Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Clinton Defends Religious Freedom Envoy
WASHINGTON (RNS) Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended her new ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom on Thursday (June 2), calling the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook a bridge-builder who is...
Archbishop Says He Has Proof of Paddling’s Pain
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Archbishop Gregory Aymond says he has firsthand accounts from students who said they were injured by paddling at a Catholic high school, challenging school supporters who have filed suit over the...
Monks’ Suit Over Caskets Heads to Trial
COVINGTON, La. (RNS) A federal lawsuit brought by a group of monks fighting for the right to sell handcrafted caskets without a state license is set to go to trial Monday (June 6) in New Orleans. U.S. District Judge...
Religious Conservatives Cheer Trump at Conference
As speakers blared the O'Jays song "For the Love of Money," a triumphant Donald Trump waltzed up the stairs and waved to the cheering crowd. "Money, money, money, money, money," declares the song, which is the theme...
Why You Need to be Out of Step for God’s Kingdom
Some years ago, I found a great birthday card for a friend who, as we sometimes say, marched to a different drummer. The card depicted a marching band with one person appearing to be out of step with the others. The...
Married Couples No Longer a Majority in U.S.
Married couples no longer are the majority of U.S. households, according to the 2010 U.S. census, the New York Times reports. For the first time ever, families without a traditional husband and wife now comprise 52...
What to do with celebrity?
Interesting notes from recent news: A Japanese newspaper is garnering praise for pushing on despite losing its computers and printing presses to the country's recent earthquake and tsunami. In the city of Ishinomaki in...
Religious Leaders Call a Strike on Tobacco
(RNS) Religious leaders are hoping to hit a home run in a campaign to get Major League Baseball players to ban tobacco use on fields and dugouts of the national pastime. More than two dozen members of the coalition...
Canadian Parents Sue over Religion in Daycare Centers
TORONTO (RNS) A group of Catholic and Jewish parents is taking the province of Quebec to court to challenge a government ban on religious teachings at subsidized daycare centers. The parents say a Quebec policy that...
Budget Battle Pits Atheist Ayn Rand vs. Bible
WASHINGTON (RNS) The atheist philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand published more than a dozen books before she died in 1982. Now, liberal Christians say another work belongs in Rand’s controversial canon: the 2012...
The Greatest Lesson I Learned From My Dad
After 34 years as a parent, you would think I would have some sense of competence about the task. Well, I don't. If anything, as time goes along, I feel more perplexed than ever. Not that I am totally in the dark....
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
Summer means movie sequels, and for those of you who are counting, there are 27 sequels coming out this year. That's a record. Stories in sequels are usually watered-down versions of the original; the desire to...
Why U.S. Workers Don’t Use All Their Vacation Days
Good board members can be an irritation. "When was the last time you took a week of vacation?" asked Joe Phelps, pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., at the May board meeting of the Baptist Center...
Meditations for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on May 22, 2011. First Meditation Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:1-10 Recently I heard a retreat speaker named Robert Mulholland say...
Making Christ Known
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on May 29, 2011. John 14:15-21; Acts 17:22-31; 1 Peter 3:13-22 I can still remember the moment a group of us settled on a mission...
What I Learned From Cancer
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., May 22, 2011. Romans 8:28 Morning Prayer: O, Lord, we confess that we live in a world where your goodness and presence is easily hidden. Like...
May 21, 2011, And Why It Didn’t Happen
A sermon delivered by Howard Batson, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Amarillo, Tx., on May 29, 2011. Matthew 24:42-46 Perhaps you first became aware of the apocalyptic prediction when you saw a billboard – here in...
The Balance
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on May 29, 2011. Psalm 66:8-20; Acts 17:22-31 It didn’t take long for the early church to start establishing itself as an...
Troubled Hearts
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on May 22, 2011. Psalm 31:1-5; John 14:1-14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Do not let your...
In the Meantime
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo., on May 29, 2011. The Sixth Sunday of Easter John 14:15-21 If you read John’s gospel from beginning to end, somewhere around 14th...
King’s Daughter Leaves Ga. Church After Scandal
(RNS) The Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., announced Tuesday (May 31) that she is leaving an Atlanta-area megachurch whose leader has been embroiled in scandal. "When I came to New...