Baptist News Global

It’s past time to unearth and acknowledge our role in Native American boarding schools

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the United States will launch an initiative to search for possible burial sites at the former grounds of the federally created Native American boarding schools that forcibly removed thousands of children from their…

Litton names task force to study sexual abuse handling in SBC, including a critic of past actions as an adviser

One of the most outspoken critics of the Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of alleged clergy sexual abuse has been named a special adviser to the seven-member task force mandated by messengers to this summer’s SBC annual meeting. In 2019, Rachael…

Tennessee officials ask for help tracing possible COVID cluster to SBC annual meeting

Participants in the Southern Baptist Convention’s in-person annual meeting in Nashville in mid-June are asked to notify Tennessee health officials if they came down with COVID-19 after attending the enormous gathering. A small but notable cluster of coronavirus infections has…

Seek relationships and rest to be effective in ministry, Baptist World Alliance of Women told

Doing nothing is one of the main ways Karen Wilson, an Australian pastor and president of Baptist World Alliance Women, stays sharp for ministry, she told a virtual gathering of the Baptist World Alliance World Congress. “For me, doing nothing…

Worldwide church needs global approach to mental illness, psychologist says

Baptist churches must work together and with other religious and civic organizations to have a positive impact on the mental illness pandemic that is destroying lives and communities around the world, a Jamaican psychologist said on the opening day of…

Love him or hate him, but at least Joe Biden has returned us to a ‘normal’ presidency; can it last?

It has been a wonderful relief to many of us to encounter the sheer normality of the Biden presidency, which is now six months old. This is a president who proposes actual policies to address obvious public needs, negotiates with…

Life lessons from a red service station truck and the fade to pink

From 1957 until he retired, my Pop owned and operated a service station in Meridian, Miss. That occupation, life work and calling were scripted for him by the economic reality that he and most of his seven brothers left school…

SBC and CBF agree on praise for Congress overruling predatory lending policy

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Southern Baptist Convention are among a coalition of faith groups applauding the recent repeal of a government rule that they believe would have expanded predatory lending. Opposition to payday lending and other forms of…

BWA begins World Congress with emphasis on religious freedom for all

The 122nd global gathering of the Baptist World Alliance begins July 8 — a year later than originally planned and online due to the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. BWA announced the virtual version of its three-day World Congress…

Confessions of a good white guy

I still remember the hot, sticky spit sliding down my frozen face. School had just let out at the elementary school in Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The year was 1963, give or take. I was standing beside a big…

A call from an old friend ended with disappointment but also a reminder of why I must love those who disagree with me

I just finished a call with an old friend of mine — “old” not in the sense of his age but in the sense that our active friendship grew dormant more than a quarter of a century ago. Space fails…

Where’s the line between finding inspiration in another pastor’s sermon and plagiarizing it?

“Borrowing” someone else’s sermon is one of the top four ways pastors get fired from churches, according to Thom Rainer, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing arm and a noted interpreter of modern Christianity. Rainer made that statement…

Eradicating DEI hasn’t made anything better

How Christian nationalism shows up in patriotic worship services

Dear Trump-supporting Christians, are you really OK with this?

‘Every Student. Every State’ campaign promotes school tax credit