As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, our latest report, “Competing Visions of America at 250: Politics, Religion, and Identity,” surfaces a troubling signal for the future of our democracy — and it centers on the nation’s youngest citizens. Generation...
In May 2020, I visited 155 households in my church. And dropped off thousands of homemade cookies. I had (some) help and (many) cups of flour to get the job done. And while I enjoy baking, even I hit my…
Amid the continually shifting sands of American theological education, a Baptist House of Studies at a Methodist seminary has received a $2.7 million grant from a Baptist-oriented foundation. The John and Eula Mae Baugh Foundation awarded the three-year grant to…
It is becoming clearer by the day that we are living at a turn of the age, as one era ends and another is beginning — religiously, socially, politically and globally. The words of the Irish poet W.B. Yeats in…
As soon as “Russia” and “war” are mentioned in the same sentence, all the premillennial, rapture, tribulation, Armageddon believers are on high alert. The Rapture Index (yes, there is such a thing) is at 186. The all-time high for the…
The Ukrainian Baptist Union has evacuated its headquarters in Kyiv as Russian artillery and airstrikes continue to pound the capital city and as Baptist groups in neighboring countries scramble to accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees escaping the violence, according…
For weeks the world has been holding its breath as the simmering tensions between Russia and Ukraine reached a boiling point. When Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the pot boiled over. Already we have seen via global news…
In a move breaking with decades of Southern Baptist Convention tradition, SBC President Ed Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in Mobile, Ala., announced in a video statement March 1 that he does not intend to seek a second term as…
Black History Month has just drawn to a close on the American civic calendar, and Lent is set to begin on the Christian liturgical calendar. Most years, these two observances partially overlap. Easter has to fall after April 15 for…
If there’s intelligent life out there, it probably already has destroyed itself or is well on its way to doing so, as is our species on our own little planet. At least, that’s what a number of scientists who do…
I started getting calls and emails a few months ago from a couple of development companies that were introducing new plans down the street. Their reps were looking for some combination of buy-in, or solidarity, or absolution, all of which…
The U.S. Navy in Hawaii faces stiff opposition from faith communities, environmentalists and state and federal legislators seeking the closure of subterranean fuel tanks that contaminated the water supply of nearly 100,000 military and civilian residents on Oahu late last…
Despite decades of Congressional stalemate and avoidance of passing meaningful immigration reform, Americans overwhelmingly support immigration reform happening right now — and especially before the November midterms. The urgency is felt not only by Democrats but also by majorities of…
