By Bill Leonard In 1833 Lyman Beecher, minister, educator and patriarch of one of America’s most prominent Protestant families, became president of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. Beecher’s move from his native New England was reflected in his essay,…
Educating those we would evangelize
By Bill Leonard In 1833 Lyman Beecher, minister, educator and patriarch of one of America’s most prominent Protestant families, became president of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. Beecher’s move from his native New England was reflected in his essay,…
A Mormon, 2 Catholics and a Protestant go into a homeless shelter
By Bill Leonard Religiously speaking, this presidential election is a fascinating moment in our national life, and for multiple reasons. First, one party nominated a Mormon and a Roman Catholic as president and vice president respectively, the first time in…
The gospel of poverty
By Bill Leonard “The problem of our age is the administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship…. The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the…
Mistaken identity
By Bill Leonard A case of “mistaken identity”– that’s what the authorities called the killings at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wis., only days after the mass murder of 12 people in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. Mistaken…
Mistaken identity
By Bill Leonard A case of “mistaken identity”– that’s what the authorities called the killings at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wis., only days after the mass murder of 12 people in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. Mistaken…
Mistaken identity
By Bill Leonard A case of “mistaken identity”– that’s what the authorities called the killings at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wis., only days after the mass murder of 12 people in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. Mistaken…
‘Different than other cultures’
By Bill Leonard It happened again. Barely a year after six people were killed and a U.S. congresswoman and 13 others wounded in Tucson, Ariz., yet another deeply troubled shooter brought death to 12 individuals, wounding 58 others at a…
‘Different than other cultures’
By Bill Leonard It happened again. Barely a year after six people were killed and a U.S. congresswoman and 13 others wounded in Tucson, Ariz., yet another deeply troubled shooter brought death to 12 individuals, wounding 58 others at a…
Race and intentionality, then and now
By Bill Leonard In his recent book Moses, Jesus and the Trickster in the Evangelical South, University of Colorado history professor Paul Harvey describes the South “as a land of paradox and contradiction.” “How else, for example, can one grasp…
Out on a limb
By Bill Leonard On June 30, Daniel Vestal retired as coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an organization established in 1991 from divisions in the Southern Baptist Convention. In many ways his ecclesiastical journey reflects transitions in multiple religious communions,…
Old/new churches, old/new realities
By Bill Leonard Southern Baptists have just elected their first African-American denominational president, Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. Roman Catholic bishops in the U.S. are promoting a “religious liberty drive against a government and…