Hey Mom! My 2017 stories earned six national awards from the Associated Church Press

April 21, 2018

For the fourth year in a row, The Christian Chronicle — where I serve as chief correspondent — was recognized as the top national or international newspaper in the Associated Church Press’ annual “Best of the Church Press” contest.

Moreover, I was blessed to receive six individual honors — including first place in four categories — at Friday night’s awards banquet in Chicago.

In case my mother is reading, here is a list of the awards:

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First Place, Feature Article, for “In Canada, Syrian refugees find love and hope” from St. Catharines, Ontario.

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First Place (with Bob Smietana), News Story, for coverage of mass shooting at Tennessee church, including my story “For survivors of Tennessee shooting, healing will take time and patience.”

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First Place (with Chellie Ison), In-depth Coverage, for coverage of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, including my stories “Faithful mobilize shelters for Hurricane Harvey flooding victims” from Belton, Texas, “In a small town, a church becomes a hub for Harvey relief” from La Grange, Texas, “After Harvey, hope for heroes and victims” from Houston and “18 vans, 150 volunteers, 465 miles, one goal: to help Harvey victims” from Houston.

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First Place (with Chellie Ison and Lynn McMillon), Theme Issue, Section or Series, for coverage of faith and opioids, including my stories “South Carolina church battles opioids ’emergency'” from Surfside Beach, S.C., ” “The leprosy in my neighborhood is addiction” from Pontiac, Mich., and “One church’s ‘compassionate and Christ-like’ approach to the opioid crisis.”

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First Place (staff award), Best in Class, National or International Newspaper, for The Christian Chronicle.

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Second Place, News Story, for “Catholic faith moves Houston’s ‘Mattress Mack’ to shelter Hurricane Harvey victims” from Houston. (This was a freelance piece I wrote for Religion News Service.)

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Third Place (with Bob Smietana), In-depth Coverage, for coverage of mass shootings at churches, including my stories “For survivors of Tennessee shooting, healing will take time and patience” and “Texas hero risked life to save others.”

 

Cult leader? ‘Sinful Messiah’? 25 years later, interest in David Koresh still strong

April 19, 2018

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Religion News Service

WACO, Texas — The curious keep coming.

They turn onto a gravel road 10 miles east of Waco and pass through a black gate leading to a rural complex where David Koresh — leader of an apocalyptic religious sect known as the Branch Davidians — and 75 followers perished in a firestorm on April 19, 1993.

That came after six Branch Davidians and four federal agents earlier died amid a flurry of gunfire in the government’s initial Feb. 28, 1993, raid on the 77-acre Mount Carmel property.

“I was just really curious about seeing this memorial and seeing what’s out here,” said Eric Williams, a Seattle film producer who made it a point to visit the site during a leisure trip to Texas.

Nearby, a woman snapped a picture of a monument listing the names of Koresh and the other 81 Branch Davidians — including 18 children ages 10 or younger — who lost their lives in the 51-day federal standoff that ended in a nationally televised inferno.

Twenty-five years after the siege, interest in what happened outside Waco — and who’s to blame — remains immense.

Evidence of that can be seen in the spate of recent television specials coinciding with the anniversary — from ABC’s “Truth and Lies: Waco” to the Paramount Network’s six-part miniseries “Waco” to the Smithsonian Channel’s documentary “Waco: The Longest Siege.”

Read the full story.

Related: Former FBI agent still haunted by Waco tragedy and David Koresh’s beliefs (reporting from Waco, Texas)

My 1993 story: FBI spokesman relishes comfort of home after horror of Waco (reporting from Edmond, Okla.)

Religion News Service is a national wire service with more than 100 secular and religious media subscribers, including USA Today, the Washington Post and NPR.

‘Those events will be with me for the rest of my life’

April 19, 2018

Waco tragedy and David Koresh’s beliefs still haunt former FBI agent.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Religion News Service

WACO, Texas — Twenty-five years ago, Oklahoman Bob Ricks was the FBI’s main spokesman during the 51-day standoff outside Waco between federal agents and an apocalyptic religious sect known as the Branch Davidians.

Ricks, 73, who earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Baylor University in Waco, has spent almost 50 years in law enforcement, first as an FBI special agent and later as the police chief in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond.

Before the deadly inferno that killed Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and 75 followers on April 19, 1993, Ricks stepped to the microphone for nearly three dozen news conferences with the national media.

Last year, the father of two and grandfather of five received the Salt & Light Award  presented by the Christian Business Men’s Connection of Oklahoma City. He’s an active member of Henderson Hills Baptist Church in Edmond, where he taught juniors and seniors in the high school ministry for more than 10 years.

As a reporter at the time for the Edmond Sun newspaper, I interviewed Ricks, then the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Oklahoma City office, in the wake of the siege.

In a new interview a quarter-century later, Ricks — now director of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation — was much more willing to talk about his own Southern Baptist faith as well as Koresh’s beliefs and the FBI’s handling of the tragedy.

Read the full story.

Related: Cult leader? ‘Sinful Messiah’? 25 years later, interest in David Koresh still strong (reporting from Waco, Texas)

My 1993 story: FBI spokesman relishes comfort of home after horror of Waco (reporting from Edmond, Okla.)

Religion News Service is a national wire service with more than 100 secular and religious media subscribers, including USA Today, the Washington Post and NPR.

Pompeo’s Kansas church asks God to ‘give him strength’ in Senate confirmation process

April 17, 2018

“Mike has enemies because of his faith who may try to paint him in a poor light and make it difficult for him to reach the Secretary of State position,” the pastor of nominee Mike Pompeo wrote to his congregation.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Religion News Service

WICHITA, Kan. — Under fire from Muslim, Jewish and human rights groups for a record of anti-Muslim remarks, Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo is receiving spiritual support from his home church in Kansas.

