By Benjamin Cole Hardball Religion: Feeling the Fury of Fundamentalism, by Wade Burleson. Paperback/288 pages. Published by Smyth & Helwys. Hardball Religion is the personal story of Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson and the two tumultuous years he served as…
A cross-shaped world
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…
What’s a Baptist to do on Maundy Thursday?
By Benjamin Cole One of the unfortunate realities about being Baptist is that you seldom understand or observe the Christian festival calendar. In fact, many who are reading this column will not know what a “festival calendar” is. For 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…