Once the party of “law and order,” the Republican Party now enthusiastically supports convicted felon Donald Trump, seeing him as a victim of political persecution rather than facing justice for his crimes. House Speaker Mike Johnson has called on the…
No crystal ball needed to see a second Trump term: Look at Israel
There’s already a clear picture of what a second Donald Trump presidency would entail: Just look at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yossi Klein Halevi, in “Netanyahu’s Betrayal of Democracy Is a Betrayal of Israel,” provides a stark picture of…
Why pastoral qualifications in the Bible aren’t really about gender
The Southern Baptist Convention somewhat surprisingly failed to pass the proposed Law Amendment that, if affirmed, would have changed the SBC Constitution to place restrictions on Southern Baptist churches hiring or appointing women to any staff position with the title…
What’s happening to megachurch pastors in Dallas?
Megachurch pastors in Dallas are starting to drop like flies. On June 9, Tony Evans stepped away for an unspecified period of time from the 10,000-member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, a church he started in his living room and led for…
Where will churches leaving the SBC go?
In the past week, I’ve been asked two questions related to the back-to-back meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship: Will churches leaving the SBC because they support women in ministry join CBF? What is the…
Why is the PCA so worked up over a shallow book like Jesus Calling?
The Presbyterian Church in America at its 2024 annual meeting voted to investigate the Christian appropriateness of the bestselling book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, who was part of the PCA and died in August last year at age 77. How some denominations have…
Focus on the Family’s selective critique of eugenics
Focus on the Family regularly condemns eugenics as “pure evil” and condemns the “the wicked and immoral practice and study of trying to weed out certain genetic characteristics.” But the $135 million organization never has come clean about its roots…
One week later, CBF meeting is the antithesis of the SBC meeting
One week after the Southern Baptist Convention made national headlines for a variety of its actions, a smaller Baptist group will meet for its annual General Assembly that’s not likely to make headlines anywhere but here at BNG. And that’s…
70 years ago today, ‘under God’ was added to the Pledge of Allegiance
George Docherty was a progressive Presbyterian minister serving in the nation’s capital. In 1965, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in a civil rights demonstration after Bloody Sunday. Docherty later criticized the Vietnam…
Here’s what you need to know to understand that SBC resolution opposing IVF
The Southern Baptist Convention has not always opposed abortion, and Southern Baptists have not always opposed in vitro fertilization. This week’s adoption of an anti-IVF resolution by messengers to the SBC annual meeting represents yet another rightward shift in the…
Don’t be lulled by the failure of the Law Amendment
The narrow failure of the Law Amendment to receive two-thirds affirmation at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting should not give anyone a sense that women in ministry are welcome in the SBC. Nor should this vote — or any…
Chair of SBC abuse task force explains why it is hard to get anything done
Because of the massive size of the Southern Baptist Convention, it is nearly impossible to bring about internal change. Nowhere is that more evident than in the failure of two consecutive sexual abuse reform task forces to bring meaningful change….