Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
BWA Hears Reports of Injustice in the West Bank, Plight of Baptists in Darfur
Baptist World Alliance's Freedom and Justice Commission participants spoke candidly about what they had experience in visits to the West Bank, voiced deep concern about the treatment of Palestinians and discussed the...
Rick Warren Says Pastors Shouldn’t Endorse Candidates
"Purpose-Driven Life" author Rick Warren, who supported President Bush on the eve of the 2004 election, now says pastors should not endorse political candidates. "I don't support anybody for president publicly," the...
BWA Hears Reports of Injustice in the West Bank, Plight of Baptists in Darfur
Baptist World Alliance's Freedom and Justice Commission participants spoke candidly about what they had experience in visits to the West Bank, voiced deep concern about the treatment of Palestinians and discussed the...
Church Must Go on the Offensive Against Violence
The church shooting last Sunday in Knoxville, Tenn., was a nightmare I have long feared. Churches, like schools, are easy targets for madmen wishing to inflict harm on defenseless people. Since the church shooting in...
Does worship need deconstructing?
Worship and the so-called "worship wars" were on the agenda during the Baptist International Conference on Theological Education, held in Prague July 27-29. The banner at right hangs in the chapel of the International...
Goodwill Baptists Share Common Future with Goodwill Muslims
When Indonesian Muslims were making intimidating phone calls and threatening churches in 1998, Muslim women at an Islamic boarding school guarded the wife of a Baptist pastor when her husband was out of the country...
Translating Big Daddy: Rules for the Campaign Trail
Leading up to the 2006 mid-term elections when the Democratic Party regained majorities in both the House and Senate I was on the phone one evening with my friend, Christine Pelosi, when she asked me to share with her...
Professor’s Views on Spouse Abuse Don’t Square With SBC Statements
Recent comments by a Southern Baptist seminary professor that abused women are at least in part to blame if they refuse to submit to their husband's God-given authority don't square with official teachings of his...
The pastor deserves bonus pay if…
Certain situations may make the pastorate an even more challenging experience. I have never been a full-fledged pastor but get to play one on occasion. From my observations, here are a couple of responses to the...
Baptist Leaders Urge Support for FDA Regulation of Tobacco
The House of Representatives could vote as early as this week on legislation that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products. "Our nation's leaders have a moral obligation...
SBC Leader Misstates Environmental Impact of Oil Wells
While promoting more domestic drilling for oil, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has repeatedly offered false claims about the environmental...
Church as Family
What do you think of when you hear the term church?As a child, I thought of a specific building, a small sanctuary at the intersection of two roads in the heart of my boyhood village. The building even had its name...
What if we knew?
What if we knew that more people are held in slavery today than at any time in recorded history? Some say as many as 27 million.What if we knew that many thousands of girls and women are bought or stolen or tricked or...
Dominion, or stewardship?
Participants in the seventh Baptist International Conference on Theological Education focused on practical – but often neglected – theological issues during a lengthy morning session July 28. About 135 educators and...
What makes a good theological education?
Participants in a Baptist International Conference on Theological Education – most of them theological educators – engaged in some self-reflection during their Sunday afternoon session at the International Baptist...
Global Baptists Voice Fear, Call for Positive Dialogue with Muslims Religious Leaders
When some Indonesian Muslims were looting, demonstrating, making intimidating phone calls and threatening churches in 1998, Muslim women at an Islamic boarding school protected the wife of a Baptist pastor when he was...
BWA Leaders Pledge to Tackle Climate Change, Address Zimbabwe
Baptist World Alliance leaders repeatedly addressed the issue of climate change last week at their annual gathering in Prague, Czech Republic, even extending deliberations in the final session to strengthen a...
Religious Doctrine Must Not Serve as a Weapon
When I was in seminary, the institution I attended experienced a radical shift to the far right. During those days I witnessed a theological battle that still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. On one particularly rough...
What makes a Baptist?
The Prague-blogs continue, now from the seventh Baptist International Conference on Theological Education (BICTE), which got underway Saturday afternoon on the campus of the International Baptist Theological Seminay...
Newsblog: BWA looks inward, outward
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC -- The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) acted July 24-25 to restructure its Executive Committee, approved a 2009 budget of nearly $3 million, and adopted a variety of...
History, Faith and Politics
The decades between 1970 and 2020 will eventually be seen as one of the most significant periods of our history, especially in regard to the interplay between politics and religion. And the 2008 presidential campaign...