. He led a Sunday school class at the Methodist Church well into his 80s. He was a stalwart in the church choir and the Methodist Men’s Quartet.

                What stood out at his party, though, wasn’t so much all the athletic, ranch and church activities that he succeeded in personally. It was the many people to whom he has taught some of those skills.

  

Carey Don Smith and Johnny Haynes

              Many passages in the Old Testament encourage passing on knowledge and wisdom from one generation to another. Two Saturdays ago, multiple members of the family and the community stood up to recall how they had benefited from Dad’s example and his direct instruction.

                In addition to showing his five kids how to throw a ball, rope a calf (that didn’t stick with most of us), keep your head down and your eye on the golf ball, do pushups and so many more skills, he was a mentor for young people throughout his hometown.

                He had some official positions, such as coaching boys in Little League and girls in youth softball, but when he heard of a teenager wanting to learn tennis or young people needing help with their golf swings, he took them under his wing. Although my sister played basketball under outstanding high school coaches and nationally known college coaches, he was the guy who got her to that point.

                I’m sure I wasn’t the only young man who learned from him how to sing bass in the choir, how to play a few guitar chords or how to tackle even before I got to play on our Tiger football team.

                Dad became known as an unofficial tutor and coach to his kids and to McLean young people in tennis, golf, running, basketball, softball, baseball – and I’m sure I’m leaving some activities out.

Jennifer Evans

                So that birthday party was a lesson, not just about my dad, but about the influence all of us can have on those coming after us – and those all around us. One reason the Good News of Christianity exploded upon the world and still blesses us so mightily is the effort the followers of Jesus exerted to “pass it on.” The veteran preacher Paul told a young Timothy, “…the things you have heard me say … entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2)

                That generation-to-generation progression works in a spiritual context but also in any field of endeavor and in our daily interaction with families and friends.

                One cousin brought up something about Dad that I had not consciously thought about. When she came into the family as a young girl, she was apprehensive because she was new to those of us who had grown up together. She said Dad immediately put her at ease with his folksy, friendly attitude.

                That was another lesson from the party. I’m glad Dad got to hear someone thank him for always welcoming everybody with a smile.

 Feb. 11, 2024, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

The wisdom of leaving a little extra alone

By Mike Haynes

                Most of the time, I didn’t have part-time jobs in high school – not away from home, anyway. I grew up on a ranch, so there was plenty to do helping Dad build fence or feed cattle.

One summer, I did put in some hours at a gas station that my Grandad John had bought, and I poured oil into the engines of a few Route 66 travelers. But my lesson about oil came one day when Grandad had me changing the oil on a ranch tractor.

In his younger days, he had been a dealer for Gulf Oil, so he knew more than your average rancher about motor oil viscosity and gasoline octane levels. What I remember, though, is simple.

As I held one of the old-style cans upside down, trying to drain every drop of oil into the engine, Grandad said, “That’s enough.” According to him, the oil companies included slightly more in the can than the amount printed on the label, and my effort to completely empty it was just wasting time. If I left a little in the can, the tractor still had plenty.

Many years later, another older man gave me similar advice. I was interviewing him for my master’s

thesis, a biography of the longtime editor of this newspaper, Wes Izzard, who had died several years before. My interview subject had been a friend of the editor.

I mentioned a book related to the newspaper’s history but apologetically said I had not read all of it yet. The editor’s friend told me emphatically that I should not waste time reading every page of a book when only a small part of it would help me in my research.

I suppose I’m a little obsessive when it comes to finishing a book that I start or watching a movie all the way through the credits, so I haven’t always followed the man’s suggestion. Maybe that’s why it took me almost to the time limit before I completed my master’s degree.

The older I get, though, the more I realize that our days on Earth are limited, and saving time – without cutting corners on quality or results – is wise.

The Bible certainly reminds us of the preciousness of time and that we should be responsible in using it.  Ephesians 5:15-16 and Psalms 90:12 are just two examples. But Leviticus 19:9-10 showed God’s Old Testament followers another reason not to be too zealous about completing everything 100 percent.

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.”

Amarillo’s Washington Street Family Service Center, which offers temporary food and clothing assistance to people in need, presents that passage to encourage donors not to use all their resources on themselves or their families but to save some for others. It’s another simple lesson that’s at the heart of Christianity.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” Jesus said. “This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22: 37-39)

Leaving a drop of oil in the can or skipping unhelpful pages in a book can save time. More important, giving from our abundance can bless people.

