By Bob Allen An NRA-backed bill to end North Carolina’s ban on Sunday hunting has triggered a debate between God and guns. The Christian Action League of North Carolina, a public-policy organization representing 17 conservative denominations including the Baptist State…
On reading Malcolm X’s autobiography
Marking the 50th anniversary of its publication Malcolm X’s Autobiography was the first book that scared me. Here I was, in the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, secretly abandoning my pietist-revivalist rearing in favor of the more verdant fields…
A birthday party on our deathbed: Pentecost and the Pew study
Last week, the Pew Research Center reported that between 2007 and 2014, “the Christian share of the population (in the U.S.) fell from 78.4 percent to 70.6 percent, driven mainly by declines among mainline Protestants and Catholics.” Evangelicals are in…
How do we get along when there’s no middle ground? Part 2
In part one I told you the story of a couple of gay New York hoteliers who met with Ted Cruz and were treated as a result to calls for a boycott and other harassments. This situation prompted me to…
Former youth pastor sentenced to 15 years for abuse
By Bob Allen A former Southern Baptist youth pastor sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexual abuse of minors criticized his victims for not forgiving him. “If they are unwilling to forgive, then God can’t forgive them,” Mack Allen…
Jesus’ death convicts capital punishment, Baylor prof says in new book
By Brian Kaylor On Good Friday, Christians around the world remember the day a government punished a convicted criminal with the death penalty. For many Christians — including some Baptists — Jesus’ death inspires them to oppose the death penalty…
Exploring the church-state side of the same-sex marriage cases
By Executive Director J. Brent Walker When the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the same-sex marriage cases, the justices did not invite briefs on religious liberty. In its writ of certiorari granting review, the Court framed the issues to…
How do we get along when there’s no middle ground? Part 1
The other day, as I was reading one of the daily news emails that arrive in my inbox, I came across a story that I thought surely must have been ripped from the pages of The Onion. Two New York…
Religious liberty, marriage equality clash, creating legal confusion
By Ken Camp and Jeff Brumley Ministers from across the Lone Star state recently urged legislators to pass legislation protecting clergy from lawsuits if they refuse to conduct same-sex weddings. Welcome to the dance, Texas. Experts say the number and…
Study says Baptists losing their market share
By Bob Allen For every American who joins a Baptist church, two others who were raised Baptist are leaving the denomination, according to a Pew Center Report released May 12. The report, America’s Changing Religious Landscape, found nearly one in five (19.2…
Good guys and bad guys
We were sitting in the car killing time. It was the lull between dropping my oldest child off at kindergarten and preparing to take my youngest to preschool. The doors hadn’t opened yet. I pulled out my cell phone and…
Critics say National Day of Prayer divides Americans by faith
By Bob Allen Today’s National Day of Prayer is a constitutionally suspect government endorsement of religion that ought to be abandoned, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “The government should not be giving out prayer instructions,”…