Baptist News Global

Worship event on National Mall illustrates merger of evangelical music and politics

It was billed as a worship rally, but it could have been a political rally. Last Saturday, Sept. 26, nearly 100,000 evangelicals gathered at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the stated purpose of worshiping God. They were led by Vice President Mike…

You want Patriotic Education? Look what it’s done for Cuba

If nothing else has frightened you about our national leadership in the last few years, take a visit to Cuba, and then come back and listen to our Leader of the Free World extolling his new program of “Patriotic Education.”…

Study: Most Americans have an affinity for spiritual beliefs

Surveys have reported on the decline of religious engagement in the United States for decades, but a new study suggests there may be more to the story if the question turns to spirituality. Newly released research by the Fetzer Institute…

Barrett nomination renews debate over Constitution’s ‘no religious test’ rule

For decades, political moderates and liberals have accused the Religious Right of advocating for a de facto religious test for office. With the upcoming confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, the shoe may be…

10 ways to take care of yourself because things may get worse before they get better

2020 has been one heckuva year. The bad news is, it isn’t over. If I am reading the tea leaves correctly, we are in for a wild ride these next few months. Between now and the end of the year,…

Church leaders, please don’t waste your transition crisis

What would you say is the best gift a transitional pastor can give a congregation? Most traditional interim training programs land heavily on the idea that the primary task of a church in transition is dealing with grief. Thus, much…

In this election season, I am partisan to the gospel first and last

It’s always about power, don’t you know? If that hasn’t become obvious to you in the past week, then you suffer from hardening of the categories caused by hyper-partisanship. I was on three calls just Wednesday asking me about how…

The ‘new sanctuary movement’ shifts gears in Trump context

There is something liberating for Serena Buckner about shielding immigrants from persecution by the federal government, even if it means running afoul of the law. What would be scary about the sanctuary movement instead is inspiring because it’s a way…

Baptists, of all people, should work for voter participation

Donald Trump has spent the past several months attacking vote-by-mail, going so far as to encourage North Carolina voters to vote twice (by mail and at the polls — which is illegal). Nonetheless, white evangelical support for Trump remains high,…

What I learned from RBG about the ‘dissenter’s hope’

As a funeral director, I sit across from families trying to process their grief. Just about any funeral director you’ll meet will tell you that no two families are exactly alike. Some families really open up, and their faces light…

‘Yes, and’: A response to stories of pastoral angst in the present moment

How many articles and blog posts have come across your computer screen recently describing the angst of pastoral leaders? It seems nearly every author, blogger, denominational minister, coach, consultant and anyone else who serves alongside pastors and church staff persons…

The wicked are punished — or not

What Ryan Burge sees in America’s megachurches

We are a nation of immigrants

As worldwide deaths mount, Musk insists DOGE cuts didn’t kill anyone