As the Southern Baptist Convention in its recent annual meeting has proved itself unreliably Baptist, it gives me pause to think about how quickly the transmogrification of this Baptist denomination into its ecclesiastical opposite has happened. Baptist folk often have...
In July 2021, when we adopted our daughters, I left my pastorate to focus on their transition into our family. I took a job that following August as a night auditor at the local Hilton property. This has been a…
“Local church autonomy” is a Baptist distinctive selectively used. As evidence, consider Al Mohler’s position on Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., 25 years ago when then-President Bill Clinton was a member there. Mohler, relatively new as president of…
Christmas has been in trouble for a long time. This year, decorations were out in Home Depot just past Halloween. And have you seen some of the yards around town? The Star Wars characters in the display down the street…
One of the factoids for which 2023 will be remembered is the TikTok hashtag #romanempire. This was the year a generation of women (much to their surprise and bemusement) learned the men in their lives think about ancient Rome regularly…
No 1. Saving Us, by Katherine Hayhoe I attended an event in Charlotte in early spring hosted by numerous environmental groups motivated by faith and/or science. I asked an attendee, Karen, who writes a weekly blog titled “Unheating,” what is…
Pope Francis may have authorized non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples, but not everyone in the Catholic hierarchy is going along. Traditionalist bishops, particularly in Africa and Asia, already are revolting and defying the pope’s supposedly unquestionable authority. In a recent…
December 21, 2023 Dear Editor: On numerous occasions, Donald Trump has disparaged our military. Concerning prisoners of war, Trump said about John McCain, “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Concerning those…
Human rights advocates are pleading with the Biden administration to take legal action to block new Texas laws designed to counter illegal border crossings and to give state law enforcement officers the right to arrest undocumented immigrants. Gov. Greg Abbott…
Many American societies are beginning to be understood as “post-Christian.” Churches are hemorrhaging masses of disillusioned congregants as Christian cultural norms are losing their grip on public discourse. Even so, there has been a new Christian movement unsuspectingly burgeoning on…
I consider myself fortunate to have come of age in the 1960s and to have been educated at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the early 1970s. None of us has much control over the time in which we live. Although…
“I would rather die upon yonder gallows than to live in slavery.” Sam Sharpe wrote these words in a letter to the British Parliament from his jail cell in Jamaica. Sharpe, a Baptist deacon and lay preacher, faced execution for…
During his early years of ministry, Paul loved Christmas. He enjoyed decorating the sanctuary. He took joy in the children’s programs. He sang the carols with gusto. He especially reveled in the annual Christmas Eve candlelight service. But in December…
