Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
All Too Often, We’re Eager to Accept Bogus Info at Face Value
It is amazing how much disinformation circulates among otherwise intelligent folk, and how much of it is ardently embraced and believed. For instance, every once in a while Christians are urged to oppose a petition...
More Than Tolerance Needed to Achieve Interfaith Integration
Is it enough to be tolerant, or should people of faith make more of an effort to reach out to those who follow other religions? Baptist leaders responded to that question, which was prompted by a new Gallup poll, one...
Land’s Torture Turnabout Shows No Regret for Past Support
A prominent Christian conservative, Richard Land, has at long last condemned torture, at least in the extreme form of waterboarding, and many in the press have heaped accolades on him for this change of heart. ...
Translating the faith to our time
Rarely do we find honest public confessions from U.S. Christian leaders about the state of our faith practice. That's why a line from Gary Gunderson's 2004 book, Boundary Leaders, has stuck with me.Gary is a Baptist...
Richard Land Substantially Alters Position on Torture
Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, garnered numerous headlines on May 6 after he publicly denounced waterboarding as torture. Virtually ignored in the...
Will Baptists Answer the Call to Long-Term Mission Service?
A fairly small minority of Baptists actually attend the annual Baptist Assembly, the joint gathering of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and BMS World Mission. This year's event was held May 1-4 in Bournemouth. While...
Survey Yields Seemingly Perplexing Finding on Jewish Faith
In September 2008, Synagogue 3000, an organization focused on revitalizing synagogue life, commissioned a survey to measure Jewish spirituality among American Jews. The fact that they couldn't define "spirituality"...
Four wheels for me, please
May is promoted by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration as "Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month," and it's really needed around here.I heard an alarming statistic on the news: while 20 Marines from Camp...
Who Do You Need in Your Life?
Sermon delivered by Bob Browning, pastor of Smoke Rise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, G.A., on May 10 2009. John 15:1-8 They grew behind the house and served as a border between the yard and the open field. In the...
Radical Respect
Sermon delivered by David Hughes, pastor of First Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., on May 3 2009. Ephesians 5:21-6:4. Anybody who thinks parenting children is a piece of cake probably hasn’t had...
Opening Up
Sermon delivered by David Hughes, pastor of First Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Apr. 26 2009. Luke 24:36-49 He was a brilliant man, one of the most accomplished of his time. In fact, he’s been...
Disclaiming Gore Is Weak-Kneed Start to Baptist Creation Care Conference
Some conservative evangelicals define creation care with an anti-Al Gore disclaimer and denial about the scientific consensus regarding climate change. They say evangelicals shouldn't address global warming because the...
Congressman Twists History to Match His Model for Civil Religion
I was not totally surprised when Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) took to the floor of the House of Representatives introducing House Resolution No. 397 on May 4. Forbes ranted for four and a half minutes, taking issue with...
Sri Lanka’s Children Among Armed Conflict’s Heavy Casualties
It's an island country, just off the southeast coast of India. When I studied geography in grammar school, it was called Ceylon. It's shaped like a giant teardrop, and appropriately so. Sri Lanka has done a lot of...
Do you want to be you?
While watching the Atlanta Braves defeat the rival New York Mets ... with their ace pitcher, Johan Santana, on the mound ...in their new ballpark named for a bailed-out bank ... on television last night, I flipped...
Who Do We Really Worship? Prince of Peace or Tsar of Torture
What is wrong with American Christianity, especially those of us who call ourselves evangelicals? Have we exchanged believing in the Prince of Peace for the Tsar of Torture? How true are the words of the Apostle...
“Star Trek”
One of the amazing truths of life is how much family marks us. Our interactions within family provide motivation for what we become. Sometimes that becoming is positive and affirming of life. Sometimes that becoming is...
Congo Conflict Won’t Be Slowed by Cutting Minerals’ Demand
In the past six months, there's been a concerted push by the Congo activist community to focus on the exploitation of natural resources by various armed groups and foreign governments operating in the region. Roughly...
Slipping Through the Cracks
Sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, pastor of Pulaski Heights Baptist Church in Little Rock, A.R., on May 10 2009. Psalm 22:25-31; Acts 8:26-40 Let’s admit it... since the world began, while religious fervor...
Trivial Pursuit
Sermon delivered by Joel Snider, pastor of First Baptist Church in Rome, Ga., on May 3, 2009. Luke 14:15-24 It is the time for graduations. One of the things people often want to talk about at graduation time is...
Pray for Sri Lanka
It's an island country, just off the southeast coast of India. When I studied geography in grammar school, it was called Ceylon. It's shaped like a giant teardrop, and appropriately so. Sri Lanka has done a lot of...