Baptist News Global

Melissa Rogers: America’s faith traditions can unify and heal wounds

While religious ideologies are increasingly cited as toxic and divisive forces in American culture and politics, faith also can heal those wounds when Americans unite around common causes such as hunger, poverty and disaster relief, according to Melissa Rogers. The…

Just because you believe the Bible ‘says it’ doesn’t ‘settle it’

Perhaps you’ve heard someone say, “The Bible says it; I believe it; that settles it!” On the brink of the upcoming Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, it appears that Baptists continue to wrestle with diverse perspectives on how to read,…

SBC Executive Committee declines to entertain the idea of broadening the scope of its investigation of itself

As an anticipated 17,000 messengers descended on Nashville for the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 14, the SBC Executive Committee defended its decision to pre-emptively investigate itself and refused to broaden the scope of that investigation. Meanwhile, a North…

SBC fight symbolizes the mean-spirited religious impulses of the nation, BNG panelist suggests

The turmoil engulfing the Southern Baptist Convention over its handling of sexual abuse allegations, racial injustice and gender inequality are both a result and an expression of a mean-spirited religious impulse that also has divided the U.S. politically and culturally,…

Why Critical Race Theory could be good news for ‘nice white people’

A bedrock theological concept of my formation as a white American evangelical was the idea, best articulated by Paul in Romans 14-20, that there is a war going on within all of us between those things that are good and…

Editing our narratives has the power to heal future generations

There’s a common thread to much of the social conflict we’re seeing in church and society these days, and it has to do with our willingness to edit our own stories. Let’s call it a hardening of the narratives. One…

In Nigeria, this man is on a mission to promote peace

In the last couple of years, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has attracted national and international headlines for violence perpetrated by the terrorist group Boko Haram or other criminal elements within the country. Many of the incidents, particularly those relating…

For universities, when it comes to LGBTQ issues, focus on student well-being

Let’s say you are on the trustee board of a Christian-affiliated university and you are trying to figure out what your school should do about its policies related to LGBTQ students. You have two conservative voices in your ears, one…

SBC Executive Committee hires a firm to investigate itself and report findings to itself

In what appears to be a preemptive move four days before the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, the president of the SBC Executive Committee announced he has hired an outside firm to investigate his own agency and, purportedly, report the…

Mike Stone and Ronnie Floyd should step down

When I pulled into the seven-figure neighborhood outside Dallas, I began to wonder to myself why a former seminary president would be living in a mansion in this posh suburb near Plano. Then as I pulled up to the door,…

A Palestinian Christian’s cry for justice

As a professor of missions and theology at Logsdon Seminary for 18 years, I was committed to introducing my students to fascinating, significant people whose challenging ideas would instruct and inspire, helping to create more engaged and equipped young adult…

Continuing our retreat from Jesus

This is a photo of me with my father in the upper deck of the New Orleans Superdome at the Southern Baptist Convention in June 1990. We were two of the nearly 40,000 messengers who gathered that year for a…

Paxton dodges ethics questions while claiming Talarico isn’t Christian

Restored Voices Collective gets GRACE report on former board member

‘CatsOnACouch’ influencer sues over First Amendment rights

Court finds Trump and Blanche conspired to create sham IRS lawsuit