Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Free fun this Thursday
If you went to school in the '70s, loved Jesus, and your parents complained about your hair — then you likely heard the Pat Terry Group perform such groundbreaking Christian music as "Same Sweet Song," "Meet Me Here"...
40 Years Later, Merton’s Legacy Looms Large
TRAPPIST, Ky. -- Around the country for the next few weeks, many Roman Catholics will remember and honor the life of Trappist monk Thomas Merton, who died 40 years ago on Dec. 10, 1968, in a freak electrocution...
Global Violence Rooted in More Than Religion
Violence is the byproduct of religion plus politics, not religion alone. Even if one could imagine a world without religion, one can hardly imagine a world without politics. The striving for power surely deserves as...
The Significance of Preaching
There has been significant erosion in the conviction that preaching is a vocation of significance, that it is an avenue of influence in the world. So, intelligent, talented and passionate young people are turning away...
Libby Pardon Would Be Last Defining Act of Bush Presidency
Richard Nixon's presidency ended after Watergate in disgrace with his resignation. The Bush-Cheney presidency will end on a much more disgraceful note if Scooter Libby is pardoned. Scooter Libby, a former high-powered...
Where enthusiasm reigns
About once every two years, I get to see my hometown football team play ball. That's how often we go to my parents' house for Thanksgiving, and the "Lincoln County Red Devils" are inevitably still playing, usually in...
The Challenge of Conscience in an Age of Confusion
Can Baptist congregations still be courageous enough to respect, honor and validate the personal and moral choice of members who challenge the Christian mainstream by exercising a renewal of our commitment to the...
Mind Your Manners
The apostle Paul saw genuine freedom not as the right to do what I want to do, but the responsibility to seek the well-being of others. Self-indulgence is the opposite of freedom. One of the claims by those upset by...
Financial Crisis Will Shape Long-Term Religious Ethos
A deeper and prolonged financial crisis will likely result in a survival-of-the-fittest scenario among local and national faith organizations, which, in turn, will reshape the religious ethos for years to come. Local...
Jordan’s Queen Honored as a YouTube “Visionary”
Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan is the inaugural recipient of YouTube's Visionary Award for her work combating stereotypes and bridging gaps of understanding. Queen Rania launched her own YouTube channel in March of...
The Attitude of Gratitude
You probably never heard of Folliot Sandford Pierpoint. (With a name like that Obama doesn't sound strange.) One beautiful spring day in 1864 Folliot was out walking the countryside, admiring the blue sky reflected in...
Jordan’s Queen Honored as a YouTube ‘Visionary’
Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan is the inaugural recipient of YouTube's Visionary Award for her work combating stereotypes and bridging gaps of understanding. Queen Rania launched her own YouTube channel in March of...
Responding to the Economic Crisis: Choosing Faith Over Fear
Chronic worry betrays something significant about Christ-followers--we don't really believe in the sustaining power of God in Jesus Christ. It shows we are "practical atheists" who say we believe in God, but when the...
We R Here
I love the text – of whatever biblical passage I’m studying – but I don’t love texting. Maybe one day I will convert, but at present my thumbs, my brain, and my older cell phone keypad just don’t work fast enough to...
Little Rock to Host Event on Baptists and Racism
"Beneath the Skin: Baptists and Racism" will screen Tuesday, Dec. 2, at Second Baptist Church in downtown Little Rock from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The free event also features the participation of several well-known figures....
Anti-Christian Violence Spreads in India
Washington, D.C. (BWA) -- Baptist leaders in the southern state of Karnataka in India have informed the Baptist World Alliance that persecution is on the rise in that state. A Baptist leader informed the BWA by...
Experiencing Burnout
Even leaders who have experienced God's providence and power in amazing and unmistakable ways can give in to periods of fear, despair and darkness. Mike Yaconelli was involved in Christian ministry for over 40 years....
Forgiving John Lennon
One can't justify what Lennon said. If you read the apology he issued in a later interview, you get the sense that he didn't see what all the furor was about and it may be that, in a way and in regards to some people,...
The caboose of Christianity
We all have our blind spots. Clarity often comes only from the perspective of hindsight.That’s what leaders of Bob Jones University confessed in apologizing for the independent, fundamentalist Christian school’s past...
So You Want to Be a Preacher
I never took a class in preaching; I don't remember anyone talking to me about preaching; I am sure I did not read anything about preaching. Given this, it is a wonder that anybody had the grit to sit through one of my...
Church Leaders Urge U.S. President to Take Action on Anti-Christian Violence in India
Washington, D.C. (BWA) -- Several church leaders in the United States have written to U.S. President George W. Bush to protest the outbreak of violence against Christians in India, urging him "to hold the Indian...