Christian Faith Shines in War-ravaged Ukraine

Last updated on: December 8, 2022 at 12:52 pm By Ginny Baxter

Christians are providing food & clean water, housing & transportation and much, much more. Christianity is a beautiful faith of love and salvation. It never shines more brightly than when followers of Christ reach out to others, as Christians in Ukraine and around the world are doing. Some Christians in Ukraine are “facilitating rescues and feeding, housing and transporting refugees…. caring for wounded soldiers and seeking out the most vulnerable to make sure they are not forgotten,” according to the... Read more

A Beginner’s Guide to Advent

Last updated on: December 5, 2022 at 11:35 am By Ginny Baxter

What is Advent? When Is It? How Do We Celebrate It? Advent coincides with the Christmas season, but it means more to Christians than Santa Claus, shopping, gift-giving and football games – or at least it should. The word “advent” means “arrival” or “coming,” and it is Christ’s birth and second coming that capture our imaginations during the four weeks prior to Christmas. If you’re new to the Christian faith, a Christian who has never observed Advent or simply a... Read more

Dr. King’s Dream 59 Years Later

Last updated on: January 13, 2023 at 1:39 pm By Ginny Baxter

The COLOR of Equality: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial 59 years ago and told a crowd of 250,000 people, “I have a dream…. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!” It was a message heard in homes across... Read more

Should We Have Politics in America’s Pulpits? HELL No!

Last updated on: November 10, 2022 at 1:16 pm By Ginny Baxter

Here Are 3 Reasons Why It’s an Emphatic ‘No’ First, partisan politics is not an appropriate subject for church services. Second, pastors who preach politics from the pulpit are short-changing their congregations. Third, preaching politics from the pulpit can have dangerous consequences. Before we delve into these reasons, let’s take a step back and look at where faith and politics stand in the United States. Evangelicals’ Love Affair with Conservative Politics America’s white evangelical churches have become immersed... Read more

Can You Be a Devout Christian and Also a Liberal?

Last updated on: November 15, 2022 at 11:22 am By Ginny Baxter

In a word, yes — but there is a problem. Different people seem to have different ideas about what “liberal,” “liberal Christian” and “liberal Christianity” mean. Christ may be the greatest liberal in the history of Christianity, and I strongly believe we should follow his example. Yet, he doesn’t fit some modern definitions. What Are the Roots of “Liberal Christianity”? Liberal Christianity, aka “Liberal Theology” and “Christian Modernism,” interprets Christian teachings in light of “modern knowledge, science and ethics,”... Read more

Halloween Looms! Should Christians Condemn, Embrace or Ignore It?

Last updated on: October 21, 2022 at 12:19 pm By Ginny Baxter

Should we condemn Halloween as a Celtic pagan holiday with ties to modern-day witches and devil worshippers? Embrace it as a harmless secular celebration where children dress up and eat candy? Or ignore it altogether? What should Christians do? Let’s take a look at some options. We Should Condemn Halloween! A blog on Christian Today quotes Ben Godwin, pastor of Goodsprings Full Gospel Church, as emphatically saying that Christians “must resist what is popular in today’s society and condemn the... Read more

What Does Bible Say About Caring for Others? Quite a Lot, Actually

Last updated on: October 9, 2022 at 8:06 pm By Ginny Baxter

Caring for and otherwise helping other people are essential parts of Christian faith. Christ spent his entire ministry helping people physically, mentally and spiritually and using parables, such as the story of the Good Samaritan, to teach us how to live. He reached out with love and healed people who were blind, deaf, mute or paralyzed; cured a woman who suffered from a bleeding disorder and a man with a withered hand; and performed numerous exorcisms. (I’m no biblical... Read more

Why Can’t the Media Get Coverage of Religion Right?

Last updated on: October 6, 2022 at 4:38 pm By Ginny Baxter

Why can’t the media get coverage of religion right? There are no easy answers, but neither religious leaders nor journalists are satisfied with current coverage. That’s one of the major findings of the largest-ever study on media coverage of faith and religion, The Global Faith and Media Study. It was conducted in August and September. To read the study, click here. The Faith and Media Initiative commissioned the study, and HarrisX, a market research and consulting company, surveyed more... Read more

Christ Says, ‘Love Thy Neighbor.’ So, What Exactly Does He Mean?

Last updated on: September 13, 2022 at 7:26 pm By Ginny Baxter

Christ is quite clear about loving our neighbors. He tells us that we cannot love God if we don’t love our neighbors. Think about it for a moment. Jesus commands us to go outside our comfort zones to love our neighbors, whether they are someone we know or total strangers. My comfort zone is that of a straight, white cradle Christian, and the Lord is telling me I must love the family down the street, as well as gays... Read more

Faith, Dementia and Caregiving

Last updated on: September 10, 2022 at 6:54 pm By Ginny Baxter

Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia devastate patients and their families. I know about the devastation from personal experience. My dad suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for several years before he died of pneumonia at age 80. Mother had some form of dementia for a year or so before she succumbed to cancer at age 87. We never learned the reason for mom’s dementia, but followed her doctor’s advice and focused on symptoms, which were very similar to my dad’s.... Read more