During the 1988-89 school year, our family lived in Fukuoka, Japan, on a sabbatical leave from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. During that time, we served as Mission Service Corps volunteers sponsored by what was then called the Foreign Mission Board…
2022 was a year of celebration
Throughout 2022, I spent the year learning about various holiday traditions and seeking to gain a greater understanding of what they teach us about God. My theme verse for the year was Psalm 145:7: “They celebrate your abundant goodness and…
Six reasons why the ‘family of God’ is more inclusive than we have thought
I remember when missionary colleagues, just returned from their home leave in Oklahoma, introduced the Bill and Gloria Gaither gospel hymn “The Family of God” to our gathered Baptist personnel in Indonesia. Over the years, the song became so deeply…
Six lessons learned on my interfaith journey
By way of introduction, I am a devoted follower of Jesus with a passion for interfaith relations. I was born and reared in Florida in the family of a Southern Baptist pastor, where Dad and Mom helped form in me…
Faith Commons becomes first organization and first interfaith work to receive T.B. Maston Ethics Award
Successful interfaith work is not seeking the lowest common denominator and watering down differences in beliefs, George Mason told supporters of the T.B. Maston Foundation Oct. 27 as he and colleague Nancy Kasten received the Maston Christian Ethics Award. The…
In Tbilisi, the Peace Project rises as a home for Christians, Jews and Muslims under one roof
Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili is all too familiar with the criticisms of interfaith dialogue, especially as his Peace Cathedral in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, moves toward completion of a facility designed to host Christian, Jewish and Muslim worship and promote stronger…
9/11 was a day of dark despair but also multicultural unity
Serving amid the chaos and anguish of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks was more about ministers and congregations living into callings than it was about summoning great courage, said David Waugh, who was pastor of Metro Baptist Church in…
Melissa Rogers: America’s faith traditions can unify and heal wounds
While religious ideologies are increasingly cited as toxic and divisive forces in American culture and politics, faith also can heal those wounds when Americans unite around common causes such as hunger, poverty and disaster relief, according to Melissa Rogers. The…
Lessons learned on a journey of interfaith friendship
Interfaith friendship is my passion. How did a lifelong Christian — born and reared in the family of a Southern Baptist pastor, who holds three degrees from a Baptist university and seminary, and is an ordained Baptist minister and 25-year…
SBC president who said God hears only Christian prayers dead at 79
Bailey Smith, the former Southern Baptist Convention president best known for saying God does not hear the prayers of a Jew, died Jan. 14 after a 21-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Smith, 79, was the youngest man ever elected SBC…
Be Baptist, but build bridges with all God’s people – Christian or not
The days of viewing our faith as the remaking of the world into our image are long past, thanks be to God. Our call is to find ways to work for the common good with the values Jesus instituted in the inbreaking Reign of God.
Baptist theologian embarking on new mission field – interfaith work
Loving your neighbor as yourself is not just about loving your Christian neighbor as yourself, says Robert Sellers, outgoing chairman of the Parliament of the World’s Religions.