‘Sister Keeble’ stayed strong in mind, faith

April 1, 2018

The widow of famous traveling evangelist Marshall Keeble lived to be 108.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle

I never got to meet Marshall Keeble or hear him preach.

I was a baby when Keeble, the famous traveling evangelist who started hundreds of Churches of Christ, died 50 years ago.

“I wish you would have had the chance of meeting him,” Daniel Harrison, minister for the Chatham-Avalon Church of Christ in Chicago, said as we discussed Harrison’s experience as one of Keeble’s “boy preachers.”

I wish that, too.

But I was blessed to interview Keeble’s widow during my time as an Associated Press reporter in Nashville, Tenn.

Laura Keeble was 104 years old — and still strong in mind and faith — when I profiled her for AP in 2003. (Even though I didn’t begin work at The Christian Chronicle until 2005, the tip for the story came from Lynn McMillon, the Chronicle’s president and one of my former Bible professors at Oklahoma Christian University.)

On weekday afternoons, Keeble sat in her nursing home room, content to watch Oprah Winfrey on television. But at 3 p.m. on Sundays, she expected someone to wheel her downstairs for worship.

“I’m going as long as I’m able,” said Keeble, who lived to be 108.

Baptized in a Mississippi creek in 1913, this gentle woman known as “Sister Keeble” boasted a spiritual strength that belied her wrinkles, white hair and wheelchair.

For much of her life, she lived in the shadow of her husband. But Sister Keeble, who also became “Mama” to dozens of young girls, had her own story.

Read the full column.

This column 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)

Related: Two legacies, 50 years later

‘Dear Jesus, send some angels’: Faith and prayer inside Southwest Flight 1380

April 1, 2018

By Bobby Ross Jr. | GetReligion

Several years ago, I was flying home from a reporting trip when the pilot came on the loudspeaker and reported trouble with the controls that direct the plane.

He said we needed to make an emergency landing, and rescue vehicles would be waiting as a precaution. But he stressed that the flashing lights on the ground shouldn’t alarm anyone because he didn’t expect any problem landing the plane.

That statement would have provided more comfort if I hadn’t kept asking myself: If the plane were going to crash, would he be so candid as to say so?

“Attention, passengers, I fully expect that we are all about to die. Please buckle your seat belts and get your affairs in order.”

For an anxious flyer such as myself, that experience was scary enough.

But I can’t even imagine what the passengers of Southwest Flight 1380 endured this week. As you no doubt heard, one passenger was killed and seven others wounded Tuesday after an engine exploded.

However, as I noted Wednesday, devout Christian pilot Tammie Jo Shults is being praised for her “nerves of steel” in calmly maneuvering the plane to the ground and avoiding a much worse catastrophe.

Since I wrote that post, I’ve come across more faith-filled news coverage that needs to be highlighted.

Read the full column.

• • •

All of my GetReligion columns (March 2018):

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In Heart of America, LTC helps train church leaders from small congregations

April 1, 2018

Nationally, Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes and Leadership Training for Christ events draw more than 40,000 to 17 sites in 13 states.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Four families from the Northern Hills Church of Christ in western South Dakota drove more than 700 miles each way to attend the Heart of America Leadership Training for Christ (LTC) convention this past weekend.

Alaethia Thompson — one of 11 LTC participants from the 70-member church between Spearfish and Belle Fourche — developed her talents in events such as Bible quiz, Christian art and small group chorus.

“I love how LTC just brings everyone together, and all of the things that I participated in were just amazing and so much fun,” said Thompson, who sang on stage at Saturday’s closing celebration with her sisters Kaitlyn, 14, and Sophia, 12, and fellow Northern Hills church member Sammy Zoller, 12.

From puppeteers to song leaders, signers for the deaf to Christian fiction writers, 579 young people — not counting parents and sponsors — flocked to Kansas City’s Crown Center for the Heart of America event.

“I always love it when multiple congregations come together — just the fellowship and unity that are there,” said Nathan Thompson, a Northern Hills member and father of nine, including Alaethia, Kaitlyn and Sophia. “Seeing so many people from so many different churches is just great.”

Jenifer Zoller, mother of Sammy, said LTC has helped her daughter grow both in biblical knowledge and personal confidence.

“Before, she was shy and wouldn’t stand in front of people and participate very well,” Jenifer Zoller said. “To see her up on that stage tonight singing in front of hundreds of people makes me very proud of the young woman she is becoming.”

Read the full story.

This story appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle.

 

Where the buffalo roam, a Passion play approaches the century mark

March 27, 2018

Oklahoma’s version of old Jerusalem provides the setting for what organizers describe as North America’s longest continuously running outdoor Passion play.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Religion News Service

WICHITA MOUNTAINS WILDLIFE REFUGE, Okla. — Before the sun sets at a remote mountain attraction called Holy City of the Wichitas, Jesus and a band of white-winged angels walk through a crowd gathering on the hillside.

Nobody seems fazed.

But a few hours later, a different visitor — this one an uninvited guest at the 93rd annual “Prince of Peace” Easter pageant — causes a stir among the men, women and children seated under the stars on blankets, lawn chairs and pickup beds.

An enormous buffalo wanders uncomfortably close to a group of spectators from the First Baptist Church of Olustee, diverting their attention from the donkey accompanying Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem on the living stage before them.

“Hopefully, there’s not a herd,” Morgan Adams, the southwestern Oklahoma congregation’s pastor, quips as he lifts his young daughter into his truck.

Oklahoma’s version of old Jerusalem — mixing rough stone structures resembling those in the Holy Land with occasional sightings of buffalo and longhorn — provides the setting for what organizers describe as North America’s longest-running outdoor Passion play. Although the public is welcome to tour the grounds and visit the gift shop year-round, the yearly performances draw enough of a crowd to disrupt the wildlife.

