Baptists rank high in a dozen faith leaders to watch in 2017 identified by the Center for American Progress, a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization founded in 2003 as an alternative to conservative think tanks such as the…
Baptist minister unlikely advocate for transgender community
A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship pastor and contributing columnist to Baptist News Global described 768 words that transformed his ministry in a TEDx Talk presentation now available online. Mark Wingfield, associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, spoke in November at…
Transitions for the week of 01.20.17
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Caleb Bittler, to New Bethesda Baptist Church, Mechanicsville, Va., as associate pastor/minister to students and families. Leigh Clark,…
Modern — and ancient — Christian identity crisis drives decline of American church
Europeans, it seems, are wondering if American Christianity has pretty much gone off the rails. A recent editorial in Great Britain’s The Guardian newspaper raised the question after describing the role faith has had in the “social and political convulsions”…
Rights groups fear Burmese pastors ‘forcibly disappeared’
Human rights organizations have expressed alarm over the disappearances of two Baptist pastors in Myanmar who may have been detained for their role in showing journalists a Catholic church allegedly damaged by government airstrikes targeting ethnic Kachin rebels in the…
Organizations, including faith groups, oppose anti-Muslim rhetoric
The Alliance of Baptists joined nearly 90 national religious, secularist, civil rights and other organizations Jan. 17 in an open letter urging members of Congress to oppose anti-Muslim policies and rhetoric during the transition to the administration of President-elect Donald…
Americans doubt presidents, pastors can lead nation through challenges
Whether or not they voted for him, most Americans likely will not view Donald Trump as the solution to the nation’s problems once in office. And pastors enjoy even less confidence than presidents as the potential solution to the country’s…
White House staffer named to Holocaust museum board
Melissa Rogers, special assistant to President Obama and executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and one-time general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, will be nominated by the outgoing president as…
Richard Land says evangelicals getting unprecedented input into Trump White House
A former Southern Baptist Convention official who sits on President-elect Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board says even he is surprised by the amount of input the group is having in helping to shape the incoming administration. “I’ve been solicited five…
Scorsese film ‘Silence’ illustrates Christian need to go inward with faith
The Los Angeles Times called Silence “a film for the ages,” while Variety described it as “undeniably gorgeous. A remarkable achievement.” But the latest film by Martin Scorsese, currently in theaters, is more than that, says Michael Sciretti Jr., a…
Western Wall prayer battle reminds Baptist woman of ordination struggles
In Israel, Jewish women are fighting for the right to pray from Torah scrolls at the Western Wall, as men do. Starlette McNeill identifies with those women and their struggle. While McNeill isn’t Israeli and isn’t Jewish, her personal trials…
Baptist lawmaker seeks end to no-fault divorce
A Southern Baptist lawmaker is trying to make it harder for couples in Texas to get a divorce by proposing legislation to eliminate “insupportability” as a grounds for dissolution of marriage. State Rep. Matt Krause (R-Fort Worth) says the prevalence…