Baptist News Global

Capital punishment continues America’s history of lynching, panelists say

Capital punishment in the United States continues a system of lynchings used to terrorize and subjugate Black people in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a panel of death penalty abolitionists said during a recent webinar. “The mistake people sometimes…

What did the crowds expect on Palm Sunday?

You may have heard someone, maybe a preacher, ask on Palm Sunday, “What did the crowds waving palm branches and laying coats on the ground expect?” And you may have heard a dozen different answers. What, in fact, did the…

How we make a difference: Bit by bit, day by day

Not to name names, but someone with my same initials who lives at my house decided having three yards of compost delivered yesterday was a good idea. Undoubtedly, my veggies, herbs and flowers will appreciate this black gold. Unfortunately, it…

Please be kind when you invite us to church on Easter

This is the week when church members eagerly invite family, friends and neighbors who rarely, if ever, attend church to attend Easter services. What may seem like an invitation to hope could be perceived as something else, though. Many non-churchgoers…

Of Lent, Beth Moore and the role of women in church leadership

Our Lenten journey begins with ashes, followed by 40 disciplined days of charitable giving, fasting and prayer, trekking through an interior wilderness, waiting on grace, hoping it leads us back to God. On the evening of Ash Wednesday, though, I…

Northern Seminary students are writing letters to trustees

Students at Northern Seminary have begun a letter-writing campaign to communicate with trustees about their displeasure with how the board has handled recent events, including an investigation of former President Bill Shiell. “As a doctoral student at Northern Seminary, I…

SBC abuse task force gives in to anti-gay critics of Guidepost Solutions

Anti-gay critics of a single tweet published last summer by Guidepost Solutions appear to have won their campaign with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force. The task force assigned with enacting a series of reforms approved by…

Judge throws out Jane Roe’s defamation case against Patterson and Southwestern Seminary

A former student’s defamation case against Paige Patterson and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was dismissed on summary judgment April 4. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan granted a petition to dismiss the final charges remaining against the seminary and its former…

Fundamentalism and politics are hampering SBC’s moral witness, Leonard says

The Southern Baptist Convention’s continued embrace of fundamentalism and conservative politics is undermining its ability to “moralize to American culture,” church historian Bill Leonard said during a lecture at Baylor University. “How did a once engaging gospel of grace, repentance,…

Liberty University names former Air Force chief of chaplains president

After its last president left amid scandal, Liberty University turned to the Pentagon for its next leader. Dondi E. Costin, outgoing president at Charleston Southern University and a retired U.S. Air Force major general who served as chief of chaplains…

Holy Week cannot be about personal salvation and nothing more

They entered the city on March 24. Many came by foot. Some of them from the mount, not of Olives but the various mountains and hills that surround Nashville, Tenn. They came with modern palm branches — protest signs. The…

United Methodists protest anti-trans bills in state legislatures out of faith convictions

Amid this spring’s wave of anti-transgender bills in state legislatures, United Methodists across the United States are actively advocating on behalf of transgender children and youth. For some of them like Debbie Mallis of Boise, Idaho, and Heather Gee-Thomas 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