Baptist News Global

As inflation hits, Africa’s largest indigenous church clings to a tea obsession

Global food inflation has not spared South Africa, but amidst the high prices, millions in Africa’s biggest indigenous church cling to a tea ritual obsession despite rising prices of ingredients. “It’s the tea of faith; a sip kicks off bad…

Why you should be wary of preachers who are certain about everything

The minister of my Southern Baptist childhood church was a study in contradictions. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of my alma mater, Wake Forest University, he was an evangelical conservative; however, before my meeting with the ordination council of the…

If your pastor hasn’t had a pay increase in several years, now is the time to make it right

On multiple occasions in the last few weeks, I’ve had conversations with pastor friends who have said in passing, “I’ve not had a salary increase since I got here.” These pastor friends are not bitter, and they weren’t complaining. They…

Meeting White House goal of ending U.S. hunger by 2030 will require engagement by churches, Everett says

Government, industry and nonprofit groups must be dedicated to working together to accomplish President Joe Biden’s vision of eradicating hunger by 2030, said Jeremy Everett, executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. “No one sector can end…

How Michael W. Smith, George W. Bush and one popular worship song expose the problem of Calvinist theology and politics

There is a reason why one of the most influential worship songs of the past quarter century expresses a truth that could turn evangelicalism upside down and yet has been repeatedly rejected and banned by conservative evangelical complementarian Calvinists. Growing…

The unsolvable political problem facing those who lead purple churches

The United States is bitterly divided along what we now call red/blue, conservative/liberal, Republican/Democrat lines. Of course, not everyone fits into those boxes, but enough do for the statement to be accurate. The mutual suspicion and social separation between the…

Letter to the Editor: ‘60 Minutes’ and the questions not asked

Letter to the Editor October 10, 2022 Dear Editor: Anderson Cooper’s “60 Minutes” interview of Bart Barber began on a hopeful note. Asked if he believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen, the Southern Baptist Convention president answered: “No.” Asked…

Four reasons saying grace is important

As we enter October, the holiday season is coming up quickly. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Most of these holidays entail some sort of celebration that involves food. Even if you are not celebrating a specific holiday, this is the time of…

It’s not your imagination: Polling data confirm conservatives’ flip on morality in candidates, and Herschel Walker is Exhibit B

That conservative evangelicals appear to be turning a blind eye to Herschel Walker’s documented moral failures illustrates the flip-flop on valuing moral behavior found within the Republican Party over the past 20 years, according to research by journalist Aaron Blake…

‘These are not your people’

Meeting up with good friends recently, we all hugged and chatted about changes in our lives during the tumultuous pandemic. Everyone, of course, contributed with updates. At one point, I shared that a decision we made didn’t seem to be…

Burnettes’ Florida food-growing ministry badly damaged by Hurricane Ian

Cooperative Baptist field personnel Rick Burnette and his wife, Ellen, have been worn thin since Hurricane Ian wiped out Cultivate Abundance, the food-growing ministry they operate for migrant farmworkers in Southwest Florida. The couple has been working to address significant…

Why can’t churches get handling abuse right?

Yet another evangelical megachurch is repenting for mishandling clergy sex abuse. Every few days, it seems, we’re hearing about a different instance of a pastor or church leader who has abused women and/or children and a church (or denomination) that…

Matthew Vines sets off a debate over what it means to be ‘queer’

Dear Mike Johnson, be careful what you ask for

What, to the white Christian, is America 250?

Four years later, anti-abortionists battle on other fronts