Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Fraternizing with the other team
As major leaguers come out of their respective clubhouses for pre-game warmups and batting practice, they often greet opponents with big hugs. Since free agency and increased trading, players move from one team to...
Religious Groups Press for CIA Torture Probe
WASHINGTON (RNS) Twenty religious organizations are calling for Congress and President Obama to ensure a fair and thorough investigation into allegations of forced human experimentation by the CIA on detainees after...
Christian-Muslim Relations Turn Bitter in India
NEW DELHI (RNS) Tensions between Christians and Muslims in India’s Kerala state have reached the boiling point over allegations of widespread coerced conversions to Islam. Kerala’s communist Chief Minister,...
Priest at London Cathedral Blasts Glitzy Weddings
LONDON (RNS) A top priest at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married in 1981, says fancy, multi-million-dollar weddings are now posing a threat to marriage...
Baptist World Congress Focused on Luke 4; Will Others Do Likewise?
What would happen if goodwill Baptists from around the world all studied the same biblical text? I'm waiting to see. For you see, I ascribe to the mustard seed conspiracy. I believe that God is working through 4,000...
Thirty Years of Baptist Religious-Political Attacks
On Aug. 7, 1980, the newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Bailey Smith, visited the White House to meet with President Jimmy Carter. During that meeting 30 years ago, Smith attacked Carter's...
A Scriptural Response to the Immigration Debate
In terms of the current immigration debate, what do we Christians do? I guess, it applies to Jews, too – with the fact that the model of our faith was an immigrant, and an undocumented one at that. According to the...
Does delayed gratification no longer precede graduation?
As one who spends time traveling interstate highways, I've noticed a growing marketing trend by colleges and universities. Billboard after billboard promotes educational offerings — especially online and extension...
Catholic Charities says BP Isn’t Filling Aid Request
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) The social service arm of the local Catholic Church said Tuesday (Aug. 3) it’s nearly out of relief money for people damaged by the BP oil spill because the oil company has not approved a...
Appeals Court Sides with Prison in Headscarf Case
WASHINGTON (RNS) A federal appeals court has sided with a prison system whose policy forbids Muslim women employees from wearing headscarves on the job. In a 2-1 decision issued Tuesday (Aug. 3), the 3rd U.S. Circuit...
Judge Says Moral and Religious Views Don’t Justify Gay Marriage Ban
(RNS) In a decision with enormous legal, political, and religious implications, a federal judge on Wednesday (Aug. 4) struck down California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. Chief U.S. District Judge...
Vampire Novelist Quits Christianity, Criticizes Christians, Claims Allegiance to Christ
The best-selling novelist of books on vampires and witches, Anne Rice, announced on her Facebook page last week that she was quitting Christianity, abandoning her Christian faith and keeping Christ. "I quit being a...
Seminaries Will Need Megachurch Partnerships
Megachurches have developed several new patterns of cooperation. Writer John Dart in an article in The Christian Century explains: "[M]ost supersized churches want the freedom to customize their programs and avoid...
War Spending Reveals Fiscal Conservatives’ Hypocrisy
Based on media reports, elected officials at the highest levels of government in the United States are expressing concern ranging from apprehension to alarm about the size of the federal deficit. Some members of...
On Mission Trips, Remember the Ethic of “Stranger”
Are there ways in which a Christian may experience "exotic" places in the world without exploitation? Like Jesus, we must embody the attitude of a stranger or a host, as appropriate, in the areas we serve. In exploring...
Virginia Governor Pushes Privatized Bottled Liquor Sales
The news these days is flush with accounts of the proposed sale of Virginia's post-Prohibition monopoly of ABC stores. For generations, Virginia has controlled liquor by the bottle through a state-based network of...
Understanding the Origins of Violence in Congo
The first thing you need to understand about the Kivus region of the Democratic Republic of Congo is that the tension that drives conflict there – over ethnicity, citizenship rights and land rights – developed long...
Focus on the Family Announces More than 100 Job Cuts
(RNS) Focus on the Family has announced 110 job cuts in the latest round of layoffs that the Colorado ministry attributes to the departure of founder James Dobson and the reduced financial support from donors. This is...
Princeton Review Names Most, Least Religious Campuses
(RNS) Brigham Young University was named the nation’s most religious campus, and Sarah Lawrence College the least religious, in new rankings released Tuesday (Aug. 3). The Princeton Review released the 2011...
Conservatives Will Appeal Go-ahead Vote for Ground Zero Mosque
(RNS) A conservative religious law firm plans to appeal a decision that grants a green light for the construction of an Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero. The Washington-based American Center for Law...
A prismatic blessing
This past Sunday morning, knowing that I'd be leaving Honolulu for an overnight flight home that evening, I did what I had done every morning for the past nine days that I'd been in town for some family vacation and to...