Baptist News Global

Under fire from #MeToo, embattled Southern Baptist leader withdraws from convention sermon

Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson has surrendered his assignment of delivering the keynote sermon at next week’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, while denying published reports that led to his recent firing as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Seminary…

Emerging Gen Z may deliver huge blow to religion in U.S.

It looks like Gen Z, the age group with older members just now graduating from high school, wants as little or less from religious organizations than their Millennial predecessors. That may come as little surprise to churches, nonprofits and businesses…

#MeToo goes to church: Southern Baptists face a reckoning over treatment of women

“Many women have experienced horrific abuses within the power structures of our Christian world,” Beth Moore, an evangelical teacher, wrote in a letter.

The Wrong Kind of Jesus: From Symbol to Substance

Distinguishing Right Jesus and Wrong Jesus is hard, especially when a weaponized Christ is used – right and left of center – to intimidate or exclude each other.

Religion Notes: Spelling bee champ clinches with word most evangelicals already know

Koinonia, one of the most popular Greek words in the English-speaking evangelical world, made a splashy return to the limelight during the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Transitions for the week of 6-8-18

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Paul Aita, to First Baptist Church, Olympia, Wash, as pastor in the interim. Samuel Brink, to First Baptist…

Decades of marginalizing and silencing women have left evangelicals morally compromised

Men in leadership have used the Bible to mask a patriarchal misogyny. That’s what’s driving today’s #MeToo church movement.

J.D. Greear is ready to give Southern Baptists a makeover

Amid a #MeToo moment in America’s largest Protestant denomination, a 45-year-old North Carolina pastor hopes to become the Southern Baptist Convention’s first Gen X president.

Infant mortality rates higher in areas dominated by conservative Protestants, study says

Conservative Christians may not be as pro-life as they believe. Newly published research has found that American counties with higher proportions of conservative and fundamentalist Protestants experience higher rates of infant mortality. The study, “Religion and Infant Mortality in the…

Yes, the Bible teaches social justice

The words “justice” and “social justice” have long drawn the ire of segments of American Christianity, particularly white evangelical leaders. They have consistently said that it is unbiblical, un-Christian, and yes, un-American. Baptist News Global reported on May 18 that…

Lawyer counters ‘misrepresentation and misinformation’ about seminary president’s firing

The lawyer for former Southwestern Baptist Theological President Paige Patterson says his client did not get a fair hearing before his May 30 firing by the school’s trustees. Fort Worth attorney Shelby Sharpe issued a statement June 4 addressing what…

SBC’s #MeToo Problem Isn’t a Rotten Apple, It’s a Rotten Theological Tree

While abuse exists in all circles and all faiths, there is a unique theological problem that creates a culture of apology for abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention.

Matthew Vines sets off a debate over what it means to be ‘queer’

Dear Mike Johnson, be careful what you ask for

What, to the white Christian, is America 250?

Four years later, anti-abortionists battle on other fronts