Sir Winston Churchill once complained of those who were “decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift.” Such cannot be said of the Southern Baptist Convention. During the June 11-13 meeting of the Convention, the denomination spoke clearly and courageously to issues of current debate and controversy.

Sparing themselves a murder trial, Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of their newborn son. The plea agreement came as no great surprise, for few persons thought the state could win a first-degree murder conviction against them. The victim, after all, was only a newborn.

And how will they hear without a preacher?
Romans 10:14

A common concern now seems to emerge wherever ministers gather–ministry is stranger than it used to be. Not that ministry is more difficult, more tiring, or more demanding . . . just different–and increasingly strange.

Looking to Christianity’s third millennium, Pope John Paul II has declared “The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000″—and indulgences from punishment for sin are a centerpiece of the jubilee celebration. The practice which brought Luther to his break with Rome is once again front and center in Catholic practice as the new millennium approaches.

As expected, the inaugural ceremonies for President George W. Bush opened and closed with prayer. Unexpectedly, the prayers have ignited controversy and unleashed a firestorm of histrionics from the secular left.

The Christian church has experienced a massive wave of change over the last thirty years, and the emergence of women in some pulpits is perhaps the most visible sign of that change. Why would Southern Baptists resist this trend?

What does God know, and when does He know it? This startling question lies at the heart of what may well become the hottest theological debate among evangelicals. The outcome will determine whether evangelicals remain committed to what the church has always believed about God, or veer off in favor of a more user-friendly deity.

When the Flintstones were singing “We’ll have a gay old time,” they must have had the 1997 television season in mind. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has released its 1997 “TV Scoreboard” and claims the fall lineup of programming includes “a record setting 30 lesbian, gay, and bisexual characters.”

“I know what constituted an evangelical in former times,” said the seventh Earl Shaftesbury, “I have no clear notion what constitutes one now.” The confusion Lord Shaftesbury saw a century ago is now fully apparent. Millions of Americans claim to be evangelicals, but few seem to know what the word means.

The Axioms of Religion
The Library of Baptist Classics
edited by Timothy and Denise George
Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997

When Pastor Al Meredith entered the pulpit of Wedgwood Baptist Church September 19, he addressed the question nearly everyone was asking: “Where is God in all this?” And the “all this” was almost too horrible to remember.