Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Today’s ‘Centurions’ Let Those in Need Suffer
Jesus is hardly the hero in the story from Luke's and Matthew's Gospels about the centurion (Roman army officer) in Capernaum who sends Jewish representatives to Jesus to seek healing for a favored slave. (See Luke...
Baptist’s Call for Gender Equality in Early 1900s
Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM), an organization for which I have a tremendous amount of respect, sells a T-shirt with the phrase, "This is what a preacher looks like." I love that slogan. I teach religion majors at...
Comfortable or comforting?
In a recent Religion News Service column, Rabbi James Rudin, senior interreligious adviser for the American Jewish Committee, considered how marketing firms might advise various religious groups. He addressed the loss...
What’s Disappearing in Churches? The Middle
Church life in modern America is characterized by the loss of a "consensus in the middle" and the growing influence of the political and theological right and left – as we have experienced in the national political...
Sometimes, Great Evil Lurks Behind Charm
Even Baby Jesus was a threat to Herod. When money, tradition, power and privilege are threatened, there will be a response of retaliation. Babies may not be brutalized, as they are in this episode in Matthew 2, but...
“Hoping Liberia: Stories of Civil War from Africa’s First Republic”
"Hoping Liberia: Stories of Civil War from Africa's First Republic" is the title of Michael Helms' 2009 book on Liberia that came out of a mission trip to that country when he was pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in...
Memorial Day, Israelite style
Somewhere on a battlefield in the hill country north of what would later be called Jerusalem, a band of Israelite men finally tired of chasing a contingent of Philistine soldiers who were, uncharacteristically, running...
What Arizona Taught Me about School Today
Efforts at both educational and immigration "reforms" in Arizona have rightly brought about protests of both institutionalized racism and personal prejudice in many Americans' thoughts and actions. Others remain...
Patriotism Means Building Community
Memorial Day is here. Independence Day follows close behind. I confess that I have spent quite a bit of time pondering patriotism's too frequent mutation into nationalism and jingoism under the influence of fear,...
Child Sexual Abuse in Churches Can’t Be Ignored
A byproduct of the child sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church may be that a keen eye is now being increasingly focused on Protestant churches. Make no mistake about it: The sexual abuse of children is a sin,...
Does anything unite US anymore?
Short of the brief fear-fueled rallying immedi-ately following the 9-11 tragedy, it is hard to find much that unites those within the United States of America. Deep polarization — egged on by strident voices on the...
Red and Yellow, Black and White
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on May 23, 2010. ...
Have You Found Your Voice?
A sermon delivered by Robert Browning, Pastor, Smoke Rise Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, Ga., on May 23, 2010. Acts 2:1-21 I suppose some of you found a bit of humor in the title of the sermon for today. Last...
Twisting statistics
As a congressional vote nears to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy requiring gays to stay in the closet to stay in the military, the Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist Press has stepped up efforts...
Part 2: Carter’s Steady Pursuit of Peace, Justice
Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part reflection on the faith and political contribution of former President Jimmy Carter. While it is true that Jimmy Carter's born again-ism reintroduced conservative...
“Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country”
New technology, old religion and the freedom of information coalesce around the Oscar-nominated documentary "Burma VJ," which is still knocking about theaters after an HBO run. The "VJ" in the title refers to "video...
“Shrek Forever After”
"Always leave 'em wanting more." That is one of the first rules of show business. That doesn't happen in the age of sequels. Successful movies are like cows: Milk them 'til they're dry. Take "Shrek Forever After,"...
Remembering Doug Maag
[Editor's note: Doug Maag died Tuesday at age 91. His memorial service will be held Friday at Wieuca Road Baptist Church in Atlanta at 2 PM. The following tribute is a blog I wrote about him in March 2009.]How's this...
Baptist Historians Stick Their Necks Out for the Common Good
Good Baptist historians stick their necks out for the common good and offer a relevant moral witness when it counts. They are a rare breed among the different Baptist academicians and vocational professionals. As a...
Part 1: Jimmy Carter Melded Religion, Politics
Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part reflection on the faith and political contribution of former President Jimmy Carter. One day in the near future, someone is going to write a history of how religion has...
“Casino Jack and the United States of Money”
Filmmaker Alex Gibney – stepson of the late Rev. William Sloane Coffin – is one of our best muckrakers in film. He's better than Michael Moore, whose ideological rigidity births tales that, while entertaining, hang on...