Baptist News Global

Baylor not yet where it wants to be on race, Livingstone tells forum

An Instagram page where people of color share experiences of racism at Baylor University illustrates that the Baptist institution is still not where it wants to be on matters of racial inclusion, Baylor President Linda Livingstone said during a virtual…

Another United Methodist plan demands patience more than specifics

Here’s the thing about getting guidance from God: It takes the kind of spiritual labor that we humans, with our penchant for control, mostly abhor — patient waiting marked by willing surrender, emptying oneself of ego and expectations. With an…

Coronavirus teaches us that ‘church’ is a verb

In this time of coronavirus, we need a new grammar of church. “Church” is not a noun with a cynosure of place. It is a verb. It is a verb not to be used in the singular but always in…

Private school vouchers as civil rights? Baloney!

The White House is requesting that a portion of the next stimulus bill be used for private school scholarships, including religious schools. They argue this must happen because of racial inequity in the public school system. The Trump Administration is…

Q&A with Chris Sanders on unions, social justice and policing

Chris Sanders knows theology and law, and he’s an advocate both for labor unions and social justice. That blend of life experience and life passion makes for an interesting conversation these days — with the dueling demands of holding police…

Months into COVID-19, funeral directors and clergy continue to innovate death care

Norman J. Williams has been in the funeral industry business long enough to remember how the HIV epidemic changed not only the way they cared for bodies, but also for those who lost loved ones to the deadly virus.

More Americans are hungry, but ‘it doesn’t have to be that way’

It’s a fact that food insecurity is getting steadily worse in the United States in part because of the coronavirus, a Baptist mission expert reports. But it’s a myth that hunger and poverty are conditions Americans simply have to accept,…

California and the making of American evangelicalism

Conceptualizing the American religious landscape can be a challenging task these days. We may think about Roman Catholicism’s prevalence in parts of New England or Lutheranism’s prevalence in the Midwest. Mormonism certainly composes a significant portion of the population in…

Trump, Jepthah and the sacrifice of our children

As I write these words, President Trump is politicizing the fall reopening of schools for our children. I cannot imagine a more difficult set of decisions our public officials are having to make than when and how to reopen our…

Three ways the church can support public schools in the era of COVID-19

As I write this, my colleagues and I have spent the last few days in complete bewilderment at the prospect of starting face-to-face instruction even as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the rise. None of us relish the prospect…

What has this pandemic revealed about your congregational aesthetic?

I wonder how many congregations have taken time during this pandemic to consider their aesthetic. As worship services and other educational or community programming have transitioned to online formats, how have our ideas of beauty changed or remained the same?…

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?