Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Majority of Americans Favor Women as Religious Leaders
Most Americans support women as religious leaders and have "strong reaction" to the Southern Baptist Convention's new statement of faith, according to a recent poll. "While the Southern Baptist delegates voted...
SBC’s Cultural Retreat
Protecting a conservative culture was at the heart of the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, not an uncommon move when a religious body perceives itself endangered. With religion editors focusing on the...
Baptist Women: Separate Spheres
The first great wave of Baptist women mission volunteers coincided with the first American movement for women's rights, in the 1840s. At that time mainstream American religion prescribed the role of "domestic...
Column Compares SBC, CBF
Here is a seven-point guidepost to how the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship differ. The Southern Baptist Convention is the country's largest Protestant denomination, but not the only...
Funeral Industry Rip-Offs: What Can Churches Do?
Many Americans are spending too much on unnecessary funeral expenses. "The current American standard for funeral care, is in large part, a product of marketing. It is a sentimental, mass-produced, packaging of...
Looking Back at Baptist Women: Great Awakenings
Baptist women participated in both the First and Second Great Awakenings in America. Both revival movements produced many Baptist women preachers, prophets, educators and missionaries. From Freewill Baptists, Mary...
An ‘Idolatrous’ Revision of Faith
Nowhere did Jesus limit women to a subordinate role in his kingdom. In fact, quite the opposite. At every turn, he lifted them up. But there is a far more serious revision in the "new" Baptist Faith and Message (a...
The Celtic Way of Evangelism
The model of Celtic Christianity offers Western church leaders a way forward into the 21st century. Celtic Christianity stands in contrast with the early church's mission to "Romanize" and "Christianize" other peoples....
A Personal Struggle with Soul Freedom
We all know that the most vain of mortals are those who make a career of humility lest their true vanity be unmasked. Exhibitionism is tacky, and vainglory is the cardinal sin, another reason to be judicious with...
The Penrose St. Amant Lectureship on the Baptist Vision Established
One of God's unique gifts to Baptists in the last half of the twentieth century was a short Louisiana Frenchman with the distinctive name of Penrose St. Amant (pronounced "San Amaw"). He gets my vote for the most...
Safeguarding Baptist Freedoms
Southerner Thomas Wolfe may be right in suggesting that one cannot go home again-to live, that is, but no matter where in the world we may live and work, it is always good to go back home for a visit: It is always good...