Five dozen progressive Christian ministers — eight of them Baptists — signed an open letter over the weekend saying U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore is unfit for office, while nearly 100 Southern Baptists in Alabama added their names to a separate missive denouncing sexual abuse and harassment of women without mentioning anyone by name.
Revamped ‘settlement house movement’ fosters faith-based approach to social work, community engagement
Kendall Ellis is embarked on a quest to discern her vocation. She has joined other “settlers” who live at Good Neighbor House in Waco, Texas, spending a year planning and hosting meetings of neighborhood groups and encouraging other activities aimed at fostering relationships throughout the area.
After Sutherland Springs, faith leaders urge Congress to act against gun violence
A coalition of 50 faith groups, including the Alliance of Baptists, American Baptist Home Mission Societies and Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, urged leaders in Congress to take immediate action to curb gun violence in response to the Nov. 5 slaughter of 26 people attending worship at a small-town Southern Baptist church in Texas.
More evidence religion is declining — and that’s OK with these pastors
A computer scientist who crunched the numbers on American religion says the decline of faith will accelerate during the next 20 years. But is decreasing religiosity and increasing secularization such a bad thing? Some clergy don’t think so.
Transitions for the week of 11.17.17
Staff changes, congregational news and more from across the nation.
Letters to the Editor
The latest from our readers: • Why not a standing committee to deal with clergy sex abuse reports? | Christa Brown • ‘Shoe boxes’ article helpful, but too negative | Karen Dahl, Sandy, Utah
State Baptist body weighs disqualifying CBF churches
A Southern Baptist state convention is considering kicking out cooperating churches that are also aligned with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Baptist convention in Tennessee boots church for calling woman as pastor
More than 850 Baptists from 390 churches in Tennessee debated 15 minutes before voting overwhelmingly Nov. 14 to shun a historic east Tennessee congregation for calling a woman as senior pastor.
N.C. Baptist convention denounces racism, but not the Confederate flag
The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina denounced racism in a resolution adopted at its annual meeting, but stopped short of endorsing the Southern Baptist Convention’s call to refrain from public displays of the Confederate flag or statements by SBC leaders supporting the removal of Civil War monuments.
After church massacre, some Americans say they’re worried about attending worship this Sunday
There may be some sparsely populated pews in American churches this weekend following last Sunday’s church massacre in Texas. Pastors in different parts of the country are hearing from church members worried that the fate of First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs — where a gunman murdered 26 and injured 20 — may befall their own congregations.
Will Sutherland Springs be a tipping point for Southern Baptists and guns?
Southern Baptist leaders have reached out in many ways to survivors of the rampage that killed 26 men, women and children last Sunday. Conspicuously absent is any suggestion that lives might have been saved by laws barring civilians from owning weapons designed to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.
Most spiritual-but-not-religious Americans are younger — and religiously affiliated
New research suggests there may yet be a smidge of good news for churches and other religious groups long assailed by the forces of culture and modernity. Could it be?