Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Making Faithful Attendance a Priority
I have often listened as church members voiced their best intentions of attending church and Sunday school, but then I have watched as travel plans, minor aches and pains, or the lure of a round of golf or another trip...
Churches Face Minister Shortage
It's strange that churches are finding their young and faithful leaving the church in order to fulfill their callings. It's enough to make us wonder if churches have been hammering one thing, while God wanted something...
Kindness Prevails and Fred Returns
A couple of weeks ago, many of you read in this space the sad story of the untimely demise of Fred Flintstone. After more than a decade of dinnertime companionship in our home, poor Fred cracked up; he just fell to...
Arizona School District Tries to Keep Sex Shop Away
"Not in my back yard!" has become almost cliché in many tussles over land use and zoning, including one involving an Arizona school district trying to keep a sex shop from opening near two of its schools. Officials in...
The World Summit’s Challenge to Christians
The political leaders at the World Summit failed to meet the challenges faced by God's creation. The church must admit that she, too, has failed—failed to sufficiently encourage and support government and business...
Leaving Well
The way a minister leaves can profoundly affect a congregation more than ministers often realize. And we're under obligation, as far as it depends on us as ministers of the Gospel, to leave well. But what does that...
Rural Values, Christian Values
These six sets of values, grounded in love for God, are among the most important basic Christian values expressed in rural settings—the values that should inform and guide every life. They come to us in dialectical or...
Alcohol’s Addictiveness Leads to Theology of Abstinence
It boils downs to a simple equation. In light of the potential dangers of alcohol use, do the benefits of use justify the risk? For the rest of my son's life, the nuances of this simple statement will be examined and...
Taking on Telemarketing and Junk Mail
Telemarketing and ethics don't sound like they belong in the same sentence, but believe it or not, those dinner-time interruptions do try to maintain a certain code of ethics. The American Teleservices Association is a...
Old Confession Offers Word for Today
GOSHEN, Ind. - With war brewing in Iraq, the stakes for those espousing a vigorous peace witness have been raised another notch, tossing a fresh challenge in the laps of peacemaking Christians. Goshen College history...
The Immorality of Manufacturing a War
What is the sound of one man plotting the demise of another? We need only listen closely to the winds emanating from Washington to know the answer to this riddle. Indeed, this same sound - of President Bush edging...
“One Hour Photo”
"Photo" is being billed as a thriller to get people into the theaters; it is much smarter than that. Actually, it is a film about idealism versus reality. Robin Williams plays Sy, a sad, lonely man who works as a film...
Keeping Confidences and Telling Secrets
Ministers live in ethical tension regarding privileged information. Ministry presents one with private dimensions, even secrets, of other people's lives. Clergy caregivers are entrusted with such knowledge to use it...
World Beauty Queens Face Off Against Islamic Fundamentalists
In response to Lawal's death sentence, Miss World contestants from Switzerland, France, Belgium, Ivory Coast, Norway and Kenya have withdrawn from the beauty pageant, according to BBC News. Contestants from Germany,...
Kingsolver Tackles the Sermon
Instead of the sermon, Kingsolver has turned her considerable talent to the novel, the essay and the short story. "What makes writing good?" is the question she asks, but the answer she gives could have been provoked...
Schools Deliver ‘Consumers’ for Snack and Soda Companies
Even with the rise in childhood obesity and diabetes, many money-strapped schools are still tempted to sign deals with snack food and soda companies which promise to hand over the cash for a shot at young consumers....
Turning Holes into Holy Moments
Unconfessed sin stays with us. We may suppress it, forget about it or pretend it never happened, but eventually our unconfessed sin revisits us or spills over into the lives of others, hurting them and us. One of my...
Falwell Trying to Shut Down Web Site Parodies
JerryFalwell.com and JerryFallwell.com were launched last year by Cohn, who was "angered by the evangelist's tirade blaming the Sept. 11 attacks on feminists, gays and lesbians, among others," according to Wired.com....
Redskins Fumble with Hard Liquor
The Center for Science in the Public Interest criticized the Washington Redskins for the team's exclusive promotional arrangement with Diageo, the world's largest hard-liquor company. Diageo's multiyear,...
Personal Integrity Impacts Public Policy Leadership
The integrity of those rattling their sabers deserves consideration, especially since war is their preferred solution and at the expense of the lives of others. In the American political lexicon, the term hawk refers...
Sept. 11 Changed Americans’ Internet Usage
The events of Sept. 11 changed how many Americans live and think, and a new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows it also changed the way they use the Internet. Calling the Sept. 11 terrorist...