Theology

The National Association of Free Will Baptists has released a study guide titled "Racism, the Bible, and the Church: A Biblical Perspective," after a Free Will congregation in Pike County, Ky., sparked national outcry over its independent decision to bar interracial couples from membership.

The study guide, which brands racism as a sin, was released by the NAFWB on Wednesday, Dec. 7, about two weeks after Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church passed the controversial proposal on Sunday, Nov. 27. 

The proposal read: more >>

Those of us who hold to so-called “traditional gender roles” are often assumed to believe that women should submit to men. This isn’t true.

Indeed, a primary problem in our culture and in our churches isn’t that women aren’t submissive enough to men, but instead that they are far too submissive.

First of all, it just isn’t so that women are called to submit while men are not. In Scripture, every creature is called to submit, often in different ways and at different times. Children are to submit to their parents, although this is certainly a different sort of submission than that envisioned for marriage. Church members are to submit to faithful pastors (Heb. 13:17). All of us are to submit to the governing authorities (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Pet. 2:13-17). Of course, we are all to submit, as creatures, to our God (Jas. 4:7). more >>

A group of 73 evangelicals and counting have joined together in a shared declaration stating that when it comes to the three persons of God, it's one-for-all and all-for one.

Titled "An Evangelical Statement on the Trinity," the document was posted in early November on TrinityStatement.com and affirms that God is one being comprised of three aspects that are co-equal and co-eternal. It was a necessary move, signees say, given the lingering debate over Trinity doctrine in the Christian community.

"This is the central tradition of Christianity," said William David Spencer, the declaration's writer. "Historically, Christianity is monotheistic. Because of this, we have to deal with the fact God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all appear in the Bible. The question then is how we understand it." more >>

LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Christian author and speaker Dr. Frank Turek, speaking at Saddleback Church as part of its “Apologetics Weekend” series on Sunday, made a case for the truth of the New Testament by saying its authors would not have disclosed embarrassing details about themselves had they been lying about what transpired with Jesus.

Turek, who authored I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist and is a co-leader with other Christian apologetics on the website CrossExamined.org, was one of five speakers during separate sessions at pastor Rick Warren’s megachurch in Orange County this past weekend.

Warren annually hosts the weekend in which experts teach on defending Christianity. more >>

A new ad campaign hopes to promote tolerance by showing world leaders kissing each other on the lips, including President Barack Obama locking lips with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Israel's and Palestine's leaders sharing a smooch.

The startling photos are part of the Benetton-founded UNHATE foundation, which "seeks to contribute to the creation of a new culture of tolerance, to combat hatred, building on Benetton's underpinning values," according to the campaign's website.

Besides the kissing images already mentioned, other images, which were created digitally, include Obama with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, France's Nicholas Sarkozy with Germany's Angela Merkel (the only male-female combo in the campaign), and Pope Benedict XVI kissing Islamic leader Ahmed al-Tayeb, Sheikh of the Al-Azzhar mosque. more >>

Two prominent atheists argued Tuesday night against a Christian apologist and a rabbi that the world would be a better place without religion during the Intelligence Squared U.S. event at New York University.

British philosopher and professor A.C. Grayling, who is the author of The Good Book: A Secular Bible and more than 20 other books, teamed up with filmmaker Matthew Chapman, the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, to argue against religion.

David Wolpe, who is rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and author of Why Faith Matters, joined Dinesh D’Souza, president of the King’s College in New York City and author of What’s So Great About Christianity, to argue the case for religion. more >>