Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Worldview: The History of a Concept
David K. Naugle's book, "Worldview: The History of a Concept," has proven to be very influential among apologetically oriented evangelicals since it was first published in 2002. Naugle chairs the philosophy department...
Christian? Yes. Church? No.
LifeWay Resources, a research arm of the Southern Baptist Convention's publishing house, has taken note of an unsurprising disconnect between faith and faithfulness, at least when it comes to church attendance among...
Preaching on the Moral Good of Taxation Is the Forbidden Topic in Churches
No topic is more avoided in pulpits than the moral good of taxation. Progressive preachers have a self-imposed ban on the topic. Mainstream ministers see it as a source of controversy, meaning it needs to be avoided....
Part 1: Fear of Unknown Hinders Interfaith Dialogue
Editor's note: This is the first part of a two-part series on interfaith dialogue. When our core business is making Jesus known, why are some otherwise committed Christians so unsure about talking to people of other...
Some Equate Gospel with Subjugating Women
The Albany Herald recently published an article about the Georgia Baptist Convention's upcoming vote on whether to disfellowship Druid Hills Baptist Church in Atlanta where Mimi Walker serves as co-pastor. As those...
45 good words
As the new Newseum was being planning on prime real estate between the Capitol and the White House in Washington, D.C., Freedom Forum CEO Charles Overby wondered if his big idea of having the First Amendment to the...
How Preachers Earn the Role of Prophet
One of the most precarious tasks a preacher faces is that of being a prophet. The role of prophet is one that many ministers feel a deep ambivalence toward. All preachers know that relevant preaching must address the...
Assigning Blame When Disasters Strike
I am doing a sermon series on the "Hard Sayings of Jesus" on Sunday mornings. Many of those hard sayings occur in Matthew 24-25. Jesus says things like: "There will be wars and rumors of wars. Nations will rise against...
Who Do We Follow? Jesus or Jefferson?
Some of our current political tension is best understood within the context of Jesus versus Thomas Jefferson. Once the Jesus-Jefferson dynamic is considered, we see that much of the vitriol – surrounding the recent...
Headbanging for Jesus
Last Friday night, with a 13-year-old son who likes such music, I attended my first rock concert, a student activities event at Campbell University headlined by a group called "Skillet." It was quite an experience, one...
Pentagon Makes the Right Call on Franklin Graham
The U.S. Army made the right decision to prohibit Franklin Graham from speaking at a prayer event scheduled in May at the Pentagon, an event organized by a group of mostly Christian Right leaders of which Graham is the...
When Tea Partiers Come to Church
Based on the recent New York Times poll of tea partiers, you are likely to find them sitting in your church pews. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Should pastors or church leaders encourage, discourage or ignore...
Obeying God’s Word “ When It Suits Them
Correction: In first paragraph, it is the Georgia Baptist Convention, not the Altlanta Metro Baptist Association, that has taken action against churches. (04/26/10 -- 11:00 a.m. CT) In Georgia, Baptists are quarreling...
Keeping company with the tragic past
Gerald Harris’ editorial titled “Breaking family ties painful, but sometimes necessary” in The Christian Index, official publication of the Georgia Baptist Convention, is condescending toward Mimi Walker, co-pastor of...
Religious Leaders Protest State Tax Policies
As state governments tighten their budgets and consider fiscal changes to handle the recession, religious leaders in some states complain that the poor are being adversely impacted by tax policies. In April, new budget...
“The Perfect Game”
There are always people who want Hollywood to make more wholesome movies. "I am tired of all the sex and violence on screen," they say. "There is too much profanity in movies today. I want movies that affirm my faith...
The Bible’s More Than an Answer Manual
I received an e-mail from Paula (not really her name; I want to protect the guilty) with SONday Distributors. They had a special deal "for churches only" on "a great Bible." For just $10 each (regular $40 value) we...
Unsappy Love
A sermon delivered by Howard Batson, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Amarillo, Tx., on April 18, 2010. 1 Corinthians 13 We continue with our sermon series from 1 Corinthians and come to the best-known chapter in the...
Overby honored with Judson-Rice award
Charles L. Overby, chairman and CEO of the Freedom Forum and a staunch defender of the First Amendment, accepted the annual Judson-Rice award from Baptists Today April 22. The award luncheon was held at Calvary Baptist...
For More Than a Third of Adults, Church Hurts
When I saw Barna's recent report that 61 percent of unchurched adults think of themselves as Christians, and that 37 percent of adults who aren't church-goers say they have been hurt by an experience or person within...
What Jesus Thought about Paying Taxes
Tax Day has come and gone, but that doesn't mean I've stopped preaching on the hard sayings of Jesus. And here's one of many: "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." The context of this is...