Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Tubman’s Story Still a Reality for Today’s Immigrants
We made a circle for our guided reading time. I sat down in my trusty old Hinkle rocking chair. My students sat down crisscross applesauce on their red carpet squares. My second-graders' stomachs were full and their...
Former Drug Dealer Begins Service as British Pastor
A former drug dealer once jailed for cocaine smuggling will begin a full-time ministerial post at a Baptist church in Wales today. Pastor Brian Morris was jailed for 12 years back in 1995, but he gave his life to Jesus...
Church Signs
A sermon delivered by Michael Cheuk, Pastor, Farmville Baptist Church, Farmville, Va., on August 28, 2011. Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost Romans 12:9-21; Deuteronomy 6:1-9 A lot of churches have signs that they put...
Be Transformed
A sermon delivered by Michael Cheuk, Pastor, Farmville Baptist Church, Farmville, Va., on August 21, 2011. Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Romans 12:1-8 I have a question for you this morning, and I want to give you an...
The Way of Love
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City Mo., on August 28, 2011. Romans 12:9-21 There’s nothing more irksome than someone who should be a person of integrity, a person we...
That’s just mean
A couple of weeks ago I commented on how crazy some people get over saving money with coupons. I noted that the coupons I get are rarely for things that I buy, at least very often. But, I still look through them. This...
At 39, Gordon President Leads Evangelical Up-and-comers
WENHAM, Mass. (RNS) For the past decade, sociologist D. Michael Lindsay has been living the very phenomenon he’s studied in depth: evangelicals climbing the ranks of secular institutions and becoming American elites....
Americans Flunk Question on Captain America vs. Bible
(RNS) Pop quiz: Who said “We often suffer, but we are never crushed. Even when we don’t know what to do, we never give up”? According to a recent poll, more Americans attributed the passage to comic book hero Captain...
Survey: Muslim Americans Have Moderate Views
(RNS) Almost half the nation’s estimated 2.8 million Muslims fault their leaders for not speaking out against Islamic extremists, but a vast majority are far more satisfied than Americans overall with the way things...
Why Can’t the Church Reach Teens Like MTV?
We got cable in my house when I was in high school, and I was perhaps most excited to have MTV. Granted, this was the '90s – when bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam were captivating and expressing the angst and fury of a...
Four Political Litmus Tests for the Common Good
Now that our governing system has evolved into a constant election cycle, where the thinking of our collective leadership has moved from the good of the commonwealth to how best to get elected, we have become a...
Lebanese Baptists Aid Syrian Refugees
Baptists in Lebanon have been reaching out to Syrian refugees streaming into their country. Members of the Baptist church in the northern Lebanon community of Rahbeh have been supporting 300 families in 15 villages in...
Humble beginnings
By John Pierce Passing through Trinity, N.C., last week, I barely noticed the sign claiming the small town as the birthplace of Duke University. Then I remembered that the prestigious university was once known as...
Pastor Probes `Where Was God?’ in Katrina
(RNS) When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore six years ago, it brought in its wake untold property damage and emotional distress to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, but also something deeper. “Where,” countless people...
Poll: N.Y. May Be More Spiritual, but Not Because of 9/11
(RNS) New York-area residents are more spiritually active since 9/11, a new survey shows, but the uptick in faith may be a matter of coincidence rather than a religious response to the terrorist attacks. The Barna...
Bachmann’s Prophecy, Joke or Not, Has Lots of Company
(RNS) Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is facing a flood of criticism for suggesting, perhaps in jest, that God sent Hurricane Irene and the East Coast earthquake to jolt Washington into changing its spendthrift...
When Disaster Looms, We Recall What Matters Most
Since my last column, I have survived a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that was felt as far north as Boston and the gusting fury of Hurricane Irene, which ripped up a half dozen ancient oaks on my street and left most of the...
When the Swamp’s on Fire: Navigating a Church Crisis
What do you do when the swamp is on fire? The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in the southeasternmost part of Virginia is on fire. For many of us this probably sounds counterintuitive. When water levels...
Africa’s Hunger Crisis Reveals U.S. Leadership Crisis
Dying children in the Horn of Africa – Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti – have had to compete with a lot in America. The death toll for Somali children under age 5 exceeds 29,000 – over the last three...
Taking Up for the Underdog
A sermon delivered by Robert Browning, pastor, Smoke Rise Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, Ga., on August 28, 2011. Exodus 3:1-15 Shepherds were not accustomed to hearing voices or seeing spectacular sights, except for...
Bad news for Baptist brains?
Raleigh's News & Observer reported recently on the strange results of a project conducted by scientists at Duke University. Three researchers at a social event began to wonder if they could determine how religion...