Baptist News Global

U.S. teens’ pocket change gives South African village access to clean water

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — About 300 families in a South African village soon will have access to clean water, thanks to pocket change collected last year by hundreds of Virginia Baptist youths. A mission team from Bonsack Baptist Church in…

Black Baptist pastor asks Southern Baptist Convention to repent of racism

ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — A prominent African-American Baptist pastor says the Southern Baptist Convention has not kept a promise made in 1995 to "eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry." Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone…

South Africans get access to clean water, thanks to teens’ pocket change

RICHMOND, Va. — About 300 families in a northeastern South African village soon will have access to clean water, thanks to pocket change collected last year by hundreds of Virginia Baptist youths. On April 7, work crews in Ngwenani, about…

Youth at Suffolk church spend weekend preparing for Easter ministries

Youth fill Easter eggs for their church's annual egg hunt. SUFFOLK, Va. — The weekend of March 12-14 was a busy one for the youth at Holland Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va., as they prepared for a variety of ministry…

China’s religious head says 4 million house churches must register

HONG KONG (RNS/ENI) — The Chinese government’s new head of religious affairs has downplayed the role of house churches during his first official visit to Hong Kong, saying they must be registered with the government for their own protection. Wang…

Abuse scandal imperils pope’s drive to reclaim Europe’s Christian heritage

PARIS (RNS) — Days after being elected pope in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI referred to one of Europe’s patron saints, Benedict of Norcia, as he explained his choice of papal name to thousands of pilgrims massed in St. Peter’s Square….

RIGHT or WRONG? Women deacons

Our church is thinking about electing women deacons. But some members claim this is another example of contemporary liberalism taking over our theology. Is this so? Changing a church’s polity always is a challenge. My best advice is to encourage…

Some black church leaders feel jilted by President Obama

WASHINGTON (RNS) — When President Obama was elected, some black pastors — fresh from a campaign that featured extensive outreach to their churches — expected meetings with the president, or at least to be enlisted as informal advisers. For better…

Michigan Hutaree militia a cult, experts say

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (RNS) — When militia expert Jack Kay first ran across a MySpace page for the Michigan-based Hutaree militia six months ago, he thought it was just another group wrapping itself in God and country. But following raids…

Barbie gets ordained, and she has the wardrobe to match

WASHINGTON (RNS) — With her careers as veterinarian, astronaut and U.S. president behind her, Barbie has at last found her true calling — as an Episcopal priest. Julie Blake Fisher, an Episcopal priest in Kent, Ohio, created Episcopal Priest Barbie…

Christians outside the West view Bible differently from affluent westerners

RICHMOND, Va. — Christians in the developing nations read Scripture differently than their brothers and sister in the affluent West, according to missiologist Caleb Oladipo. “The way we read the Scriptures in the western world particularly is through empirical knowledge—that…

Churches wrestle with giving drop

WASHINGTON (RNS) — The number of churches that reported a drop in giving due to the sour economy rose nearly 10 percent last year, according to new survey. In 2009, 38 percent of churches reported a decline in giving, versus…

Paxton dodges ethics questions while claiming Talarico isn’t Christian

Restored Voices Collective gets GRACE report on former board member

‘CatsOnACouch’ influencer sues over First Amendment rights

Court finds Trump and Blanche conspired to create sham IRS lawsuit