Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Sale of Missouri Baptist Building Nixed by County
Voters in Cole County, Missouri, voted by a 3-to-1 margin against a sales tax to fund a new jail in Jefferson City, voiding the pending sale of the Missouri Baptist Convention headquarters building. The final...
Alabama Lieutenant Governor Talks About Success
Alabama Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley advised Judson College students that success in life is almost always preceded by obstacles and difficulties. "Before we enter the open doors, we must have open hearts and open minds,"...
‘Constantine’ Movie Stuffs Comic With Christianity
The new movie "Constantine," based on the Hellblazer comic book, derives its drama—and special effects—from life's most central questions and themes. But don't expect a theological treatise or an in-depth exploration...
Newt Gingrich Defends ‘Traditional’ Marriage
Ten years after leading the "Republican revolution" that won control of Congress, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is back as an arbiter of public morality. Gingrich's new book, Winning The Future: A 21st...
Actor Keanu Reeves Tight-Lipped About Religion
In the upcoming movie "Constantine," actor Keanu Reeves plays a man who can see demons as they walk the earth and bait human souls. While a role laced with religious themes isn't anything new to Reeves, he's not...
Preaching Anger
It happened again just recently. I sat in church and listened as the morning's preacher vented anger and frustration toward some unspecified complainers and troublemakers in the church. Reactions afterward were the...
Yard Dogs
Terry Billings is one of those fellows who has never done anything part way. He is known as a "full speed ahead" kind of man. He is this way about his business--meat processing and restaurant. He is this way about his...
A Time for Traveling Light
The biblical account of the exodus of the Israelites from the bondage of the Egyptians provides a most interesting survival technique that may be appropriate for modern-day America. The clue is found in the book of...
SBC Leaders Lend Influence to Expose of Public Schools
Fundamentalist leaders Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler are endorsing a book written by the catalyst for a failed effort to get the Southern Baptist Convention to pass a resolution calling for a mass exodus from...
Faith Is Not a Lonely Hunter
A reader chided me recently for promoting what he called a social gospel. It's a complaint I have heard before. The social gospel is the idea that the church should make social applications of the teaching of Jesus...
Politically Correct Moral Values Or Handy Slogans?
Anyone who has read my musing over the last few years knows my deep skepticism regarding going to war in Iraq. Nothing has convinced me it was a very wise or necessary thing to do. No facts have come forward to prove...
BWA Day Set for Feb. 6
Baptist churches across America will observe this Sunday as Baptist World Alliance Day, the first annual observance to occur since the Southern Baptist Convention voted to sever ties with the group last June. BWA...
Southern Baptists Pray for Conversion of Tsunami Victims
Amid controversy over outside groups using relief efforts to proselytize, the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board set Thursday aside as a day of prayer and fasting for the tsunami-stricken Aceh...
LaHaye Says U.N. ‘Independent of God’
The United Nations functions "independent of God" and has failed in its main purpose of preventing war, "Left Behind" author Tim LaHaye said Tuesday on CNN. LaHaye, named this week by Time Magazine as one of the 25...
Does Barry Lynn Read a Small Bible?
Barry Lynn unfairly lumped James Dobson and Jim Wallis together this week, asserting that both were pressuring politicians to make public policy decisions based on the Bible. "Religious advocates of all stripes are...
Bush Appeals to Conservatives in State of the Union Speech
Between dominant themes of plans to reform Social Security and continue to fight terrorism, President George W. Bush touched on themes dear to social conservatives in his 2005 State of the Union address Wednesday...
BFA Fraud Trial Postponed Till August
Officials of the now defunct Baptist Foundation of Arizona, accused of bilking investors out of $570 million, won't stand trial in February. A judge in late December postponed until Aug. 3 the trial for four...
Morality Isn’t Guaranteed By Politics in Jesus’ Name
As the emotions from the 2004 election recede, it is time to contemplate its meaning. There is a multitude of exit poll data to examine, but here is a set of numbers that caught my eye. --Persons who say they attend...
When the Bible Is Used For Hate
Are you ready, kids? Whoooo lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBob SquarePants! Absorbent and yellow and porous is he. SpongeBob SquarePants! But wait, this silly frolicking sponge is really a sexual pervert...
Reading the Old Testament After the Tsunami
Noted Southern Baptist educator Henry Blackaby has claimed that the tsunami showed God acting to defend His people (Christians) against their South Asian persecutors. "If you read the Old Testament, especially, God is...
Wal-Mart Broadens Definition of ‘Immediate Family’
Long known for promoting its image as a family friendly business, Wal-Mart has broadened its own definition of "immediate family" to include some same-sex couples. According to news reports, Wal-Mart disclosed its...