The Georgia House of Representatives invited megachurch pastor Andy Stanley to speak to them as chaplain of the day March 15, and the message he dropped on them could have come from an Old Testament prophet. Stanley, who has been…
New Texas seminary renamed to honor Jesse Fletcher
The seminary that was to be birthed as a named successor to Logsdon Seminary now will be called Jesse C. Fletcher Seminary. The San Antonio, Texas-based school plans to open this fall with three classes offered, according to Jonathan Davis, vice president…
The return to church has hit a plateau
The post-COVID return to church has plateaued, according to new nationwide data from Pew Research. After most houses of worship closed to in-person gatherings in mid-March 2020 due to the initial threat of coronavirus, there has been a slow return…
Lindsey Graham says he goes to church about three times a year but wants Supreme Court nominee to rate her faithfulness on a scale of 1 to 10
Once again, a United States senator asked a nominee for public office a question about personal religious practice, despite the clear prohibition of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. This time the questioner was Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., and the…
Supreme Court says Baptist pastor should be able to touch and pray over Death Row inmate as he is executed
In an 8-1 opinion, the United States Supreme Court March 24 ruled that a Texas Death Row inmate should be allowed to have his Baptist pastor accompany him into the execution chamber, lay hands on him and pray audibly over…
Three cheers for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb
In a sign that sanity is possible amid today’s culture wars, the Republican governors of Utah and Indiana this week vetoed mean-spirited bills passed by their legislatures to address a fake crisis about transgender student athletes. This year already is…
Colleagues remember Randall Lolley as a brilliant mind and kind mentor to many
In 1980, Chuck Poole was a young college graduate from rural Georgia who had been convinced by a friend to enroll at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. Poole and his wife, Marcia, loaded all their worldly possessions…
A surprising nominee for SBC presidency announced in a surprising way
The most conservative wing of the Southern Baptist Convention bypassed the denominational news service in favor of a conservative political outlet March 22 to announce its slate of two candidates for office when the SBC gathers this June. As if…
BJC report on Christian nationalism draws Congressional notice
Documentation on Christian nationalism produced by Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty has drawn the attention of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, a group that includes Democratic House members Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Zoe Lofgren of California…
Randall Lolley, key figure in resisting SBC’s conservative shift, dies at 90
Editor’s note: This story will be updated as new information becomes available. Randall Lolley, one of the pivotal figures in the late-20th-century schism in the Southern Baptist Convention and an early leader in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, died March 21…
Two key developments in voting rights rulings in Arkansas
Arkansas now finds itself at the center of the nation’s debate over what’s “election integrity” and what’s “voter suppression.” And a Baptist judge is one of the key players. Arkansas Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen (who also is a BNG columnist)…
Latest PRRI data show growing gap between white evangelicals and other Americans over same-sex marriage and legal protections for LGBTQ people
While the same-sex marriage now is the law of the land in the United States, white evangelical Christians remain distinct outliers among all Americans in accepting that reality. This finding from Public Religion Research Institute comes amid a backdrop in…