The Pew Research Center recently released a massive (35,000 people) study on the religious landscape in the United States. Below are two data blurbs I find sobering: More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion -- or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, roughly 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion Read more [...]

I’m honored that my father, Thom Rainer, has allowed me to post the following article. It will soon be released by LifeWay, but you get to read it here first. In this new phase of my ministry and life, I am able to spend a bit more time listening to someone else preach sermons on Sunday. On those special occasions when I am in town, my wife and I sit in the pew and listen to the message of our pastor, Mike Glenn, at Brentwood Baptist Church. When Mike began to read the biblical text for his sermon Read more [...]

My brother, Art, has created a great new website. Click here to check it out and see how to live big.

There’s an epidemic in the United States. People everywhere seem to be infected with germaphobia. I say this lightly because I married a germaphobe. If you have one in your household, then you understand what I mean when I say that a pump bottle of hand wash is always in sight in every room. You can’t just buy regular tissues, either. They’ve got to be special cold-fighting-germ-killing tissues. And according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, there’s a whole industry springing up Read more [...]

Stephen Prothero has some intriguing statements about religious literacy in the United States. The United States is one of the most religious countries on earth, but Americans know nothing about religion -- their own or the religions of others. How can we engage a politician who is rightly or wrongly invoking the Bible or using religion for political purposes without knowing something about religion ourselves, as citizens, journalists and academics? I encourage you to read this article. It’s a Read more [...]