Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
State Dept. Chides Eight Countries on Religious Freedom
WASHINGTON (RNS) The State Department on Tuesday (Sept. 13) designated eight nations as the most serious violators of religious freedom, naming the same countries as the Bush administration. The list of “Countries of...
Why Post-9/11 Americans Aren’t as Smart as Cretans
We Americans are not as smart as the ancient Cretans, at least in one very important respect. There were good reasons to ponder their example this weekend during the solemn observances of 9/11 after 10 years....
How Does Someone Become a Leader?
When I was in seminary, we were asked in one class to introduce ourselves and share our vocational goals. I remember one student's response: "Well, I guess I want to be a denominational leader." His statement has...
What Will You Do for Your Immigrant Neighbor?
Friday, Sept. 2, 2011, was more than a year in the making for HectorVillanueva. Villanueva is a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina (CBFNC) pastor and legal resident who faced deportation after applying...
Episcopal Bishop Who Won Heresy Trial Dies at 87
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Rt. Rev. Walter C. Righter, an Episcopal bishop whose victory at a 1996 heresy trial played a key role in the push for gay rights in the church, died on Sunday (Sept. 11) at the age of 87. “I look...
Muslim Groups File Petition Against Islamic law
(RNS) As a federal appeals court in Denver considers whether Oklahoma voters had the right to ban Islamic law in state courts, a coalition of Muslim groups say they don’t want to live under Shariah law in Michigan or...
Fourth Faith-healing Trial in Two Years Starts This Week
OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) When the trial of Dale and Shannon Hickman begins this week, the curtain again rises on a familiar tragedy: the death of a child and the parents whose unwavering faith in divine healing may lead...
Central Seminary Hosts Noted Theologian Miroslav Volf
Author and theologian Miroslav Volf spoke about the U.S. response to 9/11 to a capacity crowd Sept. 10 at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. His topic: "Ten Years Later – What Should Our Conversation Be?" "What has...
The Vulnerable Know How to Respond to Terrorism
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were personally devastating to thousands of people. Nearly 3,000 victims died. The families and friends who lost loved ones so unexpectedly and violently not only had to suffer...
U.S. Evangelical Zionists Misuse Bible, Harm Palestinian Christians
Izdat Said Qadoos, a poor Palestinian villager, probably said it well: "[Born-again Christian evangelicals] are filled with ideas that this is the Promised Land and their duty is to help the Jews. It is not the...
Megachurch Seeks to Reassure New Portland Neighbors
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) The pastor of a conservative Christian church that recently moved into the heart of liberal southeast Portland sought to reassure his new neighbors Thursday (Sept. 8) about the church’s philosophy....
After 9/11, Some Run Toward Faith, Some Run the Other Way
(RNS) Sean Tallon was nearing the end of his probationary training as a New York City firefighter when the two hijacked planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11. Tallon, 26, ran up the North Tower...
Pope Links British Riots to Moral Relativism
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI linked last month’s riots in England to the corrosive effects of “moral relativism,” and warned that preserving social order requires government policies based on “enduring values.”...
Christian Women Take on Leadership in Arab World
Salwa Haddad is one member of a gradually increasing group of people who do not get talked about at great length. Smyrna Khalaf Moughabghab is another. This group consists of people who are at the unique intersection...
The Path to True Victory as We Remember 9/11
Editor's note: The remarks below were given by Rabbi Fred Guttman on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011, at Temple Emanuel in Greensboro, N.C. The Baal Shem Tov once taught: "Forgetfulness leads to Exile. Remembrance is the secret...
Is a New War Against Public Education Being Launched?
We are entering a new war against public education, according to an article posted Aug. 17 in Slate, a daily web magazine. The headline read, "The GOP's New War on Schools." As if on cue, Texas Republican Gov. Rick...
Getting Serious: Loving Goodness, Fate of Emptiness
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on September 4, 2011. Luke 11:24-26 Morning Prayer: Our Father on this Sunday of this holiday weekend, we pause to thank you for jobs that...
Acceptable Debt
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on September 4, 2011. Romans 13:8-14 Recently I came across a posting on a website written by a Methodist pastor in upstate New...
The Call
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on August 28, 2011. Exodus 3: 1-15 In his book, Callings, Greg Levoy writes, “Calls (from God) are essentially questions. They...
Gospel for “The Help”
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on September 4, 2011. Leviticus 19:9-16 9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your...
Getting Serious: Loving God, Late Have I Loved Thee
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on August 28, 2011. Psalm 42 Morning Prayer: We thank you today, O God, for not leaving us to ourselves. We confess that we have tried to...