Baptist News Global

Untold numbers of churches have unclaimed funds sitting in state treasuries

Hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions, due to churches across the land are sitting in unclaimed property accounts with government agencies. It’s all part of the millions upon millions of dollars in cash that belongs to individuals, companies, nonprofits…

Sometimes it’s not a good idea to quote the Bible

Just because you’re quoting the Bible doesn’t mean you’re not embracing racism. That’s a lesson Coach Mark Adams of Texas Tech University learned the hard way last week. While the comments that got him fired were discouraging and inappropriate, what’s…

Shelter from the storm: The Asbury revival as Woodstock 2.0

The Baptist church of my youth didn’t have a revival until we called a Southern Baptist pastor from Texas. Then we had a revival whether we liked it or not. I walked the aisle on the final night. At 20…

Secular students feel isolated by Christian rhetoric, study shows

“And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” But do they? Well, it depends on who “they” are. With the hymn “They’ll Know We Are Christians by…

Lessons from a Hindu wedding: What if the point of evangelism is friendship?

I just got back from my third trip to Tamil Nadu, India. My academic program has a decade-long collaboration with two schools there, and their faculty have traveled to Oregon three times for shared projects. Over the years, I’ve built…

Griffen and Ravitch warn Floridians of dangers of DeSantis’ attack on public education

Baptist minister and retired Arkansas judge Wendell Griffen stood before an audience of faith leaders and education advocates in Tallahassee, Fla., March 9, pointed to his lapel and dared Gov. Ron DeSantis to have him apprehended for being politically and…

Paved A Way: Why we need to relearn the history of infrastructure

“You rarely change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” —Buckminster Fuller Learning to tie your shoes in a new knot is really difficult. We spend years learning…

Concern for the poor should encompass many forms of deprivation, scholar says at BSK

Christians are called to demonstrate a “preferential option for the poor,” and that means addressing the multiple types of marginalization that afflict people, according to theologian and missiologist Amos Yong. “Poor is not just economically poor,” said Yong, a dean…

Why it’s so hard to leave The United Methodist Church

Observers both inside and outside The United Methodist Church these days puzzle over a question: Why is it so hard for local churches to take their property with them if they leave the 12-million-member worldwide denomination? A March 4 special…

Foundation grant will expand prenatal vitamin ministry from Texas to Georgia

A Texas-based nonprofit that provides vitamins to expectant mothers is expanding into Georgia thanks to a grant from a Baptist health care ministry. The Vitamin Bridge recently announced it plans to serve 10,000 low-income pregnant women in 2023 through a…

The one thing that unites the world’s religions

The world’s religions intrigue me. This fascination is a benefit of my having lived on the island of Java for a quarter century, immersed in a culture enriched by religious pluralism. My appreciation for religious difference also is tied to…

Why Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church clash is a danger sign for the war-weary nation

Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christian Church is locked in a bitter feud with the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the former Nobel Prize winner turned war-man. The church claims state interference in its affairs. It threatens mass defiance, and thus a…

Rubio says US shouldn’t be held accountable by international court

Demands mount as Trump’s ICE agents kill two more people

The real American religion: A July 4 postmortem

9 months later, schools are paying for firing teachers over Kirk posts