Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Newspaper Endorses Baptist Publisher’s Opponent in State Senate Race
The Macon Telegraph has taken sides in a Georgia State Senate race billed as a battle between two Baptist ministers. The newspaper on Friday endorsed Ben Taylor, a staff member at First Baptist Church in Macon, over...
Art for God: An Interview With Stephen Sawyer
In 1975, Stephen Sawyer graduated from the University of Kentucky with an advertising degree. His future, however, didn't lie in creating ad slogans or slick copy. Rather, it lay in painting images of Jesus—images like...
Henlee Barnette Remembered as ‘Unashamed Baptist Radical’
LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Colleagues, students, family and friends remembered Baptist ethics pioneer Henlee Barnette as an "unashamed Baptist radical" at a funeral service in Louisville, Ky. Barnette, 93, died last week. He...
Moderate Baptists Split Over ‘Purpose Driven’ Phenomenon
Rick Warren's 40 Days of Purpose phenomenon transcends denominations, appealing to Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Pentecostals; blacks, whites and Hispanics. It is even used in prisons. One exception to the...
Rick Warren Going Global in 2005
When Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren, 25 years old and fresh out of seminary, started Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., with his wife, Kay, they made a 40-year commitment to the community. His long-range...
For Whom Would Jesus Vote?
The great revelation of this election year is that God and his son are partisan political junkies. The second great revelation is the certainty of some people about the political leanings of Jesus. In Carrboro, N.C.,...
Joel
When Joel Sonnenberg was 22 months old, a car accident at a New Hampshire toll booth burned him severely. More than 85 percent of his body suffered third-degree burns. That was Sept. 15, 1979. He's also an author,...
Day of Prayer Rallies Christian Support for Israel
More than 7 million Christians are believed to have participated last Sunday in an annual show of prayer support and solidarity for Israel. "Israelis haven't had a lot to celebrate lately, but when we see Christian...
Life After Beverly Hills 90210
Her decision defies logic and flies in the face of cultural expectations. She left a life of privilege in Beverly Hills to live in a 10-foot concrete cell with no hot water at La Mesa prison in Tijuana, Mexico. Her...
Henlee Barnette Funeral Scheduled for Monday
Funeral services for Baptist ethics pioneer Henlee Barnette are scheduled Monday in Louisville, Ky. Barnette, 93, died Wednesday at his home in Louisville. Born Aug. 14, 1911, in Taylorsville, N.C., Barnette's ministry...
Pat Robertson Says Bush Ignored His Warning About Casualties in Iraq
Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson said on CNN that he warned George W. Bush about casualties before going to war with Iraq, but the president dismissed him by saying "We're not going to have any casualties."...
Henlee Barnette: Giant in the Land
Into his 10th decade now, Baptist ethicist, author and preacher Henlee Barnette continues his unflinching call to Christian integrity in thought and action. His career spans seven decades of Baptist history in the...
Ethics Pioneer Henlee Barnette Dies
Henlee Barnette, a pioneer in teaching and living Christian ethics who influenced generations of Baptist ministers and professors, died Wednesday at his home in Louisville, Ky. Barnette, 93, taught Christian ethics at...
New Redford Film Offers Storytelling Alternative
In the 1991 novel Spin by Donald Axinn, a young boy loses his parents in a plane crash. His subsequent upbringing doesn't fit squarely within the family model of the book's 1950s setting. A ranch foreman and his wife...
Associate Ethics for a Senior Pastor
"Did you hear what happened at First Church? They have a new pastor coming in, so all the staff has had to resign!" Once upon a time custom in many churches dictated that the staff served at the pleasure of the senior...
From Box Cars to Stock Cars, A Curse Word is a Curse Word
Were it not for a slip of the tongue, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be trailing Kurt Busch by only four points in the Nextel Cup standings, the coveted prize in the sport of stock car racing. Two weeks ago Earnhardt was...
Generational Generosity
Passing values and desired behaviors on to our children is at once a mystery and a very simple thing. It is mysterious, in that we can do everything in our power to mold and shape a child, only for the "result" to turn...
A Small Verse Serves as Basis for Global Campaign
UNITED NATIONS--A gray-haired South African of modest stature used one of the shortest verses in one of the smallest books in the Bible to call for political activism among Christians for the sake of the poor. "Acting...
Healing the Wounded
The weekly pastor's prayer breakfast is a wondrous thing to me. On a recent Tuesday, 13 gathered for a breakfast of biscuits, sausage and ham, gravy, jellies and peach fried pies. Good. Good. Good. After some...
‘Team America: World Police’
It's hard to know where to start and what to say about "Team America: World Police." This movie-going experience is quite like no other, though reasons for that range from its clever production to its unbelievably...
The Commission on Presidential Debates Did It Again
"There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the Republic into two great parties, each under its leader," said John Adams, one of the framers of the Constitution. Those who watched the three presidential...