Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Port-au-Prince Returns to “Normal” Life
It is as if all things concerning the earthquake, the catastrophe, the dead and so on have been forgotten. As if nothing ever occurred, as if it were false news, a dream that vanished. Nothing has changed among...
A time to celebrate
This coming Sunday is a time to celebrate the birth of the Christian Church. The story of Pentecost is found in Acts 2. In his passionate sermon, Peter quotes the Old Testament prophet Joel to proclaim the word of God:...
Entrepreneurial Spirit Permeates Arkansas Delta
A new hope, inspired by an energetic new generation of leaders, is springing from Helena, Ark., a once-vibrant river town now in the middle of one of the poorest economic regions in the country. Success stories in...
Greed Paved Way For Economic Downturn
Remember Gordon Gekko and his famous – infamous – speech in the 1987 movie "Wall Street" about how greed is good? Instead of serving as a warning, Americans everywhere jumped on the free-for-all market of the 1980s,...
Britain’s Christian Aid Slams Soccer Tax Havens
An international development charity has turned its focus on soccer clubs to highlight the tax-haven secrecy that is costing the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in poor countries. Twenty-five clubs are now...
“Put aside your nets…”
Simon Peter would be hopping mad. James and John, the thunderous sons of Zebedee, would be breathing fire. Andrew, perhaps, might be trying in vain to calm their troubled waters: fishing has been banned in the Sea of...
What’s Your Ministry Model? Scarcity or Abundance
Is your image of God one of scarcity or abundance? Does God conserve or create? In an online discussion, Steve Simmons, director of continuing education of Moravian Theological Seminary and an ordained Presbyterian...
Are Tea Partiers Right to ‘Throw the Bums Out’?
It gives me the shivers to think that I might be in league with members of the Tea Party. But increasingly, under my breath, I find myself growling: "Throw the bums out." The bums to be thrown out, of course, are...
Baylor Health Care System Launches Faith in Action Initiatives
The Baylor Health Care System (BHCS) in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has ventured into friendly but uncharted territory to address one facet of our century-old calling as a healing institution. The new office of Faith in...
Lessons from the veterans of life
Too often youthful arrogance leads to the false conclusion that are all older persons are inflexible and out of touch. As a result, opportunities to benefit from the insights that can come from veterans of life are...
Deception Abounds, Just Check Your Mail
Sorting mail has created a new pile at our house: college stuff. Our 16-year-old daughter, wrapping up her junior year in high school, receives a steady stream of materials from colleges and universities, large and...
The Trouble With God? It’s Not What You Think.
I'm going to talk about the trouble I have with God. You might expect that I am going to talk about the trouble with believing in God when God cannot be experienced in any way that would pass laboratory scrutiny. Well:...
How Small Churches Can Find Qualified Ministers
Religion News Service recently posted a surprising story suggesting that there's a glut of available ministers. That goes against popular wisdom for the past few years, which has argued that there's an impending...
Britain’s Gordon Brown: Virtues and Faults
It is no exaggeration to say that former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's statement that he would resign as leader of the Labour Party has shocked Great Britain. This is in spite of the fact that some such...
“The Best Advice I Ever Got …”
With graduation days coming to an end, lots of advice has been passed around. Some of it came from graduation speakers who may have been famous or not so famous, but who sought to pass on some words of timely wisdom --...
For Balance in Life, Don’t Neglect Reading
For me, reading had become a crucial life discipline that exercises the mind and enriches the soul. Every year I try to choose a selection of fictional and nonfictional works to supplement my reading of the Bible,...
Enforcing Commandments as Law of Land
Sarah Palin has come up with a novel idea. She told Bill O'Reilly recently that the law in America should be based on the Ten Commandments. Now folks in Alabama are used to hearing this kind of stuff because we are...
Nigerian Baptist Leader Expresses Hope for Nation’s New President
Baptists in Nigeria are hoping for an upturn in their country's fortunes following the death of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Although Yar'Adua's passing was an "agonizing moment" for the nation, said Rev. Solomon Ishola,...
Open Letter to American Baptists on Immigration Reform
On May 6, I invited a number of American Baptists to a meeting at our mission center to begin a conversation on how we, as American Baptists, might engage the issue of immigration and immigration reform. We write to...
The need — or desire — to feel special
The guiding principles found in both the governing docu-ments of this nation and the basic religious teachings most of us affirm are rooted in the value and equality of all humanity. But that doesn't keep us from...
National Baptists Win Lawsuit Involving Ex-President
A former president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. has lost his lawsuit against the convention, months after overwhelmingly losing his attempt to regain the presidency. The lawsuit was dismissed by a...