Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
‘God Has Always Had a Faithful Church,’ SBC Leader Says
Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler gave qualified support for a view of history called the "trail of blood" that traces an unbroken succession of "true" churches back to the New Testament era. The Roman Catholic...
“Changeling”
Clint Eastwood is one of our great directors, but this is not one of his great movies. It's good, but not satisfying. Christine is a single parent, working at the local phone company in Los Angeles. Returning from...
“W.”
One can watch Oliver Stone's 'W.' and think that Stone is trying to tell a Greek tragedy. Much here sounds like Oedipus, but the story works from a different point of reference. This movie plays like a story from the...
“Ruby”
The challenge of losing weight is a staple of American reality television. Shows like "The Biggest Loser" and "Celebrity Fit Club" revolve around weight loss, while others like "Supernanny" or "Wife Swap" have included...
“Islam in America”
"Islam in America" doesn't get distracted by the deep-seated fear and hatred that exists between the United States and other parts of the world. No--"Islam in America" is about another Abrahamic faith community on...
“Slumdog Millionaire”
Set in modern-day Mumbai, Jamal (Dev Patel) has answered all but the last question on the popular game show. He's now in the hands of the police, who torture him trying to find out how he cheated to get where he is; no...
Muslims Celebrate Ashura Feb. 8
"I swear by God, I shall not surrender as a humiliated person, and I shall not escape like slaves," said Husayn ibn Ali. The Shi'ite Muslim holiday of Ashura remembers the death of Husayn, Muhammad's grandson, with...
Rabbi, Pastor Team Up to Write Passover Haggadah for Christians
Two years ago Rami Shapiro, a former congregational rabbi for 20 years in Miami who now directs an educational center called One River Foundation, was invited to a Passover seder service at a church in Murfreesboro,...
Jewish Group Hopes to Expand ‘Eco-Kosher’ to Other Faiths
Many Christians say grace at mealtime, but that shouldn't be the extent of the relationship between their faith and their food. So says Debra Kolodny, executive director of ALEPH, a Jewish Renewal group that recently...
‘The Backside of Nowhere’ Coming to Texas
A Nigerian-based church is locating just seven miles from my wife, Jody's, hometown. The tiny town of Floyd, Texas, between Farmersville and Greenville, will soon have Africa's largest and most ambitious evangelical...
Purim the ‘Most Ambiguous’ Jewish Holiday
Remember the book of Esther from Sunday school? The boys yawned and waited for the lesson on Daniel, but the girls loved the beautiful queen, an exemplary heroine who saved her people. Victims become victors in Esther....
This Friendship Is No Joke
I chuckled when I read, "A rabbi, a priest and a minister walked into a bar. The bartender said, 'Is this a joke?'" Well, it was no joke for me on May 29, 2005. The setting was not a bar, but the home of Rabbi Stephen...
LEARNING FROM BAPTIST HISTORY: The Long History of Baptist Worship Wars
Fourth in a series: Worship wars among Baptists have heated up in the last decade. Controversies involving styles of worship are widespread, and many churches have struggled with whether to have two worship services in...
The Ethics of Baptist History
Sixth in a series: How should we Baptists treat our history? We can approach Baptist history in various ways. We can read it for pleasure, to advance our knowledge or to prepare for a test. We can use it to find...
Faith and Sports
Seventh in a series: Today, about a dozen religions can be described as major world religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. Has the time now come to add one more to the list: Sports?...
Running Up the Score on Learning-Disabled Students Isn’t a Biblical Value
Running up the score is poor sportsmanship. At best, it’s victory without honor. At worst, it discloses the deformed soul of a coach, the bloodlust of fans and sports gone wrong. No team should ever run up the score,...
Children’s Sermon Sack Always Full of Surprises
Rather than the traditional children's sermon, here at First Baptist Church of Fitzgerald, Ga., we have something called the Happy Club, which features the Happy Sack. This practice was instigated by the esteemed...
Jesus Embraced Vulnerability to Unite with the Vulnerable
Jesus lived a very vulnerable life and was not immune to or protected from the challenges that the people of his time confronted every day, especially those persons at the bottom of the embedded social and religious...
Resolving Middle East Conflict Requires More Than Prayers
On March 12, EthicsDaily.com re-published an important article by the Rev. Mark Woods, editor of Britain’s Baptist Times. In the article Woods describes the desperate situation in Gaza, even after the cessation of the...
Finding a Church to Call Home: It’s Not a Bargain Hunt
I loathe the term “church shopping.” The phraseology just sounds too commercial to apply to a community of faith. Searching for a church home is a crucial life decision that requires a deeper level of introspection and...
Digital Era Endangers Newspapers, Including Baptist State Papers
As more Americans log online to retrieve their news and information, newspapers across the country, which have seen years of declining subscriptions, are exploring new ways of capturing online readers and making a...