By Linda Baker The telephone finally rang at 10:45 p.m. on Dec. 6, 2008, with a call we had been waiting on for a long time. On the other end of the line was the transplant coordinator from a transplant…
The Christians as the Romans Saw Them
By David Gushee My Christmas week reflections are inspired by a brilliant 25-year-old book by historian Robert L. Wilken. I picked up The Christians as the Romans Saw Them in hopes of finding resources for my research on the sanctity…
Christian Christmas chronic lyricosis
By Michael Ruffin I am at times afflicted with chronic lyricosis — which is, on the off chance you have not heard of it, a malady characterized by the habitual misunderstanding of song lyrics. When I was a child, I…
Light in the midst of darkness
By Amy Butler I don’t know if you feel it this time of year like I do. But in the midst of the twinkling lights, all my eyes seem to focus on are the burned-out bulbs. And rushing crowds outside…
The eyes of Jesus are upon me
By Barry Howard When I got up this morning, I had this sensation that I was being watched. As I went to the kitchen to make the coffee (hazelnut, to be exact), I looked over my shoulder to see if…
The advent of Christmas craziness
By J. Brent Walker The United States’ habit of Christmas craziness began, just like reminders of the holiday season itself, early this year. You know what I mean — the perennial cry that someone or some group (usually one’s ideological…
Barack Obama, peace and justice
By Jim Denison On Dec. 10, President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. In his speech the president said, “I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest…
Is ‘Climategate’ a crisis of faith?
By Steven D. Martin The theft and publication of thousands of e-mail messages from scientists in the Climatic Research Unit at England’s University of East Anglia will undoubtedly affect the outcome of the U.N. climate talks — taking place in…
Migration as mission
By David F. D’Amico Baptist missiologist Samuel Escobar, author of The New Global Mission, contends that immigration in the 21st century can become a missions challenge for Christians in the developed world. He suggests that churches in the United States…
Socialism’s not the danger; corporatism is
By David Sanders “I think Obamanomics — no one is actually sure yet,” Zanny Minton Beddoes, the economics editor of The Economist magazine, explained as she struggled to define President Obama’s economic policies in a recent speech to the World…
Baptists and the role of faith in public policy
By Marv Knox The tension between Christian compassion and the duties of citizenship — particularly the responsibilities of public officials — has been in the news lately. Maurice Clemmons was free to walk into a Lakewood, Wash., coffee shop and…
In pre-Copenhagen rally, did we ‘Wave’ cynicism good-bye?
By Jonathan Langley An estimated 40,000 people (all of whom had been asked to wear blue clothing and paint their hands blue) gathered at noon on Dec. 5 in Grosvenor Square, in the heart London, for what had been billed…