Baptist News Global

Our Trespasses explores Urban Renewal and church history

Against all odds, Abram and Annie North rose up from slavery to own a home in Charlotte, N.C., that stabilized their family for generations. After Urban Renewal forced their descendants off their property, the most prominent church in town bought…

Can you hear him now?

Throughout most of the 2000s, Americans grew accustomed to an ever-present ad campaign with the tagline, “Can you hear me now?” Actor-pitchman Paul Marcarelli showed up all over the place, boasting of the reach of Verizon Wireless service where other…

Searching for Grace: Worst-kept secret

This is the third of a five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ. Previously, Paul made the difficult but necessary decision to leave the Southern Baptist Convention and…

Nex Benedict death ruled suicide, setting off a new round of suspicions and denials

Nex Benedict died by suicide a day after a fight with bullies at their high school, according to a medical examiner’s report released March 13. The 16-year-old nonbinary student’s death has drawn international headlines for a month now, cited by…

CBF North Carolina marks 30 years of cooperation with emphasis on ‘fellowship’

Thirty years ago, a group of North Carolina Baptists gathered to figure out a new way of working together as they were feeling less and less comfortable in their longstanding home, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Their historic…

‘None shall pass’

“I have no quarrel with you, good Sir Knight,” says King Arthur, “but I must cross this bridge.” “None shall pass!” declares the Black Knight. “I move for no man!” So one of the most farcical fight scenes in cinema…

U.S. delegation of Christians returns from Gaza with urgent appeal

“Gaza has become a killing field,” according to a delegation of 23 American Christians, pastors and laypeople just returned from a fact-finding mission to the region. “Israel’s response against the Palestinian people is disproportionate by orders of magnitude. The atrocities…

PRRI finds small declines in Americans’ support for LGBTQ rights, although a majority still affirm

Americans of faith contributed to a small decline in overall support for LGBTQ rights in 2023, even as most U.S. adults continued to oppose discriminatory policies and practices aimed at gender and sexual minorities, according to a new study by…

The Catholic Court

Evangelicals have gotten all the attention, but it is the Catholics that are reshaping American life. By Catholics, I mean the six Roman Catholics that comprise the conservative super-majority on the United States Supreme Court: John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel…

If 2023 was the Year of the Doll, so far 2024 is the year of trying to rip off the doll’s head

Toward the end of last year the phrase “Year of the Doll” became popular officially through a New Yorker podcast and unofficially on many social media platforms as people noticed the massive cultural effect from the Barbie movie and Taylor…

Marjorie Taylor Greene and the toxic trope of the rapist-murderer-racial other

The murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the campus of the University of Georgia Feb. 22 has drawn national media interest and political activity. Right-wing movers and shakers have especially been galvanized by this one murder. I think I…

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