By Bob Allen Religious liberty is becoming a casualty of America’s culture wars, a leading expert on the separation of church and state told an audience Nov. 7 at the Newseum in Washington. “I certainly didn’t predict the last 20…
Ethicist says violence a moral option
By Ken Camp The use of deadly force can be justified in a broken world inhabited by “moral monsters,” Baptist ethicist Roger Olson told students at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary Nov. 6. “The kingdom of God is…
LifeWay apologizes to Asian-Americans
By Bob Allen The head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing arm apologized Nov. 6 for a 10-year-old Asian-themed vacation Bible school curriculum that critics said promoted racial stereotypes. “Ten years ago LifeWay’s Vacation Bible School material used racial stereotypes…
Baptists issue disaster response appeals
By Jeff Brumley The needs for help are flowing in from Baptist disaster response leaders around the nation. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Tommy Deal sent an e-mail blast Wednesday appealing for volunteers who can spare the time and energy to…
High court debates ‘legislative’ prayer
By Bob Allen A divided U.S. Supreme Court debated Nov. 6 whether explicitly Christian prayers at a New York town board’s meetings violate the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state. “What we heard this morning in the courtroom was…
OPINION: A Christian film critic’s conundrum
I was once reprimanded by a reader for suggesting Casablanca as a video alternative because the Humphrey Bogart character owned a bar. I remember my consternation over the fact that this man had dismissed this classic romantic adventure that salutes…
Members of Congress accepting religious trips
(RNS) — Over the past four-and-a-half years, private organizations spent nearly $570,000 flying members of Congress and their families around the globe on religion-related trips, putting them up in hotels and feeding them, a study of congressional records shows. An…
LETTERS: Not the way of Christ
The guest editorial “Kill or be killed” by David Gushee left me wondering — what was the point that Dr. Gushee was trying to make? Was he saying that we have crossed some line where it is now legitimate to do…
Church and people news
STAFF CHANGES Jim Day, to Broad Run Church, New Baltimore, as pastor. John Compton, resigning as senior pastor of First Church, Alexandria, to accept a similar position in Mississippi. Lance Yost, to Jahnke Road Church, Richmond, as bi-vocational pastor. DEATHS…
LETTER: Kill or be killed
I was a bit surprised to read David Gushee’s article “Kill or be killed” in the Religious Herald [Oct. 21]. The piece was well-written and thoughtfully prepared, the kind of essay one might find in The Atlantic Monthly, for instance,…
HERITAGE: The laughing fit
There are few calamities as destroying to a public speaker than for the speaker or the audience to be stricken with a case of the laughing fit. Herein is the report of an outbreak in Campbell County. Recently this columnist…
Faith of our (early church) fathers
(ABP) — The faith of their fathers doesn’t impress youth and young adults very much. But the faith of the early church fathers is a different story. And it increasingly is their story as a generation starved for stable and…