Baptist News Global

Ukrainian Baptist churches seek to become centers of heat and hope

With winter bearing down, Baptists in war-torn Ukraine have a vision of becoming centers of heat and hope, according to leaders of the Ukrainian Baptist Union. Their message to the world was conveyed in a news release from the European…

SBC’s sexual abuse hotline raises ethical issue

Editor’s note: On Monday, Jan. 9, the SBC task force published a response to this opinion column. Callers to the Southern Baptist Convention’s sexual abuse hotline are often routed to a person who also serves the SBC’s abuse reform implementation…

Faith groups cautiously optimistic about Biden’s announcement on immigration

The United States will widen its use of rapid deportations under Title 42 for immigrants who enter the nation illegally while simultaneously streamlining the asylum and parole application processes to help reduce illegal crossings at the Southwest border, President Joe…

The costly victory of evangelicals and Catholics

Have evangelical leaders and Catholic bishops made a strategic blunder? When they decided the cultural war battlefield needed to be the Supreme Court, they engaged in a decades-long battle to have the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. In the…

Joni Eareckson Tada keeps the faith through a lifetime of ministry

At the age of 17, Joni Eareckson Tada made what would turn out to be a life-changing decision. She dived into shallow water in the Chesapeake Bay, which resulted in paralysis throughout most of her body. Six decades later, Tada…

The grace of wildness: Reflections on a new year

The church was full of birds; at least it was when I was there. In January 2005, for about a week, I went to mass at 5:00 every morning in the Catholic church across the street from the Mekong River…

Basic civil rights are under attack in the courts, Perryman warns

The U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022 demonstrates that LGBTQ equality and other basic civil rights are under threat by well-funded and highly coordinated political forces on the right, attorney and activist Skye Perryman said during…

Learning to tell time as a minister

Remember the 1960s song from the group Chicago, “Does Anyone Know What Time It Is?” This is an excellent question for a new year, especially as one does ministry. I retired as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Abilene,…

‘Amazing Grace’ is 250 years old this week

This week marked the 250th anniversary of the first time “Amazing Grace” was sung. What has become one of the world’s most-beloved Christian hymns debuted on New Year’s Day 1773 at the Anglican parish church in Olney, England. Its words…

Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian religious sites are war crimes

Putin’s war machine understands the power of faith and has deliberately sought to destroy Ukrainian churches. Both sides have relied upon Christian themes during the fighting — Putin to justify the unjustifiable and Zelensky to inspire the Ukrainian nation to stand firm in the…

Transitions for the week of 1-6-23

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated bi-weekly. STAFF CHANGES Eric Albright, to Southside Baptist Church, Decatur, Ala., as pastor. Gene Ashton Jr., to Fort Lee Baptist Church,…

The power of a book: Why I’m a street evangelist

“What does a street evangelist do?” In the years since I have self-proclaimed myself to be a street evangelist, that is what people want to know. The answer is simple: “I talk with people.” Now I’ve written a book that…

An American experiment: 250 years of trying

10 reasons America is not a ‘Christian nation’

American Dominion traces deep roots of Seven Mountain Mandate

Lindsey Graham and the history of ‘widow’s succession’