Baptist News Global

From Massachusetts to Missouri, faith-based schools seek to shield governance under religious exemptions

The highest court in Massachusetts ruled this month that a social work professor at a nondenominational Christian college is not a “minister,” meaning she may proceed with a discrimination suit against the college. Meanwhile, a Baptist university in Missouri claims…

Finding new life in the desert as a church becomes a place of healing for racial trauma

Hot, tumbleweeds, dry, brown, desert, mountain. These are words often used to describe El Paso, Texas. When I think of El Paso, I think of the sun kissing my skin. Heat enveloping me like the embrace of a long-lost friend….

Oprah’s interview with Meghan and Harry offers a lesson on when the ‘institution’ is the church

As Bishop Curry spoke about the power of love during Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding in 2018, having recently joined the Anglican Communion myself, my heart was full. But when I watched Oprah’s interview with Harry and Meghan last week,…

Beth Moore and a lost Southern Baptist Convention

Religion News Service reporter Bob Smietana broke the story this week that famous Bible study leader Beth Moore is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention and ending the mutually lucrative publishing relationship with their Lifeway group. She claimed that the SBC…

One year later, letting go of ‘what used to be’

Yesterday was one year since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. It’s a bit hard to put any words on e-paper today. Many of my public health and epidemiology friends are feeling the same way. It’s…

What does it mean to be a ‘good Christian’?

As a child, I learned that Christianity meant Jesus, that he was God, and that obedience was the Christian’s main duty. It made sense then, and it continues to make sense today. If we are passionate about something, that will…

Most churchgoers say they’ll return to in-person worship after COVID

The coronavirus outbreak has done little to weaken the devotion of more than 90% of American churchgoers who say they will return to in-person services in the wake of the pandemic, new research shows. In addition to anticipated church involvement,…

Top-down schism plans ignore local United Methodist churches’ new reality

The United Methodist Church staggers toward a twice-delayed global legislative conclave that appears likely to split the 12-million-member denomination. The options available to concerned United Methodists are multiplying at the highest levels, but church life differs greatly at the grassroots…

Beck Taylor named president of Samford University

Beck Taylor has been named the 19th president of Samford University and will succeed Andrew Westmoreland, who is retiring after 15 years at the helm. Samford trustees elected Taylor March 10 upon the recommendation of a 23-member presidential search committee…

Get ready for the COVID ‘anniversary effect’ this week

Outside my window, green shoots peek from the ground that was frozen just a couple of weeks ago. Warm air greets me like an old friend, and tree buds are biding their time until they explode open in pops of…

Baylor endows new academic chair in study of Black worship

Baylor University will create an endowed faculty position for the study of Black worship, with a gift from the Prichard Family Foundation and Ella Wall Prichard of Corpus Christi, Texas. The new Lev H. Prichard III Chair in the Study…

Longitudinal study of 50 clergy approaches the 10-year mark

Embracing and implementing intuitive and redemptive approaches to ministry is the goal of an ecumenical and national study that has tracked the faith and professional development of 50 ministers for a decade. Eileen Campbell-Reed and Christian Scharen, co-directors of the…

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