Throughout most of Western history, including Western Christianity, the idea of love was typically not a factor in marital dreams or decisions. Love might grow within a marriage, but men and women married out of family duty. How did that change? The second in a series on the changing shape of one of society’s most ancient institutions.
Marriage: The state of our unions
Love, marriage, sex and parenting comprise what many Christians believe is “traditional marriage,” unchanged since the Garden of Eden. Yet for most societies throughout history, including most Christian ones, the expectation that all four could be confined to one relationship was considered impractical, irrational or at best undesirable. The first in a series on the changing shape of one of society’s most ancient institutions.
Embracing the journey
Almost by accident, Kerry Smith has become a popular artist — a sculptor, painter and woodcarver. But he hasn’t done it alone. His constant companion — and a most unwelcome one — is chronic pain. The former minister is now a ‘prisoner to pain,’ but art ‘transports’ him to a place of purpose.
Unlikely Baptist missionary transformed as she heals others
At an IHOP restaurant in Tampa, Fla., a waitress finishes her shift and heads home, where she stashes the day’s cash tips in a safe place. Each week she deposits the money in her bank and writes an equivalent check…
Myanmar native serves fellow refugees through Student.Go
By Greg Warner At the age of 7, Mary Htoo and her family fled civil war and persecution in their native Burma. They spent the next seven-plus years living amidst the poverty and confinement of a mountaintop refugee camp just…
One couple tries to ease plight of Africa-to-Europe immigrants
By Greg Warner In past centuries, West Africans were forcibly exported as slaves to work in the New World and Europe. Today, that dangerous and desperate journey exists in a different form. During the slave trade of the 1700s and…
Passport’s founders spearheaded quiet shift in how youth hear God’s call
Over the last two decades, a quiet shift has taken place in how and where Baptist young people hear the call of God and receive training for Christian ministry. One of those in the vanguard of this movement is Passport…
Support for immigrants is essential part of gospel, say mission advocates
By Greg Warner No one objects when missions personnel feed the hungry or attend to the sick. But is advocacy on behalf of immigrants and refugees also part of the gospel? For Cooperative Baptists who minister among Hispanic immigrants, the…
Lilly awards $2 million grants to McAfee School, BTSR
INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) — Two moderate Baptist theology schools have received $2 million grants from the Lilly Endowment to work with churches to promote “ministerial excellence.” McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University’s theology school in Atlanta, will use the funds to…