Baptist News Global

With refugee numbers rising worldwide, racism remains a factor in where they’re accepted and how quickly

In its message marking this year’s World Refugee Day June 20, the United Nations came up with a three-word catch phrase it believes should define how refugees are treated globally: “Whoever. Wherever. Whenever.” The subtheme is: “Everyone has the right…

Summer state and regional meetings give a preview of how the split is going in the United Methodist Church

Summer is known as “annual conference season” for United Methodists in the United States and Europe. It’s a time when the regional units that form the basic structure of the global denomination come together to make decisions for their future….

Churches must learn to adapt to ‘permanent transition,’ Leonard stresses

Churches must tap into the core of their identity, as well as their calling to ministry, commitment to education and religious experience if they are to survive “permanent transition,” church historian Bill Leonard told participants at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s…

While the SBC shuns women as preachers, CBF celebrates a new generation of women as preachers

Testimony is the cure for the despair that afflicts people and churches after two years of pandemic and politics have tried American religion by fire, Courtney Stamey told participants in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship June 29. While the Southern Baptist…

Transitions for the week of 7-1-22

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated bi-weekly. STAFF CHANGES Neal Abbott, to Dellview Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas, as interim bi-vocational pastor. Jonathan Balmer and Kendall Ellis,…

‘Our Father’: A quiverfull of racism and anti-reproductive rights

“Quiverfull” is a word I recently learned via the vast educational network of Netflix. “Quiverfull” is a Christian theological position concerning mass reproduction, meaning how many children a man can create. Please hear me. I mean no offense to any…

For now, David Platt has won the battle against internal critics at McLean Bible Church

A lawsuit has been dismissed against McLean Bible Church in suburban Washington, D.C., after apparent resolution of a battle between church leaders and internal critics who believed the conservative evangelical church was becoming too “woke.” The dispute came to a…

The consent of mothers

We are all called to be mothers of God — for God is always waiting to be born. — Meister Eckart, 13 c. German mystic In the wake of the news that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v….

Jesus calls women to ministry by name and asks them to rise up, Stewart says in fiery BWIM sermon

Like the crippled woman in Luke 13, female clergy know what it means to be paralyzed by sexism, patriarchy and other forms of emotional and psychological abuse, Gina Stewart preached during Baptist Women in Ministry’s June 28 worship celebration in…

Welcome to Gilead

The red-robed memes started immediately after Friday’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and jumpstarting abortion bans across the country. When I first read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale back in 1985, I certainly could believe some people wanted…

Dear closeted queer one, Pride is for you

Dear Closeted Queer One: Yes, Pride is for you. I know you look on from a distance — perhaps through the stained-glass of your church window, or from the table of your un-affirming family, or the office where you could…

Daniel Vestal writes of the changing chapters of life and faith

The Daniel Vestal attending this week’s Cooperative Baptist Fellowship gathering in Dallas is in some ways a very different Christian than he was the first — or even most recent — time he attended a general assembly. That’s because the…

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