By David Gushee The very fact that President Obama offered a commencement speech at Notre Dame revealed bitter conflicts within the American Catholic community and similar clashes within evangelicalism. {mosimage}Obama did not create these fierce internal rifts within American Christianity….
A Christian’s lament over the Pew torture poll
By David Gushee Dear Jesus, Everyone seems to be talking about the poll put out last week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. They found that 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants believe “the use of torture…
Military destroys Afghan Bibles
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The U.S. military says it has destroyed Afghan-language Bibles confiscated from soldiers in Afghanistan to ensure troops did not break regulations against proselytizing. According to Reuters, officials denied that evangelical Christian soldiers seen in a video by…
British Baptists observe 400th anniversary
BOURNEMOUTH, England (ABP) — British Baptists marked the 400th anniversary of the founding of the first Baptist congregation in 1609 in an annual meeting of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and BMS World Mission May 1-4. This year's Baptist…
SBC may deploy disaster relief for swine flu, leader says
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention could deploy its nationwide disaster-relief network if the international outbreak of swine flu becomes a pandemic in the United States, said a spokesman for the North American Mission Board. "Now is the…
Study: Ranks of religiously unaffiliated grow, but remain often open to faith
WASHINGTON (ABP) — While the fastest-growing religious segment of the United States population is those who are not affiliated with a particular religion, that group is not necessarily comprised of secularists and largely remains open to faith, a new study…
Young evangelicals call for end to nuclear weapons
AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — A group of under-40 evangelicals attending a leadership meeting in Texas announced April 28 a new initiative to mobilize American Christians to eliminate nuclear weapons. "We have all heard about this broadening of the evangelical agenda,"…
Maya Angelou challenges Baptists to fight racism
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — With an African-American population estimated as high as 50 million, the "blight of racism" is "still an epidemic assailing" the United States, writer Maya Angelou said April 24 at the Southeast regional gathering of the New…
Carter says Baptist strife hurting evangelism
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — Former President Jimmy Carter said baptisms are declining in the Southern Baptist Convention because doctrinal bickering gives Christianity a bad name. Carter, a Baptist Sunday school teacher for 66 years who publicly parted ways with the…