Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
The Joys and Chaos of Sharing Bivocational Ministry
July marks the beginning of my fifth year as a bivocational minister. Not only do I serve a local church as pastor, but I also work for a graduate theological school. To complicate matters more, my husband works as a...
July 6, 2017
A Conservative Christian Battle Over Gender (The Atlantic) How Americans Learn and Don’t Learn from History (CNN) Baptist Church in Indiana Recognized for Freeing Slaves (Wave3) Historic Delaware Avenue Baptist Church...
A Thai-riffic Welcome
Thai Baptists rolled out a colorful carpet of entertaining singers, dancers, and actors Tuesday night as they welcomed global Baptists to Bangkok for the Baptist World Alliance's 2017 Annual Gathering. Vocal offerings...
A day in Bangkok
As a sketchy excuse to share some interesting pictures, I offer this bullet-point sketch of our Tuesday in Bangkok at the Baptist World Alliance Annual Gathering -- and not. 8:15 a.m. -- Breakfast at an impressive...
Profiles In Goodwill: Olu Menjay
Olu Menjay is a second-term president of the Liberia Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention. He also serves as principal of Liberia's Ricks Institute (a K-12 school) as well as assistant professor at the...
Meeting the Needs of Emerging Bivocational Ministers
We are taught in seminary that as vocational ministers there are certain words we should not use. If used, a minister can adversely affect their ability to effectively minister to people. The professor would warn their...
July 5, 2017
What Politicians Mean When They Say the United States Was Founded as a Christian Nation (Washington Post) White House Stays Silent on Anti-Semitic Connection of Trump’s Anti-CNN Video (CNN) Trump Can’t Stop the Decline...
To Stand Against Hate, We All Need Good Neighbors
The news recently has contained harrowing accounts of a number of hate-motivated attacks, including an attack against Muslims in Finsbury Park in north London. They have left me with a number of deep-rooted emotional...
Interfaith Dialogue Brings Community to Life Again
When she stood up from the little stool on which she had been perched throughout our interview, I saw that she was indeed pregnant. I guessed about seven months. But, I thought, she already had seven children, a sunken...
July 3-4, 2017
Republicans Push Bill to Let Churches Endorse Political Candidates (PBS) Southern Baptist Convention Still Facing Fallout From Racial Legacy (Charleston Post and Courier) Trump Fails to Reach Beyond Base as Disapproval...
What did you find?
Talk to anybody about your participation in an archaeological dig, and at least one question is inevitable: "What did you find?" Or, its variation: "Did you find anything good?" No one would dig if they didn't hope to...
June 30, 2017
‘You’ve Made the Road by Walking,’ McLaren Tells Cooperative Baptists (CBF) CBF Assembly Hears Report on Illumination Project During Business Session (CBF) Which Christians is Trump Willing to Protect? (The Atlantic)...
‘Cars 3’
The good news first: "Cars 3," the third Pixar movie about racing cars, is much more like the original film (2006) than the 2011 sequel that jumped the track. The new animated film has the heart, fun and action of the...
Religious Tolerance Matters for Everyone – Part 2
I traveled in early September 2016 to East Africa for a Christian mission conference. The Kenya Airway flight from Liberia took me through Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Accra, Ghana, to my final destination, Nairobi,...
‘Beatriz at Dinner’
What do we do about the stranger in our midst? Ralph Neighbor wrote that three types of people inhabit our lives. There are people people, who are our family and close friends. Then there are service people, who get...
As Health Care Safety Net Rends, A Time for Lament
Many are anxious as a rending of the health care safety net is transpiring. Decisions are underway that threaten to exclude a growing sector of the population from basic access. The tension between federal and state...
Religious Tolerance Matters for Everyone – Part 1
The entire community at Ricks Institute gathered in the school's auditorium at 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2016. It was the first day of the 2016-17 academic year for the K-12 Baptist boarding school in Liberia. It was my...
Report: U.S. Child Well-Being Improved in 11 of 16 Areas
U.S. children have seen improvement over the past five years in 11 of 16 areas that serve as key indicators of well-being, according to a report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF). The organization focuses on...
June 29, 2017
CBF Celebrates 25 Years With Evening of Storytelling About Power of Partnership (CBF) The Supreme Court’s Troubling Decision on Funding for Church Playgrounds (ACLU) Gorsuch is Already Pushing the Supreme Court Right...
Life on the kibbutz
A highlight of digging with the Jezreel Expedition is the opportunity to spend some time living on a kibbutz. The first kibbutzim (the plural form) were formed in the early 1900s as part of the Zionist movement...
Profiles in Goodwill: Oti Bunaciu
Oti Bunaciu is dean of the Facultatea de Teologie Baptista in the University of Bucharest. He is a past president of the Baptist Union of Romania and past president of the European Baptist Federation. 1. Where did you...