Jeff Hampton – Page 111 – Jeff Hampton, Writer

July 23, 2020

Floyd and the Lesser Saints

For Wilshire Baptist Church

“Look, it’s St. Floyd Church.” We were watching the local news on TV and they were reporting on several Catholic priests who risk their own safety by visiting and praying with hospitalized COVID patients whose families aren’t allowed into the wards. I don’t know the priests but I recognized the interview setting. It was St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Richardson. For some reason I have always had trouble remembering that name and I call it St. Floyd because it is on Floyd Road. But I have to confess there’s some warped humor to that misnomer because the name Floyd puts me in mind of Floyd Lawson, the gentle, goofy barber on “The Andy Griffith Show” from the 1960s.

July 14, 2020July 14, 2020

Tested

For Wilshire Baptist Church

It’s a question I’ve been asked several times in recent days: Did God cause the pandemic – to punish us or to test us?

My knee-jerk answer is, “No, God doesn’t hurt God’s people.” However, I definitely believe God could test or even punish us, as we read about many times in the Bible. And I even contend God should test us sometimes just to shake us out of our complacency and corruption.

June 30, 2020

“In my opinion . . . “

For Wilshire Baptist Church

On a recent evening I enjoyed a first-time Zoom gathering with faculty and alumni from Baylor’s Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media. It was good to hear what the department is doing, chat with a couple of folks from my era, and listen to what some younger people are doing in the prime of their careers. As the department title indicates, there is a lot of “new media” that didn’t exist when I was learning the ropes in what was then just the Journalism Department.