Baptist News Global

Florida pastor arrested and deported by ICE

A Florida congregation is reeling after its pastor was arrested by federal immigration agents and deported to Guatemala. The Tampa Bay Times reported Maurilio Ambrocio, 42, was expelled to his native country July 2 after being detained by Immigration Customs…

A senior reflects on aging

Many of us recognize that our congregations are aging. Because we do not understand aging well, we may hesitate to really get to know older adults and minister to them. This article is written by an aging congregant and may…

Storytelling as creative resistance

I have no doubt that the daily drama of American crises is causing a lot of art to be created — and viewed. “Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for…

Swamp bait: The forgotten horror of feeding Black babies to alligators

In the depths of the Florida Everglades, a place teeming with mosquitoes, swamps and predatory reptiles, the U.S. government has endorsed what many human rights activists now call Alligator Alcatraz — a sprawling 39-square-mile detention facility for immigrants surrounded not…

2024 election explained in three metaphors

How Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, after exhaustive evaluations by pundits, pollsters and political scientists, remains an enigma. I read all the number-crunching explanations I could Google. The Pew Research quantitative analysis of the election results was the…

When is the right time to speak the truth about toxic people?

As many of our readers know, I officiate a lot of funerals. In addition to nearly 17 years as pastor with responsibilities for such things, I officiate pick-up funerals for families who do not have a church or a minister….

Suggestions for family friendly worship

Through Empowering Families for Spiritual Formation research and experience with churches and families, we have come to learn worship is an integral piece of engaging faithful families and encouraging spiritual formation. However, we also have learned churches can grow in…

Unless Congress intervenes, Trump will cut funding for LGBTQ crisis hotline

In August 2019, the Federal Communications Commission proposed to Congress the need for a crisis hotline that would connect people to suicide prevention and mental health crisis counselors. On Oct. 17, 2020, the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020…

America’s moral emergency

As our nation celebrates its 249th birthday, we find ourselves in a time of moral emergency. The seven deadly sins of Western Christianity are being paraded as virtues by our most powerful and wealthy, and the classical virtues of our…

Trump policies and actions are more cruel than last time, panelists report

The “volume and viciousness” of President Donald Trump’s legal and policy actions against marginalized communities has far outpaced the cruelty displayed during his first term, said Cecillia Wang, national legal director of American Civil Liberties Union. “The Trump administration came…

‘Be careful of Scripture heavy in law but light on grace,’ Wesley warns

‘Show up and do something,’ ACLU leader urges

From the South Side to the South Lawn and back again

Democracy as a moral practice, not just a system