Americans value freedom but there are differences on what it means

America’s 250th birthday prompted researchers at Navigator to ask Americans how they define America, patriotism and what our country should aspire to. The result was 82% of Americans across all generations saying they believe freedom is an extremely important value,...

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Diverse faith coalition — including Baptists — advocates immigration reform

By Jeff Brumley Advocates of the rapidly growing immigration reform movement say they’re heartened by the expanding involvement of religious groups, which they say is key if Congress is to ever act decisively on the issue. “The coalition is getting…

Richmond Baptists restructure to strengthen ministry in wake of homosexuality dispute

By Robert Dilday The Richmond Baptist Association has approved a significant restructuring aimed at strengthening its ministries in the wake of a dispute over homosexuality which prompted some of its member congregations to withdraw or reduce financial support. Though final…

Fifty days to party (and ponder)

By Jeff Harris Even though Marshmallow Peeps and Cadbury Creme Eggs are long gone, it’s still Easter. The church spends 40 days (we call it Lent) preparing for Easter and when it finally arrives, we wear seersucker and hats, consume…

Get back to work

By Russell Waldrop You have just returned to work after some time off and you are standing around the water cooler sharing highlights with your colleagues. During the chitchat, two senior employees approach your group and ask: “Why are you…

Probation terms altered to permit sex offender pastor to minister to children

By Bob Allen A judge in Florida has changed probation terms for a preacher who is a registered sex offender to allow the former Southern Baptist pastor to minister to children in his church. Darrell Gilyard, 52, began preaching at…

3 reasons we’re afraid to talk about hell

Suzii Paynter: Leading a denomi-network

To heaven and Back is an old story

Obama: Pope Francis ‘makes us want to be better people’

Clergy who no longer believe gather online

A plastic feast, part 2

In the first part of my reflections on the recent Fox-National Geographic reboot of Carl Sagan’s famous series, Cosmos, I focused on some of the scientific problems in the first episode. Those, however, were far from the only problems with…