Dallas clergyman and social activist. Childhood and education in Dallas; membership in Methodist Church; pursuit of undergraduate and MBA degrees from Southern Methodist University; career in banking and oil businesses; decision to enter Perkins School of Theology at SMU and Union Theology Seminary in New York; influence of Reinhold Niebuhr; family life; pastorship of Methodist church in Justin, Tex., St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church of Mesquite, Tex., and Northaven United Methodist Church of Dallas; involvement in Dallas civil rights movement, particularly around issue of fair housing, and efforts to integrate Mesquite schools; involvement in antiwar movement; influence of liberation theology on own thinking and preaching; involvement in gay rights movement; career as teacher and administrator at Saint Paul School of Theology of Kansas City and Perkins School of Theology; efforts to make Northaven a “reconciling congregation”; opinions on “Religious Right” and its role in American politics.