News & Current Events

To the Pregnant Woman worried about Zika, Days ago I read your comment under a news story on the Zika virus. You wrote, "I can't think of anything worse than having a child born with a horrible brain defect." Your comment was like a dagger to my heart. I can see you now sitting there in the doctor's office waiting for your monthly checkup while reading and commenting on that story. I can see the pregnancy glow you emit, but behind that glow I can see a fear. A fear that women before our generation never had to experience. A fear of the Zika virus--a virus spread by infected mosquitoes throughout South America and southern parts of the USA. A virus that can be spread from a pregnant woman to her fetus...

Three months ago, it seemed almost everyone in America became appalled when the father of a convicted rapist referred to his son's crime as "twenty minutes of action." We went on and on about rape culture and vilified this father, who certainly deserved every ounce of contempt directed his way. Now, after serving his three-month sentence, this rapist was recently released and rape culture is news again. But how many parents who condemned this father are raising just such a rapist? No one wants to raise a rapist or believes that they would. My guess is that this father did not have a goal to raise a rapist. He might have stated that his parenting philosophy was to raise a...

Your enemy is not the white man. Your enemy is not the black man. Your enemy is not the white policeman. Your enemy is not the black policeman. Your enemy is not the white community or the black community. So where does that leave us? Hold on to the seats of your pants, Christians, I'm about to lay down some truth. The real enemy is a spirit of FEAR.  The spirit of fear can look like a policeman fearing a known felon carrying a weapon and not complying with officers attempting an arrest. The spirit of fear can look like an aide to an individual with autism laying on the ground with his hands up and being shot by the police. The spirit of fear can...

Over the past few weeks I have learned how to accept help from others like I have never had to before. On August 13, 2016, my family of four, like many others in the Baton Rouge area, was evacuated from our home by boat due to rising flood waters. I rarely am at a loss for words but I have found that over the past few weeks, I have struggled to put into words exactly how I feel. As I began reflecting on the past few weeks, the one thing I kept thinking about is how thankful I am for people near and far reaching out to my family. So here are a few thank yous from me to...

Recently I've found myself feeling lost within a few minutes of driving. My route these days is not familiar, much like my life. The house where we are currently staying is in a different part of town than our own house. I don't know these streets like the back of my hand, having to take different interstate exits and back roads. My autopilot-driving mindset is completely thrown off, constantly causing me to forget where I am. Our house flooded about a month ago. Thankfully we only had a few inches of water. While the walls have dried, the pile of furniture and debris has been removed from our front curbs and we're beginning to rebuild; the dust still hasn't really settled. The fog caused by what has been coined...