Author: Erick Neuman
A lot has changed on the contemporary Christian musical landscape over the last 30 years but one thing that endures are great songs and the memories that come with them. Six-time Grammy winner Amy Grant, a pioneer in contemporary Christian music, has just re-released her watershed album Heart in Motion, a recording that introduced her to a wider audience in 1991. Along the way, the songs “Baby Baby”, “That’s What Love is For”, and “Every Heartbeat” fueled album sales in excess of five million. To celebrate this career milestone, Grant will return to live audiences this fall with a 39…
Before it became the national holiday we now know as Memorial Day, this sacred day was observed across the country as Decoration Day – a day celebrated for more than five decades to honor both the Union and Confederate dead from the Civil War. In 1868, Major Gen. John A. Logan, a former Union Army corps commander, and now the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), a fraternal organization of Union veterans, issued a proclamation for a celebration to be held to honor the soldiers who died “in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” On the first national celebration…
How do you think of your father? With love, happiness and respect? With fear, misery and anger? Your relationship with your dad can influence your self-image and success. The Show Me the Father film uses gripping stories of good parenting and bad to motivate viewers to promote healthy fatherhood. Produced by the Kendrick Brothers, this inspiring, faith-based Sony/Affirm documentary joins the Kendricks’ Overcomer, War Room, and Courageous in seeking to stimulate positive personal and societal change. It’s no secret that fatherless homes correlate with a host of social plagues including teen pregnancy, homelessness, runaways, youth suicide, poverty, drug abuse, and…
BURNED OUT Burnout can occur for many reasons, and is common in certain professions, including the military, clergy, and healthcare. As a busy physician with young children, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith was a prime candidate. She remembers the day her chaotic life simply stopped her in her tracks: “So I did what any burned-out human would do after picking up the kids from day care. I set them in front of the TV with a snack, and I lay on the floor.” She remained there for quite a while. “The smile creeping on my lips was only mildly disturbed by the dog licking my face and…
Pro-Choice Republican Marjorie Dannenfelser’s father was in the Army and got his degree in medicine. After years of moving, the family wanted to plant some roots and decided to settle down in Greenville, NC where her father opened a private practice as a dermatologist. Marjorie’s mother went back to college and finished her master’s degree in library science. As Episcopalians, her family loved church liturgy and hymns. They were conservative Republicans in their economic and foreign policy views but thought abortion was a necessary evil and so did Marjorie. At the dinner table, they didn’t shy away from discussing the big…
During this way too long pandemic, thinking about your “dream job” may seem like a waste of time. “Forget about a dream job,” you might think, “I just need a paycheck!” Whether you are job hunting or in work that you desperately want to escape, you may be tempted to take any job to get out of your current situation. While it’s true that at times it makes sense to take a less-than-ideal job to bring in some money, you don’t want to get stuck in a dead-end, poor fitting, soul-deadening job. The key to finding work you love to…
Like so many other artists and authors, Grammy Award winning praise and worship artist Laura Story found herself with a lot of time on her hands last year as the coronavirus pandemic came to fruition. With concert dates and recording sessions at a standstill, Story asked God what she should do with this unexpected surplus of time. The answer came slowly but soon became crystal clear to her; write a book that demonstrates love, hope, and Jesus. The end result is her third book, So Long, Normal. In its 240 pages, Story invites people to say goodbye to normal and…
Most Americans assume the United States is the world’s unrivaled nuclear superpower. The truth is, America’s nuclear stockpile has shrunk significantly. Meanwhile, China is building nuclear weapons at a rapid pace, and arms experts believe the world’s security is now at serious risk due to the communist regime’s expansionist schemes. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has dramatically reduced the number of nuclear weapons it has deployed or in storage. That arsenal today is roughly 85 percent smaller than at the height of the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, and the number of operational…
With Show Me the Father entering its second week of release this weekend, it is notable to mention the praise it has received thus far. The highly anticipated seventh film from brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick received an A+ CinemaScore rating from movie goers exiting theaters last weekend. It marked just the second time in 2021 that a documentary received such a high grade. In addition, it becomes the fourth Kendrick Brothers movie to receive an A+ rating, joining previous releases Courageous, War Room, and Overcomer. The Kendricks’ first documentary focuses on several amazing true stories of what it means to be…
I love food—all kinds of food, and I especially enjoy an array of colors on my plate. I was born and raised in Mexico, and I’m not alone in believing that Mexico has some of the world’s best cuisine. So, yes, food is important to me. In the past, I never paid much attention to what food really did to my health. Instead, I just enjoyed the amazing satisfaction of trying new flavors and eating whatever I wanted—things like chocolate. I joke sometimes claiming myself to be a chocoholic. I love chocolate! I even have a T-shirt that says, “I am…