By Brett Younger A seminary faculty posted a photo on Facebook with the caption, “Our faculty and all of the books they have written.” The faculty is made up of superb scholars who have authored a huge stack of books,…
Jesus and our restrictive pools
It’s happened again. Fortunately, this time no one was shot or killed, so we can breathe a collective sigh of relief. That is, relief in the sense that innocent black children were “only” traumatized, their lives were “only” threatened and…
Where is the fire?
By Molly T. Marshall Great movements arise out of passion. Whether it be concern for educating girls (Malala), eradicating the guinea worm (Carter Center), enhancing the lives of at-risk children (Edelman), empowering employees (Google) or energizing a moribund baseball team…
Ethics: Have you ever cheated on your taxes or your spouse?
[This is the fourth (ethics) of a nine-part series on empowering a faith community to impact the world. Already hospitality, evangelism, and missions have been explored.] Have you ever cheated on your taxes or your spouse? Have you ever disregarded…
A summer of Baptist fiestas
By Nora O. Lozano I have been a Baptist since I was born, and due to location changes I have had the privilege of relating to different Baptist groups: the Mexican National Baptist Convention during my early years; the American…
Racism evident in response to Texas pool party
True confession: I am a 53-year-old white male raised primarily in the South, and I occasionally find myself involuntarily thinking racist thoughts. Not big, dangerous racist thoughts, just the kind of insipient stereotyping that comes as second nature to most…
Reaping what we sow
One of the principles that spans both testaments of Scripture is that we reap what we sow. It’s gardening season where I live. Planting a garden has a built-in object lesson for this principle. Whatever kind of seed you put…
The role of a ‘declining’ church
By Corey Fields It has been interesting to watch the buzz over the recent Pew study looking at religious affiliation between 2007 and 2014. Although I’m very thankful to Pew for their incredible work in pulling together the hard data,…
On LGBT: What I have learned since ‘Changing Our Mind’
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee About a year ago I began my 16-week series on LGBT issues in what was then ABPNews/Herald. In October 2014 a version of these essays plus further material was published as the book Changing…
How the Pope teaches
Word is out that Pope Francis’ long-awaited encyclical on the environment will be published later this month with the title Laudato Sii—“Praised Be You”—words from the Latin text of St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Sun. (Baptist News Global…
Welcome to the church of the Shark Tank
Have you ever watched the television program Shark Tank? It is a reality show on ABC television with re-runs on CNBC. I recently started watching it. Typically I do not watch reality television, but one night while channel surfing I…
Betty’s Place
By Jason Coker Being the good little Baptist that I am, I was going to the annual meeting of the Baptist Fellowship of the Northeast a couple of weeks ago in Ballston Spa, N.Y., when I had a revelation —…