Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Erby’s gone; hot dogs not the same
The funeral service for Erby Walker will be held at St. Paul AME Church in Atlanta tomorrow. The longtime counterman at the famed Varsity drive-in died of a heart attack on Monday at the young age of 70 according to...
How America Lost Its Soul
It was a noble experiment; risky but worth the risk. Human beings have inalienable rights, Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence. A declaration of human rights. Of course, there were glaring omissions....
Southern Baptist Scholar Links Spouse Abuse to Wives’ Refusal to Submit to Their Husbands
One reason that men abuse their wives is because women rebel against their husband's God-given authority, a Southern Baptist scholar said Sunday in a Texas church. Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at...
Is It Now OK for Presbyterians to Demonize Jews?
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has a problem with me. Well, not with me personally, but with my people. No, not white men in their late 50s who still read comic books; Jews, most of whom are not white, or in their...
By their fruits
I'm a big fan of summer, mainly because it's the season of fresh fruit. In these days of truck farms, long-haul transport, and supermarkets, you can buy most any fruit year round, but there's something special about...
Professor Says ‘Stewards of Knowledge’ Wasted Resource in Churches
People sitting in church pews with knowledge about complicated social issues but who use it only to enrich themselves are a wasted resource for the Kingdom of God, a former tax lawyer turned fair-tax activist told a...
“Mission Accomplished” Now A Reality
Though his staged photo-op on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in San Diego harbor was about five years premature, the "Mission Accomplished" banner unfurled behind President Bush has now come true....
Talking Back to the Pulpit
Churches in the African-American tradition are familiar with "talking back." This give-and-take between the pulpit and pew offers immediate and affirming feedback with "that's right," "come on now" and "preach it" in...
Get Smart
Upon returning from the recent Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Memphis, a friend called to give this reflection that must have surfaced during the flight home."I know why we (moderates) lost the...
Dobson Breaks Silence on Presidential Race; Blasts Obama; Challenges McCain
After four months on the sidelines since endorsing Mike Huckabee for president in February, Focus on the Family Founder James Dobson came out swinging in a special radio broadcast accusing presumptive Democratic...
Baptist Press Misleads Its Readers with False Subheading
Baptist Press falsely labeled a Baptist Center for Ethics' DVD screening at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's annual meeting last week in Memphis with an inaccurate subheading and lead in a news story, leading one...
Top Ten Questions Never To Ask a Hispanic Who Is Visiting Your Church
Over the years I have had the pleasure of visiting many predominant Euro-American churches. Without fail, some well-meaning person would usually approach me and ask a question that literally left me speechless. Sadly,...
Who’s telling news from CBF
I confess to being disappointed about something during the the recent Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting in Memphis. During my almost nine years as editor of the Biblical Recorder, I enjoyed the camaraderie with...
American Baptist Leader Advocates ‘Respect’ for Minorities
An American Baptist leader encouraged the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to become "more Baptist" by standing alongside the "resistance and resolve" of minorities." To live with the minority experience is to live with...
Second Baptist Pastor Jailed in Small Town in Azerbaijan
Three months after Azerbaijan, under international pressure, released a Baptist pastor imprisoned on questionable grounds, a second Baptist church leader in the same small village has been jailed on what family members...
The Cross Must Again Become the Focal Image of Christianity
What does it mean to be Christian? The word, as far as we know, is first used in Acts 11:26, when the disciples are called Christians at Antioch. The term itself means one who follows Christ. But in our modern society,...
Warning: Heed warnings
For years I have half-listened to flight attendants warn that, in the event an aircraft should lose cabin pressure, oxygen masks will descend from the compartment above. The warning is always followed by an...
Holocaust Is Wrong Analogy for SBC Takeover
The Holocaust is a singular event of 20th-century social evil that should not be watered down by flawed analogies to other moral wrongs. Defective analogies trivialize genocide and the suffering of survivors. Goodwill...
Great Preachers Wear Dresses
What do Karen Armstrong, Kathleen Norris and Anne Rice have in common? Actually, they share several similarities. They are all white women born in the 1940s who have been heavily influenced by the Catholic tradition...
Protecting a ‘Way of Life’
So the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Bill foundered in Congress. Everyone knew it would stall and fail. What's the big deal? For many American Christians, the deal is not that it failed but that their freedoms are...
Sights and sites from CBF Memphis
Here are a few images from the second day of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting in Memphis, along with a couple of local points of interest.In a business session Friday morning, participants unanimously...