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Why the Martyrs Still Matter Part 23 — Hugh McKail: The Scaffold and the Better Country Part of an ongoing 52-week Thursday noon essay series exploring the lives, deaths, convictions, and witness of Christian martyrs throughout church history. Hugh McKail was twenty-six years old when he climbed the scaffold. He had been tortured. Condemned. And…

Part Sixteen: The Voice There were plenty of Saturdays when I couldn’t watch Florida State play. Maybe I was working. Maybe I was away from home. Maybe there was something going on that kept me from sitting in front of the television for three or four hours. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t follow the…

Why the Martyrs Still Matter Part 22 — Lady Jane Grey: The Nine-Day Queen Who Chose Christ Over a Crown Part of an ongoing 52-week Thursday noon essay series exploring the lives, deaths, convictions, and witness of Christian martyrs throughout church history. She was a queen for nine days. She was a prisoner for months.…

Part Fifteen: Thirteen and Oh By 2023, Florida State had spent years trying to find its way back. The 2013 championship seemed like another lifetime. Jimbo Fisher was gone. Willie Taggart had come and gone. Mike Norvell had taken over a program that had fallen farther than I ever thought I would see it fall.…

Part Fourteen: The Climb Back After Willie Taggart was fired, Florida State hired Mike Norvell. And honestly, by that point, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Florida State had gone through Bobby Bowden. Then Jimbo Fisher. Then Willie Taggart. The program that had once seemed almost immune to prolonged failure had spent the better part…

Part 13: Another Turning Point By 2015, Florida State was no longer the team that had won the national championship two years earlier. But they were still Florida State. And that meant the expectations were still there. The 2015 season began with the Seminoles ranked No. 10 in the country, and Dalvin Cook was quickly…

A Special Chapter: The Legend There are certain people who become bigger than the job they held. Bobby Bowden was one of those people. When Coach Bowden passed away on August 8, 2021, Florida State lost its legendary football coach. But for me, we lost something more than a coach. We lost the man who,…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Twelve: The Weight of No. 1 There is something different about being the team everyone is chasing. In 2013, Florida State had surprised the country. By the end of that season, nobody was surprised anymore. We were No. 1. We were national champions. And in 2014, we…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Eleven: The Return There are seasons you remember. There are seasons you never forget. And then there are seasons that seem to bring everything that came before them into focus. For me, 2013 was that kind of season. I had been a Florida State fan for almost…

Why the Martyrs Still Matter Part 21 — George Wishart: The Preacher Who Walked Toward the Fire Part of an ongoing 52-week Thursday noon essay series exploring the lives, deaths, convictions, and witness of Christian martyrs throughout church history. Patrick Hamilton’s smoke had barely cleared from Scotland before another voice began preaching the same gospel.…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Ten: The Rebuild When Bobby Bowden walked off the field for the final time after the 2009 Gator Bowl, something more than a football game had ended. For me, it was the end of an era. I had never known Florida State without Bobby Bowden. He was…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Nine: The Lost Decade For most of my life as a Florida State fan, losing had been the exception. That was the first thing that changed. For fourteen straight seasons, from 1987 through 2000, Florida State won at least ten games and finished every season ranked in…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Eight: No. 1 By the time 1999 rolled around, I had been a Florida State fan for ten years. Ten years. It had started with a Saturday afternoon at Doak Campbell Stadium in 1989, sitting high on the west side with Uncle John and leaning against a…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Seven: Life Was Changing There are seasons you remember because of what happened on the football field. And then there are seasons you remember because of what was happening in your life. The years between 1996 and 1999 were a little bit of both for me. By…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Six: The Next Chapter By 1995, Danny Kanell wasn’t replacing Charlie Ward anymore. The previous two seasons had changed the way I looked at Florida State football. In 1993, Charlie Ward had taken the Seminoles to the top of college football. In 1994, Kanell had taken over…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Five: The Choke at Doak There is something strange about losing someone you’ve gotten used to seeing every Saturday. Charlie Ward was gone. After leading Florida State to its first national championship and winning the Heisman Trophy, Ward’s football career took an unusual turn. The NFL passed…

Why the Martyrs Still Matter Part 20 — Patrick Hamilton: The Spark That Set Scotland Ablaze Part of an ongoing 52-week Thursday noon essay series exploring the lives, deaths, convictions, and witness of Christian martyrs throughout church history. Some fires are meant to destroy. Others become signals. Warnings. Beacons. And sometimes, without intending it, persecutors…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Four: 18–16 There are certain numbers that mean more to a sports fan than they probably should. For Florida State fans of my generation, 18–16 is one of them. By the time the 1993 season arrived, I was no longer the kid who casually watched football when…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Three By 1992, something had changed. I wasn’t just watching Florida State anymore. I was studying Florida State. I knew the players. I knew the depth chart. I read the scouting reports. I knew who was starting and who was coming off the bench. I knew the…

My History as a Seminole Fan — Part Two There are some games you remember because you were there. There are others you remember because you were surrounded by people who were there. And then there are the games you remember because you were grounded. For me, one of the most important games of the…

Why the Martyrs Still Matter Part 19 — Jerome of Prague: The Man Who Recanted—and Came Back Part of an ongoing 52-week Thursday noon essay series exploring the lives, deaths, convictions, and witness of Christian martyrs throughout church history. Courage is easy to admire when we imagine it never trembling. But some of the most…

Why the Martyrs Still Matter Part 18 — Jan Hus: The Goose They Could Not Silence Part of an ongoing 52-week Thursday noon essay series exploring the lives, deaths, convictions, and witness of Christian martyrs throughout church history. More than a century before Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door at Wittenberg,…

On June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade fell. For nearly fifty years, Roe had imposed one of the most morally grotesque legal regimes in American history. The Supreme Court had taken something nowhere found in the Constitution—the supposed right to kill an unborn child—and placed it beneath constitutional protection. Then came Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s…

Why the Martyrs Still Matter Part 17 — William Tyndale: The Man Who Gave England the Bible Part of an ongoing 52-week Thursday noon essay series exploring the lives, deaths, convictions, and witness of Christian martyrs throughout church history. Some men die defending a book. William Tyndale died so ordinary people could read one. Not…