Experience and new research show that churches aren’t punishing morally wayward members like they once did. “There is less discipline overall,” said George Bullard, a veteran church and clergy consultant and director of missions for the Columbia Metro Baptist Association in…
SBC leader under fire for comments about divorce, abuse
The president of a Southern Baptist Convention seminary has defended an 18-year-old recording describing his counsel to a woman in an abusive marriage that is finding a new audience on social media in the age of #MeToo. Paige Patterson, president…
Third Baptist/Muslim dialogue seeks to build bridges between church and mosque
Sixty-five Baptists and Muslims met April 16-19 to discuss ways to unite churches and mosques in communities to foster interfaith understanding, promote religious liberty and cooperate for common good.
Inspired by youth, churches rising to oppose gun violence
Inspired by the concept that nothing changes if nothing changes, people of faith are responding the gun crisis by organizing everything from congregational letter-writing campaigns to strategy conferences to local gun buybacks. Clergy and laypeople involved say the key is doing something — anything — rather than caving in to the enormity of the gun violence issue.
White Christians should make pilgrimage to new Lynching Memorial, Baptist leader says
Lynching is a part of America’s past that must be confronted and accepted before racial healing can occur, says Hannah McMahan, executive director of the New Baptist Covenant. McMahan attended today’s formal opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala.
Editor change, resignations signal shakeup at RNS
Religion News Service — a news service of record for newspapers, magazines, broadcast organizations covering religion, ethics and spirituality around the world — has replaced its editor-in-chief in what appears to be a major shakeup of the award-winning non-profit founded in 1934.
Ministry jobs and more
Baptist News Global provides a free listing of ministry-related jobs for Baptist churches, theological institutions and organizations across the United States.
Faithful cite religious liberty in challenges to Muslim travel ban
A Baptist church/state specialist is among a group of constitutional scholars asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down President Donald Trump’s third attempt to restrict travel from certain Muslim majority nations the administration claims pose a terrorist risk. Holly…
Belmont University student dies in Waffle House shooting
Historically Baptist Belmont University devoted its Monday morning chapel service to prayers for a student whose life was cut short by a mass shooting. DeEbony Groves, 21, was one of four victims killed by a gunman in a Sunday morning…
Emotional rebuilding continues 5 years after Texas blast
The town of West, Texas, took one on the chin when an April 2013 fertilizer plant explosion flattened or damaged scores of homes, destroyed schools, killed 15 people and injured hundreds of others. But the community located about 20 miles north…
Former Miss America weds same-sex partner
Former Miss America Deidre Downs Gunn, a graduate of Baptist-affiliated Samford University, married her girlfriend in a ceremony in Birmingham, Ala., an event covered exclusively by People magazine.
Pastor/judge repeats controversial death penalty protest
An Arkansas judge and pastor of a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration this week, re-enacting symbolic speech that a year ago led to his being barred from hearing capital punishment cases.