Baptist News Global – Conversations that matter

Southern white ‘heritage’ and hateful faith

Black people have heard Southern white people talk about Southern “heritage” for decades. Rarely have the messages been more serious than when they insist that devotion to the Confederate battle flag, statues and monuments erected in memory of fallen Confederate…

In Kenya, worry about COVID-19 and now a plague of locusts

COVID-19 and gigantic swarms of crop-devouring locusts are compounding the challenges of hunger, poverty and war that many Africans already face. But there are communities where a reliance on faith and on internal economic capacity are helping people survive current…

Amid a pandemic and a fractured nation, how do we live ‘in the meantime’?

What’s going on with your feelings these days? In an old comic strip, Shoe, the curmudgeonly newspaper editor, is sitting at his desk. He declares, “There are mood swings and there are mood bungee jumps!” Some days are like that…

The Price of White Evangelical Patriarchy

In 2008, the Gaither Vocal Band released a song called “Jesus and John Wayne,” about a young man’s struggle to live a godly life. Though striving after the soft purity of Jesus as exemplified by his mother, the man often…

Faith leaders lament loosened restrictions on payday lenders

Faith leaders were not surprised that the Trump administration gutted hard-fought regulations for payday lenders July 7, but they were nonetheless disappointed that years of advocacy for poor citizens appeared to be for naught. The federal agency charged with protecting…

Virginia explorer talks about missions and philanthropy in new adventure book

It takes a book for Craig Martin to share where on Earth he’s been. It’s much easier to ask where he hasn’t been. “I have not been to Antarctica,” said Martin, a director, filmmaker and former communications manager for the…

What I’ve learned from race conversations with refugees and immigrants

“Racism.” The word evokes feelings, emotions, strong opinions, even questions. It should. Apart from the COVID-19 crisis, nothing else has so galvanized our nation in recent months and forced us to contend with a sin that is pushing our nation…

Now is the moment for radical moderation

I’m a “radical moderate.” I thought I was so clever when I came up with that apparent oxymoron while searching for a new political identity a few years ago. Even before the election of 2016, I had abandoned the festering…

Gary V. Simpson: The pastoral challenge of a Brooklyn church and COVID-19

From one of the pandemic’s epicenters, a minister describes his congregation’s experience through death and new life over the last four months.

Hardy Clemons remembered as mentor, encourager, hero

Educated and eager to work, but there’s just one barrier

5 steps to becoming an ally to marginalized communities

Why is Russia’s Putin talking about marriage and faith in God?