Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Mixed messages
Reading about the recent decision of Exodus International to apologize for its past offenses against homosexual persons and to cease operations -- along with the expected critique by those who accuse the organization...
Border Control Is a Moral Issue
Border control is one of the lynchpins in comprehensive immigration reform. Political conservatives argue that the United States must secure its southern border before it moves toward providing a way for the...
Seeking Common Purpose in Our “Gotcha” World
As much as we might desire it, perfection is hard to come by in the world of human experience. The smaller and simpler the task, the closer we can come to it. The "perfect square" and the "perfectly boiled egg" seem...
How to Plan Patriotic Sundays for Your Church
For worship planners committed to historic Baptist principles, the Independence Day weekend, like any patriotic weekend, is one of those times when we may feel pulled between participating in the surrounding civic...
How Should Christians Respond to Immigration Reform Debate?
As the U.S. Senate begins its debate over immigration reform – a debate that will prove to be complicated as well as fierce – how should Christians respond to this debate? Perhaps the most beloved story in the Gospels...
In Former “Killing Fields,” Church Offers New Hope
You all have probably heard the term "killing fields" used to describe the horrendous atrocities committed in Cambodia in the 1970s. And maybe most of you have seen the heart-rending movie released in 1984 with that...
From Poverty to Trafficking: How You Can Help
In the last month, I have handled seven human trafficking cases and consulted on one migrant worker rape case. It has been a heavy load, both in terms of the intensity of the workload and the depth of emotion in the...
Mortality
Most days we go about our business with little thought beyond getting through our to-do list, but every now and then, mortality stands up and demands to be heard. We don't like it's harsh voice or blunt words,...
Interfaith Marriages: Religious Tolerance or Dilution?
"Every living and healthy religion has a marked idiosyncrasy" wrote philosopher George Santayana, and its power comes from the "special and surprising message and the bias which that revelation gives to life." He...
Skype Interview: Lee Camp and the Tokens Show
Editor's note: Read Robert Parham's editorial, A Church of Christ Show Pushes Comedy, Cultural Critique in All the Right Ways, from June 2012. "It's like Mark Twain meets God – and likes the God he meets." That's how a...
Can You Imagine a World Without Work?
Imagine waking up one day. You feel a bit ill and look at the clock, but it's not working. You press the light switch. Nothing happens. The toilet smells a bit. When you go to wash your hands, no water comes out of the...
Trying to make sense out of Southern Baptist decision making
By John Pierce In its constant pursuit of a narrowly defined orthodoxy, Southern Baptist Convention leadership refuses to let logic interfere with decision making. Hence, the recent well-publicized efforts to ostracize...
Interfaith Leaders in Virginia Model Friendship
I'm not sure whose idea it was that my interfaith group should visit Monticello, but that's what we did. There was something in the memo about Thomas Jefferson's commitment to "religious liberty," and how important it...
The Prophets and Divine Anger
We cannot truly understand the biblical prophets without pausing to reflect on the idea of divine anger without prejudice. No matter how foreign or familiar this concept appears to contemporary readers, divine anger...
Uriah “ An Outsider Welcomed When It Was Useful
Uriah the Hittite, husband of Bathsheba, was an officer of the Israelite army, a native of Jerusalem and a faithful Yahwist. Uriah is a Yahwistic name meaning "Yahweh is my light/fire." Four other Uriahs named in the...
The best thing about summer
Summer saunters in like a waiter with a menu of laid-back opportunities, but the one I usually look forward to first is the arrival of homegrown tomatoes. I typically get my tomatoes in the ground around Easter,...
3 Ways to Move Your Church to a Deeper Faith
We've all been there. Recent college or seminary graduates excited to teach our future churches all the wonderful things we have learned about biblical studies in order to open up the newest vistas of biblical truth...
Even Living Sustainable Life Comes With Baggage
There's a myth with which we've all been indoctrinated. Some call it the "greener grass syndrome" while others believe "progress is inevitable." Some are working for the golden age of retirement while others want a...
Fighting Food Poverty: Practical Care + Political Activism
I was pleased to see that Church Action on Poverty (CAP) and Oxfam's report "Walking the Breadline: The Scandal of Food Poverty in 21st Century Britain" was the lead story on the front page of the Metro newspaper...
What Gloomy Predictions About Church Overlook
Are you tired of the doomsday rhetoric about the church in America? Have you noticed that the bandwagon of those predicting the imminent demise of congregational life is filled to capacity? Are you ready to tune out...
Where Have All the Prophets Gone?
The tolls have not begun to be taken. But surely that will start soon. And we can be pretty certain what those tolls will report. It's just a matter of time, that is, before we begin learning of deaths occurring on...