News
A High School Teacher Changed Everything — And The Lessons Still Echo
Faith Facts
- A Christian journalist reflects on how a high school journalism teacher shaped his 40-year career through timeless principles of truth and accuracy
- From a shy band student to Editor-in-Chief, the journey began in a small Texas town classroom in 1986
- Core journalistic values taught decades ago continue to guide faith-based reporting across 50 states and 20 countries
Ronald Reagan was president. “Top Gun” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” were massive hits at the box office.
Telephones were attached to the wall, and long-distance calls were expensive. Not home?
People left messages on answering machines.
The year was 1986 in Keller, Texas — a small farm town about 15 miles north of Fort Worth. Big hair was everywhere, both in the hallways of Keller High School and across pop culture.
For one shy, introverted student who had moved through five states before settling in North Texas, that year would mark a turning point. The late Jack O’Pelt urged his friend to join him in taking a journalism class.
“Why not?” thought Bobby Ross Jr., who liked writing and needed an elective course.
“Ms. Crane” — now Janie Crane Burchfield — was their teacher. And from the moment Ross walked into her classroom his sophomore year, her passion for core journalistic values such as truth, accuracy, fairness and impartiality resonated with him.
“The only reason I taught was to teach journalism,” she told Ross in a Facebook message this week.
In her class, students learned how to count headlines, which in the days before electronic pagination was necessary for print layout purposes. They steered proportion wheels to calculate photo sizes and cropping.
They wrote their stories in longhand and sent them to a typesetter, who returned strips of text they cut with X-acto knives and arranged on pages.
But those ancient skills weren’t the most important lessons Ms. Crane bestowed. She taught English students, too, but that subject wasn’t what drove her 25-year teaching career — journalism was her calling.
It didn’t take Ross long to decide he wanted to spend his life in the newspaper business. But first, he had to muster the courage to conduct his first interview.
Ross had moved around constantly as a child. His father served in the Air Force and then became a preacher.
He attended schools in five states — Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Missouri and Tennessee — before the family moved to Keller in 1982 for his parents to serve as houseparents at a Christian children’s home. In his freshman year at Keller High, he often ate lunch alone.
So when he got his first story assignment — a piece on the KHS stage band earning superior ratings — he scribbled his questions on a piece of paper. He snuck into band director Wayne Tympanick’s office and stuck his request for answers on his desk.
Before long, Tympanick came and found him.
“If you want to be a journalist, you need to sit down and ask me these questions,” he told Ross.
So he did.
Over the next two years, Ross devoted more and more of his time to The Wigwam, the student newspaper. He reported on topics ranging from students cheating to a fatal crash involving classmates he knew.
By the second half of his junior year, he became the editor.
He covered trends such as the “VCR craze” — as they described it in a headline. Here was the lede he wrote as an 18-year-old senior:
Signs that something’s sizzling, maybe even sweeping the nation, certainly abound. From the ever-expanding number of video specialty shoppes to local supermarkets to convenience stores, rent-a-movie places are popping up almost everywhere. Many teens are staying home on the weekends, popping their own corn and throwing “VCR parties”, as a substitute for those expensive, sky-high-priced trips to the movie theaters.
Besides their serious reporting, they had a whole lot of fun, too. His junior year, Keller High opened a new school building with a large classroom for the newspaper and yearbook staffs.
Each publication had its own office. They were side by side, and one day Ross mischievously lifted the tiles above the newspaper office and crawled into the ceiling space above the yearbook side to listen to the conversation below.
Fortunately, when he crashed to the ground as he left a messy crater overhead, a chair below softened his fall. Ms. Crane was anything but happy with him.
But she evidently didn’t kill him. Because he lived to type this.
Fellow Wigwam staff member Diana Williams — now Diana Dworin — was a year younger but just as devoted to a future in journalism. While Ross was a geeky teen, her outgoing, bubbly personality made her popular beyond the newspaper classroom.
She’d later attend the University of Texas and work as a journalist. One time, Dworin and Ross wrote a joint column on how “squeezing the Charmin” had joined the list of KHS extracurricular activities.
Yes, pranking people by covering their house, yard or trees with toilet paper was a thing even back then.
To Ross’s delight, Dworin — now a hospital chaplain and, like him, a doting grandparent — recently mailed him a package of old Wigwams that helped stir these memories.
