Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
EthicsDaily.com Media Overview
Three hundred twenty-three. That's the tally of names - 323 - in a database of folks related to our latest documentary film, "The Disturbances." The film chronicles the role Christian missionaries and Nigerian pastors...
Joy and Sorrow Intertwine During Holiday Season
I got off the plane in Tokyo looking for a quiet place. I had been in the air for seven hours, and I knew that the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians had played the seventh game of the World Series during my flight. I...
December 20, 2016
SBC's Russell Moore Faces Backlash Over His Criticism of Donald Trump (Wall Street Journal) Interior Pick Rep. Zinke Connected to White Nationalists in Montana, Including Liberty University Graduate (The National Memo)...
10 Ways to Connect with Kids, Families on Christmas Eve
Kids can be some of our toughest critics. Are you ready to welcome them to your church this Christmas? Churches have such an opportunity during the Christmas season and especially during Christmas Eve services to...
What It Means When You Live in Post-Truth Culture
It took a newspaper's syndicated cartoon ("Non Sequitur") to inform me that the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language now recognizes "post-truth" as a real English word. It means "an adjective defined as relating...
December 19, 2016
Church Massacre, Other Killings Strain Forgiveness for Many (ABC News) Congress Passes Bill Protecting Atheists, Humanists, and Other Freethinkers (Patheos) Emboldened by Trump, White Nationalists Target Jews in a...
Song Reminds Us What We Should Be Thankful For
A new song titled "What I'm Thankful For" - a duet performed by Garth Brooks and James Taylor - offers a needed reminder that the Christmas season is about much more than "making a list and checking it twice." "What...
Ways to Worship When Christmas Day Falls on Sunday
A lay leader called with a problem I suspect some church leaders are also wrestling with: a likely low attendance on the last Sunday of the year - Christmas Day, Dec. 25. He asked for some ideas about a "Lessons and...
‘Little Public Safety Rationale’ for Incarcerating 39 Percent of Inmates
There is "little public safety rationale" behind the imprisonment of 39 percent (576,000) of U.S. inmates, according to a report by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. "Many of the laws...
December 16, 2016
White Supremacist Dylann Roof Found Guilty on all Counts in Emanuel AME Church Massacre Case (Charleston Post and Courier) On Farewell Tour, Obama Gets Candid on Racism (CNN) Public Expresses Overwhelming Support for...
What Do I Want for Christmas?
When my daughter asks what I want for Christmas, I always cite one of my all-time favorite movie dialogues. It comes from "Sneakers" (1992), a movie about computers, espionage and the U.S. government. Played by James...
Ministry after the Gatlinburg wildfires has a personal touch
Story and photos by John D. Pierce, Executive Editor, Nurturing Faith Journal GATLINBURG, Tenn. — Christmas lights sparkle and a full moon illuminates the mountain peaks on this cold, predawn morning in the resort town...
Why I Support BCE/EthicsDaily.com with My Gifts
Life is hard work. There are so many choices and questions. How are we to know how to live a good life? How can we understand our rights and our responsibilities? How are we to know what is right and wrong or what is...
5 Ways to Help Those Who Weep During the Holidays
The Christmas season is an important time to remember and practice Paul's exhortation in Romans 12:15. "Sleigh bells ringing." Christmas lights flashing, choirs singing, shoppers shopping. Gift wrapping, mistletoe,...
The Impracticality of Advent: Immersed in Waiting
Advent will be drawing down any day now. The way we tend to measure these things, the calendar tells us Advent is at an end. Yet, the truth about Advent is that until we arrive at the climactic moment in the story of...
December 15, 2016
Trump's Surprise Election Tops Religion News Stories of 2016 (RNS) Tech Employees Vow Not to Help Trump Surveil Muslims (RNS) Betsy DeVos and God's Plan for Schools (New York Times) Trump's Outreach to Evangelicals...
How Christianity Lost Its Voice in a Media-Driven World
One thing is for sure: For most of this country's history, Christianity has been the dominant cultural force. From the engine behind social service outreaches to the founding of our greatest educational institutions...
Why You Shouldn’t Take Santa Out of Christmas
Every Christmas in the yard of a house not far from us stands a manger scene. The Christ Child rocks gently in his small white wooden manger, his halo glowing from the spotlight. Instead of Mary and Joseph gazing at...
When You Pray Boldly for Grace, Mercy and Help
I find prayer as much of a problem as a solution, and I find praying raises at least as many questions as answers. It isn't that I don't believe in prayer - of course I do. I believe in prayer because I believe in a...
December 14, 2016
How a Nashville Church Saved a Haitian (The Tennessean) Dylann Roof's Racist Rants Read in Court (CNN) Macon District Attorney Forms Faith and Community Leaders Advisory Board (Macon Telegraph) Evangelicals are More...
Why I Support BCE/EthicsDaily.com with My Gifts
I was starting my own coaching and consulting business several months ago when a friend gave me a little book by Bob Burg called "The Go-Giver" that introduced me to the "Law of Value." The Law of Value states, "Your...