Baptist News Global’s podcast series “Stuck in the Middle with You” is back with two special episodes that introduce a second season of the show. Co-hosts Mark Wingfield and Benjamin Cole intend to devote most of season two to interviews…
Theologians push back on JD Vance’s view of ‘ordered love’
Vice President JD Vance is getting schooled by theologians over his inverted theology expressed in a Jan. 29 interview on Fox News. What Vance said: “There’s this old school — and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the…
Partners for Sacred Places helps churches see their spaces anew
Bob Jaeger and his team at Partners for Sacred Places want struggling American congregations to know there are numerous ways to preserve and use aging facilities beyond just seeing them become pieces of commercial real estate. But doing so requires…
Texas bill defines life as beginning at ‘fertilization’
The debate over when human life begins took a sharp turn in Texas, where a state legislator filed a bill that would define an “individual” as “a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of…
Trump starts with lowest presidential approval ratings since 1953
Despite his claim to have a mandate from voters, President Donald Trump has the lowest initial approval ratings of any president since 1953 — except for himself in 2017. Gallup reports Trump’s initial job approval rating for his second term…
Trump issues two orders on education that get swift pushback
Amid the flurry of executive orders coming from the Trump White House, two issued Jan. 29 related to education, and both drew immediate fire from educators and church-state separationists. The first order, “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families,” promotes…
ADL documents rising tide of antisemitism
Antisemitism has reached “deeply alarming” levels around the world by doubling in the past decade, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League. Close to half of all adults worldwide — or about 2.2 billion people — harbor “elevated…
DC court asked to limit use of ‘ecclesial abstention’ when fraud is involved
On Feb. 11, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals will hear a largely unknown case that has potential nationwide influence on the legal doctrine of “ecclesial abstention.” For decades, this legal doctrine has shielded courts from adjudicating cases deemed…
SBC pastor opposes ICE raids in churches and gets labeled ‘woke’ by far right
A Southern Baptist pastor in Tennessee who told his congregation of his concerns about President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging immigration crackdown has been labeled a woke Leftist by a far-right advocacy group. Matt Crawford serves as senior pastor at Trinity Baptist…
Ministry jobs and more
Baptist News Global provides a free listing of ministry-related jobs for Baptist churches, theological institutions and organizations across the United States. Each free posting is for 30 days and is limited to 150 words. Postings may be extended another 30…
Democracy Forward succeeds in blocking Trump’s defunding of federal grants
Fresh on the heels of suing the Trump administration to stop ICE raids at churches, Democracy Forward filed another lawsuit that has led to a temporary hold on the administration’s effort to strip funding for nonprofits and educational institutions receiving…
Guthas became the first female pastor at Jimmy Carter’s church
Ashley Guthas wasn’t angling to become Jimmy Carter’s pastor. Yet she became another part of history when she was called as pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga. — a church where the former president and his wife, Rosalynn,…