Another Wigwam alum is Barry Ryan, a fellow Class of 1986 graduate who was one of Ross’s best friends at KHS. They still enjoy catching up from time to time at Texas Rangers games.
“We were a very good team that complemented each other well. I enjoyed both the camaraderie and, in the case of Bobby and Diana, the playful and healthy competition. As a bystander to it all, it was great to watch the banter and the occasional one-upmanship.”
“For me, the opportunity to explore, learn and develop skills in addition to some outstanding friendship was a privilege and a blessing,” Ryan added in a Facebook message.
Amen to all of that!
After graduating from KHS, Ross attended Oklahoma Christian University, where he edited the campus newspaper The Talon and earned his journalism degree in 1990. He later reported for small community newspapers in Oklahoma for three years before joining a major Oklahoma newspaper in 1993 and then going to work for The Associated Press in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2002.
Ross has spent the past 21 years with The Christian Chronicle, based in Oklahoma City. He’s traveled to all 50 states and 20 countries to cover the news.
He launched the Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged in 2020 and is in his seventh year of writing it.
In so many ways, he’s living his dream life as a journalist — four decades after his Wigwam days at Keller High. The foundation laid by a dedicated Christian teacher who believed in truth, accuracy, and the power of storytelling continues to shape every story he writes.
To all his friends in the Class of 1986, happy 40th anniversary! He knows there’s a reunion planned, but he won’t be able to make it.
Total honesty: That shy, introverted teen inside him never completely disappeared, and he’s still not ready for that level of social interaction.
Let us know what you think, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Faith Facts
- Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was targeted in an apparent swatting attempt at her Virginia residence.
- An unknown caller falsely reported gunfire at her home, prompting law enforcement response.
- Swatting poses serious risks to public officials and their families through dangerous false emergency reports.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett became the latest target of a dangerous and disturbing trend known as “swatting” when an unknown individual made a false report of gunfire at her Virginia home this week.
Local authorities confirmed they responded to the residence after receiving the fabricated emergency call. The incident, which fortunately resulted in no harm to Justice Barrett or her family, underscores the growing threat facing conservative justices and their households.
Swatting involves making false reports to law enforcement with the intent of triggering an armed police response at someone’s home. These malicious hoaxes endanger not only the targeted individuals and their families but also the law enforcement officers who respond to what they believe are legitimate emergencies.
Justice Barrett, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2020, has faced persistent scrutiny and hostility from the left since joining the nation’s highest court. Her strong Catholic faith and commitment to originalist interpretation of the Constitution have made her a frequent target of criticism from progressive activists.
This incident comes amid heightened security concerns for Supreme Court justices following the 2022 leak of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Multiple justices have faced protests at their homes and increased threats to their safety.
The safety and security of our judicial officers should be a bipartisan priority, regardless of political disagreements over their rulings. Targeting a justice’s home, especially one where children reside, crosses every line of civil discourse and represents a direct assault on the rule of law.
Federal and local law enforcement agencies are investigating the swatting attempt. These incidents are federal crimes that can result in serious charges including making false statements to law enforcement and conspiracy.
Let us know what you think, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Faith Facts
- United Nations added Israel to its blacklist of entities accused of sexual violence in conflict zones, placing the democratic nation alongside terrorist organizations Hamas and ISIS
- Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon condemned the decision as disconnected from facts and reality, calling it a moral failure by the international body
- The controversial listing comes despite documented evidence of sexual violence committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians during the October 7 attacks
In a stunning and morally questionable decision, the United Nations has placed the nation of Israel on its official blacklist of entities accused of committing sexual violence in conflict zones. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon announced the controversial designation Thursday, expressing outrage at the international body’s choice to equate the democratic Jewish state with barbaric terrorist organizations.
The UN’s annual report on conflict-related sexual violence now lists Israel in the same category as Hamas and ISIS, two radical Islamic terrorist groups responsible for countless atrocities against innocent civilians. This deeply troubling moral equivalence represents yet another example of the UN’s apparent bias against Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorist aggression.
This decision is disconnected from facts and reality. It represents a moral failure by the United Nations,
Ambassador Danon stated.
The timing and context of this designation raise serious questions about the UN’s credibility and commitment to objective truth. Hamas terrorists committed well-documented acts of sexual violence against Israeli civilians during their brutal October 7 massacre, which claimed over 1,200 innocent lives. Survivors and witnesses have provided harrowing testimony about the systematic rape and sexual torture inflicted by Hamas militants.
