Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
The first part of the week
Sunday: A good day of worship and time with family and friends Monday: A peaceful Labor Day morning along the Chattanooga Riverfront (photo) before heading home Tuesday: A rush to get everything done in a shortened...
Recession Prompts Plans to Lower High Costs of High Holidays
(RNS) Within a short drive from her suburban New York home, Lisa Sharp has her pick of synagogues. But she is not interested in spending thousands of dollars to join a congregation, and in recent years, she has opted...
As Ramadan Ends, Muslims Seek School Holiday
NEW YORK (RNS) For Nikhat Choudhury, the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha mean picking out new clothes, getting together with her cousins and feasting on homemade samosas and other traditional South Asian...
Three Years On, Creation Museum Is Evolving
PETERSBURG, Ky. (RNS) Ken Ham, the Australian-born creator of the Creation Museum, looks around the throng of about a thousand guests on a hot, August morning and notes that “for a Tuesday, this is not a bad crowd.” In...
Anti-immigration Politicians Spread Scare Stories About “Terror Babies”
Missing from mid-August news stories about Texas politicians who allege an international conspiracy of "terror babies" is their faith affiliation. Yep. You guessed it. They are Southern Baptists. These Southern...
Please, Pastor Jones: Don’t Burn the Quran on Sept. 11
Terry Jones, senior pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., plans to burn the Quran on Sept. 11 in an attempt to urge Americans to "stand up" against the threat of Islam. He wants his church to...
When Church Conflict Goes From Healthy to Ugly
One of the saddest truths I have come to understand about conflict in congregations is how destructive it can be. Years of progress and effective ministry can be negated by unhealthy conflict. Careers can be ruined....
Can we labor for understanding?
Islamophobia appears to be on the upswing among some American Christians, and that's a poor commentary on the state of the faith in those quarters.In New York City, a televangelist named Bill Keller has opened a "9/11...
Anglican Head Rebuts Famous Scientist on God’s Role in Big Bang
LONDON (RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has flatly dismissed famed scientist Stephen Hawking’s claim that gravity, not God, was responsible for creating the universe. Hawking, a retired professor at...
Catholic School Official Says She Was Ousted Over Lesbian Marriage
SPRINGFIELD (RNS) A Catholic high school official in Massachusetts says she was pressured to leave her job after marrying her female partner in August. Christine M. Judd, who served as athletic director and dean of...
Court: University Should Have Funded Student Group’s Worship
(RNS) The University of Wisconsin should not have prohibited the use of student funds for the worship-related activities of a Catholic campus group, a federal appeals court has ruled. The University of Wisconsin at...
Stewardship, Hospitality Inform Tourism’s Ethics
Tourism is a form of travel for pleasure involving transactions between vendors and clients for goods and services. While there was an inn at Bethlehem, and probably also at Sodom, tourism as we know it is a modern...
Ways That You Can Recognize True Leadership
Leaders lead by example. They · don't ask others to do what they are not already doing; · set the pace of expectation and performance; and · set the standard by which the group's success is achieved. Leaders lead by...
Sometimes a miss is a hit — or 2,490 of them
The lowly Atlanta Braves had the first overall pick in the 1990 Major League Baseball amateur draft. Then-general manager Bobby Cox had his eye on "can't-miss" pitcher Todd Van Poppel who had scouts drooling over his...
The gift of brokenness
When asked to promote an upcoming "Bible Lands Study Tour" and follow with a brief sermon during chapel services at Campbell University Divinity School this past Tuesday, I noted that the history of the Holy Land is a...
Niebuhr’s Ghost, Sunday’s Specter: Choosing Our National Theologian
Reinhold Niebuhr is regarded by many as the most influential American theologian and ethicist of the 20th century. His gift for seeing the complexity of the issues brought balance between the idealism and the realism...
“Get Low”
Robert Duvall began his movie career portraying Arthur "Boo" Radley. In his latest movie, "Get Low," we see what could be termed the evolution of Boo. It has been said that the allure of "To Kill a Mockingbird" is...
Mormon and Jews Reach Agreement on Baptism Dispute
(RNS) Jewish and Mormon church leaders announced Wednesday (Sept. 1) that church policies preventing the posthumous baptizing of Holocaust victims have reduced tensions between them. Leaders of the Church of Jesus...
Army Chaplain First to Die in Combat since Vietnam
(RNS) A Baptist minister from Oregon who was killed in Afghanistan on Monday (Aug. 30) is the first Army chaplain to die in combat since Vietnam, according to the Army. Capt. Dale Allen Goetz, 43, died in a roadside...
Pope Meets with Israeli President, Calls for Peace and Clarity
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI met with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Thursday (Sept. 2), and called for the conclusion of long-running talks over the Catholic Church’s legal and tax status in Israel. The two...
No One’s Excluded From God’s Party
Luke 14 tells a wonderful story about the "table habits" of Jesus and the conversations that took place around the table. It was around the table that the first breaking of the bread and the common cup were shared...