Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Why Should Anyone Work for the Common Good?
Our world has many private and public interests. I should be able to go to the library and read any book I find there or own any book I buy at a bookstore. Those are private interests that no government or other entity...
The Rough Realities of New Faith
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on July 24, 2011. Matthew 13:3-5 3And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he...
Water Cooler Romances
A sermon delivered by Robert Browning, Pastor, Smoke Rise Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, Ga., on July 24, 2011. Genesis 29:15-28 They met at a well and it was love at first sight. This was where many romances began in...
Straightening Out a Crooked Life
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo., on July 24, 2011. Genesis 29:15-28 History may give credit to P.T. Barnum for saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” but...
Inseparable Love
A sermon delivered by Michael Cheuk, Pastor, Farmville Baptist Church, Farmville, Va., on July 24, 2011. Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Romans 8:26-39 As a young child, one of my greatest fears was being separated from...
Catholic Bishops Urge House Against Steep Budget Cuts
(RNS) The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops are urging the GOP-led House to reject a cuts-only approach to the budget as Washington tries to avert an unprecedented government default on its multi-trillion-dollar debts....
Christians Divided on Belgium’s Burqa Ban
(RNS/ENInews) Belgian Christians expressed mixed reactions to the country’s new “burqa ban,” as Belgium joined France in criminalizing the Islamic veil. “We’re against this ruling, since it violates basic human...
HBO Film Follows Muslim Children Competing to Memorize the Quran
(RNS) A new documentary follows three Muslim children as they travel to Egypt to compete in a tournament that requires young contestants to recite whole passages of the Quran, Islam’s 600-page holy book, from memory....
Will We Respond to Fear or Our Better Selves?
It seems like it has been a long journey from Jim Crow to the Party of No, but one wonders if it has really been very far. There was a time when a good Baptist deacon would teach Sunday school the morning after wearing...
Why Some Churches Fear Pushing Their Boundaries
The image of the frontier has always appealed to Americans. In part this is due to the sense of manifest destiny, the belief that America was the great vanguard of democracy and civilization. It was linked to the...
British Churches Balk at Proposed Sunday Parking Fees
Churches from central London have warned a cash-strapped council that its community risks losing valuable volunteer-led social services if the council introduces Sunday parking charges. Church attendances could be...
Deader than dead
How can something already dead be dying? Easily enough, if you're the Dead Sea. The plight of the Dead Sea has been known for years, but was recently highlghted by an article in Time Magazine. The Bible speaks of what...
Church-state Groups Slam Obama on Hiring Issue
WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama’s status-quo stance on the controversial issue of faith-based hiring has drawn criticism from atheists and church-state watchdogs. Responding to an atheist at a town hall last week at...
Episcopalians Turn to Social Media for Growth
(RNS) The Episcopal Church is urging congregations to embrace social media websites like Facebook and Twitter in a push to highlight the Internet as a tool for church growth. The church released a 12-page white paper,...
Faith-healing Parents Lose Custody of Daughter
OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) State officials will retain legal custody of a 19-month-old girl whose devoutly religious parents treated the girl’s vision-threatening medical condition with prayer instead of taking her to a...
How Will We Respond to Africa’s Starving Families?
I'm still a sucker for scenes from Africa amid a drought and famine. It's what hooked me 35 years ago when a student in a required sociology class presented a report on world hunger. She was merely going through the...
Maybe “The Least of These” Need a Good Lobbyist
We have listened to voices claim what must occur to create a better future for our nation. The business sector has clamored for the protection of the wealthiest Americans from taxation because they are the job...
Christian Identity of Norwegian Terrorist Sharpens Debate About Christianity
No sooner had the media identified the Norwegian terrorist as "a right-wing fundamentalist Christian" than Christian fundamentalists began denying he was a real Christian. The New York Times quoted a Norwegian police...
Wanting what we have
By John Pierce One of my favorite newspaper columns by the late Lewis Grizzard argued somewhat humorously that in adulthood we seek those things that were forbidden by our parents. He used his own experience with...
Vatican Recalls Irish Ambassador over Abuse Report
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has recalled its ambassador to Ireland for “consultations” on the official church response to a government report that tallied how abuse cases were mishandled as recently as two years...
Poll: God Has Better Approval Ratings than Congress
WASHINGTON (RNS) More than half of U.S. voters approve of God’s job performance, according to a new poll, making God more popular than all members of Congress. The poll—which was conducted by the Democratic research...