Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
U.S. Conservatives on the Defensive after Oslo Killings
(RNS) For years, many religious and political conservatives in the U.S. have sought to connect Islam to violence carried out by Muslims, and argued that Muslims often fail to denounce terrorism committed by Islamic...
Knowing the Right Time for Career or Ministry Change
Few of us have to seek change. Change generally happens whether we seek it or not, but how do you know when you need to be the initiator of change in your life? If you are attuned to your own emotions, you probably...
Michael Santos “ Rare Success in Prison Rehabilitation
A challenge for any society, especially one that seeks to be just and compassionate, is how to deal with those who have committed crimes or pose a threat to others. Punishment, confinement and efforts at rehabilitation...
Are SBC Leaders as Spineless as Land is Shameless?
Dear Southern Baptist Convention leaders, Please pardon my intrusion into your affairs, but I wonder if it might not be time for some adult supervision of your representative in Washington, D.C. When we last looked in...
Campbell provides oasis for worship leaders
There's nothing like finding an oasis in the middle of a long journey. For Old Testament travelers, an oasis was usually found at a spring or well in the midst of a desert land, places like Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea...
La. Monks Win Right to Build, Sell Caskets
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) A federal judge on Thursday (July 21) said a state law that limits the sale of caskets to licensed funeral directors and establishments is unconstitutional. The ruling came in a case brought by the...
Willow Creek Cuts Ties with Ex-gay Exodus International
(RNS) Willow Creek Community Church, a trend-setting megachurch in suburban Chicago, has quietly ended its partnership with Exodus International, an “ex-gay” organization. Willow Creek decided to sever ties with the...
Poll: Anti-Muslim Sentiment Grew after Bin Laden Death
(RNS) Many Muslim Americans had hoped that the death of Osama bin Laden would improve their image among other Americans, but according to a new survey, just the opposite has happened. Rather than being mollified,...
When God Expects Us to Answer Our Prayers
In response to a devastating heat wave in Oklahoma, Gov. Mary Fallin has asked citizens of the state to pray for rain. "I encourage Oklahomans of all faiths to join me this Sunday in offering prayer for rain,"...
How to Live the Real Political Message of Jesus
One of the sad facts about Christianity in the United States is that many Christians are ignorant of the political nature of Jesus' message. Preferring to see Jesus in only spiritual terms, and his message as only...
What’s Christians’ Role in U.K.’s Phone-Hacking Scandal?
Things are moving so fast in the world of News Corp. and the phone-hacking scandal in Great Britain that what we write today will be out of date tomorrow. But now Rebekah Brooks has been arrested, two senior Met...
Churches Press Obama to Protect Poor in Budget Talks
WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama agrees with religious officials’ concerns about protecting the poor as Washington debates the nation’s debt ceiling crisis, according to leaders who met with him this week. A delegation...
Blogosphere Abuzz over Murdoch as Bible Mogul
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) The scandal involving Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloid empire continues to widen, bringing scrutiny to, of all places, western Michigan and the Zondervan publishing company. Among the major...
Imams Trained to Adapt Islamic Finance to U.S. Economy
(RNS) Abdullah Nana, an imam at the Islamic Center of Mill Valley, Calif., just north of San Francisco, has a distinct advantage over many of his fellow imams in the United States. It’s not fluency in Arabic or...
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”
The ballet that is the Harry Potter franchise comes to its end with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" – one of the most satisfying codas in recent memory. This movie begins where Part 1 ended. Voldemort...
Southern Baptist Official Calls Obama “a Playboy”
The top Southern Baptist public policy official used debunked and exaggerated claims to criticize President Barack Obama for supposedly "living like a playboy." Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's...
What a Mustard Seed Teaches about Government’s Size
Those pushing for small government these days are doing a good job of keeping their utter joy under wraps. Most of the time, the rest of us see these folks lamenting the growth of government. They make pledges not to...
Tales of Three Temples (Part Three): Ta Prohm
Less than a mile from Angkor Thom lie the ruins of Ta Prohm, perhaps the most photogenic of all the temples near Siem Reap, in northern Cambodia. Like the Bayon temple at Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm was built by the iconic...
Who Knows You Better than Anyone Else?
A sermon delivered by Robert Browning, Pastor, Smoke Rise Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, Ga., on July 17, 2011. Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24 Who knows you better than anyone else? I asked that question one time in a Bible...
Growing Grace and Truth in Precarious People
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on July 17, 2011. Matthew 13:3-4 3And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he...
As Candidates Run for Office, Some Run from Their Church
(RNS) On a recent Sunday, Rep. Michele Bachmann gave a Pentecostal church in Iowa an intimate account of her pilgrimage from apathetic teenager to devout Christian whose faith has persevered through hardship, including...