Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Why Churches Must Offer More Than Band-Aids
"Pastor, we've got to do something," implored the eager parishioner. "We have elderly church members driving at night because we don't have a transportation ministry. It's dangerous." The plea came after one of our...
Faith Community Has Significant Role to Play in Prison Reform
The Tennessean ran a major story on the state's overflowing prisons while EthicsDaily.com's media producer, Cliff Vaughn, and I were in Virginia conducting interviews for our forthcoming documentary on the role of...
Animal crackers
OK, so there are no crackers, but here are three intriguing tidbits about animals. The first two I gathered from a mail list devoted to archaeology and ancient Near Eastern studies. The third I picked up from a David...
How Gov’t Sequester Will Affect God’s Kingdom
I've been looking through this morning's Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia. The big news is that the federal government is going to cut $85 billion in spending, beginning Saturday. It remains to be seen how those...
Mandating the Teaching of the Bible in Our Schools
In the Feb. 28 edition of The Wall Street Journal, filmmakers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett published an opinion column concerning the teaching of the Bible as history and literature in American public schools. The...
Will Your Legacy Stand the Test of Time?
Some British scholars have long suspected that one of their former kings was buried beneath a modern parking lot. After much research by the University of Leicester, it was recently confirmed that, indeed, the remains...
Bless his key pickin’ Baptist heart
It's always nice to learn something new about someone, even after they've left this world. I can remember when pianist Van Cliburn, then a young man, won the inaugural Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, back in...
What Basketball Teaches Us About the Common Good
Amid all the game playing in Washington and in Frankfort, Ky., perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from Kentucky's other religion: basketball. Recently, the Courier-Journal sports section questioned whether...
7 Ways for Churches to Address Culture of Violence
In a previous column, I suggested that an assumed culture of violence prevails among many of those who are most vocal in defense of gun ownership. They are not alone, however. Even many non-gun owners live in fear,...
U.S. Christians Unfazed by Civilian Deaths in War
Based on longstanding and widespread reports of government corruption in Afghanistan, I'm no fan of the country's president. And it appears that Hamid Karzai is again exploiting an ambiguous situation involving the...
True Grit
A Sermon by David Hughes, First Baptist Church, Winston Salem, N.C. Psalm 27; Luke 13:31-35 If you are a movie buff, you know The Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for tonight. And I will make no secret of the fact...
The Pain of Rejection
A sermon by Robert Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky. Luke 13:31-35 Let’s talk about rejection this morning. It is one of the most painful words in our vocabulary and always associated with broken...
What Will You Give Me, and How Will I Know?
A sermon by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ar. Second Sunday in Lent Genesis 15:1-21; Philippians 3:17-4:1 His name is Abram. Remember that, please. He is not Abraham. Not yet anyway. ...
Prayerful Changes
A sermon by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ar. Luke 9:28-44 28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus* took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray....
Will Baptists Become Advocates for Climate Change?
When the House of Representatives voted on Jan. 2 to pass the much-ballyhooed fiscal cliff deal, President Barack Obama appeared on national television to offer a few stern words for his detractors. Toward the end of...
Why You Should Celebrate Glen Stassen’s Happy Kiju
Noted Baptist ethicist and theologian Glen Stassen was born on Feb. 29, 1936. (I'm not revealing any secrets for he has included his birth date on his Facebook page.) Even though there is no Feb. 29 this year, Glen was...
This Lent, How to Improve Jewish-Christian Relations
"We are the relatives who just won't go away," observed Rabbi Gary Greenbaum, as he wryly summed up the ongoing challenges of Jewish-Christian relations. I have recently concluded a two-day conference of the Christian...
Don’t curse cursive
My students, who sometimes struggle to read the comments on their marked up writing assignments, can tell you that my penmanship is nothing to brag about. I've always blamed my lack of a fine flowing hand on the fact...
4 Things to Consider About Shallow Church Commitment
I've always been struck by the phrase from Luke 9:51 and 53, which describes Jesus as "turning his face toward Jerusalem." It implies a resoluteness of intent and a high degree of commitment to a divine agenda. Nothing...
What the Church Can Learn from Scientology
The latest book "exposing" Scientology is "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief" by Lawrence Wright. The author mixes journalistic methods with something of a sociology of religion study to...
Give a Moral Witness as Alternative to Sequestration Brinksmanship
Christian leaders released a statement on Feb. 25 urging President Obama and congressional leaders to protect federal programs that provide services to the nation's most vulnerable citizens – instead of continuing the...