Baptist News Global

Have the fundamentalists won? And the future of liberal Christianity

One hundred years ago, May 21, 1922, Harry Emerson Fosdick preached his most famous sermon, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” He was at the time the preaching minister of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City. The Presbyterian denomination along…

How a seminary education causes a pastor to struggle with Comforting Lies versus Unpleasant Truths

Imagine going to medical school or law school and finding out once you graduate and enter your practice that you must forget at least 25% of what you learned or lose your job. Yeah, that is what it’s like for…

New study documents pliable influence of partisan media

Partisan media outlets like Fox News pose a hazard to democracy by denying their viewers’ access to information detrimental to conservative candidates and causes while amplifying misinformation about their opponents, according to a study into the role of selective content…

Our national golden calf is killing us

A recent draft Supreme Court opinion suggests that a majority of the justices on today’s court may be willing to overturn even long-settled precedent, at least when they think they are reversing the creation of a spurious constitutional right out…

When you’re tempted to forget about the latest school shooting, remember the embalmers

Note: This article includes a detailed description of burial preparation for children. I embalmed a baby, for the first time, when I was 18 years old. Another baby I did not embalm — I could not embalm — lay on…

Who’ll be there at the end of your prayer?

It was late in my adolescent chapter of the Fabulous Fifties, and I was a member of the youth group in my home church — the Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church in Meridian, Miss. Soon, the Sweetheart Banquet would be here…

After Uvalde, let us dream of impossible things

Tuesday night, May 24, 2022. Election night. I turn on the TV to watch the returns come in. The polls close in five minutes. Before I can even get comfortable in my easy chair, the “Breaking News” sign, the crawler…

Hannah Kate Williams refiles sexual abuse lawsuit against SBC entities

A large-scale lawsuit against the Southern Baptist Convention alleging a coverup of sexual abuse has been refiled by a new set of attorneys for Hannah Kate Williams. An earlier version of the same charges had been filed in a Kentucky…

Trump’s anti-immigration policies continue to cost U.S. economy $9 billion a year

Trump-era refugee and asylum policies continue to rob the U.S. economy of $9.1 billion annually and deny all levels of American government more than $2 billion per year, according to new academic research. The study by economist Michael A. Clemens…

It’s time for America to rid itself of Asian prejudice

As the pandemic subsides, I cannot help thinking about the tragedy and loss of lives. It is painful to think that during the pandemic, about 18.2 million people died worldwide, including about 1.13 million Americans. These are startling numbers, and…

Ryan Burge has some important things to say about white evangelicals, partisan politics and the future

If you’re interested in fascinating yet random facts and trends about American religion and culture, follow Ryan Burge (@ryanburge) on Twitter. Burge, who is an American Baptist pastor and a professor at Eastern Illinois University, loves to make graphs. And…

My husband and I created a database of clergy sex abusers; why couldn’t the SBC?

Many of us are struggling to come to terms with the news that the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention has covered up abuse, maligned survivors, and even kept a secret list of 700-plus sex offenders for years. In…

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