Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Advent’s opposite
The Advent season comes cloaked in beauty, striding into the long, dark days of December wearing shimmering garments of hope, peace, love, and joy -- and God knows, we need all of those things. We need to be reminded...
Oklahoma’s Top Lawyer at Center of Fight over Shariah
(RNS) Backers of a referendum that would bar Oklahoma courts from considering Islamic law admit they suffered a setback when a federal judge issued a temporary injunction against the measure last month. But they are...
Oregon Releases Policy for Religious Clothing at Schools
(RNS) Oregon state officials released a policy on Wednesday (Dec. 8)intended to give school districts guidance in applying Oregon’s new law on religious clothing. A statewide ban on teacher religious dress was...
Study: Religious People Happier When Share Pews with Friends
(RNS) Close friendships among congregants, rather than theology seem to be the key to happiness among religious people, according to a new study. One-third of Americans who attend religious services weekly and have...
HISNets Gives Its 100,000th Mosquito Net to Muslim Mother in Tanzania
Editor's note: This is the second of several dispatches on the Muslim-Baptist mission trip to Tanzania. Read the first here. A mosquito-repellent net now protects a Tanzanian family in which the father bears the...
“Dawn Treader” Echoes Narnia Books’ Moral Clarity
In a paper I delivered at Belmont's Past Watchful Dragons conference in 2005, I offered the following conclusion: The astonishing success of the "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" film franchises has demonstrated...
When Joy is Hard to Find During Christmas
Each year at Christmas, everyone in my family gets a new ornament for our Christmas tree. We seek out ornaments that reflect what's going on in our life at the time. Once we find the ornament we want, we write our name...
Now That I Believe: I Wage Peace
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on December 5, 2010. Isaiah 2:1-4 Morning Prayer: We pray, our Father, that as we celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, all of our actions and...
Homeland Insecurity
A sermon delivered by Robert Browning, Pastor, Smoke Rise Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, Ga., on December 5, 2010. Isaiah 2:1-5 Soon after the Attack on America on September 11, 2001, the Department of Homeland...
Shoot
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on December 5, 2010 Second Sunday in Advent Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-13 Evidently, it...
Let There Be Peace
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on December 5, 2010. Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12 Isaiah's prophecy speaks of an idyllic...
The Dream of Peace
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City Mo., on December 5, 2010. The Second Sunday of Advent Isaiah 11:1-10 At 44, Mildred Lisette Norman adopted the name of “Peace Pilgrim”...
Ground Zero Church Starts Legal Action in Bid to Rebuild
(RNS) Nearly two years after negotiations abruptly ended over where a Greek Orthodox church destroyed on 9/11 may rebuild, legal action has begun against several agencies and officials involved in the Ground Zero land...
Catholics Fight Bid to Lift Statute of Limitations on Abuse
TRENTON, N.J. (RNS) New Jersey lawmakers on Thursday (Dec. 9) will consider a bill that would eliminate any statute of limitations on when sex abuse victims can sue—and allow them to take action against clergy,...
Report: Fewer `Middle Americans’ Married, Attending Worship
(RNS) Marriage among Americans who have graduated high school but not college is on the decline, and their religious attendance has dropped at the same time, a new report shows. “Middle Americans” ages 25 to 60 who...
Politicians Pander to Rich, Ignore the Poor
President Obama and Republicans in Congress appear willing to continue the national pastime of pandering to the wealthy at the expense of the needy. According to news reports, Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate are...
The Greatest Gift to Give When Grief Strikes
"Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect...
Remembering Victims of Violence during Advent
It is a gift to be reminded that our routine and faithful actions can be a source of God's healing love breaking forth. After 14 Advents, Sunday's placing of crosses on our lawn in memory of this year's violence...
A 30-year-old vivid memory
By John Pierce
Thirty years ago, a group of Berry College students and I spent a week in Harlem working with children and assisting in a ministry center down on the Lower East Side. Each night, after our various adventures in NYC, we would gather at the corner of West 72nd Street and Central Park to return to the Harlem brownstone together.
There was a Bagel Nosh — where we could get coffee — across the street from The Dakota. The apartment building’s eerie exterior had been featured in the movie, Rosemary’s Baby, I had recalled (even though I don’t like scary movies).
Dogs
On a frigidly cold morning, after a brisk walk that was not of my own choosing, I ask: why do we keep dogs? Any number of people could give many answers, especially those who consider themselves "dog people." I am not...
Bishop Makes Few friends and Many Enemies in Diocesan Down-sizing
CLEVELAND (RNS) Even before he was officially installed as the Roman Catholic bishop of Cleveland in 2006, Richard G. Lennon was already talking about the need to close churches. “As painful as a funeral is, it’s there...