Christians striving to fulfill the Great Commission are embracing technological advances, despite concerns about artificial intelligence.
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(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.
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The 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.
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(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.
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(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?
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(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.
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(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.
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(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.
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Jason 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.
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(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.
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(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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Twenty years ago, I worked as a Dallas-based religion reporter for The Associated Press. Many of the stories that dominated the headlines then remain relevant today.
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(OPINION) In October 2007, I delivered a series of lectures on the subject of âHomosexuality, the Church, and Society.â The lectures were held at the Booth Playhouse in the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in the heart of Charlotte, North Carolina, and they attracted considerable attention from the local media.
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(OPINION) Following an outcry that spilled over into the mainstream media (âDavid Frenchâ and âPCAâ trended nationally on X for days), a David French panel on âhow to be supportive of your pastor and church leaders in a polarized political yearâ at the PCA General Assembly was canceled. However, that doesnât mean the story is over, or that it doesnât have some lessons to teach.
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(OPINION) Speaking for God can be a messy business. Very messy. No matter how sincere you are, you might turn out eventually to have been wrong. No matter how many Scriptures you cite to prove your point, those who disagree will trot out contrary passages to demonstrate why youâre tragically misguided â if not heretical.
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(OPINION) While a petition calling for the firing of Harrison Butker, one of the greatest placekickers in the NFL, has gained more than 100,000 signatures, sales of his jersey are skyrocketing. Why all the controversy?
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Jelly Roll is on a roll. The âSon of a Sinnerâ artist â whose songs feature raw, religious lyrics that wrestle with his troubled past â won another big award on Thursday night.
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(OPINION) It is important to remember that many of those protesting Israelâs war in Gaza are not simply advocating for a ceasefire or for a two-state solution. They are advocating for the end of Israel. This, of course, is the obvious meaning of the âriver to the seaâ chant. But what is implied in the chant is now being stated explicitly by anti-Israel protesters and their allies. They, in turn, are simply articulating what has always been the fundamental position of Hamas.
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(OPINION) While political pollsters and the national media tend to lump under one banner those dreaded right-leaning âWhite evangelical or born-againâ Christians, that banner actually includes an anomalous set of people with different belief systems and often competing goals.
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(OPINION) Israel was chosen because of the sovereignty of God, not because of Israelâs own merit. He set His love on Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and determined to bless the world through their offspring, meaning through the people of Israel and, ultimately, through the seed of Abraham par excellence, Jesus the Messiah. And because He made unconditional promises to the patriarchs, He has kept His word through the generations, preserving the people of Israel, disciplining them, scattering them and regathering them.
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