Arson was not the cause of the July blaze that gutted the historic sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Dallas. A Nov. 13 message to the church from Executive Pastor Ben Lovvorn says: “The on-site portion of the investigation is…
‘Notre Dame of SBC’ burns in Dallas
A church building the Southern Baptist Convention president called the Notre Dame of the denomination fell victim to a four-alarm fire Friday night, July 19. Firefighters have not yet determined the cause of the fire that took down the historic…
Criswell was Truett on the outside and Norris on the inside, new biography says
W.A. Criswell was George W. Truett on the outside and J. Frank Norris on the inside, according to O.S. Hawkins, whose new biography of the legendary pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas releases today. Criswell grew up in the…
Jeffress says he’s not a ‘Christian nationalist’ but America was founded as a ‘Christian nation’
America was founded as a “Christian nation” but that has been subverted since 1947 when “we allowed the liberals, the left, the progressives, the humanists, the atheists to pervert our Constitution into something the founders never intended it to be,”…
Dear Robert Jeffress: You’ve called the wrong U.S. president ‘ungodly’
Robert Jeffress used his Dec. 5 sermon to claim that President Joe Biden has the most “ungodly” administration in American history. “The Biden administration is ungodly! I don’t care how many rosary beads they rub, they’re ungodly,” he intoned. “This…
After church massacre, some Americans say they’re worried about attending worship this Sunday
There may be some sparsely populated pews in American churches this weekend following last Sunday’s church massacre in Texas. Pastors in different parts of the country are hearing from church members worried that the fate of First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs — where a gunman murdered 26 and injured 20 — may befall their own congregations.
Jesus and John Wayne: Must we choose?
Evangelical support for Donald Trump should come as no surprise. The Republican candidate is the personification of idealized white manhood, an iconic American in the mold of John Wayne. For evangelical leaders of a certain age, that makes him the…
Here’s one Dallas voice that tackled hate head-on
It’s tempting to wonder sometimes where in the world good sense and decency have gone. Why does panicky anti-Muslim hatred seem to command center stage so often? Why do people let hatred fill up their heads and infect their hearts?…
Billy Graham’s shadow: Chuck Templeton and the crisis of American religion
It was August of 1949 and Billy Graham had never been so depressed. Twelve years after “surrendering to preach” on a Florida golf course, the evangelist was wrestling with doubts. He had been reading neo-orthodox theologians like Karl Barth and…