Slumdog Millionaire—already a Golden Globe Award-winner for best motion picture and a nominee for an Oscar in the same category—is a slap-in-your-face wakeup call to the breadth and depth of injustice and poverty still active on a large scale in…
The habit of excess
By David Gushee Contemporary ethicists have retrieved an ancient insight by emphasizing the central role of habit in morality. After centuries of moral theories that focused on identifying rational moral principles that ought to govern human decision making, today’s ethicists…
Torture: Reflecting on a long, illuminating battle
By David Gushee It is still hard to believe that the hopes we have nurtured in the Christian anti-torture movement would come to fruition — and so early, and so comprehensively, as they did with President Obama’s executive orders on…
A humbled nation summons itself
By David Gushee It was a humbled but hopeful America on display Tuesday in Washington. Staggered by economic crisis, wearied by two long, unresolved wars and damaged in its confidence and character, our nation summoned itself on Tuesday to enter…
Thoughts on protecting the sanctity of marriage
By David Gushee As I write this column, Jeanie and I are preparing to gather with a half-dozen young couples at church to begin a marriage class. For six weeks we will meet together to discuss ways that these nearly-…
Baptists celebrate past with an eye to the future
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — In 400 years, the Baptist movement has grown to 200,000 churches with more than 50 million members in countries around the world. But even though Baptists globally continue to show statistical growth, the largest Baptist group…
Who founded the Baptist movement– John Smyth or John the Baptist?
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) — Baptists who celebrate the 400th birthday of their denomination in 2009 miss the mark by about 1600 years, some Baptists insist. Since Jesus founded his church during his earthly ministry and promised “the gates of…
Historians trace beginning of Baptist movement back 400 years
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — Some Christians before 1609 held what many refer to as distinctively Baptist beliefs. Baptists in 1609 practiced believer’s baptism, but they didn’t immerse. Even so, most church historians agree Baptists emerged as a distinct movement 400…
Scholars disagree on Anabaptist, Baptist connection
DURHAM, N.C. (ABP) — While much writing about Baptist history in the 20th century focused on what distinguishes Baptists from other Christians, a group of contemporary scholars believes the Baptist movement now needs to reconnect to its ecumenical roots. Most…