Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Wilson’s Outburst Should Be Turning Point for Civility
Shame on U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) for his outburst during President Obama's address on health care to a joint session of Congress. Multiple media channels are reporting that Joe Wilson is the person who yelled,...
Step Five: Not Confining God to Man’s Expectations
Editor's note: This is the fifth part of a five-part series in which Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, reviews the steps that led him away from fundamentalism. Once I graduated from...
An extended stay
While young tennis phenom Melanie Oudin lost soundly in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open late yesterday, her stay was far beyond anyone's expectations. If indicated by nothing else, her well-publicized,...
Lyons Loses Legal Effort to Prevent National Baptist Election
A last-minute legal effort to prevent the presidential election for the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. failed Wednesday afternoon. The vote will proceed as planned Thursday as Henry Lyons, senior pastor of New...
Step Four: An Education in Fundamentalist Scholarship
Roman Catholics can trace a direct line of institutional continuity all the way back to the first century. At times, Baptists have envied that heritage and have tried to supplant it. One of the most popular attempts to...
The America Glenn Beck and Company Long For
Glenn Beck: Normally I'd say "Hello America," but here's the one thing: This can't be the same country I grew up in because in the America I grew up in the headlines would be a whole lot different today. Rush Limbaugh:...
Government Balances Socialist, Capitalist Policies
Kenny Rogers and the First Edition did a song back when I was a young man titled "Tell It All." The song said, "…tell it all before we fall, tell it all." We live in a world of half-truths, where people give half-baked...
Love in Action
Sermon delivered by Bob Browning, pastor of Smoke Rise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, G.A., on September 6 2009. James 2:1-10, 14-17 James is one of my favorite New Testament books. Obviously, this puts...
Better to be ignorant
Activists in two countries apparently feel it's better for children to be ignorant than to hear important lessons.I couldn't help but notice that during the same week, Palestinian leaders in Gaza axed a plan that would...
Step Three: Breaking the Chain-of-Command Family Myth
For me, the shortest step away from fundamentalism came with the realization that life within my family bore little resemblance to the idyllic paternalistic household that fundamentalist preachers portrayed as the...
Enemy of the People? Government is the People
Much of the resistance to any reform of the health care system in America is fueled by virulent attacks upon the government. Angry people, often shouting into radio microphones, accuse the government of being unable to...
Why Do Some Parents View Our President with Fear?
"Lord, give me understanding." I really try to understand people with whom I have serious ideological differences, but the recent news has left me in a funk and a state of confusion. Conservative parents flooded...
Faith That Works!
This sermon was delivered by Wendell Griffen, pastor of the New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Ark., on September 6, 2009. Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Mark 7:24-37; James 2:1-17 Many people consider...
The Crumbs Under God’s Table
Sermon delivered by Keith Herron, pastor of Holmeswood Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo., on September 6, 2009. Mark 7: 24-37 It’s not human nature for us to look outside the fence of our own lives and to...
Through think or thin
The Atlanta Braves just fizzled. A week ago they were three games out in the National League wild card race and poised for a charge.Tim Hudson was rejoining an already excellent pitching staff. Nate McLouth was back...
Ex-Convict Sues National Baptists in Quest to Regain Presidency
Ten years ago, Henry Lyons resigned as president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. and then spent more than four years in prison for racketeering and grand theft. Now, Lyons wants to be presidentof the...
Unhinged Southern Baptists, Republicans Slam Obama’s School Speech
In a full-throated attack on President Barack Obama's forthcoming nationally televised speech to school children encouraging them to study hard, fundamentalist and Republican leaders smear the president with...
Step Two: Slowly Realizing the Flaw with Inerrancy
Editor's note: This is the second part of a five-part series in which Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, reviews the steps that led him away from fundamentalism. My second step away...
Dealing With Son’s Prison Sentence Only Way I Know How
Readers who turned to my column on Sundays in the Port Arthur News looking to be entertained with a collection of odds and ends from the sports world recently had to forgive a devastated dad for deviating from the...
Labor Days and pay days
With a child in school who could benefit from hearing the president of the United States encourage him to work hard, I'd considered writing a response to the apoplectic folk who are calling for parents to keep their...
Baptist Youth Camp: Taking The First Step Away
Editor's note: This is the first part of a five-part series in which Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, reviews the steps that led him away from fundamentalism. I went to a Baptist...