Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
The people in your neighborhood …
It has been many years since I watched Sesame Street, but I can still sing all the words to "Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?" If I recall correctly, they would sing it before introducing a video clip about...
Profiles in Goodwill: Guy Sayles
Guy Sayles is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina, and is a board member of the Baptist Center for Ethics. Guy's articles that have appeared on EthicsDaily.com are available here. 1. Where...
Religious Freedom: Making the World Safe for Diversity
President John F. Kennedy gave a compelling commencement address on world peace more than 50 years ago. In one of his famous quotes, Kennedy declared, "If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can make the...
Church Giving Drops Even as Charitable Giving Increases
A recent report noted that even though overall charitable giving in the U.S. is increasing, giving to churches is dropping. Trends among Baptist groups echo the findings. Researched and written by the philanthropy...
September 5, 2014
Police Shootings 'Not a Secular Problem', Al Sharpton Tells Baptists in New Orleans (Times-Picayune) U.S. Evangelicals Headed for Showdown Over Gender Roles (Washington Post) Controversial Religion Language Adjusted in...
Mideast Conflict: Would Moderates Please Step Forward?
Conflict in the Middle East has shifted though it is not immediately apparent. While an uneasy ceasefire has been at last reached in Israel and Gaza, civil war rages on in Syria and Iraq. Western suspicion of Iran...
Profiles in Goodwill: Zach Dawes Jr
Zach Dawes is the managing editor at EthicsDaily.com. Zach's articles that have appeared on EthicsDaily.com are available here, and his Skype interview is available here. 1. Where did you grow up? Austin and Dripping...
Cultivating Selflessness in Worship in Global Gatherings
When representatives of Baptist organizations associated with the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) convene their annual gathering, they are keenly aware that they assemble as God's people on mission. Because of this,...
September 4, 2014
Study: Science and Religion Really Are Enemies After All (Mother Jones) Mars Hill Church's Attendance and Giving Down 'Significantly' (Seattle Post Intelligencer) Bible College President Pleads Guilty to Labor Charges...
Profiles in Goodwill: Cliff Vaughn
Cliff Vaughn is the media producer at EthicsDaily.com and an adjunct instructor at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Cliff's articles that have appeared on EthicsDaily.com are available here, the Skype...
A Lesson from Ruth on Welcoming Refugees
Arthur Holmes reminds us in "The Idea of a Christian College" that we must rigorously pursue the intersection of their faith within the wholeness of the human experience. A Christian college, and by implication those...
September 3, 2014
God's Ivory: The Role of Religion in the Elephant Poaching Crisis (Huffington Post) Overcrowding at Indianapolis Church Youth Event Leads to Several Arrests (Fox59) The Rise of Biblical Counseling (Pacific Standard)...
Feeling bugged?
I've thought a lot about bugs lately -- mostly about the pesky mosquitoes who leave big itchy bumps all over my legs if I dare to try picking figs while wearing shorts. I'd post a picture, but if I could get one of...
The growing years
By John Pierce [Note: My brother, Robert Franklin Pierce Jr., was a minister in the North Georgia Conference of United Methodists. He died Sept. 1 after years of struggling with a variety of health concerns. These are...
On Prairies and People: Knowing Your Subjects
I met up with a friend to do some photography of the prairies in southwest Missouri a few weeks ago. I had never photographed prairies and, although I had a few preconceptions of what a prairie would look like, I...
What Your Congregation Can Learn from Common Core
The Common Core State Standards guiding public education have received a lot of press in the last year, most of it negative. There has been a strong campaign to combat the misinformation about what exactly the...
What the Bible Really Says about Slavery
It is almost universally accepted that the Bible stops short of outright condemnation of slavery and can even be considered to be somewhat accepting of it, even though Christians today almost universally accept that...
September 2, 2014
For National Baptist Convention, Twin Challenges are Addressing Racial Injustice, Drawing Young Members (Times-Picayune) Louisiana Abortion Law Temporarily Blocked (Politico) How Friendship Baptist Became 'a Powder...
Tree Trimming Offers Guidance for Christian Discipleship
We live in a predominantly rural area and receive our electricity through an electrical membership cooperative. Recently, our cooperative hired a company to trim branches and tree growth that threatened or might...
September 1, 2014
Where College Football is a Religion, and Religion Shapes College Football (Washington Post) Southern Decadence's Sunday of Glitter, Drag, Bears, Boys and Some Baptists (Times-Picayune) Judge Strikes Down Key Part of...
Before and after
It's Labor Day weekend, and I have an adequate list of labors to keep me busy for the duration in the yard and at the keyboard. One thing, at least, is already done. My wife's car had developed cataracts. It's not...