Baptist News Global

Panel of four male pastors clears Johnny Hunt to return to ministry

Six months after publicly admitting sexual misconduct, Southern Baptist pastor and denominational leader Johnny Hunt has been cleared to return to ministry by a group of four male pastors who have been counseling him. Of the 70-year-old Hunt, one of…

Why was the Sills lawsuit filed in Alabama?

Amid the nationwide interest generated by the recent lawsuit brought by David and Mary Sills against the Southern Baptist Convention and 11 other defendants, some observers have raised a particular question: Why was this suit filed in Alabama, when none…

Ministry jobs and more

Baptist News Global provides a free listing of ministry-related jobs for Baptist churches, theological institutions and organizations across the United States. Each free posting is for 30 days and is limited to 150 words. Postings may be extended another 30…

Life moves in circles, especially in troubled times

History is full of circles, many understood but many more beyond understanding. Often circles are more than simple shapes. Instead, they are experienced as sacred circles by indigenous communities. Sacred circles are based on an aboriginal approach to healing, as…

The nondenominationalizing of American Christianity

Joel Osteen is an ecclesiastical phenomenon, an American, evangelical, charismatic, postmodern, megachurch, media savvy, health/wealth/motivational speaker, gospel-preacher phenomenon. A 59-year-old who doesn’t look it, Osteen seems made for the media — razor thin, self-effacing, pragmatic and guileless to a fault,…

There’s a Baptist thread to the Auburn football coach hiring story

It’s not every day that a college football scandal includes a Baptist thread, but such is indeed the case with Auburn University’s controversial hiring of Hugh Freeze as head football coach. Freeze has coached the last four seasons at Liberty…

What to do with the nones?

Ryan Burge is rather convincing. As an academic (Eastern Illinois University) social scientist and American Baptist pastor, he has a foot in two of the worlds many of us occupy. He was our guest recently for a day of conversation…

Sills lawsuit misrepresents a piece of evidence, and that error got highlighted by Ascol and Basham

After Baptist News Global broke the news that former seminary professor David Sills and his wife, Mary, filed a defamation lawsuit against the Southern Baptist Convention and 11 other defendants, three high-profile Southern Baptists took to Twitter to highlight one…

Michael Gerson: Voice of hope in an age of darkness

“The whole Christmas story is pregnant with enigma and violated expectations. The Creator pulls on a garment of blood and bone. Almighty God is somehow present in a fragile newborn. The deliverer of mankind is delivered, slimy with vernix, in…

One of evangelicals’ most notorious anti-LGBTQ leaders sent chaplains to ‘comfort’ the traumatized after mass murder in gay nightclub

Franklin Graham is one of the best-known evangelical crusaders against the LGBTQ community, so Colorado Springs residents might have been surprised to see him send chaplains to offer “emotional and spiritual support” there after a gunman murdered five people in…

Fisk Jubilee Singers and Jeffery Ames featured at Polyphony conference

The Fisk Jubilee Singers will be a featured choir at the upcoming Polyphony annual conference in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 3-5. Polyphony is a nonprofit ministry that aims to nurture church musicians in their ministry and in their wellbeing, so they…

‘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