By Bob Allen A pastor whose church was kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2014 for adopting a “third way” stance of neither affirming nor condemning homosexuality says despite talk of “hate the sin and love the sinner”…
Moving into the future confidently
In his address to the U.S. Congress several weeks ago, Pope Francis noted that young people do not have a positive outlook for the future. “We live in a culture,” he said, “which pressures young people not to start a…
‘99 Homes’ asks us, What would one do to achieve the American dream?
It has been said that the American dream has to do with home ownership. Being a home owner is the goal of many of our citizens. Yet the housing crisis of 2008 changed the landscape of the dream. Set in…
Stop talking about gentrification
My beloved neighborhood in west Charlotte is on the brink of big changes. Neighbors are trying to figure out what those changes will be and how to have a voice in them, and we keep coming back to one term…
The wrong message
Let’s start here: The recent shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, OR was a tragedy of the first order. The loss of precious human lives was entirely unjust and their families along with the wounded and their families will…
Former SBC president opposes Houston equal rights ordinance
By Bob Allen A past president of the Southern Baptist Convention is front and center of a campaign by Houston pastors to convince voters to say no to a controversial equal-rights ordinance scheduled to be on the ballot Nov. 3….
SBC leader says Christians should not attend a same-sex wedding
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist seminary president’s forthcoming book is making headlines with a suggestion that Christians should not attend a same-sex wedding ceremony, even it if means boycotting the marriage of their own child. “STANDING RESOLUTE” screamed a…
A new political imagination for today’s church
By Sam Speers and Kristopher Norris As the 2016 election cycle begins amid much pomp and fanfare, American Christians will once again face the question of how to navigate a fraught, and curious, political arena. In what has already been…
Rise of post-Christians scares some, energizes others
By Jeff Brumley The Barna Group’s recent report of a sharp increase in the nation’s post-Christian population this year came as no surprise to Joy Yee, senior pastor at Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco. Nor was she shocked…