I am a New Yorker (with a Southern accent, but nonetheless a New Yorker). Like many of us, I witnessed the planes hit the World Trade Center towers on 9/11; I lived through the anthrax scare; and I now run…
El Paso congregation seeking nones and dones who call the border home
From the outside, the nondescript building in downtown El Paso doesn’t look much like a church. But the converted gymnasium does in fact serve as home to Mesa Place Church. And Christian Gurrola may not look like a pastor to…
Uzbek Baptist fined for possessing Christian literature
A Baptist in Uzbekistan has been punished for the second time within a year for having religious books at home, according to Forum 18, an international news service based in Norway that monitors religious freedom violations. Stanislav Kim, a Baptist from…
Publisher reverses decision on ‘unchanging’ Bible translation
The publisher of the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible has reversed a highly discussed decision last month that the current text would remain unchanged in future editions. Crossway, a Christian nonprofit publisher established in 1938, said the reason for making…
Inside the religious freedom report that’s making conservatives so mad
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’s report suggests that some religious exemptions “significantly infringe” on civil rights.
Confederate flag images quietly removed from National Cathedral
Washington National Cathedral has quietly replaced its controversial panes of stained glass bearing the Confederate flag.
Transitions for the week of 09.30.16
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Catherine “Katie” Chapman, to the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, as executive director. She is CEO and…
Too busy to sing? Try anyway
I go to work on Tuesday with a detailed to-do list. If everything goes perfectly, I will end the day writing a column for Baptist News Global. If I get through six of the 10 items, it will be a…
Who is the Good Samaritan now?
Another day, another police officer-involved shooting. These national tragedies are happening with frightening regularity. So much so that we don’t need narration; we know the end from the beginning: “He had a gun.” “I felt that my life was in…
Mission work takes on legal dimensions for Va.-based field personnel
Mission work and ministry are taking on a dizzying array of new looks in the 21st century. Just ask Greg and Sue Smith, Baptist missionaries who spent years performing traditional mission work in Latin America before opening a ministry serving…
Poll finds consensus on contraception, division over gay marriage and transgender controversies
Two-thirds of American adults believe employers who have religious objections to contraception should be required to cover birth control as part of their employees’ insurance plan, according to a new Pew Research Center survey about recent controversies pitting claims of religious liberty…
Former pastor caught in Internet prostitution sting sentenced to prison
A former Southern Baptist pastor in South Dakota was sentenced Sept. 27 to 46 months in prison for attempted trafficking of what he believed to be a 15-year-old girl. Joseph Raleigh, former pastor of First Baptist Church in Miller, S.D.,…
How decades of divorce helped erode religion
Two widely recognized trends in American society might have something to do with each other. Divorce rates climbed to the highest levels ever in the 1980s. And today Americans are rapidly becoming less religious.
Evangelicals’ favorite heresies revisited by researchers
LifeWay Research and Ligonier Ministries have released an update on the state of American theology in 2016.