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.

Papa Ross, World War II hero and loving grandfather, was born 100 years ago today

March 24, 2018

Lloyd Lee Ross, my grandfather, was born on March 24, 1918. Today would have been his 100th birthday.

Papa Ross was one of a kind. And I — like so many others whose lives he touched — loved him so much.

After he died in 2011, I wrote a column about him that appeared in the Father’s Day edition of The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis, Tenn.:

By Bobby Ross Jr. | Special to The Commercial Appeal

CEDAR GROVE, Tenn. — The name and the dates on the tombstone jumped out at me immediately.

Danial Ross. Born: 1791. Died: 1842.

My grandfather, father, brother and I drove out to this middle-of-nowhere cemetery in rural West Tennessee, about 100 miles northeast of Memphis, on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Leaves crumbled under my sneakers, and the sun bore down on my balding head as I explored this piece of my family’s past.

At first glance, I told myself, this could be any old country cemetery. The ugliness of faded plastic flower arrangements and skinny, branch-exposed trees struck me. I smelled dust and saw weeds and wondered how often anyone ventures out to this seemingly forgotten patch of God’s green Earth.

Yet, I sensed that I was experiencing something significant, that somehow this was sacred ground for me.

Read the full column.

 

When adoption agencies can turn away gay prospective parents, what happens to the kids?

March 23, 2018

Those who study the issue say it’s hard to tell exactly how such rules governing adoption affect the numbers of children placed in “forever” homes. 

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Religion News Service

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma lawmakers may soon sanction private adoption agencies turning away same-sex couples and other prospective parents who don’t meet their religious criteria, a possibility cheered by the Roman Catholic Church and many evangelical Christians and lambasted as discriminatory by gay rights groups.

It’s a conflict playing out across the nation, and both sides say that if the other wins, the number of children placed in loving homes will fall.

Seven states have passed laws — including Alabama, South Dakota and Texas last year — like the one proposed in Oklahoma. A bill with comparable language also has been introduced in Congress, according to The Associated Press. At least two other states — Georgia and Kansas — are debating similar legislation. At the same time, some local governments are withholding support from agencies that won’t serve gay prospective parents.

The LGBT community says the Oklahoma measure would result in fewer adoptions as prospective gay parents are turned away by agencies. Conservative Christians say failing to protect the right of adoption agencies to follow their faith would result in fewer adoptions, because those agencies would close before they act against their beliefs.

Those who study the issue say it’s hard to tell exactly how such rules governing adoption affect the numbers of children placed in “forever” homes. Still, the assertions from both sides on the matter have been definitive.

Passage of Oklahoma’s Senate Bill 1140 would “result in a disastrous reduction in adoption and foster placements and put 9,000 young people — currently in the system — in jeopardy,” said Troy Stevenson, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, as the LGBT advocacy organization launched a statewide media campaign this month against the bill.

The numbers may not be there to back him up.

“I don’t know of any empirical evidence on the topic,” said Elizabeth Bartholet, faculty director of the Child Advocacy Program at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass.

“In general, any barriers to adoption are likely to decrease numbers of homes for kids in need,” Bartholet added in an email. “But, of course, it’s possible that religious agencies would shut down rather than put their religious principles aside.”

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.

Related: Under new Texas law, faith-based adoption agencies win protections (reporting from Abilene, Texas)

After a rescinded invitation, Ken Ham talks about God at an Oklahoma university

March 6, 2018

Its president cited the historic commitment of the public university to the critical and civil examination of ideas, no matter how controversial.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Religion News Service

EDMOND, Okla. — Students at the University of Central Oklahoma got a lesson in free speech as the 16,000-student public university welcomed a presentation by Ken Ham, a nationally known creationist who rejects Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

The lecture Monday by the founder of the Ark Encounter — a $102 million, 800-acre Noah’s Ark theme park that opened in Williamstown, Ky., two years ago — came weeks after the university’s student government association rescinded an invitation for Ham to speak on campus. Some students, who deem Ham homophobic, objected to student funds being used to bring him to campus.

After the student group’s decision made national headlines, UCO President Don Betz stepped in and reinvited Ham to offer his talk on “Genesis and the State of the Culture” at the public university’s Constitution Hall.

University officials also built a forum on free speech rights around Ham’s visit: two days of programming on understanding and exercising the First Amendment guarantee.

Betz cited the historic commitment of the 127-year-old university, about 15 miles north of Oklahoma City, to critical and civil examination of ideas, no matter how controversial. And ultimately, Betz funded Ham’s $4,500 fee through unrestricted donations made to the university by individuals and organizations, said Adrienne Nobles, a UCO spokeswoman.

“No tuition or state-appropriated funds were used,” Nobles said.

Ham is president of the Christian apologetics organization Answers in Genesis, which also owns the $27 million, 75,000-square-foot Creation Museum, west of the Cincinnati Airport in Petersburg, Ky.

“It never used to be controversial for a Christian to come and speak at a secular university,” Ham told Religion News Service before addressing a crowd of about 500. “But it certainly seems to be controversial today, not just for Christians — but for anyone who has conservative values — to come and speak at universities.

“We have generations today that are so secular in their thinking, and they have this idea that you have to embrace all views,” he added. “But, of course, they don’t want to embrace my view that I start with the Bible, and I have a particular worldview because of that.”

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.

Related: ‘If Christians don’t believe in a literal Genesis, they have no foundation for their doctrine’ (reporting from Edmond, Okla.): Creationist Ken Ham discusses his belief in a 6,000-year-old Earth, what might have happened if Noah ‘had swatted those two mosquitoes’ and why he views the Bible’s opening 11 chapters as so important.