Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Illuminations: Threshold for New Stage of Our Journey
It has been about a month now since the presentation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Illumination Project report, and the conversation in response to it has continued, as it should. People and entities have...
‘Baptists in Early North America: Volume 4’
Reading about the beginning struggles of First Baptist Church of Boston should cause every Baptist heart to swell with pride. These pioneers in the faith suffered unbelievable persecution. Massachusetts in the 1600s...
March 8, 2018
Raleigh Church Plans to Tear Down Historic Homes and Put up a Parking Lot (News & Observer) Lawsuit: Wayne State Decertified Christian Student Group Because of Beliefs (Detroit Free Press) ‘A Wrinkle in Time’s’...
Profiles in Goodwill: Jim Kelsey
Jim Kelsey is executive minister of the American Baptist Churches-New York State. 1. Where did you grow up? Outside of Dayton, Ohio, in Kettering. 2. What is your favorite verse, book or story in the Bible? Why?...
As Immigration Options Dwindle, Other Paths Remain
Disclaimer: This post is not intended nor should be construed as offering legal advice. Always seek a qualified immigration attorney or U.S. Department of Justice accredited representative before beginning any...
President Carter – An Advocate for Equality of Women
We recently traveled across this country for the privilege of learning from Jimmy Carter. The Nobel Prize winner and 39th president of the United States, now in his 90s, continues a disciplined practice, learned from...
Isaiah’s signature? For real?
Has a lump of clay bearing the prophet Isaiah's personal seal been discovered in Jerusalem? Maybe, maybe not. Archaeologist Eilat Mazar, in a Biblical Archaeology Review tribute article to retiring editor Hershel...
Baptists and Muslims: From Strangers to Neighbors
When I'm at my best, I'm muslim. Now, before you write First Baptist Church of High Point, North Carolina, and demand they rescind my ordination as a Baptist minister, take a deep breath and hear me out. I helped to...
What Churches Can Learn from El Salvador’s Fight for Power
I looked around at my surroundings in this remote corner of El Salvador and was in pure delight as I saw the Salvadoran mountains with Honduras in the distance. Faraway volcanoes etched the skyline as a nearby tree...
Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Have a Biblical Worldview
Why is the Bible so often described as the ultimate authority and foundation of the U.S. evangelical church? Isn't the ultimate authority of the faith actually Jesus, God in human form, the one who fully embodies the...
March 6, 2018
Doug Jones Says 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Sticks to Him in Senate (AL.com) Southern Baptists Stepping Up Efforts to Help Appalachia (Kentucky Today) Some Churches Drop ‘Baptist’ From Name to Gain New Members...
Keeping Our Sacred Spaces Sacred
Both as a place to foster community in the midst of difference and as a prophetic voice speaking truth to power, the church has been - and continues to be - a noble institution in public life. But these roots are...
Harsh U.S. Laws Put Many Immigrants in Harm’s Way
There is no substitute for a personal encounter with someone who is suffering due to the inhospitable laws and procedures meant to discourage people from seeking asylum here in the U.S. Here is one such story that...
Nursing Homes Medicating Residents for Convenience
Many U.S. nursing home residents with a form of dementia are being medicated without informed consent, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Feb. 5. While the American Psychiatric Association...
Salvadoran Families Pay Price When Loved Ones Emigrate
Our Mission Immersion Experience group through the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond was well aware of the immigration conversation in our country and its impact on our immigrant friends and neighbors. What we...
‘Annihilation’
Change is a dangerous thing. Rapid change is more dangerous because you cannot easily account for what is taking place. "Annihilation" is a movie about change. It is about rapid change taking place on a coastline...
Redemption Made Possible Through Suffering Love
Malcolm X's Chicago house had been firebombed that morning. Both Malcolm and Martin Luther King Jr. were in New York for speaking engagements. Malcolm had requested a secret meeting with King. King had agreed. It is a...
March 2, 2018
Poor People’s Campaign Rally to be Held at First Baptist Selma (Selma Times Journal) God and Guns: Courting the Christian Fringe in the Texas GOP Primaries (Texas Monthly) Conservatives to Facebook, Google and Twitter:...
Your Call Today Can Make a Difference for Dreamers
John Smyth and Thomas Helwys fled England for Holland at the beginning of the 17th century. Migrating across the English Channel, Smyth and Helwys arrived on the shores of Holland as hopeful immigrants seeking to...
Some Evangelicals Adversely Affect Mideast Christians
Ambassador Massoud Al-Maalouf, former Lebanese ambassador to the United States, denounced the devastating role of U.S. evangelicals in shaping toxic U.S. foreign policies toward the Middle East, particularly toward the...
How the Pupusa Church Serves Town in El Salvador
How often do we see people at traffic lights and are tempted either to help them or to donate something? Do you remember donating 50 cents to someone recently? What can 50 cents do? A town I visited recently has almost...