Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…What?
Something of a mini-Holy War is raging in Palm Beach, Fla. Two residents of the exclusive resort area are suing the city claiming their rights have been violated by city officials. The two plaintiffs are angry because...
International Baptist Leaders Express Shock at SBC Plan to Leave BWA
International Baptist leaders expressed shock and dismay at plans by Southern Baptist Convention leaders to drop out of the Baptist World Alliance. A nine-member committee studying SBC/BWA ties announced Friday it was...
‘Something’s Gotta Give’
Some films impress the audience with breathtaking effects and thrills. Some films amuse audiences with countless physical jokes, accented with crude and often lewd humor. Some films yank the emotions of the audience...
A Modern-Day Drummer Boy
A favorite Christmas song for many is "The Little Drummer Boy." The song tells the story of a child who hears about the birth of a king, worthy of one's finest gift. Like the newborn king, the song says he is "a poor...
Southern Baptists of Texas Consider Ties With Missionary Baptist School
The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, a group of churches that five years ago broke away from the Baptist General Convention of Texas seeking stronger ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, is reaching out to...
Remembering My Father
My father died this year. Had he lived until Sunday, he would have been 77. His death came as no surprise. His health had declined rapidly in recent years, after decades of battling multiple sclerosis, a disease which...
Silent Signs
"People do not like to think," she said. "If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant." Also among her keen insights: "The highest result of education is tolerance." "The best and...
Fundamentalism Will Be Exposed as Fraud, College President Predicts
Christian fundamentalism will be "unmasked and exposed as a fraudulent form of faith" in churches during the next 50 years, predicts Mercer University President Kirby Godsey. Writing in an online e-magazine published...
SBC Recommends Defunding BWA
A Southern Baptist Convention committee recommended Friday that the SBC withdraw from membership in and defund the Baptist World Alliance in 2004, accusing the BWA of having an anti-American tone, encouraging women as...
‘The Missing’
Ron Howard may never make another film as great as "Apollo 13," a masterpiece of filmmaking and an inspiring story of what can happen when people cooperate and work toward a common goal. His Oscar-winning Best Picture,...
Designers Play With Democratic Candidate Posters
The New York Times recently asked several leading designers to produce campaign posters for candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president. It was an exercise in fun, creativity and ideology. The results...
How the Mighty Have Fallen, and May Fall
The visual images of Saddam Hussein after his capture contrast sharply with the carefully controlled images we had all seen prior to the war. Before the war, we saw Saddam amble regally among his people, larger than...
Nothing Like the Christmas Choir
There is nothing like a choir and there is nothing like Christmas to remind us of this. The season and its series of public occasions offer fresh evidence for the unsurpassed sound of that gathering of voices known as...
Iraqi-Americans Cheer Saddam’s Arrest; Reaction Mixed in Arab World
Iraqi-Americans cheered in the streets of Dearborn, Mich., as news broke Sunday of the arrest of Iraq's deposed dictator Saddam Hussein. Metropolitan Detroit is home to a large concentration of Shi'ite Muslims, who...
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’
If you thought the battle at Helm's Deep in "The Two Towers" was spectacular, wait until you see the magnitude of the conflict at Pelennor Fields in "The Return of the King." Pelennor Fields makes Helm's Deep look like...
Hanukkah 2003: Lighting Candles in the Darkness
Hanukkah is a miracle story--and a celebration of religious freedom. Beginning at sundown on Dec. 19, Jews throughout the world will light the menorah for eight festive nights to commemorate victory over tyranny and...
Beyond the Scandals: A Guide to Healthy Sexuality for Clergy
G. Lloyd Rediger's "Beyond the Scandals" is a three-part guide to understanding human sexuality with specific application to the role of clergy. An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Rediger...
Baptists React to News of Saddam Capture
Many Americans learned of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's capture while attending or getting ready for church, and some spoke to reporters lurking near houses of worship to gauge reactions from people on the...
A Reason to Rejoice
My earliest recollections as a child were not of Christmas, but of war. I was only 5 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed 62 years ago on Dec. 7, 1941. Yet, I remember quite vividly the response of a small, rural...
Letters Reveal Mother Teresa Had Doubts
A missionary of love and hope to the entire world, Mother Teresa profoundly shaped my understanding of the Christian faith. She provided a model of what Christ calls each of us to be and do. Every day of her life, no...
Church Stealing Charged in States With Competing Conventions
The presence of separate conventions identified with the Southern Baptist Convention in three states has prompted charges of "sheep-stealing," or seeking to lure congregations out of one fold into the other. Concerns...