In the Old Testament Book of Esther, we are told a story about how the very existence of a certain group of people was threatened because of the anger of one man towards them. This man made threats to wipe…
Alabama Baptist convention opposes Common Core education standards
By Bob Allen Alabama state leaders were urged to repeal Common Core standards promoted by the U.S. Department of Education in a resolution adopted at the Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting Nov. 11-12 in Birmingham. The resolution titled “On Parental…
Maryland school board ‘steals’ Christmas
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist leader in Maryland denounced a local school board’s decision to eliminate references to all religious holidays on its published calendar for 2015-2016. The Montgomery County Board of Education voted 7-1 to make the change…
Labor trafficking isn’t a problem. Is it?
She had been called in to cut and style a woman’s hair in her home. She arrived and thought it strange that this one woman lived with quite a few men in a house. There was little furniture except for…
Needed: Christian ministers who do the stuff
A dramatic story—perhaps an urban legend—about John Wimber, one of the founders of the Vineyard Movement, relates to something that happened following his conversion to Christianity around 1963. It is said that he began attending a church nearby. After several…
A seminary finds a golden gateway. Others find a rusted exit.
A couple of days after the announcement that the deal to sell the property and buildings of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary had been completed, I was in San Francisco. Sunday afternoon I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge into…
Embrace the variety
I read a blog post recently that really got me thinking. In the post, fellow ABP blogger, Alan Rudnick advocates for services based on differing worship styles to be de-segregated, that is, to be replaced by blended services containing multiple worship expressions….
Is your denomination slowly committing suicide?
For decades we have known that persons who smoke multiple packs of cigarettes per day are slowly committing suicide. Many of these people did not want to commit suicide. Some claim they did not know they were committing suicide. At…
More reflections on the rising student debt: A Latina Christian perspective
Recently I wrote a blog about student debt, and I received a comment that is worth exploring: “An essential piece of this puzzle relates to why the cost of higher education has escalated so dramatically, so as to make student…