By Bob Allen Race, sexuality and politics emerged as recurring themes in daily news coverage by Baptist News Global in 2015. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, challenged black and white Baptists to move beyond comfort…
2015 delivered battering to the church — but also blessings, ministers say
By Jeff Brumley Churches, ministries and clergy faced plenty of challenges in 2015. The “nones” and the “dones” were on the rise and church attendance continued to drop. Meanwhile, the number of Christians declined sharply in the overall population while…
Myanmar native serves fellow refugees through Student.Go
By Greg Warner At the age of 7, Mary Htoo and her family fled civil war and persecution in their native Burma. They spent the next seven-plus years living amidst the poverty and confinement of a mountaintop refugee camp just…
2015: The year in deaths
By Bob Allen Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, 84, former head of the Southern Baptist Convention Woman’s Missionary Union and an early champion of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, died Jan. 2 after a long illness. John David Hopper, former president of the…
Southern Baptists present at private Cruz rally
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist Convention official gave positive reviews to a private gathering of roughly 300 pastors and faith leaders aimed at consolidating religious conservatives to support Sen. Ted Cruz in the upcoming Republican presidential primaries. Paige Patterson,…
Faith-based groups gearing up for Texas tornado response
By Jeff Brumley Damage assessments are only beginning to come in, but some disaster responders say rebuilding the Texas communities clobbered by tornadoes over the weekend will require relief work on par with the 2013 Oklahoma twisters. Among the worst…
AU says Christian printer has no ‘religious freedom’ right to discriminate
By Bob Allen A Kentucky printer’s religious beliefs do now entitle him to refuse to make T-shirts for a gay-pride event, Americans United for Separation of Church and State argued in a legal brief filed Dec. 28. The friend-of-the-court brief…
Senators ask government to publish names of schools requesting Title IX waivers
By Bob Allen Eight Democratic senators including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and former Saturday Night Live star Al Franken asked the Department of Education in a letter Dec. 18 to make public the names of colleges and universities asking for Title…
Couple creating church ‘Mosaic’ from diversity in Paris
By Ashleigh Bugg Julie and David Brown hurry onto the crowded metro in Paris. They’ve finished singing and preaching at a traditional French Protestant church and are on their way to the outskirts of the city to worship with immigrants…
Church/state group says county clerk must issue marriage licenses to gays
By Bob Allen A group that advocates for both the free exercise of religion and separation of church and state says in a brief filed with the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Kentucky county clerk must issue marriage…
SBC leader, GOP hopeful, join hands on behalf of persecuted Christians
This story was edited after posting to correct an error in the ninth paragraph. By Bob Allen Southern Baptist Convention leader Russell Moore teamed up with Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio in a Dec. 24 Washington Post commentary calling…
Baptist scholar investigates the truth behind Santa Claus
By Jeff Brumley Adam English admits he is a bit of an oddity as both a Baptist and a big fan of the saints. But he’s also unapologetic about it. “I was surprised, as a Baptist, that the word ‘saint’…