In a recent Facebook post, Franklin Graham praised Indiana’s House of Representatives for passing a “religious freedom” bill “that would protect business owners who want to decline to provide services for same-sex marriages.” Religious freedom, which has been a hallmark…
Same-sex marriage and the intractable knot of freedoms
Same-sex marriage has tied American society into a seemingly intractable knot. Advocates of one great value pull a thread that ultimately tightens and restricts another cherished principle. And vice-versa. Human rights vs. religious liberty.
From ‘I Do’ to disfellowship: Why the Southern Baptists kicked this church out over a same-sex wedding
Today, it is my honor to host the Rev. Dr. Ellin Jimmerson, the first Southern Baptist minister (and perhaps only) to perform a legal same-sex wedding. And in Alabama no less! Having grown up in the Huntsville metro area, I…
A new day in America
By Jonathan Waits We are entering a new day in America. Do you feel excited yet? New things always bring with them a bit of trepidation, but there’s so much buzz about this particular new day that it can’t be…
A new day in America
We are entering a new day in America. Do you feel excited yet? New things always bring with them a bit of trepidation, but there’s so much buzz about this particular new day that it can’t be bad, right? Well,…
Baptists seek guidance as same-sex marriage expands
By Jeff Brumley The widening legality of same-sex marriage has ministers and churches across the nation scrambling to respond. And Baptist pastors are right in the thick of what is in some quarters a frantic search for the right theologies…
The ‘Dogma of Revelation’ revisited (again)
By Bill Leonard In The Galileo Affair, George Johnston quotes Cardinal John Henry Newman’s 19th-century assessment of Galileo’s 16th-century “crusade” to establish the veracity of the heliocentric Copernican idea that the earth revolves around the sun. Writing long after Galileo…
Russell Moore supports ouster of ‘third way’ church
By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Convention’s top spokesman for moral concerns voiced support for the Sept. 23 ouster of a California congregation found guilty of affirming homosexuality, and disputed the argument that conservative Christians already embrace a “third way”…
The power of witness
On July 28 I was one of about two dozen clergy, activists, family and friends who traveled with a couple to the Jefferson County courthouse in Louisville, Ky., to get a marriage license. We went knowing it was a fool’s…
The ethics of Christian blackmail
Yesterday, while pondering the Christian reaction to the initial World Vision decision, I wrote a short article (unpublished) on how (not) to talk about World Vision on the Internet – don’t be hateful, clam down before you publish, and other…
Social media reaction of World Vision controversy
This week World Vision, the para-church organization that fights hunger, announced that they ended their ban on hiring people in a same sex marriage. After considerable blow back from supporters and Christians, World Vision reversed its policy. Some supporters said…
Mohler says gay marriage a religious-liberty threat
By Bob Allen “Religious liberty has never been threatened in our lifetimes, and probably in terms of the American experiment, like it will be threatened with same-sex marriage,” Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, warned in a video…