Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Why Did Mark’s Gospel End So Abruptly?
Since the early days of the movement that would become known as Christianity, the story of the resurrection of Jesus has been celebrated across many Christian traditions throughout the span of church history. If there...
Facial hair = trust?
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Thursday on a Journal of Marketing Communications study suggesting that men with beards are perceived as more trustworthy -- at least when they're selling...
Thanks, Velda
After checking into my third consecutive hotel on the last leg of an 1,150-mile run up and down I-75, my primary goal was to hit the bed as soon as possible. Five days of talking, listening and driving had exhausted...
Baptist Activist’s Political Comeback Falls Short
A disgraced former state legislator in Texas, who has spent years as a conservative Christian activist, failed in his effort at political redemption. Former state representative Rick Green lost a primary runoff...
How Paying Taxes Can Be a Sacrament
Taxes are a sacrament. That's according to James Carroll, the novelist, playwright, poet, author of such major texts as "House of War," "Constantine's Sword" and "Practicing Catholic" and a Monday columnist for the...
“How to Train Your Dragon”
Being a teenager is hard work. Peer pressure calls on them to conform to the demands of the group. Parental pressure pushes them to follow the ideals of their parents. And cultural pressure says they must fit into the...
Who, Why, and What
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on April 11, 2010. Revelation 1:4-8 We have passed from the season of Lent into the season of Easter. On the second Sunday of...
Celebrating Grace Hymnal Dedication
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on April 11, 2010. Be careful, then, how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time because the days are evil....
Feet, Eyes, Noses, and Other Necessary Body Parts
A sermon delivered by Howard Batson, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Amarillo, Tx, on April 11, 2010. 1 Corinthians 12:4-31 She gives a whole new meaning to the expression, “A one-man-band.” Or maybe we should...
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 non-church going adults say they have been hurt by an experience or person within the...
If It Feels Like July in April, Does that Prove Global Warming?
The Weather Channel reported that during the first week of April more than 1,800 daily record highs in the United States were tied or broken. The article was an update from an earlier piece titled "July or April?...
Academic Honesty Carries High Price for Scholar
The story is troubling from the ground up. Professor Bruce Waltke, an evangelical Old Testament scholar who has contributed strongly to the field for many years, had to resign his teaching post on the Orlando campus of...
Baptists Mourn with Poland during Crisis
The recent national crisis brought about by the plane crash that killed the president of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, and other national leaders should elicit the deepest sympathy of the Baptist community. Poland, while...
Converting Christians to the Way of Jesus
In "It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian," author Samir Selmanovic tells about an experience he had on the morning of Sept. 11, 2002. One of the Christian family radio networks...
Why Christians Must Talk About Sexual Abuse
I know that many people would rather not talk about sexual abuse in the church – or rather I not talk about it. And I would rather not talk about it, so we are all in agreement. And that, it seems to me, must be part...
British Christians Wrestle with Lodging Dilemma
How should individuals react when their consciences come into conflict with the law of the land? There are some circumstances where the issue is pretty clear. We can categorically say – from a safe distance in time and...
Subscription sales and the power of suggestion
A mission to sell more news journals took me from Tennessee into Kentucky where the presence of KFC was immediate and abundant. Chicken-ladened billboards abound. And the birthplace of Col. Harlan Sanders is listed as...
Americans and Some American Millionaires Favor Higher Taxes on Rich
Pro-tax millionaires are pushing back against the anti-tax crowd, some of whom want to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, others of whom squawk about flat taxes or fair taxes, and all of whom worship the myth that...
Need Your Pastor? Follow Him on Twitter
A pastor recently shared with me that one of his parishioners had outlived two of her cardiologists. When she got the third one, she asked him, "How's your heart?" It's a good question for a lot of us. I've been...
Defeating Racism at the Spiritual Level
In "Parting the Waters," the Pulitzer Prize-winning story of the early years of the civil rights movement, Taylor Branch describes some of the differences between Dr. Martin Luther King's goals and those of the NAACP....
Honesty gets Waltke walking papers
The story is troubling from the ground up. Professor Bruce Waltke, an evangelical Old Testament scholar who has contributed strongly to the field for many years, had to resign his teaching post on the Orlando campus of...