When my friend Chris told me he was driving up from Dallas to tell me something, I was very confused. It was a five-hour drive. Whatever he needed to say, couldn't he just say it over the phone? But maybe there are some things that need to be said face to face. We had been friends for more than a decade. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had noticed that Chris had never had a girlfriend, never even been on a date. I assumed he was shy. By the time I hung up the phone, I was

Looking back, I can only describe it as a kind of violent mercy — because what shattered was not really my faith in God. What shattered was an idol that had been wearing God’s face.

The nativity window of the west side of the Emmanuel Church building was installed in 1909. The following was written by Addie M. Pretty in 1949, in tribute to the window. The Nativity Window in the nave of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Shawnee is an usually large and fine piece of religious art. In fact, it is regarded to be the largest in the state, and, according to some authorities, one of the finest in the entire southwest. It is some 12 feet wide and 26 feet high, combin