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Bill Shiell

Lent

My Lenten journal article in Christian Reflection

Baylor University’s Center For Christian Ethics just released its quarterly publication, Christian Reflection: A Series in Faith and Ethics. I wrote an article for the journal on a reflection for Palm Sunday: “Lessons from a Donkey”. Please give it a read here. You can check out the whole journal here.

crHighlights include:

“Remembering Our Dust,” by Elizabeth Evans Hagan

“Lent as a Season of Responsive Fasting,” by Scot McKnight

“The Early History of Lent” by Nicholas V. Russo

“Walking the Walk (of the Stations of the Cross),” by Carmen Acevedo Butcher

Thanks to my friend Bill Shiell for the opportunity.

White House

My White House meeting with Baptists (part 1)

I’m fresh off my visit with the Executive Office of the President and White House staff. I want to share with you all about our meeting through multi-blog posts.  The meeting including advisers from the Executive Office of the President and other administration officials. I was a part of a delegation of “goodwill Baptists”, in which there were about 60 of us from around the country. Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, and Ricky Creech, executive director/minister of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention put the meeting together.

The meeting took place in the White House Executive Office Building.  Some of the people/offices we talked with:

  • Jannah Scott, Deputy Director of the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnership
  • B.J. Douglas, Engram Lloyd and Paula Lincoln of the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
  • Felicia Escobar, a Senior Policy Adviser for the Domestic Policy Council,
  • Chris Vaeth, Adviser for the Office of Community Affairs for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
  • Julie Rodriquez, Associate Director for the Office of Public Engagement
  • Paul Monteiro, Associate Director for Office of Public Engagement
  • Engram Lloyd,  Housing and Urban Development

What do our meeting look like? Several of the above individuals explained what their office does, what issues their addressing, and took questions/comments. Although I would have enjoyed more comments/questions from us Baptists, this meeting covered an array of issues.  We discussed clean water standards, sex trafficking, payday loans, mortgage dept relief, faith-based programs, disaster relief. To see the meeting and comments, check out our Twitter hashtag #baptistsatWH.

There were a number of shocking and encouraging information points:

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