On Feb. 15, reports of an Arizona Roman Catholic priest’s assumed liturgical blunder — using “we” rather than “I” in baptisms over a decade — flooded news feeds across a wide spectrum. I was not surprised that Religion News Service…
Baptism is a call to social action, not a genteel ceremony, Braxton says
Baptism services should not be polite affairs or genteel ceremonies. Instead, they should be provocative political statements that agitate more than comfort and call believers to action, according to Brad Braxton. “Baptism services should not be polite. On the contrary,…
Is the pandemic-era church a church without baptisms, funerals and other major rituals?
“I have to ask myself: am I doing anything I was called to do when I became a pastor?”
Tired of Christians ruining the name of Christ? A Turkish bath with strangers improved my outlook
Today, Christians in America tend to find ourselves in two reactionary camps: those into apologetics and those into apologies. Both sides come from a stance of fear. If we continue reacting from our defensive postures, then we have learned nothing from scripture, tradition, human experience or, God forbid, the Holy Spirit.
‘Doesn’t anyone want to be baptized anymore?’ The ‘tangibilifying’ grace of baptism
Faith and baptism are intricately related. Faith keeps baptism from becoming simply a magic ritual for fulfilling a salvific requirement; while baptism keeps faith from becoming simply an individual experience. It unites us with God’s new community, the Church.
Awkward and peculiar: What the gospel calls us to be
There is an axiom among those who study world religions: In exploring other faiths, we see our own with fresh eyes. I recently returned from a pilgrimage to Israel. In a very real way, my trip enabled me to see…
Churches need to be less concerned about labels, more about being faithful
When we announced to the first church we served, in South Carolina, that we were moving to Alabama, someone came up right after church and said, “Here’s the question if you’re moving to Birmingham: Are you gonna say, ‘Roll Tide’…
The grief of baptism
As a hospital chaplain, a colleague of mine recently shared the story of her experience administering the rite of baptism for a baby on the NICU, per the request of the family, prior to a planned terminal extubation. She discussed…
Seminary president says Southern Baptists drifting toward infant baptism
By Bob Allen While a recent Baptist News Global story about a Baptist church in Ohio sprinkling an infant is newsworthy, baptizing babies isn’t as far-fetched as many conservative Southern Baptist churches assume, a seminary president said in a May…