Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Christianity and Civility
Since the Democratic National Convention, our nation has hit full stride in the political process. Each news broadcast leads with stories about the candidates, and every edition of the newspaper contains letters...
Poll Finds ‘Religion Gap’ Among Catholics
The reported "religion gap," linking voting patterns to how often people attend church, apparently applies to Catholics, according to a poll out this week. Tuesday's Gallup Poll found American Catholics divided over...
On Being Christian and American
Is it possible to be a Christian and not be an American? The question on the surface seems absurd. There are Christians in every corner of the world. And where there are not Christians there are Christian missionaries...
Stem-cell Debate Enters Presidential Campaign
Medical ethics have crossed over into presidential politics, as President Bush and Democratic contender Sen. John Kerry spar over medical research with human embryos. Kerry on Saturday criticized Bush for a...
Singer Kate Campbell Releases Three Albums Today
Today is a banner day in the professional life of singer-songwriter Kate Campbell: Three new albums will hit stores. The Portable Kate Campbell, Sing Me Out and Songs From the Levee are the latest works from the...
Baptist Youth Gather in Hong Kong
About 4,000 registrants from every corner of the world gathered last week in Hong Kong for the 14th Baptist Youth World Congress. Guests from more than 70 countries convened Aug. 4-8 at the Hong Kong Convention and...
Book Says Christians Who Don’t Vote Guilty of Corporate Sin
Christians who neglect to vote share the guilt of leaders who don't uphold God's standards of justice and morality, says a book featured over the weekend in Baptist Press. Sinful Silence: When Christians Neglect Their...
Buckner Mission Team Makes Inroads Into Latvian Orphanages
RIGA, Latvia—Members of First Baptist Church of Longview, Texas, just returned from Latvia, where they built relationships, cared for orphans and led Vacation Bible Schools during a 10-day mission trip. The group...
Does Religion Really Work?
Does religion really work? I'm using the word "work" in the most pragmatic sense. Is there a measurable way of proving that people of faith live longer, live better, have better marriages, are financially successful,...
The Face of War
Throughout the Scriptures, people are described in highly personal, relational ways. We are neighbors, friends, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and enemies. We are never just called persons. Though the...
The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust
Three years ago, Orlando Sentinel religion writer Mark Pinsky penned The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family. Now he's back with a book about the Big Mouse in his...
The BWA and a Colony of Prostitutes: What Shall We Do?
Sitting in a Baptist World Alliance meeting last week, I heard a fragmentary, inspiring story about a young Baptist woman in India. Leena Lavanya met a prostitute on a bus. She urged the woman to leave prostitution....
What Are You Doing This Sunday?
Historians say President George Washington was charged in 1789 with violating a law against unnecessarily walking or riding on Sunday when he traveled from Connecticut to New York. He was reportedly on his way to...
Dallas Film Festival to Take on Moore
When it comes to responding to the politics of filmmaker Michael Moore, Jim Hubbard of Dallas thinks conservatives should put up or shut up. He's putting up by sponsoring the American Film Renaissance Festival. The...
Pop Quiz for Bible Believers
Here's a pop quiz for all who believe the Bible should be taken and followed literally: 1) True or False--The Bible makes provisions for offering a sacrifice to the demonic god Azazel. 2) Homosexuals are to be: a)...
What Must I Do to Be Saved?
How did you become a Christian? How do you describe your conversion story? How can you better help others understand the decision to become a follower of Christ? There are different kinds of conversion experiences...
‘Roy’s Rock’ Winds Way Across Tennessee
It isn't the typical rock tour, but Judge Roy Moore's granite Ten Commandments monument banished from the Alabama Judicial Building is winding its way across Tennessee on a city-to-city national road show ending in...
Bangladesh Baptists Assisting Flood Victims
Baptists in Bangladesh are working to relieve suffering caused by the nation's worst flooding in six years. Mid-July floods left an estimated two-thirds of Bangladesh underwater. The death toll on Monday rose to 628,...
‘The Village’
M. Night Shyamalan's new film, "The Village," had a lot to live up to. After the writer-director's successes with supernatural thrillers like "The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable" and "Signs," audiences were primed with...
LifeWay Using Road Trip Theme for Next Year’s VBS
After controversy last year over its Asian-themed Vacation Bible School material, LifeWay Christian Resources is sticking with American imagery in 2005. The Southern Baptist Convention publisher announced next year's...
Education and Transformation: An Interview with Carla Nelson
"The struggle with North American evangelical Christianity just may be that we have tried to shape the gospel to ourselves and we are finding that it is not big enough for a global world. Therefore we find it hard to...