In my most recent column, I shared a personal reflection from a 2013 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly workshop which sought to revisit the place and nature of the Baptist tradition of believer’s baptism in the 21st century. I wrote…
OPINION: Does it ever hurt to heal?
I recently heard and read about some potentially groundbreaking medical news. The basic gist of the news is that researchers at the University of Massachusetts medical school have found a way to essentially turn off the genetic material which causes…
OPINION: Binge watching
The TV show Breaking Bad entered its fifth and final season two weeks ago. Many speculate that “binge watching” is in large part responsible for the growing success of the show. Thanks to Netflix, a subscriber can watch an entire…
Churches confront an uncomfortable question: How much should we pay the pastor?
It may be one of the most uncomfortable —and sometimes contentious — questions in congregational life: How much should we pay our senior pastor? Ministers struggle between commitments to a self-sacrificial calling on the one hand and providing for their…
In a trend still below churches’ radar, many ministers saddled with seminary debt
When Congress overwhelmingly approved a measure last month to relieve spiraling student debt, churches probably didn’t realize the problem hits closer to home than expected — many pastors are leaving seminary and divinity school with tens of thousands of dollars…
EDITORIAL: What is wrong with us?
‘What is wrong with us?” It’s a question we’d better start asking. It reads like a work of twisted fiction rather than a factual account: “Bored” teens decide to kill somebody for the fun of it. Three boys, aged 15,…
As new film draws attention, Washington church recalls real butler as quiet man of steady faith
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Eugene Allen served eight presidents as a White House butler, and his legendary career is the inspiration for Lee Daniels’ The Butler, a film starring Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda and a host of A-list Hollywood talent. But…
Photo
Eugene Allen, the man who inspired the title role of The Butler, is pictured in a 2006 photo from the 126th anniversary program of his church’s usher board. He is the farthest left person in the third row from…
Study connects views on race, church size
By Jeff Brumley Christians who worship in “very large” congregations see racial inequalities differently from those who attend smaller churches, a joint Baylor University and University of Southern California study has found. Members of the bigger institutions “do not tend…
SBC leader: Bible Belt collapsing
By Jeff Brumley Russell Moore has been making the rounds of national media outlets, telling his secular interviewers of the collapse of the Bible Belt and how it is bad for America but good for the church. Moore, president of…
Egyptian Baptists evoke spirit of founders
By Jeff Brumley In a letter describing the Islamist persecution of Christians in Egypt, a Baptist minister in Cairo provides a disturbing warning against the entanglement of religion and politics. And portions of the letter, two U.S. church scholars say, are…
Lawsuit fights Ten Commandments display
By Bob Allen The executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists is lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking removal of a Ten Commandments monument on the State Capitol grounds in Oklahoma City. Bruce Prescott, an ordained Baptist minister and member of…