By Jim Denison Traveling abroad this week with limited Internet access and writing nine hours after Harold Camping’s failed prediction that the Rapture would begin May 21, I find myself oddly grateful. Camping was wrong again — no massive earthquakes…
The End Times as Emergency Exit
By Chris Hughes In his 2010 sermon for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly, Bill Leonard shared his views about the End Times. “If the rapture comes and I’m still on this earth,” he said, “I’m not going.” “I’m going…
Plan your weekend; tomorrow isn’t Judgment Day
By Leroy Seat By now everyone knows about the billboards across the country that read, “Judgment Day May 21.” Harold Camping, president of Family Radio, is the man behind the stir. According to his interpretation of the Bible, the Rapture…
Ed Vick: Baptists’ Columbus
By David Wilkinson For more than 17 of its nearly 21 years, Associated Baptist Press was blessed to have a Columbus on deck for its voyage across uncharted waters as the first and only independent news service created by and…
Taking our shoes off at the door
By Laura Rector Starting out in ministry to Korean churches, I made inevitable cultural mistakes — like taking my Korean-American youth group on a mission trip and bringing along 10 pounds of American rice. The teenagers refused to eat it….
Will the world end on May 21?
By Jim Denison A billboard on the way to my office proclaims “Judgment Day May 21” and states that “The Bible Guarantees It.” The group behind this prediction has purchased 1,200 billboards in the United States and 2,000 in foreign…
Why can’t Americans be honest about the Civil War?
By Alan Bean As we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, a new Harris Interactive Poll suggests that 54 percent of Americans believe the South seceded over states rights, not slavery.That would have been news to the folks…
In praise of press, religious freedom
By Bill Webb The Board of Directors of Associated Baptist Press paid homage to a pair of significant American freedoms with awards May 1 in Winston-Salem, N.C. About 125 people gathered for a dinner honoring longtime Baptist editor R.G. Puckett…
Don’t try to ‘fix’ women in ministry
By Laura Rector I’m in the bookstore at an egalitarian seminary. Unfortunately, not everyone there is an egalitarian. An older gentleman waylays me, finds out what I do, and starts telling me I’m sinning for feeling called and for being…
Reflections on the bin Laden killing
By David Gushee For those who projected onto Barack Obama the hope that he would be a transformative figure, a peacemaker/great soul like Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi, the targeted killing of Osama bin Laden ought to put such…
Osama bin Laden’s death — to celebrate or not?
By Bob Ballance Since the news first broke about Osama bin Laden’s death, Americans have been weighing in with their thoughts. Nearly without exception all we are hearing, at least by way of American mainstream media, is celebration and praise….
Must you honor a parent who has hurt you?
By J. Barrett Owen Churches this Sunday will give out a rose and clap for the oldest mother in the sanctuary. They will sing songs about family and pay no attention to the females who haven’t birthed a baby. They…