By Jeff Brumley “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.” Thus read the sign recently in front of Madison Avenue Baptist Church, a New York City congregation whose pastor is all about convincing folks…
American Baptists laud ‘Gang of 8’ plan
By Bob Allen American Baptist leaders tasked with ministry to immigrants and refugees welcomed a bipartisan framework unveiled by eight senators being called the “gang of eight” for their public effort to get the ball rolling on legislation to rewrite…
American Baptists take on gun violence
By Bob Allen Directors of American Baptist Home Mission Societies unanimously adopted a statement Jan. 23 recommending 10 measures aimed at combating gun violence in the United States. The measures, approved during a two-day retreat in Atlanta, include a ban…
Baptists host Episcopalians, wine
By Jeff Brumley Baptists, communion and wine are words rarely used together. But they will be the next four Sundays as First Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, hosts an Episcopal parish for worship while the latter’s building undergoes renovations. The…
Iowa Baptist church open to gay weddings
By Bob Allen An American Baptist church in Iowa City has announced it will perform same-sex weddings, presumably the state’s first Baptist congregation to do so since Iowa’s Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2009. The Des Moines Register reported…
Westboro: Condemn or ignore them?
By Jeff Brumley Public resentment of Westboro Baptist Church has reached new heights as a petition drive to label it a hate group has surpassed 250,000 signatures. Even some religious leaders have joined in the chorus denouncing the Kansas-based group…
Faith leaders oppose Medicaid cuts
By Bob Allen Faith leaders hand-delivered letters Dec. 11 asking 115 members of Congress to oppose funding cuts to Medicaid that they believe could harm Americans with disabilities. Talks in Washington to avert an impending fiscal cliff have pitted Democrats’…
Book shares struggles of Baptist women
By Jeff Brumley Growing up Baptist, Jennifer Harris Dault says her calling into the ministry was clouded by comments and assumptions along the way that the pulpit was no place for women. “I had this feeling as a kid that…
Video recalls ‘forgotten’ Pearl Harbor
By Bob Allen President Franklin Roosevelt’s description of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack as “a date which will live in infamy” went down in history, but Yosh Nakagawa remembers another day – Feb. 19, 1942. That’s when FDR, in…