 Jan. 28, 2024, column in the Amarillo Globe-News:

'Surprised by Oxford' film highlights our longing for joy

By Mike Haynes

                I suspected, but wasn’t sure, that the movie, “Surprised by Oxford,” had something to do with C.S. Lewis, given that one of the Oxford and Cambridge professor’s well-known books is “Surprised by Joy.”

                I was right, but Lewis isn’t the focal point of this true story. It’s about Carolyn (“Caro”) Drake, now a professor, speaker and writer named Carolyn Weber, who enrolled at Oxford University as a young woman skeptical about Christianity and left with master’s and doctoral degrees and a strong faith in Christ.

                If you watch it on Amazon Prime or elsewhere, don’t be deterred by some pretty  philosophical conversations early on – for example, use of such words as “teleological.” Part of the reason for discussions about the meaning of life is to illustrate the high-brow environment at the 900-year-old university where Caro is trying to fit in. Some of the academic discourse also provides a counterpoint to the beliefs that Caro’s new friend, Kent, talks about.

                Caro initially trusts nothing that she can’t see or prove. Then she slowly becomes receptive to Kent’s low-key reasoning for the existence of God – at the same time she warms up to him romantically.

Caro is Canadian, while Kent is American. His last name is Weber, which might be a clue to their future. Not mentioned in the movie is that he is a son of Stu Weber, a well-known pastor and author of the 1993 bestseller, “Tender Warrior.”

                What isn’t surprising about the movie is the beautiful setting that shows Oxford’s “dreaming spires,” Hogwarts-style dining hall and elegant St. Mary’s Church. The splendid environment, with students bicycling past ancient stone walls, accentuates the faculty and student conversations about the nature of pleasure and joy.

                Humans’ longing for joy is a key concept in C.S. Lewis’ writing, especially in “Surprised by Joy,” which describes his own reluctant acceptance of God, and finally, Christ. In the film, Caro is introduced to that book and realizes how her yearning for happiness after a broken-home childhood might be fruitless without commitment to the ultimate joy.

                She sees what Kent already sees, which is that the beauty we appreciate in nature, music or anywhere in this world is temporary, leaving us yearning to return to past joyful experiences or to enjoy pleasures that seem out of reach. 

                Lewis wrote in “Mere Christianity,” “The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy.

“I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality.”

Caro begins to agree with Lewis that the scent of a fragrant flower or the sound of an inspiring song are just lesser versions of the world that God promises us in eternity. Lewis wrote that such delights are “a copy, or echo, or mirage” of something much better in heaven.

Throughout our lives, we have desires that we sometimes satisfy, but the satisfaction doesn’t always last. Or we reach a feeling of joy that isn’t quite as good as we had imagined. We often feel an unexplainable uneasiness.

According to Lewis, “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. … Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.”

Caro accepts that logic, and although the movie isn’t clear about how she fully accepts Christ, you know she does. She sees what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18:

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

* * *

Mike Haynes taught journalism at Amarillo College from 1991 to 2016 and has written for the Faith section since 1997. He can be reached at haynescolumn@gmail.com. Go to www.haynescolumn.blogspot.com for other recent columns.

Jan. 14, 2024, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Books I read in 2023: Some recommended, some not so much

By Mike Haynes

                At the end of 2022, I wrote in this space about the books I had read that year. I said it was seven, but I had miscounted; it was eight.

                That’s a pitiful number for someone who loves to read, but my excuses were the significant time I spend with newspapers and magazines and my habit of re-reading sentences to be sure I got it right the first time.

                I did a little better in 2023 because I gave up editing the basketball magazine that my family and I published. My list for last year includes 13 books, and the only reason you might care is that I’m going to tell you which ones I recommend.

                I certainly do recommend reading books in general. The quick information and recreation you get on the internet is no match for going in-depth on a topic or uncovering layers of a fascinating story.

                A gift from my mother-in-law, Peggy, was the first book I finished in 2022. “Letter to the American Church” by Eric Metaxas compares the state of U.S. Christianity to the German church under the Nazis and focuses on the Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s protests against the increasing oppression under Hitler. Recommend? Yes, but I don’t agree with all of Metaxas’s political advice for American Christians. The Nazi comparison goes only so far.

                Next, “The Faith of Elvis: A Story Only a Brother Can Tell,” by Billy Stanley with Kent Sanders. I’ll admit that when I get interested in something, I tend to dive in the deep end. That was the case after my wife, Kathy, and I saw the “Elvis” movie in 2022. She and I became even bigger fans than before, and Kathy gave me this book by Elvis Presley’s stepbrother. Recommend? Only if you want to read every word ever written about Elvis.

                “Words of Wisdom: A Journey Through Psalms and Proverbs,” by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, compiled by George Wilson. Recommend? Yes!

