Baptist News Global

Baptist group protests North Carolina transgender law

Alliance of Baptists President Michael Castle said March 25 he will ask the leaders at the progressive fellowship’s upcoming annual gathering to consider moving the 2017 annual meeting away from North Carolina in light of a new state law that…

Anti-hate group scrutinizes SBC resolutions committee

The Southern Poverty Law Center questioned Southern Baptist Convention leadership for naming to a resolutions committee at the upcoming SBC annual meeting representatives of organizations the civil rights organization identifies as hate groups. The nonprofit legal advocacy organization — which began…

Georgia governor vetoes anti-LGBT ‘religious liberty’ bill

Georgia’s Baptist governor announced March 28 he would veto a controversial “religious freedom” bill that opponents said would foster LGBT discrimination. Gov. Nathan Deal, a member of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-aligned First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Ga., said he had no…

How Jars of Clay guitarist ended up as a barber

As the band’s religious beliefs shifted, it became tougher to play lucrative evangelical music festivals. They were getting older, and it was time to start thinking about plan B.

Advocates seek systemic change in prison justice issues

For the past 15 years, Alan Bean has found himself involved in some of the biggest criminal justice controversies in Texas and Louisiana. In 1999, the mild-mannered Baptist minister founded Friends of Justice and assumed the role of prophet and…

A ragged wall that looks a lot like the Church

The rocks were far from perfect. Our 30-year-old retaining wall had come tumbling down, and the stone masons were tasked with rebuilding it. They would reuse the rocks, but they’d have to shape them to fit the new design. The…

Springsteen and Easter: ‘The Rising’

Many fans of Bruce Springsteen will not be surprised that this series of writings on the intersection between Lent and the minstrel from Freehold Borough, N. J., should come to a conclusion with “The Rising” on Easter Sunday. The song…

What color is a crayon called ‘flesh’?

Several decades ago I was in a learning experience with a diverse group of people in terms of race. We were divided into small groups and given cards of various colors. We were asked to respond to questions by suggesting…

Why Bible believers are not really Bible believers

A good number of evangelical Christians self-identify as Bible believers. It’s a peculiar way for a Christian to self-identify when you think about it. A Christian is someone who has some kind of relationship to Christ. After all Christ is…

Transitions for this week

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Randy Ashcraft, to the Center for Healthy Churches, as congregational consultant. Most recently he served as pastor in…

State Baptist exec blames firing on interference from SBC agency

A former Baptist state convention executive says what was reported last June as his resignation was actually a firing orchestrated by state convention leaders under pressure from the head of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention….

American Muslim writer notes predictable media reactions to terrorism

In a tweetstorm on March 22, Moroccan-American and Muslim writer Laila Lalami bemoaned scripted American media reactions to terrorism and mass shootings.

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