Baptist News Global

Clergy sex abuse: the damage done when faith is weaponized

When Bible verses, prayer, hymns, faith, God-talk and church rituals are perverted into weapons for sexual assault and then hammered into shields for church cover-ups, they become neurologically networked with trauma, and this renders them polluted and often toxic for the survivors.

I’m embarrassed by American Christianity. I’m just not ready to give up on Jesus

I believe in the power of the Gospel. I believe Jesus changes hearts, and that his calling is a daring summons to a truly social justice – to a salvation that changes our minds as well as our souls. But much of the preaching I hear these days makes me cringe.

Augie Boto, SBC leader who opposed abuse database, set to retire

A denominational worker who functioned as the Southern Baptist Convention’s point man in the ouster of churches for affirming homosexuality and the denomination’s response to sexual abuse is retiring at the end of September. August “Augie” Boto, 68, announced July…

The president is racist. He’s also ‘biblical’

The president is a racist who readily uses xenophobic and white nationalist rhetoric of biblical proportions. It is past time for the American church, Republican and Democrats alike, to speak out with a singular voice and tell the truth.

Transitions for the week of 7-26-19

Recent church staff changes, anniversaries, ordinations and deaths within the moderate and progressive Baptist network. Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Garrett Young…

Clergy ask Texas to end policy banning chaplains from execution chamber

Interfaith clergy, including leaders in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, released a statement July 23 calling on the state of Texas to drop its ban on prison chaplains from its execution chamber, imposed after the United States Supreme Court ruled that the state could not execute an inmate without allowing a Buddhist chaplain to be in the room at his time of death.

I’m in love with Christianity. I don’t need the government to be

No matter the misappropriated moral algebra that the Supreme Court used to come to its higgledy-piggledy majority opinion, the fact remains that the Christian cross is not fundamentally a secular monument any more than the American flag is a religious symbol.

In a world of words, who or what is the Word of God?

In examining how we discern the Word of God, I discovered Julia Foote, a 19th-century African American preacher and evangelist. She demonstrates that everything in our public life is touched by God’s Word(s).

Tennessee Baptist leaders recruiting churches to lobby for abortion ban

The Tennessee Baptist Convention launched an online petition July 23 to rally the state’s 3,000 Southern Baptist churches in support of legislation to ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy.

Is it racist? Applying reason as well as biblical truth

How do we assess claims of “I am not a racist” widely used by those who engage in racist comments and behavior or defend others who do so? Applying different forms of reasoning can help.

Ministry jobs and more

Baptist News Global provides a free listing of ministry-related jobs for Baptist churches, theological institutions and organizations across the United States. Each free posting is for 30 days and is limited to 150 words. Postings may be extended another 30…

Theologizing with Larkin Poe, 10 years after Reskinned

Ministry leader with tall tales wins GOP bid for Colorado governor

What Willy Rice once knew

What I learned July 5 at church