Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Was Jesus A Marxist?
Alabama's Republican Governor, Bob Riley, recently led an unsuccessful effort to reform the state's regressive tax structure and raise needed funds for state services. He cast the struggle in moral terms arguing that...
Uncontrolled Technology Spurs Appeal to Ethics
Much has been said about the music industry's war on piracy. With CD sales in a slump, industry leaders have resorted to suing kids, or their parents, over the illegal file sharing presumed to be at the root of the...
Walking Companions
Graffiti had long covered the walls of the Allapattah YMCA in Miami, and Cristina von Lindenberg, executive director, was tired of it. After enlisting some artists to create murals on neighborhood walls, she got kids...
Tolkien in Perspective: Sifting the Gold From the Glitter
The Bible, Greg Wright points out, is much shorter than J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion combined. Yet, for some people—even Christians—the Bible has taken a backseat to Tolkien's...
A ‘New’ New Year
I've always loved New Year's: the celebrations, ushering in the year with a kiss, and making resolutions or setting goals. Even at a time in life when most of my friends began preferring to stay home with their kids...
The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-Earth
The end of the year is nearing—and so is the release of the final, filmed installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's mammoth The Lord of the Rings. "The Fellowship of the Ring" was released in December 2001, "The Two Towers" hit...
Telling The Truth Is Preferable To Blaming The News Media
Blaming the news media is the reflexive weapon of the advocates of any cause when things go badly. Writing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Congressman Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) suggested that the news media "were...
Is Christianity An Oppressed Minority?
Recently hundreds of Christians gathered on the steps of the state judicial building in Montgomery, Ala., to offer support to Judge Roy Moore and his 5,300-pound monument to the Ten Commandments. They were also there...
Bush Asks U.N. for Help in Rebuilding Iraq
President Bush defended the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq Tuesday in a speech to the United Nations but asked world leaders for help in his plan to build an orderly transition to democratic rule in the nation recovering...
The Danger Of Unchecked Authority
Watching Judge Moore over the past few months has reminded me of the Christian philosopher Pascal. He wrote that humans "never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." In...
Children at Odds
As director of a non-profit agency that works with the local school district in providing supplemental programming for children who are homeless, one of my job responsibilities is playing the role of principal of a...
Study Says Religion Plays a Role in Building Wealth
Where you worship could affect the size of your bank account, according to a new study. Lisa Keister, an associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University, cites religious affiliation as a strong factor in...
Snatching Victory From the Jaws of Defeat
It came as no surprise to most that the tax referendum proffered by Republican Gov. Bob Riley failed so miserably--including me, although I supported it. In the end, however, there is a possibility that we may end up...
Praying for a Cure
I've been wearing a hospital bracelet on my arm for about two months. It's a rather odd piece of jewelry. One of my friends put it on my arm at church before I could protest. "We are going to wear these until...
The Spiritual Discipline of Martin Luther King Jr.
It has been over a decade now, but I still vividly remember the strong visceral reactions that mention of the name of Martin Luther King Jr. produced at a rural white Southern Baptist church. In a Sunday morning...
Online Games Recreate Real Tragedies
Online gaming technology has developed right along with developers' senses and sensibilities. Tech wizards are no longer interested in creating only fictional environments; they're wanting to revisit some actual...
Moderate Drinking On Rise, Survey Says
Moderate drinking has risen sharply in the last decade among adults in the United States, according to a new Gallup Poll. While the overall percentage of Americans who drink has remained about the same—around 60...
‘Secondhand Lions’
"Secondhand Lions," which opens nationwide today, is first-rate entertainment. So grab a seat and settle in; a genuine story awaits. The movie—starring Robert Duvall, Michael Caine and Haley Joel Osment—really defies...
Proactive, Positive and Practical
Ask almost anyone in the outer limits of the Baby Boomer category and beyond, and they will tell you that in order to be a really good Baptist, you don't drink, smoke, cuss or chew. And then some will smile and add,...
Descendants of Baylor Institute’s Namesake Call for Removal of Associate Director
WACO, Texas--Twenty-nine members of the J.M. Dawson family have called on Baylor University to remove the associate director of the institute that bears Dawson's name. In an open letter dated Sept. 11, Dawson family...
Baylor Prof Defends Constitutionality of ‘Intelligent Design’
A Baylor University professor under fire for views on the separation of church and state alleged to be contrary to Baptist tradition has been in the spotlight recently in another controversy--teaching evolution in...