Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Countering the Nazi Party’s Vision for America
The National Socialist Movement, or Nazi Party, held a meeting in Greensboro, N.C., on Aug. 29. We responded with an advertisement in the paper, placed an online petition and wore ribbons in our congregations that...
When’s the Best Time to Help Those in Need?
Often, a spiritual aspiration is defined as "living fully in the present." Buddhism embraces the idea of impermanence, or anicca, where all things exist through a unique combination of factors with no single moment...
Waiting, watching and wondering
Our first daughter turned 16 last Saturday, got her official Georgia driver's license yesterday and went on her first solo drive this evening. As a result, I have a better understanding of the parental love the Bible...
Who Needs Police? Law Says People Must Trust God
When it comes to Homeland Security, folks in Kentucky are not fooling around. Forget hiring more police officers or beefing up the resources of the National Guard. In Kentucky, the law states that in order to be safe...
Reality Check: Seven Facts about Health Care Reform
Whether we like it or not, money drives our society, including the medical system. How to reform our health care to get the most for our medical dollars is the real question in the debate about health care reform. If...
Ted Kennedy: Powerful Champion for the Powerless
When Sen. Edward Kennedy died Aug. 25 at his family home in Massachusetts, he left a nation that is much better than it was when he entered the United States Senate 46 years ago. We are better, in large part, because...
Regarding Torture, Can We Handle the Truth?
CIA interrogators violated the guidelines for interrogation of supposed terror suspects by threatening suspects with guns and power drills and even suggesting assaulting one suspect's mother and family, according to...
Jesus: alive and well in Siberia?
My friend David Stratton (who blogs occasionally at Dave's Deliberations) recently sent me the link to this post, which describes a man who is convinced he is the embodiment of Christ's second coming. The would-be...
Tax-Reform Advocate Running for State Office
A nationally known tax expert who has made headlines, and enemies, for her tax-reform suggestions is running for office. Susan Pace Hamill, law professor at the University of Alabama Law School, is running for a...
EthicsDaily.com Sets Record, Surpasses Half-Million Mark for Articles Read
August was a record-setting month for EthicsDaily.com—571,742 pages were requested (one page request corresponds to one article read). Cleary, something positive and dynamic is happening on EthicsDaily.com. At a...
Ocean’s @ 13? Why More Parents Should Say ‘No’
So what would you do? Laura Dekker, a 13-year-old girl who lives in the sea-loving Netherlands, wants to take out her 26-foot boat, The Guppy, and sail around the world, according to the Associated Press. All by her...
Country of the Blind
Sermon delivered by Joel Snider, pastor of First Baptist Church in Rome, Ga., on August 30, 2009. Ephesians 4:17-24 Meditation Text: A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is...
Stranger Danger? Fear Mustn’t Sway Immigration Views
Perhaps the most beloved story in the Gospels, and indeed maybe the favorite story for many from the entire Bible, is the story of Jesus' birth. Even when it is not the time for Christmas, the familiar Nativity story...
AYK? Sharing Good News Not Easy in Internet Age
As ministers, we are the arbitrators of the gospel, professional communicators of the Good News of God's love and favor proclaimed in the teachings and life-example of Jesus of Nazareth. We are a people of the Book,...
British Baptist Grateful for National Health Plan
The United States' healthcare system is a mess, at least if you're poor. That much is admitted even by Americans. Where they differ is on how much this actually matters. Not enough, many would say, to justify the...
ReviewBlog: Fred Craddock’s latest
Reflections on My Call to Preach: Connecting the Dots: Fred Brenning Craddock (Chalice Press, 2009) 117 pp., $19.99. Reading Fred Craddock’s Reflections on My Call to Preach is like listening to one of his sermons: the...
Insights from an immersion
With appreciation for his superb writing skills, I've been gliding my way through Kevin Roose's "The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University." It is both insightful and entertaining, the...
Former Baptist Pastor Goes to Trial Charged with Genocide in Rwanda
Facing the testimony of some 100 witnesses, Francois Bazaramba, a former Baptist pastor, goes on trial Tuesday in Finland for his alleged organization of the murder of 5,000 Rwandans in the 1994 rampage of Hutu-led...
Looks Like Rain. Do You Think God’s Angry with Me?
Why is it that every time something bad happens, there always seems to be a preacher around to give God the credit for whatever disaster or tragedy that has occurred? John Hagee was one that let us know that Hurricane...
Four Years Later, Katrina Assistance Still Needed
Hurricane Katrina made landfall four years ago in August. I left New Orleans just a few days before landfall and within a few days following, the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention was communicating...
A Puzzle of Three S Words
This sermon was delivered by Wendell Griffen, pastor of the New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Ark., on August 30, 2009. Song of Songs 2:8-13, James 1:17-27, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 "Sensual," "Soulful," and...