Baptist News Global

Concerns over escalating Ethiopian conflict trigger memories of past wars in Africa and the need for warlords to embrace peace

As government and rebel forces in Ethiopia advance toward each other and continue to beat the drums of war, concerns continue to pour in from people around the world about the escalating violence and humanitarian disaster in the East African…

What do ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ have to do with American Christianity today?

Remember the opening of the first Hunger Games movie? At the annual reaping ceremony in District 12, Capitol representative Effie Trinket plays a short film for her captive audience. The montage, narrated by President Snow, depicts scenes from Panem’s history…

Conservatives hoping for a 6-3 ruling in favor of taxpayer funding for sectarian schools

Comments by justices of the United State Supreme Court Dec. 8 indicate likely support for parents of Maine high school students who want to use government funding to send their children to sectarian schools. During oral arguments before the court…

What The Little Prince taught me about Christmas

It’s nearly Christmas, but after the ongoing chaos of the last two years, haven’t you wished you lived on another planet and could visit earth if you wanted? That experience is the setting for The Little Prince, written and illustrated…

In second year of pandemic uncertainty, church leaders are watching year-end giving closely

With just three Sundays left in the year, it’s once again make-or-break time for most church budgets. And in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid noteworthy signs of inflation nationally, there are more questions than answers about how…

Dear Robert Jeffress: You’ve called the wrong U.S. president ‘ungodly’

Robert Jeffress used his Dec. 5 sermon to claim that President Joe Biden has the most “ungodly” administration in American history. “The Biden administration is ungodly! I don’t care how many rosary beads they rub, they’re ungodly,” he intoned. “This…

‘Bad theology’ on LGBTQ discrimination ‘destroys lives,’ panelists say

Faith leaders and their communities have a crucial role to play in ending the discrimination and persecution of LGBTQ people around the world, a panel of international activists and clergy said ahead of President Joe Biden’s Dec. 9 Summit for…

Listening to the Spirit through the catch in the throat

This has been a hard year. Let me count the ways. In 2020, the ravages of COVID-19 forced Nancy and I to flee our home and move in with one of our children. As 2021 began, we were able to return,…

Brentwood Benson Music announces sudden closing and the end of an era

The owner of the world’s largest Christian music publishing catalog is closing its business, citing the effects of COVID-19 as the reason. Brentwood Benson Music — which reportedly owns about 60,000 copyrights and is a storied Christian music business based…

Angel wings and devil tails: Meditation on the Feast of the Holy Innocents

“This is no time for a child to be born, With the Earth betrayed by war and hate And a comet slashing the sky to warn That time runs out and the sun burns late.” —Madeleine L’Engle, “The Risk of…

Religious freedom and human rights groups praise Biden for diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics

A broader-than-usual coalition of religious liberty and human rights groups are praising the Biden administration’s Dec. 6 announcement that the United States will not send a diplomatic delegation to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Although stopping short of a…

Raymond Bailey was my mentor

Two days after Raymond Bailey’s death on the First Sunday of Advent, I talked about him at my church staff meeting. I told the staff how Raymond taught me to preach, showed me how to be a minister and pushed…

3 views on Donald Trump held by American Christians

US megachurches report strong rebound from pandemic

Baptists need to speak up again for religious liberty

What in hell became of heaven?