Baptist News Global

Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Andrea Russell

Gladstone’s Library is a remarkable institution, a residential research library in Northern Wales that was founded by four-time British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. Last month, I taught a course at the Library with Oxford University’s Professor of Black Theology…

How a Baptist found common grace in the Episcopal Church

The scene looked the same, just as it does every Sunday: We thanked God for the gifts of the table. Together, we sang “The Sanctus,” and then the celebrant spoke of Scripture — when, at the Passover meal, Jesus takes…

Finding hope after the murder of a child

On Aug. 6, 1995, Michael McEachern and Katy Nesbit — two spirited, trusting young people — went to a Whataburger and never returned to the friends and family who loved them so much. They were murdered over the theft of…

Matt Gaetz is a Southern Baptist who appears to get a free pass

One of President-elect Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet nominees is a Southern Baptist. Matt Gaetz, who abruptly resigned his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives last week just days before a House Ethics Committee was to release its investigation…

Ryan Walters orders all Oklahoma schoolchildren to pray for Trump

In Oklahoma, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is at it again. The man who has made controversial statements about Black history, who promotes a Christian nationalist agenda for curriculum and who demands teachers have Bibles in their classrooms…

Did Trump voters know what they were getting? Pew surveys say yes

With every announcement of a cabinet-level nomination that seems more shocking than the last, Americans who are not on the Trump train are struggling to understand how many of the president-elect’s actions will be agreeable to his base and whether…

The train we all should ride

Negative reactions to Donald Trump’s reelection to the presidency — the ones I have primarily heard or read — have been swift and serious. There have been many analyses of where Democrats went wrong in an election that offered such…

Why we should know better about political idolatry

Beyond the campaigning that constantly exposed me to innumerable unsolicited ads in the mail and on television, what has bothered me most this election season is the bipartisan gullibility of Christians. We should, and many of us do, know better,…

Calling the cows

I lay in bed, awakened from what otherwise would have been a restful night of sleep. The question that had plagued my conscience had now intruded upon my sleep: Why do so many conservative Christians so blindly follow Donald Trump?…

Not So Sorry explores the question: Should victims always forgive their abusers?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer railed against cheap grace that’s given “without asking questions or fixing limits.” Kaya Oakes targets “quick forgiveness,” a form of spiritual abuse practiced by powerful, charismatic and sexually predatory Christian leaders who pressure victims to quickly forgive, forget,…

Being a ‘missional’ church is now redundant

In a recent Google search, I discovered more than 304 million results when I typed the term “missional.” I even came across several seminaries promoting master’s degrees in “missional leadership,” “missional theology,” “missional Christianity” and “missional multiplication” (whatever that means)….

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