Emmett Dunn, director of the Baptist World Alliance Youth Department since 1994, has resigned to return to work as a full-time pastor, the global Baptist body based in Falls Church, Va., announced April 21. Dunn, who since 2006 has also…
The seminary professor who blazed a trail for environmental justice among Baptists
April 22, 1970, was an important day in the nation’s history. It marked the first celebration of Earth Day — an event that put environmentalism front-and-center in American society. With more than 20 million participants across the United States, Earth Day…
Covenant of action inspires churches to social justice
Two very different Dallas churches inspired by callings for social justice are surmounting racial and geographical differences to minister to their city’s poor. Friendship-West Baptist and Wilshire Baptist churches came together formally in 2014 with a covenant of action through…
Child abuse a Calvinist problem, podcast says
Child abuse isn’t just a Catholic problem, it’s also a Calvinist problem, according to an April 20 podcast sympathetic to the so-called “young, restless and reformed” movement popular among evangelicals belonging to denominations including the Southern Baptist Convention. Mortification of…
Transitions for the week of 04.22.16
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Gary Dalton, to University Baptist Church, Charlottesville, Va., as interim pastor. Larry Greenfield, to the Parliament of the…
Pastor wants SBC to repudiate Confederate flag
An African-American pastor is asking the Southern Baptist Convention to adopt a resolution calling for elimination of public display of the Confederate flag. Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, recently submitted a resolution for possible consideration…
Baptists respond to earthquake in Ecuador
Baptists in Europe and North America responded with relief efforts to Saturday’s earthquake in Ecuador, which killed more than 500 people and was described as the worst disaster the country has faced in 60 years. Rescue and relief professionals from…
Florida ministries changing lives — one child, neighborhood at a time
Brian was 10 years old when he first enrolled at Touching Miami with Love, an organization sharing Christ’s great love through literacy and educational ministries. Yet, Brian couldn’t read. Although he had struggled with dyslexia for most of his life,…
Laying on of hands? A lot of Americans do it, study says
A new study has found that nearly nine in 10 Americans have relied upon healing prayer at some point in their lives, praying for others even more than for themselves. “The most surprising finding is that more than a quarter…
Civil rights panel blasts new state religious liberty laws
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission has denounced new state “religious liberty” laws backed by Southern Baptist state conventions as a trend to use religion as an excuse to deny people their human rights. The independent, bipartisan agency charged with advising…
Faith groups work to mobilize ‘disability vote’
American Baptist Home Mission Societies has joined more than 100 organizations and individuals encouraging political candidates to address disability concerns. The Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition, a program of the American Association of People with Disabilities, is collecting signatures to an open…
Pilgrimage making comeback — even with Baptists and unbelievers
Baptists and many other Protestant Christians are gradually embracing ancient physical practices that nurture spiritual growth. “I have a friend, a Baptist pastor, who makes his own prayer beads and I carry prayer beads in my pocket all the time,”…