By William Thornton Barack Obama has been reelected, and it was not as close as many predicted. I am not much of a political prophet, but I had already pondered this outcome and have decided how I will handle four…
A zeal he does not own
By Bob Burroughs There is a wonderful, thought-provoking text by the hymn writer Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863) titled “There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy. It speaks to this generation perhaps even more powerfully than to his own. It is not…
What Election Day won’t fix
By Miguel De La Torre This Tuesday, we as a nation vote. For some reason, the presidential cycle this year seemed nastier than usual. Emotional rhetoric replaced civil discourse. Rather than assessing the positives and negatives of the respective candidates,…
When should we say retard?
By Darrell Gwaltney Following the last presidential debate and referring to President Obama, conservative commenter Ann Coulter tweeted: “I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard.” Reaction to her poor choice of words was…
Pitfalls of worship
By Bob Burroughs There are some pitfalls in worship. Sometimes, things go wrong at the right time. We try hard to overcome these obstacles as they appear and try to patch them as best we can with temporary solutions, but…
Choosing faith and freedom
By Henry Green In Mark 10, James and John ask Jesus for the positions of authority when he establishes his kingdom. The others learn of this and “became indignant” toward James and John for making such a request. In the…
Citizenship questions cloud candidate’s eligibility
By Miguel De La Torre A candidate for the presidency of the United States of America was not born in the United States. Not only was his father not an American, born in some third-world country, but so was the…
Citizenship questions cloud candidate’s eligibility
By Miguel De La Torre A candidate for the presidency of the United States of America was not born in the United States. Not only was his father not an American, born in some third-world country, but so was the…
A fundamentally unserious culture
By David Gushee Months ago I agreed to a heavy travel schedule that would take me away from the television during the climax of our endless presidential campaign. I caught glimpses of the VP debate at a diner in New…
Billy Graham and politics: Woe to us
By Mark Wingfield My maternal grandmother thought Billy Graham was a saint above all others. You simply could not say anything negative about the evangelist in her presence. She held the same regard for Jimmy Carter, because she considered him…
Mumford & Sons sing of grace and life
By Darrell Gwaltney I have been listening to Mumford & Sons’ new album Babel. Its deep biblical allusions and challenging lyrics about relationships and redemption invite repeated listenings. There’s enough in the album to keep my attention for a while….
Bridging the hospitality gap
By Terry Maples Recently I read an article by a newly retired Baptist minister who recounted experiences while searching for a new church home. He sadly reported members in most churches where he visited ignored him. Hospitality was lacking. Members…