Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
We Need Jubilee
We must remember and care for our fellow travelers on this beautiful planet and treat them not as competitors, but as if they were Jesus who said that he could be found among the little ones. Proclaiming with Jesus the...
Palestinian Christian Considers Gaza Turmoil: Part One
The recent events in Gaza are a horrific example of democracy at work, according to Raouf Halaby. But the implementation of democracy in this case grates against the American ideal like fingernails on a chalkboard....
Inauguration Reminds Us of What Prayer Is, Isn’t
Prayer is not ceremonial. Prayers offered at public events like football games, graduations and presidential inaugurations are mere ceremony. They are prelude to something else that is the main event. If Jesus is right...
Who We Are: Our Mission
Sermon delivered by David Hughes, pastor of First Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Jan. 11, 2009. Ephesians 1:4-5 (NLT); Philippians 3:7-11; Matthew 28:19-20 Several years ago a book was written about a guy...
Fifteen years
I'm writing this post on January 18, and remembering.Remembering that, 15 years ago, January 18 was a cold, clear Tuesday.Remembering the first three hours of a road trip, driving our daughter Bethany back from a...
Learning new words
My foray into journalism came when high school friend Nancy Poston invited me to join the 1974 yearbook staff. My specialty was pretending to sell ads while picnicking and playing with friends at Wilder Tower in...
Kudos to the captain
Praise is due to the captain of US Airways Flight 1549, who achieved hero status yesterday by deftly guiding his stricken plane -- filled with both passengers and fuel -- to a life-saving belly landing in New York's...
Isn’t It Good to Be a Baptist?
With the coming of 2009, we are celebrating the 400th anniversary of Baptists. No, we didn’t start at the Jordan River with John, Jesus’ cousin (he was a baptizer not a Baptist). Most Baptist historians today trace the...
SBC Leader Uses Poor Evidence to Promote ˜Global Cooling’
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, once again used his weekly radio program to mock the idea of global warming and instead claimed that the earth is...
Change Comes Slowly, but Surely
In November, Sen. Barack Obama entered into history as the first African American to be elected president of the United States. Next Tuesday he will take the oath of office and become the 44th president of our country....
Where Would Darwin Davven?
Darwin wouldn’t daven anywhere, since davvenen (prayer) is a Jewish form of worship and Darwin was a Christian. But let’s not be so narrow. The real question is: Where can a scientifically sophisticated thinking Jew go...
Why Churches with Pipe Organs Will Soon Be Condos
You won't find pipe organs in many places today. You won't find organ music in many songs, either. Suffice it to say, the organ as a sought-after instrument is fading. So what do churches do that have invested millions...
“Frost/Nixon”
How important are lace-up shoes for men? According to Richard Nixon (Frank Langella), in Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon,” a man who doesn’t wear laces is less than a man. That small opinion is a big part of this movie that...
Baptists and Muslims Pledge to Continue Dialogue
Baptist and Muslim participants at the first national Muslim-Baptist dialogue left with a desire to continue efforts to learn more about those of the other faith and find areas of common ground. Baptist and Muslim...
GWU mourns untimely death
It shouldn't happen this way, but sometimes it does.Daniel Goodman, professor and Bob D. Shepherd Chair of New Testament Interpretation at the M. Christopher White School of Divinity at Gardner-Webb University, died...
Hope for Change in the Middle East
The writer of the Gospel of Mark is a little vague about the numbers. When reporting on how many people from the Judean countryside came out to see and hear John the baptizer in the wilderness, the writer just says...
Inflammatory Comments About Gaza Fuel the Fire
With family living in Israel and two cousins in the Israeli army, I have been watching the Gaza situation carefully. It is heartbreaking. It is tragic. Innocent people on both sides are suffering. But now is not the...
Deep in the Heart of Gaza
In his 1953 Pulitzer Prize-winning antiwar play, "The Teahouse of the August Moon," playwright John Patrick created the fictional village of Tobiki on the island of Okinawa in post-World War II Japan. Representing...
Baptists and Muslims Must Know Each Other, Panelists Say
Baptists and Muslims must get to know each other and overcome ignorance and misinformation. That was the dominant message from both Baptist and Muslim presenters at the first national Muslim-Baptist dialogue held Jan....
True Liberation Requires Self-Evaluation
One of the joys of living in Miami is crabbing. As a young girl, my wife would go to the beach to hunt crabs, placing her prey in a bucket. Later at home, her abuela would prepare them for dinner. However, on the way...
Faithfulness and Frigidaire
Fernwood Baptist Church celebrated 50 years of ministry in Spartanburg, S.C., on Sunday. It was my pleasure to share in that grand occasion.I joked with them about moving my membership there since "apparently churches...