Dear Jimmy, Since you know all about Bluebell Baptist and some of the tricks we've pulled through the years, you won't be surprised by this letter except in how it ends. It all started when Brother Bobby announced this mornin'…
VIRGINIA BAPTIST FORUM: Thanks for Baptist coverage
Please accept my sincerest gratitude for your detailed history of Baptists in a recent issue [Herald, Jan. 15]. After serving almost 70 years as an ordained Baptist minister, especially the last 30 years with the Roman Baptists (fundamentalists),…
HERITAGE: Going home
Last month this columnist spoke in a “Virginia Baptist” church in a very far corner of Southwest Virginia. Actually, my speaking engagement was at First Baptist Church of Dalton, as in Dalton, Georgia. In 2006 the Georgia church joined the…
News about Virginia Baptists and their ministries For February 12, 2009
STAFF CHANGES MISSIONS MOMENTA team of 18 members of Bethany Baptist Church in Callo went to Tennessee last August to help families whose homes had been damaged and destroyed by a tornado to rebuild and repair. The Hope Team's trip…
SECOND OPINION: Don’t fiddle with Jefferson’s statute
Stephen Strehle is way off base in his Dec. 18 Religious Herald essay calling for the repeal of Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and substituting a new one. The U. S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights were…
OUT LOUD
“The Vatican's model for the papacy is still the absolute monarchies and royal courts of the past. That model simply will not work today.” Tom Reese The professor at the Woodstock Theological Center was commenting on the Pope's handling of…
Obama’s anti-torture directives place activists in good news/bad news posture
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Religious opponents of torture expressed simultaneous approval and concern about a series of executive orders by President Obama upending his predecessor's policies on detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects. On his second full day in office, Obama…
Canadian courts to test the boundaries between polygamous & same-sex unions
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) — A landmark court case will test whether Canada's decision to legalize same-sex marriage also justifies the practice of polygamy. The defense lawyer for a British Columbia man who openly admits to having multiple wives will…
Monkey business
Two hundred years after his birth on Feb. 12, 1809, British naturalist Charles Darwin remains controversial. His theory of evolution became the linchpin of modern science, but a majority of Americans believe God created humans in their present form. And…
RIGHT or WRONG: Churches and marketing
Our church has gotten involved in strategy planning and marketing. Help me understand how this language and these endeavors are not just crass worldliness. Strategy planning and marketing are practices used by for-profit businesses and corporations, often to great effect….
Intelligent design renews debate between science and religion
WACO, Texas (ABP) — If there ever were a chance that conflict between evolution and religion might die a natural death, it ended with the birth of intelligent design. Just ask William Dembski. Educated as a probability theorist, Dembski had…
Pick Pepsodent or Presbyterian?
PHOENIX (ABP) — Protestants in the United States are about as loyal to their brand of toothpaste as their denomination, according to one research firm. A new poll by Ellison Research asked churchgoers who attend worship services at least once…