Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
King Distinguished Between Segregating, Segregated Churches
I learned about Martin Luther King Jr. early in life, but I cannot recall attending an MLK Jr. Day church service until I was 25. Jan. 16 arrived roughly seven months after I moved to Moultrie - a rural town in South...
‘La La Land’
There was a time when Hollywood churned out multiple versions of the same story. Boy meets girl. Girl and boy hate each other. Boy and girl have stars in their eyes for fame and fortune. Boy and girl find each other...
Connecting with Your Church’s Missing Generation
We're the smartphone, social media generation. We were raised to share our opinions, to speak our minds. By the age of 21, millions of us had significant education debt. We were taught we could be anything, anyone, we...
January 11, 2017
Jury Sentences White Supremacist Dylann Roof to Death for Emanuel AME Church Massacre (Charleston Post and Courier) They are the Faces Charleston Will Never Forget (CNN) Eight Years Did Little to Sway White...
What Does Martin Luther King Jr. Day Have to Do with Immigration, Human Trafficking?
National Migration Week is sandwiched between Human Trafficking Awareness Day on Jan. 11 and Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 16. Each has a different focus. All share a common moral concern - caring for the stranger...
How Baptist Women Fight Against Modern-Day Slavery
Slavery is an ugly part of our history. It is something that should have ended long ago. But for the millions of people held captive in our world today, slavery is alive and thriving. Human trafficking generates...
Nigerian Christian Leaders Called for Day of Mourning; Islamic Leaders Condemn Attacks
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) called on church members and Nigerians around the world to observe Sunday, Jan. 8, as a day of mourning for the killings of hundreds of Christians in the Kaduna area. The...
Artistic Expression: Finding Faith in the Secular
The writer of Ecclesiastes observed, "Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body" (Ecclesiastes 12:12). I will not attempt to comment on the second half of this statement, but the first part...
January 10, 2017
Christian Groups Express 'Grave Concerns' About Trump Agenda, Appointments (RNS) Hundreds Join Rev. William Barber's 'Moral March' in D.C. to Protest Jeff Sessions as Attorney General (Washington Post) Baptists Treated...
4 Steps You Can Take to Thwart Human Trafficking
The young local hotel owner beamed with pride as he described renovations to one of his properties. His delight turned into dismay when he commented that a neighboring hotel was making his business "look bad" by...
What Your Church Must Know to Combat Human Trafficking
I spent two weeks this summer working with pastors and congregations on addressing human trafficking on the Texas-Mexico border. I partnered with churches that were seeking to answer the question, "Can churches really...
January 9, 2017
Carrie Underwood Faces Backlash After Performance at Evangelical Event (Rolling Stone) Rev. Donte Jackson Sees Social Advocacy as Essential Role (Herald-Dispatch, WV) Reactions to Gospel Preacher Kim Burrell on LGBT...
Stopping Human Trafficking Begins in Our Churches
It's a women's issue. It happens "over there." I can't do anything about it. It doesn't happen here. Have you had one of these thoughts about human trafficking? Perhaps as you were trying to justify your lack of action...
January 6, 2017
Americans – Not Just Liberals – Have a Religious Literacy Problem (Vox) How Nostalgia for White Christian America Drove So Many Evangelicals to Vote for Trump (Washington Post) Jim Wallis: Resistance is Patriotic – and...
A Baptist Report Card on Human Trafficking
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is Jan. 11, a time to draw attention to the third leading worldwide criminal industry. It reportedly generates billions in profit annually and creates millions of victims....
One Church’s Role to Put Dent in Sex Trafficking
A clock at the entrance of Bush Intercontinental Airport counts down the days to the arrival of Super Bowl LI in Houston. The last time the Super Bowl came to our city, our children were small. I remember seeing famous...
Helping More Churches Commit to Supporting Human Rights
The Baptist World Alliance encourages Baptist churches throughout the world to observe a Human Rights Sunday each year. This is the Sunday in December closest to Dec. 10, which is Human Rights Day. This year the BWA...
3 Reasons Christians Shouldn’t Call Immigrants ‘Illegal’
It is nearly impossible to talk about immigration in the church, especially in the South. While speaking with a pastor about beginning immigrant legal ministries in churches, his comment to me was, "I don't see you...
January 5, 2017
Canton Woman's Path Leads to Church's Door (Canton Wicked Local) San Diego Activists to to March for Civil Rights, Police Reform on MLK Jr. Day (KPBS) White Supremacist Dylann Roof: “I do not regret what I did.” (CNN)...
The Thin Line Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking
Day and night, he orchestrated her every move. She was told when to sit, stand, come and go. She was also told whom she would provide sexual favors for, what she would do, when, where and for how long. She, like many...
Fake News Highlights Our Epidemic Distortion Infection
The phenomenon of "fake news" has heightened our awareness of the influence of distorted expressions of reality on many levels and in many areas of life. The blatant and deliberate misrepresentations have become easier...