Yet the UN has chosen to place Israel—a nation with robust legal protections, an independent judiciary, and military codes of conduct—on the same list as these terrorist organizations. The decision ignores the fundamental difference between a democratic nation defending its citizens and terrorist groups that deliberately target civilians and use sexual violence as a weapon of war.
This latest UN action continues a disturbing pattern of disproportionate scrutiny and condemnation directed at Israel while ignoring or minimizing the atrocities committed by its enemies. For many American Christians who support Israel based on biblical principles and shared democratic values, this decision reinforces concerns about international institutions abandoning moral clarity in favor of political agendas.
The blacklist designation could have practical implications for Israel’s international standing and its ability to cooperate with UN agencies. However, Israeli officials have made clear they will not be deterred from defending their nation and citizens against ongoing terrorist threats, regardless of unjust international pressure.
American conservatives and people of faith must continue standing with Israel against such biased and factually unsupported attacks. The moral difference between a democratic nation under siege and the terrorist organizations seeking its destruction could not be clearer, regardless of what politically motivated UN reports may claim.
Let us know what you think, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Faith Facts
- Jerry L. Maynard Sr., a general board member of the Church of God in Christ and founder of Cathedral of Praise in Nashville, has been named in a lawsuit by Eli Lilly alleging a $200 million rebate fraud scheme.
- The lawsuit also names Maynard’s son and daughter as participants in the alleged fraudulent activity involving pharmaceutical rebates.
- Eli Lilly, the world’s most valuable pharmaceutical corporation, claims the family and associates engaged in systematic fraud that robbed the company of over $200 million.
A prominent church leader serving on the general board of the Church of God in Christ has been accused of orchestrating a massive fraud scheme that allegedly cost one of America’s largest pharmaceutical companies over $200 million. The lawsuit raises serious questions about accountability and integrity within religious leadership.
Jerry L. Maynard Sr., who founded Cathedral of Praise in Nashville, Tennessee, and serves as a general board member of COGIC, has been named as a defendant in legal action brought by Eli Lilly, the world’s most valuable pharmaceutical corporation. The lawsuit alleges Maynard, along with his son, daughter, and other associates, participated in a complex rebate fraud scheme.
The allegations come as a shock to many in the Christian community who expect church leaders to model the highest standards of ethical conduct. The case highlights the critical importance of transparency and accountability in all areas of life, particularly for those who hold positions of spiritual authority.
COGIC is one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the United States, with millions of members worldwide. The church has long emphasized holiness, integrity, and righteous living as core tenets of the faith. The involvement of a general board member in such serious allegations raises concerns about oversight and vetting processes within church governance structures.
The lawsuit details how the alleged scheme involved manipulating pharmaceutical rebate programs, which are designed to help reduce drug costs for patients and healthcare systems. These programs represent billions of dollars in the healthcare industry, and fraud in this area can ultimately impact patient care and medication affordability.
While the legal process will determine the truth of these allegations, the case serves as a reminder that Christians are called to maintain the highest standards of honesty and integrity in all business dealings. Scripture repeatedly warns against dishonest gain and emphasizes that faith must be reflected in righteous conduct in every area of life.
The inclusion of family members in the lawsuit suggests the alleged scheme may have been a coordinated effort spanning multiple individuals. This aspect of the case underscores how moral failures can impact entire families and communities when individuals stray from biblical principles of honesty and accountability.
For the Church of God in Christ, this lawsuit presents a significant challenge to its reputation and credibility. How the denomination responds to these allegations will be closely watched by believers and skeptics alike. The church has an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to biblical standards by conducting thorough internal review and taking appropriate action based on the facts as they emerge.
The pharmaceutical industry has faced its own ethical challenges in recent years, including pricing controversies and questions about business practices. However, fraud allegations of this magnitude, if proven true, would represent criminal conduct that cannot be justified regardless of any criticisms one might have of pharmaceutical companies.
This case also highlights the broader issue of financial integrity within religious organizations. Churches and ministries handle significant resources, and leaders must be held to the highest standards of accountability. Transparency in financial matters protects both the witness of the church and the trust of congregants who support ministry work.
As the legal proceedings move forward, the Christian community should remember to pray for all involved—for truth to come to light, for justice to be served, and for repentance and restoration where wrongdoing has occurred. The body of Christ is called to uphold both grace and accountability, trusting that God’s justice will ultimately prevail.
Let us know what you think, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
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