By Bob Allen Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary devoted a special chapel service March 28 to rally support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in North Carolina. Richard Land Keynote speaker Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s…
Absorbing the violence
By Bill Leonard “We absorb so much violence and insecurity everyday that we are like time bombs ready to explode. We need to find a cure for our illness.” That quotation, taken from the book Living Buddha, Living Christ and…
Messy narratives
By Alan Bean The Trayvon Martin case is following a predictable trajectory. Calls for the arrest of George Zimmerman centered on the self-appointed neighborhood watch captain’s unprovoked vigilante pursuit of an unarmed citizen. Now comes the inevitable backlash as the…
White churches on sidelines of Trayvon Martin outrage
By Jeff Brumley The killing of Trayvon Martin has sparked rallies in black communities nationwide and is now leading to questions about why white Christians aren’t more visibly involved. Pastors of both races offer a number of theories about the…
Trayvon and Troy
By Zachary Bailes In the past week people gathered to hold vigils, protests and to speak out for the one who can no longer speak: Trayvon Martin. We find ourselves caught in a whirlwind of understandable fury and anger over…
NAACP delegation meets with Franklin Graham
By Bob Allen Nineteen black religious leaders visited the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., March 20 to meet with evangelist Franklin Graham. The visit by the NAACP delegation came three weeks after Graham, president and CEO of…
Vestal defends CBF hiring policy
By Bob Allen Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal defended the organization’s 12-year-old ban on hiring gays in a statement March 8. “Except for a small handful of Baptist churches, the vast majority of churches that partner within CBF…
Baptists oppose gay-marriage ban
By Bob Allen About 100 people attended a statewide rally Feb. 25 at a Baptist church to oppose an upcoming vote to ban gay marriage in North Carolina. The gathering at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., was the…
CBF leader says it’s time to revisit ban on hiring gays
Baptist ethicist: There is no global war on Christians
By Bob Allen A Baptist ethicist accused Newsweekmagazine of feeding fear with a cover story headlined “The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World.” Robert Parham “The narrative of a global war on Christians is a cousin of the…
Racial reconciliation 2012
By David Gushee On Tuesday, McAfee School of Theology hosted a sizable contingent of African-American leaders on our Atlanta campus. Gerald Durley, senior pastor at Providence Missionary Baptist Church in southwest Atlanta, preached in chapel. The sermon began with his…
Are you opening — or closing — your children’s hearts?
By Rabbi Rami Shapiro There are only two ways to raise your children: you either shut them down or you open them up. If you shut them down you raise them in a zero-sum world of winners and losers. You…