Baptist News Global

Letter to the Editor: Dear SBC leaders, lead us to unity in diverse views on women in ministry

Letter to the Editor Nov. 7, 2022 Dear Editor: Right now, an amazing opportunity lies before the Southern Baptist Convention. We all know the polarization in our country is at an all-time high, which gives us the opportunity to show…

Seeing mortality as blessing

Memories have become capricious things as I approach my seventh decade on Planet Earth. Conversations I could swear happened just a few days ago actually stretch back 20 years or more, yet there are days when I can’t remember whether…

Former RNC head calls new DeSantis ad ‘ass-backwards blasphemy’

A new video ad released by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is “some of the most ass-backwards blasphemy I’ve ever heard in my life, and one of the dumbest political ads you could ever make,” a seminary educated former head of…

A heavenly reunion: Imagining my two mothers meeting at a Formica dinette on a cloud

Editor’s note: Lawanna McIver Fields died at her home in Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 5. She was well known in Baptist circles for a number of reasons, among them her role as a lay leader at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas…

Despite faculty vote of ‘no confidence’ in president, Hardin-Simmons trustees express ‘great confidence’

In response to a 76% faculty vote of no confidence — the second of its kind — in President Eric Bruntmyer, the trustee chairman of Hardin-Simmons University has assured students all is well. In an email addressed to “dear students”…

Christian nationalism is on the ballot this week

As a Baptist minister, I’m frightened about the midterm elections. But not for the reasons some would think. I’m frightened because, across the nation, I’m seeing an upswell of fellow believers distorting the meaning of our faith into a license…

Five suggestions on how to be a Christian citizen when voting

The election to choose who would succeed George Washington as president, held in 1796, was a bitter contest marked by meanness, vindictiveness, insults and lies. Vice President John Adams eventually would defeat Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, his opponent, but…

Next up: Abortion rights cases based on religious liberty claims

Expect a proliferation of religious liberty cases for abortion access as the issue of reproductive rights moves to the states, predicts Holly Hollman, general counsel and associate executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. While legal claims that…

When being a ‘blessing’ comes with some baggage

This is the fourth in a November series produced by BNG on what it means to be “blessed,” a word so flippantly used that it often loses meaning. For those of us who grew up evangelical, the term “blessing” comes…

‘Let the messengers decide,’ two SBC leaders say of debate about expelling churches with female pastors

Determining whether to exclude churches with women serving in any way as pastors should be determined by messengers to next summer’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, according to the two men with the most influence over that process. SBC President…

What I’m learning about Christian nationalism

Christian nationalism is gaining ground among Republicans, they say — and I’m not sure who “they” is, but it could be somebody who knows what they’re talking about. I am trying to learn about all this because it has to…

Original blessing, the #blessed hashtag, and what it really means to be blessed

This is the third in a November series produced by BNG on what it means to be “blessed,” a word so flippantly used that it often loses meaning. One morning nine years ago while driving my children to school (and…

Supreme Court slides into partisanship

Before the fireworks, be careful what you drink

The contemptible case of Clarence Thomas

The permanent paradoxes of Christian thinking about war