Baptist News Global

Four years ago, a Samford study group recommended more conversation on sexuality — and got ignored

A Samford University administrator’s claim that nothing has changed in the university’s approach to excluding churches and ministries that affirm same-sex marriage is infuriating to an alumnus and former staff member who spent a year working on plans for greater…

Transitions for the week of 9-23-22

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated bi-weekly. STAFF CHANGES Faria Armstrong, to First Baptist Church, Burlington, N.C., as associate pastor to youth and families. Paul Bass, to…

It’s time to stop using the Bible as a sacred weapon to oppress LGBTQ people

For the last 76 years, evangelicals have been using the Bible as a sacred weapon to oppress LGBTQ people. While many people are under the impression that the word “homosexuality” has “always been in the Bible,” the reality is that…

A Gen-Xer reflects on the progressive-conservative divorce in the former Southern Baptist Convention

I grew up in a family that worshipped the trinity: God, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Dallas Cowboys. I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, while my father was a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. By the time…

Keep your Bible where it belongs

When I took my first Bible class in college, I was required to memorize the books of the Bible. A lot of people in my class found that exercise of writing out the books of the Bible from memory in…

The truth won’t make you comfortable, Cosby says in tribute to Claypool

Americans cannot simply continue to enjoy the Civil Rights achievements of the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer and John Lewis without taking up the cause of racial justice themselves, Simmons College of…

Remembering Professor Claypool

This past weekend, Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., hosted “Glad Reunion: Celebrating the Ministry and Legacy of John R. Claypool.” Claypool had famously served the church as pastor throughout the turbulent 1960s and became a renowned pulpiteer in…

Black pastor arrested in Alabama for watering neighbors’ flowers sues city

A pastor watering his neighbor’s flowers wouldn’t normally make national news, but in Childersburg, Ala., such an act of generosity resulted in an arrest and a story on National Public Radio. The story later made The New York Times. Michael…

Abortion ‘abolitionists’ produce documentary accusing the SBC of heresy for not making criminals of women seeking abortions

They’re called “abortion abolitionists,” and their movement is so extreme that it has been rejected by mainstream pro-life groups and the ethics agency of the Southern Baptist Convention. But some pastors at the most far-right edge of the SBC are…

Reflections from London on the queen’s life and death

The queen is dead. Long live the king. From my earliest childhood memories during World War II, Elizabeth has been a constant in my life — a changeless symbol of stability during unstable times. By an accident of timing, I…

Samford students organize silent protest over LGBTQ discrimination

About 140 students, alumni and local clergy protested silently during the weekly convocation at Samford University Tuesday, Sept. 20. The group stood outside the university’s Wright Center — some bearing posters — to protest the administration’s recent decision to exclude…

Who is my neighbor? Reflecting theologically on the migrant crisis

“Who is my neighbor?” The expert of the law, the one whose job it was to study Scriptures, asked Jesus this question in Luke 10. Of course, the expert probably knew the answer. He knew the original languages and pored…

‘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