Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Mountaintop Experience
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., March 6, 2011. Exodus 24:12-18; Matthew 17:1-9 I’m guessing most of us have had at least one episode in our lives we’d call a...
Christians Question Conventional Wisdom on Divorce Stats
(RNS) It’s been proclaimed from pulpits and blogs for years—Christians divorce as much as everyone else in America. But some scholars and family activists are questioning the oft-cited statistics, saying Christians who...
Churches in Japan Devastated by Earthquake
TOKYO (RNS/ENInews) Christians in Japan are looking for survivors and assessing damage to church buildings after Friday’s (March 11) devastating earthquake and tsunami. The National Police Agency announced that as of...
Religious Groups Mobilize to Aid Japan
(RNS) As the extent of the death and destruction from the massive disaster in Japan comes into focus, religious relief organizations are sending and supporting teams to assess the damage. Groups such World Vision and...
Do Your Prayers Need More Laughter, Less Work?
As I was pondering this column and also reflecting on a quick Skype conversation I had with my daughter, Philip Yancey's book, "Finding God in Unexpected Places," found me. Chapter 38's title, "Don't Forget to Laugh,"...
Almost 25 Percent of U.S. Children in Poverty
The number of U.S. children living in poverty increased by 2 million over the past two years. Before the recession, 14 million children were in poverty, compared to 16 million today. "That is the fastest fall for the...
British Baptist Team Helped Feed Libyan Refugees
The rebellion in Libya has developed into a huge refugee crisis on its borders – and members of Gold Hill Baptist Church in Buckinghamshire, England, are among many who have flown in to do what they can. Joined by a...
Fed Up with Hollywood, Churches Make Their Own Films
YORBA LINDA, Calif. (RNS) This year’s Oscars may have been passed out, but for some churches across the country the major motion picture season is just getting started. Frustrated with the movies Hollywood has been...
Westboro Church Plans Protest of Funeral for Pa. Children
HARRISBURG, Pa. (RNS) Westboro Baptist Church, the controversial group that just won a free speech Supreme Court case, said it plans to protest at a funeral for seven Pennsylvania children who died in a fire Tuesday...
Former Head of Pentecostal Denomination Dies
(RNS) Bishop Chandler David Owens, a former presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ known as an orator and international leader, died Sunday (March 6) at the age of 79. Owens served as leader of the nation’s...
Gingrich Polls Higher than Obama among Evangelicals
A Christian polling firm found that evangelicals favor five possible Republican presidential candidates more than President Barack Obama. Even the twice-divorced, thrice-married Newt Gingrich received a higher...
The Biblical Ethic That Fred Phelps Can’t Grasp
The Supreme Court recently upheld, on First Amendment grounds, a federal appeals court's decision to overturn a verdict awarding millions to the father of the late Matthew Snyder. The decision represents an interesting...
After Egypt’s Revolution, Prayer Needed for Aftermath
The Coptic Church in the village of Atfih, a Cairo neighborhood, was recently burned down. Many Christian homes and small shops were also set ablaze by Muslims in that village. The Atfih city council succeeded in...
Baptists Respond to Japanese Disaster, Met Needs after Four Other Quakes
American Baptist Churches-USA responded to the crushing tsunami trigged by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake with a $20,000 grant to the Japanese Baptist Union (JBU) while Baptist World Aid Rescue 24 sent a team to the...
Springing into Lent
The Lenten season always feels like a paradox to me. It is traditionally a time of reflection, of penitence, of mourning for the brokeness of self and the brokenness of the world. Lent happens, however, at a...
Random acts of …?
So, having decided Ash Wednesday morning that I would intentionally look for opportunities to be kind or helpful through the Lenten season, I found various ways to do so, in small ways, through the day. Toward evening,...
Minister Seeks Models of Manhood on the Big Screen
CALEDONIA, Mich. (RNS) The aroma of freshly popped popcorn and the crack of soda cans opening while the “Gladiator” soundtrack blares through the speakers are a signal that it’s guys night out at Cornerstone Church....
Churches Press Obama to Reengage on Middle East
(RNS/ENInews) Nearly two dozen Christian leaders are calling on the Obama administration to renew diplomatic efforts to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “With rapid change underway in the Arab world we believe...
Pope Links Violence in God’s Name to Antichrist
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Violence committed in the name of God or religion is a “favorite instrument of the Antichrist,” Pope Benedict XVI writes in a new book on the life and teachings of Jesus. “Violence does not build up...
Exposing Cultural Flaws That Aid Few, Afflict Many
Have you ever read or heard about something from the past and thought, "Hey, wait a minute. That's what's going on now!"? Sitting in recently on a seminar that has been studying the American South during the 1950s and...
Three Reasons Why One Pastor Advocates for Poor
I have been an advocate for the poor, both the relatively poor of our nation and the desperately poor in the rest of the world, for my entire ministry. There are several reasons why this is so. First of all, I grew up...