Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Seeing Our Sin
I remember talking with two friends before the fall of the Soviet Union telling them I believed the U.S.S.R. would start to crumble and would no longer exist within five years. They thought I had lost my mind. Our...
Of carts and horses
The undergraduate program that successfully boosted enrollment at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary has a new name: instead of "Southeastern College at Wake Forest," which had caused some confusion about...
Fundamentalists on the Left and Right
Chris Hedges has lived an interesting life so far. He is a graduate of Harvard divinity school and once considered a career in the ministry. He eventually ended up in journalism where he served for two decades as a...
Academic Freedom Sometimes Neither Academic nor Freedom
When the Christian Right begins advocating freedom in public classrooms, practice the time-honored discipline of moral discernment. Listen carefully. Think cautiously. Remember that the Right's past agenda is the best...
Sudan Church Unites
WASHINGTON(BWA) The Sudan Interior Church North and Sudan Interior Church South have reunited to form one convention.First constituted in 1963, the Sudan Interior Church (SIC) divided during the Second Sudanese Civil...
Link Between Global Warming and Poverty Focus of Earth Day Sunday
Church members across America will hear sermons this Sunday on climate change on Earth Day Sunday, which is celebrated in houses of worship on the weekend closest to Earth Day on April 22. Each year the National...
Papal authority and ours
Pope Benedict XVI spent his 81st birthday in our nation's capital yesterday. He received lots of warm wishes from the faithful who gathered to see and hear him.I wish him well on his mission of peace and hope.Such...
“21”
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a genius. At the top of his class at MIT, his mind can add, subtract, multiply and divide large numbers. He wants to attend Harvard Medical School, but there's a problem: money. "21"...
Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injections
A fragmented United States Supreme Court ruled 7-2 Wednesday that a three-drug protocol most commonly used for lethal injections does not violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Just two...
Baptist Pastor Reflects on One-Year Anniversary of Virginia Tech Shootings
Virginia Tech cancelled classes Wednesday for a Day of Remembrance to honor 32 students and faculty killed a year ago in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.The 32 flags representing each victim that flew...
Chi Rho — fantastico!
Good news is for sharing. So are good experiences, or new discoveries.There's nothing really new about Chi Rho, a Christian men's a cappella ensemble made of up students at Wake Forest University. They've been around...
Churches Use ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ as Teaching Tool
There's a valuable teaching tool for pastors and religious educators willing to take a little political risk: Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," say two congregational leaders who have shown the film in Baptist...
World Bank Official Warns Rising Food Costs Could Push 100 Million Into Poverty
Surging food prices could push 100 million deeper into poverty, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Sunday at the close of the International Money Fund-World Bank spring meetings in Washington. "Based on a very...
God’s Kingdom is a Kingdom of Peace
At the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, Jesus makes nine statements that would be enough to offer us a guide to living the way God would have us live even if they were the only extant words of Jesus...
Whatever happened to KJV only?
An article from Christian Post notes that the "New International Version of the Bible is by far the most preferred translation of the Scripture, according to a new survey of U.S. evangelical leaders."The 30-year-old...
SBC President Exaggerates Credit for Reducing AIDS in Uganda
CNN's Campbell Brown correctly identified "True Love Waits" as an abstinence program in Sunday's Compassion Forum with the Democratic presidential candidates focusing on faith issues. But she failed to challenge the...
“Lord, Save Us From Your Followers”
"Why is the gospel of love dividing America?" That question fuels the provocative new documentary "Lord, Save Us From Your Followers," from Oregon-based filmmakers Dan Merchant and Jeff Martin. Merchant (who wrote,...
Christian Right’s Support for Torture Sends Tortured Message About What Christians Believe
James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, has criticized Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's opposition to the U.S. government's use of torture. That's right. Supporting torture appears to be an...
Facts Don’t Back Up SBC Leader’s Non-Partisan Claim
A Southern Baptist spokesman who once asked the Republican Party for a "wedding ring" for the Religious Right accused a recent North American gathering of Baptists of being too partisan. Richard Land, president of the...
Corporate America Goes Green, Will Pulpits Follow?
The March issue of Delta Airlines' in-flight magazine has a green theme. An SUV, the 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, is being sold as the green car of the year. BASF, a chemical company, brags about its breakthrough product:...
Celebrating With Brothers and Sisters
The Baptist General Convention of Missouri held our annual meeting recently at Fee Fee Baptist Church in St. Louis. Fee Fee is the oldest Protestant church still in existence west of the Mississippi River. The church...