Some of life’s best memories have been in this wonderful month of March. Winter is finally thawing for my old Kentucky home. The smell of springtime is coming.
My childhood often included a week in Florida for Spring training baseball games. My father was a travelling evangelist and a Cincinnati Reds fan. I was much older when I figured out that it was no coincidence that dad was preaching to sinners in Tampa, Florida every spring break in March while the Reds were playing day games. I got hooked on the joy of March baseball.
And of course, March brings the Master’s music on television ads, reminding us that Augusta is just around the corner. The green grass of golf is growing.
My birthday happens to be March 18. No big celebrations this year at 75, but still, the memory of childhood birthday parties is very real. Indeed, I was born on Palm Sunday- one of those odd years when even Easter comes in the month of March.
And being from Kentucky, March Madness is a major highlight as college basketball takes center stage. And on top of March Madness is the joy of Kentucky’s high school “Sweet Sixteen”, an annual tradition of springtime joy.
Minneapolis skyline
But this year, March Madness made me think about my own personal Minnesota Madness from four months ago. As most of you know, Minnesota dominated the news over the winter months. Welfare fraud and overzealous ICE officers got all the headlines.
But on November 6, 2025, I got a small taste of what Minnesota Madness feels like.
I was invited a year ago to speak at a Veteran’s Day Prayer Breakfast near Minneapolis, Minnesota. I warned the organizer that I was not a Veteran, and therefore maybe not the best person to speak. I had been a Judge in Veteran’s Treatment court, and my dad was a Marine in WW2, so I am not completely unfamiliar with Veteran’s language, but still, I feel somewhat embarrassed at times with my own failure to volunteer to serve our nation.
But the organizer assured me that this was an “evangelism” opportunity, and he seemed rather desperate to find a speaker. So, I said Okay to leave Alabama’s sunshine to head into the gray November north. This would be a “mission trip” to Minnesota!
However, the week before the event, the organizer called me. A local public high school choir was scheduled to sing patriotic songs, and the Superintendent for the school was objecting to the speaker (Me). Apparently, a Google search had uncovered that the speaker (Me) was a dangerous individual.
Apparently, a disturbing phone call was followed by the following letter to the breakfast organizer:
“As you’ve heard, we are interested in sending our high school students back to class before your keynote speaker at the prayer breakfast. The religious diversity of our student body continues to evolve, and with Timothy Philpot as the invited keynote speaker, we are finding ourselves in an unfortunate position amidst parent and student pushback, specifically related to his anti-LGBTQ views. Can you please send me the agenda, so that we can arrange a student departure in the least disruptive way possible?”
WOW.
This email was forwarded to me. I called and offered to just step aside. There are plenty of people who could share Jesus with this crowd, I thought. I genuinely hoped he would take me up on my offer to stay away. But he insisted it was too late to find a new speaker. So, I just said, “Okay, let’s see what happens.” And off to Minnesota I went.
Well, sure enough, the choir sang and walked out of the room, headed back to the public school where they would be safe from dangerous words from dangerous people like this Philpot character. Apparently, this evil character (Me)- had written that Marriage was sacred and Divorce was too easy. He apparently believes that marriage started in the Garden of Eden between a man and a woman. Apparently, he believed the crazy idea that God decides who is male and female.
Surely, the Superintendent thought, we cannot allow our vulnerable children to be exposed to such dangerous thoughts. And while “anti-LGBTQ” was the excuse given, I could smell that the real objection was the name of Jesus Christ.
The “religious diversity of the student body is evolving”, she said, so as this evolution of religious thought meanders through time, apparently “the old, old story of Jesus and his love” (as the hymn says) must be left behind. The Superintendent thinks we are moving to a new day of religion with no Savior needed. Since there is no sin, except perhaps the speaker’s sin of intolerance, there is also no need for a Savior.
Well, the story has what I hope was a happy ending.
Sure enough, the choir walked out. That made me sad. But no one really knew why they left early. I think most people just presumed they needed to be in school that Thursday morning. So, any possible disruption or controversy was averted.
But then the school’s officials stayed to listen to the crazy speaker. He was clearly not talking about politics and or even religion. School officials heard about Mother Teresa’s solution to the world’s problems in one word. The answer is not found in politics or religion. The key that unlocks the door to heaven and the problems of this world?
“Jesus”. The one and only Son of God who came to give eternal life to all who believe,
To listen to the dangerous words of the “anti-LGBTQ” speaker, click here. Decide for yourself if he is a dangerous man.