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...
By Eileen Campbell-Reed This week a new poll reports, “One in every four Americans say they had a great deal of stress in the previous month.” National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard School of Public Health…
By Russell Waldrop Jesus’ disciples have always struggled with the harshness of his teachings on wealth and poverty. Some have rejected them as a “social gospel;” others have upheld them for that very reason. A few have lived them out…
It had all the marks of a transformational moment in American life. When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty” in 1964, around 19 percent of the nation lived in poverty. For the first time a sitting president…
Fifty years ago the United States declared war on poverty. Half a century and trillions of dollars later, what’s been accomplished? Is it an incomplete triumph or a wasteful failure? What really captured my thought was the slogan itself —…
$23,021 — The official poverty line for a family of four. It’s $11,484 for an individual. 15.1% — The number of Americans (46 million) in poverty, by the most common official figure. In 2007 the figure was 12.5 percent. 11.1% —…
By Jeff Brumley American John Upton has been succeeded by South African Ngwedla Paul Msiza to lead the Baptist World Alliance. Msiza, 53, is only the second African ever elected to the BWA presidency. The first was Liberian William Tolbert,…
By Ken Camp The surge of unaccompanied children from Central America into the United States “is not primarily an issue of unprotected borders but a humanitarian crisis,” according to a resolution the Baptist World Alliance General Council approved in Izmir,…
By Bob Allen The pastor of a Kentucky Baptist church making national headlines for changing its wedding policy to include same-sex couple admits he is a little surprised by all the attention. “This seems like big news for us, but…
By Bob Allen Southern Baptists’ top public-policy spokesman pledged to oppose a bill on the fast track in the U.S. Senate to override the recent Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case and compel for-profit employers to cover the…
By Bob Allen A judge in Jackson, Tenn., ruled July 10 that there is enough evidence against a former Union University student accused of murdering his fiancée and staging her death to look like a suicide to send the case…
