Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Do You Legislate Your Beliefs or Live Them?
There are multiple issues on which the U.S. Supreme Court has made rulings or will make rulings in the very near future. I do not wish to address the specific cases, but rather the dominant attitude of separation that...
Considering What’s at Stake in Creation’s Deterioration
The recent papal encyclical, subtitled "On Care for our Common Home," invites the global church and other interested persons of good will to consider what is at stake in the deterioration of the environment, especially...
The One Way Bodybuilders and Baptists Are Alike
I attended recently a national gathering of Baptists that was a stark reminder of the desperate need for congregational and clergy health. It wasn't so much that this group is any more or less healthy than other shades...
July 1, 2015
Poll: After Charleston, a Nation Divided on the Confederate Flag (USA Today) Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Some Bible Belt Clerks Refusing to Issue Marriage Licenses (Oregon Live) Christian Activist Decries 'Evil' Gay...
Sore is fun …
Many years ago, I played high school football. I will never forget what the beginning of summer practice felt like: two-a-day workouts in steamy heat, pushing ourselves as hard as we could. For at least a week, we’d be...
Papal Encyclical Should Embolden Pro-Environment Voices
I live barely three miles from the sea. In plain view of our home are the highest tides in the world, often cresting at 55 feet. In recent years, we have watched the raising of dyke embankments, first constructed by...
Annual State Department Report Notes Significant Human Rights Abuses
The brutality of human rights abuses committed by terrorist organizations and authoritarian governments was a leading emphasis in a report published last week by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human...
What’s Your Church’s Priority? Getting Bigger or Better?
The guiding principle for every home improvement project of Tim "The Toolman" Taylor from the TV show, "Home Improvement," was, "More power!" To him, bigger was always better, usually with comically disastrous results....
June 30, 2015
How the Rebellion Against South Carolina's Confederate Flag Grew (New York Times) Six Predominantly Black Southern Churches Burn Within a Week: Arson Suspected in at Least Three (Washington Post) FBI Inquires After...
Nostalgic and critical
By John Pierce Dr. Bill Hoyt chaired the Religion and Philosophy Department at Berry College in the 1970s, when I was one of the few students on the world’s largest campus who chose such a major. It was a wonderful...
‘Courageous conversations’
By John Pierce Filmmaker Ken Burns, on a news show last week, called for a “courageous conversation” about race in light of the racially motivated murders of church members in Charleston, S.C. He referred to the legacy...
Where Smaller Churches Can Find Their Next Pastor
As I meet with the pastor search committees of smaller churches, there is usually a concern that it will be difficult to find a pastor. That concern is well founded. Most denominational leaders will tell you that one...
How Will Seminaries Respond to Pope’s Climate Call?
One question seems to be at the heart of Pope Francis's encyclical: "What kind of world do we want to leave to those whom come after us, to children who are now growing up?" (section 160). The encyclical does not have...
‘I Don’t Even See People as Black or White Anymore’
I passed a man enjoying some shade under the pecan trees of our church parking lot on my way home for lunch last week. The door of his car was open and he looked to be relaxing and doing some reading. I almost walked...
June 29, 2015
Straddling Old and New, a South Where 'a Flag is Not Worth a Job' (New York Times) At Least 5 Predominantly Black Churches Have Been Destroyed by Fire in the Past Week (Huffington Post) Funerals Held for Three...
Hands in the dirt
The military talks about boots on the ground. Archaeologists talk about hands in the dirt. Today we are archaeologists, of a sort, as Susan and I joined the Fourth Expedition to Lachish, directed by Yosef Garfinkel of...
Ministering among mixed responses
By John Pierce There are those who are celebrating the Supreme Court decision on the legality of same-sex marriage. There are those who are deeply disappointed, even alarmed, by it. These persons often share the same...
June 27, 2015
Obama Delivers Passionate Discourse on Race at Ceremony for 9 Slain Churchgoers (Minneapolis Star Tribune) Obama Delivers 'Amazing Grace' at Funeral of Slain Pastor (Reuters) Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Same-Sex...
5 Ways Your Church Can Care for Creation – Right Now
Pope Francis called for all people, and especially believers, to "take charge of this home which has been entrusted to us" (section 244) in his recently released encyclical on creation care. Francis' vision is a call...
Fighting Racism by Getting to Know Your Neighbors
It has been a difficult seven or so days for this country, especially those at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. We all know what happened there, so there is no need in repeating...
Why Many Churches Have a Common Core Christianity
There is no little controversy surrounding education reform of late, particularly as it relates to Common Core, an education initiative originally proposed by governors across the nation. Common Core, though confused...