By Jim Denison Baptists make up 17.2 percent of American adults but comprise only 12.7 percent of the new Congress. This is one of the findings of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which recently published a study…
Witness
By Bill Leonard “Can I get a witness?” Our pastor, the Rev. Darryl Aaron, asks that question at least once in every sermon, especially when he wants the congregation to join him in response to a particular gospel imperative. The…
Christians and the Miss America competition
By Melody Maxwell On Jan. 15, evangelical Christian Teresa Scanlan was crowned Miss America 2011. When I heard this news, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own experience a few months ago attending the Miss Alabama pageant, a preliminary…
Religious liberty good for religion and the state
By Brent Walker In President Obama’s meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao Jan. 18-21, the issue of human rights and religious liberty must be discussed along with economic and environmental issues. Certainly, the tradition in the United States is that…
Another gun massacre? Let’s buy more guns!
By David Gushee And so Tucson joins Columbine, Virginia Tech, Fort Hood, the Pennsylvania Amish schoolchildren, the Long Island Railroad killings, the Wisconsin church shooting and others. They come upon us one after another. Who can even remember them all?…
A year of ‘gracious uncertainty’
By Bill Wilson On the threshold of a new decade in our new millennium, there is a pervasive mood among God’s people: uncertainty. We hear it weekly from clergy and laity alike, usually around a specific concern regarding employment or…
Lord, have mercy
By Amy Butler I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. That day I was working in the office at my previous church, in New Orleans, when the news first broke about the bombing…
Playing church in high heels
By Tammy Abee Blom My daughters, ages 4 and 7, were playing quietly — too quietly. As I peeked around the corner, I saw Audrey, my youngest, wearing her sparkly high heels while standing on her step stool. From a…
The year of microterrorism
By Jim Denison How do we cope with a “war on terror” that seems to have no end? Time magazine called 2010 “the year of microterrorism.” The Department of Homeland Security stated last May that “the number and pace of…
Lessons from a cough
By David Wilkinson I have rediscovered in the past month an affinity for coughing. I don’t much like it, but I have learned a few things from it. I’ve been coughing since acquiring a nasty upper respiratory infection a few…
Getting to know the ‘nones’
By Bill Leonard As noted earlier in this space, recent polls give evidence of a dramatic increase in the number of Americans who self-identify as having no religious affiliation — with their share of the population up from 7 to…
The will to truly change
By Bob Setzer One week into the New Year, much Jan. 1 resolve is flagging fast. What seemed so easy when greeting the New Year has now turned into the daily grind of fighting temptation. The reservoirs of willpower are…