(OPINION) There is a new challenge for pro-life voters as we approach the 2024 elections. On the one hand, itâs impossible for a truly pro-life voter to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate given the radical, pro-abortion stance of that party. That holds true as well for the positions of President Biden, which continue to lurch farther to the left. But now that the RNC has embraced the watered down platform crafted by the Trump team, do we acquiesce and vote GOP?
Read More(OPINION) Destructive criticism kills. It tears down without building up. It is loveless and unkind. It uses unequal weights and measures, straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel. It is self-righteous, mean-spirited and lacks a redemptive heart.
Read More(OPINION) Iâve long argued itâs difficult â really, next to impossible â to practice Christianity effectively without becoming (and staying) an active member of a local church congregation. Not only Christianity but the other major faiths are, by intention and maybe by definition, communal pursuits rather than solitary ones.
Read More(OPINION) In the early days of the war, we were united in purpose. I didnât know what to expect now. My Ukrainian brothers and sisters must be exhausted, I thought. And they have to know that support has wavered in the U.S. â that some politicians have called for my country to drop its financial support for Ukraine. Would I find tired, resentful faces this time?
Read More(OPINION) Since 2016, in private conversations and in responses from newspaper readers, the question Iâve probably been asked more consistently than any other is: âHow do you account for White evangelicalsâ devotion to Donald Trump?â So Iâve taken stabs at answering that question. But more often than not Iâve ended up shrugging and saying, âI donât know. I donât get it, either.â
Read More(OPINION) On June 14, U.S. Catholic bishops apologized for the mistreatment and trauma caused through the churchâs role in American Indian boarding schools. While the apology is all well and good, it is very little and very late for thousands of Indigenous families in America.
Read MoreIn Weekend Plug-in, columnist Bobby Ross Jr. reflects on his parentsâ 60th anniversary â and what their legacy of faith and love has meant to him.
Read More(OPINION) We are living in times of great shaking, times of refining and purifying. How should we respond? In the words of the gospel song, and in the spirit of Isaiah 6, we should say, âTake the coal, touch my lips, here I stand.â Let the cleansing begin with me.
Read More(OPINION) This week I call attention to another vital principle. Our subject for today, ladies and gentlemen, is humility. Iâve been mulling over an essay by Frank Bruni that appeared in The New York Times. Heâs a professor of journalism and public policy at Duke University, and a contributing writer for the Timesâ opinion section.
Read MoreChristians striving to fulfill the Great Commission are embracing technological advances, despite concerns about artificial intelligence.
Read More(OPINION) This week I want to talk about a pair of concepts that are typically used side-by-side in Christian circles, and which also strike me as among the more misunderstood and egregiously misused principles in the church lexicon. Understood rightly, theyâd benefit everybody. Those two words are âsinâ and ârepentance.â Taken together, they suggest the idea that weâre all sinners who need to repent.
Read MoreThe Southern Baptist Convention conducted its annual meeting in Indianapolis this week. The denominationâs sex abuse scandal â while perhaps overshadowed by a vote on women pastors and a resolution opposing in vitro fertilization â remained a key topic of discussion.
Read More(OPINION) The nation of Israel is different from any nation on the earth, as it has been in an existential battle for survival from the moment of its birth in 1948 until this very day. It is a nation under constant siege, and without constant vigilance (and the mercy of God), it would be wiped off from the map.
Read More(OPINION) An Arkansas reader says that when faced with some proposed controversial change to churchâs tenets, he asks himself what would exemplify the two rules that Jesus calls the commandments from which all others originate and to which all others must bow. Namely, what would a loving, compassionate God expect of us?
Read More(OPINION) The deepest conflicts of our time pit groups against each other in what has come to be seen as a zero-sum game. Colleges have become forums where agitators refuse to cogently advocate for their beliefs and to seek to persuade those with whom they disagree and, instead, rouse those occupying their echo chambers to drum for the complete eradication of their ideological opponents.
Read More(OPINION) After his victorious bout in a major combat sports event this past Saturday night, UFC fighter Bassil Hafez said, âThere is something I wanna say. I have been having it in my heart for a long time. I donât support genocide. I donât support innocent women and children being killed for war and for money and power. We are all Godâs children and we all deserve a fair chance in life. Free Palestine.â While Hafez didnât mention Israel by name, his message was clear. Israel is committing genocide.
Read More(OPINION) In my observation, core spiritual truths are applicable to nearly every arena of life, not just to religion but also to business, education or politics. Theyâre as beneficial to those who donât believe in God as to those who go to church three times a week. I think of these as universal laws. Theyâre woven into the world we inhabit as surely as the law of gravity. One of these universal truths is the principle of balance.
Read MoreJason and Jennifer Carroll pray for Haiti as the poor, developing nation deals with unrelenting gang violence. Two American missionaries and a Haitian national were killed in an ambush last week.
Read More(OPINION) Are you motivated to pray? The word âmotivationâ doesnât appear in older dictionaries since it wasnât coined until the mid-19th century and didnât come into common use until the 20th century.
Read More(OPINION) What happens with Pentecostalism today affects nearly everybody on Earth, not only spiritually but politically. Scholars and journalists usually point to the landmark 1906 Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles as the birth of Pentecostalism. That revival introduced long-dormant gifts of the Holy Spirit written about in the New Testament â including prophecy, healing and speaking in tongues â to contemporary Christianity.
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