Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Orthodox Get Green Light to Rebuild at Ground Zero
(RNS) Ten years after tiny St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed by falling rubble from the World Trade Center towers, church leaders reached an agreement Friday (Oct. 14) to rebuild at Ground Zero. The...
Anti-Gay Post on Teacher’s Facebook Page Stirs Firestorm
UNION TOWNSHIP, N.J. (RNS) It began last week with a single online comment, one critical of a high school display marking Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender History Month. It soon ballooned into a harangue against...
Gallup Poll: 35 Percent Oppose Death Penalty
(RNS) More than one-third of Americans now oppose the death penalty—the highest level in nearly 40 years—according to a new Gallup Poll. Moreover, those who believe the death penalty is being applied fairly, and those...
Rainy alternatives – TravelBlog 7
What do you do when torrential rains wash out a planned day trip to the beach? First, you give thanks that the intermittent downpour hasn't washed out the hotel and the roads around it, then you make alternative plans....
Best. Governor. Ever. — TravelBlog 6
Thursday was a an 18-hour grind punctuated by multiple opportunities to taste the beauty of El Salvador, the very difficult times faced by its people, and the hopeful determination that endures. Along the way we met...
The B-I-B-L-E: Then and now
By John Pierce If you haven’t heard, liberalism always creeps. It crept into my otherwise staid Southern Baptist Church experience when someone showed up with a copy of Good News for Modern Man in the late...
Report Says Tithing, Church Spending Hit Record Low
(RNS) Tithing to mainline Protestant churches as a percentage of income is at its lowest level in at least 41 years, according to a new report, and churches are keeping a greater share of those donations for their own...
Under Pressure, D.C. Shelter Ends Church-service Requirement
WASHINGTON (RNS) Prompted by civil liberties groups, a taxpayer-supported homeless shelter in the nation’s capital will no longer require its clients to attend religious services. “We’re pleased that the D.C....
Law Would Allow Marriage to Catholics for U.K. Royals
(RNS) Future British kings and queens would be permitted to marry Catholics for the first time in more than three centuries under reforms proposed by British Prime Minister David Cameron. Writing to his fellow heads of...
“Real Steel”
Some movies are remakes; others are old ideas repackaged. What makes these films worth our dollars is not the genesis of the idea, but the execution and how they use the familiar to get us to join in and take the...
Bowing Down to the God of Economic Liberty
A friend reminded me awhile back that when the Pharisees were trying to trick Jesus in order to entrap him during that last week of his earthly life, he finessed their own entrapment. The question the Pharisees raised...
Immigration About Family Values, Civil Rights: Religious Leaders
Anti-immigration laws are harmful to families, said Luis Zarama, auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Atlanta, at a documentary screening of "Gospel Without Borders" at Smoke Rise Baptist Church in the...
Good Advice
A sermon delivered by Howard Batson, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Amarillo, Tx., on October 9, 2011. Hebrews 13:1-8 Sex, power, money, and suffering. Tomorrow’s newspaper will be full of these titillating topics. ...
Like A Child At Home
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on October 9, 2011. Psalm 23; Matthew 22:1-10-14 A number of you are aware that this has been an unusual and...
Becoming More Fruitful For God
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on October 2, 2011. John 15:1-17 15‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. 2He removes every branch in me that...
Getting Serious: Loving Goodness, Shocking News of Sin
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on September 11, 2011. 1 John 1:5-8 Meditation Text: If we are to study the nature of human evil, it is doubtful how clearly we...
Sold Out!
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen at Second Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark. on October 9, 2011. Acts 4:32-37 32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private...
Our God is a Jealous God
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo., on October 9, 2011 Exodus 32:1-14 A few years ago I went to hear Professor Glenn Hinson speak. In his lecture, he made an...
A Wedding Invitation
A sermon delivered by Larry Greenfield, Pastor, Morgan Park Baptist Church on October 9, 2011. Matthew 22: 1-14 Our nation lost a great treasure this past week. He was someone unusually gifted in intellect and...
Joy and Peace in the Present
A sermon delivered by Michael Cheuk, Pastor, Farmville Baptist Church, Farmville, Va., on October 9, 2011. Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost Philippians 4:1-9 There was a man who was born into a good religious...
Williams Confronts Mugabe with Dossier of Abuse
HARARE, Zimbabwe (RNS/ENInews) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has asked Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to intervene to stop attacks on Anglicans by allies of an excommunicated bishop who has seized church...