When we — Baptists and Methodists — were all evangelical

It may now seem surprising to many United Methodists, and even more Baptists, that for most of our histories in the United States, all Methodists and Baptists were regularly designated as evangelical denominations. The most important reason is that both...

Analysis Lovett H. Weems Jr.

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Timshel

This month I read “East of Eden” again as it was the selection for the Great Books KC April meeting. June also read it, and then before attending the April 25 discussion we watched (also for the second time) the…

Being ‘in friendship,’ not ‘on mission,’ boosts Baptist church in Jackson, Miss.

By Jeff Brumley Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., embraced the “missional” concept before missional was cool — or even a word. Its leaders say the lay-led congregation was founded in the late 1960s with a culture inclined to look outside…

Some Baptists killed in Nepal quake, while others search for survivors

By Jeff Brumley Among the more than 6,000 killed in the April 25 Nepal earthquake are an unknown number of Baptists who died when their church collapsed on top of them, the Baptist World Alliance has reported. “At least seven…

Simmons College recognized as HCBU

By Bob Allen A Baptist college opened in 1879 to educate former slaves that is currently forming ties with the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship has received official recognition as a historically black college or university. Simmons College of Kentucky is one…

Want millennials back in the pews? Stop trying to make church ‘cool’

A pastor’s faith in Baltimore

No, climate change deniers aren’t modern day Galileos

Indiana governor get pastors’ ‘rebuke’ for RFRA fix

Sexy swingers club or ‘church’: Who gets to decide?

Sabbath: The spiritual practice of exhaling

By Jayne Hugo Davis I never thought of myself as living life holding my breath. Certainly, not like a child demanding the resolution of some grievance, willing to voluntarily turn blue. Not even with wonder and delight in anticipation of…

How corporate America changed our religion: A review of “One Nation Under God” by Kevin Kruse

One Nation Under God could change the way we think about civil religion in America. Forget about the 1970s, or even the 1950s, Kevin Kruse says, this story begins in the heart of the Depression. Exiles from the Southern Baptist Convention who…

Southern Baptists, racism and Biblical inerrancy

While Southern Baptists believe that scripture is “truth without any mixture of error” it is obvious that Southern Baptists do not read the Bible without any mixture of error. Southern Baptists, along with everyone else, read the Bible as fallible,…