Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Out of Circulation? Newspaper Numbers Still Dropping
Two items in the Oct. 27 issue of the News & Observer were particularly distressing. The first was a front-page story, along with several sidebars, regarding shenanigans carried on by former governor Mike Easley....
Known In All the World
Sermon delivered by Joel Snider, pastor of First Baptist Church in Rome, Ga., on October 18, 2009. Romans 1: 7-8. Meditation Text At many stops along his journeys, Paul heard about one church and...
The Essence of our Faith
Sermon delivered by Bob Browning, pastor of Smoke Rise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, G.A., on October 25 2009. Mark 10: 46-52 Harold Campbell was one of the finest members of our church. He died on Christmas day...
Bad news about news
I found two items of particular interest in Tuesday's News & Observer. Both were distressing.The first was a front page story, along with several sidebars, regarding shenanigans carried on by former governor Mike...
Land Cries Censorship Over Criticism of His Nazi Analogy
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, has demonstrated in recent days that he knows as little about ethics as he does religious liberty. He has accused me...
Charles Wellborn: Baptists’ Clear Voice of Conscience
Too soon we forget the terrorism of the 1950s and 1960s. The cross burnings, obscene telephone calls, character assassination and political intrigue on those who believed in and fought for human rights and dignity and...
Don’t Let Rhetoric Rule: Ensure Climate-Change Justice
Health-care legislation has finally reached the Senate for action. It's been a long wait; the relevant committees in the House of Representative took their action quite a while back. And now, of course, the issue comes...
Patterson, Missouri Leaders Send Mixed Signals on Lawsuits
When Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson steps to the podium this afternoon at the annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC), his presence will represent a contradiction...
What the 21st-Century Church Needs is a Mashup
"Mashup" is not a term I use every day. It comes from the rap music genre in which different types of music are mixed at varying speeds to develop a new piece of music. The process transforms two or more different...
Making Pastoral Care Central to Church’s Ministry
I've been thinking a lot lately about the theology and practice of pastoral care in a missional church, and how that is different from pastoral care in traditional churches. And I've come up with at least a few...
Millard, Socks and the Taser guy
A special feature at accessatlanta.com pays tribute to "notable deaths" in 2009. This seems a little premature since a nice chunk of the year remains.Perhaps the person making this tribute was attuned to this coming...
What the Church Does and What It Is
This sermon was delivered by Wendell Griffen, pastor of the New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Ark., on October 25, 2009. Acts 2: 37-47. Permit me to remind you why I am preaching this series of sermons from the...
Old friends
I drove to my hometown of Lincolnton, Ga. this past weekend to visit with old friends and acquaintances at a 40 year reunion of my high school graduating class. It was quite an experience. We've done some changing.Of...
EthicsDaily.com Produces TV Documentary
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – From Boston to the Bible Belt and from Beaumont to the nation's beltway, Baptists and Muslims are changing history with the way they change each other. Tired of being defined by extremists, some...
Internet Gaming Parlors Skirt N.C. Gambling Laws
The lottery's no longer the only game in town, at least in many towns across North Carolina. Recent challenges to laws regulating video poker and sneaky ways of skirting the law have led to a boom in "sweepstakes"...
Baptists and Muslims Work Together for Health-Care Reform
A recent press conference for health-care reform in Oklahoma highlights how Baptists and Muslims are working together for the common good. Sponsored by the Oklahoma Conference of Churches and held at the Oklahoma State...
Singing in church … for better or worse
Although my own musical gifts are very limited, my discernment about musical choices has grown over the years. Perhaps it is the result of some bad musical decisions in my past.Once, as a campus minister, I allowed a...
West Side Wishes
Last night I took Samuel to see West Side Story at North Carolina Theater in Raleigh. He'll get school credit (once he writes a report about it); I got to see (and hear) a classic musical with several iconic songs and...
Pretty in Ink? What Christians Are Saying About Tattoos
Before the college football game between the No. 1 Florida Gators and the No. 4 LSU Tigers, USA Today had an in-depth story about Florida's tight end Aaron Hernandez, whose arms are covered with tattoos. One tattoo...
Richard Land Flip-Flops on Nazi Apology
One week after apologizing for comparing Democratic leaders to the Nazis, a prominent Southern Baptist leader has reneged on his promise to stop using such comparisons. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist...
America Founded as Christian Nation? Author Busts Myth
I just finished Dan Brown's latest thriller, "The Lost Symbol." Don't worry. I'm not going to give anything away. I will say that the book is a real page-turner in the same spirit as his previous two novels – "The da...