By Amy Butler I had a free evening last week, so I decided to go to church. Though I spend quite a bit of time at church, I don’t often go to church in the way that most people think…
Alligators, prime ministers, and pennies
By Jim Denison Authorities in Gulfport, Miss., recently subdued a nearly-13-foot-long weighing 800 pounds. They used a forklift to get the beast out of the water, but first they duct-taped its massive jaws shut. (Who was the first person to…
Heroes disguised as teachers
By David Wilkinson Someday when I’m standing in one of the long lines outside the Pearly Gates awaiting admission, I won’t be a bit surprised to see a much shorter line of VIPs who are being welcomed with streamlined expediting…
British Christian leaders on the UK elections
(ABP) — With the United Kingdom’s May 6 elections ending 13 years of Labour Party rule and ushering in a government led by Prime Minister David Cameron and a coalition of his Conservative Party and the ideologically quite different Liberal…
My calling and the mischief in God’s sense of humor
By Martha Dixon Kearse People make jokes about preachers’ kids — with some justification, certainly. But, in reality, it’s a great life. You get the run of the church, along with the knowledge of where to find a vanilla wafer…
On being an offensive salesperson
By Amy Butler One of the great hardships of being a pastor is that the job involves two very important tasks that generally do not work well together: sales and offending people. It all sounds very distasteful to call it…
1st reaction to Great Commission Resurgence, 2nd verse
By Norman Jameson The long-awaited second edition of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force was released May 3, and interest is high. Revisions indicate task force members heard the reactions of Baptists to their initial progress report which came out…
Arrested for ‘driving while Latino’
By Lisa Sharon Harper Certain moments in our nation’s history have consistently opened the door for the least civil voices to enact evil through civil policy — think of the institution of race-based slavery, the Indian removals, Jim Crow laws,…
Singing in the storms
By Jim Denison I’m old enough to remember a day when most people trusted the authority figures in their lives. When employees respected the companies they served, fans believed in sports heroes, and communities esteemed bankers and scientists and elected…
The prophetic pastor
By Bill Wilson One of the most precarious tasks a preacher faces is that of being a prophet. The role of prophet is one toward which many ministers feel a deep ambivalence. All preachers know that relevant preaching must address…
Lessons on love from Cecil Sherman
By David Wilkinson Cecil Sherman has rightly been remembered this past week as a leader who spoke the truth and stood by his convictions. I admired him for those and other qualities as well. But I am particularly grateful for…
Financial reform and Christian moral values
By David Gushee The “culture wars” have slotted Christian moral engagement with American public life into a drearily predictable pattern of fighting over issues such as abortion and gay marriage. But the longer history of Christian public ethical engagement includes…