Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
How Should a Congregation Respond to an Economic Recession?
Rosh Hashanah is the season wherein Jews are supposed to have great resolve and great hope. There are too many negative forces that tell us that we cannot do it. There are too many excuses for not being the type of...
Attack on Mosque Possibly Linked to Distribution of Controversial Anti-Muslim Film
Muslim leaders in Dayton, Ohio, said they don't know why anyone would disrupt a Friday night Ramadan service by spraying an unknown irritant into a mosque and forcing about 300 worshippers out of the building and into...
Bailouts, billions, and a word of perspective
I couldn't help but be struck by the contrast between two recent news stories. On the one hand, the U.S. Congress seems poised to spend up to $700 billion on a bailout plan to rescue American banks (and their...
Evangelical Statement Favors Proselytizing Over Dialogue With Jews
A widely circulated document by a study commission of a worldwide evangelical alliance has raised eyebrows with its call to abandon Christian-Jewish dialogue and instead seek to evangelize European Jews. The World...
Answering the Attack of the New Atheists
Atheists and theists, the God-despisers and the God-fearers, the faithless and faithful, are locked in combat over public opinion. For a long time, atheists were seen at best as wacky, thanks to Madalyn Murray O'Hair....
Doctors of insurrection
The online Chronicle of Higher Education (which requires a subscription) is reporting that protesters against the government of Thailand have been raising funds, in part, by selling $3 diplomas for a doctoral degree in...
Who Would Jesus Torture?
Would Jesus condone torture if it yielded information that might prevent a terrorist attack? Anyone who has studied the life and teachings of Jesus closely, really thought about the red-letter parts of the New...
Baptist Relief Agency Labels World Hunger Crisis a ‘Daily Disaster’
While Baptist World Aid observes World Hunger Month during October, the world's hunger crisis is a daily disaster. This year's awareness campaign seeks to drive home that point with the worldwide Baptist community...
What Should Faith Leaders Say and Do about the American Economic Crisis?
President Bush told an anxious and angry American public on Wednesday that the nation faced "a serious financial crisis." In a structurally sound speech devoid of poetry and short on hope, Bush said that "these are not...
The downside to early rising
Going to school never bothered me. Getting up to go to school was always a challenge. Even as a college student, making an 8:00 AM class — just steps from the dorm — was not an easy task.But aging does strange things...
“Ghost Town”
Not everyone is a "people person." Take Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais). He's a dentist, and he likes the fact that dental implements keep people from talking. With an office next to his apartment building, he merely...
The Axis of Incompetence
There is an axis of incompetence that runs from New York to Washington, from Wall Street to the White House. All they know how to manage are elections. The administrators, bankers and consultants who, along with the...
Critics of Christianity in China Don’t Get It
China gets hammered again in the annual report on international religious freedom, as they do every year. Having visited (not as a tourist) churches in cities and villages in 21 of China's provinces I have to admit...
Pentecostals, prophets, and Palin
So much has been written about Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin that she'll be a celebrity for many years, whether she gets elected or not. Two months ago, the number of people outside of Alaska who...
The Southern Baptist Convention is not a Cult, We Just Sometimes Act Like We Are
Over this past weekend, the most read article on Foxnews.com was entitled "Magazines Featuring Female Pastors Pulled From Shelves, 'Treated Like Pornography.'" The online article revealed that LifeWay Christian...
The Truth Is That White Evangelicals Are Not Shifting to Obama
Evangelicals are not shifting to presidential candidate Barack Obama, according to a new survey from a prominent political scientist who shared his results last week at the annual convention of the Religion Newswriters...
SBC Leadership Not Interested in Rejoining Baptist World Alliance
The Southern Baptist Convention, which four years ago withdrew from the Baptist World Alliance over theological and relational differences, isn't likely to return to the fold any time soon, the denomination's leaders...
Politics in black and white
Much speculation has arisen over how much race will play into the presidential election. Surveys show that even a significant number (around 40 percent) of white Democrats admit to some negative feelings toward...
Stupid Bible Tricks
I've been a professor of Old Testament for 16 years now, and in my profession you run into some very strange and, often, ridiculous interpretations of the Bible. I decided I would do a series called "Stupid Bible...
Has Sports Become a Religion in America?
Most religions focus on one god, one deity, or one central spiritual leader.Unfortunately, the First Commandment is broken more than we realize. Any time we give anything, anyone, any idea, philosophy or way of life a...
Jail Term Prolonged for Baptist Pastor in Azerbaijan
A Baptist pastor in Azerbaijan must remain in jail for at least two more months while a criminal investigation against him continues, a court ruled Aug. 22. But supporters of imprisoned pastor Hamid Shabanov welcomed...