Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
My anniversary card
The various issues that normally find their way into this blog are no less important today than any other day, but my mind is elsewhere. Today, the world can wait.This 26th of May is the 26th anniversary of the day...
How People Recognize Authentic Christians
How can others who cannot peek inside your heart, glance inside your mind or scan your soul know for sure that you are a follower of Jesus? What is the primary evidence of your credibility and authenticity? According...
When Churches Deny Full Equality to Women
I'm going to try hard not to sound like that line from "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" in "My Fair Lady" that goes, "I'm very grateful she's a woman/and so easy to forget/ Rather like a habit/One can always break –...
Finding Balance: Religion and the Public Square
When that bastion of righteousness, the Sun, says Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty (National Council for Civil Liberties), is the most dangerous woman in Britain, we all sit up and take notice. So last month, I...
Amazed by the haze
Strolling the sidewalks of downtown Chattanooga on Saturday night was delightful — with one exception. A haze of cigarette smoke wafted from the outdoor cafes.Most every smoker I observed was born after 1985 when the...
SBC’s Anti-Public School Crusade is Off Course
I grew up in a small cotton mill village in upper South Carolina during the last years of the Great Depression. Churches and schools were the town's foundation. I was fortunate to have teachers who were not only...
A Free Market Cannot Guarantee Civil Rights
Senate nominee Rand Paul's position that private businesses open to serve the public should be able to discriminate has raised a firestorm of protest. Paul contends that a free market will punish businesses that...
Great Expectations: Barriers to Church Growth
It can be a challenge for clergy and congregations to navigate the tricky waters of expectations and live together in positive and encouraging relationships rather than confrontational ones. I've recently had three...
Recover the original Torah? Dream on.
A conservative Israeli university that seeks to connect ancient Torah traditions with modern technology and research sponsored a symposium on recovering the Torah last week, according to the Jerusalem Post. The...
Babel and Pentecost
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on May 23, 2010. Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21 To many people, diversity and unity are conflicting ideas. In their minds, the...
The Wind Blows On Us All
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo., on May 23, 2010. Acts 2:1-21 Pastor Larry Bethune once wrote of a church member who claimed she regularly received letters...
He Goes Before You
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on May 16, 2010. Matthew 28:1-10 Meditation Text: As a historian, I am often asked to what great period in history I would care to...
Waiting To Exhale
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on May 16, 2010. Acts 16:16-34 Christianity largely owes its start in Europe to two women mentioned in Acts 16—Lydia, the woman...
Where Rand Paul Wants To “Take Our Country Back”
We've been here before. A candidate for federal office is touting the "rights" of business people to serve, or refuse to serve, anybody they wish. The candidate is not the late Lester Maddox of Georgia, Ross Barnett of...
Civility Requires More Than One-Way Street
In late March, a document flashed across the Internet: "A Covenant for Civility: Come Let Us Reason Together." It was a very nicely worded statement that affirmed seven points, each reinforced with a Scripture verse or...
Love: Celebrated In Unity, Executed in Diversity
Editor's note: This column was adapted from Johnson's commencement address at Howard Payne University on May 8, 2010. We are here today because of love: the love we have experienced from God, the love of that God...
Pup tent preachers
The Apostle Paul was a tent builder. Many Christian leaders today are tent shrinkers.Their greatest concern seems to be avoidance of those with different views. It has gotten to the point of ridiculous. For example,...
Responding to bad news
What a day ... what encouraging news the papers contain (like progress toward financial reform) seems overwhelmed by stories that are plainly bad or troublesome news. The stock market sank as news of economic troubles...
Arizona Hikes Taxes to Save Public Education, Other States Lay Off Teachers
Arizona voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to raise the sales tax with two-thirds of the revenue going to education. The vote was 64 percent to 36 percent in favor of Proposition 100 that was pushed by Republican Gov. Jan...
“Robin Hood”
So many have taken on the story of Robin Hood and turned it into a movie. We have Errol Flynn flying in on a vine to welcome us to Sherwood Forest. Sean Connery comes back as an older Robin Hood after fighting in two...
Nonprofit Helps Arkansas Businesses Thrive
During a recent workshop in conjunction with a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas assembly, Will Staley and Terrance Clark led a brainstorming exercise about the positive aspects of Helena, an impoverished town...