Baptist News Global

VITAL SIGNS: Seven things your pastor wishes you knew, but is afraid to tell you

The transition out of local church pastoral and staff ministry after 33 years on the job is proving to be a provocative, illuminating and sobering experience. Sitting on the receiving side of the pulpit is a very different way to…

OPINION: Can one painting tempt us to idolatry?

In the April 15th issue of the Religious Herald a reproduction of a painting appeared [“Artist paints Jesus at center of American history, public life”]. In this article I want to raise some cautions about this picture. The reason I…

HERITAGE: Peace-bearer extraordinaire

Jim Massey personifies peace-bearing. In his quiet, calm, soothing manner, he has given peace the first hearing in every situation. He tackled thorny issues while helping many a church find peace in its congregational life and in its relations with…

From the Eastern Shore to Cumberland Gap

STAFF CHANGES • Woody Jenkins, to Elk Creek Church, Mineral, as pastor. • David C. Cromer, to Corrottoman Church, Lancaster, as pastor. • John Mann, to Concord Church, Chase City, as pastor. • Carey Snellings, to Hunting Creek Church, Big…

Conservative evangelicals call for immigration reform

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A group of conservative evangelicals is endorsing immigration reform that secures America's borders and provides a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million people living in the United States illegally. Religious leaders including Samuel Rodriguez of…

Researchers probe whether, why, free will exists

ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS) — Are people really responsible for all the things they do? Do they have what theologians call God-given “free will” to choose between right and wrong? Those questions are at the heart of a four-year research project…

Chilean pastors living in tents as winter approaches in Southern Hemisphere

NIPAS, Chile—More than two months after an earthquake rocked Chile, rains have begun and winter soon will arrive, leaving a group of Baptist pastors bracing for the cold in small tents that have become their impromptu homes in the wake…

Controversial cross at center of recent Supreme Court case reportedly stolen

LAS VEGAS (ABP) — A simple metal-pipe cross in the middle of the Mojave Desert that inspired a passionate Supreme Court debate about religious freedom has reportedly been stolen. The cross — successor to one first erected as a World…

Baptist pastor in Azerbaijan reports another run-in with police

OSLO, Norway (ABP) — A Baptist pastor in Azerbaijan who served 10 months in prison before appeals from Baptists worldwide spurred the nation's president to pardon him says police have visited him again. Zaur Balaev, who leads a Baptist congregation…

Liberty U. to investigate alleged untruths by seminary president

LYNCHBURG, Va. (ABP) — Liberty University will investigate reports that its seminary president has misled the public in his testimony about converting from militant Islam to Christianity, officials of the school in Lynchburg, Va., announced May 10. Liberty Provost Ron…

Liberty to investigate alleged untruths by seminary president

Kagan’s church-state and social-issue views not clear from scant record

WASHINGTON (ABP) — President Obama’s latest Supreme Court nominee has an exceedingly thin paper trail on some of the legal questions most important to people of faith. But one thing is clear if Solicitor General Elena Kagan is confirmed to…

We also need a reckoning with racist words that cut like a knife

How a ‘good kid’ makes a catastrophic choice

‘All we do is believe the Bible,’ Baptist scholars summarize

How anti-vaxxers and evangelicals found common cause