I've always enjoyed Thanksgiving, but many times I become distracted from the intended purpose.

I slid the 3-inch bolt through the bottom hole of the 10-inch terra cotta pot, then put five large washers down onto the bolt.

The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine, now with mandates at some workplaces, is causing a spike in workers seeking religious exemptions nationwide and among some of the Chattanooga area's biggest employers.

Earlier this month, at 34 years old, baseball great Buster Posey retired. Drafted by the San Francisco Giants, he went on to help win three World Series. Retiring means leaving a $22 million paycheck on the table and likely a multimillion-dollar extension to keep him in the Bay area for the rest of his career. Instead, the future Hall of Famer has exchanged his cleats and catcher's mitt for bibs, high chairs, two sets of twins and family life.

As a chaplain for a veterans health-care facility and an honor guard that recognizes military personnel, I'm devoted to respecting those who were willing to give their lives for our freedom.

It was the first year of our marriage, and Dana and I had gone to Trinidad to visit her parents, who were then missionaries to that island. While we were there, we made a day trip to the much smaller island of Tobago, one of the most beautiful jewels on Earth. But as with most tourist destinations, there was the facade that outsiders see and the reality that the people who live there know all too well.

Out of the darkest moments of her life, the Rev. Caryl Griffin Russell began thinking about how systems change. The retired Methodist minister and former nurse lost her 22-year-old daughter in 1997 after a preventable exposure to a virus in a research lab.

While faith and politics often intersect, and while the Bible itself says a great deal about politics and politicians, I try very hard never to turn this faith column into a political column. But with the Virginia elections already passed, I believe I can now weigh in on a particular moral aspect of it without risking that.

Over the next five years, the seven installments of C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" series will turn 70.

In Luke 10:30-37, a certain lawyer approaches Jesus with a spiritual question: "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

In a posthumous collection of essays, best-selling author and self-described "religious overachiever" Rachel Held Evans describes a way of pursuing God that embraces uncertainty, vulnerability and compassion.

Two years ago, the sudden death of Rachel Held Evans at age 37 left a community of spiritual seekers in shock and heartbreak.

All cats are more or less psychotic.

If we do not learn from our trials, then our distress has been a missed opportunity.

One line from C.S. Lewis' autobiography, "Surprised by Joy," is both simple and profound: "That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."

Claude Dennis Harvey is the namesake of his grandfather, a man who more than a half-century ago donated land near Hixson to create a community cemetery for a church.

In the modern world, we can agree there is no shortage of information.

Oct. 21 was what some call "the professional sports equinox," the one night of a year when the NBA, NHL, MLB and the NFL all have games.

The newest book in my kids adventure series, "The Night Heroes," just came off the presses.

Christian author Rachel Held Evans left behind a legion of loyal readers when she died in May 2019, at the age of 37. Last June, a children's book she'd been working on was published posthumously and soon topped the picture-book bestseller lists.

Lee University, Bryan College and Covenant College — all conservative Christian schools in the Chattanooga area — are among the "absolute worst, most unsafe campuses for LGBTQ youth" in the country, according to a list published Monday by a national LGBTQ advocacy group.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic reshaped faith communities throughout Chattanooga and the Southeast, bringing new challenges to rituals and forcing congregations to find new ways of creating community.

For those who try to live for the Lord and want to please him, I'm sure you know what I mean when I say there are times when the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.