Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Reflecting on Baptist-Catholic Relations
When the seminary professor opened class with prayer requests, a student raised his hand and said, "Please remember me this weekend because I am going to be with some Catholics. I pray that they will get saved." My...
Australia and New Zealand Focus on Preventing Youth Suicides
Besides the new Russian and Baltic states, New Zealand and Australia have some of the highest suicide rates in the world, according to World Health Organization data. The highest male suicides rates were found in the...
European Baptist Considers Church-State Matters: Problem vs. Vision
Baptists have always had a keen sense of political consciousness and social concern. Certainly the separation of church and state is a commonly accepted Baptist distinctive. However, the very notion of separation...
‘Name-It-and-Claim-It’ Theology Goes Global, Promising Prosperity Grows Churches
From Nigeria to Brazil, the fast-growing churches offer prosperity theology, American-style. The Winners' Chapel, also known as Living Faith Church Worldwide, in Ota, Nigeria, claims Africa's largest church auditorium,...
Avoid Hurrying through Holy Week
A historical narrative of the week we now observe as Holy Week is found in John 12-20. During Holy Week, Christians of different denominations around the world will unite to reflect on the events which led to the...
The Ethics of Health-care Organization Ownership
Who should own health-care systems? Should market forces now control resources that have in most cultures belonged to the social covenant? What are the ethics of health-care ownership at both motivational and...
NBC Ends Push to Include Liquor Ads
Three months after NBC decided to break away from a 54-year old voluntary ban on airing hard-liquor ads on network television, it has bowed to pressure from advocacy groups and lawmakers to halt the ads, Reuters...
Luhrmann’s Vision Deserves Better
Sunday night's Oscar telecast (ABC, 8:00 p.m. EST) will showcase some of the best filmmakers in the world. One director, however, isn't even nominated in the best director category, despite the fact that his film...
Simpsons Display Sincere Religious Beliefs: An Interview with Mark Pinsky
Not until his children took an interest in "The Simpsons" did Mark Pinsky begin to give this dysfunctional cartoon family a closer look. He was surprised at what he found. He was surprised at what he found. "All I knew...
From Selma to Montgomery
One car carried Viola Liuzzo and Leroy Moton. The other carried four Klansmen. The latter pulled alongside the former on a lonely stretch of U.S. Highway 80 between Selma and Montgomery. The Klansmen fired into...
“Ice Age”
Animation has become a huge part of the movie industry. Years ago, animated pictures were "event" pictures because they were released infrequently. But Disney revived animation with "The Little Mermaid," and now most...
Iraq on Collision Course with US
For a time last year it seemed that Iraq was an isolated iceberg on the agenda of the United States and United Nations, frozen into a northern corner of diplomatic waters. Now it has been dynamited out of its corner...
Activists Give Movies with Smoking ‘R’ Rating
If anti-smoking activists have their way, just one actor lighting a cigarette in a movie would merit an "R" rating. Citing a new study linking Hollywood to cigarette sales, advocates wish to use tobacco as a factor in...
The Future Shape of Faith
The most recent edition of "Alabama Citizens Watch," the official newsletter of the Alabama Christian Coalition, features a bit of self-congratulatory indulgence. The celebration was prompted by comments from Nobel...
Baptists, Women and the American Suffrage Movement
From the 1848 Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls to the ratification of the 19th Amendment 72 years later, Christian religion and women's suffrage kept close, if not always cordial, company. At the 1840 London...
Sweet ‘Alcopops’ Lure Youth into Drinking
When 19-year-old Jenna Bush was arrested, she was accused of possessing a "substance resembling beer," according to undercover police officers. These "substances" or "alcopops" are the alcoholic beverages of choice for...
Baha’i World Faith
Baha'is, numbering more than 5 million, are found in over 200 countries. There are 110,000 Baha'is in the United States. South Carolina, California, Texas, Georgia and Illinois have the largest concentrations of...
A Day in the Life of …
The stench and smoke from the burning trash heap was overwhelming. Women and children were scavenging the stinking and steaming dump, with gigantic vultures standing by. The vultures were bigger than some of the...
Faith & the Kingdoms: The Politics of Niebuhr & Yoder
Since the decline of the Moral Majority, Christianity has been left without a visible face in American politics. This is not entirely lamentable. That Christianity lost face at the end of the 20th century was perhaps...
Do Sub-Dermal Microchips Represent the Mark of the Beast?
Technology and biblical prophecy are butting heads over a computer chip. It's a little larger a grain of rice and can be implanted beneath human skin to provide personal and medical information. Some marvel about the...
Ministers Charged with Sermon Plagiarism
Reports about ministerial plagiarism are making headlines in the wake of plagiarism charges against high-profile historians like Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose. The New York Times reported this week that...