A Houston megachurch has been in the news due to member concerns about the ways its bylaws were amended and governance was effectively removed from the congregation and entrusted to a small group handpicked by the senior pastor. While this...
“Religion” derives from the same word as “ligament.” It is ultimately a connecting force and, with no divine object or mysterium tremendum, our experiences of awe are ultimately self-referential and delusional.
I am convinced that “evangelical” no longer means what it once did. And for the Jesus-following religious people it’s supposed to describe, it’s doing more harm than good.
Pastor Ernie Richards has avoided the anti-gay rhetoric of some other religious leaders. Pastor Charles Worley, well … hasn’t. Richards preaches at Providence Baptist Church in Vale, N.C. Worley preaches at Providence Road Baptist Church, in nearby Maiden, N.C.
The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina denounced racism in a resolution adopted at its annual meeting, but stopped short of endorsing the Southern Baptist Convention’s call to refrain from public displays of the Confederate flag or statements by SBC leaders supporting the removal of Civil War monuments.
For many Americans, the flag stirs emotions far deeper than anything God inspires. Have we created a national religion in which the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the sacrifice of soldiers on the field of battle, and the invincibility of American firepower are practically indistinguishable?
You might wonder if my condemnation is too harsh. It is not, for the Spirit of the Lord has convicted me to shout from the mountaintop how God’s precious children are being devoured by the hatred and bigotry of those who have positioned themselves as the voice of God in America.
Its pastor, Frank Pomeroy, fought back tears as he delivered his sermon, which emphasized the power of light to triumph over darkness. One of the victims, Annabelle R. Pomeroy, 14, was his daughter.
Pews were replaced with 26 handcrafted chairs that marked where worshippers were slain.
There may be some sparsely populated pews in American churches this weekend following last Sunday’s church massacre in Texas. Pastors in different parts of the country are hearing from church members worried that the fate of First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs — where a gunman murdered 26 and injured 20 — may befall their own congregations.
We must find the strength to change, but the change we need is not in the level of security at houses of worship. The change we need is a change in the way we think about guns.
Southern Baptist leaders have reached out in many ways to survivors of the rampage that killed 26 men, women and children last Sunday. Conspicuously absent is any suggestion that lives might have been saved by laws barring civilians from owning weapons designed to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.
The dichotomy between prayers and action portrayed by our leaders is a false one. It reveals a narrow view of prayer on the one hand and a shortsighted understanding of action on the other.
