Baptist News Global

Q&A with Baptist World Alliance president-elect John Upton

EDE, Netherlands (ABP) — Members of the Baptist World Alliance General Council affirmed John Upton as the organization’s presidential nominee July 31. Assuming he is elected by the group’s quinquennial Baptist World Congress meeting next year in Honolulu, Upton will…

Virginia Baptists’ John Upton nominated as BWA president

EDE, Netherlands — John Upton, executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, has been nominated as president of the Baptist World Alliance. If elected at the BWA’s world congress in 2010, Upton will begin a five-year term to…

Baptists celebrate 400th anniversary near site of movement’s origin

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Baptists from around the world recalled the birth of their movement 400 years ago during a July 30 worship service held a few blocks from the site of what is generally recognized as the first Baptist congregation….

Church-state groups concerned about nominated Army secretary

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Organizations that advocate the separation of church and state say they are concerned about President Obama's pick as Secretary of the Army. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said July 30…

Interfaith Alliance head calls for new ground rules in marriage debate

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The head of the Interfaith Alliance has called for a new national discussion about marriage not as a religious institution but a civil right. Welton Gaddy Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance and an ordained Baptist…

Jamaican slave revolt has lessons for all, scholar says

EDE, Netherlands (ABP) — The story of an African-Caribbean Baptist slave's 19th-century revolt holds theologically liberating implications for all Christians, an international Baptist scholar said July 29. Presenting a paper as part of the Baptist World Alliance Annual Gathering in…

Scholar says Baptists neglect lessons from Virgin Mary

CLARIFICATION: This story has been reissued with a replacement paragraph 13. The original story summarized a point in the paper that did not accurately convey the author's intent. EDE, Netherlands (ABP) — A Latina theologian says overreaction to Catholic veneration…

Tanzanian women reap what they sew

By Suzanah D. Raffield I’ve just returned from Tanzania and four weeks with a maternal health women’s sewing cooperative. My time there was remarkable. Joy and sadness seemed exaggerated by the lives and needs of those around me. As a…

Uzbekistan charges Baptist camp with crimes

TASHKENT CITY, Uzbekistan (ABP) — Authorities in Uzbekistan cracked down on Baptists after a government-sponsored news agency ran articles alleging illegal religious activity at a summer camp for children. Forum 18, a Norway-based news service that monitors alleged violations of…

Metaxas calls Bonhoeffer’s relatives ‘Jew-hating lunatics’

North Carolina pastor abruptly forced out of prominent pulpit

Responding to the militarization of immigration policy

Meddling with Methodism and domesticating the Baptists