By Bob Allen The Alliance of Baptists announced Oct. 8 receipt of a $104,400 grant to support a new initiative promoting LGBT inclusion and racial justice among Baptists. The grant from the Arcus Foundation, a charity that supports organizations that…
Faith leaders protest use of solitary confinement
By Bob Allen The prolonged use of solitary confinement in prisons and jails violates a U.N. treaty the United States both signed and ratified against torture and other “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” a group of faith leaders…
Alliance of Baptists joins first faith-based challenge to gay-marriage ban
By Bob Allen A national Baptist and Jewish organization have joined the United Church of Christ and a number of individual ministers and church members in the first faith-based challenge to same-sex marriage bans in the United States. The Alliance…
Summer program offers intentional community experience
By Jeff Brumley Young adult Baptists and other Christians curious about living in intentional Christian communities can learn what that life is like through a summer program offered jointly by the Alliance of Baptists and the United Church of Christ. “Summer Communities of…
Alliance Baptists address racial justice, reconciliation in annual gathering
By Relma Hargus The Alliance of Baptists went north for its annual gathering this year, taking its theme of racial and economic justice to the church where in 1926 Hilda Libby Ives became the first woman ordained as a Christian…
The ‘ex-SBC’ trilogy: A response to my respondents
David Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee We have a beloved expression in our family: “stirrin’ up the pot.” This phrase emerged from the mouth of our mischievous son when he was about 11. It referred to his occasional forays…
Alliance of Baptists endorses anti-gun violence Sabbath
By Bob Allen Leaders of the 122-church Alliance of Baptists announced a goal of recruiting 50 Alliance churches to participate in the second annual Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath in March co-sponsored by Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence and the…
What will ex-Southern Baptists be when they grow up?
By David Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee It has been 35 years since the Southern Baptist Convention “conservative resurgence/fundamentalist takeover” began in earnest, 27 years since the Alliance of Baptists was formed by frustrated Baptist progressives, and 23 years since the…
Baptists urged to ‘wage peace’ in Israel
By Bob Allen Theology is part of the problem of instability in the Middle East but can be part of the solution, a Palestinian theologian said Nov. 9 at a conference titled “Waging Peace in Palestine and Israel” sponsored by…
Immigration up next for Obama, Baptists
By Jeff Brumley With the government shutdown over, Republican and Tea Party leaders say they are primed to battle President Obama over one of his top agenda items, one just as big as health care: immigration reform. But any such…
NC clergy urge release of torture report
By Bob Allen The head of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina joined other faith leaders in a letter from the North Carolina Council of Churches seeking the public release of a 6,000-page Senate intelligence report on U.S. torture…
Baptist group to ‘wage peace’ in Palestine
By Bob Allen A pastor who ministers among a shrinking Palestinian Christian population in the city where Jesus was born is the scheduled keynote speaker for a Nov. 8-10 conference titled Waging Peace and Justice in Palestine at Calvary Baptist Church…