FIRST-PERSON: Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas?
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--Perhaps the clash of worldviews is never as evident as it is during the Christmas season.
FIRST-PERSON: Defining the word ‘values’
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--Political pundits are throwing the "v-word" around like it is a nerf football at a picnic. What do they mean by "values?" Do we honestly think this word means the same to all candidates? Joe Citizen must look beneath the rhetoric to discover what each politico really believes.
FIRST-PERSON: What do we do now?
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--Of all the social issues pressed to the forefront of the cultural debate, none is more critical than the sanctity of marriage.
FIRST-PERSON: Religious discrimination in the Navy
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--Shortly after becoming editor of Oklahoma’s Baptist Messenger in 1997, a story came to my attention regarding scandal and discrimination in the U.S. Navy’s Chaplain High Command. Oklahoma doesn’t have any oceanic beaches, but we do have thousands of veterans and active service men and women in the Navy.
FIRST-PERSON: Stats & numbers don’t lie
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--I was the only Southern Baptist at a particular gathering of Christian leaders in a community in Kansas.
FIRST-PERSON: Where were you at halftime?
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)—-Several times prior to Super Bowl Sunday, I asked the congregation at First Baptist Church in Ada, Okla., where I serve as transitional pastor, "Who's playing in the Super Bowl and who cares?" After the debauchery demonstrated during the halftime show, another question needs to be asked, "Where were you on Super Bowl Sunday night?"
FIRST-PERSON: The hot topic
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--In Baptist media circles, the hot topic these days is a report and recommendation from a nine-member study committee working for the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee. The committee studied the SBC's relationship with the Baptist World Alliance. The bottom line? Terminate the SBC's membership. Why? Simply put, for some time, we have not walked in fellowship with this particular organization of Baptist denominations.
FIRST-PERSON: Chastening a man of valor
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--On the cultural landscape, it appears someone or something has launched a full-scale assault against Christians' capacity to express themselves in public. When I read of the attempted neutralization of Lt. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin, I sensed something terribly wrong and culturally catastrophic unless people with conscience and conviction say "enough!"
FIRST-PERSON: Pencils, candy canes and absurd court rulings
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--The Baptist Messenger's trusty unabridged dictionary defines "absurd" as "ridiculously senseless, illogical, contrary to reason or common sense."
FIRST-PERSON: Why do we need Christian journalists?
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--While attending a press conference for the new seminary president at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, it became apparent there were two kinds of questions being asked. As the press conference progressed, it became rather humorous to watch how one set of questions was coming from the speaker's left, while another set of questions was asked by the media on the speaker's right.
