Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Holding Elected Officials Accountable to Truth
The issue of trust is one that has increasingly found its way onto our political agenda, yet sadly it is often for the wrong reasons. A January 2015 MORI poll indicated that only 16 percent of the British public trust...
Profiles In Goodwill: Lee Spitzer
Lee Spitzer is the executive minister and senior regional pastor of the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey. Lee's articles that have appeared on EthicsDaily.com are available here. 1. Where did you grow up?...
April 27, 2015
A Former Baptist Pastor Shakes Up St. Louis' Troubled Jail Division (St. Louis Today) Atheists Outnumber Southern Baptists in U.S. Military (Christianity Today) Alabama Megachurch's 'Secret Church' Gathering Receives...
Profiles In Goodwill: Ray Higgins
Ray Higgins is coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas. Ray's articles that have appeared on EthicsDaily.com are available here. 1. Where did you grow up? El Dorado, Arkansas 2. What is your...
After Boston Bombing, Could Execution Sermon Heal?
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty on 30 counts. Jurors - and everyone else in and around Boston - now contemplate sentencing. Discussions about the death penalty have a strange ring in Massachusetts, a state that...
Profiles In Goodwill: Elmo Familiaran
Elmo Familiaran is the associate regional pastor and area minister for the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey. Elmo's articles that have appeared on EthicsDaily.com are available here. 1. Where did you grow up?...
Breaking Promise, Obama Fails to Recognize Armenian Genocide
The Ottoman Empire targeted the Armenian people for extermination in 1915, killing up to 1.5 million of the largely Christian population. As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the genocide on April...
When Christianity and Politics Should Mix
Fellow believers have said to me recently that Christianity and politics don't mix, and our focus should be evangelism. This view, or some variant on it, seems to be held by many Christian politicians as well. In a...
An Abuse Committed by Left and Right Ideologues
Both the political and religious left and the political and religious right do it. It's become the strategy of choice for ideologues who want to manipulate public opinion for a cause. It's a sure sign of demagoguery...
Training the Church’s Next Generation of Leaders
I was well into my second decade of ministry when my friend, Milt Hughes, brought alive a verse from the Bible that changed the way I looked at what I was doing. The text is 2 Timothy 2:2. The New International Version...
Profiles In Goodwill: Terry Austin
Terry Austin publishes books at Austin Brothers Publishing and is one of the pastors at Bread Fellowship Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Terry's articles that have appeared on EthicsDaily.com are available here. 1. Where...
Be careful what you wish for
By John Pierce A U.S. district judge has issued an order in favor of Hamilton County, Tenn., to open public meetings with prayer. A Court of Appeals will surely be the next stop. This is just one more in the long,...
Your Church Must Choose: Window or Aisle Seat?
I had my choice between the window seat and the aisle seat on a recent flight. Sitting by the window offers a great view, but it makes me feel cramped, if not trapped. There are benefits to the aisle seat. You have...
One Prisoner’s Journey: The Long Road of Redemption
Michael Santos continues his long road of redemption. Santos is a former student and friend of mine whose personal journey I've described on EthicsDaily.com in two previous columns. The first, written as he was...
Holding Fashion Industry Accountable for Worker Safety
It's 8 a.m. on a densely crowded Bangladesh street. Thousands of workers are refusing to enter their place of work, an eight-story factory housing five textile businesses. Alarming cracks have appeared in the walls,...
April 23, 2015
Florida Senate Tables Bill Allowing Adoption Agencies to Reject Gay Parents (WJCT) Michigan Senate Panel OKs Bills on Adoption and Religion (Detroit Free Press) The Surprising Religious Breakdown of Same-Sex Marriage...
10 Places Members Go When They Skip Church
There was a day when a Sunday school perfect attendance pin was a regular feature in churches across America. If a person attended Sunday school every Sunday in a year, he or she was awarded a pin or an attachment that...
Baptist Ethics Pioneer A.C. Miller Stayed Tethered to Bible
If we want to understand better white Baptists of the South on race, we need to remember a forgotten figure - A.C. Miller - and a slice of history - the 1954 Southern Baptist Convention. Never heard of Miller? Most...
Water: Economic Commodity or Human Right?
Water is essential to biotic existence, and it is not a value-free substance, even as the availability of fresh, clean water is often taken for granted in the United States. In other parts of the world, billions of...
Baptist Churches: Part of a Denomination or Confederation?
As an ordained minister in the American Baptist tradition, I am a Christian who exercises my faith through the lens of Baptist tradition and history. Baptists are about as diverse as they come. Our theology allows us...
April 22, 2015
Historians Say Southern Baptist Women Paved the Way in Improving Race Relations (Baptist News Global) Major Religious Groups Worried They'll be Branded as Bigots After Same-Sex Marriage (Times Online) Texas Senate...