Baptist News Global

PCUSA declares Israel’s actions in Palestine genocide

The Presbyterian Church (USA) voted June 30 to declare Israel’s actions in Palestine genocide, to boycott all products from Israel and to call for an arms embargo against the nation. Meeting in Milwaukee June 27 to July 3, the denomination’s…

Supreme Court slides into partisanship

In siding with the Republican Party in yet another decision loosening campaign spending limits, the U.S. Supreme Court is risking credibility as the supposedly nonpartisan third branch of government. Beyond that, it continues to deny the corrupting influence of the…

Before the fireworks, be careful what you drink

The Fourth of July was a big celebration during my childhood. My siblings and I proudly wore our new red, white and blue outfits while family and neighbors gathered for cookouts. Children ran around the park or lake until dark….

When ‘everyone is welcome’ comes with fine print

After my lifelong connection with evangelical faith, midlife has unearthed surprise skepticism about what once was sacred ground. Unexpected questions crowd my thoughts about church and what it means. This includes questioning the fine print beneath the slogans I once…

The realists’ war and a call for strategic restraint

My mother was a medical student in Kabul when the realists came. They came first as Soviet advisers, then as mujahideen commanders, then as American strategists playing the long game against Moscow. Each faction arrived certain it understood the situation…

Why homophobia is really about women

Alex and I are treated differently. That’s not a complaint, and it isn’t something either of us spends much time dwelling on, (I’m not sure he’s even noticed) but it’s simply true. We’re both gay men. We’re now married to…

The contemptible case of Clarence Thomas

To understand the judicial legacy of Clarence Thomas is to examine a decades-long exercise in institutional alienation. His trajectory on the Supreme Court cannot be viewed merely through the lens of conservative legal theory; rather, it is defined by a…

The transmogrification of the SBC: When Baptists no longer are Baptist

As the Southern Baptist Convention in its recent annual meeting has proved itself unreliably Baptist, it gives me pause to think about how quickly the transmogrification of this Baptist denomination into its ecclesiastical opposite has happened. Baptist folk often have…

The permanent paradoxes of Christian thinking about war

The morality of warfare has been in the news recently. This occurs every so often, usually when the United States launches a dubious military action (like the one against Iran) and someone in the administration (like JD Vance) claims the support…

In conversation with Scott Cairns

Scott Cairns is a poet and writer who is the Curators Distinguished Professor of English emeritus at the University of Missouri. He is the author of poetry collections such as Slow Pilgrim, and of the spiritual autobiography Short Trip to…

As Owens spins conspiracies, Kirk’s alleged killer gets day in court

As the case against Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin goes public next week in an evidentiary trial in Utah, the cottage industry of conspiracy theories about Kirk’s death has accelerated. The official story — not yet adjudicated in court — is…

First they came for the Mormons

These days, you’d think we wouldn’t be shocked by a new weekly, daily or hourly religio-political-cultural-rightward-revisionism in the land of the free and the home of Project 2025. But “adjusting” to such practices seems abidingly stressful and/or depressing to many…

How much is enough?

Robert Sloan, Baptist educator, dies at 77

What patriotism is not

Amid flurry of rulings, habeas corpus spells trouble for Trump immigration policies