Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Campolo’s Challenge: Fully Commit to Jesus
We need to stop being Christians "up to a point" – and give our lives fully to Jesus. That was the challenging message from U.S. pastor and author Tony Campolo during the Saturday night address to the assembly of BMS...
Singing “Que Sera, Sera” to the Baptist Movement?
Editor's note: This column is another of several EthicsDaily.com will carry from an initiative from Great Britain called "Beyond400.net – Baptists Imagining Life After 400 Years." "Que Sera, Sera." This is a popular...
Accidental exposure
No, the title is not about a wardrobe malfunction ... you just never know when opportunities will arise to say something that needs to be said, or where those words will go ... I was minding my own business on Tuesday...
Why November Will Be Celebration of Constitution
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath...
David Barton’s Jefferson Portrayal Less Than Honest
Our premier historian of late colonial and early republican America, Gordon Wood, while reviewingabook on Roger Williams, warms up readers with references to Thomas Jefferson: "It's easy to believe in the separation of...
The Danger of Unquestioned Religious Devotion
The French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in the 1600s, "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." He was right then, and he is still right today. The obvious...
The Future Tense of the Good News
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on April 29, 2012. Isaiah 35 Morning Prayer: O God, our Father, we pray claiming the promise that you know what we need before we ask...
Have You Ever Met a Shepherd?
A sermon delivered by Robert Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky., on April 29, 2012. John 10:11-18 “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus said, not once but twice in this text. Obviously, he felt it...
What’s It All About?
A sermon delivered by Howard Batson, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Amarillo, Tx., on April 29, 2012. Acts 2:14-41 We find ourselves in our sermon series in the Acts of the Apostles. Last week, we saw the Day of...
Some Pray; Others Reason. Can We All Listen?
The 61st annual National Day of Prayer is being held today, May 3, as it is on the first Thursday of May every year. Today is also the 10th annual National Day of Reason. As an alternative to both the Day of Prayer and...
What Makes Some Christians So Crazy?
When is the last time you encountered a person of faith, in particular a Christian, who was engaging in particular activities one might call "crazy"? I know I've met my share of over-the-top, loving kind of Christians...
“The Rich and the Rest of Us”
"Can we still claim 'the greatest' status when one out of two Americans is living in poverty or near the poverty line?" asks broadcaster Tavis Smiley and academic Cornel West. This question serves as the crux of their...
When You Forego Efficiency for Faithfulness
Sometimes, we need to set aside efficiency for the sake of love and to sacrifice success for the sake of faithfulness. There are some things so right and good, so significant and wonderful, that we have to do them, no...
10 Things People Don’t Mean When They Like a Sermon
Editor's note: Read Michael Ruffin's column that appeared yesterday on EthicsDaily.com about what people really mean when they say, "I enjoyed that sermon." Below are the top 10 things people really don't mean when...
Climb Toward Reconciliation Often Slow, Painful
In the late 1960s, the Committee of Southern Churchmen, under the leadership of Will Campbell and James Holloway, conceived and produced a journal with the title Katallegete – Be Reconciled – taken from the Greek...
Read it and weep … or worse
If you have a weak stomach, you may not wish to read what lies below. It's hard to be in the same cyberspace with the kind of overweening arrogance that seems designed to provoke a visceral response. Sean HarrisBut not...
10 Things People Mean When They Like the Sermon
Editor's note: Tomorrow, EthicsDaily.com will carry Ruffin's column on what people don't mean when they say, "I enjoyed that sermon." Below are the top 10 things people really mean when they say, "I enjoyed that...
Teacher Uses EthicsDaily.com for Sunday School Prep
Have you ever noticed how often we are never satisfied? For instance, I enjoy working jigsaw puzzles and often have one in the works on a game table. I'll walk past and think I'll put in just one piece and be done, but...
Is Media Coverage of Religion Too Sensationalized?
"MostAmericansSayMediaCoverageofReligionTooSensationalized" reads the headline of a report on a poll of a sample of "the public" and of journalists. That headline is perhaps a bit too sensationalized itself because the...
What I meant to say …
It's the end of the semester, which makes it paper-grading season, and I am awash in typographical errors. It matters not how much I caution students to be careful or encourage them to have someone else proofread their...
Survey: College-Age Americans Favor DREAM Act, Buffet Rule
College-age Americans strongly favor the idea of the DREAM Act, a proposal that would allow undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children to have a legal pathway to residency if they served in the...