It may now seem surprising to many United Methodists, and even more Baptists, that for most of our histories in the United States, all Methodists and Baptists were regularly designated as evangelical denominations. The most important reason is that both...
I just finished a call with an old friend of mine — “old” not in the sense of his age but in the sense that our active friendship grew dormant more than a quarter of a century ago. Space fails…
“Borrowing” someone else’s sermon is one of the top four ways pastors get fired from churches, according to Thom Rainer, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing arm and a noted interpreter of modern Christianity. Rainer made that statement…
Author Susan K. Williams Smith was sickened to learn that a passage from the New Testament inspired Samuel Bowers’ to launch the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s. Smith’s new book, With Liberty and Justice…
Derek Chauvin, the police officer convicted of killing George Floyd, was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison on June 25, 2021. There are many opinions regarding the correctness of this sentence. However, I continue to reflect on one of the…
Months ago, we sat around the wooden table in our booth, enjoying our food and reminding our kids to be mindful of the other customers around us. With five kids under the age of 10, it isn’t an everyday experience…
In a scene reminiscent of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting this summer, pastors and leaders of the Presbyterian Church in America entered their annual meeting last week with letters and endorsements and counter-letters circulating to address what some believe…
In the year 1883, Poet Emma Lazarus wrote her sonnet, “The New Colossus,” to raise money for the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty would stand. The sonnet ends with the poignant, passionate words that were added to the…
Amid charges of sermon plagiarism, newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President Ed Litton is facing calls for his resignation. Litton recently acknowledged borrowing some sermon material, with permission, from immediate past SBC President J.D. Greear, and Greear confirmed that statement….
The rapid and creative responses churches made to address the COVID-19 pandemic created significant stresses on church leadership and laity both, one of the nation’s leading religion researchers said in a recent webinar. “The staggering amount of change that (occurred…
When you hear the name “Pam Tebow,” you might think first of her influential son, Tim Tebow, winner of the Heisman Trophy. She’s fine with that. “Timmy is doing fine,” she said in a recent interview. “I have five kids,…
The Southern Baptist Convention has made headlines not only in Baptist circles but in secular publications in the days after this year’s annual meeting. In addition to Critical Race Theory, the media has been reporting on the SBC’s commitment to…
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has expressed displeasure over a series of recent court decisions that seek to limit the religious rights of Christians in the North African country of Algeria. USCIRF’s concern, expressed via a press…
