Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
US Gov’t Pushes for UN Resolution on Sri Lanka
I found myself last week in the unusual position of defending in public the United States government. The latter was the prime mover behind a resolution by the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) calling on the Sri...
Ecumenical Activists to Meet in Oklahoma City
Every year ecumenical activists from every Christian denomination gather for an annual meeting. This year, the annual National Workshop on Christian Unity will meet in Oklahoma City. It is the first time for Oklahoma...
How Churches Can Solve the Problem of Bullying
Bullying is growing worse at every level. It is present in homes, schools, playgrounds, sports venues and workplaces. It assaults us on television and over radio. How can the church respond to the growing menace? The...
A Bubba for the ages
What's not to like about Bubba Watson, the newly crowned champion of golf's hallowed Masters Tournament? He grew up in a tiny Florida panhandle town named Baghdad, played golf for the University of Georgia, and lives...
Will We Shed Moral Apathy About Organ Donation?
Apathy. All ethicists fear the word. Apathy occurs when an individual cares about an issue – but not enough to take action. Moral debate requires action and change. Without a push for moral action, our sermons,...
Race Made Me Do It: How Race Makes Us Unconscious
We believe that we are born into race and behave as if we are preprogrammed by it, predisposed to being racially motivated. We wouldn't hate or stereotype or segregate or kill if the person had not been black, white,...
SBC Official’s Radio Rant Advances No Moral Good
Whether one agrees or disagrees with the Sanford, Fla., police department's handling of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, what moral good is advanced by a Southern Baptist Convention official accusing black leaders...
Did he sleep?
I wondered, as I awoke several times between Maundy Thursday night and Good Friday morning, what the chances are that Jesus got any sleep between his arrest and his crucifixion. I'm inclined to doubt it. ...
Power, Pleasure, Purpose. What Do We Really Seek?
We were created for worship and fashioned for praise. Tortured genius and brilliant critic of the church, Frederick Nietzsche, believed that human beings are driven by a will to power. We are, he said, desperate to...
Why “Obamacare” May Really Be Un-American
The large sign held by a protester outside the Supreme Court last week declared: "OBAMACARE IS UNAMERICAN." After a few seconds of disgust – time enough to put myself in a more reflective gear – I found myself agreeing...
The Resurrection: Something to Prove or Experience?
The experience of Easter worship in many churches is entirely too predictable. Preachers will take the various resurrection stories and use them as proof of the reality of the risen Christ. We will be assured that the...
Don’t Cry Past Saturday
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on April 1, 2012. Mark 11:1-11; 14:32-42, 66-72; 15:33-39 How comfortable are you with passion? I don’t just mean sexual passion. ...
Committing Our Hearts To God
A sermon delivered David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on March 25, 2012. Jeremiah 31:31-34 Many of us find the word “commitment” unnerving, myself included. We get anxious when we hear...
Why God Made Us
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on March 18, 2012. John 3:14-21; Ephesians 2:1-10 In Ephesians 2:10, the Apostle Paul writes, For we are what God has made us,...
The Lord’s Prayer: Power, Now and Forever
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on April 1, 2012. Mark 15:33-41 Morning Prayer: O Loving God, you know both our deepest longings and what is best for us even when they are...
Riding Into the Eye of a Storm
A sermon delivered by Robert Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky., on April 1, 2012. Mark 11:1-11 Today we focus upon one of the most familiar scenes in the life of Christ, the entry of Jesus into...
Getting The Palm Sunday Power Point
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on April 1, 2012. Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 118:1 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! 118:2...
Into Jerusalem
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City Mo., on April 1, 2012. Palm Sunday Mark 11:1-11 Novelist Saul Bellow observed that “the essence of good writing is drama and the...
Too Many Christians Are Obsessed with Violence
The tragic case of Trayvon Martin has brought national attention and outrage to issues such as police corruption, racism and controversial gun laws. Non-Floridians may not realize that Trayvon's killer is not already...
Jesus’ Redemptive Work and Myanmar’s Faithful Buddhist
Palm/Passion Sunday 2012, interestingly, fell on the same day that Myanmar conducted democratic elections. Like the triumphant entrance of Jesus just prior to the celebration of Passover, the election to parliament of...
Martin Luther King’s Prophetic Words Still True
Each April 4, I remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., murdered on that date in 1968, 44 years ago in Memphis, Tenn., while supporting sanitation workers struggling to be paid decent wages and treated with dignity. On...