“I'd like to see the CEOs of these companies march down Wall Street in sackcloth and ashes.” Cokie Roberts The ABC news analyst was speaking on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” about Wall Street executives who asked Washington to bail…
Who kicked out whom?
While I agree wholeheartedly with Marshall Buckles' comments online about the SBC and CBF working together [Herald, Sept. 18], he seems to have forgotten who kicked whom out of the SBC leadership and I might say, quite incriminatingly. Gerald R….
Human rights and wrongs
ATLANTA — Most evangelical American Christians remained silent about torture at Abu Ghraib and Guan-tanamo for some of the same reasons European Christians 70 years ago largely failed to resist the Holocaust, ethicist David Gushee told a na-tional summit on…
The nature of forgiveness
In your Sept. 18 issue Tom Ehrich said that “Forgiveness grows out of a determination to live ….” I am not sure what he is saying, but certainly determination to live is not a biblical basis for forgiveness, so I…
Poll: On torture, evangelicals not looking to Bible
ATLANTA (ABP) — A new survey suggests the very Americans who claim to follow the Bible most assiduously don't consult it when forming their views about torture and government policy. The poll of 600 Southern white evangelicals was released in…
FAITHSHAPERS: Special children
I'd like to tell you about my Ann. She is autistic, and she is the bravest person I have ever met. Sometimes she disappears, and I can find her in bed under all the pillows, or under the loveseat in…
Not all coercive force is torture, Baptist ethicist insists
Debate over the morality of coercive force would be served better if everyone involved quit using the word “torture” altogether, said Daniel Heimbach, professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. “The problem here is that in hotly debating…
Some conservatives say: ‘A woman VP? Sure. A woman pastor? No way’
WASHINGTON (RNS) — There may never be a female pastor leading Tony Perkins' Southern Baptist congregation in Louisiana, but there could be a woman taking over the vice president's mansion in Washington. And as Perkins sees it, there's no contradiction…
‘Who’s My Neighbor?’ is theme for BGAV’s Connect2008
RICHMOND — Connect:2008, the 185th annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, will be held in Roanoke Nov. 11-12 at the Roanoke Civic Center and the Hotel Roanoke & Convention Center. The theme for Connect:2008 is “Who's My…
China visit opens dialog on religious freedom
ATLANTA — Dialogue and increased understanding were the results of the first leg of a 10-day, two-city tour by a delegation of Chinese religious leaders and their American counterparts that began in Atlanta Sept. 5. The delegation included the leaders…
EDITORIAL: Aunt Ida visits Bluebell Baptist
Dear Jimmy, I can tell I'm slowin' down ‘cause my mind is laggin' behind the calendar by several months. It seems like it ought to be about May with the summer comin' on instead of the middle of September with…
FIRST HAND: Up close and personal in China
Even before the Beijing Olympics captured the world's attention in early August, some Virginia Baptists were experiencing China “up close and personal.” In early July, Lorrie Brooks of Westhampton Baptist Church in Richmond and Amy Abshire a recent graduate of…