By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist pastor and author of a book investigating what went wrong with race and religion in the American South says the Southern Baptist Convention should stop claiming the convention’s founding purpose was missions. Alan Cross,…
Using gender-neutral language for God
This month I am preaching each Sunday at the Rosedale Congregational United Church of Christ. The title of my sermon yesterday was “Good News of the Kingdom,” from Mark 1:15. Updated terminology. In the first part of the sermon I…
Salvation and shape notes
Can the church ever be united?
Last Sunday I had the opportunity to preach at the Rosedale Congregational United Church of Christ (RCC) in Kansas City, Kansas. As RCC is currently without a pastor, I was asked to preach each Sunday this month, and I much…
The Twilight of the American Enlightenment: The 1950s and the crisis of liberal belief
George Marsden is an evangelical Christian who is deeply troubled by the current state of American evangelicalism. But in The Twilight of the American Enlightenment the celebrated historian turns his attention to the failed quest for an American religious consensus in the…
I am Charlie, I am Jewish, I am …
Baptists, of all people, are qualified-and should be motivated-to speak words of peace, reconciliation and encouragement to the religious divisions plaguing our world. Disenfranchisement is part of our DNA. We support free speech and free expression. We value religious liberty….
In Memory of the Hutterite Martyrs of 1918
David Hofer, the oldest brother, was released from prison the next day, but Jacob Wipf was held until April 13, 1919. From his hospital bed in Dec. 1918, Jacob shared the story of the shameful treatment the four Hutterites received;…
Remembering Isaac Backus
The New England Puritan Isaac Backus was born in 1724 and died 208 years ago today, on November 20, 1806. As an outstanding advocate of religious freedom and the separation of church and state, he is well worth remembering, and…
Patient Zero of SBC controversy: B. H. Carroll defies theological labels, historians assert
By Ken Camp Neither Baptist progressives nor fundamentalists have the right to lay exclusive claim to the legacy of B.H. Carroll, two church historians told a fall colloquy sponsored by a theological institute that bears Carroll’s name. Baptists who view…