Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
September 20, 2016
New Smithsonian Museum of African American History Highlights Baptist-Related, Nashville Business (WBRC) What Does Trump's Promise of a Nation 'Under One God' Really Mean? (NPR) Conservative Christians Debate Whether...
Should Christians Wash Their Linen in Public?
The Apostles Creed jumps from the birth of Jesus to his suffering and death, and misses out on his life. This raises interesting questions about the significance of the life of Jesus and its practical ethical...
State of the Church: Nones Increase, Christian Affiliation Remains Strong
"Nones," or religiously unaffiliated people, now represent 20 percent of the U.S. population, even as 73 percent of the nation still self-identifies as Christian, according to Barna Group's 2016 State of the Church...
Planned obsolescence?
My old pair of Nikes must have come with an expiration date I didn't see. I tend to wear my shoes until I wear them out, especially those we euphemistically call tennis or track shoes: I haven't played tennis or run...
Will You Help Others Find Healing Nature of Community?
There's something to be said about our connectedness or lack thereof with other human beings. As technology advances at skyrocketing paces, what's happening to us when it comes to having a true sense of deep community...
U.S. Food Insecurity Down, Still Above Prerecession Levels
Food insecurity continues to trend downward from its high point of 14.9 percent of U.S. households in 2011. In 2015, 12.7 percent (15.8 million households) were food insecure, according to a U.S. Department of...
September 16, 2016
Fifteen Years After 9/11, Sikhs Still Victims of Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes (CNN) Carter Urges Faith Leaders to Combat 'Resurgence or Racism' (Albany Times Union) At Summit, President Carter Urges Baptists to Adopt a...
Why I Am Not a Fan of Contemporary U.S. Sports
I have always found watching sports of any kind boring, but I have assumed that others legitimately found real pleasure in it and simply avoided it myself. Eventually, I began to consider whether organized college,...
Baptists as a Movement of People
Although the Belgian government refers to them as the United Protestant Church of Belgium, Belgian Protestants themselves prefer to call themselves a movement. Belgium is an official Roman Catholic monarchy, although...
September 15, 2016
Study: Religion Contributes More to U.S. Economy Than Facebook, Google and Apple Combined (Washington Post) Not in My House, Pastor Tells Trump (Politico) U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Releases Report (PR Newswire)...
A good man remembered: Howard E. Butt Jr.
By John D. Pierce His name was well known and even more so his initials, bequeathed from his entrepreneurial father. The family’s highly successful grocery business put H.E.B. on the map in Texas and beyond. Often...
Climate Change: Protecting the Earth and the Poor
What is happening to our weather? This question is echoing around the world, as it's been the hottest, driest, wettest, windiest with the worst cyclone, hurricane, tornado season since records began. In 2015, the...
How We Can Make Truth Matter Again
Alexander Betts, a British social scientist and director of the Refugee Centre at the University of Oxford, emphasized the urgent need to rescue globalization from the neo-liberal agenda that is elitist and unmindful...
September 14, 2016
Kentucky Governor Tells Christian Audience that Electing Hillary Clinton May Eventually Lead to Violence (Washington Post) Alabama High School Football Announcer, Baptist Pastor, Resigns After Flak Over National Anthem...
The Challenging Message of Lamentations
The first chapter of Lamentations was the passage of the day during a recent Sunday morning "Breakfast with the Bible" session at our church. What a challenge for the visiting speaker who had accepted the invitation to...
Report: Children On Move Among World’s Most Vulnerable
Almost 50 million children worldwide currently are migrants, refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs), according to a United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report. "This is a...
September 13, 2016
Clergy Call for Finding 'High Ground' on Kentucky Capitol Steps (State-Journal) First Baptist Williamsburg's Freedom Bell Removed for Trip to Smithsonian (Daily Press) Top West Point General: 'Valid Concerns' Raised...
Nurturing Faith partners with Maranatha church to provide journal to visitors
PLAINS, Ga. — Visitors by the thousands flock to Maranatha Baptist Church in this small southwest Georgia town to hear President Jimmy Carter teach a Sunday morning Bible lesson. For many, who come from near and far,...
7 Signs of Movement-Focused Churches
Local churches in the U.S. functioned as programmatic centers of activity for the last half of the 20th century. Embedded in a supportive "churched" and Christian culture, their role was to provide offerings that...
Teens Volunteer Regularly in Church Projects, Poverty Initiatives
A majority of U.S. teens involved in a local church youth ministry volunteer their time at least several times a year. "A little less than one fifth of teens (17 percent) volunteer once a week, one-quarter (25 percent)...
September 12, 2016
The Conservative Churches Resettling Refugees (The Atlantic) Muslim Hajj Pilgrimage Reaches Its Pinnacle (National Public Radio) In Eulogizing Schlafly, Trump Sees Spiritual Ally (CNN) Religious Conservatives Aren't...