With the reality of Pastor John Weber’s retirement finally sinking in, I know I have to seek my usual therapy of writing about it. No one could possibly deserve the rewards of his good life more than Weber.

Studies show that while some 84 percent of the population of the United States professes to be Christian, only about 16 percent (of the 86 percent) are in church on any given Sunday. Clearly there are many out there who are sufficiently enamored of Christianity to claim it as their faith, but who hold back from attending church for a variety of reasons. Here are five of the excuses I have been given, with my responses.

Marriage is a conversation, and ours has been a wonderful dialogue for the last nine years. Today we celebrated our anniversary in the house that we built together.

We're continuing this week with the twisting connections of these families, with two more added … my Fowlers who had moved from Gwinnett County to the Fayette-Campbell area sometime after 1860, and the Walker family who made the trek to Cleburne and became an integral part of that community.

By Laura Mazer

[Editor’s note: Tony Snow wrote a nationally syndicated opinion column for Creators Syndicate from 1993 to 2000. He resumed his column in spring 2005 and continued it until joining the Bush administration as press secretary in April 2006. Laura Mazer was the managing editor of Creators Syndicate, and was Tony’s editor and friend for many years. He appeared as one of The Citizen’s syndicated columnists for several years.]

A “jealous rage,” Fox’s Geraldo Rivera called it.

Before taping a “Fox & Friends” segment, Rev. Jesse Jackson, with his microphone on, sat next to another man. Turning to him, Jackson, speaking softly, launched into an attack on Barack Obama. “Barack, he’s talking down to black people on this faith-based ...” said Jackson. “I want to cut (Obama’s) nuts off.”

I am conducting my first ordination service Sunday evening. In our faith community, the privilege of laying hands on men and ordaining them to the ministry is reserved for the bishops.

In all the brouhaha over the New Yorker’s satirical cover cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama, a truly “tasteless and offensive” passage in the magazine’s feature article got lost. The magazine piece quotes Obama’s recommendations for how to stop jihad, which he had previously published in a local Chicago newspaper eight days after 9/11. It’s a self-parody of blind, deaf and dumb Kumbaya liberalism:

“Nation of whiners”? I don’t know how you flesh out with mathematical exactitude ex-Sen. Phil Gramm’s famous assertion of last week concerning how we talk about the economy.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As financial storm signals appeared the last 18 months, there were Bush officials who urged drastic reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But, according to internal government sources, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson objected because it would look “too political.” The Republican administration kept hands off the government-backed mortgage companies that are closely tied to the Democratic establishment.

In an election campaign in which not only young liberals, but also some people who are neither young nor liberals, seem absolutely mesmerized by the skilled rhetoric of Barack Obama, facts have receded even further into the background than usual.

Despite a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., has continued to use textbooks that teach hatred of everyone not of their specific brand of faith, the U.S. State Department has yet to act to close down the school.

One of the unappreciated casualties of the War of 1861, erroneously called a Civil War, was its contribution to the erosion of constitutional guarantees of state sovereignty.

Pastors get some of the most interesting questions from people they meet and people in their congregations. Here are a few questions that I’ve gotten during my years of ministry and via email for this column.

Air power is seductive. From the Army Air Service’s Col. Billy Mitchell’s “Winged Defense,” written in the aftermath of the slaughter fields of the Great War, to U.S. Air Force Colonel John Warden’s “The Air Campaign,” first published in 1988, air power prophets have promised quick victories at low costs.

A friend emailed to remind me of something I had long forgotten.

“I still owe you a theater date,” he wrote, referring to that time in New York City when business had delayed him and he had flown in too late for the Broadway play.

Goofy Steve seemed so sure of himself. He stood alone in the middle of the street, nose to nose with Down the Street Bully Brad. Though he faced insurmountable odds of surviving the next few minutes, he didn’t waver from his conviction. Bully Brad had gone too far: he had teased his little sister, and it was time to put a stop to it.

I'm sort of cheating this week. The deal here has always been, "… if you don't write me about your families, then you have to hear about mine." Well, nobody sent anything on his or her families so here we go on mine.

I have just finished a book on the topic of suffering. The book, “Suffering: the Catholic Answer,” was written in 1961 by Dom Hubert van Zeller (1905-1984), a Benedictine monk and featured 14 chapters based upon the 14 Stations of the Cross.

Only in America could critics of a group called “The Race” be labeled racists. Such is the triumph of left-wing identity chauvinists, whose aggressive activists and supine abettors have succeeded in redefining all opposition as “hate.”

“New and Not Improved,” avers everyone’s favorite left-wing establishment newspaper, the New York Times, in an editorial page headline. The reference isn’t to John McCain. It’s to Barack Obama, whom the Times’ editorial writers and columnists have been suiting up for sainthood.

Let me express my appreciation to the late and legendary sportswriter Jimmy Cannon, who occasionally wrote a column filled with witty one-liners and random insights, which he called “Nobody Asked Me, But ...”

A number of friends of mine have commented on an odd phenomenon that they have observed — conservative Republicans they know who are saying that they are going to vote for Barack Obama.

It is understandable that those who think President Bush has done a poor job want to replace him with a Democrat they think might do a better one. What is not understandable is why voters, who think Congress has performed poorly, would vote to keep the Democratic majority in place and, according to many polls, expand it.

Despite Congress’ periodic hauling of weak-kneed oil executives before their committees to charge them with collusion and price-gouging, subsequent federal investigations turn up no evidence to support the charges. Right now oil company executives are getting a bit of a respite as Congress has turned its attention to crude oil speculators, blaming them for high oil prices and calling for tighter control over commodity futures trading.

Dave’s story about the lightning strike at the family beach house sounds the same every time he tells it – and that’s been for more than 70 years. He was about 5 when he witnessed something few people ever see and live to talk about.

By Dr. Tracy C. Miller

An Indian government official recently criticized the Bush administration for blaming the growing middle classes of developing countries, such as India and China, for rising food prices. Although he may have misinterpreted the president’s remarks, his and other Indian critics’ responses are worth thinking about.

To be quite frank, I don’t remember from where the idea arose. It could have been at the suggestion of one of two friends or – and this is quite possible – it was my own bright idea.

When I have the chance to break away from the office, I enjoy visiting in neighborhoods, meeting people and inviting them to church. I usually say something like:

I can testify that we in the South consume lots of strange things. Dad used to say that we eat every part of the pig except the squeak. Ears, tails, feet and snouts — it seems we have strong stomachs. Did I mention we eat those, too?