Religion Information
It's Not Working
As you reached for the alarm this morning what were your first thoughts? Did this endless work ritual conjure up depressing emotions causing you to bury your head in the pillow?
Are Presidential Candidates Sinners?
Are the Presidential candidates all sinners? This could be a potential question for an upcoming town hall meeting or debate.
Reevaluate Your Church Mission Spending
For fifty years of my life, I’ve been associated with churches that have given over four million dollars collectively to outside denominational endeavors.
Jesus Revolution Presents a Relevant Revival
On Thursday, February 23, the two-week-long, nonstop religious revival at tiny Asbury University in rural Wilmore, Kentucky saw its official end. Starting with about 20 students who stayed after a regular campus chapel service, tens of thousands had been drawn from across the country in that short span to participate in almost radically simple prayer, singing, and worship.
What Is Truth? Compromising For the Culture
Who better than the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to report on a conference of Anglican bishops? The BBC is satisfied that the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has brokered a compromise on one of the most controversial issues of the day, namely, which sexual expressions the churches in the Anglican Communion should countenance.
Losing Everything, What or Who is Important?
What or who is important to you? The recent devastating flood in eastern Kentucky reminds us all that life can be swept away in a moment. Hundreds of families lost everything. One family lost their house and everything in it but lost their family – four children ages less than two up through eight were swept away by the raging flood. One woman who had also lost her house and everything in the house stated she and her family were alive and that’s all that mattered.
A Call to the Church: Teaching post-Dobbs
So now it is official. The Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization has overturned Roe v. Wade, and the legal issue of whether and how to restrict abortion has been returned to the states.
We All Face Challenges
Everyone will face insurmountable challenges in life. The price of longevity is heartache, opposition, failures, grief and life events that come out of nowhere. Life is filled with the death of loved ones, financial ups and downs, daily health challenges and world events that impact us whether we like them or not.
Tunch Ilkin: A Tribute
As the regular NFL season ends, the Pittsburgh Steelers need a minor miracle to make the playoffs, and Ben Roethlisberger’s storied career comes to an end, it is fitting to recognize another Steeler great who died of ALS in September 2021. His contributions on the football field are important, but even more significant is the legacy of his character and faith.
Is God Mad at You?
We all may have some issues with the past. Past problems, past mistakes, past sins, past decisions and past ignorance. We live and we learn if we are fortunate enough to live. Sadly, too many obituaries are of young adults who were barely starting life. Some young adults don't think that much about the past because so much of life is in front of them – they hope. Most of us believe life is in front of us. It’s difficult to imagine not existing, but as we all know, life ends.
If the Dead Could Speak
Upon arriving back from visiting my parents’ gravesite, many soul-searching thoughts have swirled in my mind. I was starkly reminded that the length of our earthly life is a grain of sand in a pile of sand a mile wide and a mile high as compared to eternity. This life is short. I also recalled that my collegiate teaching mentor would encourage me to remember that we are sojourners and aliens on this earth on our way to the Celestial City. This is not our home. My mind has been preoccupied, considering more seriously than ever before the most significant matters of life.
The Theology of Losing
The coach angrily paces outside the locker room after losing an early season game. He steps on to the bus and says, “If I hear one word or see even a crack of a smile, you will pay for it in the morning: practice at 7:00 am. Yes, you heard me, 7:00 am!”
The Vital Signs of American Christianity: Critical but not Terminal?
When I visit my family physician, he starts by checking my vitals. It’s amazing how critical are simple things like blood pressure, temperature, and pulse.
The Early Church Was Not Socialist
“The early church was a socialist church.” So said Rev. Raphael Warnock in 2016, four years before the citizens of Georgia elected him a U.S. senator.
A Victory for Campus Religious Liberty: The Case of Chike Uzuegbunam
Chike Uzuegbunam was a student at Georgia Gwinnett College, a public institution in Lawrenceville, Georgia, when he decided to witness about his Christian faith to fellow students on campus. He could not have anticipated that expressing his religious beliefs to his peers would trigger Gwinnett’s unyielding opposition and would make this son of Nigerian immigrants a litigant before the U.S. Supreme Court.
How Martin Luther King, Jr. Changed Hearts
My father was a Presbyterian minister in rural northwest Alabama from 1961 to 1965. I came of age there, then left the University of Alabama with an M.A. in history in 1969. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Governor George C. Wallace framed the historical context of a changing south to which I returned in 2008.
The Methodist Church is Coming Apart
The initial reports read to me a bit like the losers won, but the church of my upbringing is on the verge of coming apart after decades of internal turmoil. The details of the deal will be important, but leaders of the United Methodist Church have agreed in principle to an amicable parting of liberal and conservative factions.
Can the Self-Destructing Antonio Brown Be Saved?
When you think life revolves around you then destruction is waiting at your doorstep.
The Coming of Jesus Affects the Life of the Christian
There are those who see this life as their entire existence. They don't know any other life. They may have a vague hope that there is something after death, but it is so vague and uncertain that it has no effect on the way they live. To them this life is everything.
Revive Us Again: Billy Graham and that Old-Time Religion
Hallelujah, Thine the glory. Hallelujah, amen. -William P. Mackay, 1863
Billy Graham - Shaking His Hand
I never had the opportunity to shake hands with Billy Graham.
Make This a Year to Renew Worship Passion
As we prepare to enter the spring of the year, our faces brighten with a new sense of the beauty of life. In our part of the world, life begins all over again. The trees and flowers bud and blossom, the grass turns green and the frozen world of winter is but a fading memory. We love it!
Luther, Reformation Celebrate 500 Years in Germany
One of the events which changed world history is now being commemorated in Germany. The Protestant Reformation, the movement to reform the practice of Christianity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is currently being celebrated during the "LutherDecade" (2008 - 2017).
