Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Ministers and the sin of false witness
By John D. Pierce The late Christian ethicist Foy Valentine used to quip, “I’m not just preaching, I’m telling the truth.” Truth telling, one might think, would be a primary concern and function of preachers. But the...
Uniting to Work Together – 15 Years Later
Colin Kaepernick has inspired a lot of people to stand up for the American flag. All he did was remain seated during the national anthem of a preseason football game. He explained his rationale. "I am not going to...
How Has Society Grown Up After 9/11?
The Apostle Paul penned these words to the church in Corinth: "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways" (1...
Baptist, Muslim Leaders Discuss 9/11’s Ongoing Impact
Baptist and Muslim leaders believe interfaith engagement offers hope for a better future, even as negative rhetoric heightens tension for U.S. Muslims as the 15th anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches. "As an academician...
Maintaining the Flow of Justice
Seasonal waterfalls in Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana remind me about the importance of maintaining the flow of justice. A friend and I drove over to the forest recently to photograph the waterfalls at...
Samford University to Host Two Events on New Documentary
Samford University will host two events centered around a new documentary on the role of missionaries during genocide. "The Disturbances," the new feature film from EthicsDaily.com, chronicles how Christian...
September 8, 2016
Few Evangelical Churches Led by a Woman (Christian Today) Jurors Report for State Charleston Church Trial in January (ABC News) Hispanic Texas Baptists Provide Labor of Love for Louisiana (Baptist Standard)...
7 Ways to Live Proactively in Our Post 9/11 World
I flew to North Carolina a few days ago to participate in a pastor peer group meeting. I arrived early at the airport, checked in and then began the security screening process. The Transportation Security...
Report: Women in Jails Fastest Growing Correctional Population
The female population in jails has increased by nearly 1,300 percent since 1970. "The number of women incarcerated in jails is growing at a faster rate than any other correctional population," according to a report by...
September 7, 2016
Phyllis Schlafly's Successful Counter-Revolution (The Atlantic) Hillary Clinton to Speak at National Baptist Convention USA (KMBC Kansas City) Shawn Hendricks Named Editor of Baptist Press (Baptist Press) First Church...
9/11 and Rethinking of the American Covenant
Catastrophic losses bring profound changes to communities. From the family to the national level, these changes tend to become markers in the flow of history between the pre- and the post- of whatever the event was....
South Sudan Uses More Child Soldiers; Hope for Peace Dims
The use of child soldiers has been widespread in South Sudan's ongoing civil war. More than 650 children have been recruited to fight in the conflict in 2016 and around 16,000 since fighting began in December 2013,...
Short-Term Missions: Good and Bad Consequences
A small team is accompanying me to Iquitos, Peru, later in the year so I've been doing some thinking and preparation. One recurring question concerns the value of short-term mission trips. Not just my Peru trips, but...
September 6, 2016
Jacksonville's Norwood Baptist Church to Close Nearly a Century After Opening (Florida Times Union) Religion Enters Outer Space Realm: Cosmonauts and Religious Beliefs (ITechPost) Middle East: Egypt's Coptic Christians...
Can Christians Work with Those Who Aren’t ‘One of Us’?
A Christian church is being built in a small village in Punjab, Pakistan, with the help of the congregation's Muslim neighbors. According to a report from Barnabas Fund, the village is predominantly Muslim, as you...
September 5, 2016
Mother Teresa Declared a Saint Before a Huge Crowd at the Vatican (CNN) Leadership Diversity a Challenge for Colorado Springs Evangelical Organizations (Colorado Springs Gazette) How Will Religious Leaders, and the...
Labor Day: Thinking About Work from Christian Perspective
Labor Day - what a novel and paradoxical concept, at least the way many Americans think about it. The day, the first Monday in September, has ambiguous origins. The rationale for the day was that the American worker...
Majority of U.S. Teens See Bible Reading as Important
A majority of U.S. teens hold the Bible in high regard, read it with some regularity and seek to find guidance for daily living in its pages, according to research conducted by Barna Group on behalf of the American...
September 2, 2016
She Beat Her Son With a Hanger – and Said Indiana's Religious Freedom Law Gave Her the Right (Washington Post) Black Republicans are Furious Over the Pastor Interviewing Donald Trump (BuzzFeed News) White Evangelical...
As 9/11 Nears, Christians Can Build Bridges with Muslims
Muslim leaders are apprehensive about what might happen to their communities on the 15th anniversary of Sept. 11, especially if one of their major religious observances - Eid al-Adha - falls on Sept. 11, a Sunday. The...
Myth Busted: Undocumented Immigrants Do Pay Taxes
Repeat something often enough and people will eventually believe it. Variations of this sentiment have been attributed to several well-known historical figures. William James is said to have asserted, "There's nothing...