Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Illuminations: Room for All of Us at God’s Table
I went out to get the mail on the Wednesday following my ordination. It was the same day the local paper ran an article on my journey to becoming the first gay person ordained at Highland Baptist Church in Louisville,...
To Solve Gun Violence, We Must Love Our Way Forward
I will never forget the image of two mothers, one with ashes on her forward, weeping with one another. The photo was taken by Joel Auerbach of the Associated Press on Feb. 14, Ash Wednesday, after a mass shooting event...
February 16, 2018
These are the Victims of the Florida School Shooting (CNN) Parkland Struggles to Come to Grips With School Shooting Horror (WFLA) America’s Cult of Guns (CNN) Alabama Bill Adding Churches to ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law...
Illuminations: Seeking Guidance of God’s Spirit
Several issues have become flashpoints in Christian communities. One of these is the inclusion of LGBT persons in local churches and denominations. On most of these issues, a figurative line is drawn in the sand and...
Illuminations: Dealing With a Messy Smudge of Ash
I wonder who awoke this morning to find a smudge of ash still haunting the hairline. My children have been known to want to keep the ashen cross on their foreheads overnight, but I protest; it will get all over...
Do You Have Courage to Show Up to Hard Conversations?
Do you have the courage to show up to hard conversations? It's no secret that courage is in high demand in these times we're living in. In our polarized-everything culture right now, it's so easy to unfollow our social...
The Heart of Valentine’s Day
By: Ginger Hughes Before there were chocolates in red, heart-shaped boxes and sugared candies that say “Be Mine.” Before there were fancy dinners at steakhouses and expensive gifts of jewels and fine metals. Before all...
Illuminations: Spiritual Equality of All Christians
When our church was voted out of the Baptist General Convention of Texas last year at this time for our decision on full inclusion of LGBTQ Christians, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship staff sent us flowers. Months...
And Who’s Doing Your Thinking For You Today?
If the criteria set forth in Philippians 4:8 were applied to our way of thinking as well as our way of viewing the world and seeing and responding to other people, what would change in our public discourse? For that...
“Fragile Communities” Lack Economic, Social Mobility
"Fragile communities" in the U.S. lack opportunities for economic and social mobility, according to a new report published by Gallup, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the Center for Advancing Opportunity, the...
February 14, 2017
Some Christians Say Deportations Would Jeopardize Their Churches (NPR) Tennessee GOP Unleashes Attack on ‘Radical Atheist’ Running for State Senate (Patheos) Episcopal Church Offers Louisiana Motorists Curbside...
How to ignore Jesus and still call yourself Christian
By John D. Pierce One would think the very designation of “Christ” in Christianity would make it hard to dismiss the life and teachings of Jesus and his call to be faithful followers. But then, Jesus said a lot of hard...
Illuminations: The Long Struggle Against Discrimination
Threading the ethical needle is always a delicate matter in institutions and agencies that serve a diverse community. This is especially true when an issue is seen from a wide variety of deeply held perspectives among...
Why Do We Allow Football to Cause Brain Damage?
It's time for a national conversation about football. The facts are irrefutable now; U.S. football causes long-term and irreversible brain damage in many players. Anyone who doesn't know this simply hasn't been paying...
More U.S. Jail Inmates Require Mental Illness Treatment
The number of persons with a severe mental illness (SMI) in U.S. jails is growing, requiring treatment services most jails are unprepared to offer, according to a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts released on Jan....
February 13, 2018
Religious Leaders Launch Initiative to Fight Racial Injustice (Wave3, Louisville) The Shepherd and the Lamb: The Untold Story of the Rev. Essie Mae McIntyre (WJBF) Why the Enslaved Adopted the Religion of Their Masters...
The unstable ground of limited discrimination
By John D. Pierce Last week the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) staked out some new ground after years of growing resistance to its no-gays hiring policy — approved in 2000 in response to growing threats of...
Illuminations: Agree to Disagree – Agreeably
For 25 years, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) has known a unity born of cooperation. That is, we have not been a like-minded Fellowship; we have been a shared-task Fellowship. Our Fellowship is the fruit of a...
When Will U.S. Christianity Heed Its Wakeup Call?
There are many professing believers who claim Jesus as Lord, but few who want to follow his counterintuitive teachings on living spiritually in the world. The directives Jesus gives his followers are no more specific...
Report: 41% of U.S. Children Live in Low-Income Homes
Forty-one percent of U.S. children lived in low-income households in 2016, according to newly published research from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public...
February 12, 2018
40 Percent of Pastors Say Church Offerings are Going Up: Survey (Christian Post) Massachusetts Bill Would Bar Companies from Citing Religious Exemptions (Boston Globe) Democratic Candidates Attend Church Services to...