While the nation’s agencies serving refugees and immigrants are scrambling to welcome thousands of Afghan refugees, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to their advocacy on another front Aug. 24 by telling the Biden administration it must reinstate the…
Three months after Russell Moore’s departure, interim leader of ERLC likely leaving
Three months after Russell Moore left the helm of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission under pressure, his interim successor has announced his impending departure. In a news brief, Baptist Press reported Aug. 24 that Daniel Patterson,…
Have you heard the one about empathy being a sin?
Empathy is in the news, and not in a good way. With recent controversial statements by John Piper and resignations of multiple staff at the church he put on the map and the seminary he led, attention has fallen to…
The big news from the 2020 Census is multiculturalism, which threatens some people and still eludes most churches
Demographers have been predicting for three decades that the United States was headed toward a non-majority status for any single racial group in the population. Results of the 2020 Census released last week confirm that ongoing trend, but the real…
A year later, CBF’s finances have stabilized, but General Assembly still virtual due to COVID
A year ago this summer, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship not only had to hurriedly move its annual General Assembly to a virtual space due to threat of COVID-19, but faced difficult decisions about cutting its annual budget down to a…
Biden Education Department hopes to reverse last-minute Trump allowance of campus discrimination based on religious beliefs
The U.S. Department of Education announced Aug. 19 that it anticipates rescinding parts of a rule enacted by the Trump administration that forces universities to financially support religious student groups that discriminate. This November 2020 reinterpretation of the Free Inquiry Rule…
New lawsuit accuses SBC Executive Committee, Southern Seminary, Lifeway and others of ‘conspiracy’ to cover up sexual abuse claims
A sweeping lawsuit filed by a victim of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of her Baptist pastor father alleges a conspiracy among several Southern Baptist Convention entities and individuals to defame her and squelch her pleas for relief. The…
Church ‘religious exemption’ letters against COVID vaccination mandates likely won’t work
Churches in California and North Carolina are among those now offering congregants documentation for “religious exemptions” to the COVID-19 vaccine, a practice that is legally dubious and likely ineffective, according to labor lawyers. The practice has arisen as more employers…
‘Humanitarian catastrophe’ unfolding in Afghanistan
“What we are witnessing, in real time, is a humanitarian catastrophe.” That’s the grim assessment of the situation in Afghanistan this week by one of the foremost authorities on immigration work in the United States. Ali Noorani, president of the…