Baptist News Global

Study shows significant increase in American families going hungry

DALLAS (ABP) — Food-assistance agencies nationwide serve 1 million more people each week than they did four years ago, according to a national study released Feb. 2. The nation’s network of food banks and related agencies provide emergency food to…

Politics and the Christian practice of dialogue

By Bob Setzer Every pastor or counselor soon learns: Hearing from only one partner in a troubled marriage gives the listener a very distorted picture of what is going on. It’s not that the spouse unburdening his or her heart…

Baptist prof fears Haiti arrests will set back adoption movement

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — A Southern Baptist seminary professor says the arrests of a group of U.S. Baptists accused of trying to remove children from earthquake-stricken Haiti without proper documentation could give a black eye to a budding movement of…

Baptist group arrested in Haiti denies trafficking charge

MERIDIAN, Idaho (ABP) — A mission team from two Southern Baptist churches in Idaho arrested for attempting to take 33 children from Haiti to a temporary orphanage in the neighboring Dominican Republic was only trying to help children suffering in…

Q&A: Baptist Women in Ministry leader Pam Durso

Pam Durso ATLANTA (ABP) — February marks the fourth annual Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching, in which Baptist churches are encouraged to invite a woman to preach. Associated Baptist Press asked Pam Durso, executive director of Baptist Women in…

Forgiveness is an unmistakable mark of character

By Marv Knox OK, let’s play 20 Questions. And since we don’t have space here for the first 18 questions, we’ll move to the end of the game. The topic is “Spiritual Practices,” and I’ve been thinking of one particular…

Christian witness in a paralyzed democracy

By David Gushee For those who care about the current state of American democracy, last week was both fascinating and deeply troubling. For Christians who seek to contribute to “the peace of the city” in which God has placed us,…

Seminar equips clergy, laypeople to talk about faith, science

AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — Baylor University theology professor Barry Harvey took just two texts to a church's recent seminar on reconciling faith and science: the Bible and Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. “Far too often, [discussing faith and science] generates…

Forgive Us: Is forgiveness always appropriate for Christians?

(ABP) — Sermons on forgiveness often emphasize the Lord’s Prayer — “and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” But should Christians always forgive, regardless of circumstances? Is granting forgiveness always appropriate? “Yes — but…”…

Forgive Us: Christians struggle with radical forgiveness

Chris Carrier was abducted at age 8, assaulted and left for dead in the Florida Everglades. Chris not only survived the ordeal, but 22 years later, he told his attacker he was forgiven and lead the man to faith in…

Fire that destroyed historic Texas church ruled arson

TEMPLE, Texas (ABP) — Investigators said Jan. 29 that a fire that gutted the historic sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Temple, Texas, on Jan. 19 was set deliberately. The case is now being treated as a criminal investigation. The…

Church Super Bowl parties OK as long as NFL rules followed, experts say

MIAMI (ABP) — Despite crackdowns from the National Football League in recent years that frightened many church leaders into abandoning watch parties for America’s biggest sporting event, experts say churches are free to host viewings of Super Bowl XLIV on…

Supreme Court slides into partisanship

Before the fireworks, be careful what you drink

The contemptible case of Clarence Thomas

The permanent paradoxes of Christian thinking about war