Baptist News Global

Virginia Baptists responds to W. Va. flash floods

GILBERT, W.Va. (BP) — In the wake of flash floods that washed away rural roads and even mountainsides over six southern West Virginia counties on Mother’s Day weekend, Virginia Baptists joined other Baptist disaster relief feeding units and mud-out crews…

Virginia Baptist Foundation awards $101,000 to 53 scholarship recipients

RICHMOND — Ann F. Brown, chair of the scholarship committee of the Virginia Baptist Foundation, announced 53 scholarship recipients totaling $101,000 during the second annual Scholarship Recognition Service held May 31, at the Virginia Baptist Resource Center. Scholarship recipients gathered…

From the Eastern Shore to Cumberland Gap

STAFF CHANGES • Dale Seley, to First Church, Newport News, as senior pastor, effective in August. • Neil Seward, to Bethel Church, Phenix, as pastor. • Curtis Barnes, to Mount Pleasant Church, Colonial Heights, as senior pastor. • John Minter,…

EDITORIAL: Aunt Ida needs more study

Dear Jimmy, Well, it’s one of those nights when I can’t sleep so I figure I’ll write you a few lines maybe sort out some things that are all jumbled up in my mind. Your uncle and I have had…

Baptist women clearly left their mark in colonial America

“Some of the early Baptist church records did not even list the names of women members, and early histories of the Baptist faith in America gave little attention to the role and contributions of women,” she said. “Because of this…

Southern progressivism left its mark on WMU

Southern-style Social Gospel may not be the first thing that springs to mind when most Baptists think of Woman’s Missionary Union, but Southern progressivism significantly influenced the organization in its formative years, church historian Carol Holcomb noted. Holcomb, associate professor…

Historic Baptist ordination practices reveal a tangled web

Pragmatism and tradition have stood alongside biblical and theological principles in shaping Baptist ordination practices, church historian Karen Bullock told the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute colloquy. “The concept of ordination as practiced by Baptists today is a complex — even…

Baptism: Neither a means of obtaining grace nor a trivial ritual

By looking back to their beliefs and practices from the mid-18th century to the early 19th century, Baptists can reclaim a view of baptism between the poles of sacramentalism and “mere symbolism,” church historian and theologian Sheila Klopfer said. Historically,…

Baptists urged to consider risks of ‘majoritarian faith’

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (ABP) — Baptists in the United States — who find themselves members of a religious majority or plurality in many areas — would do well to remember their humble beginnings as a persecuted minority and to reconsider the…

What does it mean to be Baptist?

Some of the same theological disputes that divided Baptists throughout their first 400 years continue to distinguish different branches of the Baptist family tree in the early years of the 21st century, theologian James Leo Garrett said. And other challenges…

Seeking truth in India’s ‘City of Gold’

MUMBAI, India (BP) — Television writer Sankalp Tak steers his late-model compact through the streets of Mumbai, India’s largest city, dodging waves of cars and motorized rickshaws to park behind a nondescript warehouse. Inside — barely controlled chaos, like Mumbai…

Coalition of faith-based groups push for health-care reform as moral issue

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (ABP) — Ads airing on Christian and mainstream radio stations in several states are attempting to frame health care as a moral issue. Sponsored by a broad coalition of faith-based groups, the ads urge members of Congress…

Matthew Vines sets off a debate over what it means to be ‘queer’

Dear Mike Johnson, be careful what you ask for

What, to the white Christian, is America 250?

Four years later, anti-abortionists battle on other fronts