Baptist News Global

Judge issues COVID restraining order against defiant MacArthur and church

In a case that combines the global pandemic with the grievances of religious conservatives that they face persecution, a California Superior Court judge on Sept. 10 issued a temporary restraining order against Pastor John MacArthur and Grace Community Church in…

This year’s tug of war over the Catholic vote and why it matters

Much has been written about evangelical Christian support for President Donald Trump — believed to be a key to his election in 2016 — but attention this year is turning also to the Catholic vote as a pivotal bloc. Joe…

Baylor engineering students hope to design aid for notable alumna

A group of Baylor University engineering students is working to design a medical device for Allison Dickson, a Temple, Texas, resident with a rare and progressive form of muscular dystrophy. Dickson, 40, who uses an electric wheelchair she nicknamed the…

Reflecting on the effects of 9/11 and the disarray of America foreign policy

Nineteen years ago tomorrow, terrorists directed by Osama bin Laden successfully orchestrated an unforgettable attack that defined the next decade of American life. Hijacking four commercial jets, terrorists flew two into the World Trade Center towers and one into the…

A walking guide to praying in your home

I was reminded of a prayer practice when I read our pastor’s plea for “purposeful prayer for a world that is very much in need of God’s healing.” As the California fires continue destroying homes and lives, 2020’s disastrous news…

Transitions for the week of 9-11-20

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated bi-weekly. STAFF CHANGES Jay Abernathy, to First Baptist Church, Woodville, Texas, as pastor. He comes from First Baptist Church, Lubbock, Texas,…

How a Muslim beggar taught me about dignity

Perhaps I had grown too accustomed to seeing people dig through the garbage containers at the edge of the street in my residential neighborhood in Semarang, Indonesia. Then, one day I prepared a sermon for the small English-language congregation I…

Let’s call the divorce lawyers for the sick marriage of church and state

In the world of British sociological order, there are five estates: nobility, clergy, middle class, press, and then any other group that can stand up to the other four. In the United States, having rejected the idea of the nobility…

Collaborative plan emerging for Hurricane Laura relief work

Collaboration between two Baptist organizations has resulted in a plan for long-term disaster recovery work in Lake Charles, La., the coastal community devastated by Hurricane Laura Aug. 27. Leaders with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and National Baptist Convention of America…

‘The Lapsed’: An ancient church controversy with 2020 implications

We’ve all lapsed from something, haven’t we? If we live long enough, we lapse from all sorts of promises, convictions and ideals we thought we’d never relinquish. COVID-19 has enforced collective lapses from restaurants, concerts, movies and sporting events, not…

New podcast illuminates crisis in the Catholic Church

Revelations in the summer of 2018 that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a high-ranking and well-known cleric in the U.S. Catholic Church, had abused minors and seminarians throughout his career ignited a firestorm of turmoil. A grand jury report that same summer…

Baptist Calvinists defend slavery of Southern Seminary founders

As some Black Southern Baptists urge their denomination’s flagship seminary to remove honors to enslavers, prominent white Calvinists associated with the school are defending not only the founders but even slavery.

Trump’s war on ‘woke’ targets federal grants and foreign relations

Reflections on In the Twilight of the Christian West

Why rural families need support now

Why do we keep sounding the alarm?