Preaching has been radically different and difficult for Pastor Cheryl Adamson since March 2020, and not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The parallel scourges of police brutality, political subjugation and racial oppression faced by African Americans, and exacerbated by…
With refugee and immigrant ministries already on high alert, Supreme Court delivers an unwanted message
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,…
On World Humanitarian Day, a call to address climate change and improve the conditions of refugees across Africa
On a continent long reeling from the effects of climate change, the 2021 World Humanitarian Day focused on the human cost of the climate crisis and the need for world leaders to take meaningful action for the world’s most vulnerable…
COVID has tied the wedding business in knots
Three weeks before their scheduled wedding date of April 4, 2020, Sam Lebow and Meghan Dworschak wrote a final check to the caterer for their reception. “Two days later,” Sam said, “we had to postpone the wedding.” The reason? COVID-19….
Panelists make the Christian case against conversion therapy: It harms people
Ministries that promise to transform gay people into straight people instead cause immense spiritual, emotional and physical trauma that can take decades of counseling to undo, according to the panelists on an Aug. 24 BNG webinar titled “The Christian Case…
COVID has dramatically changed the experience of global missionaries
American missionaries serving in far-away places continue to endure significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including limits on travel and in-person ministry, a scarcity of international volunteers and in some cases feelings of guilt for being vaccinated in communities…
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…
Baptists worldwide uniting to offer aid to Haiti as challenges mount
Baptist organizations from around the world are joining forces to provide financial, material and spiritual care to Haitians reeling from the Aug. 14 earthquake that killed at least 2,200, injured more than 12,000 and flattened tens of thousands of homes,…
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…
Baptist Scholars International Roundtable finds serendipity in participants’ experiences
When a group of Baptist scholars came together virtually Aug. 9-11 for a roundtable on “Baptists and the Kingdom of God,” they did not know that several in the group had personal experience to speak to one of the presentation…