When Even Empathetic Churches Hit Their Limits

I may have pushed too hard in my sermon last Sunday. For three weeks after white nationalists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, I mentioned racism in my sermons and how we need to root it out of our hearts and out of our nation. I received an email from one...

How Your Church is Like a Coffeemaker Factory

Usually, before I go to bed at night, I make coffee, or maybe I should say I get my coffeemaker ready to make coffee. I empty the carafe, rinse it and put it in place. I grind the beans and measure them into the filter. I fill the reservoir with cold, clean water. And...
Profiles In Goodwill: Jim Somerville

Profiles In Goodwill: Jim Somerville

Jim Somerville is pastor of First Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. Jim’s articles that have appeared on EthicsDaily.com are available here, and his Skype interview is available here. 1. Where did you grow up? I was born in Selma, Alabama, in 1959, but I...

What All Faith Groups Can Do to End ISIS

At one point on my recent trip to the Middle East, a U.S. Army chaplain said to me with tears in his eyes, “We are at the beginning of something like the Protestant Reformation, and Father Nabil Haddad is like Martin Luther.” Father Nabil Haddad is the...