                “The Earl and the Pharoah: From the Real Downton Abbey to the Discovery of Tutankhamun,” by the Countess of Carnarvon. Kathy and I both loved “Downton Abbey,” and this book is about the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, who lived in its filming location, Highclere Castle; he helped find King Tut in 1922. Recommend? Yes, if you have any interest in Egyptian or English history.

                “Elvis Presley’s Graceland Guidebook.” It’s the book you can buy if you visit Elvis’s home in Memphis, Tennessee, which Kathy and I did in January 2023. Recommend? Yes, if you’re even halfway an Elvis fan.

                “The Key Place,” by Gene Shelburne, the other Amarillo Globe-News Faith columnist, longtime Amarillo minister and Bible teacher. The place in the title is the Shelburne family’s old homeplace, which he and his minister brothers visit every year to rest, study and refresh. Recommend? Definitely. Shelburne is a fine writer and in this book, a keen observer of rural Texas.

                “Waypoints: My Scottish Journey,” by Sam Heughan. Kathy and I also became fans of the “Outlander” TV series, in which Heughan plays Jamie Fraser, an 18^th century Highlander. Recommend? Yes, if you like “Outlander,” Scotland or hiking.

                “The Diary of a Young Girl,” by Anne Frank. It had been on our shelf for years, and I finally read it. Anne Frank’s diary might be the best account of the Jewish struggles to survive during the Holocaust. Recommend? It’s sad, but definitely.

 

               “Paul Revere’s Ride,” by David Hackett Fischer. I read this a second time because Kathy and I were about to visit New England last fall. The books outlines the life of the famous messenger who warned patriots that British soldiers were coming in 1775 plus a lively account of the following battles of Lexington and Concord. Recommend? Yes. I wish someone would make a quality movie of it.

                “The Diary Endures: Anne Frank – Her Life and Legacy,” by Life Magazine. It’s really just an in-depth magazine, but the text and photos are fascinating. (I told you that I can get really absorbed in a topic.) Recommend? Yes.

                “The Norman Rockwell Museum.” I’m counting this 55-page publication that includes a biography of the beloved American illustrator and lots of examples of his work. We got it at the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on that New England trip. Recommend? Yes, especially if you appreciate his “Saturday Evening Post” covers and other art.

                “First and Second Things,” by C.S. Lewis. This gift from my friend Randy groups several of the famous Christian writer’s essays in one book. Some get a little spiritually deep, and some appeal more to general readers. Recommend? Yes. There’s a reason that preachers of multiple denominations quote Lewis so often.

                “The Pilgrim Fathers – Or the Lives of Some of the First Settlers of New England.” This small book was published in 1830 – 210 years after the people we call the Pilgrims settled in Massachusetts. I still was fixated on New England and enjoyed learning how they arrived and survived at Plymouth. Recommend? Yes, if you can get past the stilted language of 1830.

                I do hope some of you will give a couple of these titles a try. More important, I hope people will take some time off from their phones and read books.

 Dec. 31, 2023, column in the Amarillo Globe-News

ACU nuclear research gets national Christian exposure

By Mike Haynes

                I was a little surprised to see a feature story in Christianity Today, which The Washington Post has called “evangelicalism’s flagship magazine,” about nuclear energy. I was even more surprised to find that the story near the front of the December 2023 issue focused on Abilene Christian University.

                It hasn’t been a secret that the Church of Christ-affiliated school in Abilene is researching an improved way of producing nuclear energy and plans to have a state-of-the-art nuclear reactor running by around New Year’s in 2026. Being reported prominently in the respected Christian publication, however, not only brings it to a wider audience but prompts thoughts of the spiritual implications of nuclear energy.

                  It could help create better lives for millions of people, a part of the Christian social mission that conservative churches often are criticized for neglecting.

                Dr. Rusty Towell, an ACU physics professor, convinced university president Dr. Phil Schubert of the value of a nuclear project that uses molten salt as a coolant instead of water, according to Adam MacInnis’s CT story.  

                Towell told the president that type of nuclear power generation would produce clean, cheap energy in a safer process than that used at traditional nuclear plants. Schubert said a U.S. Department of Energy expert had told him it could ensure that the country stays ahead of China and Russia while reducing dependence on fossil fuels. 

MacInnis wrote that Doug Robison, an oil and gas producer and ACU trustee who is helping fund the project, believes nuclear energy is much more likely than wind and solar to make a successful transition away from carbon-based power.

