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...
“Wicked looks at what happened in the land of Oz — but from a different angle,” the most popular show on Broadway advertises. “So much happened before Dorothy dropped in.” As we shuffled out of the theater at the end of…
It’s back to school time and, in the latest effort of book banning, new state legislation will restrict literature allowed in Texas schools based on a vague rating system about sexual content. House Bill 900, which goes into effect Sept….
These days, it appears Baptist churches and individuals across the theological spectrum are, for a variety of reasons, calling the very name “Baptist” into question. Truth is, that particular Protestant movement was called into question long before the name “Baptist”…
A new anti-racism program will pair some of the nation’s leading experts and curriculum on white supremacy with white congregations seeking to uncover and confront their own histories related to discrimination and race. “In Deed and Truth: Interrogating Legacies of…
Recently, I read about a major leader in a large evangelical denomination who had paid for and plagiarized many of his sermons. I also read the tragic tale of another very respected evangelical “apologist” who claimed to have studied at…
The interim president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee — recently considered a likely candidate for the permanent post — resigned abruptly Aug. 17. A statement from the chairman of Executive Committee trustees said McLaurin had falsified information on…
Recently a pair of mourning doves chose a high shelf on the front of our home to build their nest. They flew back and forth for days, twigs in their beaks, cooing excitedly. When the delicate construction was complete, it…
He was tall, dark and handsome. As his ebony skin glistened in the sunlight, he looked like a Nigerian king. John Lawale was introduced to Jesus by the preaching of Josephine Scaggs, a Southern Baptist missionary from Sapulpa, Okla. She…
Refugee advocates are pulling out the stops to pressure Congress and the White House to pass legislation granting permanent legal status to more than 70,000 war-ravaged Afghans evacuated to the U.S. in 2021. Proponents of the Afghan Adjustment Act used…
Note: This article includes graphic descriptions of suicide. In my life, she wasn’t a person. She was an event. My mother’s mother ended her own life with a shotgun blow to the head. It’s a conversation stopper if there ever…
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated bi-weekly. STAFF CHANGES Bob Baker, to Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, Huntington, W.Va., as interim pastor. Julia Butler, to First Baptist Church,…
Unless challenged, one judge’s ruling could have profound implications for Baptist autonomy, according to Will McRaney, whose defamation suit against the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board was dismissed Aug. 15. “The judge’s ruling is built around the erroneous…
