In June, the Supreme Court ruled in Carson v. Makin that the government must treat religious people the same as everyone else when distributing governmental benefits.  The case involved a Maine law that provided tuition assistance for students in rural areas that do not have high schools so the students could attend private schools or public schools in neighboring counties.  However, Maine prohibited the assistance from going to schools that

Baptist Press posted a disturbing story on Aug. 22 about the Bible being temporarily removed from school libraries in Keller, Texas. See story at baptistandreflector.org. The Keller school district was quick to respond to an inquiry from Baptist Press. “Books that have been challenged by community members as being inappropriate for schools are required to be removed from shelves and held in a Parental Consent Area until the challenge process

Time capsules are designed as an intentional method of communicating with people who will be alive at a future date. The oldest known time capsule in America was placed by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams in the cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House in 1795.  In the summer of 2021, the church where I (Comer) have served for 25 years gave me a sabbatical, which they took as an opportunity

I was looking over a copy of Telling the Truth in Love: A Brief History of the Baptist and Reflector from 1835, written by former editor Wm. Fletcher Allen (now deceased) in 2005. The Baptist and Reflector has a long and distinguished history. It remains one of the oldest, continuously published newspapers (religious or secular) in the United States. The paper was originally titled The Baptist and was begun with

Children live in a different world than those known to adults today. Instead of purchasing name-brand shoes, buying school clothes like their peers and getting the latest haircut to start school, they have more serious concerns. Today, many schools require mesh or see-through backpacks, metal detectors, security cameras throughout the building, locked doors, uniformed policemen roaming the campus and safety drills.   Is it any wonder students have trouble focusing

By Laura Erlanson Managing editor, Baptist Press During June, I did what many said could not be done. I pulled off the exhaustion hat trick, the triathlon of tired, the white whale of weariness — the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, Vacation Bible School and Centri-Kid in back-to-back weeks. It was the Baptist Ironman of sleep deprivation. The first week of the month, I flew to Anaheim, where I worked