By Bob Allen The Alliance of Baptists announced Oct. 8 receipt of a $104,400 grant to support a new initiative promoting LGBT inclusion and racial justice among Baptists. The grant from the Arcus Foundation, a charity that supports organizations that…
Name changes challenge churches on Baptist identity
By Jeff Brumley Over the weekend, Virginia Heights Baptist Church in Roanoke, Va., plunged headlong into a continuing, decades-long trend in American Christianity by dropping the denominational reference from its name. So when Nelson Harris showed up for work Monday…
Dallas Baptist church supports Ebola family
By Bob Allen People affected by the Ebola virus are not just potential carriers to be shunned and feared but persons of dignity and worth created in the image of God, said Sunday morning’s preacher at Wilshire Baptist Church in…
BJC supports Muslim prisoner’s right to grow beard
By Bob Allen The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Oct. 7 weighing the rights of people in prison to exercise their religion against sensitivity to corrections officials in matters of security. The case, Holt v. Hobbs, involves a practicing…
Preachers: Read fiction to learn human condition, not for sermon fodder
By Ken Camp Preachers should read good fiction for the insight it offers on the human condition — good, bad and ugly — not just to seek quotes that can be plucked out of context to make points in a…
BWA touts Ebola-free South Africa ahead of 2015 Congress
By Jeff Brumley Aggressive measures are being taken to prevent the spread of Ebola to South Africa as plans continue to hold the 21st Baptist World Congress in Durban in 2015, the Baptist World Alliance said. “We are especially pleased…
Supreme Court sidesteps same-sex marriage, making it legal in five states
By Bob Allen The U.S. Supreme Court declined Oct. 6 to settle once and for all whether same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, denying review of seven petitions from five states involving disputes over the legal recognition of same-sex marriage….
Transgender minister, Baptist theologian headline conference promoting LGBT acceptance
By Bob Allen The week after Southern Baptists complete a national conference on “The Gospel, Homosexuality and the Future of Marriage” in Nashville, Tenn., some other Baptists will gather in a church in Washington to explore an alternative view. Allyson…
Circle of life: Denominational innovation may be wave of future
By Jeff Brumley The fact state and national religious bodies are undergoing significant changes — or at least need to change — hardly makes headlines anymore. But the changes already occurring give hints about where the development of religious organizations…
First U.S. Ebola case hits home for Baptist church in Dallas
By Bob Allen Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was coming to America to get married and start a new life with a woman baptized this summer as a member of Wilshire Baptist Church, the church’s pastor, George Mason, said…
Debate: what (if anything) to do about choir decline
By Jeff Brumley Recent news that the church choir is in rapid decline troubled a number of Baptists, a number of whom took to Facebook recently to post evidence that choral music has – or at least should have – a…
Complex problem of hunger demands collaborative response, say advocates
By Ken Camp Hunger in America represents a complex problem that defies easy solutions and demands collaborative responses, Bob Aiken, chief executive officer of Feeding America, told a gathering of anti-hunger advocates at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Feeding America…