Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
What’s The Best Way for Pastors to Use Their Time?
I'm sitting in a motel room in Decatur, Ga., some 180 miles from my home in Fitzgerald, Ga., as I write this. I'm here because yesterday morning someone in our church family had surgery in Macon (more or less halfway...
Let them be girls, and be proud
I readily admit that I'm a product of the West, and South Asian Islamic culture is largely alien to me. Even so, it's hard for me to imagine how any culture could be as cruel to women and girls as the one portrayed in...
Priests tire of all-about-me weddings
Giles Fraser, a priest at St. Paul's Cathedral in London told a BBC radio audience recently, according to Religion News Service, that some weddings can feel like "an overblown vanity project." Many clergy, he said,...
Indiana Rep. Mike Pence Wins Values Voter Straw Poll
WASHINGTON (RNS) Rep. Mike Pence, a fast-rising conservative firebrand from Indiana, was the surprise winner of a straw poll on Saturday (Sept. 18) among 17 possible Republican presidential candidates at the 2010...
Poll: Most Americans OK Student Religious Speech
(RNS) A majority of Americans—including those who do not practice a particular faith—think students should be able to express their religion in public schools, according to a new poll by the First Amendment Center....
Russia’s Prisons Look to Faiths to Bring Moral Guidance
MOSCOW (RNS/ENInews) Russian prisons, struggling with a growing crime rate, overcrowding and shortfalls in funding, are turning to religion to bring moral guidance to inmates. The move marks a dramatic change from the...
Keeping Possessions from Possessing Us
Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel with the Beatitudes. (The teachings in Matthew 5-7 were no doubt given by Jesus in many different contexts, and the biblical writer gathered them into this...
Examining Infant Baptism from Another Perspective
"I just can't accept infant baptism." That's what people often tell me after they've heard all my arguments for welcoming Christians from other denominations into our membership without rebaptizing them. To them,...
Ruth’s Story Reflects Today’s Immigration Woes
People do not move because they want to. There is always a reason to make the difficult decision to migrate. The Oxford American Dictionary defines a migrant as a person who moves from one area or country to another,...
Crying at weddings
I had the honor, this past Saturday, of officiating at the wedding of my oldest son, who's nearly 34, and just now tying the knot. It was a charming, if steamy, outdoor occasion, held at an inn in Greensboro, Ga. where...
Lessons From Heartsick Faith
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on September 19, 2010. Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 Some may question or even object to a sermon about heartsick faith. We prefer upbeat...
God Bless Our Leaders, Even the Ones I Don’t Like
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo., on September 19, 2010 I Timothy 2:1-7 Almost every day I’m flabbergasted by the increasingly rough and tumble world of American...
Now That I Believe: The Lord Requires Me To . . .
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on September 12, 2010. Micah 6:1-8 Morning Prayer: O God and Father of us all, make quiet our fretful minds today. Help us not to focus on...
Kenyan Faith Leaders Seek Ban on Toxic Brews
NAIROBI (RNS/ENInews) Faith leaders in Kenya hope to collect 1 million signatures to petition President Mwai Kibaki to rescind a new law legalizing traditional brews that have left hundreds dead. Christian, Hindu and...
Skateboarder an Overnight Sensation After Rescuing Quran
(RNS) At the end of a summer characterized by unprecedented levels of Islamophobia, Muslim Americans and their allies have found an expected reason to smile: Jake Isom, a skateboarder with a rat-tail from Amarillo,...
Romania Church Leaders Condemn Roma Deportations
WARSAW (RNS/ENInews) A Catholic bishop in Romania has deplored the mass expulsion of Roma from France, and he urged European governments to do more to integrate the continent’s Gypsy minorities. “There are substantial...
Honoring Others’ Sacred Texts: Denying or Defending Christ?
Questions and concerns surround the recent "Honoring All Sacred Texts" gathering at Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., that included Jews, Muslims, Hindu, Buddhists, Sikhs and Baha'i. How does a Christian...
Why Baptists Need Modern-Day Prophets in Their Midst
Some supporters of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina want to revise the organization's "foundational statements" to delete traditional references to liberty of conscience and "soul competency." They...
Five Ministry Lessons After a Table-Saw Accident
The table saw and I had a disagreement. I lost! I was working on this great furniture project in my garage and was not being as careful as I should have been. I now have three healing fingers, but thanks be to God, I...
Al’s embarrassment — and mine
According to a recent ABP article, Southern Baptist Seminary president Al Mohler told students during a Sept. 14 chapel service that he is embarrassed by a belief he held about a quarter-century ago: that women could...
Of pickleness and fickleness
With America's economy still struggling to recover from deep problems that the current administration inherited and has not been able to fix with a quick "Presto! Chang-o!", the populace has turned pickle-faced. A...