Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
A Brief History of Halloween
Where does Halloween come from? The holiday isn't mentioned in the Bible. Nor is it an official holiday in the United States. Yet it continues to be distinctively celebrated in some communities, conspicuously absent in...
A Brief Response to Halloween
How might Christians respond to Halloween? Folklore professor Jack Santino has characterized the holiday as "an amalgam of Celtic druidical ritual, Christian theology, and northern European folk belief." And Santino...
Judgment and Hell Houses
Judgment Houses and Hell Houses are considered by some churches to be "evangelistic tools" combating traditional Halloween haunted houses. "[Hell] is the ultimate haunted house, which is where [visitors] will spend...
Assets of SBC Mission Boards and Seminaries Exceed $1 Billion Mark
The Southern Baptist Convention's two mission boards and six seminaries have over $1 billion dollars in investments, cash, property and equipment. The assets of the International Mission Board (IMB), North American...
International Mission Board’s Investments Almost $400 Million
The International Mission Board had investments approaching the $400 million mark in 1998, not including most real estate holdings and equipment. A two-page document entitled "Financial Reserves" disclosed that the IMB...
Baptist Faith and Message Becomes Litmus Test for Leadership and Employment in Southern Baptist Life
The new Baptist Faith and Message statement is fast becoming a litmus test for leadership and employment in Southern Baptist life. John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, said,...
Lieberman Gives 3 Percent to Charity; Other Candidates Give Less
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman donated 3 percent of his income to charity on average over a ten-year period, according to articles in the Washington Post and New York Times. In 1990, the senator...
Chicago Tribune Looks at Modern-day Submissive Wives
A feature story in today's Chicago Tribune explored Christian wifely submissiveness, interviewing a number of women in the Chicago area about their marital relationships. Kathy Morning, one interviewee, said...
‘Virtual’ Hate Groups
Hate groups have "rekindled [their] zeal and magnified [their] power" using the technology of Internet communication, according to a recent article. "With the help of Internet technology and cyberspace marketing,...
Loss of Language
Language is losing its effectiveness, according to a recent article. "In the past 50 years, by one reckoning, the working vocabulary of the average 14-year-old has declined from 25,000 words to 10,000," wrote David Orr...
Human Rights and the Next President
Human rights issues, at least for now, will never win or lose presidential elections. But they do provide a gauge for how presidents will respond to human suffering once elected. Sometime in the next president's...
SBC Leader Blasts Texas Baptists for Breaching Historic Partnership
A Southern Baptist Convention leader attacked the Baptist General Convention of Texas for allegedly breaching the cooperative spirit within Baptist life and abandoning its worldwide commitment. Morris Chapman,...
Baptist Women: Present Roles
The issue of women's roles, now a non-issue for American Baptists, remained a hot topic among Southern Baptists, Independent Baptists and National Baptists in the 1990s. Out of the SBC controversies of the 1980s, the...
Buchanan Calls for Gideon’s Army to Do Battle for the Lord
Reform Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan called on students, faculty and supporters at Bob Jones University to join his campaign, dubbed "Gideon's army," to take America back from moral decadence. In his first...
Hurting Parents Can Find Grace in Church
Contrary to glowing reports in family Christmas letters, many parents are struggling over their children. Why? Parents naturally have high hopes and expectations for their offspring. Often, however, these hopes go...
Baptist Women: Ordination Within the Historical SBC
One year after the SBC revised its "Baptist Faith and Message" in 1963, Addie Davis became the first Southern Baptist woman to be ordained to the ministry. Seven years passed before another SBC church ordained a woman...
Baptist Women: Leadership Roles
Increasing numbers of independent and Southern Baptists were highly suspicious of Baptist women's involvement in the broader women's movement in America and Europe. Nevertheless, enough SBC men voted to accept women...
The Recovery of Civility
I really don't want to get old before my time. But I'm beginning to think my grandparents were right: the world really is "going to hell in a hand basket." I'm talking about the demise of civility. Witness these recent...
A Screen of Terms
A scene in Steven Spielberg's Amistad depicts two men, of different cultures and different tongues, trying to communicate with each other via an interpreter. Roger Baldwin, played by Matthew McConaughey, speaks...
Baptist Women: Leadership Roles
In 1904, Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, allowed four women to attend classes without credit or participation in class discussion. Baptists in California hired Amy Lee Stockton as state evangelist....
The Recovery of Civility,The Recovery of Civility
I really don’t want to get old before my time. But I’m beginning to think my grandparents were right: the world really is "going to hell in a hand basket.",I really don't want to get old before my time. But I'm...