By David Gushee The Christian faith presents as its central image a bleeding man dying a cruel death on a Roman cross. We say that this Friday-afternoon misery was the central event in both human and divine history. We most…
On marriage, time to separate civil from ecclesiastical
By Jonathan Lindsey In this 400th-anniversary year of Baptist history it’s time for Baptists to take the lead — and invite other ecclesiastical bodies to join them — in removing one of the final vestiges of theocracy in the United…
Culture war without end
By David Gushee Over the last ten years I have written two books and countless articles in which I suggested and hoped that the culture war between cultural conservatives and cultural liberals would — and should — end. I now…
What marriage is — and what it isn’t
By Benjamin Cole In late February, David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch co-authored a provocative op-ed in the New York Times, titled “A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage.” In the piece, Blankenhorn, the conservative president of the Institute for American Values, and…
Movie review: Knowing explores age-old theological conundrum
By Bob Allen Do our lives have a purpose, or are we products of random chance? If everything is predestined, is there anything we can do to improve our fate? If not, are we without hope? These questions are discussed…
Global Baptists issue pledges at peace conference
From The 2009 Global Peace Conference Gathering together from 59 different nations, representing many diverse communities throughout the world, more than 350 people came to Rome Feb. 9-14 to participate in the 2009 Global Baptist Peace Conference. We came together…
Why I am a heretic
By Miguel De La Torre Yes, I am a heretic — but then, I’m getting ahead of myself. As some of you might remember, I recently wrote what turned out to be the most controversial column in the history of…
The future of American Christianity
By David Gushee Trinity College’s American Religious Identification Survey was releasedMarch 9. Its headline finding, assummarized by USA Today: “Faith is shifting, drifting or vanishing outright.” The news that “almost all denominations are losing ground” is sobering indeed. It helps…
Leaving Alabama
By James Green Somerville I was born on March 14, 1959, in Selma, Alabama. My mother tells me I was the most difficult of all her babies to deliver, and that while she was waiting for me to make up…