Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Thank you, President Obama
I've spent a good part of today sitting in a hospital room with my oldest son, who will leave in a couple of days with an astronomical hospital bill and no major medical insurance to apply to it. Because of...
Winter’s a Wonderland Unless You Have No Home
Like most kids, when I was a child growing up in rural Mississippi, I used to pray for snow. Even if it looked like snow, they would cancel school. I remember we were once sent home early because it got cloudy. That is...
Study: Religion Helps Workers Cope with Stress
New psychological research suggests that employees who are more actively religious are better able to cope with stress and are more likely to report that their lives have meaning. These are the key findings of a study...
Competing Theological Frameworks Shape Approaches to Criminal Justice
Two competing theological frameworks are at work in the American criminal justice system: retributive justice and restorative justice. Both are overviewed in "Through the Door," our forthcoming documentary on prisons...
Why God Isn’t As Close as a Text Message
I often ask members of my youth group how their relationship with God is going. Sometimes I get typical one-word answers such as "good" or "OK," and the conversation moves on. Other times, there is a longer engagement...
Are Charity Shops Becoming Too Pricey for Poor?
While browsing an Oxfam bookshop recently, I saw several books and a CD I would have bought, but, to be honest and upfront about it, they were far too expensive. I know the secondhand book market and the prices that...
BWA Appeals for Help for Central African Republic
The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is appealing for assistance to the Central African Republic (CAR) due to widespread suffering after rebels overthrew the government in March 2013. Nicolas Aimé Singa-Gbazia, president...
Seven reasons to love really old stuff (and you won’t believe number six)
Have you noticed how many web stories have titles like "17 Life Hacks for Girls," "10 Foods You Should Never Eat," or "8 Places You Must See Before You Die"? They often include subtitles like "You won't believe number...
“Saving Mr. Banks”
There is one word, one line, at the heart of "Saving Mr. Banks" – "enough." The film tells the story of Walt Disney's negotiation with Pamela Travers, author of "Mary Poppins," for the rights to the novel. There are...
Baptism’s Fruit? Pursuit of Righteousness, Justice
It's difficult, in an exaggerated understatement, to envision "bearing fruit" when, to quote a secular hymn of the season, "the weather outside is frightful." About the only thing that is being produced currently is an...
British Campaign Spreads Word on Organ Donation
The "Fab Church Challenge" aims to encourage churches in the United Kingdom to become "donor churches" and equip them as long-term advocates of donation by providing practical tools to help them donate together, talk...
One Truth at a Time: Newborn King
A sermon by Jim Somerville, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va. January 5, 2014 The Epiphany of the Lord Matthew 2:1-12 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the...
Travels and Travails
A sermon by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ar. December 29, 2013 Isaiah 63:7-9; Matthew 2:13-23 If you’ve ever done much traveling, you know it can be fraught with all kinds of...
The Journey of Faith
A sermon by Bob Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky. December 29, 2013 Matthew 2:1-12 This morning, our attention is drawn to the visit of the Wise Men to Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Only Matthew records...
Do You Need a Fresh Start or Conversion Experience?
The new year is an opportunity to make resolutions. Perhaps for many of us, however, resolutions may not be enough. We may need an actual conversion experience. There is a fourth-century story told of two monks in the...
3 Activities That Will Revive Your Faith
Nothing stays the same for long. That statement is as honest as it is brief. Life is always in motion – never sitting still, ever changing – and the best response we can give is to pledge we will stay alive to God's...
For Effective Change, Leaders Must Walk the Talk
Leaders should always walk the talk, but it becomes even more critical to do so when their organization is going through a change. Failing to do so eliminates any chance that others in the organization will be...
Do You Settle for the Familiar or Risk Being Shattered?
"Our minds are constantly trying to bring God down to our level rather than letting him lift us into levels of which we were not previously capable." I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly with that statement even...
Overcrowding Continues Despite Decline in Prison Population
The U.S. prison population declined in 2012 due, in part, to the lowest number of admissions since 1999. The December 2013 Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report on U.S. prisons for 1991 through 2012 explained the...
Interfaith Dialogue is Key to Peace, Pope Urges
Pope Francis recently published his "Evangelli Gaudium," "The Joy of the Gospel." This rare and significant publication seeks to encourage the faithful to live out the teachings of the Catholic Church within the...
The sin of social elitism
By John Pierce One of the good, early lessons veteran editors taught me years ago came as a warning against using editorial space to simply jump on a favorite soapbox repeatedly. Such writing should be broader and more...