By Bob Setzer One week into the New Year, much Jan. 1 resolve is flagging fast. What seemed so easy when greeting the New Year has now turned into the daily grind of fighting temptation. The reservoirs of willpower are…

  By Bob Setzer As a Baptist boy growing up in the South, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. It was the one time of year my preferred sins were sanctioned: gluttony (especially of the chocolate variety) and getting…

  I’ve been trying to sit out the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy. This is one of those toxic issues sure to contaminate anyone who touches it. Nonetheless, in light of the invective and hatred that has been unleashed during…

By Bob Setzer On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, bright and early at 8 a.m. sharp, I teach “Introduction to the Old Testament” at Mercer University. Recently, I gave my students an assignment: “When you say ‘God,’ Who or What do…

With July 4th looming, I expect the usual flurry of e-mails telling me the following: 1. On the aluminum cap atop the Washington Monument are two Latin words, Laus Deo, meaning, “Praise be to God;” 2. the Founding Fathers were…

By Bob Setzer Every pastor or counselor soon learns: Hearing from only one partner in a troubled marriage gives the listener a very distorted picture of what is going on. It’s not that the spouse unburdening his or her heart…

By Bob Setzer In a recent Baptists Today article, I read about a 19th-century Baptist congregation that censured a slave for dancing. The slave was a “member” of the church, though as human chattel, it was his job merely to…