By Bob Allen Trustees of the Religious Herald, a news journal with historic ties to Virginia Baptists, voted unanimously Oct. 7 to merge with Associated Baptist Press, creating a new print and online media platform aimed at enhancing the mission…
EDITORIAL: Duty demands it
Last week, Bill Webb, an editor colleague from Missouri, and I sat with an interpreter and listened to heart-breaking accounts from Syrian refugees of life and death. And hopelessness. (See “Dispiriting Stories” on p. 15.) In the form of Syrian…
ABP/Religious Herald merger moves ahead
By Bob Allen Associated Baptist Press directors voted Sept. 30 to merge with the Religious Herald, a Virginia Baptist newspaper published since 1828. Details of the merger plan, by mutual agreement marked confidential until acted upon by both governing boards,…
EDITORIAL: Still blowin’
In my Aug. 26 editorial I said that the issue of gun control was an issue for another editorial. I made that comment shortly after three bored teenagers decided to kill somebody for the thrill of it. So, while driving…
EDITORIAL: When the offended become the offenders
Paula Deen just can’t seem to catch a break. Now, I’m not what you would call a big Paula Deen fan. I’ve never eaten at her restaurant. To my knowledge I’ve never even eaten a meal prepared from one of…
EDITORIAL: What is wrong with us?
‘What is wrong with us?” It’s a question we’d better start asking. It reads like a work of twisted fiction rather than a factual account: “Bored” teens decide to kill somebody for the fun of it. Three boys, aged 15,…
EDITORIAL: The God we’d like to believe in
Curiously, S.E. Cupp, an atheist, has written a book taking issue with the treatment Christianity has received by what she calls a liberal media. The author of Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity, Sarah Elizabeth Cupp, is…
EDITORIAL: Spiritual schizophrenia
When CBS wanted to visually portray “the perfect American small town” in the trailer of its highly touted series, Under the Dome, the camera came to rest on a classic white frame church building. Curiously, whenever TV and movie producers…
EDITORIAL: Egyptian hope
According to a recent Associated Press report, for many years Egypt’s Christian minority refused to become involved in politics for fear of reprisals. They relied, instead, on their church to make their case to those in power. When Hosni Mubarak…
EDITORIAL: Movin’ on
As I write this, the Southern Baptist Convention is winding up its annual meeting in Houston and one of the voices raised was that of Fred Luter, convention president. Divisions among Southern Baptists must end, Luter said. As reported by…
EDITORIAL: Will fundamentalism be with us forever?
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee president, Frank Page, hopes the convention can unify. (See “Team named to address Calvinism in SBC,” Herald, Aug. 20, 2012). He’s not talking about those of us who adhere to the 1963 Baptist Faith…
EDITORIAL: What happens in Washington doesn’t stay in Washington
In a recent conversation with Eddie Heath, one of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s field strategists, he expressed concern that five churches in his region had lost their pastors, some under difficult circumstances. “I have never seen it like this…