By Jeff Brumley Two new polls show that religious conservatives — mainly white evangelicals — are complaining louder as they lose ground in the so-called culture wars. They also describe a widening gap between the faithful and religiously unaffiliated Americans. What’s it…
Historic Baptist church sold to fraternity
By Bob Allen The Tau Nu chapter of Phi Gamma Delta at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will move into the former First Baptist Church in downtown Troy, N.Y., in early October, according to the Troy Record. The fraternity reportedly purchased the…
New book proposes a theology for ‘other’ Baptists
By Bob Allen Four centuries after originating as a protest movement within the church, Baptists today have evolved into a distinct sect committed to preserving its place in a hierarchy of denominations, Baptist theologian Curtis Freeman argues in a new…
Recovering the “new evangelism”
Fifty years ago, in May 1964, a diverse group of Baptists from across North America gathered in Atlantic City to celebrate the culmination of a five-year evangelism campaign (1959-1964). With the participation of American Baptists, African-American Baptists, Canadian Baptists and…
Counting the cost of government funding
The White House recently announced that President Obama would make good on a 2008 campaign promise and sign an executive order banning workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. According to a White House Official, the…
Churchcraft
I have coined a new word: Churchcraft. What I mean by Churchcraft is an individual’s ability to say and do the things that will help to build the organized church. My observation is that a lack of Churchcraft is the…
Opinions!
Baptists are an opinionated crowd. We were taught to be that way. Preachers invest a lot of time and energy saying we ought to do this and that we should not or must not do that. If you grew up…
On baptism and peace
Baptism was abused and used violently as a form of capital punishment in 16th century Europe, a time of significant Anabaptist persecution. The death method of choice was drowning in order to mock believer’s baptism. Water has the amazing capacity…
Baptist environmentalism: remembering Earth Day 1970 and Henlee Barnette
April 22, 1970 was an important day in the history of our nation. It marked the first-ever celebration of Earth Day — an event that put environmentalism front-and-center in American society in a very visible way. With more than 20…