By Rupen Das The two-year-old conflict in Syria is now being played out in three different but interconnected arenas. There is the military conflict that, at the moment from all indications, is deadlocked. There is the media battle, which the…
Female preachers change church culture
By Pam Durso In establishing Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching, the Baptist Women in Ministry leadership team’s dream was to find churches in which young and starting-out Baptist women ministers could preach. We had heard many stories from women…
Judge not, lest ye be judged
By Joseph Havey Every major religion has been the butt of a thousand jokes, but Southern Baptists nearly monopolize the punch line industry. Catholics, Muslims and Jews all have their image, but the Southern Baptist caricature is the gossiping, pie-baking,…
Forgiving Judas
By Miguel De La Torre Lately I have been rethinking Judas — history’s ultimate villain. Dante in Canto XXXIV places Judas in the Ninth Circle — the deepest realm of the Inferno. Under his feet are the most evil of…
Easter thinking
By Roger Lovette Every Easter the memory comes back. I had a chance to see the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany, several years ago. The play opened with Jesus riding into Jerusalem for the last time. The play ended with…
Overcoming darkness
By Henry Green The complicity of the church in the Nazi policy to annihilate the Jewish race cannot be denied. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “The church confesses her timidity, her evasiveness, her dangerous concessions. The church has been untrue to her…
Saying ‘no’ to violence against women
By Cindy Ring Ruble We live in a world in which one in three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. That statistic represents about 1 billion women. Think of three women and girls in your life and…
Baptists go after payday loans
By Aaron Weaver Abortion, homosexuality and church-state separation are all issues on which Baptists have made their diverse opinions loudly known to the public. But predatory lending is not an issue that many associate with Baptists. Yet, Baptists in several…
An ethical God
By Roger Olson Recently, I was graciously granted one of the highest honors a university can bestow on a professor — an endowed, named “chair.” In my case, it is the Foy Valentine Chair of Christian Ethics — named after…