Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
How the mighty have fallen!
When King Saul and his son Jonathan died on Mount Gilboa following a battle with the Philistines, David wept and cried "How the mighty have fallen!" The Philistines themselves might have said the same thing a few years...
Tennessee Democratic Head Says Progressive Religious Voices Drowned Out By Religious Right
The chairman of Tennessee's Democratic Party says it's time that progressive religious voices stop being drowned out by the Religious Right. "We need to start making our voices heard again," Gray Sasser, a Nashville...
No Clergy Endorsements for Thompson Create Religion-Free Zone Campaign
Why aren't Christian Right leaders endorsing Fred Thompson? They are certainly backing his competitors for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, even those who are alien to their moral and doctrinal...
Baptist Women in Ministry Sponsors Day for Women to Preach
Baptist Women in Ministry is hoping to nearly double participation in a second annual day for women to preach in Baptist churches early next year. Fifty-five churches reported taking part in February's inaugural Martha...
Tennessee Democratic Head Says Progressive Religious Voices Drowned Out By Religious Right
The chairman of Tennessee's Democratic Party says it's time that progressive religious voices stop being drowned out by the Religious Right. "We need to start making our voices heard again," Gray Sasser, a Nashville...
Lessons from jury duty
Americans fulfill their civic responsibilities in two ways, voting and jury duty, said the court clerk to the pool of potential jurors gathered in a courthouse waiting room on a cool, windy Monday morning last week....
BCE Letter to ‘Left Behind’ Lawyer, Who Threatened Lawsuit, Returned Undelivered
A lawyer claiming to represent the developer of video games based on Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' "Left Behind" novels refused to accept a certified letter from the Baptist Center for Ethics answering allegations that...
SBC Mission Board Suspends Trustee for Blogging Dissent
The Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board has censured a trustee for writing about trustee business in a Web log that board leaders said reflected poorly on fellow board members and violated a policy...
A Crisis of Faith
Since the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, conservative evangelicals have served as a formidable political force. Comprising over one the third of the electorate, evangelicals voting in concert have faithfully delivered...
BCE Letter to ‘Left Behind’ Lawyer, Who Threatened Lawsuit, Returned Undelivered
A lawyer claiming to represent the developer of video games based on Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' "Left Behind" novels refused to accept a certified letter from the Baptist Center for Ethics answering allegations that...
SBC Mission Board Suspends Trustee for Blogging Dissent
The Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board has censured a trustee for writing about trustee business in a Web log that board leaders said reflected poorly on fellow board members and violated a policy...
A Crisis of Faith
Since the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, conservative evangelicals have served as a formidable political force. Comprising over one the third of the electorate, evangelicals voting in concert have faithfully delivered...
IMB trustees censure Burleson for talking
Trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board (IMB) voted Nov. 6 to censure a board member for violating new rules designed to silence public dissent. The vote was taken behind closed doors...
British Baptists Go ‘On Our Knees’ to Raise Awareness of Ministry to Children
Baptists in the United Kingdom last Sunday took part in a second "On Our Knees" emphasis aimed at turning around a dramatic decline in the number of children attending Baptist churches. After discovering that contact...
BWAid Gives to Flood Victims In Mexico
(BWA) Baptist World Aid has sent an initial sum of $10,000 to aid victims of flooding in Mexico. The floods, rising to as high as 19 feet, occurred last week when the Grijalva River burst its banks in Tabasco in...
Finding Good News in Jena
Last month I watched the events in Jena, La., unfold with particular interest. Jena is hometown to one of my aunts. I have friends from college and in Louisiana life who grew up in Jena and who have family living there...
BWAid Gives to Flood Victims In Mexico
(BWA) Baptist World Aid has sent an initial sum of $10,000 to aid victims of flooding in Mexico.The floods, rising to as high as 19 feet, occurred last week when the GrijalvaRiver burst its banks in Tabasco in southern...
Finding Good News in Jena
Last month I watched the events in Jena, La., unfold with particular interest. Jena is hometown to one of my aunts. I have friends from college and in Louisiana life who grew up in Jena and who have family living there...
Sexual Abuse Scandal Hits Prominent Southern Baptist Church in Florida
A prominent Southern Baptist church in Florida once picketed by homosexual groups for its opposition to gay marriage is now in headlines for the arrest of a volunteer youth minister accused of sexually abusing teenage...
BCE Leader Warns Arkansas Teachers of Efforts to Undermine Public Schools
The head of the Baptist Center for Ethics warned teachers in Arkansas that some religious leaders want to harm public schools. "If you want to know what Southern Baptist Convention leaders really think about public...
Seekers After Less Than God
A story that appeared recently in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution set me to thinking about the ethics of attending church as a "seeker." It seems that a couple was involved in an automobile accident in Henry County,...