Eastminster Presbyterian Church, where Pompeo is a member and former deacon and Sunday school teacher, prayed Sunday (April 15) that God would “give him strength” in his uncertain confirmation process.

“This morning, we want to pray for our dear brother Mike Pompeo as he goes through the confirmation process,” the Rev. Warren Snyder, Eastminster Presbyterian’s assistant pastor, said as members bowed their heads.

“We ask that you would be glorified in his life, that you would be lifted up, that you would strengthen him and his wife (Susan) and his son (Nick) as he goes through this process,” Snyder prayed to God. “Give him strength. Help him to stand.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee began hearings Thursday on whether to confirm Pompeo — the outgoing CIA director nominated by President Trump to replace Rex Tillerson in the top diplomatic post.

In advance of Pompeo’s testimony before the Senate panel, the Rev. Stan Van Den Berg, the Wichita church’s senior pastor, issued a call to prayer Wednesday. He cited a request from Susan Pompeo for “specific prayer during this very important and stressful time.”

Read the full story.

Religion News Service is a national wire service with more than 100 secular and religious media subscribers, including USA Today, the Washington Post and NPR.

In ‘Still Wrestling,’ minister whose wife, son were slain explores faith, doubt

April 15, 2018
For Les Ferguson Jr., writing a book was a way to deal with his own hurt and pain — and help others, too.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle

A double murder. A destroyed family. A shattered faith.

After the tragic deaths of his wife and 21-year-old son in 2011, minister Les Ferguson Jr. struggled not to believe that God existed but that he cared.

In the newly released “Still Wrestling: Faith Renewed Through Brokenness,” Ferguson explores questions of faith and doubt that helped lead him to a stronger, deeper relationship with his Creator.

Ferguson preaches for the Lake Harbour Drive Church of Christ in Ridgeland, Miss., north of Jackson. He discussed the 224-page book in a telephone interview with The Christian Chronicle.

Read the full interview.

This column appears in the April 2018 edition of The Christian Chronicle.

Related: Modern-day Job preaching again (reporting from Ridgeland, Miss.)

 

Two legacies, 50 years later

April 3, 2018

Marshall Keeble and Martin Luther King Jr. fought for ‘different things in different ages.’

By Hamil R. Harris and Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle

Marshall Keeble was calling sinners home at a 1939 gospel meeting in Ridgely, Tenn., when a young white man approached him after the sermon.

The renowned black evangelist reached out his hand, thinking this was one more soul ready for baptism.

Instead, the man struck Keeble in the face with a set of brass knuckles and ran.

The Church of Christ minister recovered his balance and kept encouraging the crowd. The meeting’s organizers wanted to call police, but Keeble told them not to, later remembering, “I had to know how to meet him, or I’d get hurt bad.”

Despite violence and threats from white supremacists, Keeble never wavered in resolve to share the Good News with seekers black and white.

Fifty years ago, the world lost two famous black preachers.

On April 4, 1968, an assassin’s bullet struck Baptist pastor Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. He was 39.

Sixteen days later — on April 20, 1968 — natural causes claimed Keeble, who had brought an estimated 30,000 souls to Jesus in a 71-year ministry career. He was 89.

King was the most visible spokesman of the Civil Rights Movement, while Keeble — who grew up in a time of racially segregated schools and churches — only quietly worked for integration.

Fred Gray, a civil rights attorney and longtime elder of the Tuskegee Church of Christin Alabama, knew both King and Keeble.

“Comparing Keeble to King is to compare two persons doing different things in different ages,” Gray, 87, said in a recent interview with The Christian Chronicle.

Read the full story.

This story appears in the April 2018 edition of The Christian Chronicle.

Related: Marshall Keeble’s ‘boy preachers’ still baptizing and saving souls (reporting from Los Angeles)

Column: ‘Sister Keeble’ stayed strong in mind, faith

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Marshall Keeble’s ‘boy preachers’ still baptizing and saving souls

April 2, 2018

Famous traveling evangelist mentored many of the most influential African-American ministers in Churches of Christ.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle

LOS ANGELES — In 1963, an 11-year-old named Dewayne Winrow preached at Southwestern Christian College’s annual Bible lectureship in Terrell, Texas.

The boy’s message resonated with one notable person in the audience: Marshall Keeble, the famous black evangelist who baptized an estimated 30,000 people before his 1968 death.

“Brother Keeble came to the stage, and he offered me immediately a full-time scholarship to begin attending the Nashville Christian Institute,” Winrow, now 65, recalled at the Reseda Church of Christ, the San Fernando Valley congregation he has served since 1975.

Winrow, the son of a single mother, had been baptized at age 9 at the Bell and Farrall Church of Christ in his hometown of Shawnee, Okla.

The sixth-grader moved to Tennessee and became one of Keeble’s “boy preachers” — students who traveled with Keeble to gospel meetings and delivered short messages before he spoke.

“Brother Keeble’s thing was preaching, and his thing was saving souls and baptizing people,” said Daniel Harrison, another of the former boy preachers.

“Right now, many of us are still carrying on his legacy,” added Harrison, senior minister for the Chatham-Avalon Church of Christ in Chicago for 50 years and director of the national Crusade for Christ since its launch 39 years ago.

Read the full story.

This story appears in the April 2018 edition of The Christian Chronicle.

Related: Two legacies, 50 years later (contrasting Marshall Keeble and Martin Luther King Jr.)

Column: ‘Sister Keeble’ stayed strong in mind, faith