Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Huckabee, Romney Top Straw Polls for ‘Values Voters’
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was the overwhelming favorite in a straw poll taken on site at Friday and Saturday's Washington values voter summit, but Internet voting by supporters of Mitt Romney made...
Does Fred Thompson Worship at the Church of Civil Religion?
Fred Thompson exemplifies civil religion--religion that honors the nonspecific idea of the little "g" God and requires nothing more than a nod in political speeches. Civil religion is the opposite of authentic...
Mammon at the Malls, Part 2
When Jesus uses the word Mammon, he gives it a nearly demonic connotation--or at least a spiritual connotation distinct from simply "cash"--that sets it up as an alternative to God in a way that Caesar, for example,...
Atlanta hotel fire claimed, changed lives
A beautiful, new boutique hotel called The Ellis on Peachtree has just opened in downtown Atlanta, across from the Ritz Carlton. I recall walking along famous Peachtree Street in 1994 and noticing a newly erected...
Facing the darkness
While driving to work on Thursday, my pre-dawn progress came to a standstill in a foggy bottom just south of a one-stop-light town not known for its traffic jams.The fog and the darkness apparently contributed to a...
Moderate Baptist Leader Says SBC Neglecting the Hungry
The one-time director of hunger concerns for the Southern Baptist Convention said a downturn in giving to an annual hunger offering indicates the nation's largest Protestant denomination has turned its back on the...
Presidential Candidates Risk Spiritual Smack Downs When Visiting Baptist Leader
Unless presidential candidates want a spiritual smack down, they should avoid talking to Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page, who failed to retain the pastoral confidentiality of two conversations and then...
House Sustains Veto of Children’s Insurance Bill
Faith leaders called Thursday's House of Representatives vote upholding President Bush's veto of a children's health insurance bill a defeat for America's children and win for tobacco. The House of Representatives...
‘Trust us’ is not enough
An updated and expanded version of Mary Kinney Branson’s Spending God’s Money: Extravagance and Misuse in the Name of Ministry is out this month. Originally published in January 2007, the book details the freewheeling...
Presidential Contenders Scramble to Get God Right
When it comes to the desired degree of religiosity in presidential candidates, most voters are like Goldilocks tasting bowls of porridge: Not too hot, not too cold, but just right. Of course, what is "just right" in...
European Baptist Leader Urges Support for Imprisoned Baptist Pastor in Azerbaijan
A European Baptist leader renewed calls to pressure Azerbaijan to release an imprisoned Baptist minister after a court rejected an appeal of his two-year prison sentence Oct. 3. Tony Peck, general secretary of the...
SBC President Says He Offered to Pray with Giuliani to Accept Christ
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention says he offered to pray with Rudy Giuliani to accept Christ as his savior, but the Republican presidential candidate declined. Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church...
Work for green, or wait for gold?
Should Christians be at the forefront of the ecological bandwagon, promoting care for the earth because we care about the people who depend on it? Or should we focus solely on souls and not worry about the earth...
Mammon at the Malls
Despite popular parlance, consumerism is not a problem of how much one consumes. No, it is a problem of why one consumes: that is, in a consumerist society like ours, we buy things to tell others, and ourselves, who we...
Former Southern Baptist Pastor Charged with Rape, Sexual Battery of Teenage Boy
A former Southern Baptist pastor in Cordova, Tenn., has been indicted on charges of rape and sexual battery by an authority figure involving a teenage boy. Last week a grand jury handed down criminal indictments...
Who’s On Jesus’ Side in Mississippi?
His momma read him Bible stories at bed time and rocked him to sleep singing the old hymn "In the Garden." He gave his life to Christ at age 8 and walked where Jesus did at age 9. Thirty-years later, he stood on the...
Can’t ‘celebrate life’ too much
On a recent Sunday morning at Highland Hills Baptist Church in Macon, Ga., an ensemble of about two dozen adults performed Celebrate Life! The classic musical by Buryl Red and Ragan Courtney, published in 1972, has...
Huckabee Says Christian Right Leaders Value Power More Than Principle
Heading into a major forum this weekend for "values voters," Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee complained that some Christian leaders haven't endorsed him because they "are more intoxicated with power...
Barack Obama Says Global Warming a Faith Issue
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said global warming isn't just a matter for politics and science but also an issue of morality and faith. "The Bible tells us that when God created the earth, he entrusted...
Poor Children Victims of Multiple Marginalization
In September 2006, I was asked to lead a Bible study on children and poverty for the all-staff gathering of National Ministries (American Baptist Churches, U.S.A.) The purpose of the study was to help staff explore the...
Jezebel still making news
A Dutch scholar argued recently that a large opal signet in the Israel Museum was the official seal of the infamous Queen Jezebel. Could it be true?Jezebel, according to a series of stories in 1-2 Kings, was a...