Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Odd bedfellows
Politics is known for making odd bedfellows, and a current campaign offers a good illustration: the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) is encouraging support for new Environmental Protection Agency regulations...
Keeping faith as our culture changes
A Relgion News Service article about how some American Jews handle the Christmas season is interesting. The perspectives within that faith tradition vary from not observing what is considered a distinctively Christian...
Church Secretary Says Interracial Marriage Got Her Fired
FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) A white church secretary is suing her former employer, arguing that she was fired for marrying a black man. Debra Dodd, the former secretary at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in...
Clinton Hosts Summit on Religious Intolerance
WASHINGTON (RNS) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up a summit of international leaders this week to explore specific steps to combat intolerance, discrimination and violence on the basis of religion or...
New Reform Jewish Leader Promises Revitalization
WASHINGTON (RNS) Rabbi Richard Jacobs, who will soon head the congregational arm of the largest Jewish denomination in North America, understands why so many Jews avoid synagogues. His own experience growing up in a...
“The Descendants”
Somewhere along the way, adultery became acceptable. For a while almost every Democrat who ran for president seemed to be surrounded by the rumor of infidelity. Now, assuming Newt Gingrich gets the nomination for...
Where the War of Christmas is Really Lost
For several years I have fluctuated between annoyance and amusement over the so-called "battle for Christmas." To read the propaganda put out by certain faith ministries, you would think a full-scale war had been...
Christmas: From Political Narrative to Family Holiday
The birth of Jesus was a political event "through and through" – and our celebration of Christmas should be a time when we confront the systems and structures that keep people in poverty and oppression. Instead, the...
When God Came Down… Nots, Neithers, and Noes
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on December 11, 2011. Third Sunday in Advent Psalm 126:1-6; John 1:19-28 Suppose our church announced that we were going to...
Joyful Expectation
A sermon delivered by Michael Cheuk, Pastor, Farmville Baptist Church, Farmville, Va., on December 11, 2011 Third Sunday in Advent Isaiah 61:1-4; 8-11 Today is the third Sunday of Advent, a Sunday that is focused on...
Looking at Salvation with Advent In Mind
A sermon delivered byWendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on December 11, 2011. Isaiah 61:1-11 61The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me...
Waiting in Exile
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on December 4, 2011. Isaiah 40:1-11 40Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry...
The Journey to Bethlehem: Who’s Going With Us?
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on December 4, 2011. Luke 2:1-20 Morning Prayer: Our Father, we are convicted by the words of the prophet for we recognize that a deep...
Jefferson’s Bible Gets a second look
WASHINGTON (RNS) How would you feel about taking a razor blade to a Bible? Thomas Jefferson, apparently, didn’t have any qualms about it. In his retirement, the nation’s third president carried out a project he had...
Bin Laden’s Death Rated Top Religion News Story
(RNS) The death of Osama bin Laden and the reactions it produced among people of faith was rated the No. 1 religion news story of 2011 by the nation’s leading religion journalists. The Religion Newswriters Association...
Muslim Reality Show, Under Fire, Denies Charges of Extremism
(RNS) The cast and producers of “All-American Muslim,” a reality-TV show that has been a lightning rod for controversy, said Wednesday (Dec. 14) they are helping change negative perceptions of Muslims, and rejected...
Small Churches, Can You Sustain New Programs?
Small churches are concerned about a lot of things including growth, finances and ministry programs. But one issue seems to cut across all of these small church concerns – sustainability. Small churches often do not...
Bill of Rights: Protecting Minorities from Majority Abuse
Dec. 15, 1791, is an important date in the history of this country. The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution were officially added on that day, exactly 220 years ago. Collectively, those 10 amendments are known...
3 Temptations Faced by Christian Leaders
A friend recently shared with me a book written about 20 years ago by Henri Nouwen titled "In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership." Nouwen was one of the most prolific and popular spiritual writers...
Don’t call them seminaries
I had already heard a BBC report about how Pakistani police had busted a radically strict Islamic religious school in Karachi where students claimed they were chained and beaten, brainwashed, and pressured to join the...
Buying the Crystal Cathedral: Great Deal or Big Gamble?
(RNS) Even by the depressed metrics of Southern California’s real estate market, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange negotiated a pretty sweet deal when it purchased the iconic Crystal Cathedral, the longtime pulpit...