Civil rights and separation of church and state groups are thrilled, but conservative evangelicals are dismayed that the Biden administration announced Nov. 18 the reversal of a Trump-era policy that allowed discrimination against foster parents because of their sexual orientation….
Upton announces retirement from Virginia Baptist post after 20 transformative years
After two decades of leadership, John Upton has announced he intends to retire as executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia July 31, 2022. Since his election to the post in 2001, the landscape of Baptist state conventions…
International religious freedom group decries Biden administration letting Nigeria escape Countries of Particular Concern list
The nation’s top bipartisan watchdog for international religious freedom praised one addition by the U.S. State Department to its 2021 list of Countries of Particular Concern for religious freedom violations but expressed astonishment that another country was dropped from the…
Charlottesville pastor targeted by outside watchdogs after misstating a fact of the Kyle Rittenhouse case
As if leading congregations through the troubled waters of COVID-19 weren’t enough, now self-appointed watchdogs are fact-checking sermons of pastors they deem to be working against the conservative political narrative. Matthew Tennant, senior minister at University Baptist Church in Charlottesville,…
Conservative Baptist Network promotes conspiracy-laden film to be shown on Mid-America Seminary’s campus
An independent film that appears to attack Southern Baptist Convention seminaries as part of the liberalization of American Christianity will be shown this weekend at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis. The screening of Enemies Within: The Church is being…
World magazine editor quits as Mohler takes lead on adding opinion content to a uniquely reporting-centric publication
In the ethos of the new evangelical Republican Party, hosting an event at Mar-a-Lago that honors LGBTQ persons within the party is intolerable, but supporting a president who advises men interacting with women to “grab ’em by the pussy” is…
Most comprehensive study yet of COVID’s impact on churches finds uneven results
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the decline facing most congregations in America, but the effects are not evenly distributed among all churches, according to the most comprehensive study to date of the pandemic and congregational life. The “Exploring the Pandemic…
After the storm, a lull of information from the SBC Executive Committee
This story now includes significant updates below. After weeks of making national headlines, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has gone virtually silent about its internal workings and its relationship to the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force. The two top…
For Godself’s sake, stop picking on the small church where Beth Allison Barr’s husband serves as pastor
It’s no secret that there’s bad blood between Christian complementarians and Beth Allison Barr. After all, her bestselling book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, tears down the boys-only fort they’ve built in the church yard. Yet the sticks and stones…
Supreme Court appears skeptical of Texas Death Row inmate’s appeal for Baptist pastor to be present with him at execution
A U.S. Supreme Court that increasingly views freedom of religious expression as an absolute right even amid a global pandemic appears to feel differently about the religious rights of a condemned inmate. On Tuesday, Nov. 9, the high court heard…
Samford’s fine arts dean named president of Campbellsville University
Campbellsville University has named a fine arts administrator 12th president of the Baptist-founded liberal arts school. Joseph “Joe” Hopkins, dean of the School of the Arts at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., will become president at the central Kentucky school…
Southern Seminary and Asbury Seminary work with noted anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ legal group to claim federal vaccine mandate intrudes on ‘personal health decisions’
A Southern Baptist Convention seminary and a Wesleyan seminary in Kentucky are jointly challenging the Biden administration’s federal mandate on COVID-19 vaccination by claiming a religious liberty violation. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky, which is the largest of…