Baptist News Global

When obeying God means disobeying the Bible

Joseph is not a dominant figure in the nativity stories, but in Matthew’s story of his encounter with the angel (1:18-25), he functions as a kind of model for each of us. Consider how Joseph responded when he discovered that…

At Christmas, it’s not we who should be afraid. It’s the powers that seek destruction and preach division.

Amy Butler preached this sermon at The Riverside Church on Christmas Eve this year. Well, here we are, and it’s Christmas Eve, again. On the edge of yet another year, we hear the ancient story read, picture a peace-filled stable…

Marriage: The state of our unions

Love, marriage, sex and parenting comprise what many Christians believe is “traditional marriage,” unchanged since the Garden of Eden. Yet for most societies throughout history, including most Christian ones, the expectation that all four could be confined to one relationship was considered impractical, irrational or at best undesirable. The first in a series on the changing shape of one of society’s most ancient institutions.

Fear not: How Linus and his blanket can help us change the world

In addition to being an ordained minister, I am also a standup comedian. One thing I’ve always wanted to do at the end of my set (and my sermons) was a mic drop — that moment when a comedian…

Wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger

If you have seen Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, it’s hard to hear Luke’s Christmas story without thinking of the “baby Jesus grace.” Ricky Bobby is a driver not a thinker, and it shows. “Dear lord…

Turn to service, faith in dark times, Sudanese survivor of lions and hyenas says

A rough election is turning into a rough Christmas for some. But the holiday blues will come screeching to a halt after a conversation with Abraham Deng. Deng, 35, was one of thousands of “Lost Boys of Sudan” who, as…

War on Christmas redux

While Bill O’Reilly and Fox News get much credit for seasonal claims of a “War on Christmas” waged by the secular left, a progressive blog site says the perennial cultural clash finds roots in a brand of early 20th century…

Appeals court rejects challenge to Glorieta sale

A federal appeals court has turned down an appeal by an Arkansas couple claiming wrongdoing by Southern Baptist Convention officials when they declined to renew their lease at the Glorieta Conference Center and instead sold the campus. Kirk Tompkins, who along with…

Why God is a curvy, black woman in ‘The Shack’ and some Christian critics say it’s ‘heresy’

Just as the book earned widespread notoriety and scathing critiques nearly a decade ago, the film is garnering its own praise and condemnation.

Trump’s inaugural to include interfaith prayer service

Donald Trump’s Inaugural weekend will include an interfaith prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral, a customary event but complicated this year by anger over the president-elect’s rhetoric on Muslims, immigrants and others.

Transitions for the week of 12.23.16

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Jeff Davenport, now serving as pastor of First Baptist Church, Hurricane, W.Va. Previously he was pastor of Calvary…

An American experiment: 250 years of trying

10 reasons America is not a ‘Christian nation’

American Dominion traces deep roots of Seven Mountain Mandate

Lindsey Graham and the history of ‘widow’s succession’