Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Is Hate Up in USA?
Abundant signs suggest that political hate is up in the United States: Shooting police officers outside the Pentagon. Crashing a plane in the IRS building in Austin. Killing a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial...
Dancing toward dogma
In various ways, we have heard it said: “Today’s heresy is often tomorrow’s dogma.” What seems so certain today can seem so certainly wrong down the road. It is easy to forget how much of our thinking has changed over...
We Talk About But Rarely Practice Ethics
When I started teaching ethics 14 years ago, I was asked why teach ethics. I simply replied, "Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach." Well, it seems that some of our major universities have taken that axiom to...
Despite Abuses, Cross Recalls God’s Love
The new general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, said at his recent induction that "the cross is the symbol churches need to return to in order to be one." Interestingly it was when I...
Our Children Know Spin When They See It
In the interesting ways of life and parenting, I've learned that while I started my parenting career thinking that I was the teacher and my children my students, we were actually collaboratively learning how to live in...
Seeking What We Need
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor of New Millennium Church, Little Rock Ark., March 7, 2010. Luke 55:1-9 The idea of being thirsty is familiar to us. No matter what the season of the year or time of day...
The Hand on the Plow
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., March 7, 2010. Luke 9:57-62 Meditation Text: Jesus is heading for Jerusalem, after all. He is going to die in Jerusalem. He knows...
How’s your muchness?
When I was a boy, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were part of the cultural background, largely through Disney cartoons, but I don't think I ever read either of the books...
Save Green, Go Green at June Luncheon in Charlotte
"Save Green, Go Green" is the promotional theme for our June 24 luncheon in Charlotte, N.C., at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's annual general assembly. "Save Green" is our effort to provide a Baptist-friendly...
From Mountaintop to Real-World Ministry
Have you ever been somewhere and not wanted to leave? Maybe you were asleep, and you did not want to get up. Maybe you have been at a party with friends, and you did not want to leave. Or maybe you were on vacation,...
Two Approaches to Christian Evangelism
There are two vastly different Christian approaches to evangelism being practiced today. One can be described as inclusive and invitational; the other is dualistic and confrontational. The one that is inclusive and...
Those Who Are With Us
A sermon delivered Randy Hyde, at Racial Unity Service, St. Mark Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., March 7, 2010. 2 Kings 6:8-23 ...
Where’s the Beef?
A sermon delivered by Robert Browning, Pastor of Smoke Rise Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, Ga., March 7, 2010. Luke 13:1-9 It was at least five hundred feet tall, or so it seemed to me when I was five years old. I am...
Open Buffet
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor of Pulaski Heights Baptist Church Little Rock, Ark., on March 7, 2010. Isaiah...
Saying something about Ken Starr
Shock. That was my response when a mid-February email from a former Baylor regent arrived with the news that well-known special prosecutor Kenneth Starr had been tapped as the next president of the university in Waco,...
Quakers Maintain Presence in Russia
Quakers are mentioned in Alexander Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" (1823). And Leo Tolstoy's daughter-in-law, Olga Tolstaya-Voyekova (1858-1936), joined the Quakers in 1924. Quakers actually have a long history of...
Neo-Conservatives Attack Islamic Moderate
Soner Cagaptay, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy – a prestigious neo-conservative think tank with ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – has been publishing articles...
Weekend Prayer Unites British Baptists
As part of a joint initiative, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and BMS World Mission teamed up to issue a call to prayer to British Baptists that began on Feb. 26. The Wave of Prayer began that Friday. Baptist Union...
What recession?
With our son off on a weekend snowboarding trip, Jan and I took advantage by spending Friday evening and Saturday galavanting about the Triangle, catching a couple of movies we'd wanted to see, and eating out at...
Kentucky Bill Calls for Bible Lit Classes
Senate Bill 142 is making its way through the Kentucky legislature. More popularly known as the "Bible bill," it follows the success of a Texas initiative to allow the teaching of the Bible as literature, with a...
Quake Destroys 250 Baptist Churches in Chile
(BWA) – Baptists in Chile have been devastated by a massive earthquake that affected that country on Feb. 27. An 8.8-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest in recorded history, destroyed 250 Baptist churches that...