The latest challenge facing some congregations is deciding whether open carry gun laws should extend to church property — including the sanctuary.
Focus on Commandment, not Constitution
By Paula Dempsey The best lack all conviction While the worst are full of passionate intensity. —William Butler Yeats The conversation I overheard in the bread aisle of the grocery store about owning handguns had the same demeanor and tone…
Taking offense, but for the wrong reasons
By Joe LaGuardia In a society where people seem so easily offended there is no surprise that few call themselves Christians. Christianity is an offensive faith, there is no way around it. Unfortunately, for too many it has become offensive for…
One Baptist pastor’s response to Jerry Falwell, Jr.
By Elizabeth Lott In Sunday’s sermon, I shared the following words with my congregation, St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church: We are living in confusing times. We know of great violence and threats of violence. We are told by the 24-hour news cycle…
When prayer is not enough
By Thomas J. Whitley It was “just another day in the United States of America. Another day of gunfire, panic and fear.”
The wrong message
Let’s start here: The recent shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, OR was a tragedy of the first order. The loss of precious human lives was entirely unjust and their families along with the wounded and their families will…
God, guns, freedom, and idolatry in America
After another mass shooting last week, I watched countless conversations about mass killings unfold on social media and in the news cycle. As many Christians defended complete and total legislative inaction in the wake of wonton violence, I was literally…
‘He’s in the classroom’
By Bill Leonard “He’s in the classroom.” That’s what the 911 caller said to the operator in Roseburg, Ore., around 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2015. The caller alerted authorities to the brutal presence of a shooter at the Umpqua…
Guns, violence, and Christian faith
In June we were at the General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship when we received news of the shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston. Yesterday I was at a denominational leadership meeting when we received word of…