Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
The Gospel for our Dark Places
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on February 27, 2011. Isaiah 49:8-16 Zion’s Children to Be Brought Home 8 Thus says the Lord: In a time of favour I have answered...
Pope Says Jews not to Blame for Jesus’ Death
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Jewish people as a whole were not responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion, and their descendants have not inherited blame for his death, Pope Benedict XVI writes in a new book to be published on March...
After Phelps Wins, Uncertainty About What Lies Ahead
WASHINGTON (RNS) In an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday (March 2) that the “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” protesters from Westboro Baptist Church have First Amendment rights to protest military...
Man Who Says God Told Him to Kill Girlfriend Gets New Trial
(RNS) A New Jersey man who claimed God made him kill his pregnant girlfriend will get a new trial because jurors deciding his case should have been allowed to hear special instructions about an insanity defense, an...
Widow’s Mite Condemns Culture of Religious Greed
"Sitting opposite of the [Temple's] treasury, Jesus watched how the crowd cast copper coins into the treasury. Many rich people cast in much, but one poor widow came and cast two lepta, which is a quardrans. Having...
When Will America Truly Become “Land of the Free”?
It was Francis Scott Key, as most of you know, who penned the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner," our national anthem. What you may not know is that it was 80 years ago this week that Key's composition officially...
Making Sense of Unrest in Middle East, Libya
The extraordinary events of the last month have taken the most experienced Middle East watchers by surprise. The unthinkable is at least thinkable: the murderous regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya is tottering and...
Harvard Pastor, Theologian Peter Gomes Dies at 68
(RNS) The Rev. Peter Gomes, the longtime minister of Harvard University’s Memorial Church who was hailed as one of the nation’s top preachers, died Monday (Feb. 28) at age 68. Gomes died from complications of a stroke...
Israeli Ambassador Prompts Debate over Campus Free Speech
IRVINE, Calif. (RNS) “Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech!” And so began the protest of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s lecture at the University of California, Irvine in February...
Christians Banned from Foster Care over Gay Views
LONDON (RNS) Two senior judges have banned a Christian couple from any further foster care because they oppose homosexuality, a stance that the judges said has no place in the laws of a “largely secular” Britain. Owen...
Liberalism Fails to Recognize Problem of Sin
Editor's note: This is part two of a two-part series on conservatism and liberalism. Last year, I published "The Limits of Liberalism." While the book is primarily about theological liberalism rather than social or...
State Legislatures Consider Bills Banning Sharia Law
Anti-Islam bills have now been introduced in a dozen state legislatures from Alaska to South Carolina. Some bills refer specifically to Sharia or Islamic law. Others refer only to "foreign laws," a thinly veiled...
Why Funerals Matter in Youth-Obsessed Culture
Funerals may sound like a strange topic in our youth-obsessed, death-avoiding North American culture. Every day the barons of media and marketing seduce the American public out of millions of dollars by playing to the...
Devotionalize that!
I was explaining to my "Ministry of Writing" class that the best devotional thoughts and sermon illustrations come from our personal experience, and most often deal with common experiences with which everyone can...
Where Atlanta used to be
The former Three Dollar Cafe in BuckheadBy John Pierce While spending a couple of days running around Atlanta recently, I came to two conclusions. One, I’m grateful to know my way around so well. After living and...
Publisher Backs Off Warning Label for Evangelical Books
(RNS) Southern Baptist bookstores have quietly suspended a four-year-old program that warned customers to read with “discernment” books by several up-and-coming authors whose books “could be considered inconsistent...
Wisconsin Dispute Exposes Catholic Split on Unions
(RNS) The fierce budget battle in Wisconsin that’s pitting unions against Republican Gov. Scott Walker has also pitted the state’s top Roman Catholic bishops against each other in a series of public exchanges over the...
Court Rules for Jewish Man in Shavuot Dispute
(RNS) An Orthodox Jew has won a new trial after Maryland’s highest court ruled that a lower court erred when it denied his requests to suspend a trial so he could observe a religious holiday. Alexander Neustadter had...
How Do You Define Right-Wing Conservatives?
Editor's note: This is part one of a two-part series on conservatism and liberalism. I received an e-mail from a woman asking me to explain "what the qualifications are that label a person a 'right-wing conservative.'"...
Cuban Pastor Resigns Under Government Pressure
A respected Baptist pastor in Cuba has published an open letter highlighting the government persecution that has forced him to retire. Pastor Homero Carbonell, long-time leader of La Trinidad First Baptist Church in...
World’s Poor Lose Evangelical Help on Two Fronts
Two articles in recent weeks make one wonder if American evangelicals really care about the world beyond their fortified national borders. One article highlights a poll showing evangelicals want to cut U.S. foreign...