Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
December 19, 2017
MLB Pitcher Donates $9.75 Million Mansion to Christian Camps for Special-Needs Kids (ABC15) Mom Sues Webster Schools Alleging Promotion of Christianity (Shreveport Times) Trump + Gillibrand + Faith: ‘Why is Religion...
Advent’s Path Travels the Longer View of History
The Advent season of anticipation invites us to see four common features of our human experience through a deeper and longer lens. Hope becomes more than an optimistic expectation of good circumstances and is rooted in...
Is Your Church Ready to Handle the Speed of Change?
When we were small children, the future was simply tomorrow. While it seemed distant, it was only a good night's sleep away. Later, the future turned into dreams: What will you be when you grow up? The future felt like...
The Irony of Mary: Great Joy, Great Suffering
The Christmas season is filled with beautiful pictures of love, grace, peace and hope. I especially love seeing all the nativities on display. What could be more beautiful than a mother holding her newborn? As I...
December 18, 2017
Final Tax Bill Leaves Johnson Amendment Intact (Baptist Joint Committee) This Evangelical Leader Denounced Trump. Then the Death Threats Started. (Politico) For Some, ‘Evangelical’ Has Become Uncomfortable Label...
Responding to misguided ‘baby killer’ posts
By John D. Pierce Here’s a new game: Whenever someone posts a sensible political affirmation, guess how many responses it will take before an incredulous person drops the “baby killer” line into the comment stream. It...
This Represents the Biggest Threat to Your Decency
Jesus tells us that in the end we will be judged on how we dealt with the poor in our lives, but there are already dangers now, in this life, in not reaching out to the poor. Here's how Bryan Stevenson, in his book,...
Churches in All Their Diversity Reflect Body of Christ
Jesus is God in the flesh. This assertion opens John's Gospel through the proclamation, "the Word became flesh" (John 1:14). Theologians use a $4 word to describe this process, referring to it as "incarnation." That...
U.S. Belief in Christmas Events’ Historicity Declines
A strong majority (90 percent) of U.S. adults will celebrate Christmas this year, down 2 percent from 2013, according to a Pew Research Center report released on Dec. 12. Forty-six percent of celebrants view the...
December 15, 2017
Forget Abortion: What Women in Appalachian Kentucky Really Want (CNN) SBC Leaders Mostly Mum on Pressler Lawsuit, but Bloggers Fill the Void (BNG) Has Support for Moore Strained Evangelicals? Some are Worried (New York...
Our Hunger for Education: Who Does It Look Like?
God created us hungry. We are born with two immediate hungers: the hunger for nourishment and the hunger to learn. Our universal condition as learning beings makes education a central article in any declaration of...
‘Warlike Christians in an Age of Violence’
Many churches build their Advent services every year around a prophecy in the ninth chapter of the book of Isaiah that calls the coming Savior "the Prince of Peace." Yet, for much of its history, Christianity has been...
Intense Religious Expressions Stable; Moderates Down
Intense religious expressions in the U.S. remain stable, while moderate expressions are in decline, according to sociologists Landon Schnabel of Indiana University Bloomington and Sean Bock of Harvard University. Their...
December 14, 2017
How Doug Jones Brought KKK Church Bombers to Justice (History.com) What the Doug Jones Election Means for Criminal Justice Reform (The Marshall Project) Roy Moore Lost Enough White Evangelicals to Lose (RNS) White...
Profiles in Goodwill: Marv Knox
Marv Knox is field coordinator for Fellowship Southwest, a network that comprises CBF (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship) of Oklahoma, CBF of Texas and CBF West. 1. Where did you grow up? Perryton, a small farming,...
Why Everyone Deserves Favorable Working Conditions
The Christmas season is here, so we're shopping. Appeals for door-buster deals are everywhere. Bright lights and happy music draw us in with cheerful promises of abundant gifts at low prices. It's all good, when it's...
Keeping Your Mission Trips from Becoming Safaris – Part 2
Humanitarian tourism, while often well-intentioned, raises questions about its purpose, as well as its efficacy in addressing human needs and alleviating suffering. As I explained previously, the term "sufferari" seems...
December 13, 2017
Church Group Makes Dresses for African Refugees (CBS Boston) Salem Church Delivers 800 Bikes to Houston Kids Affected by Hurricane (10News) Doug Jones Defeats Evangelical Roy Moore in Election for U.S. Senate Seat...
Tragedy, hope and the peanut farmer’s daughter
By John D. Pierce Sometimes hope comes wrapped in tragedy. Such was the case when Alabama peanut farmer Nathan Mathis stood outside a political rally in Alabama last night holding a photo of his daughter Patti Sue who...
Reaffirming the Truth: We Are Our Brothers’ Keeper
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at the 69th anniversary of its proclamation by the United Nations General Assembly, will probably take a place in history among other classics of political philosophy. These...
Keeping Your Mission Trips from Becoming Safaris – Part 1
Landscapes throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have been transformed by unfolding crises of forced migration. This is especially the case in Lebanon. An estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees...