It may now seem surprising to many United Methodists, and even more Baptists, that for most of our histories in the United States, all Methodists and Baptists were regularly designated as evangelical denominations. The most important reason is that both...
While white people in America will never fully imagine what black people endure, this does not excuse the sin of racial ignorance or the empathy deficit that black pastor and theologian Howard Thurman called “contact without fellowship.”
As people rise up to declare that they will not endure or be complicit in racist, white supremacist oppression, let’s call their actions what they are: protest, freedom struggle and revolution, not rioting, looting or “disobedience” to the authorities.
I preached on the poor in spirit, because when I listened carefully it sounded like God saying we have to do better – as the church, as communities and as a nation.
Like her parents, Baugh’s generosity emanated from her Christian faith and deep convictions about historic Baptist values. Her heritage of family and faith also inspired prolific service to a wide range of faith-based institutions. She served on the boards of Mercer University, B.H. Carroll Theological Seminary, Baptist Joint Committee and Baptist Center for Ethics, among others.
An initiative by three autonomous Baptist groups will address religious liberty issues specific to an election year, a global pandemic and heightened racial tensions.
Baptist News Global provides a free listing of ministry-related jobs for Baptist churches, theological institutions and organizations across the United States.
My son is now raising black sons of his own. He fears for them, as I feared for him when he was a child and now fear for my grandchildren.
“Racism is the reversal of the revelation of God. Racism is not perfect love casting out fear, it is perfect fear casting out love.”
June 14 is Flag Day. I’ll proudly fly my new flag from our house. But when a church hoists the American flag and the Christian flag, that church immediately puts itself in an unwinnable situation.
Just as Trump has not risen to the stature of the presidency, religious leaders who have blindly supported and defended him have not risen to the stature of their prophetic calling. A country cannot afford to have both king (president, in America’s case) and prophets fail all at once.
Would it be too much to invoke the spirit of Hauerwas’ words to ask that Christians in America stop killing each other, either with physical weapons or with weaponized words?
What the eruption of protests – and subsequent riots – across the nation shows is that for too long black bodies have been harmed and victimized by the past and present values of white supremacy.
