As more than 17,000 SBC messengers gather in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is splintering over persistent racial disharmony, allegations of the mishandling of a sex abuse scandal and growing if unfounded concerns about women serving…
The Fight for the Heart of the Southern Baptist Convention
On a recent Friday afternoon, Dwight McKissic sat at a folding table in his three-car garage, on a cul-de-sac in Arlington, Texas, discussing the role that race plays in a growing divide among American evangelicals. McKissic is sixty-four, with a…
How Black pastors under 40 are trying to get their peers back into the pews
Empowerment Church in Southfield, Michigan, has a robust 1,000-member, mostly Black congregation. The Rev. Carlyle F. Stewart IV, 26, an associate pastor focused on youth and community outreach, however, says he sees the writing on the wall: His Black peers…
Federal appeals court blocks sweeping Missouri abortion law
A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday blocked Missouri from enforcing a sweeping state abortion law that bans the procedures at or after eight weeks of pregnancy.
New app, believr, aims to create a ‘home for LGBTQ+ Christians’
Adam Evers created the app he’d been longing for. As a gay Christian, he felt caught between two worlds. In LGBTQ spaces, his faith was often an obstacle, because so many in the community have been hurt by churches that…
Federal appeals court rules Vermont cannot exclude religious education from private school tuition program
Vermont’s Town Tuition Program (“TTP”) requires school districts that lack a public high school to provide for its residents’ high school education by paying private school tuition. Because Vermont’s constitution guarantees that “no person shall be compelled to support a…
Faith and the Fight for a $15 Minimum Wage
Commentators have already been comparing the Biden administration’s expansive legislative agenda to the New Deal ambitions of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The mixture of a global pandemic, racial protests, and national political turmoil have ignited a political urgency not seen since the Great Depression.
Keep COVID-19 restrictions during in-person worship, ecumenical guide suggests
Some Americans may be behaving like the COVID-19 pandemic no longer hinders them from socializing with friends and family, many of whom they may not have seen in months.
BNG webinar this Sunday invites notable SBC exiles to explain what’s going on and why it matters
As the Southern Baptist Convention prepares for its annual meeting in Nashville next week, observers from inside and outside the denomination are watching to see what will happen on a number of controversial issues. To preview those issues and explore…
Letter to the Editor: Praise for Chris Conley analysis on abortion debate
Dear Editor: Chris Conley’s opinion piece on finding middle ground in the bitter debate over abortion rights is the most cogent, persuasive perspective I’ve read anywhere. Whatever one’s position on Roe v. Wade, or one’s hopes or fears that it soon will be…
Black pastors in Georgia press for federal voting bills
Black church leaders in Georgia vowed Tuesday to keep up their fight for federal voting rights legislation, with one pastor urging President Joe Biden to use his bully pulpit and strike deals with lawmakers to get the bills passed.
The Evangelical Politician Who Doesn’t Recognize His Faith—Or His Party
Bill Haslam is not a natural fit for the Donald Trump–era Republican Party. The former Tennessee governor checks certain GOP boxes: He favors low taxes and opposes abortion rights; his background is in business, including an executive role in his…