Baptist News Global

Is this election all about abortion? It depends on who you ask

If you listen to the most conservative and most liberal activists, you would think the 2020 presidential election is all about abortion rights. It turns out that is not exactly true, although abortion remains a highly motivating factor for certain…

Undoing the conservative evangelical in me

Transitioning from the beliefs I was raised with to the beliefs I now hold has taken me more than a decade. You don’t go from being a conservative evangelical to a progressive person of faith overnight. I used to be…

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and necessary grace

No one should be surprised. These divisive times we currently endure remain strikingly similar to this nation’s very beginnings. Yes, the current administration continues to break norms and in now predictably unpredictable fashion. It provokes disdain, sows discord, stokes anger…

Baptist layman offers lessons from South Africa on overcoming civil war

Talk of civil war is bandied about by Americans reeling from a pandemic, racial injustice, police brutality and a hate-filled election season. But politically motivated violence is no idle talk to Harold Tessendorf, a conflict management consultant and licensed mediator…

The true story of two immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. and the pastor who’s helping them

Michael Wangai (not his real name) has been in U.S. immigration “detention” since August 2019. The only crime he has committed is seeking political asylum in the United States with a certainty that if he returns to his home country…

Three reasons Black well-being falls below others in the latest Gallup polling

New data from the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index shows that Black Americans recorded the sharpest decrease in “well-being” in this year’s Index. This year’s Index shows that more than half of Black Americans (52%) could be classified as…

‘I am third’ opens our minds toward a Christian political ethic

The great Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers died recently. I admired him for what he did with a football in his hands, but what lingers with me are two books about him I read when I was a kid….

Barna compares pre-pandemic anxiety to today, and you can imagine the results

No doubt Americans faced a bevy of mental health and relationship challenges before the COVID-19 pandemic. But the coronavirus, mounting political drama and escalating racial tensions have dragged the quality of well-being and relationships even lower for lay people and…

Jesus and socialism? A conversation with Sondra Wheeler

As the rhetoric ramps up for the 2020 election, the term “socialist” has become a go-to polemic in the American political debate. While some portray Jesus as an Adam Smith-style capitalist, weaponizing the word “socialist” against their political opponents, others…

I wrote about climate change; now I’m hearing from mean Christians

I’ve had an interesting weekend. People on the Christian right have been emailing me to take issue with my BNG piece about white Christians and climate change. Unfortunately, they haven’t really engaged my arguments. They’ve mostly just called me names….

How much is enough?

Robert Sloan, Baptist educator, dies at 77

What patriotism is not

Amid flurry of rulings, habeas corpus spells trouble for Trump immigration policies