And Schubert thinks the innovative project fits the school’s Christian mission well, according to CT. MacInnis wrote, “…what if Abilene Christian could lead the way with new research on transformative technology that could help move America beyond its dependence on fossil fuels, pump clean energy into the world, make electricity available in places that currently don’t have it and lift people out of poverty?”

ACU isn’t alone in the project. It’s the lead institution in a research alliance that includes Texas A&M, Georgia Tech and the University of Texas at Austin. But it already has built a $23 million facility in Abilene to house a reactor which, with Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval, it hopes to start constructing by next May.

                The process doesn’t generate high pressure, dramatically reducing the chance of accidents that could happen in current nuclear plants. And Towell told CT that small salt reactor systems could be set up quickly and used to meet needs globally.

                Climate scientist Dr. Jessica Moerman also is a pastor in Washington, D.C., and president of the Evangelical Environmental Network. She told MacInnis, “If we had done these investments in these technologies decades ago, we would be much further along on our path towards clean energy and ensuring that we have clean air and clean water and a safe climate.”

                “God has given us an opportunity to use wealth and to use abilities and scientific understanding and all of that to carry out what is a uniquely Christian mission,” Robison said.

                And Schubert told CT, “I know that what these guys have envisioned can be achieved and that we can be the ones to achieve it.”

                That kind of attitude certainly is appropriate as we begin 2024.

 Dec. 17, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

'Twas the life before 'Christmas' of Clement C. Moore

By Mike Haynes

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and Clement C. Moore

Gets credit for writing the poem we adore.

He told of St. Nicholas, but you might be surprised

That he spent his long life teaching all about Christ.

                Who knows how many lame parodies – like the verse above – have been written based on “A Visit From St. Nicholas”? From sugar-plums dancing in children’s heads to the jolly old elf exclaiming, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”, the poem first published in a Troy, New York, newspaper in 1823 is engrained in American culture and has been adapted and abused hundreds of times. Usually, we laugh in spite of ourselves.

Clement C. Moore

                So we might picture the poet as a not-so-serious but clever writer – maybe a 19^th century reporter taking a break from the news or a theatrical humorist getting into the Christmas spirit.

                Clement Clarke Moore’s day job was weighty – and spiritual – than a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer would indicate, however. From 1821 to 1850, he was a professor of Greek and Hebrew literature at General Theological Seminary in New York, a school affiliated with the Episcopal Church. Before his fame as a Christmas Eve poet, he was known for publishing a “Hebrew and English Lexicon” in 1809.

                Born in New York City in 1779, Moore was the son of the Rev. Benjamin Moore, president of Columbia University (who gave the last rites to Alexander Hamilton in 1804 after Hamilton’s infamous duel). He attended Columbia and, according to Britannica, “had a lifelong interest in church matters.” In 1819, the younger Moore donated a large tract of land, an apple orchard, in Manhattan that he had inherited to the Episcopal Church with the condition that a seminary would be built there. It became General Theological Seminary, which still operates today.

In 1820, he helped New York’s Trinity Church establish a new parish church, St. Luke in the Fields.

"St. Nicholas" poster by Thomas Nast

                The title of an 1804 pamphlet that Moore published anonymously criticizing Thomas Jefferson – “Observations upon Certain Passages in Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, which Appear to Have a Tendency to Subvert Religion, and Establish a False Philosophy” – indicate both his religious and political views. I don’t think he mentioned Dasher or Dancer as he condemned the incumbent president who later clipped out verses from a Bible that included Jesus’ miracles and other mentions of the supernatural.

   
             “A Visit From St. Nicholas” also was published anonymously, and Moore wasn’t identified as the author until 1837. Saying he wrote it for his children, he included it in his book, “Poems,” in 1844. But the family of Henry Livingston, who was related to Moore’s wife, claimed that Livingston had written it.

                Livington died in 1828, never having claimed the Christmas poem, but several scholars, including Donald Wayne Foster of Vassar College, have said it has more in common with other poetry by Livingston than with other writing by Moore.

In 2001, an article by Stephen Nissenbaum of the University of Massachusetts – “There Arose Such a Clatter: Who Really Wrote ‘The Night Before Christmas’? (And Why Does It Matter?)” said his research showed that Moore was the author.

                Moore died in 1863 at age 83. The authorship controversy continues, but the poem forever will be a beloved part of Christmas. Whoever wrote it, “A Visit From St. Nicholas” established the American vision of Santa Claus.

Assuming that it came from the pen of Clement C. Moore, it even validates the idea that St. Nick coming down the chimney can co-exist with “the reason for the season.” It would be hard to believe that a professor who helped start a seminary and taught in it for three decades intended for St. Nicholas to replace Jesus.