As the Southern Baptist Convention in its recent annual meeting has proved itself unreliably Baptist, it gives me pause to think about how quickly the transmogrification of this Baptist denomination into its ecclesiastical opposite has happened. Baptist folk often have...
At least 16 Jewish community centers received bomb threats Jan. 9 in an apparent attempt to rattle American Jews who have seen a spike in anti-Semitism incidents in the past year.
Anger may be the emotion that is most clearly expressed, but more complex emotions may well lie at the heart of the enraged utterances.
We’re just over a week in to the new year and based on my Facebook feed all the resolutions that were made just nine days ago are facing some pretty big uphill obstacles — at least the ones that haven’t…
We knew about a week ago that it might snow this past weekend, but ministers have to be in denial about it at least until Saturday afternoon. During the senior adult luncheon last Tuesday when the mere possibility of snow…
The lineup of ministers selected to pray at Donald Trump’s inauguration reaffirms the divisions within American Christianity. Conservatives view the selections of, say, Franklin Graham and Paula White, as affirming biblical and patriotic values and as support of unfettered capitalism….
A historic Baptist church in the nation’s capital has called a legally married lesbian couple as co-pastors. Calvary Baptist Church in Washington announced Jan. 9 the hiring of Sally Sarratt and Maria Swearingen as the congregation’s new senior ministers. The couple,…
There’s something deeply American about Campolo’s story, something that ought to unsettle us — the remarkable sense that even atheism could receive “the best evangelical techniques.”
Karl Barth, Eberhard Arnold, and why the Church is political
Pastors across America will face a common challenge in 2017, and it could be you. Not that you’re a bad person or mean. But the greatest challenge for your pastor in this new year could be you — if you…
A homeless man knocked on the door of Metro Baptist Church to ask for a drink. Ronnie Adams, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel, and Katie Hillhouse, a fourth grader from Boulevard Baptist Church in Anderson, S.C., delivered a glass of…
A decade-old emphasis encouraging moderate Baptist churches to invite a woman to preach one Sunday in February has contributed to a shift in how people in the pew think about women in ministry, a longtime advocate for pulpit inclusiveness said…
An Arkansas couple who lost a lease on property on which they purchased a vacation home with the sale of Glorieta Conference Center in 2013 say they aren’t giving up on their legal battle to invalidate the deal after losing…
