Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
An Early Baptist Woman in Ministry: Frances E. Townsley
Baptist women have been ministering in congregations for as long as Baptist churches have existed. Prior to the 1870s, some Baptist women provided strong leadership in their churches, others supplied pastoral care for...
Taxation and Justice
Taxes are a fact of life and an issue of faith--and I would argue--one of the most important issues of faith we face today. So what can we say about the ethics of tax policy from a Christian perspective? From a...
Southern Baptist Leader Questions Moderates’ Credibility on Women’s Ordination
A Southern Baptist seminary president says a new study about women in ministry raises questions about the credibility of moderates who claim women's ordination is a wedge issue separating them from fundamentalists in...
The John Hagee Filter
Although Internet filters can give parents more control over what their children see online, the filters can also inaccurately block legitimate and clean Web sites. For instance, once I was attempting to find some...
The Sorrow of Survival
The Krehs are a dear German family that lived and served with us for three years. They told me that people congratulated them on returning on time from Lebanon before the start of the war. Although this family is...
Magazine Starts Blog Critical of Public Schools
At a time of the year when many parents are beginning to send their children back to school, homeschool mother Gena Suarez is doing all she can to convince parents to keep them at home. Suarez, who with her husband,...
Pat Robertson Laments Cease Fire
Five days after praying with Israel's prime minister for Hezbollah's defeat, American religious broadcaster Pat Robertson on Monday declared that a U.N.-brokered cease fire rendered the bloody month-long conflict...
Staying On Message With Jesus
A group calling themselves Conservative Christians of Alabama was recently encouraged by their leader to "intimidate" the city council of Huntsville. That word, "intimidate," is the word they used. It may seem odd to...
CBF Cries Foul Over Baptist Press Reporting
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship cried foul over two news stories in Baptist Press questioning the way the moderate breakaway group counts churches and criticizing CBF-supported theology schools. One Friday story in...
Religious Right Sets Focus on GOP Control of Congress
Two years after receiving credit for energizing a voting bloc important to the re-election of President George W. Bush, leaders of the Religious Right are now turning attention to helping Republicans retain control of...
Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate
It is estimated that more than 900,000 Lebanese have been displaced within Lebanon by the recent conflict. More than half a million have fled to mountain areas, with about one third sheltering in schools and public...
The Grocery Store Church: How to Pay Attention
After multiple church-growth classes and two shelves of church-renewal books I've decided churches need to take some lessons from the local grocery store. Whether we like it or not the mainstream church is not the...
BCE Produces Global Poverty DVD
The Baptist Center for Ethics is releasing a new DVD designed to educate, equip and empower Baptists to address cooperatively global poverty. The DVD and its companion online study guide explore the biblical witness...
Where are the Centrist Baptist Bloggers?
Bloggers are shaping public opinion. Evidence abounds that Web loggers have developed some muscle. Evidence abounds that Web loggers have developed some muscle. They are credited with helping to defeat Sen. Joe...
‘Mildly Pro-Choice’ View Notwithstanding, SBC Leaders Embrace Condi Rice
A Southern Baptist Convention publication's interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice includes discussion of administration policies promoting a "culture of life" but avoids mention of her own position on...
Drought and Blessing
Recent showers will make it possible for us to mow the yard again this weekend. And the hayfield out by the county hospital has been cut for the second crop of hay this summer. Usually, a third cutting has already been...
Franklin Graham Bashes ‘Godless’ Schools
A Kentucky educator criticized evangelist Franklin Graham for bashing public schools in a letter promoting a program aimed at equipping youth to share their faith. Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham...
A People’s Writer For All Peoples And All Times
In more than 50 years of studying and reading Chinese no writer has captured my imagination as much as Lao She, the penname of Shu Qingchun. (Lao She is pronounced so the Lao rhymes with "how," and the She almost like...
Homeschooling Proponent Sends ‘Message’ to SBC President
A leading Southern Baptist advocate of homeschooling urged a growing network to "send a clear message" to the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention that the homeschooling community "exists and is watching."...
I Choose to Hope for Congo
At the church I attended in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, we sometimes sang a song called, "Hakuna Mungu Kama Wewe," a Kiswahili title that means, "There is No God Like You." Each verse is sung in one of...
Baptists Question Why Ceasefire Took So Long, Look toward Relief Efforts
Baptist leaders questioned why the United Nations' Security Council took so long to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, as they looked toward the post-war humanitarian crisis and...