Growing up in Mexico as a missionary kid gave me a different perspective on my native land. Whether always welcomed or not, I could not help but filter my own early sense of patriotism through the lenses of classmates.
The 4 dangers of relevance
In church life, it seems we always desire to be relevant. We want relevant teaching and preaching with practical application. Relevant youth and children’s programs, and even relevant music. There is, however, a danger in always trying to be relevant…
10 Ways To Determine If Your Christianity Has Been “Americanized”
While the word “Christianity” ought refer to a single religion, the reality is that many cultures have succumbed to a process of syncretism where there are actually many, many forms of Christianity that look nothing like the original picture on…
Rights and offenses: The Confederate flag
On Friday, July 10, at the South Carolina Capitol, the Confederate flag was removed. On Sunday, July 12, at my church, the Confederate flag was prominently displayed. I saw the oversized flag attached to the back, right-side of an oversized…
Are Biblical values under attack in the U.S.?
Earlier this month a friend sent me an email that was mainly Dennis Prager’s June 30 article titled “Court Calls an End to Judeo-Christian America.” (That piece on Investor’s Business Daily’s website can be read .) Prager, a nationally syndicated…
Baptist colleges complicit in sin
Last week, two Baptist colleges in Texas jumped into the debate over women’s health. Baptist News Global reported that East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University objected to “providing — directly or indirectly — emergency contraceptive drugs they believe cause…
What about physician-assisted suicide?
” There’s more to life than living and more to death than dying.” Those are the intriguing words on the cover of Finding Frances, a 2010 novel by Janice M. Van Dyck. Frances is a 74-year-old woman who, beset by…
What I said to my conservative church about same-sex marriage
Preacher, if you are at all like me, as you were preparing to write your sermon this past Sunday, your mind kept going back to the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage. Last Sunday it was still so fresh that…
Racism and religious persecution: Who’s burning black churches?
Guest commentary by Denise Anderson On June 17, 2015, nine people were shot and killed at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, by a white supremacist. Since then six predominantly black churches across the South have gone up in…