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,…
Religion and politics do mix, Baptist author says, but not always in healthy ways
By Bob Allen Jesus’ command to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” sounds straightforward, but a new book by a Baptist scholar says the line between religion and politics isn’t…
Publisher finds challenges in appealing to conservative, liberal faith traditions
By Bob Allen Six months after a controversy over its decision to publish Matthew Vines’ book God and the Gay Christian, the publisher of authors including John Piper, Bill Gothard and David Platt has announced organizational changes increasing distance between…
Flesh is the new Word.
Over the course of my quickly fading 20s I’ve discovered a few truths about existence: 1) My crutch like belief-as a poorly complected 17 year old-that my skin would finally even out in my late twenties was, disappointingly, misplaced. (Also, is there…
Receiving the Truth
In the first chapter of Romans, as Paul is laying out the general indictment of all humanity before bringing to bear the good news of the Gospel, he makes the observation that what can be known about God has always…
Repenting of Christianity
Chinua Achebe’s classic novel Things Fall Apart centers around the life on Okonkwo, the powerful leader of his clan and their village, one of nine villages in the Umuofia region of Nigeria. Okonkwo is a fearsome warrior, well-respected among his…
SBC leaders warn book by gay Christian ‘not faithful to Scripture’
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist Convention seminary cranked out a 90-page rebuttal to a recently released book making waves in evangelical circles with claims that the Bible is not anti-gay. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, described…
In new book, Merritt reveals childhood abuse, questions about sexual identity
By Bob Allen With his writing career in full swing, faith-and-culture author Jonathan Merritt ended a 2009 USA Today commentary with a challenge to his fellow evangelical Christians. “Now is the time for those who bear the name of Jesus…
Pastor: a unique calling to serve a unique community
For 34 years now, I have had the privilege of serving as a pastor. Even after all of these years I consider myself to be a student of ministry, not an expert. I have been privileged to serve remarkable congregations…