Baptist News Global

Georgia Baptists eliminate retiree benefits, citing budget concerns

Cheerful-looking envelopes from the Georgia Baptist Mission Board that dropped in the mailboxes of nearly 200 retirees in mid-September appeared to contain good news. They depicted a senior-adult couple sitting on a park bench. The envelopes presented an assumed message:…

Do you play church in a pretend world or serve people in the real world?

There is the world the church acts like we all live in, and then there’s the world real people live in. These are not the same places. It has taken more than a year of deconstructing my own experiences as…

Baylor, Harvard team up to study faith’s role in human flourishing

Baylor and Harvard university scientists are looking for the factors that contribute to human flourishing around the world. They announced their five-year, $43.4 million study Oct. 29. The project will evaluate 240,000 individuals from 22 nations over an extended period…

The scandal of the persistent ‘color line’ in American Christianity

In addition to Halloween yesterday, many in the Protestant Christian world celebrated Reformation Day, commemorating when Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, Oct. 31, 1517. This is commonly understood as…

There’s no time like the present to be a present

“I learned from a 5-year-old prophet on my run this week that every day is a gift from God because that’s why it’s called ‘the present,’” a pastor said recently during the greeting time at church. The present of every…

Global migration isn’t just about the U.S., but the U.S. needs to keep its commitments, U.N. commissioner says

The global migration crisis isn’t just about people trying to come to the United States, the top refugee official from the United Nations said. Yet amid this massive worldwide migration, the U.S. must adhere to its treaty and legal obligations…

The return of the witch hunters

It’s that time of the year when the Sanderson sisters come back to our small screens, and little witches run around our neighborhoods with pointed hats and brooms, asking for treats at our doors. I do love Hocus Pocus as…

In Africa, the challenge is not just low vaccine numbers, there’s also vaccine hesitancy

While inequity has caused the African continent to have less access to COVID-19 vaccines than the rest of the world, vaccine hesitancy already is in full supply. That hesitancy is hampering the global effort to contain or defeat the coronavirus…

Seeing ghosts may cause us to settle accounts long overdue

I sent my children to Scarowinds last week, and I do not feel at all guilty about it. Scarowinds is the end-of-season hurrah for Charlotte’s theme park, Carowinds. Staff dress up in Halloween costumes, the park stays open late, and…

American support for Equality Act ideals still growing, new polling shows

As the Equality Act languishes in the U.S. Senate due to Republican opposition, the percentage of Americans who favor laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing continues to increase. Public Religion Research Institute released…

There is no them

Warning: Politics, religion and beagles ahead. Author’s note: Three years ago this week, on a Sunday morning, I set down these words in a downtown Austin hotel after a white supremacist attacked the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. This…

‘Tangibilifying Grace’: When the manna runs out, what then?

Manna means “What is it?” — at least that is one interpretation of the word. In the Exodus accounts, manna becomes a tangible indication of God’s presence, a poignant, funny, strange, ironic and temporary sign of grace. The children of…

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