Baptist News Global

Transitions for the week of 01.13.17

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES David Anderson, to Augusta Baptist Association, Staunton, Va., as director of missions. He retired from First Baptist Church,…

Christian radio host says Russell Moore defenders missing the point

A Christian radio commentator says Southern Baptist conservatives who want to withdraw financial support for their denomination’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission neither hate agency head Russell Moore nor are they persecuting him. They are just tired of political posturing…

Liquid modernity: Churchly challenges in 2017 and beyond

In liquid modern life there are no permanent bonds and any that we take up for a time must be tied loosely so that they can be untied again as quickly, and as effortlessly as possible, when circumstances change. Those…

Losing our souls in a post-truth world

Is it just me, or does it increasingly seem many people are living in an alternate reality? People of all political stripes seemingly ignore irrefutable facts, and make up their own truths. This new cultural habit of ignoring facts en…

Franklin Graham, Pope Francis promote veganism — but for very different reasons

For some Christians, going vegan may be a sudden thing after attending a church talk about factory farming and animal cruelty. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, they are struck with a life-changing conviction — this one to give up…

Leaders report progress on task force addressing sexual misconduct by clergy

A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship task force developing guidelines for responding to a wide range of sexual misconduct by clergy is in place and compiling best practices to be shared with churches and partner ministries, according to an update Jan. 11. Pam…

Congregations urged to stand for people’s rights in face of ‘authoritarian messages’

Fifty Christian leaders from across the nation called on congregations to stick up for the rights of all people in light of “threatening, authoritarian messages” accompanying the recent election of Donald Trump. “If such talk is not opposed, we open…

Despite criticism from conservatives, faith leaders bless new Planned Parenthood facility

While leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention and Republicans in Congress called for defunding Planned Parenthood, more than 20 local faith leaders came together Jan. 10 to pronounce blessings on the organization’s newest health clinic in Washington, D.C. Planned Parenthood…

When the dream gets a bit dreamy

On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech.

Dylann Roof sentenced to death for Emanuel AME Church massacre

Just a few hours after he told a crowded courtroom, “I still feel like I had to do it,” Dylann Roof was sentenced to death by a federal jury for carrying out the mass shooting inside Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church.

Requiem for the ‘cut’: Finding connections in a gentrifying neighborhood

Tony disappears behind the abandoned house at the curve, and he doesn’t reappear for a while. Another fellow follows him a couple minutes later, and also stays gone. In fact, he never reappears. Must be trouble, one assumes, given all…

With 1 ‘none’ and a slew of Christians, Congress fails to reflect society

Church consultants and researchers for years have warned churches that they need to reflect the communities around them. Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, said he discovered that while conducting research for his book Autopsy of a Deceased Church….

Theologizing with Larkin Poe, 10 years after Reskinned

Ministry leader with tall tales wins GOP bid for Colorado governor

What Willy Rice once knew

What I learned July 5 at church