Matters of Faith, or It's Faith that Matters | The Port Rail

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Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

September 16, 2018

Not too long ago I started to learn this great old Negro slave spiritual in my piano lessons. As I read the notes, and (very) slowly to combine the top hand with the bottom hand (treble clef with bass clef as I also slowly learn the language of the piano), and as I worked on […]

What’s Wrong, and What to Do About It

April 13, 2018

By now every pundit, politician, columnist, pastor, minister, Rabbi, editorial page writer and anybody else who can entertain a thought has thought about what is happening in our schools, and what to do about it. The solutions go from more gun control to putting a platoon of U. S. Marines in every school in America. […]

Is Bigger Always Better?

April 13, 2018

Maybe, maybe not. I write as a 5’8” male, decidedly short in our world of tall people. Napoleon Bonaparte, however, strode over much of Europe in the early nineteenth century and he was a shrimp. I recently read an article in an online Christian magazine on small versus big churches. What can small churches offer […]

The Internet Church

April 12, 2018

You knew it was coming, right? The Internet covers the whole of life. So why not “The Internet Church?” Outreach Magazine (the online version of course) recently featured the Internet Church, with the thoughtful question: “Is the Internet Church Really the Church?” I hadn’t really thought much about it. If early Christians worshiped in homes […]

Christian principles, family are paramount

December 4, 2017

Who is responsible for teaching good standards among our people? By “standards” I mean good and proper thinking and behavior. I think it must start within families. And families need to be founded upon and living according to religious principles. Since the principal religion in this country is Christianity, I’ll use Christianity as my reference […]

Golf and Christianity

September 24, 2017

I know a lot of you out there are golfers, or indulge in one sport or another. And I know a lot of readers are Christians. The other day as I tweaked my golf swing in preparation for a tournament, I thought of my faith, which I seem to be always tweaking as well. Maybe […]

The Business of Americans is Business

September 14, 2017

President Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929, was giving a talk in January 1925 to the Society of American Newspaper Editors in Washington, D. C. when he noted: “After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world. I am strongly of the […]

God, Friends, Sustained Us After the Fire

July 5, 2017

I loved the template reason on the shipping notice I received not too long ago. I forget if it came from Fedex or UPS, but it was just their normal way of inserting a reason for not delivering a package. Our home was a charred wreck, destroyed by a fire on the morning of Jan. […]

What Are You Made of?

November 5, 2016

We all know that little boys are made of “snips and snails and puppy dog tails,” while little girls are made of “sugar and spice and everything nice.” In today’s progressive, politically correct world those stereotypes are of course sexist, demeaning, and probably misogynist as well. How dare we characterize male and females so differently? […]

Repent! Jesus is Coming!

October 15, 2016

If you drive through Cottondale, as I do on occasional trips to Birmingham, there is a guy standing by the side of the road with his sign, “Repent!” And I think it adds, “Jesus is Coming,” or “The End is Near” or something along those lines. I guess the range of reactions is from “that […]