By David Wilkinson Talk about mixed feelings. On April Fool’s Day we published, in the tradition of National Public Radio, a “news story” by senior writer Bob Allen with the headline, “‘God Hates Fags’ church apologizes.” Except for a lot…
Fiscal responsibility, with moral sanity
By David Gushee Progressive activists, including some of my Christian friends, have staged hunger strikes to dramatize their objections to proposed budget cuts in Congress that would affect the poor. I care deeply about such cuts, but I have not…
Holy Week hope
By R. Kevin Johnson During the past few weeks, Christian churches around the world have been engaging the scriptures during Lent. This season will lead to the commemoration of Jesus’ death and burial, and to the celebration of his divine…
Counting the days
By Brett Younger When I was in the seventh grade a white-suited evangelist guaranteed that Jesus would be back in less than five years. Every 13-year-old boy at church that night had the same thought: “I will never get to…
Why terrorism is getting worse
By Jim Denison “Despite nearly a decade of war, al Qaeda is stronger today than when it carried out the 9/11 attacks.” So begins Leah Farrall’s fascinating article in the current edition of Foreign Affairs. Farrall is former senior counterterrorism…
‘God Hates Fags’ church apologizes
TOPEKA, Kan. (ABP) – Pastor Fred Phelps said today the infamous “God Hates Fags” signs associated with protests by his Westboro Baptist Church are the result of a typographical error. Phelps said the signs, used thousands of times around the…
Another lesson from the Baptist battles
By Chris Hughes Baptist gatherings tend to raise some very interesting issues. At the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina’s recent General Assembly titled “Living Justice and Mercy,” leaders took on many pressing social issues in beautiful ways. But a…
Conviction and freedom
By David Gushee What is the proper relationship between conviction and freedom? By “conviction” I simply mean clear theological and ethical beliefs and the willingness to communicate such beliefs just as clearly, one goal of such communication being to persuade…
Love’s hard calling
By Elizabeth Evans Hagan Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” are among the phrases most quoted and memorized by many of us in seeking to be followers of…