Baptist News Global

Transitions for the week of 5-26-23

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated bi-weekly. STAFF CHANGES Natalie Aho, to Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, as director of development, effective June 5. She comes…

8-year-old’s death in CBP custody highlights Biden’s ‘system of death,’ immigration advocates say

Some immigrant rights advocates are calling the Biden administration’s border and asylum policies “a system of death” after an 8-year-old migrant girl died May 17 while in American custody at the U.S.-Mexico border. That was the label Hope Border Institute…

Why ‘affirming’ churches need to speak up

Many years ago, when my church went through the United Church of Christ’s Open and Affirming process to declare ourselves welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ people, someone in the congregation asked why we needed to make a public declaration. Of…

Evangelical worldview ministries seek to promote ‘proper’ thoughts, beliefs and actions

What’s your worldview? How do you understand the world and how it works? In the 1960s and ’70s, theologian Francis Schaeffer taught evangelicals that everyone has a worldview, whether we know it or not. In his wake, dozens of ministries…

Five things Southern Baptists should do now to address clergy sex abuse

Seventeen years ago, the two of us wrote to Southern Baptist Convention officials, urging creation of a denominational database of pastors criminally convicted or credibly accused of sexual abuse. “Moral obligation demands it,” we said. That moral obligation still stands…

Why we must be cautious about understanding what’s going on at Southwestern Seminary

Other news outlets are likely to publish accounts today about dissension among trustees at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and allegations of impropriety related to real estate deals. We’re not publishing such a story today for two simple reasons: We don’t…

Here’s another angle to corporate DEI work: Increased support for ‘faith friendly’ workplaces

U.S. Fortune 500 companies ranked as the most “faith friendly” in a newly released survey share practices such as providing chaplains and spiritual care in the workplace, openly addressing religion in company diversity training and matching worker contributions to religious…

On graduation and the priesthood of all believers

Each year on the first Sunday of May, University Baptist Church of Charlottesville, Va., honors our graduates and reads a litany of blessing as we commission them “to tend to the world and help set it right once again.” As…

Here’s how to force SBC entities to be accountable to people in the pew about their finances

Within the past week, Baptist News Global has run two news analysis pieces about Southern Baptist Convention agencies and leaders who are not telling people in the pew the full story of their financial situations. There are policies in place…

These are some of the best pastors I know

Upon three different walls, I’ve hung my grandfather’s long gun. It first rested above a purple-painted fireplace in our home in North Carolina. When we moved to Vermont, it found a new residency in the parsonage’s dining room. Now in…

Amid Sudan war and elsewhere, water scarcity threatens lives

Within just a few days of the recent outbreak of war in Sudan an essential resource, water, became a scarce commodity. The scarcity continues to this day in parts of the North African country, making life a living hell for…

I asked 46 college students if they feel shame after having sex, and this is what they said

Gen Z is a post-Purity Movement generation, having barely escaped the doling out of purity rings. However, exemplified by the popularity of “Virginity Rocks” T-shirts and regalia, this does not mean sentiments of purity culture never impacted our cohort of…

‘Be careful of Scripture heavy in law but light on grace,’ Wesley warns

‘Show up and do something,’ ACLU leader urges

From the South Side to the South Lawn and back again

Democracy as a moral practice, not just a system