Baptist News Global

‘Spiritual vitality’ and willingness to change on the rise in U.S. congregations

After tracking a 20-year decline in American congregational vitality, researchers say they have documented a recent increase in the number of congregations that say they have resilience and are willing to embrace change and engage in their communities. And no,…

Old tricks: For America’s Black citizens, there is nothing new under the sun

Throughout American history, when Black people have been able to advance toward equal opportunity, the mainstream power structure has tended to change its own rules in an effort to reinforce its control. In the decade immediately following the abolition of…

Princeton Seminary removes name of slaveholding founder from its chapel

Princeton Theological Seminary announced Jan. 25 that it has changed the name on its campus chapel to avoid further association with a slaveholding professor. Samuel Miller was the second professor hired at the Presbyterian seminary. Born in 1769, he was…

Something wicked this way comes: Macbeth and darkness

Like any good English major, I eagerly await new adaptations of Shakespeare, especially if they involve great actors and directors. The Tragedy of Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in the title roles and directed by Joel Coen, certainly…

Sacramental pizza

For my first venture out of the house after surgery, Janice decided that, despite my mobility restrictions, we should go to Costco. So, she shopped while I stood in line, ordering lunch — Costco’s famous cheap hot dogs. By the…

Panel of faith leaders will raise awareness of death penalty injustice

A Christian organization active in the nation’s death penalty abolition movement has created a panel of faith leaders charged with addressing the systemic issues that give rise to capital punishment and rationalize its continued use. “This is not a board…

What I learned about ‘the poor’ by working in a soup kitchen

In 2011, while I was studying as a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, I applied to be the coordinator of a soup kitchen one night a week a few blocks from Queen’s Park. It was called the Gathering…

Most Americans are dissatisfied with current abortion laws, and the percentage who think they are too strict is growing

As the Supreme Court weighs one of the most significant abortion cases in a generation, new polling finds Americans are largely dissatisfied with the nation’s abortion laws — but not in the way you might expect. Americans’ satisfaction with U.S….

Let’s begin again: The birds, the bees and abortions

As a preacher, teacher and spiritual leader, I start to get the nervous armpit sweats at the mere thought of speaking on the topic of abortion among church folk. The dialogue always feels more like a Medieval witch trial that…

Was Adam and Eve’s ‘worldview’ the original sin?

Snowed in with my family over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, I stole a few moments away to read and reflect on racism in American society, how it persists even as its forms change, and ways to…

Younger and older Americans aren’t returning to church as much as the middle-aged

Yes, church attendance has declined in the two years of the pandemic. But it has not declined equally across all demographic groups, according to a new analysis published by the Institute for Family Studies. The Institute sifted through data from…

Evangelicalism isn’t dying; it’s already dead

Long before there was evangelicalism, before there was even such a thing as Christianity, there was good news. As the earliest Jesus followers wrestled with exactly what it meant that this prophet from Nazareth had been crucified and resurrected, what…

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