Baptist News Global

Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Tia Levings

Tia Levings was deeply embedded in a Christian fundamentalist movement that sanctioned her abuse and complete control by her husband. As she describes in her new memoir, A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy, she fled that tradition to…

What if you decided to love your child before you knew they were gay?

Dear parent, I’m writing today with a tough ask. I’m asking you not only to give a loving reception if your child “comes out” as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer. I’m asking you to imagine that day even if…

Analysis: What to expect from The Widening of God’s Mercy

It’s not every day a Christian leader has courage to change his mind on a theological position that risks reputation and social acceptance. But that is what New Testament scholar Richard Hays has done in a new book, written with…

New reports connect dots between demographic change and ‘strange political ideas’

Do you find yourself wondering why so many strange political ideas that have little public appeal are coming forth? Normally, politicians stay away from unpopular proposals. For what reasons are these ideas surfacing now? Here are examples: Mass deportation of…

Christian attorney Jenna Ellis aiding Arizona election case against Giuliani

Jenna Ellis, the Christian attorney who joined former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, agreed Aug. 5 to cooperate with Arizona’s attorney general. She pledged to “completely and truthfully” testify against her former partner, Rudy Giuliani. Ellis,…

A bad leader has corrupted the Republican Party and churches that identify with it

From a leadership studies point of view, political parties, even when healthy, aren’t ordinary organizations. They become notoriously dysfunctional when they are unhealthy. Similarly, churches aren’t ordinary organizations. When they follow the patterns of leadership modeled and demonstrated by Jesus,…

Baylor expands capacity of non-Baptist regents; joins Baptist World Alliance

In a move that reflects the increasing diversity of its student body, Baylor University has changed its bylaws to allow more non-Baptists to sit on the world’s largest Baptist University’s board of regents. Baylor President Linda Livingstone and regents Chair…

‘Theological revolution’ needed to bring liberation to jails and prisons, PNBC panel says

Viewing jail and prison inmates as more than souls to be saved requires the church to apply a social-justice lens to its theological understanding of incarceration and the incarcerated, insisted Jacqueline Thompson, second vice president of the Progressive National Baptist…

We can no longer ignore the toxic forms of ‘evangelism’

Recently, I wrote an analysis about some of the shadow funders behind Project 2025. As part of that article, I pointed out how the form of evangelism embraced by many evangelicals is “dominating, colonialist and culturally offensive” and therefore “morally…

We ‘Jezebels’ can wield power with righteous authority

Until this week, I didn’t know I had something in common with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for U.S. president. In our time, we’ve both been labeled Jezebel. “Jezebel” has been the name for so many women whom…

Attending church — even liberal ones — makes Americans more conservative, Ryan Burge shows

Regular attendance at church — almost any church, even the liberal ones — makes people more conservative, Ryan Burge, an analyst of religion and politics, reported. In a recent post on his Substack column, “Graphs About Religion,” Burge demonstrated the…

Our most basic freedom — deciding one’s own religion

My most recent column was on Christian nationalism and the threat that movement poses to religious freedom. Some would say that is our most basic freedom — to make our own way through the thicket of religions that clamor for…

Theologizing with Larkin Poe, 10 years after Reskinned

Ministry leader with tall tales wins GOP bid for Colorado governor

What Willy Rice once knew

What I learned July 5 at church