Baptist News Global

Mary and the long work of God

Advent teaches us how to live inside a promise that hasn’t yet finished unfolding. The light is thinner. The nights arrive early. We find ourselves listening more carefully, because certainty has loosened its grip. Scripture doesn’t rush to resolve this…

The stilling power of Advent‘s drama

The photo below is not an award-winner, like those of so many highly publicized contests. But it will from this day forward shape my Advent imagination. This photo features Wanda Hernández Murga, coordinator of the Kairos Center, a ministry of…

‘When the wicked are in power …’

“Advent is the season that, when properly understood, does not flinch from the darkness that stalks us all in this world,” Fleming Rutledge says in Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ. In these final days of Advent, we…

Hanukkah shadows, Hanukkah light

Many mornings I go on a long, slow sunrise prayer walk — what the mystics call “goal-less walking” or “life lived at three miles an hour.” These days, in the neighborhood where I walk, there are a number of delightful…

Saving Christmas, losing Christ

The calendar flips to December and the old, familiar talking points begin. The White House tweeted, “We’re saying MERRY CHRISTMAS again!” along with a photo of President Donald Trump standing stiffly next to a Christmas tree. Laura Ingraham has warned…

Why I eat an orange every Christmas

Things were not merry and bright for Edison Cantwell and his five children during the 1932 Christmas season. Christmas was not a welcome time for the Cantwells. Even so, the Christmas of 1932 was going to be a memorable one….

He died in ICE custody and now he’s eligible for a Green Card

I am one of the clergy members who has been holding vigil outside the Dallas ICE field office since May. After a gunman opened fire at the back of the facility in September, our weekly prayer vigil transformed into a…

OU joins a Hall of Shame

The University of Oklahoma is the latest school to debase itself in deference to Donald Trump and evangelical Christians’ false claims of religious persecution. Trump and white evangelicals have this in common: Both claim persecution when they are instead the…

Letters to Mary: Women are open to the impossible

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” — Maya Angelou Dear Mary, This is my final letter to you this season of Advent. Lest we journey too…

Baptist church finds home with UCC and sells to Chinese Presbyterians

Vienna Baptist Church has moved in with a nearby United Church of Christ congregation after selling its Northern Virginia property to a Chinese Presbyterian fellowship earlier this month. Affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists, American Baptist Churches in the USA…

Is Wicked: For Good the gospel story we all need this Advent?

An unconventional Christmas tree sits in our living room this year. Sparkly pink trimming wraps around its breadth. Green and white striped candy canes hang from the branches, and twinkling jade lights glow in their midst. A thin gold ribbon…

Trump administration targets Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande

The Trump administration has suspended federal funding to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande pending the outcome of an investigation into alleged “incomplete and inaccurate” record keeping by the faith-based agency. The ongoing review also could result in a period…

Understanding Al Mohler’s case against women

BNG podcasts feature each SBC presidential candidate

What the church got wrong about queer people

Trump admin denies hunger strike at immigrant detention center