A Baptist church in Franklin, Va., has embarked on a 75-week sermon series designed to show the Bible is more than a collection of stand-alone books in the Old and New testaments. “One of the things I want to come…
PRRI survey finds ‘stark’ voter divides along religious lines
Race, religion and Christian nationalism were among the top influencers of presidential voting in the 2024 election, according to new polling by Public Religion Research Institute. Half of all U.S. voters chose Republican Donald Trump on Election Day compared to…
AJ Sherrill wants to tell you a Bible story
AJ Sherrill hopes Christians will slow down enough this Christmas to hear the story anew. “Familiarity of the Christmas story can breed a lot of apathy, when we think we know everything there is to know,” he said. “We stop…
Suburban Houston book bans trace to a complex web of influences, including an SBC pastor
A suburban Houston school district has banned 34 books this fall in a show of force by trustees supported by a coalition of Christian nationalist advocacy groups that has ties to a former Southern Baptist pastor in Houston. By some…
Amanda Tyler on when and how to talk about Christian nationalism at Christmas dinner
Americans have numerous opportunities to push back against Christian nationalism without engaging conservative relatives during holiday gatherings, Amanda Tyler said in a webinar about her new book, How to End Christian Nationalism. Anyone thinking about raising the topic at a…
Byron Donalds is a ‘rising star’ and education ‘warrior’ in Trump’s GOP
Second-term Florida Congressman Byron Donalds doesn’t boast many legislative accomplishments, but that hasn’t kept the Black conservative from being nominated as House Speaker and being rumored as a possible Trump vice presidential pick during the campaign. Donalds vigorously campaigned with…
Nationalism and religious hatred are as old as time, filmmakers say
Donald Trump’s victorious presidential campaign rode a wave of nationalism and religious hatred as old as humankind itself, said Todd Stiefel, executive producer of the documentary Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy. The 2024 film shows how Trump…
Faced with decreased offerings, state Baptist conventions rethink giving to SBC
When conservatives gained control of the Southern Baptist Convention in the early 1990s, leaders of state Baptist conventions paid their obeisance by upping the percentage of church offerings they sent to the national convention. Thirty years later, that well is…
Ezell says ‘nothing has changed’ with BGCT church planting
“Nothing has changed in how we fund the BGCT,” Kevin Ezell said in a Baptist Press article Nov. 25. “And nothing has changed in the way we can partner with Southern Baptist churches affiliated with the BGCT.” That might be…
Wrestling with doubts is a biblical practice, author says
Wrangling with doubts about the Bible, church and God is not only spiritually healthy but also downright scriptural, writer and podcaster Erin Hicks Moon said. Readers of Exodus, for example, can see an alternately discouraged, defiant and uncertain Moses complaining…
Romney bids farewell to Senate after reckoning with Trump and evangelicals
As Congress and the country focus on Donald Trump’s incoming administration and cabinet picks, Americans are paying less attention to outgoing leaders such as Mitt Romney, the principled Mormon Republican senator whose six-year term featured regular critiques of both Trump…
In North Carolina, a Methodist creation care community grows
Author and scholar Elaine Heath says the most challenging question ever put to her inquired, “What does care for the earth have to do with following Jesus?” Heath now uses the question as a reflection tool for her ministry as…